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Chapter 1462 - Treachery of Slime
🕑 Added 2024-10-09 01:00:06 +0000 UTCIt was difficult for the Colony and the Krath to understand each other. In fact, our nature and theirs were truly incompatible. They could not understand our unity, could not imagine living with our unconditional trust. Likewise, their suspicion and competitive instinct were incomprehensible to us. Bickering, infighting, betrayal and backstabbing, it was baffling to us that they managed to get anything done at all.
It’s difficult to know for certain, but I can say with confidence that the Colony developed a level of respect for the Krath. Not for what they did, how they did it, or why, but for how effective they were at doing it. The Colony cares about getting things done, and the Krath were ruthless to a level we had never seen before, willing to sacrifice almost anything to achieve their aims.
It was a lesson we learned well.
- From the personal notes of Historiant.
Zluth was dismissed for a time, then recalled several hours later. He found a bloated, angry Chozth, sliding back and forth while her inside council watched fearfully.
It wasn’t hard to determine what had occurred, and Zluth was quite pleased. Someone was always going to pay the price for failure, even a slight one, and it hadn’t been him, a victory.
“It appears your assessment of the hunters was accurate,” Chozth burbled without preamble. “Even to the end, they blamed your cowardice for failing to capture the monster.”
Zluth eye’s almost jumped from their stalks. His cowardice? The acid within his flesh began to hiss in response to his anger.
“Why does anyone doubt the severity of what we face?” he hissed.
They faced a force of unified species, an almost unheard of union of their greatest enemies, along with this species of… ants, who seemed so well engineered to tackle the climate of the fifth and take on the challenges of adapting the environment to suit the needs of the invaders. Along with the hideous, wobbly abominations who produced the blue mana, it was clear that the threat was severe.
“I have to agree,” Chozth said, chewing furiously. “I have ordered that any who underestimate our foes to report to the nearest blubbeast for immediate consumption.”
“Do you believe anyone will do that?”
“Of course not, but it makes them aware of the consequences,” Chozth growled. Then she eyed Zluth sideways.
“We had another scouting team report, shortly after yours, from the other side of the invasion.”
“Did they find something interesting?” he asked, interested.
“A full Legion has taken up residence in some of the tunnels.”
Zluth sucked in air as his flesh began to visibly writhe with the strength of his anger.
“The Legion?” he hissed furiously. “Here in strength?!”
“Yes, they are. Along with everyone else. This is something we’ve never seen before. There are no legends among the Thuuz that speak of anything like this incursion, and we have recorded many.”
This was interesting, infuriating, but more than anything else: dangerous. Why was the renowned warleader Chozth confiding in him like this? He doubted she had overcome her innate distrust of outsiders to her tribe, or was suddenly convinced of his competence because he’d managed to have his underlings suffer the consequences of their mistakes.
So why?
His mind spun. What did she want? What was she going to ask him to do?
“You want to elevate my role, don’t you?” he asked, turning to face the powerful Krath’lath head on.
It was the only thing that made sense.
She nodded, pleased. “I need more Krath who are willing to face up to the reality of our enemy. Half the Krath here think their anger and fury is enough, but that’s never been enough for us to win. We have to be cunning, ruthless, savage and merciless. That is how the Krath win. I want to take these invaders apart, piece by piece. I want it all to crumble as we hound them to their breaking point.”
Zluth bared his fangs in an evil grin.
“I am the Krath’lath you seek.”
“Not just a Krath’lath any longer. You are a Krath’sizz, a war leader, under my direct command.”
Zluth felt his flesh sizzle as a sense of triumph surged through him. This was what he’d wanted, a chance to lead, a chance to prove his worth. He wouldn’t be a minor player as the story of this invasion played out, but a pivotal piece. It would be Zluth who brought the enemies of the Krath tribes to heel and made them beg for mercy.
Chozth waited, aware of the emotions surging through the young slug in front of her. He was promising, this one, but overly ambitious. It was yet to be seen whether that ambition was matched to real ability. There were signs, but if he failed, she could point to him as an example of the weakness infesting the smaller tribes and appoint more of her own slugs. If he succeeded, she would have a new, powerful tool at her disposal, one who owed her a favour.
“I want you to pick out twenty Krath to act as your war party,” she instructed him. “Return to the tunnels, along with a scout group I will place under your command. I want you to pressure these interlopers. I want you to start to squeeze. We have to find weaknesses, we have to find holes, and we need to find them soon.
