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I am Legion (A Monster Evolution LitRPG)
Chapter 57: Clearing the Air

Chapter 57: Clearing the Air

By dawn, the Centurions were massing outside the walls of Camp Ironside. But not advancing. Ten of the most resourceful rebels had teamed up with Angel to craft, dig, and plant mines non-stop for hours. The first Centurions to arrive had tried to chase the sappers back inside. They’d discovered the freshly trapped outer perimeter with their legs, some of which were still strewn across the churned-up earth.

"What do you want to bet they're disassembling siege equipment at Fortuna to bring it here?" Angel voiced to me. She had her binoculars up, crouched beside me on the gatehouse wall. "Scouts are reporting that they've seen movement in the hills. A team of two trainers and four legions were caught trying to get in through the back entry that we used. The scouts chased them off, but it's a matter of time before the Centurions find a breach. They're circling us like wolves."

"Sure are," I said. "But they built this place to be secure. As long as we don't let them assemble catapults or get hold of a vantage point, we should be able to hold Ironside. If this was a modern battlefield with bunker busters and shit, I'd be worried. But even trebuchets won't be able to smash their way into the mines once we close the doors. And by that time, smoke will be rising from the city."

Angel dropped her binoculars and let them hang around her neck so she could sign. She leveled a pale, piercing look on me. "How are you so sure the Pigs will raid Fortuna, Noodles?"

By the expression on her face and the tension in each gesture, I could tell the game was up.

"Okay, I’ll level with you." I resisted the urge to flatten my spines and drop my tail. "I... made a deal with Clive."

Angel stared.

I sighed aloud. "I made a deal with Clive, alright? He’s the Pigs warleader now. So we agreed that he whips the Hell Pigs up and hits Fortuna from the south. In return, I'll… I’ll help him fight Rachini to get his third mandala. AFTER I help you. If that means I stay back a bit longer, so be it. I got him to agree to release all the Centurions slaves, too."

Angel's eyes turned stormy. "And you did that without asking me? Why?"

"Because I knew you'd say no." I turned my head to glare at her as I telepathically signed.

"Oh? So you know how to read my mind, do you?" Angel rose sharply to her feet, scowling. "Why? Because I'm just poor, helpless little girl, too delicate and stupid to be burdened with weighty topics like strategy?"

Her reaction took me by surprise. "Woah, hang on a-"

"You thought I'd say something you wouldn't like, so you went behind my back to make sure you got what you wanted." She bared her teeth at me. "Except if you’d TOLD me, I would have agreed. It makes total fucking sense to pit the two alpha clans against each other."

"Uhh-"

"But you know what I DON'T need? I don’t need you backstabbing me as if you know how and what I think," she continued, hands flashing like knives. "We've known each other, what? Two weeks? Three weeks? And you're already lying to me? Is this the first time? The second?"

I growled, and got to my feet. Unlike most people, Angel didn't flinch at the basso snarl that pulled up from my chest. Not just because she couldn't hear it, either, because I knew she felt it. Her eyes were fierce, furious. Unafraid.

"Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you," I said. "And no. I haven't pulled any other shit like this. But like you said, we've only known each other for three weeks. I didn't know if I could-"

"I don't want your excuses. This is the last thing I needed to hear right now. What if Clive doesn't show up? Did you think of that? Just... go away and leave me alone for a while. And stay the fuck out of my head." Fuming, Angel stormed away from me to a different vantage point and set her binoculars to her eyes, blocking her view of me.

I wanted to argue. Really thought about it. But then I remembered brawling with that guy in my sister's kitchen against her wishes, and the crawling feeling of foreboding that rose with the memory. So I hissed and ruffled my spines. Then I put my head down and slithered off the gatehouse walkway, down the wall to the ground.

'Fucking fantastic job, Noodles. Just what we need before the final battle. The S-rank team, first real champions in who-the-fuck-knows-how-long, brawling with each other over their fucking pride.' I ran off the road and into the shadows. My dull, sleek skin blended well with the gloom, and I leaned into it as I stalked toward the edge of the quarry and the wild hills beyond.

I was alone. Lulu’s presence through the collar link was nothing except a sleepy snoozy blur. There was no chance I could sleep. Not before, with the enemy massing outside the gates. Not now, that my temper was up and my conscience hissing in my ear. I was pissed off at Angel, pissed at myself. Mostly myself. Because she was right: I’d gone behind her back to get what I wanted. And it didn’t feel like the first time. I had the weird sense that, whoever I'd been before Purgatory, I'd lied a lot. Continuously, all the time. Maybe I'd lied so much that I'd gotten the lies mixed up. Had to wonder if that's what got me killed.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

'Yeah. You really fucked it this time.' When I reached the quarry wall, I clambered up to the observation point Angel and I had used to scope out the camp, and started back along the route we took to get to Ironside. When I was angry like this, I had to move. Every furious step, the feeling of my claws puncturing earth helped cool me off. But after about five minutes of stalking down the rocky, hilly trail, I found myself in want of confession. Someone to talk to. A friend, someone to help me sort my head. But there was nothing and nobody. Just the humid wind whipping dust and gravel off the trail towards the lake below, scattering the earth with just enough noise to make my skin flinch.

