Chương 162: Chapter 167: Plunge

The rocky tunnel widened further, the walls now seemed to be glued together with some sort of biological mortar, giving the place an alien look, the transition had been gradual since the last minutes, but now it was so much that it changed the ambience in its totality, that and the smell, it was really hard not to puke, the smell of rotting meat was so intense you could taste it, along with a kind of sweetness in the air that made me want to puke.

Breathing through the mouth was not enough to avoid the stench, but it helped.

"This is awful," Alya's voice had trouble reaching me with the intense buzzing sound that encompassed these passages, it was the first thing she said after her tirade, but at least it showed that she was with her head in the game, actually she sounded much better than before, I think my idea worked. The curses I planted on her together with the idea that there could be something between us in the future made her more eager about this fight. I hoped it was a change for the better.

"Yea, it would be even worse up ahead, apparently it is a common theme in bug-infested lairs to just make it stink to the high heavens."

"Spiders are not bugs," she remarked.

"Still, you got what I meant." A grunt was all the answer I got before that transformed into a gasp as we turned the last corner. I had the sudden impulse to raze this place to the ground and then burn the remains.

The already large tunnel opened up to a giant space, I had no idea how large it was, but we were pretty high up, the walls were dotted with tunnels not different from the one we came from, but the thing that stood out was the uncountable number of insects flying to and fro, bringing the corpses of beasts and other monsters into cells and closing them in a honeycomb-like structure exactly in the center of the hive.

"Are they making honey?" Alya asked, horrified.

"It can't be honey right? That thing looks like coagulated blood… urgh… I feel like vomiting."

"It's possible, actually I have a feeling that it is our prize, probably it would increase your stats somehow, or have some kind of magical effect."

"Fucking monsters, only they could make something this disgusting."

"Actually there are some kinds of wasps or bees that make honey out of meat, but now I really won't be able to give you an exact name."

"Fucking disgusting things everywhere, I really want to ju-." A great buzzing covered her words as a giant thing flew out of a tunnel I couldn't see from this angle, it was as big as a car, it was a scorpion… with wings, and it looked meaner than any other thing inside here.

It was glossy black with red-colored accents that I could see even with my eyes, so they must have been magical somehow, along with a strange drawing in the same hue on its back, it had two tails hanging down, and contrary to a normal scorpion they were angled the opposite way, to attack people from below instead of above, the pincers were gigantic and the other claws were probably very sharp too, but the wings were the thing that stood out the most, they were green, and if my eyes weren't betraying me, they weren't physical.

They were composed entirely of some kind of energy.

"Fuck my life," I heard Alya mutter under her breath. That was a sound assessment, this thing was a monster among monsters, but luckily it was still under level 100, I could feel a world of difference between it and the serpent I fought, but not for that it should be underestimated. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"Do you still want to face it?"

"... yes, I didn't come all the way here just to turn back at the finish line, I knew this thing would be dangerous, I would take it on anyway. Just… keep the other monsters busy."

"Already working on it." I was, I spread truckloads of Virulent Hexes all around, I was slowing down the monsters so much that their frantic movements looked not that much different from their normal buzzing around, most were starting to lose altitude too, their wings moving too slowly to keep them afloat.

This was reducing the time it took for most of them to understand that there was an attack happening, giving me more time to spread the hexes, but despite that, they probably had some pheromones or magical-equivalent way of communicating, because the big boss was getting agitated.

"Just a minute now, after the big boom, go for the Baron," I told Alya.

"What do you mean the big boom?" I smirked.

"You'll see…" I closed my eyes, focusing more on my senses, most of the insects weren't in my view, and the place was enormous, my Arcane Sense skill allowed me a much greater area after the stat increase, I could feel my hexes entering new monsters, then spreading, I used some instances of Malignant Threshold to intensify the hexes before they would water down their power too much, but it didn't push them past the threshold, against these monsters it wasn't needed.

What was needed was to drain more of the things, despite my insane stats, my normal mana pool wouldn't be enough to accomplish even a tenth of this. The boss was going crazy now, alongside all the insects who were converging on our position from outside, not that they weren't doing it before, but now it was really all of them trying to come here. I waited just another moment for the boss to take flight, just another second… perfect.

The boss got far away enough from any other monster, it was actually coming in our direction, Alya couldn't ask for a better stage. I raised my hand at shoulder level, then snapped my fingers. BOOOOM! A single explosion resounded from everywhere, the insects all died simultaneously, chunks of chitin, hemolymph and flesh scattering with the detonation, I was sure that some tunnels collapsed, actually the place was shaking, Alya turned to me and shouted amid the resounding noise.

"ARE YOU CRAZY!?"

"JUST GO! YOU WON'T HAVE A BETTER CHANCE!" I meant it, the boss was slightly under us, stationary amidst the chaos, maybe stunned by the death of all its brethren. Alya gritted her teeth then took a couple of steps back, unsheathed her greatsword and ran to the tunnel opening.

She shouted something while jumping down, but I couldn't get it, still I watched her fly like a missile down towards the Baron, I saw her blade light with her signature maroon flame, then another bright light started enveloping it, brighter, more angry. The same one she used with the Corpse Collector, her aura. I was holding my breath as I looked at the scene, her fall brought her exactly on top of the monster, greatsword held in a reverse grip, ready to skewer it.

At the moment of contact I saw sparks as the blade met the chitin, but then after sliding some, the blade sunk in between two plates a good yard, she slammed her feet on the monster at the same time, her landing making it plunge downward. After a moment I saw a flash of red and the Baron's shrill hiss as a blade of aura pierced through from the front, Alya must have detonated her skill inside the monster, it should have taken massive damage with that.

She was riding the monster down to the bottom of the hive, I jumped to follow her, preparing a big lance chock-full of energy, it wouldn't do to risk her life for nothing, I felt that she had the Baron in the bag, but better safe than sorry, if something happened I would intervene.

The lurching sensation in my stomach as I fell down was like usual, incredible, I started using my aura to slow myself down halfway through, noticing how Alya managed to extract the blade and was about to swing another time, but before she could do anything one of the tails that I thought couldn't reach her, swatted her from the back.

She let out a cry as she got smashed sideways, hitting the structure at the center of the hive, releasing some splatter of a red gooey substance and then slamming down to the ground hard. Fuck, not good. She lost her sword during the fall, and was laying on the ground, probably in a great deal of pain, stats or no stats, falling at that speed after being smashed by a car-sized scorpion wouldn't be that good. Should I intervene? The scorpion too was trying to flip itself back up, so she had a second, but still.

"Alya!"

"I'm fine! Aaaarg!" She said while raising herself a little from her position, then she slammed her shoulder against the floor.

"FUUUUCK!!" Ow, that must have hurt like hell, dislocated shoulder?

"I'm coming!"

"Don't you fucking DARE! I can do it myself, that bitch is MINE!" I could see her eyes were lit by her aura, a reddish glow mixing with her sky blue and transforming it into a fiery purple color. Ok girl, I'd leave it up to you, but I'd be watching. I won't let you die.