Chapter 142: Natural Enemies

“What’s with the ridiculous viewership spike? They're not even in the hive yet.” Shinji asked through the Simbox call he had open with Tommy. He was frantically waving his fingers around, editing the live footage of Aegis’ battle with the Mosmir soldiers just before the Voidreaver had appeared.

“I’m looking into it.” Tommy replied as he saw Aegis’ viewership climb up to 300,000. “It looks like a lot of Feng’s viewership is coming over to watch. The Vindicators took on a Mosmir Hive in the Lanusk Underrealm six in-game months ago.” Tommy replied as he fidgeted around with several screens that were floating in front of him within his office simulation, speaking to Shinji through the call. “Looks like, to enter the hive dungeon you need to fight several waves of defenders first. Feng’s guild struggled to do it, and they had a raid of 40 players.” Tommy said as he scrolled through several clips and news articles on the subject.

“And, did they succeed?” Shinji asked.

“Yeah. They never found the Queen though, even though they spent two weeks searching for her.” Tommy answered. “This kid, does he not see the amount of enemies charging at him? I feel like I’m watching Starship Troopers, and he’s not even scared. There’s only five of them.” Tommy shook his head in disbelief, tuning in to Hae-won as she was shoutcasting the battle, speaking a mile a minute to try and describe every skill and spell that Aegis and his party were using.

“Six. Don’t forget Snowflake.” Shinji replied while smirking to himself.

“Well…” Tommy said as he continued to scroll through the news on the subject. “If he manages to find the Queen, he’ll be one-upping the 2nd highest streamer in the world.” Tommy replied.

“Fingers crossed.” Shinji replied anxiously as he watched the Voidreaver appear on Aegis' livestream feed and prepare to attack him and his party. “He’s gotta survive this first.”

“What’s it doing?” Aegis asked nervously as he looked up at the massive Mosmir Voidreaver. It was crawling across the ceiling towards them, still several dozen meters away. He couldn’t keep his eyes locked on it due to the sheer amount of Mosmir Soldiers swarming towards him, but he caught a glimpse of it converging its six pincers together.

Once the six touched at the tips, all six of them began to glow with dark purple energy that shimmered in rippling waves across the surface of the pincers. The light slowly converged at the tips until suddenly, at the point where they all met in front of the Voidreavers mouth, a small ball of purple energy formed and quickly grew in size.

One second later, the ball shot forth in the form of a gigantic, dark beam of purple and black energy. Only, it wasn’t aiming at Aegis, it was aiming at Pyri.

“Shit! MOM!” Aegis shouted in a panic as she looked up to see the beam coming at her. She froze in place for a moment, knowing that she’d get hit if she stayed still. She knew she had several options - she could dodge out of the way or utilize a cinderbolt to redirect the beam. Instead, she looked to Aegis and saw his determined, worried expression as he dashed and jumped up to intercept the beam with his shield.

It was fine, she didn’t need to do anything special, her son was going to protect her with his shield. All she had to do was keep burning the enemies like he’d asked her to do, and not stand out.

As she thought this, she watched as the beam connected with Aegis’ shield. He attempted to brace it mid air where it impacted him. The beam crashed into his shield and rather than deflect off of it or disperse against it, the beam released a wave of energy that enveloped Aegis’ body in a dark purple aura.

You take 3351 Void damage.

Intense, excruciating pain beyond anything Aegis had ever imagined possible surged through his entire body. It felt as though every nerve in his nervous system was screaming out in pain. His ears began to ring and his vision went white hot. It felt as if his bones had suddenly exploded and his muscles were being ripped out of his skin.

*WARNING* Mental Stress Levels are nearing the safe limit. You will be forcibly removed from the simulation if the current level of stress continues or increases.

[Force Log out] Take a break from the game and relax, you will respawn at the nearest Graveyard.

[Lower Pain Threshold] Threshold Change is currently Available for your account.

[Ignore] Keep Playing, acknowledging that Averon is not liable for any damages caused by continuing Simulation. (If conditions persists or worsen you will be logged out against your will as part of our Terms of Service)

10 meters away from Pyri, 2 meters in the air, Aegis remained suspended. The beam attack from the Voidreaver wasn’t a one off, it was channeled, and it held Aegis in place as the damage ticked on him again.

You take 2936 Void damage.

Skill Learned: Void Resistance

He involuntarily let out a blood curdling scream of agony as he tried to fight it off and resist being force logged out, but he couldn’t move a muscle. He was completely paralyzed, and Pyri could see the look of pain on his face. She saw first hand what her inaction had caused, and her eyes went wide with shock and fear.

