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Chapter 212: Manti-saur
🕑 Added 2024-03-06 15:00:08 +0000 UTCA handful of humanoid insectoids came through the large tunnel at the far end of the cavern. Then the walls started bursting apart. And the floor.
Hundreds of other varied insects poured out behind them with a terrifying chittering howl. Mason was struck by some deep mammalian instinct to turn around and run for his life. Instead he dropped deadly traps behind him, and started charging his mana into lightning.
He let the storm between his hands build until he'd drained at least half his pool, then released.
A thundering crash of power shook the cavern, the noise itself apparently enough to cause many of the bugs a problem. Smoke and a bit of flame rippled from the cave wall where the bolt had struck directly, a sizzling sound of cooking insects all around it.
Mason's spell apparently inspired Seamus. A series of fiery missiles arced past him on either side, frying ant legs and bursting carapaces like popped pimples.
For a moment things were going swimmingly, though Mason sorely wished they had either another archer like him, or...a tough melee up front, he thought, trying not to reprimand himself for keeping Becky back.
The bugs may still come from the other side, he knew, and if they did they’d need Becky to hold them back. Or so he kept telling himself.
After the initial devastation of the magic, the insects recovered quickly. Dozens and then who knew how many swarmed over the corpses, rushing towards Mason in a skittering mass. He wasn't really the right man for such a job. But then that's how war usually was.
He decided the little ones probably couldn't even touch Seamus when his full on 'fire aura' was up, and decided to focus on anything large. He activated Aspect of the Cheetah and took off, racing past the first swarm to get at the few insectoids behind.
The first seemed rather shocked. Its head quirked until it realized Mason's path was taking him straight at it. Then it waved its three pairs of claws in an almost frantic pattern before Mason cut it in half. The second learned quickly. It ran.
Then it was Mason's turn for surprise.
So far he hadn't seen much from the creatures except mindless violence. He wasn't sure if smart bugs or mindless drones were more disturbing, but for the moment his problem was more concrete. The dog-sized ants and apparently centipedes were rushing at him, barbed legs and snapping mandibles cutting skin and drawing some blood on his legs.
He kicked them off and spun as he hacked with his Claws, just as happy to smash them with his Sleeves or stomp them into the ground. Pretty soon all thoughts of the bigger bugs went away, and all he had was the next spin, the next source of sharp pain sinking into his flesh.
A few months back he would have felt himself in a horror movie. Swarmed in the dark, deep beneath the earth, huge insects clacking and chittering as they tore at his body in an endless wave.
But frankly, at this point, things had been worse.
Sweat or maybe blood ran into his eyes. His poison title was pinging like a pinball machine, Apex Predator flashing like a broken light. Mason just kept swinging, kept moving, trying to clear himself enough space to check on Seamus and the others.
But he could hardly see. Whether it was bugs or acidic clouds or just blurred vision from the intensity, he couldn't seem to quite figure out which part of the cavern he was in.
Something roared its challenge not far away, and for a moment the insects scattered. Mason could hear it coming down the larger tunnel with steps that sounded like metal drums. It didn't take a druid to understand it was large, and unhappy with intruders.
He took the pause to get his bearings and run back to the others. Becky and Phuong were at the front of the tunnel with a giant mound of dead bugs. They stared at him for a long moment before Phuong spoke.
"There's none from behind, Patron. We switched sides. Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Mason said, hearing something like a menacing rasp in his own voice. "Good work. Keep holding them here. I think there's something worse coming."
Phuong pointed, and Mason turned to find what could only be described as a preying mantis mixed with a dinosaur. Clawed feet crushed the smaller insects both dead and alive as it hunched to leave its tunnel and enter the cavern. Huge snapping claws extended from segmented arms. Huge, dark eyes flashed from Seamus' light, its mouth a hard line of fangs.
"Well that's…awful. What do we do?" Becky said, wiping some sweat from her forehead with her arm.
Was it awful? Mason felt a disturbing but not unfamiliar kind of...anticipation. As far as he was concerned, it was the most exciting thing to happen all day.
"I think I'll put its head on a spike," he said, mostly joking.
Becky was looking at him funny again.
