LEVEL EVERYTHING UP in my Eldritch Tribe

Chapter 287: Shrink

The cavern echoed with the sounds of battle—roars of defiance, the clash of claw against flesh, and the relentless thrum of bodies slamming into stone.

The titans, bruised and battered, staggered to regroup.

Their breaths came in ragged gasps, their movements heavy with exhaustion.

For a moment, it felt like the weight of the entire world pressed down on them.

Then, over the cacophony, a voice cut through like a blade through fog. Cold. Steady. Commanding.

"Enough," Lyerin said, stepping forward with an air of effortless control. His eyes burned with a cold fire as he surveyed the chaos. "I'm taking charge again."

The titans paused, a flicker of hope flashing in their exhausted faces.

Lyerin's presence was like a steel spine to their crumbling willpower.

The humanoid trilobites screeched, sensing a change in the air, but it didn't matter.

They were about to learn the difference between desperate fury and precision warfare.

"Form up!" Lyerin commanded, his voice like iron.

The titans moved without hesitation.

They slammed into place, their bodies forming a solid wall of muscle and fury.

The trilobites lunged, but they were met with a coordinated front.

Under Lyerin's watchful eye, the soldiers moved as one, their strikes precise and devastating.

"Left flank, advance!" Lyerin barked.

Three titans surged forward, fists crashing into trilobites with bone-crushing force. Chitin splintered, and ichor sprayed like rain.

One titan grabbed a creature by its legs and swung it into another, shattering their shells in a grotesque explosion of black ichor.

"Watch your footing!" Lyerin called, his eyes flicking toward a soldier who stumbled over a fallen comrade.

The warning came just in time.

The titan regained his balance and crushed a trilobite that had been ready to pounce.

His thanks was a curt nod before he rejoined the fray.

There was no room for pleasantries here—only survival.

"Focus on the joints!" Lyerin reminded them, his voice sharp but steady. "Break them down!"

The titans obeyed.

Their strikes were no longer wild and desperate.

Every blow was aimed with lethal intent.

One soldier caught a trilobite's claw, twisting it until the joint popped with a sickening crack.

Another drove his fist into the creature's exposed underbelly, rupturing its insides.

"Group up! Protect each other's flanks!" Lyerin ordered.

The titans adjusted, moving like a living fortress.

They shielded each other, their backs pressed together.

A trilobite leapt, its claws outstretched, but it was met with a brutal double strike that sent it crashing to the ground.

"Use the environment," Lyerin said, a hint of satisfaction in his tone. "You are giants now—act like it."

One soldier roared, picking up a boulder the size of a wagon and hurling it into a cluster of trilobites.

The impact shattered the creatures and sent shockwaves through the ground.

Another titan ripped a stalactite from the ceiling, wielding it like a massive spear.

He impaled two trilobites in a single thrust, their bodies writhing before going limp.

"Keep pushing!" Lyerin urged, his voice never faltering. "You have the strength. Use it!"

The titans moved as if possessed, their confidence bolstered by Lyerin's commands.

They drove the trilobites back, step by step.

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The cavern became a battlefield of shattered shells and broken bodies.

Blood and ichor soaked the ground, pooling around their feet.

"Incoming—above!" Lyerin shouted, pointing.

The titans looked up just in time.

Several trilobites had scaled the walls, launching themselves down like living missiles.

The titans braced themselves.

One caught a trilobite mid-air, slamming it into the ground with a force that cracked the stone beneath it.

Another sidestepped the attack, bringing his fists down like twin hammers.

The pace was relentless.

For every trilobite that fell, another took its place. But the titans no longer fought alone.

They fought as one, their movements orchestrated by Lyerin's commands.

"Rotate positions!" Lyerin called. "Tired fighters to the center. Fresh blood to the front!"

The titans shifted seamlessly.

Those on the verge of collapse moved inward, protected by their stronger comrades.

The fresh fighters surged forward, their strikes like thunderclaps in the cavern's oppressive darkness.

"Drive them back! Show no mercy!" Lyerin's voice was a whip crack in the storm.

The titans obeyed, their roars shaking the very walls.

They tore through the trilobites with savage precision.

One titan grabbed a creature by the head and ripped it clean off, tossing it aside like a broken toy.

Another stomped down, crushing a trilobite's torso beneath his massive foot.

The trilobites began to falter.

Their relentless assault wavered under the titans' coordinated fury. But Lyerin did not allow even a moment of complacency.

"Press the attack!" he shouted. "Do not let up!"

The titans pushed harder, their bodies fueled by a mix of rage and determination.

They moved like a tidal wave, unstoppable and unbreakable.

Trilobites screeched and fell, their bodies torn apart by the titans' onslaught.

