Milton really needed to use his gaming skills to pull out a win. Resource management, player strengths, and commanding NPC units in battle was his strength – in Crowned Lieges of Destiny. He just had to apply those same strengths to this new “game” he was an integral part of – life. Or at least life as a Station Core.
Now that he had another “party member” that had better knowledge of practical defense construction, he could concentrate on everything else.
As the second room was almost finished and the third just starting, he noticed that Brint had to order the drones less and less as they grew accustomed to reading the blueprints Whisp supplied. Most of the time he stood around and “twiddled his thumbs”, watching the drones at work or fetching something from their workshop for the excited and near-spastic girl.
And that girl appeared to be in her element – constructing rooms, inventing new traps designed to decimate any invaders, and generally having the time of her life with nearly-unlimited “power” and resources. She would occasionally alter a blueprint slightly if she saw a better way of doing things, but for the most part she bounced on the balls of her feet in anticipation of the next project.
He knew on an instinctual “male” level that Brint didn’t mind not having anything to do – just being near his “friend” was enough. From what he had told Milton about her (and his longing looks in her direction), he knew that the Proctan’s infatuation with her was stronger than ever.
“You know she feels the same way, don’t you?” ALANNA interrupted his thoughts, her voice strangely toneless.
“What? Are you sure?”
“Of course, it’s obvious once you analyze her mannerisms – her inflection when addressing him, the way she brushes up against him when physical contact was entirely avoidable, and the stolen glances in his direction when he’s not looking. All these things point to one thing – she wants to fuck.”
Milton mentally hung his head. “You were doing so well there…” he mumbled, before asking, “That last statement aside, are you sure? If it were true, why haven’t they done anything about it yet?”
“He’s a chickenshit – ain’t got no huevos. Doesn’t think he’s good enough for her. He needs a big self-confidence boost – you know, kinda like someone else?” she looked pointedly at one of his sensor orbs. Her personality is getting weirder and weirder as time goes on. Spanish now?
He bristled at the accusation, but after a moment he realized she was right. He was always worried that he wasn’t prepared enough, didn’t have enough resources, and complained at what he didn’t have to combat what this world threw at him. He saw that, and comprehended that, but to actually change that was going to take some work.
The process of which wasn’t going to happen overnight. It would take experience and witnessing his own capabilities time and time again to affect that kind of change. He knew he had it in him; now he just had to figure out how to make it work.
Whether or not he could change himself was a moot point if he couldn’t find some more resources – and fast. After his brief (yet eye-opening) conversation with ALANNA concerning Brint’s self-confidence issues, he thought of a way he might be able to kill two birds with one stone. Or, he’d rather prefer, kill two squirrels with one Proctan.
Chapter 17 – Another proposition
Brint grumbled obscenities under his breath as the hard scales of his mount dug into his thighs, notwithstanding that even if he yelled them out it wouldn’t make a difference to the giant lizard he was straddling. In truth, he was trying not to make any extra noise – despite their bulk, the “Qwizards” he was theoretically in charge of were fairly quiet as they traveled through the underbrush. Which was something that they needed to be right now -- stealthy.
Milton had pulled him away from Whisp with a proposition. While Brint was wary (since the last proposition led to their current situation), he was excited to be doing something important for once.
At first, he had been an integral part of communicating between the drones and various facilities and Whisp. As time went on – less than a full day, in fact – she was requiring his help less and less as both The Milton and the drones were able to look at her blueprints and implement the construction without much input. While his best friend couldn’t order them directly, they had enough intelligence in their strange metal bodies to adapt and anticipate any changes she needed to convey. It also helped that The Milton kept an eye out and was able to help in areas she didn’t have any influence over.
Which meant that Brint was becoming a bit superfluous. He didn’t mind too much because he was still able to spend as much time around Whisp as he wanted; however, he was itching to do something helpful. Looking around their “dungeon” as The Milton called it, he couldn’t see anything worthwhile to do.
Fortunately, the giant metal egg came to his rescue in a timely manner. Apparently, the powerful entity needed some additional resources to supply the dungeon with the creatures he and Brint could command. Because The Milton was still working on some sort of project he called “The Farm” (as well as helping Whisp with her own construction efforts), it was hard for him to split his attention away from that so that he could retrieve what he called, “Bio Mass”.
That’s where Brint came in.
The Milton had put him in charge of some newly-created creatures called “Qwizards”, who resembled the BBQs he had seen before. Apparently, these were even more powerful, but apart from a color change and harder scales across their backs he couldn’t tell. Even with access to some sort of “Status Screen”, it was so foreign to him that it made no sense.[16]
The Milton said it was combination of a Qwizard, Clawed Badger, Spiderwolf, and a Proctan – the last of which made him slightly uncomfortable. He was just glad that there was nothing about it that even remotely resembled one of his people; he didn’t think he could handle it if looked like some sort of lizard with a Proctan face.
Brint was a little worried how he would fare against the creatures he had heard about in the surrounding forest. From Guild tales and local legends, he had heard about the frightening monsters that roamed throughout the trees. The Spiderwolves which had started him on this path all those months ago were rather harmless when compared to what he knew they might encounter.
