“High-Warden, these ones have located the many-lemming taste,” D’kak reported, crouching in respect before their queen. The dim chamber was vast and gleamed slick with viscous acids. “They are coming from the south and advancing inward.”

D’kak’s partners crouched behind him, all three awaiting instruction.

High-Warden hissed and closed her eyes, reaching out with all four hands upraised.

“Call back the scouts. Clear the nesting chambers and fall back to Deephome.” She rose to her feet, conjuring a sphere of force in each hand. “I will hold the gate.”

D’kak nearly toppled backward on his tail. “High-Warden?”

“Do not question me. Go. Now. Protect our children. Look to them for your new queen.”

D’kak scrambled to his feet, the severity of her orders suddenly striking his heart.

The three of them didn’t waste time with salutes, only ran from the chamber and up the tunnels to spread her orders.

So dramatic was the response that Resk’ek didn’t even say ‘I told you so’.

They were halfway done with organizing a hasty withdrawal before the shouting started.

Incoherent, echoing snarls that nearly deafened him even at this distance. Repeated bellows of rage.

D’kak had never in his life trembled at the cry of a lemming before, but this was beyond nature’s boundaries.

By the time the sound stopped, he found himself on the far edge of the nest-town, and only then remembered that he was carrying four clutchlings.

Supposed to be. Three clung to him, hissing softly in fear. The fourth…

D’kak trembled, but he could not leave his charge behind. Ushering the three into the mouth of a collapsed tunnel, he placed a scale in front of the opening to keep them in place and rushed back toward the center.

So he saw when High-Warden emerged, power rippling around her in four perfect spheres, overlapping at the edges to surround her fully, and the loud lemming stepped forward to meet her.

*

When Josh screamed “COME FACE ME,” he was pleasantly surprised that the lizardman den did indeed simply send out their biggest, strongest-looking combatant to face him directly. Though if not for the strength of its aura, he might not have seen it coming.

The dim light favored the four-armed reptilian humanoid, its scales close enough in texture to the surrounding gravel that it could move with near-invisibility.

A lesser man may have thought ‘I’ll avoid direct confrontation with the biggest, strongest baddie out here, in conditions that are unfavorable for me.’

Josh had no such hesitation. He charged, roaring at the top of his lungs.

When he set out to be distracting, he wasn’t going to half-ass it.

He ran at the opponent, which was walking steadily to meet him, swinging Bartholemew in an overhead power attack that should crush anything it touched to pulp.

Unfortunately, while the lizardman champion may seem to be walking calmly to its death, it wasn’t as undefended as it looked.

A moment before the blow would have landed, it struck something else instead. Something sticky and wobbly that flowed like a balloon full of thick liquid under the weight of his attack, then tried to hold Bartholemew by the spikes as he moved to wind up another attack.

White light spread out from the impact point, a shockwave rippling out from the connection point and showing the wobbly thing for what it was—a sphere of a shield around the lizardman champion. No, four shields, overlapped to protect the four-armed champion from all directions.

Josh took that as a challenge and grinned.

When the ripple of light touched the overlapping edge of the other bubbles, each of those rippled in turn with a dimmer, slower pulse of light.

Before he’d even withdrawn his weapon for a second strike, the initial bubble sprang back into its original shape.

He smashed Bartholemew down again. The four-armed lizardman champion fell to its knees with the strike, but its shields again rippled and dispersed the momentum rather than breaking.

We’ll see how long that lasts. Take this!

Stolen story; please report.

He went into a rapid flurry, hitting hard and fast from every direction in an unending flow of violence, albeit one that caused not a ripple to the magic his opponent wore around itself.

The lizardman champion struggled to its feet, the brief reprieve bolstering its waning confidence.

Falsely, as it turned out, because Josh wasn’t actually hitting the shields. He was storing the momentum, preparing.

His purpose here wasn't to end the fight as fast as he could, so he circled his foe. Like a predator to trapped prey, he'd take his time.

“Come on now, princess. Let's dance!” the many armed lizard regarded him, shrinking away and back toward where it had come. “Don't even think about it, or I'll level this entire den. Don't think I'll spare a single soul.”

He doubted the creature could understand him, but it stopped its backpedaling. Four of its six arms clasped together, then pulled apart. Each held an odd spinning ball that kicked up a small cloud of dust.

“That's what I'm talking about!” Josh raised Bartholomew, taking a batter's stance. “How good's your pitching, princess, ‘cause I'm the best batter around.”

