Chapter 1624 – Sludge Artillery

If the ants kept flooding into the heart, then the fight was completely lost. Zluth had grasped the numbers the insects had brought to the fifth while scouting their cursed platform. Rank after rank emerged from within the walls, no matter how many were injured or forced to fall back.

With so many Krath still at the fortress, they couldn’t hope to compete with a tenth of what the cursed insects could bring to bear. The invaders had to be stopped.

Zluth twisted himself around, his eyes spinning atop their stalks. Darkness and shadows lurked all around him, any of which could be used by the axe-wielding human. Danger was everywhere, but standing still wasn’t any better. The only choice was to move, and he had a target in mind.

He compressed his body flat against the wall and began to race as fast as he could, using camouflage to conceal himself and pulling the mana around him tight and close. He suspected his would-be hunter was still able to trace him, but there was no reason to make it any easier than he needed to.

If the tribes were seeing any success in this fight so far, it was due to their cannon snails. Specially bred monsters who sucked in mucus and toxic mana before launching it in dense balls of power. Without a pool to feed them, the snail handlers were doing their best to guide the creatures towards the thick slime coating the walls of the heart so they could soak it up and fire it below, but they were being constantly hounded by the ants of darkness.

Two antennae popped above his flattened body, Zluth zigged and zagged his way along the wall, angling towards the massive, bloated snails. The wound in his side ached fiercely, but he did his best to ignore it. If he allowed himself to be tricked again, it wouldn’t end with just this injury.

The hunter was still around him now, he could feel it. The darkness around him waxed and waned, growing stronger and fading away like a living creature. At any moment, that wicked axe blade could emerge again, from any angle.

This time, the scout was determined to see it coming.

He almost didn’t.

Every shadow around him darkened at once, leaving him surrounded. Staying still would mean certain death, so he continued his charge, pushing his foot to the limit to extract every ounce of speed he could. All the while, he watched, waiting for the axe to emerge, waiting to see which of the shadows contained the hunter.

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At the last second, he realised the answer: none of them.

Zluth screeched to a halt, arresting his momentum so quickly he felt like his eyes almost fell off their stalks.

THUNK!

The axe smashed into the sludge-coated meat of the heart right in front of him. Whipping his eyes around, Zluth could see the hunter sinking into a shadow under a destroyed platform held up by strings of mucus. In seconds, he would come to retrieve his weapon; this was the only moment of safety the Krath was going to get.

The slug launched himself forward, sliding around the oversized weapon, gathering speed, and then he leapt off the wall.