Chrysalis

Once again, the strange ant, Anthony, had demonstrated insight beyond what one would expect of a monster. Eran Thouris, the lead negotiator of the Island Conglomerate, was delighted at how effective the monster had been, as well as being curious, if not apprehensive, about the source of his wisdom.

As the fights continue, the giant ant revealed himself to be fast, strong, adept in a variety of mana types, as well as wielding that strange purple energy to devastating effect. Those enormous mandibles, each as large as a person, unleashed frighteningly powerful bites, filled with a dark energy that rocked the arena every time the Skill was activated.

And he was so quick. Whenever a desperate situation arose, the enormous creature moved like a dancer, with the reflexes of a spider, speeding, sliding, six legs moved in a blur to push his enormous bulk away from danger. In key moments, when a burst of speed was required, he almost appeared to vanish, disappearing from one point and reappearing in another, throwing down his opponents, or catching them up in his deadly jaws.

The Folk were entranced. Despite limiting the fights to only eighth and ninth swords, the line was dozens long. Such a rare opportunity to polish their abilities against a growing powerhouse of the Dungeon. They could not resist it.

Nor could the merchants with whom she dealt.

“It is astonishing that this… Colony… was able to produce a monster of such immense strength in such a short time,” Whiskers, the feline-looking folk praised as Anthony bested yet another challenger. “If you had not shown me, I would never have believed an ant could be so strong.”

“The Colony produces many things, not only powerful individuals,” Eran smiled with the exact, correct amount of warmth. “They are fierce, and intelligent. Proud, and industrious. Their forges produce thousands of tons of ingots every day, harvested from across all of their territories. They even cracked the methods of forging Fire Iron by themselves.”

“Really,” the old man stroked the long whiskers that emerged from his cheeks, eyes narrowing. “I don’t suppose you have a sample?”

Without turning, Eran reached a hand over her shoulder and felt a heavy weight placed into it within seconds. She offered the metal to her fellow trader to inspect.

less than a month ago outside the demon city of Orpule,” she said. “You can

they continued to use their pheromone glands for this purpose, but realised

the ingot this way and that, reading the markings, which included the date, a special mark which indicated the forge at which it was produced, and

if you find this story

but they’ve done enough that we can reforge the metal here to refine it further. I’d be

Eran’s smile deepened.

discuss that

~~~

many ants have reached such a

unfortunately, as Bilious, was a

as I’m aware, there is only one other,” Eran replied smoothly, leaning away slightly

difference between six and seven is as vast as the ocean,” Bilious said, a little condescendingly,

her pleasant exterior. “It seems your swordsmen

ten wins in a row and didn’t appear to be flagging in the slightest, despite the numerous hits he’d taken. The last

and Lotus Bloom,” Bilious noted, “but none of the top ten schools have yet made an

them all the same. No individual brathian would ever claim they could beat a

The large woman harrumphed.

capable of surprising me,” she said with open disdain. “Not in the arena,