Arkiu and his team had no choice but to follow Galahad the stranger's plan of attack and rescue since the beginning. They carried no antidotes or specialized skills and he was the only one that was seemingly ready with a plan. It didn't matter if you was going to blow up a week's worth of effort in orbs, as long has he managed to help get back their friend, it was worth it. Tern only made ugly faces the whole way, not easing his grip on Elldry's spear or his bow up to the moment of executing the plan.
Once the crushing of the little hatchlings began, everyone else ran along the inside wall of the cavern and started readying to attack the Vesplugs from behind. The only one missing was the magician and Tass the superhearing archer as they started slicing at stingers, wings, and pincers.
Galahad started sprinting through the tunnel, wishing he just use Fury and Fyre to run faster. The only reason he didn't reveal the power was the Vesplugs were largely crowding the small space behind his as they gave chase. One or two would be able to fly in the tunnel, but their rage was making them reckless and just claw at one another to get to him first. They may not be as quick as they would be in the air, but their assortment of long hooked legs were certainly gaining some ground on Galahad.
He felt the tunnels around him start to shake as the Shift hit its peak. Thousands of tunnels all across Endora were now changing or being crushed to a new slate. The tunnel Galahad was running through was letting dirt fall loose from the ceiling and only mildly vibrating. Luckily, it wasn't one of the tunnels that would collapse on him, but that didn't do anything to stop the dozens of large problems still chasing him.
Once he reached the connection between the tunnels, Galahad was now looped back to where the team originally started. He was met with Tass aiming an arrow down the tunnel and the short magician next to him chanting loudly with his arms flailing to quick finish his earth magic skill. It may have looked like a betrayal where they stood, but the timing of their placement was Galahad's idea.
Tass started unleashing arrows over Galahad's shoulders and head, aiming at the eyes of the Vesplugs closest to him. Once a few in the front were taken out of the stampede, their distraught bodies stopped and started backing up the monsters behind them. The overflow of raging monsters gave Galahad a lot of distance and the magician his chance to finish.
"Collapse." He whispered and motioned both his palms down from eye level to waist. All the loose moving dirt and rocks from the tunnel ceiling began shaking even harder than when the Shift happened. The magician took all the mana he had to change the dirt above their heads to soft mud, and then drop ten tons of rubble on the Vesplugs.
Suddenly the angry monsters recoiled at their new predicament and started turning around. Most realized what was happening before it was too late and were crushed to death by the trap they ran right into.
When the tunnel came down, a wave of dust and the smell of insect guts were washed over the three standing unharmed near the cavern entrance. When the dust settled, they could hear the battle being waged inside the nest.
The first act of the plan was to either drive the swarm into the tunnel and hoped it collapsed with the dungeon resetting. If that didn't happen then the magician would use his biggest trap skill 'Quicksand' to convert the ceiling into a substitute shift.
Galahad was gasping after giving a full sprint without using his powers. When he straightened himself out, he watched the magician stumble over and Tass caught him into a sitting position. Something about that moment made him remember Rosetta collapsing from mana exhaustion, he felt his heart quicken for a second before suddenly going quiet in his chest.
Tass knelt down and checked the magicians complexion. The amount of effort it took nearly made him black out just from the tunnel. If he was another ten levels higher and stronger, then he would have had no problem effortlessly bringing the cavern down on the Vesplug's nest.
Tass made sure he stayed awake and spoke softly to him. "Don't worry, stay here and rest for a second, we'll be bac-"
"No." Galahad stopped him and started to look for the karmic plate in the magician's dark blue robes. "He goes up now, make sure he gets his crystal activated."
He shoved the plate he found into the archer's hand and started walking to enter the fight for the next act of his plan. He stopped when Tass yelled at him in questioning.
"Why should we send him up now? A few mana potions and he'd be able to help us bring down parts of the cavern."
". . . cause we need someone up there getting a medical team ready for your friend." Galahad didn't want to explain he just had an emotional flinch from his past that made him worry about sending the dazed magician back up. He hoped Tass wouldn't read into it and just take care of while he went to reenter the fight.
