Episode 39- The mounts & blades?

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"It's pretty cramped here… Now to carefully maneuver… WOAH!" Falling forward, Dobromir luckily managed to not crush the zergling beneath him.

It looked at him, he looked at it, holding a perfect cat's arched back position. With a 'skirr' the zergling laid its head back down, and closed its eyes.

'sigh' Pushing away with his hands, he raised to an upright position, and continued on his way. "We really need to clear those rooms. But how do I convince Kerrigan to do this…?"

After crossing some more distance, his musings ended as he walked into one of the 'clean' rooms. To be more specific, all the excess zerg matter was removed, some by orders, some by claws. The room previously was some kind of kitchen, maybe. Now, all the metal was thrown into a corner, creating a beautiful pile of scrap.

The rest was mostly bare, save for a wall slowly being grown, bit by bit. Hearing the footsteps, quickly turned towards him, and saluted saying "Commander!"

"I have just one quick business for you. Make me a zergling mount, big enough to comfortably ride. Ah, and one for Kerrigan too, we don't want her to feel left out. You can evolve the already existing ones."

"What about the wall?"

"You can continue after doing this. It will be a slow process anyway." Seeing the slight slump in his subordinate shoulders, he quickly added "But that is a good thing! Because you are careful and meticulous, we will actually have one of the most solid structures ever made by zerg, and not just piles of some meat and bones. Keep up the good work!"

After the successful pep talk, quickly went over to the scrap metal. He would need to create a spawn pool, and recycling was a pretty noble thing to do. Dobromir, on the other hand, walked out, and back towards the control room. There was someone other to motivate after all.

"Zerg!" "Careful bro, we are surrounded!" The two of them went out to scout their place for base, but of course a small band of zerglings emerged from the earth the moment they got close to the mineral field.

It doesn't matter how good warriors you are, if the enemy strikes you from all your sides, then you are bound to lose. Now, with protoss, the get out of tricky situation card was called psionics. Buuuut… Artanis, as a young specimen of his race, trained to be a warrior, didn't really have any trick up his sleeve. Thankfully, the shroom on his back provided a very good 360 degree field of fighting capability.

The fresh Preator, Artanis, knows better than to stand in place. With a merciless earth pounding, the Protoss quickly dissected the two closest zerglings, quickly turning around to face the rest. Which quickly followed his suit, and sprinted with all four of their clawed limbs extended. "Charge the leftmost side!"

A little nod, and another pair of zerglings were laid to eternal rest. The one that tried jumping forward was quickly impaled by the Tick Tock sword, it's corpse landing on a ground with a thud. "Run by their left side!"

Artanis did just that. Considering that all the zerg were running towards him, it was less taking out an edge, and more of running very close to the long line of death. Wit was experiencing how Mount & Blade looks in real life, because he weaving his 'Tick Tock' very energetically, slashing, piercing, stabbing, and sometimes even punting those things away. Considering his shorter reach, Artanis did very little slishy slashy.

Now, they repeated the maneuver two times more, before the band was small enough to be taken apart by the duo with a head on, and a final charge. Standing amidst the carpet of corpses, Artanis contacted the rest.

"Executor, the Zerg are on Shakuras. I am just not sure if they passed our warp gate or found another."

Wit, on the other hand, was catching his breath. Sure, he wasn't running around, but swishing his sword every which way was still exhausting. He wasn't really human but, still almost half a day passed, with practically non stop battling. The protoss were still functioning, probably some alien quirk.

"Let the roots pierce you!" The shout was followed by the "Skree!" "Ghulk!" and other sounds, as bands of zerglings were torn apart by the grey, spiky plant tentacles.

Pixie was taking a huge gulps of air, her tiny body trembling with each and every single one. The zerg were relentless. Even with the WHOLE forest awakened, truly MASSIVE casualties happened on both sides. The first waves of zerglings and hydralisks were obliterated. Then, the accursed serpents changed from shooting useless spikes to spitting acid, which made the walking trees vulnerable to the zerglings attack. It didn't help matters that the total of TEN FRICKING ULTRAS charged them! And then some flying zerg crabs started to spit globs of acid from a distance!

Suffice to say, the zerg were mostly repelled. The giant bodies of ultralisks laid around the battlefield, together with countless of its small brethren. The zerg would be completely eradicated by now if not for the small little detail. THEY ARE SPAWNED VERY QUICKLY! ! !

