Chapter 364 Crushed
Unable to refuse my order, Crinis was forced to extend multiple tentacles which she unwillingly began to wrap around my carapace and squeeze, the lacklustre force evidence to her confusion and reluctance.
[Crinis!] I cried out in agony, [If you don't compress me I'm gonna pop! Please!]
The outward pressure continued to build as the energy in my core swirled dangerously, drawing more and more from the rare core into itself and growing larger with each moment that passed.
Crack!
Deep within my body a horrific sound reverberated outward and waves of pain washed through my entire body, sending me writhing and twisting on the floor.
[Crinis!]
[I'll do it!]
Suddenly afraid, Crinis reached out with more tentacles and wrapped them around my body covering almost every inch of my carapace and began to squeeze.
I became still, not because it hurt any less, in fact, it began to hurt more, but with Crinis wrapping me up so tight there wasn't anywhere I could go! In fact, in her rush to obey my desperate plea, she inadvertently caught one of my legs up in her tentacles and the limb was immediately crushed.
She's strong!
But, holy moly, this hurts! The outward pressure of the growing core has now been met with the inward pressure of Crinis. I have no sound medical basis for this procedure, but I'm rolling with my gut instinct here! If all goes well, maybe I'll survive...
Please finish soon, please finish soon. COME ON!
In the centre of my thorax, my innards are being shredded, pressed down onto the core, they are being used in an attempt to hold the stressed gem together whilst also having to endure the core pressing back against them. Ravaging pain, the likes of which I've only experienced once before, wracked my form.
Back then, the only thing I had to live for was my colony.
Strangely enough, that's still true today!
I REFUSE TO DIE!
[Give it everything Crinis! Don't worry about hurting me!]
[Ahhhh- OK!]
Pressure.
More and more, Crinis' limbs crushed and grinded down on my carapace with such force that even my diamond shell began to crack and splinter beneath her ministrations. The inward force and the outward pressure continued to grind my insides to paste and it was all I could do not to pass out.
Activate the regeneration gland!
I have a horrible feeling that this is gonna hurt. But if I can keep my organs functioning for a bit longer, maybe I'll be able to survive.
AAAAARGGGHHH!
I'd writhe in pain, but I can't! How much longer to go?!
I rolled my eyes around until I spotted the core lying on the ground in front of me, a steady stream of energy vapour pouring off it and into me. I think I'm about halfway through absorbing what's left of it. Half way through and I'm barely hanging on!
Come on Anthony! Would the Queen whinge and moan like this? No! Hold yourself together! Show the other ants how it's done!
I continued to endure through the agony which seemed to defy the odds and grow worse each second. Just stop it, pain! Nobody asked you to get any worse! EERGHHH. I'm losing my sense of things, as well as my senses. At least I think I am, is everything fading?
I startled Crinis by starting to bang what little was exposed of my head into the floor of the chamber.
Wake up Anthony! No time for sleeping! There's a lot of stuff still to do and it won't get done if you pass out and die here! Grit those face hands and endure you son of a Queen!
Inch by agonizing inch the core was absorbed into me, it's energy overflowing into my own core and fuelling it's growth. I better get one hell of an evolution out of this! Despite my best efforts, my mind is starting to fade. The pain is too much. Is this what it would feel like if Tiny tried to do math? Reality is slipping from my grasp.
It would be so easy. So easy, just to let all go. But I won't. I'm a stubborn creature at heart.
Did I let it go when I was abandoned by my family? Nope. Or when I was kicked out of school and shunned by everyone I'd known? Negative! I'm not likely to give up now that there are people (ants) who actually need me!
Despite the intense pain, a sense of purpose and determination welled up inside me and I grabbed hold of it with all six legs plus my mandibles. I can take it!
And I did. I held on until the final wisp of energy leaked out of the rare core and it disappeared inside me, the ordeal finally complete.
Except it isn't!
It still hurts like all get out! If I don't evolve immediately, I might not be able to hold onto consciousness, pass out and die!
I feel like my guts have been blended, mashed, pureed, minced and then blended again for the hell of it! How much health have I got left?! 6 HP!?!?! And it's still going down?!
Oh.
[Crinis, you can let me go now!]
[Oh! O-Of course!]
Not being crushed to death my own pet helps the pain a little, but not much. It's time, I need to engage the evolution menu!
-x-X-x-
I can't handle this suffering anymore! Gimme the menu!
Forget about doing anything else, I'm worried about dealing with the evolution system properly in this state! Isn't there a pain resistance skill or something!?
Apparently, not.
[Would you like to use the evolution menu?]
ABSOLUTELY! PLEASE!
[Congratulations on reaching the maximum level for your current species. Evolution will allow you to change your form and increase your stats as a monster.]
[ You have maximised your mutations! As a reward, an additional ten percent evolutionary energy will be granted.]
WHAT!? Bonus energy!?
[Warning: evolving will make securing XP and Biomass more difficult as fewer rewards are given for preying on creatures less evolved than yourself.]
[Your evolution options are as follows (Each evolution is of the species Formica Sapiens):
• Veteran Mature Worker
• Senior Mage Ant
• Mana Soldier (special)
• Ascended Mind Ant (special)
• Nascent Hive Mind (rare)
• Collective Mage Ant (rare)
• Colony Paragon (rare)]
Ohhhhhhh boy! Putting aside the bonus energy thing, these options look... ARGH... tasty.
I just wish I was in slightly less agony so that I could properly enjoy this moment....
If it weren't for my... ARRRGHH ... current circumstances... I would have loved to have gone through all of the options, some of them sound so juicy... OUCH! But I can't, obviously. I'll have to jump straight to the good stuff.
Tell me about the Nascent Hive Mind!
[Rare Evolution: Nascent Hive Mind. +100 bonus to Cunning, +100 bonus to Willpower, -30 penalty to Might - 20 penalty to Toughness. This evolution will weaken the host physically, transforming them into an almost immobile entity. A rare Mental Dominator Cortex (Formica Sapiens) will be granted with this evolution that will allow the host to usurp and control the body of other members of its species, acting as the 'brain' for all.]
What the heck is with these bonuses?!
100 to Cunning and Willpower?! What's up with that? And the negatives?! I didn't know something like that was even... Ugh... possible.
So what is this then? I'd turn into some sort of giant brain that can control each member of the colony? I guess such a thing would be ... HUCK!.... Powerful. Imagine millions of swarming insects, all controlled by a single mind. That level of coordination would be unstoppable.
But I didn't make the colony smart just so I could take away their free will and do all the thinking for them! Rejected!
Ugh! This hurts.... What's next?
[Rare Evolution: Collective Mage Ant +40 bonus to Cunning, +40 bonus to Willpower. This evolution grants significant mental prowess and includes a free rare Social Processing Cortex (Formica Sapiens), which allow the host to temporarily draw on the mental stats of the specified species within a radius. This organ effectively allows the user to utilise the minds of nearby members of the specified species to assist the host with mental cognitive activity.]
Holy Gandalf!
Forty to Cunning AND Willpower? Without transforming me into a stomping brain?! It's almost enough to shock me out of the pain! Almost... And what's this? The Social Processing Cortex? From the description it seems as if it would allow me to utilise the minds of nearby colony members as sort of coprocessors, borrowing their minds to help me cast spells.
The kind of spell flinging I could do with that... I could probably even use my sub-minds to manage the job of coordinating the extra minds. The power I'd be able to wield would be boggling! Not to mention, more ants would mean more processing power!
This is some serious mind power, possibly enough to match the Kaarmodo in raw spell flinging ability.
HACK! Dammit! I wish my guts didn't feel like they're about to burst, thinking would be much easier.
Despite the raw power, I'm not sure if this is the evolution I want. Borrowing my strength from the colony isn't really what I wanted, and I'd also hoped to evolve into something a little more rounded this time, rather than continue down my mage ant path to the end. If I'm going to survive in battle against Garralosh and the horde then I'm going to need to be able to take a few hits. Not to mention have the raw physical might to use my new bite skill to its fullest potential. I'll need to take care of that fusion after evolving.
Let's shelve this evolution as a 'maybe' and check the next one.
[Rare Evolution: Juvenile Colony Paragon. +15 bonus to Cunning, +15 bonus to Willpower, +40 bonus to Might, +40 bonus to Toughness. This evolution will transform the host into the paragon of their species, the ideal form. This evolution includes the rare Collective Will Vestibule (Formica Sapiens). This organ collects mental energy generated by the faith and goodwill of the specified species and transforms it into regeneration.]
