“We’re under attack!” Victor roared!
The generals looked confused. They were fighting a wave… of course they were under attack!
“Not like that!” she groused. “There’s trouble inside the fortress!”
Messengers had gone missing. Reports weren’t coming back. Entire hospitals had gone dark. Several shifts hadn’t reported to the front over the last hour. It all pointed to one thing.
“There’s an enemy inside the nest,” Victor declared, a...
2023-07-19 06:58:09 +0000 UTC
View Post
Something was off, Sloan could feel it.
“What word from the walls?” she demanded of her scout coordinator.
The distinguished scout, Postant, had been working with her for months, and responded immediately to the sudden demand.
“Holding firm at last report.”
“And the tunnels?”
“Same. There’s been no significant change.”
“That can’t be right. I want a fresh runner sent topside immediately. There’s something going on around h...
2023-07-19 04:55:21 +0000 UTC
View Post
To plunge an entire fortress into darkness, to commit every ant within to the cells. Such a thing had never been done in the history of the Sanctum, in the history of the Colony.
The nameless one crouched in a deep and dark tunnel, motionless. Soon, another ant approached.
Greetings nameless one.
I see you, nameless one.
What word from the Sanctum?
Twenty-four hours until the Fortress goes dark.
We’re goi...
2023-07-18 08:28:23 +0000 UTC
View Post
In times of war, or great peril, many things are put aside. Morality, order, law, hierarchy, respect, such things are often cast away in order to ensure the one thing that matters most to a sapient creature: survival.
We are not that way. Our mission is sacrosanct. Our law is woven into the very fibre of our beings. There is no life, without the mission, there is no future, without mission and there will never be a present, without the mission.
Tho...
2023-07-16 09:03:43 +0000 UTC
View Post
Mendant and Francis didn’t know when the healers had gotten a reputation for being curmudgeons, but they both strongly felt it wasn’t deserved. They weren’t grumpy! They were providing vital, life giving services to their siblings! If anything, the accusation they were ill tempered just made them feel like the others were being ungrateful.
“Mendant! Lovely to see you again, how are things down in the tunnels?”
“Francis! Wonderful to see you too. Things are g...
2023-07-14 10:30:39 +0000 UTC
View Post
[Holy moly, Enid! Don’t scare me like that!]
[Don’t scare you like that?] Enid squawked. [You damn near killed an old woman, you buffoon! I thought my heart was going to stop….]
[I’m not that scary looking. Crinis says I’m very handsome.]
[You’re enormous! And purple! Your mandibles are the same size as my bed! You knew damn well you were going to take me by surprise hanging off the room like that.]
The gigantic monster scratche...
2023-07-14 08:06:14 +0000 UTC
View Post
“You’re generating magick already, somehow. It’s not much, miniscule, if I’m being honest–”
“Don’t mock my size.”
“–but it’s there. This must be how your spirit generates enough energy to maintain itself.”
“I always wondered about that, because you never created a conduit between the two of us, right?”
Tyron nodded in confirmation as he continued to peer down at the carved skull through his Death Lense.
“At the time, I f...
2023-07-14 05:18:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
“This is more like what I was expecting. A true shit-hole. Something dank and dripping. You’ve come back up in my eyes, Tyron. I knew you still had that filthy, cave-dwelling creep inside you.”
“Dove…”
“No, seriously. I’m fucking proud of you. You didn’t let the wealth or the luxury get to your head. You knew who you were, deep down, and created a stinking basement filled with bones and guts like the troglodyte you are. I’d applaud, but for obvious r...
2023-07-13 09:21:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Tyron was confused.
“So there’s a rebellion of sorts developing out there. Although, it doesn’t seem like much from what you’ve said. Slayers can kick up as much of a fuss as they like, they’re helpless once the Magisters turn the screws,” he finished bitterly.
Not even Magnin and Beory had been able to deny the power of the brand. Resist it, delay, blunt, perhaps, but ultimately, even they had fallen prey, despite their preparations.
For all their pow...
2023-07-12 10:16:31 +0000 UTC
View Post
Still alive. Lots of posting over the next few days, especially BoD. Gotta catch up!
Eeeeenid. Eeeeeeeeeeeenid!
“What in blazes is that?!” The former mayor of renewal sat bolt upright in bed.
Thiiiiis is the ghost of Anthoooonyyyyy. Whooooaaaaooooaaaaa.
“The what?!” The old woman boggled as she reached to her nightstand to grab her shawl and wrap it around her shoulders.
