Chapter 142: Natural Enemies

Chapter 142: Natural Enemies

“What’s with the ridiculous viewership spike? They're not even in the hive yet.” Shinji asked through the Simbox call he had open with Tommy. He was frantically waving his fingers around, editing the live footage of Aegis’ battle with the Mosmir soldiers just before the Voidreaver had appeared.

“I’m looking into it.” Tommy replied as he saw Aegis’ viewership climb up to 300,000. “It looks like a lot of Feng’s viewership is coming over to watch. The Vindicators took on a Mosmir Hive in the Lanusk Underrealm six in-game months ago.” Tommy replied as he fidgeted around with several screens that were floating in front of him within his office simulation, speaking to Shinji through the call. “Looks like, to enter the hive dungeon you need to fight several waves of defenders first. Feng’s guild struggled to do it, and they had a raid of 40 players.” Tommy said as he scrolled through several clips and news articles on the subject.

“And, did they succeed?” Shinji asked.

“Yeah. They never found the Queen though, even though they spent two weeks searching for her.” Tommy answered. “This kid, does he not see the amount of enemies charging at him? I feel like I’m watching Starship Troopers, and he’s not even scared. There’s only five of them.” Tommy shook his head in disbelief, tuning in to Hae-won as she was shoutcasting the battle, speaking a mile a minute to try and describe every skill and spell that Aegis and his party were using.

“Six. Don’t forget Snowflake.” Shinji replied while smirking to himself.

“Well...” Tommy said as he continued to scroll through the news on the subject. “If he manages to find the Queen, he’ll be one-upping the 2nd highest streamer in the world.” Tommy replied.

“Fingers crossed.” Shinji replied anxiously as he watched the Voidreaver appear on Aegis' livestream feed and prepare to attack him and his party. “He’s gotta survive this first.”

“What’s it doing?” Aegis asked nervously as he looked up at the massive Mosmir Voidreaver. It was crawling across the ceiling towards them, still several dozen meters away. He couldn’t keep his eyes locked on it due to the sheer amount of Mosmir Soldiers swarming towards him, but he caught a glimpse of it converging its six pincers together.

Once the six touched at the tips, all six of them began to glow with dark purple energy that shimmered in rippling waves across the surface of the pincers. The light slowly converged at the tips until suddenly, at the point where they all met in front of the Voidreavers mouth, a small ball of purple energy formed and quickly grew in size.

One second later, the ball shot forth in the form of a gigantic, dark beam of purple and black energy. Only, it wasn’t aiming at Aegis, it was aiming at Pyri.

“Shit! MOM!” Aegis shouted in a panic as she looked up to see the beam coming at her. She froze in place for a moment, knowing that she’d get hit if she stayed still. She knew she had several options - she could dodge out of the way or utilize a cinderbolt to redirect the beam. Instead, she looked to Aegis and saw his determined, worried expression as he dashed and jumped up to intercept the beam with his shield.

It was fine, she didn’t need to do anything special, her son was going to protect her with his shield. All she had to do was keep burning the enemies like he’d asked her to do, and not stand out.

As she thought this, she watched as the beam connected with Aegis’ shield. He attempted to brace it mid air where it impacted him. The beam crashed into his shield and rather than deflect off of it or disperse against it, the beam released a wave of energy that enveloped Aegis’ body in a dark purple aura.

You take 3351 Void damage.

Intense, excruciating pain beyond anything Aegis had ever imagined possible surged through his entire body. It felt as though every nerve in his nervous system was screaming out in pain. His ears began to ring and his vision went white hot. It felt as if his bones had suddenly exploded and his muscles were being ripped out of his skin.

*WARNING* Mental Stress Levels are nearing the safe limit. You will be forcibly removed from the simulation if the current level of stress continues or increases.

[Force Log out] Take a break from the game and relax, you will respawn at the nearest Graveyard.

[Lower Pain Threshold] Threshold Change is currently Available for your account.

