Chrysalis

Ah, the empowered gravity bomb, infused with the overflowing Will of the Colony via my trusty Altar. Would there ever be a time I didn’t threaten my own life when using this stupid ability?!

The bomb rips through the air, sucking in everything around it, creating a horrendous wind as the air races to fill in the void. My antennae flap wildly as I realise just what I’ve done and scramble to get my precious diamond carapace to safety.

Six legs scramble, scratching and scrabbling at the dirt as I struggle to turn myself around. I fired the damn thing pretty much point blank, and I barely get my face-hands pointed in the right direction when the spell detonates.

On the very edge of my peripheral vision, I see the bomb expand right behind me. Even a weak gravity bomb, when empowered by the Altar, can pack a serious punch, and sadly, this one is no different. I flex my legs, my core thrashing with wild energy as I explode forward with an empowered dash!

Of course, there’s not enough room and I run face first into the wall. Damn it! Can’t these tunnels be a little bit straighter?!

My face explodes with pain as the impact rattles through my carapace and shakes up my insides, but thankfully no major damage is suffered. My mandibles are stuck about half a metre deep into the rock, though… which is less than ideal.

HOOOOOOOOWWWWWLLLLLL!!!!

The spell screams behind me, and I think I get a notification, but I can’t even hear someone talking in my mind through the din. Besides that, my mind is preoccupied with not being sucked into the swirling void of doom, which is important.

Come on, come on, come on! Break, you lousy rock!

to find that my legs are no longer on the ground. As

mandibles buried in the stone to keep me

stone, hold!

pumping out earth mana which I compress before using it to harden the stone around my trusty pinchers. If that stuff breaks, or even worse, comes loose from the

out the other end, which I promptly pour out until I’m buried up to the eyeballs in the stuff.

body falls to the ground and

Holy moly.

hope I never am again. That was terrifying! My legs feel like jelly, in fact I’ve got the shivers over

now I need to get

do the job, exploding the rock in front of me and showering me with dust and stone chips, several of which poke into my eyes. These

Cheating death once again, Anthony! You might have had me once,

Ouch.

what’s going on, only to find one of those horrific drill-worms has latched

KILL IT WITH FIRE!