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 yank my head free, only to find that my legs are no longer on the ground. As

my mandibles buried in the stone to keep

stone, hold!

the stone around my trusty pinchers. If

up every drop of mana in my core and shove it through the omni-elemental construct, getting sweet, sweet stone mana out the other end, which I promptly pour out until I’m buried up to the eyeballs in the stuff. It’s terrifying, but I eventually reach an equilibrium, with my body held aloft, being pulled back into the danger zone, but the stone

finally fades, my body falls to

Holy moly.

am again. That was terrifying! My legs feel like jelly, in fact I’ve got the shivers over my entire body. I’m almost glad I couldn’t see directly behind me, peering straight into the void might have been too much for my

I need to get my

of me and showering me with dust and stone chips, several of which poke into my eyes. These soft orbs remain the greatest weakness of my body; I’m going to have to deal with that

survival. Yes! Cheating death once again, Anthony! You might have had me once, but never twice!

Ouch.

pain runs up my leg and I glance down to see what’s going on, only to find one of those horrific drill-worms has latched onto my right-rear leg. In fact, it hasn’t just latched on, it’s trying to tunnel its way into

KILL IT WITH FIRE!