Novel Full Chapter 655 - Like A Poorly Oiled Machine Part 2
Chapter 655 – Like A Poorly Oiled Machine Part 2
Nixilei and Kress jumped backwards towards the rest of the group, shrinking the space they had to move around largely. There was still enough space for the group to move around, but with a millipede on either side that distance was liable to shrink sooner rather than later if things kept up. Kat moved to slam her closed fan into one of the blade-like legs after seeing the limited success of going for the armour, expecting it to do at least some damage. Instead, it just caused the limb to spin around rapidly, eating the momentum she'd imparted to it, to turn itself into a facsimile of a blender.
*Dammit! One behind, one in front, neither of them easier to deal with. If I had two hands maybe I could try prying apart a section of armour? Should I be smacking that spot I already broke? The damned thing is slippery. Its armour protects from slashing attacks, while its large stringy body simply eats the impact from blunt force. That's not even getting onto the damned BLADE LEGS.*
*Why did I let Lily talk me into bringing her along? It's limited my options so much and HOW IS SHE STILL SLEEPING? Dammit. What I need is a bag or something to hold her in so I can use both hands, or a bag for Nixilei to hold her in maybe. It might be a good time for you to WAKE UP LILY.* Kat waited in her slowed time for a moment before continuing her thoughts. She didn't have time to wait to see if that actually worked at all.
As Kat was doing that, Gareth was making a move based purely on his many hours of practice. He slammed his shield into the ground, channelling mana through it the whole time to force a wall of stone to rise up to cover Nixilei and Kress. Of course, the slight widening of his eyes after the wall went up revealed her already knew the error being made. A creature that chews through stone to move around, isn't going to be bothered by a thin slice of magic rock.
It did give Kat a chance though. Slamming one more strike against the millipede that didn't really do anything, Kat dashed back towards the wall and sucked in a deep breath. Lets hope my practice hasn't gone to waste. Kat summoned her demonic fire from the tops of her arms, and head letting it shoot up to coat the wall Gareth had summoned in thick purple fire. She used a large chunk of her concentration keeping it there and ensuring it wasn't spreading anywhere it wasn't supposed to.
Kress and Nixilei were now backing further away, even though it had only been a few moments they could feel the chill coming from Kat's fire and had no desire to get in the way of it. On Kat's end, even though she couldn't feel the cold, she could feel the pressure of keeping the fire where it was. She'd been forced to keep it at the edge of her range because the tunnel was pretty high enough though it wasn't that wide. Part of her wanted to fly a bit just to get closer but she wasn't entirely sure she could afford the mental energy to take off at the moment.
The stone had completely frozen over at this point. Surrounded by her fire, it only took a few moments, so when the insect burst through, jaws and teeth snapping all the way with its long thin tongues exploring for prey, the iced over stone shattered and cracked, sending fragments of it everywhere. Kat grit her teeth and gripped onto the fire embedded in those pieces hard. Forcing them to stick in place instead of flying along with the ice. A safety measure for the rest of the group but one that was rapidly giving Kat a headache. The pain of forcing so many small pieces of fire to her will was getting to her. She'd never properly practiced with so many bit of flame and it was proving to be a bit much.
Despite this pain though, it was effective. While Gareth and Green had returned to the first millipede and Nixilei was keeping an eye on her three fragile team members, if Gareth could be called fragile, Kress was keeping an eye on the flank, though he wasn't watching Kat. He was keeping his eyes and ears fixed onto the walls. With two of the monsters already coming for them, a third would not be remiss and he had no plan for dealing with it aside from stab it where he could. His teeth were clenched so tightly together a slight creaking sound could be heard… if one was close enough to hear it over the cacophony of screeches coming for Kat's direction.
When the millipede had burst through the rock, the fire Kat held in place as well as the fire it had originally touched 'burned' into the bug, causing ice to start forming around its armour. It could feels its insides slowly but surely freezing, yet it had committed too heavily to its downwards attack and new it would be forced to continue. So jaws wide it aimed for Kat as best it could, bladed limbs reaching around to try and get its pound of flesh before the ice got to it.
Unfortunately for Kat, it did look it would be getting a few attacks in. Her demonic fire was spreading quickly across its body as she fed it more and more demonic energy but not fast enough it seemed. The question was, what to do for those extra seconds it would take to freeze to death. *I don't have a lot of space behind me. I really don't want to back into the others and catch any of them on fire. Ok I'm mostly worried about Kress. I've already seen I can stop my fire hurting people I'm friends with but I don't exactly trust it would work for Kress.*
*Though now that I think about it… I wonder if it would cause issues for magical items like Gareth's shield obviously is and everyone else's weapons likely are? Never mind I have to work out where to move… maybe I should just punch through the wall? I wonder if it would be sturdy enough to stay together after that though… actually will it stay together at all now there is a massive hole in it and its been set on fire? Yeah… lets go through it just in case.*
Direction set, Kat dashed forward making sure it was her right shoulder busting through the rock wall to prevent jolting the STILL SLEEPING Lily. Kat was starting to wonder if she should be more concerned about that fact, but the crunch of rock as her shoulder broke through the wall brought her thoughts back to the moment. The millipede hit the ground and bit a large hole in it before turning its body around as the rest fell behind it to follow after Kat.
It seemed that while it was somewhat intelligent, it was not smart enough to go for the rest of her party instead of the one damaging it. The beast charged again, now completely covered in fire and movement getting sluggish. Frosh clung to every inch of the insects body and the tongues that once moved with alacrity were starting to freeze from the base up. Kat checked her reserves and found them at around 50%, lower than she'd like certainly but enough. Kat spat a stream of dense fire straight into the millipede's face causing it to scream in pain before falling silent as the frost overtook it.
Though it was clearly dead and its body no longer moved with purpose, its final charge hadn't been stopped just yet. It barrelled forward, legs damaging what remained of the wall Gareth had summoned as its numerous legs caught on the rock face, causing cracks to appear in the blades and the wall. Kat easily stepped to the side, even though the thing took up a large chunk of the cavern's width, the lack of proper movement made it easy. It tumbled forward a few more metres before falling off to the side, luckily away from Kat.
Sadly though… its rear end had not quite cleared the wall and that extra weight was enough to break through what little structural support the wall still had causing a chain of cracks to form forcing the rock to lose the rest of its cohesion and collapse into a heap, blocking most of the pathway back to the others. A small gap remained at the top, though it clearly wasn't large enough for Kat to squeeze through. Rocks would need to be moved, all the while the others were still fighting their own millipede.
*Dammit.. Hopefully I can dig through this quickly. I can't force my way through the bottom, I'm going to need to widen that gap at the top… or maybe Gareth can move it somehow? Crap, I can't really afford to wait for that though…*