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 didn’t relent and continued to pour it on. 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 toward 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. 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 Dashed 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 ant scrambled up her back.
“Leeroy! Don’t be stupid!”
“I AM AWAITED! My carapace will gleam forever, shiny and red! LEEROOOOOY!”
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 above the heads of the monsters below.
“By my two antennae, why is she screaming her own name?” Sloan despaired.
The generals could only watch as their over-enthusiastic sibling sailed 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 threw 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 Leeroy remembered this was part of the plan?” Victor asked Sloan.
“I really don’t think so.”
The sibling in question fell 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. They’d 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 on time!
136. Shadow Offensive
“At last, our time has come!” Bella exulted.
“Our moment to shine!” Agreed Ellie.
“I’ll be glad to get out of this damp hole,” 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 charged to the entrance of the surface tunnel.
It took 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 in support of their masters. 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’d 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 led their procession into the narrow, upward sloping tunnel.
“The chamber we just left is thirty metres down. The final staging chamber above 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 as creatures above brawled back and forth. From the ceiling, dirt broke away and trickled down over the ants and shadow beasts that marched.
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 came through, lined the walls.
“Remember your number and head to the designated tunnel entrance. Pets first, Shapers behind,” hissed the guide.
The ants moved with greater urgency as the rumbling clatter from overhead grew ever louder. Dirt fell regularly, 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 grunted in reply.
It was a shame 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. They’d done all they could to punch that up a level.