<~> Chapter 158

I looked over at the others standing behind the two of us. "When I suggested that you warn the others, I didn't think this would turn into a show," I said to Luna.

Piper shrugged. "When Luna says she wants to try out new magic, it's hard not to be interested. Besides, you might need a second opinion on its effectiveness in combat."

"Alright then, how are you planning on doing this?" I asked, turning to Luna.

Luna nodded and pointed at an empty space. ("It's probably best to just test it out in the open. Even the trees around here are made of rock, so I don't know how useful it would be to cast the spell near one of those. It would be better if I just focused on the structure of the magic first, rather than worrying about anything else.")

"What if it calls the beetle swarm?" Aria asked.

Maxwell shrugged. "Then we run. They didn't follow us down the stairs the last time. It shouldn't be a problem."

"Better watch closely, shorty. You might learn something," Aria told Iris.

Iris nodded enthusiastically, letting the shorty comment pass by this time. It was clear that Iris was quickly becoming just as obsessed with magic as my fiancé was.

("Alright, here I go,") Luna said.

A bolt of lightning shot from her fingers and struck an empty patch of ground. Rather than just a quick flash, the bolt crackled as she poured more energy into the point she had been shooting at. Near the impact, a ring of electricity was beginning to form. Luna grit her teeth as more and more mana went into creating this small ring of electricity. Suddenly, the ring finished forming, and the lightning bolt coming from Luna's fingers disappeared, leaving a ring of rapidly spinning electricity in a static loop.

Luna gasped for breath for a moment, but the ring of electricity continued to safely spin in place in the distance.

"I... kind of thought it would be more impressive. It's not doing anything," Iris admitted.

Luna wiped the sweat from her brow and smiled. ("That's just the first part. Now that it's formed, I should be able to arc lightning at anything that gets near it. It was difficult to form, but now that it's stable, it's surprising how little magic I need to keep it running.")

"So, how do we test it?" Maxwell asked.

"Why don't we shoot at it?" Aria said.

"Really?" Piper asked flatly.

"No, really! Helena taught us that lightning strikes metal, right? I'll shoot an arrow at it, and it should arc to it, right?"

Luna smiled. ("I think that's a good idea. Let's give it a try.")

Aria drew her bow and aimed it at the ring of electricity. "Ready?"

("Ready!") Luna called out.

Aria loosed the arrow, and it flew over to the ring in a fraction of a second. The moment it got near, an arc of electricity shot out at the arrow and it exploded with a high pitched sound before the loop of electricity went dormant again.

"Looks like I'm not getting that arrow back," Aria said with a frown.

I laughed. "What did you expect?"

Aria shrugged. "Fire? Not the entire thing blowing up."

"Well, that certainly looks dangerous. How is the mana cost?" Piper asked.

("Hmm. It costs a lot to cast, but it costs almost nothing to maintain. There was a bit of a spike when the arrow got near, but that's manageable. It seems like it would be good against crowds, but I am a little worried that it might eat up large amounts of mana against a swarm as large as the beetles,") Luna replied.

"Well, we're here to test things out and observe what happens to this floor when the moon is full. Would you be able to end the spell if the mana cost gets out of hand?" Maxwell asked.

Luna nodded. ("That shouldn't be a problem... but hmm...")

I tilted my head. "Something up, Luna?"

("I wonder if I could use one of the lightning shards to help with this. Similar to the way that Talia is able to empower her arrows, maybe it would make the lightning magic flow easier,") Luna said thoughtfully. ("Maybe we should test a few more things before I cut the magic though. Aria, would you be able to fire a few arrows at it in quick succession?")

Aria scratched the back of her head. "Well, I could, but eh... I suppose my arrows won't be that useful in this fight anyway. I'll shoot some of the cheaper ones I have, rather than the nice ones."

Luna nodded. ("Sounds great!")

"Okay, I'll do three shots, to both sides and above it. Ready?" Aria asked.

("Ready!")

Three shots sped across the gap, and three bolts of lightning hit each of the arrows when they got near, blowing these ones up too. It didn't seem like three arrows in quick succession changed much at all.

