As she finished her explanation, the crafter stepped back and felt a surge of joy as she beheld the completed product. Leeroy was a large tier four soldier, with a thick carapace that housed a powerful musculature. Even with the enchantments lightening the load, the full set of armour still weighed over a ton; a soldier with less physical stats would likely struggle to move wearing that suit.
Watching the process from the side, Brendant had to admit that the crafter had done an incredible job. The many various pieces of armour fit together ingeniously, clips, hooks and straps used in a variety of clever places to help hold the suit together. She didn’t have high expectations for this project, but looking at the final product now, she had to admit that she was impressed. Leeroy had been transformed from an indomitable soldier to something else entirely. The helmet gave her the visage of a fearsome demon, the folds of the metal that protected her eyes cast her features into shadow. Plates of metal swept down the sides of her head and curved around her mandibles, jutting forward beneath them to protect her mouth.
Thick plates covered her abdomen and thorax, with the most attention given to the plating down the sides of her body. Virtually no protection was afforded to the underside of the carapace. The idea was to keep the body low and charge forward, allowing the armour to both protect, and add to the impact.
The shock absorbent properties of the armour were also excellent. The crafter had done an incredible job of building an internal structure on the inside of the metal. The joints cunningly inserted would allow the armour to flex whilst the inner layer transfered force from the armour to the carapace, dispersing the impact across a wider area and borrowing the strength of the existing exo-skeleton.
“Well, nothing to do now but test it. Are you happy to proceed, crafter?”
The smaller ant did one final tour around the indignant form of her test subject, checking straps and brushing her antennae lovingly over the plating one final time. Suddenly nervous, she stepped away and steadied herself before replying.
“It’s ready.”
The supporting ants cleared space to allow the two big soldiers some room.
“Alright then, Leeroy, I’m going to enjoy this!” Brendant laughed, rushing forward.
For the next ten minutes, she charged, bit, and battered her sibling while Leeroy absorbed the punishment with a resigned attitude. From the side, the crafter watched intently, her heart pounding incessantly. She needn’t have worried, her work held up remarkably well. With her powerful jaws and many mutations, Brendant was able to puncture the armour in several places, but was unable to do any meaningful damage to the carapace beneath, the force of her mandibles wasted on the metal.
“I have to say, it’s far more durable than I expected,” the soldier observed as she stepped back. “Although, carrying all that weight can’t be good for your mobility.”
“Certainly, only the stronger soldier specimens would be able to wear a suit this heavy,” the crafter informed her. “For other castes, such as the generals, a more lightweight version would be needed.”
“Makes sense. Alright then, Leeroy, time for revenge. Let’s have it.”
After enduring the attentions of her sibling for so long, Leeroy was more than ready to return the favour. Though, it should be noted that her enthusiasm was lacking. Without the threat of very real, mortal danger, she just couldn’t become enthused. She shook her body to settle the armour, still adjusting to the feel of it before she set her feet and charged. Although slow to get going, she built up speed quickly, dirt flying every time her claws dug into the soil.
The crafter’s eyes shone as she watched that charge. The power, the force, the unstoppable momentum—this was it!
Mandibles wide, Leeroy dashed with all her strength; her speed was much reduced, but the power of that charge was undeniable. Brendant braced herself as best she could, but it was for naught. When the fusion of steel and insect that Leeroy had become collided with her, Brendant was instantly bowled over. Unable to stop her own momentum, Leeroy charged directly through her sister and smashed into the wall of the tunnel, cracking the stone heavily and burying her head in the dirt.
It took several minutes to extract the soldier, but the crafter was elated. This model of the armour was merely the first. In her eyes, it was a crude and brutish thing, lacking elegance and with only a fraction of the raw strength she envisioned. Even so, it performed remarkably well!
“Well,” Brendant said as she picked herself up. “That’s quite the thing, isn’t it? I’ve got a crack in my carapace! I don’t think she even bit me. I’m impressed! What do you think, Leeroy?”
A little dazed, the other council member staggered over with a depressed air.
“It works really well. I feel almost un-killable in this.”
“So why do you look so unhappy?”
“I feel almost un-killable in this.”
“Ah.”
Ignoring her idiot sister, Brendant turned to the crafter.
“Congratulations. Although it has a huge cost in resources, this armour does appear as if it will have a use. We can create and maintain a small number of these to begin with. I presume you have revisions, Smithant?”
The crafter started.
“What’s a Smithant?”
“You are. You’ve got a lot of work to do. I think I might be recommending the eldest pay you a visit as well, if they get a chance. I’m sure they’d want to see what it is you’ve done. Good job!”
54. The Delegation, Part 1
It would be an understatement to say that Enid was nervous. The first time her husband had taken her into the Dungeon, she’d been nervous. When smuggling Karak shells from the blue desert, she was nervous. Marching into the heart of the colony’s nest? She was distinctly nervous. When representatives had approached her about the ants wishing to engage in further cooperation with the refugees living on the surface, she’d nearly fallen out of her chair. It was true the people had grown more comfortable in the presence of the monsters, even Enid herself had experienced a profound shift in attitude toward them, but she’d felt the ants were more or less uncaring of their human neighbours.
Certainly, they were curious. Even now, members of the colony, almost exclusively mages and crafters, wandered through the town, observing, questioning. It was hard for a craftsman to go a day without having a giant insect poke its antennae through a window and start asking about this or that. Some found it intrusive, but the ants certainly did more than their fair share of work around the place. Whether it was tilling fields, sourcing construction materials, extending the irrigation system that they themselves had built, the colony did a lot to help a group of people they didn’t really owe anything to.
She stepped carefully as they continued to tread through what must be close to sacred ground to the ants. They’d trudged through the Dungeon for many hours to make it to this subterranean nest. The town council had been more than a little apprehensive about journeying this deep. In the frontier kingdoms, there were very few capable of venturing to the second stratum safely. Aarran the Bowyer had been amongst the most hesitant to venture down, yet the colony managed to make the trip almost boring.
Being escorted by a full hundred monsters seemed almost extravagant, but they’d done a remarkable job. Enid didn’t think she’d even heard a monster during the entire trip. A ridiculous thought under normal circumstances, yet the sheer numerical strength of the colony made the impossible possible.