Chrysalis

There weren't too many times in his centuries of life that Rassan'tep had truly feared for his life. He'd been outnumbered and surrounded during a wave defence in the fourth in just his fifth decade, barely out of the nest. Only the intervention of an Old One had saved him from the jaws of a ravening horde of Emerald Lizards. As he had grown, increased his level, power and prestige, he had not found himself in that situation again.

Until today.

The Ka'armodo found a nice shady spot and crawled in before settling down to try and recover some equilibrium. Not far away, others tended to the termite brood, accelerating their growth and directing them to battle each other to improve their skills. The Old One felt nothing but contempt for the efforts of his comrades in their continued attempts to attack the Mother Tree, and by extension the ants. Even so, he would continue to use them for his own purpose.

[Master!] His faithful chief retainer, the Setsulah Ammon'sil, rushed to his side, placing both hands on the great lizard's side in an unusual public display of concern. [I felt your agitation through the bond. Is all well?]

Under the calming influence of his servant and the cool of the shade, the powerful mage began to feel his blood slow in his veins as he gathered himself.

[It goes to show what happens when I leave without my faithful servants by my side,] Rassan admitted, ruefully.

you

know. I judged it to be worth the risk, and I am still

his hands pressed to the great lizard's side. He monitored the breath and thoughts of Rassan'tep through the bond as he felt that ancient mind

to find our specimen,] Rassan'tep finally conferred. [Though I saw it much closer than I would have

the servant at the thought of such a lowly monster threatening his master, but Rassan'tep only chuckled across their

it found me, but it came after me so quickly I didn't have the

his Setsulah, but he made no effort to dispel it. Better that he remain in

into their servants. Of course, he couldn't possibly refuse this opportunity to study the budding ancient in action and had purposefully attempted to engage it in

had taken several days of careful manoeuvring, but he had finally encountered the target toward the centre of the lines. It had been trivial to arrange an engagement where he would be in position to both watch

side unable to keep up with the sheer fury on display. Magic of many elements, including that

when things

with watching the monster annihilate his troops that he had missed the window to retreat. When he tried to correct this mistake and withdraw, he’d already been noticed by the ant he’d been trying to study. Even so, he should have made it out; the distance between them was large enough, but necessity was the mother of invention, after all. The ant had leapt towards him, its body flying into the