It was officially night when Loran finally made it back to the village, and he was desperate for sleep. After not getting much sleep the previous night and now that the adrenaline from the battle had worn off exhaustion was overtaking him.

Ignoring the handful of people that tried to pester him with questions about the expedition, Loran dropped the Iron Ant Soldier Blade and the Drone shells off at the Workshop before grabbing something warm to eat at the Kitchen. When he finished he walked to his shelter and promptly passed out, too tired to even bother with removing his armor or having spoken a word to anyone since getting back.

The next morning, Loran was awoken by the pleasant sound of someone banging on the top of his shelter.

“Wake up jackass,” someone, Yang he realized, shouted as Loran desperately tried to stay asleep.

“No, too early,” he mumbled.

“It’s almost noon,” another voice, Soze, said.

“...Too early.”

“Yang, if you would?”

“Gladly,” she said in an all too pleasant voice.

Suddenly Loran felt pressure on his ankles before he was yanked out of sleep and his shelter. The disrespect did not stop as he was then pulled upward, and was now being suspended upside down by Yang.

“I hate you both,” Loran deadpanned as he rubbed his eyes. “Can’t you just let a man sleep?”

“We did,” Soze said sternly. “We wanted to wake you last night, but Yin convinced us to let you be until morning.”

“Why?” he asked, honestly confused about the situation. “What could you two possibly need from me that desperately?”

“How about an explanation for the giant iron blade you just dropped off in the Workshop last night?”

Loran blinked a few times, Yang’s words pushing the last of the cloudiness out of his mind. “Oh, right, that. Listen it’s really not an issue.”

“Bullshit,” Yang said, shaking him slightly.

“Okay, it’s not a high priority issue. Can I please go back to sleep?”

“As soon as you explain what an Iron Ant Soldier is.”

“I can do this all day,” Yang said calmly.

“I can be petty too,” Loran said, crossing his arms. “What will last longer, your arms or my spite.”

Yang shrugged. “Probably you, but let me ask, do you really want to be pettier than Bates right now.”

Loran’s eyes widened. “...Goddamn it, fine!” Yang let go of his ankles and Loran fell to the ground, bent over himself with his ass in the air. “Now who’s being petty.”

“Explanation, now,” Soze demanded.

Loran grunted as he rolled into a sitting position. “Soldiers are a new subspecies of Iron Ant. According to their description, it seems like they exclusively guard the territory of the Iron Ants and won’t venture outside of it like the Drones do. As long as no one travels north for two days like we did they’ll be fine.”

“What about their capabilities? In case someone does run into them.”

“Then honestly they’re probably fucked. The Soldiers can fly and the one we fought had an AGI of 150. Add to that the huge blades they have on their front legs and you have a recipe for a perfect ambush predator that can kill you and be 50 feet away in the blink of an eye.”

Yang’s eyes widened at Loran’s description, while Soze looked deep in thought.

“The only reason it didn’t kill any of us was because it chose to attack a Mountain Goat first. It’s possible to spot them in the air, they kind of stick out, but if you get caught off guard it’s instant death. And since they seem to stay in Iron Ant territory-”

“You would never have a chance to be careful since the Drones would be everywhere,” Yang finished.

“Pretty much. Zed managed to take one down but even he admits that these things are too dangerous to provoke casually.” Loran yawned. “Fortunately, no one is likely to run into one unless they go looking for it specifically.”

“That might not be the case,” Soze said.

“Let me guess, you know a thing or two about ant behavior from real life too?”

“Just a little. An ant colony will respond to a threat in one of three ways, retreating, swarming, or scattering. If we start hunting the Iron Ants too much they’ll probably go out of their way to take us out.”

“Probably?” Yang noted. “You really think they’ll go for that option first?”

“Yeah. When I say retreat they don’t do it to protect the individual ants, it’s to protect the nest itself. They’ll only do that if they think we’re likely to wipe them out completely. As for scattering, that’s mainly when a colony is already migrating. Rather than think that we’re beneath their notice, it’s more likely that they’ll just crush us because they know it’ll be easy.”

