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

“You’re sure.”

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

“Go for it.”

scenario could be avoided, the leader let his mind dwell on the best case scenario. If they managed to dig in deep enough and snag

mercs. “We get a little deeper and we can

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

long as the ants couldn’t use the full weight of their numbers, it didn’t matter where they fought them, on the surface or in the heart of the nest.

more experienced fighters closer to the edge. Hartos walked

to make a

noted how tense he looked. The pressure was clearly

ready,”

mercenary steadied him with a firm grip

insects just fine. We’ll start pulling them into the shield and harvesting cores.

a deep breath to

to

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

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 was an oppressive, suffocating way to fight. It was a

another slash through the shield. “They could

Hartos chuckled.

and don’t want to leave their posts, or they’re fighting other monsters, or

mark!” Artis called

to work then,” Hartos

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

time to be afraid, the only thing in his mind was confusion as the ground beneath his feet simply

flashed through his thoughts of mandibles scraping

flailed wildly with his arms, trying to grab

as the entire expedition plunged downwards. What had

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

nearby. “Sound off! Get the shields up! Are

that sent a chill through the young mercenary. Something had gone terribly

the light?!”

existence, casting their surroundings into stark relief. 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 the other

Where were they? They’d been everywhere

Something shifted behind him.

he heard