Reaching into the wellspring of energy within him, Porkchop drew in a deep breath and unleashed a roar.
His prey chittered, scurrying back into reach: beetles as large as dogs, their shells shining like rubies.
A dull thud resonated through his chest, chitinous pincers slipping off his overlapping jade plates. For most, the weight of his Celadon Aegis would have been crushing. For him, it was only a reassuring solidity.
His Bulwark’s Challenge had come up at the perfect time — right as the remaining dozen of the beetles were about to scatter. His challenge hooked deep into their primitive minds, yanking their attention back to him. Hackles raised, he felt the pulsing heat of the hunt as the insectile beasts before him gathered and lunged on flitting wings.
It had taken them far too much work to gather this many of them to let some escape now. With steely shells, they were tough bastards — but not tough enough. Seeing the oncoming wave, he judged their angles. Too many to handle at once, even if Kenva’s charged arrow raced past his shoulder and skewered another. Forcing mana into his claws, he rammed them into the stone beneath his feet. A Shardwall burst free, pushing the mass back.
Through the bond he carried, he felt Kaius react — a sonic crack echoing behind him as his brother blasted into the sky. Moments later, there was another boom, and a bolt of lightning slammed down from overhead, arcing between a group of sibling beetles.
Their limbs seized — inciting his urge to chase. He didn’t see a reason to fight the instinct.
Every loping step shook the stone beneath his feet, joined by crystalline spikes that erupted with his every footfall. Slamming into the meat of the swarm, Porkchop saw a beetle on the flank spread its wings — about to dart to Ianmus.
Intercede the Weak flooded him, the stone beneath his paws crumbling as he blurred in front of the creature. A beam cut across the battlefield, severing his target's wing before scouring another behind it.
**Ding! You have defeated Blackstone Ironbeetle - Knight of the Swarm: Level 262 - Experience Denied, Tier Limit reached!**
They’d fought over fifty beetles, from beginning to end.
Once, it would have been impossible to treat them as anything other than a single mass, paying attention only to the closest. It was easier now with Mentis; his Glass Mind tracked them religiously, whispering the movements of those that most needed his attention.
After finding no honours on their quick blitz through the twenty-fifth layer, he hoped with all of his heart that they would get another Hordebreaker out of this.
He hadn’t been sure if this biome would be where they’d get it — none of them had been — but when they’d stepped out onto a cracked plane of dead trees and brown grass, it had been easy to see the distant groups of roving beetles that picked over the carcass of the land. Unfortunately, they largely congregated in small clusters and swarms, and they’d wanted to try for at least fifty — just in case.
They’d had to pull in three groups at once. Thankfully, it hadn’t been too hard — Kenva had sent out three arrows, detonating them with her Shattering Rain Skill to pepper the groups with a hail of devastating splinters.
They’d healed by the time they arrived, of course, but it had certainly gotten the whole group’s attention.
Rearing up, he flooded his arm with magical potency, feeling jade erupt from the pores of his skin to turn his limb into a crushing mace. He slammed into a beetle, feeling its carapace shatter as wet ichor coated his paw.
Most of his allies were having some difficulty with their carapaces. They were hard, but they were also brittle — and he had weight and strength on his side.
Behind him, he felt Kaius drop another Zone of Discombobulation on the remaining beetles — surrounding them in a faint haze of mana. They listed, limbs twitching as they spun — some going as far as to attack their packmates.
It was exactly the sort of moment he’d been waiting for.
“Going in!” he yelled, pounding the dirt as he charged forward.
Wading in amongst them, crushing blows tore wings, snapped mandibles, and shattered carapace. All around him, arrows and spells rained upon the groups in waves.
Kaius moved in his wake — his brother’s newly hardened and weighty sword ending the creatures he crippled before they could heal.
Porkchop’s ears perked up, the steady chime on notifications in his mind stoking his satisfaction.
Even if his experience was capped, every kill was a reminder that the next evolution of his bloodline was waiting.
He couldn’t wait to see what he’d earned — especially after his experiences in the Crucible. They’d been odd at times, and always difficult, but so viscerally satisfying. Novel ways to push his limits; even if he hadn’t enjoyed being isolated from his friends.
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It was hard to believe how much he’d grown since that fateful day when he decided to cross the mountains. There was something new around every corner now, and he found himself enjoying the little things far more often than he thought he would.
He hungered to explore more of this strange world of delves and cities — and hadn’t quite expected it to be so easy to form bonds with two-legged people. His own were social in the extreme; he’d been worried his crossing of the mountains would lead to aching isolation.
That hadn’t happened, of course. There was Kaius — but also Ianmus, Kenva too, as well as Rieker and Ro waiting back in Deadacre.
