Versatile: Alternate World

Chapter 986 Ant Lion Attack

"Hey, Almira, what the heck is happening?! We are almost hurled all over the place due to the thing you have been doing!" Riko angrily growled at her.

"Don't be angry at me. You guys should be grateful. Look outside, we are now free from the sandstorm so you guys should be fine going out and see for yourselves what I am currently avoiding. Maybe climbing to the roof is a much better way to get a clear view of the threat that we are running away from."

Heeding the advice of Almira, every one of us went outside to see the things we were fleeing from. There are traces of sand on the field but since we moved a lot earlier, most of it has been shaken off. Of course, not all sand were thrown off so there are still a few more pile of sand around.

But that wasn't the point we went out. We checked what we just left behind and we saw the sandstorm we managed to shake off. However, something is wrong but I can't pinpoint what it was. Not until Queen Tanya pointed out what it was we were currently fleeing from.

"Crap, no wonder Almira fled and used every possible tactic to move the mansion as far as possible," Queen Tanya commented as we looked at the situation.

"Eh? I don't see anything though aside from the swirling sands in the air," Rika squinted her eyes but she still couldn't see what Queen Tanya was seeing.

"Don't look at the air and swirling sands, look below the sand in the air. That's what we are fleeing from."

Since Queen Tanya said so, I put my attention to the direction she wanted us to look at and just like what she said, I also saw the things that we are currently fleeing from.

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[Ant Lion] [Epic Monster]

Level 400

HP: 50,000,000/50,000,000

Type: Insect, Metal, Ground

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"What the hell? Fifty million?!" Akira couldn't believe his eyes.

"Woah there, this is the first time I have seen this monster ever..." Sora was also not expecting to see these new monsters.

"Not only that but they are numerous. They are like ants," Pandora was also surprised but she held her awe from it.

Then the speaker starts to flare up to life once again with Almira's voice in it.

"Come back in. Those f*ckers are fast so you guys should close the doors and windows if you guys don't want to be caught up by the sandstorm they always bring."

Since we didn't want to be in the middle of the sandstorm, instead of staying outside, we did what Almira said.

"You guys have seen what we are fleeing from?" Almira's voice asked us.

"Yeah. Ant lions with fifty million hp," I answered.

"Good. Now you guys know what we are all dealing with."

"Well, despite that, shouldn't they be dealt easily with a freezing spell or even a fire spell?" Izmir commented.

"Ask Queen Tanya. She clearly knows what it was more than I do. I would rather focus my mind on keeping the walking mansion stable while we are fleeing."

Since Almira Baton passed the explanation to Queen Tanya, she decided to explain what those guys were. Because even I who have played and stayed in the Alternate World for so long have only encountered Ant Lions in this current timeline.

"Alright, since she passed it to me, I will explain it to you guys. Ant lions are native monsters in this continent and they only exist where sand exists. They can't live anywhere else so they only exist in this hot region and they can't exist in the frozen region."

"How come they are carrying a sandstorm with them?" Avos asked. It seems he is fascinated after seeing those creatures.

"Because that is one of their passive skills. Although I am not totally sure if they are racial passive skills they have or not these critters are known to cause unnatural sandstorms but because they are totally uncommon, it was hard to find any of them and many would even say that they have not encountered one just yet. However, there is one thing that people warn whenever they are present and that is to run."

"Why?" every one of us asked at the same time.

"At first, I also found it weird but I soon found out why. One time, an unnatural sandstorm was brewed outside and according to my scouts, it was made by the Ant lions that were passing by. Knowing this, we decided to go and try to deal with it before it got troublesome to deal with. That's when we know why it was being advised to escape once they were present. These things are too strong for mere insects. No wonder they are part of the epic monsters despite being like normal mobs."

"Huh? You mean..."

"Yes. All magic attacks that you deal with will either be nullified or be resisted by them."

Magic attacks are not effective against them? That is not a new concept, but for monsters with HP that is fifty million, these guys are indeed not gonna be easy to kill.

"So how does one kill it? Don't tell me melee users have to dive into their sandstorm and deal with them?"

"Nope, that is a suicidal attempt. Antlions are pretty capable hunters and the sandstorm they are making is something we call their "pit". They use that to trap unsuspecting prey and since movement and vision are limited inside the sandstorm, it is a perfect place for the monsters to take advantage of before trying to kill them. And since magic is not possible, most melee fighters would try to attack them in melee but because this was nothing but trouble, the only way to properly deal with them is to deal physical damage on them in the distance. But even that is bothersome to do as well as they knew how to work together and those that have been attacked will heal and the others will take over the vanguard, making them annoying to deal with."

When I heard it, I suddenly got an idea.

"Your Majesty, you said they are vulnerable to physical attacks instead, yeah?"

"Yep."

"And they will use tactics to protect their group against attackers who use range attacks, yes?"

"Yes again," Queen Tanya nodded.

"Then the trouble is not that big. We have a solution to that."

Grabbing the Versatile Weapon, I opened up the door once more and went to the edge. Then, I put down the Versatile Weapon to the ground and transformed?it into a Cannon.

"If they decided to try hiding, then having them all get blasted would solve all our worries yeah?"

I loaded one round into my cannon and aimed it at the chasing antlions.

"EAT THIS!"

BOOM!