The classic deer in the headlights trap! I should have seen it coming a mile away!? Since when is a monster that helpless ever left alive in the Dungeon for more than a minute? This is the Dungeon for goodness sake! An ecosystem with more competition in it that this one surely doesn't exist! It's so dark here I can't see the individuals that have leapt forth from the shadows, and I don't mean to stick around until I can.

[Move it, Tiny! We are NOT sticking around to say hello,] I order my unruly pet.

The giant bat-faced ape was flexing his fists, eyes glaring wild and fierce as he sought for something to pummel. I'm not having any of it. Unknown enemies? We are getting out of here! I can feel Crinis writhing on my thorax, desperate to attack those who would do me harm, but I act quickly to reel her in.

[Crinis! We're leaving!]

[But, Master!]

[No buts!]

Thankfully, Invidia is smart enough that I don't have to order him to retreat from a disadvantageous fight. The demon is already moving and I follow his spherical, winged form as we rush back the way we came. Which still leaves me with one problem.

"Get the hell out of here, Protectant. I want your people ahead of me as we run! And don't you dare go against me here! If one of you dies, I swear I'll resurrect them so you know you can't escape my wrath!"

The threat is completely hollow, I'd never desecrate the remains of my siblings, but it seems to work. No member of the secret brigade appears and throws themselves in harm's way, so I assume they are running ahead of me.

CRACK!

With an explosion of light, an incandescent beam of sword light blasts from the shadows and flashes toward me, carving deep gouges in the stone floor on its way. Holy heck! Dodge! My antennae blaze with future signs of severe danger and my nerves fire, throwing my body to one side before I have time to think about it.

I skitter to one side, a tangle of legs that scrabble against the stone to regain purchase. The moment I do, I DASH with all of my strength, picking up speed in an instant and rocketing forward as I sense more shapes emerging behind me. Whoever they are, they're fast. Not to mention, hot! Not in a physically attractive way, though I haven't seen them yet, but in a literal sense. My antennae are tingling at the insane amount of heat they generate.

They can't possibly be people! They'd be cooking themselves from the inside out at those sorts of temperatures!

Have I been accosted by some sort of lava people?! I wouldn't put it past Pangera to have lava people! Desperate to gain information as I flee, my brains whip together a fire elemental construct and I hastily craft a flame thrower, powering it with weak, uncompressed mana. I'm not interested in damage, I just want to see!

Rocketing behind an outcropping of stone to dodge yet another of those fierce blade lights, I rotate my body, ever so slightly, and let rip with the fire. A jet of pure orange flame roars out behind me, pushing back the darkness for a brief second. I see glimpses, flashes of detail. Then the dark returns.

I've seen enough!

[Invidia! I need barriers and mental distractions! Pile it on!]

[Their mindsssss are like stonessssss! I sssshall take them regardlesss!]

[What do you mean, stone?!] I cry but the little demon doesn't answer, already pouring his considerable mental might into slowing down our enemies.

What I saw in that brief flash didn't fill me with joy. Rather the opposite. Large bodies wrapped in steel and stone. Some sort of armoured suit? In the brief glimpse I got, I could see runes and the tell-tale signs of mana flowing through the materials. Whoever they are, they are rocking some high end tech! I think Smithant would get quite a bit out of a conversation with this lot.

CRACK! BOOM!

If they didn't try and kill her on sight, that is!

[How are we looking, Invidia?]

[Almossst!]

Almost!? When it comes to magical mind warfare, this demon is a freak! What's going on! I let my other constructs disintegrate and pull together some mind mana as I scrabble my way around corners, using the deadly vegetation of the second strata to cover my retreat. Once the mana is ready, my sub-minds weave together a bridge and start extending it to the nearest attacker.

I sink my mind deep into the meditation Skill, trying to let my emotions fall away so I can focus. My minds drink in the calm that follows, the ragged edges vanishing as my nerves fade away. Even so, I feel a ruffle on unease as the mind bridge fails to latch. I don't have time to examine how or why, I just get a vague sense of the spell slipping off their mind instead of snapping into place as it should.

Some sort of mind defence enchanted into their helmets?! Holy moly, I didn't even know that was possible! Who are these people!? Well, if I can't slow them down with mind magic, I guess they'll have to settle for the finest produce found in this strata!

POW! POW! POW! POW! POW!

A rapid fire cannonade erupts from my back zone, the new scattershot mode engaged, causing a wide spray of acid to blast everything within twenty metres behind me. It doesn't slow them. I can feel the dense mana powering their suits flowing unimpeded as they employ their movement skills to rocket through the tunnels, their forms a blur in the dark.

That doesn't stop me though. With its new properties, my acid doesn't need to make a splash (heh) the moment it connects, it's yet to show its true power after all.

POW! POW! POW! POW! POW!

The barrage doesn't stop as my pets and I tear through the tunnels, our foes hot on our heels. I don't know how much of what I fire actually connects with our pursuers, but it doesn't matter. I know that some of what I fired hit home, and as long as a little bit did, they are going to experience the magic of my acid.

I keep firing until I have nothing left in the tank.