Comes! And! Comes! And! Comes! And! Comes!

—You could once hear the words being chanted by one of the mad six at night, but no longer, for she busted her head open just after the first case of parasitic infection was noticed.

“So cool” Billy yelled and I felt . . . nostalgic for some reason.

Though it should be kept in mind that, when you find one invader in your region, it’s better to become vigilant, because the chance of there being more of them is a possibility; and the round tubular being I had seen on the way definitely came up on my radar as a potential enemy.

I climbed back and was welcomed with hushed murmurs, some taut antennas, and a generally friendlier atmosphere. They touched my back with their antennas as I passed through or saluted from afar. I heard Gene screaming at an even higher octave voice than before. She really was the female version of Billy; I no longer had any doubts regarding that.

The leader of the other team came to congratulate me. “You did well,” he said.

“Hurt are you, or injured?” Billy insistently questioned one after the another, and I once again felt like the hero who had saved his colony. Their energetic display of emotions transported me back to the day I had broken out of my cocoon after defeating the zombified king and evolving into my current species: a silver “Trap jaw” ant. The reception I had received on that day, the joy I had felt, is forever etched in the depths of my mind as one of the most glorious days of my life. This was the reason why I had agreed to become an explorer. This was why I roamed the dangerous shade with my team, to take care of those who couldn’t take care of themselves. It was the genuine concern everyone showed at the hurt and the heartfelt compliments they gave at success that had kept me moving for them. This was the truth.

It wasn’t even the complements that drove me to do better and better, but something much basic, something simpler. It was the desire to keep my family safe. No matter how apart and different we, we’re united by the ills and haunts of time, and the dangers. Only together have had any chance of making it out alive. Maybe this was it.

But amidst the applause and the happiness, I also saw the tired bodies of the soldiers dragging away the pieces of those who had died. I also saw sadness in the eyes of those who had lost their friends and felt their resentment. They silently blamed me as much as they did the corpse piler who had given them the loss. Four ants had died before I had moved. I could have saved them had I been a bit quicker on my feet. Their sad eyes questioned me. Why didn’t you act sooner? Their stern gazes seemed to be asking.

And this was my weight; a burden of the one who was strong, but not strong enough.

If only I was a bit stronger, a bit faster. If I hadn’t stalled and attacked from the start; If I hadn’t lost concentration in the middle of the war; If I had just looked at the bigger picture; If I had simply questioned everything odd about the third antennae which had grown among some of the ants of my colony; then I could have saved them all: the soldiers, Minnie, everyone. I regretted my shallow strength. I knew it was too late now. And that is why I also understand that no amount of strength is absolute. Even though the strength of a unit is great, for something which a single ant can’t accomplish can be forced into motion by the strength of a hundred, a thousand or ten thousand; but even that kind of strength has its limits. Even the combined force of all the ants of my colony hadn’t been enough to deter the last disaster. The disaster was fast approaching, and we weren't even half as strong as the last time of its appearance, as I heard.

Our numbers wouldn’t help us then.

Hence, the sadness of their eyes didn’t burden me, rather prepared me for the unrest of the coming future. Though I had saved hundreds of ants from getting hurt in the future by killing Rusty, for some, I might have just killed their friend with my own hands. Although it was a difficult notion to get in terms with it, I had no choice. I wasn’t strong enough to save everyone. For now, all I could do was to learn from the mistakes of my past and strengthen my foundation, in preparation of the day when a single mistake would be intolerable.

*****

We slowly made our way back surrounded by happy soldiers. The word seemed to have traveled far, for soldiers everywhere bowed in respect with their mandibles open as we passed. Carriers neared to offer us honeydew, which Billy accepted in my name, and I wasn’t sad about even a little bit. We shared the sweet dew with those around and had a fun time. It was a gracious moment I was very thankful for. By the time we neared our starting point, two out of the three teams which had joined us on the way had returned, leaving our group smaller in number. And then we passed closely from the long tubular thing I had seen while following the scent and had my sense tingling once again.

My Perception seemed to agree with my senses as it brought into my view the situation surrounding the tubular being. Prediction considered its work done, rose a level and scurried back to sleep. The tubular thing was coiled around another bunch of aphids not much farther away from its initial position and was feeding on them without any creating any commotion. It wasn’t slaughtering them like the corpse piler had, rather tapping their backs with its long antennas like an ant, and was drinking the dew. It was graceful in its movement and crawled at a very slow pace. Its multiple legs moved like a wave, one after another, slowly moving its hefty body around. I couldn’t decide whether it was a danger to this community or a guest like us explorers, but I decided to stay on the safe side of things and got it checked out.

“Can you tell me,” I seemed to have spoken too seriously, because the soldiers around and the former battered face leader who had given me leadership, for the time being, stopped their banter at my words. I hesitated. They, however, looked ready to take care of another intruder, so I decided it a better option to get the work done now that everyone was so hyped, than to miss the chance.

