Chrysalis

Our new squiggly companion has certainly struck some fear into the hearts of each monster inside this room. They cower backwards in a decidedly non-monsterish manner as the new challenger descends.

I immediately start to draw on the mana inside my core, pulling out great streams of it and starting the process of compacting inside my throat. Whatever this monster is, I’m not mucking around, I’m going to give it both barrels of a forceful mana shout!

The roar of my soul!

I don’t only have to use the Gravity Bomb every time! The normal mana from my core has proven deadly enough on several occasions. Hopefully whatever this monster is proves just as susceptible.

With the aid of my sub-brain I begin to pull out the mana and compress it as quickly as possible, straining my already tired mind to its limit.

Brilliantly illuminated by the light the strange new monster is a bizarre creature to behold. It lowers itself to the floor gradually, the only visible part of its body, the dozens of tentacle like appendages that extend and curl at impossible angles through the air, all emerging from within the central mass.

I’m not even sure this creature has eyes, how exactly does a wiggling mass of noodles make sense of the world anyway?

As the creature settles upon its mass of tentacles it seems to start getting a feel of its environment by just... feeling about with its many, many appendages. Around the chamber long, distended limbs feel their way about like sniffing dogs, quickly slithering their way towards the occupants of the room.

As it happens the creatures already in here fighting are closer to the tentacle thing than the escape tunnel and so, even though they are shrinking back like the savage and wild beasts they are, eventually one of them is cornered by those snuffling limbs.

What follows is a horrifying scene.

As soon as that seeking tentacle makes contact with the monsters leg the rest of the limbs snap into action, whipping through the air like lighting. Up and down each tentacle, glistening hooked barbs emerge and as those dark appendages lash around the unfortunate victims those thorns rip and tear at the beasts flesh.

In a solitary second the target monster, a Gnashing Shadow, has been completely enclosed by those limbs, hidden from view. The tentacles pulse and flex, tearing away at the beast trapped within without letting a sound escape. In complete silence we witness the end of that monster in horror.

Holy heck!

What a way to go!

As soon as those tentacles whipped through the air to strangle the victim I began drawing mana out of my core even more frantically, siphoning out everything I can and then compacting it viciously in my throat.

Gogogogogogogogo!

The horror show isn’t over however. Suspended on yet more of the shadowy tentacles the main body of the monster shivers slightly before the broken body of the prey, still totally enclosed, starts to be dragged towards the center of the room.

float weightless in the air, the spherical, nebulous body in the middle of that mass appears to... unfold ... and an impossibly large maw opens wide,

it and deposit it directly inside. The remains of that monster disappear in an instant, the only sign that it existed at all is the gnashing and crunching

...

...

...

SCARY!

Gandalf? By your flowing and munificent beard, tell me what the

The TEETH! This

the damn speed

of predation by the

of our new visitor don’t end there. Having near silently slain and consumed its prey the

towards the edges of the

next victim, but the other monsters aren’t so constrained. One of the remaining beasts surrenders to either its fear or its bloodlust and howls a piercing battle cry before dashing

claws glisten in the light as they draw a cold arc through the air,

Foolish...

speed. Barbed

the prey is dragged towards the central mass and fed to

time I can to condense more and more mana. I don’t want to release a weak blast, this monster seems to mean business! If I don’t finish it in one shot I may not live to

Mana has reached

the process

throughout the room, not actively seeking prey but twitching and shifting every now

is like some sort of nightmare jellyfish! Hunting through touch using many seeking appendages, those barbs might contain poison as

shall dub this frightening beast the

...

It’ll do.

as if it were water. There are very few monsters inside the chamber now, all of us scattered around the edges of the room, pressed

first two monsters

just

we wouldn’t be so lucky as to avoid danger three

way through the air towards where the colony stands protecting the entrance to the escape tunnel. Oh man, if the tentacles touch the other workers before me, what would happen? This monster could