*****
The surprise attack Arkiu, Tass, and the female remainder of team had was a nice advantage to killing three of the giant insects unscathed.
That advantage was short lived as ten Vesplugs came pouring back out of the tunnel Galahad fled into, overwhelming the five adventurers to push back away from the tunnel and ended up giving them space to fly. Each one was capable of flying a few meters above the ground without conflicting one another and their aerial assault only made it worse for the adventurers to try and dodge the pincers, legs, stingers, and each other.
By the time Galahad was inside, he saw they were congregated in the center with the larva and Elldry, who didn't look like her Chi would keep her resistant to the poison for much longer. He came dashing out with Arkiu's emergency knife he stole out of its sheath when the leader grabbed him by shoulder before.
Galahad figured he would need something to protect himself when shit went sideways. He might have been brave enough to be the distraction, but he certainly wasn't dumb enough to to be going out there unarmed around a bunch of monsters in their cavern. He took the knife and jumped onto the back of a grounded Vesplug facing the other way.
He had wanted to make a smooth transition to its back and stab it in the neck, but he still reeked of bug innards. The Vesplug on the ground smelled him coming at the last second, it turned to find Galahad jumping and landing on its face instead.
Galahad adapted the best he could by stabbing the eye rapidly back and forth, getting doused in more blueish green slime. His attack was not the instant kill he was going for as the monster screeched in pain and swung him to the side by whipping its whole head in a frenzy.
Galahad was forced let go after two swings and bounced sideways off the ground with all the air leaving his lungs. Despite the impending feeling of panic he received from his air deprived lungs, he still rolled with the momentum and propped himself up to find another Vesplug swooping down at him.
He was wanted to run but there was a snapping noise that came out of his right elbow, it was supporting his weight until it made him collapse back to the ground. The monster was coming at him stinger first was too close now for him to escape.
His end was coming so suddenly in that instant, for some reason he didn't even blink at it.
'This is too fucking dumb, I'm gonna be 'O' for two with this rescuing shit.'
That's what Galahad thought angrily for a moment before an arrow came sideways through the Vesplug's head, going through one side of the head and out the other. Tern had let one of his arrows loose and killed the creature before it could rip Galahad apart.
The archer hadn't trusted the man called Solteer since the beginning of that night's encounter. The only reason he saved his ass from the pincer jaws of the Vesplug was he needed the stranger to create that last distraction he promised so they could help Elldry's Karmic plate activated the return spell. That was a twenty second conjuring of the spell that would be impossible to have with the entire cavern of flying monsters on their tails.
The insect corpse went limp in the air and its body landed half on top of Galahad who managed to avoid the main body crushing him to death. His eyes never part with the imminent death facing him head-on, so he was able to at least roll on the shoulder attached to his broken elbow so he was halfway out of the landing of the corpse.
Aside from the pain he felt bleeding into his right arm, Galahad felt a new pain piercing behind his left knee under the corpse that started feeling like it was made of sloshy water bags it began melting from the inside out.
He quickly dragged himself out from under it to find the broken end of the Vesplug's stinger was protruding from behind the knee and pushing the kneecap out at an odd angle. It had just managed to slip between the black thigh bracer and shin guard to impale incredibly far inside.
Galahad felt an icy and burning disorder growing beneath the skin of his leg, indicating a lot poison was flooding his body.
He propped himself up on his good leg and arm to see Tass exiting the tunnel with no one behind him. The adventurer had completed the mission he was told to do, now he was firing arrows at the monster's insect wings. Forcing them to be grounded and fight with their front legs and pincers.
Despite the pain and poison, Galahad started smiling as he stumbled up to stand. 'Perfect, now I just need them to start running.'
As Galahad began his limp, a bell dinged in his head and a window popped up to the side.
[ Poison Detected: Consume to Heal ]
[ Estimated time of incapacitation: 12:35 ]
[ 12:34 ]...
[ 12:33 ]...
[ 12:32 ]...
