Chrysalis

Overhead, the rock face of an entire mountain rushed down to meet them, the roar of tearing stone deafening to all in the mouth of the nest. Advant looked up, her mandibles set in grim determination. What happened next wasn't up to her, but she would believe in her sisters.

"Ignore the mountain!" she spread the message with confidence. "Drive the enemy back into the nest! Push!"

As good as her words, she dove back into the conflict, mandibles snapping. She used her mass and thick carapace to bully and shove at the termites, breaking up their line and knocking them off balance with sheer strength.

Even blind as they were, the termites could still detect something was wrong, Advant could see it in the way their antennae twitched frantically. The air was thick with rival pheromones as they blasted each other. They wanted to rebel against the control that lay over them, wanted to defend their nest, protect their queen, repair the damage, but they couldn't. The lizards wouldn't let them.

The Colony general almost felt sorry for them. The termites were little more than slaves, denied their natural patterns of behaviour and forced to throw their lives away in an attempt to bring down a superior insect.

Of course, there was no pity for the termite scum. They had to be eliminated, there was simply no other choice.

Up and down the line, the ants continued to push forward, heedless of the collapsing mountainside dropping on their heads. Bite, push, charge, pull back, bite. They fell into the repetitive pattern of insect warfare, willpower and grit were more important than skill in this contest.

BOOM!

She heard a mighty eruption, followed by a colossal shower of dirt launching into the sky at several points behind her. She didn't react or turn, but her range of vision allowed her to see the enormous spires rising into the sky.

As a front line soldier, she hadn't been party to the full plan, but she trusted her siblings. There was no way that Sloan hadn't accounted for something like the lizards trying to drop the mountain on them.

Fuelled by thousands of combined minds, eight spires of condensed stone grew upwards, rapidly sprouting trees of rock that raced into the sky. As the frontline pushed ever deeper into the falling mountain, the huge rock projections of the Colony's mages drove straight into the falling mountain.

Advant ignored it all. The stone screamed above her head, sheared stone began to rain down as splintered chunks of rock broke off from the main body. Anything large enough to damage the ants fighting beneath was deflected with shields or broken apart with other magic. All the while the pillars continued to expand and push deeper, seeking to hold up the mountain.

"Push!" she roared at her troops and they responded admirably, driving into the teeth of the enemy. They were inside the nest now, the path sloping down sharply, plunging into the dark below where thousands more termites awaited them.

Above, pandemonium reigned as the Colony mages strove to hold back the heavens. It was more than an avalanche, overhead it seemed as if the sky itself were falling.

But they didn't waver.

Down came the wall of rock, impaled upon the mighty pillars the mages had erected, still it fell. The closer it came, the slower it fell, but still it fell.

Until a vast field of purple light flickered into existence around the Eldest.

It quickly expanded, overtaking the already deployed gravity domain, which faded away, rising high and encompassing the falling stone in a heartbeat. Immediately, the speed of descent slowed, their imminent crushing held off a moment longer.

Time that the Colony put to good use.

More pillars thrust upward from the ground, stone taking shape in seconds to rise and support the mountain further. The existing structures branched out and expanded further, desperately seeking to hold the weight.

Advant felt her heart lighten as the Eldest acted to save them, deploying their own mana to hold back the mountain.

Or perhaps… her whole body felt light?

She was caught in the field too! In fact, if she didn't grip the ground tightly, she might just lift into the air!

"Eldest?!" she demanded, worried.

"I can't direct this all that well!" the large ant called back. "But they better hurry up, I can't hold it for long!"

Despite having no talent for magic — she didn't even have the mana sight skill — Advant could feel the vast rush of energy channelled by the Colony. An invisible tornado of raw power whipped around her and the other soldiers, who did their best to ignore it and focus on the fight.

The humans weren't so dedicated, but she appreciated the grim determination on their faces, even if their faces had turned pale and their eyes wild. Just like the ants, they held the line as the world came crashing down above them.

An ocean of mana swept around them, manipulated by sixty thousand mages working in perfect harmony. Formed and shaped with the will of the Colony, the energy flooded into the ground, strengthening the pillars and branching out within the collapsed stone above.

The rock came lower and lower, so low that Advant had begun to crouch unconsciously as she shoved and bit at the foe in front of her.

Then it stopped.

With a lurch that could be felt in the ground beneath her feet, the falling mountain crunched, creaked and then stilled. A few moments later, the energy of the Eldest vanished as the giant ant slumped to the side.

"Eldest!" Advant called.

"Hey, no worries," the Eldest wheezed back, "give me a few seconds and I'll be right as rain. Just cooked my brains a touch. That was rough."

Somehow, her siblings had done it. Even dropping half the entire mountain on them hadn't been enough to stop the Colony from advancing. Pride and triumph surged in her heart. When they worked together, nothing could stop them, there was nothing that they couldn't achieve.

"PUSH FORWARD!" she roared once more. "Their tricks will not avail them!"

"Let's go again! LEEEEEEROY!"

"Damnit Leeroy! Not you!"