Chapter 2835 - Chry 36

Chapter 376 The Queen effec

When the monsters pushed forward over the lines of traps and climbed over each other to ascend the wall, they found a ravenous wall of ants waiting for them. The soldiers were desperate, frantic for the opportunity to tear their opponents apart. From a distance, the wall appeared to have gained height. Ants stood atop each other, lunging forward to seize an enemy and dragging them back into the solid mass of monstrous insect.

When the Queen herself arrived at the front, the ferocity of her soldiers increased. She pushed through the mass of her children until she reached the edge of the wall and looked out over the horde that threatened her nest. Somewhere out there was the mastermind of this attack, the Queen's blood boiled with anger at the thought. When would they come forward and suffer her wrath?

Until then, she would have to sate her hunger on these minions.

The Queen's legs were no longer tipped with standard claws, but rather a new version that she could close together to form a fearsome spike. She extended her front legs over the edge of the wall and began to spear monsters as if they were fish.

*Stab!* *Stab!*

The Queen had dutifully examined the skills she could purchase after her evolution and indeed a stab related option had unlocked for her. The knowledge of how and when to most optimally strike had been trickled into her mind and now she put it to good use.

Every time she stabbed down she pierced a monster straight through. She would then lean back on her rear legs and haul the now valuable Biomass back over the wall to pass to her children before turning back to stab once more. It was easy. The monsters were packed so thick that it wasn't as if she could miss.

The Queen felt elated. For so long she had been trapped in the nest, hearing about her children striding forth to do battle with their enemy but she had been unable to help. Now, she was here, she was ready. She would fight alongside her children and shoulder her portion of the burden. It was gruesome and difficult, but it made her glad. She couldn't help emitting pheromone waves of satisfaction and savage joy that radiated over the wall and struck the antennae of every ant on the wall.

It was a feeling they reciprocated. But there was a deeper emotion that possessed them. The ant colony would fight at their fiercest for two things, the brood, and their Queen. Ingrained in their instincts was the need to defend the future generations, they would sacrifice anything to protect them. The brood, the next few generations of the colony, was safely tucked away in the nest, as secure as the colony could make them, whilst the Queen, who embodied countless generations of colony members, was exposed to tremendous danger!

Newfound intelligence battled with inborn instinct and the intelligence was losing. In the face of the threat to their mother, their sense of self-preservation began to fall away. What replaced it was pure, ferocious and unthinking aggression.

All along the wall, the colony members took dangerous risks to put their mandibles on the enemy and around the Queen the fervour reached feverish levels. Even the non-combat castes had emerged from their secure chambers within the nest to follow their Queen into battle.

Victor watched from the top of the main nest, despair rising in her thorax. The Queen's influence on the mentality of the colony was too strong. Even from here she could feel it, the urge to rush to the forefront of the battle and put her body between the Queen and any danger. Only through an effort of Will was she able to resist the call. She knew that she would be more useful managing the colony's strategy, she knew that. But her instincts didn't seem to care. They screamed at her mercilessly to fight, to bite and claw to defend her Queen!

The feeling was so powerful that Victor began to suspect it was more than just her own instincts. It was possible the effect was enhanced by an option the Queen chose in her evolution? Some organ or gland that whipped up the fervour of the ants within a certain range? Imagine if Leeroy were still out there...

What could they do!? They couldn't control the Queen, they wouldn't even want to try, and so long as the Queen was fighting, this rage would possess every ant who went anywhere near her. Victor and Sloan had workshopped a range of strategies to manage the Queen's influence on the battle but they hadn't expected her pull to be this strong. It was threatening to throw away the planning and effort that had gone into preparing for this battle.

It was only the second wall! There were so many more traps and tricks prepared before the colony needed to make their final stand!

As Victor chewed over her options, the Queen had pushed such concerns to the side. She knew her place and was willing to sacrifice herself for the survival of her children, indeed she would welcome such a fate.

In order to preserve her energy and the mana that was draining out of her core, she limited herself to simple stabs. She had more cards to play but it wouldn't do to reveal them this early in the battle. It didn't take long for the monsters to press up against the wall and begin to spill over the top. Their screams of rage filled the air and they reached out desperately with their claws, only to be met with the Queen's mandibles.

*CHOMP*

Longer than any other ants and savagely barbed, her mandibles crashed together with a shattering snap that ended three monsters in a single bite. With a toss of her head she flung the Biomass back to the waiting workers behind and stabbed forward again. The monsters within reach tried to scratch and bite her forelegs but newly armoured and reinforced, the carapace there was far too tough for them. They could only watch as two more victims were lifted high into the air, back over the wall and out of sight.

So engrossed was the Queen in the battle that she paid no attention to the clouds forming with unnatural speed overhead. Light flashed, electricity crackled and lightning began to fall.

-x-X-x-

Electrical energy crackled over head as the ants continued to battle mindlessly on the wall. With a crack like the sound of a whip, the first strike fell directly on the Queen. Conserving her energy, the Queen was holding her section of the wall with ease when she was struck. The bolt landed on her abdomen and electricity pierced her carapace and roiled through her insides.

The smell of burnt flesh rose as the Queen's enormous frame began to smoke. The ants close by were driven to the edge of madness by the attack on their mother, but were helpless to retaliate against the clouds overhead! The Queen herself remained calm. Her antennae glowed softly with light as she channelled healing magic from her Healing Mana gland to repair her wounds.

She hadn't suffered much damage from the strike, not even close to critical damage. During her evolution she'd toughened herself a considerable amount, a decision that paid dividends now. The healing mana washed through her body, restoring damaged muscle and repairing her organs in moments.

But the lightning continued to fall.

*Boom!* *Boom! *Boom!*

The skies overhead crackled with an immense amount of energy and each bolt struck unerringly down on the giant figure that towered over the rest. It was clear the Kaarmodo had identified the Queen as a threat and was trying to weaken her, if not destroy her!

The Queen endured. Bolt after bolt fell from the sky, driving the ants into a frenzy. Their mother was under assault! How could they stand it?! The Queen focused on healing herself and ensuring that none of her children were caught in the discharge. Even whilst enduring the pain and concentrating on her healing mana, she was still able to keep her section of wall clear with repeated snaps of her giant mandibles.

"Mother!" screamed Victor, who had rushed to the front when she noticed the gathering clouds. "Mother! You must retreat!"

The Queen shook her antennae in denial.

"I can still fight," she insisted as she crunched more monsters with her jaws. "My children are fighting, and so shall I!"

"You're starting to smoke! You can't tell me you aren't taking damage!" Victor cried, trying to make her scent detected over the roiling pheromones being released all around.

"I can take it. Better me than the children," the Queen stubbornly insisted.

Victor tried to maintain control of her instincts which demanded that she fight to defend her mother. Fighting was not the solution here. The Queen needed to move back, it was far too soon for her to commit to the battle!

If only the Eldest were here! Mother listened to the Eldest, trusted them. How much longer until that damn evolution was finished?!

"The colony is going crazy! If you stay here taking this damage, they might just charge over the wall. You need to get back, even just for a time!"

*BOOM!*

With a blinding flash, a tremendous bolt of lightning lanced down from the roiling clouds above and connected to the Queen. The mother of the colony threw her head back, frozen in pain as the energy burned through her body, sizzling her internal organs and causing her HP to plunge.

"MOTHER!" screamed Victor, overcome with anxiety.

Agony rippled through the Queen and she poured more effort to directing her healing mana to close her wounds. Pain was not enough to deter her from her course. Neither pain, nor danger or threat to her life would turn her from this path. In fact, she was glad. Every bolt of lightning that fell on her was mana and effort that was expended on her and not on her children. She would be the bulwark for her family, the strong tower behind which they could find shelter.

She pushed her feet under her and lifted her head to snap out once more with her deadly mandibles. She tried to push the voices away and focus. She had much work to do, but one broke through.

"Look at your back!" Victor cried. The general had crawled onto the wall directly in front of the Queen, her back to the enemy in an effort to capture her mothers' attention.

The Queen hastily swatted the much smaller ant down from the wall and back to safety with one leg before she reared her body up to observe her own back.

It was covered in ants.

Were she the type to curse, perhaps the Queen would have indulged herself in this moment, but she didn't. She turned, and she ran.

The clouds crackled overhead and the Queen wasted no time rushing back from the second wall toward the nest. As she retreated, the storm overhead began to disperse, the Kaarmodo was apparently unwilling to commit to holding it in place if she were not on the front herself.

