Chapter 86: When the Snipe and the Clam Quarrel, Ye Da Reaps the Benefit

"Worthless!" Long Yi cursed under his breath.

But he saw the soldier ant bubbling desperately inside the water sphere, on the verge of suffocating to death, and decided to let it be. As long as the creature died, it didn't matter how—Long Yi cared little for the details.

But since all the players focused their attention on one soldier ant, especially Skinny Monkey, who acted as the scout and held the ant's head firmly with an iron hook so it couldn't shake off the water sphere, no one noticed that the remaining five soldier ants had already crawled out of the cave and were encircling them in a fan-shaped formation.

Gurgling sounds and a dull thud—finally, the soldier ant trapped inside the water sphere drowned. Everyone was overjoyed when the ant transformed into three light orbs. Just as Long Yi reached out to claim the beast core for himself, the water mage stepped in front of him.

"Brother Long, I killed this ant. By rights, the beast core should be mine, shouldn't it?"

"You killed it?" Long Yi sneered. "If Skinny Monkey hadn't trapped its head, if I hadn't blown off its legs with spores, do you really think your pathetic water sphere could have killed it?"

"So if we're talking merit, my team contributed the most! Still, I'm not unreasonable. Since you helped, you'll get an extra share of herbs. If you want money, I'll credit you with a hundred thousand for this kill and pay you when we get out!"

The water mage mocked him, "Who knows if we'll ever leave this place? What's the use of money? If you think I contributed, give me the beast core now. If you want, you can have the next one we kill. How about that?"

"No deal. I need just one more beast core to level up!" Long Yi insisted, giving his underlings a signal—if the mage tried to snatch it, they would act.

Suddenly, a scream drew everyone's attention. The earth mage was being dragged away by a soldier ant biting his thigh, desperately clawing at the ground for rescue. "Big Brother, help me! It hurts, hurry!"

Only when their gaze left the beast core did they realize they were surrounded by soldier ants. Everyone was too busy saving themselves to help the earth mage.

Long Yi seized the moment, grabbed the beast core, and shouted, "Run!"

No one expected Long Yi's first reaction would be to flee. Being the highest-level among them, he escaped easily. Skinny Monkey, with all his skill points invested in speed and wearing swift boots, managed to follow.

Now, only they escaped the encirclement quickly. The others, slower and now missing teammates, were completely trapped by the soldier ants—escape was impossible.

"Big Brother!" Da Zhuang couldn't believe his idol would abandon him so readily and fell into utter despair.

"Kill them!" Da Zhuang swung his greatsword, unable to injure the soldier ants but keeping them at bay. The water mage kept launching water spheres at the ants' heads, causing them some trouble as they tried to shake off the water.

Meanwhile, Ye Da, hiding in the stone lodge built into the cliff, peered through the door crack at the chaos outside. He opened the stone door, stood atop, and drew his spirit bow. But this time, instead of gathering a spirit arrow, Ye Da summoned a new skill he had just mastered—Stone Arrow, an elemental ability of stone.

With a crisp snap, a stone arrow formed, rough and unrefined, but it consumed only a fifth of the spirit energy that a spirit arrow required. Where before he could only fire two spirit arrows, now he could shoot ten stone arrows in succession.

Seizing the opportunity while the soldier ants besieged the players, Ye Da hid behind them and coldly picked them off.

A stone arrow shot towards a soldier ant, striking its eye. With a loud crash, the ant attacking Da Zhuang collapsed.

Da Zhuang was stunned, then realized someone had saved him with an arrow. He turned to Ye Da, but before he could thank him—

With a sickening crunch, another soldier ant bit off Da Zhuang's head. Da Zhuang was dead.

"Brother Zhuang!" The water mage, busy fighting another ant, was unaware of the others' fate until he heard the cry and saw Da Zhuang decapitated. Panic overwhelmed him, and the water spheres he controlled exploded.

Ye Da wasted no time—one stone arrow after another rained from above, swiftly killing three soldier ants. With someone distracting the ants, he took full advantage.

Even the water mage, slow as he was, finally noticed Ye Da's presence and, just like Da Zhuang, turned to look at him, forgetting he was still in the thick of battle.

A soldier ant seized the moment and bit the water mage's neck. The mage wailed, "Hero... save... me...!" before his voice was cut short.

A final stone arrow struck the last soldier ant just as the water mage's neck snapped. In the valley, both players and soldier ants were wiped out.

This battle was a classic case of two rivals fighting and the third reaping the reward—Ye Da benefited.

Just as Ye Da climbed down from the stone lodge to collect his spoils, Long Yi and Skinny Monkey, who had abandoned their comrades and fled, returned.

"These are the belongings of my comrades," Long Yi said coldly. "I advise you to leave them alone!"

"Yes, don't touch our stuff!" Skinny Monkey echoed.

Ye Da looked at these two despicable men and laughed coldly. "What are you, exactly?"

"You abandoned your teammates at the first sign of danger, fleeing without a backward glance. And you dare call them your comrades?"

"I suggest you go back to where you came from. Don't force me to clean up the trash!"