Antelligent Design

137. Mosh Pit

The queen landed with a calamitous thud. Several unfortunate monsters were crushed beneath her bulk or stabbed through by her claws. Her legs strained to the breaking point, but she absorbed the shock and bulldozed her way toward the place her wayward child fell.

She reached deep into her Healing Mana Gland and dragged the dense fog of energy out and into her antennae where it was amplified. More and more of her children were pouring off the wall and into the crowded space. The melee was quickly spinning out of control.

Conflicting emotions battled in the queen’s thorax. She feared for her family. Terrified they would suffer due to her actions. At the same time, she exulted. This was what she had been born to do and her instincts were afire with joy. She scythed through a raging bear with a single chomp of her razor-sharp mandibles.

System notifications rang within her mind but she paid them no attention. Her focus was on the healing energy building to a peak in her antennae. When she could contain it no more, the energy exploded outward in a rolling nova of light that washed over the battlefield in an expanding ring.

Only the ants were affected by this Mana, its invigorating properties washing away their fatigue and easing their pain in an instant. Already filled with the burning rage and desperate anxiety that seeing their mother fighting on the front lines caused, colony members of all castes were driven to a frenzy and threw themselves upon the enemy in groups, tearing their foes apart with their vicious jaws.

After stomping her way another ten metres forward, the queen stood over the healing body of the soldier who leapt so energetically from her head. The ant in question was quite wounded, even in the short time she’d been submerged in the churning soup of monsters.

“Did… did I win the battle?” she croaked.

The queen defended the space of the smaller ant with savage chomps of her mandibles.

“No, child,” the queen responded, puzzled. “You must get up and fight.”

“…Fine.”

At that time, hundreds of dark shadow monsters erupted from out of the pitfalls. In a nightmarish scene, the creatures reached out of the holes in the ground with their dark, shadowy arms and dragged struggling monsters back into the pits with them. It didn’t take long for the creatures to push their way out and begin to engage the monsters all around them.

Then more Garralosh spawn arrived.

Flames belching from their open mouths, the giant crocodile monsters bounded forward to tear into the shadow pets and smaller battles broke out everywhere.

“My queen! Be careful!” Sloan had arrived next to her mother and couldn’t resist trying to caution her.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Sloan!” Victor scoffed. “It’s a battle! Start worrying about yourself!”

The queen quite agreed with Victor on this point and turned her attention to the approaching crocodiles. These were the monsters who were responsible for bringing this battle to her family. She would delight in returning the pain to them.

CLACK!

The queen snapped her mandibles shut with tremendous force. The sound cut through the noise of the battle with ease, a whip crack that punctured the din. A wall of crocodile flesh rose up and she began to step toward them. As she did, her carapace began to glow bright with energy that unfolded and encompassed her entire body.

As she gathered speed, the light built in intensity, the pure blue light of Mana built to a brightness that almost pained the eye of the monsters forced to gaze upon her. She had no eyes for any of the smaller creatures she crushed beneath her feet, she hungered to unleash her strength on those that caused the conflict that harmed so many of her children.

Maybe if she were to destroy enough Garralosh spawn, then their mother would feel the pain.

The crocodiles reared up before her and unleashed their flaming breath. The energy that had accrued in her carapace flared brighter, warding off the damage, and the queen continued her assault.

CHOMP!

The moment the first was in range, she brought her mandibles down and crunched. Her savage, barbed jaws crushed the creature, and without pause, the queen swung her body to fling the Biomass away and free herself for another bite.

[You have defeated a Level 8 Garralosh Bellator.]

[You have gained XP.]

At last, she had the chance to seek retribution and she would seize it!

“The queen has gone in deep!” Sloan worried to Victor, her scent barely able to cut through the chaos of the battlefield.

The queen was barely visible now. She’d pushed beyond what any of the ants who were in position to support her could reach. Beyond even the positions of the Core Shapers and their pets! If it weren’t for her glowing carapace that seemed to ward off damage, they might not have been able to see her at all.

“We have a task force for this,” Victor reminded her sibling, frustrated. Did she really have to put up with Sloan’s anxiety here and now? They were in a battlefield, for the eldest’s sake!

Victor ducked back from a claw that swiped in her direction and retaliated with a careful bite, aimed low to hamstring her hound-like opponent. Her jaws found purchase and she twisted her body, allowing the mandibles to inflict maximum damage before she released her grip and leapt back, creating space for other ants to make use of the opening.

“I don’t see them, though,” Sloan whined.

“You want to go looking for Vibrant? Go then. The rest of us will just stay here and… you know… fight this battle.”

Not for the first time, Victor was grateful she didn’t need to use her mouth to talk like humans did. Ridiculous notion.

“Hi-Hi! Did someone call me?”

The scent arrived at just the same time as Vibrant did. A large bulky soldier who could move with incredible speed, the two generals hadn’t seen her coming in the slightest until she was on top of them.

“At last! You need to go protect the queen!” Sloan shouted.

Vibrant lifted her herself up to take a look.

“Uhh. She looks like she’s doing pretty fine to me? And she glows! That’s so nice. Wow! What a bite!” Vibrant cheered her parent on with enthusiasm.

A moment later, Vibrant’s personal followers arrived. The twenty had been unable to explain why, but some ants felt compelled to follow the energetic leader, as if the colony were calling them to assist and aid her. The council weren’t going to complain about it, Vibrant and her group did more work for the colony in the field than almost any others. They were a mixed team by now, soldiers and scouts mostly, but the odd ant Mage and a healer were mixed in for good measure.

“Could you at least fight your way forward so she has a path of retreat?” Sloan begged.

“Sure-sure! Sounds fun!”

With that, Vibrant took off and her squad followed closely on her heels, wreaking havoc amongst the enemy.