Dao 3 Chapter 29 (Patreon)

Cocooned in vines and with Neko’s warmth pressed alongside him, Dar slept soundly despite the fact that he was going into a massive battle.

When a little fuzzy tail flicked at his nose to wake him, dawn was already creeping into the sky.

“Dar slept like a rock.” Neko chuckled. “Without me to keep the dao of quiet, your snoring would have brought the devils.”

“Thank you for that.” He ruffled her ears. “Alright, get some rest yourself. I’ll keep moving. Tell Cherry and Blair to be ready.”

Neko gave him a half serious salute before letting herself get dragged back into his inner world.

Dar grabbed hold of the roots and tore them apart, releasing himself from the shelter that Cherry had made for him and creeping out slowly.

In the bright light of day, Dar could already see he was going to have a problem. Past the treeline, there were insect devils buzzing through the air. And there were far more than he’d seen the last time. The hills were swarming with them.

He was going to have his work cut out for him, and he was going to need Blair and Cherry sooner than he had hoped.

Pulling on both of them, they appeared before him. Blair was in a sheer nightgown that showed everything off.

“What?” The salt spirit rubbed at her tired eyes.

Cherry was already looking out past the forest and saw why Dar had called them in. “That’s a lot more than you and Tami described earlier. By the way, she wants out as well. They all do.”

Dar grunted and pushed out Sasha, the maids, Mika, and Tami. “Looks like the hive is far larger than last time we were here.”

Tami followed his line of sight, swearing as she saw it too. “How? How are there so many?”

“Two options.” Dar started. “Either that queen can make that many in just a few days, or when we attacked the second hive, this is where they ran to escape.”

“For my own sanity, I’m going to pretend it’s the latter.” Sasha shook her head, looking out into the hills. “Those are all lesser devils at least?”

“Afraid so.” Dar watched the swarm to see if it was doing anything in particular. It seemed like it bled off into the distance just as quickly as new ones were coming back. Dar could only guess they were dropping off food. “I’d guess there’s two to three times what we can see from here, with the rest off gathering some sort of food source.”

“That might just be the other population of devils.” Tami offered. “Though, with so many insect devils, it is no surprise that they overwhelmed them and hit Bellhaven so quickly.”

Dar started getting antsy. It wasn’t going to get any better; he was ready to take action. “Let’s go. There’s just going to be more of them if we wait. I’ll lead. Blair, you’re on the lookout for anything too big for everyone else to handle. Cherry, you have our rear. Mika, Sasha, Tami, take them out of the sky. Neko, Amber, and Marcie kill them when they are on the ground.”

Everyone nodded and Dar started forward, breaking free of the treeline and immediately attracting the attention of some devils flying from the hills.

But Dar had anticipated that and kept moving. He raised his hand and fired off a handful of molten beads into the mantises that flew towards their group.

They screamed as several dropped out of the sky, twitching, but the rest kept coming.

Silk ribbons shot into the air, tangling up the still flying insects. Then Mika drew the moisture from the air and threw a wave of water at the devils.

Between the two of them, their attacks grounded almost all the mantises, who were swiftly taken care of by the rest of the girls. Shadows and blades flashed over the mantises, eliminating them without issue.

Drawing the corpses into his inner world, Dar continued on as another group broke from the hive.

Their teamwork was impeccable, taking out the lesser devils they encountered as they moved. Dar didn't even have to break his stride as they continued forward through the attacks.

He knew it would get tougher, though, as soon as drones poured over the hill. Their attack had become noticed.

That only meant it was Dar’s turn to shine.

Dar summoned lava before him and spread it out into a thin, arcing line, flowing it forward with their group.

The drones were mindless attackers, so the second they hit the lava, they screeched, burnt up, and fell into it. They were smart enough to start to notice, and the drones at the front turned to avoid it, but the mass of drones behind them pushed them forward, anyway.

Dar rolled right through the mass of drones, burning them to a crisp until the last of them realized there was a problem and tried to flee.

Amber darted out to his side, but Dar caught her. “Don’t chase. Staying together is more important than catching a few drones.”

“Sorry, Milord.”

“It’s understandable to want to press the advantage, just know it could turn any second.” His eyes lifted to the sky. He could already see several larger forms in a group flying their way.

The beetle devils would be the first real challenge for this group.

“Get ready, Blair. Beetles incoming.”

Diamond spears appeared, floating just over Blair’s shoulders. “Ready.”

Dar fired into the flying group like all the others, but the devils were learning.

They caught wind for a moment and lifted higher into the sky, out of his range, before plummeting back down into their group.

Dar cursed under his breath. He didn’t dare fire so close to the girls. While his dao might be powerful, it was too dangerous to risk friendly fire.

