Chapter 356 Dangerous Games (1/2)

Blinded and frantic, I ran as fast as I could away from the horde (I hoped) whilst Tiny bounded alongside. As I stumbled and tripped over what felt like every obstacle, b.u.mp and uneven patch of ground on my path, I tried to lunge left and right to avoid the fireb.a.l.l.s and other spells that continued to be flung my way. The odd explosion actually landed quite close but thanks to Crinis latching onto my mandibles with a tentacle each, she was able to steer me away from the spells that she detected by literally steering me.

It was undignified but I was much more interested in survival than my pride.

I was confused as to what had occurred in that strange confluence of events, but I didn't have to ponder over it until the very real mortal peril I found myself in had subsided, so I persisted in running as far and as fast as I could.

THWACK!

Ouch! I'm under attack! Still blinded and bewildered, my forward momentum was suddenly and forcefully brought to a halt by something blocking my path. An enemy? Feel my wrath!

*Shattering Bite!*

Crunch!

My jaws flooded with energy as the active skill took effect and snapped them shut on whatever was barring my way. I felt whatever it was splinter and shatter beneath the force of my bite, followed by a vague tingling sensation from my antennae. What is this thing in front of me? I don't detect any heat from it, so it shouldn't be a monster. My antennae are telling me something is leaning over this way?

OOF!

A crunch of a different sort rang out as the tree I had just felled landed squarely on my carapace, the weight and force of the impact flattening me in an instant and putting several hairline cracks in my exoskeleton. At least those'll heal up fast.

[Are you alright, Crinis? I think I just dropped a tree on us.]

[I'm alright, Master. A little flat, but otherwise fine.]

I felt her s.h.i.+ft about on my back for a moment before another downward spike in pressure forced the wind out of me again.

OOF!

Crinis extended a few tentacles and succeeded in lifting the tree off of us before she threw it to one side.

The two of us lay on the ground in a battered daze for a minute or two, neither of us sensing any danger and neither of us willing to move without a motivating force.

[Are you here, Tiny?]

[Hmm] came the grunted reply.

Fantastic, the gang's all here.

As I lay in a daze, waiting, the white gradually began to fade as my normal vision returned. Blessed light! The power of eyeb.a.l.l.s in all their glory! After spending so much time obsessing over my vision in my early days on Pangera, it was more than a little disconcerting to have that sense removed, even temporarily. That lightning had surely been something special. I'd never seen anything like it. The force, the power, the sheer destructive impact of it. I'm not sure even Tiny could have survived such a thing hitting him directly.

So how did I survive?

At that moment, I saw Isaac and his crew approaching.

My weary and still somewhat scattered minds put together the necessary mind mana and I reached out to the former guard captain.

[Well, if it isn't speary mcspearface.]

He halted his step.

[What the heck does that mean?] he asked.

[Nothing,] I harrumphed, [I was just a little miffed when you threw that spear at my head!]

[If I hadn't done that the lightnin' bolt would 'ave turned you into a crispy husk of yer former self!] Isaac protested, [I was expectin' thanks, to be honest!]

I hesitated.