“It’s channeled, Lina, you gotta interrupt that thing!” Rakkan shouted out as loud as he could as he saw Aegis suspended in the air, screaming in pain. Lina didn’t need to be told twice, she quickly shadowstepped across the cavern until she was standing on the thorax of the upside-down hanging Voidreaver, and thrust her daggers down at its abdomen. However, moments before her daggers connected, a bright dark purple light flashed over the body of the Voidreaver and it vanished, causing Lina to go into a free fall towards the swarm of soldiers below.

She was able to shadowstep a few times to get back to the group and saw Aegis fall to the ground, breathing heavily.

“Fuck me.” Aegis said between breaths as he recomposed himself, the pain from the attack fading away. “Those Guardian players were not kidding. Void is the worst.” He tried to shake it off as the soldiers began swarming around him again.

“Are you okay?” Lina asked him worriedly as she appeared beside him.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine, just, don’t let that thing beam me again.” Aegis said and Lina nodded back before scanning the cavern to try and find where it had gone. It wasn’t long before she spotted it, and it was already preparing to shoot another beam at them.

Lina quickly shadowstepped through the darkness of the cavern to it and attempted to strike it again, but it teleported away.

“That thing is stupid fast.” Darkshot shouted as he saw it warping away. “This isn’t looking so good, Aegis.” He added as he saw Snowflake and Rakkan still desperately trying to cover Aegis’ flanks.

“Keep burning them. The swarm of soldiers will start dying if we keep up the damage. Then we can focus on dealing with that Voidreaver. Until that time, Lina, I need you to keep it busy.” Aegis shouted to his party.

“Are you going to be able to survive that long?” Darkshot asked him worriedly as he saw Aegis block a few more hits from the swarming soldiers. Some were getting through, despite Snowflake and Rakkan’s best efforts.

“As long as I’ve got mana, I ain't going down.” Aegis shouted in defiance as he smashed his shield into the head of a lunging Mosmir Soldier. He then quickly glanced back to check on Pyri and saw that Pyri was still looking back at him with wide eyes and pale skin, as if she'd just seen a ghost.

“Are you okay? Are you afraid of the bugs? Don’t worry, I promise I won’t let them hit you.” Aegis said with concern in his voice. His words snapped her out of it.

“Me? You’re the one who just got blasted by a void beam. I’m fine.” Pyri forced a smile back at him as she went back to controlling her cinderbolts as effectively as possible. “There’s a limit to how far I can stretch these cinderbolts, even at this high skill level. I can’t get all of them with all four bolts at once.” She explained.

“Spread out the cinderbolts, make sure none stay at full health, so Snowflake, Rakkan and Darkshot have an easier time finishing them off.” Aegis shouted back as he sidestepped another attack.

“I aint finishing anything off. I’m trying to stop these things from dogpiling onto you. Vinerope shot!” Darkshot shouted as he fired another arrow of binding vines that entangled a tower of soldier ants. The charging swarm was clamoring ontop of each other to get to Aegis so desperately that they were averaging a height of three ants on each others backs as they came snapping their pincers and slashing their claws at him.

“Aegis!” Lina shouted from the cavern roof, barely audible over the sound of all the chittering and footsteps. Aegis jerked his head up to see she was shadowstepping after the Voidreaver’s newest warp location, trying to keep up and prevent it from completing a cast. She was pointing furiously across the cavern towards the hive entrance, though, where Aegis spotted a second elite Voidreaver making its way out of a hive tunnel.

“Darkshot, that one’s all you.” Aegis shouted as he backed up further, Snowflake and Rakkan doing so as well.

“This is endless!” Rakkan shouted frustrated. Despite Aegis Aura of beauty on Snowflake and Rakkan, he could see they were starting to get tired.

“I’m on it!” Darkshot shouted as he fired arrows at the second Voidreaver, forcing it to stop its cast and warp away to dodge the arrows. Darkshot then quickly scanned the cavern roof to find where it had gone and took another shot.

As well as he and his party were playing, Aegis knew Rakkan was right. If a third Voidreaver came out of the hive, they were done for. They were barely going to hold on as it was. We need a better strategy, fast. As he thought this, he panned his view around to see the statue of the petrified drone near where Pyri was standing.

“The spiders in the Darxon hideout attacked the cultists right?” Aegis asked Darkshot, yelling to be heard over the stampeding soldiers all around him as he took a few more hits and healed through it.

“Yeah, that’s right. The spiders were hostile beasts, so they’d attack anything that aggrod them.” Darkshot answered, and as he did, he could figure out what Aegis was thinking.

“Pull back to the mushrooms! Get behind the yellow ones with the Fishers in them!” Aegis shouted. Snowflake immediately barreled through two soldier ants to get to Aegis and nudged Aegis onto his back, which Aegis didn’t hesitate to do, then reached out and grabbed Rakkan’s hand before Snowflake leapt off the ground and flapped his wings furiously to get some distance from the front line of Mosmir Soldiers.

