RinoZ
patreon
Chapter 1470 - Capture Your Own End
🕑 Added 2024-10-22 10:09:42 +0000 UTCI trust my sisters will be able to handle the attempts to capture their siblings and turn my attention to the Krath. If they think they can wreak this much havoc and get away without suffering the pain, then they have another thing coming.
And that thing is me, beating them up.
In an instant I’m back out into the toxic mana hunting down the Krath who’ve been launching their slime ropes from positions of cover. I bunch my legs up beneath me and launch myself forward, jaws wide before I crunch down on a slimy outcrop of rock, obliterating it entirely.
The rope which had been launched from this position is severed by my mandibles, but there’s no notification regarding the Krath, and I soon figure out why.
Beneath the outcrop is a small crack and I can already see something vanishing into the depths
I blast it with a quick jet of Dragon’s Fire but I still don’t get a notification, so it’s onto the next.
Many of them are attacking from the roof, so I manipulate the gravity well to make me fall towards the ceiling where I land with a mighty crunch before rushing toward the nearest rope. In short succession I rip through three different sites, and every time the Krath have vanished into a crack in the stone, slithering away like the cowards they are.
So this is how it's going to be then? Fine!
Rather than charge at the next hiding place, I just roast the heck out of it with Dragon’s Breath. After a few seconds I cut off the flow and charge over, using my mandibles to sheer deep into the rock, but again, the Krath who’d been hidden here has already escaped.
It’s clear they don’t want to be anywhere near me and will go to great lengths to stay as far away as they can. I’m sure that whoever is in charge of the slug offensive in this tunnel has seen me work before. They’re so cautious about staying away from my gravity spells, making sure I don’t trap any of their people.
This is just more evidence. They really are doing everything to avoid falling into my clutches.
The ant lines are still in chaos as dozens of ropes are still trying to drag helpless ants out into the toxic area. It’s almost a race against time now. The blue mana will eventually dissolve the creepy cocoons that have formed around the captured ants, but if the victim is dragged out first….
Filled with frustration and wroth, I unleash my anger in the form of a gravity bomb.
Small, unempowered, it’s still enough to tear the section of tunnel roof I aimed at to shreds. Stone, miasma, slime and everything else within range is ripped to pieces by the ravenous void, and finally I get a notification from Gandalf, his gruff voice announcing the receipt of XP for slaying a Krath.
Take that, slug! You can’t escape into the stone if that gets annihilated as well!
With a winning strategy at last, I start to weave together more gravity bombs, pulling out more and more mana to pack into the hyper-condensed balls of power. Even now, I can only work on two at once, and my reserves of mana are quickly drained by the process. In the meantime I keep snapping ropes with my jaws and once the two spells are ready I fire them off at the same time.
They howl into existence and do their deadly work, though I don’t get any words from Gandalf this time. Seems like the slugs are being even more cautious now, fleeing the moment they hear me fire one.
It doesn’t matter, most of the ropes have been cut through and order is being restored amongst the Colony lines. The monsters who were only moments ago fighting viciously, hurling themselves into the safe-zone to spread slime, toxin and poison have been subdued. Only a few ants are still struggling to protect their sisters from being dragged away and it looks like they’re going to succeed.
I let the well fade away as I search for my next target. Carefully sensing with my antennae I try to locate any Krath hiding nearby, hunting for those tiny eddies in the gravitational field that will give them away.
Instead, I find something else, something I really didn’t want to see.
Falling from the roof, I smash into the tunnel floor and set off running immediately. Where was it? There!
I dive forward, mandibles wide before I slam them shut, just short of catching the cocoon before it slips into the crack and vanishes from view.
Oh.
No.
You.
DIDN’T!
You miserable slugs think I’m going to let you drag away one of my siblings? Do you really believe I would ever let something like that happen again?!
[We’ve lost a captive!] I bellow to Solant through the Nave. [Send the retrieval team immediately.]
[Got it,] she replies tersely and I cut the contact as I rear back, ripping mana out of my core and sending it down into the crack.
Stone warps and shifts as if it had turned to putty as my power fills it, making it amenable to my will.
I don’t care how fast you go, Krath, there’s no way you’re going to get away. I’ll chase you into the next stratum if I have to. Without waiting for the reinforcements to arrive, I throw myself into the widening tunnel, my jaws pumping as fast as I can move them. Slime, dirt, rock, it doesn’t matter, my mandibles, forged of the same gravity compressed diamond as my carapace, shears through it all without effort. More and more earth mana is formed within me and I continue to spend it like water, shaping the tunnel, moulding the loose rock and widening the entrance as I go.
Behind me, I hear the first wave of the recovery team announce their presence with a stunning wave of pheromones that fill even the tunnel I’m digging.
