I slowly began edging back. Approximately forty of those disgusting things were shambling towards me. Widely varying speeds though, many had legs dragging, the more empty corpses were barely moving at all.

They were slow, only a few centimetres per second so I had time to think. What suddenly caused them to move? These were parasitic creatures, the modus operandi for those were to remain dormant in a host. I must’ve triggered some kind of self-defence or feeding mechanism. But how did I wake so many? It couldn’t be some kind of proximity sensor, when I noticed something strange I made sure to examine the one farthest from the rest. There were at least several meters between this body and the rest. How did I trigger an attack?

What did I do wrong?

These were parasitic creatures, assuming these were anything like certain wasps, then once the maggots were fed enough, they ‘hatched’ out of the host. The shell of the bark bug I examined looked very whole, that must mean…

I raised my staff, then slammed the shell golf style. As expected, the shell burst easily like it was made of chips. A squelching noise could be heard as my staff displaced a giant maggot from the shell as it went flying towards the other parasites, hitting the floor and wetly sliding across for another few meters. As it made landfall, the nearest parasites paused and began moving towards it. I see. That thing must’ve signalled the others somehow.

I crouched to examine the pieces of the shell. The interior of it was wet with some kind of slimy liquid. Taking a deep breath, I steeled myself and picked up a piece, bringing it closer. There was a pungent smell to it, one that didn’t become obvious until I brought it close.

Pheromones. I dropped to the floor- Oops, both Greenie and Yellow fell from my shoulder, softly hitting the ground, “Sorry about that,” I muttered as Greenie began chirping profanities. Where the hell did it learn those?

Doing a quick sniff of the floor, I confirmed traces of the smell. However, it seemed to disappear approximately ten centimetres from the surface of the floor. The pheromone must be heavier than air, so it stayed low to the ground as it spread out. That’s how I didn’t detect it earlier, I kept too far a distance when examining it. The maggot must’ve released it when I first flipped it over, it took some time to spread to the other ones-

I felt an urgent tugging at my leg, “What is it Yellow?” I asked as I glanced at it. One hand was pulling my leg, the other pointing in front of me- I quickly twisted my vision forward, where dozens of the parasite things had gotten surprisingly close. Two to three meters now. Did I misjudge their movement capacity?

Looking back, the few that got attracted to the golfed maggot seemed to be ‘eating’ it. The host bodies scrawled on top as their maggots burst out and began digging into it, even though it seemed to be still alive.

Yellow kept tugging at my leg and urgently chirped, “They’re getting closer!”

Greenie took a defensive stance.

I raised an eyebrow, “I can see that.”

Yellow stared at me for a moment, then asked, “Why are you so calm suddenly?”

“Because,” I began, “I wasn’t afraid of the fight, I was afraid of the unknown variable,” I simply answered.

“And this isn’t much of a fight,” I further elaborated. “They're disgusting, but just by looking at them you can tell that they rely on swarm tactics. Which we have no problem with. Poison Spores.”

The greenish mist floated forward. It was hard to not equate it to a gas, even when I knew the damage dealt by this was caused by small green spores, the visual effect was extremely similar to gas-based weaponry. Though I’m pretty sure these spores would still count as a war crime.

The bug hosts managed a few centimetres before dropping as if their strings had been cut. Looking closer, I could see the parasite maggots writhing within.

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Seven.

Not counting my mana regen and accounting for my Bark Skin mana drain, I could probably cast eight plus or minus one before I think my Mana Sickness starts to kick in. So long as I didn’t miss, I should be fine.

“Was it the CCW or Gibraltar Accords that banned biological weaponry?” I wondered aloud. “Oh well, these things have signed neither,” I said as I recast Poison Spores onto the next wave.

Fifteen.

The description for the spell was horribly undescriptive, but as I understood it, Poison Spores worked by infecting a certain area with spores, denoted by the greenish mist. Once something passes through or touches the spores, the spores will latch on and begin dealing damage based on how much surface area was exposed. But only a specific amount of spores are released on each cast, so effectively I’m creating damage zones that had a max limit of how much damage can be dealt, but with no theoretical limit to how many enemies could be damaged. Well, other than the practical limitation of how many you could stuff in the approximately two-meter radius of the spores.

Simply put, “Dealing with hordes of mindless trash mobs happens to be what we’re good at,” I calmly told Greenie and Yellow. “AOE, or Area of Effect damage, are best for dealing with multiple and normally untargetable enemies.”

“The multiple should be obvious,” I gestured to the waves of bug hosts mindlessly rushing towards me, casually casting another Poison Spores.

Twenty-three.

Continuing, I said, “If you can hit multiple enemies at once, then it's usually best to do so.”

“The second is a bit more difficult,” I said, raising two fingers, “untargetable enemies generally fall into two categories, based on how they are untargetable. Which, unfortunately, I can’t demonstrate here. So I’ll just have to tell you.”

“The first kind is untargetability through mobility. Where an enemy is simply faster than your ability to hit them accurately-”

“Ooh! I know this,” Yellow enthusiastically raised its hand, “It’s really hard when they’re fast, they keep dodging!”

“Yes,” I agreed, “pinpoint attacks are good for accuracy but when you are simply outmatched in terms of dexterity or mobility then you shouldn’t rely on it.”

“Now, can either of you tell me why AOE is good here?” I asked, recasting poison spores.

Greenie raised its hand, “Because if you can’t hit them normally, then you just hit everywhere?”

“Exactly,” I answered, “if you can’t hit them where they are, hit where they could be. If they could be everywhere, then just hit everywhere. An inversion of this is using lingering damage,” I gestured to the bug hosts trying to slog through the green mist, “in situations where you can’t reliably predict where the enemy might be, instead create danger zones where the enemy feels less inclined to go near. The objective would be limiting the movement options of a highly mobile enemy by limiting their options and/or protecting a certain area.”

“The second scenario follows similar principles, it is when an enemy can’t be targeted because you simply don’t know where they are. Either they have a stealth ability or you lack the information of their exact locations,” I explained, quickly checking on the zombugs.

Thirty-two.

“In such scenarios, a person would choose some form of AOE for the same reasons as against mobility targets-”

Yellow, who was practically skipping on the spot, raised a hand, “Ooh! Hit everywhere!”

“Hit everywhere they could be,” I corrected, “it’s an important distinction because hitting everywhere causes collateral damage and that’s generally frowned upon.”

“Hell, even during wartimes they wouldn’t just bombard a place they suspected guerrillas were in-” I froze as something fell on my back.

The thing was light, it had landed right below the small of my back. Judging from the pressure the thing was football-sized. There was a feeling like two pairs of small fingers pinching my back.

A new sensation quickly followed.

Digging.

‘You utter, fucking idiot.’ Panic quickly rose in me. I reached behind me to throw it off, only to find that my hands were too short to reach it. So I leapt for my staff, just as dozens of football-sized things began falling from the ceiling.

The hosts those parasite things inhabited were arboreal insects, shit that stuck on vertical surfaces for a goddamn living.

Above me, was a waking swarm. Like a second skin, the ceiling had begun shedding an entire layer of the fucking bugs. The ones on the floor were the most mature ones, but likely also the weakest. The ones that had already been eaten so thoroughly that the host insect couldn’t grasp on anymore.

I should’ve looked up earlier.