Alvios scowled at the sight of these behemoths. He hadn't seen the crystalline coloration before; they must have developed only on the ones that stayed underground indefinitely. Alvios' blade became shrouded in light, and his left hand began to glow as well. "If they're still similar to the ones I've faced before, the undersides should be weaker than the tops. Let's go!"

With that, Alvios dashed forward, pointing his left hand up towards one of the the creatures' supposed face, a blast of light pelting it as a distraction as he moved to try and get beneath it so he could strike at it's underside with his blade directly.

"Got it!" Jenso responded to Alvios, launching a few fireballs at the middle creature. He aimed to let the fireballs crash into it and explode, in order to create a smoke screen to block out the vision of the creatures. He dashed forwards after doing so, aiming to weave through the creature's legs as he launched a flame saw at one of the creatures from below, the one on the left, while moving behind it.

The beast that Alvios approached slammed its bottom set of claws into the ground where the underside of its body was positioned to block his approach, despite not being able to see a thing. With its upper set of claws, it slammed even further forwards, bending its body towards its target.

The other two creatures appeared to mimic this maneuver identically, despite what Jenso had done. It seemed they weren't interested in approaching any closer, however.

Jenso glared at the beasts as they took a defensive stance. He dashed at the claws that were now stuck in the ground, as flames violently bursted out of his left arm. They took the shape of a dragon's head as he punched at the middle creature's bottom claws, in order to smash an opening in the defensive line. "FLAME DRAGON PUNCH!!" He shouted. "Alvios, now!!" He called out, hoping Alvios would take advantage of the opening that he attempted to make.

"Tch, figures..." Alvios jumped back, not wanted to get smashed. Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, the creatures didn't seem inclined to chase or follow up their attacks. These things could sit there and play defensively for however long they needed to, and every minute they wasted was another minute the others had to attack Corona.

He winced though as Jenso didn't even stop to consider much of a plan from his perspective. There was very little chance that blunt force was going to break these defensive titans,but no matter; maybe it would at least be distracted by Jenso. He instead jumped up above the one Jenso tried to attack/distract, and threw his sword down at the creature's back. Before impact, the blade shattered into several fragments of light, which flew around the creature like guided spears, looking to pierce and cut at the joints of the legs.

The creature that Jenso punched at slid back a few feet, and its left claw was layered with cracks. But a moment afterwards, Jenso was smashed against the ground by the oncoming claws from above. Regardless, Alvios' followup sent the beast crashing down, unable to support itself on its legs any further. Its defensive partners turned to face it, and reached out for Alvios with their top claws wide open, still guarding their bottom half with the bottom set of arms they wielded.

Alvios looked around at his mid-air predicament. He formed a platform of light beneath his feet, and kicked downwards, landing on the back of the creature that had fallen. As he landed, his blade reconstituted in his hand for only a brief moment until it shattered into the shards again, and he flung them from below at the joints of the claws that had been reaching up to attack him originally.

Jenso managed to move the claw off of himself and hopped out of the hole immediately, fortunately getting away with some scratches. 'Shit..I need to be careful, but we don't have much time..' Jenso thought, glaring up at the beasts. He took note of the fact that the creatures were now turning to face Alvios along with their bottom claws. He took aim at one of the creatures immediately from their sides as he launched a flame saw at the joints of it's legs.

The creature on Jenso's right toppled downwards as a few of its legs were sliced clean off without much resistance. It used its claws to balance itself, unable to follow up. But the other Crab immediately punched towards Alvios with its left duo of claws, aiming to knock him off its allies back.

Alvios' attack managed to outright slice the middle creature's top two claws clean off their joints, from all three of the beasts, in one fluid array of attacks. Alvios' accurate attacks disabled both the creature that was attacking him, and force it to raise its defensive claw up, swiping at him with those, and revealing its underbelly. The crab immobilised by Jenso did the same, whilst the middle crab flung its bottom claws towards Jenso, trying to slam him between them.

Jenso jumped further back to move out of range of the middle crab's claws, and launched a flame saw at the left crab's underbelly, the one that could still move while it was distracted by Alvios.

Alvios did the opposite of Jenso, leaping down before the crab on the right side, reforming his blade and swinging a blade of light at that one's underbelly while its defenses were raised. If their attacks connected and killed, that would be two dead and the last one crippled.

Two attacks, both in unison, ripped open the bellies of the beasts, ceasing their attacks and leaving the last crab with its two claws out of range to cause any harm. With their range of motion, Alvios was out of range, and Jenso could simply walk around it, if he so desired.

Jenso smiled as it seemed like they had won the fight. Jenso moved around the creature from a safe distance and waved at it. "See ya!" He shouted, and moved deeper into the tunnel, albeit not rushing forward on his own as he waited for Alvios to run beside him. He couldn't be careless, despite that they needed to act fast.

Alvios didn't bother dealing with the one that was downed and dying either, instead jumping forward and following Jenso deeper into the caverns. "You alright there, Jenso? I saw that thing bash you into the floor there, but you barely look phased by it at all." Alvios was studying Jenso's build a bit as they pressed onward. Barely even bruised. Man must have bones of steel. Reinforced, magical, thousand-fold steel.

Jenso turned to Alvios and smirked. "Don't worry, I've taken worse than that!" Jenso replied casually to him, looking back forward as he kept his wits about him and remained focused on what they would run into.

Jenso and Alvios proceeded deeper into the cavern, past the guards. It seemed that this pathway lead deeper underground, past where the crystals ended, and a thick, dark brown set of walls began. The tunnel smoothed out, and the temperature began to rise. There were still crystals lining the walls of the tunnel, however, every few feet. They glowed an eerie purple hue, and lit the tunnel.

Finally, after quite a trek, they reached a massive room with a huge crevice that lead into the earth's crust. A bubbling noise sounded from withing the trench at the end of the room that divided a raised platform, where a woman's body was positioning, locked in place by crystal handcuffs. The majority of the room was flat, rough stone. Moments after they entered, something dropped from the ceiling. Something humanoid. It stood up tall, standing 8 feet in height and wielding what looked like a bio-organic pair of blades. It hissed at Jenso and Alvios, coated in thick, crystal armour. Its skull was elongated, and lined with 6 eyes, 3 on each side, with a large maw that was lined with teeth.

"Ssssso you've come at last," It hissed, referring to Alvios, "Even through the ASsssimilated Sssssisters. You know no MerSsssy, AlvioSsss.."

Jenso looked up at the creature's face and blinked. "What...what the fuck?!" Jenso shouted in a confused tone, and got in a combat stance. "Who's that woman that's chained on that platform behind you? And how do you know Alvios?!" He spat at the creature, keeping a close eye on it's movements.

Alvios looked around the room carefully once, before settling his gaze back on the 'warrior' standing before them. "There's every mercy in ending their suffering. The only one who won't be receiving mercy here is you, creature. Although I must ask...how do you know my name, and what are you doing with these women?" As he spoke, he settled into his own stance, sword at the ready. Was this the leader of the Swarm?

The Bug man strengthened his stance and narrowed his eyes. "The queen has told me much. As for thiSsss woman, we are acquiring the perfect Sssssubstitution for our queen," He answered, "But as you can Sssssee, this woman will not do." The bug lowered his sword, and swarmlings crawled out of the crevice below, swarming the woman and devouring her alive. He screams echoed through the room and the bug-man smiled.. At least, it kind of looked like a smile?

"But Ssssssoon, we will have the Ssssmall one. SHE has already been retrieved, and will arrive shortly. Your abSssscence from that Ssssity iSsss moSssst Apreciated, Alvios."