Chrysalis

[Run, run, run!] I holler at the others as we continue to sprint through the mould covered forest.

It really is obnoxious to run through this mess. There's mould beneath us, beside us and crawling up the trees to cover the canopy above us. It's like being in a suffocating winter wonderland except far more horrifying. Especially now that some of it is on fire.

[I don't think more fire will be a good idea, Master!] Crinis suggests as we race through the terrain.

[We might need another distraction soon. Starting a small fire will get the termites off our trail.]

[Won't it just bring more of them?] Sarah demands.

[I mean, yes. But also, yes…]

They be distracted though…

Perhaps that's still not good enough.

[No more fires,] Sarah tells me firmly, [we can think of something else.]

[Hmph. You're just worried about the fungus spores getting inside you,] I mutter.

[I hadn't even thought of that! Anthony!]

[Breathe it in deep. That's the sweet smell of fungus country.]

come

remove the mould from

the aphids are

superiority. Even if we started fungus farming, we wouldn't let it run

trail?] Sarah asks, sounding a little panicked

confirm, [it's getting stronger even. Wherever they

may be a somewhat delicate flower internally, but externally she is all beef. Her legs are thicker than a person and positively bulging with muscle underneath all of that fur, much like her shoulders. In fact, the

tell her, [how do you even

she snaps, [that usually

Oh, right.

that here and now,] I hastily assure her. My antennae waggle

like Sarah is in this long distance sprint, Invidia perched on his back like a nightmarish bat, green eye blazing with energy as he surveys the land. We rush through a cluster of trees, blasting away the

had been running further inland, heading up the slope of the side of the mountain which had been increasing the further we'd gone and I'd expected that to continue, but it seems as if our opponents had a different concept for this landscape. In front of us a vast yawning chasm has been carved into the rock, the trees cleared for hundreds of metres in all directions. Like a passageway into the pit of doom, the wide tunnel is completely black on the inside, with no light source to be discerned from this distance. More terrifying still, is the view of the

nest. The whole damn

for myself… it's just ridiculous! You could fit the main nest of the Colony into

bad they aren't alone. Not only are they swarmed by a host of termites, which is bad enough, but watching from above are five kaarmodo with their attendants in tow. In a flash I take in the full scene, drawing knowledge from the Vestibule as I allow the will of Vibrant and her coterie to

kaarmodo are pinning them here, using shields and spells to lock Vibrant and her

Not. Acceptable.

Tiny who is only too

with his enormous palms, bellowing his rage in an ear shattering roar that shakes the trees around us. Then he's off, bounding across the mould covered

alive and blow

[Even the lizardsssss?]

[Especially them.]