A/N: Thank you to all my wonderful readers, especially those of you who continue to leave wonderfully supportive comments. If any of you wish to help me, please leave a critique or review. This story is in it's early stages, and so any comments you have could influence the quality or direction of the story in the future. So please, post a review and let me know where you see me struggling and what you see me doing well. I appreciate it. Please enjoy.
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As his troops reached the end of the tunnel, the first ants scouting out the new path encountered his forces. Through his ant's antennae, he detected a panicked release of pheromones sounding the alarm. His troops formed up, and awaited the colony's frantic response. One hundred of his mighty maggots stood at each flank, lining the walls. Their massive, bloated flesh completely dwarfed the rest of his maggot army. Then there were his beetles. He had spaced them out, one of their vibrant yellow and black bodies resting every two inches just behind the front lines. They would act as cavalry charging in to take the pressure off of his forces should they be pushed back. Then there was his champion Sheila, who stood at the head of his forces. She would roam the battlefield, scattering enemies for the maggot legions to pick apart. It did not take long for the ants to come bursting forth from the colony to protect their home, a black tide of fury and mandibles.
There would be no battle in the cramped maze of the colony as there had been before, no desperate attempts to rescue eggs and larvae spreading his forces far too thin. The ants surged out onto the open plain of the tunnel, where Damien's army awaited them. The ants wildly charged forwards into battle, seeing before them simple enemies they had warred with countless times before. But this was no ordinary gathering of maggots and beetles. The first foe they reached was Sheila. As she stood at the head of her army, her brown and red body a titanic presence amongst a sea of lesser beings, the ants swarmed her. No spider could survive hundreds of ants, they had brought down many before her. But as they charged, she danced. Every step of her legs brought a clawed limb crashing down on an ant. They were too small for her fangs or mouth, so instead her legs were her weapons. They sought to climb her legs, to crawl over her body, biting eyes and tearing into eyes and flesh, however she was prepared. Her legs were bound in spider silk.
Damien had expected the ants to climb her, and had taught her to bind her legs with her sticky webbing. The white of her silken threads contrasted sharply with the rich russet of her body, and it was the ultimate defense against the swarming ants. As they climbed, they stuck. The more they flailed, the more they stuck. They had been deprived of their only way to reach her, so she danced through their ranks with impunity, stomping down on hundreds of the enraged insects.
The ants still surged onwards, undaunted by the spider's rampage. They had been backed into a corner and fought desperately to save their home. As the wave of ants crashed upon the maggot lines, the maggots were pushed back. The ant warriors and workers frantically bit and chomped every maggot they could reach, relishing in their success. But it was not to last. A chorus of furious chirping echoed across the battlefield, before something crashed into the ants and they were sent flying. The beetles had charged into battle. The carrion beetles had waited for the lines to fall into disarray before they charged through, scattering friend and foe alike. With fierce gnashing pincers and hardened shells they were impenetrable, biting fortresses of chitin. The ants were pressed in and cramped by the behemoths settling amongst their front line. Then Damien's offensive truly began.
Dozens of maggots leapt off of each beetles' back, throwing themselves from their perches into the fray. They had ridden the beetles for just this moment. Suddenly the ants in the fore were under attack from all sides. The maggots who had so far yielded to their assault surged forth. The immense fortresses that were the beetles did not simply stop and hold their positions, they shuffled back and forth, plowing the helpless ants back and forth.
To deepen the confusion, his flies dive bombed into the harassed enemies, attacking from above. Claws scratched and legs stamped, but the flies bore a far more important task. Half of the airborne squadrons carried maggots and as they swooped over the enemy they dropped them in the thick of the fighting. The maggots who landed were doomed for slaughter, but the enemy's already shaken formations were completely shattered. Attacked on all fronts the ants were helpless before the onslaught. But then there was another crisis on the battlefield.
Sheila was finally in danger. So many ants had attacked her that they had formed a bridge of corpses across her silken armor. Before they could make use of it, Damien gave her the order to retreat. She quickly bounded across the mass of warring bodies to the rear lines of Damien's forces where he had his loyal ants slaughter the survivors clinging to her body. She rested for a moment as she stripped and re-bound her legs before wading back into the sea of flesh, once again causing an explosion of mayhem across the battlefield. Just as she had, the beetles retreated when the ants had swarmed atop them, and as soon as the tiny attackers were cleared they loaded up with new maggot riders and waded back into the lines. This was Damien's war.
The maggots filled his ranks, but the valuable beetles and Sheila disrupted the enemies before retreating so the maggots could swarm and surround their foes. This gave him the greatest benefit from his limited supply of beetles and his champion without much risk. Throughout the whole battle, his flanks pulverized the enemy. His mighty maggots stormed through the enemy ranks without faltering. The giant inch long maggots crushed, bit, and smashed through the helpless ants. Both worker and warrior alike were helpless before their might. What had begun as a fierce battle was soon reduced to a one sided slaughter.
Wave after wave of desperate ants were ground down into a chunky, bloody mush. The tunnel floor was soaked with blue insectoid ichor, and the maggots who stood at the front of his armies were soaked in the blood of a thousand slain enemies. Still onwards they charged, climbing over the corpses of their fallen brothers to repel the invaders. Then, the two flanks finally met. Every last ant except their queen had entered the tunnel, and the rampaging mighty maggots had cut a bloody path to meet up behind them. The ants were surrounded. They tried to flee, tried to escape. However there would be no escape for his enemies. His minions needed to grow. The maggots, beetles and flies pressed in from all sides. The beetle charges and fly dive-bombs continued unabated. Soon, all that was left of his once mighty enemy were empty halls and a lone queen.