At last, the cavern fell silent. The ground was littered with the remains of their enemies.

The titans stood victorious, their chests heaving, their bodies slick with blood and ichor.

They had done it.

They had survived.

Or so they thought.

Lyerin's voice, calm and chilling, cut through the silence. "It's not done."

The first soldier noticed it in the heat of the silence—a subtle shift, a tingling that coursed through his veins.

His body shivered, and then, without warning, the world around him seemed to grow.

Or, more accurately, he began to shrink.

He gasped, looking at his hands as they rapidly lost their massive size, his towering limbs retreating to what they once were.

Panic erupted in his mind, his heart pounding a brutal rhythm against his ribs.

"Wh-what's happening?" he shouted, his voice cracking. It was high-pitched, desperate, human again.

Around him, the other titans began to change.

Their hulking forms contracted, the once-mighty bodies that had smashed trilobites to pulp now dwindled.

Heavy footsteps became lighter, the sound of bones creaking and muscles retracting filled the air—a grotesque symphony of despair.

Each soldier's eyes widened, terror carving deep lines across their faces.

"Captain! It's happening to me too!" yelled another, his voice trembling. His hands, moments ago capable of crushing a trilobite's skull, now barely formed fists. "Why? Why are we shrinking?!"

The panic spread like wildfire.

Soldiers stumbled over themselves, reaching for one another as if physical contact might anchor them.

One fell to his knees, his armor now awkwardly hanging loose. "This can't be happening," he whispered, eyes wide, breath shallow. "We can't be... normal again... not now!"

A woman, her expression etched with dread, tried to rip her gauntlets off, as if freeing her hands would somehow halt the process.

"I don't want this! I don't want to be small again!" she screamed, her voice a piercing wail that echoed through the cavern. "Not now! Not after everything we fought through!"

"Calm down!" one of the more seasoned soldiers tried to command, though even he could not hide the quaver in his tone. "We—we just need to think!"

"Think?! Think about what?" another spat back, his eyes wild. "We're shrinking, we're helpless! Those things... those things will tear us apart!"

Indeed, as they returned to their human sizes, the grim reality set in.

The trilobite corpses that had once seemed manageable now loomed around them, and the realization of what this meant stole the breath from their lungs.

They were not titans anymore.

They were just human.

"What do we do?" someone asked, voice cracking with desperation. "We can't... we can't fight them like this!"

Even as the panic swelled, a chilling sound echoed through the cavern.

At first, it was a distant skittering, a faint rustling that made the hair on their arms stand. But the noise grew louder, like claws scraping stone.

The walls vibrated with the sinister rhythm, and the soldiers turned as one, dread pooling in their stomachs.

From the shadows, they emerged. More humanoid trilobites.

Countless eyes glimmered in the dim light. More claws, more gnarled limbs.

An endless tide of grotesque figures.

There was no mistaking their intent.

This was not an ambush.

It was an extermination.

The soldiers froze, their hearts pounding like war drums. For a long moment, all that existed was the oppressive reality of their mortality.

The titanic strength that had once filled them with hope was gone, and the nightmare returned.

"No... no, no, no," one man whispered, stumbling back, his eyes wide. "Not again. Not like this."

The panic surged anew. Soldiers cried out, their voices cracking under the weight of fear.

"What are we supposed to do now?!" one shouted, his hands trembling as he pointed at the advancing wave. "Fight them with what? Our bare hands?!"

"Run," another whispered, but there was no conviction in his voice. "We need to run!"

"Run where?" snapped a woman, her voice laced with hysteria. "Did you see how many of them there are? We're trapped!"

The desperation clawed at them, suffocating.

They backed away from the creatures, step by step, even though they knew there was nowhere to go.

They turned their heads frantically, searching for any glimmer of salvation. But all they saw were the walls closing in and the darkness filled with death.

"I can't... I can't do this," a young man said, his voice breaking. "We were supposed to be strong. We were supposed to win!"

"Shut up! Everyone, shut up!" yelled another, his voice hoarse with fear. "We have to... we have to..."

But his words died on his lips as the first trilobite stepped closer, its jagged claws flexing.

The air grew thick with dread, their bodies paralyzed with the realization of their fate.

The weight of hopelessness bore down on them, crushing what remained of their courage.

And then, as if by some unspoken pact, they all turned. Ñ

Their eyes met the one figure who stood unbothered amidst the chaos.

Lyerin.

Calm, unreadable, untouched by fear.

Slowly, every head swiveled toward him.

Their eyes begged for salvation, for a lifeline in the sea of despair.

Words were unnecessary.

The plea was written in every trembling limb, every terrified breath.

The trilobites advanced, claws clicking like a death knell, and Lyerin stood alone, his eyes sharp, a faint smile playing on his lips.