Chapter 374 Pushes and pulls (1/2)
A delivery system of flesh and bone. That's what the horde truly was. As an instrument of the dark will that controlled it, the ma.s.sive gathering of enslaved monsters had been used to scour the kingdom of Liria and possibly neighbouring kingdoms as well. Here and now? That ma.s.s of bodies served a different purpose. To deliver Garralosh and her children to the target of her wrath as easily as possible.
Sloan knew that only when they had destroyed enough, thinned enough of the horde away, would the true enemy show its face. Until then, Garralosh and the Kaarmodo would be content to stay back and allow their unwitting soldiers to absorb the punishment.
”The key to this battle, is holding enough strength in reserve that we can deal with the Croca-Beasts when they come,” Sloan had declared at the planning meeting.
To that end, the colony had prepared waves of tricks and schemes that they could employ. The horde would pay dearly for every inch of ground they took. The worry was, the primary reserve force of the colony still hadn't woken up.
The Eldest was still sleeping!
Sloan couldn't help but clean her antennae over and over again in an attempt to calm her nerves. Something her sibling couldn't help but notice.
”Calm down,” Victor advised.
”I would if I could!” Sloan snapped back.
”The Eldest will awaken in time. How could you doubt it?”
”You do realise what will happen if they don't?”
”I suspect that we'll all be wiped out and the colony will cease to exist,” Victor replied, unruffled.
”Y-yes! That's right!”
”And how does you stressing about it change anything? Have a little faith in the Eldest. When have they ever let us down?”
That was a little hard to argue against. The Eldest was a six legged storm, stirring up change wherever they went, but to date they had never let the colony down. Indeed, they had pushed the colony forward at every turn.
Sloan dragged her antennae through the knee joints of her front legs once more before she settled with a sigh. The two generals were positioned in the main nest in a chamber close to the surface. In a room next to them, scouts came and went at a furious pace, pa.s.sing information to a team of generals who sorted it and manipulated a large three dimensional map carved into the chamber floor.
”Let's see how the battle is progressing,” Victor suggested and moved to inspect the map.
Sloan clacked her mandibles in irritation.
”I don't like it that we are stuck here, Victor,” Sloan grumbled.
Her sibling sighed, but sympathised.
”I want to be out there on the wall just as much as you. But the two of us are the best generals in the colony. We can best serve the colony from here. Don't go Leeroy on me.”
”I wouldn't go that far,” Sloan chuckled.
Unlike the two relatively calm generals, the war chamber was a flurry of activity and filled with the m.u.f.fled scents of a dozen different conversations. Ants crawled carefully over the map, making constant adjustments to the sticks and place markers there.
”Looks as if the first wall has done its job,” Victor observed as she poured over the map.
”We can still hold it,” Sloan proposed. ”If we commit the reserves from the second wall we could hold on for another thirty minutes, at least.”