Chapter 46
Worms
Alexander North
I grit my teeth and rush forwards, dodging from side to side to avoid the stupid pale blue globs that are both melting the floor and freezing parts of it at the same time before I reach the first worm and slice into it with my claws, which go clean through it in an instant. As if its flesh were made of jelly or something.
"They seem weak individually," I shout back to the others while tearing through another, and then another, and another. And after every single kill, I manage to absorb their energy at the same time due to their deaths happening before my hands even leave their bodies.
A very satisfying feeling fills me, stuffing me full the more of them that I kill. But somewhere in my little kill frenzy, I hear someone shout in pain from behind me, making me look back to see one of the IT civilians with a burn and frostbite on their leg.
I grimace at that before opening my mouth to shout, just for the captain to beat me to it, "Sergeants Michael and Michelle, protect the civilians!"
Fortunately for the others, now that the worms are moving around and no longer have their underbellies covered, light has returned to the tunnel. So they're now able to see again and quickly get to work killing the worms that head towards the civilians.
And unlike with the spiders, the worms' blood are not made out of some frostbiting material and don't do anything to what they touch. It's just the stuff that they spit out that does that.
I continue tearing my way from worm to worm, but over time, their numbers just seem to grow larger and larger instead of shrinking.
"Just how many are there?!" I hear Cynthia shout from a few meters away from me as I find us surrounded on all sides now by the worms. Meanwhile everyone aside from me is in a ring around the civilians, while
I'm running through the worms themselves ripping them apart with my claws.
"Too many!" I shout back, but despite that I can't help but feel a bit of a thrill at this. Mostly due to the high given to me by the massive amounts of energy I'm absorbing.
Only one more minute passes before I hear a scream coming from the private that I had brought along with me and Cynthia from the hallway, making me turn to find him with two of the worms slowly chewing through his armor while attached to him like leeches.
I narrow my eyes before rushing over and ripping them off, then going back to my killing spree. This then repeats itself several times until an incredibly loud screech echoes from the direction of the lieutenant colonel's battle with the frozen symbiont and the large worm. Following that, the worms all begin ignoring us and rushing down the tunnel in that direction, leaving the rest of the soldiers and civilians around me to all collapse to the ground with their armor in shambles from the worms trying to chew through it.
I look around at them as they all let out exhausted breaths before watching the worms leave.
A few seconds pass by in relative silence before the captain mutters, "Looks like they saved us again..."
I can't help but nod my head in agreement as the light of the living worms vanishes, leaving only the light of the dead ones still around us. And I can't help but move around to absorb it, but I'm stopped by the captain as he sits up and says, "Don't absorb all of them. We can use their corpses as light sources."
His order makes me frown for a second on instinct before I nod and only absorb the energy from all of the corpses except for a few. But after I finish, I turn around with my frown returning as I ask, "Is it safe for you-" just to stop as I find the private already holding one of the worm corpses still full of energy in their arms. And after seeing nothing happen to them, I drop the question.
Looks like nothing happens if a regular human touches them.
That's good. Wish they were more careful though.
I turn to see the captain staring at me, so I state, "Nevermind. My
question was answered by Private Holston."
He turns at that to see the private holding the corpse before he nods his head back at me and turns to face forwards again. Meanwhile I turn to look at Cynthia while walking towards her and asking, "You good?" And after seeing her nod her head in affirmation, I turn back around at the sound of the captain ordering, "Let's continue forward."
All of the soldiers let out a "Yes, sir!" before we continue our trek through the tunnel, using the few corpses I left remaining as a light source this time.
As we walk though, I finally let my terminal notice appear for the frozen ones that we'd killed.
/ Notice \
The following user statistics have updated: Agility: 2.10 - 2.19
Senses: 1.94 - 2.06 Energy: 1.86 - 2.14
\End of Notice/
My eyes widen in shock at the vast amount of energy I got from them all, but outside of that, the other gains aren't as impressive considering the massive numbers of worms we killed. Also, it looks like the worms just give those three stats. I'm a little surprised they give agility though. Senses and energy make sense I guess, considering how they navigate in the dark, and how practically everything gives energy. But not really agility seeing as they were pretty slow in their movements. They just had a very large numerical superiority to make up for it.
We continue walking for several minutes until we run into what must be hundreds of hatched eggs, each with their shells cracked and laid out across the floor, making it so that every step we take makes noise echo down the tunnel. But it's at this point that I realize something.
Why didn't the terminal alert me to the frozen symbiont and the large worm's energy level? Shouldn't it have done that?
Before I can ask my terminal about it, the sound of something chewing on the eggshells reaches my ears, drawing my eye to a tiny spider with the same appearance as the other ones just eating through the eggshells. But the moment it spots us, it runs away down the tunnel.
