Well, what the heck is this, then?

After another week of battling against the rising tide of the wave, it’s kind of nice to see something new, the monotony was really starting to get to me.

I mean, I’ve been hanging out in this tunnel, quite literally, for so long that I’m starting to think of getting some furniture installed. A bed, perhaps a nice chair to lay my admittedly massive frame on, a table for snacks at the very least.

I don’t believe I was much of a tea person when I lived as a human, although it’s becoming increasingly difficult to remember anything from that time, but I have to say, the Colony really knows how to brew a nice cup. Lately, I’ve only been getting more and more bored since the number of fifth stratum beasties crawling up from below, as opposed to being spawned in the tunnels nearby, seems to have slowed dramatically.

The freshly spawned monsters are irritating, sure, but they aren’t nearly as dangerous as the ones who have more evolutions, mutations and Skills. Thankfully, that’s relieved a lot of the pressure on the nest, allowing the fatigued and injured ants to recuperate and get back into the fighting. Hooray all around. But as the mana intensity has continued to rise, to frankly quite absurd levels, the moment we run into something from even deeper in the Dungeon has inevitably drawn closer, and I think I may have just found one.

My first hint that something was coming brushed against my antennae, causing them to twitch in surprise. It’s been a long time since I’ve smelled anything other than foul goop, so a hint, a mere whisper, of fresh air was more than a little welcome. Then worrying.

The tunnel ahead of me remained stubbornly contaminated, despite my regular burn-offs, the air thick with a toxic haze that made it difficult to see too deep into the distance. Ironically, the green gas became my early warning system, as it began to stir and shift. I noticed tiny little eddies at first, which I could dismiss as nothing, but then they grew and grew until there was a chaotic swirl of noxious gas. Green clouds billowed this way and that, to the point I had to summon a gust of my own to prevent the stuff from blowing onto me.

Getting it in your eyes is not recommended, I have to say. I know from painful experience. Seriously, my next evolution is going to have to resolve my eye situation. I’m tired of being encased in impenetrable diamond, except for the soft, squishy orbs I see with.

It doesn’t take long for the fumes to be vortexed away by whatever is coming down the tunnel at me, and I feel a tingle of excitement begin to spark around my core. Something new. Something interesting! Hopefully not something too dangerous!

My mana sense is going a little haywire, so it definitely isn’t too weak. In anticipation, I drop down from the ceiling, landing with a heavy crash that sets my joints to shaking. Forgot I can’t really pull that off at my current weight. My legs also need fixing, I’ve long outgrown these basic, first stratum materials!

When the monster finally arrives in front of me, I am genuinely confused by what I’m looking at. It’s purple, it kind of looks like a ball of lightning, and it's surrounded by an azure cloud that swirls in a constant vortex around the sphere at its centre. Before I can even express my surprise, things get weirder.

The lightning ball… thing… changes shape, morphing into a crackling lightning beast that looms over me. Interestingly, there is still a tether of sparking energy connecting it to the original little ball, still surrounded by that swirling cloud. Is that where the core is? It’s tricky to get a good mana reading from this creature, its disparate form seems to mask its true centre.

Then, I get another shock! It reaches out to my mind, and I allow a sliver of a connection to form.

[H-hello?]

[What manner of creature are you?]

I mean… rude? I’m standing right in front of you, the perfect pinnacle of all things awesome and ant!

[Formica Sapiens. I’m an ant. Are… are you intelligent?]

The storm and lightning, even in this monster form, boil with indignation.

[More so than you, it seems.]

This dude has serious attitude problems. I’ve met pride demons he could give a run for their money. If demons had currency.

Despite the four-legged energy monster filling the tunnel and glaring down at me, I’m not too worried, this isn’t its real body. For whatever reason, the monster has decided to project this form.

[I’m assuming you aren’t from around here? Not a native to the fourth stratum, or fifth, from the looks of you.]

The monster doesn’t seem interested in answering my questions.

[You possess a powerful core, brimming with mana.]

[Why thank you, yes. I’m a mythic monster, I’ll have you know.]

[I will take it for myself.]

[You’ll what now?]

[Fear not, ant. I will end you quickly, your power and Biomass will find a better use in me.]

Okay, so no matter how intelligent a monster gets, when we get down to it, not much changes, I suppose. Monsters only want one (two) things, and it’s disgusting. Biomass and cores. And experience. Monsters only want three things, Biomass, cores, experience, and an almost fanatical devotion to the pope!

Wait.

[Just like that? We’re going to throw down? If you lose, it won’t be me that gets chomped on.]

[If such is my fate, I will accept it. Now die.]

So saying, the monster formed of crackling purple energy retracts once more into that writhing orb surrounded by a cloud. Then I get a face full of lightning.

It’s not fun.

Yeeeeeeouch! I can literally feel my eyeballs sizzling as I roll to the side, pump my regeneration gland and spin up my mind constructs. This chap is not playing nice, and that lightning, it was so fast my antennae could barely keep up with it! Somewhat blinded and not a little bit irritated, I lunge forward, snapping my mandibles shut around the orb of energy, only for them to harmlessly pass through it and crash together having done no damage. No harm to my opponent anyway, but they appear to have created a convenient conduit for it to channel more lightning into my body.

Ouch! You damn… orb… thing!

Clearly, I need to make use of non-corporeal means of attack. In that case, let’s try a more powerful bite!

VOID CHOMP!