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.

laughed, [we'll tag along with you on this one. Give

I told him, [we'll

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

creeping up on the business end of the mass of monsters, half expecting magical death at any moment, but surprisingly, we continued to evade notice and it wasn't long until we'd managed

sneak up to this point, that's how little attention they

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

We'll show them!

is only twenty metres in front of us. So close I can smell them

start

time, I'm concerned that the Kaarmodo might sense the

through the closest ranks of monsters like a hot knife

hungry ape friend and got a devilish

Crinis asked,

them afraid,] I told

[Understood,] she purred.

her body darkened to an impossible black and she began to extend

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, keeping an eye on the flow of mana around me makes a lot more

flow of mana around me, I grew shocked at what I saw. A vast confluence of mana was forming in the middle of the horde. It rotated slowly, like a tornado gathering speed and was beginning to pull the mana from the surrounding air into the

was starting to move, to flow toward that grand working that even as I watched continued to extend

heck

"GOOOOAAAAARRRRRRRRRR," a voice growled.