That can't be good.
Chapter 47
Splitting up Again
Alexander North
"Looks like we have spiders," I warn the others, making them all stiffen up slightly with their eyes moving towards the spot I'm looking at. And as if responding to the sound of my voice, several tiny spiders, even smaller than the foot-long spiders from before, begin rushing away from us from their places beneath some of the eggshells. "Lots of them."
"Didn't you say that the spiders were sealed in the main metal weapons storage room?" Cynthia asks, and I nod my head at this.
They were trapped there the last time I checked. Although...
"It's possible that they might've dug through the wall like the worms did," the captain mentions as we continue walking through the tunnel.
Definitely possible.
I look around as we walk, occasionally seeing spiders rushing out from underneath the shells until something strange happens. Another screech echoes throughout the tunnel, but this time coming from the direction we're heading right now. And it sounds a lot like the screeches made by the spiders from BF5, but a lot louder. And following the screech, dozens of worms begin rushing through the tunnel towards us from the way we're heading.
I frown at them as I call out, "Watch out!"
But to our surprise, the worms all go around us in their rush towards the other end of the tunnel, just like the other worms did. This time though, they somehow appear to be in a panic.
"Guys..." I begin, only for the captain to nod and say, "I know, second lieutenant. Those weren't rushing to their leader."
"W-what do you mean?" one of the IT civilians asks while shivering from the cold and letting out puffs of mist in the form of their breath.
The captain turns to look down the tunnel where the worms came from as he answers, "They were running away from something."
I have a very bad feeling about this. Because if I had to take a guess, then I'd say the worms were running away from the spider queen.
Which doesn't bode well for us.
I glance at the captain before finding him continuing on through the tunnel. So I follow after him, with the others all coming a few seconds later. After several more minutes of walking, which is making me wonder
just how long this tunnel is, the trail of eggshells stops. Then just a couple of minutes later, we begin to find cobwebs made out of ice instead of the eggshells.
The captain comes to a sudden stop and just stares down the tunnel for a second with the rest of us stopping behind him.
"Second lieutenant," he suddenly says, turning his head to look at me, then at the others, then back at me again, "would you mind...?"
I frown at that.
Is he seriously asking me to go deal with them myself? After almost yelling at a superior officer for ordering me to do the same?
After seeing my change of expression, the captain raises his visor and says with a frown, "Before now, we had a choice of sending you alone or not, and they just chose to send you to lower the possible casualties. But now, the only one who would likely be able to survive against them is you. So there isn't a choice here."
My frown lightens slightly at that.
It's not that I'm against going alone, after all, it wouldn't be the first time. But I don't like hypocrites.
His logic does make sense though, so...
"Yes, sir!" I call out with a salute before glancing at Cynthia and giving her and the others a nod, then going further into the tunnel on my own, leaving the captain to guard the others.
This is probably for the best. After all, the captain would be the only efficient protector for the civilians outside of myself since we'd need to leave them behind anyways.
The other soldiers wouldn't be able to survive and defend them at the same time, assuming they can even deal with the suicidal spiders on their own in the first place. And obviously the civilians would die without putting up much fight, with the exception maybe being the veteran.
As I walk further into the tunnel, leaving the others behind with the light sources, the cobwebs coating the tunnel grow thicker and thicker, and
soon enough, the dirt walls begin looking more like the walls of some icy cavern than an underground tunnel on a tropical world. Not only are they all coated with bits of icy webbing, but the temperature appears to be dropping the further in I get, and the walls are practically frozen at this point.
Which might be another reason for the others to stay behind, as while this feels fine for me, it'd probably leave the civilians with hypothermia by the time they reached the other end of the tunnel.
For some reason though, I don't find any spiders as I walk. Just more and more webbing, along with the occasional cocoon. Of which I destroy every time I find them just to make sure they don't hatch and end up attacking me from behind, or going after the others.
I wonder why the spiders are taking over the worms' tunnels. Did they just happen to dig into them and decided to take them over?
My thoughts come to a halt as I turn around a bend in the tunnel just to find two different paths in the tunnel – one completely frozen by icy webbing and the other a much smaller branch that leads directly into some icy tunnel that looks like a better size for the smaller spiders than the larger worms.
Looks like I found the place they broke in through. But why did the spiders block the other direction of the tunnel?
I walk up to the blocked off portion before knocking on the ice to test how hard it is. But surprisingly, my knocking doesn't even phase the icy webbing. So I pull my arm back and send a punch straight at it, only managing to crack it a little in the process.
My eyebrows rise in surprise, and I pull my fist away from the icy wall of webbing.
That's some powerful webbing.
I turn to glance at the branch tunnel right as another loud screech echoes from it.
Guess there's nothing else to do but check out the smaller tunnel.
