Mana Star System: Soul Rebirth 42 42 Co-Operation

'A Meckstra is 50cm in height on average. A bright pink and slimy body with lots of hanging skin-folds, a sharp looking snout with beady eyes. A chitin carapace covering the majority of their backs, tails and head protects them from their natural predators. By themselves Meckstras have very little offensive capabilities, mostly built for surviving. Their slime allows them to escape most predatorial clutches, and if it is ingested it is paralytic. They teeth are also covered in the same slime, so their bite can be called paralytic too. The queen is usually 200cm in height on average. They tend to never leave their dens, because laying the eggs for a new brood is usually more important, and the worker caste helps bring food to the queen.' - Monster Logger.

What was in front of Donis and the group didn't entirely fit the description of the evolved queen and her new subjects.

Donis leapt back as quick as he could and turned on the Monster Logger, connecting it to his visual stimulus to begin recording the events that are about to transpire. He cast [True Inspect] as well, just to have a sneak peek at the queens stats compared to her subjects.

[Evolved Meckstra Queen]

[Level: 30]

[Danger Rating: Unknown/Deadly]

[Mana State: Breath]

[Health: 1,405]

[Mana: 322]

[Strength: 52]

[Agility: 23]

[Perception: 29]

[Intelligence: 3]

[t.i.tles: Brood Mother, Evolved, Paralytic Prowess]

The queen was now easily 3m tall, incredibly fat with ashen skin. The normal skin-folds that were seen on the regular Meckstras were pulled taught by the newly evolved body. The chitin plating had spread to cover her underbelly, getting a much darker hue than previously. Her skin oozed the slime constantly and it had an odd sulfuric smell to it.

[Evolved Meckstra]

[Level: 19]

[Danger Rating: Unknown/Uncommon]

[Mana State: Breath]

[Health: 655]

[Mana: 109]

[Strength: 31]

[Agility: 15]

[Perception: 18]

[Intelligence: 2]

[t.i.tles: Pack Hunter]

The new subjects of the queen were copper in skin colour, as if the Meckstras had been tanning for months. They stood still around the queen, awaiting her command. It was an odd sight. A giant half burnt, naked rat standing in front of a flaming cave with her much smaller, but incredibly tanned, kids.

A screech broke the moment of tension and the smaller Meckstras attacked. Corrul activated the initial few traps in front of the queen; three spikes flew out and stabbed an equal amount of Meckstras through the soft part of their bellies, instantly killing them.

Seeing this the queen immediately grabbed the bodies and ate them. A look of disgust grew on Strigas face, seemingly breaking past whatever limit of disgust she thought she had before.

"The b.i.t.c.h just ate her kids. I'm so going to enjoy murdering you," bellowed Striga as she charged forward. Her glaive, Corpse Carver, was summoned into her hand. It's appearance made the winds howl as black void-lightning coursed through the weapon.

As the captain of [Monster Specialists], Striga knew well of what the Meckstras are capable of, especially with their nasty slime. She shot off a few testing bolts in the direction of the new queen, trying to see if the queen was stronger than the normal ones she's met before.

The lightning flew faster than any of the Meckstras could react, and it collided with the slime on the queens body, igniting her. She shrieked out like a demoness, piercing the ears of everyone around her. The smaller Meckstras were unfortunately in proximity of the fire and also ignited.

So far in Strigas eyes the evolution seemed pointless, but she dared not discount them yet. They couldn't tell what level she was, nor could they tell if the evolution did anything else to them. The Meckstras were supposed to be level 10 on average, and 15 for the queen, so it should be nothing for even Donis here, but something gave them a weird vibe. The queen would have normally died from that bolt, yet this one stood.

Jimmy was high in the trees with his arrow knocked and ready to shoot the queen at a moments notice. Corrul was already setting up countermeasures and clearing a way back to retreat. The mission had become slightly different to what was given to them from the higher-ups. They needed a contingency plan and Corrul wouldn't waste a second.

Seeing how the crew was reacting, Donis was impressed. If you ignore their odd habits, the group was well versed in how to co-operate.

The queen stopped shrieking, and began charging at Striga. While still on fire, and clearly in pain, the queen was quick for it's size but nothing compared to Striga. Jimmy released the arrow and it whistled through the air, piercing the soft flesh around the neck of the queen. It ripped through her body and found its way out, piercing the ground below.

The arrow wasn't fatal but it slowed her down. Sensing her inability to fight back against the target in the trees, the queen screeched behind her, no longer willing to fight alone for her pack. A sea of un-evolved Meckstras rushed out of the den.

