Author's Note: I do not own Starcraft or any of the units portrayed within it. Starcraft is the property of Blizzard Entertainment, I only own my original creations. This is a work of fan fiction, existing entirely outside any canon material. This tale was inspired by reading "The Zerg Swarm" tale by East Bridge.
Chapter 9 – Gem
"Just get it to hold still for a moment!"
Gem knew she could as well have asked for the moon from the sky, the demand was a lot to ask. She had no choice though, although Dain apparently knew how to deflect a few strikes with those bizarre bracers he had summoned upon him they were being shredded a little more by each strike by those bony blades the gorgon called horns. Yet the mere fact he was fighting it up close seemed to make it hesitate about using its acid breath.
The battle had went on less than a minute but the zerglings had torn its tongue out the next moment it opened its jaw to breathe acid, an evidently painful blow that had it screeching and snapping down on a scythe blade of that particular zergling. Those little beasts were tearing at its hide with little or no effect at all, but at least their fighting was distracting it. Thing was, it kept jumping back and forth to trample someone or to gore them with its horns.
"Just be quick about it!"
Dain's shout was angry, or perhaps just plain tense but Gem knew that there was a good reason for it. One of the zerglings had been a little too slow, it had tried to torn at the beast's tendons on Dain's orders, and it got its head stepped on. Poor little thing didn't have a chance with that kind of weight stomping down on it.
Focusing her mind Gem felt a chill over her body, her feet firmly planted on the ground and her arms stretched out towards the sky she began her chant. It was not her speciality, combat magic wasn't her primary or even secondary focus, but a mere tertiary addition. Something that she had been taught but which was slow and clumsy for her. Of course, slow and clumsy didn't matter if you had a foe that was pinned in place, especially when that slow attack came with full force.
"Spirits of the Sky rise to my call, let your anger from the heavens fall, see my foe and use my eyes, bring forth lightning so it dies!"
Clumsy and lengthy as her words were, she could feel the build-up of power in the sky, and the drain on her own body. As a mystic she had a measure of stamina that allowed her to keep going sometimes when a normal person would have collapsed, the magical reservoir of power building up within her with every heartbeat bringing more, trickling down to build up.
She drew deeply from that fountain, drained much of it but seeking to leave a little to deal with their other foe. Gem knew it would likely be a case of one chance with this beast. It was strong against physical attacks, so a magical one might catch it off guard. She hoped so at least, there was no guarantee.
The heat built in her hands and she lowered one to gesture at the beast, shouting a warning as she felt the surge in her. She had forgotten about that part, and though Dain might be dangerous to her people one day, right now she needed him. So she shouted as loud as she could, holding the power in the sky a few seconds longer.
"Move back, now!"
Dain and the zerglings leaped away from the gorgon that snorted and turned to give chase, but just then the sky flashed and a bolt of lightning crossed the sky striking a tree in its path shattering it to dozens of pieces and setting it on fire, and the end of the bolt piercing through the gorgon with a horrifying scream rising to the sky along with the smell of burnt meat.
The Gorgon stumbled onto its side, panting, the lightning had stunned it but amazingly it was still alive. It could only be an innate resistance to magic, but not as strong as the physical armor against scales. That didn't help as much now either, since it was laying down exposing its stomach, and with its jaw open exposing both its sharp teeth, but also the soft flesh inside the beast.
"Rip it to shreds!"
Dain's shout came out loud, and the beast let out a shout just as the remaining zerglings swarmed it. Unable to move out of the way and without being able to turn its scaly hide towards its foes shielding its underside the beast's body was being torn into little by little, its stomach was softer than the rest but still resilient to cuts. Another zergling drove its blade through the beasts' open mouth though, and based on the jerking and trashing it did on the ground the blade pierced into the Gorgon's skull.
"Now lets just hope our enemies didn't see that pillar of light striking down into the swamp and realize they are being chased."
