After receiving the alarm that a mantis was attacking the hunting team, the protagonist immediately guarded more than a dozen enemy soldier ants under his command and became anxious. He hurriedly left "Dongyang City" and headed towards the northern depression.
Due to the insufficient number of guards around him, the protagonist hurriedly gathered all the ants he met along the way. By the time the team arrived at the depression, the protagonist had already gathered more than a hundred veterans of the Divine Envoy King's Legion. This gave him more confidence to fight Mantis.
This depression is very large, filled with stinking pools and weeds. Standing at a high place, you cannot see the entire depression clearly. Fortunately, the messenger left pheromones along the way to seek help. The protagonist followed the messenger and quickly found the hunting team that called the police along these pheromones.
When waiting for the protagonist to arrive, the battle has ended. The protagonist did not see the mantis, but it can be seen that there has been a fierce struggle here, and the traces caused by the struggle are still clear: the soil on the ground was turned over, revealing the dark underneath. In the soil, some low weeds showed signs of being overpowered, and the remains of several big-headed ants were scattered on the ground.
What makes the protagonist even more angry is that there is a corpse of a male ant among them. He was chopped into two pieces and was no longer breathing. His compound eyes were wide open and he looked at the sky unwillingly, and his six jointed limbs were bent and stretched towards the sky.
The remaining ten or so ants lost the command of the male ant, and they surrounded the male ant's body in a daze but vigilance.
It is the protagonist's request to let the male ants lead the hunting team. In the past, the male ants stayed in the nest doing nothing, and would only lead the troops to fight when there was a war. The protagonist has made reforms in "Dongyang City", requiring the male ants to take turns leading a team out to hunt, which can not only replenish food, but also achieve the purpose of military training through hunting on a daily basis. But this male ant was unfortunate, and he died here during this hunting.
A subordinate male ant faithfully carried out the protagonist's orders, but ended up dead in front of him. How could this not make the protagonist angry?
The protagonist went to ask the surviving worker ants and learned what happened.
This hunting team consists of four soldier ants and 16 worker ants. Under the command of male ants, they arrived in the northern depression this morning with the purpose of hunting mealworms.
After a careful search, the hunting team discovered a mealworm eating a half-rotten grass stem under a thatch. The hunting team formed a formation according to the established tactics, formed an encirclement, and immediately launched an attack. Under the wolf pack tactics of the ants, although the mealworm separated and resisted, it soon became scarred and was about to be killed.
Just then, when all the ants' attention was focused on the mealworm, a huge green mantis fell from the sky.
It landed next to the mealworm, and with a seemingly casual sweep of the broadsword, most of the ants were swept aside.
Then the mantis grabbed the half-dead mealworm as if no one was around, chewed it up bit by bit with its chewing mouthparts, and swallowed it into its belly.
The commander of the hunting team, the male ant, saw that the prey he had obtained was cut off and eaten in front of him. He suddenly became angry and led his team to rush forward and besiege the mantis.
The mantis was concentrating on eating and didn't pay attention to these tiny ants. As a result, it was suddenly attacked by ants. The mantis didn't react until it was stung on its soft belly.
The mantis reacted quickly. It immediately dropped the food in its hand, spread its wings and jumped out of the circle of ants first. I saw it kicked its legs lightly, and the ants biting on its legs were kicked away.
Then the mantis used the barbs on the broadsword and the tarsus on the top of its front feet to pull off a soldier ant that was biting its abdomen. The broadsword quickly closed and cut the soldier ant in half.
The mantis noticed that the soft shell on his soft grass-green abdomen had been bitten a little, exposing the muscles underneath. The mantis was angered by the injury.
At this time, due to poor eyesight, the ants lost their target after the mantis flew away, and could only search randomly like a headless fly. Only the male ant had better eyesight. He saw the mantis licking its wounds not far away. When he was about to gather his subordinates one by one, he saw the mantis suddenly move.
After briefly licking the wound on its abdomen, the mantis opened and vibrated the wings on its back again, flew into the air, and then swooped into the ant hunting team two meters away.
Just like the powerful attack the protagonist had encountered before, under the huge impact from the air, the entire team was scattered in all directions. The middle worker ant was unlucky to be stepped on by the mantis under the middle pair of joints. , the mantis lowered its sword and beheaded the worker ant.
Before the hunting team came around, the mantis flapped its wings and flew into the air again, landing on a high blade of grass and looking mockingly at the group of little ants that could only crawl on the ground.
The mantis then launched several more swooping attacks, killing a total of six ants, including the male ants, before contentedly grabbing the half-eaten mealworm and walking away.
After listening to the descriptions of these ants, the protagonist felt that this mantis was indeed not comparable to ordinary ants. In terms of size, strength and agility, the mantis far exceeds that of a single ant, and his ability to fly allows him to avoid the ants' most effective siege tactics.
If meeting Mantis once was a coincidence, and as far as the protagonist knows, this is the second time Mantis has appeared near "Dongyang City". This may be Mantis's sphere of influence. Then it is necessary to take some countermeasures, otherwise a small number of ants will not even have the ability to escape or resist after encountering the mantis.
Judging from the two encounters with mantises, this mantis will not take the initiative to hunt ants if there is other food (such as mealworms). After all, the ants have too little meat. But when hungry, this mantis also eats ants. If attacked by ants, the enraged mantis will also go on a killing spree.
Based on the above information, the best way for ordinary ants to respond is to pray that the mantis has enough food and drink, and to give up decisively when the mantis snatches the ant's prey.
But the protagonist doesn't want to do this. "Dongyang City" also needs a lot of food, and the conflict with the mantis is irreconcilable. Moreover, you can't gamble on luck every day. What if the mantis gets hungry and attacks the ants one day?
We must find a way to deal with this mantis, the protagonist thinks to himself.
After instructing his subordinates to collect the remains of his dead companions, the protagonist prepares to take their remains back and find a place to build a martyrs' cemetery near the entrance. This is also a kind of ritual education.
But halfway through the journey, another bad news came - the stone where mealworms were dried next to the entrance of "Dongyang City" was attacked by a praying mantis!
