My sub-brains are still struggling to put the finishing touches on the gravitational mana construct. It’s fiendishly complex, so I’m not surprised. More practice is required, and I’ve been too lazy to do it.

Curse you, past Anthony! Curse your lazy carapace!

Having fully mutated would also be helpful for this. The Altar and Nave aren’t mutated, and who knows what insane effects they might have available at +35.

I’ve been too overconfident, dammit! This massive demon is proving to be far more of a challenge than I expected. I’ll have to do the best with what I have available and hope it all works out. Let’s do this!

I harden the ice mana I’d prepared as much as possible before weaving it to form spears. Unless I pump these spells as full of power as I can, they’ll just melt when they get close to him, his cloak of fire and smoke will take care of that. The rate of fire isn’t quite what I was hoping for, but at least each spear packs a hell of a lot of punch.

The demon smashes them away with his fists, smoke and ash belching from his maw as he rears back and launches his inferno breath at me. My ice spears are gone in an instant and I leap to the side once more. Then I’m struck with an idea!

If he can’t recover from that breath attack quickly, then I might be able to close the gap right now. In a contest of close range attacks, I win!

Dash!

Drawing deep on the Altar in such rapid succession is dizzying. The Will of the Colony thunders through me, transforming into whatever power the Altar uses to infuse my Skills and spells as quick as I can use it. The rate of replenishment is insane, but as I lock my mandibles back and activate Void Chomp, it dips precipitously low.

Going to have to lay off it for a bit, but will I get the chance?

Rather than cut off his breath attack and turn to face me as I’d expected, the demon extends it and whirls to face me as I charge in. Whoops! My vision fills with that destructive breath and I scramble to come up with a solution, my reflexes firing at insane speeds.

A wall formed of the thickest, densest ice I can produce is woven into existence right in front of me and I shoulder charge it forward, advancing behind it like a shield. It’s awkward as heck, but I can’t do much better in the time I have. Despite the absurd amount of energy I packed into it, the ice doesn’t hold up long against that breath, but it doesn’t have to.

The moment I’m in range, I give it one final push before turning the full force of my chomp on the demon.

Void Chomp!

Empowered by the Altar, this bite packs unbelievable might and it’s difficult for me to see what happens in front of me due to the sheer amount of carnage. Rocks crack, dust billows everywhere and demons caught in the vacuum effect fly through the air to get caught in the crossfire. I feel a little sorry for those monsters, they don’t even have a moment to lament their fate before they evaporate as my jaws slam shut.

[Surely you’re dead this time,] I tell the demon.

Wait… if he’s dead, he couldn’t reply… so what was the point of saying that?

[Not quite, worm!] he roars in my mind and I feel a little relief I hadn’t embarrassed myself by talking to nobody.

Four clawed arms slash through the smoke, red light screaming, but I dodge again! Almost!

The air is filled with sparks as the claws rake across my carapace and fail to penetrate, but the sheer force of the blow nearly crumples my legs. I hold firm, if only just, and fire back with more ice. At this range, the demon can’t melt them in time and several stab deep into its flesh before bubbling into steam.

Holy moly this guy projects a lot of heat! If I was some sort of ice specialist, then I might be able to cause more damage with it, but this is ridiculous. This close to him, it feels like I’m sticking my head into a pool of lava.

I leap back as I continue the ice barrage to gain a little space and get a look at my opponent. The massive demon has another injury, larger this time, but again, already in the process of healing. Lava-like goop fills the wound, congealing and darkening into black demonic flesh before my eyes.

I mean, I can’t complain about it, I have a regeneration gland myself, capable of restoring minor wounds with extreme speed as well, but when the enemy is this difficult to damage, it really feels unfair!

Shiver.

I just felt as if a thousand monsters screamed at me from beyond the grave. Alright, I’ll reflect on my mistakes, I’m sorry! Now that I’m against someone who does the same thing I do, I can fully appreciate just how aggravating it is.

[Oi! Stop healing yourself and stay wounded, dammit! You took that damage fair and square!]

[You keep barking when you should be crawling, WORM!]

At his last words, the cloak of flame and smoke the demon wears explodes as the aura of fire, ash and pure violence magnifies tenfold. My psyche recoils from the overwhelming sense of demonic violence radiating from my opponent as his eyes blaze red.

Man, he looks mad. Like, super mad.

Good time to throw this Gravity Bomb at him then.

HOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWLLLL!

And this one.

HOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWLLLL!

The two balls of hyper-dense gravitational mana fly through the air, spinning around each other as they get caught in each other’s pull. The demon bellows with rage, shattering the air and knocking away nearby demons with sheer volume.

Another inhale, then he unleashes a blast of flame like nothing that came before.

I leap to the side, but not quite fast enough, as the blaze rockets through my bombs and straight at me, burning one of my antennae.

That fire is serious business! Let’s see if it can roast both of these black holes to nothing in time to survive, gweheheheheh.