ARGH! Is it the pain, or this blinding stat boost that caused me to cry out? I can't even say myself! Rounded bonus to all stats is nice, it'll allow me to spend my evolutionary energy on other things, not to mention the overall gain is massive!
Since Will and Cunning take more energy to generate than Might and Toughness, the overall stat boost lines up, but this is more in line with my wishes of rounding out my stats. And the unique gland seems powerful. I'm not sure what faith and goodwill energy is, or how it would help with regeneration? But at least I wouldn't be taking over my family members' minds or borrowing their brains for my own purposes... This gland seems more in line with what I feel comfortable doing.
GAWD this hurts. Distract, distract!
This evolution also mentions it's a juvenile, which means the mature version must be even more impressive.
Alright, I think I'm settled on this one!
Choose Juvenile Colony Paragon!
-x-X-x-
After selecting the species I would evolve into, the expanded manual evolution menu appeared. I was thankful just to have the distraction, my core was full to bursting with energy and I couldn't wait to drain the stupid thing dry, improve my body and cease this horrific suffering!
Alright, now that the menu is in front of me, what did I have to do again? I feel like I had to eat something... Oh right! My stomach!
Eagerly, I fiddle about with the menu and begin to check my options for changing my stomach from a non-mutable organ and into a mutable one. Since it turns out that not every organ within a monsters body is able to be upgraded at the time they are born, getting the new members of the colony to enable their stomachs for mutation during their first evolution was critical. Once they could upgrade it, selecting the option to make food consumption more efficient by negating the evolution penalty.
Now I would get the opportunity to do the same thing!
Gweheheheh!
After I messed about navigating the menu, ignoring the twinges of flaming agony that flared inside my body, I was able to find the option to enable my stomach for mutations. Thankfully it was quite cheap, roughly half the cost of a basic organ to do so.
I wasn't done here either, I also wanted to take a leaf out of Tiny's book and enable my muscles to be mutable as well. He'd been able to upgrade his musculature to be incredibly powerful, and if I wanted my bite to pierce the heavens one day, I'd need to do the same thing.
Two for the price of one!
How much energy do I have left?
Holy smoking mackerels! I have freakin' tons! Is this the benefit of pushing my core beyond its limits? And then pushing the extra 10% bonus for a completed mutation set on top? I'll be able to go much further than I already have with my stats! Not to mention glands! What should I buy? More organs? An aura?! Ah, the snowball effect of my repeated special evolutions has finally come into play! I feel like a kid in a store! Except that I have money to spend!
It's intoxicating! I feel like I might pass out!
No wait, I really might pass out. Hold on, me! Nearly there!
The first thing I do is go for the Cunning. I'll play with my stats until I'm happy and then I'll worry about organs and other such things afterwards. Alright then. With the +15 I got from my evolution, I decide to spend most of it shaping a third sub-brain which I place between the other two and connect to the coordination cortex. I have the cortex after all, it'd be a massive waste to not take advantage of it, which means more sub-brains!
My new third brain I make larger and more potent than the other two, I want it to act as a kind of 'boss' brain that will lead the way in combined spell casting, acting as the guide and brunt force. While I'm at it, I beef up the other two sub-brains slightly, giving them a little extra punch. Having done that, I have a shade of my free +15 Cunning and Will left over, so I spend it upgrading my main mind, and I give a little extra boost from my spare energy as well.
When that job is done, I sit back and admire my new brain power. Fearsome! With this evolution I've taken my mental game to a whole new level! Now onto the physical stats. I want to spend my Might on roughly sixty percent size and forty percent density. It'll make a bit larger a bit faster, but I really need the quick stats. In my next evolution I may be able to correct the imbalance and give more energy back to density, but for now I need to emphasise raw stats.
A straight up forty might does a long way in making me a larger boi. I try to ensure that the density of muscle is concentrated in my head, since those are the muscles responsible for powering my bite. I'll need all the juice I can get in that department if I'm going to match it with a giant crocodile. I supplement the free stats with some extra from my evolutionary energy pool, making my overall might gain fifty points. If I'm going to address my terrible physical stats in this evolution then I need to commit.
Toughness is mainly spent thickening and powering up my carapace but I spare some thought to buffing up the walls of my internal organs. It's unlikely to help much but some types of energy, such as electricity, are able to go straight through my outer defences, so toughening up the insides should help reduce that damage, at least a little. As with my Might, I spend some energy to bring my overall toughness gain up to fifty, rounding out the bonus stats nicely.
Since I'm already in the menu I decide to poke around at my new Collective Will Gland. Each of the three rare evolutions gave massive stat gain as well, as powerful as what was described as a 'rare' organ. In the case of this evolution, it was the Collective Will Vestibule. Rather than an organ it almost appeared to be formed from crystalised flesh. Which is creepy enough, but more staggering than that was the sheer cost of the thing.
This was one expensive organ! It cost more than most of the high end aura glands! Significantly more! And I get it for free?! Viva la rare core! Viva la rare evolution!
I'm not even perfectly aware of what this thing does, but I'm positive it's going to be amazing! How could it not?
OK. Cool it off. We have a fair whack of energy still to spend. More stats? Hmm. Not sure. Wings? Again... not sure. Will I really need the wings underground? Flying sounds nice and all, but I like getting my face hands and claws into the dirt. Perhaps I'll revisit the wings idea another time.
I could put a stinger onto my back zone? Lots of different ants have stingers, and I can definitely see how they'd be useful, injecting painful venom into my enemies. But no. I'm firmly in camp acid. The products released from my business district have widespread renown and fame after my aggressive marketing. I wouldn't want to turn around and start to advertise a whole new line of wares. Perhaps there's something I can use to give my acid a boost?
I flick through the exhaustive menu, my mind happy for something to focus on other than my screaming innards until I find a few items I like the look of.
[Acid Nozzle. An attachment organ that allows for more flexible and precise aiming from acid glands.]
This gland is quite cheap and essentially acts as a small, flexible 'barrel' on the end of my acid gland that can help me aim without having to change my body position as much. For example, I'll be able to lift my abdomen up high and the use the nozzle to fire directly forward without having to turn around. Nice!
Whilst I'm at it.
[Acid concentration gland. Attached to acid producing organ, this gland will secrete a concentration that will cause the acid produced to condense and purify, improving it's qualities.]
Nice one! Essentially improving the power of the mutations that I already have, meaning my acid will do more damage, be more sticky and eat through mana faster. Not bad for one cheap gland! Heck, I'm on a roll, why not keep it going!
[Acid stimulation gland. Improves the speed of acid production in the attached gland.]
Since my acid is going to much more flexible and potent, I may as well ensure that I have more of it! Phew. It's a good thing my back zone is so much larger than it was before, I never would have fit this gear in here otherwise.
What else can I do? I've bought three little cheap glands, I think it's time to spend the rest of the energy on something big! Something expensive and powerful that'll help tie my mental and physical attributes together.
Maybe I can do something with my nervous system?
After all, that's the part of the body that connects the mind to the muscle!
I poked through the menu for a few minutes and managed to find a heap of options regarding nerves and the nervous system in general, and much as I suspected, they were quite pricey to buy. Some of the tastiest options I couldn't afford, even before I'd bought any glands, but there still quite a few that caught my eye.
After some consideration, I spend the remainder of my energy making my nervous system mutable and then buying this one to go with it:
[Sub-neural network. An extension to the main nervous system that reduces response times by allowing automatic reaction processing in the extremities.]
Gweheheh. With my nervous system ready to be upgraded, and with this item alongside, my reaction speeds will be extraordinarily fast! When I consider what I might be capable of with my future sense antennae .... Hopefully it comes together.
-x-X-x-
I can't wait to see my status when this evolution is done. It's going to be craaaaazy. I'm already getting a headache just thinking about having to upgrade all of these new glands. So many!
But it'll be worth it, I may have gone on a bit of a shopping spree, but the utility I've gained is immense, not to mention by all around beefier stats. My size is possibly going to double, perhaps even more than that after this. I'm gonna start pushing Tiny around once I'm done. Gweheheheh.
Alright then. Time to confirm everything and drain this dangerously overloaded core. Just being free of this pain is enough for me to eagerly finish up with the menu and welcome the deep embrace of torpor. As it has in the past, the lassitude begins to fall over me immediately, my vision fading to black and sensation falling blessedly away. Ah, no more pain, no more sensation of a physical body at all!
Wait a second. I remember this sensation.
My mind continued to sink, falling deeper in on itself as if I were circling a cosmic drain to the centre of the world.
Here we go again. Off to chat with Gandalf.