"Light it on fire. Cut it into pieces.” Mason shrugged. “Try not to die. Any questions?"
"Guess not," Becky mumbled as Phuong stepped out and cracked his knuckles.
"Ready when you are, Patron," the swordsman grinned, perhaps showing a lesser version of the feeling building in Mason's chest.
The giant mantis shrieked again, claws thumping as it started running across the room.
Ready or not, Mason thought, here we go.
* * *
About halfway across the room, the giant mantis started channelling mana. So that wasn't great.
"It's casting a fecking spell!" Seamus yelled, rather needlessly, as the now familiar blue strands of arcane energy started filling the air around the creature. Apparently, unlike players, the massive insect could casually hunt its dinner down as it prepared to cast.
Mason activated Ranger's Mark, which mostly let him see an armored body with nothing particularly vulnerable.
But for a giant bug, it sure as hell had a complicated looking brain. He loosed an opening Power Shot at its face, and soon learned the point of the spell. His arrow vanished into the blue strands of magic.
Seamus tried next, a series of fiery blasts sizzling as they struck but ultimately not seeming to get through.
"Sword work, then. The head looks the weakest, go for that," Mason said, gesturing for Phuong to go right as he curved to the left. Becky stepped forward as well, though obviously unsure what to do. "Look after Phuong!" Mason shouted, "don't worry about me!"
As if it understood his words, or was just annoyed by them, the giant mantis turned and charged straight for Mason.
It at least doubled in speed as it lunged, arms stretching out with clamp-like claws ready to snip Mason's limbs off. He swung his own Claws right at the joints of both pincers, not shocked when both bit but didn't sink in far. It closed them regardless, the first narrowly missing Mason's head, the second clamping on an offered Sleeve.
Mason winced as he felt the thing cut flesh. It kept on squeezing, and he didn't really want to find out if it could manage to cut off his arm. He hacked at the claw with his free sword again and again, throwing his body back and forth and pushing away from the other.
Transformation and Duality of Strength flared but Mason mostly ignored them. He could hear Phuong attacking from the other side, and the mantis-saur skittered away, apparently dodging without even looking at its attacker.
Mason gave up cutting, grabbed the pincer on his arm, and started prying. A few weeks ago it would have seemed bat-shit crazy. Like watching someone try and lift a truck.
But Duality of Strength was upgraded and tier two and not remotely a joke to begin with. As he strained now he felt something like electricity shivering through his limbs, filling him with power.
Transformation was also gaining control. It was like a conversation happening in his mind—every injury, every failure of reflexes, of physical ability, was like a question his power began to answer.
The only variable seemed how it would attempt to do it, and how long it would take. If Mason 'said' nothing, it would just carry on with the conversation without him, and he'd get whatever he got. Or he could try and direct it.
It was a bit like Speak with Nature. He tried 'talking' to it, explaining the skin didn't matter, even the flesh. He needed something to pierce that carapace. Something hard, and brutally sharp. A spike made of Mason's bone.
But the thing trying to rip his arm off needed attention. The huge creature was carrying him as it danced and leapt around the cavern, mostly avoiding Phuong.
"Mason!" Becky was shouting, clearly growing frantic. "I can't shield you! It's not working! I don't know why!"
I do, Mason thought, feeling and smelling the magic all around him.
The thing had some kind of anti-magic, anti-projectile aura. You could get through, but you had to get close. Mason was doing slightly better by the moment. He finally managed to pull the claw apart and away from his arm, watching blood drip and seeing exposed bone.
The mantis stopped moving and watched, head quirking almost quizzically as Mason managed to pry the scissor-like hands away. Then it released him and spun, tossing him away and speeding back towards its tunnel with incredible speed. In only a few seconds it had crossed the cavern, ducked low, and vanished into the dark.
Mason glanced back at the others, hearing them call his name, was he OK, and maybe they should fall back and re-group.
He could almost hear Cerebus mocking him, mocking the vulnerability of his concern for weaker things. But that wasn't what really bothered him. He only wished Streak was beside him, mind and senses bent to the same purpose, the same understanding:
The hunt wasn't over.
Mason ignored the others, activated Aspect of the Cheetah, and chased his prey into the dark.
