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.

finally. “It’s

“You’re sure.”

readings with so many cores between the mythic and us, but a signal that strong is hard to miss. I’m sure. Now can I get back to

“Go for it.”

the best case scenario. If they managed to dig in deep enough and snag that mythic

deeper and we can set up a perimeter. Then we can start getting

efforts. The fighting was thick along the edge of the shields as the insects continued to press in on them from all sides, but so

weight of 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

more experienced fighters closer to

make a fortune?”

around, he noted how tense he looked. The pressure was

I’m ready,”

mercenary steadied him with a

mythic is still sleeping and we’re holding off the insects just fine. We’ll start

and he took a deep breath to settle

to

to your crew leaders and keep your eyes on the prize! Efficient killing and harvesting is what we’re here for. No screw

numbers. They were everywhere, climbing over the roof, on the walls, even walking on the

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

Hartos chuckled.

and me. Perhaps they’re protecting something and don’t want to leave their posts, or they’re fighting other monsters,

called from

to work

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

magic trick. He didn’t have time to be afraid, the only thing in his mind was confusion as the ground beneath his feet simply disappeared and he began to

of mandibles scraping

he flailed wildly with his arms, trying

rang out around him as the entire

finished, the mercenaries thudding to the ground heavily. Drake crashed into the stone floor, landing on his

that?” Hartos bellowed from somewhere nearby. “Sound off! Get the shields up!

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

is the

Drake almost sagged back to the ground in relief when he didn’t see any ants nearby. His mind had conjured a thousand ravenous mouths ready to descend on him and

They’d been everywhere around them only a moment

Something shifted behind him.

he heard someone