The Swarm Of Iron (5/6)

The sounds of insects crawling over the ground resonated throughout the large room Rias' peerage found themselves into. Knowing from where the insects come from, they were able to hold the tunnel relatively well but more importantly without losing too many resources. Kiba had created multiple swords that generated a huge amount of weak flames and put them on the ground. Although it continuously burned through his mana, literally, it also staved off most of the swarm incoming their way. The fact that the insects were simply disappearing after being killed off gave away the fact that they were mana constructs and not actual insects.

Koneko was in charge of paying close attention to any bug that could have been slipping through their defence. Due to the residual heat created by Kiba's fire swords and the concentration required for her task, multiple beads of sweat could be seen sliding down her face. The swarm was extremely concentrated and nobody on Rias' team could guess just how many insects have already been destroyed and how many just kept coming. This could either mean that this was the strongest attack whoever created these insects was going to be sending their way in the best-case scenario, or thus meant that they were against a really strong enemy.

Rias regretted not taking this whole thing seriously. If she asked help from her brother, she would at least have gotten scouts and people that could have helped them in this situation. With only her peerage, she could only hope that the waves of insects would not continue for long.

But suddenly Koneko's attention was distracted from the tunnel in front of them and she turned fearfully towards the tunnel on the opposite side of the room. Rias noticed this and guessed what happened, she clicked her tongue and shouted, " Kiba, how many more of these swords can you create and for how long can you keep them?! " The incessant sounds of the insects making it difficult to hear each other, Kiba shouted back, " Not much President! Possibly 5 or 6, but any more and my mana would go down too rapidly! "

Rias stopped dead for a second before making her decision, " Very well, we're retreating! Keep the swords here until we all enter the tunnel we came from! " Akeno looked a bit shocked at the proud Rias going back on her decision, but considering the danger of the situation and how ill-equipped they were for this type of enemy, it was the most sensible decision to make. As the group ran towards the entrance tunnel, Kiba cut off his mana supply to the flame swords located on the right tunnel and summoned back a couple to put them behind them. This would slow down tremendously the swarm of insects.

The way back to the surface was quite lengthy but since the tunnels were narrow, they would be able to fight off the swarm more easily as they wouldn't need to aim nor would they need to use multiple attacks to hit a large portion of the targets. Kiba, being significantly faster than the rest of his friends, kept the pace while looking back once in a while. He couldn't hear nor see any insects, so he assumed that the swords he placed were doing a good job. His mana had taken a noticeable dip though, and it kept decreasing. He wouldn't be able to keep the mana supply going for long before getting dangerously low on mana.

As the group were nearing the exit, or so they thought thanks to the excellent memory being a devil entailed, Kiba had to cut off his mana, and the swords disappeared. The swarm then sped through the long tunnels and chase the Gremory group.

" President, the enemies are incoming and they're very fast! " said Kiba. Rias nodded while running and flying towards the exit. Due to the state of the tunnels, they could not afford to continuously fly through them even if this would allow them to leave the cave much faster. Koneko was much faster with her feet than with her wings so she didn't even bother using them, she instead displayed great agility and led the group towards the exit.

The long tunnels exhausted the group, slowly chipping away their stamina, while the unending waves of insects just kept increasing their speed, seeming possessed to eat the devils that invaded their breeding grounds. The sound of the fastest insects among the swarm was starting to enter the ears of Koneko. " President, they're catching up. " she said, with the few words per sentences she was known for but the fear in her voice was easily noticeable. Rias nodded, " We should be close to the exit if I remember correctly, we'll just get out of here and ask for reinforcements! "

Abruptly, the walls opened to reveal a much bigger insect. Koneko cursed herself for not realized some were hiding in the walls, but when she saw the lustre coming from the carapaced members of the horrifying human-sized beetle, she realized this one was different and also much dangerous. " President! This one has metal- " The nekoshou tried to alarm her friends, but had to stop and screamed in pain as she was hurled into the opposite wall, her left arm having been chopped off by the metal beetle.

" Koneko! " screamed Rias as she promptly used her power of destruction to vaporize the metal beetle and dashed towards her rook, before wincing at the ugly sight of the lump that now Koneko had. The nekoshou didn't let that disturb her for long however, as she used a piece of her uniform to stop the blood from flowing out as much as possible and she started to run again. " President, w-we don't have much time! " she shouted through the pain of having her arm cut off. The metal insects were extremely fast and powerful enough to cut through her body easily. Now knowing that more might come from the walls, she prepared herself for the worse and dashed towards the exit once again, with her remaining arm ready to blast any enemy appearing from the sides.

