Tiny, Crinis, Invidia, and the twenty guards continue to battle around me, fending off the barrage of demons, but my eyes are fixated on this nasty specimen, the other monsters fading into the background. The others will be able to deal without me for a while at least, but I’m the only one who can go toe to toe with this guy, I can tell. This here is a fully grown demon, like Invidia. When I use Mana Sense to get a touch of his core, I can tell that it’s a touch stronger than mine, which means it’s almost definitely in tier six.
I waggle my antennae mockingly at the demon and clack my mandibles to let him know what I think of his surprise attack. In response, another two of the spear-like tongues appear, one dangling from each arm-mouth. To my disgust, the display doesn’t stop there. Each of the beast’s three tongues extend, twisting through the air until they have risen above the height of my head, arched down to point at me like arrows ready to pierce the air.
Well, that certainly is unpleasant.
I set my legs, and not a moment too soon, as my antennae fire a warning and my body reacts before I can even think.
BOOM!
And again!
BOOM! BOOM!
First one, then the other two spear-like tongues launch in my direction with almost no speed lost due to being extended out of the demon’s mouths. I dodge the first one cleanly, but the moment my opponent sees which direction I’ve taken, the other tongues fire, bending through the air to home in on my position. Only by leaping at the last second do I avoid getting skewered, though the second and third strikes grate against my carapace, once again carving a groove in my beautiful shell.
My sub-minds are working overtime, trying to make use of the Air Mana they’ve already accumulated. Before I land, they fire off two wind blades that are almost invisible to the naked eye. Once again, the demon attempts to flex its tongues, bending them to avoid my spells, but the wide arc of the wind blade is much harder to avoid, and both slash into the tongue, just not deeply.
CLACK! CLACK!
I once more taunt Anga with my mandibles. Not responding to my efforts, the demon continues to advance, retracting its tongues closer to its body and letting the spear tips hover over its head. Despite the first two exchanges going in my favour, my opponent doesn’t seem rushed, quite the opposite. I can almost feel a horrible sense of glee rising from the creature as it narrows the distance between us.
POW! POW! POW!
Unwilling to let him do so for free, I rapid-fire a series of acid blasts whilst also using my main mind to spin together a few Gravity Bolts, drawing them out and weaving them together in record time.
Anga makes no attempt to dodge any of this, the acid connecting with his tar-like covering and sizzling madly. Likewise, the spells strike the demon without him showing any reaction at all, simply continuing his ponderous advance. Not even bothering to dodge? Where does the confidence come from?
Suddenly, a sensation of dizziness rolls over me and my legs shake, overcome by a sense of weakness. I stumble to one side, and the moment I do, my antennae ring loud with warning. He’s about to fire again!
44. Demon Subdued
I rely on my instincts and dodge, my weakened legs firing to get me out of harm’s way. The demon has picked his moment well, striking at the first sign of weakness. I’m not able to get away from all three of the spear strikes, the third one slams into my carapace just in front of my foremost leg on the right side of my body. The force of the impact is stunning, even with my new stats, and my weight is driven backward, though I’m able to keep myself upright.
The hardened tip of the tongue has failed to penetrate through my shell, though it has managed to dig in an inch or two, weakening my carapace in that spot significantly. I unleash the two wind blades I have prepared, and they cut deep into the flesh of the tongue connecting the spear to the main body, but again fail to sever it. Burning bright ichor drips from the wound onto the hot rocks of the third stratum, steam rising as it bubbles to a boil in an instant.
What is this sense of dizziness? Have I been poisoned in some way?
I keep moving, unwilling to remain still, forcing my legs to pump away despite the strange lethargy that has overtaken them. As I weave before the demon, I try to analyse my situation and study the barbed tongue still embedded in my shoulder, hoping to get a glimpse of what ails me. And it hits me what the problem is. Though the very point of the tongue is hardened beyond the strength of steel, the area just behind the tip is different, coated in small sacs that contain a virulently green-looking goop that is leaking onto my carapace. Some sort of venom or toxin? But I was only scratched! Even now, he hasn’t managed to get through my shell and into my bloodstream!
[Invidia! I’ve been poisoned! See what you can do about it!]
With all the practice he’s had lately, during the siege and keeping Tiny alive, Invidia has trained the rank of his Healing Magic at a rapid clip. I know for a fact that with his achievement of the higher ranks, he gained knowledge of ways to deal with poisons and afflictions, which will hopefully be enough to alleviate this situation. For now, I need to get this damn tongue off of me before more of this insidious toxin manages to worm its way into me. Let’s see if he wants to test his tongue against this!
DOOM CHOMP!
The dark energy mandibles manifest as an extension of my own and before they slam shut, Anga has rather predictably chosen not to chance it and pulled his tongue back. Although the fight has turned positively in his direction, the demon seems a touch hesitant to approach too closely now that I’ve revealed the power of the Doom Chomp. He might be willing to soak up the acid damage, but it seems as though my mandibles might be more of a threat than he’s willing to take on. Not that I’m going to give him a choice.
I start to pump Gravity Mana into my mandibles, and they begin to glow with an unearthly purple light, something that my opponent doesn’t fail to notice. He pauses his advance, tongues hovering threateningly. I can immediately tell what he wants. The poison managed to affect me when I barely had any of it on my body, and now he’s managed to pour it onto my carapace with his last attack. If I can’t counteract the effect, then the fight is already over, all he has to do is wait.
[How are you doing, Invidia?]
[The demon toxin isss ssstubborn. Not physssical at all. Mana basssed, it hasss ssseeped into you. I have done what I can for now.]
Mana based? A Mana toxin! I switch on my Mana Sense and direct it inward to reveal that Invidia is totally correct. The disgusting goop that Anga dripped all over me is a medium for delivering the poison rather than the poison itself. A viral form of Mana has leaked out of the stuff and drifted into my body, latching onto my own Mana and corrupting it, disrupting the flow of energy throughout my body. I didn’t even know something like this was possible.
Using his big ol’ brain, Invidia was able to detect the issue and attack the infected energy within my body, breaking it down and dispersing it as best he could. Some traces remain, and given time, they will multiply and replicate the problem, but for now, I’m not in any immediate danger. Not that the demon knows that. I continue to build the Gravity Mana in my mandibles, and I manoeuvre, only to stumble and fall, crashing into the rock of the ramp with a thud.
As I feign weakness and try to push my body off the ground, I can almost feel the malefic glee rising from Anga as his tongues waggle in the air. His thick, chunky legs begin his advance anew with agonizing slowness. I flop and twitch on the ground until I’m confident he’s close enough before I unleash my prepared surprise. The Gravity Mana infused in my mandibles flares to life as I reach out and pull.