This battle had been different than his last, and out in the open he showed the full extent of his advantage. Ants worked well in a group, but there was no strategy. There was no plan or complex communication. In addition, only he was able to unify the different species to allow their varied potentials to be combined and utilized. He had won, completely and utterly. And now it was time for him to loot his prize. To the victor go the spoils.
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A thousand eggs, larvae, and pupae were gathered by his ants and carried by the flies back to his lair. They would build a second nest on the other side of the entrance from the other, but first the new queen would have to be broken. She was roughly cornered, bound and dragged back along the tunnel back to Damien. This was his total victory, and he was just beginning.
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The other colonies did not sit idly for long. They quickly scouted down his exploration tunnels, and skirmishes quickly broke out. All of these were one-sided slaughters except for the giant red ants. These ants were truly monstrous, and he was nearly helpless against them. The smallest workers were half an inch long once they had fully matured, and their soldiers were nearly a full inch. Against ants this size, his maggots, ants and even his beetles were powerless. His only option was to swarm them with maggots while Sheila and Ajax darted around and picked them off.
He had finally settled on a name for the second spider, and the Greek hero renowned for his strength was a name that suited him well. Sheila hunted with cunning, dancing around her enemies and waiting for the moment to strike. Ajax was the complete opposite. He charged head on into the battle, diving in and wrestling with ants just as large as he was. He attacked with his claws, his fangs and slammed them with his body. He was the most ferocious spider Damien had ever witnessed. Yet even with the addition of Sheila and Ajax, they were costly battles.
While his spiders held the line against the fearsome red ants, his troops easily crushed the second small black ant colony. Just as before his troops has surrounded and slaughtered the enemy on the field of battle. He now had three queens in his arsenal, but it would take time for the captured young to mature, and then longer before the newly laid eggs hatched to boost their numbers to their full potential. As he examined the two remaining colonies, he knew he would need something more. The last black colony had far too many defenders and the red ants were far too powerful for him to consider conquest. But during his battles, a plan had come to him.
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The lizard wandered into his cave around mid morning, just as it had every other day. It would come in, eat it's fill, and then find a rock to sun itself and snooze the day away. It would not go that way this day. As he crept into the cave, he gazed around at the dark room. It's walls were covered in moss and the stench of death was as delicious as ever. There were fewer maggots than usual. Normally as he came in, he would see that the floor was covered in the delicious treats. But today the cave seemed to be almost deserted. But just ahead, there was one large pile of juicy, wriggling maggots just waiting for him to devour.
He didn't pause to think and dashed forwards towards his daily meal. Just as he reached the maggots, the ground gave out beneath him! And he and the maggots all fell into a pit. As he fell down, he fell through layer after layer of webbing, nearly completely covering him in it's sticky silky threads. When he hit the bottom, he flailed and flailed away, desperate to escape, but nothing he did could set him free. Hours passed before he finally stopped struggling, and when he stopped a massive spider dropped down to finish binding him. He struggled and writhed, but the more he tried the more tangled he became. He was powerless before the eight legged brown monster, and on this day his captivity began.
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Damien celebrated the success of his first trap. After watching the monstrous red ants come rushing out of the narrow passageway, he wished there was a way to trap them and kill them without risking his spider's lives. Their predictable movement and the lack of any side paths made this wish into reality. This led to Sheila spreading out webs in front of their only entrance into his cave. But when he realized he needed something far more powerful if he was ever to storm their colony and capture their queen, his first thought was of the bearded dragon who continued to raid with impunity. But how to snare the great beast in enough web that he couldn't simply break free? And this, the pitfall trap was his creation. The roof was constructed of a sturdy web topped with moss and dirt. And below that rest a two foot deep hole. Every few inches Sheila spun another complete web. It was such a wild mass of silk he feared the lizard would get his head covered and suffocate. However after witnessing it's flailing and attempts to break free, this was barely enough to keep it contained.
As he gazed at his prize, he ordered maggots to crawl down to feed it. He would not bear to have his greatest beast die of starvation while he waited for the indoctrination to take hold. After his experience with the queen, he was prepared for this to take quite some time.
There was nothing to do now except wait. His queens and lizard would need time to accept their new master. His ants and beetles needed time to multiply, and all could benefit from some evolution before the next war. He would expand his lair while he waited, and send out new tendrils to search for new colonies or anything else that might be lurking beneath the surface. It was on one such search that his world would change forever.
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Five days had passed since the war, and three since he captured the mighty dragon. He had found a few more ant colonies, even conquered a few more of the smaller ones and had also begun to add side rooms to either side of his hall. He dug a thin path through the soil, just like he had hundreds of times before. And then he broke through into a cave. The tunnel was open for only a split second, and then he frantically filled it back in. Terror gripped his heart. The greatest fear he had ever known.
His heart pulsed rapidly, all of his creatures froze. He scrambled to seal the hole. He crammed pile after pile of dirt into the tiny tunnel, packing it harder than it had ever been before he dug. He mustered every last minion he had. From the lowest maggot to his champion spider he summoned them all, and all of them swarmed to the southern wall. He had found another one. Another creature like himself, a blue essence to his red. He came upon it's lair. He sensed it was far larger, and far stronger than himself. And as he tried to see into it's depths, the owner of the lair turned it's gaze upon Damien, and Damien felt one emotion that radiated out, that rippled across it's mana so fiercely he felt it in his very soul. It hungered.