Chapter 86

“So,” Daniel said carefully. “We sort of just got our butt kicked.”

There were angry chuckles.

“There is a termite colony above us.” No one reacted, which did not surprise him, as the majority had the identification ability and they would have been talking about it. “A colony that had magic to stop them from being scanned.”

“What do you mean?” the fire mage asked.

“I have a spell that lets me scan for animals and gauge their strength. It is one of the primary reasons we have been able to expand and clear floors so aggressively. The termites can block the spell. Could ,” Daniel corrected. “We did not know their power, and we got our arses kicked. Smarting fight is the key, knowing your enemy and all that. They hid their power, and we were surprised, but no more. We know exactly what we are facing, and the result next time will be different. We are going to destroy their queen. There are ninety workers spread across four floors. They will swarm the moment we reach level thirty-seven. They have a nasty bite and are deceptively quick, as you all saw firsthand. They are easy. I think we killed over two hundred of them already. But in addition to the workers, there are fifteen soldiers. They are bigger and fly. The ones with black streaks have a bite that will dissolve you; those with green will poison. Healers who can stop poison and I guess curses need to focus on healing those wounds. Then there is the king. It is a larger solider but super fast. I will need to beat it.”

Daniel stopped, remembering the sense he got from the king. It would take all of his speed and lightning spell to take that thing down.

“And the queen?” the fire mage asked.

“When I fight the king, my lightning should disable it,” Daniel continued, ignoring the question. “When that happens, all the ranged will need to immediately pile on it.”

“And the queen?”

“Killing the king is going to be hard. Thick armour. It can spit at you, which when it hits will be as sharp as an arrow. Hopefully, it will fight us in the open, in which case once my lightning paralyses it, we just burn it down. If it runs or—god forbid—hides, then things will get harder.”

“What does that mean?”

“If it comes at us, we tank and spank. If it runs, we solve that later.”

“Game plan, coach?” Luke quipped. There were a couple of smiles, and Daniel suppressed his instinctive snap. Maybe Luke enjoyed playing the fool or his instincts told him they needed to relax; whatever the reason, he had to admit the interjection was welcome.

“Yeah. Melee takes care of workers. Ranged, the soldiers, and I fight the king, and if the queen comes, then we fight but retreat if things go badly.”

“You want to finish them in waves,” the fire mage observed.

“If they let us. Unfortunately, the queen had enhanced intelligence, so I reckon she will throw everything at once rather than letting us bleed them slowly. Remember your roles.” Daniel made eye contact with each of the ranged damage dealers.

“Traps?”

“I can’t see how we can get them to work,” Daniel admitted. “If the king hides, then necessity will hopefully inspire me. But if he goes down that path, I am sort of hoping that attacking the queen will force the king to take us head on, but . . . insects.”

Everyone nodded.

“When we go, we go fast. They are termites. They will feel it the moment we start walking up the stairs.”

Lots of determined faces, and then collectively everyone started checking their weapons, and those few for whom Alisha had created armour double checked the straps. There honestly was not much to do.

They formed up in ranks. Tanks at the front, then ranged, and then healers. They were reasonably balanced, seven front-line fighters including Dave, Daniel, Carly’s dad, and the juggernaut. Backing them up were five healers. Both Ivey and Carly were there, six archers, and finally, eight magic users. There were the fire and ice pair from the previous team, Tamara and another general wizard, a second fire mage, a dark magic user like Beau, and then the final fighter was a light mage who shot her lasers. The consensus was the light mage would be most effective against the flying enemies as her attacks were instant.

“One, two, three.”

Dave and the juggernaut took off at the front.

Bursting out onto their target floor, the shortest blast of Animal Sense told Daniel all he needed to know. The worker drones were massing, and while it was at the edge of his range, he was pretty sure the soldiers were gathering to support.

Hopefully, the king would delay, because if it came for them at the same time as the soldiers, things would get awkward. He wanted to provide safety close to the defensive wall, but the moment the king emerged, everyone else was on their own.

“Five seconds,” Daniel yelled. “All sides.”

They did not have enough people for the front lines, as the termites would come from both directions and Daniel had considered leaning more heavily on the non-combatants. After all, they just had to hold a shield, but in the end, he had decided that they would cope without them.

Janice was directly behind Daniel. Most of him wanted to make her back away, but given she was the only one of Ivey’s unfortunate party to have survived unharmed, there was no reason to give up the small amount of damage she could do.

Plus, if she got bit, her teleport skill would save her, unlike the rest of them.

They spat out of the all the holes around the floor. Buzzing noise filled the air. Daniel checked with another Animal Sense blast to see if the king was coming. It was not, but there were almost a dozen moths flying with the soldiers. He had suspected that relationship after Ivey’s fight, but their presence this time confirmed that the termites controlled the moths. That was a conversation to have with Ivy and Tamara later. His strategies might need to change if he had to expect animals would gang up on them.

Close to fifty were swarming from Daniel’s side. It looked like overwhelming numbers but himself and juggernaut strode forward unfazed ready to meet them. Strike a few blows to slow their momentum and then retreat a step, rinse and repeat.

The bodies thudded against his club and he kept his movements aligned with the tank beside him. When he stepped, Daniel moved in tandem.

Tiny bursts of electricity prevented the line he was holding from overwhelming them. There was a crunching sound next to him, and when he glanced sideways, the termites were eating the man’s shield from the bottom.

Ahh, Daniel thought to himself. That was why the man had needed a new shield after the last fight. He had already lost the bottom fifth of the replacement. Better wood than a person. The shields were replaceable.

Swing, swing, step.

Arrows were streaming over his shoulder and there were flashes of light.

