Myrrin continued to push hard alongside her brothers and sisters of steel. The grim men and women of the Legion battled hard with little rest against endless waves of insects. She pulled her helmet off for a moment and sat, leaning her back against the rough tunnel wall. Without the aid of her helmet, the oppressive darkness of the second strata swept over her once more. She'd had her helmet on for so long she'd almost forgotten how dark it was, she could barely see her own hand in front of her face.
"Myrrin, got any space on that wall for a weary mage?" came the tired voice of Donnelan.
The young Legionary snorted in derision.
"A tired mage? How would it be possible to see such a thing? Standing at the back and waving your hands around can't be that tiring can it?"
"Leave off," came the grumbled reply as Donnelan leaned back into the wall and slid down to a seated position. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to contest the minds of these stupid ants? There's no end to them."
She felt her curiosity piqued.
"I can't really. What's it like?"
Her friend shuddered.
"I imagine it's similar to what it feels like on the front. You push forward and immediately get jumped by a dozen opponents that swarm over you in seconds. After that it's just a desperate wrestle until they give up or someone else comes along and saves you."
She nodded.
"Sounds about right," she said quietly.
She fell silent for a moment before she barked out a humourless laugh.
"What's so funny?" Donnelan asked.
in
Liria, when we fought for days on end against the monsters? We swore we'd never see anything
chuckle at how naïve
this is kind of similar. Endless waves of monsters to fight. Days
Myrrin refuted, "not the
"How do you figure?"
moment they saw us,
away and
he finished the thought for her
the constant probing on the flanks, sneak attacks trying to cut off their supplies, attempted tunnel collapses, mental assaults, barrages of spells, reinforced stone walls bristling with spikes. It was brutal, draining and constant. At any moment there could be four or five tunneling attempts going on in different locations throughout the area of Dungeon they'd captured. Not a single one had ever succeeded, but the ants didn't stop trying. At first Myrrin had thought they were just
vigilance ever slipped, even for a period of minutes, the ants would be behind them, filling the tunnels in an
until I
bite us they crawl on top of each other to reach us. It's like watching a living wall of monsters come rushing towards us rather than a charge. I swear I can feel their rage, even though their
The mage shrugged.
he yawned, "I'm not surprised they're a little cheesed
a few minutes," she sighed and pulled on her helmet. "I'm getting a break after this
he said, "unlike some people, I have a solemn duty to perform
would if you
"Hells yes."
on, Myrrin could see her fellow Legionaries hurrying forward as they prepared for the next push. The centurions huddled together not far away, pouring over scout reports and discussing the overall strategy. Things had changed since the incident a few days ago when one of the attack groups had their
a few days ago. The magic it had cast was horrifying. For a moment it had almost looked as if the layered shield in front of her would break and she would be consumed by that void. It had held, of course, and the rest of the fight had gone according to expectations, but when she saw that creature across the
came the call and
he hauled himself to his feet. "I hear we expect to reach their nest before too long, so hopefully we've reached the tail end of
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