Upping The Ante

5. The Furious Tiny, the Delectable Feast!

Before I’ve even finished speaking, Tiny releases a ravenous howl and dives into the vertical tunnel. Right on top of me!

My plan had been to crawl along the roof of this tunnel and scope it out a bit before taking any action. Instead, I get pushed down the hole by the sheer weight of ape mass that sends us smashing into the ground directly between two battling monsters.

THUMP!

Get off me, Tiny, you stupid—Wait a sec… Er.

[Get off me, Tiny, you ape!]

He isn’t listening. Eyes alive with hunger, for food and battle, Tiny leaps up, planting one foot squarely in my back, before diving headfirst into the nearest monster. Fists swinging and electricity zapping in every direction.

He flattened me. I’ve even taken damage dammit!

Turns out, having a giant ape land on your back is less than pleasant.

Groaning, I pick myself up and try to switch my mentality back to battle mode after experiencing that rather rude shock. Once my feet are under me, I try to quickly get a grasp of the situation.

What are we up against?

The tunnel itself is quite narrow, as expected, and absolutely blazing with light, the Mana veins snaking through every surface of the walls. Monsters are battling up and down the space, even as new monsters push their way out of the walls where they have been spawned.

Havoc! Chaos!

Except they’re all low-Level monsters.

The sorts of enemies I’d seen when I first entered the Dungeon. Slugs, centipedes, wolves, the occasional croca-beast and Thorn Lizard. All of the weakest foes. I was able to fight against these guys before I’d even formed a core!

I’ve evolved twice since then and am so much stronger than before. These monsters are simply no match for me anymore! In fact, most of them look very different now, seeing as I’ve grown significantly taller and longer. The Wolf Dragon hounds can’t even look down on me now. Ha!

Prepare to feel my wrath.

Muahahaha!

Filled with glee, I charge at the nearest Coral Slug, open my mandibles wide, and snap them closed.

Shattering Bite!

Without any resistance, the ethereal jaws of light snap cleanly through the slug. Your goop can’t save you now!

[You have defeated a Level 3 Coral Slug.]

[You have gained XP.]

Who’s next?

What follows is an extremely cathartic battle. With my much higher stats, body advancements and improved skills, these weaker, unevolved, base Level monsters are simply no match. Practically everything is destroyed with one bite.

I remember when I was afraid of you. Take this!

[You have defeated…]

You want to spit your horrible acid on me now? I can barely feel it! Muahahaha!

[You have defeated…]

Oh, you want to slap me around with your tail? How about I bite it off?

[You have defeated…]

All my amassed frustration from those early days in the upper tunnels of the Dungeon is poured out on these monsters without remorse. Yes, you horrible little beasts. Become my stress relief!

As much as I enjoy the ensuing battle, Tiny doesn’t. The monsters are just too weak to satisfy his lust for combat. Every single one crumbles after one impact of his colossal fist. After smashing everything in front of him, the poor fellow starts to look somewhat despondent. He continues to battle and slay his way down the tunnel, but he doesn’t have quite the same verve as before.

He just can’t seem to muster any enthusiasm unless there’s a very real sense of danger.

You some sort of masochist, Tiny? Can’t enjoy yourself unless you’re getting beat up?

You need help, man.

Soon, a decent section of the tunnel has been completely smashed clean. We rampaged until no monster was willing to challenge us. Standing amidst the remains of our victims, I am aglow with satisfaction, having successfully released some of my inner demons and stress. Tiny on the other hand can only look disappointed.

[Cheer up, Tiny. Time to eat!]

No sooner are the words out of my mouth, than a wide grin plays over that bat face and he starts grabbing hold of Biomass and shoving it into his mouth. I’m just as hungry as he is at this point, so I join in with gusto, ripping into my food with all the strength my ant mouth can muster.

Biomass still tastes disgusting. Don’t think otherwise. But you can get used to anything after a while, even cramming your face with raw monster body parts.

It’s disappointing in a way that the monsters here were such a low Level. Despite killing twenty or so creatures, I wasn’t able to Level up at all. I highly doubt I’ll be able to gain much Biomass, even if I were to consume all of these creatures.

I did manage to come across three small monster cores though! I put those aside to add to my collection for experimentation. It’ll be some time before evolution is back on the table, so there’s no need to rush and soak up every core I find. I’d rather use them to advance my skills first. The Core Engineering skill still seems to have a lot of potential.

Nonetheless, Tiny and I continue to eat until our stomachs are fit to bursting. Only then do we somewhat sheepishly realise we were supposed to be securing food for the entire colony, not just ourselves.

Got a little distracted there…

It isn’t a big deal though. If there’s one thing that isn’t in short supply during the wave, it’s spawning monsters. Even during our feast there were monsters spawning we had to destroy between mouthfuls.

Dragging myself down the corridor, I hunt down more prey and lug it back to the connection of the escape tunnel. After ten minutes I’ve amassed a small pile of Biomass, and Tiny has done likewise after hunting in the other direction.

Heading back up the short connecting tunnel to summon some workers to collect the food, I notice the Mana veins are already beginning to grow up the connection.

Dammit.

There was no way it wasn’t going to happen, but it still worries me. Hopefully we’ll be able to continue digging and outpace the growth of these veins. I really don’t want to have monsters jumping out of the walls while we dig. The monsters would be easily dealt with to be sure, but there’s a small chance a worker would be caught unaware, or a monster could appear directly underneath the larvae before anyone can stop it.

Dozens of ants have already lost their lives in this wave, and we’ve been very lucky!

“I need some help to collect food down here!” I announce to the workers after poking my head out of the connecting tunnel.

At the word ‘food,’ thirty workers immediately stop what they’re doing and plunge themselves down the narrow tunnel, pushing me rudely out of the way in their rush to get at the Biomass.

I end up losing my grip and falling, this time landing squishily in a pile of monster parts.

My dignity!

As the ants crawl over me and start to carve up the Biomass, I take a moment to rest. After fighting and then digging, and fighting some more, I really feel like a nap!