When more and more ants began to stream in a certain direction, that meant there was something killing them, or something catching their attention. The Charming Lance Beetle merely had to head towards the direction in which the majority of the ants were moving. In this manner he would run into beasts to kill and more precious resources. Every so often he would have the Beetle send out recall pheromones and get all the ants to return. Then once they were all packed inside the Beetle could spread its wings and move them to a more promising location.

After a few days of this routine, one of the flights brought them into range of some of the geniuses. Sage immediately had the Beetle hide itself, but upon listening in, he had to change his plans.

“Fu Zedong, come out into the light. For a clan that claims to stand in the light, why are you all so familiar with the shadows? I know you’re out there, stop hiding.”

After a moment another voice answered, “Just like the Chong Clan. You always talk as if you’re a group of valorous heroes and then you poison people in their sleep or use parasites to take control of people’s families. Are you ready to face your death, Chong Xiezi?”

“Che-He-Hehe. There you are. You finally had the courage to show yourself.”

“The ones with no courage are you Chong Cla… Argh!”

The conversation abruptly ended and Sage moved the Beetle out to watch the show. A man dressed all in black had a mask that showed only his eyes. The mask was styled like the face of a bat with an upturned nose and huge bloody fangs. Across from him was a beautiful woman, Chong Xiezi. She ripped off her lovely flower covered robes and exposed a suit of skin-tight black leather underneath. Her body was criss crossed with leather harnesses and sheaths, each of them gleaming with silver blades and implements. In her hand was a large bull whip, studded with sharp metal barbs which she started lashing out at Fu Zedong with.

Just as Sage got a look at Fu Zedong, the man chopped off his right arm. He was holding a curved sickle like blade in his left hand and it was dripping with his own blood. The blade flashed in the air a few times, aiming at a small blur of light that was buzzing around him. The blur was circling around him, dashing towards Fu Zedong and then darting back away to avoid the flashing sickle.

“Che-He-Hehe. You’re finished now, Zedong!”

Chong Xiezi continued with her strangely creepy laugh and kept using her whip to attack Fu Zedong. She even used her free hand to pull out various other sorts of small knives, blades, and needles, hurling them at Fu Zedong. From the way he’d chopped off his own arm and was carefully avoiding every one of her attacks, Sage was pretty sure all of her weapons were poisoned. Just then, the blur wasn’t quite fast enough and the sickle sword caught it.

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Sshhick!

Two small objects fell to the ground and Chong Xiezi screamed at the top of her lungs. Throwing her whip and lunging towards Fu Zedong with a pair of knives in her hands. She barely grazed his thigh and Fu Zedong swung his sickle sword, cutting off a large slice of his own flesh before kicking Chong Xiezi in the chest. There was a loud cracking sound and her body flew thirty feet before smashing into a metal pillar. She slid down to the ground and screamed again. Tears were streaming down her cheeks even as she screamed and threw more knives at Fu Zedong.

On the ground, Sage got a better look at the two objects. It was a bug with large dragonfly wings and two tiny pincers. The other object was a large stinger. A winged scorpion! From her response she was either very attached to the scorpion or knew that she was finished. Chong Xiezi was merciless and vicious to her enemy, yet Fu Zedong was just as merciless to himself. He wasn’t even phased as he sliced off his own flesh to deal with her poisons.

Impressive man. Too bad you’re from the Fu Clan.

Sage never forgot what the Fu Clan did. They were the accomplices of Jiang Hua in his opinion. After Jiang Hua wiped out most of the Lang Clan, the Fu Clan took it upon themselves to hunt down every last member of the clan in the outside world. Even if many deserved it for their actions or by being complicit to such actions, they were still part of Sage’s Clan and so many were innocent. There was also the fact that the Lang Clan was a subordinate of the Chong Clan so this would work to get them on their good side once again.

Ants had already started streaming out of the Charming Lance Beetle, flooding the area where the two were fighting. Fu Zedong lifted his blade, not saying a thing. His reputation as a cold assassin shining through. Before it could connect, a massive Beetle slammed into him from the side, knocking him away. Amazingly, he saw it coming at the last instant and turned to receive the strike. Smashing his palm against the Charming Lance Beetle and breaking the impact even as he was thrown far away. He’d managed to turn most of the bone crushing force into a propelling force and prevent most of the damage. Unfortunately, for him, as he landed he saw that behind him was a sea of ants, encircling the area like the sea around an island.

Chong Xiezi was confused, but then the Beetle drew a single character on the ground next to her. ‘Lang’. It took her a second, but then she suddenly smiled. The Beetle leaned down, lifting one leg for her like a step and she climbed up, hopping onto the back of the Beetle. Behind where she was sitting the back of the Beetle split open and its outer shell flipped apart to expose a pair of wings. The two of them lifted into the air and looked down at Fu Zedong as the ants started to tighten the noose, shrinking the empty circle he was in.

This would be a perfect time to test out the Ant tactics again, too bad I’m not there to guide them.

Sage couldn’t use his Hypnotic Eyes through the Beetle, so the ants could only use the more basic strategies. They were already in battle mode, right now the Colonels, and their hundred thousand ants, were using an encircling tactic. They head towards the marked target, but when they get too close they turn away. They begin with a high separation value, but as time passed the separation rule for the target would weaken, bringing them closer and closer.

After a few minutes, Fu Zedong was left with only a few feet of clear space. He’d been taking some pills and gathering energy as Sage and Xiezi watched from the air. Finally, when it seemed things were already too late, Fu Zedong fixed them both with a frigid stare. Then he threw something into the air and jumped on to it. It was a black disc about the size of a manhole cover and there was a grey fog coming from underneath it. The ants under it got blown backwards, but Fu Zedong pushed off, jumping off of the disc and throwing out another one. A third one followed after that while the first and second disc fell downwards.

In midair, Fu Zedong spun around and pulled at the air. Sage noticed a trio of thin cables, the pull whipped the three discs back to Fu Zedong and they disappeared again just as the man landed on the ground and dashed off. Sage tried to pursue with the Beetle, but a few seconds later Fu Zedong disappeared into a dark corner and he was gone. There was no trail to speak of and he’d already expended his ant army, there was no sense in pursuing.

The Beetle returned to the site of the battle.