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

heck does that mean? She can’t concentrate enough to cast the spell? Does she not have

start to tap up and down her wounds with my antennae almost without thinking about it, my ant instincts kicking in and overriding my more

Holy heck!

of her thorax a deep and wide wound has opened in

Is that her core?!

have damaged the core directly, something I feel very confident would be immediately fatal to a monster. Just a few more inches and mother would have

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

of my own core and sending it in a stream of mist towards the Queens. Without knowing if it will help

think? The response I

not getting enough mana in her

as I can to all of the surrounding workers,

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

to heal yourself!" I urge the

she’ll start trying to heal the injured workers before she bothers to cast the

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, still

to trust that my siblings

battlefield to complete his task. He has already transported the officer to the top of the anthill where several workers have surrounded him, tapping him with antennae and taking the

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

trick now is going to be getting

until my captive is forced onto her toes. Eventually she reaches up to grab my mandibles with her hands in order to help carry her weight, rather than have

far until

inside I lower her to the ground

a Titan-Croca smacks me directly

rocks back and forth within my head as if it were a bell that had been struck by

BOOM!

as if I’d actually been hit. Despite being disoriented I can tell that my body hasn’t been