Chrysalis

Much like Tiny, Crinis wasn't satisfied with her initial rampage and pursued her opponents deeper into the tunnels. I use the word pursued in the literal sense since they were actively running away from her at that stage. On some level, it was fascinating to watch, since there didn't seem to be much defence against the ghost tendril attack that she used to directly attack the minds of her foes. Once she managed to drill those tentacles into their heads, the opponents would go slack before they inevitably turned into raving mad-things that lashed out at everything around them.

The obvious solution would be to make sure that the limbs never touched you, but that wasn't exactly an easy thing to do, since she could manifest them from every shadow within her range, which was almost a hundred metres at this point. They could pop out at our feet, creep out of the wall behind your back, even drop down from the ceiling above. If you were somehow able to keep track of all of that, she could simply phase them out of reality, slipping straight through your body, moving through weapons and armour before driving toward the brain.

It posed an impossible problem and even tier four and five monsters did little better. They might be able to slice a few of her tentacles off, perhaps even many of them, but it didn't seem to matter as Crinis produced more flesh at a ridiculous rate, fuelled by her constant eating. Eventually even these stronger monsters were overwhelmed as their minds were invaded.

Once things reached this point, only one monster had been able to resist to any significant degree that I saw. A demon of the spell casting variety, it used its magic to fend her off as long as it could, but it too was eventually overcome. Once Crinis managed to drive her tendrils into its mind, the creature stilled, but not completely. Moving its thin arms desperately, it tried to claw at her tentacles and I could sense the vague shifting of mana around it as it attempted to form another spell. With a flick, Crinis sent a dozen more limbs toward the creature, each of them driving their tendrils into its mind which eventually overwhelmed its defences and it succumbed like the others.

When it was all said and done, we made our way back to the nest with a rather smug Crinis riding on my back.

[What happened with that demon, Crinis?] I ask her, [it seemed to put up more of a fight than anything else when it came to those tendrils.]

She huffed.

[That filth thought it could intrude on the domain of the master's family, it deserved worse than it got!]

I ignore that part, [but how was it able to

isn't actually the brain, but the mind, or I suppose you could say the spirit?] she tells me. [Creatures with stronger Wills and stronger spirits are

I'm a little nervous.

the edge… what do you

with glee

of sanity, of

as she's happy, I suppose it's fine. I'll just have to make sure I find a way to avert my eyes from

I'm sure they both noticed the grub locked away in

confines. Larva has successfully evolved into pupa! Actually, that reminds me. I quickly snoop around for the cores I left behind, remembering what happened when Vibrant moved to this stage.

this what you were referring to, Master?] Crinis asks, extending a

this is her. This little grub has way too much energy, managed to escape out of the nest on

got impatient and decided

that is reformed into the new body. Once she's ready, she'll eclose, and after allowing for a brief period of time so

woke up and broke out before