Cato was hastily running down the tunnel, hoping to avoid any burrower run-ins. He couldn't go at full speed because of the many natural obstacles standing in his way, but he made fast progress, as he noticed the tunnel beginning to widen.
As he was sprinting, Cato saw a flash of blue, before a burrower barreled into him. His forward momentum came to a sudden stop as he tumbled backwards from the impact, slamming into a wall. He felt several things crack, and groaned.
He quickly shot to his feet though, warily taking in the burrower before him. Unlike the black burrowers and the normal green ones, who were both heavily built, this one was different. It's carapace held a blue sheen, and its sleek body was slender, flowing chiton in contrast to the blocky, spiked armor of the other burrowers.
When it suddenly sprung forward, everything fell into place. Unlike the pincers of the other burrowers, this one had shark scythe-like claws, and a speed that surpassed Cato's understanding. It brutally hacked towards him with its claws, and Cato could barely react in time.
Cato dodged back, feeling a line of fire on his chest. A thin cut grew visible, cut so fast that he didn't even realize it until a few seconds later. The barrage of attacks grew faster and faster, as Cato desperately fended them off with his trident.
It had a strange combat style, with each attack flowing into another seamlessly, which combined with its shocking speed, made it a deadly opponent. It moved toward him in a beautiful but lethal dance of attacks.
What really added an edge for it was that it didn't just use its claws. Its tail was extremely sharp, and as dexterous as its claws. If all that wasn't enough, it kept trying to headbutt Cato with its knife-like head. Being attacked in such a whirlwind of blades was quickly wearing Cato down.
Every time he readied his trident to attack, it would get interrupted by the endless onslaught from the burrower. Cato could do nothing but sit back and weather the storm. Long narrow nicks continued to emerge all over his body as the blades struck faster and faster. Cato could feel himself almost falling into a trance as his body went on autopilot, mechanically parrying all the attacks, somehow managing to keep up with the ridiculous speed.
As time wore on, the burrower showed no sign of stopping, and even Cato's adrenaline fueled defense was beginning to fail. Worse still, he'd begun to hear the clacking of many burrower legs making their way down the tunnel towards the fighting pair.
Sweat pouring down his face, Cato recalled a memory of sparring with Pallas that stood out. They had been fighting all morning, and sweat had plastered Cato's shirt to his chest as he gasped for air. In their spars, Pallas usually employed a random fighting style with a variety of different weapons, focusing on a different aspect each time.
In this particular fight, Pallas used a long whip and used high speed cracks of the whip to wear down Cato's defenses. Every time he tried to attack, he would receive a crack on an undefended part of his body.
Battered, bruised, and nearly beaten, Cato's vision had begun to grow dizzy. Then Pallas' voice drifted through the haze. "Giving up already? I thought you would've seen through this already. What's the best way to deal with a high speed enemy?"
Cato's head was empty, as he blankly gazed at Pallas. He could barely stand, much less think clearly, but he tried to follow Pallas' train of thought. He frowned, but the pain was making it hard to concentrate.
"Well, I suppose I can't expect much from you yet. There are many ways to beat a faster opponent, according to the situation. You can use feints, bait them in, wear them down, the list goes on."
Cato knew none of these would work, as he had already tried, but Pallas was too fast. As he spat out blood, Pallas continued. "If you are truly determined to beat an opponent and nothing else works, you must…"
Cato felt a piercing pain in his shoulder as the burrower slipped past his defense, clipping his arm. The power of the attack was mostly dispersed, but Cato's weakened legs gave out, and he tumbled backwards.
He quickly shot to his feet however, just in time to restart the endless defense. With the lesson with Pallas fresh in his mind, Cato couldn't help but grin. He now had a plan to take out the pesky speedster, but he would need to be quick, or he would be swarmed by the other rapidly approaching burrowers.
As he was continually pushed back the way he had come, Cato began to be less active in defending, brushing the attacks aside rather than blocking them. The burrower cocked its head, but then pushed even harder, reaching a whole new speed.
