Chương 177: The Invaders

"So where are we going exactly?" Liora asked Lau'fi as they flew. She had to slow her flight to a slow glide so the antkin would be able to keep up. It appeared they weren't good flyers at all, as they were forced to beat their wings constantly.

"We are scouting!" Lau'fi replied enthusiastically.

"Yes, I get that. But scouting for what exactly? Food, monsters, water? What does the colony need me for exactly?" Liora asked.

"Excellent question! I think you have already noticed that while we can fly, we are not exactly the best of flyers."

"Well, you basically only have wings slapped onto your back. It's not like you evolved for flight specifically like birds have," Liora said, then hurriedly added.

"No offense."

"None taken. It is true! We, antkin, are well aware of our shortcomings. It is why we try to establish good relations with other races. But it is difficult. Many are frightened of us, and those who are not, like the merfolk, live a great distance away. It is why we are so excited to welcome you into the colony. You bring precious knowledge and skills we do not possess." So it appeared their goal wasn't really to separate them, but rather to use each of their skillsets to their maximum potential.

Liora still didn't like it. It didn't feel right for her not to be with Renir. She felt like something bad might happen to him. But she quickly dismissed her worries as she remembered how uninterested he was in her once he got his hands on that book. Liora shook her head in disapproval. Damned mages and their obsession with magic.

"So what are we scouting for again?" Liora asked. She didn't fail to notice that Lau'fi hadn't answered her question. The ant twiddled her antennae nervously, but finally said.

"We are scouting out the enemy. Humans."

"Humans? Please don't tell me they are creating corrupted creatures?" Liora groaned. Were the Night King goons literally everywhere? She was so tired of dealing with those guys.

"Corrupted creatures? Oh, no. There was a dark period in our past when our colony was nearly wiped out by the rot created by the humans of this kingdom. But we managed to eradicate that threat. At a great cost…" Lau'fi said with a heavy sigh. Liora blinked. So they had been here after all, but it appeared it had been a good while back. She wanted to ask more, but Lau'fi continued, seemingly not eager to dwell on the topic. Maybe it was related to the thing the ants mentioned before.

About most of the colony being nearly wiped out at one point. It must have been a sore topic.

"This time the enemy are the humans from the neighboring kingdom across the desert. I swear, humans will always cause trouble no matter where they go," Lau'fi said, clicking her mandibles angrily.

"Neighboring kingdom?" Liora asked. Were they really that far south? She still wasn't too familiar with the layout of this world, but she did know that Velithra Dominion, the country they were currently in, was the biggest and most successful country on the continent.

"Yes. On the southwest side of the desert. As far as we have learned, they are a small kingdom. In fact, I do not think that they would ever stand a chance against our colony!" Lau'fi announced proudly.

"But they have been trying to sneak into our nest. To kill the queen!" That would make sense from a human perspective. Kill the queen and the whole ant colony would likely go nuts in anger. But would the humans be so stupid not to realize that the whole colony of ants would attack them in rage, likely without regret for their own safety? Surely, they knew that.

"Is that really their goal?" Liora asked.

"It is what we in the council believe. They have managed to sneak into our nest twice now, both times getting dangerously close to the queen's chamber before we intercepted. We have tried to get to their kingdom and figure out what exactly humans are planning, but…"

"It's difficult for you to get so far?" Liora finished.

"Yes. We are also unfamiliar with human cities. We are not sure where to search. Quite often, our scouts are killed or forced to retreat before we even manage to get within the city walls." Liora nodded. That wasn't surprising. How could these antkin know anything about human city structure when all they knew was their anthill, which was completely different?

"No worries! I'm sure we'll figure it out. Stealthy missions are my specialty."

"I was hoping you would say that!" Lau'fi wiggled her antennae happily. They kept flying southeast, over the desert, but apparently they still had a great distance to cover. Lau'fi was already tiring. How could these ants do any scouting at all if they could only fly such a short distance?

"Get on my back. I'm faster anyway," Liora urged Lau'fi. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"No, no. How could I ever make you do all the hard work and not do any work myself?" The antkin rejected Liora initially.

"But isn't the goal to scout as far as possible? Do the methods of scouting really matter?" The antkin thought for a moment, but finally agreed and got on Liora's back. Liora instantly picked up speed, flying as quickly as she could. She didn't want to be caught in the desert heat if there was a way to avoid it. The day was already heating up, and it was still only morning.

"It's amazing! You can fly so fast," Lau'fi noted with awe.

"Of course! I was born to fly, and my flight ability has only improved with each evolution I got. Chak-chak-chak!" Liora boasted, feeling proud.

"Go in that direction. It is where our scouts previously managed to find human settlements," Lau'fi said, pointing.

