Grrkkn’s people had a covenant with the Mother Forest, or at least that is what their shamans would claim. The woods would speak with them, not merely through words and dreams, but through their very instincts. Even having to conceal the sound and scent of his presence as much as possible for the planned ambush, moving through the leaf litter, fungal husks, shrubbery and saplings was effortless. Something he found did not seem to apply to his human companions so much as the little male, John, struggled to keep up with him. The cub seemed to resort to turning his arm into some manner of blade to cut through the more pesky undergrowth, but a sharp look from him reminded John that they were meant to be sneaky. Realising the human would never keep up at this rate, he lowered himself and allowed the boy to climb onto his back, the wordless gesture coming off fine apparently as he felt a weight settle into the fur of his back. John was heavy, far more heavy than his size suggested, which was probably the metal in him. Still, the Forest’s gifts were generous, and he could tell already the task was far from strenuous to his new strength even with the task of moving swiftly and silently.
He wasn’t exactly sure where the female went, she had an ability that hid her from his senses rather effectively, only allowing him to catch hints of her existence with the sound and scents she left behind. Even then, she was uncannily silent, truly like a well-adapted predator. What he could be certain of however was that she was moving among the trees, and down here in the undergrowth she too would not be able to move so quickly towards the supposed endangered human. The human Spirit-kin were truly fascinating in their physiology, something he truly was excited to learn more about!
Assuming they managed to make it in time, that would be three humans he had met in the depths of the forest as of late. He had never actually seen any of them go past the borders for all his summers, and all at once it seemed multiple of them had managed to travel an honestly impressive amount of distance into what should have been to them a toxic wasteland! Albeit the two humans he did know seemed to have arrived in an… unconventional way. Which made him all the more excited to meet the new one!
And reinforced the importance of making sure they were alive, no good learning from a dead human. There were plenty of skeletons under the trees, none of them have very interesting stories left to tell anymore.
At the thought of that he moved faster, carefully navigating the ground as to barely even leave footsteps. The scent grew stronger, fear seemed to taste much the same in the air for humans as it did for the Forest Kin. His eyesight was a good bit weaker than the humans but he could make out some shaking in the distant trees, far more of him could hear the sound of movement and skittering, the vibrations carried by the wind and earth signalling a great predator in the midst of its hunt. His muscles tensed as he took lower to the ground, gripping his makeshift spear tightly. John slid clung harder to his back, evidently bracing for the inevitable impact.
A small, green-skinned human sprinted towards them at surprising speeds, wearing a mask that was evidently half melted. Even Grrkkn’s poor eyesight could see the blurry marks of red against green signalling possibly grave wounds which had stitched themselves together, bearing signs of simultaneously recent and old injury. In better times he would love to expose himself now to observe better, but there was a more pressing matter at hand.
Namely the massive centipedal creature bursting down with enough force to splinter smaller trees after her trail. He recognised this, Gttyhk, the greatest of the corpse worms. Known to grow to such great sizes that merely feeding on scraps of decay would not be enough… that they would at times seek fresh prey who stumbled too close to their dens.
Shimmering out of her camouflage in a sheen of iridescent glow, the female human Cobalt leapt down at the creature onto its back. Growing mid-air to her full mass, using that as much as a weapon as her razor sharp claws tearing through the thick outer chitin. Wasting no time either, Grrkkn leapt with his spear aiming directly for chinks he recognised in the armour while the creature was still distracted and writhing in pain. On his back he felt lightning spark, his fur standing on its ends, as the human John prepared his own attack. Unfortunately that did not have the time to set off according to plan, for in a split second the injured beast began to spin, a living battering ram shaking ancient trees to their foundations and rousing massive clouds of spores devouring near all senses.
Every good hunter wishes to see their prey go down cleanly in a singular blow. But as it happens, such things are not always realistic. So now it will be determined if they had what it took to distinguish them from a good hunter… into great ones.
----------------------------------------
The moment John saw the beast still moving after both Cobalt and Gorekin stabbed them with full force he knew shit was about to get messy. Last he checked the girl it was chasing seemed to have gotten out of the way, though with the hole in her mask he wasn’t sure how much further she could have gotten before the spores freshly stirred up by the conflict got to her. That didn’t matter for the moment however…
What did was a massive insectoid body swinging back and forth, creating noises more akin to thunder than slamming as it screeched in agony. Acid spittle soared through the air along with the spores, the droplets sizzling where they met skin. If they hit directly… that would be nasty indeed. Already a bad prospect at the best of times, now they were working with quite limited visibility on top of all that. Cobalt and Gorekin seemed to at least have senses sharp enough to handle themselves, but John? He was in comparison, frankly… blind.
Once more he found himself wishing he had a more versatile psychic power as he struggled to hold onto Gorekin’s fur. The giant becoming the only thing that told him he was even anywhere close to where he needed to be. His abilities, while versatile, did not lend themselves well to blindness after all… nearly all of them needed aiming.
