Chapter 7

The end of our journey was in sight. It had been eight days since we set out on our journey, and in that time we hadn’t encountered even a single enemy.

My hunger was getting worse, and because the oxygen was thinning I was feeling slightly lightheaded. The humans, in contrast, were looking much healthier than when we had set out.

We were camped out at a storage facility and I was doling out orders as usual.

‘Niel…’ I said

‘Y-Yes sir?’

‘Prepare…everyone’s…rooms…I've broken open…some of…the units. Take a few townsfolk…and empty them.’

‘Yes sir…’ Niel said obediently

I had no further problems with him after the trailer park incident. I’d decided against damaging him beyond use and to his credit he was proving himself to be quite handy…

‘Carol…’

‘Whaddya need Forny?’ she said cheerfully.

‘Prepare the fire…and everyones…dinner please.’

She nodded and smiled as she went about her duties.

One by one I delegated tasks to the townsfolk, and one by one they each obeyed my commands diligently. It was a surprising turnaround from when we had started out and everyone was in high spirits. They could tell as well as I could that this would be the last night we spent here.

After she finished making dinner Carol stood up and said ‘Everybody, I’d like to make a toast! To the man-ant-whatever who saved us from this fog! Let’s all have a drink for Forny!’

Everybody tipped their glasses, or rather their water bottles, and took a drink.

‘Don’t thank me yet…we’re still in danger.’

A young woman, Tiff, laughed at that and said ‘Ah come on Forny, we’ve come this far. Lighten up a little!’

‘Remember what…I told you all…about the end…of this journey…The monsters…await.’

‘But you’re stronger than they are, right?’

‘I am…but with numbers…anything is possible…’

I wasn’t going to underestimate them again. One on one my victory was basically guaranteed, but against multiple opponents, while protecting the humans in my custody?

‘Your faith in me…is appreciated…but don’t think…that I’m invincible…Fighting them…while protecting you…may prove impossible…Be prepared to run.’

But my warnings fell on deaf ears, as everybody continued to smile and offer words of encouragement to me. Everyone but Carol, Niel and Delilah, that is.

Niel was sitting to my right, keeping his eyes to the ground and his mouth shut while he ate. Delilah, in contrast, was as far from me as possible at the very back of the group. She and Niel hadn’t spoken since the incident at the trailer park. She didn’t even help treat his wounds, leaving it to a very unhappy Carol.

‘I suppose we both got caught in her little web, it almost makes me feel bad for Niel. Almost.’

‘Heeey, don’t compare me to her!’ Ember said indignantly

‘It’s an expression, no need to get so riled up. How do things look ahead?’

‘Hmph…things don’t look good. So far I’ve found half a dozen Cleaners lurking around. Two of them are stalking the road, and the others are wandering around the countryside. I haven’t run into any Scouts or Caretakers though.’

‘Tch, well that’s fewer than I could have hoped for. Thank you for your hard work Ember.’

‘Think nothing of it, Master!’

All that was left now was to decide a path forward. Up until now we had been traveling along the roads but if we continued we would find ourselves in a fight with the Tarantulas. This meant little to me, I was fairly certain that I could kill them, but the problem was ensuring the safety of the townsfolk.

‘We could abandon the road and travel the countryside…’

‘That may be even worse, Master, the other four Cleaners tend to stay close together. With the number of humans decreasing, food has gotten scarce for them.’

‘Tch, so going along the countryside is a gamble, while following the road will lead to certain conflict?’

Dammit. There was no way I could make this choice on my own. People’s lives were at stake here.

‘Perhaps it’d better if I let the group decide, after all I’m not the one who is in danger here.“

I stood up and addressed the group ‘Listen everyone…ahead of us…on the road…there are two…Tarantulas waiting…’

The jovial atmosphere stopped, everybody was tense waiting for me to continue.

‘And along the countryside…there are four more…if we take the road…we are certain…to have to fight…but if we deviate we..may fight even more enemies…or none at all…up until now…I was content…leading the way…but now your lives…are in the balance…whichever way we go…the choice is yours.’

There was a moment of silence, then-

‘How do you know that? Up until now it’s been smooth sailing.’ a man, Robbie, said.

‘Kukuku…I have eyes…everywhere…’ I answered simply.

I sat back down as the group began discussing the situation among themselves. There was a fair amount of arguing going on, as those who wanted to take the road clashed with those who wanted to take their chances with the countryside. Even Delilah was trying to take part in the debate, though she was often ignored when she spoke up. After a while she stopped trying and sullenly went back to finish her dinner.

Beside me, Niel seemed to have no intention of voicing his opinion. He simply said ‘We’re going to follow the road…’

‘What makes you…so sure?’

