In an underground room, a fight broke out. Guns and swords mixed, and even hitting someone with a metal pipe didn't seem odd.

Red and blue blood painted the floor, rocky debris and metallic pieces scattered on the floor, and lying beside them were the corpses of humans and bugs.

“Call for more back up,” a deep, husky voice called out. His tone was exhausted and dry, the result of not having had any sustenance for a few days. Luckily, they had a reliable source of water.

The man's mechanical armor has stopped working long ago, but he still wore it for the protection it gave.

“Chief, the Agents are all unavailable. Disaster struck Earth,” a man replied. He was wearing a uniform that was strangely completely undamaged.

“Then call upon Project Hive,” the man in mechanical armor said in slight frustration.

Hearing this, the man shook his head. “We already lost C-102… sigh,” despite his mumblings, he still obeyed his superior.

They'd finally gotten a chance to take a breather after three days, and he would be damned if he didn't ask for help in any way, shape, or form.

+++-+++-+++

Snap—Crack!

A leg sprouted out of the thin, fragile shell of the egg, with three more following the first.

Crack… crack—

Then, a pair of round, bulbous eyes followed, taking in the outside view for the very first time. When its proboscis drank all the blood nearby, it stopped and the little critter spat it out, and another grew out of its mouth. This time, its proboscis is sharper and thicker.

Seeing the metamorphosis of the egg, Helzar's mind stopped working, and a ridiculous idea hatched inside his head.

‘Quick, carry all the eggs and bite the ants! Drink the blood of your enemy!!!’

SCREECH!!!

With Helzar's yelling in their minds, the Spawns instantly located the eggs on the ground and carried them with their mouths. Then, they locked eyes with the remaining red ants.

More than twenty Spawns are still alive, while only a dozen ants remain. However, there were only seven eggs, including the “nymph.”

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CLACK CLACK CLACK!

A blink of an eye after Helzar's battlecry, and the Spawns ran toward the ants, their mandibles open wide and ready to bite! The ants were the same, and this time, their goal wasn't to compete with the Spawn's bite force. They planned on locking mandibles with the Spawns, before using their stingers to kill them instantly!

TAK! CRAAA!

In a burst of speed, the Spawns halted before the ants and swung their heads, breaking the ant's initial defense. The Spawns bite!

Chhk—

However, the ants weren't done yet. They curled their bodies, using their six legs to grip the Spawn's bodies before flexing their gasters, revealing a sharp needle at the end.

The needle of death promised a venomous gift, but the Spawns weren't afraid. They had one goal, and one goal only!

Before the ants could pierce the Spawns with their stingers, the Spawns let go of the ants and madly shook their bodies, throwing off the ants attached to them.

Most were successful, but some failed to set themselves free and were melted by the ant's venom. However, without fail, seven of the ants flailed around, their tough bodies crashing into the walls in their desperate attempt to relieve their pain. They tried stinging the bug stuck on the underside of its body, but if they did so, they'd be inflicting themselves even more pain!

While seven ants were thrashing about, the remaining ants were quickly dealt with by Helzar, while the Spawns cautiously held the seven ants by their legs. By pulling on the ant's legs, they can immobilize it and prevent it from using its stinger. It can't even shoot out its stinger, as the ants need to twist their body in a certain way.

‘The nymphs are growing rapidly,’ Helzar concluded, watching as white insects became bloated, blue blood filling up their stomachs.

When a minute had passed, the ants finally stopped moving, and the Spawns let go of its body. Inspecting it, Helzar found that it was void of any blood, completely sucked dry by the nymphs.

When Helzar looked at the nymphs, Helzar saw that its white exoskeleton was rapidly hardening and turning to black. Their size, however, didn't grow past half a centimeter.

‘It’s incomplete, but it had the good benefit of having four legs instead of three,’ Helzar sighed in satisfaction. After all the terrible news lately, that was the only good piece of news.

Clack?

Helzar turned, seeing a Spawn approaching him. Helzar recognized it immediately as his bodyguard. Unlike his other Spawns, his bodyguard was a little unique. The tips of its mandibles were dyed blue, and its compound eyes were pitch black as though he was staring into the abyss.

‘Not only that, it's stronger and faster than ordinary Spawns. In terms of strength, it's nearly as strong as me, and the same goes for its speed,’ Helzar inwardly praised the Spawn. In the end, he gave it the name “Zhar.”

Ignoring Zhar for the moment, Helzar searched for the Motherbug only to frown in disappointment, if he could even frown.

‘It was killed when the ants launched their stingers as a damned projectile,’ Helzar cursed. Speaking of the ants, he remembered the corpses around them and ordered Zhar to collect them, initiating a feast!

‘After this, I have two options. One is to keep running away, but that would only end in starvation for the Swarm. The other is to set up camp and create an impenetrable fortress…’

Helzar gazed in the air, staring blankly at the hard working Spawns.

‘Alright, let's choose option three.’

+++-+++-+++

In an underground, enclosed space, an ocean of red ants worked busily, wasting not a single tick of a second.

The underground nest of the ants contained mostly eggs and larvae, as they didn't need to pupate before turning to adults. Instead, after turning into a larva, the ants can already start working and help the colony!

Shaa…

In the deepest chamber, a giant lay asleep. It was the queen, and rarely anything woke her up. Though in her slumber, she still lays her eggs, her workers do worry for her wellbeing. Unlike in ordinary ant colonies, the queen of the red ants held absolute authority!

It was the queen of the Lava Ants, after all. Its power is something that even Chief is worried about, let alone her own workers.

Sha! Sha! Sha…

Alas, surrounded by the anxious crawling of her workers, the queen finally made a move.

At first, its antennae simply twitched, but then it started moving its legs! Not long after, the queen was standing up, her size reaching an impressive five inches!

‘I greet her majesty, the queen,’ one of the ants nearby bowed, before it was followed by the other ants.

Similar to Helzar, the queen had a telepathic link to her workers. However, she can't connect to the entire colony at once. Maybe it was due to the colony's sheer size, or maybe it was something else.

‘Did the giants do anything strange?’

The queen asked, and her subjects hurriedly answered.

‘They introduced an intruder,’ the ants said, before it signaled to the other ants. Soon, a dead body of a Spawn was brought into the Queen's chamber.

‘I see,’ the queen coldly spat. ‘Unblock the nest entrance and kill the intruders,’ she commanded.