A Hive of Bone and Chitin [A Biomancy and Hivemind Litrpg Adventure]

The neat thing about knowing when a battle would occur and where was that one could rig it beforehand. One could prepare a strategy. One could be smart about it. Find the best moment to strike.

For capturing and binding a fire elemental, that meant choosing to fight by the riverside. The smell wafting from the Nyrum was as horrific as ever but the humidity made it worth it. And then there was the fact that there were a lot of us and only one fire elemental once Fahria called upon it. There was me, Agitjin, Fahria herself, Medea, a few of Medea's spawn, and two other humans that I didn't know but Fahria was sure we could trust. One was armored in panels of purplish energy and had no weapon in sight. Hufgir was his name. The other one was called Varni and had the exact same armor. Probably some kind of harmonic skill if I had to hazard a guess. Harmonic skills were neat, they increased in potency with everyone else in the vicinity also using the same skill at the time. They were almost exclusively the domain of organized armies, mercenary outfits that trained people from childhood, cults, and the likes, people who could accept their own skill development being subsumed for the many or those whose development was controlled from the beginning. That meant these were likely people from an organization that Fahria had a deal with. I switched over to mana vision to see if I could discern what the skill was, to no avail. Vespia and her hive would love to have a harmonic skill to share between them. Speaking of which, the wasps were going to sit this one out because I was sure that they would burn up if they tried to fight a flaming spiritual creature in melee. Note to self: get some ranged offense.

The two strangers didn't speak much, strictly professional without any desire to fraternize beyond just getting to know what role everyone else could play and how we could work together. Before long, Agitjin was animatedly discussing tactics while I occasionally piped in whenever some clarification about Medea was needed from me.

Fahria stood silently, having seamlessly transitioned to the always calm, composed, and ruthless young woman she turned into whenever anything even marginally related to her family came up. Then she cleared her throat and we stood at attention. Hasten Swarm and Enlarge Swarm ready to be cast in a second. We were not right at the edge of the river, no elemental that would answer the call of blood so close to hated water but it was close. Close enough that with effort, we could beat it back into the river.

"It's time. I'm calling the elemental now."

To my eyes, nothing changed other than the heat slightly rising but to my mana sense, a lot of things were happening. The sky above Fahria seemed to be breaking, cracks of a substance that was beyond the very idea of color spread until it all collapsed like the ground falling into a hollow subterranean cavern. To my eyes the air started shimmering. To my mana sense, something was moving in that debris. Finally, both became one and a maned lion with a miniature sun for a face leapt out. Behind it, the fractures were all gone as if they had never existed. I cast the buff spells.

Fahria's voice rang.

"As an heiress to the legacy of the Great Ancestor, I name thee, feral beast of fire without a name, Ashfell. Submit to me, be subsumed by me, and become a part of something greater than your meagre existence will amount to. Submit to me in soul, in essence, in system, and in all the ways that you believe yourself superior. Acknowledge your inferiority to me and accept that." Personally, I was not really the type to of girl to have a sense of pride like that — if anything, I had the exact opposite issue — but even I thought the speech was kind of pompous. Unfortunately, it was necessary to keep the phoenix's blood happy.

The newly christened Ashfell somehow roared without a mouth and swiped a claw that met a wall of interwoven glass. The wall melted and its claws glided like butter before they turned solid again, trapping it. The two clad in purple energy armor stabbed at its flank with massive spears of crackling purple energy when it paused. They only got to hurt it a couple of times though, even with their stats. With a twist of its body, it broke out and jumped to safety: Medea emerged from the ground to grab the feline's paw and thrust it into its whirring motor jaw.

Sparks flew and a metallic screech made me wince.

The other spider-scorpions crawled on Ashfell, biting, scratching, and stinging before they all inevitably let go once their bodies started emitting smoke. Varni and Hufgir summoned several floating panels of that purple that pulsed in unison and sent forth homing bolts of energy. Glass spikes tried to skewer it. Agitjin encased a limb in a shredding vortex of mana and Medea further tightened its now red hot jaws and the tendrils lurking within. Despite all that, the lion seemed unbothered and with another heavy swipe, it caved a quarter of Medea's skull in. It let go with a hiss of agony and sank into the ground to heal. Ashfell spun, creating a circular wave of white-hot fire around it that made the eyes of my swarm hurt.

