Chrysalis

Only now do I remember my two passengers that I’d thrown off in a rush. Poor Crinis! The little thing can’t even see!

[Crinis! Crinis! Where are you?!] I frantically yell in my mental channel.

Turning quickly I unceremoniously drag the Queen this way and that until I notice some movement in the grass on the forest floor. Rushing over I see several little tentacles extended straight up, wiggling frantically.

There it is!

I carefully place one of my legs so that it is just touching the seeking limbs.

[It’s me! Climb up!]

Moments a later a much more relaxed blob is resting on my back and a very small worker has emerged from behind a nearby tree to climb up onto my head. Mini crew assembled I return, Queen in tow, to the scene of the carnage.

Surrounded by the remains of her own deceased children the Queen isn’t looking good. A horde of workers are rushing about her, their anxiety is plain in their disjointed movements, darting backwards and forwards, unsure what they should do to help the situation.

The human Queen seems rather unhappy about being this close to such a massive monster but I hardly care. Her people are what caused this problem, if she gets uncomfortable I’ll shed no tears. If she tries to harm the real Queen then she will very quickly regret it.

"Mother! Are you ok?!" I cry.

In my mind I hadn’t imagined she could be injured this badly, she’d always seemed so indestructible that even if I worried about her getting injured, I hadn’t really believed it would happen.

Her super hard carapace met its match in those devastating sword skills today, numerous cuts and gashes mar her body, some of them very deep.

"I will ... be ok" she replies, her usual calm voice strained to the limit.

"Can you heal yourself? Cast some magic?" I urge her worriedly.

She doesn’t reply for a moment, her great body heaving as she labours to draw in air.

Strength" she

does that mean? She can’t concentrate enough to cast the

every moment I start to tap up and down her wounds with my antennae almost without thinking about

Holy heck!

Right in the center of her thorax a deep and wide wound has

Is that her core?!

directly, something I feel very confident would be immediately

turn on my mana sense and examine her core. Usually blazing bright, her core is more of a dim ember right now. Why is her core so weak?! It should be full of mana and packed with energy! Is this why she seems so weak? Is there something wrong

the Queens. Without knowing if it will help in any way I persist until my core has almost been tapped

The response I get seems a little more energetic this

getting enough mana in her

farm!" I shout as loudly as I can to all of the surrounding workers,

is going to be the best place we can find in the short term. If the workers pack in there tightly enough then there is practically no chance that a monster will

can you need to heal yourself!" I

heal the injured workers before she bothers to

help her, many workers walking straight under her and using their own backs to lift up their parent, trying to help her

her go, still very

to trust that my

has already transported the officer to the top of the anthill where several workers have surrounded him,

and don’t let him move", I tell the workers as I move past, dragging the human Queen up

now is going to be getting her

she reaches up to grab my mandibles with her hands in order to help carry her weight, rather than have all of her body weight hanging

until

her to the

second I do, a Titan-Croca

a bell that had been

BOOM!

can tell that my body hasn’t been hit. Something is