by James Hunter
My Amazons slew the mutant millipedes by the dozens, but it seemed like a never-ending stream remained. More moths and dragonflies flew in from tunnels I’d not seen. All the collateral damage had cleared away some of the fungus, so my visibility was better. The scorpion tanks had finally managed to rip through Sabra’s vines and were closing in on the rest of my beleaguered Amazons. My locusts covered the formidable tanks, but they were spread too thin—attacking too many foes—to damage the massive scorpions.
Nope, like with Healing Touch, one Plague Locust wasn’t going to be enough.
I winced. This next trick was gonna hurt.
The godstone was already a firebrand in my chest, but I ignored the burn. The pain. My body trembled uncontrollably as I brewed up a second batch of Plague Locust. Just as the moths, dragonflies, and arthropleura shook off the first wave, the second wave hit ’em like a sledgehammer. My points dipped again. Dizzy and weaving, I barely clung to consciousness.
These back-to-back miracles were taking a nasty toll on me. And I still wasn’t done …
Another storm of arthropleura raced into the room from a connecting passageway on a river of creepy legs. Millions of legs. Their spit sizzled on the floor. There were enough of ’em to devour my Amazons with room left over. Well, not on my watch. I unsheathed the War Blade with a snarl.
“Shockwave!” I called, summoning underground thunder on my enemies.
Before, the lightning would sweep down from the sky and strike my sword. This time, it coalesced around my blade as I generated my own thunderstorm. Shockwave was a War Blade ability, so it didn’t cost any Essence Points, but holding onto that much electrical energy pushed me to the edge of my strength.
My sword and I—swathed in supernatural energy—radiated light, heat, and power like an underground sun. With a scream of challenge, I slammed the War Blade to the ground.
The reverse lightning erupted from the earth, blasting through every mushroom, wrecking every single one of the nightmare millipedes. The lightning arced up and took down the moths and the dragonflies by the score. Yeah, there were a ton of these insects, but each one didn’t have very many hit points it seemed. Except for the scorpions. Too bad for them my Forest-Witch was awesome and back in action, conjuring up ever more vines to hold them at bay.
Even better, the lightning storm didn’t affect my locusts one bit. They descended on the scorpions en masse. In seconds, two clouds of my insects covered the poor bastards. That many mandibles munching soon broke through the exoskeletons of the scorpions.
And suddenly the tide was turning in our favor.
“Time to push!” I hollered. “We have these bastards on their heels. Let’s put ’em down for keeps.”
The frontline warriors rushed out in an arc, blades cleaving, spears impaling, claws and teeth tearing. Phoebe followed, beelining for the scorpion closest to us. She threw herself at the oversized bug, using her bronze saw blade to hack off one claw, then the other. The saw screamed as it eviscerated the insect. The scorpion struck with its tail, but it disappeared too—lopped off with the flick of Phoebe’s wrist. The creature spun, throwing locusts, trying to flee, but Phoebe swept her arm up and unloaded a barrage of bolts into its ass end.
Watching her steampunk mech fight a giant scorpion made me smile. Being war god wasn’t easy, but it had its highlights from time to time.
Euryleia and her four grizzly bear buddies launched their furry bodies onto the second scorpion. The thing was blinded by the swarm of emerald bodies, so the bears took care of it in a flash.
My locusts disappeared in poofs of green smoke as the spell finally lapsed, but it didn’t matter. Nope. We were down to one scorpion now, and Myrina, Antiope, and Ariadne were already working it over. They harried it from different sides, one darting in to attack, only to retreat as another made a move. Wolf pack tactics. Insect legs vanished—hacked away—and soon the creature was a mound of dismembered body parts.
Every living thing in the chamber, other than us, had been annihilated.
Mushroom pieces smoked in the acid spit of beheaded millipedes. Moth and dragonfly bodies lay stacked in piles ten feet tall.
A hush fell over the battlefield as we surveyed our brutal handiwork, each of us breathing hard. Unfortunately, the peace and quiet didn’t last long. A voice called out of the dark, “Entomo has found your display of strength impressive. However, this is your last chance to turn back before you are destroyed. You have come for the Sower’s Glass. You shall not have it.”
