Chapter 677: [Wave 2 – The Razorshell Mantises]

[Wave 1 Cleared.]

As the last beetle fell, Kael saw a message in front of him and he sighed in relief.

His eyes moved around, scanning his surroundings to make sure it was actually over. He could see the heat slowly fading away, his ants standing over the broken bodies of the Firemaw Beetles and he—

He exhaled again.

His head ached a little. He had felt the pain of hundreds of lives being crushed into pieces. It definitely wasn’t easy. The first time he felt it, he had actually screamed out loud before losing all control and dying under the swarm of beetles.

Compared to that, his condition right now was much better. He was... still standing.

He turned around, staring at the Brood Chamber behind him.

Ba-dump

He heard the familiar heartbeat and it made him smile.

She was safe.

Kael, however, wasn’t given a lot of time to celebrate.

[Wave 2 – The Razorshell Mantises]

Another message appeared and Kael prepared himself.

The Hive trembled again. This time, the attack did not come with fire.

It came with... silence.

Kael narrowed his eyes. He expanded his Swarmmind Link, as if he already knew what was going to happen, and it did happen.

An ant died.

Kael felt the pain, and before he could register that pain, another ant died, then another, and another.

It all happened so fast. When Kael felt this happen for the first time, by the time he even realised what was happening, half of his force was gone.

This time, however, he was different.

He traced the deaths and then—

He saw them.

On the upper routes, on the ceilings and the walls.

Razorshell Mantises.

Long, thin, horrifying predators with pale green shells and blade-like forelimbs. They moved across the walls and ceiling with terrifying speed, jumping from root to root, cutting through ants before the ants even knew they were there.

Unlike the Firemaw Beetles, they did not charge through a tunnel, they attacked from everywhere.

Above, below, front, and back.

The Shield Formation wouldn’t work against them, neither could he catch them. He had tried these things before, it didn’t work.

Instead—

He used bait.

A group of weaker ants moved into the open slowly, exposed out in the open. The prime assassins like the Razorshell Mantises noticed them instantly, they leapt forward, and the moment they did—

"Sticky ants."

From the sides, the sticky ants sprayed a thick, glue-like liquid all over the ground and walls. Several mantises landed in it, their legs stuck.

Now, the Razorshell Mantises were fast, yes, they, however, weren’t known for their strength. So once they were trapped, once they could no longer move—

They were harmless.

"Move."

Kael commanded. More of his ants moved, crushing the trapped mantises.

But Kael didn’t stop.

He knew this trick would only work once. The mantises learned from their mistakes. Now that they had seen their kind killed like that, the next time, they weren’t going to land on the ground.

They would stay on the walls and the ceiling, but again—

Kael was prepared.

He looked up, at the ants he had ordered to move before the mission began, then—

"Drop."

He commanded.

The ants hidden in the upper roots above loosened the chunks of hardened soil and stone, dropping them all down. The mantises, with their speed, dodged most of them, but dodging forced them to change direction, and that was more than enough.

The moment the mantises were visible, tiny needle ants launched themselves from the cracks in the walls. Their bodies were too small for the mantises to notice in time. They struck the eyes and—

"KRRIIEEEKKKKK!!!"

The mantises screamed.

The burrowers opened the pits, the blinded mantises collapsed inside, falling into narrow pits lined with soldier ants that were already waiting for them.

With their movements now restricted inside the pits, the soldier ants moved, killing the vulnerable, fallen mantises.

Again, the mantises were smart enough to adapt to this method as well, just that the thing was, this time, Kael was prepared—

He didn’t have one single strategy, he had many.

He and Imperia had spent a lot of time devising them all, using different kinds of ants in ways he had never considered before.

It made him realise just how terrifyingly useful the ants under his command were. Honestly, if he had the army that he had right now back in the Heights, taking over the Heights wouldn’t have been a problem.

Heck, Kael was sure he could devise a plan with less than a hundred casualties and win.

Of course, Kael knew there was no point in thinking about what could have happened. He knew it wasn’t possible. These ants weren’t his, he couldn’t bring them back.

So instead, he focused on what was in front of him.

His ants kept attacking the mantises one after the other. While some of his ants attacked, others prepared for Kael’s next plan, more prepared for Kael’s next-to-next plan, and some prepared for Kael’s next-to-next-to-next plan.

This continued for a good while until finally, the number of mantises started diminishing. They had no answer to Kael’s ants that constantly kept moving so efficiently that it felt as if they were being controlled by a single mind.

Finally, when the final mantis fell, the Hive, that had become chaotic since Kael’s ants prepared and executed one attack after the other, finally became still again.

Kael, with his mind a little overwhelmed from everything, was breathing heavily. His eyes still looked around and just then—

[Wave 2 Cleared.]

The system’s message appeared.

Kael smiled.

Ba-dump

He could feel Imperia congratulating him.

That made him chuckle. For a moment, he looked at the ants who had perished while fighting the mantises. It made his heart ache. He had constantly tried to come up with ways he could somehow fight without losing them, but it never worked.

The enemies were far too strong, and while his ants may have had their own specialties, they were still weak and died a little too quickly.

So even if he wanted, Kael, with his mind already as overwhelmed as it was, couldn’t heal them either.

Not even when he had Eira’s healing powers now, at least for the few seconds he had when he activated [Ancient Pulse.]

That was when another message appeared in front of Kael—

[Wave 3 – Bloodcarver Ants]