A delivery system of flesh and bone. That’s what the horde truly was. As an instrument of the dark will that controlled it, the massive gathering of enslaved monsters had been used to scour the kingdom of Liria and possibly neighbouring kingdoms as well. Here and now? That mass of bodies served a different purpose. To deliver Garralosh and her children to the target of her wrath as easily as possible.
Sloan knew that only when they had destroyed enough, thinned enough of the horde away, would the true enemy show its face. Until then, Garralosh and the Kaarmodo would be content to stay back and allow their unwitting soldiers to absorb the punishment.
"The key to this battle, is holding enough strength in reserve that we can deal with the Croca-Beasts when they come," Sloan had declared at the planning meeting.
To that end, the colony had prepared waves of tricks and schemes that they could employ. The horde would pay dearly for every inch of ground they took. The worry was, the primary reserve force of the colony still hadn’t woken up.
The Eldest was still sleeping!
Sloan couldn’t help but clean her antennae over and over again in an attempt to calm her nerves. Something her sibling couldn’t help but notice.
"Calm down," Victor advised.
"I would if I could!" Sloan snapped back.
"The Eldest will awaken in time. How could you doubt it?"
"You do realise what will happen if they don’t?"
"I suspect that we’ll all be wiped out and the colony will cease to exist," Victor replied, unruffled.
"Y-yes! That’s right!"
about it change anything? Have a little faith in the Eldest. When have they ever let
went, but to date they had never let the colony down. Indeed, they had pushed the colony forward at
two generals were positioned in the main nest in a chamber close to the surface. In a room next
progressing," Victor suggested and moved to inspect
her mandibles
we are stuck here, Victor," Sloan
sighed,
on the wall just as much as you. But the two of us are the best generals in the colony. We can best serve the colony from here. Don’t
wouldn’t go that
the war chamber was a flurry of activity and filled with the muffled scents of a dozen different conversations. Ants crawled carefully over the map, making constant adjustments to the sticks and place markers
its job," Victor observed
the reserves from the second wall we could hold on for
high," the other general countered, "and unnecessary. The outer wall wasn’t built to hold and was never intended to
tear it down. After the back
then. Time to sound the
to the scouts waiting
the retreat from the first wall. Prepare the reserves. We want every family
turned their eyes back to the map. Ants poured over it once more, making the delicate adjustments based on the event they knew were going
within the nest. Ants ran over the top of each other as they hastened to reach their assigned positions. The potential for devastating loss was huge. The retreat needed to be managed carefully, with precision. An orderly retreat back to the second wall was the aim, not a scattered manoeuvre with
taken her
came for the retreat, the spell slinging ants
bellowed, "draw
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