Upping The Ante

73. Dire Lightning Storm Kong

Electricity rippling across his body, Tiny’s fists flash out, devastating his opponents. None can stand up to his blows. That doesn’t shock me much. We’re talking about a ten-foot-tall gorilla monster here. If I’d seen a gorilla on Earth that was ten feet tall, I’d have browned my downstairs department. Physical strength is something he has in spades.

What’s really impressive is the lightning strikes flashing from his body without him having to think about it. Blasting any creatures who draw too close. Problem is, they have no choice but to get too close since they’re a mindless mass of monsters pushing forward no matter what.

We’re still taking damage, he and I. It only took a few seconds of following Tiny’s charge for the two of us to be completely surrounded, buried amongst the monsters. They lash at us from all sides, battering me with their limbs, trying to bite through my tough carapace and raising sparks between their teeth and my shell. I’m losing HP here!

Thankfully my defence is holding up pretty well, but Tiny is suffering. He doesn’t have a nice handy outer skeleton and his fur is only a slight protection. His physical stats are likely inordinately slanted toward Might as opposed to Toughness. As the claws and teeth of our foes rain down on him, he’s continuously taking damage.

Not that he slows down any…

Is that Domain ready yet!

My two sub-brains have been frantically working together to weave the far more complex spell but it’s still not done. Unwilling to wait any longer, I focus with my main mind and ignore the rain of blows that fall on me the moment I grow still. With every ounce of my mental strength applied to the task, the spell rapidly takes form, layer after layer of complexity added to the construct until it’s finally complete.

Not hesitating in the slightest, I open the sluice gates and pour in the Gravitational Mana like it’s going out of fashion. Get! This! Spell! Done!

There!

The instant it’s ready I unleash the Domain and the glittering purple dome of energy rapidly expands outward. Encompassing the entire width of the tunnel, the spell expands ten metres out in all directions.

THROOM!

The massive gravitational pull kicks in and the monsters around me are immediately affected.

[Tiny!] I shout.

The ape turns back toward me. These monsters are made of sterner stuff and won’t collapse to the ground just because of the Domain, but their ability to move and contest us has easily halved. The shadow beasts are probably holding up better than the rest. Their strange elastic flesh is far stronger than it appears.

But now we can manage.

“KEEEEEEEEE!”

Tiny opens his mouth wide and unleashes his ultimate bat scream, the Ultrasonic Wave! The ear shattering sound is even stronger than before, piercing straight through my antennae and stabbing into my brain.

That stings!

I manage to resist the stunning effect thanks to my over-tuned Will, but most of the monsters aren’t so lucky. Those caught inside the Domain have it the worst, hit by double debilitating effects. Those on the outside don’t look so good either.

[Get ’em!]

The two of us start flailing about madly, Tiny with his fists and me with my jaws. I use Shattering Bite over and over again until my face aches and exhaustion creeps in. Tiny’s endlessly lashing out with his fists. And even now, the monsters keep coming! They’re walking straight into the Domain and don’t seem to care. What is driving these creatures?

[Tiny, retreat and eat something, restore your strength!]

The limiting factor here is our stamina. I might have taken less damage than Tiny, but his robust physique will provide him a lot more energy. After constantly using my advanced physical skills, I’m beginning to run out of gas.

My two sub-brains are currently tasked with maintaining the Domain. A constant flood of Gravitational Mana flows out of my gland and into the construct powering the spell. Thanks to the bottomless upgrade, I don’t need to worry about running out of Mana in the short-term. My feet are sucking up energy from the floor every passing second, but the rate of transfer into Gravity Mana is still painfully slow.

Tiny shakes his head but ultimately can’t refuse my order. He throws himself behind me and starts stuffing his face with the plentiful Biomass littered across the tunnel floor. The food will help accelerate the healing of his wounds and give a little extra fuel in the stamina fire.

[Crinis! Go with him, this is going to get dangerous!] I yell as I flick the little ball of dark rubber at Tiny as he runs past.

With all of these attacks raining down on me, I don’t want the little one to get squashed by accident with her not being combat ready. Vibrant at least is a proper monster, with a carapace to protect her from any glancing blows.

With Tiny gone, the monsters descend on me like locusts. I can’t even tell how many there are or if we are whittling down their numbers. My impressive, nearly three-sixty degree vision is giving me a wonderful view of monsters mouths trying to attach themselves to my person!

I continue to absorb the battering, laying out with my mandibles at every opportunity. In an effort to avoid complete exhaustion I stopped using my skills and instead started channelling Mana into my mandibles to add a bit more punch to my bite.

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

The horrific sounds of my jaws at work mix with the howls and savage cries of the beasts. I felt like I held on for hours, but it was probably only a minute before Tiny’s furious voice rang in my mind.

[FIGHT!]

Sounds like he’s had enough eating. I bolt to his location at the rear of the fight as he charges into the fray once more. I try and stay close behind him while stuffing my face with Biomass and activate my healing gland to recover from the battering I’d just received.

I hope Tiny can hold on for a while, I’m knackered. This is the weakness of my body right now. Mental power for days but not enough combat effectiveness yet. I need to start practicing the water transformation construct as soon as possible!

Tiny re-joins the fight with relish and pounds his opponents into the dirt with rising glee. The electricity on his body is still crackling away, blasting the occasional monster into a deep-fried version of itself. Does he ever run out of electricity?

Apparently not! With a mighty bellow, Tiny raises both hands over his head, bringing them together for a slam. Once his fists rise into the air all the electrical energy crackling over his body floods up his arms, concentrating on his fists, and they shine so brightly I wish I had eyelids.

As the electrical energy intensifies, a static whine grows in pitch until it rises above the register I can hear. I can still feel it though, causing the hairs on my antennae to violently shake.

The monsters around him don’t seem to know what is coming as they charge, leaping at Tiny, desperate to take a bite out of him.

Then those fists come down and the tunnel is filled with lightning.

The entire tunnel shakes when those fists impact the ground, knocking most monsters off their feet. The electricity contained in the strike erupts, rolling outward from the point of impact in a forward arc. Crackling over the floor, it slides along the ground like a wave. Every monster it touches gets thoroughly cooked. Dozens of monsters collapse as the tide of lightning explodes through their ranks, decimating the foes in a blinding flash.

That. Is. Hot. To. Death!

Tiny, you the ape!