Chrysalis

Vibrant bit down hard on her prey and the System notification rang within her head a few moments later. Without pause, she flung the Biomass behind her and pressed forward whilst a silent throng of furious monsters swarmed in her wake. Her group was all around her, she could feel them now, ever since her latest evolution, sharing her strength. She'd become something between a Soldier and a General now, empowering those members of the colony who were willing to join her group. Not only their speed was enhanced, but also their Skills, an increase to movement and bite-related abilities that turned them into Dashing, Dodging and Chomping machines with boundless energy. Vibrant pushed hard and they pushed hard alongside her. Always the vanguard. No retreat.

The Eldest had called them, and the family had answered. In all directions, the colony had exploded outwards in aggressive expansion. Thousands of ants filled the tunnel, ripping and tearing everything in sight and dragging it back to Queens to fuel future expansion. The academy had graduated many new siblings for Vibrant and her fellow council members and all were hungry to work for the family. The colony was exploding with energy right now and the catalyst had been the arrival of the guardian.

"Vibrant!"

"Who's that?"

The pheromones were thick in the air as ants battled and communicated with each other, trying to coordinate, calling for assistance, it was hard for Vibrant to make out the scent of who was trying to contact her. Frustrated, she backed out of the fight and allowed others to climb over her to reach the front.

"Over here!"

The tingle in her antennae told her what she needed to know and she turned to her left to find Victor waving in her direction. At first, Vibrant didn't recognise her sister, there had been quite a change.

"You've evolved?"

A nod.

"Just yesterday."

We need more Tier fours in the

The Soldiers have already evolved, and we are pushing hard to evolve as many support roles as we can, but

try and feed more experience to the healers, in particular," Vibrant proposed, "we need them more

considered for a moment

to get the word out. That's not why I'm here though. The guardian found

"Where?"

where she needed to go. Not a single member of the colony was willing to wait for even

"Follow me."

her footsteps, quickly replaced by fresh soldiers who had been hovering behind the front lines. Off they raced, through the dark and cold of the second strata. All around them the air was thick with the scent of pheromone trails. The colony was battling on many concurrent fronts, in tunnels, in various expanse' and every battle was being

members weren't going to be enough in the Second Strata, tier three and intelligent they may be, but the danger in this world of shadow warranted greater security. After all, wasn't it the Eldest who had taught them that every death of a colony member was a waste? A waste of potential, a waste of labour, a waste of resources! It couldn't be borne! As new soldiers, scouts, generals and healers had poured out of the academy the number

long for them to arrive. Vibrant started when she noticed the huge, menacing form of the Eldest's guardian looming in the tunnel. Powerful, writhing tentacles filled the space around the gaping mouth

I haven't seen

they'd first met but their friendship remained strong. Neither could suppress a burst of happiness at seeing the other, Vibrant bounced up to her friend full of energy and Crinis's tentacles wriggled with joy for a moment before they returned to their aggravated

struggled hard for a minute before connecting the two of them

talk ant. What have you found,

it. At the end of the tunnel.] She used a tentacle to indicate the solid wall in front of them. [I couldn't get close enough to see what happened, but this place is

We're finally getting