With the presence of the Queen fading from the frontline, the battle returned to a more controlled type of frenzy. Generals were able to organise and arrange their soldiers, scouts shook off their rage and returned to their work as runners. Over the next few minutes, the colony was able to restore order to their efforts.

As she rushed back to the nest, the Queen appeared outwardly calm, but was boiling with frustration on the inside. She wanted to fight and defend her family but it appeared as if her children would not allow it. When she was threatened by the lightning, they had selflessly climbed onto her back to try and protect her.

It was a gesture that filled her heart, but broke it at the same time. She did not want her children to die for her, she wanted to fight and die for them!

The non-combat caste members, who had exited the nest with her, escorted her back to it, anxiously crawling in every direction to ensure she was safe. When she reached the peak of the nest, the Queen looked back to the second wall, several hundred metres away, where her family was fighting and dying for its survival. For a short, glorious moment, she had been able to share in that struggle with them, and she would again before the end.

With a small sigh, the Queen plunged once more down into the darkness. She would recharge her core, heal her injuries and prepare to emerge once again. The battle was not done, and neither was she.

For her part, Victor was relieved. The Queen would not stay put for long, but for the time being the battle was back in control. The Queen and the Eldest were the trump cards of the colony, they couldn't not be played too early. If the Queen had remained at the front and prompted Garralosh to come out, before the Eldest had finished evolving...

It could have been a disaster!

Come to think of it, the wall was no place for her to be either. As the two sides once again threw themselves at each other, Victor ran from the front, over the remaining walls and into the nest. Inside the planning chamber, Sloan awaited her.

"Sounds like things have stabilised for the time being," Sloan told her, "great work."

Victor shook her antennae in denial.

"It's only a matter of time until the Queen comes up again. The next time she comes up, I don't think she'll go back, no matter what."

"But that's good information to have," Sloan insisted. "We know that the next time she fights, we'll have to play all our tricks."

A shiver of fear ran over Victor as she considered what might have happened in those moments.

"She could've died up there, Sloan."

Her sibling came closer and patted her on the head with one antennae.

"We won't let that happen. No matter what."

"No matter what."

-x-X-x-

Antionette and Victoriant sat in the secure chamber in which the Eldest was evolving. Soldiers and scouts lined the walls, Brood Tenders, with their soothing growth auras were in attendance and the two guardians watched all with a sharp eye from their positions on either side of their master.

"How long until the Eldest wakes up do you think?" Antionette asked for the fifth time.

"I have no idea," Victoriant gave the same reply.

The two juvenile Queens fidgeted for a moment, giving their antennae a restless sweep through their knee joints, before they settled once more. The Eldest had undergone many changes over the last hour, a dramatic increase in size being the most obvious, but still they showed no sign of awakening. This deep in the nest, the battle could neither be felt nor heard, but it weighed heavily on their minds.

"I didn't think it would be this frustrating," Victoriant sighed.

"I'm beginning to understand why the Queen is getting so restless," her sibling agreed.

"At least mother can actually perform her function. She can lay eggs and create a future for the colony. What about us? We aren't allowed to fight, can't try to gain experience and can't lay eggs. I just feel so useless."

"Cheer up, Victoriant. We knew we would need to be patient when we chose this path. If you look on the bright side, the two of us are closer to our next evolution than the other members of the council."

"That's only true because other members of the colony risk themselves and fight in order to bring monsters to us so that we gain the experience."

Speaking of which, after a short tussle near one of the walls, a soldier came toward the two of them carrying a heavily damaged shadow beast which was promptly deposited at their feet.

"Thank you very much," Antionette called as the soldier returned to her post.

"I'm level fifteen," Victoriant told her sibling.

"Me too," Antionette confirmed.

"Then, who got the experience last time?"

"I believe it was me."

"Alright then."

Victoriant leaned down and finished off the heavily wounded monster with a quick snap of her mandibles. In truth, the two juvenile queens were weak fighters. Their large size was less due to a powerful physique and more to create space for the numerous organs necessary to facilitate the egg laying process. Unlike the Queen, their evolution wasn't designed to battle in order to get the colony off the ground. The Eldest had designed their path with pure egg laying in mind.

One more evolution and they would be able to start producing a small number of eggs per day, and one more after that until they would fully mature as Queens, able to produce hundreds of eggs each day, so long as they were provided the Biomass to do so.

The two siblings absentmindedly consumed the Biomass in front of them. In truth, the pair of them had already maxed out their mutations. They only ate to stockpile Biomass for their impending evolution. Indeed, the colony had been willingly funnelling resources into the pair, hoping to increase the growth rate of the colony as soon as possible. The two of them already boasted maxed out cores and had both been presented with special cores some time ago. Five more levels and they would be ready to evolve on the spot.

The two Queens to be were interrupted in their contemplation by Tungstant storming into the chamber from above and rushing down the wall.

"How is the Eldest?" the harried looking carver ant asked.

Victoriant flicked a curious antennae at her sibling before she responded.

"No change since the last time you came in, as you can see."

The smaller ant slumped in frustration before she wandered over to where the Eldest rested. The two guardians shifted at her approach, not hostile, but ensuring the little carver was aware they knew she was there.

Fortunately, Tungstant was familiar with this task and gave the guardians their due as she approached. Victoriant and Antionette watched as the carver performed the now familiar dance of measuring the height and length of the Eldest by stepping out the distances with careful, measured steps. This job done, Tungstant began to wave her antennae over the Eldest' carapace, using her sense of smell and the fine touch of micro hairs to examine any changes she could detect in the Eldest.

Job done, the little ant turned back despondently, only to be pounced on by her two siblings.

"How goes the battle?!" The two juvenile queens demanded.

Tungstant jumped back at the surprise attack before she sighed.

"Preparations are being made to retreat from the second wall, the call should be made any moment now."

"Only the second wall? There's still six to go! How long will this battle go on?" Victoriant exclaimed.

"It takes a long time to kill tens of thousands of monsters," Tungstant replied, irritated. "We've made our calculations to the best of our abilities. This was the maximum amount of defences we could prepare in time and it should be enough to eliminate the horde whilst preserving as many lives as possible."

Victoriant deflated a little, frustrated at the prospect of having to sit, under guard in a chamber so far from the battle. With no capacity to influence the battle they could only sit and wait as others battled to protect their future.

Tungstant softened her voice.

"I know it's painful, I'm in much the same situation as you are. It isn't as if I can dig or build anything to influence the battle at this point. I'm just running messages and checking on the Eldest. Who still doesn't show any sign of waking up!"

"It doesn't seem as if they've grown since the last time you were here," Antionette offered. "Perhaps the evolution is close to completed?"

Tungstant shook her antennae.

"I'm afraid that may not be true. The change in size is probably the first and easiest part of the evolution. I can't sense much from the outside, but I believe there are significant changes taking place within the body of the Eldest. It may yet be some time until the change is completed."

"But..." Victoriant protested, "what about the battle?!"

"We'll just have to hold on," the carver shrugged her antennae, "according to my predictions, we won't be able to end this battle without the Eldest taking part, we'll just have to last until they can join the fight."

The ants fell silent as they contemplated the next few hours and the future of their colony. The struggle up above would be brutal, vicious and filled with danger, but each of these siblings would rather they be allowed up there than trapped down here, waiting.

-x-X-x-

The master was irritated.

Assan'diri could feel the rising ire of his master through the bond. Like a Blackened Death Asp monster, it hissed, sibilant, at a constant measure that put all of the Setsulah on edge.

"Diri!" muttered a nearby voice.

He turned to see Chen'thra, his wife, approach from his left.

"Master is losing his patience," she hissed, "his black mood hangs over us like a storm."

"I feel it, my heart, of course I feel it. Ever since the loss of our kin, the master has been losing faith in this mission."

They shared a moment of quiet sorrow. They had not had the time to perform the proper rituals to commemorate their lost Bond Kin, something that doubled their grief. Killed by the devilish monster that had plagued and taunted them for so long, their kin would not rest properly until the rites had been observed.

The rage of the master had been as hot as the desert sands when they had fallen. The Setsulah had shared in the blazing intensity of it. That one of their sacred number would be lost to such a monster had rankled. The creature had toyed with them. Dancing on the edge of their range, unleashing spells that they had never seen before, vanishing like mist.