Dain's words were surprisingly cruel. Gem did know it was a risk putting so much power to her spell, but at the same time she wasn't exactly a talented, subtle caster with combat magic, and even with the raw force behind the spell it wasn't enough to kill the thing. If it had expected it, the spell might actually not have even stunned it. Combination of fatigue from physical combat and surprise of an unexpected spell hitting it so, while it was standing on the wet swamp soil all helped her deliver it a nastier shock than she might have expected to get elsewhere. All that, and it still wasn't enough.
"I didn't really have a choice now did I ? You and your creatures were not going to win on your own. I took a chance and if you think I am not worried about the enemies ahead you are a fool."
Gem frowned and turned away, feeling slighted by Dain's words. He was a strange man, he did not seem to have a magic similar to hers within him but controlling those small beasts, those zerglings seemed to give him an advantage certainly. The 'summoning' had given him some kind of hardened bracers that had been worn down trying to simply deflect blows by those sharpened horns earlier. There was also the way he had reacted when the crystals were mentioned before.
There was more to him than she knew, and it made her worry. The people of her city would likely view him as a threat too, but she did feel that she owed him for his help already. She'd need to repay her debt, at least unless he began to attack humans. If he did that, she'd have to turn on him herself. The thieves did not count, but seeing the way the zerglings were now butchering the dangerous gorgon in its stunned state, she shivered to think about what else he might control. Dain's sister had mentioned she hadn't seen the flying creature before, so Dain might have more surprises in store too.
She wasn't really happy with the situation, but she needed him for now. She also needed a break away from him, Sighing deeply she touched the mask on her face, turning to look at him.
"Lets keep moving."
She wanted to pause. To change her bandages, to bathe in some clean waters, to make sure she had a chance to build up her power again, but she also knew the first rule of surviving on prime. Don't stay in a place reeking strongly of blood too long. The other beasts of the swamp would come around soon enough, and if they had any luck they would ignore her and Dain while there was already dead prey to be had.
Lot of the beasts were predators, but even they could appreciate a ready meal from what she had seen, at least when it was fresh. Some of the lesser beasts were scavengers from what she had heard and learned but even so, they were not above killing a creature and leaving it to rot for a short while either. Some of them actually seemed to prefer their food so aged.
"You know, you did good, you hit the beast strong enough to stop it. You are powerful, and I didn't mean to sound like I don't appreciate it. I am just concerned because the longer we take with this the longer it will be before I can focus on locating my family again."
Dain's words made her hesitate, and want to tell him it would all turn out right in the end. She didn't want to give him false hopes though. Prime was a savage world, and weakened, bleeding slaves might attract beasts on the whole slave-caravan. If they arrived to their destination, his mother might end up worked to death. If she resembled her daughter and had similar, attractive look about her she might also end up pregnant at some point, something she felt fairly sure would enrage Dain even more.
So she said nothing, instead smiling at him, only to then remember he could not see her face. She wasn't willing to show her face to him yet, but sometimes she forgot the mask was there, and it took her a moment to realize he couldn't see her reactions from her expression because of it. It would have been easier to just take it off, but at the same time she knew she could not. Not until this task was completed.
O O The next evening O O
Gem had taken a moment to change the bandages when she and Dain had been given a chance to pause for a while, but since she couldn't be sure that Dain wouldn't look she had moved a little away from their campsite. She wasn't happy changing bandages at a swamp, she knew the place had a reputation for being a source of many plagues and curses, but there was little options, leaving dirty bandages on for too long would likely be even worse.
"Its odd."
Dain's words made her lift her head and look at him. There was a serious look on his face and she raised her brow somewhat, waiting for him to continue. It took a couple seconds, but finally he did.
"The campsite we stopped at had been used earlier. There isn't that much firm, dry ground here, and there was a stone circle with ashes at the middle, a clear enough sign of campfire. It was warm when we arrived. You said our foes would be a lot further off didn't you?"