At this moment, its tail hit the edge of Cato's trident, which swung wide. Cato was momentarily defenseless, and the burrower went in for the kill against the intruder. It thrust forward with both claws, intent to finish this once and for all.
It arrived before Cato in a flash, its claws digging into his chest and stomach. It was at this moment that Catt's previously dull eyes lit up, as he suddenly thrust the trident into its back facing him.
His arms circling around the burrower, Cato cruelly twisted the trident, causing the burrower to squeal, even as its shaking caused the claws to dig deeper into him. He brutally wrenched the trident sideways, carving a large gash in the borrower's side, causing green organs to spill out.
This was the final resort Pallas had taught him with speedy opponents if all else failed. Lure them in, taking a blow in return for one. This was a very risky move, and was not a surefire way to win, but Cato had had no other choice. Thankfully, his gamble had paid off, but he still had other problems to deal with.
With a weak hiss, it fell sideways, tumbling to the ground. Cato slumped backwards, gasping heavily. His chest and stomach were bleeding heavily, along with a thousand other small cuts. He quickly opened his bag, ruffling around till he found a pearlescent silver fruit.
He bit into the silver skin, groaning in delight as cool, sweet juice poured down his front. The cold fruit immediately seemed to ease the pain and fill him with some energy. These were Moonblossom Fruits, filled with mana and energizing.
They were hard to find fresh, and Cato had them as an emergency revitalizer. He sighed as a cool feeling spread over his body, bringing his stamina and awareness up to his peak state. He blinked rapidly, shaking his hands and bouncing on the balls of his feet to disperse the jittery energy that flooded through his body.
That was one of the side effects of the fruit, as everyone had a limit to how much power energy they could hold. If he ate too much, according to Pallas, he could quite literally explode with a surplus of mana running through him.
Cato turned back to the speedy burrower, and prodded it with the trident. Other than some twitching, the borrower's glassy eyes were devoid of life, and the blood had already stopped flowing. He cut the already gaping wound open, as a sea of green blood spread across the floor.
He then spotted what he was looking for. A large blue mana stone that was several times the size of the ones he'd already collected was deeply rooted in the borrower's emerald brain tissue. Cato had been wondering where its mana stone was, as such a powerful adversary would surely have a mana stone.
And true to his predictions, it had a massive mana stone, throbbing with power. Cato could feel the raw mana from a few feet away. He tapped the stone with the tip of the trident, and felt a surge of mana run through his body.
It was still strange to him, as he hadn't awoken to the feeling yet. Rather, it was like a buzz filled his system, leaving his muscles twitching and his eyes watering. It was still too strong for his body, which hadn't been tempered by mana yet, and still susceptible to mana poisoning.
It was basically the same as eating something bad, but with more severe effects depending on the circumstances. Cato had gotten it last week eating too much mana rich food, and had projectile vomited a corrosive acid that melted one of the walls.
While Pallas had been scolding him and fixing the wall, he was more curious why his throat hadn't melted, and now placed due caution whenever he ate anything with mana in it. He carefully packed the stone away before making his way further down the tunnel.
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Deep in the burrower nest, a vast chamber sat untouched by the sun for millennia. Thousands of eggs covered the walls and floor of the cavern, but they were all destroyed. Amongst the sea of green blood, a burrower queen sat against a distant wall, uttering low pitched shrieks.
At around 30 feet long and 10 feet high, the monstrous queen looked quite fearsome, but a massive gash was present on the side of its thorax, leaking green blood. It had massive wings that occasionally fluttered at its side, but it made no other movements.
Its long tail ending in a stinger was curled around a single remaining egg. However, unlike the other eggs, it was a dark green, and much larger than normal. Occasionally, the egg pulsated, and a vague outline was somewhat visible through the membrane.
The queen perked up as it heard a noise, and turned to the entrance of the cavern, before shrieking. It had just begun to stand up when a shadow shot across the room, and its head was separated from its neck.
As the queen's head rolled to the floor, the egg was covered in a viscous black membrane, and began to shake once again, but much more violently. It stretched and distorted under the black membrane, as the blood of the queen soaked the egg.
