At the exit of the Dark Worm Valley, under a huge earthquake that shook the mountains, the ice, snow and permafrost shattered, and six giant male ants emerged from the underground soil in no particular order.

Behind them was a swarm of purple-red ghost-patterned soldier ants, which were only slightly smaller than the giant ones, and a large number of red ants huddled together and surged towards the lakeside battlefield in the cold wind.

Barrels of explosives were falling in the air, explosions were heard one after another, and a tidal wave of ants poured into the battlefield, rushing up the icy lake towards the location of the catapults, and the six catapults were obviously unable to suppress the overwhelming influx of soldiers.

At the same time, a large group of archers standing behind the catapult began to shoot arrows into the sky, and although the ant's hard armor was stronger, there were always arrows that could pierce the gap between the ghost's eyes and the hard armor, slowing them down.

Six giant males rushed to the front, but as soon as they stepped on the ice, there was a sound of the ice crumbling.

The stout legs smashed through the ice and stepped directly into the unfrozen mud underground, and the giant male ants did not dare to go any further, only the dark red ghost-patterned soldier ants rushed up in large numbers.

Andrew led the cavalry from the right flank of the battlefield, trying to charge the soldiers from the right side.

After the first round of arrows, more than 1,000 archers quickly stepped on the climbing plough that had been prepared at the back of the group, and hundreds of Gubolai horses pulled the climbing plow and quickly retreated north.

The armed Thunder Rhinoceros forms a wall on the north shore of the Ice Lake.

Guborai pulled the snow ploughs through the cracks between the thunder rhinos and quickly retreated behind the glacial lake.

Andrew's cavalry did not rush into the army of soldiers, they were only on the periphery of the army of soldiers, using the speed advantage of the cavalry to nibble at the outermost ghostly soldiers.

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

Fifty-six bed crossbows fired huge crossbow arrows almost simultaneously, and these giant crossbow arrows crashed into the ant colony, but they could not stop their charge, but at the foot of the armed thunder rhinoceros, three thousand indigenous warriors formed an infantry phalanx.

Seeing the ghost-patterned soldiers and ants swarming, the indigenous warriors raised their shields in unison at the signal of the commander.

Surdak and Gulitum stood at the front of this square formation, and Surdak's feet lit up with an aura of strength for the first time, but this aura could not cover the entire army, at best, it covered an area of less than thirty yards around Surdak.

However, he held a commemorative shield, and in the face of the charge of the ghost-patterned soldier ants, he always stood at the front and did not retreat.

The two-headed silk model Gullitham was also beside Surdak, and let out a low battle howl, and the low and passionate voice suddenly shocked the morale of the entire infantry formation, and the natives struck the edge of the shield with their heavy swords one after another, and the sound of the uniform percussion reached the ears of the ghost-patterned soldier ants, which was deafening.

These huge ghost-patterned soldiers looked more like a herd of bison, and the moment the ghost-patterned soldiers at the front hit the shields of the military array, the first row of indigenous warriors were knocked into the air with their shields.

But behind the shield was still a group of tribal warriors with their bodies on the shield, these ghost-patterned soldiers were blocked from charging momentum, and immediately spewed a large amount of acid and putrid liquid into the infantry camp, they used the four legs behind them to support their bodies, and twisted the tribal warriors behind the shield with sharp pincers.

But he was desperately stopped by a group of tribal warriors with heavy swords in their hands, and after the heavy sword collided with the tentacles, there was a piercing sound of gold and iron.

Just as the soldiers were using their size and strength to suppress the tribal warriors, countless Paglio spears stretched out from the gaps between the tribal warriors and stabbed into the wide open jaws of the soldiers.

Surdak held the torch of holy light, the torch burst out with brilliant holy light in the crowd, the commemorative shield in his hand blocked a ghost-patterned soldier ant giant pincer to strangle, waved the torch of holy light and lit up a string of complex magic patterns, a dazzling holy light burst out from the torch, At the moment when it hit the head of the soldier ant, a huge ball of light rushed into the body of the ghost-patterned soldier ant.

The body of the ghost pattern soldier ant lit up with countless runes, and the light in the body rushed out through the runes.

In the next moment, the ghost-patterned soldier ant turned into a cloud of smoke under the scorching light of the holy light, and was blown away by the cold north wind.

A powerful divine aura spread outward from Surdak's body, forcing the ghost-patterned red ants near him to retreat, freeing up a huge space ten meters in diameter.

