Our delve continued. If it was taking longer than anticipated, nobody minded, as we could just pull back if required. For whatever reason, the entire hive wasn’t mobilizing to fight us like it normally would, leaving us only having to deal with one or two rooms of olthoi at a time, which, while it could get a little hairy with spiked uber-bugs trying to force their way past the Shields of the fellows in front of us, was not nearly as dangerous as a Baishi Hive rush, which could end up with literally dozens of Summoned olthoi coming from all directions to join the fight and repel intruders.

Finishing up that huge a fight just meant the respawns were already on the way and coming for you, and that was if you won the fight!

Perhaps because there were no Summons at all, this fight was much easier, and the lack of the olthoi’s alien ecology was definitely interfering with any pheromonal alarm system they had. The dryness in the place was only increasing, but the number of olthoi was only going up, all with ever more Amarinthine Ruby Quartz sticking out of them. They were breathing fire instead of acid, their pincers and pedipalps long and vicious and now heating to cherry-red in temperature as they fought.

Helms that morphed closed became quite necessary in the fight.

I was still accumulating goldweights worth of crystal formations, and even had to add more Disks to set them on as we kept going, which nobody minded too much. Even if Fire-centered, that was still a bunch of goldweight for everyone to use.

We learned the spikes not glowing red-hot were carrying a fire poison when one of the wingless flyers, basically fighting more like centipedes than anything, managed to bite one into Hundig’s arm though the sleeve of his mail, and he screamed in agony as the blood in his arm literally lit up from within as it began to boil.

The Resist Fire probably saved his life, and plunging Cold Darts slamming into it cooled things down enough for me to Neutralize Poison on it. In the meantime Politia had to take over his place on the front line, keeping a Shield up so Kopf wouldn’t be flanked and could keep pounding away at the bugs.

The Saber-wielding Scout was incensed and affronted that he’d been forced off the front line, moreso when the Mick just told him to get on Politia’s Disk and start shooting the bugs off her. He started pouring in the point-blank shots on the bugs in revenge, and they started going down with arrows in their smoldering eyes quite regularly.

---

“That were an unpleasant surprise,” the Mick admitted as we took a breather, inspecting the Armor and Shields of the tankers for signs of penetration.

“I’m actually surprised more of the olthoi aren’t venomous, but they seemed to have gone the acidic route instead. Probably their blood boils most venoms out of their systems, so it’s a useless attack form against things where they come from.”

“Aye. Grievvers have the burning blood, too, an’ I be not thinkin’ ye poison the mushrooms easy, like,” he agreed, his arms lifted as Milee went all over his Armor quickly and thoroughly, while Selena was inspecting Kopf, Hundig going over Rogar, and Mizaya inspecting Politia, while Camwise stood on alert with me.

The metal was generally holding, since it was now Firebaned, but the underlying leathers weren’t nearly so tough, and I had to Mend up Politia, Hundig, and Rogar alike, as they were all wearing mail over leathers, instead of plate like Kopf and the Mick were.

The Shields were fine, however. The olthoi clawed and scraped at them incessantly, but the adamantine was defying claws, crystals, and heat without much trouble, although the bugs were trying hard to yank them around and out of position on those holding them, too.

One of the advantages of having so many limbs was that the olthoi were able to engage in such wrestling matches and still attack with their other appendages. One of the disadvantages was that wrestling a Shield was a Grappling Attack and triggered Close-Quarters Fighting’s extra attack, and natural attacks at close range triggered Sword beats Fist.

Landing attacks triggered Opportunist from the Melees next to you, with the result that plunging thrusts and bouncing smashes were filling the air with the cries of olthoi, and that was without the archers and melees opening up opportunities for one another as they plied their attacks in proper wolfpack style, opening up opportunities for one another.

With Brilliant on their Weapons crunching through the olthoi’s upgraded natural armor, it was a case of how much damage could accumulate and how fast it could do so.

Politia wasn’t even bothering to fight much, just concentrating on keeping her Shield up and Kopf free to pound away with Lapis. Hundig drew a stronger Bow than she did, and had no difficulty shooting over her smoothly and constantly, reaping a faster toll than the Archer as a result. His shots opened a Touch of the Wasp attack for her, usually accomplished with a quick stab to the thorax with her smallsword Poke, which triggered Opportunist for Kopf next to her and Break the Shield for Hundig, and AoO’s bounced back and forth as extra attacks rippled through the Wolfpack Formation with relentless regularity and precision.

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A straight up Cursing debuff was my own normal contribution, having to be aware of Health and Healing status at all times. The shield line was an eruption of fire, stabbing pincers and hacking pedipalps, and the tanks were constantly taking damage from pokes and burns, one way or another.

It was okay, I was on top of it, and the olthoi were rupturing and exploding as the number of attacks and crits blew through them with great speed. They shrieked with sharper, more grating cries than before, and then collapsed into flaming corpses the vivus slowly went to work on.

--------

These last olthoi were incredibly mutated, with carapaces looking completely like crystal, soldiers with six fighting limbs that normal Weapons would probably have barely damaged between the spikes and gleaming strength of their hides.