Being my second ride on the ... whatever this was ... I let myself go and tried to enjoy it without the sense of vertigo kicking in. I have to say, it isn't easy to enjoy a disembodied experience since there isn't really any actual sensation but rather a vague dizzying sense of movement. Without any ability to perceive my environment and without any real sense of distance, I found myself feeling vaguely bored as I waited for the ride to be over.
[Well I do apologise if you find the trip dull. There isn't really any other way to bring you to me.]
Ah, the gruff voice of the Grey One himself. It's seriously uncanny how much they sound alike. Is this some form of cosmic accident?
Yes, well. It is what it is I suppose. How've you been, Gandalf?
A deep chuckle resounded around my free floating mind.
[This name you have for me is amusing. You continue to insist on using it?]
It's not as if I know your real name now, is it?
[And if I told you my real name would you change your way of speaking?]
No.
[...]
...
[You've certainly kept up your fast pace,] the voice changed the subject, [I didn't expect to see you here so soon after the last time. I suppose your circumstances can be somewhat to blame.]
You can tell what's going on up there? I'm a bit shocked.
[It shouldn't be that surprising, surely. Everything touched by the system is within my grasp. It's only natural I could track the progress of so many monsters as they rushed toward you.]
Yeah well, any chance We could get some help out of you? It doesn't seem entirely fair. How are they controlling all those monsters anyway? Isn't that infringing on your role?
[Not really. Certain monsters have that authority. It's all part of the design.]
Right....
[You should have died, you know,] Gandalf said suddenly, [You weren't made to push your core that hard at your current level of evolution. Your core should have cracked and you should have been killed. That's how the system was designed, after all.]
Well... what can I say? Sorry to disappoint you?
[Oh, I'm not disappointed. Quite the opposite. You're a promising specimen, after all. It would have been a shame to lose you so soon.]
I guess I'm annoyingly good at surviving when I shouldn't. You said the system was designed, was it you who designed it?
[Oh, think you're going to ask the questions do you?]
I tried to roll my eyes but then realised I don't have a body, or eyes that can be rolled.
You brought me down here just to talk at me? A little dialogue isn't such a bad thing is it?
[You know, it's been a long time since I was able to talk to someone like you. As I mentioned before, those that I've brought into the Dungeon tend to be on the broken side, and being let loose in that environment tends to warp them even further.]
There was a pause before the voice continued mildly.
[... Like that Garralosh for example.]
Well that stopped me cold.
Garralosh was an outsider like me?
[Of course. She's from your world even. I can't say if the timeline was close to yours. Temporal vectors tend to get very fuzzy with this sort of summoning. But yes, she was like you. Unleashed on the Dungeon, alone and had to rely on her wits and savagery to survive. She's been here for hundreds of years now. She did very well at first,] Gandalf mused, [perhaps too well. She threw away every piece of herself that inhibited her survival until there was almost nothing left.]
Yeah, who would have thought that someone would make desperate choices when thrown into a murder pit and forced to fight for their life.
[Are you being sarcastic?]
Not at all.
[I had high hopes for her you know,] the voice mused, [she was much like you, rose up quickly. But in terms of long term impact you've already surpassed her in a lot of ways.]
Like how? By creating a new species?
[By creating such a successful species. She made her own species also. Inadequate, inefficient things.]
Gandalf sounded very dismissive of the Croca-Beasts, almost as if they were insulting in some way.
I'm not a big fan of the Crocs, for obvious reasons, but they seem pretty killy to me?
[Bah. Without the support of their parent the species would have been wiped out by normal Dungeon spawns within ten years. They provide no value.]
How are monsters supposed to provide 'value' anyway? As long as they're killing things, they're serving their purpose aren't they?
[In some ways, yes. But in others, no.]
Alright then, stay cryptic.
[I'm curious, does knowing that your enemy shares so much in common with your change anything for you? Are you still willing to fight against a fellow human?]
Who's a human? She's a giant crocodile and I'm a massive ant. Of course it doesn't change anything.
[Oh? I expected a little more sentiment from you.]
I'm a big believer in the loving the skin/carapace you're in. Had a human life and it was fine ...
[You starved yourself to death remember ...]
I feel like you're never going to get over that. It was fine, but that's over now. New life, new family and I'm not about to let someone destroy it just because they happened to be a human before they were brought here.
[I find your commitment towards your second life to be admirable. Not many in your position have been able to say the same. I hope you wake up in time to defend your home.]
Wait.. What do you mean? I should have heaps of time, right?
[Well, this evolution is a bit special. You did have a lot of energy in your core to expend. It's going to take a bit longer than usual.]
I was suddenly frantic at this news. I had to wake up in time. What would be the point of my struggles otherwise? I could feel my mind fading into nothing as my consciousness was returned to my body.
Dammit Gandalf....
-x-X-x-
It was a busy time for the soldiers. Grant had been run off her six legs over the last week. In some ways it was a relief to have the enemy finally arrive on the doorstep! Now she'd have the chance to rip into them directly with her mandibles and not have to stress about extraneous matters!
"Make sure you watch over the eldest carefully" she commanded the guards who remained in the chamber where the Eldest was undergoing their evolution.
The soldiers would hardly have done any different, but they saluted the council member with an antennae anyway before continuing their careful observation of the chamber walls. The Eldest lay close to the centre of the chamber undergoing the process of evolution. The two guardians sat nearby, watching over their master and Grant was careful to give them their space. The two creatures were quite revered in the colony and their unending loyalty to the Eldest was firmly to their credit.
Grant stepped out of the chamber and made her way further down into the newest section of the nest. The Carvers had been excited to have an excuse to have to expand the nest in a new way and the Queen's evolution had been the perfect opportunity. She'd needed more space and to be deeper in the Dungeon which had required an extensive expansion to the lower reaches of the nest.
"Nice work soldiers. Keep up the hard work," Grant nodded to the many soldiers she passed.
She came across a general patrolling with five soldiers trailing behind her moving in the opposite direction.
"How goes things general?"
"The extra patrols are putting a strain on resources, Senior," the smaller soldier variant replied, "the Dungeon wall spawns have been faster than usual over the last day. It feels as though something has changed."
Grant swiped her antennae in a concerned gesture.
"Have any other patrol groups reported this issue?" She asked.
"All of them," confirmed the patrol leader.
Grant pondered for a moment. There were a few implications of increased Dungeon spawn rate, and she didn't like any of them.
"I'll speak to the council," she assured the patrol, "if we can spare any more soldiers they'll be sent down as soon as we can manage."
"I appreciate it, Senior," the general snapped out a quick salute before she moved on with the rest of her patrol.
Grant shook her head. This wasn't what the colony needed. At a time when not just every soldier, but every member of the colony, was required top side to deal with upcoming battle, committing yet more soldiers to the Dungeon sections of the colony was far from ideal.
But it would have to be done. The Queen was down here along with the Eldest. Any risk at all to either of them was unacceptable. She supposed they could remove all members of the colony to the above ground section of the nest for the duration of the battle and leave the freshly spawned monsters to battle each other here in the lower tunnels. Abandoning any amount of territory to those filthy creatures angered Grant deep down, though she couldn't say exactly why.
As she mulled over her emotions she made her way down into the Dungeon until she came to the chamber the council had made for their use, directly above the Queen's chamber.
"The Eldest had begun to evolve," she announced as she entered.
There was a relieved rustle as the few members of the council present shifted their bodies and their antennae twitched. The twenty members of the council were extremely busy. There wasn't so much of a formal meeting as a rolling series of consultations with whoever was present at the time. For the time being, Mendant, Victoriant, Florence and Coolant were in the chamber, the others were out on business. For many in the council, this chamber had become something of a break room, shameful as it was to admit it.
"How was it?" Mendant asked, concerned, "absorbing the core?"
Grant paused as she considered how to describe the scene she had observed from the tunnel above the Eldest's chamber. Like a fool, she'd feared for the Eldest's life as his own guardian hand engulfed him in tentacles that writhed and squeezed with tremendous strength. Even covered, she could sense the agony that rolled through the air in waves.
"Difficult. But the Eldest, succeeded, as always."
"Of course," Coolant pitched in, "We can only marvel at how powerful a mage the Eldest will become once the evolution is complete."
Grant stabbed her antennae forward in irritation.
"I believe the Eldest will seek physical strength in order to lead the soldiers from the front," she said with certainty.
She could see it in her mind, the colossal strength of the Eldest, scattering the foe and harvesting their lives as wheat before the scythe, the soldier caste charging through the wake.
"D-Do you think the Eldest will invest in a healing magic gland?" Mendant asked hopefully.
"No," the others replied, which caused the healer to drop her head in sadness.