They had consoled themselves that the final reckoning would be theirs. Garralosh was determined to exterminate all the humans from the pathetic frontier kingdoms and she would destroy these pesky monsters whilst she was at it.

At first they had worried that the humans and monsters would flee, but rejoiced when repeated scrying showed that no such movements were taking place. The Setsulah had not wished for their master to spend years chasing rabble and refuse through the wilds, and thankfully he hadn't needed to. They had expected the humans and monsters would crumble the moment they arrived, crushed under the weight of the thousands of monsters that rushed at them.

They could not have been more wrong!

"Have you ever seen a collection of monsters like this?" Chen'thra asked, bewildered.

"I have not, my heart," Assan'diri confirmed, just as confused.

The walls, the traps, the ambushes, the stratagems. One after the other, after the other.

"Did you hear what happened in the last hour?"

"The third wall was taken, was it not?"

"It was, and when the chatka charged toward the fourth, the ants flooded them!"

"They what?!"

"They flooded them! The sand blasted creatures built a covered reservoir and they knocked out the walls. The chatka were washed into holes and taken beneath the ground! I've never heard of such a thing!"

The two shuddered and Assan'diri reached out, his hand unconsciously seeking that of his wife. To those who had lived their entire lives in the deserts and mountains of the true kingdom, death by water sent shivers down their spines.

The two stood deep in the belly of the horde, surrounded by chatka, slave monsters, on all sides. More worrying than those, were the hundreds of gigantic crocodile like monsters that shared this space in the centre. The master had committed to this sacred purpose and the Bond Kin would serve as dutifully as ever, but he wished he had been able to leave his wife at home.

"Come, my heart, let us return to the compound."

To his relief, his wife nodded her assent and the two turned their back on the battle and strode toward the source of the simmering anger that thrummed across the Bond.

Assan'diri tried to ignore the Garralosh spawn as they passed. The monsters stared at the two robed figures with scarcely concealed hunger. Only the iron will of their parent was able to keep the primitive brutes in line. Even the knowledge that the master would scour their flesh from their bones should they lay one scaled claw on the Setsulah wasn't enough to sink into their simple minds.

He tried not to be too disrespectful of the creatures in his thoughts. His master had dedicated a great deal of time to this project and it wouldn't do if the Kin were to harbor ill thoughts towards something the master had devoted such attention to.

[Do not mind it Assan'diri. I have no great opinion of these creatures myself.]

Assan'diri and his wife both stumbled at the sudden touch of the great mind of their master through the bond.

[Master. I prostrate myself. I did not mean any offence.]

He made good on his words by immediately dropping to his knees and bowing low in the dirt. Chen'thra joined him without hesitation.

[Peace,] the master sighed, [I have intruded on your thoughts without announcing myself, you need not apologise. There is no disloyalty in your thoughts.]

The two Setsulah straightened themselves, their thoughts seized by the weariness they sensed in their master.

[I sense our task may be coming to an end. The skein shifts rapidly here. This ebb and flow of possibility are shifting beneath our feet, yet I sense a conclusion will come. Success or failure will be decided soon.]

The two servants shared a significant glance.

[Do you anticipate the Setsulah will be deployed? We are willing to serve.]

[No.]

There was finality in that response.

[I will not tolerate further loss of the Bond Kin. Our charge has made this her mission and it will be on her to see it through. I alone will be enough to satisfy the demands of the order that Garralosh be supported.]

Assan'diri clamped his fangs shut and grimaced within his hood. If it weren't for that cursed monster hunting them, the master would not need to tax themselves in this way.

[Have I fallen so low that my own Bond Kin will fuss over me in this way, Assan'diri?]

The servant hissed in agitation and once more threw himself on the dirt to bow low in the direction of his master. Even without being able to see the blessed form of his Bond holder, he was able to bow directly toward him.

[I mean no offense, Master! Please discipline me as you see fit.]

[Enough. If not for the Bond Kin fussing over us, we, Kaarmodo, would do naught but debate and hibernate until our species faced extinction. Gather the Kin. We must channel the ambient mana once more into our charge. If Garralosh is to have the best chance of success, then we must ensure her core isn't depleted.]

[As you wish, master.]

The touch of the master over the Bond faded and the two servants rushed to fulfil their master's instructions. It seemed as if their long quest would finally reach a conclusion. The Setsulah longed for the hot winds and sheer peaks of their mountain home. Whether Garralosh were successful and broke through or failed and languished in this cage of her own making, Assan'diri no longer cared. So long as the master was able to discharge his duty, they could return home with pride.

-x-X-x-

"Am I gonna make it, Ms Enid?" the boy begged tearfully.

Enid glanced down at the horrific gut wound the soldier had suffered, her face set in a calming smile.

"You're going to be fine, soldier," she soothed him, wiping the sweat from his face with a grimy cloth. "The healers will get to you as soon as they can."

Fear boiled in the young warriors eyes as he clutched at her. He wasn't going to make it. Black blood leaked from the wound in his gut. Monster claw, she guessed. She felt helpless, but continued to comfort the doomed lad as his lifeblood drained away.

She'd seen many things in her life, travelling the caravans hadn't always been safe. On occasion, when her husband had caved to her pestering, she'd even been able to join him on a few delves. The danger had been real and many times she'd feared for her life.

But nothing could have prepared her for this. Even now, she could hear them. The roar, the screams and the clash of steel rang out across the clearing from the wall. Nestled against the side of the ants defences, the human wall had held strong, but the cost had been steep. The medical tent had seen a steady stream of wounded from the moment the battled had begun, and without any healing magic practitioners, there was nothing they could do for those with serious wounds but bandage and clean them. With that done, the injured could do nothing except languish on pallets alongside a growing assembly of their fellow warriors.

Enid had also been on the wall during the fighting. Not for long, of course. She knew she'd only be underfoot when the fighting got hot, however she couldn't resist the need to see the fight, to share the risk, at least for a time, that her fellow villagers would undertake.

The sight would haunt her for the rest of her life.

As gruesome as it had been at the human wall, the monsters that were their neighbours fought a far more brutal battle. The sight of the monster versus monster combat had been horrifying to behold. Creatures torn to pieces and consumed on the spot, the wounded stomped underfoot or dragged away. The attacking horde howled and shrieked until ones ears rang with pain, but the ants battled in an eerie silence.

Only by their body language was it possible to get a sense of their emotions and that was almost impossible at the best of times. Only when the Queen had emerged had Enid been able to clearly sense their fear. Once that gigantic monster had made herself known and rushed to the front, the ants had become frenzied. Not with rage, or hate. Enid felt sure of it. They had felt afraid. When the lightning had fallen on their Queen, the thousands of monsters had become frantic.

Enid had been afraid at that point. Afraid of what would have happened if the Queen had fallen to the lightning and been torn apart by her attackers. What would have happened to the ants who remained? What would they have done, in their grief and rage? She shuddered to think of it.

"Mary," Enid called softly to a nearby nurse, "could you get me another cloth, please? This young man needs to have his wounds cleaned."

The young girl looked down at the suffering young man for a moment before she glanced back at Enid's face and nodded quietly. The boy gripped her hand tighter.

"Do you know if my brother is okay?" he gasped.

"I haven't seen him in here," she reassured him, "I'm sure he's still fighting."

He relaxed back onto his pallet.

"I saw him fighting next to the beast," he forced out, a rictus grin on his face. "He always looked up to her."

Enid couldn't help but snort at the use of Morrelia's nickname. She didn't know when they'd started referring to her as 'the beast' but she sure as heck didn't want to be about when the young berserker found out. To Enid's knowledge, Morrelia had been on the wall battling like a maniac the entire time. With her reckless, two handed style it would be a miracle if she hadn't suffered major wounds by this time.

If only they had healers! Enid would happily cut her left arm off for a decent apothecary even!

Ultimately, Enid had begun to feel despair. What if, despite everything they'd done, it still wasn't enough. Just like the young boy, who couldn't be more than fifteen, she felt her hopes slowly dying. She would never let it show on her face or in her demeanour, but she was afraid. Not for herself, but for her people. They deserved so much better than this.

At that moment, she felt a stir run through the medical tent. A wave of energy that crackled in the air. Tension, excitement and fear, all rolled in one.

"Ms Enid!" Mary rushed back, a cloth forgotten in her hand.

"What is it child?" Enid asked, concerned.

"They've come! They've come to save us!"

"Who!?"

