Possible Countermeasures

Eventually, Xander did manage to take down the tanks. The constant barrages of Rupture Thrusts eventually causing more internal damage that their bodies could handle.

After making a mental note to retrieve the bodies later, he once more rode the vibrations from his strong and arrived where the others were, and as soon as it did, it became apparent that there wasn’t much for him to do.

He came just in time to see Sparrow eliminate the last linchpin ant and deactivate the barrier, and shortly after, the artillery bombarded the the flying ants.

Several minutes later, the ants began their retreat, and eventually, peace returned to the frontline.

Once Aubrey confirmed that the ants had indeed retreated, several teams of soldiers and fire mages came forward, and began piling up the pieces of ants that weren’t completely destroyed so that they could be burned.

However, as per the Captain’s request, parts of the new ant variants like the shield and tank ants that survived were to be retrieved and brought back to Landor.

Hence, earth mages helped unearth the tunnels the tanks had been making, and when Xander caught sight of one of them, he couldn’t help but marvel a bit.

Even though Aubrey had given them a detailed explanation on their appearances, and Xander had sort of glimpsed their shapes through vibrations, seeing them in person was still a different experience.

Compared to their fellow ants, the size of the tanks was simply absurd. A single one of them would be able to scale Landor’s walls with relative ease. Their bodies were very dark, darker than the other ants, and surprisingly, they only had 4 legs, with each of them covered in vicious looking spikes. Their heads were also massive, and their mouths resembled drills. They also lacked eyes, and all in all, they were built like tanks.

’How unsettling.’ Xander grimaced a little. He didn’t want to imagine what would happen if even one of those ants managed to get into Landor.

Just then, Xander turned and saw that Aubrey and Nash were discussing something intensely, with Nash holding up the piece of an ant that was inside his cocoon of roots. Xander’s curiosity was piqued, but he decided not to interrupt them and instead looked at the mountains where the catacombs were situated, then he closed his eyes.

After doing some mental calculations, he exhaled and nodded to himself.

’Maybe...’ He thought.

Just then.

’Xander, Aubrey says we’re having an urgent meeting.’ Falael’s voice entered Xander’s head, and he blinked before turning to see everyone following Aubrey and Nash towards one of the empty outposts to act as a meeting area.

Inside, the Captain was already waiting, and there were some communication crystals which projected the faces of the higher-ups inside Landor, all of them appearing curious.

When everyone gathered, Nash didn’t hesitate to step forward and held up the cocoon containing the ant sample. Without wasting any time, he began to explain.

"Ever since we first got hit by the plague, I’ve been working to analyze it. Not just to create a cure so that the soldiers who are still afflicted by it can be treated, but also to figure out its inner workings and potentially reverse engineer it." He explained calmly while looking at all of them.

"I’ve succeeded in accomplishing both." That caused a commotion among them all, and Xander’s eyes widened slightly.

"In other words... we can send it right back at the ants." He probed, and Nash nodded.

"I won’t get into too much biological jargon. But simply put, the plague works by attaching itself to the lungs of the target and then affecting how oxygen interacts with the blood, turning the latter poisonous, which then affects the entire body." That made some of them grimace. That did not sound like it was pleasant in the slightest. Though, Zeke looked morbidly fascinated. As someone who dealt with poisons, such a thing naturally piqued his interest.

"Anyway, the ants weren’t affected because it seems like they were altered ahead of time to develop a resistance against it. I know this because of Aubrey here." He gestured to Aubrey.

As it turned out, she dedicated a few information clones to figuring out the plague as a whole, and she’d been relaying the resulting information to Nash the whole time, helping his research.

"Now that we’ve figured out how it works, it was just a manner of using my magic to perform my own series of alterations to achieve the desired effect. So now, not only can I effectively cure our affected soldiers. But I can develop a version of the pool plague that is even more lethal for the ants and send it right back at them." He dropped the cocoon and folded his arms. "All that remains is how we want to do that. If we intend to do it." When he finished, everyone fell silent. In regards to the soldiers, well, one might ask why the infected ones hadn’t just been healed and sent back to the frontlines to make up for the deficit in troops.

