Antelligent Design

97. The Never-Ending Ambush

There were small disturbances around the edges of the seething mass of monsters, particularly toward the front and forest sides, the latter of which I can’t really make out. When we get in range, I’m able to see small groups of ants engaging in a seemingly endless series of running engagements with the horde.

Five or six ants will launch themselves from hiding places, either tunnels or out of the tree line, and make lightning-quick attacks against the monsters closest to them. Some launch acid barrages before they retreat with sharp movements, others plunge toward the mass of enemies and engage them in short, violent skirmishes before they break and flee. At any one moment, there are upwards of thirty groups attacking the horde independent of each other, and those are the ones I can see!

It seems as if Victor is having similar thoughts to me in the next phase. By breaking into smaller groups that manage themselves, the risk to the overall force is reduced and we become too difficult for the horde to tackle. If the monsters were to chase the pesky ants, they’d simply run away, disappear into tunnels or vanish into the forest. If the monsters pursue too far, they regain their senses and break away from the control that bound them, which for our purposes was just as good as killing them.

Some groups are caught, snapped up by monsters who move quicker than they expected, or blasted by magic from the Wizard Lizard and its attendants. Even so, there are only five ants lost at a time. Obviously, five ants is five too many, in my opinion, but I can understand the tactic.

After conversing with Isaac, the humans arrange themselves into small teams, half of which stay in reserve, and the other half move forward to engage the fringes of the horde. I take my pets with me and move up to attack.

I need Levels and there’s only one way I’m going to get them. Time to fight.

[Stay alert, crew. We don’t know what might happen and we’re out in the open now.]

[I will, Master. So long as I live, no harm will come to you!] Crinis declares.

[Punch!] Tiny roars.

Fair enough then.

It feels a little odd to be approaching the horde so brazenly like this. We are dependent on the horde itself being as ungainly as it had proven to be in the past. My senses are sharpened to their maximum, trying to grasp any indication that some funny business is going on. But I detect nothing.

I use every resource available to me to try and detect the Ka’armodo at work, or more likely, its slave attendants. Crinis also utilises her Mana Sense, though it has a much shorter range. As we approach, we sense nothing, so I make the decision to engage.

With Crinis on my back, Tiny and I draw closer to the horde until the masses of monsters are within twenty metres of us. The centipedes clack their claws angrily and the hounds growl a warning which we promptly ignore.

Not giving our opponents a moment to gather themselves, we charge straight into them, ploughing through the front rank with explosive force!

Tiny smashes the enemies around him with powerful sweeps of his fists, the kinetic force enough to shatter the body of any monster he hit. From my back, Crinis extends tentacles to the creatures beyond my reach and saws them apart in a gory and terrifying display of her alien physique.

For my part, I chomp, alternating between the two Skills I need to Level, piercing and slicing each monster as it comes within range.

Then, we flee!

[Get your hairy ape butt out of there, Tiny!]

Grumpy and discontented with the short burst of action, Tiny flings the surrounding monsters away and joins us in our exuberant flight from danger.

The fight lasted only seconds. We’d impacted hard, inflicted as much damage as we could, and fled before the horde could surround us. Using our superior speed, we hurtle back into the hills over a kilometre away from the road itself.

The monsters pursue us for a hundred metres or so before they fell back toward the main body of the horde, following the directives of the mind that suppresses them.

In order to prevent the colony from ambushing them as they had previously, it appears the monsters will no longer pursue away from the support of their fellow horde monsters. Which means the colony now has to expose themselves to inflict damage.

We’re trapped, in a way. We need to inflict damage. It is absolutely necessary that we reduce the numbers of the horde before they reach the colony. There is no way we can hope to fend off tens of thousands of monsters in one pitched battle. They’d simply roll over us.

Once the horde settles at the angle we’d attacked, and the monsters have consumed the Biomass of their fallen brethren, we wait to see if anything changes. After a half hour, I’m confident that no steps have been taken to prevent us from engaging again, so we do.

This is going to take a lot of time.