Nerissa snapped out of her stupor at my words and looked up. The others did not until she shouted. "Kíndynos ánothen!"

The rest of the Praetorians instantly looked up above at the creature as it roared once more.

*Rooaaarr!*

"Aaaah!" I yelled as I covered my ears. The creature’s roar was an attack by itself at close proximity, but I composed myself as it lunged down at the ground where we were.

I dodged backwards a great distance, but the creature’s body was so massive that I had to make another manevour, slashing out with Zircon as I did.

*Twiiiiing~*

Zircon began to vibrate like crazy in my hand, and not out of excitement, but by the reverse shockwave of the kinetic energy.

Nerissa immediately began to fire from her Deimos rifle and hit the creature in the face, making it reel backwards and drawing back some distance, allowing me to get a good look at the creature.

It was an Insectoid of some kind. The creature was long and slim, at least fifty meters in length with hundreds of pointed legs. Its chitin was a neutral tan colour with its exo-plate being a darkish purple black.

The insect screeched once more at the attack to its face and ignored the pain of the screech as something in the corner of my brain muttered.

’Would.’

Taking a moment to determine why I thought that. I looked at the creature carefully taking in the more finer details before shaking my head.

’Not a bug wife.’

I then shook the thoughts out of my head and aimed my minigun before firing Psionic rounds, my premade ammo would not be enough to pierce such a thick and sexy biological armour...

*Brrrt!*

My gun began firing, taking away my horny with me as I engaged combat mode.

The Praetorians were not slouching around either. Without a word the group began attacking the beast with speed I was struggling to keep up with.

The insect, however, was holding its own. It didn’t seem to have any advanced smarts, but it was extremely durable and was beginning to understand which of us were the biggest threats almost instantly.

However, we weren’t common prey, This apex beauty was also fighting against other predators.

"Ness! Deimos me!" I yelled from behind as I approached her. SHe extended her hand out to the side and let it drop as I passed her. We both then dodged out of the way as the creature used a segment of its body to try and slam us.

Nerissa dodged backwards a fair amount of distance while I dodged Horizontally onto the wall and proceeded to run up it. With the high ground I began to fire the powerful laser towards the creature.

My accuracy was surprisingly accurate for running and gunning; hitting the target almost constantly. However, the lasers power still wasn’t enough, the lasers refracted off the exo plate.

The beast roared up in my direction, clearly pissed off, but could not keep its attention on me as Phoebe kept its frontal portion occupied while Rhapso, Marnes and Aeteos kept its body from moving too much and dodging when it attacked.

I positioned myself around the creature some more. I was now directly atop it. Firing down, looking for weak spots.

I began firing at its legs, its less armoured parts in the joints and even its head but nothing... Well, it was taking damage, but the fight would last hours at this rate and the bug had begun to thrash about in anger, making whole portions of the wall come loose. A serious danger when so far underground.

I didn’t focus on the Praetorians and let them do their thing, I knew they could handle themselves better than I could anyway.

Marnes and Aeteos didn’t have the same strength as Nerissa or Phoebe, but their speed was something else while Rhapso held up the rear. Using her Psionics to dint the sexy exo-plate of the beast here and there with massive spikes.

As I continued to fire, I watched as the creature lunged forward in an attempt to bite Phoebe with its large mandibles. While doing so I noticed something. Its neck when it lunged out extended quite a ways and in doing so, exposed a piece of flesh pink in colour. My mind raced at what I was seeing.

’Weakness.’

I began looking around on the ceiling for a moment before smiling. A large chunk of Praedoxite, its red tip narrow and pointed.

I then turned and looked towards Nerissa below me and yelled.

"Ness! I need its neck fully engaged! I need five seconds!" I then turned and ran towards the gem. and wrapped my arms as best I could around it before heaving

"Nngghh!"

...

Nerissa heard what Apollo said and instantly got to work. "Aeteos! Marnes!" She yelled before using her power to manifest two chains made of Damatirum. "Get them around its neck while we distract it!"

