Chapter 372 - 373 – Antmans?
[Current location: Temporarily main entrance of the base.]
"So let me get this straight." – said ClownFrog as he walked in his human form alongside Litle Manica who was right next to him as well as the chieftain of the ox man tribe.
"We were looking for those antmans, but instead they just came to us instead?"
"And you are saying that they came to surrender?"
"And total fanatics that straight up didn't mind dying for the feathered dragon?"
"Tell me, does that make any sense?"
"Is it an ambush?"
"N-no. We didn't spotted any antmans hiding anywhere besides antmans that came to our front gate."
"…."
"Chieftain Abberia." – said ClownFrog as he turned towards the ox man chieftain.
"What do you think about the situation?"
"…."
"Honestly, I don't know." – replied the elderly ox man.
"So far we knew the antmans as nothing more than fanatics that fallowed the feathered dragon of their own free will."
"Their worshiped him as their god. As their moon and sun."
"I don't really know why they worshiped him. Maybe it was his strength or he maybe saved, I don't know really."
"But now that their so called symbol of religion and as well as their god is no more…. Its unpredictable what they could do."
"…. Do they dig well?" – asked ClownFrog.
"?"
"Sorry?" – replied ox man.
"They are ants, right? So, does that mean they can do stuff like digging? These guys can also produce their own weapons, so that means it wouldn't be surprising if they could make some tools to help them dig." – said ClownFrog.
"…."
"LM (Litle Manica for short). Tell people the check out underground paths for safety. In case those bastards may try to attack us from underground." – said ClownFrog as he started turning into his true giant form.
"Yes boss!" – said Litle Maniac as he walked away.
"Sorry, chieftain Abberia. But let me ask you this." – said ClownFrog as he turned towards the ox man.
"If the talk came to peace, will you not get mad no matter what? If these guys are not here- "
"I understand." – said ox man.
"And honestly, we never had any interaction with the antmans in the past at all. We only observed them from afar and spied on them."
"We never fought with them, but the fact remains that they were not slaves, but an willing servants."
"Some of my tribe members may not look at the favorably, but I will be fine."
"…. Understand." – said ClownFrog.
(Honestly, this situation remains me of the ox mans.) – though ClownFrog as he arrived right under the gate.
(They came here, surrendering their lifes in exchange of loyalty.)
(But these guys are different.)
(Ox mans weren't our enemies and we still didn't trust them for the safer side.)
(But the antmans "ARE" our enemies and the "Trust" we would have with them would be very thin.)
"HEY!" – shouted ClownFrog.
"OPEN UP THE GATE!"
Moments later after the ClownFrog had shouted, the gates began slowly opening themselves before then having an small gab appear where the sun light entered through before the door finally opened enough for the ClownFrog to walk through it.
"?"
"?!"
As ClownFrog walked out from the base, the antmans that were right outside had spotted the giant skeleton dragon person walk out, causing them to get scared and back away.
"?"
(Wait... Wait a fuking second!)
(They are not brown, they are fuking red?!) – though ClownFrog as he realized the antmans in front of him weren't the brown antmans, but instead antmans with red shells.
"…."
"Who…..."
"…." – ClownFrog noticed the red antmans bodies being covered in injuries and were wearing bandages everywhere.
ClownFrog turned around towards the ox man who looked also completely confused and when he noticed he was getting stared at, the old ox man shaked his head, saying that he doesn't know what is going on.
"…."
(I'm so confused right now…. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!) – though ClownFrog while grabbing his head.
(And why the hell that guy didn't mentioned anything about these guys not being brown, but red?!)
[Meanwhile: Litle Manica]
"…."
"I feel like I'm forgetting something." – said Litle Manica to himself.
"…Meh."
"Probably nothing important."
[Back to the ClownFrog.]
"…."
*Sigh*
"Let me introduce myself." – said ClownFrog.
"My name is ClownFrog and you could call me the leader and the king of this place."
"And you all…. Who the hell are you?" – said ClownFrog as he walked towered antmans.
"…."
"N-n-name. Pa!" – said the nervous red antman with lower half of an ant as its introduces itself.
"W-w-we. C-came. To. S-surrender." – said antman as his voice shaked while bowing his head alongside other antmans.
"…."
"Why?" – asked ClownFrog as he stared at the antmans that were bowing their heads.
"You are not the antmans that fallowed the mad feathered dragon."
"And if anything, we never met you nor encounter you. Red ones."
"So, explain."
"What do you want?"
"…."
