Fortunately, at that moment the Ant Queen realized that the thief was getting away with the last rare fruit.
Without thinking twice she jumped off the branch.
Swooping in to narrowly save Sly just as the Bone Collector jumped to swallow both him and the fruit whole.
"Don't you know it's rude to just abandon a fight," yelled an infuriated Dr. Jennings.
Outraged, the doctor furiously attacked the giant caterpillar with his scalpels causing the Bone Collector's movements to slow in pain.
Yet Dr. Jennings wasn't the only one attacking the hungry caterpillar like a maniac; he had help from the colony of ants that went into a frenzy when they saw that their Ant Queen flew into danger.
Many of the purple ants that had been lurking on the ground watching the spectacle up above started aggressively biting and climbing up the back of the Bone Collector.
Sly had inadvertently sparked a full-scale war between two different insect species.
The purple ants were very militant and overprotective of their Ant Queen and mobilized everyone in their colony.
News travelled fast amongst the purple ants and there was a continuous, large-scale deployment of troops targeting the outsiders that infiltrated their space.
The objective was to stall the Bone Collector from destroying their Queen.
By slowing down its movement and capability to fight, ensuring total victory for the ant colony.
All of them regardless of weight and size were rushing in to help attack and devour the Caterpillar.
No matter how many ants the murderous caterpillar squashed with its huge body, more kept crawling up from underground and jumping off trees.
Meanwhile the Ant Queen, thinking she had secured the bag, was unprepared for a sneak attack from the white peregrine falcon.
In swerving to avoid the sharp outstretched talons of peregrine falcon the Ant Queen risked colliding with a tree and in a moment of sheer panic Sly slipped out of her grasp.
Poor Sly had his eyes closed the entire time.
Feeling like he was about to pass out.
When he looked down and saw just how high the Ant Queen was flying with him he immediately shut his eyes.
Only when he felt like he was free falling did he open his eyes and instantly regretted it.
The sight of falling through the trees and being scratched by branches as the ground loomed below made him feel nausea and the urge to vomit overtook his senses.
Under orders of the Ant Queen some of the ants broke away from the dying Bone Collector and rushed towards where they projected that Sly would fall.
The crafty Ant Queen commended her loyal underlings to start building a tower using their bodies.
Obviously, this was with the intention of breaking Sly's fall then delivering the sacred fruit to their Ant Queen.
"Argghh!" screamed Sly.
Even though the purple ants broke his fall he was now being buried alive as the tiny ants swarmed all over his body.
The caterpillar kept inching towards where Sly landed dragging along the soldier ants and Dr. Jennings for the free ride.
As Sly was sinking beneath the ants and it felt like falling into quicksand.
Every insect rushing towards him was solely aiming for the fruit that he had miraculously managed to avoid squashing during his free fall.
Despite the number of bites, he received all over his legs Sly stubbornly refused to let go of this fruit.
He was determined to sell it to the highest bidder if he made it out of this fiasco alive.
Covered with tiny purple ants Sly struggled to breathe.
His endurance was low and he had very little energy to put up much resistance, also he was downright exhausted.
Sly's eyes had turned watery red and was swollen.
He was having an allergic reaction to the bites from the ants.
The last straw was when the venomous caterpillar launched a volley of poisonous vomit in his direction.
The fumes alone made his eyes water.
Many of the purple ants that covered his body died instantly after inhaling or coming in contact with the Bone Collector's poison.
Some of the ants clearly were either blinded or had an adverse reaction to the Bone Collector's poison.
Where they could no longer tell friend from foe.
They turned on each other.
Exhibiting the same cannibalistic behavior as the Bone Collector as Sly watched on in horror.
Everything about this situation was now out of control and he could feel himself dying.
To think that everything had escalated to this point.
The next thing Sly could feel his grasp on the fruit loosening.
Sly watched as the fruit rolled out of his hand and was picked up by Dr. Jennings.
Before Sly could breathe a sigh of relief that the plum was in safe hands.
Dr. Jennings crushed the plum right in front of his eyes.
Then forced the pulpy juice of the fruit down Sly's throat.
Knowing full well Sly was too exhausted to avoid his exertions.
Dr. Jennings deliberately kept his hand over Sly's mouth.
So that Sly couldn't spit out the fruit.
Just in case the majority of the fruit hadn't slid down the back of Sly's throat already.
Surprisingly, the bright purple juicy looking fruit was bland and had no taste at first.
Sly was disappointed he had gone to so much effort to secure the fruit only to have it wasted on himself.
He couldn't even get mad at Dr. Jennings properly as his taste buds started to shut down.
Something was wrong, his tongue started to swell like he ate a thousand hot peppers.
The heat from his mouth started to spread to the rest of his body.
Making it tingle as sweat fell from his pores.
Instantly Sly could feel the spirit essence from the rare fruit coursing through his veins.
Dr. Jennings struck the killing blow on the Bone Collector and now he and his spirit animals were fighting against the purple ants.
Was Sly going to die from being poisoned by this strange rare fruit?
His tongue was so swollen that he couldn't even call out for help and Sly felt really helpless in this disastrous situation.