Paul barely managed to go fifty meters before he encountered the first ants.
The first one he encountered was a soldier ant, but it was busy attacking a soldier, who was doing his best not to get killed while standing his ground.
Without thinking, Paul took out his bow and sent a Stone Crusher Arrow straight into the ant's head, taking it out immediately.
-Are you alright?
Paul asked the surprised soldier.
-Yes, young master, I'm fine, thank you.
The young man said while breathing heavily.
-Where is the rest of your squad?
-I don't know.
This beast attacked me while I was going to fetch some water.
-In that case, come with me, I'll explain things to my uncle later.
The soldier nodded.
On their way, they helped everyone they could, whether soldiers or cultivators.
At the same time, the small team expanded quickly, reaching over forty people before they were halfway to the place Paul's tents stood.
What was strange was that the Devouring ants attacked in small groups.
Their usual tactic was to swarm the enemies with their numerical advantage.
Additionally, as far as anyone knew, the ratio of worker ants to soldier ants was usually 20 to 1, but this time there were at most five worker ants for every soldier ant.
However, no one had time to think about this while they were being attacked.
Paul and his team rushed through the forest, eliminating any ants they came across, mostly by using arrows, but in more than one case, they needed to use their blades.
The presence of the ants was also getting much more common as they approached the cultivator's campsite, which made Paul scared about his ladies' safety.
Additionally, they found many corpses on their way, mainly surrounded by some dead ants, which meant that they had fallen in combat.
When they finally arrived at the cultivators' campsite, they found a regular battle there.
Thousands of ants swarmed the campsite, while cultivators rained down arrows on them, doing their best to keep the distance between the beasts and themselves.
Paul and his team, which had grown to over sixty people now, arrived at the flank of the ant forces and remained undetected for now.
Everyone prepared to start shooting arrows to help the main line.
-Don't shoot for now.
Paul stopped them.
-Take these jars and throw them at the places where the ants are most densely packed.
He added taking out dozens of incendiary bombs and distributing them, making sure that everyone had at least two.
On his signal, the bombs were thrown and hit their targets, exploding and spreading flames onto hundreds of ants at the same time, creating a wall of fire.
An ear-piercing screech erupted as the ants started to be burned alive.
As strong as their armor was, it was not fireproof, and there were some places on their bodies that were not protected by armor.
Additionally, even if they were fully protected, the temperature alone was enough to boil them alive inside their armor.
Paul's team's attack surprised both humans and ants.
The difference was that humans were happy to see hundreds of ants being roasted by the flames, which lessened the pressure on them and allowed them to wipe out the ants that were now trapped between them and the fire that roasted them alive.
It also helped that a large portion of the ants that were unaffected by the fire turned to face the new threat, only to be met with the second volley of incendiary bombs, which blocked their path, followed by a rain of arrows, from both the main cultivator forces and Paul's team, catching them in crossfire and decimating their forces.
Seeing that their right flank was secured, the other cultivators could focus their attention on decimating the remaining ants, and there were still thousands of them, charging at the front line, despite the rain of arrows and spells falling on them and destroying them wholesale.
Seeing the situation, Paul immediately figured out that the report the soldier had given his uncle was wrong, as there were tens of thousands of ants still attacking, and it seemed that there were more and more arriving all the time.
Seeing as the ants ignored the flames and the dead bodies of their comrades has given him an idea.
He quickly instructed part of his team who were not convinced about this plan, but they had nothing to lose even if it failed.
The twenty people rushed through the forest they came from and returned within ten minutes, having completed their task.
They all dumped an amazing pile of dry wood before Paul, who took it all into his storage space, before using shadow jump and vanishing.
A moment later, he appeared at the edge of the forest from where the ants were continuously emerging, and he dumped all the dry wood, making a 30-meter-long, one-meter-high, and two-meter-wide patch of dry wood, before throwing a few incendiary bombs on it and using shadow jump to return before the ants who noticed him could catch him.
The whole action took at most five seconds, but the effect was spectacular as a wall of flames appeared blocking the beast's way, and it spread to the nearby trees.
Andrew and another mage also used some wind magic to make the fire spread, and soon the whole edge of the forest was turned into an inferno.
It also helped that other mages who saw what was going on decided to help, firing fireballs and other fire-based attacks, while wind mages did their best to spread the fire.
This was another blow to the beast's forces, as once again they died in the flames by the dozens.
As the fire spread, the ants had more and more difficulty arriving at the battlefield where their kin were being massacred now.
Without reinforcements, and after being cut off, the ants at the front line were swiftly dealt with.
This gave the cultivators and soldiers a moment to take care of their wounded and regroup.
Seeing this, Paul took his team and joined the main cultivator forces, where he was showered with praise for his actions and the idea of creating a wall of flames.
Unfortunately, it didn't take long for the ants to go around the obstacle and attack them again, but this time they were all ready, and a wave after wave of arrows hit the beasts before they even had the chance to get close, decimating them.
As the oversized bugs came closer, more incendiary bombs were thrown left and right, creating two walls of flames, with the center opened.
The devouring ants might not be smart, but after hundreds, if not thousands, of them died a painful death in the flames, they did learn to avoid fire and funneled into the gap between the two walls of flames, which was what the humans were waiting for.
The moment the ants pushed through the gap, they were welcomed by another rain of arrows that annihilated them.
They had nowhere to run as the flames surrounded them on both sides, and they could not retreat since more and more ants pushed them forward from behind.
After another half an hour of being decimated, the remaining ants retreated, leaving behind thousands of their kind that were either dead or too injured to move.
Once the last of the ants were either killed or escaped, and the forest fire was extinguished by water mages, Paul started looking for his ladies.
He found them a few minutes later, sitting under a tree, while Natalie and Irine were busy puking their guts out a few meters further away.
-Are you all alright?
He approached them.
-Yes, we got lucky.
Anna replied.
-Elaina spotted the ants before they could attack us, so we ran away and raised the alarm.
Wei Lan added, with a tired voice.
-You did great, ladies.
An older cultivator said, approaching.
-If not for your warning, many of us would have died.
-You should thank her.
Anna pointed at Elaina, who was sitting on the branch of a tree, looking around, in case the beasts decided to return.
-We should thank not only your friend but all of you, and this young man as well.
Your group contributed greatly to this victory.
A woman who looked no older than thirty, but whose eyes betrayed that she was much older, approached with a smile.
She wanted to say something more, but was interrupted by a soldier, who asked Paul to go see his uncle once again.
He only nodded and found all the soldiers from the small team he had formed during the attack.
The last thing he wanted was for them to be branded as deserters and cowards.