We had to destroy the nest before it was too late. Even then, there was a very real possibility that destroying the nest wouldn't be enough. After killing the Hatchery, the Malformed Eater could still be born, just not as complete as it was supposed to be. That is if you could call something that was named malformed complete.
Astrid rushed to my side underneath the Hatchery's mouth. She was already taking a sip of Eater blood to refuel her Energy. With one swing, she activated {Crawling Frost}. From the impact just to the side where the bulbous form of the Malformed Eater was being pushed out, Ice spiders spread out. Each of them trying to force themselves into the mouth of the Hatchery through the small crevices between it and its child.
It was clear the frost arachnids were not powerful enough to face off against the black ichor coming from within. Just as Astrid's creations touched it, they would start sizzling and melting away. At the same time, it didn't mean the Hatchery was not taking any damage. Being this close, I could parts of its tendrils freezing over. It was a slow crawl that would require countless frost spiders in order to give any real effect.
Michael fired a few arrows at the Hatchery without rest. The ones that struck the metallic plate of its shell did little to no damage, and the ones that he aimed directly at the mouth of this creature were mostly misses. The Malformed Eater was taking up all the space in that opening, stopping him from being able to land a proper blow.
"Get back!" Riley shouted as they started to approach.
The Silken Witch was getting into melee range, which was unusual for them. Since it would still take a few moments for them to arrive, I tried one more thing. Slamming my staff in between the Malformed Eater and the nest's mouth, going underneath them to find a small tiny gap that was just enough as long as I used {Compression} to make the end of my staff more needle like. Once the weapons were inside, sinking a few centimeters deep, the particles left my body as {Clash of Nature} was activated.
With the spiders inside, I could feel that there was something different in the mix. It was an element with which I was not familiar. Figuring it was just the spiders themselves, I tried to use them together with some water so large shards of ice would spread out from inside the creature. Hopefully, they would take the movement given by Astrid's skill and continue moving on. We all heard a soft dull crunch coming from inside the Hatchery, but the creature showed no visible damage. Maybe the skill did something, or maybe it was just stopped by the creature's insides. That was something we couldn't know right now.
Soon, Riley reached my shoulder and tried to pull me back. They were not strong enough to do so, but I understood that they had a plan in mind. I pulled my staff out, which was now covered in that black acid-like substance, leaving behind a somewhat big opening underneath the mouth of the Hatchery.
Taking note of that, Riley stepped closer with their hand completely wrapped in silk and shouted, "Get away from me!"
They didn't have to say it twice, as I had an idea what the plan was. Astrid was still somewhere close, ready to intercept any attack coming at Riley, which didn't bode well for that attack. I grabbed the Huskcarver and started to pull her away. Staying there would only be a detriment to the situation.
Only when I was sure no one would be in range that I turned back to the Novice Silked Witch, "Clear!"
Hearing that, Riley shoved their arm wrapped in silk inside the mouth of the Hatchery and activated {Thousand-Loom Dominion}. Countless strands of silk spread out in every direction, even around the Malformed Eater itself, before starting to lash out wildly and trying to break everything around it. The Silken Witch took a few steps back without detaching themselves from the strands of silk. Only when they were at the very edge of their range did they snap the one thread connecting them to the skill. This caused the entire field of silk to go on a rampage and start snapping around with even more force than before.
Up until this point, the Hatchery was not fighting back. It was just continuously pulsating Energy towards the Malformed Eater, likely trying to speed up its birth as much as possible. But in the presence of that skill, the Hatchery made the Malformed Eater stop moving. That blob that was constantly pulsating became completely stiff in a mere second. Instead, the Hatchery released a wave of heat that stung our skin. It wasn't enough to hurt us by any means, but I could feel my thoughts becoming muddy.
'What was that?' I asked the System in my mind.
[S- s m#u-a>le *o %re$#@nd]
Looking back at the creature, we could see that the strands of silk created by Riley instantly lost their ability to move. They flopped down to the ground motionlessly, becoming completely harmless. They had even lost their natural stickiness for some reason. The one single benefit of the entire situation was that the Malformed Eater also seemed to be affected by it. Its body started cracking, pieces of its shell breaking off the moment the heat wave came out of the Hatchery. While this was indeed a powerful effect, it came at a cost to the creature that was still trying to be born.
Looking at the broken words sent by the System once more, I understood what the nest had just done. Just when I did so, the System sent another message.
[System was temporarily disrupted by the effect of the skill. Conditions already returned to normal parameters. User has nothing to worry about. System will not be affected by such interruption again in the near future.]
Just then, as if waiting for his skills to return, Rex threw another large piece of rock towards the Hatchery, aiming to strike both the Malformed Eater and the main pillar. So far, the big difference was in where he was taking the rocks. Instead of grabbing random pieces from different places, he picked some of the stone around the base of the central pillar. It didn't take a genius to understand that he was trying to find a weak point or anything at all that could help us. Unfortunately, this first piece of rock didn't help as much. It only revealed more of the metallic tendrils that were connecting the Hatchery to the rest of the nest.
