In the early spring nights, it was freezing cold. The huge temperature difference between day and night made the air in the middle of the night seem to be covered with a layer of ice crystals, as if it was still in the winter night.
On nights like this, even those insects that welcome spring very early have to go back to their winter homes to seek shelter at night.
Near a large locust tree about an hour's pace from [Trench City], there was a huge rock the size of a human table. There was deathly silence all around, as if there was no sign of life.
But under the rock, there was a temporary campsite for the Divine Envoy King's army. Tens of thousands of ants gathered inside, surrounding the Divine Envoy King.
The Legion of the God Envoy King, who had gone through a hard battle during the day, is resting here. According to the plan, they will face a big battle tomorrow, and they need a good rest to replenish their physical strength.
Due to the unstoppable cold outside, the Angel King Legion did not place sentries outdoors, but only placed sentries at the entrances and exits of the underground campsite.
You can't blame the God Envoy King's army for being careless. Generally, ants are inactive at night. In the past, only the God's Envoy King's army used to sneak attack others at night. I have never encountered any danger at night.
The protagonist has forgotten that just the year before last, the flying knights who went to the north bank of the river for long-distance reconnaissance were sneak attacked at night.
Since this camping ground is a temporary camp, the excavation is very crude and the internal structure is simple.
Basically, a long passage was dug diagonally downward from the west side of the giant rock and along the bottom of the rock. After about half a meter, three passages extended around it. Parts of the passage were widened and raised to become nest chambers.
Compared with conventional nests, there is no granary, no queen's palace, and no corresponding defense facilities.
The protagonist lives in the innermost nest room, surrounded by soldiers of the 19th Legion, and Kyoko, the commander of the 19th Legion, is also nearby.
According to the tradition of the ants, Kyoko is the oldest male ant among the current six legions, so naturally he should be the deputy to the protagonist. The protagonist did not want to forcefully oppose this tradition, so he set up the command center in the 19th Legion, with the 19th Legion temporarily acting as his guard.
In this battle, the guard team led by Tianxian is still on the way from [Linshui City] to the battlefield, and is not with the protagonist at the moment.
During the battle during the day, the Destroyer once reached the protagonist's side, and Kyoko performed very well. She led her troops to protect the protagonist until death, and repelled the enemy under the leadership of the God Envoy King who descended from heaven to earth.
At night, the protagonist slept deeply. His sleep quality was always very good, unlike other ants who just dozed off and rarely entered a long period of deep sleep.
During the day, the protagonist entered a ten-minute state of descent from the gods. Although it did not trigger the unbearable sequelae of pain, it also consumed a lot of physical energy.
In the evening, the protagonist found some food nearby to fill his stomach. This army did not carry food. The ants had a full meal before leaving the main nest [Qingqiu City], so they did not need to eat for a day or two during the battle. And if the battle lasts longer, [Qingqiu City] has also organized a transportation team to follow up.
But the protagonist is hungry every time the gods descend to earth. Fortunately, there is still a lot of food in spring. Dozens of ants separated and quickly found some vegetarian food, which was enough to fill the protagonist's stomach.
After eating and teaching the male ants a lesson, the protagonist fell asleep peacefully.
I am the dividing line
At night, the protagonist is awakened by vibrations on the ground and distant noises. He feels something is wrong, and the ant warriors around him are also awakened from their naps.
The protagonist quickly asked the soldier ants around him to find out what was going on and why the camp was so noisy.
Seeing the soldier ant struggling to squeeze past its companions in the crowded passage, the protagonist felt a warning sign rising in his heart.
After a while, another soldier ant squeezed through the dense ant colony and came to the protagonist.
He was a messenger sent by the commander of the 24th Legion, the outermost camp, to warn the Divine Messenger King: The entrance and exit had been attacked by the Destroyer, and the 24th Legion was struggling to resist.
The protagonist was shocked, and then he remembered that the Flying Knights were able to move at night when they encountered the Destroyer.
There is no use regretting it at this moment, the protagonist quickly forces himself to calm down and analyze the situation.
The enemy came well prepared, but our army encountered a surprise attack.
Fortunately, the underground structure of the camp is simple, and the 24th Army Corps blocks the only entrance and exit, so the enemy will not be able to attack for a while.
But again, this underground lair lacks defensive facilities, and the defenders have no geographical advantage at all. Facing the Destroyer in this narrow environment, the fighting troops will inevitably suffer heavy losses, and the friendly forces behind will not be able to support the ants' nests in the frontline campsites. The density was so high that even the messengers had a hard time squeezing through.
The protagonist doesn't know how many troops the enemy has invested, nor does he know the specific battle situation ahead, but he must make a response.
The one closest to the entrance is the 24th Legion, followed by the 23rd Legion. The protagonist lets the messenger pass and asks the two legions to block the enemy at all costs.
Then, the protagonist ordered the four legions behind him to quickly dig several new passages to the outside world. The protagonist tried to lead the troops out of the underground and detour behind the enemy to counter-encirclement.
Being behind the scenes and unable to observe the battle situation on the front lines, the protagonist always feels that time passes very quickly.
At one moment, the messenger reported that the 24th Army had suffered heavy losses. At another time, the 23rd Army reported that troops were fighting the enemy. At another time, there was a report that a passage to the ground had been dug.
The protagonist hurriedly led the 19th Legion out of the ground. At this time, the morning sun had emerged in the east, and more than two hours had passed since the enemy's surprise attack.
But after getting out of the ground, the temperature outside was still very low. The ant warriors who followed the protagonist were sluggish, and their movements became visibly slower. They were not used to this temperature, and the heat in their bodies was dissipating at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The protagonist cannot fight alone, he must go with his troops. But if the subordinates forcefully attack in this situation, they are afraid that they will freeze quickly.
The protagonist had an idea and asked his subordinates to take out the mysterious balls captured in yesterday's battle. Each ant held a mysterious ball in its mouth to warm the baby, and then threw it away when they arrived on the battlefield.
Time is tight now, and there is no time to put a mysterious ball on each ant's back. Anyway, when it comes to the battlefield, the ants' internal metabolism speeds up during the battle and they can provide their own heat. Each Destroyer is like a small mobile heater, which can also provide auxiliary heat.
Because there were not enough mysterious balls, the protagonist could only lead hundreds of ant warriors to fight out. They bypassed the giant rock and soon discovered the Destroyer near the entrance and exit of the campsite.