Sasha and Mika continued their attack using ribbons and waves to knock the devils out of the air, but while it had been effective on the mantis, they weren’t as good against the beetle devils.

When Sasha’s ribbons snagged on one, its powerful wings beat and it lifted off the ground, dragging Sasha up into the sky.

“Let go of it.” Dar shouted, worried for her.

But Neko was there first. She leapt high into the air, grabbing Sasha and throwing herself up again onto the beetle. Her dao of claws flashed in the daylight as she tore right through the beetle devil’s hard exoskeleton. After several more swipes, the beetle was falling back out of the sky. Sasha’s ribbons found other targets to tangle and bring to the ground.

Blair’s diamond spears sparkled as they shot into other beetles, cracking through their bodies and exploding in a shower of bug guts.

“Dar. Keep moving. We’ve got this.” Sasha barked, an annoyed look on her face. He knew she didn’t like him feeling like he had to back her up, but he would not apologize for being concerned when she got swept into the air by a devil.

He gave her a firm look before drawing in the devil corpses and turning forward to once again push towards the hive.

The ground exploded behind them, but Dar didn’t even flinch. He felt Cherry’s dao flare to life and heard more screams of insect devils as she tore them apart with roots.

More drones came pouring in, and fighting was becoming instinctive to Dar by that point. He rolled a wave of magma before him, catching and killing the grounded devils easily, sparing moments to pepper incoming waves of flying devils.

Their trek across the ground continued for almost an hour before the hive retracted in on itself. The mass of flying devils in the air pulled back to the hills and grounded themselves. They had killed so many devils, but the hive was still brimming with activity.

“Get ready for a big one.” Dar could feel the tension in their party.

There was no response, but he heard the creak of everyone clutching their weapons tighter.

A small rumble of earth was the only warning that Dar had before a black beetle, a grand devil, erupted from the ground before him.

Pent up from only dealing with weak devils so far, Dar exploded into action.

His fist wrapped itself in a gauntlet of molten lava as he punched forward.

The devil blocked Dar’s blow, only for him to splash the gauntlet past the beetle’s guard and into its face.

It screamed, reeling back and trying to dive into the ground to recover.

But Dar knew the tactic and wasn’t about to let it escape. A large, pitch black ax appeared in his hands as he swung for the fences, catching the beetle in the side hard enough to lift it off its feet.

Neko pounced over his shoulder, her claws tearing into the beetle as she swiped furiously, taking advantage of it being disoriented. Each pass took away a chunk of its chest until Neko was elbow deep into the bug. It slumped to the ground.

The cat girl spit on the devil and swiped its head off for good measure.

Dar absorbed the corpse; it would be valuable for the little dao tree.

“It’s getting dangerous for all of you.” He said over his shoulder.

“Not yet.” Mika declared. “We’ll fight with you until the queen arrives.”

Dar wanted to tuck them all away and keep them safe in his inner world, but he’d take the help for the moment.

“We aren’t some delicate flowers, Dar. Most of us have been fighting for longer than you’ve been alive.” Tami argued.

Dar could almost feel the approving looks they shot her.

If they were all together in this, then there was little Dar could do to convince them. “Do not hesitate when I try to pull you in. The queen is incredibly fast. Resisting for even a moment could make a world of difference in my ability to counter her attack.”

The girls nodded, and Dar continued forward. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if he lost one of them.

Dar imagined the monstrosity of the devils would pale in comparison to his anger.

As they moved, the devils felt like they were getting desperate. The drones and mantises threw themselves relentlessly at them, trying to stop them or slow them down.

It wasn’t until Dar crested the hill that he saw why.

The queen was pumping out dozens of insect devils a second. The birthing section had regrown and was a squirming monstrosity, spewing out larva that drones would take and bury in the hillside.

The powerful devil looked up at Dar and company with what resembled a smirk, even as larva continued to spew out.

But what was more disturbing was watching the larva mature practically before their eyes.

They were buried in the hills and came bursting back out less than a minute later. And what came out was an emaciated version of some insect devil that immediately ran or flew off to a nearby pile of food.

“That’s disgusting.” Blair spat. “And holy shit, how is it making so many?”

Dar would have thought that removing the Mo would have slowed down the queen. But that clearly wasn’t the case.

He realized that he could sense a massive amount of dao coming from the birthing section. “It has something to do with its dao. I can feel it coming from that birthing section.”

“You’re right.” Cherry made a face, even as roots sprouted around them. He smiled. Cherry was ready for a fight.

The lesser and greater devils might as well have been entirely expendable to the queen as they stood in shock as dozens more were birthed.

But their moment of surprise was interrupted as more of the emaciated devils burst forth from the hillside and noticed Dar’s group.

