'How should I respond?'
In my view, the more pressing issue was obviously the enemies who had approached all the way near the nest.
They must have rushed here ahead of the main forces clashing, and these new foes that the ants had never fought before reached the nest in one go.
"Captain, doesn't something feel off?"
"You're right. The atmosphere feels strange."
After pausing briefly, they took a short rest, unaware that a single scout ant holding its breath was watching them from atop a tree.
They were all heavily armed, but one stood out for his massive bulk. The others called him Captain.
"At some point, this whole area stopped feeling like an ordinary forest."
His subordinates' senses and his own suspicions were remarkably sharp.
In truth, the area around the nest had been profoundly altered by the ants.
The ants' nest, built by countless worker ants piling up earth and nearby soil, had become a massive fortress both underground and above. But the changes went beyond that.
Thanks to the ants relentlessly deploying hunting parties and wiping out all nearby prey, the entire ecosystem in the vicinity was shifting.
Whether carnivores or herbivores, any beasts large enough to catch the ants' eye had already vanished from the area.
"Captain, how about we just slip away quietly like this?"
One of them chuckled as he suggested it.
They had allied with the goblins only to betray them and flee? That would be great news for us.
"No. We need to confirm what kind of monsters these are. Karon and a few other goblins were gathering all the wild goblins in the area, steadily expanding their forces. If they all die, we'll be handing this entire vast territory to those monsters."
But this Captain seemed like a sharp thinker.
Whatever intel he'd received, he was deeply wary of the ants.
'No choice then. We'll have to fight.'
As they resumed their advance, the ants in the nest began their response.
To steadily lure them into the most reliable trap and wipe them out completely.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙They intentionally lure the enemies to the nest.
The ants' traps were the nest itself and its surroundings.
Thus, the enemies naturally approached right up to the nest's doorstep, where they could behold the massive fortress with their own eyes.
"It's astonishing, right? I was too."
I smirked at their reactions, their mouths agape in disbelief at the sight before them.
The colossal fortress, built by the ants digging up earth and mixing it with crushed wood and other debris layered meticulously, rivaled a full-fledged citadel from their perspective.
They had probably expected mere burrows at best, and now they hesitated in panic.
"Q-Quick, prepare yourselves. We can't let these monsters live!"
The orc Captain paled, as if struck by some primal instinct, and bellowed.
I wanted to applaud his sharp senses, but in truth, they had already fallen into the ants' trap.
"Captain! They're swarming out of the tunnels!"
The ants burst en masse from the temporary tunnels where they had lain in wait, surrounding them.
The enemies, who had gathered oil and firestarters to ignite the area, were horrified to see ants encircling them from all sides in an instant.
"Damn it, fight!"
Naturally, battle erupted immediately.
Some hundred foes clashed fiercely with two or three times as many ants right before the nest.
'...They're tough.'
That was my first thought watching the fight unfold: the orcs' combat prowess far exceeded my expectations.
"Where do you think you're going! You monsters dare?!"
The orc warriors, a cut above goblins in physical prowess, swung massive axes and swords with roars, shattering ant exoskeletons in a single blow.
Not just regular ants—even those that had undergone first-stage evolution with tougher shells exploded or splintered under that raw strength.
Each one rivaled a human knight in power.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙Your subordinates panic at the enemies' combat power.
"If we'd fought them head-on properly, we might have lost..."
The orcs hadn't formed proper ranks. Their Captain barely seemed to be commanding at all—they were just chaotically swinging weapons in a melee.
It was all thanks to luring them into the pre-dug traps, leading to the close-quarters brawl where the ants held their greatest confidence.
Yet the orcs, each handling several ants effortlessly, held their own despite the ants' numerical superiority.
If anything, the momentum favored the orcs.
Their roars and shouts weren't the desperate cries of the disadvantaged. They were warrior cries to bolster their own and their comrades' resolve.
"Poison!"
"Protect your vitals! Even a drop in your eyes is lethal!"
Venom ants were hastily deployed to spray poison.
But the sturdy orc warriors shielded only their faces and pressed on, taking the venom on their bodies.
They even neutralized the sprayed venom with the gusts from their wild swings.
It wasn't as instantly fatal as it had been for goblins, but contact still caused agonizing burns—yet they endured through sheer willpower and kept fighting.
'Is their whole race like this?'
Even I, watching in a daze, was left speechless by their ferocity.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙The subordinates worry that deploying additional worker ants would slow growth due to the time needed to recover expended forces.
