Lord Highlander

At the exit of the Dark Insect Valley, under a huge earthquake that shook the mountains, after the ice, snow and permafrost were broken, six giant male ants came out of the underground soil in no particular order.

Behind them is a group of purple-red ghost pattern soldier ants. These soldier ants are only slightly smaller than giant soldier ants. A large number of red ants huddle together and flock to the battlefield by the lake in the cold wind.

Explosive barrels kept falling in the sky, and the sound of explosions came out one after another. Ant colonies flooded into the battlefield like a sea tide, rushed to the frozen lake, and rushed towards the position of the catapult. The six catapults obviously couldn't suppress it. These soldier ants swarmed up overwhelmingly.

At the same time, the group of archers standing behind the catapult began to throw arrows into the sky. Although the hard armor of these soldier ants is stronger, there are always some arrows that can penetrate the gap between the eyes of the ghost-pattern soldier ants and the hard armor. , to slow down their charge.

Six giant male ants rushed to the front, but just as they stepped onto the ice, the ice layer shattered.

The thick outriggers smashed through the ice and stepped directly into the unfrozen silt. The giant male ants did not dare to go any further. Only those dark red ghost pattern soldier ants rushed up in large numbers.

Andrew led the cavalry to intersperse from the right flank of the battlefield, intending to attack the soldiers and ants from the right to charge the camp.

After shooting the first round of arrow rain, more than a thousand archers quickly stepped on the sledges that had been prepared behind the team, and hundreds of ancient Bolai horses pulled the sledges and quickly retreated northward.

Armed thunder rhinos formed a wall on the north shore of the glacier lake.

Gubo Laima pulled the snow sledges through the gap between Thunder Rhinoceros and quickly retreated to the back of the frozen lake.

Andrew's cavalry did not rush into the army of soldier ants, they were just outside the army of soldier ants, taking advantage of the speed of the cavalry to eat away at the outermost ghost pattern soldier ants.

It wasn't until these soldier ants were about to rush across the lake that they were intercepted by eighteen armed thunder rhinos on the lake.

Fifty-six bed crossbows fired giant bolts almost simultaneously. These giant bolts crashed into the ant colony, but they couldn't stop them from charging. However, under the feet of the armed Thunder Rhinoceros, 3,000 indigenous warriors formed an infantry phalanx. .

Seeing the ghost pattern soldiers swarming in, the native warriors raised their shields in unison under the command of the commander.

Suldak and Gulitum stood at the front of the square army formation, and the halo of power immediately lit up under Suldak's feet, but this halo couldn't cover the entire army, at best it covered less than three people around Suldak. range of ten yards.

However, he held up the commemorative shield and faced the charge of the ghost pattern soldiers and ants, but he always stood in the front and never retreated.

The double-headed silk mannequin, Gulitum, was also beside Suldak, and let out a deep battle cry. The low and passionate voice immediately shocked the morale of the entire infantry formation, and the natives struck with their epee swords one after another. Touching the edge of the shield, the neat and consistent knocking sound was deafening to the ears of the ghost pattern soldier ants.

These huge ghost pattern soldier ants look more like a group of bison. The moment the front ghost pattern soldier ants hit the shield of the army formation, the front row of indigenous warriors were immediately knocked into the air with their shields .

But behind the shield is still a group of tribal warriors holding the shield with their bodies. These ghost-striped soldiers were blocked from charging, and immediately sprayed a large amount of acid and rot into the infantry camp. They supported their bodies with their four rear legs. Use the sharp pincers to wring the Horde warrior behind the shield.

However, he was desperately stopped by a group of tribal warriors holding heavy swords behind him. After the heavy sword collided with the pincers, there was a piercing sound of gold and iron.

Just as the soldier ants suppressed the tribe warriors with their size and strength advantages, countless Paglio spears protruded from the gaps between the tribe warriors, and pierced fiercely into the huge mouths of the soldier ants.

Suldak held the torch of holy light, and the torch burst into brilliant holy light in the crowd. The commemorative shield in his hand blocked a ghost-striped soldier ant from being strangled by the giant pincers, and waved the torch of holy light to light up a series of complicated magic patterns , a dazzling holy light erupted from the torch, and at the moment it hit the soldier ant's head, a huge light cluster rushed into the body of the ghost pattern soldier ant.

Numerous runes lit up on the body of the ghost pattern soldier ant, and the light in the body rushed out through the runes.

The next moment, the ghost pattern soldier ants turned into a cloud of smoke under the burning of the holy light, and was blown away by the bitter north wind.

