Chapter 384: Death by ants.

Hunter and the Beast Valley task force stormed into the Southern courtyard from the front, instantly striking down the distracted soldiers. Knives flashed, bullets flew, and total chaos erupted.

Julia’s mind melted. "What?! Where did they come from?!" She started shooting, firing her weapon in different directions, while taking cover at the same time.

Zyra had to give her credit for finding the targets she was aiming for quickly and shooting precisely. But Julia’s misfortune was that Zyra’s people had high tech armor. The bullets simply couldn’t penetrate them.

Julia whistled. A loud bellow came from the stables that housed the beasts. It was followed by a loud crash. A red eyed buffalo, whose saliva spilled, leaving burn marks on the ground charged into the fight. It had eyes for Zyra, and only her.

Julia sprinted across the chaos, her boots struck the earth in rhythm with her heartbeat--fast, fierce, unstoppable. Every stride devoured distance as she used fast steps too, to increase her speed.

Ahead, her buffalo roared, a deep earth-shaking bellow that cut through the clash. Its horns gleamed. Its muscles rippling as it stomped, waiting for its rider.

Julia leapt over a fallen Sanctum soldier, ducked beneath Bullet’s shower of bullets and vaulted onto a broken crate of explosives. She sent one flying in Bullets direction as she launched herself into the air--arms outstretched, body arcing like a comet.

But then the air split. Zyra was not about to let the reunion between beast and rider happen. A burst of soul energy tore across the battlefield. It struck like invisible chains, wrapping around the buffalo’s spirit.

The beast shuddered, its eyes rolling white, and instead of charging forward, it turned and went to Zyra side, lowering itself in a submissive posture.

Julia’s heart lurched. She felt her connection with her half-life beast falter. She skidded to a halt, chest heaving, fury blazing in her eyes. And hers was not the only half-life beast to react in this way. Every beast, belonging to the soldiers also submitted before Zyra.

The battlefield seemed to pause. Several Sanctum guards dropped their weapons, fell to their knees, and began bowing frantically to Zyra as she rode the worm.

"She controls the beasts that are not hers! She’s the true Divine Maiden!" One cried out.

"Please, spare us." Another begged.

"Don’t be stupid, you idiots! Get up and fight!" Julia screamed, raising her gun to shoot the defecting soldiers.

Before her finger could pull the trigger, a swarm of invisible Assassin Ants landed on her arm and sank their painful jaws into her skin.

"AHHHH! Get off me!" Julia shrieked, dropping her gun and wildly slapping at her own hand.

She spun around in panic, only to see half of her men already falling to the ground, bleeding and paralyzed. Ants were climbing all over them!

"Surrender, Julia. It’s over." A voice called out.

Julia looked up through anger. Standing right in front of her was Hunter, a blade resting on his shoulder, flanked by dozens of fully armed fighters. She recognized him instantly, but her brain was too fried to process anything. "You bring shame to the Kaelion name! You have betrayed the sanctum and your clan. I will make sure you pay for this." She tried to teleport, but found she couldn’t leave, and this brought a new wave of panic in her heart, unlike any before.

Hunter scoffed. "Kill them!"

The Beast Valley forces closed in, completely overwhelming the remaining resistance.

As the paralyzing ant venom rushed through Julia’s veins, her vision blurred and her knees gave out. Driven by sheer desperation, she mustered the last of her failing strength to lift her firearm, aiming directly for Zyra.

Before her finger could pull the trigger, a living tide of assassin ants surged forward. The swarm spilled over her boots and scaled her limbs in a relentless wave, blanketing every inch of exposed skin. Mandibles sank deep into her flesh across her entire body, injecting an overwhelming surge of lethal venom.

As Julia gasped for air, the relentless insects forced their way past her lips, flooding her throat and nostrils. The excruciating torment was brief; within seconds, the massive concentration of venom completely paralyzed her heart. Holes formed on her skin as ants burrowed out of her body.

Julia’s eyes rolled back and her body went limp, collapsing into the dirt completely covered by the crawling swarm.

"Check for survivors." Zyra commanded.

"This one is dead." Hunter said as he pointed at Julia. He didn’t need to, because the ants had eaten half of her body already.

He looked at the men kneeling on the ground. A group of heavily armored Sanctum soldiers, now trembling like wet puppies, were staring up at him with wide, terrified eyes. Hunter scratched the back of his neck, feeling a mild headache coming on. What was he supposed to do with them?

"Hey, don’t look at me like that," Hunter said, waving a hand dismissively at the kneeling soldiers. "There is a stone where my heart used to be. I am the shadow boss, the real one is riding a worm, and I can’t ruin her fun. I can’t decide your final fate."

Outside the ruined hall, the ground shook violently.

"WEEEEEEE! Higher! Go faster." A terrifying, high-pitched screech echoed through the sky, followed by the deafening roar of a big, eighty-foot-long Saw Worm tearing through the sand dunes.

Zyra was standing on the beast’s head, holding onto its fleshy antennae like the reins of a wild stallion, her hair flying wildly in the wind.

Bullet leaned against a broken pillar, chewing fresh gum. He watched Zyra loop around for the third time, a subtle twinge of green jealousy flashing across his face.

"Must be nice," Bullet muttered, spitting out a bit of gristle. "I suggested that we ride the saw worms and everyone called me crazy. She does it, and it’s ’epic warrior behavior.’

"If you try that, Bullet, the worm will eat you in one bite and spit out your boots," Tessi said, walking out of a portal. She was brushing dust off her armor, and she looked exhausted. She stopped beside Hunter and wiped her forehead. "All the hostages have been safely evacuated to Beast Valley. Not a single scratch on them, I left them in Malia and Dravin’s care."

"Good work," Hunter nodded. He raised two fingers to his mouth and let out a sharp, piercing whistle. "Zyra! Wrap it up! We’ve got business to attend to!"

In the very next second, the air shimmered with a soft blue light. Zyra was suddenly standing right beside Hunter, not a single breath out of place, wearing a childish, triumphant smile that made her look more like a mischievous ten-year-old than a terrifying beast commander.

"Did you see that?!" Zyra giggled, clapping her hands. "I did a backflip off its tail! I think we should keep him as a pet. We can name him Snuggles because he looks like a stocking."

"Right," Hunter deadpanned. He pointed a thumb toward the shivering soldiers on the ground. "Anyway. What about these guys? Should we just kill them and call it a day? I’m exhausted. We haven’t slept in two days."

The moment the word kill left Hunter’s mouth, Commander Roman hit the floor so hard his nose almost flattened against the stone.

"Mercy! Great divine maiden, mercy!" Roman wailed, bowing so low his rear end was sticking straight up in the air. "We were misled! Brainwashed, under severe management pressure!"

"Management pressure?" Bullet raised an eyebrow. "Is that what they call destroying homes these days?"

"I swear it on my ancestors’ graves!" Roman pleaded, sweating profusely. "Not all of us agreed with what the Sanctum was doing! We were just following orders! We had no choice!"

The others chorused. "Forgive us divine maiden!"

Zyra yawned, wondering if showing mercy to such men was worth it.