Meanwhile, the soldiers surrounded the entrance to the nest as soon as we arrived, and the mages and the transport corps were summoned from the rear.

“Alright, let’s unload the cargo!”

“Let’s get this over with quickly!!”

Following the instructions of the transport corps’ commander, the large man in charge of the operation shouts out and the porters begin to unload the large cargo from the wagons.

“Oof, let’s finish unloading everything and get out of here!”

“There’s no way I’m letting myself get eaten by those ridiculously large ants…”

Perhaps not wanting to stay in such a dangerous place even though their bodies had been strengthened by daily physical labor, the porters had worked so quickly that by the time I finished listening to Muriel’s mini-lesson about ants, all the cargo had already been unloaded from the carts.

“But still, that’s such a huge amount of herbs…”

“U~, gaogauruaau” (U~, it’s making me itchy again)

After I glanced down at my sister who had briefly poked her head out of the pouch when a barrage of different smells mixed in with the wind, I looked at the mixture of hay and insect-repellent herbs piled up on the ground.

“Hnn~, it’s early winter so we were able to gather a lot of wood chips and arboreal herbs and I think the smoke from burning it will work, but… We won’t know how effective it is until we’ve tried it.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s all we could do for now.”

While telling Muriel, who looked anxious because she had no similar experience before this, that unpredictable situations like these were inevitable, we were called up to join Edgar’s team.

As a result of spending some time investigating the area with Grace’s team, we have discovered that two more huge holes plus the area where preparations to smoke out the ants were being made, were positioned in a triangular formation that was at least 80m per side.

As he stood over one edge, Ares sighed as he peered into the hole along with the other Adventurers.

“As expected, it’s not like these guys only have one way in and out.”

“But depending on the variant, there are ant monsters that can only make one entrance per nest, you know.”

When it comes to monsters, the types are more limited compared to normal ants, but there are still differences due to diversity, and Valley Ants are relatively known to make narrow tunnels that connect to the surface ground.

“So you’re saying that they’re prioritizing their defenses…”

“Correct, and it also means that there are fewer escape routes.”

Just like Riberto said, if we compared the colony to a fortress, then the entrance would be the castle gates which is the most important part of its defense.

Of course, the fewer the gates there are, the easier it is to defend, but if those are seized, then you will not be able to deploy your troops outside the fortress, and you will be in a situation where your path of retreat is cut off.

“… I wonder if there are hidden holes other than the ones that are visible.”

“Yeah, that’s what Sir Eldric suspects too.”

The Knights understood this best because they were in charge of protecting the city and the Duke’s manor. Meanwhile, the 2nd platoon leader who joined us later on told us the same thing in the form of a precaution.

Additionally, the third platoon had joined with Grace’s unit who had seized another entrance to the colony and each unit decided to prepare and semi-surround the giant ants that had been smoked out and take them down individually.

Then, the first platoon who had stayed in the first exit point took some of the herb and straw mixtures and set it on fire.

The dried hay kept the fire going and burned the herbs which included rosemary, lavender, and wood chips which sent white smoke up into the sky.

“Then, Mr. Alrei…”

“My pleasure.”

The elderly mage that responded to Eldric’s call stepped forward and raised his battered, well-worn staff, and the wind mages surrounding him started casting a resonance magic spell, and the place was filled with wind magic so dense that it could be felt even from a distance.

“O wind, obey our will!!”

Through advanced atmospheric manipulation, a controlled “Down Burst” was directed into the colony’s entrance and exit point and sent the white smoke with a unique fragrance deep into the ants’ nest.

(Hmm,  I thought he was a wind magic user at first because he used the spell “Wind Voice” during the march which requires atmospheric manipulation, but… he’s quite impressive.)

Nevertheless, they probably didn’t participate in the battle with the giant ants because wind resonance magic required some preparation to become effective.

Anyway, the wind blowing into the colony was adjusted while it was being cast, and the herb mixture was continuously fed to the fire to keep it from burning out. When enough smoke filled the burrow, two giant ants who were smoked out came crawling out of the exit where we had been waiting.

“Giaaaah!”

“Gigiiiii!!”

They cried out and irritably attacked the Adventurers, but the burrow’s exit point was already half-surrounded and they were outnumbered.

“Take this!!”

“URYAAAAH!!”

“Giiiiiiiiiiiiih, gih, ii… a…”

Several protruding spears and longswords pierced the head and thorax of the giant ants, effectively killing them without any resistance. Furthermore, since the narrow exit that the ant carcasses blocked prevented the other soldier ants from coming out all at once by climbing over them, we were able to destroy them individually.

“Hahah, I must say, this is such a huge difference from the first battle, isn’t it?”

“… It sure is– Shit!!”

“Gih!? Giaah, giii… i”

Meanwhile, a warrior who had lost his comrades in the previous battle and buried his comrades with a somber expression smashed the head of a soldier ant with his heavy battle axe. During that time, another ant who was trying to take advantage of the gap in the defense was also skewered in the abdomen from the side with Zachs’  greatsword.

I couldn’t see them from here, but the burrow entrance that Grace and her team are in charge of must have gotten a local advantage as well and are probably advancing with a one-sided battle.

“This is great… we have so much leeway over them!”

“Yeah, this way, we don’t have to get hurt at all!”

While responding to Riberto who was wielding his saber next to him, Ares blocked one of the giant ants from snapping at him, slashed its forehead, and took it down.

Since the situation didn’t require us to provide backup, I stood side by side with Muriel from the rearguard with nothing to do and thought that it would be an easy job if it all just ended like this, but…

“I guess this job is more suited for a mercenary, isn’t it…”

“Yeah, this looks pretty annoying.”

But just as a dozen or so giant ants had been defeated, a wave of magical power with a powerful earth attribute spread from the center of the three passageways, and all the mages’ tensed up at once.

A moment later, the earth began to rumble as large-scale earthflow magic was activated, and another hole that was comparably larger than the other ones opened up to reveal a ridiculously large shadowy figure which was shaking off the white smoke that clung to it.

“GIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!”

Following the queen ant who let out a deafening roar, a large number of soldier-type Valley Ants accompanied by the large Imperials overflowed to the surface, although their numbers were still continuously being decreased.