Titan Roach Lookout (lvl 9)

Titan Roach Hunter (lvl 10)

Titan Roach Hunter (lvl 9)

Titan Roach Hunter (lvl 9)

Titan Roach Hunter (lvl 11)

Titan Roach Hunter (lvl 9)

[A Titan Roach specializing in tracking and hunting prey for the colony. Not content to simply scavenge detritus, Titan Roaches augment their larders by hunting weaker prey. ]

Titan Roach Captain (lvl 12)

[A Titan Roach with a dedicated team. They may take on many kinds of tasks depending on the makeup of their team from food transportation, to scouting, to nest defense, to hunting. They are excellent at organizing their forces for a singular purpose.]

Cass’s skin crawled as the first of the brown-bodied bugs crept into the light, about four yards away. These were even bigger than the Lesser Roaches she’d seen earlier. Where she’d described the Lessers as being person-sized, these were closer to refrigerator-sized.

They only fit three across the tunnel, but the fourth and fifth happily walked along the tunnel’s walls, while the much smaller Lookout clung to the ceiling. The Captain hung back, just behind the line of Hunters, his massive bulk still mostly shrouded in the gloom.

This was more than she could handle. Every single one of them was her level or higher and there were seven of them.

She wanted to run. Needed to run. But where could she go? There was a dead end behind her and cockroaches ahead.

Could she Wind Step through them? Maybe.

She became intangible when she Wind Stepped, but she knew she couldn’t use it to pass through solid objects. Could she squeeze between the Captain and the tunnel walls or would she materialize right in front of it if she got stuck? Was that how she wanted to find out?

But the alternatives were hoping that these bugs which had followed her to a dead end were uninterested in killing her to feed their colony or fighting her way out.

Yes, I am sure we went the right way, Salos said, utterly unperturbed by the host of bugs suddenly in front of them. This is all but certainly a cave-in. So, if you would just kill these things, we should backtrack two turns and then head left, I expect we’ll be right back on track.

Cass scowled. Sure, she’d get right on that.

What are you waiting for?

The roaches hadn’t attacked yet either. Perhaps they worked on dinosaur rules, as long as she didn’t move they couldn’t see her. Maybe if she just held her ground—

All five of the Hunters flared open their wings. They vibrated and Wind Blades exploded down the hallway.

Cass tried Dodging to the side, but the Wind Blades followed her movement, guided by the Lookout’s magic.

Time slowed as she panicked, her high Alacrity giving her an extra second to evaluate her situation, even as the Blades flew toward her.

She’d done this before. This wasn’t a new attack. She’d dealt with tracking Wind Blades. She just needed to make herself a shield of still air. Piece of cake.

She raised her staff before her, grabbing the nearby air with Elemental Manipulation, Willing it to form a stagnant wall, just as the hail of blades collided with that space. The Wind Blades broke on the stillness, curling off it in turbulent waves.

There was no time to celebrate. The first onslaught was followed by a second, then a third. Wave after wave of Wind Blades struck her wind wall.

You need to attack! Salos said.

Did he think she didn’t know that? She was safe for now, but she couldn’t do this forever. But doing something was much easier said than done. There was barely any time between waves, they were firing them far faster than the Lessers she’d encountered before. If she dropped the wind wall, she’d be hit with Wind Blades for sure.

Stop cowering here. They’re just bugs.

Cass’s teeth ground in frustration. She’d like to do something about it too. This wasn’t a winning strategy. She knew that. Her Focus was ticking away by the second as she stood here.

But the alternative was what? Get hit? Let the Wind Blades slice her apart?

No, did she know for a fact she wasn’t fast enough? Yes, the Hunters were shooting these faster than the Lessers had, but she was faster than she’d been then.

Was it possible? Did she dare try?

Another barrage of Wind Blades slammed into her wall. There wasn’t time for more deliberation.

She dropped the barrier.

She Sprinted.

Half a second later she threw her staff up to generate another wall.

She wasn’t fast enough, the first of the blades slashed through the still-forming wall, cutting a deep laceration across her cheek and adding another notch to her staff.

Pain burned. Blood oozed from the wound.

But her wall formed up a moment later, blocking the rest.

She shook her head. She needed to be faster. She needed to close the distance.

Or did she? It was more than just her stats that had changed since her last fight.

Another wave of blades crashed against her shield. She was already swinging her staff into position as the last of that wave rolled off. Wind gathered on the staff, a Wind Blade ready.

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With a primal scream, she swung her staff, throwing her own Wind Blade at the cockroaches. It raced through the air as Cass repositioned her staff to block the next wave of the cockroaches’ attack.

Her blade sliced through one of the enemy’s blades as it flew through, wavering slightly but completely dispelling the other, and landed directly on the target. The Lookout on the roof was bisected, head and thorax separating from abdomen.

Its body fell from the roof landing on the center Hunter.

The enormous Captain behind the Hunters shook and chittered in rage. To Cass’s Mana Sight, it lit up in bright red.

The Hunters in the center glowed a similar color and skittered forward toward her while the two remaining on the walls continued throwing Wind Blades at her.

She dropped her wind shield, not needing it against the straightforward Wind Blades unguided by the Lookout’s magic, and prepared another Wind Blade of her own.

She took a steadying breath and threw it with a flick of her staff. The blade split the nearest Hunter before it knew what she was doing and cut a deep gash into the Hunter behind it.

Before her attack had landed she was already preparing another. The second Wind Blade struck Hunter #3 on the far end of the advancing collection, slicing deep into its carapace.

Hunter #1 was dead. #2 and #3 were injured and oozing green guts but continued charging her, the crimson aura entirely enveloping them. #4 and #5 continued shooting Wind Blades from the walls, which she Dodged with ease. The Captain continued its bugish screams.