Luna shifted her weight and tapped her lip. ("Actually, the mana cost isn't too bad. It seems to be unexpectedly efficient against multiple targets. The cost doesn't seem strictly additive. It was like I got a bit of a discount for hitting three at once. I think this could work well against the beetles. I'm going to end the spell for now, though.")

Once released, the electricity went wild and shocked everything nearby before burning itself out. Luna winced. ("I'll have to be sure not to release it near anything I don't want to kill.")

"So that seemed really effective," Aria said with a chuckle.

Luna nodded. ("Better than I hoped, actually. It was hard to understand what Helena was trying to tell me about this Tesla coil she brought up, but it seems to have given me good insight, once again.") She turned to me and gave me a cute smile.

Maxwell scratched the back of his head. "That doesn't really help me or Piper much, though. We still need to find a way for us to contribute. I would hate to just stand here and do nothing while everyone else fights. It would remind me too much of some of the ghost floors in the Ironcastle dungeon."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Piper shrugged. "I don't like it either, but at least I would still be useful as a healer if I don't have anything else to do."

"Is it totally necessary that everyone help on this floor? There are plenty of times when arrows aren't the best option. I've just accepted that sometimes my skillset isn't useful for a situation," Aria said.

Maxwell sighed. "I know you're right... I just don't like it very much."

We hung out and relaxed while waiting for the moon to grow in the sky. For a little while, I almost thought that there wouldn't be any changes on this floor since we didn't get any of the same rainfall or anything like it, but once the moon was approaching the three-quarters full mark, the earth began to tremble.

"The ground's shaking! What is that?" Aria asked worriedly.

"Earthquake?" Iris asked.

"Unfortunately, I don't think it's that simple," I replied. I pointed in the direction of one of the nearest mounds. It was spitting out dozens of those beetle monsters a second, but luckily, they don't seem to be running straight for us.

"What are they doing?" Piper asked.

"Look!" Aria pointed to one of the mounds a bit farther away. It was also spitting out tons and tons of the beetles. At the same time, from the trees, different small insects were pouring out. They were burrowing out through the previously smooth stone. I couldn't tell what they were from here, but I was guessing they might be termites or ants. At least nothing looked like it was flying.

"What are they doing?" Maxwell yelled over the rumbling. Every moment that we watched, the shaking grew louder and louder as more and more of the insect monsters swarmed.

("They're not coming this way. I think they're fighting each other!") Luna said in surprise.

"What? Each other?" Piper asked in confusion.

Just as Luna said, the insects were completely ignoring us and running full speed at each other. When their swarms collided, they began to tear each other apart. That didn't explain the quakes though. There hadn't been anything like it the last time the beetle monsters came out of their hive to attack us.

("I'm going to put up another Tesla field!") Luna called out.

She found a spot between the two groups that hadn't collided yet and poured her mana into creating another ring of spinning electricity. This time it looked a little easier for her to cast, but she was still winded once it was set up. Some of the insects approached it on their mad dash toward their enemies, and I couldn't help but hold my breath while I waited for the first of the insects to enter the spell's range.

There was a loud zap as the high-pitched electricity arced toward the first of the insects and blew it up. Then dozens more as they continued to explode as they touched the edge of the field. Soon, the entire area was surrounded by insects, and anything that walked inside the ring died instantly as the Tesla coil spell arced lightning at anything that got near.

Luna wobbled on her feet. ("Whoa. That's weird.")

"Is it too much?" I called over the rumbling.

("Not... exactly. I think I can keep the field up for a while, but it keeps spiking and taking chunks of mana all at once. It doesn't feel like anything else I've ever cast before,") Luna said.

"Just cut it off if it becomes too much!" Maxwell yelled over the noise.

I looked up at the moon. The ground had been rumbling non-stop for several minutes now, and the moon was still moving along the sky. It moved as slowly as the last floor, which meant that this would probably keep up for a few hours. I'm not sure I could handle staying here with the constant earthquakes. It didn't seem to be causing any problems on its own, but it was really annoying.

