“We are surrounded.”
“Huh?”
“Outside are many People and Elves. I see no Bovine, but many other Kin.”
Snow is right now trying to make a Gate out of this place, but it seems we have a welcoming party. They wait for us to exit. What to do…
“We should be as welcoming as they are. How about I bring the Claws out? I myself take Lindwurm and make a tunnel afterwards.”
“Are those children already able to fight? And Lindwurm needs long to make, right?”
“We have time. How about a small snack before we fight? They do not know we prepare, so no rush.”
“Okay!”
Snacks are always the answer. With her help I open the Gate again and bring the Claws through. The Claws are more Rat girls, but they are training in fighting. It is an experiment to see if they can improve their abilities by training.
As they are only made out of Mana and Miasma at first it seems unlikely, but the tests show, that they can build up muscles and learn techniques. Claw Weapons are not the specialty of Avas former Body and no one had training, but they created their own fighting styles with them.
Slowly getting them through I occasionally ask of their well being, as it is the first time outside the Crater and there might be complications. Nothing bad seems to happen.
By the way the Claws color their Masks red instead of Black like the Blacks under Black One. Everyone has a different marking they made themselves. Why? Because they look all eerily similar behind those masks. They love their individuality.
Eating a late midday snack while I form Lindwurm, we talk about how they are acclimating and Snow mingles with them like a good Sister… albeit they call her Mother…
Now to explain Lindwurm. He is a Burrower which has been supercharged. Those guys do not stop growing, when they have enough Miasma to work with. To create Lindwurm I forced so much Miasma inside of him, that he just grew over months to see the limit and how it works.
That thing has serious demerits though. It needs to be in highly concentrated Miasma of its alignment, otherwise it will just die in a day or two. It also needs to be its exact Element, or it gets sick over time. Also it is huge and needs a large place to move in.
Lindwurm is what happened when I let it grow until my own Limit in pushing in Miasma. He is now a sensitive being, which can not live without borrowed time, but for that time he is rather a force to recon with.
“Snow? The easiest way out here without destroying the Ruins are over there right?”
“No, if we think about the crack, it would be there, but this direction is only Soil. At first my Rats tried to dig through, but then found the crack. Better that way.”
“Ah, thanks. By the way how about your Shadow Rats? How many do you have?”
“They are still diminished, but I now have again over half.”
“Then we wait a bit more. No need to hurry, just let them wait out there.”
…
The Sun was slowly leaving behind the grassy hills in long shadows and the Darkness starts to make their debut. With this I think a small change of plans would be a nice thing. With Snows three fourths of her Rats back she puts some into the distance for Guerrilla tactics, while I take the direct way.
“A dark Portal! They are coming out!”
Yep, I come out flashy with Lindwurm and take their Attention while the others keep to safe tactics of hit and run. The claws hold open the way for Lindwurm and right away I go through Snows Gate right into the midst of their Army.
“What on the green Earth is THAT?!”
Introducing Lindwurm. A gigantic Maw of four Diameter with movable shredding teeth attached to a Twenty meter long tube plated with rocky scales harder as granite. Albeit chubby he is not slow in any way. Like a dolphin in water Lindwurm just rushes through this soft soil like it is nothing.
As I am a gigantic target like that they fight desperately while I am attacking the back line, which is not in the vicinity of the Ruins. It would be horrible, if the Ruins get damaged even more while we fight.
“Try to restrain that thing! Use bombs to blow up the stomach!”
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Sorry, its stomach is also tough as nails. It digests rocks with ease, and you think that will do anything? Let me play hurt, so they think they have a chance.
“It is working! Fire everything in that huge mouth! The weak point is in the…”
And that was the last thing he said, Claw seven just rammed her claws through the neck. Only a few noticed it, as I am their main concern. The ones who noticed were attacked by other Claw Members or Shadow Rats. Snow fights with her Rapier, as her Claws are still broken.
The whole Pandemonium makes the whole battlefield unobservable, but I can still notice the multiple Tribes. Warthog, Elf, Wolf even some Lizard people are here. They really created a coalition to just hunt us.
‘Snow, some need to be alive. Claws, you can just fight how you want, I want not one of you dead, no need to answer, stay hidden.’
