Chrysalis Chapter 55: Timber.

Looking at the thick trunk of the large tree before me I flex my mandibles cautiously. Hopefully these infused mandibles are up to the challenge.

Ignoring the deafening noise of the little chimps above me I wander up to the base of the tree. The aggravation of the monsters only becomes more intense as I approach, the small creatures look almost comical with their faces twisted in incandescent rage, completely infuriated that a single enemy would dare approach their territory.

Turning my head I can see three workers have followed my trail to the area where I had finished it, about fifty meters away from the tree. Once they arrive there they muddle about, turning here and there, looking for the location of the food which the trail had indicated to them existed in this place.

Not to worry chaps, I'll be serving it up to you shortly!

Infused mandibles!

As soon as I activate it with a thought, mana begins to flood out of my core, rushing through my body and into my mandibles. The build of energy becomes more and more intense until I almost wonder if there is anything I can't bite through with all this power.

Combined with the strength generated by my active skills I can pack a tremendous force into every bite.

Under the bewildered and disbelieving eyes of an entire tree full of monstrous apes I rear back my head and then darting forward I unleash the full force of my might upon the tree trunk.

Piercing bite!

Crunch!

The sharp edges of my mandibles sink deep into the strange wood these trees are composed of, sending splinters flying into the air and bouncing off my carapace. After this bite I don't cut off the flow of mana, letting it continue to pour out of my core and fuse with my jaws, vastly increasing their strength.

Again, piercing bite!

Crunch!

And again!

Crunch!

My mana is depleting at a furious pace, the power of these mandibles does come at a steep cost. For a monster with a poorly developed core they would be almost completely useless but thankfully I've been able to reinforce my core a quite a few times and I'll only continue to improve it further in the future!

Crunch!

The apes above are completely apoplectic with rage now, almost foaming at the mouth in their anger. I think they may have finally realised what I'm up to, some of them are starting to descend the tree in order to contest my actions.

But it's too late.

Crunch!

CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAK!!!

Oh! Here we go!

I secure Tiny on my back and dash away from the tree, moving across the path of descent and turning my head so I can watch the show.

The huge tree, with all of its shocked occupants on board, slowly begins to lean over.

The apes become completely silent in horror as their world literally starts to fall around them, whilst they are still in it.

TIMMMBEEEERRRRR!

CRASH.

With increasing speed the tree tilts and then falls to the ground with a tremendous boom, the sound of whistling leaves and shattering branches resounds through the forest.

Followed by the indignant howls of hundreds of tiny apes!

The three workers stare silently at the bizarre spectacle of a horde of injured apes pouring out of the wreckage of their tree home like angry demons. Possible even to a monster ant this site is truly something fresh and original.

For the colony!

Gleefully I charge forward into the gathering throng of ape monsters, Tiny hooting and roaring on my back like an enraged knight, who is also an ape.

The small creatures are scattered by my larger frame, literally bouncing off my diamond carapace when they attempt to strike back.

My assault sparks the workers into action! There is a fellow ant in a battle! Fight! Food! Two of the ants immediately turn and sprint back towards the colony. I'm not shocked by this, they aren't running away in fear or anything like that, these workers know no fear, but are instead going to summon reinforcements from the nest with all the speed they can muster.

The final remaining ant immediately leaps into battle alongside me, latching onto the nearest ape with its jaws and engaging in deadly combat.

My mission now is to delay and keep this one worker alive until our brethren arrive for the battle!

The apes are screeching mad as they rush to slay the would be attackers, punching and kicking at me, some of them even picking up improvised weapons like branches and rocks to try and increase their damage.

Muahahahaha!

Useless!

All of your efforts are for nothing!

My newly improved diamond carapace is the perfect defence against these sorts of impacts, my HP isn't even dropping at all! The small monsters physical strength is surely far beneath my toughness to begin with, when the advancement of my carapaces against physical damage is also taken into consideration then there is very little that these chimps can do to me with their strength alone.

I rampage through their ranks joyfully, knocking them aside and sweeping them from before me with large swings of my mandibles. The anger and fury on the monsters faces only grows more intense as I play with them and they redouble their efforts, grouping up to leap through the air and bring their fists down on my head with all of the force they can muster.

…

Is that all you've got?

It barely tickles!

Whenever I see my lone ally starting to get surrounded I charge towards him clear away the swarm and draw the aggro back to myself. This is actually a lot of fun!

ZAP!

Ouch! Why you little!

So the little chimps have started to bring out their skills eh? Turning around I can see one of the apes drawing his fist back after punching me in the side, electricity still sparking off his arm. You little monsters can use your electric skills huh?

Checking my stats I can see my Hp has dropped by one. Tsk. When I evolved I was careful to increase my internal resistance as well as my external defence but against elemental damage like this my diamond carapace doesn't help at all. Even though I'm able to almost completely resist the attack it's still enough to break through my defences and drain my Hp.

Witnessing the success of this strike more and more chimps begin channelling electricity into their hands, tiny jolts of electricity sparking off their fur and the energy builds and builds.

I won't let you!

I start to rampage through their ranks even more vigorously than before, sending the apes flying before they can fully prepare their strike. Tiny is hooting and hollering from his position on my back, occasionally lashing out with a fist or foot whenever one of the apes gets too close.

Despite my best efforts several more strikes land on my body, discharging their electrical force through my frame and my Hp drops by a few more points.

Maybe you chimps are going to get somewhere after all…

Kidding!

Regeneration!

The flood of icy sensation powers through my body, repairing all of the internal damage caused and brings my Hp back to full in a matter of seconds.

All of your efforts are for nothing, apes!

Checking on Tiny I can see that he remains completely unaffected by the electricity that is coursing through my body. Since he is actually an evolved version of these smaller chimps he is no doubt powerfully resistant to electrical damage to start with, I'm not sure if he has even noticed it to be honest.

In the middle of the melee I turn to check on my ally and notice that more ants have finally joined the battle and when I look in the direction of the trail more and more are making their way down and into the fight.

Now the real power of the colony will begin to show!