It feels as if this is a collection of monsters from the Forest Expanse area. Perhaps they are gathering the monsters over there, just as they did here, to assault the surface.
Dangit!
I thought I was finally free of your meddling!
The thundering of monstrous feet is growing louder as the horde kicks up dust. Only a hundred or so more metres and they’ll be amongst the villagers. Not willing to wait, I rush to meet the onrushing horde.
I don’t have time to power up a Gravity Bomb. I’m going to have to do this the old-fashioned way.
With speed, I Dash. My brains kick into gear, each one swiftly crafting a Gravity Spear. I haven’t had that much time to rest since battling against the Garralosh Commander, but it’s enough to deal with this trash, even if there are thousands of them.
My brains work overtime, weaving together the magic, layers flowing together as if in fast forward.
Gravity Spear—Times three!
As soon as the dark purple projectiles fly out, I’m already working on another set. The spears fly home, not that they could miss, slamming into the front line of the wave. Snaring large clutches of monsters and binding them together, they’re forced to stumble, running momentum broken.
Even as I Dash closer, the next wave of spears takes shape. I pour forth my Gravity Mana and empower the spells, letting them fly just as the wave crashes into me.
Or is it me who crashes into them?
My sub-brains continue spinning more spears as I smash into the thick of the monsters and their blows begin to rain down on my carapace, battering me left and right.
As if I’m just going to sit here and take it!
Shattering Bite!
Ceaseless attacks fall upon my diamond shell, but I stand firm, the bulk of the damage failing to pierce through. Centipedes rise to clutch at me and I crush them with a single bite. When a fearsome bear smashes into me from the side, sending me sprawling, I channel Mana into my mandibles and dive back at it.
Bite after bite, I crush its defences, my stamina draining away along with my Mana until the beast finally falls.
Eventually the chip damage begins to pile up. A chip here and a chip there shave away at my health until I’m forced to trigger my Regeneration Gland. I’m not worried though.
I can feel them coming.
“GRAAAAAAH!”
BOOOOM!
With a titanic crash, Tiny announces his arrival to the battlefield. Leaping high, he falls to the ground like thunder, his newly regenerating foot stomping down and crushing a croc beneath him as he lands.
Then Crinis is here.
Like a nightmare given form, her tentacles explode outward, snapping onto any monster they touch and rending them apart, or lifting them into the air to toss them into the bottomless void of her maw.
My heart lifts to see them on the battlefield alongside me.
As long as they are with me, we can defend the colony against anything. I truly believe that.
Shattering Bite!
Before my jaws can even clamp shut on the Wolf Dragon before me, a blistering lance of light impales the creature, dispatching it in a single hit.
Why the hey!
Adjusting myself slightly, I look back to see a straight path through the monsters has been created by that piercing attack. It must have speared through five of them!
As the monsters gradually close in once more, I catch a fleeting glimpse of Morrelia, rage burning in her eyes and her hand extended, her sword clenched in her first.
That was one powerful strike!
I hope she wasn’t aiming at me…
129. The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree
“RAAA!” Morrelia bellows. Her muscles bunch and shift beneath her skin before she stabs her hand out once more.
To describe it as a stab wouldn’t be doing it justice. The strength, the control, the sheer force of that strike went beyond what I imagined was possible. As if she were cutting apart the very air, the sword pierces the atmosphere. As it does, pure light coalesces around her arm and hand, flowing onto the sword itself, rapidly building in intensity until it was blinding.
The glare reaches a critical mass just as the sword extends, forming a point at the tip of the blade that shines like a miniature sun. Then, in an instant, the beam lances out, piercing monsters straight through, seemingly without resistance. Just as suddenly as it had come, the light fades and a line of twenty monsters slumps to the ground.
What the heck is that skill? How the heck does she do that?
As the monsters swirl and growl, Morrelia’s crew arrive to back her up, firing arrows with incredible speed, their hands a blur. It looks as though they took a little time to gather their supplies and uncase their bows, but they’re in the thick of it now.
On impulse I decide to rush back to where the five of them have gathered, tearing my way through a dense cluster of centipedes to do so.
Clang!
An arrow smacks into my carapace as I Dash, reflecting cleanly off one of the diamond portions and ricocheting off into the swirl of beasts harmlessly.
OI!
Slowing my approach, I wave my antennae frantically to signal my peaceful intentions. I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt on the first shot, but any more than that and we’re going to have trouble here. Thankfully, the archer’s eyes widen as she recognises me and turns to shoot a fresh target.
I mean, an apology would have been appreciated… but I suppose under the circumstances…
You’re fighting a giant horde of monsters and a massive ant, I suppose I’m basically the size of a couch, if not quite as high, comes charging at you, you’re going to shoot the heck out of them.
As I reach their side and unleash a few more Gravity Spears into the horde, binding monsters, slowing and restricting them, Morrelia turns to me and nods briefly before unleashing another solid beam of light into the throng.
She’s like a freakin’ laser cannon with that skill!
It’s rad as hell, I have to say.
She pauses for a second, as if feeling or sensing something, before barking an order to one of her crew, a grizzled looking guy with a face full of scars. He nods and steps ahead of the group, gripping a heavy looking axe in two hands.
“Haaaaa!” he bellows before sprinting at the onrushing horde and unleashing wild horizontal swings with his axe.
With every swing, a furious arc of light slashes out in the shape of a phantom axe, splitting the monsters apart and giving the group breathing room, allowing the two female archers to continue unleashing their bolts of death.
With this respite, I continue to build Gravity Spears, hurling them into the horde to bind the monsters together, occasionally firing at a patch of ground to bind the monsters to the earth, creating knots of creatures throughout the mass of monsters that can’t move freely, tripping and blocking the press of beasts behind them.
“Haaaaaa… Haaaaaa.”
Next to me, Morrelia, eyes closed, goes into some sort of breathing meditation. The air seems to whistle between her teeth as they clench and her breathing becomes heavier. Before I even have time to mock her within my mind, something changes in the air. A bloodthirsty aura rises. A tangible sense of rage and violence that seems to warp the very air around the powerfully built woman.
As each second passes, the air around her grows denser and her body begins to release a soft red light that stinks of blood.
What.
The.
Heck.
As I grow more bewildered and confused, the two archers shout out a warning and the axe swinging man turns without hesitation and sprints to get behind Morrelia.