It didn't take long for the question to answer itself. From her position seated on the ground, Enid could see people shuffling to one side, trying to make space for something to make it through. She gasped when the first one came into sight.

Antennae twitched and mandibles clacked as a dozen monstrous ants pushed their way into the medical tent. Without a word or a sign, they split up and move about the tent, each headed to a different wounded. One came right next to Enid and brought its antennae down on the dying lad. When healing mana began to flow down the antennae and into the boy, Enid could hold her tears no longer. As life came back into his face, so too did hope blossom in again inside her.

She did not know where this strange colony had come from, but in that moment she had to admit that Beyn was possibly onto something. How could they not be heaven sent?

-x-X-x-

"Hold the line!" sprayed Grant to the ants around her, "don't let these motherless scum over the wall!"

She faked left before biting down hard with her mandibles on a clawed hand that threatened her. The dirt wall defences of the ants had held firm so far, only by voluntary retreat had they been taken by the enemy. As each consecutive wall had been surrendered, the ants' defences had become concentrated and more sophisticated.

Now on the sixth wall, the greater preparations were bearing fruit. The moat was deep here, and filled with Biomass. Sharpened stakes dotted the face of the wall and many monsters had lost their lives pushing forward into them.

Spears of water erupted out of the moat and dozens of monsters fell back, pierced through their sides. Not far from where Grant fought on the wall, the water mage slumped to the ground, exhausted.

"Get back to the nest," Grant ordered, her pheromones cutting through the myriad scents of the battle.

"I've got one more in me" the mage forced out.

"Denied, get back in the nest and recharge. One spell here isn't worth delaying your return to the field later," Grant ordered even as she fended off another attacker on the wall.

The mage ant pushed her feet back under her and with the assistance of a nearby healer, crawled away from the fighting and towards the nest.

The general assigned to this section of wall shook her head. The colony was pushing itself hard and the will to sacrifice themselves had risen within each ant as long as the battle had gone on. When push came to shove, each individual would rather die than allow another to die in their place. It had become harder and harder to get soldiers to take breaks, to make healers recharge their mana glands and even the generals had become obstinate, some had even pushed forward into the fight themselves!

The generals were no larger than a juvenile soldier. All the evolutionary energy in their second evolution went into raising their Cunning and the Combat Aura gland. When it came to applying damage with their mandibles, even scouts were much superior, forget about the soldiers themselves!

"Get back!" Grant yelled.

The ants around her scuttled back from the wall just as a giant rotting toad monster opened its distended and grotesque mouth and unleashed a gout of putrid liquid that washed over the surface of the wall.

"Dirt! Go! Go!" the general ordered even as she ran forward with her mandibles filled with soft earth.

The green liquid bubbled and steamed on the ground as the ants scrambled to cover it with dirt. After a few seconds the horrific mess was nowhere in sight and they leapt back to the edge of the wall to battle against the monsters who threatened to spill over the edge.

Grant cursed inside. Those stupid toads had become a problem ever since they'd first appeared at the fifth wall. If they weren't spotted in the heaving mass of monsters at the wall before they spewed out their poisonous, acidic soup a great deal of damage could be done to the ants in a short period of time. The wounds caused were excruciating and required a massive amount of mana to heal. Almost every healer on the wall had been sent back to rest at one point, drained of their mana after treating the burns.

"Hold the line!" Grant shouted once again and her fellow soldiers, which their larger bodies and powerful mandibles stepped once more.

GROOOOOOWL!

Grant felt the ground beneath her feet vibrate as a low growl from hundreds of throats shook the air. She stared out over the thronging horde, much smaller now than it had been at the start, and she saw them.

They pushed their way through the horde in packs of three or four. Standing upright they towered over many of the monsters around them. Light glinted off their dark scales and razor claws. Some of them opened their massive jaws wide and flashed their teeth as their growls continued to rumble deep in their chests.

"THEY'RE COMING!" she roared. "THE CROCS ARE COMING!"

All along the wall the ants rippled with energy as the word raced down the line and back up to the nest. Excitement pounded in Grant's thorax. Finally the filthy crocs were prepared to show their faces. At last the battle would move to its destined conclusion!

Since the smaller crocs had moved forward, the big one couldn't be too far behind!

Sure enough, it didn't take long for the order to come back from the main nest.

"We're abandoning the wall! Prepare to push on the count of ten!"

"Get ready!"

"Still work to do here! Don't slack!"

"Don't slack, yourself!"

"Five!"

Grant braced herself and she felt the soldiers on either side do the same.

"Mages start to channel! Stay clean on the lines!" The generals hollered.

The smaller ant mages came forward until they were right behind their soldier siblings and began to channel the mana within them.

They crafted it into the mind bending shapes and constructs that would bring death to their enemies and a reprieve to the colony, if only for a few seconds.

"PUSH!"

"RAH!"

As one, the soldiers shoved forward and ripped into the monsters in front of them. They teamed up to throw monsters down from the wall and shove them back, clearing space to allow them to disengage. The soldiers backed up and turned around before they rushed away from the wall, leaving the smaller mages as the front line.

Up and down the wall a hundred ant mages completed their spells, stepped forward and unleashed them on the horde at the foot of the walls. Gouts of flame and spears of water poured down from the top of the wall. The shrieks and roars of injured, infuriated monsters filled the air as the ants silently completed their deadly task.

With their limited cores and mana glands, they weren't able to maintain the magical onslaught for long, only a few seconds, but it was enough. As the monsters of the horde descended on their wounded members to feast on their Biomass the ants turned and fled back to the seventh and penultimate wall.

"Looks like the number crunching by the bigger brained castes was pretty much dead on," Grant observed to the nearby general as they retreated together.

The two ants carefully followed the prepared scent trails as they narrowly dodged the traps and tunnels that dotted the open ground between the walls.

"We might even have one wall to spare," the general chuckled.

Grant shook her antennae.

"We'll need more than one to hold off Garrlosh's children. They're bigger and stronger than most of the trash we've been dealing with so far."

The ants crawled up the face of their seventh defensive layer and took position at the top. They would have a few precious seconds of rest before they were tested again. Rested troops greeted them as they crested the wall. Scouts, soldiers, healers and generals, already in place and ready to battle the enemy.

The ant hill rose high behind them, much closer now than when the battle started. The colony was prepared to make their final stand now. Once this position was overrun, only one wall would stand stood between the nest itself and the horde.

"How many casualties so far?" Grant asked one of the healers.

"Below three hundred so far," the worker replied.

A remarkable number. A miracle almost. They'd defeated thousands of mindless enemies for the cost of only several hundred colony members. It would get harder now though.

At that moment, Grant noticed a disturbance at the peak of the nest. A flood of worker and artisan caste ants poured out of the opening at the peak, followed by a familiar, massive frame.

Grant felt conflicted, but she had to admit, it was a good time for the Queen to reappear.

-x-X-x-

"Haul your abdomen, Sloan!" Victor yelled at her slower contemporary.

"I'm coming!" Sloan grumbled back.

The two generals were exhausted. They hadn't fought on the front line during the course of the battle but they'd been debating, planning and coordinating the efforts of the colony without pause for over a day without rest.

"Finally getting to the good part and you want to miss out?" Victor joked.

"I'll push you into the mouth of a Garralosh spawn," Sloan promised, "watch yourself up there."

"I'm not worried, Leeroy will probably already be in there and can push me out."

At the mention of the more... enthusiastic of their soldier siblings, an irritated twitch flicked through Sloan's antennae. Now that they'd come to this point, nothing could be held back any longer. Which meant that Leeroy, and the soldiers who'd kept her pinned down in the nest, had been sent back to the wall.

The two generals rushed out of the dark nest and into the bright light of the surface. Victor shielded her eyes with her antennae as best she could as she stared at the carnage taking place beyond the walls. From this high up, she could see the children of Garralosh approach, flames trickling out from between their teeth.

"About time you slackers made it up here," Burke observed from nearby.

"We haven't been slacking!" Sloan ground out.

"I know that, obviously." Burke turned to Victor. "Why is she so tense?"

"Not much torpor."

"Ah."

The three of them continued to observe the battle. Things were heating up now, and not just because of the flame spewing crocodile monsters. The Queen had re-joined the front line and the ants there had quickly reached a boiling peak of rage and fury.

"We need to get down there," Sloan gasped urgently.

"I know," Victor replied, intent.

"Do you really think you can stop her?" Burke asked the two generals.

