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.

“You’re sure.”

clear readings with so many cores between the mythic and us, but a signal that strong is hard to miss.

“Go for it.”

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

little deeper and we can set up a perimeter.

The fighting was thick along the edge of the shields as the insects continued to press in on them from all

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

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

to make a fortune?”

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

I’m ready,” he

him with a

start pulling

he took a deep breath to settle

forward to

ten metres and we’ll start! Listen to your crew leaders and keep your eyes on

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

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

Hartos chuckled.

try to understand 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

is the mark!” Artis called from

to get to work then,”

drew a breath to bellow his orders to the hundreds of gathered mercenaries, but

afraid, the only thing in his mind was confusion as the ground beneath his feet simply disappeared and

mandibles scraping and

as he flailed wildly with his arms, trying to

around him as the entire

thudding to the ground heavily. Drake crashed into the stone floor, landing on his side. He managed to brace himself and prevent his head from smacking into

of the Path was that?” Hartos bellowed from somewhere nearby.

an undercurrent of tension that sent a chill through the

is the light?!” Hartos

existence, casting their surroundings into stark relief. Drake almost sagged back to the ground in relief when he didn’t see any ants nearby.

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

Something shifted behind him.

he heard someone