Intermission
The Chamber of the Triad
Silence rings throughout the chamber as the emperor stands at the center of a large dais in the center of the room. The dais is raised by two steps above the floor level, and has three levels of stairs around it, each with two dozen counters facing towards the center. But unlike the clean appearance the chamber had prior to the Eternal Winter, the chamber now has frost coating everything, along with several dozen light sources made up of frozen one corpses. Meanwhile only twenty-one of the counters have any people behind them, with the rest of them being empty.
No one says anything for several minutes, with each of the Triad members simply staring down at the emperor, who has red eyes and short black hair as he stares back at them, turning his gaze between each of the Triad members.
The silence is broken by a loud crashing sound coming from outside, followed by shouting and a loud roar outside of the tower the chamber is located in. But the Triad members and the emperor all simply ignore it as they continue their silence.
Eventually though, the emperor speaks up, his voice echoing throughout the chamber in a deep bass, "As of right now, the mother terminal has registered the deaths of two thousand six hundred and forty- two different higher ranking officers. Of those officers, none of them are lieutenant generals or major generals. Two of them are colonels. Forty-one are lieutenant colonels. Three hundred and fourteen are majors. Six hundred on the dot are captains. And the remaining one thousand six hundred and eighty-five are either first or second lieutenants."
Another grim silence follows the emperor's words, but this time, after a loud crash echoes from outside shaking the tower a bit, one of the governors from the Legislative Council finally speaks up with a question.
"And what are the symbiont host casualties?"
The man who asked the question has dirty blond hair with gray eyes and is wearing a roughed up business suit.
Emperor Rainald Inverno turns to look at him and says, "We've lost a total of eight Tier 4 symbiont hosts, thirty-five Tier 3s, three hundred and fifty-four Tier 2s, and two thousand two hundred and forty-five Tier 1 symbiont hosts."
Every single member of the Triad within the room grows even grimmer at this news.
"We've lost trillions of credits in this catastrophe!" One of the CEOs of the Economic Council shouts while slamming his hands down on the counter in front of him, making cracks in the counter with his Tier 3 symbiont host strength.
A governor from the Legislative Council turns a glare on him and says with no little heat, "That's what you're worried about?! Not the lives of our soldiers that were lost!"
After this, an argument breaks out between the members of the Triad, but it ends just as quickly when a man slams open one of the four doors located on opposing ends of the chamber before walking into the room. The man is wearing the red and black armor of a lieutenant general of the military with spikes on his shoulder, and his helmet held underneath his arm.
The emperor turns to look at him before nodding his head and saying amidst the new silence of the chamber, "Welcome, Duke Cornelius. Has the situation outside been handled?"
Cornelius Walter sends a brief glance around the room at the Triad members present as he answers, "Yes, it has." The Tier 5 symbiont host then focuses on one of the CEOs – the very first one to speak after hearing of their losses – and gives him a very stern but silent glare as he adds, "I heard the casualties report as I was entering the tower." The CEO he's staring at flinches at that before the duke turns to look at the emperor again and continues, "Would you please share with me who the fallen colonels were?"
The emperor nods his head and answers, "They were Colonels Fraugnt von Jose and Delilah Rose, and they were both stationed-" he suddenly pauses as red text flashes across his eyes, making him frown.
Cornelius's eyes narrow at that and he asks, "What is it?"
Rainald doesn't say anything for a second before looking at the duke again and answering, "Another lieutenant colonel, Lieutenant Colonel Artorius val Ruth, along with three captains, and one major have fallen."
This declaration sends another wave of silence through the chamber after his voice finishes echoing through it.
No one says anything for nearly half an entire minute until blue text flashes across the lieutenant general's eyes and he suddenly stands at attention and shouts, "Lieutenant General Cornelius Walter, reporting, sir!"
All of the Triad members and the emperor all turn their attention towards the man, clearly understanding who the man is talking to as the man only has one direct superior.
"That is correct, sir. The emperor arrived from the palace two hours ago, following which an attack from an evolved class frozen one came, to which we have already ended the threat of."
Everyone in the chamber remains quiet as they listen to the one sided version of the man's conversation that they can hear until he reaches the point that was just stated by the emperor and find the man wincing. He then looks at the emperor and asks, "The general would like to speak to you all. Would you grant me permission?"
The emperor's eyebrows raise at that, but he nods his head and walks over to him before placing his hand on his shoulder and stating, "Allow user Lieutenant General Cornelius Walter to use the synchronize function once with the user General Edward North."
After that, the duke nods his head in appreciation and states, "Activate the Synchronize function with user General Edward North."
The man's eyes flash with lines of code before a red light shines from behind the man's ears and his expression changes.
