[Hold on a second, Sarah. I might have just had an idea.]
I pull a few of my mental constructs away from the constant manipulation of Earth Mana and put them back onto gravity duty, except this time, I invert it. A reverse Gravity Domain. It’s tricky as heck to pull off, but with that much combined brain power on the job, I figure it out.
The purple sphere expands outwards from me, lightening everything it touches. Even compressed, the mana can’t power the domain enough to lift the rock entirely, but it’s enough to lighten the load.
[Is that you, Master?]
[Yeah, I thought it might help.]
[It is! Keep going.]
[Right, let’s try and meet up. Stay put, Tiny. We’ll dig to you. Have you managed to solidify that area, Invidia?]
[Yessssssss.]
[Great. Alright, Sarah, give me a second and I’ll clear some space for you, then we can dig together.]
I have to move quick, the termites are wriggling all over the rock, thousands of them now. With a few great swipes of my mandibles, I clear enough room for Sarah to squeeze through, and then the two of us are squashed together in a very cramped area.
[Right! This way!]
[Okay!]
With the two of us digging together, and the load being significantly lightened by the domain, we make excellent progress, only having to pause a few times to squish a termite before we manage to make contact with Tiny. The big ape is healing nicely under the careful ministrations of Invidia, but the gorilla is looking a little crestfallen.
[Don’t worry about it, Tiny,] I try to encourage him. [Just, maybe the next time you want to punch something, think about whether or not it’s going to fall on your head and maybe crush you. Okay?]
That’s a lot of thinking to do before he applies his fists to something, at least for Tiny, but he nods morosely as he accepts the wisdom of my words. Perhaps not getting crushed under hundreds of tons would have been better. As a result, he hasn’t been able to uppercut anything for almost ten minutes!
I can practically feel the thoughts turning over in my first pet’s brain, but I refrain from thwacking him for the time being. I get the feeling that positive reinforcement works better than thwacks for Tiny. Besides, his skull is so hard now since his tier six evolution that hitting him is more likely to break my antenna than anything else!
[Crinis, are you here?]
[One second…]
The shadows around us deepen into blacker than black before a tentacle pops through, followed by more. Luckily, they compress themselves down until Crinis herself emerges in the centre, squished into a volleyball-sized shape with three little mouths hissing around her circumference.
[Alright, we’re all on together again. Good work, team. Now we need to figure out what to do next. Any ideas, gang? How about you, Sarah? …Sarah?]
The bear jumps a little.
[Oh. Sorry. I thought I heard something?]
141. Colony vs Colony, Part 15
Interesting…
[If you hear something weird, let me know. For now, we need to focus on not getting killed.]
[Yes,] the great bear shakes her head, [you’re right, of course.]
With the crew back together, we’re in a better position to resist, but the pressure rapidly begins to mount. Our opponents are digging constantly, creating tunnels to reach us under the rubble, and I can feel that they have us completely surrounded. Perhaps as many as a hundred thousand of the filthy, soul-sucking insects are all around us, ready to rend my precious, shiny carapace and extract the juicy Biomass within. There must be as many as ten ka’armodo in the area to control and direct this horde. They must be extremely confident to put themselves out on a limb like this. The thought occurs to me that one Gravity Bomb right now would cripple the entire termite force and ensure victory for the Colony.
But unlike Leeroy, I don’t think that way. I intend to win this war and live to mock every lizard I see. Even normal ones. If I see a gecko scurrying up the wall after this is all done, I’ll give it a serve.
My minds continue to churn, heating up under the constant pressure applied from being used so hyper-efficiently. Each brain is doing the work of three or four thanks to the mind constructs, and without the aid of the Vestibule, they’d be just about cooked already. It’s been worth it, we finally have some space in which to work, which is especially crucial for Tiny. Crinis and I are pretty happy fighting covered in dirt, we can handle it just fine, but without room to swing, the big ape is just a sitting duck. Invidia too can’t be his usual explosive self in such tight confines. Truth be told, he still doesn’t have enough room. If he starts letting the explosions go in here, he’ll hit us just as much as the enemy.
[Let’s form up,] I tell the others. [Tight formation, but we need to keep working our way toward the nearest tunnel. It’s about forty metres that way,] I point with an antenna. [It’s already swarming with termites, but we’ll have more room to work with.]
[I can sense more coming, Master!]
[Right, brace for impact, people, this is going to get ugly.]
Seconds later, the invasion begins in earnest as jaws scissor through the hardened earth I’d prepared and the hate-filled eyes of the enemy soon follow.
Void Chomp!
As a small pack bursts through the wall just in front of me, I’m ready to meet them. My most powerful bite obliterates them, but already more are dropping from above. Sarah rears up and swipes two straight out of the air, and Tiny combos with her, delivering a devastating upper before they hit the ground. A satisfied gleam appears in Tiny’s eyes as he lands his first clean punch for a while.
[Just don’t bring the roof down on us again,] I warn him.
I really want to bring more of my new spells into play, but the situation is making doing so difficult. If we can last long enough for me to manufacture the right situation, then there might be a chance to pull some shenanigans. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Tentacles erupt from the darkness as Crinis goes to work in the tiny tunnels the termites have dug. She does her best to limit the flow of reinforcements, but with literally thousands of bodies pushing their way in, there’s only so much she can do to stem the tide. It almost feels like it’s raining termites as they begin to burrow through all around us, leaping from the openings they create to dive down and attack us.
The fight disintegrates into a messy brawl. Even if we can dispatch the termites as quickly as they come to us, the Biomass has nowhere to go, and our little chamber is becoming choked with it. I keep tunnelling to one side with my minds, recruiting Invidia to try and speed the process up, but there’s only so much we can do. More and more termites flood in, gnashing and biting with mad glee. I’m beginning to get an idea of why it’s such a pain to fight against ants.
Putting up with this is a massive kick in the nards! The numbers are endless and there’s nowhere to go!
Biting, chomping, ramming, and butting heads directly with the enemy are all I can do in the compressed melee as I desperately try to escape being overwhelmed. Out of sheer necessity, I unleash multiple Void Chomps in close succession, clearing away space but dropping my stamina dangerously low. It’ll take time for those reserves to replenish, time we might not have.
At least I buy myself enough room that I can turn to the new tunnel we’re working on and start chomping my way through it with my jaws. When brainpower doesn’t meet the challenge, the only option that remains is to put my mandibles to the task!
[Everyone, this way!] I yell to the others and they pile in behind me, cramming into the small space.