The ghosted park lay silently below the looming clouds of a thundering storm, embracing the chill of night and impending rain. The surrounding trees let out a cry with trembling branches, with the scent of earth sticking to the air, riding the wind as it cyclones around the garden.

As the light shower of rain fell to the ground, the red insects carpeting the soil drummed, producing a harmonic sound of crisp dry leaves tumbling with the air. They flapped their wings all at the same time, mimicking a disciplined human army.

“Look at them, trying to act all mighty,” Helzar scoffed. Beside him was Zhar, as well as the first enhanced Motherbug.

“Zhar, today I'll show you what overwhelming triumph looks like,” Helzar announced, a light-blue mist emerging from his body.

VSSHAA!

The entire Swarm flexed their wings, shaking the trees they were mounted on.

“READY!”

Helzar kept his eye on the Lava Ants below. With a few seconds passing, his blue mist had engulfed the entire Swarm. The Spawns felt their bodies overflowing with strength, disabling their ability to feel any sort of fear!

From another angle, nearly half of the park was covered in the blue mist, with dozens of trees being obscured by the it.

“CHAAAAARGE!”

BUZZZZ!

The millions of Spawns jumped from their vantage points, descending toward the Lava Ants like a rain of bullets!

CHRAA!

In the moments before the Swarm swarmed their foe, the Lava Ants opened their mandibles, yelling in disgust as their bodies heated up and the spikes all over their exoskeleton spew hot steam. Just before the two forces clashed, the Lava Ants flew, intercepting the Swarm first before they got into the unfair fight.

The ants bit the necks of their enemies, separating them from their bodies. With the death of one, five Spawns replaced the fallen, each of them aiming to immobilize the ants. The ants weren't idle, flapping their wings and taking the battlefield to the air.

Now, the ants had more room to dance around, but the cost was their stamina. A war of attrition had begun with one force having numbers, while the other possessing pure strength. If the Lava Ants can kill the Swarm before they get tired, they will take the win and Helzar would be set on a path of doom!

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“Don't fret, the battle has just begun!”

Watching the Swarm get handled with ease, Helzar was in no mood to be happy, but he had already expected the waltz playing before him.

“The Spawnlings are hungry, supper is upon us. Feast, my beloved Swarm FEAST!”

Cackling madly, Helzar commanded all of the Motherbugs to go into overdrive, each of them laying dozens of eggs in less than a second. The eggs and Spawnlings had no wings, but they had a different task from the Spawns.

“The meat is hiding beneath the surface. Reap and devour them!” Helzar ordered, sending Zhar and a third of the Swarm to invade the nest of the Lava Ants.

On the other hand, Helzar kept watch of the battle, noting that a million Spawns had already died in less than a minute. Likewise, tens of thousands of Lava Ants had fallen in battle.

“No matter how much you struggle, in the end, you're still ants,” Helzar scoffed, gliding to the ground and picking up a dead Lava Ant who was killed simply by decapitation.

Before exhaustion, most Lava Ants opted to kill themselves and act as molten lava to the Swarm, sending their melting hot bodies to dozens of Spawns. Few Lava Ants were swiftly killed before their kamikaze.

After getting to a safe spot, Helzar decisively separated the Nest from his body. Setting it down, Helzar watched as it opened its “mouth.”

Peering into the bottomless pit of the Nest’s stomach, Helzar stuffed the Lava Ant's body into the Nest. Very quickly, it's exoskeleton was melted by the Nest’s strong stomach acid, and information flooded Helzar's brain

He understood barely any of it, but he understood enough.

‘Win or lose, my objective has been fulfilled,’ Helzar's eyes glimmered in the dark underground tunnel. Through his link with Zhar, he saw that Zhar was leading the eggs and Spawnlings to prey on the Lava Ant's vulnerable young.

It was like stealing candy from a child, and Helzar was more than happy to do it now and again in the future. He noticed something wrong though, and that was that Zhar was hurriedly retreating!

‘What are you…’

SLICE!

Suddenly, the soil above Helzar's head was cut open, narrowly missing Helzar by the width of a hair.

BURST!

At the same time, the nest entrance of the Lava Ants bursted open, a five inches long ant revealed herself, followed suit by hundreds of thousands of Lava Ants! As though a volcano erupting, the Lava Ants finally showed its true strength!

Helzar gave one glance at the Lava Queen Ant before hurriedly contacting Zhar. Compared to his enemies, he would rather pay more attention to someone he valued.

‘Zhar, are you alive?!’

Alex gave out a thoughtful hum. “C-106 and C-107. Nice to meet you,” Alex mockingly opened. On his hand was a glowing red sword and behind him were fifteen elite agents and seven regular agents.

“Be on guard, don't let the Swarm get anywhere near your skin. On the other hand, don't let the Lava Ants close,” Alex tilted his head. “I suppose telling you to keep all bugs away would have sufficed,” he sighed, charging toward the battlefield while his sword glowed as bright as an LED light!

With the addition of humans, the Swarm and the Lava ants called a hurried truce. The Lava Queen Ant didn't even give Helzar a bit of her attention.

“So they're called Lava Ants. Fitting,” Helzar commented as Zhar landed beside him. “Zhar, this will hurt,” Helzar said, crawling toward Zhar's abdomen. Zhar merely bowed, bracing himself for his lord's promise.

When Helzar reached the end of Zhar's abdomen, he tore it open, exposing the ripe flesh underneath. The wound was quickly healing, but Helzar paid it no heed. Instead, he focused his mental energy to speed up Zhar's recovery!

On the other hand…

The Lava Queen Ant yelled using her abilities, and Helzar's attention was quickly focused on her.

‘She can speak like me!’

“I never knew the Lava Queen could speak,” Alex commented before swinging his sword toward the Lava Queen.

The Lava Queen said with a thick layer of disdain. Opening her mandibles wide, she caught the sword before it sliced open her head. Then, she spat out red-colored venom on the sword.

SSZZZZ!

“...” Alex frowned seeing his Anomaly weapon begin smoking, and he even felt the heat through the handle.

“Utterly ridiculous,” Alex shook his head, transforming the sword into a spear. This time, he didn't initiate the attack but rather went for a defensive stance.

Likewise, Helzar flew far away from the Lava Queen.

“Utterly insane! What the fuck? Is she a moving active volcano?!”