Unfortunately, finding these frightening monsters was his job now.
Well, to be truthful, he wasn’t asked to find any particular monsters – just any nearby. He was out on the hunt for monster bodies to provide their dungeon with enough raw material to create their own monsters that would guard and protect them. While he could understand needing resources to make something – kind of like needing wood to create a wooden chair – he didn’t understand how it was done. At least Whisp seemed to grasp the basics of the creation process, which was good enough for him.
So, in light of his objective, that was why he endured the battering of his lower legs and backside as he rode one of the still-intimidating giant lizards. His ability to control/give orders to the creatures meant that he was uniquely suited to lead this small hunting party of three Qwizards; however, they operated so well on their own that he hadn’t had to give anything but the most basic instructions. He didn’t really have any innate skills when it came to fights and battles, so he would most likely watch them do their own thing before stepping in if necessary.
Speaking of which, they had traveled for only about ten minutes before they had caught the scent of something nearby. The Qwizards were stealthily making their way through the underbrush at a rapid pace, almost as fast as they previously traveled – but with more care in the placement of their feet. He wasn’t sure what it was they were tracking – because they couldn’t really communicate in any meaningful way – so he attempted something else.
Through some previous experimentation with his ability, he had learned how to “enter” the mind of one of these creatures so that he could experience what they saw, heard, smelt, and felt. The Milton cautioned him from meshing with t
heir minds too deeply, which matched his own feelings on the matter – it was so strange that he grew disoriented after a while. It was especially difficult as he was currently attempting to hold on to one of them at the same time.
Whatever it was, the mental “picture” he received from the brief connection with his mount indicated that it was big. How big, he and they didn’t know – just that it was bigger than the Qwizards themselves – which was saying something since each of them was at least twice his own size if not larger. That didn’t bode well for his first fight leading these creatures; he would have preferred something small and easy and less dangerous. Heck, he would even take a small pack of Spiderwolves if he had the choice. These giant lizards were so quick they could run circles around them, making the fight entirely one-sided.
Of course, it couldn’t be anything that easy.
His “team” slowed down even further, until they were moving at a Proctan walking speed – which was practically a crawl for the extremely fast Qwizards. As they crept around the base of a large tree, Brint caught a glimpse of what they had been hunting and he froze in fear.
Despite their caution, their “prey” had heard them approach. Or sensed them somehow, since he wasn’t sure if it had ears. Two huge, reptilian eyes locked onto his own as he stared at the largest snake he had ever seen or heard of before. Those eyes promised death to anyone who invaded its territory and he almost (but not quite, he was able to hold it in) voided his bowels in fear.
Its head alone was larger than the Qwizard he was riding, and its massive body was wrapped around not just one but three separate trees it was so long. When it saw them approach, the gargantuan serpent opened it jaws in a deafening hiss that shook the leaves off some nearby trees and left him with a small headache as a result. Each of its fangs was the size of Brint, which meant that if he or one of his team got impaled by one of them they were done for – the rock-hard scales of the giant lizards might mitigate some of the damage, but even they couldn’t withstand an impact of a sharp tooth half their size.
He was about to turn the team he was in charge of around – sure that they couldn’t take on something this size without a lot more help – but the decision was taken from him when he was thrown off his mount. It didn’t intend to, of course, but his mount had reacted to the challenge of killing the massive beast by moving from a complete stop to full speed in less than a second. Since he was still partially frozen in fear, he didn’t have time to hold on as he was unceremoniously pitched over the backside of the Qwizard he was riding. He landed painfully on his head, which fortunately broke the mesmerizing trance the snake had caused him to fall into.
He scrambled backwards on all fours as all thoughts of calling off his team escaped from his mind. He was slightly dizzy from the impact with the ground and it was all he could do to think clearly enough to get himself to safety. Or at least the relative safety that distance brought.
By the time he nearly crab-walked back to the large tree behind him, his vision cleared enough that he could see the battle between his Qwizards and the humongous serpent. Although it hadn’t been that long since he had fallen off his mount, he found that not only had his team survived – they were just getting started.
He hadn’t really seen them in action before, other than the brief episode where a BBQ had cut off the head of Reginald the Healer a couple of days ago. Since then, he had seen how fast they could travel, but it was a bare shadow of the speed that they could move when they were in the middle of a life-and-death situation. They say that there’s not much faster than the speed of a striking snake – but they’d be wrong.
The Qwizards started the battle by surrounding the serpent’s head in a triangular formation, with his own mount directly in front of its line of sight. As they encroached within striking distance, the massive snake shot its head out straight ahead as it intended to grasp one of its enemies in a powerful bite. Brint could see the confused look in its eyes as it bit down on nothing but empty air, followed by flashes of pain as the two other lizards took the opportunity to rend their claws in its scaly flesh while it was fully extended. Its intended target had moved so quickly to the side during the strike that it was able to add its own swipe at the cheek of the giant snake.