"Not a chance," Victor replied.

"We managed to convince her to return once. Why not once more?" Sloan protested, desperation crept into her scent.

Victor flicked her antennae toward the battle that raged at the seventh wall.

"The Queen is committed. I don't think she expects to survive this battle. The only reason she retreated last time was because she would have caused more deaths than she saved. There is nowhere else to retreat to now, if the colony puts itself between her and danger again, she'll just push us to one side."

"We have to help her!" Sloan pleaded.

"Of course we will. Coming Burke?"

"Let's go!"

The three members of the twenty rushed forward to join in the battle. There was nothing left to do now but fight. The closer they came the more their senses were overwhelmed by the din of battle. The roar of the monsters, the clash of claws, mandibles and carapace, the stink of Biomass mixed with a thousand messages pouring out of the ants every second.

More than that, the three felt the boiling rage and feverish heat that built within the closer they came to the Queen. Before they could reach the edge of the wall, the Queen and the ferocious worker and artisan caste ants that had followed her crashed against the enemy like a tidal wave.

Acid flew into the air, so thick it fell like rain over the enemy and the Garralosh spawn roared with pain and anger. The ants cared not and made no sound as they doubled their ferocity. For every monster that made it to the top of the wall, four or five ants were there to meet it. The soldiers on the front line were the first to move, they seized the victim in their mandibles and pulled, trying to haul them over the wall.

Then the smaller ants got hold of them and the unfortunate creature was buried under a swarm of bodies.

Then the children of Garralosh reached the wall. Flames roared into the sky and hundreds of ants fell back from the edge, lest the inferno claim them. The wash of heat was felt dozens of metres away as the air crackled against Burke's antennae.

The only ant not to take a backward step was the Queen.

The flames licked against her carapace but she didn't appear to care, her attention was seized by the face of her enemy, after all this time, at last they would feel her wrath!

The moment the hideous creatures came within her range, the Queen reared back and raised her head before she lunged forward and unleashed a torrent of acid from her mouth! Garralosh spawn in front of her were bathed in acid in an instant, their scales sizzled and melted as they stumbled forward through the downpour.

It didn't take long for some of the monsters to retaliate, raising their multi mouthed heads to belch powerful flames to counteract the acid. The Queen did not relent and continued to pour out her acid, the powerful stream rained down on monsters up to thirty metres away. When acid and flame met, the stream exploded into boiling hot clouds of acidic steam that wafted over the battlefield, scalding all who touched them. Sadly the colony had no wind mages to direct the horrific steam and some small amount drifted towards the walls.

Unwilling to drain all her acid away, the Queen relented in her opening salvo and clacked her mandibles eagerly. She hungered for vengeance!

"Queen! Please be careful!" Sloan sputtered, exhausted from the run.

"I'll not go back. Not this time. I'm needed here," the Queen spoke sharply, unwilling to waste time arguing.

"I know that! Just ... try not to die!" the general begged.

Before the Queen could respond, another scent intruded on their conversation.

"Your time's up, Sloan! Let's do this!" Leeroy shouted as she barrelled forward, excitement and rage evident in every inch of her frame.

Victor groaned as she watched her sibling rush forward. The enthusiastic approach she didn't mind, it was the complete lack of a sign that Leeroy intended to stop that concerned her.

"Leeroy -!" She tried to call, but to no avail.

The soldier anticipated her siblings would attempt to cut her off and moved to render their efforts useless.

"Not this time, Sloan! I will fight, MY WAY!"

With a daring leap, she launched onto the abdomen of the Queen and rushed up her back, rising above the tumult of battle. Even the Queen was taken by surprise by this manoeuvre and didn't move as the much smaller scrambled up her back.

"Leeroy! Don't be stupid!"

"I AM AWAITED!!! OUR CARAPACE WILL GLEAM FOREVER, SHINY AND RED!!! LEEROOYYYYYY!!!"

So shouting, the soldier ant heroically leapt from her bewildered mother's head and soared high into the air. So powerful was her jump, she appeared to float in defiance of gravity as she soared above the heads of the monsters below.

"By my two antennae, why is she screaming her own name!? " Sloan despaired.

The two generals could only watch as their over enthusiastic sibling sailed into the open air above the wall, above the horde of gnashing monsters and hulking crocodiles, before she began to fall.

Stillness had fallen across the colony, as all the ants watched this majestic leap to glory. Their poor ant hearts, already filled to bursting with the urge to fight, boiled over in that moment and they threw away all restraint. The Queen was with them, how could they fail?!

Ant after ant began to throw themselves off the wall and into the fray, casting aside the high ground and the benefit of their defences to better take hold of the enemy.

"Do you think that Leeroy remembered that this was part of the plan? Victor asked Sloan.

"I really don't think so."

The sibling in question fell down into the horde and vanished into the swirl of bodies.

"Time to go?"

"Let's do this."

The two ants tapped antennae in the classic 'ant high five', before they took a running start and leapt off the wall. The two generals had worked hard on this aspect of the plan. It was time to launch 'the Leeroy initiative!'

The Queen could only watch in shock as more and more of her children literally threw themselves into the jaws of the enemy below before she too hurled herself over the wall, healing mana charging within her antennae.

Please be in time!

-x-X-x-

"At last our time has come!" Bella exulted.

"Our moment to shine!" Agreed Ellie.

"I'll be glad to get out this damp hole finally," Bella huffed.

The two core shapers glanced around at their cramped compatriots and their loyal shadow beasts, crammed into this small underground chamber.

"We can go, time to move out!" A scout near the entrance confirmed.

"Here we go!" Elllie cheered as the ants and their pets began to charge towards the entrance to the surface tunnel.

It's taken a long time for the Carvers to complete this chamber, time in which the Core Shapers had further refined their tactics and tried to squeeze the last few mutations out of their charges before the battle.

They were as ready now as they could possibly be, given the circumstances.

"Do you really think that we should be heading up there?" Ellligant worried.

"I mean, I know we agreed not to. But I don't believe that every member of the council has managed to restrain themselves. Do you? Remember the name of this strategy?"

"You make a good point."

"So let's go!"

From just behind her, two massive shadow beasts raised their heads and began to move forward in support of their master. The two of them weren't technically supposed to have crafted their own pets, but they figured there was no better way to conduct their research than this, surely!?

Not to mention, how were they supposed to properly train their skills and test the limits of their caste without their own pets? With such reasoning they had convinced themselves to not only create their own pets, but invest in them to an absurd degree, even giving up their own food to ensure the maximum amount of Biomass was received by their creations.

"How far beneath the ground are we?" Ellie asked the scout who lead their procession into the narrow, upward sloping tunnel.

"The chamber we just left is thirty metres down. The final staging chamber above us is ten metres below."

"I'm surprised they were able to build so many tunnels without the ground collapsing on our heads," Bella commented.

"The Carvers are beginning to unlock some truly impressive skills," the scout replied.

The Carvers were proving their worth to the colony and every member of every caste approved of their work. Who could disapprove of such skilful digging?

Through the soil there came a dull thudding sound as creatures above brawled back and forth. From the ceiling, dirt broke away and trickled down over the ants and shadow beasts that marched through the narrow tunnel.

Up and up they went, following the winding path, like a spiral staircase through the cold, damp soil. The ants moved in complete silence, even more so than usual. The Shapers didn't have much time to talk to each other and were engaged in mental communication with their pets, preparing them for what was to come.

Soon they came to the staging chamber. Multiple tunnels, even narrower than that which they had come through, lined the walls.

"Remember your number and head to the designated tunnel entrance. Pets first, shapers behind," hissed the guide.

The ants began to move with greater urgency as the rumbling clatter from overhead grew ever louder. Dirt fell regularly now, trickling over carapaces and irritating the ants by getting caught in the sensitive hairs on their antennae.

It was made worse by the fact the ants were unable to stop and clean them in such narrow tunnels! It'd delay the ants behind them!

Bella ground her mandibles and resisted the powerful urge to clean herself.

[Move up,] she told her two pets.

[Hrmm,] they both grunted in reply.

It was a shame that they'd reduced their intelligence to this extent, she reflected, it would be nice if they could hold a decent conversation. But, their battle prowess was what actually mattered and they'd done all they could to punch that up a level.

Noise and heat grew as they drew closer to the surface. After a few short minutes the tunnel came to an end. Each of these short tunnels opened into a pitfall that was possibly already full of Biomass, they needed to collapse the entrance with care.

