35 First waves (1/2)
Wretched one(common-epic)- Hybrid creatures that assimilate others into themselves. They have wide variety of forms and have low intelligence. Creatures that are assimilated do not die and instead become a source of body parts. Some wretched assimilate tens of thousands of beings, becoming massive behemoths in the epic rank.
These creatures have terrifying potential. Hopefully, no higher rank ones will appear. It seems that I was right in thinking that assimilated creatures are not dead. I need to make sure that no matter what, none of us get assimilated. If someone is..... Then we have to target that wretched with all that we have.
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To get a better look at the battlefield I have Kess open up the eldritch nest at the top of the cliff. What lay before me is utter choas. Corpses are everywhere with wretched slithering and diving into them. Most of them don't belong to spiderlings....? In fact I don't see any. I don't see any wretched with their aspects.....
I decide to look for one that is about to die. An eldritch spiderling was knocked to the ground after getting hit by a ball of green spit. An octopus with small wolf heads sticking out of its own grasps its way over. Watching it swallow the eldritch spiderling, I see nothing happen..... Wait don't tell me.
*Spllllooooakkkkk
I see its flesh crawl as it starts ripping its skin off with its tentacles. A couple seconds later it explodes into a fleshy mess. Good god..... Well, eating eldritch flesh is not an good thing to do. Even for these creatures that are designed to assimilate things.
I see a deep-flame spiderling explode into fire in the distance, cackling so loud that it drowns out the sound of fighting for a short bit. It seems that they don't even leave corpses behind. I guess I don't need to worry to much about Xelu or Vulki getting assimilated. Still, the deaths on our side is minuscule. Those 2 were the only ones to die in the past hour. Vulki has been keeping the deaths to a minimum.
The spiderlings are cooperating extremely well together. When one has taken too much damage the others will cover them to retreat and recover. That is a very efficient way to go about it.
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The stream slowed down a little after night fell. It may have to do with wretched not having night vision unless they devour a creature with that ability. Most of the ones we fought are newborns straight out of their base. There are however a few more powerful ones that returned along the other lines. The octopus with wolf heads was one such creature.
I am curious. What does the arachne queen's nest look like? Well, that is probably something I won't see for a while. When we quadruple the amount of spawners for Vulki and Xelu then maybe we will see. By that point they should have already evolved again. I am almost level 11 so that may not be that far off.
Looking at the state of things, I plan on having Vulki watch over the battlefield during the morning while having Xelu watch over it at night. I will also have a few spiderlings to monitor the situation from the top of the cliff. Just in case. Xelu can handle matters to a degree but, when it comes to matters that need a lot of thinking, she falls behind.
I want to join the battle as well since skill experience is best raised in combat. Some of the wretched may be able to see through stealth so I do have to be wary... Well I should be fine with Set. I can make sure to stay near our own forces as well so in the worst case they can defend as I flee.
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I wake up along with Vulki right before the sun rises. She takes over the forces from Xelu, who actually did well last night with barely any casualties. I have her go inside to rest as well as build new spawners whenever she can.
I was right. As dawn broke, the flood of wretched resumed with a few stronger looking ones taking the lead. The strongest looking one is a large snake with several heads sticking out of it. It has spider legs so it scuttles around instead of slithering. Those must have been drow from their settlement. It's probably best I try to take that thing out with Vulki and Set instead of letting it rampage.
”Vulki, that one needs to die quickly. I have a feeling that it won't be so simple to kill though....” Gin