Two ants with red glimmering exoskeletons crouched underneath a plant, waiting for a prey ant to emerge. They were Adam’s red jade worker ants, and they were lying in wait outside of the trap-jaw ant nest.
A few trap-jaw ants already came out of the nest, but the duo didn’t come out. They were waiting for lone trap-jaw ants, also known as easy prey.
Krrr…
One of them waved its antennae, just in time for a single trap-jaw ant to come out of its nest to hunt. Just like them, the trap-jaw ants were hegemons of the forest and can hunt solo. Of course, that was considering that their prey was also alone.
KRR!
As the lonely trap-jaw worker crawled about, the two red jade workers followed silently from a good distance. One of them was Adam’s first worker ant, and it learned that trap-jaw workers can sense mana through their antennae too. Only, the trap-jaw ant has to clean its antennae first.
Shhhh…
When the trap-jaw worker paused, the red jade ants also halted and backed away. They tried as much as possible to restrain their mana, as well as make sure they didn’t emit any pheromones. Ants can smell pheromones as well. The strange thing was, magic beast ants can smell the pheromones of regular ants, and vice versa.
As they had expected, the trap-jaw ant started cleaning its antennae. It didn’t stop for a long while, and when it did, it ran in a certain direction. The red jade ants didn’t dally and ran after it.
When they saw the trap-jaw ant again, it was carrying a cockroach in its mandibles. The cockroach was a normal one, it didn’t stand a chance against the trap-jaw ant. The red jade ants didn’t hide anymore and bolted toward the trap-jaw ant.
Caught off-guard, the trap-jaw ant didn’t even know what killed it as one red jade worker ant bit down on its gaster, while the other bit off its head. If the trap-jaw managed to survive the first attack, it would still die as one red jade ant was holding down its gaster.
KRR!
Satisfied that they didn’t leak any pheromones during the ambush, the red jade ants carried the trap-jaw worker ant to a hidden area. They buried it lightly before going back to the trap-jaw ant nest.
They hunted three more trap-jaw ants and buried the other two in the same place as their first victim. After returning to the three dead ants with another one in tow, they dug out the three dead trap-jaw ants.
KRR! Krr…
After the three dead trap-jaw ants were dug out, they each devoured one. Not even the antennae remained when they were done. They didn’t eat the trap-jaw ants for themselves but instead stored their flesh in their social stomachs.
That way, they can carry the other two dead trap-jaw ants back to the nest without leaving anything behind.
When they came back to the nest, they gave the two dead trap-jaw ants to Adam. Adam devoured them in a flash and saw that he can lay another egg. He lays it and his oldest worker ant went to pick it up. The other ant was busy feeding the larvae inside the nest, while the oldest ant was tending to the egg.
Adam watched as both workers took turns to stuff the larvae full of food and when they finished, the larvae were preparing to pupate.
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‘Hmm? So you can overfeed them to speed up their growth?’
Then… doesn’t that mean that as long as there was food, a magic beast ant colony would thrive like grass?
While Adam was busy being shocked, the two worker ants worked together to seal up the nest. They didn’t want to exhaust their food supply too quickly, so they didn’t hunt again.
Bzzzz…
Unknowingly, just after they patched up their nest, a wasp passed by. It was huge and its exoskeleton was a unique silver. It waved its antennae around and when it sensed no prey nearby, it flew off.
It was flying toward the trap-jaw ant nest.
As soon as it saw one trap-jaw worker, it paused and landed on a faraway tree. It observed it and watched it go back to its nest. Then, the wasp flew off. Magic beasts gained a bit of intelligence the higher their rank. As part of the hive that ruled a good chunk of the forest, the wasp was definitely not low in the magic beast pyramid.
The next day, both worker ants waited as two pupae eclosed.
KRR!
One of them waved their antennae, her gaster bobbing up and down as the two young workers began to move their legs. After the two young workers fully eclosed and were ready to go, the two older ants took them out to hunt.
The younger ants were easily recognizable as their exoskeleton was a bit lighter than the older ants. Thankfully, they had mana to bypass this momentarily weakness.
The reason why the two older ants took the younger ants to hunt was to speed up their hunt and to also bring home more food. After arriving at the trap-jaw ant nest, they encircled it and together, they killed eight workers.
Strangely, no trap-jaw major came out, but the red jade ants didn’t care. Each of them devoured one trap-jaw ant to fill up their social stomach, while they all carried another one to bring back home.
The worker with a missing leg took the lead and thought the ants a new shortcut toward the nest. The shortcut was a bit hidden too, making it ideal.
Once they reached the nest, the oldest worker ant closed the nest entrance again.
She didn’t know that she was lucky enough to avoid a group of four wasps flying by.
Again.
Seeing four dead trap-jaw ants in front of him, Adam waved his antennae around in excitement. Each trap-jaw worker ant gave exactly 10 mana. if he was as before and was still hunting for food, he would’ve consumed some of that mana to hunt and kill the trap-jaw worker.
Now, he barely had to move and four trap-jaw ants were placed in front of him.
‘This is the power of having workers!’
Adam laughed as he devoured all four trap-jaw ants and laid two more eggs. Meanwhile, the four worker ants took turns feeding the larva, which had just hatched from the egg. When they were done, the larva had turned into a pupa.
‘Everything is going well. When the trap-jaw ant colony is wiped out, we’ll have at least ten worker ants.’
Ten worker ants are enough to dominate the magic beast manteree from before!
Manteree, or mantis-spider-bee, was the name he gave to the magic beast mutant mantis he fought before.
Recalling that battle, Adam’s missing legs throbbed and he felt phantom pains.
‘When my colony grows nigger, I’ll order my ants to hunt down every last bit of manteree alive!’
He held grudges. And he never lets go of them.
Not even for a moment.
As Adam and his colony were resting inside their nest, a war was going on inside another. Mandibles clashed against each other, and venom was passed around like a cup of water.
SHAA!
BZZZ—!
Enraged, a massive queen with a pair of menacing mandibles appeared. She opened her mandibles to the fullest extent and aimed at a nearby wasp. SNAP—CRUNCH! She didn’t even use a lot of mana, and the entire wasp was crushed.
Only its abdomen remained as its head and thorax were scattered around like garbage.
Seeing one of its own easily get killed, the remaining three wasps were startled and scrambled to retreat.
But how could the ants let them go so easily?
SNAP! SNAP! SHAA!
Bzzzzz…
The battle raged on, but the trap-jaw ants were too weak against the wasps. They failed to eliminate them all as one wasp with a few missing legs flew high into the sky.
When it returns to its hive, a gruesome battle will ensue.
The trap-jaw queen ant shook her head, scanning her ruined nest. There were a bunch of dead trap-jaw ants around, and they all looked as if they’d been boiled.
Her already pitch-black exoskeleton seemed to turn darker in anger.
‘CURSE YOU!!!’
SNAP!
After randomly biting at the nest walls, she returned to her chambers. She believed that the wasps were behind all the missing worker ants lately.
Then, she remember the time when another ant species killed off the colony’s only major ant.
‘I… shouldn’t have… let it… leave…’
She allowed the major ant to leave in order to defend the nest, not to die so randomly!
Adam, who had no idea that his workers doomed the enemy colony: Tomorrow, we’ll hunt more trap-jaw ants!