After hours, a horrifying buzzing sound emerged from the egg, as the membrane cracked open, spilling out black goo. Slowly, a creature crawled out of the remains of the egg. It chewed up the egg shell around it, crushing it with powerful bites.
Its mandibles clacked together as its soulless black eyes scanned the room before locking onto the queen. The remainder of the egg shell holding it in place shattered as it shot forward.
It chirped, and scuttled over, digging in with relish into its mother, quickly tearing away the outer shelling like it was butter. Swathes of flesh disappeared into the mandibles as a continuous clicking filled the cavern.
The creature then crawled out of the cavern, ready to look for new prey. The only thing behind in the chamber was the blood soaked empty exoskeleton of the once regal burrower queen.
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Cato had come across a few cross sections as he continued deeper into the nest, and had opted to take the route that led down each time. He had passed a few more burrower drones, but dispatched them fast enough.
Compared to the previous one, they were a breeze. He had been wondering about why such a unique burrower had showed up, and was deciding what to call them just as he ran into one of the balck armored ones. He'd begun to mentally call them brutes, as that was all they were.
They had the intelligence of a toddler, often destroying everything in sight except Cato when he attacked them. While stupid, however, they were frighteningly powerful, and one blow was enough to incapacitate or even kill Cato depending on how solidly it connected.
He flipped over the brute in question, narrowly dodging a scything blow that pulverized the stone wall behind him. As the brute stumbled forward, off balance, Cato stabbed deeply into the back of the creature, leaving a deep wound. However, it reacted much faster than he thought, swinging its claw backwards and clipping him with the blunt side.
He flew backwards, the trident being wrenched out his hands as it stuck into the armor. He slammed into a wall and felt several ribs crack. With a wheeze, he rolled out of the way to dodge a follow-up attack. Shakily getting to his feet, Cato backed up quickly before quickly taking a bite of a Moonblossom fruit.
Filled with energy again, he ignored the piercing pain in his chest and ran towards the creature, dodging under a wild swing. He rolled under its legs and came out behind it, planting a foot on the shell as he wrenched his weapon free.
He backpedaled to avoid another blow and used the opening to slash the brute's throat open, putting an end to its pathetic attempts to hit him. He collected its mana stone efficiently and continued down the tunnel, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake.
Luckily, he hadn't run into any of the speedy burrowers, which he'd dubbed reapers. He didn't even know if there was more than one, but not seeing any was a good thing in his books. The frequency of ants increased the further down he got, but Cato managed to run through them all, picking up speed as he grew more efficient in taking them out.
He was beginning to see why Pallas gave him this mission, as no amount of training could compare to real combat experience. He could feel his skills growing more polished as he stabbed, dodged, rolled, and slashed his way through a sea of burrowers.
However, even with the outstanding progress, he was beginning to run low on Moonblossom fruits, and he could feel the strain continuous use was having on his body. His arms ached and his muscles twitched painfully. The veins in his body stood out, and he could feel an uncomfortable warmth filling his body.
This seemed like a symptom of mana poisoning, but Cato had no choice but to keep pressing on. He began to come across eggs lining the walls, and quickly popped them, ending the lives of the gestating burrowers before they could become a problem.
This seemed to send a signal to all the burrowers, as the frequency once again increased, with the ones he encountered becoming twice as aggressive, quite literally doing anything to get at him. It was at this time that he met a second reaper.
He had just finished dispatching a brute, when Cato felt something was wrong and jumped backwards. He narrowly dodged an attack that would have skewered him, instead receiving a slash across his left shoulder.
He backed up warily, eying the reaper. This one was much larger than the other one, and a deeper shade of blue. Its claws were extremely long, and glinted meanly in the tunnel. It made a clicking sound at him, and dove forward.
After a few seconds, Cato realized his mistake. The one he'd encountered before must've been an infant, as this one was on a whole different level. He would lose track of its movement if he even blinked, and he was continuously pressed back by its onslaught.
Cato quickly realized he couldn't use the same tactic as previously, as those claws would destroy his torso long before he struck. That's when he noticed its back leg. A deep wound was visible on its thigh, and the flesh surrounding the cut was necrotic black, producing an awful smell.
