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

“You’re sure.”

to get clear readings with so many 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.”

let his mind dwell on the

little deeper and we can set up a perimeter. Then

of the shields as the insects continued to press in on them from all

ants couldn’t use 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

nearby, still doing what he could to support the more experienced fighters closer to the edge. Hartos walked forward and clapped him

make a fortune?”

he noted how tense he looked. The pressure was

I’m ready,”

older mercenary steadied him with a firm grip

fine. We’ll start pulling them into the shield and harvesting

firmed and he took a

forward to it,”

we’ll start! Listen to your crew leaders and keep your eyes on the prize! Efficient killing and harvesting is

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

as he flung another slash through the shield. “They could hit

Hartos chuckled.

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

the mark!” Artis called from amongst

get to

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

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 fall into

his thoughts of mandibles scraping and

his

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

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

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

out, harsh and authoritative, but with an undercurrent of tension that sent a chill through the

the

into existence, casting their surroundings into stark relief. Drake almost sagged back to the ground in relief when he didn’t see any ants nearby. His mind had conjured a thousand ravenous mouths ready to

Where were they? They’d been everywhere around them

Something shifted behind him.

he heard