He started hobbling to the group with Tass catching up to help him move.
'Time to hurry up and play the sacrificial hero.'
*****
Out of the total twenty-nine Vesplugs; eleven were crushed in the tunnel, three were killed in the ambush, and four more died as Galahad and Arkiu's team made it to the middle.
The remaining eleven were buzzing around watching and waiting to attack. The mound of hatchlings turned out to be a temporary safe haven for the prey, where the insects were careful on how to approach, as to not get more of their children crushed and killed by the massive potential of food.
It was the biggest stockpile they ever had and with the whole bundle of seven adventurers, they'd be able to develop the most powerful generation of Vesplugs to appear since the ancient days of Endora.
One came too close to the cornered food out of excitement and received an arrow in each eye from the archers. After that, the pincer clacking increased in distress from the remaining ten.
Another attempted a divebombing from above and managed to put a heavy flesh wound on the food standing very closely to the smaller food they previously brought in. It managed to get a scratch in before one of its hind legs was sliced off and was forced to descend in haste as the missing limb made it fly like it was drunk.
*****
Galahad looked at his timer and saw just under ten minutes remained. He collapsed as the adrenaline of running for his life was dissipating and the injuries were buzzing with pain beneath the skin and muscle.
He watched from the sludge as the situation started taking a turn for the worst. Tass and Tern were down to their last few arrows; Arkiu and the assassin had begun prepping to move Elldry with weapons drawn to avoid getting attacked; and time was starting to run out.
Galahad had to keep a straight face as he pretended to act all grim and in severe pain. He was about to enact his final lie.
"I'm not moving anytime soon and you guys need to get her out of here." Galahad said as he grabbed at the leg with the end of the stinger still sticking out of the joint.
"What about yourself? You need medical treatment just as much her and now Tern." Said the assassin as he saw a bit of viscous fluid leaked from Tern's forearm. He had thrown himself out in front of Elldry before the second attack from above could make her condition permanently worse.
"You guys are gonna need that distraction I promised. Or did you forget we are standing on a massive amount of orbs you kindly donated." Galahad picked up an orb for example and threw it at Vesplug on the ground. It hit it square between the giant bug eyes and only managed to piss it off even more.
"What?! Were not leaving you here. We can leave together all at once." Akiu was shocked at the idea of leaving him behind after everything they had just done together. He didn't want to live with the fact that some put themselves into such a suicidal position to
"Nice idea, but these things will attack the moment we all pull out the crystals and stand still. Just take her out now, times almost up for her. I'll start firing off these orbs while you leave. Go, now!" Galahad tried sounding nonchalant, but his last demand came out somewhat desperate.
His hunger for the orbs was driving him mad as he wanted to blast his way down the list as quickly as he could. That sudden change in tone worked out well for him, it had made tears form in some of the adventurers' eyes.
Tern squinted his face at Galahad's lack of hope for survival, but that was brief. He was more concerned with Elldry's condition getting worse and now he was poisoned by the same thing. He put his bow back on his shoulder and synced up the Return spell for both himself and Elldry.
Just before he flashed away in a bright light, he looked back at Galahad with a very serious expression. "Thank you Solteer, I'll make sure people know what you did for us." The hatred didn't seem to leave his tone, but his face eased up when he spoke.
The two of them disappeared when the light peaked and now the group was down to six. The Vesplugs noticed the blinding light had just taken away some of their food and were now starting to get more restless, they started closing in with pincers ready to crush skulls before they could disappear into the darkness.
At that moment, everyone else on Arkiu's team look at him for the second time that night to decide if they should stay in the dungeon or leave. They didn't want to make the call of leaving someone behind to fend for themselves against nearly a dozen monsters, it felt like murder. All of them pressed the guilty decision onto Arkiu.
When Arkiu watched them unconsciously push it onto him, he could only look at Galahad. The man was starting to turn paler than how Elldry was and began sweating heavily. Arkiu knew they couldnt leave him behind to die and was about to commit himself to staying. Right up until a popping noise went off.
Galahad had made the decision for them.