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 still

“You’re sure.”

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

“Go for it.”

leader let his mind dwell on the best case scenario. If they managed to dig in deep enough

the surrounding mercs. “We get a little deeper and

roared back as they redoubled their efforts. The fighting was thick along the edge of the shields as the insects continued to press in on

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

the more experienced fighters closer to the edge. Hartos walked forward and clapped him

to make a fortune?” he

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

ready,” he

older mercenary steadied him with

The mythic 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 drowning

took a deep breath to settle

to

Listen to your crew leaders and keep your eyes

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 was

through the shield. “They could hit us

Hartos chuckled.

don’t want to leave their posts, or they’re fighting other monsters, or a hundred other reasons. Besides, even if more came,

mark!” Artis called from amongst a cluster

get to work then,” Hartos

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

have time to be afraid, the only thing in his

of mandibles scraping and

cried as he flailed wildly with his

and cries rang out around him as the entire expedition plunged downwards. What

the stone floor, landing on his side. He managed to brace himself and prevent

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

tension that sent a chill through the

is the

in relief when he didn’t see

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

Something shifted behind him.

no,” he heard