“How are we even supposed to know what ants to kill?” Vaozey asked once I was finished with my explanation. “This entire thing is completely insane. You do realize that, right? There’s no guarantee those bugs aren’t just lying, or that they even understood what you asked them.”
“They seemed to understand the gist of it,” I replied. “The colony mentioned that it was fighting a rival colony as we spoke, but I don’t see any evidence of a battle going on in this section of the chasm. That means that, if nothing else, agreeing to do this will allow us to proceed further uphill, around the corner.”
“Into an area filled with murderous ants that it told you would eat us,” Vaozey added.
“That is one interpretation of what it said,” I corrected.
“That’s the whole problem,” Vaozey continued. “These bugs aren’t human, they can’t even say words in the right order, can you be sure they’re reading the same thing you’re writing? We don’t know anything about what they want us to do, really, or if they can even hold up their end of the bargain. How do we know the other bugs they’re fighting aren’t winning? Why would it even ask for help if it wasn’t losing? What if there are ten times more bugs on the other side and we’re just putting ourselves in a worse situation?”
“I wasn’t intending on doing this without asking for more details,” I replied. “Assuming that everything does check out, are you able to use one of the repellent waterskins as a weapon with heat magic?”
“Maybe,” Vaozey sighed, removing one of the waterskins in question and dripping out a few drops of the oily mixture inside. She stared at it for a moment, then it ignited, burning the end of her finger. “What would you want me to do with this?”
“Spray it out, igniting it as it leaves the waterskin,” I said. “Essentially, you want to cover as much area as possible in fire. Any other specialized actions will be taken by me, you will run suppression.”
“And when they attack us?” Vaozey prodded.
“Burn them off and back up,” I instructed. “Let me figure out what the battle plan is.” Turning back to the colony of ants, I sat down in front of the slowly-drying mud again, indicating that I was ready to talk to them. Before I could start writing, the ants formed a few words.
[Vaozy soundspeak ? Yuwniht,] they asked.
[I have a few questions about the battle,] I replied. In response, the ants made a symbol I didn’t recognize, but then backed off and waited for me to write something. [Where is the location of the battle?] I asked.
[Here,] the ants replied, and I sighed. I need to understand how this entity perceives space and itself if I want to ask the right questions, I thought. When it referred to itself in the singular sense, that must have meant that it views the entire colony as its body, or at least extensions of it. They also can’t see very well unless they stop to focus and collect many samples of visual data, so it’s likely that they mostly use scent and touch perception.
[I am smaller than sameant, yes?] I wrote.
[Yes,] the ants wrote back.
[I cannot see the battle because I am too far away,] I explained, writing in small letters to fit my whole message. [Compared to where I am, where is the battle?]
[Touch Yuwniht edge see Vaozey battle touch not edge,] the ants wrote back. Okay, so it’s at the other end of the swarm as I suspected, I thought.
[Is the battle above us?] I asked. [Along the walls?]
[?] the ants replied.
[Vaozey and I cannot climb the walls,] I tried to explain.
[?] the ants replied again.
[Please watch,] I requested, and when the ants stopped to form their equivalent of an eye, I stood up, walking to the wall of the chasm and placing my hand as high as I could along it. Then, I walked back to the mud. [I can only reach this high, same with Vaozey,] I explained. [Can we reach the battle?]
[Waterway moldway battle yes,] the ants responded.
[How large is the enemy colony?] I asked. The response the ants gave was strange at first but communicated more about the situation than words ever could have. As they swarmed over the mud, instead of flattening it, they began to re-shape it into what I realized was a model of the lower part of the chasm. Then, using four groups of ants, they outlined two rough surface areas and made two more small dots inside one of them. If those two are Vaozey and me, then that means the battle is midway through the next straight chasm section, and the enemy is slightly larger than this colony at least in terms of territory, I thought.
[Understand ?] the ants asked, destroying their model very quickly and re-creating the flat mud.
[Yes,] I replied. [Vaozey and I have not fought ants before, what tactics should we use?]
[Yuwniht slaughterman Vaozey become stoneman,] the ants responded. Slaughterman? I wondered.
[What is slaughterman?] I asked. As the ants read the question, they seemed to churn more than usual while thinking.
[Yuwniht slaughterman ? unable Vaozey,] they asked.
