The first thing I did when I saw the rush of krigries was unleash all five of my Fireballs in a mass inferno. Just in any direction. Because the bugs were flying toward me from every direction. And I mean from the ceiling, from the walls and a layer behind the walls. So many that this had to have been their nest all along.

Which I should have frickin’ known. To borrow the phrase from Bayce.

That had not been a smell of soil or wetness. It’d been these beasts! So I flung a rapid-fire spread shot of fire all about, and the hole lit up with flame.

Several insects sizzled.

But there were several more.

In fact, from what I could tell, the ones I’d hit weren’t even down for the count. When I spotted the first brown carapace turning black, falling back to the dirt they’d risen from, I checked my EXP to see if it’d risen.

EXP: 46% (1320/2850)

Nope…and I checked it again as I whirled past the first attack to dive for me and spotted a second.

EXP: 46% (1320/2850)

Not that one either…

The reason I was only checking on two, despite having thrown several flames, was because most of the bugs on fire were still flying.

They were on fire and they were still flying.

The secret seemed to be in another series of changes I saw all throughout the flock. Subtle ones, of a kind I only recognized because I was intimately familiar with it.

The insects were using Meditate. Or something like it. Puffs of steam with the barest tinge of a royal, wise purple.

These observations flew through my mind at the speed of a second or two.

They came as several insects swooped toward me at once, extending vicious pincers.

And then I switched gears quickly. It was no trouble at all to transition into my second phase: combat, combat, combat.

HP 100% (443/443) SP 70% (264/378)

I flung myself out of twin krigrie paths, my breath hitching as I caught the razor edge of one claw. Okay, I thought, keeping my brain steady, you need Defense for this.

With 264 SP, a Guard was nothing. I set it up.

SP 62% (235/378)

DEF 77 (+50%)

And I needed Attack, too. Because behind me, the krigries were grabbing the book. If I didn’t swat them off, this Treasure would be lost.

Goodbye, my two Attack Ups. You’re going to a good cause.

ATK 180 (+150%)

The explosion of strong scent the Spells unleashed cut through even the bugs and the lingering flames. My Attack was so high at this stage—too strong for my body—that I felt a kind of uncomfortable not even rivaled by the pain I felt in my bones when I stacked Guards. Since my original Attack Up from earlier had never worn off, I had boost on boost on boost. Not only that, but it was in my veins.

And veins feel different from bones, you know.

I tried not to think about the blood rushing through me at triple time. Or the fact that I was trembling so hard I had practically thrown down a tankard of humans’ beloved coffee. Scratch that, I didn’t have time!

First step was to get the book, second was to fight my way out. I pounced toward the thing—which I could only half see, now that about a third of this swarm had clustered on top of it. Of course, shredding my Spells meant I had the space for it.

I stared into a bit of exposed. Inventory.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Nothing.

Inventory book. Inventory put the book in. Ow, my back! Get off! I thought, shaking like a bronco. Come on, System! Inventory!

Error: No viable object found in space provided.

It’s the perfect time to glitch, isn’t it?!

Don’t mind the extra venom in my words, I was just going through waves of pain thanks to the seven-centimeter krigrie pincer in my back.

HP 79% (350/443)

The Guard was doing something to keep the damage low, but only relatively. I reached over and gave the krigrie a strong claw in the side. Raw, Skill-less damage with my current Attack was enough to get it out, and my relief was palpable. As palpable as the strikes that flooded in right afterward.

What have to be a dozen krigries flew toward me at once. The fires were nearly gone—replaced by glows that began bright pink, then pulsed to the color of blood.

The krigries had their mouths open, revealing sets of four mandibles each, all studded with the same razors as their pincers. They weren’t playing. They were willing to kill for this book.

I meowed as loud as I could. At this stage, I hardly needed intuition to know that Reed could mean the difference between life and death here.

Then, just before they closed in, I jumped so that my front claws swooped in an arc before me, clawing through half of the oncoming bugs with a searing Slash.

