Sensing the frantic energy of these final moments, the human allies joined with the surging ants in their final gasp of strength. All the while, the eldest rampaged throughout the Legion ranks, throwing their weight around and absorbing an absurd amount of punishment as they sought to disrupt the enemy’s battleline.
“Break through!” Victor roared, lunging and chomping at the soldiers in front, buckling their line as the next wave of ants ran over her back to crash in again.
Every available ant joined the charge, and all along the line, the scene of fresh troops, with buran’chii support, surging into the Legion shields and swords was repeated. Soldiers, scouts, mages, healers, every ant present on the field of battle had joined this final assault in the hopes of finally breaking through. The enemy realised quickly what was happening and redoubled their efforts, fighting as a cohesive unit to stave the surge of ants.
The ferocity of the battle had reached a frenetic peak. Neither side was willing to take a backward step, and in three short minutes, Victor witnessed hundreds of acts of selfless courage, skill, and sacrifice from both sides.
In the middle of it all, the diamond ant burned bright, like the flare of a candle on the verge of going out. No matter how the ants pressed, or how much ground they gained, the eldest remained always beyond reach. As if psychically linked with the colony itself, every time Victor surged along with her siblings, the eldest would also plunge deeper into the sea of Legion troops. Unable to reach their progenitor, the first of their kind, and most selfless defender, the ants of the colony only grew more frenzied, charging again and again into the enemy line to shove them back, heedless of their own injuries.
Victor could see the Legion’s strategy play out. They wanted to absorb the charge, give ground, and let the colony’s spirit break along with their momentum. In that moment, they would seek to return the pain they’d endured a hundredfold with a counter charge that would shatter the ant formation and break open the nest once and for all. Even knowing this, there was nothing Victor could do. All they could do was follow in the footsteps of their progenitor and charge into the blades of the enemy.
Suffused with the boost of their human allies, who roared and screamed as they raised their shaking arms and ran on unsteady legs, the colony unleashed its true ferocity on the Legion.
For one moment, one shining moment, Victor thought they would break. The eldest was unstoppable, and no matter how they tried, the Legionaries could not bring them down. Wherever they went, the Legion formation buckled and broke, opening gaps through which poured hundreds of giant ants who bit and crunched whatever they could find in their need to reach their saviour.
After driving so deep, and causing so much disruption, Victor saw the line on the verge of collapse and felt hope surge from deep within her core.
But like an illusion, it rippled and was gone, the gaps closing over before her eyes as the wall of shields re-established itself and the ant’s charge finally faltered. A moment later, she saw why. The eldest had collapsed, one of their legs finally getting caught and being severed at the joint. Their momentum had brought them down with a crash. In just a few moments, the Legionaries would descend on the prone form of the strongest ant, and there was nothing Victor could do about it.
And that’s when it came. A tidal wave of Mana that tore through the tunnel like a scream. The Dungeon veins latticed through the stone pulsed and writhed as the walls began to shift and monsters took shape within, soon to be spawned and emerge.
Both sides stopped instantly, and Victor could almost curse at the joy which surged within her. Now? The wave comes NOW? Even ten minutes earlier and she wouldn’t have had to endure this mad rush of disaster. Without a word, the Legion forces pulled back at a brisk pace, their fatigue only showing in rare places as they vacated the battlefield, taking their wounded with them. After a second, Victor rushed forward to support the eldest, and soon, the giant ant was hoisted onto the backs of a few strong soldiers so they could be transported back to the nest.
“Just like that?” the eldest echoed Victor’s own thoughts. “They pick up and leave?”
No one replied for a long moment as the Mana continued to build around them, filling the tunnel with an intoxicating level of energy. Then the eldest began to laugh, both in scent and in thought, as Mind Magic spilled out of them and into every ant and human in reach. It was as if a bubbling wellspring of relief and gladness had burst into being within all of them, and none dared to speak lest they disturb it and snuff it out.
So it was that the eldest was silently escorted back into the nest, laughing joyously all the way.
154. The Bell Tolls for Thee
Titus was relieved to find Morrelia had been returned as promised not an hour after the Legion withdrew from the battle. The instant the surge of Mana arrived, Titus had stood down in his fight with the Keeper, and the bruan’chii stood aside. The purpose of the tree-people had been to stymie the Legion, and their mission was accomplished.
The Keeper had been gracious, but the leaves had not, rustling with obvious happiness at seeing her enemies fail in their task. Titus didn’t care. Including the auxiliaries, hundreds of good Legionaries had been lost in this endeavour, and even the safe return of his only child couldn’t completely snuff the morose feeling in his chest.
Legionaries fought monsters and died doing it all the time. This was a reality of the world. He was just never able to completely shut away the pain of his soldiers dying under his command. His wife would say he lacked maturity, but then, she was always more suited to command than he was. She was in charge of the whole bloody Legion at this point, after all.
“Morrelia,” he said, embracing his daughter when she reached him. “I’m glad to see you are safe.”
She’d been escorted back by a group of humans led by Enid Ruther to the end of the tunnel that led toward the nest. Titus had recalled all his troops to this point and was still waiting for some of the further out groups to return.
He pushed his daughter back so he could look into her face and saw the mixed emotions there. Happiness, shame, guilt. No doubt she blamed herself for losing control of her berserker Skills in the midst of battle and getting captured. She had so much promise; if she learned from her mistakes, she would be a commander before too long.
He placed a hand on her head.
“Your mother will be so pleased to see you again. If you’d died just before she finished her commission, I fear she would have collapsed the Iron Mountain down on her own head.”
It was a poor attempt at a joke, and the more Titus thought about it, the more realistic a scenario it seemed.
Watching the expression on her father’s face shift from joking to a glum realisation made Morrelia laugh and the knot inside her eased slightly with the release of tension. She’d betrayed the Legion, but she believed it had been for the right reasons. With any luck, they would never return, and the colony would continue to be peaceful and cooperative with everyone they came across. If so, she would never have to regret too strongly the decision she made here.
“I hope you and your people are able to retreat safely before things get too crazy down here,” Enid said. Then she frowned. “I also hope you never come back.”
It was far more grace than he could expect to receive from opponents he’d been fighting not an hour previous.
“I thank you for your words,” Titus said. “I do not know where the Legion will send us next. With this new wave coming so close on the heels of the last one, there will be problems all over Pangera. We defend many remote communities from the Dungeon, and our people are stretched thin.”