A loud buzzing filled the air making it hard to hear myself think, much less anything else. Of course, the sound was the least annoying part of the thick cloud of insects that surrounded us and were trying to eat us alive. Literally.

The insects were small, about an inch long and resembling beetles with large pincers. They liked to bite and leave bloody gouges in the skin, which was something we could all personally attest to. Individually, they weren’t too dangerous, but in these numbers, they could easily become death by a thousand bites.

When these damn bugs had first appeared, Turtle drew the entire swarm to him while Olivia blasted them with a shockwave, killing hundreds of not thousands of them all at once. However, new insects had quickly flooded in to replace those who’d been destroyed.

After this, we’d protected ourselves by covering our exposed skin, mostly wrapping ourselves up with extra cloth so that little was exposed except our eyes. That limited the amount of damage these bugs could do, but they still swarmed around us in a cloud so thick that I could barely see anything ahead of us.

I grimaced as I walked, trying to ignore the flash of red sparks that steadily went off all around my body, almost like they were fireworks. This was my ‘Blessing of Avexis’ at work, zapping and killing any insect that attacked me before it could do any damage. This seemed to enrage the rest of the bugs, so they focused most of their malicious attention on me, much to their detriment and my friend’s relief.

“You make an amazing bug zapper,” Bunny teased me.

“Maybe,” I responded with a scowl. “I don’t think Avexis intended her blessing to be used this way…” Then I looked at the furious cloud that surrounded me. “But I don’t mind. As long as it kills all these little bitey bastards.”

I looked around, though I couldn’t see too far through the swarm. The whole area was a bit like a jungle, one that was completely and totally swarming with bugs. I didn’t know if they were monsters or real insects since we didn’t bother hanging around long enough to see if their bodies melted, but there was no doubt that many of them could be extremely dangerous.

There were primals about as well, though I had yet to actually see one. I could feel their magic tickling my skin, revealing the presence of natural type primals. I strongly suspected that they identified with one bug or another, and I couldn’t see myself making a deal with any of them. At that moment, I had absolutely no interest in dealing with any more bugs than I absolutely had to.

From the front of the group, Turtle suddenly let out a loud yelp as the ground beneath him opened into a sinkhole. He immediately fell into opening, which was filled with hundreds of inch-long bugs that resembled ants.

“Here,” Maya exclaimed, holding her spear so that he could grab the other end.

Olivia quickly moved towards the edge of the hole, making sure of her footing so that she didn’t fall in as well. Then she fired a shockwave into the hole, killing most of the ants. While she was doing that, Ace and Maya helped to pull Turtle out of the hole.

“I hate those burrowers,” Turtle complained. “This the second time I’ve fallen into one of their pits.”

“Third,” Ace corrected him.

“No,” Turtle responded with a shake of his head. “I caught myself that one time and didn’t go in.”

“Don’t you mean that Maya caught you?” Bunny teased him. She looked to Maya. “Maybe you should stay close to Turtle so your reflexes can save him from any more falls.”

“Don’t mind me,” I grumbled, standing back from the others. “I’ll just stay back here as your bug zapper.”

“At least you can do something about these bugs,” Bunny said. “I can’t even bring out my rabbits without them all being killed off in less than a minute.”

“This is an…unpleasant area,” Olivia admitted. I couldn’t see her face through the wrapping, but I imagined the deep scowl and look of disgust that she was bound to have.

“Definitely,” Ace agreed, pointing back the way we’d come. “I looked down that side path we passed awhile back, and I saw some pretty massive spider webs. I do NOT want to meet the spider that made those.”

“Still not as bad as those leech things that tried dropping on us from that tree,” Bunny added with a shudder that I could see through her covering.

“Let’s just get out of this area,” I said with a sigh. “The sooner we catch up with the rogues, the better.”

“I second that,” Maya agreed.

We continued down the path for a few more minutes before Bunny warned us, “I can hear ants moving around there…” She pointed to a spot in the path. “Maybe this time, we can go around their trap.”

“Good eye…ear,” Turtle told her, obviously appreciating the warning so that he wouldn’t step into another one.

Now that we knew what to look for, we were able to avoid two more sinkhole traps after that. However, that didn’t do anything against the constant cloud of biters that were still getting zapped all around me.