That was so satisfying. For just half of a second, I felt carapaces tearing beneath my claws, which broke through to the flesh within. I did not revel in the feeling of the amethyst insect blood. I simply went to the next phase—my body like a machine, my mind serving it well.

In the back of my mind, though, I felt a euphoric burst. In my vision, I saw a set of boxes that I paid no attention to. I knew what they said. And I knew where my next target was—I was curving around to get back to the book, to unleash the very last of my Slash before it dissipated.

And before my first Attack Up faded. I knew the timer was running out.

With a snarl, I clawed at the book. With a rattle of leaf-thing wings, the krigries with the dark-red glow converged on my back. One of the insects that’d latched onto the book got clawed through. The rest hurried out of my path even before I reached them—and revealed their own wings, and added to the chittering chorus of insect as they rose.

In a single whoosh of movement, the book rose. Poledust filled the air and landed in my eyes.

One Attack Up buff ran out, and Swipe ran out.

That was practically no loss at all. I knew, stoically, that I’d Leveled Up. In fact, this was actually an opportunity.

The bugs that’d gathered to feast on my back, they were all still there. All six, piercing and sucking, thorns and leeches.

HP 67% (313/470)

Instead of attacking them, right this moment, I was running, because I had an idea that might be foolish.

I used every Guard I could muster—and cringed as tightening bones fought with racing blood.

DEF 189 (+250%)

Gah! I hadn’t meant to look at the Stat change—just knowing the percentage gain gave me vertigo.

But all pain of vision and bones was about to be forgotten.

Wham. I bashed myself against the wall of the hollow, accidentally bashing my head against an embedded rock. But non-accidentally bashing my back—and scraping it—against a piece of slate about as sharp as an axe head.

HP 61% (286/470)

My damage was minor, thanks to the Guards.

The krigries wailed.

That was the first time I’d heard their mouths do more than chitter. It was eerie how much they could endure, how not even falling in flames had provoked that much.

I didn’t check to see if any had died. I’d only done that to get them off my back, literally, and avoid suffering more of that literal leech-style sucking—that was obviously the type of attack that, if left over time, would only get worse. Now I darted for the book.

As I turned back around, a sound caught me from the hole in the hollow. Only briefly, and I couldn’t make it out completely. Reed’s voice—but somehow she was being held up?

Ah, one thing at a time. I jumped for the krigries holding the book. They were themselves heading out of the hollow. Halfway there, in fact.

I missed, because they sped up just as I’d almost grabbed one. As I touched ground again, I considered overcoming that with a Leap. And, well, maybe I would. But first I’d send out a couple of Air Cutters, one after the other, at slightly different angles. Blast away as many krigries as I could.

I darted left, then darted right, and flicked my whole body as I sent out the blasts of air. They rocked the krigries, each one loosing a few insects and revealing more of the book they’d tried to smother. With fewer left to hold it up, it lurched in the air.

Now I didn’t need to Leap. I simply jumped, catching the lower edge of the book while my back legs hung loose. To latch on, I had to punch my front claws in. Instead of stabbing into the stone the cover resembled, they made it through thick leather.

The krigries responded with a chitter I somehow knew was furious.

One of them attacked me—clawed me right in the face. Almost in the eye. That was a low blow…so low I felt justified in going lower.

I thrust my head upward and chomped down on the krigrie.

Creench.

Ow… I wouldn’t have been able to bite through this at all if not for the Attack Ups still active on me.

Creench, creench, creench.

Oh, wow, this tasted awful!

Wait, maybe it was poison. I spat it out.

And as I did and the defeated, crispy krigrie fell to the ground, its kindred pulled me and the book out into the bright wider world again.

With a final glance back into the pit, I saw a few insect bodies littered around, and the pits they’d made when they’d pimplishly risen. But I also saw a remarkable…lack of them.

Huh…

Oh.

This battle wasn’t even half-over, was it?