Chapter 76: Chapter 75: Time-Out
As two centipede-type Carrion creatures lunged in to attack Blanc from his blind spots, Gillian and Carl each appeared next to one.
Gillian drove his platinum flame-wreathed claws into the human-like head, expecting it to be more aesthetic than functional, but as the head first bubbled its entire body shuddered. Then as Gillian’s claws tore threw it and reduced it to bloody vapour, the creatures entire body spasmed before falling limp.
"Guys! The human-like head is actually a weak-spot."
"Idiot! Don’t underestimate them, keep an eye on it for a while before you make that call." Carl’s spear had hit like a cannon and obliterated most of his target, but he eyed what was left cautiously, seeing how the one Blanc had mostly torn apart was still moving through the damage.
Gillian shook his head. "Guys, chill out! Blanc’s is only moving because of the electrical discharges!"
The moment he spoke they all jumped back to be on the safe side...
After fifteen minutes of observation, with no signs of movement, Gillian spoke. "Scorch, go sniff them out, they won’t be able to damage your body with physical attacks. If mine doesn’t move, we have pinpointed a weakness, we need to analyse them since tearing them apart will obviously do the job."
Scorch done as commanded, then returned. ’Dad, Creator, Blanc, all your foes lay dead. should I cleanse their remains?"
"No, we’ll take them, your dad’s can be studied because it’s mostly complete. Ours can be used as materials." Carl replied.
"Agreed, sorry for not realising, I just remember Lillim telling us not to stop if the enemy is moving." Blanc said, a little bit embarrassed by his frenzy.
"Yeah, let’s not piss you off anytime soon." Gillian laughed before they headed in.
They collected the bodies then made their way into the tunnel that was created when they emerged.
The tunnel was much more spacious than they thought it would be, about thirty feet in diameter. Every inch of it appeared to be stone at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it was actually just some kind of resin that The Carrion had lined it with for structural integrity.
"Dispatch, mapping drones... Guys, this will cut my integration time limit a fair bit, we’ll run ahead and the drones can follow behind and take whatever route we don’t."
"Sounds good, let’s move."
Everyone ran as fast as they could, the drones branched off pretty quickly, leaving them to run through the disorientating maze without them.
It became crystal clear that the network was colossal, between their group and the drones they covered kilometres worth of tunnels in minutes and hadn’t even ran into any of The Carrion.
"Screw it, let’s call them to us whilst we’re still at full fighting strength, we can use their formation to get an idea of where we need to head." Gillian said, getting annoyed by what was just a creepy run through a subterranean tunnel.
"I’m up for it." Blanc agreed as he flexed his robotic fingers.
"Fine, but if sensors pick up any unknown signatures, we stay just long enough to get images and scans before we retreat. I won’t let them beat us two times in a row."
When everyone nodded, they counted to three and when they reached it, Blanc and Carl punched either side of the tunnel as hard as they could to send out vibrations and Gillian howled as loudly as he could.
Within seconds the ground rumbled and shook around them, as though the planet itself was angered by their intrusion.
Minutes was all it took for another tsunami of The Carrion. It was almost entirely drones, but the numbers threatened to overwhelm even the three powerhouses that had wandered in.
There was also the occasional centipede-type, but in light of the weakness Gillian had discovered, the innumerable drones were a bigger risk.
"How are they even getting through still!? I purposefully didn’t burn them too badly to try and block the tunnel!" Gillian roared, without even slowing the flurry of claw strikes that was quickly filling the entire place with red mist.
"Didn’t you notice? Some drones are holding back, breaking down the dead and keeping the tunnel clear for the army! Lay off the fire though, breathing room is pointless if there is no air to breathe!" Carl replied.
"Guys, my time is almost up!"
"Retreat! We aren’t calling it a day though."
[ MESSAGE RECEIVED FROM CARL : THE MOMENT WE GET OUTSIDE BLANC, SWITCH TO REMOTE CONTROL ON THAT THING. I KNOW IT WON’T BE AS EFFECTIVE, BUT WE NEED TO THIN THESE NUMBERS OUT. ]
On their way out, Blanc had his drones reconnect to the rest of his automaton body and the map data fully compiled.
"Carl! We got over a hundred kilometres of bloody mapping done! This place is bigger than we thought!"
"Yeah I figured, the information Gaia gave me, was making me lean that way. I’m going to have Noah meet us up top, along with all The Carrion materials Kon and Blaine collected, I’m making us a new friend."
