Despite losing over 100,000 troops in the past two days, the Red and Black Ant coalition continued to receive reinforcements from their rear territory, keeping their total numbers above 500,000.
Meanwhile, Luo Wen’s Swarm steadily bolstered its ranks with new arrivals from the territory. The total Swarm force had grown to nearly 300,000.
The gap in troop strength between the two sides was gradually narrowing.
Finally, the coalition realized they could no longer allow Luo Wen to continue his attritional tactics. Gathering their forces, they ignored the emptied underground tunnels and the persistent harassment by Swarm squads, marching en masse past the underground base and deeper into Swarm territory.
Perched on the trunk of a plant along their path, Luo Wen estimated the coalition’s composition. The ratio of Red Ants to Black Ants was now about 1:9. Most of the Red Ants, having spearheaded earlier assaults, had been severely depleted during the battles at the underground base.
Although the coalition still numbered over 500,000, their overall combat effectiveness had significantly diminished.
In the central ranks of the coalition, Luo Wen spotted several massive Red Ants. These ants were dozens of times the size of ordinary Red Ants, with distinctive, swollen abdomens that marked them as Queen Ants of the Red Ant species.
These queens had not been present during Luo Wen’s earlier reconnaissance. Clearly, they had arrived with reinforcements from the rear. What surprised Luo Wen even more was that these queens coexisted peacefully, suggesting that Red Ants might be a multi-queen species.
Their “whole family migration” strategy gave Luo Wen an oddly familiar sense of déjà vu.
To think these Red Ants, with their limited intelligence, could conceive such a strategy amused Luo Wen.
However, their execution was flawed. The essence of this tactic was to fortify one’s own base to stall the enemy’s main force, while using the rest of the army to capture the enemy’s headquarters.
Instead, the coalition was attempting to forcibly migrate while the Swarm army was right beside them. It was suicidal.
Emerging from their underground base, the concealed Swarm surged out to engage the coalition’s rear guard. The two armies clashed like tidal waves. Transport Bugs, carrying Worker Ants, spearheaded the assault, unleashing a round of ranged attacks to incapacitate portions of the enemy force and sow chaos before quickly withdrawing.
The predominantly Black Ant coalition, lacking stingers, had no effective counter to the swift, hit-and-run tactics of the long-legged Transport Bugs.
Even when a Black Ant managed to latch onto a Transport Bug’s limb, nearby Transport Bugs would swiftly kill it.
The acid spray attacks, though less effective in open environments than in the confined underground tunnels, still served to disorient and scatter the enemy. Many ants with corroded antennae turned into aimless wanderers, creating disorder within the coalition’s rear ranks. In no time, tens of thousands of their troops were thrown into chaos, disconnected from their vanguard.
Seizing the opportunity, the pursuing Swarm accelerated their assault, engaging the disorganized coalition in fierce melee combat on open ground.
Although individual Black Ants were weak, the sheer scale of a melee involving tens of thousands of troops made differences in individual strength less significant.
Even Luo Wen, with his superior combat ability, could be overwhelmed if surrounded by the enemy. He was always reminded of the grim fate of the spider he once encountered.
In the chaos, a Red Ant managed to grapple a Worker Ant and drive its stinger into the Worker Ant’s abdomen, only to be impaled moments later by a passing Transport Bug. Both combatants perished in the skirmish, locked together in death.
Elsewhere, a Giant Mandible Soldier Ant, having advanced too far, was surrounded by dozens of Black Ants. Some tore at its limbs, while others targeted its joints. By the time reinforcements arrived, the Soldier Ant had only two legs remaining. Though rescued, it could no longer move and would be processed for protein recovery.
The battlefield was a scene of relentless carnage, with hundreds or thousands of ants perishing every moment. Words failed to capture the ferocity of the combat.
Without the advantage of terrain, the Swarm suffered heavier losses in direct engagements, even with their superior strength.
However, as more Swarm mobile units arrived, the coalition forces, which had initially held their own, began to falter.
The coalition’s reliance on pheromones for communication proved inefficient. By the time news of their rear guard’s plight reached their command and decisions were relayed back, the Swarm had already obliterated the rear forces, looted their remains, and retreated.
Frustrated, the coalition launched a full-scale pursuit. Yet the trail left by the Swarm indicated that their forces had split into several retreating groups.
Lacking strategic knowledge, the coalition impulsively divided their army to chase after the Swarm. Following the pheromone trails led them to further branching paths, where they divided again.
These misleading pheromones, left by Spy Bugs under Luo Wen’s orders, were intended to slow the coalition’s pursuit. Luo Wen hadn’t expected the coalition to divide so readily, but he wasn’t about to let the opportunity go to waste.
He ordered Spy Bugs to create more branching trails. Meanwhile, the Swarm regrouped and consumed part of their spoils to replenish their strength.
After a brief regrouping, Luo Wen mobilized approximately 150,000 troops, though another 100,000 Swarm forces were scattered across the area.
While Luo Wen had dispatched messengers to locate these mobile units, he hoped they would avoid blundering into the coalition’s main force.
After repeated splits, the coalition’s forces were fragmented. Aside from the main force guarding the queens, which still numbered over 200,000, the remaining units were reduced to smaller groups of 20,000 to 30,000 each.
Luo Wen lured one such 20,000-strong detachment away from the main army, ambushing it with a 150,000-strong Swarm contingent riding on Transport Bugs. The smaller force was completely surrounded, with not a single ant escaping.
The disparity in numbers and individual combat power rendered the battle one-sided. The smaller coalition force was annihilated with minimal Swarm losses.
Luo Wen then led his forces in a circuit around the coalition, repeatedly baiting and eliminating isolated detachments.
Though the tactics were simple, they proved consistently effective. Luo Wen couldn’t help but feel a sense of detachment. As an ordinary human employing military strategy against insects, he felt as if he were bullying them with his superior intellect.