Asheron's Fall: The Power of Ten, Book Six

The Eviscerator came pumping from the left side, the room open in that direction. Killing limbs out, it looked quite impressive and dangerous as it churned towards me, and ran into a Copper blast all for it, with another Shard for the downed Worker and two more for the Soldier trailing after it.

It was knocked over and scrambled to regain its balance, but it was stronger and tougher than other olthoi, and those limbs actually were really good at bouncing it back to its feet again.

A sudden shriek that was really loud and seemed to make everything in the room vibrate echoed through the whole chamber abruptly, and I was pretty sure more fun would be coming quickly.

My Disk remained in the entry hall as I went up the side of the wall. Unmoving and not alive, the Disk attracted no attention whatsoever, especially with an active moving me there.

The Eviscerator wasn’t expecting me to do that, nor to take a mere Lead shot via Darts to the face. 5-20+32 +7d6 was still an impressive amount of damage, and enough to knock it off its feet again before it could try climbing the walls after me. The Worker and the Soldier had gotten back to their feet and were plodding towards me, but there was no way they could possibly reach me, so I focused the next volley exclusively on the Eviscerator trying to get up, jam its limbs into the resin, and scale the wall up after me.

I turned upside down, my satchel secure and clothing tied, and with Sylune’s Grace for hair, I didn’t have to worry about it being in the way. With my feet pressed on the ceiling, I could move around, unless these things could leap like crickets... which I didn’t see among them.

Another volley of Darts flattened the Eviscerator, whose body jerked and folded in on itself as its thorax ruptured and it lost pressure in its limbs, curling up incredibly small for its size.

Aaaaand that’s the vibrating sound I was waiting for. I ignored the Soldier and Worker flailing around uselessly below me, waiting for me to fall down, as the thrumming of wings which could not support so much weight echoed around the corner and was soon accompanied by its sources.

Two of the green Needlers, zipping around the corner, freezing for a moment to study the scene, and then spotting me up high as I unloaded on them.

Good reflexes. Both of them spat their lines of magically-propelled acid breath at the same moment.

I twisted aside and dipped down at the same moment, before reversing and coming back up, staying out of range as the acid hissed past me, the shots missing. The Needlers, on the other hand, smashed backwards into the wall behind them, three Shards to one, four to the other, and the Silver Shockwave split between them.

They slid down the wall and landed badly, crystalline wings cracking and breaking. It took them a second or two to invoke their anti-gravity effect and lift off the ground again, but they should have tried something millipede in style instead, trying to crawl up the wall to me. Their damaged wings couldn’t propel them with any control, and I just Darted them twice more each before their carapaces gave way and their glowing blood was going in all directions as their tumbling bodies finally lost all lift.

There were nine olthoi below me now, all of them desperately trying to reach me, and probably really bummed that I was the one who was clinging to ceilings out of reach.

Since they wanted to stay and attack me, I obliged with slow and careful triple sets of Darts, and slowly hammered them all down with the Kicker damage, not caring if they got back up.

I really needed more Kicker damage here. Life sucked, be patient.

There was another Eviscerator, and two more Guards. They earned my first attention, as the rest weren’t anything but diversions. I hammered them repeatedly, spreading out the three Darts to maximize damage among different targets, using the spare Meta Slot for Piercing Spell so I definitely didn’t have to worry about their spell resistance. Elemental lightning zipped down again and again, but it was still Force damage, and the Holy Banefire did the job it was supposed to do, amplifying every hit and finding the weakest points to prey on.

Slowly and steadily, I beat the olthoi down in sets of three. If it took ten volleys, it took ten volleys, I didn’t care, and was patient enough to let it all go. One of them did try flinging acid from its jaws up towards me with a pincer, which splattered off my blouse and Resist Acid, and earned it my immediate attention.

It never got back to its feet before it died.

The shrieks from deeper in the place grew louder with each kill, until subsonic killing intent was filling the air. Would the queen come up from below, or not?

She did not, which raised my hackles. It meant she was waiting for me.

With trepidation yet haste, I cleared off her vanguard, then set them and the giant mushrooms en vivus. My Disk followed carefully and dutifully after me near the wall as I turned the corner from up on the ceiling.

I turned the corner, saw the fwzap and swirl of polycolors as a new olthoi Worker was Summoned in, and I promptly sent it flying with two Darts. Three more volleys and it was dead, set on vivus, and I wouldn’t have to worry about any others coming up behind me.

There was a ramp in the floor leading down, just what I did NOT want to see.

Fwzap. At the bottom of the ramp, the clear spot there materialized another olthoi Worker.

