“You can take over from us once we push out for the first line,” I tell the waiting general. “For now, just make sure the tunnel is clear and check over the Immortals for injuries as you get situated again. We’ll be here for a half hour or so.”
Not tired at all, I wander this way and that, checking in with everyone and making sure that every ant has the help they need to perform their duties before heading over to the choke point and lending a hand to my crew. It won’t do to tire them out too much, considering we have another stretch of tunnel to push through to get to the first choke point. This lower section of the territory suffered the most during my absence and I’m determined to push back the wave in one fell swoop to make up for it.
After ten minutes, I make my way over to Tiny and Crinis, using my Elemental Magic to lob a few cheap shots into the crowd. That sweet, sweet combat experience is nothing to be looked down on! A cheeky Level here or there, and who knows, I might manage to rank up my Omni-Elemental Magic sometime in the next century.
By the time half an hour is done, the ants have finished repairing the walls to a degree that we feel comfortable turning the defence over to their hands whilst we prepare for the next surge. I head to Leeroy, who’s still collapsed on the ground and nudge her with an antenna.
“What’s the story, Leeroy? Are you rested enough, or do you want me to do this one without you?”
Immediately, her eyes flash with an intense light that takes me aback as she and the rest of the Immortals slowly push themselves off the ground, overtaken by a sudden and unnatural vigour.
“We are ready for this assault and a thousand more! The search is never-ending!”
“Okay, chill!”
Yeesh. Immortals or Zombies? These siblings of mine are creeping me out.
“Then you have a little time, we’ll form up and get ready to run out. One way ticket right up to the first defensive line.”
“Sounds good,” the revived soldier replies.
A quick check on Tiny and Crinis to make sure they’re still prepared to bring the firepower we need, and then we form up ready to go.
“WE SEEK!” roar the Immortals.
“Let’s go!” I cry, setting my legs and then we’re off!
Through the choke point and into the howling madness of the wave we go, putting mandibles and carapace to the test as we smash our way through monster after monster, once more forming that unstoppable landslide of the Colony’s wrath. Nothing can stop us! Nothing can stand before us!
Except that.
I was the first to sense it, being at the front as I am. My antennae tingle with a feeling of otherness, something I’d never felt before. Perhaps if I hadn’t reforged those delicate sensors with the Twilight Filament, I may not have noticed at all until it was too late.
“Hit the brakes!” I scream back at Leeroy.
[STOP!] I simultaneously roar at my pets.
But even as I yell it, I know that the heavily armoured ants won’t be able to stop fast enough. With the weight they carry and the momentum they’ve built up, it will be difficult for them to stop at all. Realising this, I ram my claws into the ground, Gripping for all I’m worth as I swing my body around, placing myself as a physical barrier between the oncoming Immortals and whatever it is I sensed. I brace for a split second before Leeroy rams into my side, followed by the dozens of her sisters.
Impact after impact rocks my carapace and rattles my mandibles as I hold on for dear life. So severe are the shocks that even my diamond carapace starts to crack from the sheer force. Every hit pushes me a little bit closer to that unerring sizzle in the air, and my antennae start to burn, sending ripples of pain down their length as they dip into something they surely don’t like. Finally, the last of the Immortals is brought to a halt as they run into the back of what must look like a ten-car pile-up, ants on top of ants with tons of twisted metal to boot.
“Eldest? What the heck was that?” Leeroy groans.
“Shut up, I sense something bad. You need to get your sisters together and get the heck out of here.”
“What? Why?”
“This isn’t something you can deal with. Leave, now.”
Saying my piece, I turn away from her and face the monster lurking on the edge of the gloom. A vile, poisonous energy ripples in the air around it, chewing into everything it touches. This is an energy not even the demons possess.
“You must be a long way from home, beastie… and I’m guessing you didn’t come for a vacation? May as well give you a warm welcome. After all, it’s a long way from the fifth stratum.”
65. The Stench of Decay
The monster in question cannot detect my pheromones, at least I hope they can’t, so I’m not entirely sure why I bothered to taunt it. Probably to hype myself up for the fight, because just looking at this thing is intimidating. All of my senses scream that something is wrong, and the closer I get to it, the more my body protests. My antennae ripple with a sensation of pain, as though the air itself has become toxic. To my Mana Sense, it appears as if the energy surrounding the creature is being… infected, for want of a better word. Changing from the familiar Shadow and Death Mana to become something completely different.
As the flow of energy eddies and swirls, that pulsing green and yellow disperses the farther from the source it gets, but even small amounts seem to be having an effect. Everywhere it’s touched, the corals and other small living things in the shadows have started to die, wilting as if they’d been sprayed with weedkiller. It’s a shocking sight. A type of Mana that kills with merely its sheer presence? From what I can detect, the monster hasn’t cast an actual spell of any kind, it’s simply exuding this virulent Mana in a steady flow, and the Mana does the rest…
Just what sort of Mana is it? Surely nothing as simple as poison?
The creature prowls in the darkness just beyond the range my eyes can see well. The face is frog-like, but the mouth is too wide, and the eyes far too large. Beyond that, I can’t make much out other than its limbs are thin and wiry, almost weirdly so when compared to the size of its face. It’s big, though, possibly close to my own length, if not close to my mass.
My first encounter with a monster from the legendary stratum of infection. I sure as heck hope I don’t catch anything gross from it.
[Invidia, I want you on healing and backup. Keep a close eye on the Mana around the monster. I have a real bad feeling about it.]
[I sssshallll.]
[Tiny and Crinis, I want you two to pull back a bit. This is a tougher fight than you’re ready for, and until I know more about these monsters, I don’t want to risk you.]
[But, Master—!]
[GRRRR.]
[Absolutely not! I’m far stronger than you are, so I’m the one who will bear the risk. And if you think I’m going to let you run in and get yourself killed after I’ve put in so much effort keeping you alive, Tiny, then you are completely mad! Now move back, both of you!]
Unable to refuse my order, the two retreat a few metres. I put them out of my mind, focusing all my attention on the beast in front of me. I take a few measured steps as my considerable brainpower starts to tick into overdrive. What magic should I use to counter it? How will it attack? Being able to fight against so many new foes recently has been a real treat after the endless varieties of shadow beast I’ve dealt with over the previous weeks, and this one promises to be special. A creature from a whole new stratum!