Chrysalis

Overhead, the rock face of an entire mountain rushed down to meet them, the roar of tearing stone deafening to all in the mouth of the nest. Advant looked up, her mandibles set in grim determination. What happened next wasn’t up to her, but she would believe in her sisters.

“Ignore the mountain!” she spread the message with confidence. “Drive the enemy back into the nest! Push!”

As good as her words, she dove back into the conflict, mandibles snapping. She used her mass and thick carapace to bully and shove at the termites, breaking up their line and knocking them off balance with sheer strength.

Even blind as they were, the termites could still detect something was wrong, Advant could see it in the way their antennae twitched frantically. The air was thick with rival pheromones as they blasted each other. They wanted to rebel against the control that lay over them, wanted to defend their nest, protect their queen, repair the damage, but they couldn’t. The lizards wouldn’t let them.

The Colony general almost felt sorry for them. The termites were little more than slaves, denied their natural patterns of behaviour and forced to throw their lives away in an attempt to bring down a superior insect.

Of course, there was no pity for the termite scum. They had to be eliminated, there was simply no other choice.

Up and down the line, the ants continued to push forward, heedless of the collapsing mountainside dropping on their heads. Bite, push, charge, pull back, bite. They fell into the repetitive pattern of insect warfare, willpower and grit were more important than skill in this contest.

BOOM!

She heard a mighty eruption, followed by a colossal shower of dirt launching into the sky at several points behind her. She didn’t react or turn, but her range of vision allowed her to see the enormous spires rising into the sky.

As a front line soldier, she hadn’t been party to the full plan, but she trusted her siblings. There was no way that Sloan hadn’t accounted for something like the lizards trying to drop the mountain on them.

spires of condensed stone grew upwards, rapidly sprouting trees of rock that raced into the sky. As the frontline pushed ever deeper into the falling mountain, the huge rock

her head, sheared stone began to rain down as splintered chunks of rock broke off from the main body. Anything large enough to damage the ants fighting beneath was deflected with

into the teeth of the enemy. They were inside the nest now, the path sloping down sharply, plunging into

the heavens. It was more than an avalanche, overhead it seemed as

But they didn’t waver.

had erected, still it

vast field of purple light flickered into existence

the falling stone in a heartbeat. Immediately, the speed of descent slowed, their imminent crushing held

the Colony

to rise and support the

felt her heart lighten as the Eldest acted to save them, deploying their own mana to hold back the

whole body

field too! In fact, if she didn’t grip the ground

“Eldest?!” she demanded, worried.

ant called back. “But they better hurry up, I can’t

having no talent for magic — she didn’t even have the mana sight skill — Advant could feel the vast rush of energy channelled by the Colony. An invisible tornado

turned pale and their eyes

sixty thousand mages working in perfect harmony. Formed and shaped with the will of the Colony, the energy flooded into the ground, strengthening the pillars and branching out within the collapsed stone