Chapter 142 The path forward (1/2)

With the human Queen locked between my jaws there is little the soldiers can do to prevent me from giving her a fatal haircut if I so choose.

The power is in my hands/claws!

Unfortunately for these soldiers the rage in my heart is burning furiously after witnessing the damage they've done to my family. I have no idea how many ants have been destroyed by these invaders, the Queen herself has been wounded by their blades.

I demand vengeance!

The soldiers are talking amongst themselves now, faces tight with worry as they try to work out how to deal with this situation. I don't want to give them enough time to formulate a plan. If they decided to threaten the ant queen then we might end up in a stand-off instead of this situation where I have the clear advantage.

I step forward aggressively, the human Queen swaying in the grasp of my mandibles, her feet dragging on the ground as she tries to keep her feet under her. When the soldiers see me treating their royalty so poorly they react angrily, clutching at their weapons and yelling at me in their language.

In response I flex my mandibles around her neck menacingly. In an attempt to communicate my demands I use one of my antennae to point several times at the ground.

Put your weapons down!

The soldiers look back and forth between themselves, confused by my gesture. I don't think they expect to be able to engage in any sort of dialogue with a monster and I don't really blame them. I get the impression that intelligent monsters do exist but the feeling I have is that those monsters wouldn't want to play nice with any creatures on the surface. From what I've seen of monsters so far I can only imagine they put that higher intelligence to the task of inventing ways to kill people more efficiently.

Clearly in this situation they don't know what to do.

Once again I flex my mandibles forcefully and point several times to the ground with both antennae this time.

Put your weapons down!

There is real fear in the faces of these soldiers. Not for themselves but for the life of the person I hold between my mandibles. They know there is very little chance that they can find a positive way out of this mess.

They talk back and forth for a few seconds before the soldier who had been battling Tiny shouts at the others and then lies down on the ground. Seeing his example the others reluctantly comply, lying face down on the ground.

….

Ok sure. That works too.

[Tiny, walk over to them and take their weapons and s.h.i.+elds away]

With them lying down we can reduce them as a threat by removing their equipment, this will help bring everything even further under control. Perfect.

As I'm congratulating myself on my chess like moves I eventually notice that Tiny hasn't moved. Focusing my attention on him I realise that he's still standing still, looking at me with a confused expression.

[What are those?] he asks.