Chrysalis

"Hold the line!" sprayed Grant to the ants around her, "don’t let these motherless scum over the wall!"

She faked left before biting down hard with her mandibles on a clawed hand that threatened her. The dirt wall defences of the ants had held firm so far, only by voluntary retreat had they been taken by the enemy. As each consecutive wall had been surrendered, the ants’ defences had become concentrated and more sophisticated.

Now on the sixth wall, the greater preparations were bearing fruit. The moat was deep here, and filled with Biomass. Sharpened stakes dotted the face of the wall and many monsters had lost their lives pushing forward into them.

Spears of water erupted out of the moat and dozens of monsters fell back, pierced through their sides. Not far from where Grant fought on the wall, the water mage slumped to the ground, exhausted.

"Get back to the nest," Grant ordered, her pheromones cutting through the myriad scents of the battle.

"I’ve got one more in me" the mage forced out.

"Denied, get back in the nest and recharge. One spell here isn’t worth delaying your return to the field later," Grant ordered even as she fended off another attacker on the wall.

The mage ant pushed her feet back under her and with the assistance of a nearby healer, crawled away from the fighting and towards the nest.

The general assigned to this section of wall shook her head. The colony was pushing itself hard and the will to sacrifice themselves had risen within each ant as long as the battle had gone on. When push came to shove, each individual would rather die than allow another to die in their place. It had become harder and harder to get soldiers to take breaks, to make healers recharge their mana glands and even the generals had become obstinate, some had even pushed forward into the fight themselves!

The generals were no larger than a juvenile soldier. All the evolutionary energy in their second evolution went into raising their Cunning and the Combat Aura gland. When it came to applying damage with their mandibles, even scouts were much superior, forget about the soldiers themselves!

"Get back!" Grant yelled.

The ants around her scuttled back from the wall just as a giant rotting toad monster opened its distended and grotesque mouth and unleashed a gout of putrid liquid that washed over the surface of the wall.

"Dirt! Go! Go!" the general ordered even as she ran forward with her mandibles filled with soft earth.

the ants scrambled to cover it with dirt. After a few seconds the horrific mess was

stupid toads had become a problem ever since they’d first appeared at the fifth wall. If they weren’t spotted in the heaving mass of monsters at the wall before they spewed out their poisonous, acidic soup a great deal of damage could be done to the ants

again and her fellow soldiers, which their larger bodies and powerful mandibles stepped

GROOOOOOWL!

a low growl from hundreds of throats shook the air. She stared out over the thronging horde, much smaller now than it had been at

three or four. Standing upright they towered over many of the monsters around them. Light glinted off their dark scales

roared. "THE CROCS

along the wall the ants rippled with energy as the word raced down the line and back up to the nest. Excitement pounded in Grant’s thorax. Finally the

forward, the big one couldn’t be too far

long for the order to come back from the

abandoning the wall! Prepare to push on the count

"Get ready!"

to do here! Don’t

"Don’t slack, yourself!"

"Five!"

the soldiers on either side

channel! Stay clean

smaller ant mages came forward until they were right behind their

mind bending shapes and constructs that would bring death to their enemies and a reprieve

"PUSH!"

"RAH!"

the soldiers shoved forward and ripped into the monsters in front of them. They teamed up to throw monsters down from the wall and shove them back, clearing space to allow them to disengage. The

of the walls. Gouts of flame and spears of water poured down from the top of the wall. The shrieks