Chrysalis

Isaac and his squad packed their stuff and we began to mosey our way to the back of the horde. It takes an hour of careful movement, creeping where we can and trying to prevent the monsters from seeing us. The entire time I kept an eye on the sky, worried that any second a dark cloud would form and I'd be forced to start dancing the dance of life.

Thankfully, it didn't happen. Whatever the Kaarmodo was doing, it didn't appear to be scrying for my location, or at least it wasn't actively throwing at spells at me. I understand that I volunteered to draw the Wizard Lizard's attention to me in order to relieve the burden from the rest of the colony, but I didn't want to take that heat before I'd even started to engage the horde in combat!

So we crept, crawled and sashayed towards the rear of the horde and once we were there, we grouped up to hatch a plan.

[So you want to draw the attention, and lightning, of the Kaarmodo onto your head?] Isaac asked.

[That's right,] I confirmed.

[I love it,] he told me, [I won't stand next to you, but I love it. What do you want from me and my team?]

[We'll split up into two teams and engage separately. I'm assuming that once the Kaarmodo notices me, the fireworks might begin, so I'll try and be cautious but it makes sense that you stay a reasonable distance from me. When the lightning slash fire slash doom begins to rain on me, I want you guys to keep an eye out for the mage slaves.]

Isaac nodded as he rubbed his chin with one hand.

[You want us to try and find a chance to jump 'em,] he observed.

[Nothing fancy,] I warned him, [try and take a few pot shots. Chances are you won't be able to actually take one of them down, but if you can distract them, that'll help me a ton. Just remember, if you actually manage to take one of them down, you'll need to high-tail it out of here.]

The former town guard didn't hesitate to nod with vigour.

cooked,] he laughed, [we'll tag along with you on this one. Give me a chance

do that,] I told him,

respectful distance from me, Tiny, Crinis and I made our

of monsters, half expecting magical death at any moment, but surprisingly, we continued to evade notice and

up to this point, that's

letdown. Here we were, hugging the ground, shoving our faces into the dirt, even Crinis is off my back and crawling tentacle by tentacle in order to lower my profile. Tiny is crawling also! His massive shoulders dig troughs into the dirt as he pushes forward with his butt too high in the air. We're really trying here but it feels as if the horde isn't giving

We'll show them!

mandibles to contain my indignation and we crawl even closer, until the vast field of monsters is only twenty metres in front of us. So close I can smell them and sense the heat rising from the densely

I start weaving a

I'm concerned that the Kaarmodo might sense the

be able to slice through the closest ranks of monsters like a hot

instructed my battle hungry ape friend and

Master?] Crinis asked, eager for

do Crinis. Make them afraid,]

[Understood,] she purred.

permanent tentacles the shadow beneath her body darkened to an impossible black and she began to extend tentacles into it. It wouldn't be long before she was ready to bring them up directly underneath the monsters

I directed my sub-brains to do the heavy lifting on the spell I was working on, I activated my mana sense. This Skill had been coming in handy lately and I honestly don't know why I don't have it on all the time. It does make more material things harder to perceive but when my number one threat is death by Wizard Lizard,

confluence of mana was forming in

the horde, was starting to move, to flow toward

heck

"GOOOOAAAAARRRRRRRRRR," a voice growled.