“Damn it, a real man should fight head-on! What’s with playing with sand!”
Briscola, who had just crawled out of the quicksand, felt frustrated. With all his brute strength, he couldn’t use it in the end, and this feeling of defeat left him extremely displeased.
“You young people are way too hot-headed. If it’s your own ability, how could you waste it by not using it?”
Regardless of how frustrating losing felt, a loss was still a loss. The enemy wouldn’t choose to duel fairly. Briscola merely grumbled a few words before leaving with Dobon.
However, Briscola planned to take a bath first, as the yellow sand all over him made him feel very uncomfortable.
They weren’t at the level of fighting for several days and nights yet, and with Dobon taking advantage of Hippowdon’s ability, his battle with Briscola ended even faster.
Meanwhile, the battles of the Artificial Devil Fruit users around them were still ongoing. While Meowna and Wolff were watching the fun, Yamato approached Arceus.
“Dad, are there only these two Blessed Ones this time?”
“There haven’t been many missions recently, so the number is fewer. Is something the matter?”
“Nothing, but Dad, Father probably won’t be back anytime soon, right?”
“Who knows? You know Kaido, him disappearing is normal. He’s probably off fighting someone again. What are you planning now?”
“Nothing much, just asking. If there’s nothing else, I’ll go catch ants. Those two little ones are almost done with their training, so I’ll take them out to have some fun. Wolff’s ability should be quite useful for this.”
“Wait, catching ants?”
Hearing Yamato’s plan, Arceus was unusually puzzled for once. It wasn’t like ten years ago when Meowna and Wolff were three or four years old. There was no way they should still be interested in something like that.
And to even need to use their abilities for catching ants, what kind of ants were they?
“Oh, Dad, didn’t you know? It seems some ants were brought in from outside when transporting goods. Those ants chew through houses, and the people in Kuri hate them.”
“Termites? Didn’t Wano Country always have those before?”
The houses in Wano Country were mostly wooden, and termites had always been a headache. But dealing with termites shouldn’t be this troublesome.
“They are bigger, their shells are hard, and their numbers have been increasing recently.”
Listening to Yamato’s description, Arceus believed this was a case of biological invasion.
An alien species without natural predators, reproducing unchecked in a comfortable environment, could eventually disrupt the existing ecological balance.
This world is full of islands, many of which are isolated from the rest of the world, so they naturally develop unique ecosystems of their own.
The dinosaurs on the Prehistoric Island, the huge animals on the Island of Rare Animals—all are products of natural selection.
When an alien species invades such a place, the natural regulatory forces can easily lose their effectiveness.
The people of Wano Country didn’t take this issue seriously. No one reported it, and those below didn’t pay attention to a few seemingly ordinary ants.
Although these ants were much more troublesome than the native ants, they weren’t like army ants. If Yamato hadn’t brought it up, Arceus wouldn’t have noticed this issue at all.
“Dad, do you want to catch ants too?”
“No, forget it. Go take those two to play. I’ll arrange for someone to handle this.”
Yamato didn’t dwell on the matter. In her view, ants weren’t a big problem. As insects, they were almost everywhere, and countless people had done all sorts of strange things to ant nests in their childhood.
Arceus only intended to prevent these ants from becoming a real menace and planned to control their population.
Previously, Wano Country’s environment underwent several improvements, one of which was the enormous sea currents outside. Due to those sea currents, the coral outside Wano Country grew wildly, eventually leading to the initiation of the Mareanie control project.
There were no similar sea currents within Wano Country, but as the place where Arceus stayed most frequently, coupled with the influence of the power radiating from Mt. Fuji, the environment here was suitable for almost any lifeform to thrive, let alone highly adaptable insects.
……
A few days later, in Kuri’s leek field, several Farfetch’d were smashing the ground with their leeks.
This was an ant nest. These ants not only damaged the structure of houses but also harmed some agricultural areas.
The leeks of the Farfetch’d were among the victims.
The leeks often needed to be replaced, and the leek fields here were essentially their lifeblood.
Facing the ants that harmed their leeks, the Farfetch’d showed no mercy, wielding their leeks and annihilating the ants below.
Ants were originally part of Farfetch’d’s diet, but these ants tasted terrible. To Farfetch’d, they had a flavor reminiscent of eating rust, making them completely inedible.
At that moment, a creature resembling an anteater emerged beside the leek field. After a brief chat, the Farfetch’d stepped aside, leaving the area to these anteaters.
This wasn’t an ordinary anteater—it was a Pokémon, Heatmor.
After a brief investigation, the origin of these ants had been identified. They had been inadvertently brought in by the Beasts Pirates during their transportation of fragile goods, hidden in the straw and soil used as padding.
These ants came from an island rich in metallic minerals. Over their long evolution, their bodies had been influenced by their environment, and they developed a special acid capable of corroding metal.
On their native island, they had plenty of natural predators, but in Wano Country, none of the local creatures were interested in these foul-tasting ants.
To prevent them from becoming a disaster in Wano Country, Arceus created several Heatmor.
Specialized tasks require specialized Pokémon, and when it came to dealing with ants, Heatmor was far more effective than Farfetch’d.
As a Fire-type Pokémon, their tongues could produce high-temperature flames. In the Unova Region, they typically preyed on Durant, whose metal-clad bodies were powerless in front of Heatmor, let alone these ants.
Heatmor’s appearance resembled that of an anteater, but with orange-red patterns on its body and a tube-like structure on its abdomen that connected to its tail.
The air intake at the end of its tail increased the temperature of the flames on its tongue. Its fiery tongue delved deep into the ant nests, roasting large numbers of ants, which then became its food.
Different Pokémon have entirely different tastes. What was unpalatable to Farfetch’d was a delicacy to Heatmor.
Using its sharp claws, Heatmor dug into the outer soil of the ant nests, savoring its meal before moving on to search for the location of the next nest.
These ants were not particularly powerful creatures. Once they had a natural predator, their population was quickly brought under control, limited to a number that no longer disrupted the environment.
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