A soldier flew towards him.

Speed.

He battered it away. The blow was not enough to kill it, but it sent it flying like a tennis ball to the other side of the corridor. The club did not extend itself to turn the swing into a killing blow. The failure to finish the bug was the club understanding that their struggle would come in the future.

An arrow pinned the soldier he had knocked away to the wall.

Then he forgot about it.

Another step back. Flick some more lightning to make space.

The termites at his feet were almost forgotten as he knocked two more soldiers.

There was a scream behind him. Then a second male scream joined the original female one.

Animal Sense.

Two soldiers had gotten past their guard and were attacking the ranged fighters. They would need to deal with the problem themselves.

Slap away another soldier. Everything was about holding the line without depleting his reserves, yet he was still puffing from his use of speed abilities, and had used thirty percent of his mana. Electricity, just like last time, coiled around his club, yet even when he punted termites with it none of its power got transferred. It was keeping the magic in reserve. But it was a game of attrition and he was losing.

“Help,” he yelled before stepping back and hoping that someone heard him.

Flames roared past him into the gap, immediately opening up space.

There were sounds of different wing beats, more primal, deeper, threatening.

The king was coming, but from the wrong side.

He spun, activated speed, and pushed between Luke and Dave. They too had held the line, though from looks of it, the fire mage had helped on this side as well. No time to think, Daniel stepped on and past the still-withering carpet of giant bugs and then onto the charred corpses beyond them. The king came around the corner, and it was both bigger and meaner than he expected. A flash of light from a mage’s spell reflected off dripping venom coating the king termite’s razor-sharp mandibles.

Four days ago, he would have squashed it like it did not exist. But back then, it would have been the size of a cockroach. Now its body was the size of a golf bag and the wings went from wall to wall—and it was fast. When it saw Daniel, it zipped at him, and he knew to everyone else it would have looked to have almost teleported between the two points, but he had speed activated and instead it was just damn quick.

Dark magic mingled with venom from the mandibles, but that did not matter too much as he was not planning on being bitten.

Overcooking speed.

Daniel sent everything into his club. One chance. The king went high, preparing to swoop down. Daniel pumped all of his magic into it. Both hands on the club to ensure the hit landed with all the power than he could manage.

ZAP!

BOOM!

Concussive forces blew him backwards into a somersault before his face was ground into the carpet, a piece of burnt termite pressing into his nose, from the feel and smell. His eardrums had popped, and he was sure there was blood, not that he could see. His vision flashed white, and the universe was rocking. Hopefully, the tower was not collapsing around them.

Forcing his eyes open, Daniel saw a crisped termite filling his view. He wanted to lift his head, but nothing was working. His mana was at zero, and he couldn’t feel a thing.

Priscilla? There was desperation in the thought. What was happening? He needed to know.

There was an acknowledgment from the mouse, but nothing immediately happened. He wondered how much time had passed since the club had unleashed on the monster. He was sure that he had fallen unconscious. Seconds, maybe five on the outside. Was it still alive?

Real-time vision from Priscilla was presented to him. The king lay almost at the feet of the ranged fighters. It was smoking, a chunk of ice going through its abdomen, and electricity still flickered over its leg. It was still alive. His lightning had subdued it. Had given them the opportunity to land the first volley and hopefully finish.

Hit it with more. He wanted to scream the words at them, but his throat was not functioning. He shut his eyes to get rid of the double vision.

Arrows landed, and then he saw Janice with the spear poking it. Dave was down, with a spattering of electricity robbing him of the chance to attack. Carly’s dad, Luke, took a swing with his sword. Additional arrows made the monster jerk as each one thumped home. There was a whoosh and torrent of flame focused on the bug. A flash of bright light and the king jerked backwards away from the group in the face of the concentrated power.

More lightning arced from Tamara’s hand. Buying a couple more seconds.

Get up . The words screamed in his head, but he could not move. Ivey was healing Dave.

Something was amiss with him, Daniel realised. His body was heaving because of his overuse of his power, but he could not feel it. And the way the world was swimming was not normal.

She was healing Dave. Wrong person, he felt like yelling at her. The healing energy would not stop the electricity from locking him down, and he did not like he had any other injuries. She should have been healing Daniel. Horror filled him. What did he look like? Maybe Ivey thought he was already dead. He tried to ping her with his interface. Warmth was building in his head and so abandoned the effort, but she looked up, presumably to where his body lay helpless.

Her lips moved, and he thought she was yelling “Daniel,” but all he had was his blurred vision.

Another wave of offensive spells and weapons hit the creature. This time when the torrent of flames went over it, they dug deep into joints, and the whole thing seemed to shrivel up.

It was dead.

Healing magic hit him.

His brain was jumping everywhere: concussion, broken back?

Intense pain filled his neck, and there was a grinding of bones.

The world went blank. There was no way to know how long he hovered in that nothingness. A minute, a week, an hour, a day—Daniel could glean no meaning from time itself, until finally, it shifted.

Agony. Daniel could feel his body once more. His arm felt like it was broken, and his leg—that was the worst. A whimper escaped his throat.

Ivey was in front of him, and the other healer.

How had they moved so quickly? But then he realised they had not, and he had instead blacked out because of the healing.

“Hang in there.”

“Queen.”

“We’re looking out.”

Bones were knitting in his arm. It was agony for a moment before the pain faded to nothing more than itching.

“The king got your leg. We are working on it.”

The leg was screaming. He was not sure he wanted to see.

An image appeared to him. It was his jeans, and there was a massive rip, a new throbbing scar but there were black lines radiating out from it, and the leg looked stick thin.

The king’s venom?

There was a mental nod from Priscilla.

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