"Greetings General North. What did yo-" the emperor begins to ask, just to be interrupted by the man as he practically shouts, "I want to confirm this. You said that Lieutenant Colonel Artorius val Ruth is deceased? Which means that the tourist world of Arran doesn't have any Tier 3 or higher symbiont hosts on it anymore?"
His outburst causes that very same realization to spread throughout all of the Triad members, but nearly half of the CEOs don't show any care about that outside of a few comments about the loss of the tourist income, and the governors merely show a small amount of worry about it due to the drastic number of more significant issues they have to deal with.
The emperor frowns before muttering, "Isn't that where Cynthia and Alex are stationed...?"
This comment silences the Triad, both the CEOs and the governors. And the silence grows grimmer after the general nods the lieutenant general's head.
A dark look replaces the frown on the emperor's face at that.
Chapter 48
Spider's Tunnel
Alexander North
I grimace as I walk through the smaller, ice-coated tunnel, thinking about how exactly I'm gonna be walking back to meet back up with the others. Or rather, to be specific, if I'll have any armor or even clothing left by the time I finish with the spiders.
Because it's entirely possible that I won't. And I don't like the sound of that.
As if reacting to my thoughts, I begin to see several of the smaller spiders scurrying about. But the moment they see me, they begin rushing in my direction, just to be crushed by my gloveless hands with ease.
My grimace grows worse as I see the small, droplet sized areas of my armor that the tiny spiders' insides splashed on. Despite my attempts to keep the critters at a distance.
I continue down the tunnel for what feels like ages, killing more and more spiders as I go, with their numbers seemingly growing along the way. But eventually, I find myself stopping at the sound of a loud screech. One noticeably different from the spider queen's.
The heck is that?
Another screech sounds after the first, with this one being the same as the spiders.
Are there more than o-
My thoughts cut off as I round a bend in the tunnel to find an oversized rat chewing on a spider's corpse.
Oh.
Guess I found where those rats ended up.
Wait a second... how is it able to tell where the...
My eyes widen as I notice the rat's eyes being completely different
from how they were before. Now they have the same black eyes with a blue ring inside them as I do.
Is this a different type of frozen one rat, or did they evolve in the limited time it took me to get up here?
Because if it's the first option, then it's not too bad. But if it's the second...
Also, if I had to guess now that I've seen the rat, I'd say the spider queen is probably fighting some sort of stronger, evolved rat. Because every other frozen one seems to have a stronger version, so why not the rats too?
I glance back in the way I'd come for a second while wondering if I should head back now to report to the captain, or if I should just keep going. But the rat suddenly turns its head towards me and lets out a little squeak that sounds way too cute to be coming from a large mutant rat. It then sprints after me so quickly that I find myself instinctively backing up and almost tripping over my own feet.
Holy shit that's fast!
I quickly turn my trip into a back flip to regain my footing a few feet behind me, albeit feeling my feet go straight through the ice coating the ceiling of the tunnel in the process, before I reach back to grab my sword and swing it around to meet the rat's claws. A loud noise akin to metal clashing on metal resonates between the blade and the creature's claws, making my eyes widen in shock.
Just what are this thing's claws made out of?!
Despite the obvious hardness of the claws though, they don't actually have that much force behind them, and I end up shoving the rat away with my sword. I then rush forward and pierce my sword straight through its brain before it can get back up from the ground.
I frown at the creature after absorbing its energy.
Just how many frozen ones exist now anyways? Because if the energy is mutating every living being above a certain level of intelligence... then could there theoretically be just as many different types of frozen ones as there are different species creatures in the universe?
That thought sends a chill down my spine, but I push it aside and continue making my way through the tunnel for a bit anyways. Until I run into both rats and spiders this time.
Despite my presence though, neither of them are paying any attention to me. In fact, they're acting like I'm not here. As if they were mortal enemies or something and had to finish each other off before paying me any mind.
Not really sure about how to take that, but whatever.
I take this time to study the creatures.
From what I can tell, the rats' fur, which is tipped with little shards of
ice, is capable of shredding the 'skin' of the spiders like tissue paper. They also have incredibly hard teeth and claws, but not all that much strength. And while they are incredibly fast, so are the spiders. It's just that the spiders seem to trade durability with their suicidal body fluids and their sharp claws.
It's rather interesting to watch, to be honest. But at the same time...
I wait for the spiders to all be finished off – their bodily fluids not having any effect on the rats in the same way as they don't affect me – before I rush in to finish off the few remaining rats.
I'm starting to be glad to be here right now. After all, their little feuds with each other is leaving a lot of corpses for me to drain the energy out of.
A loud screeching shriek echoes through the tunnel, along with another loud squeaking shriek, contradicting my thoughts entirely. I then feel the tunnel beginning to shake slowly, then faster and faster until chunks of ice begin to crash down from the ceiling around me, signaling this as a good time to head back.