Brilliant didn’t care and hacked into the reinforced body beneath them that radiated so much heat, every smacking generating a burst of liquid flames that wanted to engulf each of the attackers and splatter them in flaming blood… which wouldn’t surpass their Resist Fire, so it didn’t matter.

Hundig was back on Shield duty, wisely focusing on defense and letting the archers behind him and Kopf do the killing, concentrating on interfering with the attacks on the bugs which soon concentrated on the big lugian, impeding their strikes and opening them up for brutal retaliation from the Vanguard. He still ended up the most injured of the front line because of his lighter armor, although Rogar wasn’t far behind.

“These are Brood Guard,” the Mick commented, eyeing the only way out of the chamber we hadn’t explored. He, like the rest of us, was eyeing a pool full of crimson liquid gently aflame with too-scarlet fires, a fiery equivalent to the acidic pools preferred by normal olthoi. Bunita was sticking out of one of the crawling larvae, their jaws dripping fire, who had crawled out of the pool to eat the dead and attempt to nibble on the living, too.

The Brood Guard looked like Soldiers, except half again taller and looking to be made out of glowing ruby crystal. We’d gone straight to a three-man line to face them, with Rogar plying his Glaive from above and behind the Mick while the Archers concentrated on Hundig and Kopf.

I’d had to Heal the trio constantly from the damage hacking down at them from above, and Hundig was getting the anti-poison treatment again while his Armor Mended up.

“The queen is coming up, then,” I murmured, as Hundig grit his teeth while the poison in his system was chilled away to ineffectiveness. We’d been through this entire hive, a winding, sprawling mass of tunnels and chambers. The areas that were built off mining tunnels were pretty apparent by how geometric they were compared to the more organic tunnels of the olthoi.

“We can probably expect her to be as mutated as these Brood Guards,” the Mick commented. “An’ Queens always have Royal Guards o’ some sort with them.”

“Tougher than these?” Kopf asked carefully in his deep voice.

“Logically? Yes. As long as the queen survives, the hive survives. The toughest olthoi stay with the queen.” There were a lot of spark patterns on the Mick’s Armor now, super-heated pincers lighting off against it repeatedly, looking for weaknesses and openings, and not finding many, just like Kopf.

Ranthas knew how to make Armor, and mail just didn’t hold up like plate did in this scenario.

“So a strong Queen capable of keeping a mutant hive going without external help, and possibly even rivalry from other hives.” I eyed the passageway leading out of this. “I want to know what I’m fighting, I don’t want to stumble into it. I will note that that passageway is notably wider and higher than most of these we’ve run across.”

“Aye, were thinking that meself,” the Mick nodded. “Narrowing it down a wee bit mite be in our best interests.”

I breathed as I considered my mana. “I’m at half mana right now. That’s not a good place to be for a boss fight. I don’t know how much experience this thing has, but the best time to attack is while your opponent is tired and hurt…”

The Mick looked at me, bounced back to his feet and ordered, “Narrow that passage down,” as he patted Kopf on the side. The stoic lugian, having been taking a LOT of punishment and massively bruised after the last few fights, stomped up carefully beside the Mick, right in front of the passage coming in.

I really wanted to get more mana back, but concentrated on Shaping the walls there, stone flowing and billowing out into a narrow profile just wide enough for one olthoi to fit through at most, taking it right up to the ceiling so nothing could scamper from on high.

There was a scramble for the Disks as the Archers hurriedly got into position, with Rogar again standing behind and above the Mick with his Glaive Accent ready for use.

There was a skitter down the tunnel, a quiet crunching of stone under really hard and sharp legs.

“Valus take the hindmost!” the Mick bellowed cheerfully down the tunnel. “Come at us, ye damn bug!”

-As you wish.-

I swore and drove the ceiling down in my little slot further.

The Ruby Olthoi Sentinel that bounced around the corner and came hurtling at us was just a moving mass of crystal and spikes moving far too fast for something that big… and there were more behind it.

I wasn’t sure how the Mick got the Archer Stand Thrust off, but Kopf stepped into its charge, set himself, and the ground crunched under his Crushfoot as he locked his stance. Two hacking crescents came in over his Shield and glanced shrilly off his thick helm and backplate, leaving hot glowing streaks on them as they did so.

Behind it was another Sentinel, which looked like it was ready to run right up and over the one in front, except the ceiling was too low for them both to fit through.

Behind them both loomed the mass of the standing Queen, a burning thing of molten blood inside a body of ruby crystal, fire dripping from her mandibles and pulsing clearly visible through transparent chitin and flesh.

Brilliant arrows thrummed and drove into and through crystalline flesh as shafts of cold Light, the Sentinel shrieked and surged forward again, trying to force the two bipeds with their Shields back… and only succeeding in impaling itself again, Rogar almost spitting it between the eyes from behind the Mick.

Then the Queen bent forward, opened a mouth looking onto an internal furnace, and vomited out a massive cone of flame worthy of any dragon.