Chrysalis

“Eldest! What are you doing up here?” Leeroy complained.

“Hah. Thought you had a nice final stand setup here, did you? You thought you’d run far enough from the rest of the Colony that we wouldn’t be able to catch up and keep you alive? You should know better by now, Leeroy.”

“But don’t you need to rush deeper into the nest, Eldest?” she asks, hope still alive in her scent. “We can hold this position… against overwhelming odds, even! Yes! We can stay here, battling to control the mouth of the nest to protect you… until we fall one by one, tragically!”

Wow, she worked that up in her head quickly.

“No chance, Leeroy. I came up here strictly to keep you and all your followers alive. None of you are going to die while I’m here,” I tell her firmly.

“Dammit.”

“This sucks!”

“Ruining everything…”

“I was feeling good about today…”

“Hey! Shut up over there! You think I can’t hear you? Don’t make me walk over there!”

“Would you kill us if you did?”

“What? No!”

“Dammit...”

help. I’m going to get on that after this battle, you’ve had your fun. Now get

the Immortals grumble and turn back to fighting, but it's easy to see

entrance to the termite nest, their scent trails are all around us, along with literally tens of thousands of them all around us,

you aren’t pumped up for this then what

after, but I can’t comprehend it, so I can’t understand their lack of gusto. It’s

Let me at ‘em!

run right over the top of the armoured soldier in front of me, throwing myself into the waiting jaws of

I even land. WIth plenty of brain power to spare, I pour all of my mental energy into compressing the mana as tight as possible before I release it and

crushing as I raise my business district high and blast

Eat acid you suckers!

rip with my elemental magic, I have another use for that, but I won’t get the chance this soon in the fight. I’ll have to get a bit deeper before I can

close and personal

exterminator is required and I am here to answer the call! Unrestrained, I unleash all of my pent-up rage upon the enemy, channelling the intent of my entire family into my mandibles as I rip my way

the distance I can see the rest of the Colony pushing forward, grinding down the enemy and

narrow deeper in as the opening fades into darkness. Down there somewhere are the queens and brood chambers and we won’t leave

atop one another to take their shot, but with a hundred

manage to pile up, I can heal them. In fact, the more I fight, the more energised I feel as the Colony seizes the upper

and I can tell that the battle is one sided so far. Against the might of this many ants, supported by their loyal militia of sentient buff givers, our enemy

in its strongest form, you wood chomping

Muahahahahahaha!