Throughout the next week, Immanu worked together to pinpoint the exact location of the Boreus brood nest.

  Sparrow had divided everyone into small groups of ten, and each group had been assigned to one quadrant of the glacier to observe where Boreus activity was the densest, so tonight, all of them were gathered inside the library to share their information with each other.

  ‘All’ of them was a bit of an exaggeration, of course. The children under ten were all sound asleep in their own houses, but the elders and the able-bodied fighters who’d take part in the nest siege were here: Ninmah and Utu and all the rest, naturally, but also Minki and the three bullet ant soldiers, who’d been so diligently devouring the rest of their bug meat reserves in order to strengthen themselves. Sparrow had shared some of his portions with Peregrine and Crow in particular, since the five of them trained soldiers would be taking vanguard in the siege—it’d be no good if just the two of them were lagging behind him and Harpy and Minki.

  Maybe someone could make the argument that, at this point, Sparrow should be the only person gaining points as the only Bullet Ant Soldier with the Whiteworm Class, but… he felt it couldn’t be him that grew strong. More than any Divine Capital Law, more than any moral principles, he felt he’d need the support of Minki and the three Bullet Ant Soldiers during the siege. They’d inevitably prove themselves useful in ways he couldn’t imagine, so it was better if all five of them were about the same level at least in terms of their basic attributes.

  he started, jabbing his finger into the giant map of the glacier carved into the table. The other twenty-two children in the library were spread all around. Some of them were peering down over the second floor railings, some were peering over the third floor railings, but the majority of them were crowded around the table, standing on chairs and each other’s shoulders. Maybe he should’ve had Ninmah bring a bigger table, but the map was already carved. They’d just have to deal with the crampness.

  He looked up at everyone, his eyes cold and steely. he said, flicking the northern end of the map with a finger.

  Utu raised a hand, and everyone turned to look.

  Utu said, making a vertical chute with his left arm, then miming drilling horizontally into the bottom of the chute with his right hand.

  Minki explained next to Sparrow, shaking her head in dismay.

  Utu frowned.

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  Sparrow said, grimacing as she studied the map in detail.

  The elders looked worriedly at each other, and Ninmah shared their concerns the best; she stared straight at Sparrow across the table, sapphire eyes shimmering with unease.

  she asked.

  Sparrow nodded firmly.

  Utu shot him a nervous grin.

  Enli, youngest of the elders, nodded with hesitation.

  he interrupted plainly, looking all of them over slowly.

  Truth be told, there wasn’t going to be much of any ‘tactic’ to exterminating the Boreus. They had formations and they had plans—striking in the morning because the Boreus were nocturnal bugs was a small part of it—but when they’d eventually come face-to-face with the entrance of the nest, the only thing that’d carry them through to the very bottom was courage. Fearlessness and recklessness in equal parts. There was a reason why it was Forward Army protocol that, whenever a Mutant-Class was seen roaming the battlefield, only the General and the Vice-General could move forward and intercept it. Mutant-Classes were like Critter-Class and Giant-Class bugs, and depending on their ranks, the biomagic and mutations they possessed could very well rival the biomagic the Worm Mages had. The less people confronted a Mutant-Class, the better; they were intelligent bugs that excelled at tearing apart poorly assembled formations.

  In all likelihood, the Worm Mages would panic the moment the Mutant-Class Boreus did something out of the ordinary, so he wasn’t going to place them on the frontline. Preferably, they’d never even come in contact with the Mutant-Class. Just the five of them trained soldiers would have to be enough.

  So, Sparrow waited. Fists planted on the table, looking slowly between the elders. They were all on the opposite side of the table, whispering in each other’s ears, stealing glances at the five of them.

  Personally, he wasn’t sure what the elders were all so worried about. They were all sufficiently strong enough in terms of attribute levels. Even if they still weren’t all that accurate with their rifles, in the worst case scenario, they could just fall back on their trusty bows and spears. They were as ready as they could be, and they’d come a long way from when he first started training them to hunt Boreus.

  He didn’t the five of them soldiers showed a shred of fear on their faces, either, so if the Worm Mages’ resolve was already crumbling here, he wasn’t sure what he could do to assuage—

  Ninmah said, representing the elders as they all turned to face the five of them. Sparrow and Minki furrowed their brows; the elders all had rather unusually cheery looks on their faces.

  he said, tilting his head.

  Ninmah shook her head.

  they said as one,

  Days until Storm Strider launch: 10

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