The creature reared back and launched as fast as it could. Josh eyed it, the balls of his feet pivoting, his waist torquing, and his shoulders bringing Bartholomew forward to crash into the sphere. It dissipated upon contact, the force being absorbed into the bat.

He smirked. “That was pretty weak. Gotta do better than that.”

As if understanding him, the lizard growled and threw another sphere, followed by a second.

“Getting creative? But throwing more of them isn’t gonna change anything if there’s no more power behind them. Thought you might’ve been smarter than that.” As with the first, he hit the first, quickly resetting and swinging to hit the trailing sphere. “Too easy. Better give it all you got, ‘cause this is the last chance I’m giving you.”

The domes of force shielding the lizard creature flickered weakly as the final ball tripled in size, held in all four hands. It held it over its head, knees shaking from the weight. With a running start, its weight magnified by the oversized sphere shaking the ground, it launched the last sphere.

“That’s what I’m talking about!” He reset his position, eyeing the slow moving ball with excitement. The closer it came to him, the greater the acceleration. He set his stance.

The ground ripped up from the sphere’s passage. Torrents of air batted Josh from afar, but he remained still, unmovable.

Then it was there.

Josh swung, Bartholomew hitting dead center and absorbing as much as the force behind the powered sphere as possible, but it didn’t dissipate. Josh’s feet slid back, the pressure behind the attack great.

Bartholomew did what it could, but Josh’s arms began to buckle, shaking from strain. “Tch. Good one.”

He’d underestimated the creature and was forced to deflect the attack away. As he went to reposition himself to guide the sphere off Bartholomew, a kick smacked the side of his leg and brought him to his knee, dropping his guard and allowing what remained of the force ball to slam right into him.

Skidding back a step, he followed up with a single handed attack, smacking Bartholomew into the shields sheltering the creature and unleashing the pent up force.

“Pretty sturdy, aren’t we?” Josh wiped dirt off himself and shook out the aches from his limbs and chest. “Guess we'll have to try something else to get through that defense of yours.”

Josh tapped into his Patron's power as the creature warily eyed him. Bartholomew shifted from its bat form to gauntlets, squealing with glee as he clenched his fists.

Fighting Spirit suffocated the air with his weaponized Essence aura, bursting with immutable defiance. The heady rush of power that he'd since become adjusted to flowed through him.

“Let's see how you handle this.”

His punches carried greater weight than anything he could bring to bear with Bartholomew, cracking through shield after shield, but not fast enough to destroy them all.

“This is great! Let's kick it up a notch. Try to hold in there just a little longer, little lizard.” His size increased by double, his new size stretching and tearing his shirt and pants. “I really like that outfit.”

Red tracing emblazoned his skin and amplified the power coursing through him. Even this form wasn't too much for him anymore, but the doubling of power still made his breath hitch.

His rain of punches made progress, explosive power breaching the layers of shielding faster than the lizard creature could erect new barriers. Josh peeked behind him to see the last of the group slipping into the convenience store, shrugged, and turned to regard his plaything. “Guess it's time to end things. How long will you last?”

In rapid succession, his four illusory arms condensed into two, then the two illusory arms overlapped with his own. Bartholomew’s gauntleted form adapted without issue, ready and willing to be the tool in which he embraced violence and bloodshed. They increased in size as he entered the third form, then condensed with the fourth.

“Time to die. Asura's Wrath!” The temporary buff magnified his strength and busted through the sky with a violent golden-orange light. “Goodbye, little lizard. This was fun.”

Josh dashed across the distance and punched forward. Everything in front of him in a cone ceased to exist.

*

D’kak ran down the incline, scooping up the cowering clutchling, then a flare of brilliant light pierced blindingly into his eyes. He couldn’t look away.

The attacking lemming bounced off High-Warden’s shield, lighting it up more than D’kak had ever seen. Not only that, but the attack took all four shields to absorb.

No… not absorb. Slow down.

With a crack like lightning, two of High-Warden’s shields shattered and disappeared, followed almost immediately by the third. Only by throwing herself backward, allowing the momentum of the lemming to hurl her into the air, did she even survive.

She flew halfway across the above-ground and slammed into the earth hard enough that her fourth and final shield cracked and dissipated.

Sparks of faint yellow light were left in her wake, one marking the point where each of her shields had been destroyed. She snatched the nearest one, gripping it tightly in a fist and pressing it to her chest, but D’kak could see there was no way for her to recover the others in her current condition.

The glowing lemming shrieked again and charged, closing the distance.

There was no way she’d survive another attack like that.

D’kak turned and ran. It was up to them to ensure the future of their den.

Very, very far away from here.