I strode forward, tripped, and caught myself. It was hard to think, hard to walk, hard to do anything. I was down to eighty-four Essence Points and the effort of all those miracles was catching up to me. Fast.
I dropped to one knee.
The voice laughed. I looked up to see a twenty-foot-tall centipede slinking into the room. Chuckling at me like a complete jerk. Dread bloomed in my stomach, but I rudely shoved it away as I gained my feet. We had to get the Sower’s Glass, and nothing was going to stop us. Not even a talking centipede from Hell.
Game on …
TWENTY-ONE
Centipede Stew
The centipede monster was fifty legs of disgusting. Unlike the other insects we’d fought, this one didn’t have the bioluminescence lighting up its chitinous exoskeleton; instead, it had saved up the blue glow for the bulbous venom sacks located near a pair of formidable pinchers capped with deadly plier-like claws. Thick copper-colored armor covered its back while its spiny legs gleamed golden. It reared back into a writhing S, the thick chitin on its belly facing us.
I felt nauseous looking at the thing. All those legs. Not to mention the antennae, mandibles, and other shit clogging up its horrid maw. So fucking awful. A chill raced down my spine, but I fought through my unease. No, I wouldn’t be scared. Fuck this thing. It had laughed at me and it had threatened us. Now it was gonna pay.
While I was way down to only eighty-four Essence Points, the godstone made the decision for me. Still on one knee, I Lightning Lanced the monster. Electricity arced over its armor but didn’t penetrate the copper plates. My attack did, however, blow off a leg and send an antenna spinning off into the air.
The centipede screamed in pain, swung its body around, and scuttled back through the mouth of the cave it had come from. While we had been walking through a combination of natural caves and hewn-out caverns, the entrance to the next room was sculpted marble, precisely cut into a beautiful arch that connected to a sandstone tunnel. Chiseled into the white arch were Greek letters, but I was too far away to read them.
I could still hear the centipede as it hissed at us in an inhuman voice. “You have been warned. If you blaspheme by walking into the Temple of Entomo, we will dine on your innards, War God. Even immortals cannot withstand the might of Entomo. He is the Devourer of the Underground. He is the many-headed death too horrible for myth. Beware! Beware!”
“Blah, blah, blah,” I called after it. “Give us the Sower’s Glass and we won’t squash you and your cockroach buddies.”
Nothing but silence answered my taunt.
A wave of dizziness swept over me, and my eyes wouldn’t focus. That last battle had wrecked me, and yet, that wasn’t even the big boss battle, which I damned well knew was coming. It was this Entomo thing, and our centipede friend was only the envoy to whatever insect horror lay beyond.
Myrina helped me to my feet. Worry troubled her eyes. “We should rest, War God. There is no hurry.”
“But there is,” I replied with a shake of my head. “The longer we wait, the more troops this Entomo thing can bring to bear against us. We don’t have the element of surprise, but if we strike hard and fast, we might be able to blitzkrieg these bugs.”
Lightning fast, Phoebe said. She buzzed her bronze saw in emphasis. Jacob is right. Let’s go, now, and hit ’em hard.
Myrina frowned and squinted in concern. “Very well. But as before, you must stay back while we take the damage. We will protect you while you are weakened.�
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I grimaced and gripped her hand in mine. “No, Myrina, those days are behind us. Remember when we sparred before? I can handle myself. I know when to strike and when to hold back, and now is the time to strike. My Essence Points are down, sure, but my HP is fine. You need to trust me to know what my limits are. Now, let’s move.”
“If only I were stronger …” Myrina murmured.
I patted her back. “If you were any more powerful, well, you wouldn’t need me.”
Loxo streaked up and kissed my cheek, interrupting the moment. “Good to see you made it out in one piece, Boss. Now, you mind if I run recon in the next room?”
“Permission granted,” I said with a bob of my head.
Loxo sped away and disappeared, shadows reaching out to embrace her, wrapping her up in tendrils of inky black. Sophia didn’t go with her and I knew why. The Teleporter didn’t have the Shadow Cloak or the Whisper Step ability. If I had to guess, I’d say that was why the bugs had ambushed them in the first place. They’d seen Sophia, and though she could teleport away, the damage had been done.