[I don’t know what slaughterman means,] I replied. [We are capable of killing individual ants in large numbers.] Again, the ants churned, taking almost ten seconds before beginning their reply.
[Ant word explain Yuwniht meaning,] they said. At first, I thought they were preparing to give some sort of explanation, but then I realized that they were actually prompting me to explain myself. Slowly, and carefully, I picked out one drone from the swarm and put it on the mud writing surface. Then, beside the drone, I wrote “one ant”.
“What’s going on?” Vaozey asked.
“The battle is around the corner, at least partially on the ground,” I explained. “We’re working out tactics right now.”
[Yuwniht --- ant mean one ?] the ants asked. One of the symbols they produced was the three-oval ant figure instead of a word.
[The word ‘ant’ refers to ---, yes,] I replied, drawing the same figure as part of my sentence. [We could call you a ‘colony.’] While thinking, the ants began making low chittering and hissing noises, and I heard Vaozey take a step back. “They’re just surprised,” I said.
“About what?” Vaozey asked.
“I just told them what the word ‘ant’ actually refers to,” I explained. “They thought it meant the whole colony, not just one insect.” In a motion that was almost frantic, the ants started forming words in front of me again.
[Colony ? kill not ant kill Yuwniht Vaozey,] they spelled out. I wasn’t entirely sure of the full intent of the message, but the tone was clear enough just from their body language.
[We do not know how to kill an entire colony,] I replied. [We can, however, kill many ants.]
[? how many,] the ants asked.
[Likely tens of thousands or more in a short time,] I responded. Again, the ants seemed to be startled, but then they began to part in front of me.
[Follow ground open,] they commanded.
“What’s going on now?” Vaozey asked.
“They’re showing us the battlefront, I think,” I replied. “Let’s go.”
----------------------------------------
Once we rounded the corner, the visible terrain in the chasm changed dramatically. The igneous rock we were standing on gave way to densely packed sediment and dirt. It was still quite desolate compared to any terrain that had any kind of plant life, but it was loose enough that the ants had clearly been digging into it, leaving pockmarked holes along the walls. As we walked, the ants flowed in behind us, keeping us from backtracking. Though it was probably just to ensure we were moving in the right direction, I couldn’t help but feel as though we were potentially stepping into a trap, and Vaozey clearly had the same idea. The constant low sound of hissing and clicking didn’t help either.
The battle line wasn’t obvious upon initial inspection because of the sheer amount of insects in the area, but once I managed to identify one section of it it was easy to trace it along the floor and walls. Two opposing flows of insect flesh, one coming from behind us and the other from in front, were clashing against each other along an ever-shifting border in which brutal spurts of miniature violence were taking place. The sameant colony wouldn’t allow us to get too close, but even from a few steps back I could see ants ripping each other’s heads and legs off, then being butchered in turn, the corpses being collected and carried away for presumed reprocessing.
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It’s like watching two armies of melee drones fighting each other, I thought, In fact, it’s almost exactly the biological equivalent of that. Brightening my light orb, I tried to see if any end to the enemy colony was visible, but there was nothing in sight.
“Look at them all,” Vaozey shivered. “It was bad enough when they were just on the walls.”
“If the information the colony gave me is accurate, the enemy stretches all the way to the end of this section,” I replied, pointing for reference.
“How are we supposed to kill them all?” Vaozey asked. “There’s no way, right?” A bundle of ants to my left started to shiver and spread out, then some words formed on the wall.
[Battle see Vaozey Yuwniht ?] the ants asked. I wasn’t sure how to respond since I didn’t have any mud.
“Can you understand human speech?” I asked. I half expected the ants to reply with a word, but it seemed that even if they heard me, they didn’t know what I said. The clear section of the wall was rough sediment, so I used my finger to crudely scratch “Yes” into the stone. The ants swarmed it, apparently understanding, then covered the stone in a thin layer of dirt before forming another set of words.
[Kill ? Otherant capable,] they asked. Vaozey watched over my shoulder as I went through the translation process, looking at the glowing words I formed.
“They must be seytoydh insane if they think just two of us can kill all those,” she replied. “Is this the queen demanding that we do this? Is she stupid or something? Maybe she should get her ass out here and take a look herself.”
“Earlier, they wanted us to become ‘slaughtermen’ to kill them,” I recalled. “I’m not sure what that means, and I never got an explanation for it. Let me ask again, maybe they know something.” Putting my finger into the thin dirt, I scratched out [What is a slaughterman?]
