Chrysalis - Chapter 1374

The Krath left their captives behind, safely secured within their living nets, and swarmed onward. The mass of monsters they had driven into their attackers was starting to run out of momentum, yet there was life in it still. Zluth watched carefully as he slid toward the defenders once more.

Confident that the invaders were pressed and unable to strike back, more of his fellow Krath were taking risks, exposing themselves in ways they never would have normally.

With a piercing clicking sound, he summoned his war party to him, waiting for them to gather before speaking.

"Be careful as we advance," he warned them. "Something doesn't quite feel right."

He could see they were feeling just as high-spirited as the others, but at his warning, they narrowed their eyes and nodded, accepting his word. Cunning and self-preservation were deep-running instincts for the Krath, and his warning had poured cold water on an overly-exuberant and uncautious atmosphere.

The more he slid forward, the more his feeling of disquiet grew. The ants were still engaged in a fighting retreat, and there had been dozens of captives taken, but there were precious few casualties. When he tried to examine the unfolding battle dispassionately, he realised that although it looked like the invaders were desperate, with multiple punctures in their battle line, those gaps weren't widening as time passed.

Finally, he watched Chozth. The leader of the Krath in this war effort continued to exhort her followers to push, to destroy the platform pumping out toxic mana, but she herself had not moved much at all. In fact, as Zluth slid onward with his war party, Chozth was growing further and further away, hurling blasts of acid and demanding more from her followers.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Something is wrong," Zluth muttered. "Something is very wrong."

His mind churned even as he supported the battle, shooting slime and acid to assist the monsters still frenzying at the boundary of the blue mana. What was happening? What was the play? There was danger all around him, but he couldn't tell where it was coming from.

Was it the mana?

The blue field of toxin was rallying against the influx of natural fifth stratum energy, but he couldn't see any sign that the Krath were going to get cut off. Indeed, the blue energy was still retreating. If that wasn't it... what could it be?

The ants?

That confusion scattered like moss in the wind as the giant ant fully revealed itself, clacking its mandibles in a steady, intimidating rhythm.

Zluth raced across the ground, pushing his foot to its absolute limits. He knew what was about to come, and if he didn't get far enough away, there would be no escape whatsoever.

With an audible thwump, the strange field snapped into being, and everything in the tunnel became flattened, smashed into the floor with inevitable force.

But not Zluth.

He and his war party were clear, they'd covered enough distance! Yet the triumph that surged in his flesh was short-lived, as he saw what was waiting before him.

"CHOZTH!" he roared.

The leader turned her eyes on him.

"LOOK!"

She followed his arms and looked behind her, hesitating for a brief moment as she failed to see what had riled up her subordinate. Then she noticed.

Slowly, but with increasing speed, roots were beginning to emerge from the walls of the tunnel. Not just the walls; the floor and ceiling as well. In a matter of minutes, they would seal off the path of retreat completely.

"RETREAT!" Chozth bellowed. "FULL RETREAT!"

It was a trap!