Chapter 680 - The Siege pt 26 (Patreon)

RAGE! RAAAAAAGE! That damned worm! How could he do this to us?! After everything we did for him?! He's food. FOOD I TELL YOU! If I ever get my mandibles on that worm I'll feed to him the larvae myself! The mere thought of the brood being destroyed by the golgari makes the mana in my body boil like the lava I'm spitting out of my mouth. He let them in to egg-laying chamber?! With MOTHER?!

I'm so damned angry I'm going blind! I'm going to bust a vein at this rate! Is that even something I can do? Perhaps I'll be able to manifest it out of sheer anger, at this rate, I can believe I'll make it happen.

I channel my anger into the only positive avenue I have available to me. Chomping like a fiend and blasting my enemies with bolts of lava to the face! All I get in exchange is about seventeen sword strikes to the carapace and I think someone kicked me… Since Vibrant and her crew had to take off, things have gotten tense here at this gate, and when I say tense, I mean, real tense. The Legion is pushing us hard and the ant line has been driven back to within the shadow of the gate. Spells and arrows are smacking into the grand metal structure already, but so far the enchantments are holding steady and there's been minimal damage.

"Come on you slackers! Are you trying to live forever?!" an ant bellows from nearby.

"Victor! What the hell are you doing here?!" I cry.

"Trying to shore up the line! We diverted a portion of the troops from the other front to here, but they haven't been able to make up the difference. We need to go harder!"

I check my menu for a second. I'm getting constantly topped off with healing, pumping my regeneration gland on cool down and the Vestibule replenishing my energy. With all of the ants in the nest providing me with a portion of energy, I've been able to push well beyond the normal limits of my body, but even that has a limit. I've been chomping and throwing my wait around out here for a long time and I'm starting to feel it.

[Tiny! You got much left in the tank big guy?]

The giant ape has been giving his all in the fight since the very beginning and to be honest I'm not even sure how he's still out here swinging. In reply to my query, the exhausted and battered bat-faced gorilla flashes me a grin full of fire and before he throws out another fist. I mean fist literally now, since he's long been out of the stamina required to activate his skills properly. His hands are a bloody mess by this point, but he doesn't flinch he crunches his knuckles into the shields of the enemy over and over again.

[Crinis?]

[I'm running low on my reserves of shadow flesh, Master! They’ve been targeting my limbs whenever they can see them.]

Dammit.

[Keep pushing but don't take too many risks. I can't afford for you to take permanent damage.]

[You're taking damage…]

[What was that?]

[…]

That's what I thought. I let Crinis sulk on her own as she continues to operate as best she can. The Legion are a terrible matchup for her and she's done far more than I expected of her at this point. Instead of trying to saw the enemy apart, she's been disrupting as much as she possibly can, sneaking her tentacles out into the enemy ranks and grabbing ankles, shoving legs, doing whatever she can to blunt the offensive and help the front line hold up.

As I continue to battle with the Legionaries in front of me I feel another wash of healing flow over my carapace from behind as the healer who's been with me throughout the battle pops her head up once more.

"How's it looking?" She asks through the mass of scents.

"It's been better," is all I can manage.

She seems to take it in stride.

"Do I need to move back?" she says.

If the frontline needs to fold back then we need to let the healers and generals behind us in advance. Even a few seconds is enough for them to uproot their positions and find a new bunker further back before we crawl backwards. Needless to say, this has already happened numerous times over the course of the battle. I give out a short, sharp laugh.

"The next time we retreat, we're going to be behind the gate, little one."

"Oh," is all she says before she sinks back below the surface of the tunnel floor to recharge her abilities.

I'd shake my head, but I'm already doing that since I managed to get a good grip on a shield for once. Gimme that! I pull the slab of layered metal to one side and unleash a blast of lava that coats the Legionary in front of me right across the chest plate. The stone there glows bright red from the heat as he falls back, releasing his grip on the shield before I can hit him again and the ranks close tight in front of me as another soldier steps forward to take his place.

Dammit! Irritated, I throw the offending shield back over the lines and reset my mandibles for another Doom Chomp.

"Watch it up there!" comes a strong scent. "You nearly knocked a human's head clean off!"

What? Raising my head just a little, I can see that it's true. At some point, Beyn has ended up behind me and I've darn near brained the man with that throw. Rather than be mad, the priest's eyes blaze with purpose as he seizes the shield with both hands and labors to lift it from the ground despite it being clearly too heavy for the man. I can already see him roaring out some nonsense or other, the pitch of his voice rising to seemingly inhuman levels.

Why do I get the terrible feeling I've created a 'holy artifact' or some other nonsense?

[Invidia, if you see a spell coming at the priest, don't work too hard to deflect it, alright?]

[Your siblingssss protect them mossst ardently.]

[So you're saying he'd live anyway.]

[Mossst likely.]

Dammit. I'm still mad as hell!

KEEP BITING!