Then Bunny abruptly froze and stared down the path ahead of us. “There’s something there,” she said. “Something big.”

“Where?” Ace asked.

Bunny just pointed with her good arm, her finger indicating that it was just off the path and in the bushes. “I don’t know what it is, but I can hear some movement and clicking.”

“I think we should lure it out,” I announced. “Get into positions, and Ace…” I looked to Ace. “If you’ll do the honors.”

“No problem,” Ace responded. He raised his scepters and fired one.

Suddenly, the brush began to shake and crack as the creature that had been hidden started to move. A small tree snapped and fell over, then something rose from the ground and moved towards us. It didn’t look especially tall, though I realized a few seconds later, that this didn’t mean it wasn’t huge.

“Holy shit,” Ace blurted out, taking a step back.

An absolutely enormous centipede emerged from the brush. It was five feet wide and had to be a hundred feet long. Its head alone was the size of a small car with mandibles that looked like they could easily bit a person in half. Its shell was dark green with reddish brown splotches that gave it an almost camouflage pattern. No wonder it had blended into the bushes so well.

“I hate bugs,” Turtle complained before activating his abilities.

The monster centipede immediately turned its attention to Turtle and tried to bite him. Turtle pushed into it and held his shield out so that the mandibles closed on that instead of on him. Then he fought to hold the shield in place, jamming the monster’s mandibles.

Everyone else turned their attention to attacking the monster, with Bunny even summoning all of her rabbits again. Sir Fluff appeared, gave her a quick solute, then ran off to charge the best. I noticed that the cloud of biters had pulled back in the face of the much larger insect. At least one good thing came from this.

“Take out its legs,” Maya started to order.

“That won’t do any good,” I pointed out as I fired an ‘Invocation of Spite’ at the monster. “It has too many of the damn things. We could take out a dozen legs and that wouldn’t even put a dent in them.”

In spite of what I’d just said, when I got near the monster, I swung my hammer at one of its legs. It shattered without much problem, though the creature was moving so much that it was hard to line up a hit with another leg, not that it would do much good.

“Damn,” Maya exclaimed. “It’s shell is too hard…”

Maya backed up, glaring at the monster while looking for a better spot to attack. After a few seconds, she moved in again and tried stabbing at the joints where its legs emerged from the main body segments. She seemed to have better luck at that location.

“Yeah,” Bunny agreed. “This thing is too tough for my rabbits to get through…”

I looked at the armored carapace of the centipede, wondering if it had any weak spots. Maybe underneath. Unfortunately, it was too low to the ground to easily get under it. Except…

My eyes went over to one of the sinkholes left by those ants. I could get into one of those, trust in my ‘Blessing of Avexis’ to deal with the ants and then get the centipede from beneath. Of course, there were a lot of problems with that, the biggest of which would be luring the monster into the right position.

“Crap,” I growled, realizing that getting under the monster would be a pain in the ass, and that getting on top of it would be much easier.

With that, I ran forward and jumped on top of the monster, using one of its legs as a stepping spot. As soon as I was in place, I swung my hammer as hard as I could. Back in the old days, hammers like this were used against armored opponents since they could totally wreck a suit of armor. And what was this monster’s carapace except for a different type of armor?

My hammer hit the carapace, which shattered on impact. That was a good start, but not good enough. I slammed down a couple more times, creating a crushed up spot on the shell, though it was still largely intact. I switched over to the beak of my hammer, which was meant for punching right through armor. The beak went right through and into the gooey flesh beneath.

The monster started to jerk and flail around, trying to throw me off. My hammer’s beak was still embedded in the carapace, so I grabbed tight and used that to keep me from being thrown off. I was flung around but managed to hold on.

I was vaguely aware of the fact that the centipede had yanked its head away from Turtle, taking his shield with it. It spat the shield out and was turning to deal with me, right before Olivia blasted it in the face with an arcane blast. Ace followed that up with a couple of his own attacks.

When the monster turned its attention back towards them, I shifted position to get more leverage and pulled on my hammer, cracking the shell open and then prying off a small section. It was about a foot square at most, but it was an opening to the monster’s innards. I fired an ‘Invocation of Spite’ right into the opening, but was then immediately thrown off by the monster’s thrashing.

