The appearance of the Iron-eating Ants forced everyone to pack up their tents and portable houses.

They didn’t even dare to deploy their Mechas.

If any of the warriors so much as stuck a dagger in the ground, the Iron-eating Ants would seize the chance to swarm up the blade and devour it completely.

"These Iron-eating Ants seem even stronger than the usual ones!"

"Yeah, they devour things incredibly fast. Everyone, stay sharp."

Iron-eating Ants don’t just eat ore and metal.

When they swarmed, they devoured everything in their path.

To understand just how terrifying they were, one only had to imagine them swarming a person. In a matter of minutes, nothing would be left, not even bones.

"This is useless! No matter how fast our Fire Guns shoot, we can’t keep up with their numbers!"

"All flying Beastmen, transform! We’re getting out of here by air."

At that moment, Lan Yan was furious with himself. ’Why don’t I have wings!?’

Lan Yuyan also pursed his lips in guilt.

Although a flying Beastman would inevitably be the one to carry Jiang Qin, it just wasn’t the same.

But it couldn’t be helped. They weren’t the kind who could grow wings, though they did own Flying Cars.

But with the situation so uncertain, they opted not to use their Flying Cars. Instead, they climbed onto the back of a flying Beastman and took to the sky.

The other warriors followed suit, climbing onto the backs of the flying Beastmen. Everyone had decided to find a new place to make camp.

There were simply too many Iron-eating Ants here; there was no reason to waste their strength on them. They just had to hold out for a few days, and rescue might come. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

But they weren’t sure when rescue would come, so they had to make longer-term plans.

The warriors’ faces were etched with regret as they thought about the energy they had just wasted.

They should have left immediately; it was only a temporary campsite, after all.

But they couldn’t really be blamed.

Their training had always been to follow the orders of their commanding officer.

But their squad leader was off chasing an Alien Beast, and all the remaining warriors were of the same rank. No one felt it was their place to step up and take temporary command.

Since they were all equals, it was inevitable that some would feel resentful and refuse to obey.

That was why, when the Alien Beasts attacked, their first instinct was to eliminate the threat rather than retreat.

...

Watching from the monitoring room, Dr. A merely sneered before opening another cage on the planet.

A massive swarm of giant, blood-red bats poured out, darkening the sky.

They all flew west, as if with a singular purpose.

The wind seemed to carry something unusual.

With his many years of combat experience, Lan Yuyan immediately sensed that something was wrong.

"Quick! Land immediately!"

The warriors reacted instantly, and all the flying Beastmen descended.

Just as the sky-blotting swarm of bats dove down, Lan Yuyan deployed his mobile house just in time, herding everyone inside.

The diving bats, completely mindless, all slammed into the house.

A constant RAT-A-TAT sounded against the glass from the unending collisions.

Fortunately, this mobile house was one Lan Yuyan had specially commissioned; all the materials were of the highest possible grade.

So, despite the unending assault, the house remained completely unscathed.

The bats, on the other hand, were stunned by the impacts and fell to the ground.

But as soon as they recovered, they would take flight again, blindly crashing into the glass once more.

Watching the scene unfold, everyone’s heart grew heavy.

"Mr. Lan, if this keeps up, I’m afraid they’ll eventually shatter the glass."

Lan Yuyan thought for a moment before asking, "Do any of you have poisonous Exotic Beast Meat?"

At his words, several warriors stepped forward. One of them scratched his head, looking a bit embarrassed. "Well, I happened to pack up quite a few of the corpses from those venomous scorpions and snakes..."

Everyone: ...

"Why would you bring those along?"

"I just thought... after being cooked, the meat smelled surprisingly good. I figured maybe it could be used as bait..."

He never thought it would actually come in handy.

"Attaboy, great thinking!"

The young warrior smiled shyly.

...

With several warriors clearing a path with shields, the young warrior risked being swarmed by the bats and dashed outside.

A large pile of scorpion, centipede, and venomous snake corpses were thrown out.

As expected, the potent smell of blood and meat drew the bats’ attention, and they began scrambling to snatch the corpses.

One bat suddenly dropped from the sky. Soon, more and more followed, falling to the ground. After a few twitches, they went still.

"Excellent, it’s working!"

"Damn, they’re dropping fast. Just how potent is that venom?!"

Jiang Qin also leaned over for a curious look.

Black blood was seeping out from all the bats on the ground.

After a moment of thought, she offered a warning. "That black blood looks poisonous, too. Everyone be careful not to touch it."

Everyone nodded in solemn agreement.

But it looked as if there was no safe place to set foot outside.

"Once it’s time, we’ll board the Flying Cars from inside here and fly straight out. We need to avoid touching the ground."

They couldn’t leave just yet, however. Not all the bats were dead, but it wouldn’t be long.

These bats were also clearly abnormal, possessing no intelligence whatsoever.

Even though so many of their kind had been poisoned, they were still fighting over the toxic meat, even starting to eat the corpses of their own kind.

Seeing this, Dr. A said coldly, "Worthless."

But these worthless things still had some use. At the very least, they had forced the group into a confined space.

He could practically see the finale of his little show.

This time, he sent out a group of much larger beasts, led by an intelligent test subject.

***

Meanwhile, the squad leader, still in pursuit of the Alien Beast, finally realized they had gone too far.

Even with a Flying Car, it would take quite some time to return.

So he decided to cut his losses. "Forget it, call off the chase. We’re heading back."

Naturally, the others had no objections.

However, when they returned to their original campsite, they were greeted by a scene of utter chaos.

Besides the Alien Beast corpses, there were also small, brightly-colored snakes slithering about.

"Damn it, something’s happened!"

Just then, a beam of light shot up into the dark night sky.

"It’s a signal, they’re over there!"

However, just as they were about to head west, another signal shot up to the east.

Before the squad leader could even make a decision, yet another signal appeared... this time to the north.

The warriors were dumbfounded. "Three signals... Captain, which way do we go?"

The squad leader... The squad leader was stunned too.

He desperately wanted to hesitate a while longer, but the situation wouldn’t allow him to waste precious rescue time.

So he made a snap decision. "Head west!"

He reasoned that if someone was intentionally sending false signals to mislead them, the very first signal was the most likely to be genuine.

Only someone trying to set a trap would follow up with more signals almost immediately.

Of course, it was also possible that multiple groups had coincidentally run into trouble at the same time.

But at this moment, all he could do was gamble.

Whether it was a trap or his people to the west, he had to go and see for himself.