Chrysalis

The Storm rages in the sky

The Madness lurks in the dark

The Eye watches all

Whilst

Their Master sleeps

Until The Day

When All Become One in Him.

- Prayer of the Faithful

With reluctance I let the construct dissolve away and give my brains a chance to rest as the battle draws nearer. I'm still not proficient enough with it to employ the thing in battle, better to give my all to pump out a gravity bomb and then do what I can to support the ants around me. No matter how sneaky I get, the bombs haven't managed to inflict any casualties after the first, but if I stop throwing them then perhaps the Legion would start to spread their numbers thinner and push us harder on a wider front, something I don't want. So every fight starts with a bang, so to speak, as long as I'm around, just to keep them on their toes.

"Are you ready, Eldest?" Wills asks as my pets and I push our way to the front.

"Rested as I've ever been," I lie, "how about you? Manage to get a bit of torpor in between battles?"

My antennae poke forward in an accusatory manner as I ask my pointed question. The scout backs up defensively.

move forward. "I'll get some rest after this one, I promise! Two

I raise an antenna.

Four hours! That's all I

I lower the appendage.

you," I tell the scout, "but you have to remember that rest is a weapon. We need our decision makers to be sharp and thinking clearly, not fatigued and run off their feet. If we make mistakes, our family pays the price,

time practicing a fiendishly difficult mental construct and burned through my mental reserves just before showing up to a fight. Thankfully, I have

to find the time, there's a ton of stuff to

sceptically. "Find some scouts you can trust

been able to make. Where once were simple tunnels, walls and ambush points are now pit fall traps, rock falls, hardened rock stakes, reinforced compacted stone barricades and more. I can only imagine how irritating it is for the enemy to clear

layer on layer of ferocious insect ready to fight, the Legion has begun to form up opposite us. Similar to us, they are strangely quiet as they arrange themselves in rows of heavily armed soldiers, their faces hidden behind the steel

Won't be long now.

hide what I'm doing. I've positioned myself at the front of the line and they clearly see me, so I don't see what would be the point. After almost ten of these conflicts over the last

horrifying darkness and screaming of the air driving away all thought of anything else the moment it appears. The enemy responds smoothly to the appearance of the magic, doing everything they can to weaken it from the second I unleash it. Even with Invidia helping to distract them by unleashing all the magic he can, the soldiers stand firm and manage to disperse the spell by combining their efforts. Still, I can see the toll it takes on them. Several mages are forced to

whip together an ice construct and start hurling spears at the approaching wall as fast as I can. This much is totally standard by this time, things are proceeding as expected. If it continues along the usual lines, I expect that we'll see a charge from them soon, followed by the full on

isn't going as expected. Rather than his usual restless moping during this part of the battle, Tiny is agitated, thumping his chest and bellowing his rage at the encroaching Legion soldiers. The great ape’s eyes have turned a deep

alright buddy?] I ask him,

at the enemy and blast them with arcing bolts of electricity. When his blows fail to leave much of

guy, don't

Too late.

ape unfurls his dark wings and leaps forward from the wall, hurtling himself toward the Legion in a spectacularly Leeroy-like course

you doing you idiot!?] I mentally roar at