Now free of its restraints, Ashfell went on the offensive. Its first target was Agitjin, presumably because he seemed the most frail to it, Fahria, and the other two. I was, for now, keeping some distance. I was strictly a healer here. If I was back at the Illustris Palace, with an abundance of lifeblood to freely use, and no worries about regression at all, I could have contributed more directly but not here, not now. If I was pushed to the point of needing to use Swarm Aspect then it was either a true emergency or we had already lost. I could possess my swarm and use them to heal and that was what I did, flitting across the battlefield as an unmoored consciousness. And so, I could see exactly what was happening, from almost any angle I desired.

Ashfell didn't lunge at Agitjin, it shot forth a quick spray of fire that was hot enough to incinerate one of my weaker spider-scorpions that was in the way. Agitjin weaved mana into a construct that looked like several grills layered over each other. It was not solid. As the fire made contact, it was funneled through the gaps, mana taking the path of least resistance until it dispersed harmlessly through the sides. I was not sure if it was really that much better than just a solid barrier but I was no physicist and didn't really know how fire was supposed to work, and that was without counting mana. The shot was neutralized but Ashfell had used it to close the distance, its mane flaring up and becoming rigid like a kid's picture book's depiction of the sun. Ashfell's face slammed into a barrier that shattered, absorbing most of the (but not all) of the energy of the attack. Agitjin tried to dodge, instantly teleporting to his left. Ashfell had anticipated it somehow and at the last moment, it landed and turned. Agitjin emerged to find Ashfell waiting with another fireball primed. He went flying and Ashfell followed, before it was blocked by a barrier of purple with spikes jutting out of it. With the way my mana sense was seeing multiple strands, it was cast by both Hufrig and Varni. Before the dust even settled, twin streaks of purple smashed enormous fists encased in energy with enough force to make Ashfell slam into the ground with its legs splayed. Medea remerged and this time, it attacked from the rear. Boulders crept up along Ashfell's other legs. Then tendrils of flesh tipped with spears and lined with spinning saws of teeth writhed and began to chip away at the creature. It growled in irritation and the fires around its body turned brighter.

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Ashfell was yet to be seriously hurt but a death by a thousand cuts was a death the same. In all this, Fahria hadn't made a move and the reason became apparent soon.

A gigantic globe of glass, glistening and glinting against the glare of the gruesome giant lion was floating in the air: it was full of the dirty polluted water of the Nyrum River. As Ashfell struggled to extricate itself, the globe's bottom half disappeared, unloading gallons of water on the flame elemental. Water vaporized with a deafening hiss but that was dwarfed by the earth-shaking roar of fury that followed.

"Submit now and spare yourself further suffering, Ashfell the feral, lest your final epithet be Ashfell the broken." Fahria intoned.

Ashfell didn't even wait for the steam to clear, the way it leapt at her was answer enough. It was different now. I froze my perception of time to better examine what had changed. For one, it was smaller. That was expected, it would regrow its power soon enough. Secondly, a set of fiery spectral jaws now emerged from the sun of its face. These jaws didn't have flesh or eyes, not even a full skull, just whatever was needed for a jaw to snap and bite. For a jaw to kill.

The sound of shattering glass, repeatedly four times over: constructs buying time for their creator to flee on wings of molten silicate. Even then it was obvious that she wouldn't make it. A spider-scorpion tackled Ashfell under my command and perished but it had done what it had to. Fahria rotated mid-air and instead of taking her head off, Fahria only lost an arm. Fuck. Well, at least I could fix it up later. Thankfully it was not bleeding, Ashfell's heat having cauterized the injury as it was inflicted.

While all of it was occurring, I was racing over to Agitjin to get him back in the fight.

Medea, Hufgir and Varni were back in the fray already and slowly, working together, were pushing the blazing lion back.