Strigas eyes shot open, she knew Donis jinxed them. While a ma.s.sive amount of Meckstras wasn't a big deal to Striga, the rest of her companions could easily get overwhelmed, especially Donis. She hadn't had the time to set up her Thunder Fog, so she couldn't fry everything here instantly.

Donis knew he'd be in trouble so he quickly used Shadow in the Dark to meld himself into the shadows in the canopy. He was itching to try out Dragonfire, but he knew if they all swarmed him he'd have a blindspot while casting it and could potentially kill himself.

Corrul kept pulling out traps from his ring, setting up an odd looking formation around him of oversized rat-traps and other magical looking trinkets with glowing runes on them.

Jimmy just laughed as he shot down a hail of arrows on to the ma.s.s of running flesh below.

"I knew you jinxed it Donis, you never say s.h.i.+t like that hahah!" laughed Jimmy heartily.

Not wanting to retort and give away his position, Donis just gritted his teeth and remembered that Jimmy had lost his family jewels. In some way, it eased the tension Donis was feeling.

Striga was das.h.i.+ng at breakneck speeds, hacking left and right, severing a dozen bodies per swing. Yet as much as she swung, the amount of Meckstras the poured out of the den seemed unending. The queen had yet to be killed and Striga didn't want to jump into the fray while there were that many potential blindspots to be paralyzed by a random bite.

She had decent gear, but if enough of those critters bite her, even her resistance will eventually fail. She settled down and continued a practiced dance while emitting the Thunder Fog for her favourite group killing combo.

It took advantage of her favourite element – lightning, it took advantage of the environment, and it was cheap mana wise. It allowed her to constantly kill hundreds, if not more, of monsters in one fell swoop. This method of fighting allowed her to gather enough [EXP] to far out level her age.

"Jimmy, the queen, pin her down!" bellowed Striga.

"On it cap'n!" shouted back Jimmy as he knocked back the arrow.

A blue light enveloped the arrow as Jimmy took aim, his eyes glowing in tandem. As the light peaked and flashed, he released it. The arrow made no sound, there was no light trail and no one would have known if Jimmy had even shot the thing, if not for the ice pillar sticking out of the queen.

In Donis's eyes, it looked like the arrow was in Jimmies had one second, and then it teleported inside the queen. The ice pillar shot out from the queen wasn't very thick, nor was it very long, but it clearly pinned the creature to the floor.

The evolved queen had been in motion, trying her best to get away back into the den when the arrow struck. The ice pillar was st.u.r.dier than it looked because her ma.s.sive body was jerked back violently from the opposing forces, tearing her skin and wound open. She was now laying on the floor bleeding profusely, the closest Meckstras were attempting to lick the wound of their queen.

Dark clouds were starting to converge above the group, their gathering speed quickening with each new skillful move Striga displayed. The amount of moves she had to do far outcla.s.sed what she showed fighting the Gisbirs.

Her show came to a stop when she jumped high into the air, above the clouds. As if the world clapping in awe of her, the water rushed up behind her. It enveloped all of the Meckstras, including the queen, but not the den. She spun in the air and threw the glaive with all of her might, piercing the ground once again. The clouds below her rumbled in antic.i.p.ation as she cast her Dark Lightning, charging the black clouds and connecting with the glaive at the bottom.

With a ripping motion, the glaive connected the lighting path and shot back towards Striga, violently lighting up the water prison. A veritable light show for all to see and fear.

A whistle resounded from Jimmies lips.

"Cap'n, that move never gets old," laughed Jimmy.

"Thanks, it's my favourite for a reason!" shouted back Striga as she landed on the now slightly crispy floor, all of the water surrounding her had been violently dried up.

"I'm not much of a fan of the stink though, G.o.d slime smells awful after you fry it," complained Corrul as he pinched his nose.

"Could be the s.h.i.+t too Corrul, don't forget about that," laughed Jimmy from high above.

"I don't think I can Jimmy, I don't think I can," sighed Corrul.

"Either way, jobs mostly done, that should be almost all of the pack. Donis get over here," commanded Striga. "I've got an idea for ya bud since I saw you itching to do something over there in the shadows."

She put her arm around Donis and pointed to the den of the Meckstras. Donis swallowed hard, clearly nervous of what this captain of theirs would think up.

"We're gonna get some fried Meckstras tonight, and you're gonna be the one cooking boy."