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"

concentrate enough to cast the spell?

down her wounds with my antennae almost without thinking about it, my ant instincts kicking in and overriding my more rational behaviour

Holy heck!

of these cuts is way too deep! Right in the center of her thorax a deep and wide wound has opened in her carapace, within the wound I’m sure I can see something

Is that her core?!

to the bone. Had that skill gone any further then it might have damaged the core directly, something I feel very confident would be immediately fatal to a monster. Just a

Why is her core so weak?! It should be full of mana and packed with

the Queens. Without knowing if it will help in

think? The response I get seems a little more energetic

not getting enough mana

the farm!" I shout as loudly as I can to all of the surrounding workers, "rush in there and destroy everything and then take mother

then placing her inside the farm 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 be able to spawn and have a

yourself!" I urge the Queen, "your injuries

before she bothers to cast the spell on herself. She is usually selfless to a

begins to carry herself away, slowly and painfully moving towards the farm. Half the colony has assembled to help her, many workers walking straight under her and using their own backs to lift up their parent, trying

her go,

trust that my siblings

of the anthill where several

the workers as I move past, dragging the human Queen up the side of the ant hill

now is going to be getting

my mandibles with her hands in order to help carry her weight, rather than have all of

is done I begin the decent. Fortunately we don’t need to go far until I can stash the Queen in my own personal chamber near the top of the

to

Titan-Croca smacks me directly in

bell that had been struck by a hammer. Gritting my mandibles hard I try to

BOOM!

been hit. Despite being disoriented I can tell that my body