The situation inside is quite bad, there’s at least 20 of the big things, the same size as those I killed before, hopefully none has some weird black goo waiting inside.

Nalu is completely surrounded but her armor is holding well, she’s surprisingly agile.

They’re all distracted. I pick the one furthest away from the pack. [Body speed] The bonus force will be needed. I grab the thing from the back and pull it toward me. Need to target the head, it’s coming.

The centipede throws itself head first on me. [Dead zone] When the thing is a meter away from me it hits my dead zone, significantly slowing down. One second is all I need. I smash the bottom of its head, left hand’s inside. It’s disgusting, whatever. I grab stuff inside the animal’s head haphazardly and use [Push]. The centipede is pushed back a good meter away, whatever part of the inside of his head I was grabbing is still with me. One down.

That alerted some others to my presence. Three are coming on me. Nalu seems to be holding on. Mostly dodging.

They’re all coming from the same direction. [Shift] I expand space on my right, propelling me to the left. I’ll get the left one first, he’s already damaged. Same strategy.

It worked well again, two down. But the other two are on me. My hands are burning.

I dodge backwards a few times. They attack one after the other, hard to find an opening.

[Dead zone] I’m targeting the space on the side of the one plunging toward me. Instead of dodging back, I [Shift] towards my dead zone. The second centipede is going to hit the dead zone right in front of me. By the time the one I dodged turns back, his partner is dead. Three down.

79% mana left.

I don’t have time to catch this one in a dead zone, it manages to grab me and roll around me.

[Mind speed]

The 15% slow is enough of a difference for me to barely grab its head while it’s trying to bite me. No boost this time, I can get inside of his head through his mouth. The sharp nails face no resistance from the soft insides. I try to push it away but he’s rolled tight around me, doesn’t work. I struggle for a few seconds scrambling the inside of its head. Finally it’s letting go. Four down.

Turning off [Mind speed], it costs too much to maintain.

54% mana left.

Nalu managed to escape from the big pack, she’s somersaulting through the air. She lands right behind me.

I count at least 6 dead centipedes over there. She’s more efficient than me. There’s still a good dozen centipedes standing. They’re not looking like they’ll back away, must be really angry about their nest being invaded like that.

We fight side to side. I slow them with a [Dead zone], she gives them a good whack to the head with her warpick. The thing really does a number on the chitinous exoskeletons, they explode like broken glass when she gets a good hit. I push the hit centipedes away to give us space. We manage to get the first three down like this, my left arm gets bitten by another coming from the side but the chainmail prevents it from going too deep, it still manages to inject some venom. Now they’re all in range, 9 left, 35% mana.

The one biting me didn’t survive the warpick. I [Push] away another one coming for Nalu’s back. We’re surrounded.

“SHOCKWAVE YES!”

BOOM

The centipedes are barely pushed away, but they are stunned, messed with their senses I guess. We both get one before they can recover, 6 left.

Two on me, four on her. I [Shift] twice in a row to dodge, my left arm is paralized from the venom. One of the centipedes on Nalu switches to me. I’m still in the momentum of my shift, I can only double down or my head is gone, I [Shift] again, 21% mana left.

I dodge the bite but I collide with Nalu. She lost her balance. Shit.

The centipede on her right is going for a bite from under her helmet. It might get her neck. Fuck, fuck, FUCK! [Mind Stop]!

11% mana left. I need to turn the situation around somehow. I can’t move but I can stack spells. Dead zones are about 2%, shift 3%, push is 2 or 3%. I need to block or push the one attacking Nalu's neck. Blocking is safer. I’ll shift my way forward to intercept. Pushing Nalu from the back towards me could help recover her balance. She’s small so it should cost 2%. 6% left. A dead zone for each of the centipedes that were on me previously. With only two left on her she’ll have a full second to find her poise. After that all I’ve left are my non boosted fists and nails. Time’s up.

All my spells activate at the same time, everything goes how I planned. Except for the blocking part. Well I blocked it, with my chest. One of the pincers is stuck in the poncho, the other in between my ribs. Fucking hurts. My head is hurting from the mana usage.

“SHOCKWAVE YES!”

BOOM

That got them, I use the chance to get my hand in the thing’s mouth now that it froze in place, making some scrambled eggs in there. From the sounds coming from behind she probably took out two. Means there are three left. When I feel the energy leaving the centipede who’s head I’m blending from the inside I take out the pincer from in between my ribs. Good thing this body doesn’t really bleed.

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The three centipedes left were those originally going for me before getting stuck in the dead zones then stunned by the shockwave, and they got right back to chasing me.

Nalu is still under her boosting effect, she takes care of the three centipedes left while I struggle to run around baiting them.

The fight must have been a minute at most. It felt like an eternity.

I think speeding up my muscles is really hurting them.

I’m dead. No mana, no energy, no nothing. Collapsed on a cave floor, body flooded with venom. Throbbing headache. I’m so dead, I’ve never been so alive.

I don’t even care that the centipede blood is burning my hands. I close my eyes for a second. We won.

Hurried armored footsteps get closer.

