A petal of red sailed the wind’s boat, crossing the rocky east and heading toward the northern field. Evading foliage of greens, it landed on the soil, crumbling into particles like a snowflake in the summer.
The red petal soon was gone, leaving nothing behind but a seedling that was similarly red in color.
+++-+++-+++
Helzar waited patiently for the eggs to turn into larvae, but the picture in front of him couldn't be more bleak.
‘What happened? Did I do something wrong?’ Helzar frowned, walking closer to the eggs to inspect them.
The white jelly-bean looking eggs from yesterday were now dried up raisins when he checked up on them. It looked as though someone had slurped up the life juice from the egg before leaving it there without care.
‘Obviously the Spawns won't kill the eggs. That means the eggs died on their own… is the Motherbug a failure?’
Helzar sighed. When he picked up the dried egg, he noticed that it had a small mouth at one end.
‘Is… is it not an egg but rather a larva?’ Helzar inspected the other eggs, finding that all of them had tiny mouths.
‘Maybe I had to feed them, but because they weren't properly fed, they died,’ thinking about it, Helzar ordered his Spawns to prepare a hunting party.
Clack…
With his Spawns all heading toward the nest entrance, Helzar approached the Motherbug in front of him.
‘Sigh, I fed all the Eaters to this thing yesterday, it seems I played the game incorrectly,’ Helzar swallowed a bitter pill and he could do nothing about it. He couldn't undo what was done.
He had the entire Swarm rest inside the nest to protect it, so he had no food to spare at the moment.
‘Thankfully, the Spawns are efficient hunters…’
Clack! CLACK!
SHAA! TAK! TAK!
‘Huh?’
Looking toward the nest entrance, Helzar's skin crawled as a shiver ran up his spine. There he saw the red insects that he'd been trying to avoid. His Spawns and the red ants met as soon as the red ants entered the nest, and the Spawns wasted no time defending their home!
Tak! Shhaa…
The red ants weren't no pushovers, however. Their mandibles were stronger than Spawns, and their exoskeletons were tougher too. Not to mention their deadly stinger. One red ant is able to kill four Spawns with luck, and without luck, it can still kill two Spawns before dying!
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
However, an ant's greatest weapon lies within their teamwork. While a few ordinary ants may still amount to nothing, these red ants were far from ordinary!
‘Shit, dozens of Spawns were killed!’
The sight of the six red ant corpses and the corpses of his Spawns made him grind his teeth in frustration. He couldn't wait to rush up to the nest of these arrogant ants and annihilate them, though that was his rage speaking.
‘Crap, this is big trouble!’ Helzar hurriedly gathered all his Spawns into the nest. When he counted all of them, his heart plummeted down into the soil, while his anger soared above the skies.
‘What happened, why are there barely fifty Spawns left??’
Helzar didn't know, but the six ants that entered the nest weren't the only ants that encountered the Swarm. There were more aboveground, but they were stopped by the emerging Spawns. Unfortunately, they were too weak and most of the Spawns were killed.
If Helzar went above ground, he'd see a few more dead red ants.
‘Tsk, no use in worrying now. We need to move!’
Helzar wasn't going to take any chances. He knew how an ant colony works, and most likely, the red ants are marching toward them while he wastes time!
‘Who knows if they can sprint like the Spawns,’ Helzar thought of the worst, hurriedly guiding his Spawns to dig forward whilst blocking the tunnel behind.
‘I hope this works…’
Helzar couldn't even finish his thoughts when he saw another mandible digging from above them. When the piece of dirt was lifted, Helzar saw a group of red ants!
‘Motherfucker…’
+++-+++-+++
The ants weren't the only ones who can count on teamwork, the Spawns could too. Not to mention, Helzar was participating in the battle.
After dropping the Nest, Helzar was able to blitz around the tunnel and kill the ants trying to attack them. His mandibles are stronger than the Spawns, not inferior to the red ants at all!
The aftermath was that no Spawns were killed and all five red ants died in Helzar's mandibles.
‘It feels weird moving around without the Nest, but it's good that I can,’ Helzar sighed, helping in blocking the tunnel behind them. It had already been a hot minute since the red ants dug from above them, and they'd long since left that area.
‘The ants can dig faster than us, but they don't know where exactly we are… right?’ Helzar cursed himself. Every time he said something, it seemed that it would come true.
Luckily, that didn't seem to be the case as no ants came from above. With his Spawns continuously digging forward, Helzar's Swarm rapidly advanced.
Crack— Crumble…
Suddenly, when a Spawn removed a piece of dirt in front of it, an empty tunnel welcomed them! Seeing the tunnel, it clacked its mandibles, attracting Helzar's attention. Helzar decided to close the tunnel without hesitation, but he was still too late.
Crawl—crawl—crawl…
Ants came pouring in from the end of the empty tunnel, and Helzar can only watch as they get closer. He has no other choice but to fight them, digging anywhere wouldn't mean a thing during a battle!
Behind him, the Motherbug watched the ant getting closer, and an egg popped out of its gaster. More and more eggs were laid, totalling seven, but no one cares about them now. Right now, even the Motherbug has to fight!
The two armies collided, and with just a glance, Helzar counted at least a few dozen ants ahead of them. Normally, the Spawns would be doomed, but their success will be boosted with him participating.
After all, unlike the Spawns or the ants, Helzar was truly a sentient being with great intelligence and wisdom, as well as fighting experience.
‘Killing must be done in a single stroke. Any unnecessary actions during a battle is fatal,’ Helzar thought, jumping toward the stream of red ants. The ants were slightly bigger than the Spawns, and Helzar himself was only half a centimeter long, but he held no fear.
With Helzar jumping into the battle, the Spawns copied him and attacked first!
SHAA!
CLACK!
Caught a little off-guard, the ants opened their mandibles to greet the Spawns. The Spawns bit the ants, and their mandibles locked together. The Spawns knew the ants had another weapon, so they were focused on making sure the ants couldn't bend over and sting them.
On the other hand…
Clack! CUT!
Helzar was freely mowing down the ants! He didn't lock mandibles with the ants, that was stupid in his eyes. Instead, he swatted the mandibles of his foes and bit their head off, moving to another enemy afterward.
With his technique, a dozen of ants had already died!
‘The ants may be more powerful, but the Spawns are faster! Meanwhile, I'm faster than the Spawns!’
Helzar rejoiced. Maybe there was a chance to win, after all…
With the example of Helzar, the Spawns copied his technique, and all of them were able to kill the ants they were locked with. However, the ants weren't stupid either and began retaliating.
Who said that the venom inside the ant's stingers could only be injected directly? They're anomalies too!
CHHH! CHHH! CHHH!
Like deadly ray beams, deadly toxins flew to the air, landing on the Spawns and melting their bodies like lava. Half of the Spawns died instantly, but the ants who fired off their venoms died too, their gasters melting as a consequence.
‘It’s a double-edged blade, then,’ Helzar opened his mandibles, threatening the ants to not do anything else.
By now, both forces had exhausted their numbers. Only, Helzar had no way of quickly replenishing his Spawns, while the ants probably had millions of members back in their main nest!
‘Is this the end?’
Helzar’s mind went a mile a second, but then a noise interrupted his thoughts. Looking down, he saw an egg with its mouth open, a thin, tiny proboscis extending from its mouth and sucking on the viscous blue blood scattered on the floor.
‘Who brought the baby here?’