“WE SEEK!”
Comments
Gopard
Thank you for the chapter!
RinoZ
the books don't add that much. A lot of mistakes are cleaned up, consistency errors fixed, but there aren't new characters or plotlines
evyatar
Their retreating strategy works really well, and the other side is that the line the ants currently defend in current tunnel is one kilometer wide, they are trying a simultaneous attack because there is one antony The 'works so well' part is that this is the fifth or sixth time they use the same strategy and tactics personally against antony and the generals and still there is no counter to the hit and run because they hide in the corrupted mana, and each time Antony ambush them they always escape by the smallest margin, then they 'raise their cautiousness' and next time they in reality both employ the same tactic again just different execution, which is kinda fine but irritating because the colony goal is not to fight the Karth but complete their defenses, yet the battlefield on the ant side is somewhat too passive from the colony's mages, raising walls and the such is currently unused
alt31415
The other side, you mean where the Legion is? And let's not forget that Anthony himself is ALSO target #1. What do you mean that it 'works so well'? After hundreds of capture attempts they've got 1 ant and probably not even for very long.
Roombot
Ha good one
Froyst
Oh no you did'ant
Sapphire Rose
RinoZ real question, are all your chapters turned straight into books or do the books add new elements/characters. Debate vs just buying the books for a reread or searching patreon for the chapters to not get confused between versions.
alt31415
And now, buddy, you have OFFICIALLY crossed the line.
alt31415
Probably not others, but we haven't really seen Vibrant in action. Just her vibrating excitedly.
Roombot
OH NO YOU DID NOT
Buck
I think it mentioned a cocoon?
Buck
Pretty sure that Vibrant is already Tier 7 and there are probably others by now as well.
Buck
Could they be Dark Anthony’s first true follower? 😂
leo zhang
Damnit!! Cliffhanger!!!
DrDankness
COME HOLY SISTERS WE SEEK
Bethany Bluebird
Oh man how funny would that be? 'Mwahaha we've done it! We've converted an ant to our cause!!!' 'No... no.... you've only made them stronger.....'
Sgt. Rock
What would be fun is if the ant is corrupted . . . Yet still remains loyal to the family.
Kiongku
Well… immortals and recovery sounds polar opposites
michael pigott
Legion POV of the more absurd elements of the colony would be fascinating to see...."yes they're competing for the ability to die gloriously for the colony who keeps trucking them into increasingly elaborate defensive measures" and a tribunes brain just crashes
evyatar
Honestly Antony being surprised every time starts to feel a bit odd, it just doesn’t really fit, sure he was scatterbrained but now he is so focused 24/7 on the karth conflict ,each time they employ the same tactic just a different execution in the small details, spam creatures, run away, try to kidnap, quite maddening that it works so well, one of them died it seems they can just ‘run away faster!’ And ‘react even faster! ‘ when Antony approaches, this is the fifth or sixth time he almost succeeds and they ‘become more cautious’ this clearly doesn’t work for both sides they need to change the game, I hope to actually see the Karth using the opportunity of Antony away to try and return to their attack and kidnap from the other side of the tunnel, one kilometer away
Sapphire Rose
I want a new tier 7 ant already o.o
CentaureHeart
Fair enough. I still think he should make them run away with little bombs then.
Buck
Gotta love Leeroy and her Immortals! The Krath are NOT prepared for what is about to hit them! 😂
Runaway_Cactuar
Nothing a Phoenix core reset can't fix~
Gonvas
I hope if the kill msg clears the Krath status. Monster or sapient?
evyatar
I honestly don't know, the cracks probably had a few "prisoner extraction points" where there were bigger escape tunnels, maybe a full team prepared to help widen a tunnel once command of a prisoner is given? But that would allow antony to use the already widened tunnels, so maybe another team to close the earth after them... Which Antony should sense two teams of Karth working together for one prisoner this is not subtle
Gonvas
Small ant (mage/healer)?
Wolve
TFTC
Gonvas
How the hell did they managed to drag an ant through a wall?
Gonvas
He can't use a big bomb because it can cause a big collapse and compromise the tunnel's structure making it harder to build the fortress.
Rahsheem Reid
Ahhh shit here go what y’all wanted here the Immortals go trying to die the fanatics.
Kewi397
WE SEEK!
Rick Delallata
Oh dear, we've got Leroy coming now
CentaureHeart
Honestly, everytime the Kraths show up, Anthony should just blast a gravity bomb and make them run. They don't care about killing all of them yet, they just need to build the fortress.
Conspirant
😂 I love it
Thunderhoof
"WE SEEK" After fighting: "WE SICK"