[Ignore] Keep Playing, acknowledging that Averon is not liable for any damages caused by continuing Simulation. (If conditions persists or worsen you will be logged out against your will as part of our Terms of Service)

10 meters away from Pyri, 2 meters in the air, Aegis remained suspended. The beam attack from the Voidreaver wasn’t a one off, it was channeled, and it held Aegis in place as the damage ticked on him again.

You take 2936 Void damage.

Skill Learned: Void Resistance

He involuntarily let out a blood curdling scream of agony as he tried to fight it off and resist being force logged out, but he couldn’t move a muscle. He was completely paralyzed, and Pyri could see the look of pain on his face. She saw first hand what her inaction had caused, and her eyes went wide with shock and fear.

“It’s channeled, Lina, you gotta interrupt that thing!” Rakkan shouted out as loud as he could as he saw Aegis suspended in the air, screaming in pain. Lina didn’t need to be told twice, she quickly shadowstepped across the cavern until she was standing on the thorax of the upside-down hanging Voidreaver, and thrust her daggers down at its abdomen. However, moments before her daggers connected, a bright dark purple light flashed over the body of the Voidreaver and it vanished, causing Lina to go into a free fall towards the swarm of soldiers below.

She was able to shadowstep a few times to get back to the group and saw Aegis fall to the ground, breathing heavily.

“Fuck me.” Aegis said between breaths as he recomposed himself, the pain from the attack fading away. “Those Guardian players were not kidding. Void is the worst.” He tried to shake it off as the soldiers began swarming around him again.

“Are you okay?” Lina asked him worriedly as she appeared beside him.

“They’re really low health now, Pyri’s flames are paying off.” Rakkan shouted excitedly. Another wave of five soldiers reached them, but it was much easier to see them coming thanks from the bioluminescence of the Reltrak Forest around them. This time, not just Rakkan and Snowflake charged forward, but Aegis joined in as well. Rakkan struck down three, Aegis one, and Snowflake another, and all five went down really quickly.

Aegis then turned to see a row of Mosmir that had been petrified by a flailing Fisher in a nearby mushroom, but several Mosmir had managed to bite at the torso of the Fisher and pull it down off the mushroom, and they began to swarm it. A nearby Mosstrapper got surrounded, grabbed in a set of soldier pincers, and was flung into the air. The snails on the roof were being recklessly headbutted by the soldiers climbing along the stalactites, knocking them down onto the cavern floor where their shells crashed violenting on the mossy cavern floor and were swarmed - the Mosmir’ soldiers pincers were sharp enough to easily crack the snail shells.

“It ain't over yet, but keep pushing.” Aegis shouted as he took this all in.

“The other Voidreaver is low on energy too, he’s getting hit by arrows. He stopped warping around.” Darkshot declared.

“They’re pulling back. Both of the Voidreavers are pulling back. Should I go after them?” Lina asked after reappearing next to Aegis, just as Rakkan and Snowflake lunged forward at the next wave of approaching soldiers. Aegis looked up to see she was right, both Voidreavers were running against the swarm on the cavern roof, back towards the hive entrance.

“No... do you have enough mana to shadow dance again?” Aegis asked her, seeing her mana below 25%.

“Yes, for a bit. I can teleport as much as I want, but it drains mana per second while it's active.” Lina explained.

“Good. They’re all at low health now.” Aegis motioned to the swarm of approaching Mosmir soldiers walking through the glowing flames of Pyri’s cinderbolts. “Pyri, raise the bolts up to cast shadows under all of their abdomens.” Aegis turned to Pyri and she nodded. “Lina, Shadow Dance the shit out of them.” He turned back to Lina and grinned, and she nodded back with a determined smile.

“Shadow Dance!” She shouted, disappearing into the swarm of Mosmir. Aegis couldn’t see her, it was too dark, but he heard the sound of her warping around and slashing out at them, and the dying cries of the Mosmir Soldiers as one by one they fell.

“Go all out, clear them up, everyone charge forward!” Aegis shouted, the others nodding along. Aegis, Rakkan and Snowflake rushed forward, this time they were the aggressors.

