Alright, let's do this. First, gotta order all my companions to stay out of it. They look at me perplexed but they remain where they are. Then I charge toward the sea of enemy cockroaches. As soon as I come nearby, they all jump toward me trying to rip me apart.

These creatures are so damn violent! Don't they know about talking?! I mean obviously not. So I simply start rampaging. This is self-defense after all.

At first, I try to use illusion magic to increase their casualties, but then I notice out of the corner of my eyes some friendlies being affected. I abort and go back to the old and proven method of bashing it till it dies!

Everything is going peachy until some turn their attention toward my friends. I can see them bolting toward them angrily. Goddamnit! I try to scream at them to get them to turn back but they don't care. I guess I was too naïve.

Still, all good. Now I have two options. Either I get them to run away or I order a defensive formation. Running is good but if they go too far away from me I won't be able to help either. Now, only a small portion of the angry cockroaches diverted to them. Alright, let's try this.

[Formation: Sphere of Doom!!!]

I can hear their excited cries. Even now on the battlefield, they are competing on who can settle it the fastest. Did I just unknowingly create some super soldiers somehow?! They are having fun on the battlefield….just wow!

Before long a big sphere of carapaces is assembled before my eyes. Then somehow it seems they lose balance and start rolling. Right toward the main pack! Oh crap! What do I do now?

I simply keep killing. If I move toward where they are rolling, I'll drag aggro there. For now, I just keep crushing, staying attentive to the developments. Before long the ball collides with the army.

What happens next is surprising. The enemy cockroaches are just standing there like deers in headlights. I can almost see the caption what the fuck floating above their heads.

That's when many big cockroaches move forward and start casting the blue cages over and over on my friends. Wait! I think they are getting confused. They are using the approach against unknown lifeforms where they try their spells over and over expecting a result.

Of course, that doesn't stop them. All it does is give a magical glow to the whole thing basking them in a cool blue light. They keep rolling. From time to time an enemy cockroach climbs the ball before getting thrown off from the rotation.

Honestly how they are still going is a mystery! How haven't they been stopped yet? I'll figure this out later, for now, I simply keep killing. It takes a long while, but we finally end the battle. Note to self a sphere confuses enemies very much.

We suffered a few casualties but barely any. Only a few weak ones failed to hang on properly. Overall this is pretty good. I see my companions seemingly …teabagging the enemies?! Wait, no. They seem to be …eating?!

Ah! Could it be that upon death these creatures release the mana they have accumulated? Would this be the reason why they are killing each other? Simply for sustenance? What about these mana vents that we rarely find?

I feel like I'm unto something. Perhaps long ago mana was more abundant leading to many of these creatures reproducing. Now however it became thin, and they changed the approach to one where they are individually trying to become stronger?

This is really harsh. The people in the Earth realm are waging a war for power while the insects here are doing so for survival. I see some of my companions starting to bulge up.

I try and show them about mana condensing. I use a semi-illusion for that. One in the sky that they try to destroy, but that gets their attention. Only issue is I've never seen mana and I don't know how it works for them. Still, I try to share the concept. No clue if they have understood my meaning.

The whole basis of my teaching is that one can become powerful without turning giant. Exactly how humans do it. That should give better control and most importantly be easier to travel with them if we eventually leave this place.

I think I managed to get my point across as they stop growing, but I still see their carapaces turning a slightly different shade.

Nice! I guess for now we simply keep doing what we've done. For a few weeks, I think, we are simply roaming around this realm hunting for feeding spots and cockroach groups. Of course, I never do the first move, I just move nearby and start killing once they angrily charge at me.

I'm hoping to find neutral roaches that I can convert to my side. Yep, it ain't happening. So we keep progressing. The scenery is always the same so it's hard to figure out where we are. We are simply heading in a random direction and pushing forward.

On the way there I try and teach killing formations to my friends. Pretty much it's simply rotating the troops to make sure none dies. Everyone that is hurt is to fall back with another roach to take its place.

We work on attack timing too. We keep going until they are able to attack from all directions at once. I call it the ultimate pincer onslaught! I also train their reaction capabilities. We play dodge rocks. I simply throw tons of rocks at them and they gotta evade.

At first, they are just using their carapaces to take the brunt of the attack so I increase the strength a bit smashing a few in the process, but I heal them fast enough that they all survive.

They finally understand that a rock can be a deadly weapon and that they should sidestep it. With better reactions, they should be able to dodge simple targeted spells. Of course, for AoE, there is the disperse formation.

Now I'm changing the training a bit. I incorporate disperse to charge back in. This way they evade the spells then charge right at the mage from all directions potentially sealing his fate. Hopefully, all these training scenarios will help them survive in the future.

We keep walking and training peacefully, slaying a few dozens of armies in the process. That is until we finally see something out of the ordinary. In front seem to be a sea of creatures. A few thousand at the very least. What the Hell is this?! How is this group so big?!