The question surprised Gem, but she thought back at their last pause. She hadn't given it much thought since one of the old paths did go through the swamp, even though it was dangerous it was also a quick route to another city for someone that didn't want to try crossing mountains.
"I can do a new casting if you prefer."
Gem's offer was met with a simple nod. The closer to their foe they got, the more tense they both must have felt. Closing her eyes and focusing her mind on the pages, imagining them in her eyes again and touching part of a page wrapped around one of her arms under her robe she silently whispered the chant. Touching the soil beneath her in a kneeling position, she sought to find them, try and reach them with a more focused divination now that they were a little closer at least.
What she found surprised her, and alarmed her immediately. Rather than sensing the pages and three thugs, he could feel the pages where they had been last day too, but foes closing in on them fast. They had been in touch with the pages and the spell's resonance could be felt in them too, a faint echo but definitely closing in.
"They're coming back, headed this way. They'll be here in mere minutes."
The words had Dain tense up as well, as he seemed to order his zerglings without speaking, their movement too coordinated for it to have been a coincidence. She was feeling more and more certain that there was a connection between them and Dain. Such a connection would be dangerous, though.
"Dain? What are you going to do?"
She didn't get an answer, instead Dain gestured behind her at a pair of trees standing so close to one another they actually provided enough cover for a person to hide behind them, if the foes were coming from the direction that Dain and Gem had been heading to earlier. She frowned somewhat but headed back to the trees to take cover. The foe should not have been close enough to hear them yet, but with Dain acting this way, she figured it was going to be easier to talk to him once the situation was over rather than argue when they were about to get attacked.
Moving to cover she grimaced at the feel of drain within her. The tiredness that came from using the magic she was less familiar with made her uncomfortable. Not that she would have wanted to leave the fight to just Dain and the zerglings either. They might be strong against some foes, but obviously they too had their limits, and a heavily armored beast like the Gorgon was simply too much for them to take on alone.
The wait did not turn out to be a long one, the group of dark-clothed men bursting out of the dark. It was then that Gem noticed the last one of their group was actually a woman, and a woman who had adept's power coursing through her. Stronger than the mystic's blood in her. Grimacing, she wanted to warn Dain, but it was too late to shout if she wanted to keep her own presence secret.
"Hold right there, and identify yourselves!"
Dain's shout was met with a paused glance by the men. The first of them drew a blade and charged, thrusting it ahead. Dain had sidestepped just in time and struck up with an arm rising so it slammed into the man's throat, and the rest of the arm squeezed up around the man's neck. Sharp jerk of his arm caused a crack that made Gem shiver a little uncomfortably as she watched the dead thief drop onto the ground lifeless with a broken neck.
"You will answer me or perish here this day."
Dain's words were spoken seriously, as he watched those two that remained, the zerglings no doubt ready to leap in as necessary. Facing the two that still held their place Dain seemed more threatening somehow, but if the Adept read his presence the same way that Gem had used, not feeling either Adept or Mystic powers about him, they might well dismiss him as a threat.
"I do not know who you are or why you think you are entitled to know about us, but you killed my friend and for that reason alone you will die!"
The woman stepped ahead and Gem grimaced. So much for getting answers out of these idiots. However, as she looked ready to leap in a shriek rose from all around them, and a zergling dropped out of the tree branches above to slam the other man down on the ground helpless, a pair of zerglings dashing in from the sides towards the woman. As she looked to the sides, Dain advanced in a fast step and struck her with a wild punch in the jaw.
Gem was a bit surprised at how fast the two of them had been struck down, but then again, they both had a pair of scythe blades over their necks. Not exactly a position from which you rose to fight in anymore, the adept might have handled one zergling even from such a position on her back on the ground after the surprise punch, but two zerglings likely left her facing a too great risk of being cut lethally too even if she did manage to kill the zerglings.
"I'm asking you one more time then. Who are you, and what are you doing here? Answer me, or I'll leave you to my beasts."
