The Medic bent over Hugo shrugs back at the Transporter. “I don’t think this qualifies as excessive. I’ve seen far worse.”
The other Medic nods his head in agreement. “Me too. I mean this is honestly pretty mild. It could have been like that part of the forest that got completely obliterated.”
The Transporter looks at the two in disbelief. “All of you people are nuts! Why did I take this job…?”
Another portal opens, providing backup to the team to help get the two victims moved. As they clean up the scene and move their patients, they look around for any signs that a fire might break out again due to some lingering embers. Once they were satisfied it was safe, they all left the scene, hoping that things would get better for them.
Continuing his stroll through the forest as he continued to dote on and modify his newest creation, Anaar began to wonder if he had an unhealthy obsession with reptiles considering more often than not, that tended to be what he summoned. Putting it out of his mind since he asked himself the question once every few months, he instead worked on his sensory connection with the darling little familiar. It was the most advanced autonomous construct he had ever made, and he wondered how close he could get to replicating his own senses into it.
With his increased strength and Life attunement, he could sense practically any point on the globe. What he recognized though was that his remote sensing in no way compared to what he could do when he was physically present. If he could find a way to closely emulate his own senses into his constructs, it would be quite a breakthrough.
Sending the dragon to scout so he could further test and calibrate its response to stimuli on its own and his connection to it, he came across something he was immediately interested in. He was on the verge of being able to see almost as clearly as if he were using his own eyes, but what was more noticeable was how it acted like an antenna for his Life attuned senses. Quickening his pace, he made his way to the presence he had found.
He picked up the chittering long before getting a visual on the creature, but the tree bent of the weight of something enormous gave it away. Once he stepped into the clearing, the giant spider leapt from the tree, causing the ground to tremble slightly, and made a fierce dash toward Anaar. Softening the earth and then solidifying it once it had sunk down into it, Anaar stepped up to the entangled arachnid as it fought to free itself in futility.
Stepping in much closer for an examination than any normal person would ever even consider, Anaar whistled in awe of the creature. Deftly dodging a snap of its mandibles, he continued to walk around prodding and examining the creature.
He’s gotten better at this. It is even larger this time and this spider is super deadly. Normally it is too small to be a threat to humans, but at this size… He seems to like spiders. I wonder if that is what he has had the most success with, or if he is like me and just likes arachnids… I’m no expert on spider DNA so I’m not sure if it has undergone any significant mutations. I’ll have to study it further. Ooh! I know!
Heaving and covered in sweat, the fatigued man was praising his success. He had been planning his strategy for weeks, and the spot he was in was perfect. The brush he chose gave the perfect cover, as short of stepping on him, no one would ever find him. Being a non-combatant himself, it was imperative he stayed safe while his pet did the work. He smiled as he thought about the imported spider that was sure to get him to the top of the rankings.
Before, he made the mistake of engorging his pets, then trying to flee from them. Now that he could affect them from farther than ever, he was able to pour all his strength into it in complete safety, and spend his time recovering. Therefore his soul almost left his body and he let out the highest pitched scream when he was tapped casually on the shoulder.
“Hi there. Can you come with me? I need your help.”
Staring back at him with an excited smile on his face was none other than Anaar Vorpahl. Of all the people he would encounter, there was no one who could be worse. Not only could he take out his magnum opus with essentially no effort, but there would be no escaping him even if he was in the best of condition.
“Uhhh… What?”
“You made the spider didn’t you? Well, I know you didn’t make it, but got it hopped up on steroids. Rampant Growth right? You are quite talented to do so much while keeping the subject alive.”
The man was not sure what was causing his heart to beat more uncontrollably. The fact that he was having a casual conversation with Anaar Vorpahl in the middle of a warzone, or that he was actually being praised by the man. He shook himself, remembering that he was far from being out of danger and instead asked a question.
“How did you find me?”
Anaar shrugs in response. “Don’t worry about that. I have questions I need answered. Let’s go.”
The man remains stationary, his voice weak and stuttering in reply. “Umm… I can’t really move.”
Anaar’s frown causes a chill to run down the man’s spine. “Wow, you are that drained? Really went all out didn’t you? No worries, I’ll give you a hand.”
Without warning, Anaar grabs the incapacitated man’s ankle, dragging him through the forest back toward the spider with little regard to rocks, trees, or anything else he might be pulling the helpless man through. When they arrive back at the spider, the man’s blood runs cold with terror as he is left directly in front of the very angry creature. To his surprise, Anaar is completely calm as he walks around the spider with no fear of injury.
“So how exactly does this work for you? Is it a genetic mutation, or are you forcibly causing rapid cell division with no change to genetic code?”
Mind still addled from his fatigue and his careless transport through the forest, he is not sure if he was being asked a serious question. “How am I supposed to know?! I’m not a scientist. I just make things grow bigger.”
“Only living things though. You can’t use it on inanimate objects can you?”
“Not that I know of.”
“But you have never wondered how you are doing what you are doing?”
