Antelligent Design

83. The First Ambush, Part 2

As the waves of monsters begin to rush in and attack the pesky ants who are tormenting them from the low hills, Tiny burst out of his hiding place, crackling with electricity. He’d been hiding much closer to the horde than I was, and it had taken some extremely direct and detailed instructions before I was prepared to allow him to get that close to the enemy.

The plan depended on him not hurling himself into the midst of a horde of tens of thousands of monsters, as I’m sure he would be delighted to do. Speaking of the plan, I need to do my bit!

My sub-brains put the time I was firing acid to good use, and I apply the finishing touches on the basic Water Affinity Transformation Construct and turn back around, already pumping out Water Mana which I weave into a non-compressed Water Cannon.

From just in front of my mandibles, a fire hose-like jet of water fills the air with fine spray. At the range I’m at, still a good thirty metres away from the first monsters, the non-compressed Water Cannon isn’t going to do any damage. At best, I might knock a few monsters off their feet. But that isn’t the point.

As the water begins to fall on the charging enemies, Tiny bellows his challenge and thrusts his meaty hands, unleashing his lightning. The enemy, now covered in a coating of fine mist, proves to be delightfully conductive. And when Tiny releases twin bolts of pure lightning into them, they are instantaneously fried.

And we aren’t done. From my raised vantage point, I spy a few patches of darkening shadow between the heaving masses of low-Level monsters. It’s time for Crinis to begin her dark work. As Tiny continues to roar and discharge ridiculous amounts of electricity, electrocuting huge numbers of monsters, dark tentacles begin to emerge from the ground, slowly at first, then with growing speed.

Several are suddenly wrapped by dark limbs as thick as a human arm. Then the tentacles flex, shift, and allow their barbs to go about their grisly business. Only moments after she grasps her first victims, a rain of gore and Biomass begins as she dismembers the monsters and her tentacles grasp for new targets even as more of the dreaded limbs begin to rise from the dark ground.

Crinis is currently positioned in a very small and narrow tunnel that has led her directly beneath the enemy, five metres below ground. With the aid of her Shadow Magic and Shadow Eye, she can extend her Mana Sense through the shadows and ‘see’ her targets clear as day. The end result is the disturbing carnage before me.

With my two pets working on separate areas near the front of the horde, the charge that had been building in momentum has been stalled, but not for long. The scouts and surrounding soldiers continue to pour out acid as fast as they can, and most have run out of juice. The battle has only been going for a minute, but it’s nearly time to stage the retreat.

Just as I was thinking that, Tiny runs out of lightning, the electricity pouring out of him flickering and dying off, causing him to roar with frustration and rage. He wants to fight, I get it, but he’s under the strictest instructions for this engagement.

Once he runs out of juice, he has to retreat through the tunnel he emerged from. Clearly unhappy, Tiny does just that and I release a knot of tension in my gut. I’ve done everything I can to ensure he doesn’t stuff things up by throwing his life away, but Tiny has a way of making things difficult. I’m uncertain I’ve done enough until I see him vanish out of sight beneath the ground.

Crinis continues her butchery unabated, as twenty tentacles grasp and tear through monsters who appear to be thoroughly intimidated. I guess her fear inspiration Skills are paying dividends since it doesn’t appear that anybody wants to try and take a swing at her.

With Tiny retreating, the rest of the ants do the same, vanishing into their tunnels and leaving no trace of the hundreds-strong raiding force that battered the horde from range only moments ago.

With the ants gone, Crinis’ limbs retract beneath the earth, slapping a few monsters around on the way out. The horde is left staring at their bloodied front ranks in silence.

It doesn’t last. With a roar, the horde surges, desperate to rend the ants, who taunted them only moments before, into tiny pieces and stomp on what was left. Outward they rush, into dozens of now-open tunnels. I can feel the heat of them, roiling through the air as they plunge into my own tunnel, nipping at my heels.

Just as we’d planned.

The tunnels are cramped, with low roofs and limited space. Other than in the tunnel dug for Tiny, the larger monsters can’t fit, and it’s mostly centipedes and rabbits who chase after me and my scout artillery force.

We flee for fifty metres before suddenly turning. This section of the tunnel opens up into a small chamber, and a force of soldiers is already in position, arrayed in a U shape, ready to receive our pursuers.

When the flood of monsters run into the chamber, they find themselves surrounded on all sides by the snapping mandibles of angry ants. And when I say all sides, I really mean all sides. The enemy pours straight into the mouth of the U, putting soldiers not only on their left and right, but above as well. They cling to the ceiling and to the walls, forming a literal wall of snapping jaws that tear the first wave of monsters apart.

I take the brunt of the charge, anchoring myself in the centre of the formation and allowing the ineffective strikes of weaker monsters to bounce off my glorious Diamond Carapace. Stymied by the narrow tunnels, the horde is unable to bring their superior numbers to bear against us, their own losses clogging up the space as they try to force themselves forward, only to throw themselves into a flurry of Bite attacks.

Similar battles are taking place in a number of tunnels right now, a chance for us ants to inflict further casualties on the enemy without risking much ourselves. The only trick we’d had to work out was how to disengage.

SNAP! SNAP! I pump my mandibles dispassionately as my siblings around me do the same. The waves of enemies don’t seem to ever end, and for every monster we chop down, another pushes its way through until the chamber is packed with the Biomass of the fallen. Shame we won’t get a chance to eat it.

After five minutes of brutal combat, a shudder runs through the ants as we receive the unspoken signal. As one, we step back, and with a roar, the tunnel in front of us collapses, drowning the enemy in tons of dirt.

The deep thump of the dirt is followed by a chilling silence as the raging battle is brought to a close with sudden finality. The first ambush is over. Hopefully, the other tunnels fared as well as we have. In which case, the attack will have been a rousing success. Thousands of monsters killed, hopefully very few soldiers lost. It’s a good start.