‘…They chose you to lead them…they trust you’

‘Yep. That’s what I was thinkin’ too. We all saw you kill the one back in town, so killing two shouldn’t be much harder. But four? Nah, that’s way too big of a risk to take. Better the devil you know.’ Carol said.

Eventually, as Carol predicted, the majority of the group voted in favor of following the road north. Tiff was quite pleased to announce the results.

‘We’ll be putting ourselves in your hands Mr. Forny, please take care of us.’

‘Tch…Very well…I will protect you.’

She smiled at me, but for some reason I was getting a bad feeling in my gut, and it had nothing to do with my hunger.

****

We didn’t have to walk for very long. The light had gotten much brighter at the edges of the fog and even the humans could see that a decent ways ahead, under the shade of a pair of oak trees, were two massive Tarantulas.

Even for Cleaners these two were monsters, each one must have been 20 feet long from end to end with legs as thick as tree trunks. Remarkably though, their size was not the most notable thing about them. No, that was reserved for their exoskeletons.

The spider on the left was a pale bone white with eyes as dark as coal, and the one on the right was pitch black, with milky white eyes.

‘Kuron, another batch of prey has come along.’ The white one said

‘Where? I can’t smell ‘em yet.’ The black one, Kuron, said

I could hear them. They must not have realized what I was yet and were simply projecting their thoughts outward. Best not let them know that though, I could use all the advantage I could get. Speaking of advantage, the black one must have been a little slow, because we were clearly in plain sight, unless…

‘He’s blind’ I guessed.

Looks like I knew who I would be targeting first.

‘They’re coming right our way, along the road. Looks like a big bunch of them too, finally brother, we can break our fast.’

‘’sniff’ ’sniff’ Oh yeah, I can smell em’ now, c’mon bruv let’s have us a- ‘sniff’…wait a minute, what’s that smell? It ain’t human.’

‘Now that you mention it, a peculiar one is heading their pack. The rest have stopped moving, but he’s still coming toward us.’

‘Oy Shiron, you don’t fink it’s a…’

‘Don’t be daft, why would a Lord be escorting a bunch of measly humans all the way out here?

‘Hell if I know why a Lord would do anyfing.’

‘…Perhaps we would be better served proceeding with due caution, dear brother. If it were a Lord then he would be able to hear…oh no!!!’

Crap, busted. The Tarantulas stopped projecting their thoughts, but I had already gotten a lot of good information out of the two of them.

I pulled my cloak off to free my movements, exposing my own exoskeleton to the Tarantulas. The white one immediately recoiled, while the Black One dug its back legs in and looked to be preparing to defend the White One.

‘What an odd couple of spiders.’

‘I have to agree, Master. Everything about them is strange for Cleaners. The White One is especially bizarre. Cleaners aren’t supposed to come in that color, they’re all either black, brown, red or some combination of the three. And besides that, their size and personalities…they’re all wrong.’

‘The thing I’m worried most about is the White One. He seemed…intelligent. Intelligent enough to be cautious. Enginar’s idea of a plan was a last minute fake out. Besides that all he did was hit and run. The White One definitely seems craftier than that.’

‘I agree, Master. Still…this would be wonderful training for you. Our enemies will only get stronger and smarter from here on out.’

‘Don’t worry, I have no intention of backing out now.’

I could sense satisfaction from Ember.

Cautiously, I walked toward the two Tarantulas. The Black One stayed poised to attack and defend, while the White One stayed behind him at all times. Occasionally the White One would direct the Black One to move somewhere.

When I was ten meters away from the pair I stopped, waiting for them to make their move.

Rather than attack I heaved back, filling my lungs with air, and screeched at them the same way I had done to Enginar.

‘SCREEEEAAAUUUGH!’

****

Shiron and Kuron

‘B-Brother, can you feel that?’ I asked.

‘Of bloody course I can!’ Kuron replied, panic setting in.

‘Alright, calm down!’

‘I’M PLENTY F*&%ING CALM!’

This wasn’t working. If Kuron and I both lost our composure then this fight is as good as done. What we need is a plan. This guy…there’s no doubt that he’s a lord. Our best bet would just be running away. Normally there would be no point in fighting an enemy this tough but…

‘Kuron…’

‘You don’t have to say it bruv, I want to fight him too even if he does make me want to piss meself.’

That’s right. If we eat that Lord, we get all of his powers. I could finally shed my only weakness, and my dear brother would be able see again.

I needed to make it happen, for the both of us.

Kuron must have sensed my determination, because he suddenly calmed down and took his usual stance directly in front of me.

‘I trust you bruv’, just tell me what you need me to do’

Like always, Kuron’s faith in me was absolute, as was my faith in him. And why wouldn’t it be? We’ve been protecting each other since the day we hatched.