And that decision is only amplified as a good one when I see an enormous rat spanning a meter in height and two and a half meters in length straight up pushing the spider queen in a charge through the tunnel, dragging it along the edge of the tunnel in my direction.
Yeah, no thanks.
I immediately begin to run away as if there were no tomorrow. Because there might just not be one.
Chapter 49
Spider and the Rat
Alexander North
I continue running down the tunnel for ages, with the rat and spider getting closer and closer only giving me a short respite in the distance between us whenever we get to a bend in the tunnel. And along the way, several other spiders and rats somehow make their way out of holes in the wall and cobwebs where they were likely hidden when I had first passed through.
Some of the spiders end up fighting with the rats before getting squashed by the large rat and the queen spider, whereas others end up following after me in an attempt to run away. But the rats are literally sacrificing themselves to lock the spiders into place for the large ones to squash.
After several minutes of straight running, I finally find the exit to the spider's portion of the tunnel. And the moment I get out of the tunnel, a notice appears overlaying my eyes, making me frown at the poor timing.
/ Notice \
User General Edward North has attempted to use direct port 'North'. Would you like to give them permission?
\End of Notice/
"Terminal, set the connection to combat hold!" I shout while still sprinting away from the branch in the tunnel right before the rat bursts out of the tunnel, still dragging the queen spider whose body is extremely torn up by now, its main defense not usable against the rat. But despite that, the rat isn't unscathed either, as the spider has been stabbing it with its claws repeatedly and wrapping parts of it up in frozen webbing.
/ Notice \
User General Edward North is connected to direct port 'North' through a combat hold.
No messages or voice will be transmitted through the direct port unless the message is designated an emergency.
\End of Notice/
I continue running for several seconds before noticing that the walls and ceiling of the tunnel isn't shaking. So I throw a glance over my shoulder, just to stop at the sight of the spider queen and large rat just staring at each other from a couple of meters away, each leaking out blood from damn near every pore in their bodies.
Then a very nice idea pops into my head and I move over to the edge of the tunnel to hide behind a relatively large web of icy silk.
Maybe I can wait for them to kill each other and then rush in to absorb their energy...
My thoughts pause as a bright red alert flashes in my vision.
/ Alert \
Exterior energy source located.
Two energy sources identified as Frozen Ones.
The first has an energy level of 3.71, while the second has an energy level of 2.62.
\End of Alert/
I blink in surprise at that before tilting my head.
Why did it take so long for that to appear? Was it because I was running and didn't stop till now? Or could it have just taken this long to get a read on their energy levels?
I don't get long to think about it as another alert appears in my vision.
/ Alert \
User General Edward North has sent the following emergency message through port 'North':
"Alex, the lieutenant colonel stationed on Arran is deceased. I want you to get out of that base with your cousin at any cost. Even if it means
abandoning the other civilians and soldiers there to do it. Your lives have been set as the priority by the Triad – you because of your unique situation, and Cynthia because of her status."
\End of Alert/
My mouth drops open in shock at that message.
He just... did he really just tell me to flat out abandon everyone and run away with Cynthia if need be? And that the Triad...
Wow. That's... not sure what to think about that.
It does at least prove that there's a reason the Triad was so accommodating to me, at least if what dad was saying is true.
They want to study me to find the weaknesses of the frozen ones that they haven't already found. That or they just want me to be a guinea pig for a new way for humanity to advance.
I do wonder how they'd act if they knew just how fast I am advancing in power though, considering the relative time it takes for a symbiont to evolve.
Not only would that make me a possible threat to the Empire, but it's also mean much worse in the case of the frozen ones, since they are advancing just as quickly. And if the Eternal Winter isn't dealt with soon enough, then the universe might be lost for good.
My thoughts are attracted back to the rat and spider as the rat suddenly rushes towards the spider with an angry sounding squeak and its right paw raised to strike. And doing this reveals a faint shining light beneath its armpit in the direction of its chest.
Huh. So it does have energy in its heart after all.
Was kind of assuming it didn't since I haven't seen it yet.
Meanwhile the spider queen's entire body is shining like a dull beacon
as it lets out a hiss and climbs the wall up towards the ceiling to avoid its strike. It then raises – or lowers, considering that it's on the ceiling – its rear part and points its spinneret at the rat before shooting out strings straight at it. But the rat just tears through most of the icy string with a harsh shriek that hurts my ears.
How the hell is that spider queen still strong enough to climb up onto the ceiling and hold itself there? Considering all of the large injuries coating its body...
I glance at the rat before frowning.
From a glance, it looks like the rat is most likely going to win this fight. But I can't tell if the rat will die afterwards or not.
Because if it doesn't die... that could be a problem.
