Chrysalis

Somonax’s face is twisted into a permanent grin, her needle-pointed teeth as long as a man’s arm flashing in the red light. From her back, the thousand wires spring, each connected to one of a thousand blades.

I’ve used almost all of my Altar energy to tie down Torrifex and Pyrixan for the moment, but I’m doubtful those two bombs will be strong enough to kill them, which means I need to make the most of this two-on-one time I have with this demon of endless slaughter.

[Alright, Al. If you’ve got anything left to give, you better give it now. I’m going to run in and see what I can get done.]

[I will try.]

I’m keen to give him a motivational talk, a bit of the ol’ ‘there is no try’ stuff, but I don’t have it in me right now. I knew running headlong into the tier eight demons was going to be tough, but right now, I feel like I’ve unleashed everything I have and they’re just taking it. Once my Altar runs dry, they’ll be able to squash me like a pancake at festival time.

Time to go for it!

Somonax grins… or… just maintains her normal expression, as I turn and rush directly at her, launching a barrage of compressed stone spears as I do.

Those blades make quick work of the projectiles, shards of stone go flying in all directions as each spear is detonated when cut. I knew she’d be able to defend herself, all I wanted to do was tie down at least some of her limbs as I made my approach.

Dash!

I lunge forward with all my speed the moment I pass within the range of her wires, and it’s a good thing I do. From a dozen different directions, hundreds of those gleaming red blades slash down and the best direction for me to dodge is forward.

Even so, I get a few slices on the rear-guard for my trouble.

always the commercial zone?! Doesn’t matter,

slash from the demon. She’s not even moving her body at the moment, because she doesn’t have to. I can’t hurt her unless I

future-sight antennae are on fire as I receive tingling warnings of hundreds and hundreds of individual movements at once. Even

of the ground every time I change direction. The closer I get, the faster and more concentrated the blade attacks become, until I feel I’m facing a storm of swords rather than a demon. She’s basically making a solid wall in

to put the gravity compressed diamond to the test. I didn’t harden my defences this much to shy away from a few little

Here we go!

legs blur as I rumble toward the enemy, my jaws pulled back ready to bite. Immediately, a rain of blades comes

Oof!

to move. From behind, a concentrated hyper-beam of burning light erupts from Al, spearing toward the demon. Somonax tilts her head and

A chance!

VOID CHOMP!

and begin to close on Somonax, but the demon doesn’t seem

THUNK!

force of the strike sends my legs splaying wide and

almost thirty centimetres into my carapace, almost enough to get through, but nobody wins a

you

my jaws slam shut, but I don’t get

wildly until I realise where the enemy went.

air, Somonax pulls her thousand blades together, forming them into a gigantic point that she aims straight at my midsection before plummeting down with the force of

believe how fast that dodge was. Not only is

can