The ants, for their part, pay no mind to the spectacle. Instead, the thousands of members of the colony stationed here spend their time making last-second preparations, checking every tunnel, every trap, every mechanism for the umpteenth time to ensure it will perform as expected.
When the time finally comes, I make my way up the gate along with a smattering of humans and ants. My pets also come along for the ride.
Sally ports are a fairly standard feature of a defensive wall or gate, a small opening that a group can exit from without having to open the gate proper. In constructing the great gates of the nest, the carvers were sure to include these smaller doors, though in a very ant way. The sally ports on our gates are all attached to the roof. So it is that Tiny, Crinis, Invidia, and my very own honour guard exit through the hatch at the top of the gate and position ourselves to meet the enemy as they approach.
At first glance, it may seem as if this is an exposed location and a suicidal place to be, but nothing could be further from the truth. The walls around us bristle with tunnels filled to the brim with ants. The whole point of the gate is so we can harass and attack the enemy from relative safety, and in order to do that, we need to poke our noses out from behind it.
Normally, this would involve soldiers standing on top of a wall in which the gate was placed, but the colony didn’t want a wall. Ants can crawl straight up the things, so why bother? Instead, the gate covers the entire tunnel, a barrier between the inside and out. May it stand forever!
We don’t have long to position our battle line before the sound of fighting begins to make its way up the tunnel. The crash and boom of spells, the crunch of stone and the acrid sting of acid fill the air and echo off the stone walls. After a few more minutes, the ebb and flow of the magical warfare that’s taking place is unmistakable. The ants try to collapse boulders onto the heads of the Legion, throw fireballs, ice shards, and everything else as the enemy deflects, disrupts, and shields in order to gain ground.
Indeed, the Legion mages have become more ruthless and cunning, reaching out with their minds to crush the tunnels around the ants, forcing the colony’s mages to enter a defensive battle to maintain the shape of the stone around them.
A running force of scouts keeps far ahead of the closest soldiers as they deliver a continuous barrage of acid. The specialised artillery ants are a sight to behold. Unleashing litres and litres of sizzling acid with every blast, literally making it rain flesh-dissolving liquid on the tightly packed ranks of our foes. Through it all, the Legionaries advance, the ants retreat a little more, never ceasing in their firing patterns.
Before long, the first ranks of the enemy come into sight, and I can only sigh at the appearance of the hulking brute in the lead. That dreadful axe is already gleaming with energy, ready to unleash death upon us at any moment.
Behind the armoured demon, I even see an old friend, Morrelia. Despite wearing her helmet, I can tell from the colour and shape of the armour that it’s her inside there. I’d dearly love to ask her a question or two about this whole situation, but I sincerely doubt I’m likely to get a chance. After the time we spent together, I can’t say it doesn’t hurt to have her appear on the field of battle against us. Though she did save us the last time I saw her, so…
Who knows?
At any rate, it’s time to get this show on the road.
“Anyone else think our guests look thirsty?” I ask nobody in particular. “Let’s give them a drink.”
A moment of silence.
“Should we… release the acid?” comes a hesitant scent from behind the ceiling above me.
“Yes. That’s what I meant when I said give them a drink. I don’t mean for them to actually drink the acid, but rather was insinuating… Never mind. Just tip it out.”
“Got it, eldest.”
I thought that whole process was going to be so much cooler than it turned out. I had the line prepared and everything…
At this stage, the Legion are only a hundred metres from the gate itself, still engaged in the gradually moving battle, advancing step by step toward our gate. Packed ranks of hundreds of Legionaries make a hell of a turtle formation, their defensive Skills overlapping to form an impregnable barrier. Sure would be hard to crack through that. I can’t even imagine how much acid it would take to chew through their stamina.
From the holes in the ceiling, I hear a screech of metal as a large mechanism is pulled to one side, followed by a slosh, then a roar, of a massive amount of fluid.
Maybe twenty million litres will do the job?
124. The Siege, Part 2
Turns out, acid that can propagate itself almost infinitely can pile up if you give it enough time. After I chose and began to use the multiplicative acid mutation, more than a few of the scouts took a solid look and liked what they saw. If I were to try and produce twenty mega-litres on my own, it would take far too long. The acid is able to replicate itself, sure, but with only one mutation dedicated to the effect, it isn’t that powerful yet. A hundred ants working together was required to build up this tidal wave of delight.
The moment the flood begins, I can no longer see the reaction of the Legion forces which only a moment ago had dominated the approach to the gate. The downward sloping tunnel works perfectly to direct the absurd rush of acid as it foams and froths before my eyes, pouring toward the approaching army. The sound of the acid crashing into the hard stone of the tunnel is horrendous, and it reaches out from there, hungry for flesh and metal. It might be unfortunate for them, but the Legion provides both.
There isn’t much I can do to further enhance the damage of this particular strike, so I prepare for the next stage as we wait to see how effective this tactic is. My inner minds focus as I bring forth the power of the Gravitation Mana, crunching it down and compressing it in on itself again and again, moulding a tiny ball of screaming death within myself. Even though I shouldn’t be distracted whilst attempting to do this, I can’t help but extend my main mind forward to get some sense of what is happening.
What I detect is the titanic battle taking place between the Legion mages and the spell weavers of the colony. Hundreds of minds warring against each other as they work to seize control of the ground. The flow of Mana is hectic in my eyes; swirls, gusts, and ripples have been replaced by tears, whirlpools, and hurricanes as each side tries to wrench the flow into their control.
The Legion has drawn on their mastery of earth to modify the shape of the tunnel, blunting the force of the river of acid and diverting it to the sides, though my siblings have resisted their efforts at every turn. In enacting these changes, some of the mages of the enemy have been forced to abandon their efforts to stymie the ants attempting to collapse the roof down on their heads. Even as the torrent of acid slides down the side of their barriers, eating into their shields of light as it continues to propagate itself, the battle of minds surges overhead.
If the humans falter even for a moment, they’ll be in for a nasty surprise. There are metal spikes, each weighing tons, lodged into the stone up there. If they are allowed to fall, it’s going to be a bad day for whoever gets hit.
This is the strategy of the colony when it comes to this defence. One attack isn’t going to be enough to divert the power of these soldiers, they’re too strong and far too experienced. Certainly more than we can deal with at our current level of strength. Since one strike won’t defeat them, we’ll hit them a hundred times. A hundred times a hundred. However many it takes until they fall. That means we strike from multiple directions at once.