Chrysalis

Hartos looked around and was satisfied with what he saw. The mercenaries had managed to penetrate the mountain in good order, and despite the intensifying attacks from the ants, they had maintained their formation.

He couldn’t help but sneer. Those fools who’d refused to join him would be crying bloody tears when they saw the haul he returned with. Thousands and thousands of ants surrounded them already, and soon enough they’d be dead, just waiting for their cores to be extracted.

But it didn’t hurt to be careful.

“Artis!” he barked.

“What?” his long-time crewmember replied, sounding harried.

“I need you for a second.”

“Make it quick,” she snapped, “this shield doesn’t maintain itself.”

He frowned, both at her tone and the implication of her words.

“Are we really being pressured that hard?”

The mage glared at him.

“Of course we are! Look around you, the bugs are endless! No matter how much firepower we pump out, they keep coming.”

“But you can hold?”

“Yes, we can hold. It’s just very difficult work!”

He nodded.

“Good. I want you to check and make sure the mythic is still asleep. We don’t want to be in here when the damn thing wakes up.”

“That’s the truth,” the mage muttered.

She fumbled about in her robes and removed the array from one of her dozens of pockets. She stared at it intensely for a few moments.

“Well?” Hartos demanded.

“There’s tens of thousands of monsters in this mountain, wait a damned second.”

He turned his eyes back to the struggle along the perimeter as the mage continued to study the device.

she said finally. “It’s still

“You’re sure.”

a signal that strong is hard to miss. I’m sure. Now can I get

“Go for it.”

let his mind dwell on the best case scenario. If they managed

the surrounding mercs. “We get a little deeper and we can set up a

The fighting was thick along the edge of the shields as the insects continued to press in on them from all sides, but so long as the mages held the barriers in place, they

their numbers, it didn’t matter where they fought them, on the surface or in the heart of the nest. In fact, the nest was better, since that’s where most of them

to support the more experienced fighters closer to the edge. Hartos walked forward and clapped him on

make a fortune?” he

Drake turned around, he noted how tense he

I’m ready,” he

him with a firm

still sleeping and we’re holding off the insects just fine. We’ll start pulling them into the shield and harvesting cores.

and he took a deep breath

to

leaders and

over the roof, on

coming with more?” Drake asked as he flung another slash through the shield. “They could hit

Hartos chuckled.

clever as you and me. Perhaps they’re protecting something and don’t want to leave their posts, or they’re fighting other monsters, or a hundred other reasons. Besides, even

the mark!” Artis called from

to get to

breath to bellow his orders to the hundreds of gathered mercenaries, but before

shake, then it vanished, like a magic trick. He didn’t have time to be afraid, the only thing in his mind

of mandibles scraping and scratching at the

he flailed wildly with his

screams and cries rang out around him as the entire expedition plunged downwards.

crashed into the stone floor, landing on his side. He managed to brace himself and prevent his head from smacking into the rock just in time, a

the name of the Path was that?” Hartos bellowed from somewhere nearby. “Sound off! Get the shields up! Are you trying to get

harsh and authoritative, but with an undercurrent of tension that sent a

is the light?!”

flared into existence, casting their surroundings into stark relief. Drake almost sagged back to the ground in relief when he

they? They’d been everywhere around

Something shifted behind him.

he