Bella instructed her two pets in the lead to scrape away at the softened dirt wall with their claws until it crumbled away to reveal a grisly sight. The pitfall did indeed do its job and the bottoms of it was filled with Biomass. She bit back her hunger though, there was work to do. Since the opening of their tunnel was two metres above the bottom of the pitfall, her two pets were able to push their way out into the open, standing on the broken bodies of the monsters in the bottom of the pit.

Light, heat and sound buffeted against Bella as she crawled out into the open. Above her head the battle raged, monsters of the horde and even Garralosh spawn stood above, shoving and pushing each other as they attempted not to fall.

Once she cleared the tunnel entrance, more Shapers and their pets followed until the bottom of the pitfall became dangerously overcrowded.

"It's time to go!" shouted Bella, "let's show them what the shapers can do!"

"Charge!"

Despite their surging spirits, the Shapers themselves did not charge. As members of the artisan caste, they were amongst the smallest of all the members of the colony and not well suited to direct combat.

But they enthusiastically cheered their pets on!

Chaos already reigned on the battlefield. The ants had begun to pour down from the wall and take the fight to their hated foes, the Queen herself had leapt down and begun to charge her antennae with healing magic.

At that exact moment, hundreds of raging shadow beasts erupted from within the pitfall traps and began to tear into every enemy they could reach with wild ferocity.

-x-X-x-

The Queen landed with a calamitous thud, several unfortunate monsters were crushed beneath her bulk or stabbed through by her legs as she fell. Her legs strained to the breaking point, but she absorbed the shock and ran forward, bulldozing her way toward the place her wayward child fell.

She reached deep into her healing mana gland and dragged the dense fog of energy out and into her antennae where it was amplified. More and more of her children were pouring off the wall and down into the crowded space. The melee was quickly becoming out of control.

Conflicting emotions battled in the Queen's thorax. She feared for her family, she was terrified that they would suffer due to her actions. At the same time, she exulted. This was what she had been born to do, and her instincts were afire with joy. She turned her body and scythed through a raging bear with a single chomp of her razor sharp mandibles.

System notifications rang within her mind but she paid them no attention. Her focus was on the healing energy building to a peak in her antennae. When she could contain it no more, the energy exploded outwards in a rolling nova of light that washed over the battlefield in an expanding ring.

Only the ants were affected by this mana, and then felt its invigorating properties wash away their fatigue and ease their pain in an instant. Already filled with the burning rage and desperate anxiety that seeing their mother fighting on the frontlines caused, colony members of all castes were driven to a frenzy and threw themselves upon the enemy in groups, tearing their foes apart with their vicious jaws.

After stomping her way another ten metres forward, the Queen stood over the healing body of the soldier who had leapt so energetically from her head. The ant in question was quite wounded, even in the short time she'd been submerged in the churning soup of monsters.

"Did... Did I win the battle?" she croaked.

The Queen stood over the smaller ant and defended her space with savage chomps of her mandibles.

"No child," the Queen responded, puzzled, "you must get up and fight"

".... Fine."

At that time, hundreds of dark shadow monsters erupted from out of the pitfalls. In a nightmarish scene, the creatures reached out of the holes in the ground with their dark, shadowy arms and dragged struggling monsters down into the pit with them. It didn't take long for the creatures to push their way out of the pits and begin to engage the monsters all around them.

Then the Garralosh spawn arrived.

Flames belching from their open mouths, the giant crocodile monsters bounded forward to tear into the shadow pets and smaller battles broke out everywhere.

"My Queen! Be careful!" Sloan had arrived next to her mother and couldn't resist trying to caution her.

"Don't be ridiculous, Sloan!" Victor scoffed, "it's a battle! Start worrying about yourself!"

The Queen quite agreed with Victor at this point and turned her attention to the approaching crocodiles. These were the monsters who were responsible for bringing this battle to her family and she would delight in returning the pain to them.

CLACK!

The Queen snapped her mandibles shut with tremendous force. The sound cut through the noise of the battle with ease, a whip crack that punctured through the din. In front of her a wall of Crocodile flesh rose up and she began to step toward them. As she did, her carapace began to glow bright with energy that unfolded and encompassed her entire body.

As she gathered speed, the light built in intensity, the pure blue light of mana built to a brightness than almost pained the eye of the monsters forced to gaze upon her. She had no eyes for any of the smaller creatures that she crushed beneath her feet, she hungered to unleash her strength on those that had caused the conflict that had harmed so many of her children.

Maybe if she were to destroy enough Garralosh spawn, then their mother would feel the pain.

The crocodiles reared up before her and unleashed their flaming breath. The energy that had accrued in her carapace flared brighter, warding off the damage and the Queen continued her assault.

CHOMP!

The moment the first was in range she lunged forward with her mandibles and crunched down on them. Her savage, barbed jaws crushed the creature and without pause the Queen swung her body to fling the Biomass away and free herself for another bite.

[You have slain level 8 Garralosh Bellator.]

[You have gained experience.]

The system notifications rang in her mind but the Queen paid no attention. At last she had the chance to seek retribution and she would seize it!

"The Queen has gone in deep!" Sloan worried to Victor, her scent barely able to cut through the chaos of the battlefield.

The Queen was barely visible to them now. She'd pushed forward beyond what any of the ants who were in position to support her could reach, beyond even the positions of the core shapers and their pets! If it weren't for her glowing carapace that seemed to ward off damage somehow, they might not have been able to see her at all.

"We have a task force for this," Victor reminded her sibling, frustrated. Did she really have to put up with Sloan's anxiety here and now?! They were in a battlefield for the Eldest's sake!

Victor ducked back from a claw that swiped in her direction and retaliated with a careful bite, aimed low to hamstring her hound-like opponent. Her jaws found purchase and she twisted her body to allow the mandibles to inflict maximum damage before she released her grip and leapt back, creating space for other ants to make use of the opening.

"I don't see them though?!" Sloan whined.

"You want to go looking for Vibrant? Go then. The rest of us will just stay here and... you know... fight this battle."

Not for the first time Victor was grateful that she didn't need to use her mouth to talk like humans did. Ridiculous notion.

"HI-Hi! Did someone call me!?"

The scent arrived at just the same time as Vibrant did. A large bulky soldier who could move with incredible speed, the two generals hadn't seen her coming in the slightest until she was on top of them.

"At last! You need to go protect the Queen!" Sloan shouted.

Vibrant lifted her herself up to take a look.

"Uhh. She looks like she's doing pretty fine to me? And she glows! That's so nice! Wow! What a bite!" Vibrant cheered her parent on with enthusiasm.

A moment later, Vibrant's personal followers had arrived. The twenty had been unable to explain why, but some ants felt compelled to follow the energetic leader, as if the colony were calling them to assist and aid her. The council weren't going to complain about it, Vibrant and her group did more work for the colony in the field than almost any others. They were a mixed team by now, soldiers and scouts mostly, but the odd ant mage and a healer mixed in for good measure.

"Could you at least fight your way forward, so that she has a path of retreat?" Sloan begged.

"Sure-sure! Sounds fun!"

With that, Vibrant took off once more and her squad followed closely on her heels, wreaking havoc amongst the enemy as she raced forward.

-x-X-x-

Vibrant was elated. After hunting and working right up until the battle had begun, she'd been told that she and her squad should rest so they'd be able to fight at their best when it mattered the most. Naturally she'd refused. Rest?! REST?! Laughable! With so much action going on, how could anyone possibly think to rest!?

I mean, she'd hunted for food in the Dungeon, battled the endless waves of shadow beasts and creatures in wild conflict and then they'd dragged the Biomass back to the nest only to turn around and set out again once they'd gotten there. When they weren't doing that, they'd been out harassing the horde in an endless series of hit and run attacks that had them fighting on the razors edge of life and death for hours on end. And they'd been doing those things for aboooooout. Three days straight?

So maybe she'd needed a bit of a rest. Somewhat. When her healer had collapsed in the ground, six legs splayed in all directions and passed out, she'd been convinced. So the group had gathered together, watched over by a few diligent soldiers (who also had to miss out of the action, commiserations were had) and rested in the Dungeon.

She'd awoken a few hours later, recharged, refreshed and ready for action! She'd missed the start of the battle, but that was okay! She'd be able to make up for lost time if she fought fast enough!

