281 – Abyss Siege

Once I’ve seen that the abyss has made it safely down the cliff, I turn to look at Aro and the others. After confirming they’re ready with eye contact, I follow it down the cliff myself.

The cliff is more or less completely vertical, so I descend carefully by digging into the cliff with my claws. The spiders are good at this kind of terrain, as they crawl freely across the cliff face. The lesser treant also moves carefully by spreading its roots.

I notice I can’t spot Aro. Thinking that she’s not coming down, I pause. The abyss zombie doesn’t stop, but I don’t think I need any more guidance from here.

Probably, once I get to the bottom, the abyss nest will be right in front of me. I hear the sound of impacts coming from my blind spot.

I turn my head to see Aro with three arms sprouting out of her back. The arms are each as wide as her head and have fiendishly sharp claws at the ends of their fingers.

To avoid tearing her clothes, she’s pulled back her sleeves to expose her shoulders. Her clothes are originally just picked up rags, so they stretch easily. And then from the gap created by pulling back her sleeves, three arms are extending. It’s quite the grotesque spectacle.

“……Ah”

When I meet her eyes, her shoulder quivers and she leaks a small noise. She might be embarrassed to be seen with arms sprouting from her clothes, or rather from her back. She probably doesn’t like being seen without a humanoid body.

Pretending I didn’t see anything, I look back down.

“Ve, ee, veeEE…”

“VE?” “VeA!”
“VeEeE?”

Far below us, the abyss zombie and some abysses are meeting face-to-face. The abysses number three.

Wondering where they came from, I scan the surroundings. A good few of the twisted, hard trees are sprouting from the cliff face, and abysses could easily be hiding behind them. Remembering that this place is their nest, I change my state of mind.

Gatsun gatsun gatsun gatsun, zugagagagagagagagagagah! I hear a terrible sound, and involuntarily look back up.

I meet Aro’s eyes again. It seems she was about to fall, because she stabs her claws deep into the cliff and clings to it closely.

“――――!!”

Apparently startled by sudden turning around, her body twitches, and her claws separate from the cliff face. Her body falls through the air. Panicked, I spread out my wings to catch her. But before that, she lands on the lesser treant’s back, breaking her fall.

“……”

Aro jerks up to look at me.

“GuoO…”

I cry out apologetically, bowing my head. From the lesser treant’s back, she hurriedly shakes her head, waving her arms and legs. She probably didn’t mean to blame me.

It looks like she’s decided to ride the lesser treant down. The huge arms sprouting from her back slowly withdraw into her body. She pulls down her loose sleeves, restoring her clothes.

Once she’s ready, I return to looking down. That reminds me, the abyss…! I was too distracted by Aro and forgot to be vigilant.

“Guo?”

The abyss zombie looks at me, baring its broken teeth.

“Vehah! Ve, veveh!”

With a peh, it spits its body fluids at me.Guessing from its actions I can tell my situation is far from favourable. Feeling a cold shiver, I look up.

Abysses line the edge of the cliff. They’re evenly spaced alongside each other. With a sense of foreboding, I look around.

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From every direction, abysses are appearing in groups. The gaps between them are big, but we’re surrounded. From a quick estimate, there’s easily over fifty of them. Several hundreds of legs squirm, creating an unpleasant sound.

We’re under siege. I was planning on attacking from here, and then if there wasn’t enough of a leeway, I’d run away, but I got besieged before I noticed. What’s more, it’s in a place with such bad footing. I should have been more careful from the start when the abyss zombie showed hostility.

“Veeeh!” “Ve!” “VeAh, veh!”
“VeE!” “VeA!” “VeEeE!”
“VeEeeh!” “Vee, veeeeeEe!”

Their disturbing cries overlap, becoming a dissonance that disrupts my thoughts.

They completely caught me off guard. From how they’ve always launched themselves at me despite being lower rank, I didn’t think they were very intelligent. I’ve been had. In the first place, the reason they launch themselves at the higher-rank me is to lay their eggs in me.

From their actions so far, I can guess the deaths of individual abysses don’t weigh heavily on them. As long as their offspring can prosper, then, like the red ants, they don’t mind what happens to them personally. I’ve had plenty of leeway in my fights with them so far, so I was naive.

“Ve, veeeEE, veeeeeEeh!”

The one gnashing its teeth in provocation at me is the abyss zombie. Probably, it told them that I was headed here. On the way here, I drove off many abysses. It might have told them at those times. I hate myself for even considering raising it.

The abyss zombie pivots, raising its rear to me, before crawling towards its allies… But it suddenly stops walking.

As I watch it from a distance, I can somehow guess what’s about to happen. The abysses’ eyes are fixed on the strange abyss zombie.

“Ve…?”

The moment the abyss zombie steps back, five abysses leap at it.

“VeeeeeeeEeEh!”

Its dying cry rings out. The remains of the abyss zombie plunge to the bottom of the chasm. It seems that not only do abysses eat the corpses of their allies, they also eat zombies of their allies too.

But this is no time to feel sorry for it. If I lose focus, we’ll end up with the same fate.

“Gaah!”

I kick off the wall, spreading my wings to hang in the air. With footing that bad, I can’t protect Aro and the others from this many abysses. It’s unfortunate for my enemies and allies, but I’m going to fight from a safe distance.

“Gaah!”

Lowering my altitude, I howl at Aro.

She jumps down. I move closer to the wall, catching her on my back.

“…gh!”

Allright, now I can snipe at the abysses with Aro’s assistance. Ideally I’d rather collect everyone and retreat, collecting all the panicked spiders and getting away would be difficult. Either way, I need to reduce the abysses’ numbers.

As I’m thinking that, something launches itself at me.

“Kiki!”

…Following Aro, something strange has dropped onto me. It’s the petit nightmare. Using its thread as a wire, it jumped down… No, I wanted you to take command of the spiders, though.

“VeEEeh!”

Three abysses come diving down, and I strike them with my tail, sending them soaring into the opposite cliff face. No matter how you look at it, I’m not letting you guys on!

Glancing at the abysses I sent flying, I see they’re on the verge of death, but still twitching… They’re pretty tough, these guys.

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