“Look for patterns, look for anything predictable, look for anything we can exploit. Most of all, get me a prisoner. If we can preserve one, and put them in the slime, we will have everything we need to break them.”
“I will get results,” he promised, still flushed with triumph. Then a sly thought occurred to him. “What are the expected casualty rates of these missions?”
“I need every capable Krath ready and available to fight,” she growled. Then she laughed wickedly. “Gug gug gug! Incapable Krath are much more… dispensable.”
“In that case, I have a few I would like as part of my war party,” Zluth grinned, thinking of the guard he had run into.
He would be a successful leader, but vengeance was required of him, otherwise, he wouldn’t be Krath.
Comments
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter!
evyatar
Which… if he wasn’t the main character is a huge weakness, as the only ant that can go outside the pure mana by kidnapping an ant they can lead Antony to an ambush because he will chase, nd the further away from the colony his healing weakens
CentaureHeart
If an ant gets captured, Anthony is going to lose it, especially since it would be the second time.
evyatar
You are probably right, the current legion is known and cautious but their first contact with the fifth layer, they didn’t know what to expect, although currently the legions that come into contact with the fifth are ‘veteran’ which I guess means experienced tribunes who got training in the fifth and are told what, such as strict tight formations, mages and all that, no prisoners policy for their own, but… the karth are cunning and idk, succeed every few centuries, and especially a few thousand years back where the tactics to deal with the fifth weren’t developed yet, we also know the fifth karth sometimes lead raids to the fourth for fun, and the legion is stationary holding the entrances, I would expect a greedy karth here and there managed some ambush
Hayden Leech
And in the thousands of years the legion has been in the fifth battling the Krath they haven’t figured out about lapis vitae? They’ve never had losses? The krath prioritize taking prisoners alive. I can’t imagine those secrets wouldn’t have been discovered long ago. As well as the secrets any low rank golgari and the silver city soldier/church of the path might have access to. I’d bet folk have had members corrupted as well. Any secrets that a standard combatant would have access too would be basically an open secret to the krath. We know the tree folk have had many losses to the krath too. Am I being silly? These things are fucking ruthless. I doubt they have just been getting their collective asses kicked by the fourth stratum factions for eons and if they catch even one of them and put them in these slime pits they would HAPPILY share every secret they know.
Rahsheem Reid
Yeah, no
Khajar
Maybe the legionaries self-destruct in case of capture, just like the Krath themselves do.
Hayden Leech
Think of it this way. The President of the United States compared to the President of Uruguay. Both presidents… but very different levels of power.
alt31415
Even just "We become legionairies by bathing in liquid mana" is one of their tightly-kept secrets that all legionaires know. They don't gotta know stratum-encompassing battle plans to be a serious intel-leak.
Hayden Leech
Would they have real secrets? I’d expect the legion to practice rigid compartmentalization and information control for anything genuinely important. Especially the ones they send into the fifth, where there are known methods to convert even the strongest of minds to Krath purpose. The krath must have grabbed legionaries in the past and made them sing. They have been in the fifth for a Looong time. I doubt they would get anything about the Legion they don’t know already. Do the grunts of this legion know more than you would expect from any soldier? I don’t mean the tribunes or anyone in command. Just any front lines sword swinger.
RinoZ
Getting the secrets out of a LEGIONARY is low stakes?!
Merf
They’re not equal in rank. Chotzh is the Krath’lath of a much larger and far stronger tribe, which in their terms makes them higher on the food chain. Literally. That’s why they were introduced in the Krath assembly as the ones in the centre and the ones taking charge
Brandon14754
He's leader of a small half ruined tribe, she's leader of one of the biggest tribes in this section of the dungeon. Even if their rank is technically the same probably one squad of her tribe could crush his entire tribe.
BelligerentGnu
Feels a little weird that Zluth is acting like Chozth has authority over him, given their equal rank. I'd expect a bit more posturing. He's a cool enemy though.
Hayden Leech
I would love to see the interrogation after the krath snatch and convert a legionary and learn about The Colony. Can’t be an ant or they would start producing queens right? But a human is low stakes.
alt31415
Focused, cold efficiency and teamwork vs sheer literally-gut-melting hatred. Finally, a worthy opponent. Their battle shall be legendary!
MrMarauder
You know, I'm actually starting to like these Krath. Reborn as a Krath anyone? 🤣
Sean
Missing 1461?
Panda
Duplicate post