The now-bleeding head jerked back in surprise at the sudden assault, followed by a narrowing of its eyes as it seemed to reconsider the three (relatively) tiny lizards who had invaded its territory and dared to injure it. Suddenly, the forest around the snake seemed to come alive as Brint saw its body start to move through its branches. His team of Qwizards weren’t sitting still as this happened, however – they moved out of direct range of its head and started slicing up the body as it slithered by.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much they could reach – its home up in the branches was a good defense mechanism against things that couldn’t jump high. And despite their strength, speed, and deadly claws, the Qwizards were horrible at jumping; their legs were designed to propel them along the ground, not raise them into the air. They could gain a couple of inches of height if they tried hard enough, but it wasn’t nearly enough to reach the majority of the snake.
Brint didn’t know if it planned to hide up there until the Qwizard threat got tired and left (he doubted it) or if it had another attack planned once it got into position (which he thought likely). Either way, his team didn’t want to wait to find out.
Chapter 18 – Fire!
Each of the giant lizards stood back from a different tree that was holding the gargantuan serpent and spit a glob of something at its trunk. Upon impact with the wood, small flashes of fire erupted, so small and quick that it didn’t have even the slightest chance of igniting anything – let alone the giant trees they were up against. If he wasn’t as worried and scared as he was, Brint would have laughed at the miserable attempt.
However, that one tiny spark of flame was all Qwizards needed. Staring intently at the impact sites of their spit, they somehow activated their ability to manipulate the fire and stoked the small, sputtering flame until it grew and expanded; eventually, the whole base of each tree was awash in flames.
Great billows of smoke started to rise along the upper branches along with the intense heat the flames produced. Whatever the enormous serpent had planned it abandoned as the imminent danger of fire made its way further up the tree trunk. Moving faster than Brint thought anything that large should be able to move, a huge snake head emerged from hiding in the branches overhead. Brint watched it as it practically dived out toward the ground, followed by the rest of its body.
It was so much longer and thinner than he had guessed. At first, he thought it was at least 50 feet long, but it turned out to be at least twice that length. Strangely, despite its length, the main body of the snake was thin – only as wide around as his leg. Most of its bulk was made up of its head and upper body. It suddenly made sense why it was perched in the trees – it could support its thinner, more vulnerable body while it struck out with its beefed-up head toward anything that passed by.
As it hit the ground, it started to curl the rest of its body around itself as it peered wildly around at an escape route. Its animal instincts were kicking in and all it wanted to do was flee the flames that had engulfed its home.
His Qwizards had other ideas.
They attacked as a group – as a pack even – and started decimating the coiled, protective body of the snake as it wildly flailed around in panic. Brint could tell that it had been momentarily startled at their presence, as if it had forgotten why it had retreated to the upper branches in the first place. However, that surprise didn’t last long as it struck out and managed to catch the tail of one of the attacking lizards with its sharp fangs. With a quick flip of its head, it tossed the Qwizard into the air with surprising strength. The serpent followed it upwards, jaws extended wide as it prepared to swallow the lizard whole.
Almost as if in slow motion, Brint watched the smaller creature – which he now identified as his mount – f
ly straight up into the air, somehow flip around until it was facing the impending jaws of doom, before flinging a wad of spit that combusted into a small flame right smack dab into its left eye. The Qwizard must have been out of Power because no follow-up flameage happened; however, the momentary but likely painful impact of combustible spit was enough to cause the snake to flinch away momentarily.
Which proved to be its downfall.
His mount missed falling into the waiting sharp-toothed mouth by a hairs-breath; instead, it continued past its head and flung its wicked-sharp claws into the throat of the snake. The momentum created by its fall allowed the claws to dig deep and gouge long furrows in its flesh as it continued downwards.
Great gouts of blood erupted from the now-filleted side of the serpent, going so far as to splash against Brints’ clothes, who stood there staring with his mouth open at the sheer devastation the Qwizards had caused. With the damage it had now sustained, the gigantic snake started thrashing wildly about, attacking anything that it could sense nearby.
His mount had fallen inside the undulating coils of the colossal reptile and was in the process of “digging” a hole through the snake’s flesh when it was unfortunately caught up in the thrashing. The coils – despite the damage inflicted upon it from both the inside and outside – constricted instinctively upon the object within its confines.
As the Qwizard was crushed amongst the bloody snake body, the other two giant lizards attacked in their own frenzy to try to extract their pack member. Brint thought they may have had a chance at saving it because the extreme quantities of blood were making it hard for the now-slippery body of the snake to get a proper hold on its prey.
Unfortunately, that was when the wild thrashing of the snake’s head homed in on the enemy in its midst and struck out at the stationary target. Once, twice, three times his mount was run through with a single massive fang, doing so much bodily damage that Brint thought it had died instantly. However, he was amazed to see the Qwizard still alive and its front legs were freed just enough to weakly slice at the surrounding flesh. A fourth sudden impalement stopped its feeble attacks and his brief traveling companion bit the dust.
The Quizard Mountains: A Dungeon Core Epic (Station Cores Book 2) Page 13