Chrysalis

Electrical energy crackled over head as the ants continued to battle mindlessly on the wall. With a crack like the sound of a whip, the first strike fell directly on the Queen. Conserving her energy, the Queen was holding her section of the wall with ease when she was struck. The bolt landed on her abdomen and electricity pierced her carapace and roiled through her insides.

The smell of burnt flesh rose as the Queen's enormous frame began to smoke. The ants close by were driven to the edge of madness by the attack on their mother, but were helpless to retaliate against the clouds overhead! The Queen herself remained calm. Her antennae glowed softly with light as she channelled healing magic from her Healing Mana gland to repair her wounds.

She hadn't suffered much damage from the strike, not even close to critical damage. During her evolution she'd toughened herself a considerable amount, a decision that paid dividends now. The healing mana washed through her body, restoring damaged muscle and repairing her organs in moments.

But the lightning continued to fall.

*Boom!* *Boom! *Boom!*

The skies overhead crackled with an immense amount of energy and each bolt struck unerringly down on the giant figure that towered over the rest. It was clear the Kaarmodo had identified the Queen as a threat and was trying to weaken her, if not destroy her!

The Queen endured. Bolt after bolt fell from the sky, driving the ants into a frenzy. Their mother was under assault! How could they stand it?! The Queen focused on healing herself and ensuring that none of her children were caught in the discharge. Even whilst enduring the pain and concentrating on her healing mana, she was still able to keep her section of wall clear with repeated snaps of her giant mandibles.

"Mother!" screamed Victor, who had rushed to the front when she noticed the gathering clouds. "Mother! You must retreat!"

The Queen shook her antennae in denial.

"I can still fight," she insisted as she crunched more monsters with her jaws. "My children are fighting, and so shall I!"

"You're starting to smoke! You can't tell me you aren't taking damage!" Victor cried, trying to make her scent detected over the roiling pheromones being released all around.

it. Better me than the children," the Queen

defend her mother. Fighting was not the solution here. The Queen needed to move back, it

the Eldest were here! Mother listened to the Eldest, trusted them. How much longer until that damn evolution was

might just charge over the

*BOOM!*

of the colony threw her head back, frozen in pain as the energy burned through her body, sizzling her internal organs and causing her

Victor, overcome with

path. In fact, she was glad. Every bolt of lightning that fell on her was mana and effort that was expended on her and not on her children. She would be the bulwark for her family, the strong tower behind which they could find

under her and lifted her head to snap out once more with her deadly mandibles. She tried to push the voices away and focus. She

general had crawled onto the wall directly in front of

wall and back to safety with one leg before she reared her body up

was covered in

to curse, perhaps the Queen would have indulged herself in this moment, but

nest. As she retreated, the storm overhead began to disperse, the Kaarmodo was apparently unwilling to commit to holding

their soldiers, scouts shook off their rage and

with frustration on the inside. She wanted to fight and defend her family but it appeared as if her children would not allow it. When she was threatened by the lightning,

the same time. She did not want her children

escorted her back to it, anxiously crawling in every direction to ensure she was safe. When she reached the peak of the nest, the Queen looked back to the second wall, several hundred metres

darkness. She would recharge her core, heal

the trump cards of the colony, they couldn't not be played too early. If the Queen had

could have