Chapter 254 - Queen

After giving Bittore Nardone some of Mogranius' food, or at least leave it there for the rest to feed her or their selves. The two Ignite ladies assigned with the task or terminating the rat bug den, made their way towards section 3, entered the second tunnel on the left so they can begin with their task.

Now it is time to do a little introduction don't you think? The oldest lady on this group of 2, more specifically the one that squeezed Eric's cheek is called Zelimia Hekz. She is a 28 year old who is only a few steps away from being an expert(Level 4) in Fire Controlling. She has thin black hair, usually tied in a bun and covered with a Fur Hat. As for her size, she is pretty normal when based on most. Standing 5.6 feet tall and weighing 55 Kilograms, she is what every Ignite man would love.

And as for her friend in this task, she is called Samantha Olem. She is a 24 year old Level 3 Fire Controller, her speciality is launching sneak shots. Nicknamed "The assasin", she is the most agile in the group even though she is so young! She only stands only 5.4 feet tall, perfect to engage in assassination, especially since she often leaps and weighs 50 Kilograms. Her facial beauty can be intimidating, especially since it isn't like the ones you would find on most Ignites. Her jawline is a bit wider and comes along with these adorable little freckles. She has blonde hairs too with a small hint of black on her roots. But like Zelimia's, hers too is usually tied in a bun.

Here both of their skills can prove useful, Zelimia is more powerful and Samantha is agile. They walked in the tunnel and met with a small room, it's only 5 meters wide and long. Nothing particularly interesting about this room apart from the fact that there a black piece of carved rock pushed out of its former position.

This little hole in front of them made because of that carved rock pushed out, had a lot of dirt and random chunks of rock around it. Signifying that this opening is fresh, the Ratbugs just discovered this place from the looks of it and the Demons couldn't quite reach them since one of these carved stone blocks is a foot tall and 3 feet wide. Impossible for a Demon to slip through but just a little sweat for a Ratbug.

Interesting enough, Mogranius said that there is a den here. But this room is literally empty so what exactly did he mean? To make the situation a bit less boring, a Ratbug squeezed through the hole and squeaked its way towards an attack.

Agile enough, Samantha blew a foot wide Fireball and hit the Ratbug directly on the head! We did specify that she is nicknamed, "The Assassin!" That title isn't random at all.

"Nice shot!" Zelimia complimented as she took more careful steps towards the hole, giving it a little thought she figured. "Mogranius probably took a peek at this hole and figured out that there is a den here, or he mistook the rooms?" That's at least what she thought, and tried to test some theories.

But she isn't clumsy enough to take a peek as close to the wall as humanly possible, no she has no plan to get her eye clawed out by these disgusting creatures. She stood a foot away from the hole and bend down to take a peek, this way if a Ratbug charges she can twist her body away from danger. Protecting her own eyes is a main priority.

She couldn't make up much from it, except this type of whiteish blob on the other side of the opening behind this wall. She wanted to look more at it but managed to hear quick footsteps taken by these creatures on the other side, Samantha heard them too so she swiftly pulled her friend away.

"Be ready." Samantha specified and kept illuminating the room with one palm and was ready to shoot down the little enemies with the other.

Two snouts popped out of the hole, and both of them tried to squeeze in at once. But there is only so much a 3 foot wide hole can fit. The two Ratbugs found their selves stuck, but not forever.

Samantha unleashed one shot faster than the eye could blink and shot again to kill the second, but was a bit too slow since Zelimia already shot the other. The little foot wide Fireball just disintegrated against the carved rock flooring as they witnessed the two Ratbugs being blown behind.

They killed the little enemies yes, but they were shot near the small entrance and the view now is blocked. So of course one had to point out, I think we need to remove the blocks or at least blow this place open.

"Blowing this place open would be a bad idea." Specified Zelimia, trying to point out the main problem she grabbed the pushed out block and showed Samantha. "This block is a foot thick, it requires a lot of Fire Power."

"We can get buried alive." Managed Samantha to catch up right away, as fun as it is to blow entrances open here it would be a terribly bad idea. "Who knows how unstable this place is, we technically are underground after all."

Pulling out Daggers after, Samantha jabbed it in the side of one block and used any bit of strength available without breaking her own Dagger. The Block tilted forwards, giving it one little push after she managed to grab the block and pull it out.

Since these Blocks aren't evenly placed over each other on a 3 foot to 3 foot way, the wall is still holding up quite well. This proves a lot of stability, they could try to shoot the wall down now but it still is risky. Over ten minutes later, they pulled out 6 more blocks and had to shoot another Ratbug down who heard the intruders.

Now they can definetly manage to get a better look. They figured why these Ratbugs can get out with such ease, there is no dirt attached to this wall. Actually it is like a dirt door, but it is 4 feet tall. Pulling out 6 more blocks after, they now can manage to enter this little doorway to their den.

Squeezing in, the scene they found is indeed interesting. But before they managed to get a better look at this place, they saw a huge Ratbug charging towards them. This beast has to be at least 4 times bigger!

"Holy sh..." Zelimia shouted, but her word was cut short as she saw the quick and agile Samantha shoot a 3 foot wide short tailed Fire ball towards this beast of a creature.

Odd enough, it didn't stop it and it was still running regardless of its face being set into a blaze. Samantha shot once more, but it aimed towards its feet. The two foot wide Fireball blew the Huge Ratbug's right foot off before it was forced to tumble down for a couple of meters, it sure took a lot of charge.

"Look at that thing, it has to be at least a hundred Kilos!" Shouted Zelimia as she approached the beast, seeing it twitch its legs as its head was still set into fire, she shot this beast for one last time and ended its misery.

"I think this is the one who made all these eggs!" Managed Samantha to catch up quickly once she gave these hundreds of half foot eggs a better look. "This was probably the queen."

"Probably?" Partially complained Zelimia, "This is the biggest Ratbug I've ever seen! And I saw tens!" Survival of the fittest I suppose, at some point of life they had to eat Ratbug meat for the pure intend of survival.

They both gave a better look at the eggs, they are white but one can still see through them. In the middle of each egg there is this black dot, some have more legs than others. Apparently it depends on the age of each egg.

These hundreds of eggs are all merged to each other, covering these walls entirely and spanning about 7 meters long, but it was a bit hard to walk through since this stereotypical tunnel is only 4 meters wide, 2 meters of which are occupied by eggs. You would be surprised how the queen ran through without bursting even one egg.

They tried to have an even better look before they burned this place down, just for the pure purpose of learning one thing more today. Their focus was cut short when 2 more Ratbugs appeared in the end of the tunnel, luckily they look a lot smaller. Likely under 20 Kilograms.

Sparing no second to shoot both of them down, Samantha went ahead to take a closer look at these carcasses with their head blown off and expressed. "They taste Horrible but I guess these will have to do!"