After a further 30 minutes or so of trekking, the two finally noticed the first signs of beast activity.
There were obvious markings of a Firestone Ant stripping away plants and some tree bark in a small clearing they found in the middle of the forest.
"It must still be nearby, these plants look like they were just picked!" Elane was excited. This was also her first time ever facing off against a Beast, so her emotions were all in a twist, much like Rohan.
It didn't take them long to find the Ant behind those marks they found, as it wasn't like Firestone ants made any effort to cover their tracks. In their minds, it was their territory they were wondering around, so what need was there for covering up their movements? They could be as brazen as they wanted.
"You draw its attention, I'll stay back and wait for the perfect shot!" Elane whispered to Rohan.
At the moment, the Ant was too busy digging through a bush to notice the intruders stalking it from a distance.
Rohan nodded in response to Elane, and moved in closer. He made sure to keep his movements to a minimum. He wasn't anywhere near skilled enough to move silently, so the next best thing he could do was to move only when necessary.
'All I have to do is draw its attention, it's not like I have to battle.'
That thought repeated in his head a few times, like some sort of mantra.
Unfortunately, the moment he got within closer distance and grabbed the ant's attention, his confidence took a hit.
"There's two!"
He shouted to Elane, as there was no longer any need to maintain silence where possible. The now two Ants had already taken note of his location.
His voice cut through the nearly silent forest like a scythe through grass.
The moment his words left his mouth, they also reached the ears of the two Firestone Ants. They both stopped moving.
The first one, already half buried in a bush, lifted its head sharply.
The second, which had been obscured behind a thicker patch of undergrowth, crawled out fully into view with a scraping hiss of its legs against the surrounding foliage.
Rohan's scalp tingled.
'Shit!'
Handling just one Firestone Ant with both him and Elane working together should be no problem, but two? Things became tricky.
Their bodies were identical in height and build, both around knee height while hunched. Their dark reddish-black exoskeletons gleamed damply beneath the jungle canopy, and the glowing orange cracks running through their shell plates pulsed faintly, living up to their namesake. That at least reassured him that they were both worker ants.
The ants were easily identified by their size, as while the worker ants were barely even able to reach his knees at best, soldier ants would be up to his chest while hunched!
For one moment, nobody moved.
"Move!" Elane shouted from behind.
Rohan nodded, already shifting his stance to make a better retreat, moving his spear in front of his body to block any incoming attacks.
The ants both charged at him together, eyes sharply planted on him with clear malicious intent.
Rohan gathered all the courage he could muster, reminding himself that even the worst case scenario wasn't that bad.
He locked eyes with the ant closest to him, knowing already where to target his spear's attacks. He had studied much about beasts in school and learnt all that he could while back in Erenhot to prepare for this very moment.
The reason why Firestone Ants were considered the weakest beasts in the area surrounding Erenhot was the cracks within their armour.
Their outer exoskeleton acted as a hardy defence against all bladed attacks, so it would take a strike with quite a bit of power behind it to actually pierce through. But if you struck right between the gaps, or cracks of their shells, then 1 strike might be all that's needed to take it out.
"Duck!" A shout came from behind him all of a sudden.
Rohan didn't need to be told twice, and distanced himself as close to the ground as he could get without opening himself up to an easy attack from either of the ants.
Fwoom!
An arrow whizzed past his head the next moment, striking the nearest Firestone Ant right on its midsection.
"Nice shot!" He offered a compliment in return.
The arrow did a spectacular job of dazing the ant, stopping its charge towards him completely. The other ant following behind hesitated after seeing what happened to its companion, slowing down to a near halt.
'Now's my chance!' Rohan thought, taking advantage of that momentary pause, and sent himself into a wild dash.
He tightened his grip on his spear with both hands, striking down on the ant just stunned by the arrow from Elane.
Still too mentally dazed, the ant was unable to react in time.
Crash!
His spear landed in one of the glowing orange cracks between the ant's armour shells. 'A clean hit!'
His attack wasn't powerful for someone at F rank due to his lack of skill, but it was still enough. The Firestone ant's weakness proved to be trustworthy; the ant let out a guttural screech before keeling over in shock, no doubt having succumbed to the injury barely a few seconds later.
Fwoom!
Another arrow came flying over from behind him.
The arrow crashed into the other Firestone Ant that was too stunned by the death of its companion to even realise what was going on.
Another second later, the remaining ant dropped to the ground, joining its companion in the afterlife.
Rohan looked over at the two corpses, eyebrows rising in surprise.
'She's a good shot!'
Now that things had calmed down, he was able to analyse the situation with much more detail and realised just how close she was to killing the first ant too.
Her arrow landed right on the edge, just barely missing the gap in its shell by a few centimetres. As for the second one, she managed to nail it dead on this time.
"Whooo! That was so exhilarating!" Elane celebrated in jubilation.
Today marked the day they both killed their first beasts!