If I get any more sparkly, they’ll think I’m a vampire. The lame kind! But I do love my Diamond Carapace. After my evolution, the first thing I’m going to upgrade is my carapace to get MOAR diamonds! Gwehehehe. The birth of the crystal ant is not far away!
Slow and purposeful, my team of scouts and I creep ever closer to the enemy. No magic assault at all in this attack, in case we’re detected. The horde appears lifeless and their behaviour is off-putting. Whatever it is that controls these monsters, I don’t like it.
We’ve still not been sighted. Things are looking good so far.
I’m actually not the ant in the front for this manoeuvre. Wills put herself out there since so many of her fellow scouts are the first in the firing line for this plan. I can see her now, a little larger than the other scouts due to her inflated stats, ahead of me and to the left.
Wait!
She paused!
Slowly, the lead scout begins to raise her business district into the sky, huddling her lower body toward the ground until her acid barrage is primed to fly like the third quarter profits, in a high arc. At this signal, the rest of the scouts and myself form up into a line with Wills, and assume the same aggressive posture.
Time for a hostile takeover.
Despite being covered in darkness and utilising our Stealth Skills to their limits, we are still treated to the drill instructor-like shouting of Wills as she organises her scouts.
“Not yet, you scum! Why are you so impatient? Are you scouts or are you larvae? Form up the line! Wait for my signal!” she harangues her troops.
I assume she’s not talking to me, at least. If she was, I might have to have words…
POW!
Along with a pheromone shout of “NOW!” Wills unleashes the first shot of the barrage. One which is quickly followed by dozens more.
POW! POW! POW! POW!
I fire my acid at a steady pace, aiming for power and distance as opposed to accuracy or concentration. The acid arcs high and separates into a wider spray as it falls, reducing the concentration of damage. We don’t really care. The horde is so large and dense, that every bit of acid we unleash will land on something.
A dull, muted thump resounds as the acid bursts out, fortunately too quiet a noise to reveal our position. Just like a new product being launched with a stealth marketing campaign. A torrent of acid is in the air before the first of it lands, alerting the enemy to our attack. The sizzle of flesh and the roars and groans of monsters are the first signs that battle has begun.
At first, the enemy isn’t able to spot our position and the monsters mill about, confused and angry. I gleefully continue to empty my acid gland along with my siblings.
POW! POW!
Eat acid, suckers!
Then things change.
A light erupts, blazing into existence above the horde with an intensity that blinds me before it fades a little, allowing me to see. As my vision focuses, three great balls of light now hang in the air above the horde, illuminating the surroundings and stripping us ants of our Stealth.
We’re exposed!
“Run for it!” I shout to the scouts as the horde turns to face us and charge, hungry to feast on ant flesh.
90. The Third Ambush, Part 3
Exposed by the light, the scouts retreat after my order, taking advantage of their now rear-facing commercial zones to fire a few parting shots as the monsters charge toward us. I position myself between the enemy and the retreating scouts, knowing I can take more punishment than my siblings, and hoping to absorb some enemy fire.
The monsters look a touch angry. Let off the hook from their zombie control and endless walking, they’ve clearly embraced the opportunity to massacre the ants with gusto. Unfortunately for them, I don’t plan on allowing that to happen.
The worrying sign is the blazing lights in the sky. Clear evidence that the Lizard Wizard and attendants are taking a direct hand in the battle for the first time. There’s a gnawing sense of anxiety in my gut as I have to consider what else they may do. Lights in the sky are annoying but not exactly terrifying.
Not willing to get surrounded, I run at a right angle to the horde, distracting a number of monsters and forcing them to chase after me. To keep them angry, I use a Dash to charge toward the closest monster and sever it in twain with a savage Bite before Dashing away, the claws and teeth of creatures scraping on my carapace.
Gwehehehe. Can’t catch me, you slugs!
Of course, at that moment a golden fence springs into existence in front of me.
And not just me, it cut off half the retreating scouts from the woods and safety. What the hell? Where the heck did this thing come from?
Illuminated by the burning lights, two of the lizard’s servants appear on either side of the fence. How the heck they got there, I’ve no idea. Perhaps they’d been there all along, just waiting for us to move past them so they could spring this trap.
This doesn’t look good!
My heart pounds in my thorax against the danger we’re in. The scouts are trying to bite the wall or climb over it, but nothing affects it. Their mandibles and legs can’t find any purchase and the ants are left with no option but to hurl themselves in the hopes that it might break. Behind us, the horde roars with hunger, sensing the kill between their jaws.
“Dig under it! Now, now, now!” I bellow, spinning at such a high speed, my claws scratch through in the dirt.
POW! POW! POW!
The last of my acid blasts out and splatters against the magic fence line in three separate locations. Please work, you stupid acid. We need this right now!
I don’t have time to wait and see how it goes, I need to save as many of the scouts as I can. My sub-brains have been hard at work since the moment the wall sprang up, throwing themselves into action before I’d even thought to direct them. Gravity Mana is pulling out of my gland and pumping into the complex construct that is the Gravity Domain.
This is gonna hurt, dammit…
The roar of the horde is deafening. The heat rolling off the monsters, hungry for Biomass, buffets into my antennae and the future glimpses of each monster I see are enough to make me dizzy. I shut it all out. None of that is important. I breathe out slowly, and charge directly into the face of the enemy.
Leeroy would be proud.
I slam into the first monsters, my mass and momentum enough to batter them out of the way. Then more come, and even more. Claws, teeth, spikes, mandibles, all of them grasp hold of my limbs and scrape against my precious, shiny carapace, chipping into my HP. Almost three-hundred-and-sixty-degrees of sight, and all of it is monsters right now!
I pump my mandibles furiously, the jaws of light arcing out and severing multiple monsters into pieces. Yet no matter how many I destroy, there are thousands more behind them. Come on, mini-brains, I need that spell!
I have to endure the battering for several more seconds before the spell finally manifests. The blessed purple light expands out of my body in a delicious hemisphere that pushes down on every enemy inside it with a firm hand.
Yes!
I shake myself like a dog shaking water out of its coat and the monsters climbing over me are knocked clear, unable to hold onto me and contest with the added weight. Nice to have all that added weight roll off my back! The second I’m free, I Dash. I have to get some separation from these beasts. No matter how powerful I am, if I try and take on tens of thousands of monsters at once, I’m going to get worn down and chomped into paste. If enough of them surround me, they’ll grab onto my legs and pile on top of me until I can’t move, forced to wait to get eaten.