The Great Battle, Part Two
The Earth-Yellow Ant lack large combat units, putting them at a significant disadvantage in close combat. While the larger ants may be ineffective in one-on-one situations, their swarming efficiency is still quite astonishing.
Moreover, the hooked mandibles of the Earth-Yellow Ant are not very effective in combat. The hooked mandible Soldier Ant used to be one of the three major Soldier Ant in the Swarm, but they were gradually eliminated in the course of continuous combat and now only a very small number remain.
This shows that the Soldier Ant of the Swarm still have a certain advantage in close combat.
Behind the line of Earth-Yellow Ant, many Worker Ant struck a familiar pose, launching "Formic Acid Solution".
This tactic initially caused Rowan considerable trouble, but he subsequently developed Acid-Resistant Armor and equipped the entire army with it.
Thus, this round of long-range firepower merely gave both sides a quick wash and a gleaming polish, but otherwise served no purpose.
At this moment, some giant beetles crawled out from behind the swarm of Swarm. They were all between thirty and fifty centimeters long, and they also stuck out their rear ends and struck a pose.
As thick smoke rose, like shotgun fire, splattering liquid into the ranks of the Earth-Yellow Ant. This liquid was not only incredibly corrosive but also extremely hot, making it incredibly lethal.
In an instant, a swarm of Earth-Yellow Ant. Many more were burned and scalded. Although they had no sense of pain, they still had some nerve responses. At this moment, many of them curled up and trembled, clearly unable to continue fighting.
Rowan was very satisfied with the results. These specially manufactured combat weapons did not disappoint him; the first battle after leaving the factory yielded amazing results.
Rowan originally intended to equip Worker Ant with this system, similar to spraying Formic Acid Solution. However, during actual operation, he discovered that this new long-range strike system was not suitable for the ants' body structure.
This system consists of two glands, each secreting and storing two different chemical substances. Below the glands is a chemical reaction chamber.
Two chemical substances react here. The muscles that make up the chemical reaction chamber can precisely control the dosage of the two chemical substances and spray them out the instant they react.
When they fuse, they generate temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Celsius and strong corrosiveness, causing both burns and corrosion to the opponent.
The only side effect is that when it is sprayed, it also produces white smoke and a foul odor that lingers for up to ten days.
Don't ask how Rowan knew such details; those are things he didn't want to recall.
Because this system will include several new types of organs, it requires a fairly large chamber to store them, which is not suitable for the small size of Worker Ant.
Therefore, Rowan simply used their original templates and added several gene fragments, scaling them up proportionally to enhance their firepower and ammunition capacity.
Furthermore, to prevent these chemicals from harming themselves, the original template was equipped with an armor system to resist the high temperature and corrosion. Now, Rowan has extracted this gene fragment separately and loaded it into the Soldier Ant.
However, since the old queen Ant Queen did not have this gene fragment, and the Swarm already contained many old soldier Soldier Ant, only 70% of the assembled Soldier Ant were equipped with this new type of armor.
However, this doesn't affect anything. Soldier Ant without the new armor have been grouped into separate squads, and they go into battle without ranged fire support.
However, due to certain side effects of this long-range firepower, even armored teams will try to avoid the Farting Bug when providing fire support. Otherwise, even if they survive the battle, Rowan will exile them to a place 800 miles away for at least half a month.
Although both sides have hundreds of billions of troops in reserve, since the war has just started and the front line is only a little over 200 meters long, the actual number of troops directly involved in the fighting is only tens of millions.
The revamped version of the Swarm, the Farting Bug, is an enlarged version with a larger ammunition reserve, capable of firing more than two hundred times in a row, and each shell is a shotgun shell.
Hundreds of Farting Bug unleashed a barrage of fire, creating an effect reminiscent of a Vulcan Gatling, albeit with blue flames.
The Gatling gun is characterized by its extremely high rate of fire, and the "Farting Bug" was no less efficient; it fired over two hundred rounds in less than a minute before shutting down.
These big guys are very precious. They take a long time to develop, not only undergoing complete metamorphosis but also molting once during the process to grow to their current size.
Therefore, they naturally wouldn't engage in melee combat. After firing all their ammunition, they would retreat to the rear to reload. This retreat would likely mean they wouldn't be able to return to the battlefield for two or three days, as their ammunition magazines were also enlarged and required more time to reload.
Because the Farting Bug have a relatively singular function, Rowan only produced tens of thousands of them in total, so each one had to be used to its fullest potential.
The Farting Bug are grouped into squads of five hundred. Whenever the density of Earth-Yellow Ant in a certain area exceeds a certain level, Rowan will mobilize a squad to launch a long-range attack and suppression on that area, striving to maximize the damage.
As the battle dragged on, the battlefield area gradually increased, and more and more insects entered the fray.
One hundred million, two hundred million, three hundred million, five hundred million, one billion...
Five hours later, the scale of the war had escalated to two billion.
The Swarm pressed against the Cliff, while reinforcements continuously climbed up the Cliff to join the battle. The battle lines gradually stretched to both sides, and under the deliberate guidance of the Swarm, the battlefield extending eastward gradually reached above the lake.
At this time, some dark yellow, Meat-Pancake Bug -shaped insects entered the battlefield.
These insects are a new species that Rowan discovered in some Ant Nest a few days ago. These insects are very interesting; you could say their defense is maxed out. They have an oval-shaped Meat-Pancake Bug on their backs, made of a material similar to cowhide, which can effectively resist physical attacks such as cutting and piercing. At the same time, they also have quite good magical resistance to corrosion and acid.
At the bottom of the "Meat-Pancake Bug" is a depression where the insect's body is hidden.
Because of this depression, the insect's base is very low; when it crawls, there is only a gap of one or two millimeters between the "Meat-Pancake Bug" and the ground.
At such a height, almost no ants can squeeze in. Moreover, even if those tiny ants, which are only a few millimeters long, manage to get inside, they are no match for this insect.
At the same time, because of its size and weight, the ants were unable to flip it over completely.
Therefore, its survival strategy is to rely on its invincible defense to force its way into the Ant Nest from the front, and then live off the ants while they do nothing to it.
It's fair to say they're incredibly reckless; compared to the Spy Bug of the past, their methods are utterly devoid of any technical sophistication.