I saw dozens of hyphae climbing up the body of the giant locust, like a snake-like insect crawling, climbing forward from the joints and abdomen of the giant locust, and quickly came to the back.
Although it has no eyes or nose, the parasitic fungus has an instinctive response to the activities of living things. Its senses are sharper than the vision and smell of ordinary compound eyes and antennae, and its movements are not slow at all.
There are more than a dozen thief ants on the back of the giant locust. Among them, there are two drivers on the head of the giant locust. The commander "Madman" and four guards are also sitting on the head. There is a small hard cocoon on the carapace on the chest of the giant locust, which serves as a resting place for the crew during long flights. At this time, around the cocoon room, there were eight ant warriors responsible for protecting the "madman".
The number of ants on the back of this giant locust is more than that of ordinary war beasts. If this giant locust were not very large and strong, it would be difficult to fly for a long time with armor, weapons and more ants on its back.
However, even if they were super-staffed, these 12 thief ant warriors would have little chance of winning against the twenty or thirty parasitic hyphae that were killing them.
A thief ant warrior struggled to stabilize his body in the high-speed wind, climbed the rope tied to the back of the giant locust, approached the commander at the head, and reported the news.
The "madman" who had just dived and attacked was happy, and planned to attack again after climbing up. Only then did he realize that the enemy bacteria had already mounted the mount and was actually so close! If there is no cover behind this soldier, the hyphae may crawl to the head of the giant locust, and the "madman" will not know until he is caught off guard!
"Madman" hurriedly ordered the driver to control the beast to rotate its body slightly. After the other ant warriors discovered it, they knew the meaning of this signal and immediately grabbed everything around them that could fix themselves.
At this time, the war beast suddenly turned around and flew with its belly upwards and its back downwards. It was difficult for the giant locust to maintain level flight in this posture, and it quickly fell.
Under the huge inertia, only a dozen hyphae were thrown off, and the remaining hyphae just wrapped or stuck to the giant locust's body and were still moving forward, threatening the giant locust and all the thieves ants above it.
The giant locust regained its flying posture under control, otherwise it would have completely fallen into the water! The thief ant warriors took the opportunity to launch a counterattack almost at the same time!
These parasitic hyphae have already approached the base of the giant locust's wings. Seeing that they are trying to drill down into the weak carapace here with the intention of parasitizing the giant locust, the thief ant warriors have no time to wait any longer, or they may try again. inverted flight.
Although the thief ant warriors are small in size and look frail, they still bravely fight with the parasitic hyphae.
These thief ants are no less aggressive and brave than other ant races. They can twist a hyphae into several pieces with just three or five clicks of their jaws, and they are not afraid of sacrifice or injury.
However, the weaknesses brought about by being too small are also obvious. The mushroom-shaped heads of these hyphae are actually very hard and sharp, with a thin silica shell. Relying on this hard shell, the parasitic hyphae can drill through the weak spots of the host's carapace, drill through the muscles and fat, and parasitize on the nerves.
In the face of thief ants, the "drill" of the parasitic hyphae is more like a hammer. The force generated by drilling is enough to break the back of a thief ant or flatten its head.
Moreover, these mycelium will coil up its body like a snake, and then pop out like a spring, using the power of the ejection to intensify the head impact damage, or take the opportunity to entangle the thief ant warrior. It's just that in high-speed flight, such actions often cause the hyphae to be blown away by the airflow. After they fail twice, other hyphae stop doing this, as if the hyphae can communicate with each other!
With the size of the thief ant, there is no need to worry about being parasitized by mycelium. Even if a parasitic fungus manages to get in, it will only burst the body of the thief ant!
The thief ant warriors fought with the parasitic bacteria and temporarily protected the giant locusts from being parasitized, but they gradually fell into a disadvantage.
"Madman" became very anxious when he saw this, and ordered the driver to control the insect beast to fly towards the shore, preparing to land. At the same time, "Madman" held a lance tied to one side and joined the battle group to support.
I saw that the "madman" was wearing armor in the style of the Angel King's Legion, with a shining silver jaw knife on his big jaw, a pair of forelimbs holding a mini lance, and his hind limbs were climbing on anti-fall ropes to fight against thieves. The soldiers took part in the fight with very different appearances.
These were the gifts given to him by Zhu Jue. "Madman" was delighted to find that this set of equipment was very useful in this special aerial battle: it was difficult for parasitic mycelium to penetrate the armor's defense, and "Madman's" armor was very easy to use. It's small so there are no gaps that can be exploited.
Unless the mycelium keeps drilling into the motionless "madman" for a long time, it will be difficult to threaten him. Unlike other thieves, they basically lose their mobility after being drilled and can only watch. Watching yourself being crushed or beaten bit by bit.
As a male ant, "Crazy" is stronger in size and strength than ordinary worker ants. He is bold and well-trained. He can always avoid fatal blows flexibly. Sometimes he is willing to withstand an attack and then take the opportunity to counterattack.
As the "madman" fought hard, the thieves ant warriors finally regained the initiative.
While "Crazy" and other ants were engaged in close combat, the three giant locusts behind them were still diving as planned. Except for one giant locust that was hit by water cannon and parasitic mycelium at the same time, it unfortunately fell into the Qinghe River and struggled for a while. It was torn apart by parasitic field turtles.
But the other two giant locusts not only added holes to the parasitic snail's carapace, but also successfully kicked it into the water. As a last resort, a parasitic dragon louse floated up, held the parasitic snail, and tried to put it back on the bark-crushing boat.
But as the "madman" led his mounts back, the four giant locusts, which had just lost their unified command and were at a loss what to do, found their backbone and continued to attack.
With experience, it will be difficult for the parasitic dragon louse's slow water cannon to threaten the giant locust, and the parasitic snail was severely damaged, and it will be difficult for it to eject a large amount of mycelium to directly threaten the thieves ants.
Finally, after the fierce battle, the parasitic snail with its shell pierced through the flesh sank to the bottom of the water. Countless hyphae quickly left the tattered snail body, struggled feebly in the water, and were scattered and washed away. A few parasitic field turtles and dragon lice took in some of the mycelium, but most of it was lost.
Then the underwater parasite beast left the battlefield in despair, and the "madman" led his troops to win the first victory against the smuggling of parasitic bacteria!
In the next few days, the thief ants basically stopped the parasitic snails from entering the country. However, on land, the parasitic bacteria are like wildfire, and they have begun to erupt in multiple locations and spread into large areas!
