Chapter 522 The Creeping (1/2)

[DAMMIT CRINIS! I can't see!]

[It's fine!]

[How is it fine?!]

[IT JUST IS!]

[No! How the heck can I fight if I can't see the enemy?! What is even happening?!]

[I'll fight for you! You don't need to do anything!]

[Are you kidding me?! There's no way you can take them all on by yourself!]

[Watch me!]

[I CAN'T!]

I'm currently entombed in a sh.e.l.l of Crinis after all. Not only is she covering my eyes, she's covering all of me! How is she even doing this? She sent her entire body through my shadow in a flas.h.!.+ So much faster than she was able to use the Shadows before. This can only mean one thing…

[You've evolved!]

[Of course, Master! Did you think I would rest before coming back to your side?]

[Well… no. I didn't.]

My Vestibule tingles with energy, causing panic to spark inside me.

[Wait, Crinis! What's the Colony doing?!]

[Oh, they're coming! They'll be here any minute.]

Through the liquid shadow flesh of Crinis' body I can sense the ongoing battle. Thuds and impacts ripple through her form as she takes damage that had been directed at me.

[Why are they coming?! They need to stay hidden!]

[Once they got this close, they didn't seem to want to stop. I think they're almost here.]

[Dammit, Crinis! At least let me see what's happening! That's an order!]

Reluctantly, the flesh parts and lets the light in once more, blinding me momentarily after the pitch black Crinis had inflicted on me. She appears to have gone through a few changes whilst I was gone. A writhing ma.s.s of flesh and tentacles rises from my back like a pillar, three separate mouths gaping and gnas.h.i.+ng at the air as she sends her limbs twisting through the air toward the Golgari. For their part, the Warriors and Shapers are firing a literal barrage of strikes her way, the savage light from their weapons cutting into her flesh dozens of times.

[Crinis! Are you alright?!]

[I'm fine! Don't worry about me, Master. I'm here to keep you safe!]

[You need to get off me, Crinis. We need to end this fight before the Colony arrives!]

The wall to my right crumbles as a huge pair of mandibles break through the stone.

”LEEEEEEROOOOOOY!!!!”

Somehow loud enough that the scent reaches my antennae despite being almost totally covered by Crinis, the war cry of the dumbest ant in the history of the species floods the tunnel as a HUGE soldier bursts through the wall and dives headfirst into combat. The Golgari are dumbfounded for the smallest of windows before they move to respond. That's Leeroy?! She's big! Some of the Colony members must have hit tier four whilst I was away. What an exciting development! No wait…

”What the heck are you doing?!” I scream, but since my pheromone gland is covered, they don't smell a thing I'm saying.

[Get off, Crinis! I need to fix this! NOW!] I bark at her.

But it's already too late. Maybe it was too late the moment I was captured. Once Leeroy has made her entrance, a dozen similar holes open up from all angles of the tunnel and hundreds of ants swarm out of them. The Golgari are overwhelmed in seconds, buried under an avalanche of insects. Only a few have the intelligence to flee the second an ant is seen, the rest fall victim to the relentless crush of the Colony. Before I can count to ten, the tunnel is awash with ants crawling over every surface and all signs of conflict are done with.

Dammit.

”The Eldest has been secured!”

”West tunnel, clear!”

”East tunnel, clear!”

”Move, move, move! Don't stop those claws! Scouts every hundred metres for a kilometre in all tunnel branches!”