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

“You’re sure.”

a signal that strong is hard to miss. I’m sure. Now can

“Go for it.”

mind dwell on the best case scenario. If they

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

they 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 as the

the full weight 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

young lad Drake was nearby, still doing what he could to support the more experienced fighters closer to the edge.

to make a

he

I’m ready,” he

him with

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

took a deep

forward to it,” he

and we’ll start! Listen to your crew leaders and

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 was an oppressive, suffocating way to

they coming with more?” Drake asked as he flung another slash through the shield. “They

Hartos chuckled.

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 difference, we haven’t shown them

is the mark!” Artis called from amongst a cluster

to get to work then,” Hartos

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

a magic trick. He didn’t have time to be afraid, the only thing in his mind was confusion

of mandibles scraping and scratching at

flailed wildly with his arms,

rang out around him as the entire expedition plunged

landing on his side. He managed to brace himself and

from somewhere nearby. “Sound off!

authoritative, but with an undercurrent of tension that sent

the light?!” Hartos

relief when he didn’t see any ants nearby.

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

Something shifted behind him.

he heard