With the fight going on I can count around a hundred people left. They might have been a hundred fifty or two hundred. As we only fought for about fifteen Minutes, the whole battle is not going to their favor.
“Enemies are between us! Kill at least those masked ones!”
‘Snow, wreck havoc, I do not want our Children be hurt!’
...Wait, did I really say that out loud right now? I got infected with her Parent speech now too! I am so embarrassed, better eat some more people to try to ignore the reality for now.
Snow got back in her original Form and starts her rampage too. Some lie crippled around, so she already has procured some experimental subjects.
With the addition of a second giant Enemy, the whole Army starts to dissolve.
“Keep at it! This is our best chance to destroy the Beast and the Unbeing! Do not waver! Sacrifice yourself for your Children’s future!”
‘Girls, keep that one alive, his speech keeps them from fleeing too early.’
And with that the whole slaughter gets finished up, while escapees are hunted down to get captured.
…
“So… What did we learn?”
Right now I sit in front of the restrained and injured people. With that we should have a way to maybe bring them back to their senses and stop attacking us.
“Keep your breath Unbeing! You will never break our spirits!”
That Elf was useful, while he kept the morons together, now he is just annoying.
“Claw One, please bring the Ring. He is the first, who volunteered for Modifications.”
“Mod… Wait, no! Do you know who I am? I am the son of… No, STOP!”
And in he goes. The portal spits him out right into the dungeon and Loopy just sorts them into their own Cells for now. With this, the others might be less mouthy with me.
“Again… Did we learn something?”
Silence… Well they are prisoners, so they try to be at the same time defiant and looking pitiful to not get tortured.
“No one? Well then let me explain. Attacking us is a futile attempt. The only reason we would even think of attacking you back is when you attack us. So right now all of your Tribes are on our List of problem Children, that might need to be removed.”
Some have realization in their eyes. The mere fact, that they attacked us made their Tribes a target. Remembering who has a light bulb over their head I mark the still not repenting ones as materials.
“The Elves came to us, you have already known that, right? They had even gone back and nothing happened to them, even if the female one was rather insulting. Now you are here for some reason of defending your Steppe, even if I do not want to do anything...”
“Shut up! Our Sister already told us about you, Unbeing! You are a blight on our Land!”
“Did she also tell you how I am keeping you safe against the Crystals or how I just want to go home and not bother anyone? I am searching for clues to go back where I came from. This World is nothing I…”
“Lies! You do not belong in this World! Vanish to where you came from, or die from our wrath!”
“AS I SAID, I am trying to go back. You have such pointy ears, but are they only for decoration?”
Those Elves are starting to annoy me. Does everyone have something wrong with their brain?
“We will never surrender to you!”
“That’s it. In the Ring you go.”
“Unhand me you vile creatur…”
Wow, even the Claws might have been annoyed. They just threw her with all their might right through. She even slid on her face over the dungeon floor, dragging a large red line of blood.
Loopy just put her into another Cell, and now she seems to realize her plight. Was she on drugs? So fanatic, and now she seems like a scared kitten.
“AGAIN! I did not care about you in any way. I am searching for a way back, as the technology to bring and send people to and from other Worlds is maybe in some of these ruins. Sadly there was nothing here, so I just left it mostly as I found it, as it is your own possession and I just want to look for clues!”
With that I have said my piece and now to the punishments.
…
I tried to have at least one member of each Tribe bring back my Message. Some had more repenting or at least looking like repenting people and some had none. One of the ones with none were the Elves. I left the most sensible looking one, so I hope she will bring back my story.
“By the way Elf. If you had listened to the male Elf, maybe it would have been better, the female… Elara or something was it? She just insulted me and my Family and thought I would cower or maybe she never wanted peace. All your brethren died, because she thought herself so superior. Now you get one last chance to just leave me alone.”
With that only fourteen People were still here. Their fear is still in their eyes and I think I made my point.
“Release them. And the next time we are attacked by these guys, we will visit their Tribes for a nice chat about how to be more sensible. Remember that!”
And off they go! Wow, even the injured ones have still so much strength in them to flee at extreme speed. One even jumps on his one remaining leg like his life depends on it. I decided to let them go, so they have nothing to worry for now.