There’s a reason that people hate Summoners.

I hammered that one down patiently, too, not wanting to spend Valences unless I had to. The ramp curved down and to the right, but nothing else seemed to be coming as I walked upside-down on the tunnel’s ceiling down the way, Wand leading, Disk staying up top for now.

Clear area on the floor! I blasted it hastily, just as the fwzap started to go off, and the vivus ate the glowing lights and stopped that nonsense.

There was a membrane to the left of the Summon point, and a feeding basin near to it. I blasted open the membrane, blinked at the blank wall there, and then looked down at the covered mound there.

Two more volleys blasted the resin off the chest, and I heaved it open.

Dried Potion bottles.

My Disk came drifting down from above at my silent command, and I deposited the dry bottles upon it. Then I waited for the chest to recharge, short out, and pulled out the three intact Potions that came in with it, leaving my Disk floating directly over top of where it was falling apart.

I blasted the feeding station as I moved ahead, looking for signs of more olthoi, probably Summons at this point.

There was one more further into this lower, darker chamber, lit only by traces of bioluminescent goo and another feeding font, notably richer and brighter in color than the ones upstairs.

There was a single chamber reaching out of here. I could see on the far side what looked like another massive set of fungus, and a glowing lake of olthoi food goo, as well as several oblong organic objects set around it.

There were two Summons in that room, waiting for me, but no sign of the queen from where I was, which sent all my hackles rising up.

I braced to run, making sure there was nothing hiding around me, and proceeded to blast the two Guards with sets of three Darts, two to one, then the other, knocking them around as they tried to run at me. Sometimes the single shot would bull through the effect and eventually made it to the doorway, but then two Darts slammed into it and knocked it over, getting in the way of the one coming after it.

I spent two Lead shots and only five mana to speed things up a bit, and neither guard managed to cross the low, dark room I was in and backing up through before they died.

I started them en vivus, and waited.

No reaction from the queen at their deaths. Two Darts more V-speared out from my position, ignited on the spawn points and shorted them out.

Still nothing.

I sent two V-Darts into the pond of glowing goo, and poof! Both Darts generated instant bonfires of vivic flames on the stuff, which began to spread quickly.

Okay, this was seriously creeping me out. The queen was obviously waiting for intruders, but where?

Somewhere out of my line of sight, obviously. That meant either on the roof, or on one of the side walls.

Or right above the entryway.

I tilted my head, considering that point, letting the cold shakes at the idea run through me while acknowledging and ignoring them.

Well, let’s see if she’ll reveal herself first.

I promptly began popping each of the eggs there. A flashing Fire Dart hit them, superheated steam blew them open, and pop, pop, pop, whatever larvae were in them were cooked and died.

Oh, I heard that. A skitter of bladed arms rubbing softly on one another...

Larvae were coming up out of the pond of goo, which was completely covered by vivus now. They looked like pasty white clumps of motile poo, not attractive in the slightest, and I had no reservations about shooting them dead from safely where I was standing... and then shooting them again to set the blasted carcasses to Burning.

Still not coming out, eh? Well, that’s why I had utility spells.

Mira was very excited as I wove up Illusion I, Phantasmal Force, basically a visual-only illusion. I paused just long enough to get my next spell ready with great care, before sending the illusion of me zipping out of the entryway towards the pond at a run.

Predators naturally trigger on fleeing prey.

The flexing of something big and not light. Massive legs that had been straddling the upper half of the doorway flexed and leapt out after the illusion with rather impressive speed.

She was deep crimson with dark purple highlights from the back, another humanoid insect, but unlike the Eviscerators she had a much longer abdomen, presumably for egg-laying.

I blew a II Valence on Assay just so I could read her better and know what I was facing.

Olthoi Matron, Challenge Rating 100. A thousand Health. Gods in Hell, that was like an ancient dragon or tougher back on Terra-Luna! Strength nearly 400, about the equal of 30 in Power of Ten Standards.

Fast-healing 10. Virtually immune to acid and lightning, resistant to fire and cold... vulnerable to bludgeon damage? SR 23?

Wow, that was damn useful to know. As was not letting her run away to mend.

Truecast, +10 to SR punch! Silver Magic Yield Other, “Equin Opaj!”

Ping! I watched the swirls of magic descend around her and lower her Magic Defense to 18 while she was hacking at the illusion who was dodging with incredible nimbleness from those scything claws, and probably wondering why she couldn’t smell or hear anything.

I really wanted to try a Gold spell, but I hadn’t figured it out and Mari didn’t know the formulas, so we were stuck with Silver. Bludgeon Vulnerability IV, “Cruath Qaureth!”