The powerful holy aura spread out from Suldak's body, forcing the ghost-striped red ants near him to retreat, leaving a huge space with a diameter of ten meters.

The two-headed ogre was not too far away from Suldak's position. Gulitum used all his strength to smash the bone-crushing stick in his hand on the head of a ghost-patterned soldier ant. The turbid slurry burst open, he stepped on the skeleton of the ghost pattern soldier ant with one foot, and stuffed the fireball in the other hand into the mouth of the soldier ant rushing up from behind.

The exploding fireball frightened away the ghost-striped soldiers ants rushing up from behind, and the two-headed ogre strode forward to chase after him. A group of indigenous warriors followed his footsteps and rushed towards the lake, but they were caught by Sulda not far away. Ke stopped.

At this time, Samira, who was standing beside the armed Thunder Rhinoceros, held up a torch, bent down and lit the fuze at his feet.

In the next second, several sparks rushed out into the great lake with faint blue smoke.

Then there were bursts of explosions coming from the lake. These explosions were not so earth-shattering, but they caused ice and snow to splash.

The ghost-patterned soldier ants ran around in the explosion, but not many ghost-patterned soldier ants were injured by it. The cracks on the ice continued to spread outward, forming a dense blasting sound.

If someone looks down from the sky at this time, they will find that the cracks on the ice lake spread outwards along the center of the lake in a spiral shape. Although the damage to the ghost pattern soldier ants is not great, the cracks on the lake are Spreading outward rapidly, and these ice cracks are constantly expanding.

The ice layer with a thickness of two feet exploded like this, and the ghost pattern soldier ants on the ice layer fell into the frozen lake together with the burst ice.

The soldier ants were stained with lake water, and kept climbing on the floating ice. Unfortunately, they were so big that no ice block could bear the weight of a ghost pattern soldier ant. They floated up and down in the icy lake. It is unknown how many ghost pattern soldier ants fell into the ice lake.

And those ghost pattern soldier ants isolated on the south bank, relying on the constantly exploding ice lake, could only bite the bullet and charge to the army on the north bank of the ice lake, one after another giant crossbow arrows harvested the lives of the soldier ants in the chaotic scene.

It has to be said that these dark red ghost pattern soldier ants are far more ruthless than those soldier ants that broke out in the beast tide, but unfortunately they were still pierced through the body in front of the bed crossbow.

There are a large number of indigenous warriors crowded by the lake. They hold shields in their hands and slash with heavy swords in their hands. Behind them are indigenous warriors holding Paglio's spears. They swarm up and continue to squeeze these ghost-patterned soldiers Ant living space.

The entire ice surface is constantly exploding, and the soldiers and ants want to escape from the ice surface, but they have to face the stubborn resistance of the tribe warriors.

At this time, several huge rocs were circling in the sky, and the continuous and deep blasting sound could not cover up their clear calls.

In fact, the indigenous warriors only approached the ghost pattern soldier ants on the north bank to the lake, and returned to the Shiqiao camp one after another before dark. , take away the heat that their bodies do not have much.

The extremely cold night is obviously the most deadly for these soldier ants. Their joints will freeze after being wet with water. These frozen places continue to thicken, making it more and more difficult for them to move. The cold wind blows on the surface of the lake. A thick layer of ice soon formed.

Some ghost pattern soldier ants climbed ashore, also covered with thick ice, crawled hard on the snow, and finally died under the pursuit of Andrew's cavalry.

Some ghost ants simply drowned in the lake water and re-frozen together with the crushed ice in the lake.

Less than half of the ghost pattern soldier ants were able to escape from the south bank of the Great Lake back to the Dark Worm Valley, and the six giant male ants could only stand on the north bank of the Great Lake and roar angrily.

1. The cold wind at night re-freezes the shattered lake, and countless ghost-patterned soldiers ants like ice sculptures are buried under the thin ice layer.

In the early morning, Suldak reappeared on the south bank of the glacier lake with his army, and saw an unknown number of ghost-striped soldier ants frozen on the vast lake, and their bodies still maintained the original struggling image.

These ice cubes reflected the dazzling sunlight, causing the soldiers on the lake to squint slightly.

Since the ice was not frozen solid, Suldak forbade the soldiers to run to the lake to collect the spoils.

At this time, the allied forces of the adventure group and the mercenary group rushed out from the rear. They did not go to pick up the corpses of the soldier ants on the frozen lake. These are the trophies of Viscount Suldak and are sacred and inviolable private property. .

However, those ghost pattern soldier ants who fled to other parts of the Great Lake to freeze but not completely died became the prey that the coalition forces competed for.

