Chrysalis

[DAMMIT CRINIS! I can't see!]

[It's fine!]

[How is it fine?!]

[IT JUST IS!]

[No! How the heck can I fight if I can't see the enemy?! What is even happening?!]

[I'll fight for you! You don't need to do anything!]

[Are you kidding me?! There's no way you can take them all on by yourself!]

[Watch me!]

[I CAN'T!]

I'm currently entombed in a shell of Crinis after all. Not only is she covering my eyes, she's covering all of me! How is she even doing this? She sent her entire body through my shadow in a flash! So much faster than she was able to use the Shadows before. This can only mean one thing…

[You've evolved!]

[Of course, Master! Did you think I would rest before coming back to your side?]

[Well… no. I didn't.]

My Vestibule tingles with energy, causing panic to spark inside me.

[Wait, Crinis! What's the Colony doing?!]

[Oh, they're coming! They'll be here any minute.]

Through the liquid shadow flesh of Crinis' body I can sense the ongoing battle. Thuds and impacts ripple through her form as she takes damage that had been directed at me.

They

close, they didn't seem to want to stop. I think they're

At least let me see what's happening! That's

once more, blinding me momentarily after the pitch black Crinis had inflicted on me. She appears to have gone through a few changes whilst I was gone. A writhing mass of flesh and tentacles rises from my back like a pillar, three separate mouths gaping and gnashing at the air as she sends her limbs twisting through the air toward the Golgari. For their part, the Warriors and Shapers are firing a literal barrage of strikes her way, the savage light from their weapons cutting into her flesh dozens

[Crinis! Are you alright?!]

Don't worry about me, Master. I'm here to keep you

We need to end this fight before the Colony

wall to my right crumbles as a huge pair

"LEEEEEEROOOOOOY!!!!"

war cry of the dumbest ant in the history of the species floods the tunnel as a HUGE soldier bursts through the wall and dives headfirst into combat. The Golgari are dumbfounded for the smallest of windows before they move to respond. That's Leeroy?! She's big! Some of the Colony members must have hit tier four whilst I was away.

the heck are you doing?!" I scream, but since my pheromone gland is covered, they

Crinis! I need to fix this! NOW!]

I was captured. Once Leeroy has made her entrance, a dozen similar holes open up from all angles of the tunnel and hundreds of ants swarm out of them. The Golgari are overwhelmed in seconds, buried under an avalanche of insects. Only a few have the intelligence to flee the second an ant is seen, the rest fall victim to the relentless crush of the

Dammit.

has been

"West tunnel, clear!"

"East tunnel, clear!"

stop those claws! Scouts every hundred metres for a kilometre

the emergency tunnels!

the council been

"They're on the way!"

finally freed from Crinis' death grip, I feel the welcome buzz of my family wrap around me once more. The Vestibule is completely alive now, whispering to me the needs and desires of every ant within range. It's overwhelming

she's still clinging to my abdomen, stuck to me like

We need to

[Yes, Master!]

[Harrrr.]

[Yesssss.]

own way and gather around me as I

my friend Jim went?" I ask the ants

few hundred metres down the tunnel.

"Thanks."

weird if they were a soldier. As time passes and I move further away from the site of the battle, the number of ants congregating actually increases. More and more of them are flooding out of the nearby tunnels and climbing out of small emergency tunnels that they've