Yesssssss. I’m totally deaaaaaaaaaad. Spoooo...
2023-07-11 06:34:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Wipe that grin off your face,” Titus muttered.
“What grin?”
“That grin. It’s unprofessional. The troops expect a little more decorum from a Consul.”
“I’m not Consul any more,” Minerva responded, “so if I want to express my happiness, then I will.”
Titus rolled his eyes. A small part of him had hoped that the dignity Minerva had cultivated in the highest office in the Legion would have rubbed off on her, but alas, it did not ...
2023-07-07 07:29:22 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Engineer Griner?” Titus rumbled.
“That’d be me. You must be the commander?” the burly, sleeveless man said as he turned from the enormous armoured suit he’d been working on.
Titus rolled his shoulders.
“Just about everyone down here is a commander, or higher,” he noted wryly, “so why would I be, ‘the commander’.”
Griner shrugged.
“I don’t make the rules. Turns out when you command successfully down here and up ther...
2023-07-05 11:37:49 +0000 UTC
View Post
Titus took another deep, slow breath, feeling the mana thunder through his body, tearing away at him from the inside. The conflict was never-ending. Much like the wave that ravaged his world, the raw arcane energy that permeated the Dungeon poured into him and sought to rend his flesh.
How long had it been since he’d sustained himself this deep? Before his children had been born. He’d been a much younger man then, in body and mind. In those days, he’d relished the strug...
2023-07-05 09:44:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
I watched the battle unfold with a keen interest, using all of the senses at my disposal to follow the goings on. As large as I am, it wasn’t really practical for me to shove myself forward and block up the tunnel, I’d destroy the formation I was trying to inspect!
So I fall back on my more esoteric options, such as the Vestibule.
Despite what Solant may think, tracking one ants flow of Will through the glittering organ isn’t nearly the same as mind reading. It’...
2023-07-05 02:54:33 +0000 UTC
View Post
Solant felt as if her mind was balanced on a mandible’s edge. She saw everything that occurred and her mind catalogued every event, filing them, ordering them, and then she responded to each in turn as best she could.
Minute by minute, her four groups rotated through, regardless of the conditions at the front. The ravenous, unthinking beasts of the wave weren’t watching or analysing their movements, and so didn’t anticipate or take advantage of the minute openings in he...
2023-07-03 10:34:20 +0000 UTC
View Post
As they drew closer to the front the endless roars of monsters grew deafening, until Solants antennae were vibrating from the force of it. Her general’s eye crackled into life the closer they got to the field, her intuition and mutations blending together to give her an almost supernatural sense for the battlefield.
The ants were tired, which was to be expected. They moved sluggishly, taking more damage than they should, and attacked without sharpness, inflicting less punis...
2023-07-03 06:30:25 +0000 UTC
View Post
The Eldest had lain down the challenge and Solant could feel the pressure immediately. Someone like her, not even a full graduate of the Antcademy, was to be put in charge of a battlefield during a wave. Only the authority of the Eldest made something like this possible, the defenders of the nest put their faith in their strongest member and trusted that Solant would not fail them.
The pressure was immense.
Clearly, the Eldest intended to put her and her broodmates dire...
2023-07-03 05:24:24 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Master Almsfield,” Elsbeth greeted him, much more warm than she had appeared before. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Elsbeth Renner, I believe you were expecting to see me?”
He had? He had!
That cursed shrivelled prick had told him they’d send a liaison to speak with him. If he’d thought about it for a second, he would have known this was coming.
“The pleasure is mine,” he fumbled, dipping into a slight bow to cover his confusion.
2023-06-30 13:18:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Hey there, lover.”
Filetta grinned at him as she sauntered through the sewer, her crew following behind, canvas-wrapped corpses over their shoulders.
Tyron sighed.
“Is it really necessary to let your men know that we slept together?” he asked.
“I share everything with my crew,” she boasted, “thieves need to be a tight-knit bunch to operate.”
Judging by the appraising, and somewhat respectful looks he saw on a few of the men’s faces, ...
2023-06-29 10:47:22 +0000 UTC
View Post
The Colony rapidly became a formidable fighting force once they had gained sapience. Under the leadership of the Eldest, who stamped out some of the more self-destructive ant impulses quickly, a doctrine of safety first, conservative generalship was settled as the norm.
Using our natural affinity for digging and construction, defensive battle in which we were able to grind down our enemies and preserve our numbers were adopted. Siege warfare utilised a similar ap...
