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 still

“You’re sure.”

between the mythic and us, but a signal that strong is hard to miss. I’m sure. Now can

“Go for it.”

dwell on the best case scenario. If they managed to dig in deep enough

“We get a little deeper and we can set

the shields as the insects continued to press in on them from all

fought them, on the surface or in the heart of the nest. In fact, the nest was better, since

nearby, still doing what he could to support the more experienced fighters closer to the edge. Hartos walked

to make a

how tense he looked. The pressure was clearly getting to

ready,” he

him with a firm grip

start pulling them into the shield and harvesting

and he took a deep breath

forward to

metres and we’ll start! Listen to your crew leaders and keep your eyes on the prize!

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 the rising heat the deeper they went, it

another slash through the shield. “They could hit us with ten times

Hartos chuckled.

as clever as you and me. Perhaps they’re protecting something and don’t want to leave their posts,

is the mark!” Artis called from amongst a

to get to work then,”

gathered mercenaries, but before he said a word, the

the only thing in his mind was confusion as the ground beneath his feet simply disappeared and

image flashed through his thoughts of mandibles scraping and scratching at the

cried as he flailed wildly with his arms, trying to grab hold of

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

of the Path was that?” Hartos bellowed from somewhere nearby. “Sound off! Get the

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

is the light?!”

relief. Drake almost sagged back to the ground in relief when he didn’t see any ants nearby. His mind had

were they? They’d been everywhere around them only a moment ago, so what had happened, did

Something shifted behind him.

he