CRIMSON GUARD

The moonlight shone brightly as the evening breeze did its work by keeping the air cold and soothing to breathe in. The setting is a forest environment with trees with short but thick stems beautifully placed all over the place.

The leaves of the trees had provided the scenery with its beautiful glow. Though it seemed like this place was from earth, it's bioluminescent glow had made it known that it was nowhere close to earth.

The sound of crickets moving about was pertinent among the trees as time progressed. Although one could not believe that these creatures were similar to those on earth because the size of one of them was an adult human's fist. This was very unnatural and unreal to begin with. Maybe this was the reason why their movements generated such noise.

The inhuman sized crickets weren't the only creatures with unreal appearances. There were ants who walked only on a pair of jointed legs instead of its normal 3-pairs. The other pairs now held on to hunting tools such as knives, cleavers and some spears.

Some of them had wings which they used to soar through the skies at an incredible speed which was almost invisible to the naked eye. They carried spears in their hands to help provide aerial support during hunts.

Though it would have sounded a little bit funny to hear that ants were holding weapons and were ready to go for hunt. One would have asked,"What were they even going to hunt?"

Seeing them in their exoskeletons while wielding such weapons of destruction in their masses could cause anyone to shudder in fear.

Skreeech!

The disturbing sound echoed throughout the entire forest when it had been released from another creature. One whose presence had indeed signaled the forthcoming of a tedious battle.

The ants continued to progressed through the forest even though the sound of death and agony had been sounded by the other creature. They had no fear of whatever was lurking in the darkness up ahead. Some of the ant's workforce who were flying in the air decreased the altitude at which they were flying in order to get a better look of the creature who had disturbed their triumphant migration.

Upon closer inspection, the creature was a lizard whose stature was a bit menacing. Apart from its sheer massive size as compared to that the ants though, it looked exactly like a lizard from earth.

That was the kind of information one could obtain after looking at it for some time. Its scales were so black that it had it in a by-force countershading act each time it decided to stay stationary for some time.

Its narrow eyes were the only thing that gave it away with its yellowish glow which seemed to burn into the souls of all those who stared into them.

The antenna above the heads of the flying ants vibrated uncontrollably with each move they made in other to approach the giant lizard.

The antenna of those who were on the ground within the plains had also vibrated like those of their fellow comrades. As if they communicating with one another, they began to nod their heads one after the other.

They readied their weapons while progressing towards the lizard who didn't even care to bat them an eye. It was busily munching away on something.

The flying ants had finally retrieved from the lizard after the necessary amount of information they could gain about it. This information had also motivated those on the ground to go towards the monster without regret.

They moved without hesitation since they were going to be guided by the information.

A wise man once said that a battle is just a conversation between fists this but time it was their weapons which were what they were going to use in this conversation.

The lizard had recognized their decision right away as it moved from its food with its eyes glowing brightly than ever. It released its piercing scream once again, this time though it's ferocity had woken other beasts within the area.

Due to this, several monsters were now seen moving towards where the battlefield was. They had been woken by the sound and they weren't going back to sleep until they have gotten something to eat.

The flying ants had noticed this effect and had already jumped into action by searching around to see and pick up information about the new monsters entering the battlefield.

All around the field though were now creatures of all kind.

Screeech!

The sound escaped from the lizard and travelled throughout the atmosphere. The scream ended as quickly as it had begun.

Thud!

The sound reverberated throughout the battlefield. The lifeless body of the lizard started to fall slowly after its head had been swiftly detached from the rest of its body.

All the ants stared ahead in horror after witnessing what had happened to their enemy. They were suppose to rejoice after all since their foe had been taken away from them but the manner in which the opponent had been taken care off was what had their insides screaming to them to ran away as fast as possible.

The creature who had taken care of the noisy lizard had already started munching away on its corpse. Though it was just using its claws to hold the lizard in position, it had severed the corpse into several unrecognizable pieces as if it was nothing but paper.

The ants had already received the message loud and clear and had decided to leave the battlefield as soon as possible in order to avoid their inevitable deaths.

Though they had tried their best move away from the new danger ahead, the new swarm of monsters around the field weren't going to leave them alone.

Fwoosh!

Fwoosh!

Spears flew through the silent night as the flying ants returned back to the field to even up the odds. This was something those on the ground had predicted that's why they hadn't lost their cool.

Only a few of the creatures had fallen after the spears had been thrown and the flying ants were now powerless with nothing to battle the remaining monsters with except their biting and chewing mouthparts.

Before they could act, bodies were seen falling all over the battlefield. The ants had turned to look at the bodies and had immediately realized what they were. They were the bodies of the flying ants.

Something killed them in the air. What was fearful though, was that none of them knew what had done such a thing to their comrades.

Charging without regret, they bolted towards the rest of the beasts while drawing their weapons. Soon the battlefield was filled the bodies of a thousand ants and the bodies of other creatures. This simple battle of their's had caused the life of about a thousand of their men.

Standing above the pile of corpses though, was a tall scary looking ant with a golden exoskeleton which covered its body like an armor. It had its hand on its head while reminiscing about his fallen comrades.

It picked up a sword from the ground and stared up ahead at the monsters around the battlefield. With a heart full of grief and hatred, it dashed in to battle the monsters with a new resolve.

When it had reached the most monster condensed place within the battlefield, it made swift movements with the sword.

Thud!

Thud!

The sounds kept repeating as several monsters fell to the ground without getting up again.

The rising threat had been taken care of within some few minutes. This new abnormality had been born from the suffering of the ant race.

———

Just around the place where the battle had taken place,

Five people appeared out of nowhere and settled within the forest. They were greeted by the stillness of the night. The intensity of the brightness of the glow of the leaves of the trees had caused them to smile.

This was their first time of coming into contact with such a place. They had no idea of what waited for them at the end of the road they were on.

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