Chrysalis

[Damn spider! Get down here and face me!]

The house-sized arachnid, safe in her hole in the wall ringed with poisonous strands of webbing as thick as a car waggled her fangs at me in derision and pointed one leg at the hundreds of ants standing next to me.

[Oh? You'll come out if they go away? Somehow I doubt that you eight-legged coward!]

The spider clacked her fangs and by waving her front four legs managed to convey the message that I was an invading, leg-deficient fool who couldn't be trusted and I may as well scuttle away with my stupid pets and fellow ants because she wasn't coming out to fight. I think she also insulted my mother.

[COME DOWN HERE AND SAY THAT, BUG!]

I was so mad I was hopping on the coating of stone and dirt we'd covered the webbing in, causing trickles of the material to fall into the cavernous space below.

"Eldest, why are you so upset?" Emilia asks.

"She insulted our mother!" I roar back.

The smaller generals aura turns dangerous as she stares up at the giant spider.

"Oh did she…."

along and within moments all of the ants are flinging scented insults up at the spider who gleefully

death. Not for itssssself, but for you.

lose control of our emotions. Actually,

you stay up there you bloated sack of schemes. Just keep this in mind, there's going to be an army of ants marching through here at some point, and if you're still around,

matriarch before turning around and leading our strike force away. The ants are reluctant to leave, unwilling to leave the insult unaddressed, but when I firmly turn and walk away, they follow along as I head back to base

eggs in here, but it took a long time before we were able to pin down the location of her lair. It was also quite a project to neutralise the blasted webs. Once we worked out that we could treat the webs much the same as I treated that damn slug's goo all that time ago, it was a lot of work to haul the dirt

hidden super squad and my pets and I, they never had a chance. Even so, there were so many of the darn things in this huge expanse

in experience and Biomass has been worth it, not really for me, but for Vibrant and her squad,

back! How'd you go with the big one?! Was it big? Was

along the web from a separate corner of the

your side?" I ask

out! We left the spawn points alone though, just like you said. It's

for the Colony. Unless I miss my guess, the fat spider will move out and into a different territory. We've wiped out her army and cornered her once, if we come back with more ants, I don't care what sort of traps she has tucked away up that cave of hers, it won't be enough.

the tunnels. We've got a lot of ground to cover and we spent a lot of

a lot of levels though! My friends have never been so

Wait a sec…

you just say friends?"

her antennae in

so?

I think? I mean, do