"M- "
"…"
"Mercy." – said the antman.
"M-mercy. Dead. One."
"…."
"Come inside. I want to talk, but you are both injured and visible hungry." – said ClownFrog as he turned around.
"First you somewhat recover, then we talk."
"But no funny stuff. Or you will be dealt with."
"Come."
"…"
The red antmans nervously fallowed ClownFrog inside the base as the gate behind them closed shut, trapping the antmans inside.
[Few moments later.]
"Good! Tastey!"
"Yum!"
The antmans were filling their cheeks left and right with food.
"…."
(These guys haven't ate for long time by the look of things.) – though ClownFrog as he turned to his humanoid form, surprising the antmans who watched the change.
"Don't worry. This form is just more comfortable than my real form. Just eat." – said ClownFrog to the antmans before then sitting down on the chair.
"Apple Juice. Orange Juice. How are their injuries?" – said ClownFrog to the two healers.
[Apple Juice / Orange Juice]
[Race change]
[Main race: Kobold – Sub race: Orange Gem] –> [Main race: Dobold – Sub race: Orange Gem]
"Well, we are healing them as best as we can, but you can call their current state stable." – said Orange Juice.
"…."
(You say that, but their bodies are telling us something.) – though ClownFrog as he inspected the red antmans bodies.
(Lot of these injuries are old and they are covered in scars.)
(They were not fed properly and are straight up in frenzy right now after finely having something to eat.)
(…. Torture?)
"…."
"We. Can. Talk. Now." – said red antman named Pa after he ate a big piece of the grilled meat.
"You sure? We can wait." – said ClownFrog.
"No."
"Urgent. Talk. Now."
"Fine." – said ClownFrog.
After the red antman have somewhat calmed down and were both healed and fed, I had started talking a lot with the leader of the group who was named an antman Pa.
He wasn't an prince, king or general. He was just an capitan rank antman.
Honestly, we were still on the guards against them, but these unknown antmans did held some crucial informations that we didn't expected to obtain.
In this place, the great danger zone by the name of Bloody Mounties, there existed 3 antman tribes.
The Crumbling Earth Tribe. – Brown antmans.
The Red Shell Tribe – Red Antmans.
The Green Burrow Tribe – Green Antmans.
There were total of 3 different antman tribes living in this place with the red and green antmans being much stronger than brown ants.
However, they were not hostile to each other…. Until the Crumbling Earth Tribe was attacked by the ruler monster leading the Living Clouds, those cute and innocent looking monsters at first glance, but in reality, being an fucked up eldritch monsters.
The antmans were hopeless against the foe that was striking them from above, but then out of nowhere, the monsters were slain by non-other than feathered dragon Amadeus.
This was when Amadeus first probably had appeared after reawakening.
After the feathered dragon meet the antmans, he gave them to choices.
Serv or be forced to serv.
And the antmans did not resisted at all and chose to belong servants instead of slaves.
If anything, after Amadeus had appeared, their entire life turned to better.
They were way more often attacked and vulnerable than other two tribes, but now that Amadeus had appeared, they not only have no longer have to worry too much about their homes being destroyed and if anything, they were able to grow their nest that was always getting destroyed.
Their faith grown with each day, even when they were treated poorly.
They became an mindless fanatics.
And when the Amadeus started his plan to grow his army, the mindless fanatics decided to fallow each of his commands, even if it meant their death.
Even bearing their fangs and weapons against the other tribes their consider as brothers and sisters.
The Red Shell Tribe was attacked by the Amadeus and his antman and they were obviously give option of "Serving" or "Be forced to serv".
But the red antman did not gave in and fought over and over and over again, resulting in the Red Shell Tribe being completely wrecked and destroyed.
As for what happened to them afterwords? Slavenly.
What remained of the red antman nest was turned into slaves that would work Crumbling Earth Tribe.
Diggin tunnels and expanding nest.
Forging weapons and growing food.
And never leaving to the outside world.
Until recently.
After the death of the Amadeus, the remains of the Crumbling Earth Tribe went straight up feral.
Some denied it while some believed in their god death.
This had caused some of the antmans to fight each other, allowing some of the red antmans to escape.
They found some of the stragglers among the brown antman forces and found out what had happened, with it led them to us.
Their demand is simple.
Save them and their will swear their loyalty to us.
Honestly, I still somewhat doubted them a bit, but then came another piece of news I received from antman.
The Crumbling Earth Tribe is planning to launch an attack using all of their remaining forces at our base.