That didn't stop him from continuing his attempts. Rock after rock, he threw at the nest and the Malformed Eater. He created a barrage of attacks while everyone else did much of the same. The problem was that not a single one of our attacks felt like they were truly doing anything, at least not to a degree that could help us in this fight. Everything we were throwing at the nest was a slight inconvenience to it, not something that could truly pose some danger to it.
Riley's {Thousand Loom Dominion} was the only exception. However, every time they tried to get closer, the Hatchery would spit out some of the ichor towards them.
I needed to come up with a different plan, that's when a thought crossed my mind. I had been feeling a strange element when using {Clash Of Nature}. At first, it was just something random that was in the area, or maybe the metallic plates that were on the ground. Yet, it was exceedingly hard to understand how they were supposed to function with that skill. But there was something else that was recently added to the battle. It was something that already had proven to be dangerous even for the nest.
'System, do I need to know the elements I'm using to use {Clash Of Nature}?'
[That is not required. As long as user is interacting with said element, it can be utilized for {Clash Of Nature}. However, the effect is stronger if user is the one primarily activating the element.]
With that information, I rushed towards the Hatchery once again. My staff was already covered with the element itself. Even if it wasn't coming from me and wouldn't be as powerful as it could be, it was the best idea that I could come up with.
Before the Hatchery could even react, I shoved the end of my staff back in the same opening that I had used before. The same side of the staff that was already covered in that black ichor. My weapon was deep inside the Hatchery and also touching the Malformed Eater. With it all in place, I activated {Clash Of Nature} using that black ichor together with fire from {Firestarter}.
Water was likely to dilute the goo it too much, and I didn't want to leave any chance of the attack not to do any damage. Not just that, but the liquid was already burning. Maybe it would work like some sort of fuel.
After the skill activated, nothing happened for a moment. I felt the Energy leaving my weapon, but that was about it. There was no explosion, no force, nothing that made it seem like a successful strike. Maybe the combination of fire and that liquid was enough to cancel each other out.
My fear was quickly proven wrong. A sputtering sound came from the creature, followed by a small spattering of that liquid which now had a strange dark red glow to it. Some of it hit the ground, and a single droplet landed on my arm. It immediately started to hurt with such intensity that I felt like I was being burned alive. Quickly stepping away, I ripper a piece of cloth from my shirt and tried to clean it off. Thankfully, this goo seemed to be much more interested in sticking to fabrics than my skin. It didn't take long for me to remove the ichor from my arm.
In doing so, the staff was left behind, still stuck inside the creature's mouth. I took a single step towards it before realizing it was a bad idea. The creature spat out more of this stronger version of the goo. In just a few seconds, I saw my faithful weapon being completely corroded by the ichor seeping from the creature.
However, I wasn't the only one in trouble. The creature itself was obviously struggling due to the corrosive properties of its own bile. Cracks started to form around the creature, from which both a mixture of the white blood of an Eater and that dark red ichor were flowing slowly, but steadily.
Seeing that we finally had an opening, everybody else started attacking the monster with everything they had. Astrid created sequential {Emerging Glacier} strikes. Michael fired arrows that exploded on impact. Riley tossed the entire bag of Spell Stones they were keeping, activating them all together while aiming at the mouth of the Hatchery. That created a large explosion of silk, fire, rocks and electricity. Together with other effects that I wasn't entire sure what they were.
Rex spent the last couple moments gathering the biggest piece of rock he could and sharpening its edge before throwing it and making it slam against the shell of the central tower. It was now broken thanks to my {Clash Of Nature}.
With the giant rock embedded in it, I followed an idea that I used the first time that I killed an Eater. It was something that I had used before and was more than happy to use again. Rushing towards the giant stone spear created by the Rodenti, I touched it and triggered {Compression}, making it as big as possible. The rock started to crack and pieces of it crumbled. Yet, it wasn't enough to completely obliterate the giant projectile. Some of the pieces that were inside the creature clearly started to grow and even burst through other parts of the shell. More of that strange black ichor seeped out along with the blood.
Those cracks revealed more of its insides. Between a jungle of metallic veins and rocky muscle was a single glowing piece of metal that seemed to be beating like a heart. Not missing the opportunity, Michael notched an arrow and fired directly at that glowing target. His skills allowed him to be extremely accurate. With that arrow, that one projectile, he was able to hit the heart of the nest.
Just as that happened, the heart shuddered and stopped moving completely.
All the lights around us vanished as we felt an incredible rush of particles flowing towards us. It was so much that it almost knocked me back. We didn't have time to enjoy or even understand how many levels that might have been. The entire nest started to shake violently as if the entire thing was about to come down.