Dain's voice was cold as he addressed the two surviving thieves. The way he had handled the whole matter had made Gem a bit worried. That kind of confidence and executing a plan like that with such timing suggested he was in touch with the beasts in ways that made him a real, serious threat. She wasn't sure if Dain would turn on other humans later too. These were thieves and murderers, but Dain hadn't seemed to hesitate to just break a man's neck a moment ago or holding two more lives under threat now.
"I'm Sala-Aden, and this is Jie-Aden, and we were tasked with entering a ruin of the forefathers, but we unleashed something, I did not think the guardians would still be alive. We were fleeing from them and we still should be."
It was then when his last zergling screeched somewhere ahead and Dain's body jerked swiftly. Crackling of thunder could be heard further off on the road. Icy glare of glowing eyes emerged from among the bushes and branches.
"Protoss!?"
Dain's shout went from surprised to shocked towards the end, but Gem could understand why a mere instant later. Four grey-skinned figures wearing some kind of gold-shaded gear charged ahead, and blades of brilliant energy seemed to slash and thrust ahead. Her eyes were widened as she witnessed the zerglings impaled, sliced into pieces, the blades driven down on the already captured thieves, and the last of the protoss attacking Dain who tried to protect himself. The young man's arm cut right where the zergling-skin bracers had been in the last fight. The arm was cut cleanly in half, the hand flying in the air, but Dain hadn't got a moment to scream.
They drove that blade deep into his chest, and twisted it. They had killed him. They had killed Dain right in front of her eyes. Gem fought back a scream that was welling up within her to not alarm them of her presence, trembling with fear as she quietly mouthed the words of the spell. She would destroy them all if she had to, hoping the notes were indeed left somewhere ahead like her own spell had suggested earlier. She wanted to be rid of these monsters, these protoss that had killed him.
It was the only way she'd survive too. She recalled old manuscripts about the ones that sought to control the beasts long ago, but the word Protoss was not familiar to her, but those blades, those strange suits, could it be they were indeed the ones that sought to control it all so long ago? Not that it mattered right now. She had to live, to survive.
OOOOOO
It has been a good while since I made my last post. I had to rewrite a few times, making alterations and dealing with real life this time around. I hope the new chapter is worth the wait at least, the next one should bring things together again, Dain's sister Vera arriving to the scene and what took place with Gem after this, and answering some more questions.
I'm considering working on another story too, splitting my attention between 2 in order to keep from getting bored with either. Besides, it would permit me to work on another idea I have had on my mind recently. It ought to also help keep up interest with this, but if there's a strong opposition to that thought, I can keep just focused on one, for now.
As for the recent accusations of copying East-Bridges, this story bases on the same idea, and I have said the start follows in his footsteps, the diverging points are set along the path and will start showing up. Accusations don't really encourage me to write more, but I do realize some of them may be trolling, and others genuinely see no real difference between this and the original thread.
I'm going to keep writing, but if its bad, you don't have to read it. Telling me this is going to get removed and so forth is just making me raise a brow. I'll make this clear, if East Bridges felt I was copying the original story too much, and told me this, I would remove this story -immediately-. Anyone else is free to complain, but that won't really do anything.
Now as for the constructive criticism, I appreciate that, as much as I love praise I also want to improve and I am always grateful to hear not only what I did right but what I did wrong. I hope to entertain and that people will delight in the read.
I'll hope the next update is ready faster than this one was, but we'll see.
Looking forward particularly to how LLC and Kane react, I'm still trying to get used to figuring out a few replies from people that have joined along later on, but I always appreciate thoughts and comments that make sense.
There's a couple paths this might diverge into at the time.
a) Patriarch temporarily sealed away from his own body, to control the swarm as the mind within it,
b) Vera taking his place for now, while he recovers
c) Zerg recovery proves stronger than the damage done by Zerg psiblades.
Anyhow, time to post this up, and hope you'll let me hear your thoughts.
