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.”

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. Now

“Go for it.”

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

mercs. “We get a little deeper and we can set up a perimeter. Then we

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

numbers, it didn’t matter where they fought them, on the

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

a fortune?”

turned around, he noted how tense he looked. The pressure was clearly getting to

ready,” he

steadied him with a firm grip

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

took a deep breath to settle his

forward to it,” he

and keep your eyes on the prize! Efficient killing and harvesting is what we’re here for. No screw

mercenaries who 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 up from beneath. Along with the rising heat the deeper they went, it

more?” Drake asked as he flung another slash through the shield. “They could hit us with ten times this many. Why don’t

Hartos chuckled.

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

the mark!” Artis called from amongst a cluster of

to work then,”

his orders to the hundreds of gathered mercenaries, but before he said a word,

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

mandibles scraping and scratching

flailed wildly with his arms, trying

cries rang out around him as the entire expedition

crashed into the stone floor, landing on his side. He

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

of tension that sent a chill through the

is the light?!” Hartos

bright fires flared into 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

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

Something shifted behind him.

he heard