"Roger that!"

"Roger? No, my name is Lau'fi."

"No, that's not what I meant. It's a human thing, I guess. It basically means yes."

"Then why not just say yes?"

"Because it sounds cooler."

"Oh! Roger!" With Liora's astounding flight speed, they were able to reach the settlement rather quickly. Liora deliberately flew very high, so she would appear as nothing more than a speck in the air to those who would look from below.

"I can't see anything from this height," Lau'fi muttered.

"I can see, and I'm pretty sure this is not the place you were looking for."

"Why not?"

"It's just a small village. Albeit it seems to be armed to the teeth," Liora said. The whole settlement had no more than fifty houses, but an unusual number of warriors, along with a wall of spikes and traps that faced in the direction of the anthill. These guys were expecting the antkin to come here.

"What does armed to the teeth mean? Do they put their arms in their mouth? Seems strange, even for humans," Lau'fi noted.

"No, no. It means they are wearing armor and have lots of weapons. There are even defensive structures and spikes. They are expecting you."

"So this must be the right place. They are protecting something here!" Lau'fi sounded fully convinced. Liora shook her head. Although there were a lot of guards here for a village this small, this wasn't an army or anything of the sort. These guys were most definitely posted here to protect the villagers, who hurried along their daily duties. Tending cattle by the looks of it. The land was quite barren, barely any shrubs growing. There were no fields, likely because the soil just wasn't good enough to grow crops.

People here likely depended on the cattle, and the guy in charge—king or queen or whatever—knew that and did anything in their power to protect their livelihood.

"The only thing they are protecting is the cattle. No, we need to go further to find out why exactly they are attacking your queen. It might be as simple as fear."

"But we never came here before the humans attacked us. It is way too far from the colony, and there's nothing really worthwhile here."

"You don't eat the cattle?" Liora asked in surprise.

"The amount here wouldn't even feed the colony for the day. No. We have other, much better food sources," Lau'fi explained. That was interesting. So if the ants had never come to this place, why were the humans so keen on attacking a giant ant colony deep within the desert? It didn't make much sense. For the time being, just wondering about it wouldn't do much good. The best Liora could do was keep flying. As they headed deeper into the human country, more vegetation appeared, but it was still rather sparse.

A fully sized tree was a luxury, and while there were certainly attempts to grow plants, it seemed like they weren't met with much success. The meager fields were mostly barren, and the few plants that had grown were barely anything more than dry stalks. The situation didn't improve much the further they flew, and it appeared that these people really depended heavily on their cattle. She saw large herds of camels and goats being led by shepherds and their dogs. It looked like a tough way of life.

But eventually, they did manage to reach what Liora assumed to be a bigger and much more important city. It had large walls surrounding it, while the center of the city was a castle at the feet of which was a rich oasis. This was the first lush place she had seen in this kingdom, but it was surrounded by an even bigger wall than the one that surrounded the city, and had many, many guards posted around it.

"If there is some knowledge to be gained, then I bet it is within that castle," Liora said.

"Then we shall storm the castle and obtain the knowledge for the good of the colony!" Lau'fi said, buzzing her wings as if preparing to fly.

"No, you dummy! Look at all the guards. They'll kill us in no time flat if we just drop on their heads."

"But how else would we do it? Ants must always fight with honor!" Lau'fi announced. Liora could see why their previous scouting attempts ended in failure. If all ants were this reckless, then no wonder they never made it past that first village.

"I'm going to use a skill that makes us invisible and get into that garden. We'll hide in the foliage and then see how to proceed further," Liora said.

"Since you know more about humans, then I shall leave this to you," Lau'fi nodded. Liora activated Decoy Fade, leaving it hovering high in the air above the city, while Liora herself dove towards the oasis, Lau'fi clinging to her for dear life. It was likely a bit too fast for the ant, but the faster they got down, the lower were the chances of anyone noticing them. But there was something Liora hadn't counted on. As she dove towards the oasis, she suddenly felt herself striking something similar to glass.

It made a loud cracking noise and shattered, disappearing into the air as shimmering dust.

"What the—""It must have been a protective dome. You shattered it with the force of your descent," Lau'fi explained. As soon as the dome had shattered, a loud bell rang from atop the castle. Chaos erupted in the oasis as the guards shouted.

"Intruders! Intruders!" Liora hurriedly dove into the first tree she saw, a large palm tree with ginormous leaves. She hid under one of those leaves, where Lau'fi crawled off her back, turning visible. Liora also became visible a moment later and turned into her magpie form. More shouting erupted from below.

"Search every nook and cranny! Find the intruders!" The guards below shouted. Oh, shit! Now what do we do?