RinoZ
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Chapter 1454 - A Slippery Foe
🕑 Added 2024-09-28 01:43:50 +0000 UTCTotally thought I'd scheduled this post. Sorry folks!
The ball of mana is incredibly dense, and from this close, I can see the dark green energy twisting and spitting virulently. This venom mana is unlike anything I’ve seen before. Not quite like acid, not quite like the toxic poison of the fifth, it’s almost a blend of the two. I’ve no doubt that should it touch me, it would begin to eat through my carapace and body like an acid, and spread throughout my carapace like the fifth’s toxic mana.
Nasty stuff.
Of course, I was more than ready for this eventuality! You aren’t taking me by launching a surprise, short-range bomb! You can’t quote me the deep lore when I wrote it!
Shields snap into place, as dense and thick as I can make them, but of course they aren’t going to accomplish much. As expected, the bomb smashes straight through the shields, losing only a fraction of its momentum, but that’s fine, I had the mana ready, so it didn’t hurt to use it.
Of course, the best way to fight the spell launched in my face, is to match it with another bomb, but from this close that would be as good as sticking my head into a black hole. Unhealthy.
Alternate methods must be employed, and of course, the best method of all, is to get the heck out of the way!
There is just enough energy inside the Altar to empower my dash and I spring to the side with, quite literally, blinding speed. My vision blurs as I move so quickly I basically teleport, my antennae slapping back onto my carapace almost painfully.
The sizzling ball of venom mana sears past me in my wake and I laugh heartily within my heart. Did you really think I wasn’t ready? Gweheheheh! Now you will experience your doom, slug-snake!
However, I seem to have misjudged the distance when I engaged my dash… by rather a lot.
SMASH!
I plough headfirst into the wall, sending shards of rock flying everywhere and burying myself in stone.
Dammit!
This is hardly dignified! I bring up my six legs and try to yank myself out, but it isn’t easy. I really managed to bury myself rather deep. Behind me, I feel the venom bomb detonate, sending globs of mana flying all throughout the area. Stuck as I am, all I can do is throw up more shields and conjure stone, shaping it to cover my business district so it doesn't experience a hostile takeover.
My brains spin, and I quickly realise that manipulating the stone behind me isn’t the only option I have… there is stone in front of me as well. I flex my minds along with my mandibles and begin ripping into the rock, plunging myself into a state of ant zen as I chew my way deeper, keen to escape the venom that is melting through everything behind me as well.
This is the risk of the bomb strategy. Great power, poor target selection. Pressed down by the well, the snake-ish slug wouldn’t have been able to escape its own bomb and is doubtlessly suffering the effects.
Working my jaws, I throw myself into the task of ripping a path through the rock, bending my way around to connect to the main chamber. It only takes me a minute to break through and I emerge back into the light to find the scene is much changed from before I left.
Everything is coated in a thin layer of the venom mana and it sits, sizzling away, menacingly, on the surface of the stone. I look at it, a little puzzled, then realisation strikes me. This isn’t acid, this is venom. I’m sure it’s incredibly potent at eating through biological tissue, but stone? Not so much.
Interesting.
The other thing that strikes me, is that the slug-snake somehow has managed to leave. I can sense it now, slithering, faster than I would have expected, disappearing deeper into the stratum with its tail between its metaphorical legs.
Running away? You coward! How in the heck did you even manage to get away?
I check the well above my head, and while it's definitely weakening, it's still very much in effect. This is a potent well with the full force of the Altar behind it. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but it’s mighty! There’s no way this damn slug should have been able to get out of here.
Then I see it. The venom is still eating away at it, but I can see enough to determine what might have happened here. There’s a large amount of slug flesh and slime piled up where the snake was pinned, although its rapidly vanishing as the venom slips through the slime and gets hold of the flesh.
The lousy monster sloughed off part of its own body to escape the well and slither away while I had my head stuck in the wall!
It never would have been able to do it if I’d been watching the whole time, but I managed to bury my own head in the wall, giving it the opportunity to get out!
This trick can’t have gotten the monster far, but it was apparently far enough to escape the area I’d defined to be under the effect of the well, which wasn’t much, being honest. I’d kept it narrow in focus to concentrate its power, so even a little bit of distance would have been enough to get some of its body out of the effect.
This is humiliating. More than a little humiliating, in fact. I could chase after it, even though it’s moving fast. The monster has to have been significantly weakened, it looks like it left about forty percent of its mass here, but running blindly into the fifth, getting further and further away from the support of my family….
It’s not a smart idea.
For now, my best bet is to retreat, regroup with the family and let them know what happened. Hopefully, Solant will be able to figure out what to do next. Maybe, with the monster chased away, that’s all we really need? So long as it doesn’t come back, we can expand down here and start construction… so I guess that’s a win?
Comments
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter!
andwhyisit
They aren't missing. You might not have noticed, but there are 4 completely different chapters numbered 1369.
Katrina Hamilton
The slug slipping away gave me flashbacks to Skinner from the Wandering Inn, so nasty…
TheLostGolem
Chapter 1435 has Anthony describing the Snake as possiy being tier 8 or 9. Anyone know if the other chapters reference a tier for the snake?
alt31415
Chosen by Arconidem, but not chosen by Odren like our boy is.
alt31415
Granin has been wrong before. Granin also said "There's no way Tier 7 Anthony can take on 3 Tier 7 demons at the same time" but not only had Anthony done that, he'd done it easily.
Zach
Quick question, anyone else notice 1370-1372 are missing on here?
Wolve
Technically I suppose, as much as referring to any meme also refers to its source material.
Brandon14754
the three heralds were unique monster that were almost tier 9 literally only a few levels away and they were literally chosen by acronidem, don't judge the average tier 8s by them
Grey Knight Lord
Granin said that even if Anthony was a Tier 8, taking on a tier 9 would be suicide. This Snake does not compare to the Three Harold’s of Acronindem so I say it is a Tier 7
evyatar
The toad monster that had that gas, but I think it was just Antony first encounter with the toxic mana of the fifth that corrupted the other mana of the second layer
Brandon14754
@Grey_Knight_Lord Anthony said the core is comparable to his which is mythic so either it's a tier 7 mythic(super rare), a tier 8, or a super weak tier 9
Tag
"You can’t quote me the deep lore when I wrote it!" Is that a Narnia reference?
DerHochi
I dont think Rammon was peak T9. He probably was an average/slightly above average T9. He only seemed as overpowered as he did because he was higher than he should be in the dungeon and had a city built to draw power from.
alt31415
No, it's a tier 8. The tier 7 was the turtle. Anthony can kill a Tier 8, possibly even a Tier 9 with great difficulty (Rammon was implied to be 'peak Tier 9'). Anthony has the Call. Fear him.
Grey Knight Lord
It isn’t a Tier 9, it’s a tier 7. A tier 8 or 9 5th strata creature will kill Anthony. It will take it a while to heal from this and by the time it comes back Anthony will be ready
alt31415
"Not quite like acid, not quite like the toxic poison of the fifth, it’s almost a blend of the two." - Wait a second. My backtracking senses are tingling. Didn't Anthony, waaaay back in the 2nd stratum when he met a surprise 5th-stratum that high up, note that "This toxic mana is like a blend of all cartoony acid, poison, and stuff all dialed up to the max." ?
TheLostGolem
YEP. Absolutely nothing will go wrong with leaving a tier 9 monster to it's own devices! It totally won't gain a hatred of Ants and it totally won't get back at Anthony by launching attacks at the colony everywhere that Anthony isn't. Yep. Win for the colony!
Rick Delallata
Who else thinks were going to see this slug again at the worst time?
Sean
For the colony!