This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
[I believe I can be of assistance…] ARTOS offered.
Well don’t keep it a secret! John thought frantically.
[It will be risky… and it relies on… some developments you may not be aware of.] ARTOS added sounding… guilty?
Whatever! I don’t care! Just tell me what it is! John frantically begged as Gorekin dodged an attack, nearly sending him flying.
[I believe I have deep enough access to your brain to… alter some of your senses temporarily. Take priority away from sight and into senses that would prove more productive at this moment.] ARTOS offered. [I understand however such an idea would b-]
Do it! John thought loudly in their own head.
ARTOS seemed to actually pause in shock for a moment. [I’m sorry, perhaps you did not hear what I was sugg-]
I heard you fine, and I trust you! No matter what we are stuck together right? And so far you have always pulled through for me! John told the machine sharing his flesh, though it was beginning to become difficult to both hold onto Gorekin and maintain the train of thought.
[Alright then… brace yourself… estimated 99% probability you fall to the ground after this. Timing sensory switch in 3, 2… 1.]
A moment after the giant centipede’s body swung back towards Gorekin, grazing against the scholar and causing a gash to open in his chest, the world seemed to lurch as everything he knew stopped applying. His eyesight grew blurred, indistinct and unfocused, almost useless, while everything else sharpened to more than a razors edge. He could feel the minute vibrations of the air, taste the coppery droplets of blood from Gorekin’s wound, smell the chemical scent of the giant centipede and all around him the flow of Si into the various fungi of the forest. Even his most recent sense was affected, the metal around him seemed to sing to the tune of that strange force emanating from the Earth in such beautiful waves he had not the words to describe it…
It was disorienting, and true to ARTO’s prediction, he found himself spinning into the ground. Nausea spiking into his brain repeatedly, he wondered how Magni did it given he apparently suffered a similar information overdose. Instinctively he activated an Adrenaline Rush, and with his heightened senses he could feel the burn of synthetic hormones and nervous impulses ripping through his system at speeds measured in fractions of seconds.
He dove to dodge a surging disturbance in the air, ducking just under what seemed to be a headfirst charge by the massive beast. He was still disoriented… but he knew where it was. He couldn’t exactly see it at all… but that didn’t matter when everything else around it became so clear.
Channelling his new psychic power, he ripped the metal from various stones in the area, their specific resonance becoming nearly painfully obvious now to whatever internal formations were behind his specific psychic expression, and formed a little bead of iron. Too small to ordinarily do anything with… but…
ARTOS helpfully flicked through its stored memories, sending him an image of an ancient weapon from the Golden Age. A gun that used lightning and magnets instead of gunpowder… a railrifle they called it. All the destructive potential of a cannon, in something small enough to be carried by infantry.
And he had all the parts to make it work.
The adrenaline rush wore off sending a wave of fatigue through his over-exerted muscles, but the path forward was clear. Right now he wasn’t the priority target for the creature, as Cobalt was still gripping on with strength likely enough to easily pulverise steel. Gorekin had attempted to help but was immediately batted by its tail somewhere behind them, another factor that should lull the creature into a sense of security. That should be enough of a distraction in total for him to start moving the pieces into place…
Feeling his right arm shift shape in accordance to the blueprints, the metal plates arranging themselves as the cabling of ARTOS rewound to carry his conductive sweat more effectively, he felt the song of the earth around him distort in accordance to his movements. Evidently sensing something as well, the giant insect tried to flee before several of its legs were mauled off by a rapid entity nearing double the height of Gorekin at this point, Cobalt he assumed. It reeled back in pain, casting a shadow even his diminished vision could see…
He closed his useless eyes, took a deep spore-filled breath, and aligned the metal pellet. Then in a thunderous instant, lightning and earth united to carve off the head of the beast in a splash of blood and acid. An assault on every sense he had active from the overpowering ozone, the deafening noise and inescapable vibrations to even the rippling in the local magnetic field.
[Rewiring senses…]
John felt his senses snap back to normal like the crack of a whip, his eyesight returning to blinding acuity as everything else seemed to dull to the point of nigh uselessness. Overwhelmed from everything he emptied his guts against the floor, and collapsed a quivering mess.
“JOHN! JOHN! YOU KRACKING IDIOT- WHAT DID YOU DO!” He could hear Cobalt scream.
“Don’t… worry about me…” He wheezed, attempting to get up but tripping instantly from a fried sense of balance. “The… the green guy…”
Gorekin emerged from the bushes, carrying an unconscious and distinctly human figure on his shoulder. “Got other human to safety, no worry! But no mask now… hope have plan?”
John looked towards ARTOS and experimentally shifted its shape back and forth between a few simple objects… before drawing upon his memory and turning the tip into the same one as on the mask Gorekin had given him the first day they arrived in this giant forest. “Give me a few to… get my bearings. I think I can do something.”