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!]

[but how was

or I suppose you could say the spirit?] she tells

I'm a little nervous.

over the

with glee on

edge of sanity, of course, Master,]

driven her further over the edge to a creature of pure horror. As long as she's happy, I

chamber to formally introduce them to the new temporary member of the group. I'm sure they both noticed the grub locked away in her cage when they woke

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. Sure enough, they're gone. Now I have the skills to actually recognise the stronger mana signature coming from the former grub in front of me. How did

Crinis asks, extending a tentacle to

to escape out of the nest on her

are right. I get the feeling the little trouble-maker got impatient and decided to advance ahead of schedule… although the accelerated feeding program we had her on might have contributed to the problem. She

a liquid goop that is reformed into the new body. Once she's ready, she'll eclose, and after allowing for a brief period of time so the carapace can harden, she'll be a fully formed hatchling! Ready

up and broke out before I returned? Considering the amount of chaos she caused as a grub, what could she achieve as a hatchling? I shudder to