Chrysalis

Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!

Ah, the satisfying feeling of having my face hands clapping fools. The monsters of the fourth stratum are tough, there’s no doubt about that, but these are all spawned during the wave, without enough evolutions or mutations to really threaten a highly developed monster like me.

A mass of boulders rumbles towards me, acting in harmony as if connected by some invisible force. An earth elemental?

Chomp!

I shatter it.

“Skreeeeee!”

A feathered worm bursts out of the soil in front of me.

Chomp!

Not today, worm!

A weird, dinosaur-looking thing charges at me, waggling its little arms.

Chomp! Chomp!

Needed two that time!

more like home to me. Part of that is likely my ant nature, and the other is probably down to the circumstances of my birth. Fighting in tunnels was my first experience in

it’s not efficient to bite all these monsters one by one, which is why Gandalf brought us awesome

VOID CHOMP!

of the tunnel wall. There’s a lot of spells I haven’t juiced up with the Altar to see their full effects, and this is merely one of

Neat.

retake the next layer of walls at this rate, but if I pour water over it all, won’t

with a clearer head on their shoulders can make those sorts of decisions, my work here

to the defensive line, exchanging ant high-fives with the stout warriors of the Colony as I pass through. I have to be careful with those now. My antennae have become so large I can cause some real damage if I’m not careful,

you’ve evolved again, you lot will be able to get in there and do your thing too. The experience and Biomass you can accrue is

assume that’s why we don’t seal the tunnels and close off the nest?”

the casualties we inevitably suffer, it’s worth it. The Colony has only grown as fast as it has thanks to our successful defence against, and harnessing of, the wave. How many thousands upon thousands of Biomass are being harvested in the second and third strata right now? How many cores? All of that is fed back into our

understanding, but I have

well. With every wave, we supercharge the development of the family. Who could say how long it would

my crew back to the command centre only to find a horde

“I assume–?”

“Hurry up!” Victor yells.

a little bit,

bouncing between different tunnels, helping to roll back the

everything, discussing amongst themselves as they develop ideas and strategies together.

battle down here is truly endless, as one would expect during a wave. No matter how far back I push the hordes of ravenous

to the central hub this time, the activity inside is even more frenetic than usual. In fact, I’d go so far as to

not hard to work out