Brint felt a little pang of loss as the connection he had with it was lost, suddenly snapped as if it was a lifeline that had been abruptly cut. He could still feel the others, which were single-mindedly trying to take the snake apart piece-by-piece with their claws. They dodged a few rapidly-slowing attacks from the serpent as the blood-loss and damage took their toll on the giant monster.
Less than ten minutes after the fight started, it was over. Blood from the humongous snake and his own Qwizard mingled together upon the battlefield, pooling in a disturbing pond of death and destruction. Torn and mangled flesh from the snake littered the ground, while the trees continued to burn in the background. The two remaining members of his team stood watching him as he stared slack-jawed around at everything.
The fire! The shock of the battle – not to mention the blood, gore, and visceral display of wonton destruction – had shaken Brint to his core. With the sight of the burning trees, he was snapped out of his stupor and he kicked into action.
He grabbed up his bag where it had initially fallen when he was forcibly ejected from his now-dead mount. He lifted the flap and was excited to see that none of the containers had broken from his fall. He wasn’t expecting to need to use them, but The Milton insisted that he carry them anyway.
He ordered the two Qwizards to drink one container each, and then instructed them to put out the fire. He reasoned that if they could start one, they could put one out. With the Power-infused water refilling their Power pools, the Qwizards were able to put out the fires without difficulty. Apparently, putting them out was much easier than starting them.
It was fortunate that they stopped when they did, because the fire had grown so large that he was worried that it would set the whole forest ablaze. It wasn’t that he cared overly much one way or the other – since the forest was full of dangerous creatures – but if those dangerous creatures needed somewhere to escape to, the easiest direction they could go would be toward Proctan-inhabited lands. Even though he didn’t really care for any of the people in his former village, he also didn’t want to be the one that unleashed a forest full of dangerous beasts among them.
“Nice job, Brint! I couldn’t help myself, I had to watch and see how you handled yourself in your first real battle. I have some drones nearby that are finished up with mining some resources that can help bring back some of your new…resources. Meanwhile, I’m using the last of my stockpile to create a replacement for you – the amount of Bio Mass this Gargantuan Anaconda will provide will go a long way towards our goal. By the time you get back with everything, your new recruit should be ready.
“Of course, we still need more to adequately defend our dungeon and to mount an expedition to acquire additional metal deposits. Fortunately, the two remaining Qwizards near you have leveled up! That means they’re even stronger than they were before, which will come in handy over the coming weeks.”
Weeks? Brint wasn’t sure if he could handle another day of this, let alone weeks-worth of blood, guts, and dead beasts. Not to mention the constant danger from the monsters they’d be hunting. If they were anything at all like this last one, he wasn’t sure they’d be as lucky (if it could be called luck) to survive with only minimum casualties.
But he’d do it – if only to prove to himself that he could. Even if he was just along for the ride and couldn’t do any of the fighting himself, he had some powerful creatures on his side. Just watching the skill and quick-thinking actions of the Qwizards during the last fight, he was sure they would be able to tackle anything they found out there in the forest.
Of course, he wouldn’t be disappointed if The Milton provided him with some extra help, either.
Chapter 19 – Progress
“You really did well with him, Milton,” ALANNA abruptly interrupted his thoughts, “I’m impressed at his progress.”
Milton tore his attention away from the trap he was installing in the latest room in their dungeon as he concentrated on what she was saying. ALANNA had been unusually quiet ever since the two Proctans had become integral parts of his little world here and he realized that he missed talking with her – foul language and all. Though, with this new, evolving personality of hers, their conversations had been a mixture of confusion and relief. He was relieved that there was much less in the way of derogatory comments and language, but he never knew what personality he would end up with on a certain day.
This newest manifestation of her persona seemed to be an improvement over the last one from a couple of days ago. That one didn’t use any foul language; she instead talked in the third person and referred to him solely as “The Station Core”. It was unnerving, making him think she had somehow reverted back to a simple AI program with no personality whatsoever. He was glad to see that it wasn’t the case.
Nevertheless, he was encouraged by this new one. She had only said one thing so far, but her positive tone and supportive attitude made him feel optimistic. Which was something that he was beginning to experience more of – optimism. With the way the dungeon was coming together, he was starting to get the sense that they were just about prepared for anything.
“How do you mean, ALANNA? What did I do?”
She looked at the nearest of his sensor orbs, knowing that he would instinctively focus on the one she was talking to, “I’m talking about his attitude and demeanor, the boost of self-confidence he’s demonstrated. He’s stronger for what he’s been doing, and it shows – I can tell that even Whisp has seen a difference. And it’s all because of you.”
Milton could see what she was talking about. He split his attention between her and a passive observation through one of the Combat Units currently in the field with Brint. They were a significant distance away from the dungeon, just barely within the communication zone that his Core could reach. Brint was leading the small army of Units that Milton had designed and given to the Proctan to use in his frequent forays for additional quantities of Bio Mass. Although no words were spoken, the formerly-hesitant Proctan was effectively handling 40 Combat Units of different sizes and shapes without difficulty.
