They were not Chimera Ants.
Chimera Ant nests were not underground. They were built above ground, and the ants were better at using clay and feces to construct their nests on the surface.
But these ants, with pitch-black backs and enormous bodies, also possessed extremely strong combat power.
When the strange insects on the giant tree dove down, huge winged soldier ants also burrowed out of the earth.
The soldier ants spread their wings and flew into the air, but they did not immediately attack the insects. Instead, they waited until the insects landed before launching their assault.
Even if the descending insects killed the giant ants on the ground, the flying ants did not care.
It even gave people the feeling that the soldier ants on the ground were bait from the very beginning.
Every attack from the flying ants tore away a large chunk of flesh from the giant insects. After ripping off flesh with their pincer-like mouths, they would quickly shake their heads and toss it away.
The flesh that landed on the ground would then be quickly dragged away by the soldier ants below.
This was a complete suppression of the giant-tree insects from two sides. However, neither side had any intention of truly approaching the giant tree.
Ronin did not approach because he had already tried once.
There was nothing good inside those umbrella-like giant trees.
The ants likewise did not rush toward the giant tree, but it felt more like they were treating the strange insects on the tree as livestock.
However, they could see that whether it was the pus flowing from the dead insects or the blood flowing from the dead ants, both were quickly absorbed by the ground, as if there were a pump underground drawing in liquid.
Ronin and Kurapika also noticed that the longer the battle went on, the better the tree grew. Even its branches and leaves became greener.
The floating island soon left the range of that giant tree.
The moment it broke away, the strange insects, which had gained no advantage at all and had only been beaten one-sidedly, began retreating as if someone had pressed a pause button.
But on another giant tree in the direction the floating island was heading, pairs of enormous compound eyes slowly emerged from the lush branches and leaves.
Only this time, before the Gold and Silver Ingots and giant eagles on the floating island could make a move, sharp cries came from even higher in the sky.
When Ronin looked up, he saw a large number of giant birds appearing high above.
They were birds Ronin had seen before.
They had heads like mice, but their beaks were extremely long, and they also had a pair of huge ears.
The last time Ronin had seen these strange birds was in the manga.
They were the giant birds that fed their young at the top of the World Tree when Gon and Ging met there.
Looking as far as he could in the direction those giant birds had come from, he could not see the World Tree he had imagined. He could only vaguely make out trees one after another.
Perhaps those were World Trees too, only still saplings.
"Maybe the real World Tree is in that direction."
At some point, Ging had appeared behind Ronin and Kurapika.
He looked in the direction the strange birds had come from, his eyes filled with anticipation.
The long-beaked birds dove down from the sky.
Their targets were not only the strange insects on the giant trees, but also the ants on the ground.
They were like the natural predators of those creatures. The moment both sides met, large numbers of strange insects and ants died under the long-beaked birds' attacks.
For a while, the floating island became nothing more than a spectator.
The long-beaked birds seemed to have no interest in the giant eagles on the island. They only continued hunting the strange insects and ants.
And after eating their fill, they even packed up another portion to take away.
This was the first time Ronin and the others had seen such a scene since entering the region where the giant umbrella-shaped trees were located.
By the time the hunt ended, the giant trees in the surrounding area had all quieted down.
Even when the floating island flew directly over their heads, only a few eyes on the trees looked up for a moment, and then nothing else happened.
The setting sun painted the earth in a layer of crimson.
Ronin turned and returned to the laboratory. Night on the Dark Continent was far more dangerous than daytime.
During the day, danger mostly appeared in the form of direct attacks. But at night, what might appear was uncertain.
It seemed that some strange things preferred descending in the darkness.
There was no light at all on the floating island. Suspended high in the sky, it continued moving north across the continent.
When the sunlight completely vanished, specks of light slowly began appearing on the ground.
The cries of wild beasts occasionally carried all the way up into the sky. They were so shrill that it sounded as if the beasts had suffered some inhumane torture before death.
No one knew exactly what was happening on the dark-covered continent below.
Ronin and the others suppressed their curiosity and gathered together inside the laboratory.
The situation on this wasteland was somewhat strange. During the day, almost no wild beasts could be seen, but at night, the screams of wild beasts were nearly constant.
It was as if countless beasts existed across the wasteland, waiting to be slaughtered by something bizarre.
This had not happened during Ronin and the others' previous travels.
Although everyone was curious, none of them intended to leave the floating island and go down to investigate.
According to everyone's judgment, their current top priority was to find the panacea herb in the ancient labyrinth city.
That way, they would have at least a bit more protection while moving around the Dark Continent.
The only thing everyone was worried about now was whether this strange phenomenon might spread to the floating island.
That was also why no one slept at night.
During the day, the situation was clear at a glance, so most of the team members chose to sleep then.
They spent the entire night amid those almost uninterrupted screams.
One had to know that they were more than a thousand meters above the ground, and they were inside the sealed laboratory.
Yet even so, those sounds still seemed to ring right beside everyone's ears. That was very thought-provoking.
"We can't keep going like this, right?" Neon said quietly.
Those chilling screams were unbelievably irritating. More importantly, no one knew how far those screams would follow them.
"True." Ronin looked toward Ging and Kurapika.
The problem now was that even if they really wanted to go down and find the source of the sound, they had no idea where to start.
The area below was simply too vast.
They could not even confirm whether the thing producing those sounds was on the ground, or had already reached the floating island.
Kurapika frowned deeply.
"For now, what puts us in the most passive position is that we don't know what the one creating these sounds is trying to do."
"It can't just be trying to make noise every night until we suffer a nervous breakdown, right?" Ging sounded helpless too.
As for the situation he described, it was possible.
But if something really wanted to achieve that through this method, it would be better if it could cover the daytime as well.
"Let's first confirm whether this thing has been following us, or whether it exists throughout this entire wasteland," Ronin said, his expression equally grave.