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.”

get clear readings with so many cores between the mythic and us, but a

“Go for it.”

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

he roared to the surrounding mercs. “We get a little deeper and we can set up a perimeter. Then we can

the edge of the shields as the insects continued to press in

fought them, on the surface or in the heart of the

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

make a

he noted how tense he

I’m ready,”

him with

holding off the insects just fine. We’ll start pulling

gaze firmed and he took a deep breath to settle

to it,” he

Listen to your crew leaders and keep

insects put out. Twice the size of a human, the giant soldiers were intimidating beasts, especially when they came in large numbers. They were everywhere, climbing over the roof, on the walls, even walking on the shield itself or lunging up from beneath. Along with

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

Hartos chuckled.

doesn’t make them as 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 if more came, it wouldn’t

is the mark!” Artis called from amongst a cluster of

to work then,”

drew a breath to bellow his orders to the hundreds of gathered

He didn’t have time to be afraid, the only thing in his mind was confusion as the ground beneath

mandibles scraping

flailed wildly with his arms, trying

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

sooner had it started than it finished, the mercenaries thudding to the ground heavily. Drake crashed into the stone floor, landing on his side.

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

but with an undercurrent of tension that sent a chill through the young mercenary. Something had gone terribly

the light?!”

in relief when he didn’t see any

they? They’d been everywhere around them only

Something shifted behind him.

he heard