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 I get back

“Go for it.”

on the best case

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

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 as the mages held the barriers in place, they

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, since that’s where most of

could to support the more experienced fighters closer to the edge. Hartos

make a

around, he noted how tense he looked.

I’m ready,”

mercenary steadied him with a firm grip on

start pulling them into the shield and harvesting cores. You’ll be

gaze firmed and he took a deep breath

forward to

Hartos roared. “Another ten metres and we’ll start! Listen to your crew leaders and keep your

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

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

Hartos chuckled.

as you and me. Perhaps they’re protecting something 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 shown them half of what

called from amongst a cluster of

get to

his orders to the hundreds of 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 confusion as the ground beneath his feet simply disappeared and he began to

image flashed through his thoughts of mandibles scraping and

with his

around him as the entire expedition plunged downwards.

stone floor, landing on his side. He managed

that?” Hartos bellowed from somewhere nearby. “Sound off!

of tension that sent a chill through the young mercenary. Something had

is the

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

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

Something shifted behind him.

no,” he heard someone