“That… might be a problem,” Loran said, the conversation now having his complete attention. “I guess it really comes down to what the rest of their situation looks like.”

“What do you mean?”

“Remember how I mentioned that the Soldier attacked a Mountain Goat instead of us? The situation had been a little complicated.”

Loran then explained how they had provoked an attack from a large swarm of Drones and how eagerly the Mountain Goats attacked them.

“Well, I guess it’s interesting that they hate each other so much, but what does that have to do with us?” Yang asked.

“The ants aren’t trying to wipe out the goats, even though they’re a much greater threat to the Drones and are very weak to the Soldiers. It may be because they just avoid intruding on each other’s territories but we might actually be too small to register as a threat.”

“Maybe, but you guys have killed a lot of Drones in the last week,” Soze said, “that’s probably enough to put us on their radar.”

“We still need iron. No matter how good our stats and Skills are we’re going to need better equipment.”

“Try telling that to Alexx,” Yang scoffed.

“He doesn’t count.”

“Loran is right,” Soze agreed. “Alexx can fight like that because he has real talent and training as a fighter and his build takes advantage of that. Even Zed is the second best and he still needs a weapon.”

Yang shrugged. “Alright, I was sort of joking anyway. If nothing else I would get torn apart without my armor and shield.”

“Right, so we can’t just stop hunting the Drones.”

“It still feels too risky,” Soze sighed, “letting the colony know about us.”

Suddenly Yang’s eyes widened. “What if we took advantage of their thing with the goats?”

“What do you mean?”

“If the goats already have a thing going with the ants and they don’t mind us in their territory then we can hunt for the ants by going to the grasslands first,” Yang said, a smile forming on her face. “The ants might put the blame on the goats rather than think it's a new threat.”

“That… that could work,” Soze said contemplatively.

“It would also be a little safer,” Loran realized. “The Mountain Goats would always be willing to help, and traveling through their territory would be much safer than going through the woods.”

“Alright, we still need to change the plan going forward but there’s definitely more to this than just retreating or being careful,” Soze decided. “We’ll talk more at the Pit Meeting tonight, see what everyone else thinks.”

“So can I go back to sleep now?”

Soze sighed. “Go ahead.”

“Awesome.” Loran turned to crawl back into his shelter but stopped suddenly. “Aww shit.”

“What’s wrong?” Soze asked, worried that he remembered some other threat they needed to know about.

“It’s not a big deal, I just realized that we’ll need to abandon the camp by the river.”

“Ohh yeah,” Yang said slowly. “The builders aren’t going to like that.”

“No,” Soze shook his head, “we’ll still need the camp.”

“Why? Wouldn’t it be safer to head straight for the grasslands from the village?”

“Maybe, but we don’t really have the supplies for a trip that long.”

Loran’s eyes widened. “Right, it’s already a two day journey from the camp to the ant’s territory, leaving from the village would make the trip out and back take a week.”

“Didn’t you know that already?” Yang asked Loran. “Like that was the whole reason the camp was made. I thought you were going to give another reason.”

Loran shrugged. “I’m tired.”

“Now that you mention it, are Alexx and Zed still at the camp?”

“Yeah, they’re probably going to go hunting for more Iron Ants once they’ve healed up.”

Soze’s eyes narrowed. “Do you think that’ll be a problem?”

Loran hummed as he thought for a moment. “Probably not? If they stay in the woods to hunt they probably won’t run into that many, and if they head out to the goat’s territory first that’s what we want them to do anyway. As long as we haven’t already provoked the colony it’s probably fine.”

“Still… I think I’m going to send someone to tell them to be careful.”

“Then send someone, just make sure it’s not me.”

“Come on kiddo, it’s practically noon. Just get up already.”

“No, Yang, do me a favor and get him out of here.”

Yang laughed. “Alright Soze, let’s let him sleep.” She then grabbed the shorter player and lifted him over her shoulder.

“I can walk!” he complained, more than a little embarrassed to be treated like this by a girl over a decade younger than him.

Loran tuned out their complaining as he closed his eyes to sleep, knowing perfectly well that he would not be able to now that the sun was out but it wouldn’t stop him from trying.