“This is certainly dire. We will do everything we can. You will not die while a single one of us lives.”
My antennae quiver, on the verge of delivering my justice, but I control myself. I can’t blame these twenty for their attitudes, they were basically brainwashed into it from the moment they were born. If only I’d gotten to them first and instilled my own brainwashing of self-preservation!
“As if I’d let you die first,” I mock. “Just watch, I’ll leap in slow motion to catch a bite that was meant for you. It’s going to be super dramatic, so wait for it.”
Tiny and Sarah have almost reached the front of the wave. Their charge is gaining momentum, and the two of them are positively crackling with energy. Tiny still has enough juice in the tank to raise his fur and coat his arms in writhing bolts of lightning. Wings unfurled, he almost floats as he bounds forward, his fists aglow with power. Sarah is a rather more intimidating sight. The great bear almost looks bigger than normal as glowing red energy burns in her eyes and coats her claws. In the back of her throat, the endless roar has begun to rumble out, growing in volume every second.
More than anything else, the roar tells me she’s thrown herself completely into the rage. She knows she can’t hold anything back. Even if she’s buried beneath a mountain of termites, in that condition, she’ll just keep fighting until she literally can’t move anymore.
Just before the two sides slam into each other, Tiny peels back his lips and unleashes his ear-splitting scream. The sound is deafening; like a lightning bolt, it shatters the air and overwhelms everything within range. Almost comically, the wall of termites rushing at them freezes for a split-second, the monsters stumbling over each other as they lose momentum at the last moment.
Similar to ants, termites don’t actually have much in the way of hearing. And just like us, they are very sensitive to vibrations. In fact, some breeds of termite are known to spread alarms by banging their heads into tunnel walls, alerting their nests to potential danger. Their fine-tuned sense is now turned against them as Tiny unleashes his rage.
The two giant monsters crash into the wall of termites like an avalanche. His fist drawn all the way back, Tiny steps gracefully forward, his body rotating in perfect harmony to deliver the biggest right-cross of his life. A fist of pure energy materialises and drives into the monsters like the fist of God, crushing hundreds in a single blow. For her part, Sarah acts much as one would expect an enraged berserker bear to act. She simply ploughs directly into the enemy, biting, roaring, and slashing with her claws. In moments, she is out of sight, literally buried under a mountain of termites.
We can still hear her, though. Even where she is, the roar she emits never ends. Not to mention the truly horrifying sound of her claws as they rend everything in her path.
[That’s the basic idea. Are you ready, Crinis?]
[I will unleash everything that I have. Wish me luck, Master.]
[Of course! Make us all proud.]
With a final ripple of joy, Crinis sends her main body into the shadow, vanishing from in front of me. Then the forest begins to emerge. Crinis has a limited amount of shadow flesh, and under normal circumstances she reserves it to replenish her tentacles as they are destroyed. After all, despite its many advantages, shadow flesh isn’t high on the Toughness scale. Normally it isn’t a benefit for her to use all of her reserves to manifest extra tentacles, but her dedication in learning tentacle-fu has paid dividends. Now that her control has reached rank six, she’s able to handle more than ever before!
From the shadows around us, an endless stream of writhing limbs emerges, twisting around each other before they extend directly at the onrushing termites! Despite Invidia’s best efforts, the left front is still looking grim. His laser has been expended and needs time to power up, and though his explosions are effective against the densely packed termites, there’s simply too many for him to handle alone.
The wave of monsters meets the forest of tentacles head-on, and the result is a grind-fest that only a horror enthusiast could enjoy. Tentacles grapple and grind as the termites bite and chew, neither side willing to give an inch. In the midst of it all, Crinis emerges with her real body, her three maws feasting on every ounce of Biomass they can reach.
With a constant supply of Biomass, she’ll be able to replenish her shadow flesh at a decent clip, though it’ll still take hours. Let’s hope we don’t have to hold out that long. I uproot my feet from the floor of the tunnel and shake out my legs.
“Time to get in there, gang,” I tell my defenders before I turn to observe the two fronts. “Now to pick which side needs my attention.”
My mana might be dry, but I’m packed full of stamina. Time to chomp!
146. Colony vs Colony, Part 20
To battle against so many is a difficult thing. Constantly on the move, even within such a tight space, I work my mandibles furiously. Chomp, chomp, chomp! Occasionally I mix in a Void Chomp to clear away space, each devastating bite enough to disintegrate a dozen termites at once, more if they pack close enough.
If I could commit and go closer, I might defeat a hundred with a single chomp, but I would risk being surrounded and overwhelmed. I’m not willing to bury myself under an infinite number of termites like Sarah is, I need to keep hitting and running.
Speaking of the Asura Bear, I can still hear her roar. It builds and builds, even though she’s literally covered in monsters. Not sure who I feel sorry for. I have no doubt she’s getting torn up in there, but all that does is make her madder. The crunch of her jaws when she bites and the slash of her claws when she swipes give me shivers. No matter how thick the termite swarm, the sounds just keep coming.
Every time I think I have a good grasp on just how strong she is, I realise I’ve underestimated her.
Just how much physical strength does she have? It’s insane! The sheer weight bearing down on her is beyond counting, yet she’s still fighting in there like nothing is happening? Hello? Sarah? Can you help me make sense of that for a minute?! I know it has something to do with her “Rage Engine” or whatever the hell organ turns on her berserk mode.
Despite how impressive it is, I keep in mind that she’s also taking damage. The longer this goes on, the more she’s going to get hurt and the closer she’ll come to death. I knew this would be a dangerous, all-or-nothing type of gamble, but it was never my intention to put Sarah into the deep end. I’d hoped to be the only one who had to do that.
I should have known that she was too brave to back out when the chance arose. Once the chips were down, she threw herself in at the first opportunity. With Tiny fighting on that side with her, she should be able to hold on for a while.
The giant ape is in his element. His feet flutter from step to step, his powerful wings beating in rhythm as he floats from place to place. If I focus only on his legs, I would think he was performing an elegant, graceful dance. Those giant fury feet shift and turn so smoothly I’m almost convinced he choreographed the whole thing in advance.
Yet when I take in the full picture, when I look at his hands, I know this is no slow ballad. Tiny’s hands move so fast I can’t see them, only the blur they leave behind. Over and over again, the giant fists of light slam into the wall of termites, slowing its progress and almost driving it back. He won’t be able to keep that insane level of output up for too long, though. Tiny has incredible stamina generation, which he needs to throw out the barrages of punches that he does, but even so, there’s a limit.