[You have gained XP.]
[You have reached Level 11. One Skill Point awarded.]
[You have reached Level 12. One Skill Point awarded.]
The second mage turns in time to see her compatriot fall from my jaws and her face is filled with horror. She hasn’t time to act against me, as Tiny has prepared another strike against the shield.
She’s in a dilemma now. Does she withdraw her mind from maintaining the shield and attack me, letting Tiny smash it to pieces and robbing the warriors of their defence, or does she leave herself vulnerable to my attack and try and maintain the shield?
I expected her to fight to maintain the shield, but instead she decisively brings her staff around on me, hands weaving patterns in the air as she manipulates the Mana around her.
Of course, this means Tiny gets a free swing.
From the corner of my eye, I witness the massive ape rear back with his good hand, rotating his body so far that his back is to the barrier before he unwinds and unleashes his fist as if firing it from a cannon!
With a shattering sound like a thousand panes of glass breaking at once, the invisible dome collapses. Diffused shards of Mana fall like rain upon us even as they dissolve into nothing, no longer controlled or shaped by any mind.
The soldiers pause in their butchery out of shock. Several turn to witness the situation behind them and become aware of my position for the first time.
I don’t have much time to act. This mage is going to blast me right in the face in one second. How is this spear still not ready!
Finally, the spell hums to life.
I hope I’m in time!
Without a thought for my own safety, I decisively turn and fire the Gravity Spear toward the warriors on the front line, desperate to prevent their swords from killing any more of my siblings.
Before I even see my spells impact, the female mage has completed hers. Dozens of blades of ice have formed in the air around her. With one wave of her hand, each of the blades blasts toward me at supersonic speed.
Holy moly!
I can’t even dodge if they move at this speed! Before they impact, all I can do is tuck my legs and antennae under my body and tilt my head down in order to protect my eyes, then receive the blow head-on.
Just before they impact me, something strange tickles my awareness. The ice blades are registering on my heat sense as immensely cold, the temperature of the air around the female mage has dropped precipitously. Now that those blades are screaming through the air, they leave vapor trails of cold behind that are detected by heat sense.
With all of this cold in the air… What is that source of heat on my left? There isn’t anything there?
Before I have time to properly think about it, the ice blades strike home against me.
Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!
Intense pain erupts throughout my body as the magical blades slice into my Diamond Carapace, cutting my flanks, back and directly chopping off one leg plus an antenna.
Holy-MASOIUGLKASNF-Gandalf!
That stings like the dickens!
My whole body is screaming with pain! Those numerous blades have cut through me all over. My Diamond Carapace was specially chosen to defend against physical attacks, it’s clearly not up to the task against something imbued with Mana.
Activate the Regeneration Gland!
I try to slump forward as if on the verge of death, even as the regeneration fluid rapidly spreads through my body, closing over the cuts and repairing my damaged muscles. Thankfully none of those blades was able to penetrate deep enough to damage my core.
I can only imagine that significant damage to a monster’s core would be completely disastrous, if not immediately fatal. Once it has been created, the core is central to a monster’s life force, the storage and nerve centre of the monster as a magical being. Much like the brain operates as the centre of thought, the core is the centre of Mana. I’m not confident a monster can live without it once they’ve adapted to it.
Certainly, it isn’t a theory I want to try out…
My ruse seems to have worked. In the heat of the moment, with the barrier destroyed, there are threats other than me these humans need to deal with. When the mage turns her staff away, I push my healing legs underneath myself, ready for my next move.
27. The Human Menace
I can’t afford to let the mage attack Tiny. If she’s able to disable him or even heavily wound him with her magic, we might lose our best chance to deal with those deadly fighters. Not to mention the terrible possibility Tiny might be killed!
Quick as a flash, I spin around to present my b-zone at the mage. My sudden energetic and rapid movement takes her completely by surprise, as merely seconds ago I’d been cut to ribbons by her magical barrage.
Victory is always decided by the one who thinks the fastest. Receive the famed produce of my commercial district!
POW! POW! POW!
At this close range, I don’t worry about aiming and rapidly punch out three blasts. The jets of acid streak through the air and impact hard against the mage. At this close range the physical force is almost enough to knock her off her feet. She manages to retain her balance by falling to one knee and using her staff to prop herself up, but by then the restrictive nature of the acid is already kicking in, making it difficult for her to move.
So long as she’s delayed from affecting the rest of the fight, then my purpose will be served. More than taking her out straight away I’m most concerned with stopping the dreadful slaughter of my siblings.
The warriors have been able to maintain a distance from the fearless workers, relying on the barrier to keep the ants from pressing forward and giving them the space to unleash their advanced sword skills. Slashing out arcs of energy, much like my own Shattering Bite skill, and carving apart three or more workers with every strike.
When I see the broken and destroyed remains of my family members littering the ground, my heart twists with pain. These warriors are too good at their work. Most of these workers are already dead, beyond what the queen’s healing can fix. They didn’t even have a chance to drag their damaged bodies clear of the fight.
Disrupting the warriors from striking at the colony is the number one priority.
Thankfully, my Gravity Spear is starting to take effect.
I’d been careful when constructing the spell to ensure the gravitational fields range was controlled, so as not to be too large. When the target of my spell realises he has an ethereal purple spear sticking through his guts, his first instinct seems to be to scream in horror, unaware that the true terror is yet to be unleashed.
The target itself feels nothing from the spell, no effect at all, but it isn’t long until the warriors nearby, most of whom are still facing the ravenous ant tide, begin to notice something is wrong.
Inexorably, the pulling force of the Gravity Spear begins to show its power. The warriors are finding themselves thrown off-balance, having to exert strength through their feet in order to resist this unknown pull. The disruption is so strong that the barrage of sword attacks ceases almost instantly as they try to identify this new threat.
To my shock, they remain disciplined, barking words and instructions to each other while they resist the building force with all of their might, gradually falling back to the source of the pull without losing their feet.
These guys must have some serious physical stats to be able to resist the gravity in this way. The calm way they dealt with this new situation worries me immensely. These warriors are so disciplined and powerful they can’t be ordinary, not to mention the mage I killed—not thinking about that too deeply just now!—was some ridiculous Level over 40!