[Fleshman Yuwniht stoneman Vaozey man --- woodman magic --- slaughterman,] the ants replied, using two new symbols that I didn’t recognize. One of them looked like two concentric circles with a connecting line along the top, and the other was some kind of animated representation of the ant figure turning into a circle and then dispersing.
“What were those other two words?” Vaozey asked.
“Ant words, I think,” I replied. “The second one was probably some kind of word for death, but the first one was very abstract. I’m not sure what it could mean.” Turning back to the wall, I wrote out a different question. [What does a slaughterman do, specifically?] The response from the ants was so quick, and contained so many ant words, that I couldn’t follow it. [Slower and simpler, please,] I requested.
[Touch colony slaughterman bad hurt,] the ants wrote out. After waiting a few seconds, they then followed up with [
[Is a slaughterman poisonous?] I asked.
[No,] the ants replied, but they didn’t elaborate. So then it’s probably- I started to think.
“This is getting us nowhere,” Vaozey spat, stepping up and writing her own message on the wall. [If we kill their queen, will you be happy?]
[Acceptable kill queen trade,] the ants replied, and I translated for Vaozey.
“Good,” she said, “let’s just get this over with.” She moved to start walking into the battlefield, waterskin of oil in hand, but the ants refused to part for her. “I will step on you if you don’t move,” she growled.
[Why are you stopping us?] I asked.
[Vaozey fleshman stoneman not,] the ants replied.
[Vaozey is a fleshman now?] I asked for clarification.
[Yes,] the ants confirmed. What does that mean? I wondered, trying to picture the situation from the ants’ perspective.
“Vaozey, when was the last time you put repellent on?” I asked.
“Last night,” she replied.
“But it rained,” I said. “Put more on, just in case.” Vaozey looked at me for a moment, then shrugged and poured the repellent oil over her head. Some drops hit the ground, and the ants of the sameant colony nearest to the impact points looked confused, forming small spirals before finding their way again.
[Is Vaozey a stoneman now?] I asked.
[Vaozey stoneman,] the ants confirmed, and everything began to make sense. They sense primarily through smell and touch, I thought again. The repellent must mask the scent of things to them, and they perceive it as having the same scent as stone, hence ‘stoneman’. Fleshman is probably humans who aren’t wearing repellent, and that just leaves woodman and slaughterman. Presuming that woodman is the Rehvites, since they use a different formula, only slaughterman is left as an unknown. More than likely, it’s referring to humans using magic to kill any ants that touch them.
[Please allow us through,] I wrote. [Do you know where the enemy queen is?]
[No,] the ants replied.
[We will find it then,] I wrote, then I walked up to Vaozey and watched as the ants cleared a path, stopping just before the front.
“Don’t use the oil right away,” I told Vaozey. “It doesn’t know where the queen is, but it’s probably near the back. Use heat magic on your feet to keep them from crawling on you, we’re looking for entrances and exits to their nest.”
“Okay,” Vaozey nodded. “Let’s go.”
----------------------------------------
For such a straightforward task, crossing the battlefield of ants turned out to be quite difficult. The first few steps past the battle line were easy, the repellent making us into ‘stonemen’ dulled the senses of the enemy colony enough that they probably didn’t even realize what was happening. However, about three meters into the fifty-meter journey, things began to get complicated when the ants presumably figured out what our objective was.
Their first attempts at stopping us were to layer themselves along the ground so thick that they could reach to our knees, probably trying to get past the burning layers around our feet in order to begin attacking. For me, it was trivial to repel, but the technique slowed Vaozey as she struggled to keep her magic in the right shape without burning herself. Still, it didn’t stop either of us, so the ants eventually changed to a different tactic once we were ten meters in: jumping.
Using the walls to gain a height advantage, the ants would attempt to leap onto our faces and arms. At first, it was just a few, but then they began to grow as numerous as raindrops. Vaozey cursed as she tried to shield herself from them, and even I ended up letting some through my heat magic before switching to force magic shields to repel them. It was energy-intensive, but not as much as blocking attacks with weapons since the ants had a much lower mass overall. I ordered Vaozey to take a few steps back and pressed onward myself, hoping to scout out where the nest was so we could retreat and formulate a rapid-strike plan.
