Chapter 863: Colony vs Colony pt 13 (973)
I have no idea how many tons of material rained down, but it had to be a lot. Thankfully the integrity of things like soil and stone are more than a little 'iffy' here on Pangera. By all rights, the planet should collapse in on itself given the fact that it's largely hollow, but when we add mana into the mix things get weird.
So the whole mountain didn't collapse on us, which is a plus, but we were still rather squished.
In fact, it was Invidia that made the save. Acting as fast as thought, the green eyed demon is able to apply his prodigious mental powers and create an eight layered barrier over our heads. They don't hold, of course they wouldn't, not against literal tons of material, but they do enough that we aren't smooshed to paste, slowing the falling rock to the point we are pinned rather than dead.
[Nice save, Invidia!]
[Givessss more praisssse!]
Can't be stingy considering he just saved our lives.
[You really made the five hundre-, one thousa, let's go with ten thousand IQ play! Great job!]
I keep revising my estimation of his brain power upward as I think about the sheer size of this dude's brain. Invidia chuckles evilly with glee and I can feel his satisfaction radiating over our mental connection. You can have all the praise you want champ. You do good work.
Alright, now what?
[Can anyone move?] I ask.
[I can, master.]
[I suppose you can wriggle through the cracks…]
[A little. Be careful!]
No sooner does her cry hit my thoughts than I feel a sharp pain in one of my legs. What the heck? I wriggle furiously and kick until I give up and start pumping earth mana through the omni-elemental construct. Once I have enough of the brown tinged energy I begin to try and create some room for myself.
Cautious of bringing down more rock on my own head, I soften some sections whilst hardening others, compressing the loose soil into rock pillars that can support the weight above me and creating a little room for me to look down.
And what do I find other than a damned termite clinging onto my leg, its beady, near blind eyes staring up at me hatefully. Why you little pain in the foot! Get off me!
I somewhat awkwardly try and shift my position but end up just gnashing my mandibles in frustration as I fail to reach my opponent. Eyes now filled with savage joy, the termite continues to gnaw off my leg, its sickle sharp jaws sawing away at my limb.
That hurts dammit!
This is so annoying! I don't want to make any large moves since I might bring down more rock on my own head! I'll have to keep reinforcing the area around me and creating space bit by bit until I can chomp on this fool.
Just you wait you damn termite! I'll get to you soon, then you'll get it!
[Be careful as you move,] I belatedly warn my pets, [you might make your situation worse. You hear me Tiny?]
The ape grumbles at me and I get images of him lying flat under a mass of dirt. His bones are too solid to break, but his muscles are certainly a little squished.
[Invidia, see if you can earth magic your way over to Tiny. Heal him up and then try to solidify sections of stone to bear the weight. Eventually you'll be able to get free.]
[Yessssss.]
[Master, I can sense the enemy all around us. There are thousands of them digging towards us.]
Not surprising. They don't have any reason to give up, certainly not now that we've been pinned. I'm sure some termites were killed when it all came down, but bugs like them and me are designed for this sort of stuff, our carapace can take a lot of punishment.
What follows is the most ungainly few minutes of my new life as I slowly and carefully wriggle my way around, eye locked with the hated foe who remains latched onto my leg with grim determination. Just, give it up will you!? No matter how hard you try you aren't taking my leg!
I eventually manage to dispatch my foe, but I swear to gandalf that even in death that damned termite is laughing at me, its mandibles still clamped onto my leg. I eventually manage to shake my limb free, applying a little healing magic to iron out the kinks, only to find the dirt beginning to shift around me.
I have a bad feeling about this…
Sure enough, a few moments later several termite heads push through the soil and try to bite me! With extremely limited room, it's hard to perform any sort of dodge but I manage to contort myself enough that I avoid the worst of it before leaning forward to chomp with my own jaws. A horrifically stilted melee erupts as we try to grapple with each other whilst dirt rains down from above.
My brains spin furiously as I pump earth mana and rapidly weave it to create some sort of structure around me.
This is such a pain in the thorax! Thankfully I have the brain power spare to do a lot of work. I've dropped the gravity domain (for obvious reasons) and my progress supporting the mess overhead is increasing. My issue is, the longer this all goes on, the more termites manage to dig their way towards me.
This terrain is well suited to insects like us, close quarters, covered in dirt and biting each other in the face. In fact, the whole area rapidly devolves into a seething pile of dirt and stone as we try to get our jaws on each other, or Crinis slithers through paper thin cracks hunting for victims. Tiny is forced to grapple and crush his foes, or use extremely short punches as he tries to get his feet back under him. Invidia is the hardest hit, the poor demon can't even think about using an explosion.
Bit by bit we manage to right the ship and create some space around us, but the wriggling, desperate fight continues as more and more termites force their way through the rubble. I swear I'm going to thwack that ape right on the scone when we get out of here!