Not wanting to ponder over questions I most likely wouldn't get the answer to any time soon, I realized that it had been almost five hours since I last checked my planet and its sole island. What I was beginning to realize since I became a god is that I've gained a sort of ability to just exist. It's like time flows differently for me now faster and slower all at once. Sometimes I'll just zone out for what feels like a couple of minutes, only to find that hours have passed. But it's not like I'm asleep or unaware. I'm conscious the whole time. It's as if my perception of time has detached from the natural flow of the world, as if my mind exists somewhere between eternity and a heartbeat. This just affirmed to me that I was no longer mortal.
Putting those strange thoughts aside, I focused in on my planet to see if there had been any new developments since the competition. The moment my gaze landed on the surface, I was greeted with a peculiar sight. A large number of lizards far more than I had ever seen grouped together before were moving in a massive, coordinated march. There had to be tens of thousands of them, each one advancing in the same direction, their scales glinting faintly beneath the faint glow of their sun. The earth trembled softly under the weight of so many feet moving as one.
Curious, I followed their trajectory, tracing where they were heading. It didn't take long for me to notice what their destination was, the nest of the giant ants.
The nest was enormous, sprawling across an entire section of the island like an open wound. Great mounds of dirt, almost like miniature hills, rose from the ground, interconnected by crisscrossing tunnels and collapsed caverns. From above, I could see the faint shimmer of movement, ants, thousands of them, scurrying in well-organized lines. Even from this perspective, they looked menacing. Their bodies were black and hard as obsidian, their jaws sharp enough to split bark and bone alike. Each one was around ten centimeters long, and they moved in such perfect unison that it almost seemed unnatural.
Wondering why the lizards were heading toward the ants, I decided to investigate further. It didn't take long to uncover the reason. The ants had stripped their entire section of the island bare,no greenery, no life, not even small insects remained. The soil was turned dry and brittle, and the trees that had once grown there were reduced to nothing more than hollow husks. Now, I could see the ants beginning to spread outward, expanding their territory in search of new resources to consume.
This expansion must have been what drew the lizards' attention. Even though their intelligence was still limited, it was clear that they had some level of awareness. They weren't mindless beasts; they understood danger, territory, and survival. They had formed loose groups before, but this… this was different. This was unity on a scale I hadn't yet seen from them.
I zoomed in closer to watch. The lizards gathered just beyond the edge of the ant territory, their tongues flicking, their bodies tense. It looked like they were waiting for something a signal, perhaps. Then, almost as if one mind controlled them, the entire mass surged forward. The first wave crashed into the ants' patrol lines, and chaos erupted.
The ants retaliated instantly, hundreds swarming over each individual lizard they could reach. The scene turned brutal fast mandibles clamping down on flesh, lizards thrashing and biting back, sand and dirt spraying into the air as the battle unfolded. Despite the ants' smaller size, their numbers and coordination were terrifying. Yet, the lizards fought with a feral persistence, using their tails and claws to crush as many ants as they could.
From above, the whole battle looked like two living tides colliding. Every inch gained by the lizards came at a cost, but they didn't stop. It was almost as if instinct had told them what I had already concluded: if they didn't stop the ants now, then soon nothing on the island would be safe.
I watched in silence, strangely proud and concerned at the same time. It amazed me how even without my interference, they had developed enough social awareness to fight for survival in this way. Perhaps the blessing of intelligence was already taking effect.
Whatever the reason, one thing was clear the island had entered a new stage. A war for dominance had begun.
The ants were like a natural disaster, a creeping corruption that devoured everything in its path, and the lizards,my lizards, had become the island's reluctant defenders.
At first, the battle seemed to be in a stalemate, both sides locked in a brutal and relentless clash. However, as time passed, the tide began to shift in the lizards' favour. Slowly but surely, they pushed the ants further and further back toward their nest. At the beginning of the war, there had been over a hundred ants for every lizard an overwhelming difference in numbers but now, after hours upon hours of fighting, that number had dropped to around fifty.
This wasn't to say that the lizards had escaped unscathed. Far from it. Each one managed to tear through dozens of ants before being swarmed, bitten, and dragged apart by sheer numbers. The battlefield was a wasteland of twitching insect limbs and scaled corpses, the ground dyed in a mix of green and red fluids that steamed under the planet's sun.
After over a day of planet time, the battle finally approached its conclusion. The surviving lizards had cornered the ants deep within their tunnels, pushing them all the way back to the very heart of the nest, the queen's chamber.
Inside, I saw her for the first time. The ant queen was massive, easily over a meter in length, her abdomen swollen to an enormous size that made up nearly two-thirds of her body. Even now, surrounded by chaos, she continued her endless task, dispensing a new egg every ten minutes of planet time.
Taking advantage of the moment, I quickly activated my new ability to appraise her.
[Species: Giant Ant Queen]
[Name: None]
[Talent: Reproduction (D)]
Looking at the talent rating displayed before me, I couldn't help but shiver. The queen's ability was terrifying even at this low grade. The sheer rate at which she could replenish her forces was the only reason the ants had lasted this long. For a brief moment, I imagined what a higher-ranked version of this talent would be like a being capable of flooding entire continents with its offspring. The thought alone was enough to make even a god uneasy.
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Author:
Previously when our MC used the appraisal skill it didn't have the species part. This was an oversight on my part. I feel that the species section just makes it better overall.
I did go back and add the species section to the previous chapter were the skill was used.
Additionally please feel free to comment any recommendations you have or any constructive criticism.