Chapter Seven #2
Because every time Reve split a giant bug in half, the corpse seemed to vanish and a new, living creature took its place.
The goo from their bodies was pattering down all around them and the stone was growing slick and slimy, yet Vester didn’t see more than a few chunks of legs, a claw, and one singular tail.
“They’re stealing them,” Li Ra said in annoyance.
She’d been taking measured shots the entire time they’d been standing there, pacing herself.
The hiss-crack of her rifle discharging acid bolts into the goliath scorpions was like a metronome.
“We think they’re carrying the bodies back to the queen so it can eat the dead and produce more swarmers. ”
“Wait, what?” Vester blinked, then grimaced.
“If she’s laying more eggs, does that mean there’s no way we’re getting out of this?
” Theoretically eggs and young insects wouldn’t be as powerful as older members of the swarm, but Vester kept in mind that he was dealing with dungeon magic, and bullshit might see new bugs spring forth fully formed.
“We can,” Kora contradicted, backing away from the edge of the Sanctuary and taking a moment to come drink some soup from the pot Krysta had cooked earlier.
So long as they ate regularly, they’d get the full benefits of Krysta’s regeneration bonuses—though she’d eventually have to stop meditating to cook new food.
Kora set down the ladle and straightened before twisting her back to pop her spine in several places. “It will be a grind, but we can wear the swarm down so long as Krysta’s mana holds. If the Sanctury collapses… things will get unpleasant.”
“Unpleasant,” Vester repeated. “That’s one way to put it. Can you see any reason for me to hold off on using Unfettered?” With Vester’s speed, the ability to do direct damage and a divine blade went a long way.
“The cooldown is a concern,” Kora admitted, “but there’s no point in having a power if we’re afraid to let you use it and that results in someone’s injury or death.
Li Ra’s pistols will eventually need true maintenance, Skylar’s already keeping them going with her Repair Aura, but she’s got her own problems. Three of her golems have been pulled down and destroyed.
Eventually Reve’s mana will run low if she pushes more aggressively.
Our survival at the moment hinges entirely on resource management. ”
Vester nodded, understanding Kora’s point; Krysta’s Sanctuary lets us fight longer, our stamina and mana refilling. But we’re not going to keep regenerating so fast we can fight forever… and once our reserves drop too low, if the Sanctuary fails, we’re dead.
Vester rolled his wrist and swept Trickster’s Cane in a circle, revering his grip so the knob was against his wrist. Activating Unfettered felt good, and a pulse of magic reinforced his Avatar’s Raiment into divine armor.
Trickster’s Cane rippled like water as wood transformed into a slim, black-steel blade.
The dragon-shaped grip curled around his hand, shielding his fingers and thumb in its protective basket, and then Vester blasted forward in a lunge that used every ounce of his dexterity.
Trickster’s Cane offered no bonuses to Vester’s strength, nor did it hold any enchantments to make it more lethal—it was simply a tool that allowed him to conserve his mana.
But in its rapier form the blade was still divine quality.
Its edge sliced through chitin like paper as Vester began to dance along the edges of the Sanctuary, stabbing over and over into the swarm.
The cuts he left gaped open, dripping ichor, and it only took a minute for him to learn where the creature’s brains were hidden.
Stabbing something in between its “middle” eyes while making a downward twist of his wrist took practice, but with a dexterity of over one hundred, Vester was quick to get the motion locked in.
For forty-five minutes he stabbed, twisted, and stabbed again.
Vester’s arm felt like it was on fire by the time Unfettered faded, and his entire left side was splattered with sickly green goo from the number of scorpions he’d impaled, yet despite killing dozens, possibly hundreds of the bugs, the swarm was still covering them in a mountain of bodies.
He was breathing hard, leaning on Trickster’s Cane, when Kora put a hand on the middle of his back.
“Don’t look so discouraged,” she said in a soft voice, which was what made him realize that the endless tide of arachnids definitely was ebbing—the deafening hiss of chitinous bodies had grown into a mere whisper of its former volume.
“I suspect you killed almost half the swarmers coming at us.”
With him handling the smaller bugs, Li Ra, Reve, and Kora had been able to focus on the larger beasts.
Dent and Ripper had maintained their tasks of ensuring no one got webbed and sucked out of the Sanctuary, though Vester saw that Skylar had had to clean Ripper off several times.
He suspected she’d just sucked all the silk into her inventory and hit the golem with a Repair spell, then sent it back out to fight.
“I believe we can break the dome with one solid push,” Reve shouted from her position above them.
“Then let’s do it,” Vester said with a nod.