"The patrols need to be increased in the lower tunnels." Grant said.
Victoriant focused on the Soldier, surprise clear in her voice.
"Again? I hope this trend doesn't continue," she worried.
"We'll have to wait and see," Coolant replied, "there's no use engaging in idle speculation."
Grant nodded in agreement. Guessing would get them nowhere in a hurry.
"Has most of the colony been pulled in for the mandatory rest period?" Coolant asked.
"I think so," Grant confirmed, "I haven't spoken to Burke or Wills for a few hours, but I think they've managed to bring in everyone. The upper nest has been turned over to the Brood Tenders to monitor, since they are non-combatants, whilst the soldiers are patrolling down here."
"Did Vibrant come in?"
"I heard she had to be dragged in by a team of scouts," Grant chuckled.
"I was there," Coolant confirmed, "it took twenty of them to hold her down whilst her team was blocked by thirty soldiers. She wanted to get one last food run in before the battle started."
Grant sighed. Vibrant's work ethic was second to none and she had the respect of every ant in the colony for it, but it was by far the better choice for the colony that she and her team were rested and fresh for the battle than a little more food was stored away.
"She ended up coming peacefully in the end," Coolant continued. "Once we pointed out the Eldest was returning to the nest to evolve, she was happy enough to come back."
Once again the Eldest did work for the colony without even being present. Truly something special.
"I'm heading down to consult with the Queen" Grant announced, "I think Sloan is down there as well. I want to make sure my soldiers are in position."
The others nodded.
"Keep working hard," Coolant said.
"Of course," Grant replied.
-x-X-x-
Grant exited the small council chamber and returned to the widened main shaft. Gripping onto the walls that glowed with intense, blue light, she made her descent toward the lowest chamber in the nest where the Queen now rested.
As the shaft opened up, Grant took in the contents of the room at once. It was crawling with ants. Over a hundred had been committed to the defence of this room. The spawns were happening rapidly now, shadow beasts and plant monsters erupted from their cocoons in the walls at regular intervals and no harm would be allowed to come to the main occupant of this chamber.
She loomed large in Grant's eyes now. She sat in the centre of the chamber as her protectors revolved around her, as if she emitted a powerful force that kept them close but unwilling to approach. Grant saw a shadow beast erupt out of the floor, right under the giant form. Before she could even shout out, the Queen had shifted her weight and stabbed down with one leg, impaling the shadow beast clean through. The Queen brought the leg to her mouth and swallowed the Biomass in one go.
"Have you come to greet me, child?" a warm voice rang out.
Grant started and came back to herself.
"Ah, yes Mother. I've been checking on the soldiers and I wanted to speak to Sloan, if she was here."
"She is." The Queen flicked an antennae toward one corner where Grant could see a small cluster of scouts, generals and soldiers had gathered.
Grant completed her climb down the wall and steadied herself on the floor, looking up at the new form of her only parent. The Queen had already been the largest ant in the colony by a wide margin, but her evolution had pushed the boundary even further. Grant was one of the largest ants also, being a Mature Soldier who had the benefit of maxed core evolutions. The Queen towered over Grant. Her mandibles were almost equal in size to Grant's own head.
The power contained in the rare core was no joke.
"Tell me," the Queen continued, "did the troublesome one return?"
"Yes, Mother," Grant told her, "the Eldest has begun their evolution in the chambers above."
The Queen tilted her head to more directly face the roof of her chamber, as if she could penetrate the layers of rock and soil that lay between and stare at her wayward offspring.
"That is good then," she huffed.
"Were you worried that the Eldest may not make it back?" Grant enquired.
The Queen lowered her head to look Grant compound eye to compound eye.
"I am always worried about that one. Do you think I don't have cause?"
Grant shifted, uncomfortable with the scrutiny. She was unwilling to admit wrongdoing or poor judgement in the Eldest. How could she? The Eldest had done more for the colony than any other, the Queen included. The Eldest had created their species!
"The Eldest has been known to push a little too hard at times," she was able to admit.
The Queen chuckled. The scent of her mirth spread throughout the chamber and tickled the antennae of every ant present, causing them to pause for a moment as the warmth of her emotion washed over them.
"I have to agree," the Queen hummed.
It was a delicate thing, what the colony was undergoing at the moment. For the Queen to not be the Eldest member of their colony was possibly unprecedented in the history of ant monsters. The council had been wary that there may be a power struggle between the two most revered members of the colony. On the one claw, the Queen, mother to them all, who had raised the colony from nothing. On the other hand, the ant who had caused the colony to be reborn into something new, something better, and in so doing had claimed the position of the Eldest Formica Sapiens in the Dungeon.
To their relief, no such conflict had become evident, or even appeared to be brewing. The Queen remained devoted to all her children. Uninhibitedly so. But she appeared to hold extra concern for her most troublesome child. The Eldest, for their part, appeared devoted to the Queen and the colony without reservation. Both of them appeared happy to leave the day to day running of the colony to the council. Which seemed to work fine.
It wasn't normal. It wasn't antlike, to worry about these things. Grant could sense that now. The colony had been pulled into unexplored Dungeon by the Eldest and they would need to puzzle their own way out.
"What are they talking about over there?" Grant muttered as she watched the huddle around Sloan.
"They are discussing how to adapt the plans for the upcoming battle," the Queen chimed in unexpectedly.
"Adapt the plans?" Grant cried, "why are they changing the plans?! We've pinned down every angle we can possibly cover!"
The Queen shifted.
"That's my fault," she sighed, "They are trying to account for what I've said I will do during the battle."
That brought Grant up short.
"What have you said you'll do?" she asked, nervous.
"Lead from the front, child, as I should," the Queen replied calmly.
"What?!" Grant panicked.
Nonononoononono! Unacceptable! The Queen couldn't be on the front lines! She should be in the nest! Deep in the nest! And covered in Soldiers!
As if reading her mind, the Queen chuckled again.
"I did not take this evolution to be sheltered in the nest during the battle, child. I will fight, as I did when the colony was young."
Grant took a few deep breaths and looked up at the Queen, taking in her new form.
Thick plates of hardened carapace covered the folds in her exoskeleton and around her head. Her legs were thicker, and tipped in sharp spikes that gleamed wickedly in the cold light of the cavern. The sheer size of the Queen, possibly double what she had been before, was a testament to the muscle mass she possessed.
The Queen's body had transformed. No longer was she just strong, she had become a physical powerhouse. That was just the outside. Who knew what powerful organs or glands she had chosen as part of her evolution.
"What was the name of your evolution, Mother? If you don't mind me asking."
"War Queen."
The Queen raised herself to her full height, lifting her body from the ground she dominated the room with her majestic aura.
"There will soon be other Queens for this colony, Queens who will be able to raise young and provide the future generations of the colony. What is needed now is not a Queen who will hide behind her children and allow them to sacrifice themselves for her safety. I will step forward and shield my children with my own body and, should I fall, I will fall with the knowledge that by my efforts I have given all I could in the defence of my family."
The Queen looked down at Grant.
"Perhaps I am being selfish. But I will fight."
She reared back and reached up with her powerful front legs. She dug them into the wall and began to pull her massive body up the vertical face of the tunnel. Grant watched her climb in stunned silence. The idea of the mother of the colony charging forward into almost certain death drove her to the brink of panic.
When the Queen left her sight she woke up to herself and rushed toward the huddle in the corner.
"Sloan!" she yelled, "what are we going to do!?"
The general glared at her fiercely as she barged into the meeting.
"We keep her alive," she hissed, "no matter the cost."
-x-X-x-
"What do you think, Ellie?"
"They're magnificent, Bella. Works of engineering, imagination, and unyielding effort! This must be the art that the Eldest spoke of when we were in training."
"I agree! This is art!"
"Do you think the other members of the council will agree with us?" Ellie asked hopefully.
"Not a chance," Bella replied.
The two Core Shapers didn't allow the perceived dearth of culture in their fellow council members to dim their enthusiasm at the successful culmination of their project. The colony had entered the mandatory rest period now and almost all members of the family had entered torpor. As non-combatants, the two Shapers were not expected to participate in the battle. But that didn't mean that none of the Shapers caste would be present. Fifty Shapers rested in the large chamber that had been constructed once the colony had approved the project.
These shapers were young, barely hatched in time through the dedicated nurturing of the Breed Tenders and then put through a brutal, accelerated training regime in the academy in order to bring this project online in time.
"I wonder if this is how the Queen feels. Gazing down on her children," Bella wondered aloud.
