Chrysalis

Things were not meant to have gone this way.

Zluth compressed himself a little as he slid to the side, carefully not looking at the gruesome scene taking place nearby. Though, try as he might, there was nothing he could do about the sound.

CRUNCH. CRUNCH. SLURP.

All Zluth really cared about in the moment was that it wasn’t him who’d been on the chopping block. When the Krath’lath was done with her grisly task, she gurgled grotesquely as she absorbed the flesh of her consumed tribesmates.

“Failure is not acceptable,” she said when she had finished. Then turned her stalks toward Zluth, who froze in place for a moment.

“Of course not, Krath’lath. The three urudesh who proposed this assault were clearly inferior, a blight upon our tribe.”

“We are indeed stronger for having removed such weakness,” the Krath’lath agreed, her eyes burning into his. “As the one responsible for the health of our tribe, I only wonder if I have removed all of the failures.”

She was still hungry? Zluth fought with himself to maintain his calm.

“In what way have I failed?” he declared confidently. “I was the one who found the intruders. I was the one who escaped their notice and brought word of their impure mana back to the tribe.”

Burning red eyes atop dozens of stalks turned toward the Krath’lath, who visibly gnashed her teeth. Her body was visibly shuddering in pain as she digested those she had consumed, absorbing their potent acid and using it to refine her own. Punishing weakness was accepted, welcomed, celebrated, within the tribe. Wanton slaughter was… at times forgivable, but not when it would impact the tribe.

A weak tribe would become food for their rivals. Literally.

“Very well,” she declared finally, before she released a particularly noxious cloud of gas. The very air seemed to sizzle with the potency of it, and Zluth felt his own guts roil at the scent.

been in her post for some time, and feasted on many of her fellow Krath. She had clearly refined a powerful

was not the time; his position was

decision on how to best torture these invaders,” the Krath’lath declared, grinding her jagged teeth. “Speak, and I shall

was she who’d accepted the proposal of the three, now consumed, Krath who had proposed using their pets to assault the invaders via the river. They’d been confident, and their pets were based on a

must be careful not to aid our enemies any further,” Zluth proposed. “We have learned they are capable of strengthening their…

slime sizzled into the rock beside

Every time we assault them with pets or proxies and

what we should not do,” the Krath’lath turned her bulging eyes toward

fear and rage coiling in his slug-flesh. This was a dangerous moment, but also one with great potential. Fortunately, someone else spoke

should be to capture one of our enemies alive,” burbled Zassin. “Once we toxify them in the sludge pits, we will know everything needed to

and he held firm under their gaze. As the only Krath to lay eyes on the invaders directly, it was natural that he would be

enemy remains inside their field of corrupted mana at all times. Even entering

capture that one, then,” the

easily

her words challenged in this way was too much for the Krath’lath. Despite her disgustingly distended flesh, she launched herself toward Zluth, mouth gaping

her down until the rage had passed. When she had regained control of herself, she growled low until they released

common enough occurrence, so nobody looked at her the worse for the loss of

amongst the Krath

or eight…”

be sure she didn’t intend to speak any more before

to get a precise reading of the