“Not really?”
Anaar sighs in exasperation. “How do you people ever expect to push the limits of your abilities when you know nothing about them?! I’m impressed you made it this far! When you made plants grow bigger, did you use any foodstuffs? Were they still edible after you changed them?”
The man looks at Anaar confused as he appears to be taking notes on his Vizer. “What are you doing? Why are you writing this down?”
“I’m drafting an email of this study. You didn’t answer my question.”
“I have never tried this on plants.”
Anaar’s eyes snap to the man sprawled on the ground. “Oh ho… Diving straight into animals even though it is well known to have horrendously terrible success rates with fauna? You are a dark one. I like it. What were your first successes then?”
Unable to believe the situation he was in, the man was left with no other options but to answer the questions. He could not believe he was engaging in a science experiment in the middle of a battlefield, with a ravenous predator bearing down upon him, only held at bay by the grace of their class’ strongest student. If nothing else, he could at least breathe easy that despite the precarious situation, he was technically in the safest place possible as long as Anaar did not turn on him. There was a time he simply thought the man was so far ahead of him that he was unable to understand him at all. Now he was more convinced that the man was actually just clinically insane.
Anaar finished his questioning, closing whatever document he had been working on with a frown. “Not nearly the amount of information I wanted, but I suppose nothing in life is free. I guess I’ll have to continue my research. I should probably take a good sample then…”
Unsheathing one of his swords, he carves a chunk from the spider, his sword gliding through the seemingly impenetrable carapace like a hot knife through butter. This caused the spider to shriek in pain and thrash about i
n a frenzy. The man watched as Anaar simply walked away into the woods, unfazed by the dripping mess he was holding. As he disappeared into the forest, the man released the breath he had been holding and relaxed on the ground.
If his body was not already spent enough, he had been in a constant state of tension ever since Anaar had shown up. Now despite being mere feet from an angry and deadly creature, he was completely at ease. He wondered how it must feel to be so powerful and dominant that you were capable of completely disregarding an enemy so that you could do research instead. No matter what it felt like, he could tell the story that he encountered Anaar Vorpahl and lived to fight another day.
Anaar had sent the sample away through a small portal, and cleaned his hands. Once he stood back up and continued his walk through the forest, he found himself remembering something he had forgotten since he had been so wrapped up in his study. Chuckling to himself for his forgetfulness, he stretched as he resolved his issue.
The man was still very tired, but his strength was starting to return to his body. If he rested a little longer, he figured he could make it to cover so he could continue recovering without fear of someone finding him. With his pet inexplicably ensnared, he had no protection from anyone who might seek to harm him. It was almost as if his thoughts had a direct effect on the universe, because the ground made a shifting sound and the next thing he knew, the very beast he had created to protect him, had now pounced upon him.
A response team had been closely monitoring the situation, but thought their services would not be needed as Anaar Vorpahl had left the boy completely unharmed. With a collective sigh of relief as there were no charred or mangled bodies to attend, they had hope their day truly was moving in a positive direction. When the large spider bounded from its stasis to assault the young man nearby, they immediately sprung into action, which included two professionals with military experience.
Though it was typically never needed, there were always a few individuals on hand to police potential disputes that got out of hand. Never did they imagine the situation that would finally call them to action would be a giant spider the size of a large cargo van. Unloading their assault rifles, they were dumbfounded by the armor plating covering the spider than shrugged off the hail of bullets from rifles. The young man was in deepening peril as the spider had not turned its attention away from him, despite the gunfire. It was all the Medic could do to keep the man on the brink of death.
Thinking quickly, the Transporter called for backup, but was dismayed to find no one else was available to assist in the situation. She felt if they at least had a Defender or a Fortifier, the boy’s life would be in less danger. It occurred to her that there was someone nearby that was clearly capable of handling the spider. Having command ping his Vizer, the woman portaled to the location of the ping. She looked around and saw the man who had been giving her nothing but trouble all day.
“Anaar Vorpahl! Stop! I demand your assistance!”
Anaar lazily turns to the woman, the smirk on of amusement on his face a fierce juxtaposition to the dangerous glint from his eyes. “And who are you to be demanding anything of me?”
The woman gulps, but realizes this was not the moment to back down. “There is a young man fighting for his life right now thanks to the position you put him in! You have an obligation to help him.”
The dangerous glint and smirk on his face shifted into an innocent face of inquisitive confusion. “What situation am I responsible for?”
“You left that boy with a dangerous creature! He was defenseless and now it has attacked him!”
“But he made it. How is it my problem that he was attacked by his own creation?”
“You brought him there!”
“Still not seeing how this is my problem. Shouldn’t you instead be questioning why someone is irresponsible enough to create something so deadly that they have no control over? What are the administrators doing? Don’t you have people to handle these sorts of things?”
The woman was growing weary of the conversation and knew that the longer it continued, the less chance of survival the boy had. “Nothing is working against it. You seemed completely unafraid of it.” Her voice cracked as it was clear she was on the verge of tears. “Please I beg of you, help us save your classmate.”