Now, on both sides, only new small waves constantly arrived, and on the defender side… Remained completely exhausted Pixie, thankfully undamaged. Her stalwart defender and lifetime companion, Marshmallow was full of wounds, bite marks, claw scratches, or some stray acid shots. They were all treated with magic, making Marshmallow's situation stable, even if badly wounded.

The Mighty Forest… was gone. Only misshapen piles of wood and splinters remained, giving a testament to the sad fact: This time, Preservation was overcomed by the Propagation. If Clipper was here, the mighty xel'naga would show that, even THEY, can shed a tear.

'Come quickly, this way' Pixie was rightfully startled. The words…, directly appeared into her mind and, at the same time, they weren't spoken. She turned her in every direction, seeing nothing. Next, she used her magic, which quickly directed her gaze towards a… creature. It was roughly a round cabbage like creature, very round, with small legs and arms. On its head was a mushroom made into a hat, and two leafs jutted out of it, almost like a hair. With the small expressive pupiless eyes, and an almost painted smile, it looked almost like a doll.

If not for the whole situation, and a rather pleasant plant based look, she would probably… do something else? Instead, Pixie just nodded her head and mounted her feathered friend. Two of them followed the strange forest fairy, which was leading them through all of this, its two leafs on head spinning rapidly like a propeller.

All around them, the corpses of foe and ally alike laid all around. And the forest? Practically stopped existing. Every tree stood up to defend, only to fall in battle, slaying their foes. Even the grass slowly started graying out and dying off.

"You will be helping our commander in taking over the Braxis, your main target will be its capital city, borealis. Personally, I am expecting to see your capabilities, young lady." Face of the Vice Admiral Stukov vanished, leaving the deck of the small boat silent for a moment. The fox stood up, stretched every which way, and jumped off the deck. Her companions scattered, to get acclimated with their new allies. And now, gathering them was left in her very capable paths.

Choosing the easy way, the fox just picked the right scent from the ship, and started tracking one of her companions.

"Aia! Trixie's tailbone!" 'Kaboom!' "Wait what? Why was there Kaboom?" She quickly turned around, and found the source of the disturbance. Her companion, Dr. Flow was laying flat on his face, in a little crater. From his back extended an eternal line, crackling, shaking, and letting out constant sparks in every direction. It extended up… to the slowly swirling black hole, probably the portal they were dragged through.

"Most curious. So, you were saying?"

Trixie turned towards her bearded speaker, then towards her unconscious comrade, the portal, her companion again, before finally settling on the old man. "Ekhem." She put her hands on her hips, making herself look a little bigger by stretching out her star riddled cape. "I, The Great and Powerful Trixie Lulamoon have come to beseech you, to…"

"Come on." Stopped her, the young guy. "We're not any sort of bigwigs. Just the old and jobless."

Realising a sigh, Trixe tried to continue, "to help our little growing colony. You see, we-" She was stopped yet again, as an almost visible soundwave shook the whole building a little. They all turned towards the source. The magick line emerging from Dr. Flow's back changed from soft purple color, to an angrily, pulsing red. With every pulse, everyone in this room experienced an earthquake in their insides, especially in their bones.

"Oh, Oh no." Trixie quickly rushed over to the prone body of her companion, and started shaking him shouting "Code red, code red! Wake up Doctor, we have a code red over here!" The other three were a little out of their depth, so they just stood around, watching.

Seeing no results, Trixie had to use her trump card. Leaning close to his ear, she whispered "My life for Ner'Zhul." And quickly backed away. His hair started to slowly rise up, and small arcs of lighting could be seen traversing through it.

A moment later, with a loud "ZZZAAAPPP" Doctor was jolted awake, hands and knees on the ground. His hair changed into spikes, pointing every which way. "W-w-h-y?" His voice was shaky, even more than his wildly twitchy eyes.

"Code red Doctor Flow!" A pause, another rattling of everyone's bones.

"What?!" He quickly stood up, looked up, and paled considerably. "The only one using this connection is… we have to hurry!" He quickly jumped up, and the hole sucked him in. Trixie didn't hesitate even a moment, following just after him.

Silence fell upon the room. Just for a moment though. "Finally some excitement. I'm going after." A few steps, a jump, and the bearded man was gone.

"Did he seriously just…"

"Yes. now, go after him, I'll keep this side safe."