The two-headed ogre was not too far from Surdak's location, and Gulit smashed the bone-crushing stick in his hand on the head of a ghost-patterned soldier ant with all his might, and a cloudy slurry bloomed in the shattered skull, and he stepped on the bones of the ghost-patterned soldier ant with one foot, and the fireball in the other hand was stuffed into the mouth of the soldier ant who rushed up from behind.

The exploding fireball startled away the ghost-patterned soldier ants rushing up behind, and the two-headed ogre strode forward, and a group of indigenous warriors followed in his footsteps and rushed towards the lake, only to be stopped by Surdak not far away.

At this time, Samira, who was standing at the feet of the armed thunder rhinoceros, held a torch and bent down to light the fuse at his feet.

In the next second, several sparks burst out of the lake with faint green smoke.

Then there were explosions on the surface of the lake, and these explosions were not so earth-shattering, but they exploded into ice and snow.

The ghost-patterned soldier ants scurried around in the explosion, but not many ghost-patterned soldiers were injured because of this, and the ice exploded and continued to spread outward, connecting into a dense burst sound.

If someone takes a bird's-eye view of the sky at this time, they will find that the explosion on the ice lake is spreading outward along the spiral in the center of the lake, and although the damage caused to the ghost striped soldier ants is not great, the cracks on the lake surface are spreading outward rapidly, and these ice cracks are constantly expanding.

The two-foot-thick ice exploded open, and the ghostly soldiers on top of the ice tumbled into the ice lake along with the exploding ice.

The soldiers were contaminated with lake water and kept climbing on top of the floating ice, but unfortunately they were so large that no ice block could bear the weight of a ghost-patterned soldier ant, and they were up and down in the ice lake, and they didn't know how many ghost-patterned soldiers had fallen into the ice lake for a while.

And those ghost-patterned soldier ants who were isolated on the south bank, relying on the constantly exploding ice lake, could only stubbornly charge the army on the north shore of the ice lake, and one giant crossbow arrow after another harvested the lives of the soldier ants in the chaotic scene.

I have to say that these dark red ghost-patterned soldier ants are far more ruthless than those soldier ants in the outbreak of the beast tide, but unfortunately they are still pierced in front of the bed crossbow.

The lake was crowded with a large number of indigenous warriors, holding shields in their hands, heavy swords in their hands constantly chopping, followed by indigenous warriors holding Paglio's spears, they swarmed up, and continued to squeeze the living space of these ghostly soldiers.

The entire ice was constantly exploding, and the soldiers tried to escape from the ice, but they had to face the stubborn resistance of the tribal warriors.

At this time, there were several huge birds hovering in the sky, and the continuous and low blasting sound could not hide their clear calls.

In fact, the indigenous warriors only forced the ghost soldiers on the north shore into the lake, and returned to the stone bridge camp one after another before dark, leaving only countless soldiers struggling in the lake, and the cold wind blew around them, taking away the little heat in their bodies.

The extremely cold nights are obviously the deadliest for these soldiers, as their joints freeze when they get wet, and these frozen places continue to thicken, making it more and more difficult for them to move, and the cold wind blows on the surface of the lake, and soon forms a thick layer of ice.

Some of the ghostly soldiers climbed ashore, also covered in thick ice, crawling through the snow with difficulty, and finally died under the pursuit of Andrew's cavalry.

Some of the ghostly ant simply drowned in the lake and re-froze with the crushed ice in the lake.

Less than half of the ghost-patterned soldier ants were able to escape from the south shore of the Great Lake back to the Dark Worm Valley, and the six giant males could only stand on the north shore of the Great Lake and let out an angry roar.

One. The cold night wind caused the shattered lake to freeze again, and countless ghost-patterned soldier ants like ice sculptures were buried under the thin layer of ice.

In the early morning, Surdak reappeared on the south shore of the glacier lake with his army, and saw that the vast surface of the lake was frozen with an unknown number of ghost-striped soldier ants, and their bodies still maintained the original image of struggle.

These ice cubes reflect the harsh sunlight and make the warriors on the lake squint slightly.

Since the ice was not frozen, Surdak forbade the soldiers to run to the lake to collect the booty.

At this time, the coalition forces of the adventure group and the mercenary group poured out from the rear, and they did not go to the frozen lake that had just condensed to pick up the corpses of those soldier ants, which were the trophies of Viscount Surdak, and they were sacrosanct private property.

