Day 4
Twenty two truemass in the bank. Twenty two truemass to kill a little ant. The only question was how?
The blood-hungry savage currently sat on the ceiling, watching over the small enclosure like a hawk. It had not bothered to move an inch after eating the two ladybugs. Nor to care away about the giant caterpillar, Ego, or the large ants mining away at the wall.
Either it had confidence, or stupidity. With ants it was most likely a lack of regard for their own life. All of their focus went towards the colony, even if there wasn’t a colony. Joe doubted the tiny ant had the intelligence to figure that one out.
Joe wasn’t sure what to do. If he was capable of taming this tiny ant, it could become a strong soldier in his army. Especially if he was able to produce more of its kind. A hundred of ants with sharp mandibles rushing at anything would be enough to horrify it. They’d devour any low level units, although they would also be very susceptible to AOE attacks.
It was sure to devour more ladybugs, although Joe felt that if he produced seventeen ladybugs and sent them rushing at the tiny ant there might be a chance he’d be victorious.
Wait a second.
“Hey Ego,” Joe said, a new thought popping up. “You can leave that caterpillar’s body right?”
“Yes, great master,” Ego said, popping out of the caterpillar as a tiny white light.
“And could you take over the body of a ladybug?” Joe said.
“If you desire.”
“Do you think you can hurt that tiny ant enough for me to dominate it?” Joe said, hoping that the answer was yes.
“Give me a couple of tries and I’ll be able to do it,” Ego said.
Great. That was the answer Joe had been hoping for. Ladybugs simply didn’t have the code in their heads to fight properly, but that wouldn’t be a problem with Ego. He’d be able to the tiny ant a run for its money.
As fast as the ladybug was produced, the tiny ant jumped off the ceiling and rushed towards the attack. Ego wasn’t caught off guard though. He quickly dropped into the ladybugs body, and started flying… right into a wall, slamming into it, and going unconscious.
The ladybug was quickly devoured.
Ahh, of course, Ego wouldn’t have experience with controlling the body of a ladybug. I should have been able to see through that one.
“I APOLOGIZE!” Ego shouted with rage in his voice. Joe assumed the anger was directed at himself. “I will complete sixty spins at this moment.”
“No, no, Ego, it’s alright, you can try again.”
“No, failure such as that is not acceptable. The great old one deserves only the best from his general.”
Ego spun around the Joe sixty times. Joe found himself admiring how the large ants were capable of continuing their work despite the ruckus happening behind them. Whilst their tunnel wasn’t as tall as that of the ladybugs, it had reached deeper.
Once Ego was done with the spins, Joe produced another ladybug for him. Once again, the tiny ant jumped down from ceiling, to begin its hunt. Ego was more prepared this time.
He managed to avoid the initial lunge. Instead of staying the air, like Joe had assumed he would, Ego took to the ground where he was more comfortable. The tiny ant had no problem joining him there. It radiated confidence and bloodlust, although that might have only been in Joe’s head.
Can I sense their emotions.
Joe had never seen a ladybug move the way it was currently doing. It used its wings to mimic a dancing motion, moving from side to side like a flee. Ego was taking this fight deadly serious.
The tiny ant lunged again, its mandibles clacking but they didn’t find their target. Ego managed to jump over the ant, and land on its back. A normal ladybug probably wouldn’t be able to do much damage this way, but this ladybug was the size of a little finger, and looked rather fat .
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The weight pressed down on the back of the ants, making its legs bend. Ego didn’t stay on top for long though, just a mere moment, as he knew how quickly the ant would be able to jerk around and grab him with its mandibles.
The fight continued like this for some time. Ego expertly avoiding the ants initial strike, and then bouncing on its back. Whilst it didn’t seem to be doing much, Joe noticed that the ant moved slower, its legs having absorbed most of Egos attacks.
The tiny ant lunged forward, like normal, but this time, it seemed to have predicted Ego’s jumping. The initial attack had only been a fake! Its mandibles steered upwards and found the ladybug’s belly. The fight was quickly over after that.
It’s capable of learning!
Even though it had taken quite a long time, and received plenty of punishment, the ant’s behavior had changed. Joe knew that insects ran almost entirely on instincts, but even they were capable of altering their behavior once they realized it didn’t work. Sadly, this would have been too late if that had been an actual predator.
“FUCK,” Ego roared. It seemed he couldn't’ stand losing. “Give me another ladybug, I’ll beat it this time.”
Joe was more than eager to comply. Ego took over the ladybug’s body whilst the ant was still feasting, allowing him to catch it off guard. He didn’t take this opportunity lightly, flying high up in the air, and then smashing down on the ant with all of the force he could.
The strike ruined the ladybugs body, but it had served its purpose. A blue light jerked away from the ladybugs body and towards the tiny ant, filling it. All of a sudden, Joe had control of the ant .
Evolution detected!
Would you like to learn the breed Jawed-Ant?
Cost twenty truemass.
[Yes][No]
Of course it costs truemass. Joe had expected that. Everything seemed to cost truemass here, but that didn’t stop him from being elated. He’d gained a valuable combat soldier with this ant. When he got enough of them, they’d act like piranhas.
He brought the ants that had been mining over towards him, and made them hand over their truemass. He gained another twenty truemass from it, putting his total at 39 truemass. He purchased the new breed, hoping that the large mandibles evolution would come with.
Jawed Ant
Originally a breed between Stone Ladybugs and Stone Ants. Furthermore, it has evolved giving it larger mandibles.
Cost to produce. Ten truemass.
Joe paled at the price. He wouldn’t be able to mass-produced these soldiers for quite some time, but that was alright. He filed the price back back, and inspected his new soldier. The heal window popped up.
Heal?
Cost: 4 truemass
[Yes] [No]
Even this was expensive. It had to have been beat up rather badly, probably had most of its internal organs crushed. He almost felt bad for the blood-thirsty devil, but it had consumed more than 4 truemass of his own soldiers.
Either way, he purchased the heal as he didn’t want his new soldier to go to waste. Green light flowed out of him and into the little ant. He also healed the ladybug, but that cost much less.
Purchasing more ladybugs, he set his unit back to mining mode, and entered his dazed state. Ego jumped bodies from the ladybug into the ant, and flew around the room with triumphant joy.
Day five
He woke up to another explosion. The ground vibrated, setting Ego and him on high alert, but the rest of the insects didn’t seem to mind. Ego had taken control of the giant caterpillar again and roamed around the small enclosure.
The ore deposit that the ladybugs had found didn’t seem to end, but that wasn’t a problem for Joe as they were gaining a lot of truemass by excavating it. He collected the truemass from his species and gained almost forty five truemass.
A good feeling spread through him. This was great progress right here. With this amount he could purchase more upgrades and more units. Joe felt a tingling sensation at the thought that it would only grow. His units were doing good work.
Currently, with ten ladybugs, one jawed ant, and two ants, he had thirteen units. He decided to fill out his roster as if he found a new species he wanted to dominate he simply had to kill off one of his existing units.
He purchased seven ants, totalling at a cost of twenty one truemass. He sent three ants to go work with on the hole with the other ants whilst he directed the other four to start on a new hole, pointing North.
He didn’t know how he knew the directions, just that he did. One of the advantages of being a core.
With this change he entered another dazed state.