I didn't need to use any spells to know that my request had met with a response. However, I began multi-casting a couple 'Book' spells in my mind as I stood up, and Bas, who had finally settled down, turned its head to the dark passageway as the green flames in its eyes became stronger. We didn't have to wait, as a mid tier metal eater exited out of the passageway, waving its claws and knocking aside its smaller brothers. It spread out to one side, as another mid tier metal eater soon followed. The new arrivals kept coming until eventually there were five of the large bastards in the metal works, facing me and Bas in a curved line.

  They stood there, waving their claws and stingers almost menacingly towards me. However, my sight was on their queen as she entered the metal works area slowly yet purposefully. If I had been an entomologist, I would have probably used words like beautiful and work of art to describe the creature. However, being a normal lich, I grinned internally, delighted that my future servant was terrifying to the extreme. Though the red and black colored queen was only a little bigger than her children, her twin tails, extra layers of exoskeleton, and more vicious looking claws proved she was also built for battle. She bulled her way past her servants, until she was standing before all of them, facing me.

  I quickly finished casting [Mind Speak] on her majesty, and using as compact of image communication as possible, I gave her some simple options: an image of her brood bowing to me in supplication or me stomping them to a pulp. All of a sudden, all the movement and noise in the metal works area stopped. I stared at the queen, and she stared back at me, no doubt in disbelief.

  Then, all hell started to break loose, as the five mid tier metal eaters began to rush forward, their claws snapping towards me and their tails with their stingers thrusting in my direction. However, I calmly allowed the second spell I had been casting to finish by letting my mana feed into the spell construct that was already formed in my soul. It was a high level technique that few mages learned, as it required very fine mana control. I hadn't used it until now, but Neduzar's memory wasn't for show as the technique worked almost perfectly as [Mass Entangle] almost immediately caused massive vines to sprout from the stone floor entangling all the mid tier metal eaters and a good number of the low tier ones as well.

  “Shisssssssshhhhhhh!” Instinctively, they began flailing their tails and claws trying to get free. The mid tier metal eaters even dared to fire their stingers at me, but Bas had already put its bulk between me and the bugs. The stingers just ricocheted off the basilisk's bones, barely making a scratch. I felt my pet's anger as it began to roar in its limited vocabulary through our soul link. “Diiiieeeeee.... Kiiiilllll.....!” However, I kept Bas from interfering further, as I stepped past him.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  I watched the bugs' desperate struggle, even as I maintained the entangle spell by pumping more mana into it. Unlike the original spell, Neduzar's modified version allowed for the spell to continue as long I could supply it with mana. That meant that for every vine the metal eaters broke to get free, another one replaced it.

  Suddenly, I saw images of me being ripped to shreds in my mind if the vines remained. Surprisingly, the images were coherent, relaying the threat clearly. I glanced at the queen, who seemed to be the calmest of all the metal eaters, as she stood with very little movement while just watching me. I was surprised by her counter threat, not because she made the threat but because she did it with little emotions clouding the message. Of course, she made a beginners mistake in adding in a picture of her children being freed at the end of the threat.

  I almost felt like shaking my head in disappointment. “It seems you're pretty smart, but you gave away your hand too quickly.” While she probably didn't understand what I had said, my next move made the message clear. “ x 6” Six black lances, the max number of mid tier spells that I could still simultaneously cast, formed above me but remained floating, aimed at the queen and the other mid tier bugs. It was another high level mana technique that very few mages learned but Neduzar had mastered in his long life. Still, the display of power got my point accross.

  “So once again, kneel or die!” This time, my demand was accompanied by the area around me becoming inundated in darkness and the appropriate images being relayed to the queen. The sound of struggling in the metal works area ceased soon after, and I watched as most of the metal eaters quieted down. However, even after all that, they didn't kneel, crouch or surrender.

  I was almost on the verge of declaring a failure of negotiations and going with my original plan of killing them all, when I got a new series of pictures that flashed through my mind from the queen. It included the queen and her brood surrendering but in exchange for something. The first thing that popped up was processed metal chunks, and the second thing was a fuzzy image of some creature killing metal eaters in the dark in the another part of the fortress. The picture was confusing, almost like the queen was relaying second hand information. However, based on what she was showing me, I knew that this new creature was in the opposite direction from where I found Bas. Withdrawing my dark aura, I looked at the queen, not knowing what to think. “You got to fucking kidding me.... You're giving me a damn monster hunting quest?”