“Healing! The eldest needs healing!”
“Move aside!”
As the tentacles unwrap, I realise where I am. Crinis has brought me right in front of the gate, the gigantic steel barriers towering above me as my siblings swarm to my side, desperate to heal my injuries. I don’t have eyes for them. Instead, my addled mind tries to take in the jagged rent that has been carved into the left gate. The metal is twisted and warped where that horrific axe blow impacted and then cut through.
It’s strange. Why would he only target one side of the gate? Come to think of it, why can’t I see out of my right eye?
Or feel my right legs?
Ah. I think I get it. With the healing energies of my regeneration gland flooding through me, Invidia’s Healing Magic, and the ministrations of the colony, I can feel my flesh knitting itself back together and regrowing the part of my body that has been sheared completely off. Who needed a right side of the body anyway? Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as if I’m going to get much time to pull myself together—heh.
Farther down the tunnel, the Legion leader has managed to stand and his soldiers have surged to encompass him within their ranks. Having secured their leader, they’ve resumed their purposeful march to the now damaged gates and the colony is scrambling to pick up the defence. No chance you punks are getting through this damn gate today!
“Get me back on my feet…” I manage to say. “We aren’t done here yet.”
128. The Siege, Part 6
The Legion advances to where I lie convalescent, still recovering from my grievous injuries. The only blessing is that the one-man army who cut through half the gate is no longer in the frontlines, replaced by a wall of armoured bodies that hold their weapons and shields with perfect discipline. Once Crinis has pulled me clear, the colony continues their barrage, and a horde of my siblings sally forth from the gate to surround me.
“Get me back behind the gate,” I squeeze out. “We didn’t plan to take a stand here.”
The ants don’t respond at all, and I wonder if they smelled what I had to say.
“H-hello? You need to either move me behind the gate or leave me here. What the heck are you doing?”
“Eldest, I mean this with all my respect, but please shut your pheromone hole. We’re trying to heal you and you need to stop moving.”
Who was that? Mendant? Where the heck do you get the nerve to speak to me like that? The healer is completely unperturbed, as if an enemy army wasn’t closing on her position with each passing moment. Are these ants crazy or what? We can’t fight here, we’ll get slaughtered!
If I can’t be moved, then just retreat to safety, I’ll fight my way out! This won’t be the last you see of me!
Before I get the chance to insist, the ants have already formed ranks around me, hundreds turning into thousands in mere seconds. I quickly realise they aren’t going to give me up.
[Crinis! Can you move me again? Through the shadows?]
[I can’t, Master, I’m sorry. It took almost all of my Shadow Mana to get you this far.] She sounds panicked.
[It’s going to be fine,] I reassure her. [My face is almost back together, see? I’ll be in biting shape again in no time.]
She doesn’t seem to be encouraged by my words. She’s twisting herself into mind bending, non-Euclidean shapes that I’m certain are formed of more dimensions than there should be in her anxiety.
[Invidia, get the buffs onto Tiny. I get the feeling there’s going to be a scrap in here shortly! Tiny, you are NOT allowed to die! That’s an order!]
I can’t see much, the ants are swarming over me as the healers continue to administer their healing fluid to help regenerate my flesh, but I can sense something I never expected, and moments later, I see one.
What the hell are the humans doing out here!
Led by that manic priest, at least a hundred humans have marched forth from the gate to squeeze in amongst the much larger bodies of the soldiers and scouts in the front ranks between me and the Legion. The priest himself has a short spear gripped in his one good hand, which he waves back and forth with frantic energy as he bellows words I can’t understand to the gathered humans. His voice rolls like thunder with the power of a war drum, urging his fellows to battle.
When the Antmancers activate their Skill, their bodies ignite and begin to spread an aura that envelops every ant and human within reach. Even I can feel it, giving strength to the limbs I still possess and filling my heart with courage. It doesn’t help that the Vestibule continues to whisper of the ants’ desire for victory, to make the enemy pay for the damage they’ve done. It’s difficult to ignore them in the heat of battle. I have an urge to scurry forward on my three remaining legs and try to stab the Legionaries to death with my only mandible.
I don’t think that will go too well.
“Can I be moved yet?” I whine to Mendant.
Her antennae twitch and I swear by my mother that she almost thwacked me.
“Any other member of the colony would be dead right now. No, you can’t be moved,” she tells me as she continues to work.
Dammit. This is going to get ugly.
From where I lie, I only get flashes of vision from the front lines, but I can tell the two forces are closing together as the colony and its allies press forward to allow more room between the fighting and me. Are you kidding me! The battle is right in front of the gates, and I’m not even going to be able to participate? This must be some sort of joke. I’m tempted to ask if I can move yet but there’s something in Mendant’s eye that causes me to hesitate.
[Crinis, go support the colony,] I tell her. [They’re going to need your help.]
[You are heavily injured, Master. You need me here to protect you!]
[I need you to protect my family more. Go on, Crinis. Do this for me.]
The amorphous blob of unmitigable darkness shudders once before lashing out with tentacles that drag her deep into the shadows of the tunnel roof. Before long, she’s vanished from sight as she slithers closer to the enemy. All I can do now is lie still and wait for the healing to complete.
The sounds and vibrations of battle rise to a fever pitch. Even now, reinforcements pour out from behind the gate, piling up on top of each other until the tunnel is almost filled to capacity from bottom to top with a writhing mass of furious monsters, with me buried somewhere at the bottom.
With a colossal THUD that rumbles through the stone on which I lie, the two opposing armies clash for the first time. There is little yelling or talking—with the exception of Beyn—the ants communicating in perfect silence whilst the Legion are too disciplined for random noise, yet the sound is still deafening.
The clash of steel on carapace, the vibration and detonation of activated Skills and spells fill the air until I can’t tell what’s happening anymore. All the while, my antennae are battered with a flood of pheromones from my siblings.
“FOR THE COLONY!”
“FOR THE ELDEST!”
“STRIKE FOR THE BROOD!”
“FORWARD SISTERS!”
“FOR THE COLONY!”
Infused with the aura of the Antmancers and their own generals, the soldiers, scouts, mages, and every other caste present are driven to the peak of their fighting abilities as they throw themselves against the Legion army in an endless tide of fury.
A deafening screech erupts from a distance away, piercing through the sounds like a knife. Tiny has entered the fray, using his scream to distract and stun to buy enough time for his fists to come to bear. On the edges of my Mana Sense, I can feel the centi-sludges and other pets creeping out from gaps in the wall, pressuring the Legion line all the way down the tunnel in an attempt to sow chaos in the enemy ranks.