Chrysalis
chapter-186

Electricity rippling across his body endlessly, Tiny’s fists continue to flash out and devastate his opponents. None can stand up to his blows. That doesn’t shock me much. We’re talking about a ten foot tall Gorilla monster here. If I’d seen a Gorilla on Earth that was ten feet tall I’d have fair browned my downstairs department. Physical strength is something he has in spades.

What is really impressive is the lightning strikes flashing from his body without him having to think about it, blasting creatures around him who draw too close. Problem is they have no choice but to get too close since they are a mindless mass of monsters that pushes forward no matter what.

We are still taking damage he and I. As fast as we can destroy the enemies they are replaced just as quickly. It only took a few seconds of following Tiny’s charge for the two of us to be completely surrounded, buried amongst the monsters. They lash at us from all sides, battering me with their limbs, trying to bite through my tough carapace and raising sparks between their teeth and my shell. I’m losing Hp here!

Thankfully my defence is holding up pretty well but Tiny is suffering more, he doesn’t have a nice handy outer skeleton and his fur is only a little protection. I feel as if his physical stats are inordinately slanted towards Might as opposed to Toughness. As the claws and teeth of our foes rain down on him he is continuously taking damage.

Not that he slows down any...

Is that Domain ready yet?!

My two sub brains have been frantically working together to weave the far more complex spell as quickly as they can but it’s still not done. Unwilling to wait any longer I focus with my main mind and ignore the rain of blows that fall on me the moment I grow still. With every ounce of my mental strength applied to the task the spell takes form rapidly, layer after layer of complexity added to the construct until it’s finally complete.

Not hesitating in the slightest I open the sluice gates and pour in the Gravitational mana like it’s going out of fashion. Get! This! Spell! Done!

There!

The instant it’s ready I unleash the domain and the glittering purple dome of energy rapidly expands outwards, encompassing the entire width of the tunnel it expands ten metres out in all directions.

THROOM!

With an audible noise the massive Gravitation pull kicks in and the monsters around me are immediately effected.

[Tiny!] I shout.

The ape instantly realises what has happened and turns back towards me. These monsters are made of sterner stuff and won’t collapse to the ground just because of the Domain but their ability to move and contest us has easily halved. The shadow beasts are probably holding up better than the rest, their strange elastic flesh is far stronger than it appears.

But now we can manage.

"KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"

Tiny opens his mouth wide an unleashes his ultimate bat scream, the ultrasonic wave! The ear shattering sound is even stronger than before, piercing straight through my ear holes and stabbing into my brain.

That stings!

I manage to resist the stunning effect of the scream thanks to my over tuned Will but most of the monsters around us aren’t so lucky. Those caught inside the Domain have it the worst, hit by double debilitating effects but those on the outside don’t look so flash either.

[Get em!]

The two of us immediately start flailing about madly, Tiny with his fists and me with my jaws. I use shattering bite over and over again until my face aches and exhaustion creeps in whilst Tiny lashes out with his fists endlessly. Even now the monsters keep coming! They are walking straight into the Domain but they don’t seem to care. What is driving these creatures?!

[Tiny, retreat and eat something, restore your strength!]

The limiting factor here is our stamina, I might have taken less damage than Tiny but his robust physique will provide him a lot more energy. After constantly using my advanced physical skills I’m beginning to run out of gas.

My two sub brains are currently tasked with maintaining the Domain, a constant flood of Gravitational Mana flows out of my gland and into the construct powering the spell. Thanks to the bottomless upgrade I don’t need to worry about running out of mana in the short term. My feet are sucking up energy from the floor every passing second but the rate of transfer into Gravity mana is still painfully slow.

Tiny shakes his head at me but ultimately can’t refuse my order. He throws himself behind me and starts stuffing his face with the plentiful Biomass littered across the Tunnel floor. The food will help accelerate the healing of his wounds and give a little extra fuel in the stamina fire.

[Crinis! Go with him this is going to get dangerous!] I yell as I flick the little ball of dark rubber at Tiny as he runs past.

With all of these attacks raining down on me I don’t want the little one to get squashed by accident. She’s still not grown and combat ready after all. Vibrant at least is a proper monster, with a carapace to protect her from any glancing blows .

With Tiny gone the monsters descend on me like locusts. I can’t even tell how many there are or if we are whittling down their numbers even slightly. My impressive, nearly 360 degree vision is giving me a wonderful 360 degree view of monsters mouths trying to attach themselves to my person!

I continue to absorb the battering, laying out with my mandibles at every opportunity. In an effort to avoid complete exhaustion I stopped using my skills and instead started channelling mana into my mandibles to add a bit more punch to my bite.

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

The horrific sounds of my jaws at work mixed with the howls and savage cries of the beasts. I felt like I held on for hours but it was probably only a minute before I heard Tiny’s furious voice ringing in my mind.

[FIGHT!]

Sounds like he’s had enough eating! I turn and bolt towards his location at the rear of the fight as he charges forward into the fray once more! I try and stay close behind him as I start stuffing my face with Biomass and activate my healing gland to recover from the battering I’d just received.

I hope Tiny can hold on for a while, I’m knackered. This is the weakness of my body right now, mental power for days but not enough combat effectiveness to take from it yet. I need to start practicing the water transformation construct as soon as possible!

Tiny re-joins the fight with relish and pounds his opponents into the dirt with rising glee. The electricity on his body is still crackling away, blasting the occasional monster into a deep fried version of itself. Does he ever run out of electricity?

Apparently not! With a mighty bellow Tiny raises both his hands over his head, bringing them together for a slam. Once his fists rise into the air all the electrical energy crackling over his body floods up his arms and concentrates on his fists, causing them to shine so brightly I wish I had eyelids.

As the electrical energy intensifies I can hear a static whine rising in pitch ever moment until it rises above the register I can hear. I can still feel it though, causing the hairs on my antennae to shake violently.

The monsters around him don’t seem to know what is coming as they continue to charge forward, leaping at Tiny, desperate to take a bite out of him.

Then those fists come down and the tunnel is filled with lightning.

The entire tunnel shakes when those fists impact the ground, knocking most monsters off their feet, but it isn’t over. The electricity contained in the strike erupts explosively, rolling outwards from the point of impact in a forward arc. Crackling over the floor it slides over the ground like a wave and every monster it touches gets thoroughly cooked. Dozens of monsters fall to the ground as the tide of lightning rolls through their ranks, decimating the foes in a blinding flash.

That. Is. Hot. To. Death!

Tiny you the ape!