From what he could “sense” of Brint’s interactions with them, he had a gentle-yet-insistent touch to his orders and instructions. His brief touches as he communicated with their Neurological Control Units was feather-light; however, he was able to convey what he wanted them to do with just that brief interaction.
Milton tended to act more like a sledgehammer, battering down the walls of their own free will and personality to get them to act the way he wanted. His touch wasn’t necessarily harsh, but it had so much power behind it that it tended to work with brute force more than finesse.
Both ways of communicating with the Combat Units worked, but Milton could see that the transitions between orders ran a lot smoother using Brint’s method compared to his own. There were only milliseconds of delay – but in the heat of battle those precious milliseconds could turn the fight one way or the other.
The confidence in Brint’s bearing was plain to see: how he sat straight up in the saddle that he himself had designed for his new mount, the way his vision roamed over the landscape like a predator (instead of the previous scared-poopless look he sported when he first started), and the way his entire hunting party moved almost as if it was an extension of his own body. There was no hesitancy in his actions as his small army of Combat Units flowed over the ground in pursuit of more prey.
Milton was impressed as well at his perseverance; especially how he had reluctantly continued hunting for more “resources” after the Gargantuan Anaconda attack. Brint had also bounced-back after losing all but one of his party during a disastrous attack on some aquatic creatures he had located in a slow-moving river far to the south. That close call led to Milton diversifying the party Brint was traveling with – which helped the revenge-focused Proctan regroup and determinedly destroy the creatures who had decimated his party.
Currently, Brint was far to the south – past the river that had caused him so many pro
blems – and was wiping out whatever he came across. The forest seemed to go on forever, and whenever Milton thought they would run out of viable hunting options there always seemed to be more around the corner. Even previously “cleared” locations had something in them days later; if he didn’t know better, he would have thought that they had “respawned” somehow. From careful observation, however, he discovered that the forest was so overcrowded outside of his own territory that bands of creatures would migrate elsewhere to relieve congestion in the surrounding areas.
Brint’s determined exploration of places further than he had ever explored himself had also netted Milton additional sources of Combat Units. Not only had the Gargantuan Anaconda been added to his list, there had been a plethora of smaller creatures as well. Most were slight variations of ones he already had, such as the Huge Greywiener and Cute Scaly Bear (an adorable, yet deadly, miniature Scaly Bear) but there were some unique additions as well.
From the river that had almost taken Brint out for good, came three Combat Units that the Proctan happily provided once he had taken revenge on them. First – one that he had found along the bank of the river – was the Snappy Turtle, a very large, flat-backed turtle with a near-impenetrable shell. It was about five times the size of even the largest turtle Milton had ever seen on TV and was unique in the fact that it had three heads emerging from the same neck. Each of the heads were comprised mainly of an extremely sharp beak-like mouth, with just two spikes that would *snap* closed on its prey.
The fight with this creature wasn’t hard, but it was exhausting. Whenever it would detract its feet or heads (which it could do near-instantly), a barrier comprised of the same substance as the shell slammed down, protecting its orifices from harm. Brint eventually had to use two of his Units to flip it over, which meant that – similar to a turtle back on Earth – it couldn’t right itself. Fortunately, the underside of the shell was “slightly” softer, which enabled the super-sharp claws of the Qwizards (which could cut through rock with ease) to gradually scratch it enough to get inside and disembowel the turtle.
The second creature, which was one of the main culprits of Brint’s near-death experience and the demise of most of the first team, was the Horrific Piranha. Significantly larger than its Earthy cousins, these fish could swim quickly through the water and attack without warning as part of a “school”. Instead of nibbling something to death, they used their two-inch long teeth to bite, rend, and strip unsuspecting victims with ferocious determination.
Which even the strong, scaled protection of Brints’ Qwizards couldn’t defend against.
Milton ended up creating another hybrid of a Quizard, Proctan, Scaly Bear, and Snappy Turtle that utilized the super-durable shell of their newest acquisition. Ever since he had unlocked the Quaternary Recombination research option in his Biological Recombinator, he had a lot more options in his trait choices. It was first present in his Qwizard, which combined four different sources together, and the results were amazing – if he did say so himself.
The new Combat Unit – which he affectionately called a Quank (Quizard tank, keeping with the naming scheme) – did a remarkable job of gaining the attention of the Piranhas while they were systematically picked off by the Qwizards. In fact, it didn’t even take any damage from the battle.
Although its limbs didn’t detract like a turtle, it had a shell-like exoskeleton that covered every inch of the Unit – except for its eyes. A thinner membrane of normal skin camouflaged the ocular cavities, the color and design of which looked very similar to the substance around everything else. Fortunately, the Piranhas weren’t smart enough to exploit this weakness, instead concentrating on the Quanks’ flailing limbs.