Anaar sighs and begins walking away. “You should really get better people on your team if they can’t handle one little spider.”
The woman could not believe how callous the man before her was as she watched him walk away with tears in her eyes. To think he was capable of abandoning someone when he had the power to stop it was unthinkable. She would never see such an evil man in a positive light for as long as she lived. Still, she felt she had a duty to try until there were no options left.
“Where are you going?! The spider is this way! You have to help!”
Never turning around as he continued walking away casually, he responded to her with shocking words. “Ugh Ms. Transporter. You are so demanding. You just said you wanted help with the spider, you never said I had to come with you. The problem is solved.”
The woman was confused by his words, but found they did not matter as he was clearly not going to be of assistance. She rushed back to the scene, but when she stepped out of her portal, she was not ready for what lay before her. Everyone and everything in the area was covered in a thick greenish-black goop. The rest of her team was spitting, trying to get the viscous fluid out of their mouths, and the young man had been visibly mauled, but he appeared to be breathing. The woman looked to one of the men with rifles for an explanation.
“What in the hell is going on here?!”
As he opened his mouth to speak, more of the goop went into the man’s mouth, causing him to retch and go into a spitting fit before responding. “We were almost out of bullets, but it was apparently annoyed enough with us that it stopped attacking the kid. Just as it was turning to us, it just popped like a water balloon.”
Trying to clear the area around his eyes, the Medic adds, “A high pressure water balloon. That doesn’t matter though. I can treat most of his wounds, but he is depleted, and that thing had some nasty venom. It seems to be a neurotoxin and it has been putting him through hell. We need to get him treatment STAT.”
The Transporter coordinates getting the young man moved posthaste, wanting nothing else but to be rid of the scene. Back at the command center she watches the monitors displaying the man that she was still convinced to be a monster. Despite her conviction to her assessment, she could not help but be reminded that in the end, it was still his actions that saved the young man’s life.
◆◆◆
Pushing through the edge of the treeline, Dan could not believe he had somehow ended back up in the Desert region. He had never been the most competent when it came to navigation, but crossing an entire zone, just to manage returning to the zone you wanted to escape was a new level of sad. Without stepping even one foot onto the sand, he did an about face and went back the way he came.
After a minute of walking, he stopped, turned his body to the right, and then started walking in that direction instead. He could only hope this course would get him closer to the City. He had only managed to not get lost during class because Maggie would yank him randomly, pulling him in the correct direction when he began wandering too far. Now without her, he wanted to sit down and not move until she crossed his path.
With every step he took, he was silently praying he would not find himself back in the sandy prison he had come to hate. So preoccupied were his thoughts that he almost missed the rumbling beneath him just before a spike of hard rock exploded forth in an attempt to impale him. Clumsily throwing himself out of the way just in time, he immediately readied some paper, tense for battle.
“Oh, it’s just you.”
From within the trees, Dan saw a familiar face emerge, looking somewhat disappointed.
“Jest me? What the fuck dat ‘posed to mean? How you attack me before you even seent me Jesus?”
“My weapon is literally the thing you are standing on. What second rate Terrakinetic needs their eyes to pick up someone so close by?”
Dan sucks his teeth as he returns his paper to their holsters. “Man… this why I cain’t stand y’all damn Terrynets. All y’all damn Elementals is jest a right big pain in ma ass.”
“Dan, we’ve been through this. You are an Elemental too… Just because paper is manmade, doesn’t change anything. Also, when will you learn how to say fucking Terrakinetic!?”
Dan waves his hand dismissively as he moves closer to Jesus. “Where you headed?”
“To the City, where else? If I’m lucky, I’ll make it to there before becoming Anaar’s collateral damage.”
“Aww now come on, he wouldn’t do nothin’ like dat. We all friends. We ain’t ‘posed to be fightin’.”
Jesus laughs raucously as he looks at Dan with pity. “You think that shit really applies? You think he would choose you over Maggie? If you get spared it is because Maggie said so.”
Dan’s face begins to flush red as his temper flares. “It ain’t even like dat. Only reason you think dat is ‘cause I got knocked out too soon last time. You’ll see when we all together at da end.”
Dan turns to leave, but the earth trembles and a large stone wall sprouts from the ground to block his path. He spins to see Jesus’ face had become deadly serious.
“Sorry Dan. Nothing personal, but that friends to the end shit just doesn’t apply here. I’m number 4, I have a reputation to uphold. It would be wasteful of me to let your points go to someone else. We still cool, it’s all business. I’ll buy you a beer later to make up for it.”
Dan had never been one to take threats in stride, no matter who they might have come from. His body tensing, he could feel every scrap of paper on him at the ready.
“What make you think you fixin’ to just beat my ass and go ‘bout ya day? And trust I ain’t buyin’ yo ass no beer after.”
Revelations (Song of Sophangence Book 4) Page 26
