Chapter 77: Chapter 76: Fighting Fire With Fire, Still Burns The Area
As Carl and the others headed back towards the entrance, Noah gave Carl a side-ways look. "Carl, they backed off when you made your new creation... I heard something about resources, if it needs bio-matter, I’d suggest having them clear these bodies while you start pushing the frontline back."
"You heard the man, Majesty. Is it bio-matter you need?"
’My instincts say yes, though they don’t look particularly filling. would you like me to make digestion pit here?’
"I have no Idea what that means... Sorry, are you okay to explain to Noah? we’ll get started, you follow his instructions for now and I’ll look at your abilities later."
’As you command Creator, I will do as instructed.’
Carl and the others ran in without further delay.
This time every tunnel was flooded with The Carrion, yet they fought tirelessly for an hour, unfortunately every inch they gained was hard-won against the countless drones.
After three hours, they had barely made it to where they had retreated before and the frustration they felt at their lack of progress was growing.
’Creator, the first generation of my royal guard are ready. Would you like me to follow your original orders, or would you prefer support to push them back?’
’How many will you need at each branch to hold them?’
’These creatures are inferior, two of my royal guards would be plenty to hold each tunnel entrance. I have twenty prepared.’
’Great, we have only passed five branches, place two at each, have four act as workers to retrieve bio-matter and six to support us for the next few branches, then we’ll rest down here until the second batch is ready.’
’As you command.’
Within minutes the royal guard arrived, turning the tide of the battle immediately...
Each royal guard was very similar to Majesty in appearance, but smaller, standing only ten feet tall.
Rather than four humanoid hands, they had a bladed and a shielded appendage on each side, with the upper set having the shield on the left and the lower set having it on the right.
Their heads were also different, more like the burrowing death’s but with a bulging gland at the back of its skull protected by a crest that spanned between its horns. The gland in question acted as a receiver for the queen’s mental commands, which was why it needed to be protected.
The beasts were precise and lethal from the get-go, seemingly honing in on weak-spots intuitively.
"Carl my guy, these things will strike terror into people if you aren’t careful with them. As your diplomat, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t tell you to be careful with these ones."
"Thanks, Gil. I know I tend to be a bit sentimental with them, so I needed to hear that. Let’s go though, we can talk more when we only have two of them with us."
They continued onward with the royal guard, watching how easily they tore The Carrion apart, drove Gillian’s point home. Carl was amazed at how perfect his new killing machines were, but also terrified what could happen if he put one them in another’s control.
"Okay, they’re good but what’s going on with The Carrion? Anyone else notice how disorganised they seem?" Blanc’s voice was being transmitted through his remote weapon.
"Yeah, they charge in with the usual precision, then just start slashing wildly when they get close."
Carl asked the other two to take a point while he took a step back to evaluate. It didn’t take long for him to put a hypothesis together and ask Gillian and Blanc to go side-by-side in the centre, whilst directing the other two to the edges of the tunnel.
"I knew it. Blanc, swap with me when I get to you, I want your opinion." Carl dashed in, giving Blanc time to step back.
"Something about the royal guard seems to make them go a bit berserk, that’s why they seem so disorganised."
"What I saw too. I’ll ask Majesty if she has any idea."
Majesty was unable to be one-hundred percent sure, but hypothesised that her telepathic link to her troops was interfering with The Carrion’s own command structure. She then followed by adding. ’As I said, they are inferior creatures, my creator is clearly superior.’
"Okay, looks like Majesty’s link to her guard is so strong it’s confusing the signals The Carrion are receiving from whatever is directing them."
"Well, that’s a relief, now we need to keep pushing until we get to the designated rest spot." Gillian interjected, signs of fatigue becoming increasingly noticeable.
When they finally reached the next branch, they fell back to clean off a bit using Scorch’s platinum fire that can both burn enemies and heal allies.
"Just like a dry shower. Thanks Scorch, we appreciate you, now get some rest boy." Gillian said as he scratched Scorch’s fiery chin.
As Carl and Gillian ate the provisions they had brought with them, Gillian side-eyed Carl. "Scyllya is going to arrive tomorrow evening with her parents and mine..."
"Dude, there is a good reason why I haven’t made a flag, don’t start triggering them now please." Carl chuckled.
"Just saying, you have your old settlement sending over new members too. This faction is growing and we’re going to draw attention from other sources soon enough. Thing is mate, we’re the power houses that the faction can afford to send."
"Agreed, Carl, we need to resign as your chiefs, there are those coming with more experience in our fields. We need to hand over to them, learn from them when we have time, but I think we need to be on the frontlines with you and Klaire." Blanc finished Gillian’s thought.
"I know, I’ve been feeling out of my depth since I met with the variants. I played it cool, but they could have wiped the floor with us in an instant.
I’m going to make my mum Leanna "Faction Director" and refocus on training, but I need her expertise in place. I think that might be why they asked for her to stay in her current position."
"Carl, what aren’t you telling us?"
"Marsian, the older guy, he was definitely as strong as Bahamut. Jupiterran, the one who helped when we arrived, he was definitely at Faylorna’s level. Venusiah, the woman who came here, she was definitely at Tiamat’s level. The biggest issue though, is we don’t know anything about what they can do."
"From my point of view, it really seems like they are willing to make concessions to get you on board, why so suspicious?"
"The condition Venusiah was in when she arrived, there was clearly in-fighting after Klaire and I left and they were all beaten into submission by either Marsian alone, or at most by him and Jupiterran. The fear in her eyes though, that was the same look Klaire and I had after we first met Margo."
"You think he showed up?"
"Not a chance, which means that member we didn’t see inflicted that level fear after we left. I also don’t think Marsian would have told her to bring the other two that we didn’t know about."
Gillian and the head of Blanc’s automaton nodded.
’Creator, the next generation is almost ready, I also have a harvester ready so the four that had been filling that role can be repurposed.’ Majesty suddenly transmitted.
’Already? Why so fast this time?’
’The more bio-matter digested, the quicker I can prepare more offspring.’
’I’m capping population to one-hundred, do not exceed that number under any circumstance until I order directly otherwise.’
’As you command, Creator.’
"Back-up is on the way. Look alive, we need to clear as much as possible, when we get to the forty-fifth branch we’ll call it a day."
"You know we’re only at branch eight right?"
"Well, then we better get a move on..."
Gillian looked at the automaton, then a moment later, the reinforcements Carl mentioned arrived, followed by a creature they hadn’t seen before.
It was almost completely centipedal, apart from the fact it was thirty-feet long, the other difference was that it had what seemed to be a set of redundant legs pointing upwards.
It moved directly to the corpses immediately behind the royal guard frontline, which was now manned by more than twenty of the creatures that were holding them off as a pair.
Gillain, Carl and Blanc looked curiously at the new creature, watching as it bit into each corpse one by one, joining them by some kind of adhesive resin and finally to its rear carapace so it could drag them into a uniform row.
When the row was the length and width of its body, it straddled and gripped them in its legs, then twisted onto what the trio thought were redundant legs and then scurried away towards the exit.
"Okay Carl, that thing is so efficient it’s unbelievable. You need to make sure these things can never be made without you somehow, or permit us to make a weapon to use against them if it ever happens." Gillian spoke firmly, realising how quickly a settlement could be wiped out and digested to create the next generation in no time at all.
"Gillian, I completely agree, but let’s discuss it later. I don’t want to have to do this with inversion." Carl laughed, knowing the discussion would be undoubtedly stressful for him, given how much he cares about his creations.