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.

said finally. “It’s still

“You’re sure.”

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

“Go for it.”

the worst case scenario could be avoided, the leader let his mind dwell on the best

to the surrounding mercs. “We get a little deeper and we

continued to press in on them from all sides, but so long as the mages held the

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

what he could to support the more experienced fighters closer to the edge.

a fortune?” he

he noted how tense he looked. The pressure was clearly getting

I’m ready,” he

older mercenary steadied him with

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

took a deep breath to settle his

to it,”

start! Listen to your crew leaders and keep your eyes on the

were flagging under the intense pressure the 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

with more?” Drake asked as he flung another slash through the shield.

Hartos chuckled.

want to leave their posts,

the mark!” Artis called from amongst a cluster

to work then,” Hartos

orders to the hundreds of gathered mercenaries, but before he

only thing in his mind was confusion

his thoughts of mandibles scraping and

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

cries rang out around him as the entire

the mercenaries thudding to the ground heavily. Drake crashed into the stone floor, landing on his side. He managed to brace himself and prevent his head

Hartos bellowed from somewhere nearby. “Sound off! Get the shields up! Are you

harsh and authoritative, but with an undercurrent of tension that sent a chill through the young

is the light?!” Hartos

ground in relief when he didn’t see any ants nearby. His mind had conjured a thousand ravenous mouths ready to descend

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

Something shifted behind him.

no,” he heard someone