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.]

never have come

defeated we can remove the mould from this area and return it to

the

farming, we wouldn't let it run wild and out of control like this. It

you still have the trail?] Sarah asks, sounding a little panicked as we continue to blast through the termite’s

getting stronger even. Wherever

a person and positively bulging with muscle underneath all of that fur, much like her shoulders. In fact, the shoulders are even larger. For all of her strength, she isn't

somehow,] I tell her, [how do you even last in

snaps, [that

Oh, right.

need for that here and now,] I hastily assure her. My antennae waggle furiously as I follow the trail. [The

wake, suffering much like Sarah is in this long distance sprint, Invidia perched on his back like a nightmarish

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 mountain I get from here. There are holes,

is the termite nest. The whole damn

but to see it for myself… it's just ridiculous! You could fit the main nest of

our quarry. In the mouth of the tunnel a tight gathering of ants can be seen, the large form of Vibrant zipping here and there amongst them. It's too bad they aren't alone. Not only are they swarmed by a host of termites, which is bad enough, but watching from

spells to lock Vibrant and her group into a fight so that the termites can

Not. Acceptable.

there!] I roar to Tiny who is only

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 stone, his fists

alive and blow up everything I don't

[Even the lizardsssss?]

[Especially them.]