“How could something like this happen?”
“Is a war like this even possible?”
The sight before them was shocking enough on its own, but the details within it made their skin crawl even more.
Amidst the faint screams and roars carried by the wind, the scouting squad captain stared wide-eyed at the distant battlefield, his entire body frozen in place.
‘Is it a tactic of using earth spells to instantly cut off the path, then concentrating fire to bombard them?’
At the front of the battlefield, a massive trench several meters wide and deep had been excavated.
This was one of the earth spells the beastkin tribes favored most during their civil wars to instantly cut off enemy mobility.
Clearly, they wanted to use this trench to block the ant colony, which was charging like chariots with the mutated soldier ants as the vanguard.
“Ignore the ones charging over! Shoot the ants forming the bridge first!”
But the ant colony's response completely exceeded their expectations.
Facing this tear in the earth, a portion of the ants actually bit onto each other's legs, forming a living bridge to cross directly over the trench.
Dozens of such bridges formed in an instant. The other ants trampled over the bodies of their kin to cross the trench, lunging toward the beastkin who were firing arrows and hurling spears.
The beastkin tried to set them ablaze with fire arrows, but the ant colony was already well-accustomed to fire attacks; they sprayed bodily fluids and venom, extinguishing the flames in an instant.
‘How can they execute this so flawlessly?’
This sequence of military maneuvers was so fluid it made one's scalp tingle.
In their understanding, this ant colony that had appeared on the plains had not been born for very long.
Yet the tactical maneuvers they displayed at this moment were like those of veterans of a hundred battles, without a single flaw.
“Captain, look over there! It looks like they're sending cavalry to flank them and launch a sneak attack on their side!”
Just then, a scout pointed toward one side of the battlefield.
A squad of wolf riders, along with shamans riding floating earthstones, were bypassing the frontal battlefield and charging toward the core territory of the ant colony.
“Found it! That's the one! That's the Queen Ant!”
Gobad, driven to anxiety by the ant colony's terrifying combat strength, finally spotted the Queen Ant in the center of the colony and roared with excitement.
Even amidst such intense combat, the Queen Ant, surrounded by worker ants, continued to lay eggs without pause.
“If we just kill her, everything will be over!”
There was no basis for this, but Gobad firmly believed that as long as they killed the Queen Ant, everything would end.
If he did not believe this, he would have to face a grim reality: before long, his forces would completely collapse, ending in a crushing defeat.
“We must kill her!”
Thus, even though he knew that a single misstep in this move would lead to eternal damnation, Gobad still made up his mind. He would deploy his treasured personal guard to assassinate the Queen Ant.
With the main force fully committed to the frontal battlefield, he felt this might be their only chance.
【The servants have long been fully prepared for this situation】
But the Queen Ant had not left herself defenseless by withdrawing her guards.
The moment the beastkin mobile unit drew near, a massive number of ants instantly surged from hidden tunnels pre-dug in the ground, lunging at them.
“Oh, my God.”
Watching this unfold, the scouting squad captain could not help but sigh.
The ambushers rushing out of the tunnels all possessed extremely unique appearances.
These mutated species possessed speed that rivaled that of the wolf riders charging at full speed, swinging the pair of massive scythe-like legs on their backs toward the panicked enemies.
Armor was torn apart along with flesh; bodies were sliced directly in half, and heads were cleaved in two.
After a single round of ambush, only a tiny fraction of the beastkin survived by luck, falling into utter panic and at a complete loss.
These mutated species brought a shock to all the beastkin present that was no less intense than that of the hornet ants before.
【The servants have launched a relentless pursuit of the routed and fleeing enemy forces】
“Just how many have died...”
Lin Miao muttered to himself, dazed as he looked at the mountain of corpses.
As far as the eye could see, there were only corpses.
The corpses of beastkin and ants were piled high together.
Yet, this was the very way of survival for the ant colony. As long as it was necessary, they never feared death.
“Run!”
“It's over! We can't block those things at all!”
The plan to assassinate the Queen Ant had completely failed. Facing the general offensive of the seemingly endless, unkillable ant colony, Gobad's beastkin forces finally broke.
For the beastkin fighting the ant colony for the first time, their mechanically precise movements and relentless obsession were the ultimate source of terror.
And as fear began to spread, their defensive line instantly collapsed.
In the end, at the cost of significant casualties, the ant colony won the war.
Next, all they had to do was devour all the spoils left behind by this war.
Whether it was the hunted corpses of the enemy or the remains of their fallen kin, to the ant colony, they were all nutrients that had to be devoured.
【The servants have sensed gazes coming from the south】
“Retreat, quickly! Report everything that happened here!”
Of course, after the battle ended, there was still a scouting squad that had witnessed the entire tragedy—beastkin scouts belonging to Uria's faction.
The ant colony had already sensed their presence, but at this moment, they simply had no spare energy to pursue them.
‘We must make it back alive to tell our clansmen everything. If we rashly go to war without understanding these monsters, our end will be exactly the same as theirs.’
The scouting squad captain grit his teeth and rode his mount at breakneck speed, desperate to escape.
In truth, he had already completed his mission just by illuminating the battlefield's field of vision for his deity, but the information a deity could transmit was ultimately limited.
‘Report it if you want.’
Lin Miao sighed as he watched their fleeing figures.
Without a doubt, the southwestern beastkin forces who had witnessed this battle with their own eyes would surely grow stronger.
But now, he was incomparably certain of one thing.
No matter how much others studied the ant colony or learned how to deal with them, they would never be able to catch up with the speed of the colony's evolution and mutation.
【Territory and notoriety expanded; deity level increased】
【Low-Tier Deity, Grade III → Low-Tier Deity, Grade IV】
【Partial restricted functions unlocked】
His deity level had risen once again.
Looking at the prompt window floating before him, a crimson glow flickered once more deep within Lin Miao's pupils.
【The Second Queen Ant has completed a new round of evolution】
And this was not the end. Just as Lin Miao was growing, the ant colony was growing along with him.
Even before the battlefield cleanup was fully completed, the migratory colony's Queen Ant, who was frantically devouring prey, had already finished molting, emerging from her cocoon in a brand-new form.
Rate on N.U.
