The ape that tried to chew pieces out of Bear Hug found itself with suddenly rigid spikes of algae stabbing into it, followed by a sudden flow of blood. Bear Hug shook off the liquid, even though it was brimming with natural energy.
The horde of beasts was flowing past, many not even noting their fellow’s demise. When they did, they treated the ape as anything else- a source of food. Bear Hug was still on that list along with Anton, but some carefully placed arrows were molding the situation.
It wasn’t just one cluster of creatures that had dropped down on them, however, but many more at other places on the planet. Anton was monitoring the other sapient individuals he knew of- including, reluctantly, the briar patch.
Spike rather handily dealt with the wave of beasts, a few exploding fruit opening up a break in the flow and keeping the tree safe. A few beasts turned to attack the trunk of the tree regardless, but they found that it was a lot less pleasant to chew on than literally anything else. Not that they had long to regret their decisions as the tree’s natural energy extended the trunk’s spikes through them.
Liberty was overlooked for being quite small, and the slightly mobile tree also actively hid the natural energy within it. The pitcher plant that trained in ice was still up in the mountains, which were safe for the moment.
Anton had decisions to make. He didn’t want to disrupt the local balance, but he wasn’t certain if this was a normal part of the way things were. He took a few shots back towards Helix, toppling some approaching beasts and leaving their ivy friend with at least one good standing tree.
He also shot down more swarming towards him, coming in all shapes and sizes including forms that didn’t seem suited for living in an atmosphere. Some were large and billowed like jellies, but outside of the sea they appeared particularly slow. Yet even they managed to catch some other members of the swarm when they approached a moment of vulnerability.
Ultimately, the first wave faded out at a similar pace to how it had first begun. Some swarms remained a cohesive whole, tearing whole chunks out of the ecosystem before they had their fill. Others split up as groups of individuals, leaving smaller trails of destruction. In that way, they appeared little different than the briar patch. Except the invasive beasts didn’t just eat, but many also became food for the locals.
Bear Hug didn’t seem willing to consume anything directly, but the briar patch was sitting on a selection of butchered corpses, providing a fearsome visage that kept others away.
Just because things had settled down for the moment didn’t mean Anton was willing to relax, though.
“Have you seen anything like that before?” Anton asked Bear Hug.
“Hungry bitey fish,” Bear Hug commented. “Swimming down river.”
“I meant more coming from the sky,” Anton explained.
Bear Hug shook their head. “Flocks of birds are less.”
As some of the groups sank into a lull of inactivity, Anton wondered if he should cull their numbers. Having too many predators could devastate an ecosystem, but so could too few. He simply didn’t know enough to make an informed choice. Killing a handful here or there really wouldn’t make that much difference with the total numbers.
Anton expanded his senses, trying to figure out where they had come from. There was another planet passing nearby- at least on the system scale. It would still likely require months or years of travel, but the whole thing was odd to begin with. There was no way that all of the beasts could fly or easily survive in the vacuum of space. Nôv(el)B\\jnn
He managed to pick out several groups still making the journey, and was slightly encouraged. This might be devastating to specific ecosystems, but on a planetary scale he didn’t think it would be apocalyptic unless the beasts returned to their rampant devouring.
Then again, Bear Hug liked nothing more than looking at any individual thing in front of them and trying to determine if it might be a future friend. “I found a snail!” Bear Hug said, indicating the creature. “What do you think?”
“Well...” Anton frowned. “It does have abnormally high natural energy.”
“I’m naming it Rocky,” Bear Hug determined, placing an arm in front of the snail. It took a few minutes, but it crawled up onto it. “Look, we’re friends!”
At least it wasn’t trying to eat Bear Hug. Actually, that was quite strange. Even the fish had nibbled at Bear Hug. “If you carry it, make sure to feed it.”
“Okay! Rocky, can you speak?” Bear Hug said. “I’m sure you’ll get a handle on it. You’re my second friend from the sky, after all.”
“We don’t actually know that-” Bear Hug suddenly gave off a very sad impression. “I mean, Rocky could be- definitely came in with everything else. Yep.”
Was it lying? Technically. Anton couldn’t really discern a difference in natural energy, but all the planets actually felt quite similar. The main component of everything came from the same star, after all. It was only then transformed by the local populace. Now that Anton thought about it, it was rather odd that every planet was so similar in feel given their vastly different terrains, but he had subconsciously written that off as related to the permeating field of natural energy that rested between the planets.
-----
Over the course of years, border planets shifted control between the Chaotic Conglomeration and the Exalted Quadrant. That was how it had always been, so the planets along said border were rarely properly settled. Crossed Antennae knew they set up buildings to last decades at most, repairing them as necessary. That was quite short term for cultivators.
But because humans were there, void ants had to be as well. Not that the humans all knew that. Some were more aware that they were being monitored than others. Either way, the border planets were the riskiest. It was where information was most likely to slip to the wrong people- either factions that hadn’t agreed to the terms of the Scarlet Alliance, or the Exalted Quadrant themselves.
Crossed Antennae had to train her daughters in the most important points. First was secrecy. It was better for individual pieces of information to be given up than for the void ants to be revealed. Few things were so critical that it could have a greater impact than void ants appearing on the border worlds. The Exalted Quadrant would obviously wish to annihilate them, and the Chaotic Conglomeration wasn’t necessarily above joining in. After all, they had just as much to fear as any other cultivators.
And perhaps even more if they realized how smart these ones were. Which was why Crossed Antennae made sure that any activity would go unnoticed. Most people wouldn’t recognize void ants at a glance. They could appear as ordinary black ants, as long as nobody was carefully inspecting them with energy. An ant that had no cultivation wasn’t all that different from a tiny little void. Most people would just ignore it.
Except sects that worked with bugs. They were most likely of anyone to be friends with the void ants, and conversely also most likely to be enemies. Anything but neutral, so they simply had to avoid them.
Secrecy was important. Which was part of the reason Crossed Antennae was worried about planets falling. She’d held back from the border worlds at first to avoid such situations, but among other things the border had shifted.
A world with some of her daughters had been captured, and now Crossed Antennae was worried. Worried that they had died, and worried that maybe they hadn’t and could still be discovered. She didn’t know which one scared her more. She was probably supposed to be more worried about the goal than any individual offspring of hers, but associating with people long term made her more aware of individuality. How annoying. And also extremely useful.
Hopefully, the twins would be able to get her a chance to inspect the planet. Maybe there were some remaining who needed extraction. For all the ‘void ant tech’ that they’d been trying to develop, interstellar abilities were still a bit lacking. Especially if it was supposed to be bidirectional.