The Huntress, however, could move without being seen. She could get a read on the temple room ahead and report back to us without anyone being the wiser. Too bad the long-range messaging system didn’t work down here, or Loxo could’ve told us what she was seeing in real time.
We all pushed forward and walked through the mushroom mush and butchered bug corpses strewn across the battlefield. I lingered at the arch and read the words written above the wide marble corridor.
HAIL ENTOMO, THE DEVOURER, THE HORROR. WORSHIP IT OR DIE!
Yeah, neither of those things were going to happen. We were going to go in there and do what we did best: kick ass and take what we needed to save the world.
While we waited for Loxo to return, my Amazons collected up javelins and arrows to replenish their diminishing supply. I shot Phoebe a smile. “I like the saw, by the way. Nice flair. Seems to kill things really well.”
I bet you say that to all the girls, she sent back with a smile.
Then she glanced away, blushing under the heat of my gaze. It was clear she still felt self-conscious about her leg and had given up on us being together romantically. I’d thought Phoebe and I would always be buddies, but now I was feeling the attraction more than ever. Or was it the godstone? The gem blazed in my chest. I knew what it wanted. When it wasn’t fighting, it wanted sex, all the time. Ares had jammed the worst aspects of his personality into the thing and it was becoming harder and harder to separate its desires from my own.
Loxo appeared so abruptly it made me start. Luckily, I didn’t yelp or I would’ve lost all my street cred with Myrina.
Loxo’s face was ashen. “So many. New insects, like nothing we’ve fought before. Inside, there’s a temple, but I didn’t dare get too close.” She shuddered and pressed her eyes shut for a long beat. “Far too dangerous.” Another quiver.
“Any sign of the Sower’s Glass?” I asked, putting on a brave face.
A shake of her head. “There’re are some artifacts on an altar near the back. Any one of them could be the Sower’s Glass, but I couldn’t get to them. It’s awful in there, Boss. A fucking nightmare.”
Damn, bad news all around. And with my Essence Points waning, I was going to have to fight the old-fashioned way. The War Blade had one more round of Greater Lycanthropy left and it looked like I’d be using it here.
“So the temple is big, right?” I asked, a plan forming in my head. “About the size of this cave?” I swept a hand around.
Loxo nodded.
I rubbed my chin. “But there’s a choke point? The corridor?”
Another nod.
Their superior numbers wouldn’t matter if they had to fight us a few at a time. I’d done this a million times when faced with a ton of enemies in first-person shooters. Just lure them in and pick them off one at a time.
In a place like this—where Entomo’s spies could be hiding anywhere, listening in—talking openly was just too risky. And since close-quarter messaging worked, I synced us up and told my Amazons the game plan. Myrina, of course, argued against me, but I overruled her.
I was the war god, after all.
Loxo took the lead, and we entered the sandstone passageway. We all carried pieces of glowing mushrooms to give us light. Worked into the tunnel walls were narrow alcoves, each one sporting a different statue of the various insects we’d fought: the larvae, the millipedes, the moths, the dragonflies, and some of the monsters waiting for us dead ahead: Huge centipedes. Slugs the size of German shepherds. Monstrous snails with spike-studded shells.
After a few minutes, Loxo motioned for us to drop the mushrooms pieces so we could creep the rest of the way in darkness. We halted about twenty feet from the exit.
This section of corridor was about fifteen feet wide. Myrina, Antiope, and Euryleia could easily hold it against whatever horrors Entomo sent against us. We also had Asteria, who could transform into something big and vicious to help hold the line. Best of all? Sophia and Loxo could teleport and hit the flank of the enemies and then teleport back to safety. As long as we could draw in our enemies, we’d be fine.
And we would draw them in alright. That was my job.
I gripped the War Blade and werewolfed out for the final time that day. Once again, my bones creaked and cracked as my body re-formed itself until I was a steel-clawed hulking wolf creature. I howled and loped into the cavernous room beyond the tunnel as my ’Zons took their places.