She met #3 first.

Staff Mastery directed a downward swing on its head. It squished under the power of the blow before it could even raise its arms for a Mana Strike.

Cass followed the momentum, swinging up on Hunter #2. Her staff broke the soft chitin of the roach’s underbelly and it fell.

Three remained.

The Captain screamed again, lighting the bodies of the two remaining Hunters in the same crimson. The two charged along the tunnel walls still furiously shooting Wind Blades at her while the Captain charged, its front two legs raised and glowing with ready Mana Strikes.

Cass threw another Wind Blade at the advancing Captain. The strike shallowly sliced its dark carapace but didn’t slow the thing.

It swung its arms at her, the Mana Strikes far wider and longer than the attacks generated by the Lessers by well over double. Yet, with Mana Sight making it clear where it was, and her high Dexterity guiding her movement, it was as easy as breathing to slip between the two strikes and past the Captain’s guard.

She slammed her staff down on its exposed head.

The roach screamed again and back peddled just outside the range of her staff. It prepared another Mana Strike on its right leg, perhaps hoping to strike when Cass moved in again.

Cass didn’t. Instead, she summoned another Wind Blade, her staff gaining another foot as it became a Wind-Bladed glaive. The invisible blade sliced the Captain’s left arm from its body.

It flailed after her with the right as it screeched.

Cass brought the glaive blade down on the roach’s head.

The left leg hit the ground as the thing’s brains squelched in a green gore-y pile beside it.

The remaining two Hunters didn’t seem to notice the death of their commander, even though the red aura around them faded. They just kept throwing Wind Blade after Wind Blade at her.

Cass Sprinted across the tunnel to the first of the remaining Hunters. She Dodged the first Blade it threw at her and cut through the second with her own.

She slashed through Hunter #4 with a Wind Blade and in the same movement spun and threw the Blade back across the tunnel, slicing #5 in half too.

Staff Mastery has increased to level 6.

Atmospheric Sense has increased to level 6.

Mana Sense has increased to level 5.

Wind Blade has increased to level 4.

Panting, Cass stood alone again in the tunnel, piles of cockroach guts and corpses all around her.

She’d done it. She’d survived.

She’d killed them all.

The fight had taken barely two minutes from the moment she’d thrown her first Wind Blade.

Blood still poured from her cheek. On Earth, it would have definitely needed stitches. Here? She pressed her hand to the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Here, she’d have taken the stitches if they’d been offered.

Excellent, let’s get going then, shall we?

Cass just stood where she was, unable to believe how casual Salos was about all this.

Something wrong?

“I could have died,” Cass said quietly.

I mean. Sure? That’s how fighting is. That’s how the world is.

“But I could have died.” It had been seven against one. She’d been hopelessly outnumbered. Several of the roaches had higher levels than her own.

It was a good match-up for you, Salos said, his tone still casual and unconcerned. The primary danger of roaches is their numbers and their magic attacks. You have at least one, maybe two (I couldn’t quite tell) methods of detecting their otherwise invisible attacks. If you can see them, their attack patterns are frankly too simple to be a real threat, especially given you correctly removed the lookout coordinating them first.

With your Dexterity and Dodge skill, you can avoid these with ease. A slower, clumsier, less perceptive challenger would have been demolished.

You had no reason to be scared. Once you got started you were excellent. Now, just don’t give up the initiative and you might even get out of fights like that unharmed.

“And what happens when I’m cornered by something that is a poor match-up for me?” Her heart still hammered in her chest. Her voice was cold but rising in volume with every word. “How am I supposed to know what is a good match-up and what’s not? Even if it is, what happens if I make a mistake? One wrong move and this—” she gestured wildly at the cut in her cheek, “—could have been through my throat instead. Are you about to tell me slyphids can survive decapitation?”

No, but your Fortitude is too high for cockroaches to cut all the way through.

“That‘s not the point!” Cass screamed. “I don’t know that. You don’t know that. You think that. You’re probably right. But you don’t know! You can’t possibly know.”

She stood amid the corpses for a long minute, still panting, her heart still racing, her face still bleeding.

She didn’t want to be here. She wanted to be back on Earth. She didn’t want to play this game of ‘will that kill me?’ She didn’t want to make evaluating monsters a natural part of how she looked at the world. She wanted to go back to hiking and pointing out flowers she recognized to Robin while the two of them tried (and failed) to keep up with Kaye.

She shook her head. It was pointless to cry about it now. It was pointless to fall to her knees and give up.

She’d won. She should be happy about it.

She’d survived. She could get back to sneaking through the dark without a problem.

She’d live. This time.

There is a time and a place for fear, Salos said quietly. Only a fool is truly fearless. Fear can keep you alive where pride would kill you. But, fear to the exclusion of all else will only kill you. It may be a slower death, but eventually, it will freeze you in place when you should fight. It will leave you weak when you need to be strong.

I will not say there is no reason to be scared, but I will tell you there is no reason for you to fear these specific monsters.

You can easily handle enemies of this caliber. You have two powerful magic skills and more Focus than a Mage of your level has any business possessing.

Cass shook her head.

If you cannot believe in your own power, try to at least believe in my judgment. I believe you can fight and win against these. I will tell you if you face a foe you cannot beat.

Remember, our lives are tied. Your death is only to my detriment. I gain nothing from it at this point.

Cass bit her lip. Words were easy. Words could be empty. Words could be lies.

Yet, she found herself believing him here. Whether that was their bond or her desire for comfort, she couldn’t say.

Which she would rather it be, she couldn’t say.