"Thanks. That thing is smarter than I expected." Once Agitjin was stable and able to cast again, I blitzed over to Fahria.

"No. Leave it for now. The thing needs to see that what it thinks is a minor victory doesn't matter." Fahria spoke through a half melted face, her tone flinty. Fahria rose up and began to fly closer, a mad glint in her eyes that seemed to be at odds with her composed expression and tone. More phoenix nonsense.

I hated to admit it but it was a bit of a stalemate. The most damage we had managed to inflict so far had been when Fahria had doused it in a pond's worth of water but now Ashfell was cautious and kept an eye to the sky at all times.

Even so, the plan was proceeding smoothly. Sure, there were closer calls than I would have liked and injuries but slowly, we have been pushing Ashfell closer to the river.

And so, when the time came, the impact from a well-timed explosion of mana from Agitjin, and two punches from the purple duo were enough to send Ashfell airborne. Airborne, without any traction, helpless to avoid being moved when Medea expanded to its full size and tackled it mid-air straight into the waiting Nyrum river.

The river boiled, steam rose, the elemental struggled, but Medea held on for dear life. I even summoned Vespia just to help now that it was not risking being carbonized. The haze killed mundane visibility as the elemental turned the water around it to steam, and yet, more water rushed in to fill the gap.

Ashfell thrashed and roared and yet we all held it down, me through my two generals, Fahria through weights of glass pushing it down, Agitjin with his spells, Hufgir and Varni with chains that were materialising faster than the eye could track. It felt a lot like drowning someone by holding their head underwater but I couldn't argue with the results. Ashfell was losing mass at an alarming rate. Fahria stared stonily at the dying elemental until she snapped her finger and we stopped.

Ashfell was brought up. Its spectral head hung low, a flickering orange being the only hint of the sun that lay behind. It was a tough balancing act. We couldn't risk killing Ashfell but we had to break it enough that it was incapable of resisting.

"Feral beast of flame, broken beast of flame, bow before your mistress, your new deity. Bow and your end will be to serve my ascension. And bow you shall, by bending the knee or by having them shattered, you will bow." Her voice rang clear and loud, dripping nothing but disdain for the creature that had almost killed her. I noticed her claws and wings were more prominent and larger than usual.

Ashfell answered by opening its jaw until it was almost flat. A beam of searing light faced towards Fahria. This time, Fahria's barriers didn't break.

Back to the water, Ashfell went.

This repeated three times before Ashfell finally stopped attacking Fahria. Of course that didn't mean it had given up. We couldn't be sure and starting the Absorption when its will was yet to break was not possible. Fahria strode over and slapped the lion with her remaining hand as hard as she could. Ashfell growled and began struggling anew. Fahria sighed.

"Dunk it in again. And this time, let's make it even longer." I didn't know what the phoenix actually was but there were a lot of things centering in pride about it. The Shakirns were prideful and it was the source of their power. The elemental was prideful and that pride had to be annihilated. Fahria started hallucinating affronts to her pride whenever she grew her blood's power.

The next time Ashfell came up again, it only cowered and whimpered. Finally it was over.

Fahria placed her hand on the orb Ashfell had for a face and Ashfell started to distort. She had to be quick, otherwise the elemental's powers would fade since its will had shattered. First its claws turned to wisps that rushed into Fahria's mouth and her claws elongated even more. Then Ashfell shrunk and Fahria grew taller and slightly more muscular. Then cracks of glowing white formed on its body. Finally, the orb cracked and shattered in a flash of white. Once the light faded, Fahria was panting. This was the final step. She would be unable to use any mana for a few hours, making it the perfect time to strike. I scanned the area with my swarm again, just to be sure.

"Huff… excellent work every—" Fahria froze. So did everyone else, including me. A wedge of iron impaled Medea's skull, injuring but not killing it. Movement returned and I saw a similar wedge pinning Hufgir to the ground through his stomach. I barely managed to dodge the one that was coming for me.

The neat thing about knowing when a battle would occur and where was that one could rig it beforehand. One could prepare a strategy. One could be smart about it. Find the best moment to strike. The bad thing was that it applied to everyone.