There were still Myrmekes in the cavern. Most things in here had escaped or died already, and the only ones left were the strong. She had clearly taken too long to return, because she spotted a dozen Myrmeke with second stage traits, and a few first stage ones lurking in the tunnels.
They were all in a stalemate of sorts, strangely enough. None of them were stupid enough to allow the others to consume the Cores of the thousands of first stage Myrmekes laying around until they evolved, and so they were all just forced to stand around, waiting for someone to make a move.
That someone was her. She obviously couldn’t take on what appeared to be thirteen or fourteen second stage Myrmekes on her own, but she could cause enough chaos to make them eliminate themselves. After examining each of them carefully and adjusting her position, she began.
All it took was simply… eating the cores, heedless of the anger from the others. The moment she did, the five nearby Myrmekes surged towards her. Two of them backed off, letting the others take care of her, and so she watched as three second stage Myrmekes surged towards her.
One of them had Springlegs, Wings and Articulated arms, and was tearing towards her far faster than the other two. That had been her goal. As it neared, it slowed, giving her plenty of room to shoot an enormous glob of acid onto its face. Pheromones of pain and anger were released, but she didn’t care as she released the weak pressure she had been putting on her Springlegs, closing the twenty or so yard gap easily.
They collided, but not particularly hard, thankfully. The gap closed, though, she grabbed onto the nearest thing she could with her Venomous Lockjaw Mandibles, which happened to be its head, and held it in place as she pumped venom into it. At the same time, she used her Articulated Arms to punch and claw at its compound eyes, blinding it.
Her sudden, ferocious assault hadn’t been expected at all, but before it could muster up retaliation, she threw herself backwards a few dozen feet, because the other two had arrived.
And, seeing weakness in the honestly overly-mobilility-focused Myrmeke, they shredded it without even looking at her. It resisted, of course, and released a cloud of poison with its wings. She got away effortlessly, and nothing else came to attack her, seeming to hope that she had gotten the point.
Only one heavily maimed Myrmeke emerged from the cloud of poison a minute later, and another one surged forward to kill it. She’d had the same idea, though, and was beaten to the punch, since she’d remained in the area and had already charged her Springlegs in anticipation.
She closed the fifty foot distance between herself and the injured Myrmeke in an instant, but the other Myrmeke wasn’t content with letting her have the core worth effectively three second stage Myrmekes- assuming that it had consumed the two it’d killed.
The injured one wasn’t a threat anymore, and was practically just prey now. The other, though, was, and so she studied it even as she began attacking the injured Myrmeke.
Its legs were bladed. It had wings and Articulated Arms, and was moving towards her rapidly- assuming it didn’t speed up or slow down, it would arrive in… twelve or thirteen seconds? It wasn’t very large, three to four feet tall and nine to ten long, likely due to needing to reduce weight for flight, meaning that its Biomass had likely not been invested very much into its wings, rather being spent on its other features, strength and durability.
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That it had invested rather significantly into non-combat means like the Articulated Arms and wings meant that it likely wasn’t capable of killing her, but was more than capable of dealing enough damage for the others to. That was fine, because she was relatively sure she could finish the injured one off and consume its Core before it arrived, or at least fend it off long enough to.
Seven seconds of ruthlessly tearing into the injured Myrmeke later, it finally went down.
You have slain a Lower Myrmeke Pupae, stage 2. Greater path: Soldier. Lower path: Springbladed Lockjaw.
Her arms proved very useful now, as they ruthlessly plunged through a gap in its chitin and began digging for its Core. It didn’t take long for the clawed limbs to find it and grab it, but she unfortunately didn’t have enough time to stuff it down her gullet, meaning that one of her arms wouldn’t be available for their brief scuffle.
She’d only stood up from her position bent over the Springbladed Lockjaw for a moment before the Flyer, who she decided on the spot to call Bladewing, suddenly swept overhead, flailing its bladed legs. They chopped at her arms, but she moved them away just in the nick of time. Their natural position was to be looming a few feet above her, and she’d made the mistake of letting them go up. They were saved from being severed by her newfound incredible senses. Her antennae detected the ant’s pheromones and the rapid movements of the air with ease.
Now, the ant got a bit lower and reached down with its own Articulated Arms, likely with the intention of pulling her up and into its many bladed legs. Obviously, she had no intention of playing along.
She tilted her head upwards, shooting a glob of acid she’d pre-prepared. It splashed against its relatively undefended underbelly, but it wasn’t like it was realistic for it to just stop now. Thus, it continued slowly lowering, but by then, it was time for her to go. With one last spray of acid, she shot out from under Bladewing, and she was fifty feet away.
Springlegs were absurd, she decided. She’d learned that they were strong earlier, but it was a bit overly apparent now, she felt like. Wings allowed them to travel rapidly and more consistently for farther, which seemed like it’d be great for travel and scouting, but so far, she hadn’t seen any flying ants using their wings to their advantage. Maybe it wasn’t Springlegs, but mobility options in general.
She slammed the core into her maw, and text exploded in her mind.
You have obtained knowledge of the Lower Path, Articulate Venomous Springcloud.
You have obtained knowledge of the…
You have…
She blocked out the thirty knowledge alerts that exploded within her mind, only three of which had been the second stage Myrmekes, as she watched Bladewing. It seemed to hesitate on what to do, but eventually chose to stay where it was.
A couple others didn’t agree with its judgment, though. She had made herself a very juicy target now, and two of them surged forward.
She demanded that the System show her Evolutionary Status, and rapidly found the line she was looking for.
Biomass: 313
Damn. She had hoped that so many slain creatures would be enough to evolve again, in which she would simply run away and return to wipe the floor with everyone through brute force.
It was alright, though. She just needed to kill the two Myrmekes coming for her and then escape into the tunnels long enough to evolve again.
Of course, taking them head-on seemed too hard. If one was drastically faster than the other, it’d be possible for her to eliminate them one at a time, but they weren’t, and in fact seemed like they had a truce going on, judging by the fact they ran side-by-side without hesitation and had been near to each other the entire, admittedly short, time she’d been within the cavern.
So, she feigned weakness and tiredness. She scuttled towards the tunnels with a feigned limp, as though she’d taken damage- likely internal, in the minds of the others, or simple exhaustion- and was trying to escape.
She wasn’t, though. She did this for two reasons; to catch them by surprise, and so that she’d be right by the tunnels when the fight ended.
The fight would be difficult no matter what she did, though. Her life would truly be on the line this time, as even if she caught the Myrmekes a bit off-guard, it wouldn’t be the same as all of her previous kills, where she’d fought wounded, horribly disadvantaged or entirely unprepared Myrmekes.
For the first time in her only hours-long life, she’d be using only brute force to survive.