"Oooo, can’t wait to see what you have in mind." Gillian howled with delight, though it faded immediately when he got a thick glob of Carrion gore matted in his fur. "That does it, I’m gonna call in my buddies too, let’s even out the numbers!"
"Sounds good! Kinda determined to get this done with us three alone." Carl replied through teeth gritted with determination, rather than anger or frustration.
When they eventually burst out, their superhuman senses saw Noah give a bow. "Why hellooo, glorious leader... Please take a breather and prepare for your next expedition. Reaga, keep up the petrification and I’ll clear up the mess."
"You got it dad!" Reaga began swimming after the tip of his own tail, all eyes open and paralysing any of The Carrion that moved into their line of sight.
Noah was swiping his spear in wide arcs, like a farmer reaping grain with a scythe. Despite how it looked, it wasn’t an attempt to cause widespread damage.
As the three of them watched him, they realised he was simply testing the spear’s tip at several points, when he had identified all the weak points he suddenly released a completely precise and devastating volley of lethal strikes against the frozen tide.
"Damn guys, that’s what real experience looks like..." Gillian said, noting how little effort he was exerting in the process and not wasting a single movement.
"Don’t flatter me Gil! You guys were fighting these things in the depths, on their own turf, I laid a trap and used you three as bait. I had a much easier time of it." Noah was mumbling by the end, he could feel how thick the carapaces were, the idea of being in the middle of a swarm and coming out alive was beyond his ability.
"Carl! Get to work on what you need, the supplies are waiting. Dad, left the burrowing death materials we gathered in Tartarus as well."
Carl nodded at Reaga’s words, then rushed over and started planning the creation he was going to make, adding the centipede-type materials from the one he had killed.
"Okay, that should do it. Activate Neo Primordia."
[ SYSTEM NOTICE DIV PRIMORDIA EX CREATED ]
[ PLEASE NAME NEW SPECIES ]
[ PLEASE NAME NEW DIV PET EX ]
"Really? I didn’t expect it to be that high-grade... I’ll call the species Carrion-hunters. I’ll call this one Majesty."
As he finished, the glowing materials, which had also been coated in Carl’s blood, then collided and exploded light. That was where normality came to an end however.
The light quickly grew dark and reassembled into a black sphere, then what looked like a ravenous Carrion drones began emerging before being snuffed out.
Once the sphere became smooth once again, it then bubbled and grew, ending in a shape that was reminiscent of The Carrion’s drones but standing at about twenty five feet tall.
The legs, surprisingly, looked more draconic than insectoid, but much skinnier than any dragons.
The creature’s torso was upright and possessed four arms, also like the drones, but these arms were more human in design aside from a bladed protrusion at the elbow, and each hand possessed four fingers and an opposable thumb.
Its head was human in shape but with three black orbital eyes in both points a human would be.
To counter the centipede-type’s weakness, the head was covered in an internal layer of burrowing death flesh, which is highly resistant to elements and slashing and an external coating of centipede-type carapace like the rest of its body.
"Hello Majesty, nice to meet you." Carl said, bowing politely.
It responded initially by lowering its head. ’Creator, I thank you for bringing me into this world, but I sense a massive number of enemies nearby. I am also detecting a hive mind presence.’
Majesty responded telepathically, unlike the other species he had created to be more socially efficient, the Carrion-hunters were designed for the war of attrition that The Carrion forced their enemies into and as a result she was designed to have as few physical vulnerabilities as possible.
"Yeah, that’s The Carrion, we’re trying to cull them, not render them extinct."
’I see, do I have permission to multiply?’
"Only to watch whatever tunnels we don’t take, no mutations or evolutions unless directly ordered, we can’t afford any unexpected changes to the battlefield in such close-quarters."
’I understand, they will have a life expectancy of a day or so to make sure they are battle ready quickly. I will begin birthing when sufficient resources are available.’
"Well, Blanc, if you’re all set up for remote control we’ll tag back in." Carl said, not having realised that the other two were looking at his new creation like their replacement.
"So, you just made yourself a one-pet-army? I guess we’re done messing around."
"Damn right, if I can find a suitable faction member to have one as a partner, I want one to go to every world and clear out The Carrion on the other worlds."
"Not a bad strategy, if we have one on every world then if a world is invaded having the Carrion-hunters burst out will turn the tide of pretty much any initial invasion." Blanc responded before continuing. "Right, I should be good, my body feels normal again."
"Blanc, no more using that until you get checked over by Lydia, we need to make sure their won’t be any long-term side effects." Carl gave the order out of concern, not liking the way Blanc wasn’t feeling right afterwards.