Chrysalis

Solant felt as if her mind was balanced on a mandible’s edge. She saw everything that occurred and her mind catalogued every event, filing them, ordering them, and then she responded to each in turn as best she could.

Minute by minute, her four groups rotated through, regardless of the conditions at the front. The ravenous, unthinking beasts of the wave weren’t watching or analysing their movements, and so didn’t anticipate or take advantage of the minute openings in her tidy formation the manoeuvre created, as a disciplined and thinking opponent would.

Adjust the tactics to suit the opponent. There was no such thing as a universal strategy.

Another of her idioms.

The monsters of the wave were crazed, desperate and savage, throwing themselves against her defensive position over and over again. Many times, she was forced to give ground, only to claw it back later.

Fortunately, she didn’t have to employ her new move until the troops had settled into a good rhythm.

From around the corner, Solant spotted a new threat approaching: a shimmering turtle, almost the same size as the Eldest, glimmering with energy that rolled from it in waves. Her front line was currently occupied with a pack of ape-like creatures that could summon clouds to obscure their bodies and even phase themselves into the mist.

“Hard push,” she ordered, “starting in ten seconds.”

The energy and mana available to her troops was a resource that had to be carefully managed, but she ordered them to spend it. Ten seconds later, a barrage of fire burned away the cloud and apes alike, allowing the soldiers to latch onto the struggling monsters and bring them down.

“Rotate,” she ordered, not missing a beat and allowing her formation the few seconds necessary to switch. “Forward.”

soldiers, she had a good view of the monsters approaching down the tunnel, and at this moment, the giant turtle was the only thing coming. She wanted a little extra room to

biscuits

result of their lack of familiarity with the tactic. The ants began to respond, urged by her broodmates amongst their ranks, and Solant picked

represented exactly the kind of opponent the Colony was struggling with in the fourth. Too tough for them to bring down efficiently, resulting in their lines being pushed in,

on damage was one option, but was probably the least effective use of that particular individual's talents. Tea and biscuits was a new attempt at implementing

prepared to engage her stratagem.

“Now!” she snapped.

The front line drew back, while two scouts slid in behind her and seized hold of her back legs. Once she felt that contact, Solant threw herself forward and rotated to

it was unlikely the turtle could

waggled her

ants had enjoyed successive special evolutions as she had. In fact, vanishingly few had that privilege compared to the enormous numbers of the Colony.

even remotely. But she was, at the very

scouts dashed away like lightning, dragging

remained, waggling her legs helplessly, just out of the monster’s

rumbled forward, its jaws gnashing with hunger and rage. The scouts kept Solant just out of reach as they