Unlike the rest of our brood Kuron and I were born with deficiencies. Kuron’s blindness, and my weakness made us outcasts from the rest of our nest mates. All we had was each other, and that was all we needed to become the strongest tag team!

Our wills combined, nothing could stop us brothers!

And then the Lord screamed.

‘SCREEEEAAAUUUGH!’

It was a terrifying sound, which shook us both to our cores. Kuron, who usually possessed an unbreakable will was shivering in fear and I was seriously contemplating calling the fight off and running for the hills again. The only that stopped us was...

‘Bruv’, i-I know this looks bad, but we have to fight him. It’s the only way we can harden your armor.’

‘I know dear brother, I won’t run. In a few minutes you’ll finally be able to see again. No amount of fear would allow me to take that away from you.’

‘Then…’

‘Then...’

‘Let’s do this!’ The brothers roared in unison.

****

Forminus

‘This is troublesome, Master’

‘I am aware, Ember!’

The Tarantulas were kicking my ass, they were a terrific combo of lightning fast reflexes and devastating attacks. The only saving grace I had was that the Black One, who was definitely the stronger of the two, hadn’t landed any attacks on me yet.

The White One on the other hand had managed to deal a blow to my back after I dodged out of the way of the black one. Bizarrely though the attack did almost nothing. It wasn’t even strong enough to knock me off my feet, despite the obvious size advantage the spider had over me.

Conversely, I could feel shock waves every time I dodged the Black Ones sweeping legs pass by me. That wasn’t even the worst part though, this entire fight I’ve been landing blow after blow against the Black One with my sword, but none of them cut deep enough. I’ve mostly just left scrapes and cuts in his carapace.

It didn’t help either that my stamina was flagging from days without a proper meal. Every swing of my sword was a little slower and a little lighter than the previous one.

‘Master, may I make a suggestion?’

‘Fine, but hurry!’

The Black One had just reared up and was raining down heavy blows by sequentially pounding it’s four front legs downward. Dodging was becoming more difficult as the fight dragged on.

‘Why do you not use your other appendages? Would they not make suitable weapons as well?’

‘Because I -SHIT!, because I haven’t used them before! And I don’t want to split up my thinking between another two arms!’

‘? You should be able to use them as readily as your primary appendages, the knowledge was made ‘innate’ during the Lord transformation.’

Innate? So I could use them without needing to build up muscle memory?

As an experiment I unfurled my right blade-arm and swung it at one of the black spiders oncoming legs. To my surprise, the appendage left a long gash that was deep enough for blood to come spilling out.

Just as Ember said, it was as natural as breathing to use my secondary arms, and they appeared to be more effective than swords against the black spider.

‘Ember, remind me to listen to you more often.’

‘Yes Master’ She said, positively radiating smugness.

****

Shiron and Kuron

‘GAAAAAAAAAH!’ Kuron screamed.

‘Kuron!’I shouted

This wasn’t possible. Up until now the fight had actually been going quite well for us. Our hit and run tactic was paying off with Kuron only getting minor scrapes until now when , out of nowhere the Lord finally decided to use his other arms. And what’s more, somehow the Lord had successfully cut through Kuron’s exoskeleton.

“It shouldn’t be possible…that armor has stood up to every weapon the humans have thrown at us-even that explosive couldn’t put a crack in it! By the Queen, not even an Evolved Cleaner could break through, how could something like this be happening!?” I shouted

I was panicking. In my wildest dreams I hadn’t calculated that this Lord, unevolved as he was, would be capable of cracking Kuron’s shell.

“I guess that’s just the difference between something like him and a couple of defects like us…”

Kuron, who had been nursing his wound, suddenly snapped in my direction.

“Oy! Don’t you give up on me already mate, just because he got through once doesn’t mean that this is all over!”

“Kuron, there’s nothing we can do…the fact that he’s only using this now means that he has been holding back this entire time, do you understand? We need to ret-”

“To bloody ‘ell wiv that! I’m not gonna run, even if I’ve gotta fight ‘im meself!”

After saying this, Kuron charged straight toward where the Lord was standing, but the Lord hopped out of the way, slicing deeply into another of Kuron’s legs.

“FUUUUUUUUUUU-”Kuron screamed

“Dam. it brother, we need to run! There is nothing to gain from dying here!”

“Like ‘ell I’ll run, I’ve got everyfing to gain by winning this fight!”

“Kuron..is sight really worth dying for?”

“…No, but that ain’t why I’m fighting. There’s something more important I’m holdin’ on to.”

“Kuron, if we continue this we’ll both end up as that things dinner! what could you have that important enough to die over!?

“…I’ve got you, bruv.”

“What?”

“I’ve got you. All our lives we were looked down on for being what we are. And you…you could’ve just abandoned me like the rest of our brood did, only…you didn’, did you? You were smart enough to be more than just a cleaner, ‘ell you coulda been an evolved if you’d asked, but you stuck by me and protected me…why?”

