Monster Breeder

63. Under the Mountain, Part 9: Sunlight

“Alex, what’s going on?” Opal asks with concern.

The screaming is getting louder. “Let’s get out of here.”

I grab Spindle’s cocoon and strap it on like a backpack, with the silk adhering to my armor nicely. Taking my Kobold bride by the hand with Blood Star gripped in the other, I make an impromptu exit in the nearest wall.

The Lizardmen aren’t trying to get in the building now that Malik is dead and all the black collars are gone. Instead, there’s chaos as Lizardmen and Kobolds scatter. No, there’s something approaching organization. The Lizardmen are forming a barrier with their bodies while the Kobolds retreat in the opposite direction.

“Hey, you’re the aberration who killed Malik, aren’t you?” one of the armored Lizardmen approaches me. Actually, I recognize him as one of the Lizard-trans-men I spotted earlier. I raise Blood Star, and he raises his empty palms in surrender. “Please, help us!”

“Help you?” I raise an eyebrow in consternation at one of the reptiles who stole my bride and tried to kill me.

“Opal!” yells the red-scaled Kobold from before as she rushes over with the other scaly girls I recognize: blue, green, yellow, and orange. They’re all carrying at least one, even two or three eggs each bundled in their arms. A cadre of juvenile Kobolds follows close behind.

“Garnet!” my lizard wife embraces the other red carefully and takes one of the eggs off her friend’s hands. At this point, I know I don’t have much choice.

I sigh heavily. “Alright, what’s this about?”

“Servitors!” someone shouts from nearby. The chaos becomes a cacophony after that as battle is joined. The barricade of Lizardmen holds the line against a wave of skittering death as we watch.

Oh, fuck. The runic barrier Spindle and I crossed… it disappeared along with the black collars. Now, all the Servitors the Weblings amassed to conquer the region are flooding through the caverns to wipe out the lizard-folk.

“Kobolds, retreat through the eastern caverns to the surface! Lizardmen, to me! We’ll hold them off as long as we can! Miss aberration, please, if you came to save one Kobold, don’t leave the others to be slaughtered!”

Damn, when he puts it like that… I can’t protect her if we’re surrounded by hundreds of Servitors anyway.

“Opal, go with them! I can follow trails like a wolf, and I can track your marker.” She glances down at the heart-shaped tattoo (and the image of our infant Mandragora son inside) on her tummy. “I’ll find you!”

“Alex, what about you?” she says with tears in her eyes.

“I’ve got my armor, and Flou,” I say as I heft Blood Star. “Now, go!”

Women and children (and a few femboy Kobolds) flee as I join the Lizardmen.

It’s a bloodbath.

Here come the spider-crab Servitors crawling on the floors and ceiling by the hundreds. The Lizardmen stand shoulder to shoulder in their armor banging makeshift weapons and shields together to get the buggers’ attention. Sharpened steel implements rise and fall against the tide, skewering and hacking at the critters as they leap at throats and faces. Servitors drop from the ceiling onto helmets; some fangs are repelled by steel, while others find gaps at the neck or slide through visors.

The Lizardmen defend their home and people by laying down their lives. They smack airborne pests midflight with their shields, catch falling bugs on their spearpoints, and cleave Servitors in twain with butcher knives. All the while, the tide comes in and they’re forced to retreat.

I step into the gap as a reptilian falls to be swarmed and covered by the hoard. Blood Star sings in my grip, sweeping over the ground to clobber half a dozen Servitors at once. Flou fires her spikes into the crowd with impunity, almost guaranteed to reap a life with every shot without having to aim, then harvests the spilled blood to replenish herself.

Our line thins the more ground we cover, but the warriors at my side refuse to go down easily after their weaker brethren are culled. I see Black Widow Weblings and Jumpers in the dim distance crawling on the ceiling, shooting webs at stragglers, picking off those on the edges of the line, and directing Servitors to increase their effectiveness.

As we reach the end of the cavern, our line has to negotiate a narrow tunnel without breaking ranks.

“I’ll go last,” I offer, committed to seeing this through.

While the lizards turn tail and run, Flou and I become an extermination machine. I smash several Servitors into a crater. Flou lays suppressing fire on the buggers trying to flank me. I do a spin attack to clear the immediate vicinity. Dozens of Servitors leap at me or fall on me.

Only my training with Predator Sense against the Slimes in the Misty Grove saves me. I drop Blood Star to summon two spears and twirl them defensively to stop all my attackers. Flou molds herself into an extra layer of spiky red crystal armor over my crustaceous chitin as she continues to shoot as fast as she can grab spilled blood for more ammo.

I’m last into the tunnel soon overrun by Servitors covering every inch of the walls, floor, and ceiling. Retreating over dry ground means Flou has to conserve her ammunition. We’re back to spears and spiked pseudopods in a defensive array as the enemy continues to throw itself at me.

My reflexes almost pulverize the Lizardman who lays a hand on my shoulder to get my attention but, for all my physical and mental exhaustion, I’m not yet that far gone. It’s the Lizard-trans-man who organized the cavern defense.

“The tunnel forks here. I saw the Servitors didn’t attempt to slip past while you guarded the entrance for us. Is that a Webling on your back?”

“Huh? Yeah.” I’m stabbing and twirling my spears as I talk.

“They’re going after you to retrieve your cargo. If you go the other way, they’ll follow you and lose track of us. Can you escape on your own?”

I bet he’s right. The Weblings would love to get their claws on Spindle now that she’s evolving. “I’ve got this. Go.”

If this works, it may be my and Opal’s best chance to survive, not to mention the lizard-folk refugees and our unborn child.

“Good luck… miss warrior.”

“It’s Alex!” I call after his retreating form as I smack down another five Servitors jumping at me. “Flou, give me an opening.”

The Red Slime spends two-thirds of her mass on a wave of spikes that clears enough of my assailants for me to turn and run.

Wolf Rush!

I can’t keep this pace for long, but I need a little breathing room here. As far as I can tell, the plan works, and the vast majority of the Servitors pursue me into the wrong tunnel. Dumb swarm beasts follow the critter in front of them rather than use their senses or logic to discern where the largest number of prey went.

Barreling through endless tunnels in the dark with a hoard of bloodthirsty buggers at your back really gets a gal’s blood pumping!

At last, there’s a narrow point I manage to squeeze through. Earth Magic seals the gap behind me as the lead Servitor sticks its leg through the opening, severing the appendage. I sigh, but not for long. The skittering sound of chitin on stone echoes throughout the underground cave system all around me.

I’ve got no map, no trail, and only a vague sense of where Opal is by her mark. Instead, I take a bet that I’ll find an exit if I keep going up. With Spider Climb, it’s possible.

My ascent isn’t without obstacles. Webs obscure the upper caverns, and I have to burn through them multiple times, causing more Weblings to scurry away in retreat. The coughing fit I have to deal with from smoking in an enclosed area isn’t fun. However, following the rising smoke leads me to the nearest source of fresh air.

And there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

Somehow, one way or another, I’m finally out of the fucking underground.