For a brief moment, I’m completely stunned. I’ve gotten so used to the Gravity Bomb being infallible that I expected even a half baked effort to do some serious damage.

Even after this big moron somehow burned the power out of it, I still thought he’d lose an arm or something. I might have been overly reliant on my trump card….

That’s fine. I can still hit him with a bigger one. Or use my new mastery and summon a Gravity Well to squish this pest flat! Or… I would, if I still had a full tank of the sweet, sweet purple mana.

I grit my mandibles and peel off ten mind-constructs to get working on making me some more gravity mana. My main mind is far superior at handling this type of spell than the sub-brains and their constructs, but I need that main mind for casting right now.

Not for the first time, I kick myself for being too lazy to practise the mana construct enough. Working my way through a new mana producing construct is always a mind breaking exercise, and the gravity version is right up there with the omni-elemental construct in terms of complexity.

This is going to be taxing, but I don’t see a way out of it. I pretty much always have an omni-elemental construct humming along these days and I crank it into action now, churning out ice mana which I start to condense. I’m sure I’ll be needing it soon.

[An interesting thing, worm! Did you think that Torrifex, the herald of Arconidem, would be crushed by such weak magic?]

The haughty is pretty much dripping from this demon and his description of my bomb spell as weak is enough to grind my mandibles.

Weak, he says. You’ll be getting served something a little more spicy in a minute. In the meantime….

[Let’s see if you can keep talking when you get a taste of this!]

I check my spacing, then dash forward, drawing on the Altar as I do. The world blurs around me and I find myself standing not ten metres away from the enormous demon.

When I stretch to my full height, extending my legs to lift my body up, I stand around fifteen metres tall, enough to chomp this monster right around the waist, which is what I aim to do.

Void Chomp!

Empowered by the Altar, the Skill howls to life, dragging my opponent forward as the mighty jaws of black light close with inexorable force. Again, the demon doesn’t act as I expect, and instead launches its own strike against mine.

Four demon arms glow with ominous red light, the claws flexing before he slashes forward, sending four slashes that scream through the air straight toward me. I can almost hear the air wail with despair as those claw marks streak toward me, visions of violence and fire trailing in their wake.

That may be a little impressive, but do you really think you can beat the Void Chomp with this nonsense? Keep dreaming!

My jaws slam shut with a deafening roar, everything before me consumed by the power of my Altar infused chomp. When the two Skills clash, a shockwave of power explodes outward, blowing my antennae back and sending larvae flying like leaves in the face of a hurricane. Rock disintegrates from the force of the blast, sending dust and stones flying into the air and smashing into my carapace.

Holy moly!

Still, I know that the Void Chomp won out. I could feel it go through, so the demon copped far worse than I did in that blast. Heh. Even if this idiot is tier eight, he’s got to be missing a leg at least.

[How do you like them apples?!] I demand.

[You surprise me, worm. I am not often surprised.]

Before the dust can clear, my antennae blare a warning and I once again flicker to the side before two massive clawed hands sweep through where I had been standing.

Then the demon is revealed again.

Turns out I did do some damage! Which is good! But the demon looks seriously peeved. Which is bad. However, he’s lost a chunk from his side. Which is good! The chunk appears to be healing, filled with a rapidly congealing mass of lava. Which is bad.

Aren’t there two others, just as strong as this guy? That’s going to be a problem! I kind of assumed I’d be able to explode them using the Altar. Considering how easily I dealt with the tier sevens, I’d thought that these would be a bit harder, but not overly difficult.

This is proving to be a heck of a lot more difficult!

[Can I interest you in a second course?!]

Void Chomp!

Energy thunders through the Altar, fed constantly by the unceasing and endless Will of the Colony. It’s impossible that this demon would be able to stand against the power of my family!

Although I probably shouldn’t tell him what I’m planning to do in advance….

Unwilling to go head to head with the chompers knowing he’ll lose, the demon leaps above and brings four claws down in a savage strike that slams down into my carapace.

Or does it? Are you striking me, or are you striking my afterimage? In this case, mostly me.

My super-monstrous reflexes kick into gear and I adjust the angle of my carapace, but in that split second, the demon can’t see that I’ve moved. The Black Hole effect! Gweheheheh!

Demon light streaks down and meets Gravity Compressed diamond. The sheer force of the strike buckles my poor ant legs, but the carapace holds strong!

Mostly.

A few long grooves are carved into my precious exo-skeleton, but the demon didn’t manage to get even halfway through. Take that!

Unimpressed by my survival, the demon decides to have another crack, but I’m not standing still and taking it again. Stone cracks beneath me as I dash, reappearing a hundred metres away and staring down this massive demon.

He stares right back, boiling smoke and fire, a rabid grin fixed to his muzzle.

I agree, demon. It’s time to get serious!

….

Is that gravity mana ready yet?!