I hit the ground with a hard impact, then quickly scrambled back to my feet. I grabbed my hammer which I’d dropped in the fall and looked back to the segment that I’d damaged.

“My turn,” Maya exclaimed as she ran along the monster’s back and then drove her spear deep into the opening I’d created.

The centipede shook and flailed, though Maya held on much the way I had earlier. Then she used her spear to poke it a few more times through the opening before the monster bent over and tried to bite her with its mandibles. Only then did Maya leap to safety.

“Good job hurting it,” Bunny said. “But maybe if you’d done that on its head…”

“She has a point,” Maya grudgingly admitted.

A moment later, the centipede swung around on me and started to lunge. I activated ‘Invocation of the Wisp’ and sent an illusion of myself running off to the side. The centipede snapped at that instead, now ignoring the real me entirely. That gave me the chance to get back and out of the way.

“I guess we’ll just have to try that again,” I said, gesturing towards the monster’s head. “This is going to be an even bigger pain.”

“I’ll try to keep it distracted,” Turtle announced. He’d recovered his shield and took a position in front of the monster again. “Time for round two.”

“I’ll help,” Bunny said, sending her horned rabbits to run around as additional distractions. Maybe that would confuse the monster enough for us to do what needed to be done.

As soon as the monster was properly distracted, I climbed back onto its back and then ran up the length towards the head. I slammed my hammer down into the back of its head, cracking the carapace shell. That wasn’t enough so I hit it a couple more times, creating a nice shattered spiderweb effect, but I still wasn’t through. Once I’d weakened the carapace, I went to work with my hammer beak, driving the spike right through the weakened shell.

The monster flailed and tried to knock me off again, but I used my hammer beak to hold on, the same way I had before. Olivia fired another arcane blast into its face, this time managing to blast off one of its mandibles. It shrieked in a scream of rage and pain, but it didn’t stop.

“Just a little more,” I muttered, waiting until the monster stopped long enough for me to get leverage. Then I pulled on my hammer and broke off another piece of the shattered shell. “NOW.”

I wasn’t ready to fire another invocation, so had to rely on Maya. She came rushing towards me and drove her spear deep into the opening. The monster staggered and then began to spasm, as though it was having a seizure.

“I think we just lobotomized the damn thing,” I said, even as I was knocked off the monster’s head.

“Acupuncture to the brain,” Maya agreed.

The monster continued to spasm and flail around mindlessly, but it was no longer attacking any of us directly. That gave us the chance to move into position and hit it with everything we had.

I fired an ‘Invocation of Spite’ into its head while Olivia and Ace did the same thing with their ranged attacks. After this, it gave one more enormous spasm before collapsing entirely.

“It looks like that did it,” Turtle announced. “Centipedes are so creepy.”

“Way too many legs,” Olivia agreed with a shudder.

“Like a spider, but ten times worse,” Bunny added with a shudder of her own.

I paused, noticing the red sparks that were going off around me again. As soon as the centipede had stopped moving, all the little biters returned. I muttered a few choice profanities.

Everyone else muttered their own curses and quickly scrambled to cover their exposed skin again. Much of our bug protection had come loose during the fight and needed to be replaced before the biters started feasting again.

“Is anyone else thinking what I am?” Turtle asked, indicating the centipede’s body.

“I have no idea what you’re thinking,” Ace responded.

“The guys we’ve been chasing have been killing every monster they run across,” Turtle pointed out. “If this thing was here waiting for us, then they obviously didn’t kill it…”

“Did they really come this way?” Olivia asked with a worried note in her voice. “Did we go the wrong way?”

I pulled out my chrome sphere and felt it tugging the same way that we’d been going. “This thing says we’re going the right direction.”

“That bug might have shown up after they already went past,” Bunny suggested, though she didn’t sound confident in that.

I was about to respond to Bunny when three things suddenly happened at once.

Ace exclaimed, “There’s a treasure box.”

At the exact same time, Olivia announced, “I’ve just been offered another ability.”

And then there was the new popup that suddenly appeared in front of me.

YOU MAY UNLOCK A NEW ABILITY. SELECT ONE OF THE CHOICES BELOW

-ABSORB
-SYPHON
-RESIST

I stared at my new popup in surprise. I’d just been offered a new ability, and one that hadn’t come directly from some primal. This was how it worked for other classes, but not invokers. Not usually. Wolf told me that invokers were occasionally offered abilities this way, but that it was uncommon.