“Multishot, piercing shot!” Darkshot said, his mana now dangerously low as he fired obsidian tipped arrows at the swarm. He dumped all of his mana into the attack, enlarging all of the 15 arrows and causing them to sweep through the swarm, piercing through them and finishing them off. Any soldiers that he missed, Lina was able to shadowstep towards and take out. Any that Lina had missed rushed at Aegis, Rakkan and Snowflake, and they took them out.

It was going good, it looked like they might actually win it despite the huge discrepancy in numbers. The wildlife of the Reltrak forest had bought them the time they needed to weaken the swarm with flames. The two Voidreavers were hiding back near the entrance of the hive, still visible due to their glowing purple pincers despite them being so far away. But, they weren’t fleeing back into the hive. They waited at the entrance, looking as if they were waiting for something. What, exactly, wasn’t clear, but Aegis could suddenly hear the sound of loud rumbling coming from the hive’s tunnel entrances.

“Ah, fuck, don’t tell me there’s more.” Darkshot groaned as he and the others all heard it too. Sure enough, amidst the sea of Soldier Mosmir, a gargantuan Mosmir suddenly burst out of the cavern floor near the hive entrance. This one only had a single set of pincers, but they were gigantic. Its legs were not thin like the other Mosmir, but giant, meaty muscular legs that resembled more of an elephant as it stomped forward, climbing out of the new giant tunnel it had just formed. It had no name above its head, only [Boss] in red letters.

“Aegis...” Rakkan said anxiously as he saw it. “I’m tapped too, and those things just keep coming.” Rakkan said worriedly as he pointed to his mana bar. All of them, even Pyri, were low on resources.

“Just a bit more, wipe out the soldiers, as many as you can before that thing gets to us.” Aegis shouted encouragingly.

“Even if we take out the soldiers, we’ve got nothing left for the boss and those Voidreavers!” Darkshot shouted worriedly.

“Just trust me!” Aegis shouted as he charged forward without hesitation. Snowflake joined in, then Rakkan, as Lina continued to Shadow Dance until her mana was completely drained, and she reappeared next to them.

“That’s all I could get.” Lina said anxiously.

“That’s enough, just stab a few more.” Aegis replied, and she nodded and rushed forward. The boss took several more thundering stomps towards them as they battled at the edge of Reltrak Forest.

“I don’t know what your plan is, Aegis, but... Multishot!” Darkshot fired another barrage, dropping his mana to 0, but killing a few more soldiers. “That’s all I have left.”

“Me too!” Rakkan shouted as his echoes dispersed, no longer enough mana for Rakkan to maintain them.

“A bit more! Come on!” Aegis shouted at them, and they continued fighting under his command despite their doubt. A few more stomps from the elephant-sized Mosmir, and it was standing mere meters away from them. Simultaneously, the two Voidreavers got enough energy to warp nearby and were preparing to shoot their void beams again.

“Here goes nothing!” Aegis shouted as he suddenly jumped forward into a swarm of weakened, burned up soldiers, so that dozens were on all sides of him.

“Aegis!” Lina shouted worriedly as he saw him do it.

“Varibhadra!” He yelled out, releasing a shockwave of energy out from himself that encapsulated all of the nearby Mosmir. The damage wasn’t a lot due to how many targets he’d hit, but they’d all been weakened so much by Pyri’s flames that it was enough to kill them. And as he did, a chain of experience notifications scrolled past his screen, and the screen of his companions.

Congratulations, you have reached Level 86!: 5 attribute points available, +451 health, +153 mana!

It wasn’t just Aegis, all of his companions got similar notifications from the huge burst of experience. And one wonderful side effect of gaining a level, was the full recovery of all of their mana and health.

“Everyone got their second wind?” Aegis asked as he looked through his party interface to confirm that everyone had gained a level up. The Mosmir surrounding him all collapsed to the ground, dead, and he stood in front of the boss as it towered over him, glaring downwards to meet his gaze. “Let’s finish this.”