"Gogogogogogogogogogogogogogogo!" She laughed and her squad followed behind her as they charged forward into the enemy at blinding speed.

Vibrant had made sure that the first things she maxed out were her speed aura gland and the mutations on her legs. The thrill of running as fast as she possibly could was intoxicating. The wind in her antennae! The confused look on a monsters face as she ran past them. So funny!

After following her for so long, her squad had become accustomed to living at a certain pace. She'd never asked them, but she assumed they enjoyed it just as much as she did.

"Get' em!" She hollered and they crashed into the ugly Croca-Beasts with a vengeance.

"Aha!" She cheered as her first visceral chomp crashed down on one of the monsters her Senior hated so much. She wasn't sure why the Senior hated them so much, but they sure did! Vibrant was only too happy to along with it.

Acid flew over their heads and rained down on the crocs in front of them. The massive beasts retaliated with tremendous gouts of flame that roared into the sky whilst others simply ignored it, they allowed the acid to fall upon their scales and continued to push forward to swipe and bite at any ant foolish enough to draw close.

The battle was a cacophony of sensation to Vibrant and her mind swam with it. The smells, sights and sounds battered into her brain until she was giddy.

Her followers, fifty of them now, dashed forward to support their leader as the she leapt into battle recklessly. Claws raked along her side, great lines were gouged into her carapace and one of her antennae was near bitten off in just moments but Vibrant continued to laugh and push forward.

Forward! Forward! Forward!

Vibrant didn't know any other way!

She grew tired of being stuck in one place in an instant. She didn't want to stand here and go back and forth with these stupid Crocs! She wanted to run! Unable to contain herself any longer, Vibrant dug her claws into the soft ground and punched her legs down. She accelerated in an instant, her six legs moved in a blinding rhythm that couldn't be seen as she shifted her large frame and blew past the crocodile before her.

"Slow-Slow!" She teased as raced away.

As her Senior had done in battle, she raced from fight to fight and aided her colony brethren in their struggles. The fight had been joined in earnest now and ants fought in large groups against the monsters that pressed towards their home. The Garralosh spawn had reached the frontlines and the risk towards the ants had become magnified by a hundred times. Stronger and less stupid than the mindless, starved zombie monsters of the horde, the Croca-Beasts were cunning and brutal in their tactics.

For the next five minutes, Vibrant was everywhere. She moved so quickly not even her own squad could keep up with her as she raced through the battle unimpeded. Her wounds piled up but she hardly noticed. This was exciting! So many powerful opponents in one place made her heart pound deep inside her thorax as their auras washed over the field.

She chomped a leg here, knocked a croc off balance there, she danced through the chaos whilst refusing to stay in one place and engage any one foe for too long. Large and highly evolved Crocs challenged her but she simply laughed in their faces and ran to another conflict.

Further back, Grant kept her eyes on the sky.

"I don't see any storm clouds brewing," she noted.

Mendant clacked irritably.

"Stay still while I'm healing you. If you're going to get yourself near cut in half then the least you could do is not move when I'm putting you back together!"

"Sorry, sister," Grant apologised.

She thought her sibling was being a touch overdramatic, she wasn't cut in half or anything like it! Whilst the healer continued to draw precious healing mana, augmented through her antennae and into Grant's body, the soldier once more contemplated the sky.

When and where was the Kaarmodo going to strike? The Queen had quickly felt the wrath of the powerful mage when she had first appeared but she'd been on the field for nearly ten minutes and not a single spell had been sent her way There had to be a reason. Had something changed?

"Do you have much mana sense?" Grant asked Mendant.

"Would you shut up and stay still if I answer this question?" The healer replied.

"Maybe," Grant hedged.

Mendant scoffed a little before she replied.

"Yes I do. The ambient mana is being sucked beyond the wall. We think that Garralosh is getting a top off before she comes out."

"What?!"

THWACK!

"Stay STILL, you idiot!" Mendant flared.

Grant slumped to the ground in agony. The healer hadn't targeted her head with that strike but the wound instead.

"I thought you were supposed to heal injuries," the soldier grumbled.

"You running off and getting yourself killed doesn't help the colony. The Generals have been told. The second she shows up, the retreat to the final wall will occur. Until then we fight it out here."

"But what about the Queen?!"

"She isn't likely to listen to you, is she? The Eldest is going to be the only one who could get her to back off and hopefully they wake up soon."

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

So deep it almost couldn't be described as a sound the growl rumbled through the air and through the ground. Grant felt her carapace vibrate with the force of it.

"Real soon."

-x-X-x-

"Hi-Hi! How's it going Mother? You can glow now? That's cool! Can I glow someday, or is it a Queen thing?"

The Queen didn't have time to spare to turn to the babbling child who had appeared beside her. She was deep in battle with a colossal Garralosh Spawn, far taller than she was and the wounds on both sides had piled up. The creature leered with both its jaws as the Queen lowered her body to build the energy in her legs.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

It came again, that rumble that seemed to shake the world itself. There was hunger in it, the Queen could sense it. A vast hunger, appetite without end, and rage also. She had no idea what had driven the old monster to such anger but she cared little.

"Someone sounds upset! I wonder why? Not enough Biomass maybe? That always annoyed me. The Senior used to stuff Biomass into my face all the time! Sometimes I wouldn't be able to talk for hours! The Senior really wanted me to grow up strong!" Vibrant nattered.

Somehow, the little soldier managed to dash back and forth as she battled at extreme speed, all whilst she talked at a constant, rapid speed. The Queen felt the faint beginnings of a headache. Distracted, she missed a dodge and a long armed swing from her opponent thundered into her side. Her mana enhanced carapace flared and sparks flew as the claws penetrated the energy and gouged into her side.

"Too slow! Gotta move faster than that, Mother!" Vibrant laughed as she dashed forward.

Before she could twitch an antennae, the smaller ant had appeared by the leg of her foe and latched on with her mandibles. She savaged the leg with all of her strength before she darted away and dodged a sweep of the monster's tail.

She wasn't going to fall for that again!

Seizing the moment, the Queen lunged forward and bulled her way into the face of the massive lizard. Knocked off balance the creature roared with both its mouths but the Queen feinted high before she bit low, her mandibles dug deep into the torso.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

That rumble came again and every monster shivered as the air seemed to vibrate inside their lungs. Such a thing would terrify any normal creature, but the ants were indomitable. The aura released by the Queen pumped them full of energy and filled their hearts with thirst for battle. They continued to rush forward and tear into the enemy, their own wounds and safety a distant thought in their minds.

The battle raged before the eighth wall. The ants threw themselves at the Garralosh spawn and the remnants of the horde with reckless abandon and wounds mounted on both sides. Even with the flanking attack of the Shadow Beast pets, their superior teamwork, mage and healers, the ants were sustaining damage. Soldiers, scouts and more had begun to fall in increasing numbers but no backwards steps would be taken.

The Queen fought at the front throughout it all, tireless and without peer on the field, she threw herself into the more powerful Garralosh Spawn over and over again. Supported by her children she was able to lay many of them low, but they were many and she was but one. Even she began to flag as her wounds began to mount.

"The Queen's started to struggle up there!" Advant shouted, "we need to get healers up there immediately!"

"What healers?!" Grant called back, exhausted, "almost all of them are recharging their glands and cores. We just have to get up there somehow!"

As the Queen battled and struggled, the ant's ferocity rose to a fever pitch. Every time she was injured, it was as if the entire colony flinched before they hit back twice as hard. The core shapers themselves dared to rise out of the pitfalls and fight alongside their pets, mages poured out their mana, holding nothing in reserve. The fight became increasingly bloody on both sides.

"She's coming!" the pheromone message smashed into Grant like a truck.

"What?!" she called back.

A scout raced up and down the line of battle as she repeated the same message again.

"She's coming!"

Grant froze for a moment. Her heart seemed to slow in her chest. The time had come. The white hot frenzy of the ants cooled as the message sank into their antennae and reality asserted itself.

"RETREAT! Back to the final wall if you want to live!"

Would the colony survive? Or would they perish here and now?

"Someone has to go tell the Queen...." she muttered.

But would the Queen retreat? Should she? If the Queen couldn't fight off the beast, then none of them could.

---------------------------------------------

This torpor felt different somehow. I wasn't sure exactly what it was. I tried to put my feelers on it but thinking is difficult, elusive. My awareness is washing to and fro, separate pieces that come together only to float apart once more. It's hard to think.