The group had stopped for a moment due to the surprise attack and were now visible to the swarm of insects. Kiba threw two enflamed swords towards the insects and although it killed off a lot of them, it was useless in the end, as simply more joined the chase. With the insects slowly closing in, Akeno had no choice but to start attacking them. Lighting attacks wouldn't do much to a large number of enemies, at least not at her level, but she could heat the ground enough so that it becomes magma to slow down the progression of the swarm. She repeatedly heated the stone around the tunnel behind her and impressively slowed down the progress of the swarm. Rias while running, nodded towards her queen, but Akeno was too occupied with staving off the army of insects to acknowledge it.

Koneko had already punched through two giant metal beetles hiding in the walls, showing off her impressive strength, but she could feel the strain on her muscles. The metal using to create these creatures was far from normal metal, and she could feel the recoil every time she punched through one. As she realized that she would not be able to destroy these bugs for long and will soon lose sensations in her arm, she saw the exit. She could feel the breeze coming from the forest outside entering the cave. She couldn't help but smile a bit at the literal light at the end of the tunnel.

Before she could tell the rest of Rias' peerage, however, the exit abruptly disappeared, being closed by a dense and thick metal door that Koneko cursed herself for not detecting when they entered. She swore that she would not be overconfident ever again and that her lost arm would be a reminder for her and hopefully her team as well.

" President, exit closed by a metal door! " she shouted back to her friends that were behind her. Everyone's eyes widened in realization, but considering their firepower, a metal door wouldn't last long before them. Kiba threw to the ground yet another fire sword and started to feel a significant strain on his mana, as he huffed in exhaustion, not physically but mentally.

Akeno decided to let Rias blast the metal door open and concentrated on slowing down the insects even more. Although the magma generated by her attacks was still present, the insects that weren't flying simply climbed on the corpses of their comrades that died due to the heat. She continued to mark the ground with liquid stone and quickly killed hundreds of insects, but the swarm seemed unending.

Meanwhile, Rias tried to destroy the door with her power of destruction, but the door was barely chipped down. She knew now that the metal door was extremely thick and somewhat resistant to magic, the two things that could defend against the sheer firepower of her bloodline. She looked around the door, trying to go around the problem, only to find that all of the surrounding stone and dirt was replaced by the same metal. She clicked her tongue before concentrating her power, readying herself to cast a more powerful spell.

Koneko who saw Rias' actions felt fear invade her body because she realized that they were to die like rats. She decided to join Akeno and Kiba into fighting off the insects as standing near the door would not help them escape. More metal beetles had joined the fray, and she decided to take care of them until her limbs gave up.

The group felt a wave of pure evil go through their bodies, knowing it to be the sensation of a large amount of power of destruction being launched. While keeping an eye on the swarm and attacking it, now that the insects were but dozens of feet apart from them, they realized that the door was not completely broken through, but a huge chunk of it disappeared in smoke. Rias now knew that she would exhaust the entirety of her mana if she decided to make the whole door disappear and due to her poor control over her power, one that she now cursed when she realized that it was a big mistake, she could not concentrate on a small area her attacks. She decided that Akeno would be able to pierce through the metal much more efficiently, " Akeno, switch with me and pierce a hole big enough for us! I'll cover the back! " ordered the red-headed devil. Akeno wasted no time in following her king's orders.

She then continuously melted down the metal that remained until an opening was made. She then worked on widening the hole while the swarm was now too close to comfort to the group. Thankfully, Rias' power was much more fitting than Akeno's to kill the swarm. While she launched big balls of non-concentrated balls of power of destruction that decimated the legions of insects, the sheer number of them made it so that the balls disappeared pretty quickly. The insects gained ground while a door was gradually made through the dense metal that cornered the group like rats. Kiba was nearly out of mana and only had one last fire sword that he swung at the insects, blasting powerful waves of heat at the enemies.

" We can leave now! " shouted Akeno to the group. She left the cave first then blasted lightning towards the insects, making sure to keep enough mana to teleport them out and also not hitting her allies. Koneko exited the cave second and was on the lookout for any enemies that would appear from the outside. Rias then went through the relatively small hole through the metal door, but quickly realized that her hair got stuck in the melted metal around the make-up door. She wasted no time and cut off a large portion of her hair with a small amount of power of destruction before they could burn completely. Kiba left the cave last and threw his last fire sword before entering the teleportation circle that Akeno had prepared. Since they were out of the anti-teleportation barrier, they disappeared from the surroundings as the spell went off.