The ability options didn’t have any descriptions with them, but that didn’t seem to matter. As with so many other things involving the system, there seemed to be more going on in the background than was actually shown. I had an instinctive but vague understanding of what each of those abilities actually did.

Off to the side, Ace called out, “The treasure box has a hand axe…”

“I’ll take it,” Bunny said. “I can use a real weapon for when something gets too close. The scepter is great, but I need something more.”

“I don’t have a problem with that,” I said, barely paying attention.

Everyone else agreed so Ace handed the weapon to Bunny. I looked up and saw that it was a one-handed axe, the kind that was closer to being a tomahawk with a small axe head on one side.

I noticed that all of Bunny’s rabbit summons were gone, having already been killed by the swarm of biting insects that had returned the moment the centipede was gone. I felt bad for the things, though they’d be back the next time Bunny summoned them.

“There’s also a gem,” Ace said. “It looks like a ruby or something…”

“Blood quartz,” Maya said. “I’ve seen it before.”

Turtle leaned forward for a closer look. “I’ve heard of that stuff before. Apparently, its good for jewelry.”

“I have a new ability,” Olivia announced excitedly.

She’d said something along those lines just a couple minutes ago, but she’d been staring off into space since then. Considering my own new popup, I assumed that she had probably been offered a choice and had been trying to decide between her options.

“What’s that?” I asked, putting my own choice on hold for a little longer.

I couldn’t see Olivia’s face through the covering that was protecting her from the biting insects, but her voice and posture both screamed ‘excitement’.

“Force wall,” Olivia answered. “I can create a wall of force in front of me, to protect from attacks. Since I have a specialization in force magic, it seemed the best option.”

“Awesome,” Bunny exclaimed, practically bouncing with excitement. “What were your other choices?”

“Arcane bomb,” Olivia answered, “and zone of silence.” She paused for a moment before explaining. “Arcane bomb would have been a powerful attack, while zone of silence would have been good for sneaking around.”

“Offense, defense, or stealth,” Turtle commented. “Good choice.”

“Yeah,” Ace agreed. “You needed a bit more defense.”

“Okay,” Maya said. “We should probably get going again…”

“Not just yet,” I said. “I was just offered a new ability too, and I need to look over my choices.”

That immediately got everyone’s attention, and they began asking questions. However, I ignored that and focused instead on my choices.

My first choice, ‘Absorb,’ was a passive ability that would let me absorb primal magic from the air around me. Instead of just feeling it tickling my skin, I would soak it up like a sponge. However, I had absolutely no idea of what I could possibly do with that energy.

‘Syphon’, the second option, was similar to ‘Absorb’, but instead of just soaking up the primal magic around me, I would be able to steal it directly from a primal. That had the potential to be even more powerful, but it had the same downside of my not knowing what I could do with that magic.

Then, after a little consideration, I realized that there was one more downside to that option. I doubted that any primal would be happy about my stealing power from them. This was effectively an attack, one that could easily turn a neutral primal into an outright enemy.

“And how many primals have I actually run into?” I mused.

The last of my options was ‘Resist’, which would protect me from primal magic. That would be useful…if I ran into aggressive primals or invokers, and especially if I was performing the same role that Turtle did. However, I couldn’t see that one being too useful to me, certainly not enough to pass up better options.

“So, my choice is a passive ability with an unknown payoff,” I mused, “or a highly situational attack that makes enemies, but has an otherwise unknown payoff.”

I considered these options for a few more seconds before making my decision. I didn’t have the time for long consideration, so I just went with my gut. As soon as I mentally clicked on the popup, a new popup appeared and took its place.

NEW ABILITY ACQUIRED: ABSORB

I took a moment to get a better understanding of my new ability. Now that I had ‘Absorb’, I didn’t actually know much more than I had about it before. It looked like I’d have to wait and see what came of this new power.

“I have a new ability,” I announced. “Let’s get going. I want to get away from these damn bugs as soon as possible.”

“You were the one holding us up,” Ace reminded me.

“Don’t bother me with the details,” I responded, waving it off with a gesture as I started walking down the path. “We have bastards to catch, and I want to get back to it.”