Am I awake? Or is this a lucid dream?

Something is different.

Faint whispers tickle in the back of my mind. They creep up to my ears. Or antennae? I don't know. Perhaps they speak straight into my thoughts? I don't know. Strange whispers they are, indistinct and blurred, I can't understand them fully. In some ways they are more like impulses or desires, but I feel that they are not my own. As time passes they become louder and there are more of them. They drag and pull at my skin. Or carapace? No. Deeper than that. A thousand tiny hooks that tug at my very soul.

I feel helpless to answer them. I'm adrift in a dark river, distant from my own body and unable to react. I'm changing. I can feel it. Even as the whispers grew louder and my body shifted at the edge of my awareness, something more fundamental was changing. This was evolution.

What did it mean to evolve? To change oneself in a physical sense? I had thought that was the case. Even as I float, half asleep, I can still tell that this is different. This is deeper. The longer it goes on, the more my mind wants to sink, to fall into the centre and stay there. Why move? When I move, things are destroyed. Better to be still and quiet.

Stop whispering to me. Stop pulling at me. I want to sleep.

But I can't. The hooks are insistent. Each moment that passes they drag me a little further out of the river and closer to shore. A thousand hooks and a thousand voices, each with their own particular tug and tone. Over time my mind and my body come back together, to meet once more in the middle. The light came back to my eyes, so slowly.

I'm so hungry, yet, and it's the strangest thing, on the inside, I feel so full. The whispers are louder now. Insistent and desperate. They need me, very much. They need me, and so I will go. The call alone is enough for me.

With great care, I lift a leg, then another, then another, until all six were positioned around me. Then I pushed, and the blood began to flow through my body once more. Mana sputtered to life inside my core and began to trickle out through my veins and then further, to seep into every fibre of me.

But still the whispers, still the hooks with their endless pull. It isn't pain I feel, when they drag at my heart, but something far worse. I need to go to them.

I'm coming. I'm awake.

-x-X-x-

"Vibrant! We need to get to the Queen!" Grant punched out her pheromone message with all of her strength.

"Wha? To Mother? Why?" The fast moving ant slowed down for just a moment to respond.

"Garralosh is coming to the wall! We need to bring her back a bit closer to the nest. Heal her if we can!"

"Okay! :D" Vibrant replied.

Grant was frustrated by her sibling's seemingly flippant attitude but bit back her anger and tried to focus. For the colony to have the highest chance of success, the plan needed to be followed. Draw the Queen back to the eighth wall and she can fight against Garralosh there.

If they did that, then maybe they would buy enough time for the Eldest to awaken and then perhaps they might just survive.

"How fast are you?!" Vibrant asked.

"Fast enough," Grant grit her mandibles and replied.

"Then let's go! Follow me!" Vibrant chirped before she turned around and ran toward a member of her squad.

"Give us a boost!" She called and the soldier in question ducked her head to allow Vibrant to race up onto her back.

Bewildered, Grant had only a moment to think before she threw herself forward and she too leapt from the poor soldier's back.

"Gogogogogogo!" Vibrant cackled as her legs flashed at impossible speed and she took off across the backs of ants and monsters alike, racing toward the place the Queen was fighting.

This is insane! Grant could only sharpen her mind and race forward, trying to maintain her balance as she dodged snapping jaws, belched flames and raking claws as she scrambled to keep up.

"Hahahahaha!" Vibrant laughed with delight and began to fire acid into the crowd of monsters beneath her as she ran.

Grant cursed. Since she was behind the other ant, this only made keeping up all the harder!

Nonetheless, they made it. Vibrant flung herself from a monster and onto the still glowing carapace of the Queen, followed a few moments later by Grant.

"Mother!" Grant pushed out, exhausted. "Garralosh herself is coming! The colony is going to pull back to the eighth wall. You need to come with us!"

"I can see the creature already, child." The Queen sounded exhausted, but calm.

What?

Grant scrabbled a little higher up her mother's back and looked out over the roiling mass of monsters. The entire battlefield was a mess. Biomass, broken walls spread before her like a carpet. The ground was pockmarked with holes, traps and to her right she could see the human wall beset by Garralosh spawn. The fighting was fierce, but it didn't hold Grant's eye for long. The slow approach of the titanic crocodile did that.

Unhurried, her mouth gaped open to reveal her enormous teeth in a cruel grin, Garralosh stomped her way forward. Every time one of her feet came down the ground groaned beneath her weight. Any Biomass she stepped on was crushed to paste. The giant crocodile looked inevitable, like a mountain of scales and teeth. Her claws gleamed, each looked hard as diamond and as thick as Grant's own head.

How were they supposed to kill that?!

"That's a big Croca! Like, the biggest! Look at those teeth! They'd chop me in half with one bite, no doubt! I wonder how she tastes?" Vibrant continued to talk in a constant stream.

"Pull back to the wall, Mother! The colony will be able to support you from there, and you can get healing!" Grant pleaded.

The Queen's antennae drooped.

"Very well, child."

Having made up her mind, the Queen didn't hesitate and turned. Under the influence of Vibrant's speed aura, she made excellent time as she stomped her way through the field, stabbing down with her legs to spear monsters on the way. The closer she came to the wall, the more ants swarmed around her. They feasted on any enemy that was foolish enough to come too close and when the Queen reached the base of the final wall, she allowed herself a moment to rest.

The pressure from the horde and the Garralosh spawn had begun to slack as their mother approached. The largest Crocs were the first to pull back, followed by their younger siblings and then the horde monsters. The prepared barrage of the artillery spells and interference tactics of the shadow beasts were almost unnecessary as the colony enacted its final retreat.

Healers, fresh from the nest, rushed forward to tend to her wounds and try to restore her energy. A dozen of the small ants climbed over her, their antennae glowing bright with energy as they touched the healing mana to her carapace.

The Queen checked on her core and sighed. She had begun to run low on mana. Her infused carapace put a great deal of strain on her core and it wouldn't be long until she leached out enough energy to cause pain. Hopefully her fight with Garralosh would be swift.

The ants once more employed their acid barrage from the top of their final wall. The encroaching Garralosh spawn suffered from the rain of acid, the numerous traps and the sneak attacks from Shadow Beast pets launched from hidden tunnels in the soil.

CRUNCH.

Like a nightmare made into flesh, a giant, clawed hand reached over the wall. Claws dug into the packed dirt and muscles bunched as the mother of crocodiles pulled her massive frame over the seventh wall. She slowly swung her head to regard the final layer of defence, as well as the towering nest behind it, before she pulled the rest of her body up onto the wall.

The Garralosh spawn shrank back in the presence of their parent. Whether through fear, respect, or if they were cowed by the crushing aura that she emitted. The ants grew still as their nemesis drew closer. After a week of frenzied battle and preparation, she was finally here, before them.

Even from a distance of one hundred metres, it was clear to see that Garralosh towered over the Queen. Even without standing up, the Croc was far more massive than the largest ant in the colony. It was clear the enormous beast felt no threat from the colony in front of her. She opened her mouth a huffed, an action which caused dark red flames to flicker in the depths of her gullet.

As stillness overcame the battlefield, Garralosh stepped forward at a slow pace. The ants on the wall held firm. The crushing aura and presence of the most powerful monster they'd ever seen weighed down on them, tried to press them into the dirt, but they would not succumb. The colony stood tall, as one, and faced down the demon who had decided that they should die.

Up on the wall, Sloan was calm.

"Let's get into the bunkers then. It won't be long until we get to see the mother Croc's fire."

"Good idea," Victor agreed.

Scout ants began to run up and down the line as they passed along the message. Ants scurried to protect themselves. They threw themselves into prepared bunkers or behind walls in anticipation of Garralosh unleashing her flames.

The Queen was too large for such measures. She readied herself for the onslaught, unaware of the dozen water mages on the wall behind her, ready to lend what aid they could.

Garralosh seemed to watch the flurry of activity with amusement. As if playing with her food, the massive beast continued to take slow measured steps toward the Queen. Flames licked against her teeth with every step but the anticipated roar of flame never came. Instead, the looming pressure grew each moment as the nightmare beast approached.

The Queen had had enough.

CLACK!

With a fierce snap of her mandibles she charged as the light in her carapace flared to its brightest point.

HUFF, HUFF, HUFF.

Air whooshed from the titanic lungs of the Croc, creating a breeze strong enough for the ants to feel fifty metres away. Garralosh was laughing.