Chrysalis

[Worms are stupid.]

[I said I was sorry already…]

[They look disgusting and they eat dirt.]

[I know, okay? I know.]

[They're soft and don't have a carapace which makes them less shiny.]

[Not all ants are shiny! Only you are shiny!]

[Are you talking back to me?! Invidia, I think he's talking back to me!]

[Sssstrange. It should be shame.]

[Yeah, you're supposed to be shame! Aren't you, Jim?]

[… yes. I am shame. Can we PLEASE discuss this another time? Like, when we aren't being ACTIVELY chased?!]

[I suppose…]

As much as I enjoy reminding our resident worm that he and his entire species are massive failures who the world would most likely be better off without, we do have something of a situation on our claws. After we popped up outside those massive stone gates, we hightailed it back underground but it wasn't long before we started to sense signs that we were being followed.

Luckily, Jim was able to retrace the tunnel that I'd collapsed a lot faster than he could dig through solid rock, but we couldn't follow that all the way back, we'd just end up in the Shaper outpost that we'd started in. Which meant that we needed to dig our way into another Dungeon tunnel, a job for which we needed Jim's now suspect earth senses to try and find.

[Look, I found a tunnel, didn't I?]

[Just not the right one…]

[I was close!]

[Close to a city full of Golgari…]

[I'll be quiet.]

Jim and I are using every technique we can to speed up our tunnel digging. He's biting and utilising his earth magic to its limits as I do the same from just behind him. I've put Invidia on tunnel collapse duty so I can focus more completely on assisting the digging. It's hard to manipulate

that mean they're homing in on us or are we

We

found another tunnel, probably… twenty metres

given

[Agreed!]

the more unsettled he becomes. Being a sheltered creature, not having to fight for so long, having his meals brought to him, it must have killed his edge. Although,

Jim. We're gonna get

[Right!]

not have worm butt in my face sometime soon, I'm well over it. It takes a couple of minutes for us to drill our way through and with

[We did it!]

[Get down, Jim!]

out of the tunnel with Invidia

CHOMP!

shear it apart and it falls to one side, twitching. Stupid centipedes! They pop up every time

the hell was that?!] Jim

centipede. They're new. Stay alert, Jim! You're in the Dungeon now. What do you want to do? Try and hide in the walls

He hesitates.

you want to go alone, I really don't,] I assure him, [I've got places to be and you'd rather hide, it's fine. I just need

worm shudders for a moment as he struggles to

I'm still too close to try and hide here, they'll be able

[Let's go!]

HAZZOW! I'm off!

anything that looks like

[Yesssss.]

[Let's hustle!]

from the shadows, motivation to run isn't hard to come by. Invidia isn't the fastest, so I pile him onto my back and start dashing down the tunnel. I don't know exactly how to get to the Colony, but I can sense a general direction that I need to

hope to match him. Over rock though? He's sluggish at best. Which isn't the problem that I thought it might have been. This is the Dungeon after all. You can't get far without running into monsters, a hazard which Jim isn't the best qualified to deal with. So it falls to Invidia and I to tear

to ensure we're moving away from the Golgari city we stumbled into earlier. Obviously not somewhere I'm keen to return to. Neither in the short term, nor ever, if I'm frank. Robbing the Lirians was a laugh but tussling with the Golgari is not on the

Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!

support spells make all the difference as my enemies reel from his dizzying mental attacks, are

Keep hustling.

it that you think is going to be safe? I thought we were just

suspicious, which I can't blame him for. As far as he knows, there isn't any safe place anywhere