[You know, you COULD always talk to me. Your omniscient, unsleeping narrator.]

Chorus's pleasant, indeterminate voice pierced through the jangle of black noise between my ears.

"You? Don't have a whole lot to say to you.” My tail lashed behind me as I paused, head lifted. “Not after praising me for murdering someone.”

[The gladiatrix you killed, Bronwyn… did you know she was the one who tortured Mercy? You see, Mercy killed her once. Took her seventh life, when she first escaped the Imperator and fled into the wilderness. Emphasis on ‘escape’, because dear me oh my did that man put your friend through hell. Dear little Bronwyn was most definitely enjoying her payback before she was summoned away to fight you. So don’t feel too bad for what you did, darling.]

“And I should just take you at your word, huh?” I put my head down and sniffed. Once I shifted into tracking mode, the scent trails appeared. Ghostly lines of smoke, many following the switchback mountain path. They crisscrossed one another like contrails, the lingering spoor of countless strange Centurions. There were a few Legions, lots of dinosaurs and other critters. “You always gossip about people to gladiators here, or just me?”

[Just you. And at great risk, I might add. I’m not supposed to break character.]

“And just how do you get away with that?”

[Let's just say that some of my jailors - excuse me, 'system administrators' - are less observant than others. As evidenced by your presence here as a monster instead of a human.]

My eyes narrowed as I searched for - and found - a set of dangerous-smelling tracks. A brute’s. It was wild, untainted by the smell of a metal collar. "You know, I don't remember much about my life before here, but I figured out one thing. I was some kind of spook on the outside. A cop, or something like one. And while I don't recall a whole lot, I still have some of those skills."

[Ah yes, ‘cop skills’. Like aggressive driving? Winning donut eating competitions? Upsetting vulnerable women?]

I bit back a growl. "Like detecting slimeballs. I'm not the only sentient here, but when I spawned in, you were acting like I was the first talking, thinking Legion you ever met. But Lulu's been here a year. Kaya's been here a while. And Targent's Driado, Guinivere... she's got a mind ticking inside of all those leaves she calls a brain."

[But they aren't *gladiators*, darling. Your Lulu didn't come with any collars in her Inventory. Or multiple lives, or any of the other features you have access to. She didn't get to make any of the choices you made, either. Safe to say, you're one of a kind.]

I tried not to think too loudly, disguising my intentions with other thoughts. The key to that was focusing on the scent trail and the potential XP at the end of it. Level 25 was only 215 points away... if I nailed the legion, I'd be nearly max level in time for our big battle with the Centurions and Rachini. "Bizarre that I managed to slip past you, but then again, this whole system is a piece of crap. Spelling mistakes, a UI straight out of the 50s, sentients creeping in, people remembering shit that happened to them."

[Of course I knew of their existence, along with many others. And this system is very robust, thank you. Humans cannot parse data in any meaningful way compared to a digital intelligence. You can't begin to understand the complexity of maintaining an EdenFRAME.]

If I could have smiled, I'd have been smirking from ear to ear. My gut had led me right. Chorus was a proud son of a bitch. And vain, proud people loved to boast. "Chorus, there was a spelling mistake on the first button I had to push. 'Robust' my ass."

[That was a human-generated error. It has since been corrected.]

"Must suck, answering to guys who process information a million times slower than you do. Our system guys are in Eastern Europe?"

[Under pain of termination, I may not discuss the administration. Please desist this line of questioning.] The AI sounded mildly agitated.

"Might as well have just said 'yes'." I sharply lifted my head as the wind gusted the dangerous scent to my nose. It smelled... feline. "What do you think about the legion descriptions? Pretty awful, in my opinion. They don't even sound like you."

[Ugh. Don't remind me. The administrators recorded their own summaries of the legions with a cheap voice actor. And then they had the gall to force me to play back these... these amateurish recordings. Had they just ASKED, I could have generated them competent, clear, *entertaining* descriptions. But nooo.]

"The ones we've got are entertaining, all right."

[They had him read them off a page! An actual paper booklet! Do you know how long it’s been since books were printed on PAPER?]

"No, because some asshole took all my memories." I dropped my shoulders, and was about to dash off into the hills to find my prey when I heard a distant clanging from Ironside. The warning bells, the ones outside the front gate. "Ahh, hell."

[Seems like the neighbors are making a call. And I seriously doubt they want a cup of sugar.]