After having stared at the churning “sameant” colony for so long, the waves and patterns along the surface of the “otherant” colony had started to become readable to me. The ants moved in patterns, generally trying to reach their destinations in the shortest amount of time possible while also crossing the least amount of other paths possible. At small scales, the behavior probably resulted in simple, straight lines, but at the densities I was observing it created something more akin to large puddles of water flowing in two directions at once, occasionally crossing each other.
There, I thought, spotting a location where most of the nearby pools seemed to be moving either away from or towards through the hail of insect bodies falling around me. Sure enough, when I reached the spot, there was a hole about three centimeters in diameter in the rock where hundreds of ants were entering or exiting every second. Wrapping my finger in intense heat magic, I shoved it inside, probing to try to determine the internal structure of the nest. The one in the woods had plenty of wide-open spaces, I thought, If this one is the same, I might be able to just punch through this sandstone.
Sure enough, it seemed that around two centimeters into the rock the hole opened up wider, probably indicating a chamber. I wasn’t nearly far enough down the tunnel for the chamber to contain the queen, assuming the nest was laid out sanely, but breaking into it would at least let me see what kind of resistance I could expect inside. Drawing my hand back and calling upon my force magic, I threw a powerful blow into the stone, breaking both it and my knuckles with a loud crack. My hand was fixed in moments, but the nest wasn’t so lucky, and a circular section of wall nearly thirty centimeters in diameter snapped apart and fell inward.
The ruptured chamber didn’t contain many ants besides a stream of fighters coming from deeper inside, and those that weren’t part of that stream also had a different appearance than the fighters. Instead of being small and dark, they appeared paler, were around twice the size, had larger jaws, and didn’t appear to have any eyes. None of the larger ants reacted to the chamber being ruptured, apparently unbothered as they continued to tend to slime molds they looked to be cultivating along the chamber’s walls. Only when the fighters rushed over to them did they start to flee, and some still remained, standing in place and wiggling their antennae.
“Found the queen?” Vaozey grunted, trudging her way up to me.
“No,” I replied. “It looks like the nests are pretty close to the surface though, you could use your mace to break into them.”
“Good,” Vaozey growled, pulling her weapon from her belt.
“Not here,” I warned. “Let me scout out the end of the chasm first, then we can-” As I was speaking, the rain of ants coming from above began to get lighter and lighter, eventually stopping entirely. The sound of hissing and clicking faded as well, and most of the ants near the hole in the wall stopped moving. Instead of the normal flurry of chaos, ants began flowing into the hole, approaching the eyeless drones, then vanishing somehow. Not vanishing, I realized, the eyeless drones are consuming them.
I watched in fascination as hundreds of tiny fighter drones were somehow liquefied and ingested by the larger tender drones, who began to inflate like balloons. Their chitin, or perhaps it was actually skin, started to stretch to the point of transparency around their abdomens, and in just a few seconds there were three five-centimeter diameter globes of crystal clear liquid sitting inside the ruptured nest. Then, several of the eyeless drones that hadn’t been inflated gathered around the ones that had, apparently using their liquid-filled peers as some kind of cover.
“What the seyt,” Vaozey swore. Somehow, all the information in front of me clicked at that exact moment, and I realized what was going on.
“Duck, now!” I yelled, and three loud cracks erupted from inside the nest. I managed to get my head down in time, but Vaozey was too slow. Luckily, the ants’ poor spatial skills meant their aim wasn’t very good either, so the suspended ball of acid didn’t strike her in the face, instead impacting much lower on her right elbow. Vaozey was stunned for a moment, but then her eyes went wide, and she started to choke back a scream, dropping her mace to the ground. “Don’t grab it!” I yelled, pulling her hand away from the impact site before it could close.
“More-” Vaozey gurgled, looking into the nest again, and I grabbed her by the left arm and began pulling her back towards the safe end of the battlefield. They can’t see well, so they won’t be able to make any shots at a distance, I thought.
“We’re retreating for now,” I said. “Focus your healing magic on that wound like you would if you were re-attaching a limb, or else you’ll be missing an arm pretty soon. You’ve been hit with a powerful acid. Don’t touch anything with it, and try to prevent it from getting on your clothing. As soon as we’re safe, I’ll figure out a way to neutralize it.”
“Mace-” Vaozey grunted.
“We can get it later,” I replied. “I need to talk to our ‘ally’ again before we end up getting ourselves killed due to lack of intel.”