In truth, while the enemies' prowess had rattled the ants, the nest and its vicinity still held plenty of worker ants focused on production.
But those were the true essential laborers, like the blood circulating through our bodies.
Pulling them into combat would halt the colossal hive's functions and regress its growth.
It was only natural they recoiled at the idea.
'They're panicking.'
I could feel the hive mind, which had always judged with cool precision, now plunged into chaos.
The new enemies were simply too strong. The ants, grandly dubbed Heralds of Doom across the region, faced a superior force for the first time and teetered on the brink of defeat.
Having no prior experience, their confusion was understandable.
That conviction hit me: I needed to step in here.
I still remembered how they'd once rampaged from misinterpreting a single careless word of mine.
"Fighting takes priority, even if it means losses. The longer we hesitate, the more damage accumulates."
Personally, I wanted to throw every last worker ant into the fray.
If losses were inevitable, minimize them. Dragging it out halfway would only worsen the toll.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙Your subordinates react to your will.⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙They throw everything into finishing the enemies off.
"...Huh?"
No, I didn't mean for them to go this far.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"What in the world is happening?"
Tuks, the orc Captain who had led his subordinates to storm the ants' nest, muttered in a daze.
They had nearly wiped out the ants—tenacious, powerful in groups, but killable with clear heads.
"Guh... They keep coming endlessly...!"
Even the orcs, their savagery ignited by battle frenzy, began to falter.
These ants pouring from the nest had abandoned even the eggs and larvae that needed constant care.
Even the second queen ant, dispatched to the secondary nest, halted oviposition—the hive's very breath—and dragged her massive body into the fray.
'Something... something's changed about them!'
Tuks' keen instincts detected the shift in the ants' "momentum."
Though he didn't realize it stemmed from rampaging to fulfill their deity's will.
"No—retreat!"
"They're charging!"
Tuks swiftly judged flight necessary, but the berserk ants wouldn't let them go.
Shaking off those colossal swarming ants and escaping was impossible.
In the end, the orcs plunged back into fierce melee.
"What are these now!?"
In the chaos, newly emerged pupae joined the fight—ants as large as great beasts, clad head to toe in thick exoskeletons like armor, covered entirely in razor-sharp thorns.
'Impossible. That level of defense!'
Tuks gaped as a thorn ant's armor deflected a dagger infused with his demonic power.
Unlike other ants that split apart under his swings, its durability was on another level.
Even channeling demonic power enough to faintly glow—proof of a Captain's caliber—and striking with full force barely cracked the armor.
"Aaagh!"
"Too many..."
The thorn ants' arrival, few but devastating, combined with the ants' reckless onslaught, began felling orcs one by one.
Tuks witnessed one screaming subordinate torn apart: six ants clinging from all sides, ripping limbs and devouring entrails from his gutted belly.
One sight burned deeper than a hundred words.
"We have to flee. And warn them. That a calamity grows in the northeast forest!!!"
Finally grasping why the goblin tribes had desperately formed a united army, Tuks swallowed dryly and desperately ordered retreat.
Turning tail shamed an orc, but survival mattered more—spreading word of these ants.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙The subordinates strive to kill every last enemy without mercy.
Terrified by defeat, the fleeing orc survivors were pursued madly by the ants.
Though subordinates, not yet fully grasping their deity's intent, they faithfully executed the command to annihilate: they'd chase until one side collapsed from exhaustion.
"Hey...! Stop chasing! Get back to work!"
Jin-hyuk urgently shouted as the victorious ants failed to swiftly return to duties, relentlessly pursuing instead.
Thankfully, even the queen ants intervened to halt the chase, but the entire nest had paused operations nonetheless.
'Good enough. Now to figure out recovery. Man, those orcs... were strong. And they were just a mercenary band.'
Pacing the living room unable to sit, he slumped onto the sofa and stared at the flickering screen before him.
Self-reproach washed over him for growing complacent watching the ants' string of victories.
'I need to hurry.'
They'd need far more food to sustain the ants.
He resolved to expedite providing more and varied ants with new abilities.
That world was no pushover.
"Sorry if it was too much. Looks like you guys still have a ways to go."
Muttering bitterly with a wry smile, he switched the screen.
Fortunately, the ants' main force had triumphed over the goblin main army.
Now, the priority was how the ants would evolve from the spoils—what abilities they'd gain.
Most of their current issues could be resolved through predation and evolution anyway.