"Yes granny…"

"Hehehe, still a very gullible one." She stood up, and walked over to the giant cauldron. "Where did I leave the process…? Ah, yes, I need to add the hair from my armpits, then the eye of beholder…"

'Thump' "Ufff…" Wit was finally free. Free from the danger of immediate death, at last. Their group has smashed a very weak zerg surrounding the second gate, talked with Raynor and Fenix for a few seconds, and then annihilated the rest.

He remembered Raynors last (before closing the portal) words: "You kids remember to play nice from now on, ok? Wish us luck." Kids… Wit certainly was one, but Artanis? It was hard to tell with protoss, buuut… everyone called him young, so it was somewhat accurate? And taking into consideration how some of the 'older' protoss acted, was it a perfect way to describe them?

"Anyway… let's look at this poor leg of mine." The most important point forgotten in the midst of battle? "I didn't bleed for a second, sooo, I don't have any blood? More of a shroom than a human, I guess." When his leg was cut in half, it was a stump from the knee down. Now? Some strings were slowly growing from it. "A high chance of getting a new leg, that's truly… awesome."

This time, Ziemowit laid on his back, head at a rather weird angle considering his rigid hat. The sky, shrouded in eternal twilight, was truly beautiful. What's more, he felt perfectly attuned to this place. Probably his gloomy shroomy side talking.

After some time, they would go to the main city of Nerazim, but for now? Time to rest, and sleep!

'Tick' 'Tick' 'Tick' 'Tick' those sounds followed the giant fox, with claws permanently extended to some length. A side effect of mutations, but it's no biggie. Followed by the swishing tail, the foxy lady followed the scent trail, taking from time to time stronger sniff.

Everyone she passed by stopped in their tracks, only to eventually continue. She was an honoured outside ally after all. Or at last that's what the badge pinned to the tiara on her head proclaimed. Why did this fox has a tiara? Because she's no pet, obviously. Bah, she is the biggest fox of them all! Tiara is the bare minimum she deserves, same as all the other specially uplifted animals, the first of their kind.

She watched as her anchor to this world pulsed in an angry red. Thankfully, all the turbulence will be experienced on the other end of the line. She looked back down on her white feathered companion. Marshmallow was covered in bruises and welts, and started to develop a slight limp.

"Maybe I'll just walk beside you?" Pixie was given a side eye, and a silence. Considering how her little companion was exhausted, walking was not an option. Not to mention, the tiny 10 year old girl, smaller than her two twin sisters, weighed practically nothing. Add to the fact that she was aware of her injuries, and avoided them respectively, it was not a problem, at all.

Seeing the look, and lack of change, she nodded in understanding. "How much longer?" she asked their flying guide. They were following it for some time now, but miraculously no new enemies appeared, for now at last.

'It's over there, very close!' It was pointing towards… green circles? Wait, they were mushrooms but, well, green. And sun loving. More importantly, there was a natural path leading… downwards to a gulf.

On the way, they saw some giant, hollowed out and smooth wall-nuts with some leaves on the top. Looked almost like a home, only without inhabitants.

Finally, after the groups started descending, the two casually passed through a wooden arch, overgrown by plants. What happened next was… an explosion. But not the violent one. Explosion of light! Of sounds and smells! Everything felt more vibrant! It was like seeing Toussaint for the first time! The air had the pleasant scent of flowers. Everywhere was a light presence of mist, but it didn't bother the sunrays for one bit! They shined over so gently.

Additionally, some butterflies made from pure light were flying from place to place. There were more of those hollowed out wall-nuts that actually looked inhabited! And most importantly, there were a lot more of those fairies! They varied in shape, by it being lanky or chubby. They varied in their colors, from fresh green to the gentle oranges of autumn. They varied in accessories! Pixie saw one with old style goggles, other with a weird monocle, some didn't have any, some had many more!

Most of those fairies were gathered at the bottom of the cauldron valley. They sat close, they sat far, a lot of them hovered, using their leaf propellers.

At the epicenter of it all lay a cocoon. Dobromir probably would have some brief flashbacks in this instance. BUT! This one was made from thick roots, plant membrane, and pulsed gently with green light. Some shape could be seen within, but it was indistinguishable. And despite everything that happened outside of this little corner of paradise, a tranquil feeling fell on our wrung out duo.

Author's:

Wink wink, nudge nudge. And no, it's not about the Witcher.