[Hold on for a little longer, then we’ll fall back and make a break for the second stratum! Alright? If anyone is struggling, make sure you let Invidia know!]
“I really don’t think you should stay here, Eldest!” Protectant appears to tell me in person, her antennae twitching in all directions as she nips forward to bite at the legs and joints of the demons near Tiny. “This situation is too unstable, there’s no need to take the risk!”
“We’re alright,” I tell her, forcing my exhausted body to keep moving as yet another demon fronts up to me, charging toward my much larger frame with reckless abandon. “Just hang on a little longer and then we’ll retreat. We’d be fine if all of you were tier five already…”
“Is this really the time for that, Eldest?”
Probably not, but the slow progress of my security guards is getting frustrating. The demon slashes with its claws and I blast it in the chest with a condensed burst of air, sending its wiry frame flying through the air and over the edge of the ramp. It’s a quick and painless way to deal with the enemy, though it doesn’t work nearly as well on the heavier ones.
As we continue to battle hard, it’s clear that we’re being forced to give ground as the press of demons only grows thicker with the passage of time. For every one we put down, another two are ready to take their place. Even if the bulk of them are only tier three or four, in this environment they’re much tougher, moving faster and hitting harder than when we fought them above.
“ROOOOOOAAAAR!” A rumbling bellow ripples through the air and my antennae whip around as I try to work out where the heck that came from.
From below? Over the edge of the bridge, I see a massive arm covered in dripping black tar reach up and dig into the stone, thick muscles bulging to haul the rest of the monster up to the top of the pillar.
[We’ve got a big one here, guys! Keep your eyes peeled!] I tell my desperately fighting pets.
The spark of battle ignites in Tiny’s eyes anew when he spots the enormous demon cresting the pillar, a broad grin splitting his bat features.
[You stay here!] I order him. [This one’s mine!]
Seriously, how would any of his species survive without a babysitter?
Heedless of the smaller demons crushed by its bulk, the newcomer smashes its arms down and lifts the rest of its massive body into view and I get my first glimpse of the full creature. It’s huge, bigger than Tiny, bigger than me, bigger even than the Queen. Clearly, this one is built heavily around its physical stats. The monster has thick slabs of muscle that remind me of Garralosh. The sheer overwhelming physical presence is also similar.
Two squat, powerful legs hold up its concrete wall of a frame. The monster is hunched at the shoulders, its head little more than an open circular mouth ringed with teeth. At the end of each of its absurdly thick arms aren’t the hands or fingers I would have expected to see. There’s two more mouths, just as wide and lined with barbed teeth as the one in its head. Its whole body drips with black tar that steams and sizzles against the hot stone beneath its feet. No two ways about it, this dude is ugly.
Having gotten its feet under it, the monster reaches lazily with one arm, the muscles in its forearm twitching strangely. Faster than my eyes can see, a spear-like tongue is launched forward, piercing its target in an instant. The poor victim is dragged back into the arm, its body vanishing into that horrific ringed maw as the arm bulges grotesquely around it.
Not only is it ugly, it’s nasty! What is up with these demons? Its meal complete, the giant monster starts to move forward, clearly intent on mounting the ramp and ascending to the second stratum. Then it lays eyes on me and my group.
“A FEAST?” it bellows with mad joy. “INSECT. I WILL WELCOME YOU INTO MY GULLET!”
It can talk? Is this thing tier six! A chill rolls over my carapace. Please tell me it’s not higher than that…
43. Demon Fight!
When I hear that deep, taunting voice emanating from somewhere within the demon, I almost reflexively start spinning together a Mind Bridge, my automatic reaction whenever someone speaks to me whom I can’t talk back with naturally. In only a few seconds, the connection snaps into place and the demon regards me coolly, bringing its horrific face to align with me.
[A smart bug? How interesting!]
The mind of the demon is as repellent as its voice. There is a roiling sense of frenetic energy and desperate need hidden beneath an oil slick surface of grease. Every thought I brush against seems to stick to me like a rancid smell. It is… deeply unpleasant. Talking to Invidia is nothing like this. He may be a single-minded little eyeball, but there isn’t this terrible sense of otherness to him. Is this the difference between a demon raised in captivity and one raised in the wild?
[Who are you calling a bug?] I retort, snapping my mandibles in anger. [What’s your deal anyway? I thought only the weaklings were climbing up here, what business do you have poking your gross face about?]
The demon takes slow steps forward as it leers at me, another spear-like tongue drooping out of the central mouth, swaying with its movement.
[You address me, bug? It’s not often the food talks back. Will you struggle? Will you writhe and scream for me? Are you delicious? The city is ever-hungry, and you might be the morsel they are looking for.]
Just. Gross. The novelty of finding another monster smart enough to converse, and the wealth of information that it might hold, are almost not enough for me to resist cutting the connection. This thing has such an alien way of thinking that exchanging words with it is almost enough to make me sick.
[You want to eat me, demon? Are you sure you won’t become food yourself? How about you step back, and we have a little chat before you do something you’ll regret? Tell me a little about this city, where might it be found, for example?]
Despite having a circular mouth, I can tell the demon is grinning as that barbed tongue lolls.
[Anga plays with food, but Anga does not discuss with food. If you want answers, come and take them, little bug.]
It has a name? Before I can get my thoughts together to try and keep communicating, the beast cuts the mind link itself, the feedback making me flinch for a crucial moment. A cruel gleam flashes in the creature’s eyes, ringed around its terrible mouth, and in that moment of weakness, it stretches forward one of its arms and blasts its spear-tongue at me.
Even with my mind rattled, my antennae do their work and I sense the projectile a moment before it is even released. Nerves across my body fire in sync, sending my large frame sliding to one side and causing the spear to merely graze the side of my carapace before embedding itself more than two feet into the stone behind me.
Yikes! Even though it was just a graze, I can tell the tongue managed to scrape off a layer of my precious diamond carapace. A direct hit might not go straight through, but it would surely hurt!
Quick as a flash, I attempt to snap my mandibles down on the trailing, fleshy cord that connects the spear back to the monster’s mouth. It’s a disgusting, sinewy connection of pale meat that I really would rather not bite, but robbing Mr Anga of one of his primary weapons seems like a sensible play.
CHOMP!
My eyes almost boggle out of my head as the tongue flexes and twists away from my mandibles, avoiding my bite by centimetres. Are you telling me the whole thing is prehensile? It can move and bend the whole way along its length? Before I can get a chance to bite again, the tongue grows taut and in a flash is wound back into the huge demon’s mouth.