Chapter 609: Hat’s off to you

The approaching red-armoured figure clearly hadn’t expected to be descended upon by the heretofore hidden ant squad. Even I was a little shocked to see them, to be honest, and I’d known that they were there the entire time. I’ve looked a little deeper into the methods that Protectant and her squad uses to keep themselves from being noticed, much to their discomfort. I’ve come to believe that the council hasn’t asked them to ignore my instructions explicitly, but trained them to think that protecting me from myself is literally half their job.

Which hurts. It’s probably fair, but it still hurts.

So, even when I ask them to do, or not do, certain things, they look at me askance and I can almost hear their internal dialogue, wondering if I’m about to get myself killed. But, their stealth organs are an incredible piece of work, some of Gandalf’s finest. It’s an immensely powerful application of mind magic. One that infiltrates passively, slipping through any defence that I’ve seen and making the recipient ignore their presence. Even for me, when my Vestibule is clearly receiving energy from the twenty super spies, it won’t let me pinpoint their existence, because my mind doesn’t want to acknowledge that they are real.

There are limitations of course. If they get too close, if they intrude on another creature’s senses too much, then the charade falls apart. With a high enough Will stat, the effect can also be resisted, somewhat. The other cost being that purchasing the organ basically sucked up all of the evolutionary energy they had available when they went from tier three to four, leaving them with comparatively low stats.

Even so, working together in a team of ten, they leap from concealment to seize upon this eager figure, one who had run too far ahead of her group and thus made herself vulnerable. I watch from my position in the fight as Protectant and her group meld into my perception, already leaping forward to strike the strangely familiar figure.

A two-weaponed berserker? I know one of those, but why would Morrelia be here trying to kill us? And surely all berserkers use two weapons, they don’t seem like the defensive type. I mean, they wouldn’t be berserkers if they were, right?

This internal monologue continues as the figure is brought to the ground, wrists seized by two separate ants as the others swarm atop the armour, biting and gnawing as they try to penetrate the thick plate.

“Protectant!” I holler, “get the helmet off!”

My pheromones flood the room and reach the group instantly. They react instinctively, leaping to follow my directions as they use their mandibles to pry at the helmet, trying to rip it clear. The soldiers in front of me don’t respond well to one of their own being jumped. On either side of the shield bros, a pair forms up and activates a new type of Skill. Movements so in sync they almost look like robots, the four bring their blades down in a shining arc, the weapons swung so quickly I can’t see them move. What’s more shocking, is the blade light merges forming together to create a single beam that slices towards me, thicker and more threatening than before.

Two of these beams cut towards me, one from each side and I have so little time to react. Luckily, Invidia is there for me, his shields snapping into place a moment before those deadly arcs of light hit home. But this time they don’t hold, the concentrated sword light bursts through the shields and slams into my carapace, digging into the diamond coating and forcing me to release my grip on the shields.

That hurt! Not wanting to take any chances, I pump my system full of regeneration fluid just as my antennae register what Protectant is telling me.

“We have it, Eldest! The helmet!”

Nice! Held in readiness all this time, the mind bridge I had formed snaps into place on that now unprotected mind. I push hard with my mind mana, flooding their mind with my own consciousness. Who are you?! What the hell are you doing here?

Wait a second… This mind feels familiar.

[RUN!] Morrelia screams at me.

I snap the connection.

[We are getting out of here, people! Back up now, now, now!]

“Protectant, get your people stealthed and get the heck out of here! Get behind me!”

Luckily, nobody decides to take this moment to question me. Tiny swings his massive arms to create space and leaps behind me, dragging Invidia along in one meaty fist. Crinis slithers back toward my carapace, but at the same time weaves her shadow magic to suck away the little light left in the room. The ten babysitter ants that had revealed themselves break away and scuttle along the walls, racing behind me as they fade back out of view.

[Tiny, punch the roof! Invidia, help him out!]

Tiny unfurls his wings and leaps upwards, slamming into the stone overhead with one colossal fist just as more explosions detonate around him.

[Crinis, pull us out!]

[Yes, Master!]

An ominous rumble echoes from overhead as Crinis extends her limbs to grasp each of us and then grab the tunnel ahead of us. She slingshots us forward as an ominous crack sounds out and the stone shatters, collapsing behind us and burying the tunnel in tons of rubble.

What had only moments ago been a furious fight is now nothing but darkness and pressure. This really hurts. I mean, I don’t really mind being surrounded by dirt and stone, but this is a little more claustrophobic than I’m used to.

[You guys okay?]

[I am alright, Master.]

[You’re so squishy, you probably didn’t lose any hp.]

[That’s rude.]

[Sorry. How about you Tiny? Invidia?]

[He isss heavily wounded.]

[Try and heal him up, I’ll dig my way to you.]

Wearily, I pull together an earth mana construct and begin to weave some spells to try and create a little space for my mandibles to move and soften up the solid rock in front of my face. It takes some time, but gradually I’m able to create space by chomping up the stone, pushing it behind me with my legs and compressing it there. When I finally make my way to where Tiny is buried, I find the big ape collapsed onto top of Invidia, shielding the eyeball with his body from the stone that crushed into his back.

The two of us manage to heal him up and I wiggle my way to the front to continue digging us out. The entire time, I can’t help but wonder what exactly happened back there. Super powerful armoured soldiers? Morrelia there with them? What’s happening? And if there are two groups of these soldiers, then are there more? What about back in the nest? Have the Golgari come?

I’m worried. Buried in the stone as we slowly chew our way out, I’m worried.

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