"Why would there be a Giant Burrow Bee here?" Shire stared at the corpse in front of him, which was nearly burned to a crisp. "These things have a huge hunting range."
He remembered a hornet’s nest that had appeared next to his company in his previous life. You could run into foraging hornets hundreds of meters away.
"It’s a good thing I brought Fulu along. Who knows what would’ve happened if a Burrow Bee had ambushed us from the air." Shire loudly reminded his subordinates, "Everyone, be careful! Keep your eyes on the sky."
They continued onward but found nothing. Just as Shire was starting to wonder, Broken Tooth came running back from up ahead. "Leader, ants."
"Up ahead?" Shire immediately went to meet him.
"Saw them with the telescope. Ants... running this way," Broken Tooth said, gasping for breath.
To manage potential dangers, Shire had Broken Tooth scout ahead. Broken Tooth would use the telescope to observe the surroundings, and after confirming an area was safe, he would carve a large mark on a tree. The main party only had to follow the marks. If he encountered anything strange, Broken Tooth was to immediately run back and report to the group.
He had barely finished speaking when a rustling sound—RUSTLE, RUSTLE, RUSTLE—came from up ahead. Shire and his subordinates stared intently at the gaps between the trees. The sound gradually faded, and just as Shire thought the ant might have moved on, WHOOSH! A black-and-white Giant Ant burst out from the side, a thick branch clamped in its mandibles.
"Stay alert!" Shire shouted. He wasn’t sure if the Giant Ant would attack them.
Immediately after, a sharp screeching—SKREEE—began to echo through the forest, like the sound of fingernails scraping across leather. As the noise grew louder, Shire was shocked to see two massive black spiders charging toward them.
The spiders were entirely black except for their red heads. They seemed to be chasing the Giant Ant, but it wasn’t long before one of them noticed Shire and his goblins standing by the trees.
SKREEE! The spider shrieked, turned, and charged. Shire could even see its massive black chelicerae raised to strike.
’So vicious.’ Shire’s pupils constricted. He roared, "Blazing Fire Glue! Throw!"
Several globes of Blazing Fire Glue were thrown, splattering against the spider’s body. THWAP, THWAP, THWAP! Intense flames erupted, instantly turning the creature into a walking barbecue.
Shire had prepared for this. Everyone was carrying several charges of Blazing Fire Glue, precisely for dealing with enormous creatures like this.
SKREEE! The spider shrieked, but its charge didn’t falter for even a moment as it continued to rush the goblins.
"Caocao!" Shire bellowed. The Giant immediately hefted a thick tree trunk and charged the spider.
SQUELCH! The sharpened trunk impaled the spider from below, but it still thrashed its forelegs, trying to get at Caocao.
’This thing is ridiculously savage.’ Shire thought as he watched the Giant Spider shriek and struggle. He ordered his men to close in and repeatedly stab its abdomen with their Long Spears.
Gradually, the Giant Spider’s eight black legs curled inward. The smell of roasted meat grew stronger in the air. Shire knew it was dead. "Everyone, follow me."
He led his men in pursuit, following the direction the ant had fled.
It wasn’t long before Shire spotted them in a clearing. The other Giant Spider was perched on the ant, its black chelicerae already buried in the ant’s abdomen.
"Get ready," he commanded. The Giant Spider had already spotted the goblins. It reared up on its front legs in a clear threat.
’These Giant Spiders are savage,’ Shire thought, staring at the creature. ’Unlike the Burrow Bees, they’ll keep attacking their target even while they’re on fire.’ He now had a much clearer understanding of them.
SKREEE! Seeing the goblins continue to approach, the Giant Spider began to shriek before charging straight at them.
Applying the experience from the last fight, Shire directed his men to quickly dispatch the Giant Spider. Afterward, he saw the ant—the one with the pierced abdomen leaking white fluid—struggle back to its feet. It picked up the leafy branch lying nearby and began to slowly shamble eastward.
’Is it trying to get back to its nest?’ A flicker of curiosity sparked in Shire as he watched the Giant Ant pass by, completely ignoring his troop of goblins. ’It’s so heavily injured. It’s going to die, isn’t it?’
He turned to look at Fulu, who said, "I don’t sense any evil from it."
"Follow it," Shire commanded the troop. He wanted to see if it would lead them to more of its kind.
’These ants don’t show the slightest hint of alarm at our presence, as if we’re a common sight,’ Shire mused as they walked. ’Is it because it’s one of the Worker Ants and won’t attack without provocation, or is there another reason?’
After walking a short distance, the RUSTLING sounds around them grew more frequent. As they rounded a small hill, Shire’s jaw dropped. A dozen or so Giant Ants were marching past, each one carrying a leafy branch in its mandibles.
The Giant Ant they had been following was stumbling more and more, looking as if it were at the end of its life. Soon, it took two more steps, then pitched forward, collapsing with a heavy thud.
A Worker Ant from the column crawled over to the fallen one. Their antennae brushed against each other a few times, then the new ant simply picked up the dropped branch and rejoined the procession.
Shire watched the exchange calmly. There was no hesitation or sentiment, just a simple, efficient transfer of a task.
He walked over to the collapsed Giant Ant. Its antennae could still twitch slightly, proving it was alive, but the massive wound in its abdomen and the white fluid steadily leaking from it were clear signs of its impending death.