"What about the gems?" Aria called over the noise. She pointed at the Tesla field Luna had created. Inside the area, the dead beetles were piling up. Like the ones we had taken back last time, each one was covered in some kind of tiny gem or crystal. It hadn't even been that long, and there was already a significant pile of valuables just lying there.

"Should we try to gather them somehow?" I yelled back.

"It might be too dangerous!" Piper called.

"I might be able to pull them toward us with my magic, but I would need a clear path!" Iris yelled.

If I put up some kind of barrier, would they go around it, or try to go over it? Maybe I could wall off the area with some of my frost salamander's icy mucus. "I'm going to try something!" I yelled.

I walked in front of the group and shifted into the frost salamander. The two fey hearts I ate made the transformation so much easier than it had been before. The instincts that trickled in from this monster wanted me to wall off an area to claim as my territory. What better place to claim than the area full of dead gem-covered monsters?

My back rippled as I inhaled and prepared to spit out my mucus. Luckily, this form wasn't all that bothered by the constant rumbling under my feet. I wasn't worried about something falling over on me, since the only things around were the rocks and stone trees, but I was a little worried about where the rumbling was coming from.

A cone of frost shot from my mouth and sprayed in the direction of Luna's Tesla field. It would have been nice if she had made it a bit closer, but she had been testing it for other reasons. The icy mucus froze on contact with the hordes of beetle and ant monsters and quickly turned their bodies into a wall. I did this a few times and created a funnel that would make it easy for Iris to drag all those gems toward us on the smooth ground.

("Iris, go ahead and pull now!") I told her using the rings.

("Got it!") Iris yelled. I winced at the volume of her reply, totally unnecessary when speaking through the rings. I would have to talk to her about that later.

First a breeze, then a current of air began to pick up from the direction we were facing. Because of how I positioned my ice walls, the gust of wind that pulled the gems toward us also yanked a bunch of the nearby monsters right through the Tesla field, killing them instantly as well. Eventually, I had to cut off the area so that they wouldn't keep blowing through forever. As soon as the frost went up to block the path, Luna finally cut off her Tesla field, and the monsters took the path of least resistance right into the gap she created, completely ignoring the small structure I had created using my ice.

A huge clatter of rocks and gems slid to our feet, and Luna sent a quick blast of fire across them to make sure everything was dead. Maxwell was quick to scoop up all of the small gems while I wobbled back onto my feet in my beastkin form. We had gotten a lot accomplished on this venture.

"Guys, I hear something!" Aria called out in panic. "I think something's coming up from underground!"

"Everyone to the stairs! That's the only place we can be sure won't be destroyed under our feet!" Piper yelled.

I shifted into my umber hound form and waited near Maxwell while he gathered the last of the gems. Everyone else had already run ahead to the stairs. It was good that we hadn't gone all that far from them. I could hear noises from all around us, like the sounds of subtle cracking. It stood out clearly to me from the general rumbling I had been ignoring until now.

"Got everything!" Maxwell called.

I suddenly had a bad feeling. I picked Maxwell up and threw him over my shoulder just as the ground started breaking apart. My footing suddenly felt really unstable as splinters of the enormous rocks under my feet shifted to odd angles. I ran and jumped from rock to rock as everything fell apart all around us. Through it all, the insect monsters continued to fight each other even as they fell into the gaps created by the fissuring landscape.

Everyone else had already made it safely to the stairs. It was like a small circle around them was completely immune to everything, even the tremors. Just a few more leaps, and I made it safely over the shattered marble that now surrounded us from all sides.

When I placed Maxwell down he patted me on the shoulder. "Thanks for that."

"No problem." I turned around and looked at the source of all the tremors and destroyed landscape. The fight between the small insects were nothing compared to the two giant bugs that were slamming into each other now. An enormous winged ant and a giant beetle with bright glowing red crystals on its back were fighting in the destroyed rocks around them. Since the giants breached the ground, the fighting beetles and ants were now glowing in different colors. Magic spells were wildly shooting in random directions from the insects. Something about the full moon above and the presence of their giant brethren empowered them with magic.

("This place isn't very safe anymore, not even to watch. We should leave,") Luna said.

I took one last look at the crazy battle between the four-story-building-sized giant insects and nodded. "Let's get out of here."

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