The temple was rectangular, a hundred feet long and fifty feet wide, every crack and crevice intricately carved. An altar sat on a raised dais at the far end of the room, just as Loxo had said. In front of the altar, however, was a pit, forty feet in diameter, which had been gouged into the floor. The thing was brimming with the monstrous metal centipedes. And when I say brimming, I mean filled to the rim. It was a big ol’ cup of awful.
Disgusting slugs and armored snails covered the walls, inching along, coating everything in a spectral blue light. I raced up to the altar and saw two javelins, a pair of ornate metal bracers, a dagger, a cup, a bowl, and a hand mirror. Nothing that screamed “Sower’s Glass,” though. Maybe the mirror, but that didn’t feel right, and I couldn’t exactly slow down to grab it, anyway.
A slug fell from the ceiling and struck my back. Acidic goo covered its rubbery body and the fist-sized suction cups riddling its belly. It latched onto me, and the acid burned through my fur. I rolled onto my back, jerked up, and raked my claws through the creature.
A snail charged at me from the right, but I dodged to the side, and it struck and rolled across the floor. It got up and sprayed acid at me from a puckered, circular mouth lined with vicious needle teeth.
I leapt over the spray and forced myself forward, racing to the edge of the round bowl of centipede soup. I raked a claw into the back of one of the critters within. My War Blade enhanced talons shredded through the exoskeleton and into the meat underneath. I ran through a geyser of golden blood, dodged another acid spray attack, and nimbly danced past a few more falling slugs. Then I slashed through another centipede; I made sure I got their full attention.
The long-bodied fiends in the pit shrieked and untangled themselves, coming after me in a flurry of churning legs and clicking mandibles. A few even puked venom onto their pincered front legs in anticipation of poisoning me. That was the glamorous life of a war god, right there.
A dozen of the monsters raced out after me and I led them right to the mouth of the corridor where my Amazons waited. I didn’t dash in. Instead, I sprinted away, my claws clicking on the marble floor while ranged weapons peppered the centipedes, courtesy of my team. I immediately headed back into the fray. A centipede rose up in front of me. I scrambled left, angled low, then shot forward, snapping through its neck with my inhuman jaws. It flailed in a fountain of its own golden gore.
I was already moving on as it died.
I wasn’t about to bite the snails or the slugs, but I sla
shed through them with my claws. Above all, I kept moving. If I stopped, even for a second, I’d find myself trapped in an insect blanket of flesh, chiton, acid, and pincers.
Meanwhile, centipedes engaged Myrina, Antiope, and Euryleia astride Buttercup. They filled the entrance of the corridor. Myrina hurled her lightning javelin as monsters approached, but again, their armor was strong enough to repulse the attack. Their exposed flesh, however, smoked like overcooked burgers, which told me they weren’t completely lightning proof, so long as we could pierce their metallic exoskeletons. Myrina ducked back behind her shield, xiphos in hand. She hacked off legs, lopped off pincers, and stabbed a centipede through its mouth when it tried to latch onto her.
Euryleia used her spear to slay a centipede before pulling a katana free. Buttercup took damage, but the bear was still clawing through legs and protecting her rider while she slayed bugs left and right.
Antiope drove her spear blade into the head of a bug and then caught pincers from another attacker on the shaft, blocking the blow. She shoved her way free and backpedaled, catching her breath while Phoebe took over—her saw buzzing and shrieking as it ripped open the armor of the centipedes. Ariadne and Thunderfoot waited in reserved, ready to push forward and hold the line if they were needed.
Loxo and Sophia appeared behind the centipedes, delivering merciless attacks to turned backs. Loxo fought with a xiphos and a hooked dagger—taking off legs, finding gaps in the armor, and earning backstab bonuses out the wazoo. But the minute she was in trouble, Sophia would take hold of the Huntress and they’d vanish. Poof. Gone.
I continued racing around the pit, watching it empty of its gross inhabitants, looking for some sign of the Sower’s Glass. Something might’ve been on the bottom, but it was hard to see with the writhing bodies of the bugs and all their damn legs. I paused at the altar for a second. Slugs and snails inched towards me. The ceiling was clear of the things, but the floor was now a sea of glowing mollusks.
