341 3.3

They'd been working incredibly hard this whole time. I hit the ground hard in the backlines. Near where Aurora was resting. The sun was low on the horizon. We'd been fighting for nearly ten hours already.

Savannah seemed intent on continuing to fight, but Jax came to the back lines not long after I did.

{GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE,} I mentally shouted at her.

I'd waited for her to be clear of a fight before shouting at her, but she still flinched like she'd been slapped. We were off to the side of some sort of camp for the wounded. The fight was manageable thanks to the queens distress. I dropped my head down to the ground slowly. There was a big hole in my neck so no one was questioning why I was there.

Aurora woke a while later. She wanted to heal me, and the others, but I shot her down. She needed to recover her mana completely before she ran around healing people, and I could heal myself. Ethan sat near my head as I rested. Jax just lay splayed out in the grass.

Savannah actually took one of the offered cots. I wasn't able to sleep until they were all with me. Aurora forced her way in close to me, and I let her. Her shining white scales making my dull black ones appear even darker in the fading light. I woke long before daylight, and stood slowly so I wouldn't disturb Aurora's sleep.

The fact that I only needed four hours sleep to call it a full nights sleep was nice. I stretched leisurely, and stepped away from the resting area. I leapt over the backlines, and back into the fray. The hole in my neck had shrunk to nearly half its former size. I snarled, and growled at the few spiders that remained on this side of the chasm.

The chasm was well over half full of water now. Now there were more dead spiders down in the water then there were living ones. The queen was still alive. I hadn't gotten XP from her yet. Many of the men here looked tired, and worn, but they weren't done in just yet.

It was hard to tell how the lizardmen were doing. I snorted angrily before leaping into the sky again to head the direction I was sure the spider queen was in. I was enjoying the fight even if I'd taken quite the beating in the first half. This was the first time I'd be going into the fight with the vast majority of my mana available. I fell into a calm glide pattern as I scanned the surroundings.

The lizardmen seemed to have cleaned up most of their spiders. The humans were the only ones that had fallen a bit behind. They weren't doing too bad, but the fact that they were weaker then the lizardmen was showing. The trail of bodies leading to the queen was a long one. She seemed to rely heavily on her subordinates.

Her own individual strength wasn't to be messed with either. She was strong enough to stop most from harming her if they did manage to get close. We weren't supposed to get close in the first place. She was incredibly physically strong, and thickly armored. Her legs were something of a weak point.

She was still dragging herself along to flee. Her screams were quieter now. The layers of her kin had thinned. The lizardmen had adopted a strategy of throwing spears, and keeping their distance. The queen was still dragging herself along.

I bathed her outer layers in lightning. The hole in her armor became visible after just one pass. Maybe I should widen that hole. I smirked. My smirk dropped when the hole in my neck throbbed.

Widening the hole was a bad idea. I'd have to slip through the hole at the size it was now. Shrinking down was the best way to get inside of her. I was in a bad habit of tearing big enemies apart from the inside. This is going to be gross.

I sorted through the beasts I'd eaten to find a smaller one I could transform into. I had a few different options. A human body might fit through that hole, but human wasn't ideal. The wings of my hybrid form made it a poor option as well. Those snake creatures with the arms came to mind next.

Claws apposable thumbs, and lots of teeth. Perfect. I was switching forms before I got close. Going into freefall as I descended on her. I hooked my clawed fingers on the edge of the hole, and pulled myself in.

I drug my whole body into her soft insides. It didn't take me long to hit something that felt like an overly strong rubber band made of flesh. I bit down into it. Injecting as much venom as I could into the quickly hardening flesh. The tissue in my mouth instantly went hard as stone.

I felt the stone break as I bit down even harder. It was time to get going. This whole thing was going to turn to stone, and I didn't have much time. The queen's agonized screams reached me even in here. I could feel her turning to stone around me as I struggled to make it back to the hole.

I had less, and less room to move as she solidified around me. Until I had no room to move at all. It was disorienting in here. I had no clue where I was or if I was anywhere near the hole I'd dug out. I tried to wriggle in place, but there was nowhere to wriggle. I could taste the rock on my tongue with my mouth stuck open.

Now that she was entirely rock around me I could feel something else. The daggers that Ethan had dug into her earlier. I let loose a massive amount of lightning like I'd done before. Just like before the daggers drew in my mana. Charging up for a few minutes until it exploded just like the last time.