The Great Decisive Battle, Part Four
The battlefield was littered with the remains of insects, piled up like mountains, a mixture of yellowish-brown and black, something that had been fought over by both sides and had not been cleared away for a long time.
A fierce battle was still raging on Insect Mountain. From a distance, all that could be seen were various kinds of insects, living and dead, indistinguishable from one another.
The eighteenth day of the battle between the two sides.
The Soldier Ant of the Earth-Yellow Ant are almost nowhere to be seen on the battlefield, and the Swarm's Soldier Ant have long been wiped out. These days, they are struggling to survive with tens of millions of new Soldier Ant reinforcements every day and a large number of Worker Ant.
Once the enemy also loses its Soldier Ant, the advantage of the Swarm gaining tens of millions of Soldier Ant every day gradually becomes apparent.
The main fighting force of the Earth-Yellow Ant and the Swarm, starting with Soldier Ant versus Soldier Ant.
The evolution progressed to Soldier Ant versus Soldier Ant plus Worker Ant.
Then comes the difference between Soldier Ant + Worker Ant versus Worker Ant + a small number of Soldier Ant.
Up to the present day, Worker Ant versus Worker Ant + Soldier Ant.
Furthermore, as the war continued, the number of Soldier Ant in the Swarm actually increased.
The Swarm's powerful logistical and endurance capabilities were fully demonstrated at this moment.
Three days later, the once seemingly endless army of Earth-Yellow Ant could now be seen to have a visible edge; victory was within reach.
This greatly excited Rowan.
Rowan's will is the will of the Swarm; Rowan's mobilization of himself is mobilizing the Swarm for war.
The Swarm, energized and aided by the reloaded Farting Bug, intensified their counterattack.
Meanwhile, Rowan conscripted all the Transport Bug near the front lines to join the battle.
This war has gone on long enough; it's time to end it.
Under the Swarm's all-out attack, the war lasted for two full days, finally ending in a decisive victory for the Swarm.
The devastating Earth-Yellow Scourge that ravaged the desert have been completely eradicated.
Post-war statistics show that the battle lasted a full twenty-three days.
On this meat grinder-like battlefield, the number of combat units lost on both sides is incalculable. But Rowan knows that the initial 50 billion troops assembled by the Swarm have been almost entirely wiped out. The large number of Worker Ant subsequently deployed have also been almost entirely wiped out. Including the Soldier Ant that have been continuously replenished, the Swarm's losses are close to 90 billion units.
It can be said that the war wiped out nearly 90% of the Swarm population, leaving many bases abandoned due to lack of maintenance.
However, the Ant Queen of the Swarm suffered no losses.
Looking at the ten-kilometer-long mountain of corpses, with an average height of over ten meters, the Swarm will become even stronger once the Ant Queen have digested these spoils.
Meanwhile, the desert above the Cliff will also become the Swarm's backyard. What was originally the hunting ground of the Earth-Yellow Ant will become the Swarm's territory.
This is a vast territory that would take more than four hundred days to roam, at least a hundred times the size of the Swarm's original territory. Rowan couldn't even imagine how big it was.
Back then, he had just hatched when he encountered the Earth-Yellow Ant, and was then swept away by a sandstorm, drifting for who knows how far. After landing, he traveled along the underground river for so long, still unable to leave this hunting ground. These experiences also illustrate how vast this territory is.
Moreover, although this territory looks like a desert, it must be something else entirely, otherwise it would be impossible to support such a huge army of Earth-Yellow Ant.
It's important to understand that their losses in this war were definitely greater than those of the Swarm, amounting to at least hundreds of billions.
Besides territory and insect remains, Rowan also gained some other things.
The Earth-Yellow Ant fought to the very end, and in the very center of their ranks, the Swarm discovered thousands of Ant Queen.
They hunt and replenish their food along with the army, and when they have accumulated enough, they will stay in one place for a period of time. They will lay a large number of Insect Egg at once, and after these Insect Eggs have matured, the army will continue its journey.
These Ant Queen genes will further enhance the productivity of the Swarm Ant Queen. The Swarm now has a large amount of food waiting to be consumed, so there is no need to spend time accumulating it.
Besides these, there is another kind of insect, or perhaps some kind of livestock, hidden among the Earth-Yellow Ant. They are about 20 centimeters long and look like a giant version of some kind of insect larva. They are rare insects that grow to such a size without an exoskeleton.
Their defining characteristic is their high appetite and rapid growth; they have an exceptionally high energy conversion rate. Eating ten portions of food can result in gaining nine portions of weight.
When the Earth-Yellow Ant have collected too much food, they will feed the excess food to these insects. Conversely, when the Earth-Yellow Ant have scarce food, they will eat them.
A rather unfortunate insect, however, its characteristics seem to be of no use to the Swarm for the time being. Therefore, there seems to be no need for it to be produced.
With the great battle over, the grudges accumulated since his birth were finally resolved, and Rowan felt quite relieved and happy. It was a pity that the kind of revenge and enlightenment that happens in novels didn't happen, which was quite regrettable.
After more than twenty days of fierce fighting, Rowan was exhausted, even though he hadn't directly participated in the battle.
After making some arrangements for the aftermath, he found a random spot at the foot of the Cliff and fell asleep.
This area, which was originally on the front lines of the war, is now the heart of the Swarm territory.
Therefore, Rowan slept with exceptional peace of mind.
When Rowan woke up again, he didn't know how many days had passed.
He's probably the only one here who understands the concept of time.
Half of the insect skeleton mountain range on the Cliff has disappeared, and these spoils have been transported to the vicinity of the basic troop production base for burial.
The Ant Queen at the mass production base and other Branch Base have received a new order from Rowan before he went to sleep: stop producing Soldier Ant and begin producing Worker Ant at full capacity.
The Swarm currently has two to three hundred million Soldier Ant, which is sufficient to defend the existing territory if no further exploration is undertaken. Therefore, the main task now is to replenish the Worker Ant and restore the normal operation of each base.
Upon returning to the Mother Nest, it reconnects to the Mother Nest, uploads new gene fragments, and updates the Ant Queen's gene pool.
Then, the production order for the Ant Queen was cancelled, and then the process of hatching the new queen Ant Queen was restarted.
During this operation, Rowan also discovered an unexpected surprise.
The genes of the worms, which were initially thought to be useless, have unexpectedly accelerated the worms' nutrient absorption and shortened their development time.
Although they still go through the stages of Insect Egg -larva-pupa-adult, they can shorten their growth cycle by one-third.
In other words, insects that originally took thirty days to mature can now be ready for market and start working in just twenty days.
I didn't expect that a weakness in the Swarm discovered on the battlefield could be resolved so quickly. Although it still doesn't meet Rowan's expectations, it's a big step forward.
Meanwhile, during this connection with the Mother Nest, Rowan also received some vague information, a message about an opportunity.