I watch for a little bit more before coming to the decision that I'll figure it out when it happens. After all, it's not like I can run away.
After all, unless the lieutenant colonel managed to take down the frozen symbiont and the worm with him, then they're still in that direction on the other side of the tunnel. And these two aren't exactly leaving any room to make it past them either. Not to mention that I'd be leaving the others behind to die if I did. And I'd rather not do that.
So it's time to wait and hope they both die.
Chapter 50
Human versus Rat
Alexander North
The spider and rat continue fighting for several minutes before the rat does something that makes my eyes practically bulge out of their sockets.
It actually controls the energy in its chest and manipulates it to move around to its right paw, where the energy begins to consolidate into some sort of spike where its paw used to be. The rat then rushes forward once again towards the spider whose eight beady eyes are locked on the paw before raising it and slashing down straight at the spider. But the spider queen doesn't just sit there and take it either, as it suddenly begins doing the same thing by manipulating its energy towards its spinnerets, which immediately begins spinning webbing that forms an enormous cocoon around it in just moments.
"Holy fu-" I clap my hand over my mouth to stop myself from finishing my exclamation at the sight of the rat's ear twitching. Despite that though, the rat doesn't stop its approach and its spiky paw strikes at the cocoon, making a loud bang sound out throughout the tunnel, followed immediately after by a small shockwave.
I narrow my eyes at the two monstrous creatures before slowly beginning to back up several meters to find a spot to continue my observation a little further away.
Even after getting resituated in my new spot, the rat is still trying to force the spike of ice into the cocoon. But now a faint pale blue light is beginning to shine from the tip of the icy spike, following which cracks begin to appear in the cocoon.
Looks like the winner is decided.
A loud shattering sound echoes throughout the entire tunnel, making me cover my ears instinctively for a moment as the cocoon shatters into shards of icy thread while the rat's icy spike continues its path straight towards the spider queen's head.
In a last ditch move, the spider queen raises four of its legs, bringing two up to delay the spike while sending the other two straight into the rat's chest, piercing its armor-like fur in the process. But the spike still manages to break through the first two legs, making its way straight through the spider queen's head and into its brain as the rat finds itself coughing out chunks of bloody ice while suspended in the air by the spider queen's legs sticking out of its belly.
I ready myself to sprint over there, just to stop when I notice the rat's eyes still moving. It then rips out the spike and sends it around in a circle beneath it, breaking both of the legs impaling it and yanking them out through the force. The rat then falls to the ground while still coughing icy blood.
It's still alive.
My eyes narrow even more as I tense up.
Several seconds pass with no movement from the rat outside of its
coughing before I decide to climb to my feet. Just for an eggshell to crack beneath my foot, causing the rat's head to jerk over towards me.
Shit.
It quickly begins to climb to its feet, ignoring the spider queen in the process despite the energy there being ripe for the taking, before slowly lumbering over to me.
"Terminal, check its current energy level," I mutter quietly while getting away from the walled off portion I was at in the middle of several eggs that I was using as cover.
/ Alert \
Exterior energy source located.
Two energy sources identified as Frozen Ones.
The first has an energy level of 2.51, while the second has an energy level of 1.72.
\End of Alert/
The first one should be the spider queen, and the second one is the rat. Which means that I now have more energy than the rat. And with its injuries...
I grit my teeth for a moment, trying to decide if I should risk it or not, just for the choice to be taken out of my hands as the large rat suddenly lets out a loud squeal and begins full on sprinting over to me while completely
ignoring its wounds. Pale blue blood immediately begins to pour even faster from its wounds during its run, and its breathing continues to get heavier and heavier by the sound of it.
So I draw my sword and begin stepping up closer to the large rat. But my eyes can't help but gravitate towards the icy spike that was once its paw as it runs towards me a tad awkwardly.
That's something to watch out for. Even if it'll lower its mobility in the process.
It also looks like the spike has dimmed down quite a bit in terms of brightness. Which I think is safe to take as it's not as strong without as much energy to put into it.
I rush forward, raising my sword to clash with the icy spike, and startling the rat in the process, just to maneuver out of the way of its attack at the last second, leaving the icy spike to crash directly into the ground. This sends a powerful tremor throughout it that almost has me tripping. But I manage to keep my footing before grabbing my sword's handle with both hands and driving it straight into the rat's side.
The blade lets out the sound of metal scraping against metal as my blade simply scrapes down the side of the rat without creating any wounds.
"Shit!" I swear, but right when I'm about to pull back, the blade reaches one of the dozens of wounds left behind by the spider and pushes its way inside a little bit, widening the wound in the process.
Okay. That I can work with.
Then the rat rips its icy spike out of the ground again and sends it flying towards me, swatting me far away and into the wall several meters down the tunnel with a grunt.