Pyri and Darkshot ran backwards, Darkshot turning only to fire more arrows at the warping Voidreaver. Meanwhile Lina stayed amidst the swarm, chasing down the other as it warped forward to pursue them.

They didn’t need to go far before they found themselves walking back on the living green moss with blue orbs all around them, and soon walked underneath the mushrooms. Snowflake landed back on the moss so that Rakkan and Aegis could get off, where Rakkan was forced to recast his echoes.

“Mosstrappers?” Aegis turned to Darkshot and he nodded, glancing about the mossy cavern floor to see if there were any Mosstrappers nearby.

“There, there, and there. One there too.” Darkshot quickly pointed out the nearest ones. With that information, they all shuffled around the camoflauged bugs to get deeper into the forest as the Mosmir swarm caught up to them, charging forward relentlessly.

The moment they got near the first mushroom stalk with a Fisher hiding in its underside, Aegis saw that the plan was working. The Fisher immediately lunged down at the nearest Mosmir Soldier with its wormy body and struck it with its tendrils, petrifying it. Simultaneously, several Mosmir walked over the Mosstrappers and caused them to open their mouths and chomp down on their unsuspecting legs, then released puffs of poison mist which the soldiers backed away from and avoided.

On the cavern roof, as the Mosmir encountered the snails amongst the stalactite, the snail shells suddenly errupted in gigantic, deadly sharp stalactites that pierced through the nearby Mosmir soldiers, not too unlike a puffer fish blowing itself up to ward off predators.

“Welcome to Reltrak, bitches.” Darkshot shouted excitedly as he saw the creatures join in the battle. The group repositioned themselves, Aegis in front with Snowflake and Rakkan flanking. Pyri and Darkshot behind, as Darkshot spotted the Voidreaver warping behind them on the underside of a plain mushroom, attempting to charge up its shot and hit Pyri from the back. “Oh no you don’t.” Darkshot spun around and shot it at the last second.

“The Elite ones are targeting Pyri, they perceive her fire as the biggest threat. Stay close just in case.” Aegis said and she gave him a nod. “If I challenging roar, the Reltrak beasts will stop attacking the soldiers. So just avoid hitting them and watch your threat on the soldiers.” Aegis commanded the others, and watched as Lina continued to shadow step after the first Voidreaver.

“I finally hit it, it’s intervals between warps is getting longer. I think it’s almost tapped out of mana.” Lina shouted excitedly. “But, so am I.” She added, and Aegis looked to see not just her, but all of them were starting to get low on resources.

“Hang in there guys, we can get this!” Aegis shouted encouragingly as the first wave of Soldier Mosmir made it through the gauntlet of Fishers and Trappers and began lunging at him, triggering Snowflake and Rakkan to spring into action and take them out. Aegis watched as both of the nearest Mosmir Soldiers went down in just a few hits from his two defenders.

“They’re really low health now, Pyri’s flames are paying off.” Rakkan shouted excitedly. Another wave of five soldiers reached them, but it was much easier to see them coming thanks from the bioluminescence of the Reltrak Forest around them. This time, not just Rakkan and Snowflake charged forward, but Aegis joined in as well. Rakkan struck down three, Aegis one, and Snowflake another, and all five went down really quickly.

Aegis then turned to see a row of Mosmir that had been petrified by a flailing Fisher in a nearby mushroom, but several Mosmir had managed to bite at the torso of the Fisher and pull it down off the mushroom, and they began to swarm it. A nearby Mosstrapper got surrounded, grabbed in a set of soldier pincers, and was flung into the air. The snails on the roof were being recklessly headbutted by the soldiers climbing along the stalactites, knocking them down onto the cavern floor where their shells crashed violenting on the mossy cavern floor and were swarmed - the Mosmir’ soldiers pincers were sharp enough to easily crack the snail shells.

“It ain't over yet, but keep pushing.” Aegis shouted as he took this all in.

“The other Voidreaver is low on energy too, he’s getting hit by arrows. He stopped warping around.” Darkshot declared.

“They’re pulling back. Both of the Voidreavers are pulling back. Should I go after them?” Lina asked after reappearing next to Aegis, just as Rakkan and Snowflake lunged forward at the next wave of approaching soldiers. Aegis looked up to see she was right, both Voidreavers were running against the swarm on the cavern roof, back towards the hive entrance.

“No… do you have enough mana to shadow dance again?” Aegis asked her, seeing her mana below 25%.

“Yes, for a bit. I can teleport as much as I want, but it drains mana per second while it's active.” Lina explained.