"Perhaps," Elligant mused. "Though, as beautiful as our creations are, can they really compare to the wonder of the ants the Elder created?"
"Of course not!" Bella scoffed. Then, "I do wish we could have gotten one more evolution into them before they were forced into battle."
"No point fretting. We were lucky to get this project off the ground at all. Don't you have confidence in our work?"
"How could I not? The Eldest put us onto this path with their own words! It's sure to succeed!"
"Which do you think will perform better, the Manglers, or the Reavers?"
The subjects in question were the one hundred shadow beasts that were also resting in the chamber. The council had been loath to give up the resources, but saw the potential in a force of Core Shapers with pet soldiers. How could they not? The Eldest deployed such tactics with tremendous success! It also helped to bolster the numbers of the colony and provide them with disposable soldiers who could be reconstituted and raised again provided the colony recovered the core.
The Shapers had laboured long and hard to turn Shadow Beast cores into these modified troops. Elligant's design, the Shadow Reaver, boasted enhanced arm strength, more devastating claws and fangs than the regular beasts. The Mangler, Bella's concept, sported increased leg strength and a streamlined body, dramatically increasing speed, along with nasty venom secreted by needle like claws.
Both shapers had found the 'budget' for their modifications by shaving away at the Cunning and Will of the original monster. With the Core Shaper controller, fully tooled up with pet related skills, in charge of the thinking, the pets didn't need that much intelligence.
"Did you remember how they performed in the Dungeon?" Bella gushed to her sibling.
"I do! I do! Wasn't it marvellous?"
"Who could have imagined the devastation that they would cause. Such ferocity!"
"And we didn't lose a single one! Mark my scent Bella, after this battle the Core Shapers will rise high in the colony! The Shapers will became the true elite force of our family!"
The two ants huddled together in the dark chamber with eyes that sparkled as they imagined the bright and glorious future of their caste. The thought that they might lose the battle never entered their minds.
Elsewhere in the colony...
"Surely the fire mages will cause the most damage!" Propellant declared.
"Nonsense!" Coolant refuted coolly, "the water mages will wash away the stain of the invaders by the hundreds. If not thousands. I struggle to see how your hot-headed members will keep up."
"Bah! You really think the enemy is going to be scared off by getting DAMP?! My Mage-Ants will be causing explosions, not hosing down the enemy! Are you trying to hurt them or clean them."
The two council members continued to bicker with each other as their fellow caste members rested within the chamber. Soldiers patrolled the space as this chamber was below ground level, a deliberate choice in order to afford the mages a chance to refill their cores and magic affinity glands.
A curious phenomenon had been observed by the colony as the numbers of the mage ants had continued to swell in the build up to the battle. Of the four base elements that were the cheapest and easiest to train, the vast majority eschewed earth and air, following their elders into either fire or water. A mild rivalry between the two camps had appeared immediately.
"Do you think the open field will have an impact on the result?" Coolant mused.
"You mean, as opposed to fighting in the Dungeon tunnels?" Propellant queried, her earlier ire vanished as if it had never been.
"Right. I've been thinking about the impact of the more open space on our respective element's spell selection."
"Any particular construct you have in mind? I can't imagine the bolt spell will be much less applicable in the open than it is in a tunnel..."
"I think it will be more useful due to the increased range. But no I was thinking of the barrier spells."
Propellants eyes lit up.
"Do you mean, using them in an offensive capacity?"
"Quite."
"Ho! Ho! That does sound interesting! Have you calculated the mana expenditure against the expected damage inflicted?"
"The numbers appear to be very promising."
"Surely the fire barrier outperforms water in this capacity."
"It does enjoy a slight edge..."
"Ha! Do you think we'll be able to work it into our tactics before the battle starts?'
"Depends on how long we have after the imposed rest period ends and the call to deploy comes from the scouts."
"Hmm. It's going to be tight."
The two Mage Ants fell into contemplative silence as they pondered on the possible timelines they might be confronted with in testing and utilising this possible new tactic.
"You know," Propellant spoke slowly, her mind still occupied with the problem of timing, "after this battle is done, we, Mage-Ants, will be hailed as the heroes of the colony."
"Naturally," Coolant said absently. "We should already be seen as such, really. The battle will merely establish in the other's minds what we already know."
"Our resource allocation should double at least."
"Triple, I should think."
"What we could do with triple the resources..."
In the minds of both members of the twenty, a glorious future began to unfold. The colony would be reborn. At the pinnacle of the new structure would be the Mage-Ant! Given priority for cores, Biomass and the best assignments, the Mage caste would lead the colony into the future, every other caste subsumed into serving their more capable siblings.
After all, isn't the Eldest primarily a Mage-ant?!
The two Mages continued to imagine the incredible future that awaited them, neither one considering for a moment that they might lose the fight.
-x-X-x-
In the distance, a rising tide of fangs, claws and flesh approached. When Morrelia squinted, she could make out the individual forms of the monsters as they undulated across the land and between the trees. There didn't seem to be an end to the horde. They spread. Like water pooling over the floor from a spilled cup, until they filled the space in front of her.
It wouldn't be long until they lapped up against the fortifications the villagers had erected and the battle would begin in earnest.
"I'm still not certain we shoulda put ourselves so close to our 'neighbours'," Isaac muttered.
Morrelia rolled her eyes.
"You spent several days with their leader and came home just fine. Do you really think they're going to eat us?"
The former guard shifted uncomfortably.
"I'm jus' sayin' we might want to on our guard once the fightin' is done. Maybe we look appetising at that point."
"If we live to see the end of this battle, there'll be tens of thousands of dead monsters right over there. I don't think they'll need to turn on us for food," Morrelia pointed out before turning her back on the man.
Despite his experience in the field with Anthony, he still had difficulty overcoming his instincts to distrust monsters.
Not that he's entirely wrong about that.
Morrelia couldn't be entirely sure why she wasn't afraid of the colony of strange ants, or their stranger spokes...ant. She just ... wasn't. She was cautious of them, always cautious, but not afraid. Perhaps she was just losing her edge. Or, more likely, grabbing onto whatever piece of debris she could reach after a tsunami had washed the nation of her birth away.
"How much longer until they arrive?" Enid asked, walking up behind them.
Morrelia turned to face the leader of the human village and nodded her head respectfully. Enid may never have been a soldier, but she had Morrelia's respect for her attitude and grit alone.
"Should be less than an hour before the main body of the horde reaches us. Could be a lot less if they decide to pick up the pace as they reach the final stretch."
Enid frowned as she looked over the edge of the dirt wall at the monsters. Morrelia choked back a laugh as she watched the older woman. Enid looked as if she were staring at dog that had spread mud on her carpet rather than a slavering mass of Dungeon monsters the likes of which the surface hadn't seen in thousands of years.
"I suppose we'll have to get our people in position then. Is everyone ready?" Enid sighed.
"Ready as they'll ever be, ma'am," Isaac chipped in, flashing a broad smile.
The man had been on the charm offensive the moment he'd met Enid. If the age difference were any less severe, Morrelia would have suspected him of ulterior motives, as it was she believed he was simply accustomed to greasing the wheels of leadership whenever he could. A vital skill for a guardsmen, she was sure.
"I'll go ready the troops," Morrelia grunted before she leapt down from the rampart and jogged toward the shaded area the villagers were resting.
She was decked out in her full fighting gear already and the boiled leather gave her an intimidating air that was only heightened by the plethora of weapons that graced her form. Her bow, dual blades, knives strapped to her forearms and sheathed in her boots. Morrelia was ready for war.
The 'troops' in this case were lying flat on their backs, many of them asleep, resting in the shade spread by nearby trees. Looking at their tired faces, Morrelia mentally kicked herself. She had to continuously remind herself that she wasn't dealing with professional soldiers, trainees or mercenaries, but determined village people. They were farmers, traders and craftspeople. Most of them hadn't held a blade until the current crises.
But they were willing. By the Legion they were willing. When she beat them down, they stood up. When she drilled them to exhaustion, they wanted more. When the monsters charged, they charged right back.
In the face of such determination, how could she hold back? In the past week, every able bodied refugee had been pushed to the edge of their tolerance and then a little further. Constant practice in the village, constant delves into the Dungeon, had brought everyone to the edge. Morrelia herself had barely slept in the past week, snatching a few hours here and there. She was used to it however, broken sleep like this was standard practice when on a delve. The villagers had no such tolerance and once the training had been declared over, they'd collapsed in a heap and barely moved since.
No point regretting it now. You did everything you could, let's see if it was enough to keep them alive.
She drew a deep breath.
