Chrysalis

We had to delay our escape for a few minutes until Crinis had come back to herself, but we didn't dare allow her the extra time to evolve right now, we needed her fighting strength to help us in the tunnels. If we managed to break free and make it to the surface then she could probably evolve whilst riding on my back if it came to it, but until then we needed her alert.

Once everyone was prepared we enacted our plan, such as it was. Bust out into the tunnel, kill everything we see, bust back into the escape tunnel, kill everything we see, break out to the surface in the church, kill everything we see.

There was a sort of simple elegance to the plan that quite appealed to me. At any rate, we were successful. Relying on the simplest and most direct methods, we chomped, stabbed, punched and tore limb from limb everything that came our way. We were lucky though, the seemingly bottomless horde of monsters that had been sent after us was nowhere to be seen. In fact, it felt as if the zombie monsters had done us a favour by killing the spawned monsters that had crowded the escape tunnel. We had to contend with far less monsters on the way out than we did on the way in. So that's a plus!

Things were a little less simple when we reached the surface.

I'd like to say that it was me who anticipated the ambush and foiled it with my brilliant tactics, a lie I don't even believe Crinis would have been able to swallow. It was unfortunate, but it Morrelia was the one who made us pause in our escape, not one hundred metres away from the surface entrance beneath the church.

[You know they'll have an ambush in place, right?] she asked as she eyed me askance.

[Of course] I lied.

She nodded to herself as if relieved. Not having a human face helped a lot when deceiving humans, I decided. My antennae had waggled like crazy as I'd spoken the obvious lie, my face, which was literally a part of my skeleton, had remained silky smooth.

My own pets were a little more wise to my deception. Crinis shifted uncomfortably on my back and Tiny looked at me with slack jawed astonishment. Stupid pets! Don't give the whole game away!

[So how do you think we should deal with it?] I prompted Morrelia, hoping to keep her distracted.

rubbed her chiselled chin with one hand as she looked towards the exit and contemplated. Whoever her parents were, they had some serious jaw genes going on. Morrelia was a solid unit for a woman already but her jawline was so damn

could rustle up another one of those giant bomb

my jaws with

…

have slain level 22 Garralosh

[You have gained experience]

reached

have reached

reached

None of your fancy tricks this time

it at the entrance from a safe distance

the Garralosh Commander had been prowling right next the opening in the hopes of catching us the instant

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!

THE POWER!

glee as we charged forward to expunge the remaining monsters that hadn't been caught in the blast. Taken aback by the devastating strike that had instantly killed the most powerful monster amongst them, they were completely unprepared for the savagery of our follow up assault. I took my time tormenting the weaker monsters and squeezed a couple of levels into Tearing Bite, allowing me to upgrade

parts. As an active skill it was even more horrifying, allowing me to slice off monsters limbs from range. Crinis' seemed delighted by the skill however, further evidence of the dark road

core surgery and manipulate the outcome, I'd inevitably have to ask her how she wanted it to go and I'm not sure I wanted to hear the

closer than ever before to my next evolution, only six more levels and

have the opportunity to chow down on the Commander. We didn't want to waste any time in the event that Garralosh herself came to collect the corpse as she did last time so

quite been obliterated by the Gravity Bomb and we fell upon