I cough out a mouthful of pale reddish-blue blood a second later before realizing that my sword is still in the rat's side.
Right after seeing that though, the sword simply falls out of it as the rat begins moving towards me again. But when I look down at myself, I find a pale blue light shining all over my torso where broken bones work to fix themselves.
This'll be a pain.
I push myself to my feet, ignoring the pain in the process as I draw both of my knives and train my eyes on the approaching rat, whose own beady eyes are locked on me as well. And after seeing me reach my feet, the rat actually slows down a little, blood still trailing in its wake.
"Terminal, keep my energy level shown on the corner of my vision," I whisper before turning around and sprinting away from the rat, making it begin chasing after me. And after a few seconds, letting my injuries slowly heal themselves, I jump onto the wall, then off of it again to the other side of the tunnel where I land and immediately aim and throw a knife at the now-confused rat's eyes.
The knife makes it part of the way into its eye, causing it to let out a pained squeal before the eyelid immediately claps down on it, shattering the knife that was already a bit brittle due to the extreme cold in the process.
I grimace at that, wishing for the first time that the knives were made of better material like our swords are before letting out a relieved sigh as the pain from my wounds finally vanish completely. And a glance at the corner of my vision tells me that it took up over half of my energy to do so. Which doesn't bode well for the rest of the fight.
At the same time though, the rat seems to be slowing down. And despite the knife not going as far in as I'd hoped, part of it still remains embedded in the rat's eye, blinding it in that one eye.
The rat constantly shakes its head in what I'm assuming is an attempt to shake the fragment of the knife out of its eye, making it difficult for me to aim my other knife. So instead, I rush past it while it's distracted to make a break for my sword.
A loud squeal echoes from behind me, followed by a crashing sound as I grab my sword before turning around, just to find the rat rushing for me already.
I hurry up and sheathe my sword before aiming my knife and throwing it directly at the rat's remaining eye. But it simply swipes its icy spike through the air in front of it to knock the knife away mid charge.
Guess it was too much to expect it to work more than once.
I unsheathe my sword again and quickly attempt to sprint out of the way of its ice spike, just for its tail to suddenly whip out around its body and smack into my side, sending me flying into the wall on the other side of the tunnel.
"Fuck!" I grunt out before coughing out blood and pushing myself back to my feet as quickly as possible, ignoring my wounds in the process which are already starting to heal up a bit again. But I'm not sure if I'll have enough energy to heal everything this time. So I rush around the rat while its still trying to stop its momentum to turn – hooray for its large body – and
head directly for the spider queen's corpse that is several meters away from us.
A few seconds later, the rat lets out what sounds like an angry squeal – likely having figured out what I'm trying to do – before I hear it running straight towards me. But I proceed to ignore it as I straight up leap for the spider queen's corpse, clearing four entire meters in my jump and landing on its side where I start absorbing its energy right away.
The rat lets out another enraged squeal bordering on a roar this time before seemingly speeding up judging by the tremors vibrating through the tunnel.
I grit my teeth at the pain from my wounds until I feel that completely swallowed up by the immense satisfaction of the spider queen's energy. And that feeling envelops me completely until I feel both myself and the spider queen's corpse being sent flying by the rat. But most of the attack was tanked by the spider queen's corpse, leaving me flying off of its body into a wall again with less force than the last time. And a lot more energy to heal myself.
So I quickly get up, shaking my head to dislodge the feeling of the energy coursing through my body as I focus on the rat again. Just to find it glaring at me with its one remaining eye practically blazing with a pale blue energy filled with hatred.
"Guess you didn't like having your prey stolen from you after the hunt," I tell it, a hint of amusement in my voice. And the creature actually seems to understand it as the hatred somehow grows stronger and it immediately charges at me, albeit a touch slower than before, likely due to its wounds with a loud scratchy roar echoing from its maw.
I can't help but smirk as a wave of excitement fills me up at the thought of absorbing its energy as well before I rush over towards it, my sword raised in the air to strike. And this time when I sidestep its icy spike, I manage to dodge its tail as well while maneuvering around it to then slide underneath its belly where I stab my sword straight into one of the still bleeding wounds it got there from the spider queen.
The rat lets out an ear shattering screech that makes me feel liquid – likely blood – begin dripping down my ears as it suddenly drops its body weight onto my lower half, which is still underneath it by then despite my slide. And when it does, I immediately hear a crunch, followed by my own
scream as the pain of both of my legs breaking immediately floods my senses and my eyes are attracted to my own bone sticking out of my armor.
I can't help the tears flooding to my eyes at the pain, but through sheer force of will I push through, dragging myself away from the creature as the energy I had just absorbed from the spider queen quickly gets to work healing the wounds. But even with that, it only manages to force my bones back into my body and do enough healing to not make them shatter just from standing up.
