Chapter 337 Third Ambush Part 4 (1/2)

I should learn to hold off on the healing gland. Was I missing part of a leg? Maybe. But right now, as I charge into the literal teeth of a horde of angry monsters, I think that perhaps holding off on spending it might have been the better choice. Because this is going to hurt.

BAM.

I crash into the front line of monsters with a crash, their bodies smashed into mine and the monsters began to claw and bite at my carapace, wild and eager to rend me limb from limb. I can feel their fangs sc.r.a.ping on my carapace, sometimes harmlessly and other times digging grooves into it that threaten to tear through my defences. My s.h.i.+ny carapace! Don't damage it! The regenerative upgrade will help heal that damage over time, but I can't sustain this battering indefinitely.

Thankfully, I still have my gravity domain cranked up, meaning that most of the weaker, tier one monsters aren't able to move properly beneath its effects, let alone launch attacks. They feebly crawl through the dirt and run each other down in order to reach me but most of them get stomped into the ground by larger, more fearsome monsters.

Bring it punks!

My mandibles glow with energy as I pour mana into them as well as activating my stamina draining bite skills. I need to go all out here, I can't afford to hold the energy in my core back. Every second that I buy will allow more scouts to make it to the other side of the wall. Stupid mage slaves… If they hadn't been so far from me I'd have ripped them a new one. Sadly I didn't have the option.

CRUNCH!

With a satisfying slice, my mandibles tore through monsters, cutting away limbs and digging deep into flesh. Naturally I wouldn't forget, even in the midst of this crisis, to level my Severing Bite! Gwahahaha! The melee whirls and dances around me and a wild excitement builds in my thorax. I can feel my little ant heart pumping with energy as I cut down my opponents and they break themselves on my exoskeleton. Impossible odds, high chance of death, it would sound crazy to say that I missed this kind of fight, but there is a certain feeling that I can only get when my life is on the line. My concentration is honed to a razor's edge as my mind processes a thousand different things a second, the heat rolling off the bodies that crowd around me, the blurred images of their future movements, the sensations of my sub-brains straining to hold and direct the flow of mana through my domain spell. It's draining, exhilarating, terrifying and fulfilling all at once.

Perhaps I'm starting to understand Tiny more and more…

Wait, is that a bear?

OOF!

An Earth Bear tyrant had reared up and battered my left side with one mighty claw, the blow sent sparks flying as it dug channels into my carapace but failed to break through. Still, the impact was enough to stagger me to one side, an opening that the enemies swarming around me were quick to exploit.

Dangit! I don't have the time or s.p.a.ce to try and rip through one of those bears, they're too tough to kill that fast. Mind racing, I scrabble my feet underneath me and move away from the horrid creature, mana empowered mandibles chomping as I go. Thanks to the domain, the lumbering brute will struggle to keep up if I keep moving.

OUCH!

I think I just lost a chunk out of an antennae! How much longer?!

”Senior!” I heard a pheromone shout.

Who the heck?!

Next second, several new forms appear in my vision, cras.h.i.+ng forward and grappling with monsters around me. Then a larger ant leapt into the fray, slas.h.i.+ng about with her deadly mandibles. Larger than the regular soldiers, I can tell her body has been heavily mutated due to her higher than regular colony member Bioma.s.s intake. I couldn't forget the ant that I'd raised from a mere grub what felt like years ago!