Somonax’s face is twisted into a permanent grin, her needle-pointed teeth as long as a man’s arm flashing in the red light. From her back, the thousand wires spring, each connected to one of a thousand blades.

I’ve used almost all of my Altar energy to tie down Torrifex and Pyrixan for the moment, but I’m doubtful those two bombs will be strong enough to kill them, which means I need to make the most of this two-on-one time I have with this demon of endless slaughter.

[Alright, Al. If you’ve got anything left to give, you better give it now. I’m going to run in and see what I can get done.]

[I will try.]

I’m keen to give him a motivational talk, a bit of the ol’ ‘there is no try’ stuff, but I don’t have it in me right now. I knew running headlong into the tier eight demons was going to be tough, but right now, I feel like I’ve unleashed everything I have and they’re just taking it. Once my Altar runs dry, they’ll be able to squash me like a pancake at festival time.

Time to go for it!

Somonax grins… or… just maintains her normal expression, as I turn and rush directly at her, launching a barrage of compressed stone spears as I do.

Those blades make quick work of the projectiles, shards of stone go flying in all directions as each spear is detonated when cut. I knew she’d be able to defend herself, all I wanted to do was tie down at least some of her limbs as I made my approach.

Dash!

I lunge forward with all my speed the moment I pass within the range of her wires, and it’s a good thing I do. From a dozen different directions, hundreds of those gleaming red blades slash down and the best direction for me to dodge is forward.

Even so, I get a few slices on the rear-guard for my trouble.

Seriously? Why always the commercial zone?! Doesn’t matter, push forward.

The barrage of stone spears continue, and each one is expertly shattered by a slash from the demon. She’s not even moving her body at the moment, because she doesn’t have to. I can’t hurt her unless I get closer, and doing so plays right into her strengths.

My future-sight antennae are on fire as I receive tingling warnings of hundreds and hundreds of individual movements at once. Even with so many brain constructs to process the input, I’m struggling to keep up!

I roll to my left, leap forward, drop low, then rush forward again, my claws gripping so hard I rip chunks of stone out of the ground every time I change direction. The closer I get, the faster and more concentrated the blade attacks become, until I feel I’m facing a storm of swords rather than a demon. She’s basically making a solid wall in front of me! I can’t push forward without getting cut!

Well, time to put the gravity compressed diamond to the test. I didn’t harden my defences this much to shy away from a few little slashes!

Here we go!

Six legs blur as I rumble toward the enemy, my jaws pulled back ready to bite. Immediately, a rain of blades comes down on me, battering into my carapace a thousand times a second.

Oof!

I stagger, but continue to move. From behind, a concentrated hyper-beam of burning light erupts from Al, spearing toward the demon. Somonax tilts her head and gathers her blades, parrying at the last second, slicing through the mana.

A chance!

VOID CHOMP!

The jaws of dark light manifest themselves and begin to close on Somonax, but the demon doesn’t seem afraid.

THUNK!

Two hundred swords come down together, concentrating their force on a single point as they attempt to stab through my carapace. The force of the strike sends my legs splaying wide and the underside of my carapace slams into the ground, but I maintain my attack.

For her trouble, the demon has managed to sink her weapons almost thirty centimetres into my carapace, almost enough to get through, but nobody wins a prize for ‘almost’!

Eat mandibles, you grinning demon!

With a thunderous roar, my jaws slam shut, but I don’t get the feedback I was looking for. What happened?!

I cast about wildly until I realise where the enemy went. She’s above me! She jumped out of the chomp?!

Spinning in the air, Somonax pulls her thousand blades together, forming them into a gigantic point that she aims straight at my midsection before plummeting down with the force of a comet.

I still can’t believe how fast that dodge was. Not only is she so crazy strong, she’s fast. Dammit!

Well, I can be fast too.

Empowered Dash!

My Altar is gasping for energy at this point, but I zip from beneath the strike a half-second before the demon lands, smashing the rock and sending boulders and lava soaring into the air.

Holy moly! That was close….

Wait a second, is it getting dark out here, or is it just me? My minds spin as I try to keep up with everything happening and the sheer overload of sensory information, along with managing my constructs and spells as I cast for something I can use to my advantage.

The gravity bombs have burned out and expired, which means Torrifex and Pyrixan are free once more and I didn’t manage to land so much as a mandible on Somonax.

Stupid demons, why do they have to make this so difficult?!

From behind me, a dark cloud rises into the sky and my poor ant heart sinks in my chest. What at first seems like a pillar, towering a kilometre into the sky quickly transforms into a tidal wave that curves down toward me.

I can hear the rushing sound as a wall of air is pushed back into me by the overwhelming ash cloud.

Where the heck did this come from?! Pyrixan was holding this back all along?! That’s cheating!

My minds churn and I create a barrier of stone that wraps over me into a hollow dome that I frantically reinforce just before the ash breaks like a wave and washes over the battlefield, burying everything in a layer of ash.

Immediately, I can feel my defensive stone begin to collapse as the power of destruction consumes it like a potent acid.

My mind constructs burn as I pour every ounce of mana I can get my hands on into reinforcing the stone and thickening it. Anything to keep that damned ash from touching my shiny carapace!