Three days later, a group of indigenous warriors with spears in their hands began to walk up to the frozen lake, and began to dig through the ice surface, taking out the frozen ghost-patterned soldiers ants from the ice surface little by little.

The corpses of countless ghost pattern soldiers were transported to the Stone Bridge camp.

After this battle on the lake, the ghost pattern soldier ants completely retreated into the ant nest in the dark worm valley and refused to come out.

The good news of the victory has been sent back from the Stone Bridge Camp to Dodan Town. Suldak did not rush to the Dark Worm Valley. He just set up seven catapult carts on the north bank of the glacier lake and threw explosive barrels every day. The ant nests in the dark worm valley carry out continuous bombardment.

During the recent period, there are always countless roc birds circling in the sky...

...

At the end of December, the chiefs of the twenty-five tribes in the Invercargill Forest arrived at the Stone Bridge Camp on the south bank of the glacier lake. Seeing the chiefs of their own tribes coming to the camp, the indigenous warriors were in high spirits and contributed their contributions to the chiefs one after another. rewards these days.

Those patriarchs were sitting in Suldak's marching tent with embarrassment and embarrassment. Everyone looked at each other, but no one was willing to speak.

Suldak walked into the military tent covered in ice and snow. He kept sending gentle greetings to the chiefs of the indigenous tribes. When he entered the tent, all the chiefs of the indigenous tribes stood up one after another.

Then everyone sat down, and Suldak asked them why they came. Is it necessary for these indigenous warriors in the military camp to return to their respective tribes this severe winter?

The patriarchs shook their heads, expressing that this was not the case.

The patriarch of the Dakuni tribe coughed a little unnaturally, then looked at Surdak cautiously, and said to him:

"The food reserves of our tribes are not bad this year, enough to eat until the spring is warm and the flowers bloom, and the tribes have also started to raise yellow sheep. Speaking of these, I would like to thank Lord Suldak for his strong support, so that we can survive the beast tide. It's been such an easy first winter since."

The patriarchs of other tribes nodded in agreement.

"Is that a problem with the copper mine?" Surdak asked a little strangely.

The patriarchs shook their heads again to say no.

Seeing the puzzled look on Suldak's face, the Dakuni patriarch said: "Lord Suldak, you have achieved brilliant results in the Dark Worm Valley, but please forgive us for making an unreasonable request. The most important thing is that we can no longer kill these ghost-patterned soldier ants..."

Unexpectedly, the indigenous tribe who had just been slaughtered by the beast tide was actually the lobbyist of these ghost-striped red ants.

Suldak asked even more puzzled: "Why is this? Why don't you let me continue hunting these red ants?"

"If the killing continues, it will affect the life of the rocs living on the cliffs of the Shenshan Mountain in the north. These red ants are usually the rations of those rocs." The patriarch of the Dakuni tribe explained, his voice was a bit dry.

"The number of red ants is huge, and they reproduce in large numbers every year. Once the number reaches a limit, a beast tide will break out..."

After hearing what he said, Suldak knew that these natives actually had a deeper understanding of this forest, and they just didn't talk about it usually.

The patriarch of the Dakuni tribe continued: "However, after you clean up these ghost-striped red ants on such a large scale after the beast tide, they will quickly reduce their numbers. Once they can't catch enough red ants to fill their stomachs, they will plunder Through Invercargill Forest, hunt the monsters in the forest and us."

"For us, the beast swarm only happens once every ten years. Once the birds are recognized as food that can satisfy our hunger, we may not be able to live in the hills and mountains. You know...they are the overlords who control the sky here!"

Suldak nodded slightly, indicating that he understood.

Then he said: "Although this Northern Expedition was not too successful... I originally planned to occupy the Dark Insect Valley, but the strength of the ghost-striped red ants here is beyond my imagination. Now that I say it this way, I accept your wishes." Persuasion, I will gradually withdraw my troops within a week and retreat to the chain bridge camp in the mountain stream."

"In the future, it is estimated that this large-scale encirclement and suppression operation will be carried out every winter to control the number of these ghost-striped red ants..."

"In addition, the Chain Bridge camp will not be withdrawn. It will become the bridgehead of the northern border of the imperial army, and it will also become the entrance to the hunting ground in the northern part of the Bailin plane. The corps is open, and of course tribe hunters can also come here to hunt ghost-striped red ants."

He raised his head and said to Andrew and Samira who were standing at the door: "Get ready, the supply troops will leave the Stone Bridge camp first, and the cavalry battalion will be in charge of the rear..."

All the indigenous patriarchs didn't expect him to withdraw so resolutely, and they all stood up and saluted Suldak.