But the ghost-patterned soldiers who fled to other parts of the Great Lake to freeze their bodies but did not completely die became the prey of the coalition forces.

It was only after three days that a group of indigenous warriors, spears in hand, began to walk up the lake and began to dig through the ice, removing the frozen ghost-patterned soldiers from the ice little by little.

The carcasses of countless ghost-patterned soldier ants were transported to Camp Stonebridge.

After this battle on the lake, the ghost pattern soldier ants completely retracted into the ant nest in the Dark Worm Valley and refused to come out.

The news of the victory had already reached Dodan from Camp Stonebridge, and Surdak did not rush to the Dark Worm Valley, but only set up seven catapults on the north shore of the Ice Lake, and continued to throw barrels of explosives every day to bombard the anthills of the Dark Worm Valley.

In recent times, there have been countless birds hovering in the sky......

……

At the end of December, the twenty-five tribal chiefs of the Invercargill Forest arrived at Camp Stonebridge on the south shore of the glacier lake, and when they saw the chiefs of their tribes arriving at the camp, the indigenous warriors were in high spirits and offered their rewards to the chiefs for those days.

The patriarchs sat in Surdak's marching tent with embarrassed and embarrassed expressions, everyone looked at each other, but no one was willing to speak.

Surdak walked through the tent covered in ice and snow, and he kept sending gentle greetings to the chiefs of the indigenous tribes, and when he entered the tent, all the indigenous chiefs stood up.

Then everyone sat down, and Surdak asked them if they needed to return to their tribes in the harsh winter this year.

The patriarchs shook their heads one after another, indicating that this was not the case.

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

"This year, the food reserves of our tribes are not bad, enough to eat until the spring blossoms, and the tribes have also begun to raise yellow sheep, speaking of which, thanks to the strong support of Lord Surdak, we can live so easily in the first winter after the beast tide."

The patriarchs of the other tribes nodded in agreement.

"Is there something wrong with the copper mines?" Surdak asked, somewhat curiously.

The patriarchs shook their heads again and said no.

Seeing Surdak's puzzled expression, the Dakuni Patriarch spoke: "Lord Surdak, you have achieved brilliant results in the Dark Worm Valley, but please forgive us for making an unreasonable request, you really can't kill these ghost-patterned soldiers anymore......"

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

Surdak asked even more puzzled, "Why is that?" Why don't you let me keep hunting these red ants? ”

"If you continue to kill, it will affect the lives of those Peng birds living on the cliff wall of the Shenshan Mountain in the north, and these red ants are usually the rations of those Peng birds." The Dakuni tribal patriarch explained, his voice a little dry.

"Red ants are numerous, and they reproduce in large numbers every year, and once the number accumulates to a limit, a beast tide will break out......"

When Surdak heard him say this, he realized that these natives actually had a deeper understanding of the forest, and they just didn't say it.

The Dakuni tribal patriarch continued: "But after the beast tide, such a large-scale clean-up of these ghost-patterned red ants will cause them to quickly lose their numbers, and once they can't catch enough red ants to fill their stomachs, they will skim the Invercargill Forest and hunt down the monsters in the forest and us. ”

"For us, the beast tide is only once in a decade. Once the bird is recognized as a satisfying food, I am afraid that we will not be able to live in the hills and mountains, you know...... They are the overlords who control the skies here! ”

Surdak nodded slightly, indicating that he understood.

Then he said: "This northern expedition, although it is not too successful...... Originally, I planned to occupy the Dark Worm Valley, but the strength of the ghost-patterned red ants here is beyond my imagination, and now that I have said that, I accept your persuasion, and I will withdraw my troops one after another within a week and retreat to the camp of the mountain stream chain bridge. ”

"In the future, this kind of large-scale encirclement and suppression operation is expected to be carried out once a year in winter to control the population of these ghostly red ants......"

"In addition, the Chain Bridge camp will not be removed, this will become the bridgehead of the northern border of the imperial army, and it will also become the entrance to the northern hunting ground of the White Forest Plane, I will open this hunting ground to the adventure groups and mercenary groups on the northern plane, of course, tribal hunters can also hunt ghost red ants here."

He looked up and said to Andrew and Samira, who were standing at the door, "Prepare yourself, the baggage troops will leave the stone bridge camp first, and the cavalry battalion will be responsible for breaking the rear ......"

None of the indigenous patriarchs expected him to withdraw his troops so decisively, and they all stood up and saluted Surdak.