“Good. They’re all at low health now.” Aegis motioned to the swarm of approaching Mosmir soldiers walking through the glowing flames of Pyri’s cinderbolts. “Pyri, raise the bolts up to cast shadows under all of their abdomens.” Aegis turned to Pyri and she nodded. “Lina, Shadow Dance the shit out of them.” He turned back to Lina and grinned, and she nodded back with a determined smile.

“Shadow Dance!” She shouted, disappearing into the swarm of Mosmir. Aegis couldn’t see her, it was too dark, but he heard the sound of her warping around and slashing out at them, and the dying cries of the Mosmir Soldiers as one by one they fell.

“Go all out, clear them up, everyone charge forward!” Aegis shouted, the others nodding along. Aegis, Rakkan and Snowflake rushed forward, this time they were the aggressors.

“Multishot, piercing shot!” Darkshot said, his mana now dangerously low as he fired obsidian tipped arrows at the swarm. He dumped all of his mana into the attack, enlarging all of the 15 arrows and causing them to sweep through the swarm, piercing through them and finishing them off. Any soldiers that he missed, Lina was able to shadowstep towards and take out. Any that Lina had missed rushed at Aegis, Rakkan and Snowflake, and they took them out.

It was going good, it looked like they might actually win it despite the huge discrepancy in numbers. The wildlife of the Reltrak forest had bought them the time they needed to weaken the swarm with flames. The two Voidreavers were hiding back near the entrance of the hive, still visible due to their glowing purple pincers despite them being so far away. But, they weren’t fleeing back into the hive. They waited at the entrance, looking as if they were waiting for something. What, exactly, wasn’t clear, but Aegis could suddenly hear the sound of loud rumbling coming from the hive’s tunnel entrances.

“Ah, fuck, don’t tell me there’s more.” Darkshot groaned as he and the others all heard it too. Sure enough, amidst the sea of Soldier Mosmir, a gargantuan Mosmir suddenly burst out of the cavern floor near the hive entrance. This one only had a single set of pincers, but they were gigantic. Its legs were not thin like the other Mosmir, but giant, meaty muscular legs that resembled more of an elephant as it stomped forward, climbing out of the new giant tunnel it had just formed. It had no name above its head, only [Boss] in red letters.

“Aegis…” Rakkan said anxiously as he saw it. “I’m tapped too, and those things just keep coming.” Rakkan said worriedly as he pointed to his mana bar. All of them, even Pyri, were low on resources.

“Just a bit more, wipe out the soldiers, as many as you can before that thing gets to us.” Aegis shouted encouragingly.

“Even if we take out the soldiers, we’ve got nothing left for the boss and those Voidreavers!” Darkshot shouted worriedly.

“Just trust me!” Aegis shouted as he charged forward without hesitation. Snowflake joined in, then Rakkan, as Lina continued to Shadow Dance until her mana was completely drained, and she reappeared next to them.

“That’s all I could get.” Lina said anxiously.

“That’s enough, just stab a few more.” Aegis replied, and she nodded and rushed forward. The boss took several more thundering stomps towards them as they battled at the edge of Reltrak Forest.

“I don’t know what your plan is, Aegis, but… Multishot!” Darkshot fired another barrage, dropping his mana to 0, but killing a few more soldiers. “That’s all I have left.”

“Me too!” Rakkan shouted as his echoes dispersed, no longer enough mana for Rakkan to maintain them.

“A bit more! Come on!” Aegis shouted at them, and they continued fighting under his command despite their doubt. A few more stomps from the elephant-sized Mosmir, and it was standing mere meters away from them. Simultaneously, the two Voidreavers got enough energy to warp nearby and were preparing to shoot their void beams again.

“Here goes nothing!” Aegis shouted as he suddenly jumped forward into a swarm of weakened, burned up soldiers, so that dozens were on all sides of him.

“Aegis!” Lina shouted worriedly as he saw him do it.

“Varibhadra!” He yelled out, releasing a shockwave of energy out from himself that encapsulated all of the nearby Mosmir. The damage wasn’t a lot due to how many targets he’d hit, but they’d all been weakened so much by Pyri’s flames that it was enough to kill them. And as he did, a chain of experience notifications scrolled past his screen, and the screen of his companions.

Congratulations, you have reached Level 86!: 5 attribute points available, +451 health, +153 mana!

It wasn’t just Aegis, all of his companions got similar notifications from the huge burst of experience. And one wonderful side effect of gaining a level, was the full recovery of all of their mana and health.

“Everyone got their second wind?” Aegis asked as he looked through his party interface to confirm that everyone had gained a level up. The Mosmir surrounding him all collapsed to the ground, dead, and he stood in front of the boss as it towered over him, glaring downwards to meet his gaze. “Let’s finish this.”