Chrysalis

"Alberton! Alberton! Answer your door you deaf idiot!"

Two young Legionaries stood to one side, faces white with worry as they watched the Legion commander smash his massive fist repeatedly into a sturdy, iron framed door so hard that dust fell from the cold stone ceiling into their hair.

These two soldiers were the first see the monster and also had by far the best look at it, so Titus had taken them immediately to the medicus for treatment and from there to the Legion Keep of Liria. Right now they were several floors below ground level and the air was thick with dust and moisture.

To tell the truth, Titus hadn’t been knocking for long but it hadn’t taken much for the huge man to run out of patience.

"Open this door Alberton or I’ll burn your stupid books to warm my backside!" Titus roared.

The door was yanked open immediately to reveal a dishevelled man in a brown robe sporting a hedge like beard that appeared to stab forward from his face like a wall of spears.

"You wouldn’t dare Titus you illiterate ape! There’s a thousand years of Legion history in here!" the beard shouted back at the commander.

Titus merely grunted. "Good, your awake" he said as he pushed the much skinnier Alberton out of his way and advanced into the chamber.

"I’m always awake" protested the scholar as he absentmindedly scratched at his robes, "what time is it?".

Titus simply shook his head and gestured for the two young soldiers to enter the room after him, which they did with some trepidation.

The room was a mess, every surface dusty and heaped with piles of parchment, book and scrolls of all descriptions. Several tables and a corner desk occupied the center of the room whilst around the walls were huge bookcases that stretched from the floor to the ceiling. Every shelf of every bookcase was heaped, stacked full of enormous leather bound volumes each labelled with intricate script on the spine.

"cleaning!" and as Alberton began to

Abyssi Loremaster of the Liria legion, Alberton. We are here, Alberton, for you to consult the records and identify a

"Haven’t expeditions been banned for a few days now? What could they possibly see on guard duty at the Dungeon entrance that they couldn’t identify? Have we stopped teaching

as Loremaster, Alberton" Titus sighed "Alberton

The Loremaster froze.

"You mean ... Formicidae?"

"Yes".

as he absorbed this information. After a moment

moved it to one to the shelves propped it open and somewhat nervously climbed it. On the seventh shelf he

Thump!

crashed into the table, spraying dust clouds into the air. The trainees could clearly see the word ’Formicidae’

commander hesitantly, "commander, I know we don’t usually see any ant

in the hundreds, thousands even hundreds of thousands. They are far more cooperative than almost any other monster type, they are fearless, feel no pain and are ravenous. An ant colony can sweep clean vast sections of Dungeon, growing in strength,

to the threat as the ants are excellent at creating their own

the trainees eyed the walls with suspicion. "Now describe this creature for me and

describe the creature they had seen, Alberton began flicking through pages on the vast volume in front of him, muttering to himself. The trainees could see each page was covered in

eyes you say? Very unusual, at least we can rule out the dorylus species, thank the legion" Alberton

with an eyebrow raised. "dorylus ants are almost completely blind" he explained, "but a dorylus queen can lay over a million eggs a month, and their colonies can grow to fifty million individuals. Also, they are nomadic, swarming endlessly and devouring everything in their path. Think of millions of monsters crawling across the ceiling, bursting out

frowned as

you have anything