Just knowing the whereabouts of the parasitic ants is not the main concern of the protagonist. These strange enemies are like the plague or zombies. As long as there is a certain amount of space, they can reappear.
What the protagonist needs is the latest trends of these parasitic bacteria.
According to the information provided by the local hunter ants, the local hunter ant tribes are working together again, because some tribes have discovered that scattered parasitic ants have been emerging from the valley swamps in the south recently.
The hunter ants do not like the swamp environment, and there are other ants distributed in that swamp. The hunter ants only have some tribes distributed in the mountain forest to the north of the swamp.
It is these tribes that provide early warning of unusual movements of parasitic fungi in the swamp.
Since the beginning of this spring, parasitized ants have gradually left the swamp and moved into the surrounding mountains and forests in groups of thirty or fifty, groping and spreading in all directions like a vanguard.
Among these parasitized ants, there were surprisingly a mixture of three types of ants: hunter ants, big-headed ants and some kind of hairy ants.
The hunter ants naturally come from the local infected indigenous people, the big-headed ants may come from those expelled by the protagonist, and the hairy ants are native ants in the local swamps.
Hairy ants are the most common ant group on the earth. They prefer humid and cold environments and are widely distributed in the northern hemisphere.
The ants of most hairy ant species are about the same size as big-headed ants or pavement ants. The body length of worker ants is usually between 2-4mm. They use large jaws when hunting and are equipped with formic acid weapons.
The body color of hairy ants ranges from yellow to black. Among them, the species that live on the ground are darker in color, and the species that live underground are lighter in color. Some Trichoant species establish colonies by temporarily parasitizing other ant nests, and some Trichoant species have the habit of raising and transporting homopteran insects. Hairy ants are also a very ancient ant species that have continued to exist since the Tertiary Period. They are one of the oldest ant genera that have survived to this day. Compared with their ancient ancestors, modern hairy ants have only a small amount of visible evolution. .
There are so many types of hairy ants, and the protagonist naturally cannot tell the difference. If there is an antologist here, he will definitely recognize that these hairy ants infected by parasitic bacteria are bright hairy ants.
The bright-haired ant is a larger one among the hairy ants. The body length of the worker ants is generally 4.0-6.0mm, which is already larger than the soldier ants of the big-headed ant. Of course, it is still better than the hunter ant, the Japanese ant, or the mysterious ant on the north bank of the river. A lot smaller.
The carapace of these bright-haired ants is bright black, the six limbs are yellow-brown, and they have the signature sparse pubescence of the genus Trichoantis, and there are scattered bristles on the back of the body.
Bright-haired ants often inhabit moist, organic-rich swamp areas and low-lying grasslands. It mainly feeds on the root juice of herbaceous plants and the honeydew secreted by aphids. It also captures small insects and often forms long foraging queues when foraging.
They don't like digging soil to make nests, which may be related to the high groundwater level in the swamp areas where they live. The nests of bright-haired ants are usually built in standing or fallen trees, and occasionally in the roots of trees, under rocks or in the soil. There are often multiple queens in the nest, and wedding flights occur from May to October.
It is not too important that there is an additional type of ant among the parasitic ants. The protagonist now also has three types of ants: big-headed ants, pavement ants and sickle-hunting ants under his command, and the combination of troops is more reasonable. At least the bright-haired ants are not able to move in the winter like the pavement ants, and their combat skills are also mediocre except for formic acid.
However, the fact that parasitic ants are active again is not good news in itself. The terrifying infection ability of this parasitic fungus is like a bomb that can explode at any time, easily causing disaster.
Reminiscent of the two previous parasitic ant infections discovered by the Angel King's army on the territory of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom, the infected ants eventually wanted to move south. In the war with parasitic ants, although those parasitic ants fled all the way, they were also moving firmly southward.
Could their final destination be this swamp south of the hills? Why did they go to this swamp?
Now, these parasitic ants have begun to break out of the swamp and spread to the surrounding areas. What does it mean?
The protagonist feels that his head is a bit big. The mysterious ants in the north and the parasitic ants in the south are beyond his previous knowledge reserve. He vaguely feels that there is some connection between the two, but the inspiration is erratic and he cannot Can't catch it.
Fortunately, the mysterious ants in the north are blocked by the river and cannot threaten them for the time being. Even if the parasitic ants in the south invade in large numbers, they are blocked by the hunter ants in the hilly areas - these hunter ants regard the parasitic ants as their feud. , I can’t wait to get rid of it quickly, and I will never let go.
The protagonist decided to speed up the formation of the team of flying knights, and first placed a legion of fifty knights in the "Southern City" to continuously monitor the movements of the parasitic ants, which can be regarded as an early warning method.
——I am the dividing line——
His eyes returned to the battlefield.
In the end, the army failed to conquer the secondary nest guarded by the second senior brother as scheduled on May 11th.
Although Rambotu had worked hard underground to break through the defense lines established by the enemy, before dark, the second senior brother still led the last thousand or so remnant troops to guard the queen's palace at the bottom of the nest.
Rambotu originally wanted to lead his troops to fight all night long. This unconventional fighting method is something that only the God Envoy King Legion trained by the protagonist is good at.
But Gun received an order from the protagonist and had to reject this suggestion.
According to the urgent report from the flying knight, the enemy came faster than expected. Several sub-nests near here have assembled a support force, numbering about one or two thousand. They were not discovered by the flying knights before. Now they are only half a day away from here, and they will arrive tomorrow morning.
Although Gun was not afraid of this small force, if most of the troops were too tired from fighting all night, they would easily suffer additional casualties in subsequent battles.
After all, behind this first wave of enemy reinforcements, there is also the vanguard of the enemy's main force moving from the north to the south. Together with the military strength of each deputy nest, there are already seven or eight thousand people. It only takes a little more than a day to reach here.
Further back, there is the enemy's large force.
Although the enemy's refueling tactics gave the Divine Envoy King's legion the possibility of defeating them one by one. But at the same time, such tactics can also delay the rolling troops, making them unable to continue attacking the "real main nest".
It can be said that the second senior brother has successfully completed his mission. He used his perseverance to destroy the plan of the God Envoy King's army to go straight to Huanglong and conquer the "real main nest".
It is obviously unwise to continue the attack. Even if the secondary nest in front of them is breached, it will be too late to conquer the "real main nest".
The protagonist has requested through the Flying Knight to prepare for retreat and not to engage in a decisive battle with the enemy's main force.
Now, the God's Envoy King's Legion decided to implement a backup plan.