Well, there was a major flaw with healing magic, and that was that wounds couldn’t be healed if one did not understand enough about the wound or the cause. Especially if the cause was something like a plague, which actively fought against the body’s natural vitality. Hence, the healers could only suppress the plague and prevent the infected soldiers from getting worse, not cure them. It’s also why biology was one of the things in Tatonia Xander found to be remarkably advanced.

But now... Nash had found the solution to that. And more.

Falael then chuckled.

"Xander said the ants are holding back because they aren’t sure we have a trump card that could deal serious damage to them even with their numbers. Seems like that trump card has arrived." That earned a few smiles, but everyone quickly went back on track.

"Alright. Aubrey will transmit the full scope of these findings to the healers so that they can perform the following procedures to cure our soldiers. That said, how do we handle weaponizing the plague?" One of the higher-ups mentioned.

Xander spoke then.

"Well, a few things need to be taken into account. Will the reworked plague work the exact same as the original? Will it be weaker? Stronger? Will it be harder to detect or blatant? How fast does it act? Can it avoid being detected early? And so on." He rubbed his chin, a telltale sign that he was thinking.

"That said, just throwing the plague at the next wave of ants won’t really be effective. To begin with, ants are adept at handling such matters to ensure a plague doesn’t break out amongst them. We would need a way to get the plague to the main chamber while remaining dormant and undetected, and only activating once it has reached a sufficiently important area, like the chambers where the queens are located." When he finished, Nash spoke up.

"Actually, getting it to remain dormant and undetected isn’t super difficult. The blueprint is already there. After all, none of us noticed that there was an issue until the ant corpses began to decay and spread it into the air. I also analyzed this, and to put it simply, they made it in such a way where the plague was essentially inert until a specific condition—the decay—was met." He tapped his staff thoughtfully. "I could perhaps do something similar." Hearing this, Sparrow spoke up.

"There’s still the issue of actually getting the plague to our desired target. I doubt the ants would just choose to carry the body of one of its brethren if we just threw it into one of the tunnels." She pointed out.

"To be fair, under normal circumstances, that actually has a good chance of working. After all, ants typically do handle the corpses of their brethren. This is an abnormal situation." Xander calmly retorted. "That said, we don’t need to do all that." He pointed at Aubrey.

"All we need to do is covertly infect a couple of ants with the reworked plague while Aubrey hijacks the network to ensure our actions aren’t relayed to the queens. The infected ants then return to the colony, and once they get close to our desired target, the plague erupts." This earned a few nods from them.

"... But how do we time the plague’s eruption?" Curtis asked. "The queens circumvented it by making the condition the death and decay of the soldiers. But it’s not like we can make it so that the ants instantly die, that would just set them off. And I don’t think Aubrey’s range is far enough to peer into one of the main chambers." He glanced at Aubrey for clarification, and she shook her head.

"I technically could if I essentially used the telepathic network to view what was going on. But I never did so till now because it was risky. If I get too close, the queens could potentially discover my spying, which wouldn’t be a good thing. So no. Not yet, anyway." Xander gave her a look at the ’not yet’ before speaking.

"Curtis does have a point. We need a catalyst to actually get the plague going. But we also need a way to ensure it happens when we want it to without directly observing the process. In short, we’re sending a bomb towards a target we can’t see and hoping it detonates on time and accurately. Hm..." Everyone fell silent at this. After a while, Ragna shook his head.

"We’re being to hasty about this." This earned him looks from everyone, and he elaborated calmly, a far cry from his usual demeanor.

"Remember, our goal is to stall. Granted, a plague could ease the pressure on us because the ants will be too busy dealing with it. But as things are, we don’t need to resort to that just yet. For now, we have a somewhat sustainable system of stalling. I suspect we can last a few more days before tha ants reveal their hand again. In the meantime, we can come up with a more comprehensive version of this plan so that we can achieve the desired result. There’s no need to decide it now. Also we have actual strategists for a reason. I’m just here to kill things." This earned a few chuckles from some of the people there.

"I concur. For now, let’s focus on treating the sick soldiers and getting them back on their feet." The Captain said and stood.

However, Aubrey noticed her teammates glancing at her.

’When you said ’not yet’. Are we talking about days or more?’ Falael asked skeptically, and Aubrey just hummed casually.

’Hours.’ That made them pause briefly. Then Falael scoffed.

’I told you that thing was broken.’