The guildmaster especially — he couldn’t wait to see the look on that man’s face when he saw how strong they had become. Even Hensch with his little old inn, and that cat of his — spoiled rotten that it was. The shock when the innkeep found out that he was no mere beast was going to be fantastic.
It still surprised him how few people had picked up on that. He knew his people didn’t leave the deep Sea very often, and that most of his kind were far more powerful than he. Still. Deadacre was right there — right bloody next to the forest!
Porkchop lunged forward, feeling his mana and stamina surge as spikes of jade surrounded his jaws. He snapped out, grabbing one beetle around its body before his floating fangs punched deep, cracking its shell and allowing him to slam his jaws home with a gush of victory that filled his mouth.
He tossed the carcass to the side. A beetle tried to dart past him — towards Kenva on the flank. He lunged, Intercede the Weak bringing him in front of the ranger as the beetle slammed into his chest.
Its pincers grabbed home, crunching through the edge of one of his plates but failing to reach deep. It was an awkward position, dangling in a way that made it difficult to remove.
Kaius was there a moment later, his form hazy and indistinct as wind ripped around him in a howling gale. His blade of shimmering crystals slashed into the beetle’s body, carving through carapace and flinging it free.
Porkchop sniffed. “I had that.”
Kaius rolled his eyes.
“Of course you did,” he pushed back through their bond before he flashed away again, scything through more of their number.
Porkchop did the same, setting his sights on another. Kaius read his intentions, and mana spilled from his brother’s temples, latching onto the depthsborns’ thoughts and forcing their gaze towards Porkchop’s own. Two chittered, racing in — and Porkchop smashed them flat with a contemptuous Jade Crash.
It only took them a few more moments to mop up the remainders, the straw-coloured stalks that surrounded them flattened and stained blue-grey with ichor.
Horde Breaker II:
Honour
Whether it is thousands, or millions, it does not matter. I will burn the world to ash if it means having my vengeance.
Awarded to those in a team of four or less who slay a group of at least forty foes that are at least 50 levels or more above their initial levels, before tier 2. Provides a Minute increase to Resource efficiency when fighting groups of 20 or more enemies. +5 all stats. +3% all stats.
Reaching inwards, Porkchop reached for the mana that flowed into his armour — Celadon Aegis
. He choked off the flow, layered plates of sacred jade disappearing with a pop.The sudden lack of weight was freeing — but just as disorienting as it had first been. So accustomed to its presence, he felt like he would float off into the sky every damn time he dismissed it.
“We got it!” Kaius yelled, pulling him from his thoughts. “And the requirements scaling looks promising too!”
He chuffed, nodding exaggeratedly in the way he knew Ianmus and Kenva would notice. “Looks like we could stay on this layer for a while, didn’t Kenva’s distance and multi-kill Honours have the same scaling?”
“They did.” Kenva confirmed.
Ianmus walked forward, using his staff to knock away beetle carcasses from his path. “Regardless, the simple addition of more stats is nice — any we can get now will let us get just a little further in this delve.”
“Do we want to try for them in this biome? It's pretty open — good sightlines for the two of you. I doubt I'll have much luck with a Nail over the distances we’ll likely need either way.”
“Probably not,” Kenva replied. “It's dead flat, and this bloody grass makes getting a good angle a nightmare. If we can find one with a bit more elevation, It'll be much easier — especially for Ianmus.”
Porkchop tilted his head. “Oh?”
“She means my lack of a distance-focused ocular Skill. I have an idea on how to make that far less problematic, but she’s right in that a clean angle will make my life much easier.”
“Well…If we’re staying on this layer, we might as well move in the direction of Deadacre.” He shifted to Kenva, who’d taken to scraping beetle guts from her boot with a knife. “You still know our heading?”
“Of course,” the ranger replied without looking up.
Porkchop nodded — good enough for him. Besides, if they were moving laterally, they’d have plenty of chances to fight Champions.
Which meant more loot.
His heart thumped at the thought, a tingle of glee making his neck ruff stand on end.
As a rule, his people weren’t delvers. At least, he hadn't heard of any since they’d grown distant from the elves. Nor were they particularly industrious by the standards of people blessed with opposable thumbs.
Simply owning things that he wasn't able to create or source for himself was novel, but earning them with his own power? That was even sweeter.
Finished scraping her shoe clean, Kenva stood up, and pointed off to their right, “That’s the way we want to head.”
Porkchop locked eyes with Kaius, a shared thrill flashing through their bond. That was almost the exact same direction that he could feel a Champion tugging at him.
“I'm guessing by that evil look you're sharing that there's also a fight that way?” Ianmus guessed, shaking his head.
He wasn’t fooling anyone, Porkchop could see his smile plain as day. He was excited too.
“Guess you'll have to find out!”