The only drawback to having such a strong exterior armor was that it wasn’t nearly as fast as a normal Quizard – the barely flexible exoskeleton made it hard to react quickly. Having the Quizard as its base unit helped mitigate enough of these penalties that it could move faster than a Proctan; this, however, was magnitudes slower than even the slowest Quizard he had ever seen. Milton had tried to use a Scaly Bear as the base initially – thinking that it would make a better tank – but it moved so slowly that it wasn’t going to be as effective in combat.
Milton realized after the battle, when there were only faint scratches along the shell-like skin of the Quank, that the shell was how the Snappy Turtle was able to survive in the same waters. It had somehow adapted to its environment, just like he had adapted certain traits to his own creatures.
The third, and last, creature that Brint and Milton had obtained from the river was a surprise. At least, it was to Milton, who had preconceived notions based on knowledge of Earth and its waterways and oceans. While he wasn’t a Marine Biologist by any definition, he did know enough that there was freshwater and saltwater. From what he remembered, freshwater usually had smaller specimens (because there wasn’t as much space) and saltwater had bigger creatures like dolphins, octopus, and whales. He was sure there were plenty of exceptions, but, again, he wasn’t all that knowledgeable about animals found in water.
Therefore, he was surprised when Brint and his team had been attacked by a shark. A shark in the river, who’d have thunk it? And it wasn’t a small shark either, nor was it like anything he’d seen before – not unlike most things he’d seen so far on this world. Luckily, their one and only run-in with it was over almost before it had begun.
Apparently, the river ran deep in that particular section – hundreds of feet deep in fact. Hidden by the slowly-running water overhead and unbeknownst to Brint, the cavernous section had contained a massive creature that was cross between a whale-sized shark and a giant squid. The front part was all business – shark head and jaws and scary teeth – while the lower half was formed of undulating squid tentacles. These tentacles were its main mode of movement, allowing for increased speeds as all its lower limbs worked together to propel it forward.
Brint and his crew had been fighting the slow-but-steady current as they swam across the river, when out of nowhere the overwhelming shape of the Squirk (squid shark) flew straight up out of the water and swallowed up the Quank who had been in the lead. Before anyone could react, the Squirk had made an arc in the air and plunged back into the water, adding to the already large disturbance of the water. Brint panicked and ordered all his remaining Qwizards back to shore with him in tow. He knew – and was probably correct – that they were currently no match for the massive creature who had swallowed his main defender in one bite.
Potentially, the Squirk probably had dealings with Snappy Turtles in the past. Even its sharp and powerful jaws couldn’t break the high-defensive rating of its shell, so they most likely left each other alone. However, Brint’s Quank didn’t look like a turtle – which, as it turned out, was a good thing.
Drying off on the same bank they had started from, Brint had contacted Milton again for help with this new adversary. Before they could come up with a plan, the dead body of the Squirk bobbed to the surface, bleeding profusely from its mouth. The large quantity of blood attracted a nearby school of Horrific Piranha, who immediately started feasting on the hulking creature. Brint – and Milton, truth be told – were amazed when they saw the Quank punch a hole through the stomach of the belly-up Squirk, where it had been deposited after being swallowed. Since next-to-nothing could penetrate its thick shell, not even any potential acid inside the stomach, it slashed and punched its way out of the digestive organ, killing the massive beast in the process.
Remarkably, the Piranhas took a significant chunk out of the side of the Squirk, but enough was left over when they were full that Brint and his Units were able to pull it to shore. Milton dispatched his available drones to help with the “clean-up and disposal” of the body, so that Brint could continue his hunt.
No other serious problems occurred over the next week and a half. Brint explored further than even Milton had observed through aerial reconnaissance and encountered new and interesting creatures such as the Tricera
beetle. It was a massive beetle the size of a cow that had three horns on its head, which it used to charge and ram its enemies. Fortunately, it was easy to defeat because once it charged ahead it couldn’t turn until it stopped. Brint’s team merely had to dodge out of the way and attack its vulnerable backside.
The last acquisition of note was when Brint found where the Glider Monkeys had migrated after Milton had seen them so long ago with his Greywiener scout. They had created a “village” like the one he had seen before, complete with vine ropes and a cleared section in the middle. Brint would’ve missed seeing them if it wasn’t for the fact that they attacked him and almost scored a direct hit with their thrown spears. Only a lucky shift of his Qwizard mount allowed him to scrape by with only a minor cut to his arm.
Because they were airborne most of the time, they had to flee the field of battle for the time being. There wasn’t too much danger of his Units being hurt by the spears – Brint was a different case, though. The close call convinced him that he needed another way to attack out-of-reach enemies. This, as well as other unique creatures Brint encountered, convinced Milton that he needed to further diversify the group Brint was to travel with. Suffice it to say, when he went back with some new reinforcements, the ensuing battle was quick and decisive.
Which is why Milton was feeling a touch of pride as he saw the increased self-confidence the Proctan portrayed as his personal army grew larger. Now commanding 40 Combat Units of various sizes and specialties, he thought there was very little his young protégé couldn’t overcome. Well, at least out there in the forest.
The Quizard Mountains: A Dungeon Core Epic (Station Cores Book 2) Page 14