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…."

spider who gleefully waggles

death. Not for itssssself, but for you.

insight as it stared up at the looming mother spider. I brought myself back under control and told the ants to stand down. It wasn't like us to lose control of our emotions. Actually, it was totally like me. It wasn't like

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, I'll personally feed you to my mother.

mandibles at the spider 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 camp, my

a long time before we were able to pin down the location of her lair. It

species! Gweheheheh. With hundreds of cooperative ants working together with our advanced tactics, the 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 that they took a whole week to wipe out! I've

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

the big one?! Was it

energetic soldier comes bouncing along the web from a separate corner of

on your side?" I

out! We left the spawn points alone though, just like

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

we better continue our recon mission then. Gather everyone up and we'll head out into the tunnels. We've got a lot of ground to cover and we spent

got a lot of levels though! My friends

Wait a sec…

say friends?"

tilts her antennae in

suppose so? Is that

not really? I think? I mean, do you even