Mariam had seen zombies before, she had fought many shades of undead and knew the terror and revulsion they inspired in others. The things that rushed towards her were far worse than that. Each of them looked sickly and corrupted with strange patches of growths replacing stretches of skin, metallic lines along their arms, and a perfectly living and still sparkless set of eyes. In them, she could see an alien form of life, something that animated them yet had no humanity left.
20 humans came rushing at the entrenched party and ran in between the gaps of the large insects and began smashing themselves against the fighters. Mariam could already picture what would happen next if she didn't intervene, these monsters would shatter the morale of the less experienced fighters and then the overwhelming numbers would crush the group beneath them.
Heraclius seemed to have arrived at the same conclusion as he started swinging his mace wildly to kill the human puppets rather than dealing with the bugs. His men still had to contend with the monstrous insects, but he took the time to swing and cave in as many skulls as he could before they terrified the party too much.
Mariam did not allow hesitation to enter into her either as she rushed and tackled into a throng of the puppet humans before they could assail the Light Tamers. She and the 5 former humans crashed through the throng of insects and landed in a heap. Mariam was a brawler at heart and while they all laid in a cluster of entangled limbs, she began wailing at them and swinging for all she was worth. Punches and elbows and headbutts were given to the unarmored shapes, as they writhed beneath her and around her.
She trusted her armor to see her through it as she efficiently dismantled the group she had landed on. But in the process of over-focusing on the puppets she ignored the insects and overextended into their lines, so far having dismantled the enemy she felt the tide chitin hit her back and press her into the soil.
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"Fuck! These guys are like Wolverine!"
Listig had run out of acid after having doused as many of the backline insects as they could, so now they were busy dragging out tools from their pouches and interdimensional space. While the two Woodsmen on the rock with them gave them cover, Listig took the time to look at the myriad of health bars filling their vision. All of the insects and "zombies" that had not been killed were slowly restoring their health before their very eyes.
Mariam had been separated from the group and had to fend off 5 of the insects by herself while they were busily trying to crush and cut through her armor. Crabs was supporting the terrified Light Tamers and his necrotic strikes were the only thing that did lasting harm. Elarma was limited in how much she could help as she was the only reason that the entire clearing wasn't swarming with hundreds of thousands of insects.
Their concentration was shattered as suddenly one of the big insects jumped over the fighting group and landed on the boulder where Listig and the Woodsmen were stationed. Listig struck before it could attack or cause the two civilians to fall down in fright, as they lashed out with their balm and touched the head of the monster. With a flick of their fingers, the wrist-mounted blade slid out and into its brain, which was then followed up by a panicked kick from one of the two Woodsmen and the monster fell off.
Listig didn't notice that however, as the moment their flesh made contact with the chitin a massive surge of power radiated through their arm and rattled their mind. And then a notification appeared in their vision and they could only curse.
* Exaltation! You have found another from your world your soul guidance systems are identical: Interface
* Warning: "Apocalyptic Rank" is equal to 50 times your "Adventurer Rank".
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
* Apocalyptic Rank 1 vs Adventurer Rank 21= Adventurer Rank 50 vs Adventurer Rank 21
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* Exaltation! You have found another from your world your soul guidance systems are identical: Interface
* Note: "Apocalyptic Rank" is equal to 50 times their "Adventurer Rank".
* Apocalyptic Rank 1 Vs Adventurer Rank 21= Adventurer Rank 50 vs Adventurer Rank 21
Mar let the information wash over them and that was the mere prelude to the deluge of sensations and memories that washed through the Sovereign Swarm. Information rather than memories of who they had been, they could truly remember past the fire and see what they had been before.
For that singular moment the intersex Cat-Kin and the undeniable Sovereign Swarm did not exist, a young enby and a burned woman stared at one another through their respective interfaces. Then reality shifted and everything was back to the way things were.
The Sovereign Swarm quivered as they tried to process the paradigm shift that they had just gone through, but this would the exact sort of moment the heroes would break through with the villain distracted. So, Mar summoned the Juggernaut Spider to crush the group while they retreated into their mind to sort out everything.
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"They regenerate!"
Listig yelled out and Heraclius spun around just as he finished of the last of the human mockeries that had assaulted them. It only took him a glance to confirm that the strange adventurer was correct, the insects that had not been utterly destroyed were almost fully healed already and renewing their attack.
For a moment it had seemed like all of them had been paralyzed for some reason, but then they reaffirmed their ferocity. Heraclius knew he could lead the party through this, they would most likely take casualties among the Light Tamers, but that was acceptable if the group as a whole came out of this alive.
And then the Juggernaut Spider arrived, which dashed his hopes against the rock like a newborn babe. It was a massive metallic spider with a strange mushroom cap on its back, along with several glowing lights coming from it. It then began to spit webbing at the assembled group and Heraclius shouted for the retreat.
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Elarma saw the incoming assault of webbing and knew what she had to do. As the webbing hit Henry of the Light Tamers and practically consumed him as it stuck him against the rock, Elarma jumped forward and clapped her hands together. A loud boom rocked the forest as almost all of her contained mana exploded outwards in a powerful burst of wind.
The exploding air smashed into the other globules of webbing and deflected them along with sending several of the insects flying backwards into the trees. Elarma collapsed and it was all she could to maintain the Wind Dome while also not losing consciousness. It would not be enough by itself to do this, and the group seemed paralyzed by fear.
Listig was the first to move as they suddenly used their Cat-Kin agility to jump unnaturally high into the air while shouting.
"RUN GUYS! RUN! I AM BRINGING OUT THE THERMITE!"
Their hands became a blur as they sent flasks of liquid down to break open and coat the area with gasoline before throwing the improvised thermite grendade right at the horrific spider monster. Heraclius and the rest did not know what that meant, but as they shouted their warning the group just sprinted away from the clearing.
It was just an accident that Elarma was brought along and Henry was left to his fate as the group ran like they had faced of against a Devil Prince and the clearing was a world of fire.