The twins took the chains before darting forward. As they did so, the duo activated their powers in unison. Marnes suddenly turned a daunting black as Aeteos turned a dazzling white.

They then proceeded to thrum with a unique Psionic frequency before, in unison, they expelled the power outwards.

A cascade of void assaulted the insect’s face, it lurched back at the impact only for an intense flash of light burnt its compound, underground dwelling, eyes. Temporarily blinding the creature.

It began to lash out in fury, more dangerous as a rapid beast than it was a mere moment ago. Nerissa and Phoebe reminded the creature of threat by inflicting minor injuries to its body constantly while Rhapso seemed to be concentrating on something.

While the insect began to focus its blind aggression towards Phoebe and Nerissa, Aeteos and Marnes managed to slip underneath the beast’s long neck. In unison they proceeded to jump up from either side of the beast, stick one of the chains in-between a piece of exo-plate before dropping to the other side.

The insect felt the sudden yoke around its neck and in its blind state, panicked and instantly tried to back up, lashing out in the process. Marnes and Aeteos grabbed hold of the chain and began tugging with all their might, but the beast continued to pull. Nerissa and Phoebe then moved ahead and grabbed the chain and a powerful tug of war began.

Noticing the standstill. I redoubled my effort in getting the crystal out, but it was seriously stuck. I was applying as much Gyrokinesis as I could, but the crystal seemed to be sapping the energy around me into itself, making the job much harder.

Below I could see the Praetorians begin to be pulled along, they were not going to hold for long. I just needed a little more time...

I then felt a rumbling through the cavern, but I couldn’t focus on it.

Down below Rhapso opened her eyes and looked towards the creature. In an instant the ground below the creature began to sprout dozens of massive spikes. All were at such a specific angle, each spike lodged between a piece of exo-plate, halting the creature’s backwards momentum, temporarily.

The sudden shift in its ability to move backwards, gave the other praetorians a moment to pull with everything they had.

Just in time as I yelled out, my legs pushing into the rock above me finally began to cause it to splinter and crack. Moments later, the gem broke free.

With the amount of Gyrokinetic force I was applying to my own body, the crystal fell like a bullet with my weight and with a sickening squelch, it and I passed straight through the creature’s neck, cutting it clean off its body.

The body began to spasm and flair violently for another few seconds before slowly the spasms ended... I, or rather, what I was wearing, suddenly became drawn to the body before me...

...

"Whoo! What a workout. This day is turning out even better than I expected." Marnes commented.

"I know, right? I actually had to move my legs. That was one tough Psionic bug. Shame it wasn’t friendly.

"The Creature was insane." Both Rhapso and Nerissa spoke at the same time before Rhapso continued.

"I, we, could feel it. Its connection to nature was removed. It found these crystals and became... Obsessed. Poor thing. We did a good thing by putting it out of its misery. Its energy can return to the cosmos now."

Phoebe looked around and shook her head. "We almost did the same. If it wasn’t for the shock of Nerissa speaking the old language, I might not have pulled myself out of that stupor. That was reckless of us. We should thank Apollo for his level headedness..." She then turned to her head before being taken aback by surprise.

"Apollo? Are you alright?"

...

The Nymphs then looked at Apollo after Phoebe spoke. His entire body was twitching violently.

Nerissa felt her heart race seeing something wrong and rushed forward. "Apollo? Are you alright?"

She then suddenly came to a halt as Apollo pushed his hand behind him and shouted "Stay back! Just... Give me a minute... I... Nerissa, can I call in a serious favour right now?"

Nerissa was a bit shocked. Apollo sounded so serious. Scary serious... It left her intrigued more than it probably should, she should feel concerned... But it was Apollo.

"Of course, ask. If not for you, this fight could have taken unforeseen paths."

She then waited a moment as Apollo continued to shake before he spoke.

"Ok. I know this was a team effort. But I... I need this body. All of it. Can I take it as ’spoils of war’ or something like that? While you all begin to harvest the crystals? I can’t really explain why, but it is important to me."