After receiving the alarm that a praying mantis is attacking the hunting team, the protagonist immediately guards more than a dozen soldiers and ants of his enemies in a hurry, and hurriedly leaves "Dongyang City" and heads for the northern depression.

Because of the lack of guards around him, the protagonist urgently collected all the ants he encountered along the way, and by the time the team arrived at the depression, more than 100 veterans of the Divine Envoy King Legion had gathered around the protagonist. This gave him more confidence to fight the praying mantis.

This depression is a large area, full of stinky pools and weeds, and it is impossible to see the entire depression from a high place. Fortunately, the courier left pheromones along the way to ask for help, and the protagonist followed the courier and quickly found the hunting team that called the police.

By the time the protagonist arrives, the battle is over, and the protagonist doesn't see the praying mantis, but he can see that there has been a fierce struggle here, and the traces of the fight are still clear: the dirt on the ground has been turned to reveal the dark soil underneath, some low weeds show signs of being overwhelmed, and the remains of several large-headed ants are scattered on the ground.

What makes the protagonist even more angry is that there is a corpse of a male ant, he was cut in half, he was no longer breathing, his wide compound eyes looked at the sky unwillingly, and his six arthropods bent and stretched out to the sky.

The remaining dozen or so ants lost the command of the male, and they surrounded the male's corpse blankly but vigilantly.

It is the protagonist's requirement to let the male ants lead the hunt, and in the past, the male ants stayed in the nest on weekdays and had nothing to do, and only led the troops out to fight when they were fighting. The protagonist has made reforms in "Dongyang City", requiring the male ants to take turns to lead the team out hunting, which can not only supplement food, but also achieve the purpose of military training through hunting on a daily basis. But this male ant was unfortunate enough to die in this hunt.

A subordinate male ant, faithfully carrying out the protagonist's orders, only to die in front of him, how can this not make the protagonist angry.

The protagonist goes over to ask the surviving worker ants and learns what happened.

The hunting team, consisting of four soldier ants and 16 worker ants, arrived in the northern depression this morning under the command of the male ants to hunt mealworms.

After a careful search, under a tuft of thatch, the hunting team found a mealworm eating on a half-rotting grass stem. The hunting party formed a formation according to the established tactics, formed an encirclement, and immediately launched an attack. Under the wolf tactics of the ants, although the mealworm resisted, it was soon scarred and about to be killed.

Just then, when all the ants' attention was focused on the mealworm, a huge green mantis descended from the sky.

It landed right next to the mealworm, and with a seemingly random sweep of the broadsword, most of the ants were swept aside.

Then the praying mantis grabbed the half-dead mealworm and swallowed it little by little with its chewing mouthparts.

The male ant, the commander of the hunting team, saw that the prey he had received had been cut off and eaten in front of him, and he was immediately annoyed, and he personally led the team to pounce and besiege the praying mantis.

The praying mantis was concentrating on eating, ignoring the little ants. As a result, it was suddenly attacked by ants, and the praying mantis did not react until it was stung in its soft abdomen.

The praying mantis reacted quickly, it immediately dropped the food in its hand, spread its wings and jumped out of the encirclement of the ants with a slippery leap. I saw that it kicked its legs lightly, and the ants biting on its legs were kicked away.

The praying mantis then used the barbs on the broadknife and the tarsal feet on the top of its forefeet to hook off a soldier ant that had bitten its abdomen, and the broadsword quickly closed and cut the soldier ant in half.

The praying mantis noticed that the soft shell on its soft grass-green abdomen had been bitten a little, revealing the muscles underneath. The praying mantis was enraged by the injury.

At this time, due to their poor eyesight, the ants lost their target after the praying mantis flew away, and could only scurry around like headless flies in search. Only the male ant has better eyesight, he saw the mantis licking the wound not far away, and when he was about to gather his subordinates one by one, he saw that the mantis suddenly moved.

After a brief lick of the wound in its abdomen, the praying mantis opened and shook its wings again, flew into the air, and then swooped into the ant hunting party two meters away.

Just like the powerful attack that the protagonist once encountered, under the effect of this huge impact from the air, the entire team was scattered by the impact, and the middle worker ant was unlucky enough to be trampled under the middle pair of arthropods by the praying mantis, and the mantis knife hung down and decapitated the worker ant.

Before the hunting team could surround it, the praying mantis flapped its wings again and flew into the air, landing on a blade of grass high up, mockingly looking at the group of small ants that could only crawl on the ground.

The praying mantis then launched several more pounce attacks, killing a total of six ants, including the male, before satisfying itself to grab the half-eaten mealworm and walk away.

After listening to the descriptions of these ants, the protagonist feels that this praying mantis is indeed not something that ordinary ants can match. In terms of size, strength, and agility, the praying mantis is far superior to a single ant, and his ability to fly allows him to evade the ants' most effective siege tactics.

If it is a coincidence that he met the praying mantis once, and the protagonist knows that this is the second time that the praying mantis has appeared near "Dongyang City", which may be the mantis's sphere of influence. Then it is necessary to take some countermeasures, otherwise a small number of ants will not even have the ability to escape or resist after encountering the praying mantis.

Judging from the two encounters with the praying mantis, this mantis does not actively hunt ants when it has other food (such as mealworms), after all, ants have too little meat. But when hungry, this praying mantis also eats ants. If an ant attacks, the enraged praying mantis will also go on a killing spree.

Based on the above information, then the best way for ordinary ants to cope is to pray that the mantis is well fed and drunk, and give up decisively when the mantis snatches the ant's prey.

But the protagonist doesn't want to do this, and "Dongyang City" also needs a lot of food, and the contradiction between it and the praying mantis is irreconcilable. Moreover, you can't gamble on luck every day, what if one day the praying mantis is hungry and takes the initiative to attack the ants?

We have to find a way to deal with this praying mantis, the protagonist thinks to himself.

After directing his subordinates to collect the remains of their dead comrades, the protagonist prepares to bring their remains back and find a place to build a martyr's cemetery near the entrance. It is also a kind of ritual education.

But halfway along the road, there was another bad news - a praying mantis attacked the dried mealworm stone next to the entrance of "Dongyang City"!