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.”

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

“Go for it.”

the worst case 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 that

little deeper and we can set up a

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

fought them, on the surface or in

Drake was nearby, still doing what he could to support the more

to make a fortune?” he

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

I’m ready,”

him with a firm grip on his

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

took a deep breath to settle his

forward to it,” he

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

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,

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

Hartos chuckled.

a monster’s mind. These ants may be smarter than the average, but that doesn’t make them as clever 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

called from amongst a

get to

of gathered mercenaries, but before he said a word, the world

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 fall

through his thoughts of mandibles scraping

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

him as the entire

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

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

out, harsh and authoritative, but with an undercurrent of tension that sent a chill through the young mercenary. Something had gone

is the light?!” Hartos

when he didn’t see any ants nearby. His mind had conjured

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 someone