"TIME TO GET UP YOU USELESS SACKS OF SICK! THERE'S BLOOD TO BE SPILLED AND SURE AS HELL IT ISN'T GOING TO SPILL ITSELF!" She bellowed.
He roar echoed off the earthworks and the distant trees, returning to thunder in the ears of the unfortunate villagers a second time as they responded instantly to her call. Sleep was rubbed out of eyes and limbs were stretched as the men and women she had trained picked themselves up in response to her call.
Little did she know that on the rampart someone was having a very different reaction.
"Puts my old drill instructor to shame," Isaac sighed as he watched Morrelia's distant form, her shout still ringing in his ears.
Enid looked at the man sidewise before she shook her head slightly to clear her ears. Apparently she wasn't deaf enough.
Used to this sort of treatment (and volume), her troops were up and in rows in a respectable amount of time. In almost neat rows and with their gear mostly worn correctly even. Morrelia couldn't help but feel a twitch in the corner of her eye when she spotted shirt not tucked in or scabbards not fastened correctly.
She took a breath. These aren't professionals, just villagers that are trying to survive. Don't judge them by the old standard. In fact, looking at their drawn faces, covered in grit, their hands blistering with fresh callouses, and the determined light in their eyes, she felt incredible pride.
"THE ENEMY IS NO LONGER COMING!" She roared and paused for a moment before she raised a finger to point at the wall behind her. "THEY ARE HERE!"
She watched their faces closely, no fear did she see. No terror. Only determination. Her heart lifted. She wasn't much of one for speeches. If she was a leader, then she was a leader in the mould of her father. Her brother had the charm, the words and grace of their mother, that she had always lacked. In so many ways she was Titus' daughter. Maybe that was why she found it so hard to forgive him, just as she knew that he would never forgive himself.
"REJOICE!" she bellowed. "REJOICE! THE WAITING IS OVER! THERE IS WORK TO BE DONE! THIS BLOOD ISN'T GOING TO SPILL ITSELF! GET YOUR BACKSIDES UP ON THAT WALL!"
And they did. Faces hard and shoulders square, they walked toward the wall and took in the sight of endless horde. Their armour was ragged, sewn leather and smashed together metal plates. Their weapons were chipped in places, the hafts splintered in others, the best the forges could produce on such short notice, but they didn't care. The hands that had once known the plough now gripped a spear just as surely. The men were grizzled, no time for shaving in the last week. The women had hacked their hair short, much as Morrelia had done. No time for vanity when fighting.
They would do themselves proud today. Filled with a resolute spirit, Morrelia turned and joined them, her twin blades rattled as she drew them from their sheathes. They would work hard today.
Up on the wall, Isaac brushed a single tear from his eye.
"One day, I'm gonna marry that woman."
-x-X-x-
"About time they got here," Burke muttered to herself as the horde made its final approach to the outer layer of fortifications the colony had erected.
"Everything ready?" Wills asked for the fourth time in the last five minutes.
"Yes, everything is ready. You really should have rested when you were told to."
"Couldn't," Wills flicked her antennae, "the scouts were still out there."
"That doesn't mean that you had to be."
"We disagree on that point."
"I know," Burke lifted an antenna and brought it down with a gentle thwack on her siblings head. "Now that the battle has arrived, you're useless. Go back with the other late returning scouts and get an hour of rest. This isn't going to be over by then."
Stubborn, Wills shook her head.
"I'll be fine for a while yet," she said, "I've got a full load of acid and I'm not sleeping till these invaders have felt every drop of it."
"Fair enough then. Just make sure you don't push too far forward. Stick to the plan. Deliver the product and then get to safety."
The two scouts fell into a companionable silence as the horde made its final approach. One hundred metres. That's all that separated the enemy from the first defensive line. After a week of solid fighting, it was a relief to have it come to this.
"About time then," Burke announced.
"Seems like it," Wills agreed.
"Pass the order to open fire," Burke told the general resting behind her.
The ant snapped out a quick salute.
"Of course, Elder. Fire when ready!"
All along the outer wall the order was passed in rapid pheromone communication. Not a single sound was uttered yet a thousand monstrous ants leapt into motion simultaneously. Not far away the human defenders could only marvel and the eerie quiet in which the ants operated.
To the ants however, the 'noise' was deafening.
"Scouts prepare to fire! Long range will engage in ten seconds! Ten seconds! Soldiers and generals will fire in thirty seconds! Wait for the command!"
"Here they come! Are you ready to work?!"
"Five seconds! Five seconds! Check your angles! Don't aim for the front line! Second row!"
"Show them what real monsters are made of!"
"Two! One! FIRE!"
In an instant the entire scouting brigade of the Formica Sapiens, their collective business districts already pointed at the foe, unleashed a barrage of acid skyward.
POW!
A faint whistle emitted from each ant's volley as the acid cut through the air with incredible power. All together the shrill sound pierced the air but faded quickly as the acid lost momentum and began to reach its apex. From there, it fell.
Even from this range, Burke could see the rage and pain on the monsters' faces as the acid fell amongst them, eating into their bodies and chewing into their flesh. Any monster who fell was set upon by its fellow horde members in an instant, torn apart and consumed in seconds. Hundreds of monsters were felled in this way but barely made a dent in a sea of enemies that lay before them. The ants were undaunted.
POW! POW! POW!
The scouts continued their steady barrage, firing in sequence as a well drilled unit would.
"I'm about half empty" Burke observed, "what do you think of the range?"
"I think it's close. I haven't been tracking the time," Wills replied.
"Soldiers and generals, FIRE!" the order rippled down the line.
POW! POW! POW! POW!
The rest of soldier caste on the wall joined in the barrage. So much acid filled the sky it began to fall on the horde like burning rain. The ants were careful to spread their fire as much as possible. It wasn't as if it were possible to miss in this scenario, but to inflict maximum damage on the horde the ants didn't need to inflict fatal damage. It was better to wound as many as possible and allow their ravenous allies to deal with the rest.
Despite the acid that poured from the sky and the creatures who threw themselves on their wounded brethren, the horde continued to advance, an unstoppable wave of momentum that couldn't be halted. Despite the damage caused by the acid bombardment, the colony may as well have been spitting in the wind.
"I'm empty," Burke declared, reorienting herself so she could look out over the wall once again. "Ten more seconds till they hit the wall I think."
A pervasive feeling of determined calm possessed the warriors of the colony. Everything was on the line today. Mistakes could not be afforded, not even the slightest mishap. Unless every member fought to their utmost potential, the colony would fall and that could not be allowed.
The ants had planned a defence in depth to maximise their terrain advantage and the unthinking nature of their enemies. The battle would be long and brutal. There would be an opportunity for the desperate rage of the final stand, but not yet.
"Alright then," Wills replied, retreating from the wall where her position was taken by an eager soldier. "I'll head back and rest."
"Good on you," Burke approved, "I'll try and make sure some of them are alive for you when you come back."
Wills waved an amused antennae and made a hasty retreat. If she wasn't going to be fighting then she had no business on the front lines, muddying up the waters.
With her sibling gone, Burke focused her attention back on the horde as it crashed into the first earthen rampart the colony had erected. Monsters of dozens of shapes and sizes crushed against the solid barrier and were smashed into the ground as those behind them climbed over them. Roars and screams of rage and the dying rattle of monsters filled the air as the soldiers in the front row began to lean forward and chomp at the first enemies to come into range.
Burke took her position, not at the front but one row behind. The council had determined this was as close as any member was allowed to get to the thick of the fighting. Truth be told, only the soldiers and scout portion of the twenty would dare fight here. Burke felt it was necessary that the council shoulder the risks of the colony along with their siblings. They weren't some protected caste whom the colony existed to serve. The very idea was repellent. They existed to serve the colony!
The soldiers at the edge of the wall continued to lunge forward, snapping at monsters below Burke's line of sight. There was no risk the soldiers would fall, they could grip as well as any other ant, obviously, but if they were caught hold of they might be pulled down.
The horrific din of the horde reached a fever pitch as the monsters pressed against the wall and sought to climb it. The wall wasn't immense, only three metres tall, but most monsters weren't as adept at climbing vertical surfaces as the ants were.
But some of them could and after a few more seconds Burke began to see the first creatures reach the top of the wall. Like lightning, Burke lunged forward and brought her mandibles closed on a spider that had poked its hideous, fanged head over the edge of the wall.
The beast's eight legs (disgusting!) scrabbled and scratched at Burke's carapace as the scout leader pulled the creature back over the wall. In seconds it was surrounded by soldiers and scouts. The ants worked together and ripped the monster apart before it could free itself. As the soldiers pulled back to return to their positions, healers rushed forward to grab the Biomass. They'd use it to create stockpiles close to the front to assist with their healing efforts.