“Get ready.” He peppered the air with beads of molten lava, raining it down among the devils. He might have been able to do more, but with the limited amount of lava he could control at once, the sporadic drops were the most efficient way he could think of harming the large quantity of devils below him.

Devils screamed and curled up on themselves as the beads of magma burned right through them. The hive flooded out to defend itself, so many of them dying to his constant stream of raining magma.

He almost felt sorry for the creatures, but it was working. He was taking them out faster than the queen could produce them. It was even a two for one when he took out a drone carrying a larva, because laying there helpless on the ground, the larva would die too.

One such larva managed to wiggle itself into a drone, feeding on its fallen ally and bursting forth moments later an emaciated mantis. Dar tried not to gag as he watched it unfold.

But the queen had no such issue. She seemed completely unaffected. Beads of magma hit her and congealed into cold black stone as she stood there, glaring up at Dar.

His magma didn’t seem to be enough to hurt the grand devil. Even one of the black beetles managed to shrug off his molten rain.

The girls had their hands full as lesser devils welled up the side of the hill and dove in from above.

The area rapidly descended into a war of attrition. Thousands of devils fell to their group, yet their own group was exhausting themselves.

Neko and the maids darted in and out of the group with lethal strikes, taking out devils. Sasha, Mika and Tami held a front line using their dao to tangle, push and block the oncoming devils.

Cherry’s roots smashed into the nearby devils, crushing them in droves while Blair remained steadfast, waiting for the stronger devils and attacking them as they came.

Meanwhile, Dar stood among it all, continuing to rain down molten droplets that tore through the ranks of weak devils.

He’d expected the queen to attack, but she remained where she was, continuing to birth dozens of new devils every second. Even though devils had stopped coming out of the hive, they were still birthing out of the hills at an alarming rate.

He realized their current plan wasn’t sustainable. He could see the girls tiring out, starting to slip up.

He needed space to make a much larger attack.

Just then, the queen screamed, and the surrounding hills exploded as a black beetle erupted out of each of them.

“Girls, inside. Now.” Dar tone brooked no argument as he drew them all inside his inner world.

And he finished just in time, as eight black beetles slammed into where their group had just been.

Dar flung himself off the hill towards the queen, wrapping himself in a foot-thick shell of molten lava.

It might have been a fantastic way to protect himself, but it also made him blind. Luckily, it didn’t matter for the singular goal he had in mind.

When he felt resistance against his molten shell, he exploded out the top, making the shell splash in every direction.

The queen blocked as much of it as she could, burning one arm to a crisp even as Dar took out one of the black beetles, but he also got his most important target.

The birthing section of the queen was liberally splashed with lava. It caught fire and collapsed on itself from the magma. The queen let out a wail of anger.

Spikes of earth erupted everywhere around Dar, like falling into the maw of some massive beast.

As the danger closed in around him, Dar tried a tactic he’d been thinking about as he’d come to the battle. With his increased dao, he could channel far more mana than before, so he pushed every ounce into his enchantments after he’d improved them with his ascension into a grand immortal. He trusted that Lilith had known what she was doing when she gave them to him, so supercharging them felt like a good use of his mana.

Dar’s skin grew bright as dao characters glowed from just underneath his skin. He redoubled his efforts as the earthen spikes crushed against him.

Sure enough, his body held out. The glowing enchantments strained as Dar pushed back, breaking the spikes of earth and launching himself out of the mess.

He nearly flew, surprising even himself with his newfound strength.

The queen whipped around at him, surprised to see him come out alive from her death trap.

Her claws flashed and tore off the ruined birthing section. Her burnt arm fell off, but a new one grew in its place.

Dar wasn’t sure what its dao was, but between the rapid birthing, the larva growing uncontrollably quickly, and its own regeneration, Dar assumed there was some sort of insect dao that combined them.

He shivered, not loving that an enemy had that dao.

Pushing, he released Blair and Cherry from his inner world. “The queen seems to be able to heal any damage I do.” He grunted. “But I think the hive is empty. Her birthing section is gone. Now it’s just her and those eight black beetles.”

Blair looked him up and down. “You’re glowing.”

“I’ll explain later. This is taking up most of my capacity for mana.”

“I’ll tangle with the black beetles.” Cherry glared at them. “Do you want the queen, Dar?”

“No. Blair, keep yourself wrapped in armor and distract the queen. Cherry and I will take care of these beetles and join you in a minute.” He wanted to ask after the others, but that was a distraction at the moment. He needed to focus on the fight before him. The queen and those black beetles were enough for him to worry about.

“Let’s go.” Dar sprinted forward, the enchantments glowing all over his body.