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.

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

you think you could rustle up another one of those giant bomb

clacked my jaws with

…

have slain level 22

[You have gained experience]

reached

reached

reached

tricks this time you idiot

up my Gravity Bomb to a ludicrous degree once more, I unleashed it at the entrance from a safe distance away, Morrelia helping to ensure that proper

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

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!

THE POWER!

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

skill tree continued to be distasteful, specialising in separating monsters into 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

to even perform core surgery and manipulate the outcome, I'd inevitably have to ask her how she wanted it to

evolution, that Gravity Bomb had helped push me closer than ever before to my next evolution,

to chow down on the Commander. We didn't want to waste any time in the event that Garralosh herself came

and we fell upon