First one down, Burke told herself. A heck of a lot to go.
-x-X-x-
"Take that!" Leeroy roared as her mandibles tore down yet another foe.
The blood and mana within her body thrummed with excitement as the battle unfolded before her eyes. The ants were fighting, gloriously fighting! All along the wall the horde surged and pushed higher, bringing them within reach of the deadly jaws of the insects above.
"Hahahaha! Die for the colony!" she screamed as she tore into another creature.
Was she telling the enemy to die for the colony, or inviting herself and her siblings to do so? Even she wasn't sure as the joy of battle overtook her senses. She'd put herself on the frontlines, obviously. As close to the action as she could get. She figured the others had assumed that she would do that from the start, so was it really a breach of trust if she followed through with that expectation?
Freed from concerns such as the grand strategy, self-preservation or any sense of the situation around her, Leeroy was able to embrace and indulge her burning desire: to fight! To put her life on the line in the service of her family! What was the point in preserving her life if she could spend it to save even a single one of her siblings? None! Joy soaring in her heart, Leeroy continued to lunge forward to a dangerous degree, teetering over the edge of the wall so she could reach more foes!
The nearby general assigned to this section of wall eyed the manic council member warily. She couldn't help but sigh at the vagaries of fate. That her unit would be tasked with the mission of ensuring the safety of Leeroy, was not something that filled the ant with glee. She would do her duty, naturally, she just felt that, what with the apocalyptic battle the colony was facing, her job didn't need to be made any harder.
"Step up the line" she bellowed.
Moving as one, the reserve soldiers pushed forward to support the ants on the edge of the wall. Some of them grabbed onto the legs of the ants in front, whilst others moved alongside them to help prevent them from being overwhelmed. It had only been a minute since the horde had made its first contact against the wall. Already the enemy was beginning to wash over the top of the wall. It was too soon. The colony needed to drag out the fight whilst minimising their losses.
They would need to hold at this wall as long as they could.
"Hold the wall!" she cried, "for the colony!"
"FOR THE COLONY!"
In complete silence the soldiers roared as one. Thousands of individuals moving in a coordinated unit they battled furiously at the edge of the wall.
Where the hell is our mage support? The general couldn't help but worry as she watched her soldiers battle under the umbrella of her aura. How long were they planning to take? If this goes on much longer then we'll start to lose soldiers.
Just at that moment the roar of flames erupted behind her. Long pillars of fire from the second wall roared into the sky. Like furious dragons they took flight before arching down. Searing heat and the crackling sound of flames assaulted the ants as the spells passed nearby, but it was upon the enemy the full force of the strike fell.
Ten metres past the edge of the wall, the fire impacted and spread. The fireball swelled and hundreds of monsters were engulfed in the blaze instantly. The fire mages had struck!
The smell of burning Biomass and the shrieks of monsters pierced the air. The monsters had piled themselves high against the earth wall and now that density came back to haunt them. Hundreds were roasted in an instant. The flames roared hot enough to singe Leeroy's antennae as she continued to hang over the edge of the wall.
"That's what you get!" She cackled at the monsters suffering beneath her, indifferent to their pain.
Any pity would have been needless in any case, as the monsters did not suffer for long. The horde still appeared endless and the monsters only pressed forward all the harder. Those who had fallen to the spell were consumed and only seconds later the enemy began to threaten the wall once again.
"A chomp for you! And a chomp for you! You dare face me? Feel the edge of my mandibles of wrath!"
Leeroy was driven to the peak of excitement by the carnage. Her eyes shone with such an intense fighting spirit, her enemies may well have been losing HP when they looked too closely. The clash of monsters! The colony fighting as one to repel the invaders! It was intoxicating.
The words of the Eldest rang in her ears.
No sacrifice without purpose. Preservation of life is the fundamental principle of a flourishing society. Leeroy had been drilled on these points many times, much more than her siblings, yet in the heat of the moment, even this was not enough to contain her boundless spirit of sacrifice!
As the large Soldier ant screamed and roared her defiance at the enemy, the nearby general began to notice a change come over the figure. It was almost as if she were vibrating with pure energy. The general sharpened her attention. It would be soon...
After chomping away one more foe, Leeroy could no longer contain herself. She shuffled back a few steps and paused for a single heartbeat to gather her strength.
"WITNESS ME!" She screamed as she scrambled forward a few steps and hurled herself off the wall.
In that one glorious moment, when her legs left the ground and her body began to sail into the air, Leeroy felt as if she could see her own future. She would fall amidst the enemy and fight with every fibre of her being. Like a burning flame consuming its fuel, she would flare bright and many monsters would fall before her. But eventually, she would be overcome. Torn apart by the enemy, she would pass away at the foot of the wall, selling her life in its defence.
But so great would be her sacrifice, so expensive would be her death, that she would turn the fate of the battle! Right here, she would save her family!
Alas, it wasn't to be. After too short a time, Leeroy felt her legs seized by powerful mandibles and her forward momentum was seized.
"What?!" she cried, "let me go! It's all part of the plan!"
The general sighed.
"It may be part of your plan, Elder, but I was instructed by general Sloan that we were to prevent you leaping off the wall as part of her plan."
Damn you Sloan! Leeroy raged. I'll get my chance yet!
-x-X-x-
A delivery system of flesh and bone. That's what the horde truly was. As an instrument of the dark will that controlled it, the massive gathering of enslaved monsters had been used to scour the kingdom of Liria and possibly neighbouring kingdoms as well. Here and now? That mass of bodies served a different purpose. To deliver Garralosh and her children to the target of her wrath as easily as possible.
Sloan knew that only when they had destroyed enough, thinned enough of the horde away, would the true enemy show its face. Until then, Garralosh and the Kaarmodo would be content to stay back and allow their unwitting soldiers to absorb the punishment.
"The key to this battle, is holding enough strength in reserve that we can deal with the Croca-Beasts when they come," Sloan had declared at the planning meeting.
To that end, the colony had prepared waves of tricks and schemes that they could employ. The horde would pay dearly for every inch of ground they took. The worry was, the primary reserve force of the colony still hadn't woken up.
The Eldest was still sleeping!
Sloan couldn't help but clean her antennae over and over again in an attempt to calm her nerves. Something her sibling couldn't help but notice.
"Calm down," Victor advised.
"I would if I could!" Sloan snapped back.
"The Eldest will awaken in time. How could you doubt it?"
"You do realise what will happen if they don't?"
"I suspect that we'll all be wiped out and the colony will cease to exist," Victor replied, unruffled.
"Y-yes! That's right!"
"And how does you stressing about it change anything? Have a little faith in the Eldest. When have they ever let us down?"
That was a little hard to argue against. The Eldest was a six legged storm, stirring up change wherever they went, but to date they had never let the colony down. Indeed, they had pushed the colony forward at every turn.
Sloan dragged her antennae through the knee joints of her front legs once more before she settled with a sigh. The two generals were positioned in the main nest in a chamber close to the surface. In a room next to them, scouts came and went at a furious pace, passing information to a team of generals who sorted it and manipulated a large three dimensional map carved into the chamber floor.
"Let's see how the battle is progressing," Victor suggested and moved to inspect the map.
Sloan clacked her mandibles in irritation.
"I don't like it that we are stuck here, Victor," Sloan grumbled.
Her sibling sighed, but sympathised.
"I want to be out there on the wall just as much as you. But the two of us are the best generals in the colony. We can best serve the colony from here. Don't go Leeroy on me."
"I wouldn't go that far," Sloan chuckled.
Unlike the two relatively calm generals, the war chamber was a flurry of activity and filled with the muffled scents of a dozen different conversations. Ants crawled carefully over the map, making constant adjustments to the sticks and place markers there.
"Looks as if the first wall has done its job," Victor observed as she poured over the map.
"We can still hold it," Sloan proposed. "If we commit the reserves from the second wall we could hold on for another thirty minutes, at least."
"The risk would be too high," the other general countered, "and unnecessary. The outer wall wasn't built to hold and was never intended to resist assault for an extended period."
Sloan nodded. This was how the two of them did their best planning. One proposed a plan, the other tried to tear it down. After the back and forth was done, they felt comfortable that they had the best strategy they could make.
"Alright then. Time to sound the retreat."
Victor turned to the scouts waiting to carry messages to the front.
"Pass the word for the retreat from the first wall. Prepare the reserves. We want every family member to make it back."
