Chrysalis

As Tiny smashes into the front of the monster wave I can hear a voice calling from behind me.

"Hey-Hey! Wait for me senior!"

Vibrant….

As Crinis joins Tiny on the front lines the little ant motors down the passage behind us to quickly catch up and I sigh internally.

It isn't that we've been ignoring the little thing lately, or trying to leave her behind. It's more that she's become a little too reckless, flinging herself forward to into combat and trying to get her mandibles dug into the flesh of our opponents. The result of such behaviour is that she nearly gets smashed by Tiny or eaten by Crinis as they rampage. It's not as if Crinis has any way to communicate with the little worker. As friendly as they are with each other they don't share the same bond that Crinis and Tiny do. I've confirmed with Crinis multiple times that within a certain range she can sense my location as well as Tiny's, this prevents her from ripping into Tiny as they fight together.

"Vibrant! You need to wait here with me for a second" I said.

"Whaaaaat? I want to fight!" she complains, "look at big 'sis Crinis! She can fight so well already. I want to be like that!"

Sigh.

This is the source of the problem. Her former partner in smallness, Crinis, is all grown up now and wrecking faces whereas she has yet to evolve, still a superior hatchling, not really capable of contributing to tough fights like these.

"Tell you what. You go up to the ceiling and fire acid to get some skill points and we'll save a good chunk of monsters for you to finish off. After all this time your fairly close to your next evolution. If we can manage it you might even be able to evolve today!"

"Yaaaaay!" she cheers like a happy child and rushed up to the ceiling to begin raining acid down on the horde of onrushing monsters.

….

Well at least she's happy. Vibrant has been something of a restraint on our strength since she isn't really powerful enough to wade into situations like this and come out alive. These shadow beast monsters are simply a cut above the kind of prey us ants would normally have to deal with.

points to the limit by this stage since we've been pumping her full of food for so long. Considering the regular feasts that have been delivering themselves to us on a regular basis, as well

on the marsh expanse so

can do, I

Charge!

continue training my skills I rush up the wall and begin

Vibrant to finish off

[Yes, Master]

[Grrrn]

unhappy about only being allowed to punch the monsters

Vibrant has already taken up a position to hurl blasts of acid down into the fray, I take a moment

are yet to evolve, but due to their nature as monsters from a deeper level of the Dungeon they cannot be compared to centipedes and coral slugs

up their bodies is both strong and malleable, allowing them to twist and contort themselves to an alarming degree. Not quite to the same level that Crinis can but stretching out their arms to attack a few extra feet is

wading into the battle. With his skills upgraded he can clear his way through the mobs with more vigour than before. Particularly since his fist

fists begin to glow with

colossal blow that smashes the monsters directly in front of him. But it

Boom!

the fist stops moving the light continues forward as a mighty ape paw, scattering monsters

him Tiny swivels on his heel and unleashes a devastating hook that blasts an arc of

see that coming did

agility to snag monsters from the crowd, lifting

Nice!

her tentacles as well as their strength and flexibility.

to waste any more time I hastily whip up a water construct and start feeding mana through it. The entire process is much more fluid that before, the transformation construct being pieced together with practiced ease. I've