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 still

“You’re sure.”

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

“Go for it.”

mind dwell on the best case scenario.

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

redoubled their 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 long

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,

what he could to support the more

a

around, he noted how tense he looked. The

I’m ready,” he

with

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

he took a deep breath

forward to it,”

Listen to your crew leaders and keep your eyes on the prize! Efficient killing and harvesting is what we’re

beasts, especially when they came in large numbers. They were everywhere, climbing over the roof, on the walls, even walking on

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

Hartos chuckled.

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 make a difference, we haven’t

mark!” Artis called from amongst

to work then,”

gathered mercenaries, but before he said a

the floor shake, then it vanished, like a magic trick. He didn’t have time to be afraid, the only thing in his mind was

through his thoughts of mandibles scraping and

with his

as the entire expedition plunged downwards. What

to the ground heavily. Drake crashed into the stone floor, landing on his side. He managed to brace himself and prevent his head from smacking into the rock just in time, a trick Rillik had

Path was that?” Hartos bellowed from somewhere nearby. “Sound off! Get the shields up! Are you trying

tension that sent a chill

is the light?!”

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 members of the

moment later, he realised how strange that was. Where were they? They’d been everywhere around them only a moment ago, so what had

Something shifted behind him.

he heard someone