When the gates finally fell, they fell with a resounding 'boom' that echoed from the walls of the tunnel. Might seem a little excessive to knock the damn things off their hinges, but that's what the Legionaries decided to do anyway. Perhaps they felt the width of the nest entrance was a reasonable width for them to engage in and I have to agree. The tunnel approach to the nest narrows as it approaches the gate, stays the same for a short distance before it opens out into the chamber beyond. To be honest, they're probably just happy not to see yet another gate waiting for them in the distance.
Once the gates are down, it takes the Legion a few minutes to reorganise their formation before they once again begin their approach.
Boom!
What the heck was that?! The vibrations of a colossal impact roll through the rock beneath my legs and my antennae waggle through the air in confusion as I try to pick up the source. It didn't happen within the nest, that's for sure, whatever it was that caused that, it surely originated outside the gates.
"Eldest! Can you sense what that was?" Burke rushes up to me.
"I'm trying to work it out," I reply distractedly as I focus on watching the approaching soldiers whilst reaching out with my mind.
The distance is too far for me to reach, even with my relatively high Skills, but there are definitely fluctuations in the mana further down the tunnel, behind the approaching force.
"I can't be sure," I respond tersely as I set my mandibles, "but it seems like something is happening at the rear of the Legion forces."
"Like what?!" Burke is baffled.
"How the hell am I supposed to know, Burke? Maybe put a scout on it?"
"There's an army between us and that location!"
"I noticed!"
The two sides have already begun to accelerate towards each other and I join my brethren, using all three pairs of legs to synchronise three separate dashes to achieve maximum speed.
*CRUNCH*
The two fully braced armies smash into each other as both sides activate their Skills, spells and everything else they have at their disposal. Armour and carapace are dented, cracked and splintered as neither side holds back any of their strength, the Legion on the precipice of victory, the Colony on the edge of annihilation. My carapace absorbs numerous blows in the first few seconds as weapon light blooms all around me. Only my future sight and heightened reflexes keep my antennae attached to my head as my body makes the minute adjustments necessary to absorb all the strikes with my diamond exo-skeleton. Precious diamond carapace. Where would I be without you? If I could, I'd kiss that precious stuff, but thankfully for my dignity such a thing is impossible.
By this point, my sub-brains are fairly cooked and I've released the omni-elemental construct, opting instead to deploy a simple gravity domain over as wide an area as I can, hoping the already tired Legionaries will suffer under the added weight of their armour. It's hard to tell what sort of effect it's having, but then again, it's hard to get a good visual of the battlefield when I'm doing the dirty work here in the front line. Shields and the flashes from enemy attacks are pretty much all I can see at any moment!
The fighting is savage and relentless as I chomp everything in front of me until my jaws ache with a constant throbbing pain and the barbs on my mandibles begin to crack and splinter. My regeneration gland is running dry again already and my helpful healer friend had to pop up and top me off within the first five minutes of the conflict.
"For the Colony!" the cry rises from somewhere behind me.
"FOR THE COLONY!" a thunderous wave of pheromones crashes through the battlefield, stunning my antennae with its intensity.
Within the egg-laying chamber, the Queen once again pushed herself to the forefront of the battle, shouldering aside the children who tried to block her way. She would not be denied by them, not this time. Unwilling to put up any real resistance to their mother's advance, the soldiers and generals gave ground the moment they felt her push against them. If she wanted to go to the front, none were prepared to go all out to stop her. What were they supposed to do? Fight their mother and drag her from the front whilst also fighting the golgari?
So it was that the Queen reached the place she had wanted to be, right by the side of the bear who appeared to be on the brink of death. Covered in wounds, her fur matted and dark with her own ichor, the friend of the Colony fought on as if she felt none of it, a seemingly never ending roar bellowing from her maw. The giant ant reared back, her antennae bursting into light so bright it chased away the shadows in the chamber before she unleashed a vast pulse of healing magic that swept through the ant forces, though a great chunk of it was absorbed by the bear.
Wounds visibly knit before her eyes as the body of the raging beast soaked up the healing power and regenerated itself, but the bear didn't seem to notice, no change came over her at all. The golgari certainly noticed. They had been on the verge of finally bringing down this monstrous entity, only for it now to get a sudden boost of health. Despair gripped their lines which was only made worse when the Queen activated her war form. Drawing energy from every ant in the room, she grew in size until she loomed over the enemy who shrank back from the mighty visage before them.
The Queen had changed from her fight with Garralosh. Unable to protect her children in that fight, she had taken steps to ensure she would not be found lacking in strength. Her daily hunts had helped to level her combat Skills, the extra Biomass she had taken in was spent to improve her body for fighting. Never again would she allow the enemy to bully her children.
"GET OUT OF MY NEST!" she roared.
Her mandibles glowed bright and manifested two enormous jaws that extended from her own before slamming shut, crunching the front rank of the golgari. With the Queen returning to the battle, the tide had shifted in the Colony's favour. After having matched the strength of the demonic bear for so long, and grinding out the battle against the endless ants, the sudden appearance of a powerful tier six monster was too much for them to handle and they began to pull back from the front, drawing their forces back into the tunnel through which they had come.
That's when things changed.
Sarah's endless roar of mindless rage had only grown louder as the fight had gone on. Now, she found nothing in front of her to rend, so she turned and lashed out at the first thing she saw. The claws raked down the side of the Queen and carved deep gouges in her carapace. Taken by surprise, the Queen was slow to respond and before she could turn her gigantic body another swipe ripped a chunk of exo-skeleton away, spraying the air with ichor.
"DEFEND THE QUEEN!" the Colony became frantic at seeing their mother attacked and rushed forward to protect her.
"GET BACK!" the Queen demanded as she faced down the maddened bear. "She does not know what she is doing!"
With her mandibles between them, she was much better able to ward Sarah away, lunging forward to ram the bear and put her off balance. Whilst it prevented her from taking any more serious wounds, everything the Queen did only seemed to drive the bear deeper into her rage, increasing her strength until her claws ignited with a murderous red light that seemed to tear at the fabric of reality, as well as fill the Queen's mind with gibbering voices of anger with every swing. The Colony watched paralysed in the moment as the Queen struggled to fend off the mighty creature, and the golgari, sensing a change in their fortunes, stopped their retreat and waited to see what might happen.