I'm not the only one hurt though, as the rat hasn't moved since collapsing on my legs.
Please be dead...
I push through the pain throbbing through my legs, threatening to put me unconscious as I walk on wobbly legs over to the rat's neck, where I put my hand to feel for a pulse. But nothing comes through.
Unsure if that means it just doesn't have a pulse in the first place, or if it's dead, I continue dragging myself along its body towards its head, careful not to cut myself on its icy fur in the process. And once I reach its head, I can't help but jerk backwards as its remaining beady eye suddenly move to look at me with absolute hatred in them.
I narrow my eyes at that before reaching for my knives, just to remember that I tossed them earlier already. So I turn my head to look at its stomach, where my sword is still poking out of, albeit with quite a bit of damage to it.
Unworried about the damage to my sword, I continue dragging myself along the rat's corpse, which only barely tries lifting itself once without any luck, towards the rat's stomach. But as I'm moving, I feel the edges of my vision continue getting darker and darker as the internal injuries in my legs that didn't manage to heal continue to bleed, along with any other injuries I might've gotten without even noticing in my upper body.
Eventually I end up falling to my knees again, simply dragging myself along its body towards the sword where I barely manage to push further and further into its body up to the hilt. Then I collapse on top of the rat's body, slowly feeling the last of my consciousness leaving me.
Damn it... I can't... no...
Right as I'm about to fall unconscious, leaving my instincts to take over from my lack of energy, I suddenly feel a rush of energy enter my body from the rat's. Then everything goes dark.
A little ways down the tunnel from Alex
"Hurry! It sounds like whatever commotion was going on has stopped!" Captain Andrew shouts while running down the hall, followed by Cynthia, the rest of Alex's squad with the exception of Robert, and the lone veteran. The others had all rushed back to the main hangar at the first sight of spiders and rats running through the tunnel towards them from the way Alex went. And since Alex's group was left fighting the rats and spiders off, they couldn't follow.
Cynthia can't help but frown, clenching her fists in worry as they all rush through the tunnel towards the commotion, having chosen not to follow after the soldiers and civilians who had chosen to rush back to the main hangar without them.
"What do you think it was?" Michael asks in a hurry as he runs. But the captain doesn't answer and instead suddenly bursts forward, using his beyond human speed to eclipse the others and clear the distance of the tunnel at a much faster speed. "Or not." The sergeant mutters without pausing in his run.
The rest of them stay silent as they continue running down the tunnel. Meanwhile the captain eventually finds the large rat corpse located a few meters down from an equally large spider corpse and worry immediately clouds his face.
"Please don't be dead!" he chants to himself over and over again while rushing over to the rat corpse and moving around its back, then towards its head, and finally to its front, where he finds Alex lying on the ground unconscious and covered in his own blood. The captain drops to his knees next to him and turns him over gently before taking off his armor and checking for wounds.
At some point during the process, the others manage to make it over to them, and each of them immediately begins speaking at once.
"Is he okay?!" "What happened!" "Is Alex okay?" "Please be okay..."
The captain raises his hand as he finishes checking him over for injuries and leans back a little as he says, "It's fine. He's fine. No injuries at all."
All of them let out audible sighs of relief, with the exception of the veteran who barely knows Alex. Then they all turn to look at the large spider and rat.
"Did... he kill these?" Victoria mutters with awe evident in her tone.
The soldiers all move over to check on the monsters' corpses, with the exception of Cynthia and Michelle who stay by Alex's side. But even Cynthia gets up after rechecking him to make sure he's okay, completely ignoring his lack of armor and his damaged clothing due to him being family.
"If he was able to kill these... just how strong has he gotten?" Michael mutters with a frown hidden by his helmet. But then the captain snaps that thought as he says from next to the spider queen, "I don't think he killed them. Or at least not alone."
Most of the others turn to look at him before walking over to the spider queen's corpse and finding him pointing at its head, which has a large, gaping hole directly to the brain.
"Unless he could somehow do that," Andrew adds, almost as if as an afterthought.
Everyone next to the spider queen shake their heads at that thought before looking around for clues as to what happened. Until Michael – who had gone over to the rat – points at the icy spike that is in the place of its paw and shouts, "Over here!"
"Did he..." Cynthia mutters with a look of awe on her face.
"I think he did." Andrew answers while looking between the two monsters and Alex. "I think the second lieutenant waited for one of them to kill the other before finishing it off."
Silence fills the tunnel for several seconds, broken only by the sound of the veteran walking across broken eggshells.
Everyone's gaze is attracted to Alex as he lets out a groan and rolls over.
"Is he unconscious or asleep?" Cynthia mutters with a look of bewilderment replacing the previous awe.
Everyone else just stays silent and shrugs.