Chapter 60: Consumption
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.