“I have to agree,” the queen hummed.
It was a delicate thing, what the colony was undergoing. 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, there was the queen, mother to them all, who raised the colony from nothing. On the other, the ant who caused the colony to be reborn into something new, something better, and in so doing claimed the position of the eldest Formica Sapien 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 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.
“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?”
“Lead from the front, child, as I should,” the queen calmly replied.
“What!” Grant panicked.
No, no, no, no, no! 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 here 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 exo-skeleton 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 her, possibly double what she’d been before, was a testament to the muscle mass she possessed.
The queen’s body had transformed. No longer was she just strong, she’d become a physical powerhouse. That was just the outside. Who knew what powerful organs or glands she chose 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 and rushed to the huddle in the corner.
“Sloan! 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.”
123. The Dark Army
“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?” 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, and almost all members of the family had entered torpor. As non-combatants, the two Shapers were not expected to participate in the battle. That didn’t mean none of the Shaper’s caste would be present. Fifty Shapers rested in the large chamber that had been constructed once the colony approved the project.
They were young, barely hatched in time through the dedicated nurturing of the Brood Tenders, and 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.
“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. “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 cores.
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 and 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 in charge of the thinking, fully tooled up with pet-related Skills, the pets didn’t need that much intelligence.
“Do 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 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 become the true elite force of our family.”
The two ants huddled together in the dark chamber with eyes that sparkled, imagining the bright and glorious future of their caste. The thought that they might lose the battle never entered their minds.