2023-06-27 03:46:58 +0000 UTC
View Post
What to do? Do I tell them I can’t remember the plan? Would that impact my dignity as the Eldest? Maybe I’ll just play along and hope for the best. What’s the worst that could go wrong?
“Do we all understand?”
“Of course.”
“No problem.”
“Simple.”
….
“It’s straight forward, I like it,” I declare with every scrap of confidence I can muster. “I’ll leave it to you to coordinate with the generals at the front.”
<...
2023-06-26 01:10:21 +0000 UTC
View Post
With the arrival of Vibrant and her crew, who’d made the difficult trek from the Mother Tree’s portal to arrive in the new mountain-nest, the situation below ground stabilised rapidly. Just like their leader, the ten thousand ants who follow in her footsteps specialise in speed, which isn’t the most useful thing down in the tunnels, but they find ways to make it work.
They want space to best employ their greatest advantage, which meant the wide open plains of the third ...
2023-06-25 13:21:38 +0000 UTC
View Post
Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!
Ah, the satisfying feeling of having my face hands clapping fools. The monsters of the fourth stratum are tough, there’s no doubt about that, but these are all spawned during the wave, without enough evolutions or mutations to really threaten a highly developed monster like me.
A mass of boulders rumbles towards me, acting in harmony as if connected by some invisible force. An earth elemental?
Chomp!
I shatter it.
“Skreeeeee!...
2023-06-24 07:37:33 +0000 UTC
View Post
Tyron shouldhave spent the rest of the week grinding and polishing his enchanting skills, brushing up on his knowledge of conduits and ensuring he was in peak condition to work with Ammos Greyling. Ties to the noble houses were worth a great deal to him in ways that had nothing to do with finances.
Access to the corridors of power, a chance to interact with the Magisters, to plant seeds and extract information.
He was in no position to take advantage of anythin...
2023-06-23 05:06:24 +0000 UTC
View Post
The inside of the ballroom was an even more opulent display of wealth. Floating chandeliers drifted overhead, made of concentric rings, each rotating a different direction and speed than the one before. Enchanted gems hovered around these lights, sending glittering beams of fractured light around the room that rippled off crystal pillars, creating patterns that played across the fountains that poured down the walls and ran into a stream beneath their feet.
Birds formed of mis...
2023-06-22 03:40:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Hah! I like the way you think. What do you reckon, Sloan? Fancy adding a floating fortress to our arsenal?”
The general looks a little sour, but can’t quite manage to conceal the excitement quivering through her antennae.
“It would allow us to do a lot. A mobile defensive platform. We could use it to fend off other islands that attack the mountain, or launch attacks against our enemies. I can’t deny it would be extremely useful to have, Eldest.”
“It sure would...
2023-06-20 04:14:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
For the next several hours, the wave continues as before, but with the added bonus of these damned sinuous lizards shooting us with water, fire, lightning and I think I saw one using force magic, the fancy-dancy goon. Weird to look at, they almost seem to swim through the sky, with several sets of little wings flapping away.
Are you dragons or snakes? Make up your dang minds!
Whenever they see an opening, they try to swoop down and snatch up an ant, but the Colony has b...
2023-06-20 03:41:38 +0000 UTC
View Post
The whole island is covered in monsters, because of course it is, this is a wave. The size of the beasties is certainly larger than what I’ve gotten accustomed to in other strata. In the first, pretty much all monsters start off smaller than a human, ditto for the second and third. In fact, all demons start basically cat-sized, but they can get a lot bigger rather fast.
Most of the monsters down there are likely tier two or three, considering how rapidly they spawn, but the...
2023-06-18 12:49:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Well, well. Looks like someone was finally taught a lesson,” Sloan said as she appeared in the chamber, looking quite smug.
“What are you on about?” I ask.
“Just noting that a certain, overconfident general, has learned that she isn’t always right, and can’t always win, regardless of the circumstances.”
Sheesh. Since when did generals in the Colony get this petty?
“Yes, yes. The tier four general has learned she can’t overcome a tier sev...
2023-06-17 03:44:09 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Vic, I haven’t slept in two days, I’m going to need you to use plain language, for a change.”
“That’s difficult. The exalted blood within my veins demands I speak in as roundabout terms as possible.”
“What exalted blood? Your dad is a merchant and your mother is a jeweller. You're as noble as I am.”
“As much as the Almsfield name rings throughout the land, there is a key difference between our families. Mine is exceptionally wealthy....
2023-06-16 10:43:32 +0000 UTC
View Post