The scouts saluted and raced off to deliver their prepared messages whilst the two generals turned their eyes back to the map. Ants poured over it once more, making the delicate adjustments based on the event they knew were going to play out above.
Furious activity exploded within the nest. Ants ran over the top of each other as they hastened to reach their assigned positions. The potential for devastating loss was huge. The retreat needed to be managed carefully, with precision. An orderly retreat back to the second wall was the aim, not a scattered manoeuvre with the lines being overrun and soldiers being cut down left and right.
To this end, Proppelant had taken her place amongst the fire mages.
When the word came for the retreat, the spell slinging ants leapt into action.
"Get ready for it!" Proppelant bellowed, "draw out every scrap of your fire mana!"
The ant mages had been striving to master the skills of spell casting and mana shaping ever since the Eldest had shared the knowledge of them with the colony, but few had achieved a reasonable level of mastery. In fact, most of the ants were still stuck drawing from their fire mana gland until it was empty and then retreating to the Dungeon to recharge.
It had been an endless source of frustration for Propellant and Coolant but the reality was that the Mage Ants lacked the raw stats to push their skills into the higher tiers. Nonetheless, progress had been made in group spell casting, certain skills had been unearthed that allowed the ants to work in small teams to achieve better effects and the benefits were showing.
In teams of five, the fire mages began to draw out the mana contained in their glands. The ants were positioned in a circular formation, facing inwards and in the middle of each group a bright flame sparked into life. The flame grew brighter over time as more mana was fed into it. At this stage, the lead mage in each group, the one with the highest manipulation skills, began to shape the raw energy into the desired construct.
It was a delicate moment, but each of these ants had trained hard for this. Proppelant watched each of the five teams closely, seeking out any sign that the spells might go awry. As the intensity built, the council members focus grew sharper, until the spells were completed and the pillars of flame roared once more into the sky.
As they did, the generals on the front lines prepared their soldiers as scouts rushed to cover each section of the wall, launching an acid barrage deep into the horde to further muddy the waters.
Grant grit her mandibles as the flames began to arc down.
"Get ready to fall-back!" she roared.
"Push!" came the order and the soldiers all along the wall shoved forward, snapping and biting at the monsters who threatened to tear them down into the mouth of the horde. Using their bodies and the strength of the ants who assisted them, the ants shoved back against the attackers, throwing them back of the wall and creating a breath of distance between the two forces.
"Run back! Now! Go, go, go!" from the pheromone glands of hundreds of ants all along the perimeter the call came, slamming into every set of antennae.
As one the ants turned and abandoned their first layer of defences, dashing back as fast as they could. The scent trails for the retreat paths had been lain days ago and they did not deviate from those safe passages in the slightest.
Grant waited until her section of wall was abandoned completely before she turned to go. Monsters had already pushed back against the wall and began to climb over in increasing numbers. It didn't matter. She turned and dashed away just as the fire spells fell on top of the wall, incinerating the monsters and creating more distance between the attackers and the retreating ants.
The first wall had been taken at great cost to the horde. Grant felt deeply satisfied at the work that had been done. On to the next one.
-x-X-x-
The colony succeeded in pulling back to the second of their defensive lines with minimal losses. Each of the walls was shorter in length than the previous, allowing the ants to compress their numbers further each time they fell back.
Wills was pleased with the progress of the battle so far. After her (too short) rest, she'd emerged in time to see the retreat from the first wall and touch base with her people. The scouts had served as message runners and long range attackers for the most part, very few had fallen during the initial stage of the battle, but that could change at any moment. The scout leader felt sorrow as members of her colony had fallen at the first wall, an emotion she was still coming to terms with. Each death only hardened her resolve to see the enemy fall.
From the second wall she looked down as the horde pushed over the lip of the first in increasing numbers. Unthinking and without restraint, the horde didn't pause to consider what the hundred metres of open ground between the two walls might mean. When the monsters saw their enemies crawling up the face of the next wall, they charged.
A ripple of glee shivered along Will's antennae as the monsters triggered the first traps. Pitfalls, dead drops, spiked wooden stakes. The open ground was littered with the efforts of the worker caste. Some of those chutes dropped more than twenty metres straight down, where teams of workers waited to collect the fresh Biomass and bring it back to the nest to restock the colony supplies.
If the monsters were stupid enough, those chutes would continue to provide Biomass during the day. If the monsters decided to attack the nest through the drops, the ants would collapse the tunnels and move back to similar positions behind the next wall.
"Lucky our enemies are this stupid, eh Wills?"
The scout leader turned to look more fully at her sibling, Grant.
"True," the scout agreed, "but I'd still be happier if there were fewer of them."
"That'll be us, soon enough," the soldier prophesied, "uncountable thousands of us. We'll be able to smash a pathetic pile of monsters like this with ease."
"It won't be monsters like this that'll challenge us," Wills disagreed, "we'll be fighting against creatures from much deeper in the Dungeon. How deep have we explored? A few kilometres? If that? According to the Eldest, the Dungeon is thousands of kilometres deep. Who can say what opponents await the colony down there."
"That's why we need to continually improve and rise to the challenge!" Grant slapped her sibling on the back with one powerful, soldier leg. The impact caused the smaller scout to stumble slightly.
"Perhaps let's focus on the battle at hand?" Wills winced and distracted the larger soldier.
"Good idea," Grant nodded and turned her attention back to the onrushing monsters, still triggering innumerable traps on their way to the second wall.
Already the ants had begun another acid barrage, the scouts who had emptied their reserves had returned to unleash the fresh product they had made whilst the battle had raged at the first wall.
Will's watched the devastation with satisfaction. By the time the mass of creatures reached the final wall around the nest, there would only be the Croca-Beasts left. When the colony finally had a chance to feast on those Crocs, Wills would be first in line for a chomp.
Just as she prepared to unleash her own acid at the enemy, what little she had in the tank at any rate, she felt a change come over the colony. A silent ripple of emotion rolled through the defenders, a stillness that brought quiet with it even as they continued to go through the motions of defending their home.
It wasn't as if the ants were made quiet, or sleepy, or pacified. Quite the opposite. Within each ant defending the wall a spark had been lit that filled their frame with fervour. They were still and quiet because they felt that if they were to move to suddenly, they could no longer contain the frantic energy that boiled up inside them!
Wills could feel it within her own carapace. Her blood surged through her body and rushed into her brain, causing her to feel light headed. She felt as if her energy were inexhaustible, as if she could fight all day. In fact, if she didn't fight all day, she might go mad from having nowhere to direct this energy!
What is happening?! She wondered.
She didn't have to think for long. Rising from the top of the nest behind her came a sight that lifted her spirit even as her heart sank. First the long antennae, then powerful, elongated mandibles, followed by the heavily armoured and muscled head of the largest and most beautiful ant Wills had ever seen emerged. Powerful, thickened legs followed and pulled through the rest of her body. The Queen stood atop the peak of her nest and surveyed those who had come to attack her children.
CLACK!
One snap of her mighty jaws sent a wave of emotion through each of her children. Her rage and disgust toward the enemy had been conveyed in that gesture and each member of the colony felt a ferocious impulse seize hold of their thoughts.
Mother was here!
CLACK!
Without consultation the colony answered their Queen. Over a thousand soldiers, scouts and mages on the surface snapped shut their mandibles as one. The noise was sharp and piercing, like the slamming of a thousand doors.
Her royalty clear in every line of her stance, the Queen looked down at her children and felt her heart surge with emotion. Such good children they were. She would defend them to her final breath!
Even as her instincts screamed at her to exult in the presence of her Queen, Wills could only fervently hope that her mother would not come down from the nest.
Stay there, stay safe, go back down, let us take care of you, stay there, stay safe, be safe, stay there!
She begged the Queen in her mind over and over but she knew it would do no good.
Mother had come for her children.
CLACK!
Once more the Queen snapped her enormous mandibles shut and this time she moved down from the peak of the nest. From behind her a swarm of soldiers, mages and even carvers boiled out of the nest and surged forward to surround their Queen.
CLACK!
The colony answered back once more and this time, they didn't stop, rhythmically snapping their mandibles as the Queen strode from the nest to the front lines.
CLACK! CLACK! CLACK! CLACK!
Each time they brought their mandibles closed the sound grew louder. Wills herself felt as if her jaw might break but neither could she stop herself. She both shivered with fear and exalted with joy. The Queen was here! The Queen was here!
The monsters of the horde rushed forward, uncaring of the deafening noise that thundered over the lip of the wall towards them. They knew only to press forward as their instincts demanded. But when they reached the wall and began to climb, they would find something had changed.
The Queen had stepped forth and the ants would not hold back any longer.