However, the next day, the protagonist and the others were forced to evacuate, unable to reveal the secret of the Pavement Ant barbarian army's penetration into the mountains and forests.
That night, the army of pavement ant barbarians gathered together to spend the night.
Nights in the forest are dangerous, and predators that are very different from the daytime predators become active. They are scorpions, centipedes, some spiders and other insects.
The pavement ant barbarian army has no sheltered nests in the forest, but they must face more ferocious predators and the unique low temperatures of the forest night in summer, which can be fatal.
Fortunately, the Pavement Ant Barbarian Army was not unprepared for this. Under the leadership of the scouts, they found a dry dead tree. The trunk of this tree had been riddled with holes, but it still stood in the woods.
The pavement ants gathered at the lower part of the trunk of the dead tree. Some ants got into the holes, but most of the ants were unable to squeeze into the already very crowded trunk. They could only squeeze together densely on the surface of the trunk. It's like putting a layer of black clothes on the tree trunk.
Pavement ants can cling to each other to protect themselves from the cold of the forest. These measures are effective, and the swarming pavement ants can save most of their companions, but there are some unfortunate ones, namely those ants at the bottom and outermost layer of the trunk.
Because they are located in the outermost layer of the colony, their body temperature gradually decreases under the influence of the cold air at night, and they are far less warm than their companions in the inner layer from the warmth radiated by other ants.
The temperature won't freeze these ants to death, but it will make them extremely stiff. To make matters worse, some predators discovered the dead tree and the pavement ants sleeping on it.
Countless ants gathered together mean abundant food, and in this year, food is the hope of survival.
Nocturnal predators have relatively developed vision or other sensory abilities. They can understand the size of the ant colony and naturally will not easily crash into the ant colony. In that case, the predator becomes the prey instead.
They carefully tear out the semi-frozen outer layer of pavement ants bit by bit at the edge of the ant colony, eat them, and then repeat the previous step.
The semi-frozen pavement ants in the outermost layer are unable to resist such an attack, but they cannot escape either. The entire ant colony is now a whole, and can only exchange for the survival of most members at partial sacrifices.
Until the sun rises, the hunt comes to an end. As the thin sunlight shines on the black forest floor, the army of pavement ants becomes "alive" again. Like flowing water, they covered the ground with a splash.
Some surrounding insects that had no time to escape suffered an instant disaster. Whether they were vegetarian insects or carnivorous insects, they became the breakfast of the pavement ants.
Some of these breakfasts even ate a lot of pavement ants just last night. But when the pavement ants launch a counterattack during the day, any predators that fail to escape in time are immediately transformed into prey. This is the cruel side of nature, you eat me and I eat you.
This food is not enough for the entire army of pavement ants, but they have just set out for a day and are not hungry yet, so hunting is just a matter of course. Now, the army sets out again.
Last night, the protagonist took Dragonfly and Mantis to find a safe place to spend the night. They choose dead trees where pavement ants gather.
The pavement ants live in the lower part of the dead tree, and the protagonist and the others found a spacious tree hole in the upper part to live in. With the pavement ants below acting as guards, they are generally relatively safe.
But even so, the protagonist still meticulously arranged the cordon according to the previous plan. Once the mounts find any trouble, the protagonist and others will be awakened.
In the morning, when the pavement ant barbarian army started to set off again, the protagonist and the others drank a few mouthfuls of the dew that had not yet dispersed in the morning and ate two mouthfuls of dried meat, which was considered a meal.
At present, they have plenty of food. Therefore, the protagonist believes that the reconnaissance team has enough enemy food reserves to track this army of pavement ants until they discover their ultimate goal and unlock the secret of their adventure into the forest.
But soon, the protagonist had to give up his optimistic ideas.
Today, just like yesterday, the army of pavement ants was constantly attacked by ferocious insects in the forest. Although it was very annoying, the barbarian army of pavement ants did not actually care about this loss of strength. After all, there were too many of them.
The pavement ants just kept moving forward, overcoming all obstacles and ignoring the predatory insects.
The reconnaissance team was following behind. No insect would ignore the numerous pavement ants and target them. They were safe, at least for now.
But gradually, the protagonist heard some intensive flapping sounds, which was a bit unusual.
This kind of flapping sound is very similar to the flapping sound of the mount below. If you don't listen carefully, the protagonist will even suspect that he is hallucinating.
The protagonist struggles to find the source of the sound, but in the woods, the field of vision is severely limited. Therefore, it was not until a large swarm of wasps turned around from behind a huge cedar tree and appeared above the army of pavement ants that the protagonist discovered their presence.
This is not the first time the protagonist has faced a wasp. When he was watching the wedding flight ceremony of pavement ants, the protagonist had a conflict with a wasp and even suffered a slight injury.
But there is a difference between a single wasp and a swarm of wasps, just like the difference between a single ant and a swarm of ants.
The yellow and black bodies of these wasps are also very conspicuous in the dim sunlight of the woods. They do not need any covert protection. They are the most ferocious predators themselves.
There were hundreds of wasps in this batch. They must have received reports from the scouts and discovered the army of pavement ants, so they came to hunt.
A wasp colony of this size needs to consume a lot of meat every day. In this season of food scarcity, a group of ants is an excellent prey, even if this group of ants will not be able to catch it without mercy.
Wasps flying in the sky have a natural advantage over pavement ants that can only crawl on the ground.
Moreover, wasps are numerous and have a clear division of labor. Some wasps landed around the colony, tentatively making contact with the colony.
The army of pavement ants has stopped advancing. They also realize that the wasp in front of them is not an ordinary beast. If they don't control it, they will bring huge losses to themselves.
The pavement ants formed a dense defensive formation, and the wasps testing the edges of the formation did not dare to crash into this formation easily, otherwise they would be besieged and even unable to take off.
However, these wasps that landed on the ground to test were only responsible for containment. More wasps whizzed through the air. They found the weakest point in the formation and drove small groups of pavement ants away from the large army. , and then destroy it!
