Chrysalis
chapter-1237

The Krath. What can be said of the vicious nightmare creatures of the fifth that hasn’t been said already? The earliest records are confused; so close to the Rending, much was lost in the frantic expansion down into the Dungeon. The Empire of Stone and the chal were amongst the first to settle at this depth, but progression stalled like it had run into a brick wall. The fifth was incompatible with life in almost every conceivable way, even the air was poisonous to breathe.

The chal were the first to solidify their position in the fourth, and perhaps greed took hold of them as they made a strong push to extend their empire ever deeper. Harnessing the immense strength of their empire, they invaded the fifth, only to fail. They met the Krath, and within twenty years, the chal had fallen to ruins; even their holdings within the fourth were lost. According to scholars, the chal are the only one of the Old Races to be exterminated from Pangera.

With this example, none have been willing to follow in their footsteps. Instead, they content themselves with their holdings in the fourth, only making slight incursions below and fighting off the slime whenever it tries to rise.

- Excerpt from ‘The Wall That Lies Below, Fear of the Fifth’ by Kallor.

Ah, how wonderful. Tedium of an all new kind. Before, I’d planted myself in one tunnel and fought off the monsters who came my way. It was repetitive and dull, as much as fighting against giant monsters can get dull, I suppose, but now I have an all new problem. The stupid slugs just won’t stop coming. My days have devolved into sprinting from tunnel to tunnel and savagely annihilating whatever monstrosity I find there using a no-holds-barred combination of Void Chomps and gravity bombs.

After I burn back the sludge and toxic mana, I return to the central chamber, only to be called out again ten minutes later.

And so on, and so on. Of course, the Colony is getting better at fighting against these horrible monsters, but taking them down without significant injuries is difficult for anyone without overwhelming firepower.

Vibrant can get the job done, but her followers can’t. Leeroy has been desperate to sortie against them with her braindead brigade, but the generals won’t let them. As heavy and cumbersome as they are, those idiots will just get bogged down in the slime and be unable to extract themselves. Which is exactly why they want to go, obviously.

I sense the next encroachment coming through the Vestibule even before a runner reaches me, the ant’s determination to fight and win flowing into me and signalling the danger. I lift myself and get to running, speeding my huge frame through the tunnels toward the fight.

“Eldest! There’s another incursion in tunnel B3!”

“I’m already on the way, can’t you see that?! Look at me! I’m running!”

“Better than resting!”

“Is it, though?”

I’ve been getting more than my fair share of sass from the ants seeing me resting in the central chamber. Sheesh! Can’t an Eldest get five minutes to take a load of their legs without some smart-ant poking their nose in? Apparently not!

I keep a couple of minds sifting through the Vestibule and I can tell that this battle is a little more serious than the previous ones. Multiple monsters from the fifth are pushing hard while the ants are doing their best to perform a delaying action, keeping damage down and holding off the slime as it creeps toward the nest.

When I arrive, the tunnel is already a steaming mess of green goop. Through the acrid, stinking steam, I can see the bulbous form of some monster filling the air with noxious gas and launching great waves of sludge towards the Colony’s entrenched position.

“Pull back and fortify,” I tell the army of ants. “I’ll take responsibility for this mess.”

“Understood, Eldest!”

First thing is first. I gather up my mana, concentrating hard and pushing my brains to their limits before I fire off an unenhanced gravity bomb. With careful aim, I shoot for the maximum distance, and the dreadful ball of doom screams down the tunnel through the steam.

HOOOOOOOWWLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL.

Chew on that, you lousy sludge-faced boogers. With the bomb covering for me, I unleash the Dragon Breath, burning away the offending mana and slime, advancing behind the jet of absurdly hot flames as they scorch the rock clean. If I’ve learned one thing fighting against these monsters, it's that you can’t rush things. They’re so toxic, so poisonous, that if they manage to infect you, it’ll take hours for the healers to purge the offending mana. Not to mention, the amount of energy required to cleanse the infection is ten times the amount that went into it! It’s like they’re trying to wage a war of attrition against our healers!

Obviously, I can heal myself, so it isn’t a drain on the Colony, but it’s a serious pain in the thorax for me! And it stings like heck!

No, far better to push them back, take away the terrain advantage before tearing them apart with overwhelming force. I’ll work my way closer, use an empowered Void Chomp, and that’ll be the end of it.

Keeping my distance as the gravity bomb works itself out, I thoroughly cleanse the tunnel, and when the dark sphere of slowly rotating doom fades, I dash forward into the gap, ready to take on all comers.

Of course, what I find there is far from what I expected. The walls, the ceiling, everything is positively dripping with noxious goo, thick strands of mucus-like slime connecting the floor to the roof. In the middle of it all, the bulbous form of the monster I saw before expands before me, puffing up like a blowfish before it pumps out a thick cloud of vile, yellow-green gas.

Heck. No.

Even worse, I can see dozens, maybe hundreds of little slugs rushing towards me through the slime, their heads ending in what appear to be sharp, drill-like teeth.

THERE AIN’T NO WAY. BURN IT ALL TO DEAAAAAATH.

Gravity Bomb!

HOOOOOOOOWWWWWWLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!