As part of our tunnels were either collapsed or beginning to got infested by spiders, I had to start spreading fighter units to fight off the spiders, but for each spider, we killed another took its place, and the problem is that the webs kept being thrown.

Like the last time, I sent bomb units to keep the spiders from expanding, but we needed a way to deal with them.

“Darwin spread the pheromones! Attract the parasites towards the spider nest!”

I created a transport unit filled with a unique pheromone mix and let it get captured by the spiders. They proceeded to trap it, sting poison inside the unit and take it to their nest.

It will start to spread the invisible message, like a subliminal idea to call the parasites.

The spiders kept acting mechanically. Throw webs, send the heavy units, again and again. “Have they not learn anything at all?”

They are like drones, executing without thinking.

I stopped and saw that only 3 of our tunnels were still open. 1 of them had a few parasites walking to the digestive pool, with a little help from my units. The other 2 had spiders advancing while the tanks and bombs tried to hold them off.

I summoned a few bomb units and planted them on weakened areas of the tunnel, ready to detonate at my signal.

“Let the spiders invade, let’s move back the units!! Prepare to detonate!”

Darwin did as told, and I started to dig on the intersection where all tunnels connected.

The spiders kept advancing through both tunnels, securing the captured ground by releasing threads and silk. I moved my units back until 10 or 12 creatures had surpassed the hidden bombs and then detonated them.

* Brooomm!! BRoomm!!

The tremors were muffled, but earth and soil fell from every point of the nest, collapsing full sections of both tunnels and cutting the way back from the spiders to their nest.

* Screech!

The spiders were suddenly blocked and turned mad, looking for a way out. They had a mission to fulfill, hunt, and capture or kill the bug-things. But now, they were the prey.

* “We have a group of 5 big spiders and 7 smaller webbers.”

“Let’s focus on the big ones, they are the dangerous ones and have more biomass!”

I started summoning bombs and detonating them in the middle of the spiders' group, that began to get separated from the dangerous foes group.

Once I managed to spread our enemies through the tunnels, I dig myself out of my hiding ground and created tanks and fighters to go and take the bulk of the fight. The tanks started trapping them, and with the help of the fighters, they pulled the spiders one by one.

I then moved from the intersection where the spiders were trying to find their way around and activated my spore aura, poisoning them and damaging their lungs and chitin.

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The spiders began to walk backward, trying to move away from my deadly poison and slowly but inevitably arrived near the digestion pool. Once there, it was a child’s play to push them, throwing units that fought them, some even falling with the spiders and ending in the acidic soup where many other creatures had fallen before them.

After the last enemy was on the pool, I summoned a pair of bombs that started to pour acid over them, just to make sure they couldn’t escape through launching webs.

Their screams and shouts lasted a few minutes but ended up dying, as the acid devoured them alive, and the whole pit was filled with toxic fumes and deadly gases that could suffocate a regular human in mere seconds. The endurance of the spiders was remarkable.

We kept using the same tactics a few times, losing ground with every passing hour.

At last, after 9 stressful hours of fights and salvage close combat, we suffered a heavy blow.

One of the elite creatures managed to enter the main tunnel.

* “Host, we have a visual of the creature. It is a sort of Queen.”

“Shit! Move the bombs, I’ll summon a few tanks!”

The creature was black and had several spikes or protrusions oozing a blackish and deep purple venom. It smelled like corruption, but it wasn’t too concentrated yet.

The creature had two oversized forelimbs that looked like blades. With its overbearing size, the corrupted beast started to impale and slash at every creature I threw at it.

Even worse, its prole was equally deadly and faster than what we had been fighting until now.

I hid a few bomb units and receded, but this monster picked notice of our behavior and let the simple spiders advance first, draining our forces and making us lose terrain.

The creature moved back and sat on the corridor, baiting me to make a movement.

“That fucker…”

As the brood started to advance, I detonated the bombs and sent more tanks to keep them busy while I moved back to the digestion pool.

I then used part of the accumulated biomass and threw seeds to cover the pit. Then I moved to the room beside the digestion pool and looked at my latest creation.

“Darwin, how is the nest?”

* “The Proto-nest is 72% Finished. We need over 60 more biomass units.”

We had spent over 150 units of biomass already with the number of enemies we managed to digest already. The structure I was trying to develop was an intricate replica of my Spore Biomorph, to create units and increase my capacity limit, but it’s been a headache without Norn.

“Just a little bit more, keep pumping the biomass of the digested enemies!”

I turned and saw my units having a hard time holding off the enemies.

As the creatures started to overwhelm my units, I went and hid from view under the growing seeds at the digestive pool’s well. The coverage was almost done.

The spiders managed to kill and capture my units and then started to advance towards the nest, not caring that much about the ground they were stepping on.

After the first units, the next creatures to advance were the corrupted lesser spiders, with their scythe-like forelimbs.

And as time went on, they began pouring silk and creating webs.

I waited patiently, as I knew my prey would finally make its move. And despite my precarious situation, I knew a thing or two about waiting.

A few minutes later, a loud sound could be heard.

* Thump, Thump, Thump.

The creature moved closer to the pit, but stopped suddenly, noticing something wrong.

My heartbeat started to spike, and the adrenal gland started to pump adrenal hormones into my bloodstream.

Then, just as I was about to let go from the platform, expecting an attack, the corrupted spider began to walk again. But instead of walking through the platform, it climbed the ceiling and moved towards the nest room.

I let go of my breath slowly and ready for a tough fight.

With a mental order, the nest cracked and started to leak an invisible and odorless gas on the air, slowly poisoning the spiders. The effects began to make clear after the first couple of minutes, as the minor spiders started creating messed up webs.

The corrupted spider leading them neared the nest and inspected it.

It then started to notice the weird behavior of its lesser units and began to recede, walking backward. Once it stepped into the seed’s bridge, the seeds deformed upon contact, making the spider got entangled with a net of roots that began to grow over it, almost falling into the pit.

As only two or three legs got messed up, it used the rest of its limbs to hold on and started climbing back.

I saw it and wasted no time to jump at its back and started biting and tearing it, crushing two of its legs with my claws and causing grievous wounds with my tail.

“Darwin!! Release all of them!”

The nest then started to tremble, and the outer shell broke into pieces as a living swarm of creatures moved from it seeking prey. There were almost a hundred collectors, and they immediately attacked any nearby monsters.

They compensated their small size for a massive number of units, jumping and biting madly at any enemy they could reach.

Some got crushed, bitten, or tangled onto the webs, but more took the place of the fallen ones with ease as a living carpet of creatures inundated the nest room.