Chrysalis

Our second outing is less experimental and much better planned than the first. Ants spread throughout the surrounding terrain in a spiral pattern, mages burning bright flames that illuminate the area and chase the shadows back, exposing the creeping spiders that seek to approach from the dark. Just as it did when I was fishing for monsters with Tiny and Crinis, the hated light brings down more creatures who seek to extinguish the painful spark and before long the surrounding area is filled with hissing and spitting. From the shadows all around and overhead, the arachnids come running, their eight claws click-clacking on the surfaces they crawl on. Without the benefit of striking from the shadows, the ants see them coming and respond like the well-disciplined troops that they are. Barrages of acid and magic wound the enemy from range, slowing them enough that nimble scouts and soldiers can easily duck in and out, biting and tearing with their mandibles before darting away.

Always fighting, always moving, that's the way Vibrant likes to do battle.

My pets and I stay on the ground, but we strike out from the main group. Every now and again I flare a bright blast of fire into the air in an attempt to draw away a portion of the monsters descending on the ants and into our own monster blending apparatus. Crinis has detached herself from my back, for once, and joined the others on the front lines to help deal with the onrushing horde of skittering beasts. The spiders and scorpions come in all shapes and sizes, some of them clearly tier one, but strangely, many more are higher. I suppose the weaker are either killed off quickly or ascend once we get this deep.

[Invidia! Scorpions on the left!]

[I sssseeee them alllll!]

A barrier snaps into being just as the damn pinchy beats unleash another salvo of their damned spines. The projectiles hurtle through the air with incredible force, whistling as they pierce the space between us. They crunch into the demon's barrier with a sound like fracturing glass and I'm genuinely not sure if it's the barrier or the spines that have broken. The damn things hit hard. Not hard enough to break through my splendid carapace, of course, but hard enough that the impacts sent a shudder through my body.

If they hit Tiny? They'd rip through the muscle bound idiot. The poison wouldn't really matter once his soft, tender flesh was taken into account. Ah well, good thing he has Invidia backing him up and a kind, diligent master to pick up after him.

Eat flame throwers!

Twin jets of blue flame burst out from before my mandibles, roasting the damned arachnids where they stand. The creatures clack their claws and try to run, but I keep the fire trained on them until they collapse to one side, cooked to perfection. Of course, the sudden flare of light only brings more of the damned things down on our heads, but it's all fun and games.

[You have slain level 24 (III) Sagitta Scorpionem.]

[You have gained experience.]

A little bit of experience never went down the wrong way. Going to take a heck of a lot more to evolve if all I get to fight are tier threes though. I'm fairly confident there are much higher tier monsters above our heads right now. Maybe a few fives, perhaps a six? No more than that, though. I doubt a seven could manage in the mana here, certainly not at peak condition.

The skittering menace is really starting to mount up at this point. Dozens of the sneaky beggars are angrily snipping their fangs as they scramble down through the coral and leap from their webs. Normally I wouldn't worry about these sorts of numbers, but we have to be cautious due to the venom they possess. Which means we need to deploy excessive measures.

[Tiny! Invidia! Let's see the light show!]

[HHHURRRRRAAAAAAAA!]

[I'll take their soullsssssss!]

[… Can you actually do that?]

I don't get a response from the little demon as he's already focused on unleashing his special combination attack with attack. I say special, really it's just the two of them going nuts with the largest power output they can manage in a short time frame. In practical terms, that means Tiny unfurls his wings and leaps into the air, lightning crackling all over his frame with such intensity I can barely stand to look at him. After charging up the voltage for a few seconds, he lets it rip and unleashes twisting ribbons of sizzling electricity in the air around him. The bolts seek to ground themselves through the nearest monsters, who quickly find themselves attracting far more lightning than they'd like to see. As he does this, Invidia begins to do what I haven't let him do since I reconstituted him, which is charge up his eye laser. Explosions rock the stone around us as the envy demon weaves his magic of destruction, all the while his one eye grows more and more bulbous and luminous. It isn't long before it starts to feel as if we have a bright green lamp of extreme power beaming out into the dark. Being the crafty little demon he is, Invidia lines up the maximum number of spiders he can before he finally unloads the spell.

It's just as destructive as I remember, shredding through stone, spiders, scorpions and everything else that happens to get in the way of it. Invidia himself delights in the destruction, wiggling his stick-thin arms over his eye and his too-small wings flap and flutter to keep him aloft. Between the two of them, we manage to clear away the swarm of monsters that was descending on us, but naturally the incredibly bright nature of their efforts, we've only called down another wave.

[Crinis, time to go to work.]

[Yes, master!]

Hey bubbly, chipper tone completely at odds with the grisly nature of her fighting style, Crinis begins to unfold herself even further, extending tentacle after tentacle out into the gloom around us. The descending spiders find themselves caught in an altogether different sort of web, one that coils and twists, that grips and squeezes. If that were all it did, it wouldn't be so bad. But no, after that point the barbs come out, followed by the tearing and grinding. Mere tier three creatures have little hope of standing up to Crinis, not unless their numbers were truly absurd. I still need to unleash the odd jet of flame, usually at monsters coming toward us from across the ground, but Crinis takes care of the majority of the monsters above over the next five minutes.

Even though I can't see everything that goes on up there, I can hear the spiders start running away in terror, so I can take a guess at what it was like.

[Uh, good job, Crinis.]

[Thank you, master!]

So saying, she gathers herself into a blob of pure darkness once more and drops down onto my abdomen, glomping onto my carapace once more and making herself at home.

[Oof! Alright then. Let's start a slow retreat back to the group and see how we all went.]

With my pets in tow, I begin to retrace our steps back toward the agreed meeting point. There are still many monsters about in the darkness and we deal with them as they appear. A lot of precious Biomass is left behind as we do this, but I'm hoping that we'll be back to collect it before it dissolves back into the Dungeon. It's more important that our little strike force get together and assess our progress than spending time gobbling down food. There'll be plenty of time for that later!

Before long, I run into Vibrant and her group, already running through the numbers and assessing the situation. Well, her generals are doing that. Vibrant herself is running around between groups of ants, checking everyone is well, asking if they need help and generally sticking her antennae into everyone else's business.

"Vibrant!"

"Eldest! Hi-hi! How'd you go fighting the nasty things?!"

"Uh, well, I suppose. How about you and your team?"

"We did good! Really good!"

Somehow I doubt she has the numbers to back that statement up.

"Alright then. Let's go through it…."