What to do? Do I tell them I can’t remember the plan? Would that impact my dignity as the Eldest? Maybe I’ll just play along and hope for the best. What’s the worst that could go wrong?
“Do we all understand?”
“Of course.”
“No problem.”
“Simple.”
….
“It’s straightforward, I like it,” I declare with every scrap of confidence I can muster. “I’ll leave it to you to coordinate with the generals at the front.”
“I understand.”
Solant is all business, solemn and serious as she goes about plying her particular trade. When we arrive, she goes straight to the generals and begins an in-depth conversation about what she wants to do that I immediately lose track of, but they seem to follow okay.
Following that, she moves around the resting troops, ensuring they understand what to do, drawing little diagrams and even running a few drills until she’s happy that they’ll move the way she wants them to.
The entire time, all I hear in my mind is static. This is a problem.
front line as the soldiers, scouts, mages and healers ahead of me
go poorly. My
lead the
“O-of course!”
the troops? Or do we start with an acid barrage? She talked about acid, I’m sure of it…. Or magic? Was I supposed to
few more. The troops behind me begin to shuffle forward
a bit more. They
worried that I’m moving too
ants fighting ahead of me turn and retreat, rushing past me in
NOW WHAT?
Do I strike?
chomp, but I hesitate. Would that ruin the plan? I don’t want to unravel the strategy! The whole point
the enemy down for the rest of the ants
is giving me a headache.
I can think of: I tuck my legs under my body, bury my head in the rock and accept my fate. If
batter at my carapace. Claws scratch, teeth scrape, blows rain down on me ceaselessly. Protected by my absurdly tough, compressed diamond carapace,
a little more calm knowing that I won’t get instantly annihilated at least. I can feel the ants engaging the enemy around me, acid fills the air, a non-trivial amount of it landing on me, but I can’t really blame them for
tough enough to eat through my carapace, I’d love to meet them. In fact, it’s possible a nice acid
that I’m doing something wrong continues to eat away at me, and every second,
OOF!
just collapsed on me. What the heck? Judging by the mana I can feel, an earth elemental just clobbered me with one
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