“Because…I couldn’t just let them throw you away. You were just like me…a defect. Despite your hard armor and strength, they would have just recycled you into food because of your eyes, and I couldn’t just…”

“You couldn’ just let ’em toss me out, right? Well I feel the same way about you bruv. You stuck by me even though you had nothing to gain by it, and I’ll never give up a chance to ‘elp you, even if it kills me! That’s why I’ve gotta kill this bastard and feed him to you! I swear, bruv, I swear I’ll kill him so you can have hard armor, just like I do! So believe in me, Shiron, believe in me just like you always did. And I’ll keep on believing in you to find the best way to win, just like you always do.”

“…Ha, what a fool I am…Alright, let’s do this!”

“Found yer metal, bruv?”

“Yeah, I’m ready, so here’s the plan…”

****

Forminus

This certainly had become easier. The White One retreated a certain distance away and was no longer participating actively in the fight, while the Black One was desperately trying to land a blow on me while avoiding my secondary arms. I gave up on causing any real damage to him with my blades, so they were resting back in their sheathes.

The Black One was definitely slowing down too. It had lost a lot of blood from the gashes I was leaving all over its body. I still hadn’t managed to sever anything off, but now it was only a matter of time. The Black One seemed to know this because it’s attacks were getting halfhearted, with many of them not even coming close to making contact with me. Instead he was slamming into the dirt below, turning it into a wet muddy mess.

Finally he came down hard on his forelegs and buckled, unable to support his own weight.

Sensing my chance, I brought both of my secondary arms down on his left foreleg and severed three quarters of it from his body. I could sense his pain but I gave no quarter as I prepared to sever another leg, this time on his right. But before I could, Ember called out to me.

“Master behind him!”

I looked behind the Black One and saw what she meant. The White One had his back turned and the hairs along his back were stiffened, ready to fire.

I jumped up high, as I had done when I fought Enginar. Those spikes wouldn’t hurt me, but if they hit they would knock me off balance in the slippery mud that the black one had created, giving him a chance to counter attack.

Luckily, I got out of the way just as the White One fired off his spikes. Some of them thunked uselessly against the Black Ones’ hard exoskeleton, but that was it.

The Black One had already managed to climb to it’s feet though and was reared up on it’s hind legs, preparing to receive me from below. I wasn’t going to fall into it’s clutches though, so I drew out my greatsword.

When I got into arms reach of it, the Black One made to grab me with its three remaining legs, but instead of finally nabbing me it found itself with a sword embedded in one of them. The sword wasn’t buried deep, but it was enough to support my weight as I kept myself out of the spider's reach by maintaining a handstand on the pommel of the blade. Then, using one arm to keep myself up and the other to grab the spider's leg and use it as a fulcrum, I twisted my body around and swung my secondary arms with all my might at the spider's legs.

I dropped to the ground a dozen meters away from the Black one, away from my sword and two of the spider's forelimbs which had dropped next to their owner. I looked up to see him, still on his hind legs, writhing in pain. It would no longer be able to support its own weight. I would have finished it off there , but before I could straighten myself and attack again a shadow loomed over me.

I turned around just in time to see the White One lunging at me. Ordinarily an attack like this would have been successful, but I had learned from my mistakes with Enginar. My secondary arms were already primed to swing and with them I cut off two of the white ones forelimbs like a knife through butter. The other two I grabbed with my normal arms. Unlike the Black One, the White One was remarkably weak for its size.

The White One struggled, pushing me back a few feet in the slick mud, but I squeezed it’s legs, crushing them in my hands. It pushed for a moment more, then stopped, unable to keep resisting through its pain. I prepared my secondary arms to swing again, this time aiming to sever the white ones head.

Then it looked at me, and what I saw in its eyes was not the fear of death, but the joy of triumph. The spider still thought it was going to win.

I suddenly got a horrible feeling that something wasn’t right, but as I tried to jump away from the White One I was stopped by something that had crawled up right behind me

“Master, RUN NOW!” Ember screamed but, too late, I realized what was happening.

The Black One had dragged himself over to my location while the white one had been pushing me closer to him. With a mighty cracking sound the Black One bit off my left arm.

“SHHHKRIE-” I yelled, but I was cut off by the White One biting off my right secondary arm.

The pain was intense, the worst I had ever felt in my life as their massive pincers ripped through my exoskeleton. What's worse was that neither of them had made a clean cut, so there were strips of flesh and cracked carapace hanging from where my arms had been.

Despite the pain, I looked at the two spiders with murderous rage glinting in my eyes, but they had stopped paying attention to me. Something was changing about the two of them, and it would no doubt spell bad news.

They had just consumed the flesh of a Lord, now their counter attack would come.