Chrysalis

"With your permission Eldest, I will leave the council and begin to organise a workforce to prepare our initial fortifications" Tungstant said.

I waved an antennae in approval and the small, dextrous ant climbed up the wall and out the roof of the chamber in a moment.

"Alright then. Pitfall traps, tunnels to attack, I like all of these ideas. What else have we got? How is our magic firepower coming along?" I asked.

The two mages in the room, Propellant and Coolant, shifted on their feet as they became the centre of attention for the council. The mage caste hadn't had a lot of time to build up their raw magic handling skills, and were without the benefit of my own extensive spending on brain power when it came to evolutions. Having said that, they were no slouches in the brain game and were able to choose their own elemental gland on evolution. So there had to be some juice there.

"The number of mage ants we have to work with is still limited" Coolant hedged.

There were over a thousand ants in the colony at this time, there were like a hundred new ants being born every day. How few mages could there be?

"How many are we talking about?" I asked.

"Five" Coolant said flatly.

"Five?!" I sputtered.

"Oh, seven including Coolant and I" Propellant offered helpfully.

Holy moly.

have so few mages? When fighting against a huge horde, like the one coming to kill us right now,

my mind's eye already. Tunnel entrances falling in to reveal teams of mage ants who blasted the front ranks of the horde with deadly fire, torching dozens of monsters with flamethrower like magic before

few members of the council shifted uncomfortably. "We've had most of the hatchlings move into the soldier caste recently" Antionette informed me, "Large numbers of scouts

I could understand, but

scratch and explore methods to raise up the future generations of mage ants" Propellant told me ruefully. "We didn't anticipate a need for a number of mages at this stage and wanted to take more time with

clear away large amounts of weak enemies they would have been indispensable. There may be a use for the mages we have, of course, but

all of

to help with that so I can reach

evolution, Eldest?" Victoriant

antennae, "I only need six more levels. If we're going to battle

monsters but tackling anything stronger is going to

to dump all of the hard work onto me, didn't you? She's technically correct, but that doesn't serve to

we can agree that we don't need to prioritise food gathering or egg laying to a high extent in the lead up to this crisis?" I asked the gathered council, "If we don't survive the upcoming

the to this point

rather that

happy. I understand

senior workers here to ensure that the hatchling training program continues to run unabated. Each new

at the same time, something you can only do with extensively upgraded compound eyes, one of the

My insistence on equal treatment for the hatchlings still makes little sense to them I suspect, thankfully by virtue of being old they have to listen to me. Hooray for strict respect for the

won't be ready to move out for a few hours will you, Senior?"

evolve and we all need some rest. We've been pretty flat out for the last few days and I suspect it's going to be hectic for