“Arren! You good?” did she forget the yes?

“No die! I heal!”

“Ah…” shit it’s hard to talk with all the venom rampaging through. “I’m… good… don’t… w- worr...” She took off her helmet. I can tell she doesn’t believe me at all. To be fair I can’t even move, I must not look good. I’ve recovered from worse.

Hoy, stop taking off my clothes.

Her hands are warm. My eyes are closing by themselves. I hate how weak I get in times like this.

“He- heal, yes!”

Some mana goes through her hands to me. A minuscule amount.

“Heal, yes!” That’s a lot more, it’s helping, I think. Wait, her mana is unstable, hoy, girl! What the fuck are you doing! Shit, I need to stop her.

sob sob

“HEAL, YES!” The large amount of mana going through me is enough to shock me up. I grab her hand and push it away.

“STOP!” I try shouting but it’s weak “I’m ok. It’s fine. You did… enough.”

She’s crying. I hate all of this.

“Don’t hurt yourself…”

We shouldn’t have done this.

She’s collapsing! Shit! I can’t move anymore.

This whole expedition was a mistake.

She’s fainted on me, her silver armor is both cold and burning against my bare chest… Centipede blood…

I can hear her breathing softly. Thank the gods. Rest now.

I’m sending more tributes after this.

Her healing restored my mind enough that I’m not feeling sleepy anymore, just dead tired physically. The venom is largely still here but not spreading. If I can just absorb some mana that would speed up my recovery. This is still a potentially dangerous place. Maybe she has some small crystals on her, powering the armor? I still can’t move.

I wait like this. It takes a good hour before I recover enough to even move a bit. Feeding myself every bit of mana that I manage to recover. The good news is not a single black tar parasite showed up from the corpses. Bad news is Nalu isn’t awake yet.

I learned a few things from the Odon armorer I visited earlier. Runic armors usually have crystal slots on the inside. You put a crystal in there and the armor will drain it instead of you. It’s usually either in the hardest to reach or most armored place, between the thighs for leg armor, in front of the heart for chest plates, on the nape for helmets.

She threw her helmet away… I can only reach her chest with how she’s on me. Fucking weird to be doing this but I need to get us out of here in case more of the hundred legged nightmares show up.

I slide my hand in her armor through the opening at her neck. It’s usually hidden by the fur but there’s clearly some mounds there, pushing against the back of my hand. The fur inside the armor is wet from sweat. I blindly touch the inside of the armor, found it! It’s a round crystal the size of a ping pong ball. Sorry, I’ll repay you somehow. Don’t mind if I do.

I strike the crystal with a bit of my manalite. My body is greedily absorbing the mana that’s coming out. Much like the lemon does to suck in any manalite it can find. My body must be well attuned to eating raw mana now.

Some of the mana is wasted in the armor’s runes but I can’t be crying over this.

Three minutes later I feel good enough to get up again. I ate about a third of the crystal I think. I get my hand out of there. Sorry again, Nalu. Take it as payback for undressing me.

Weird having strong feelings like that for a non-human.

I guess I’m not human anymore.

I just realized I didn’t fumble a single spell for the whole fight. Really not human.

Even with her heavy armor, it isn’t too hard to get her out of the nest. It really is a nest. Now that I can carefully explore, there are big eggs stacked in a corner. Each large like, I don’t know, at least a meter large. Should I break these? I’ll wait for Nalu to wake up first. Couldn’t get her to react no matter what I did. Getting her in a safe position and loosening her armor is all I could do, should improve her recovery I hope. I don’t know how to treat mana overuse. I don’t think her life is in danger at least.

I wonder where the first small dead centipede I found way back when I got transferred here came from. Certainly not an egg that size.

As expected there’s a very big hole in the ground leading down to a black abyss in a corner of the chamber. The city might have to do something about this before it becomes a problem.

I’m pretty sure the green-ish blue streaks on the wall behind the eggs is copper ore, there’s a lot but I don’t know how much pure copper can be extracted out of that, or how to do it. Who knows, maybe there’s a lot more behind. I’m no mining expert.

Looking at the piles of centipede corpses is unsettling. The fauna on the Manse really is something else. And these ten meters long critters can’t even use magic…

It’s worrisome that I end up helf dead every time I get in a fight. Maybe I should settle down and try to speedrun to the Azure rank? Fighting also trains my magic so… I don’t know. It’s a good thing that I’m still clear headed in dangerous situations, always been my forte. Can’t pilot four combat drones at once if you panic. Could I make some makeshift drones here? Nah dumb idea, just my own magic will be stronger than that when I get to the next rank.

I really felt the weight of my cluster ‘multicasting’ type crystal today, I’m certain I couldn’t have cast all those spells simultaneously during the mind stop otherwise. That’s a combo I should look into further. I really lack some firepower right now. All I have is my fists. Either I get trained in a weapon or figure out a way to use the space part of my affinity to attack… The withering touch spell is a nice idea on paper but it’s really only good if I wrestle the thing I’m fighting for a while which is exactly the opposite of what I should be trying to do to avoid injuries…

Nalu? She’s waking up!