Chrysalis

“SHIELDS!” Advant shouted, her pheromones washing over the entire area in a mighty burst.

The two mages, thankfully, were quick to respond and a shield sprang into being around the large soldier, mere moments before the mess of vines engulfed her completely.

She lunged forward, mandibles snapping as she sheared through hundreds of the tough, living ropes, not noticeably making a dent in them.

“Need some fire?” Propellant asked, eager.

“Of course I want some damn fire! Why are you asking? Just cast it already!” Advant hollered.

An immediate burst of flame washed over her, igniting the vines and driving them back temporarily. Of course, it also set the fine hairs on her antennae on fire at the same time….

“Not me, you idiot!”

“Sorry.”

Unsurprisingly, Propellant didn’t sound all that apologetic as she watched the plant monster retreat, smothering the flames with its innumerable vines. Coolant sighed and conjured a jet of water to douse the singed soldier.

“Really now, you should be able to aim better than that, sister.”

Now dripping wet, Advant fumed silently for a moment before deciding she could no longer hold it in.

“You two have been useless since we got down here,” she sniped at the bickering mages. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’d had a falling out of some sort.”

Propellant and Coolant stood awkwardly for a moment.

shook her head. “Fine, whatever. You’re being ridiculous. Get over yourselves and stop

for the vines to surge up the tunnel once again to snag Advant and

was your

was it my fault?” Coolant replied icily. “The creature is

has water within its vines. You

just being petulant because you’re mad the Eldest didn’t

didn’t have a mega-ice spell for you to learn. It’s not my fault that fire is

it’s so great, then use it. Go help Advant

“Maybe I will!”

to

a long moment, staring at each other until

out. “If the Eldest were here to see your incompetence, you’d be

haven’t done anything wrong,” Coolant defended herself icily. “Propellant,

I don’t want to hear it,” the soldier cut the

came forward and began to go to work, repairing the extensive damage done to Advant’s carapace. There were a number of smaller wounds as well, places where the vines had pierced flesh and inflicted harm. The

of any kind. Beyond unusual, exceedingly rare, but it did happen. Then again, two individuals with such diametrically opposed personalities were seldom asked to work together as often as Coolant

along quite well, but for whatever reason, they were letting their argument get in the way of their task, which was not acceptable.

table,” she told the two mages. “Either you assure me right now that you can both operate at your best going forward, or we turn around and go back. I only agreed to come with so few in the team because I assumed you two would be such an asset that it didn’t matter. Not only are you not an asset, I would rather have any other two mages than you right

askance, antennae drooping with shame, though neither willing to admit fault in front of the

let out a frustrated

know everyone is stressed right now. The Eldest is out of commission for who knows how long, and we have a ton of things to do, but you two can’t

right,” Coolant said. “We are not performing our

picking chunks of vine from gaps in

best not to set you on fire. I can’t promise you won’t get singed, though. It’s fire, after

issue. I sincerely hope that whatever is bothering the two of you is resolved as soon