Antelligent Design

102. Ride the Lightning

The storm seems to follow me. A rain of lightning pouring out of the sky and lancing into the earth around me.

Boom! Boom!

Tiny and I, with Crinis on my back, lurch from side to side to dodge the lightning strikes. How are you supposed to dodge lightning strikes? It’s lightning! This just isn’t playing fair! I’ll conveniently ignore the fact I’ve had Tiny roasting monsters with lightning for months now, since it doesn’t have any bearing on our current situation.

I think we made the Wizard Lizard a little bit mad.

Boom!

Yeeouch! That one was close. The thunder roaring in my antennae is almost enough to cause mental damage on its own. My ears aren’t great, but they sure as heck can hear that.

Whoa!

Boom!

Another bolt struck where I’d been just a moment before. Even whilst running for my life, I’m shocked—heh—at how well I’m dodging these things. Is this my incredible insect reflexes coming to life? Am I finally one with my six-legged people?

Wait a second…

Boom!

Another lightning bolt dodged! I’m an idiot, it’s my antennae. Moments before the lightning strikes, my antennae light up with the power of the bolt descending. It’s a strange but subtle sensation, which is perhaps why I didn’t notice it at first. An illusory phantom of real sensation. It isn’t as if I see the lightning, my eyes aren’t what detect a moment into the future, it’s my antennae. What I get is a feeling, a sensation of sensations to come.

Hah! This is incredible! I can even dodge lightning!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

GAH!

Spoke too soon!

In an instant, my body lit up like a Christmas tree as a bolt connected with my carapace. The insane electrical energy roasts me from the inside out as it passes through me and into the ground. I immediately activate my Regeneration Gland and scramble to put my feet back underneath me as the cool, healing fluid spreads throughout my body.

That seriously hurt!

Oh my God!

[Crinis! Are you ok?]

[I-I’m alright, Master,] Crinis mumbles from my back. [I can… hold on.]

She doesn’t sound good. I can barely make her out in my vision, smoke rising from her tentacles. We need to get the heck out of here!

The moment I’d been hit, Tiny had roared and leapt to stand over me. He paid for his dedication with another bolt of lightning ripping through his body. Fortunately, he seems at least somewhat resistant to the electrical damage. As a Dire Lightning Storm Kong should be.

[Let’s move it, Tiny!]

“Come on, senior! Dash!” Vibrant shouts.

She runs back alongside me, close enough that she’s able to offer me a speed boost from her aura, but far enough she’s not too threatened by the precision lightning strikes. I’m grateful for her bravery. Every little bit of speed helps!

Boom!

The lightning rages on like hammers from the sky as the Lizard Wizard continues to display its unrelenting wrath at me for daring to destroy its servant. You’re trying to kill my whole family, pal! Try to think from my point of view!

Boom!

Never mind then!

My HP had been cut in half by that first strike, only to be gradually rebounding now as the regenerative gland does its work. I clack my mandibles in irritation. I really need to work on my magic defence. Opponents like this one have me at a severe disadvantage.

Or do they?

As I focus on running and sensing the lightning with my antennae, I task my sub-brains with a new job. They look into the surrounding air, using my Mana Sense, and begin to monitor the Mana in an area around me.

Boom!

There it is! By focusing on my Mana Sense, I’m able to detect the mind-numbing amount of Mana the storm cloud above my head contains. It appears to the Skill as if a burning ball of fire exists directly overhead. That is an astonishing amount of Mana. Is this the power of a centuries-old giant lizard?

And right there, the Mana is concentrating toward a single point! My antennae begin to tingle and I leap to the left. Another lightning strike crashes into the ground, and once again, a hail of dirt clods spatter into me.

We continue on as fast as we can while the lightning targets me with unerring precision. How the heck is that lizard able to target me from such long-range! Is it through the scrying magic? It isn’t as if every lightning bolt targets me, but the vast majority do.

With my sub-minds, I try to reach up to the cloud above my head. If I could use the External Mana Manipulation Skill to break apart the spell, we’ll be able to get the heck out of this hell storm! Sadly, try as I might, I can’t extend my Mana Manipulation to that extent. My sub-minds strain as hard as they can, but the farthest away from my body I can manipulate the Mana is just shy of the clouds.

Dammit!

I really need to rank up that Skill! This is how I’m going to defend myself from magical attacks!

With the help of Vibrant and using the Mana Sense to predict lightning strikes, we run on for a kilometre before the storm finally abates. It’s quite a sight to see a crackling, dark cloud that had been pelting us with deadly lightning simply fade away over the course of a second.

I can only assume that we moved beyond the range of the lizard. I’ve never seen magic on that sort of scale and at such a distance before. What rank do the related Skills need to get to before you can start to cast something like that?

I guess after a couple of hundred years, I would be able to get a few Skills to rank nine or ten, at least. They must get incredibly powerful at that level.

[Haha! We made it out, senior!] Vibrant did a little dance of joy to celebrate.

[Could you talk to the council about pulling back the skirmishers for a time? I’m worried things are going to get more dangerous from this point on if the Ka’armodo starts to take a more direct hand against all of the colony and not just me.]

[Roger-roger!] Vibrant salutes with one antenna and races off, accompanied by her gang of fifty ants. I swear her group just keeps getting larger…

Desperate for rest and a bit of healing, my pets and I make our way toward the small Dungeon chamber the workers provided for us. Once there, we chew up the creatures who spawned in order to heal and satisfy our hunger before slipping into sleep or torpor.

After today’s excitement, we need a good snooze before tomorrow. That would be the day we abandon the forward HQ entirely and move back to the main nest. I hope things have been going well back there…