This greatly reduced its speed, which made Cato even more terrified. If it was this fast with such a horrifying wound, what would it be like at full power? He pushed the thought aside as he parried a strike, and saw the reaper stumble after it put its weight on the injured leg. He speared through one claw, nearly severing the tip, but he forgot about the viciousness of the burrowers.
The reaper released a hiss of pain, but was otherwise unfazed. It used the opening of Cato's attack to cut down against his trident. With a clang, Cato fell backwards, as the reaper warily backed up, licking the wound on its claw with a horrifically long green tongue.
A thick coating of saliva coated the injury, quickly stopping blood flow and seemingly begant to mend the wound. This caused Cato to pause, as he grew angry at this. This was just cruel. As if the horrific speed and terribly sharp claws weren't enough, its saliva had healing effects?
Cato dove forward, determined to prevent the healing from taking place, and the reaper clicked its mandibles again. It dodged his thrust, then another, scuttling backwards as it gave wide swipes to keep him back.
Contrary to its previously aggressive attitude, it now seemed to be waiting for something. For what, he didn't know, but Cato wasn't exactly willing to find out. He began an overhead swing, but switched it into a low slash, managing to catch the seemingly exhausted reaper off guard.
The leg wound had worsened, and was leaking black liquid. His strike bit deep into the healthy leg as the knee joint, and the reaper crashed to the ground, screeching bloody murder. It began to frantically attack from the ground, knocking Cato's trident away.
It continued to desperately attack, but the blood loss was proving to be too much, as its attacks grew slower and weaker. It continued to feebly swipe at Cato even as he delivered the final blow, ending its struggle.
It slumped forward, its eyes staring blankly into Cato's. He shuddered, and fought to catch his breath. This fight was perhaps the most draining of any he'd had so far, proven by the torrents of sweat rolling down his face and the many heavy wounds littering his body.
He leaned shakily on his trident as he took in the destruction filling the chamber, a final legacy to the reaper on the ground before him. Slashes filled the walls, and rubble littered the floor. Contrasting blood splatters of drying dark red blood and vibrant green blood filled the tunnel like paint on a canvas.
Cato looked down at his hands, calloused, scarred and bloodstained. How quickly he'd fallen into the routine here, a continuous cycle of learning, fighting and recovering. He'd been going at it for weeks, and had never really thought about it much.
He'd arrived here completely empty, without any memories. He didn't know who he was, but all too quickly he was becoming someone, a person with memories, experiences, ideas. But what if this wasn't who he was?
Was he destined to remain Cato, a blank slate filled by his experiences in Gehenna, or would he ever remember anything before coming here? Unfortunately, he didn't have the answers to that, and he closed his hand, gripping it into a tight fist.
He didn't have time to ponder this right now. He had limited time to continue on. Pallas had only said he needed 5 stones, which he'd already collected, but Cato felt like there was something more in the nest that he needed to find, something calling out to him.
With nothing else to his name, such a thing was obviously tantalizing, as hope kindled in him that whatever it was held some ties to who he was. He quickly cut up the reaper, collecting yet another absurdly large mana stone.
Hearing no sounds of pursuit just yet, Cato settled into a comfortable pace, drinking some water and replenishing his energy with Moonblossom fruits. There was much less of a threat of mana poisoning at this rate as the massive amount of energy from the fruits was busy trying to fix Cato's injured body.
Just as fast as it could seal up one wound, Cato would receive two more fighting off burrowers down the tunnel. Eventually, he began to notice that the continuous exposure seemed to strengthen him gradually, as his body felt tougher and lighter, and his attacks seemed to contain more raw power.
Pallas had mentioned this was a form of tempering, where one constantly damages and heals their body with mana, causing the regenerated parts of the body to gradually strengthen over time. At the higher stages, skin like iron, visible regeneration, and many other benefits were possible, but Cato couldn't expect to gain any traits of that level anytime soon.
However, even the small increase filled him with joy, as he was taking more steps towards learning mana, and growing stronger. A smile crept up his face as the tunnel widened, before opening up into a massive cavern. The nest of the queen. He'd finally arrived.