Chrysalis
chapter-1009-30041322

Sloan watched the fighting from the backlines, though she desperately wished she could surge forward to battle alongside her siblings. As the general in charge of the field, she couldn’t afford to be so selfish, but with the hated nemesis of the Colony so close, it was hard to hold herself back.

Her mandibles itched to crush the termite foe.

Alas, she was more in control of herself than some idiot like Leeroy. Her fellow generals had to bake a reckless charge from the Immortals into every plan. In fact, it was getting to the point that if they didn’t dash forward blindly, the entire battle plan would be ruined.

Luckily they’d timed Vibrant’s assault to bail out the heavy armoured ant brigade before they were in too much danger. Even the Eldest had rushed forward to ensure they wouldn’t come to harm, another show of just how much the most powerful ant cared for even the dumbest members of the family.

With a flick of her antennae, the general pushed such thoughts away and focused on the struggle.

The front continued to advance as the Colony and their allies pushed into the jaws of the termite horde. The enemy packed the entrance to their nest, uncounted thousands of them and more arriving from the depths every passing moment. However, it didn’t seem to matter how many termites arrived at the front, the concentrated power of a hundred thousand ants was simply too much to be overcome.

Overlapping auras from the generals supported the frontline troops who utilised their well drilled techniques to form an unbeatable wall of mandibles. Frontline healers kept the troops fighting in top condition, or pulled the heavily injured back for emergency treatment.

Teams of mages and scouts laid down an irresistible barrage of fire support, a rain of spells and acid that wreaked havoc deeper into the nest. In the second row, the humans with their spears and the robed ones who accompanied them spread their buff across as wide an area as possible, reinforcing the Colony’s advantage in quality over the enemy.

Protected in the heart of the ant formation, a dedicated core of carvers, the most expert earth mages in the Colony, worked tirelessly to reinforce the ground on which the ants stood, burning through mana at a furious rate.

“I like what I see,” she announced to the team gathered with her in the command post. “We are grinding the termites down quickly enough, we should hold the mouth of the nest within the next thirty minutes.”

Despite their superiority in weaponry and tactics, it would be foolish to rush in and overextend themselves. The disciplined ranks of soldiers were making steady ground, shoving back the enemy and gaining ground one metre at a time.

“What are our concerns? Threats?” she demanded of the others.

“Assault from the flanks,” one general offered.

“The formation can absorb it,” she refuted the suggestion.

They weren’t so foolish as to leave the weakest ants in the centre unprotected.

“Tunnel collapse,” another said.

“How are we looking?” she turned to her chief carver advisor.

“The stone is holding strong,” Tungstant replied. “They would need to collapse half the mountain to destabilise the ground we stand on. They don’t have the minds for it.”

She nodded, satisfied.

“Anything else?” she asked.

“Magic assault from the ka’armodo.”

“Shield batteries standing by?” She turned to Coolant.

“Ready and waiting,” the mage replied, calm and collected as ever.

“Unseen termite variant?” another offered.

“Can’t be accounted for at this time,” she said.

When no other suggestions came forward, Sloan nodded to herself and turned back to the fighting. Of course, each of these ideas had been hashed out extensively during their planning, but it helped to try and poke holes in the strategy as the battle continued. There was a chance they might spot something they had missed now that they were here watching everything unfold. If they detected their own weaknesses before the enemy did, it could be a turning point as they resolved issues even as their opponents sought to take advantage.

The grind of war continued unabated as the minutes ticked by. Two hundred metres in front of her the soldiers ground on, biting, shoving, grappling, taking hits and giving them right back.

The humans stepped forward, spears in hand to thrust into the gaps and inflict whatever wounds they could. In truth, their presence was far more valuable for the aura provided by the priests, but even so, they were stalwart warriors who did not flinch in the face of the enemy horde.

Sloan and all her generals watched intently as the battle continued, the flow continuing to be in their favour. Indeed, the command post had to be moved forward a hundred metres in order to keep up with the troops as they pushed deeper.

In fact, the Colony had been so successful at claiming ground they had driven the termites deep into the mouth of the nest, the bulk of the fighting now under the shadow of the mountain. The leading ants had already set foot below ground, starting to advance into the first of the enemy tunnels.

At that moment, something changed.

A deep, resounding crack was heard, setting every antenna` to wiggling with vibrations. Sloan’s head snapped to the mountain from where the sound had reverberated.

Another crack, so loud it sounded as if the world itself was being snapped in half, followed by a profound rumbling. It was difficult to see what was happening at first, and the ants packed into the command post strained their eyes to see what was happening.

It was difficult to spot, since the movement was simply so large. Eventually, it became clear what was happening. The mountain itself was shearing in half. In mere moments, millions of tons of rock would fall, not only on the ants, but on the still battling termite forces as well.

“Countermeasures!” Sloan roared and the ants around her scrambled to obey, the orders rippling through the army in seconds.

The rumbling grew deeper and more intense as an entire mountainside began to fall, the tip leaning precipitously forward as it tore away. In the mouth of the nest, a hundred thousand ants looked up to see a literal mountain collapsing on them, yet none moved to run or flee.

Instead they waited, as thousands of mages strained their minds to breaking point, the mana whipping through the air like a hurricane.