Rowan had been deeply impressed by the ants in the desert: their hook-shaped mandibles, their catapult starts, and their Fecal Spray Attack. He still thought about them from time to time.
Whenever he did, he ground his teeth and cursed his bad luck. The storm had swept him away, and he had no idea where he was now or whether he could ever return to his old home and avenge the time they had nearly torn him open.
He never expected that fate would bring him together with their kin, even in this strange land. Now he could collect a little interest in advance.
He was no longer what he had once been. His body had grown enormously, and his armor was tough. He would start by practicing Rowan's Combat Technique on these accomplices of the original culprits and give them a taste of his strength.
These Earth-Yellow Ants were about the same size he had been when he was no bigger than a fingernail. Now, he had grown to about the size of a small egg.
He rushed toward the nearest Earth-Yellow Ant. He had already counted them on the way: there were seven in all, advancing toward him in a tight formation.
He wasted no time and opened with the first move of Rowan's Combat Technique.
As the enormous Digging Leg came crashing down, the Earth-Yellow Ant's tiny eyes—already ridiculous atop its round head—stared blankly. Its antennae, like long eyebrows, made it look even more comical.
Rowan wasn't about to go easy on it just because it looked cute. As soon as his Digging Leg hit its target, he followed up with the second move. His mandibles were small, but only in proportion to his own body. Compared with the Earth-Yellow Ant, they were like two enormous guillotine blades.
Against an opponent of similar size, the second move targeted its limbs, crippling its ability to move. Then he would use his agility to wear it down.
But this opponent was far smaller than he was. There was no need for any fancy moves. He simply clamped his mandibles around its waist and chest and squeezed. The Earth-Yellow Ant, still wearing its cute, vacant expression, was split in two.
Before its kin could react, Rowan had already done the same to three more Earth-Yellow Ants. The three remaining ants finally came to their senses. They raised their chests and waists and thrust their abdomens forward—their signature move, the Fecal Spray Attack.
Seeing the familiar motion, Rowan didn't panic. He simply covered his eyes with his two enormous Digging Legs and let them spray Formic Acid Solution all over him. Wisps of white smoke rose from his armor.
After being hit by this attack last time, his acid resistance had improved enormously. The Formic Acid Solution could no longer harm him.
Sure enough, when the smoke cleared, his armor was as smooth as ever. Not only was it unharmed, it looked as if it had been polished to a brilliant shine.
With a flash of movement, he bit another Earth-Yellow Ant in half. The two remaining ants saw that their ranged attack was useless. They made a Catapult Start and hooked at him with their hook-shaped mandibles.
To be honest, those hooked mandibles worked well against opponents of similar size. They could latch on and keep their prey from escaping. Rowan had suffered terribly from them back then, and had barely gotten away by abandoning three segments of his abdomen.
But against an opponent several times their size—especially one like Rowan, whose body was mostly protected by smooth chitin armor—they couldn't find a hold, much less lock him in place.
His Digging Leg slammed down, crushing the ridiculous round head of an Earth-Yellow Ant that had been gnashing its mandibles beside him. Its fluids spilled everywhere.
He wiped the Digging Leg on the ground to clean off the disgusting splatter. Then Rowan suddenly whipped his head around, clamped his mandibles onto the last Earth-Yellow Ant, and crushed it.
He couldn't help reflecting that, although he had been digging all this time, he was now far stronger than when he had first been born. Back then, when he encountered Earth-Yellow Ants, he had turned and fled without even fighting them, yet he had still nearly died.
Now, none of the seven Earth-Yellow Ants had lasted more than two moves against him.
After a quick cleanup, he swallowed all seven Earth-Yellow Ants. He had coveted their gene fragments for a long time, but now the only one he wanted was Catapult Start.
As his body grew larger, his agility inevitably suffered. Catapult Start would make him more nimble in close-quarters fights.
As for the hook-shaped mandibles and Fecal Spray Attack, the former was too limited. He hadn't even wanted the Black Armored "War God"'s giant mandibles, much less these hooked ones. And despite the name, the latter actually sprayed a mixture of formic acid.
The Mother Nest had fallen off, leaving him with very little ant DNA. The small amount of formic acid he had left was mixed into his saliva, so he had none to spare for such an extravagant spray attack. The ability was nearly useless to him.
Still, these ants could be used to breed a new kind of ant. Earth-Yellow Ants were far stronger in combat than Black Ants. Even without adding any other gene fragments, hatching Insect Eggs using nothing but the Earth-Yellow Ants' own genetic template could increase the Insect Nest's combat strength by several dozen percent in the future.
But where had these creatures come from? This place was quite a distance from the desert. For ants, two or three hundred meters was practically an impassable chasm.
Could there be a colony of Earth-Yellow Ants nearby?
After checking the sky, Rowan decided that starting tomorrow, he would focus his search in the direction the Earth-Yellow Ants had come from.
These yellowish-brown ants were extremely aggressive. He wasn't afraid of them, but if they kept exploring in this direction, they would pose a major threat to the Insect Nest and the three Ant Nests.
Rowan felt that life was finally treating him well and that he was almost through the hard part. He didn't want these intruders ruining the peaceful situation.
He found a nearby tender branch and drank some sap, then took a piece back for Big Black. With the Insect Nest's current defenses, Big Black's role was almost unnecessary. But the Mother Nest had nearly worn itself out hatching him, so Rowan might as well keep him as a pet.
When he returned to the Insect Nest, he checked that both the Transport Team and the Excavation Team had come back. Ever since a Transport Team had gone missing and he hadn't noticed until the next day, Rowan had made a habit of counting the insects before he went to sleep each day.
Still, it was only a rough headcount. The insects didn't line up to be counted; they scurried all over the place. And Rowan wasn't very good at telling them apart, so there was no way he could count them precisely.
But if dozens of insects went missing, it would be obvious. If only a few were gone, he probably wouldn't notice.
Nothing was wrong at the Insect Nest, so Rowan went to sleep with peace of mind.
When he woke again, it was because something had disturbed him. A dense series of vibrations came from the surface, filling him with a strong sense of danger. The situation felt familiar. The last time he had been woken from sleep, a sandstorm had been raging aboveground. Back then, too, he had woken to dense vibrations and a sense of danger.
But he was no longer in the desert, so a sandstorm was unlikely. And the danger he sensed from these vibrations was far worse than last time.
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