“What can you tell me about that?” I said, pointing my antennas at the being coiled at a branch on the other side of the wide stalk. But to my confusion, no one answered in confidence. It was as if they didn’t know what I was talking about or they couldn’t see it. And to prove me right, Billy, who had been jumping from ant to ant sharing honeydew, came to me pushing some soldiers aside and shook his head after taking a closer look.

“What are you talking about?” He said. “There is nothing there.”

“But I can see it, the long tubular thing feeding on the aphids.”

My words seemed to carry a lot of importance as the battered face leader and Gene who was still traveling with us ordered those under them to figure out the reason for my confusion. I waited for the soldiers to work it out and concluded that only I could see it. I appraised the thing in haste, not that it had suddenly turned violent. No. Nothing of that sort had happened. Even the increased bustle of ants didn’t seem to shake that thing. I appraised it because I had learned from my mistake. I appraised it to understand what I was dealing with, before going into the fray.

Spoiler: Status: Long Glass Caterpillar

Lv-6/10

Rank – 0

Long Glass caterpillar

Job- Parasite

Gender – Male

Health

22.50

Mana

5.00

Stamina

24.00

Health reg

4.95

Mana reg

1.21

Stamina reg

16.00

Attack

0.91

critical rate

0.02

Movt Speed

103%

Attack speed

1%

critical hit

0%

Crit Dmg

1.82

Attack mag

0.45

Defense

4.00

Crit Dmg(mag)

0.89

Stat Tier: ‘E’

Stat gain/Level: +0.2Agility/+0.2Strength, +.2vit/+.2 End, +.1Int/+0.1Wis

Strength

.6

Intelligence

.7

Agility

.4

Wisdom

.3

Dexterity

.3

Endurance

3

Charisma

3

Vitality

1.5

Luck

.4

Constitution

4.3

Skills:

Bite(9), Feeder(4), Pupate(6), low Illusion(4), Pheromone mimicry (3), antennae sense (4), Pheromone secretion (7), disguise(3), Stealth (2)

The result placed it somewhere between mildly interesting and a work of art. This thing had no strengths. It had no way of protecting itself, physically. It nor had the strength to crush an ant, neither the pace to outrun them. It wasn’t witty either. It was just a large source of food. Though it didn’t have amazing stats for something belonging to E-Tier, which was acceptable considering it belonged to rank-zero, it had an amazing set of skills; all of which worked together to do just one thing: hide it in plain sight.

It wasn't wrong of me to compare it with the pit spider of my colony that had hidden itself so deeply in our society that none had been able to distinguish it from an ant. This caterpillar or whatever it was, used its pheromones mimicry skill to mimic an ant's native scent and saved itself from the sense of the most common soldiers; and to hide from the sight of the more advanced ants, it used skills like disguise, low illusion, and stealth. It used a frightening mix of skills to their utmost capacity as a means to keep feeding on the aphids. I guess, even I wouldn’t have found anything wrong if it wasn’t for the timely reminder from my senses. This thing surely had guts to try something on such a large scale-out in the open.

“Don’t worry,” I said to calm the masses. “I will bring it out in the open for all of you to see.”

“How?” Gene asked. To which, I went a bit closer and conjured roots to tightly bind the thing. I could have let the soldiers handle it, as it shouldn’t have been able to harm anyone, but reminding myself to not let things remain to chance, I acted out first. Its stealth and illusion broke the moment it came under attack and when fear unbalanced its mimicked ant scent, the pheromones which it had been secreting to hide turned into a beacon to guide the soldiers toward it.

“What’s . . . that?” Gene said in exasperation. “How . . . come . . . never . . . before?”

“Miracle.” The battered face vice leader said. Turns out, he had learned a few more words on the way. At this rate, no one could have found it surprising to hear him properly talking in a few weeks.

“Attack it, will you sir?” Billy asked, but I didn’t think there was any need for me to enter this match. They didn’t need me. So I told them my plan.

“Why don’t you all attack it?”

The thirty or so ants surrounding me looked at each other.

“You can eat the thing after killing it.”

They ran toward the caterpillar promptly. The soldiers near the caterpillar were still trying to judge how to deal with it when the wave of ants running toward the confused soldiers stupefied them further. The rush made them vigilant, but the familiar scent first calmed them down before the scent of fear and bravery made them turn toward the centipede and converge at it like a black mass. Next, that almost ten-centimeter long caterpillar was enveloped from all sides, poisoned to paralysis, first divided into two halves and then broken down into large mouthfuls.

It took the soldiers a long while to get the job done. Carriers sucked half of it dry and transported the food back to the tower, while the rest was bitten into and digested. By the time the sun went to hide, leaving behind a red yawn of its previous radiance, and the firefly showed signs of appearance in its wake, the soldiers all had swollen abdomens and we were among them. It was a delicious-delicious meal, but sadly was also the end of the day. Although Billy liked roaming the farm with me, he also feared captain Lime a lot; hence, he dragged me back to the tower once we finished savoring the meat.