Chapter 182 Incarnation Of Pride Pt. 2
It took us a whole day just to pack up everything that the everyone brought with them. I was in such a rush to gather sacrifices that I didn't have time to touch base with Gaia, my kids, or anyone else for that matter except for my wives. I mean hell even Lizaria was left out and we just started a more serious relationship.... But anyways, after everyone was packed up and we were heading out the door Necro got an emergency contact from one of his Generals. It seems like they found a small pocket of Raptoids but they were slowly being eliminated by them. They had told Necro their location and asked for immediate backup.... Looks like the time for a tasty treat was already waiting for me.
Necro looked at me and I just nodded as we all ran out of the castle and Necro opened up a large portal of darkness for us to pass through. Once I was through I saw that it dumped us out right in the middle of a battle between the losing forces of Necro and a small squad of the Raptoids that numbered maybe more than a couple dozen. They were having a hard time even while trying to retreat since it appeared one of the Raptoids were using long range crossbow like weapons, the general would summon skeletons periodically but the bolts that were used were so powerful that only a couple shots were enough to completely explode the skeletons into bone dust.
"Lord Necro!" The general came running over to us as soon as we appeared and bowed slightly before deflecting a bolt with its giant buster sword.
"Please forgive me lord but these creatures are more powerful than I could handle. I haven't heard from my brothers in a concerning amount of time aswell and I fear the worst."
"It's fine, it's fine, The lord is supposed to be responsible for the wellbeing of his charges. Fill in Vannessa while I take care of the nuisances."
Necro walked forward towards the Raptoids and all the while he had a shadow wall that erected from his own that would slow down the bolts while degrading them before they would pass through harmlessly, Sometimes it would even outright destroy them.... Even though he appears to still be a weakened a bit, It looks like he still is able to show off his power.
Thanks to Necro drawing their attention Me and Gaia were able to sneak off to the side a little ways and charged towards the enemies. Unfortunately the crossbow wielder instantly turned and started shooting at us as if it had already seen us. But it didn't slow us down as Gaia took the lead and started spinning the spear I made for him and each bolt was either dust or thrown aside whenever it made contact.... But I could see a slight wobble in the spear after every other hit that was also when the bolt would only be deflected and not outright destroyed. Did the Raptoid have some kind of ability that powered up every other hit? or maybe it was an effect on the weapon itself?
Either way that drew the attention mostly away from Necro who was starting to pant pretty heavily by now. There was still a couple of enemies that still attacked him but the remainder retreated back to the crossbowman and made sure to keep that one safe when we started our attack.
"Michael! Grayson! Keep Necro safe! Girls, time to start the bombardment!" I yelled back and was answered with a white, blinding energy slash that sailed through the sky and crashed against a shield that one of the Raptoids held forward. It held up enough that the slash weakened enough to the point the shield user just swiped it away into the air. Next was a beam of spiraling flames that was aimed at the other Raptoid that was hassling Necro but this one only slashed with its weapon and the beam was cut in half like this was some kind of anime.... I knew the Raptoids were strong but to overpower my boys new moves like that? I knew how powerful those skills were even when they first used them, but to be able to just cut it in half or simply swipe it away?
"Necro make sure to try and capture your two! We need to figure out how they are so strong WHOA!" I told Necro but had to immediately dodge as 5 bolts suddenly were shot towards me. I kept hearing the thunk, thunk, thunk of the bolts being deflected by Gaia, so where did these ones come from?
I only had time to think for a second before another volley of bolts was shot towards me, this time I followed the path they came from and saw something in a tree almost like a shimmer in the air on a hot day. I couldn't quite see it even after using detection, but it only showed up as a void when I used it... Like nothing was there at all. Ofcourse that was a dead giveaway and so I picked up a rock and after infusing it with a bit of mana I flung it like a pro league pitcher and nailed whatever it was right where I assumed its body was. What came tumbling down was a Raptoid with twin crossbows on each arm but its feathers were odd colored and seemed to shift in color slightly when you looked at it from different angles....
"Necro capture the one I just knocked out! It has a special trait I find interesting!"
"I'M BUSY CAN'T YOU SEE THAT!?"
I just laughed and waved my hand back n forth as I saw a shadow chain raise up and drag the special Raptoid into the shadows. I turned and focused on the crossbow user that Gaia was doing a good job defending from but I could tell he was reaching the limit. He only had a few days to get used to his new body after all...
"Gaia, fall back I'll take care of it."
"Are you sure brother? You only just regained some of your power."
"I'm sure, I will need you to cover for me later and I can't have you using up to much stamina here."
He nodded after a second of silence and as soon as he stopped spinning the spear I erected a barrier of mana. I could have done that at the start but right now something inside me is making me feel nervous whenever I use magic, almost like I'm nervous about it hurting me or just outright not working. But shaking that thought out of my head quickly I pick up more of some rocks scattered around and start imbuing mana into them and start throwing towards the enemies. Till now there has only been a few Raptoids that attacked me, Gaia, and Necro, the rest were focusing on defending the ranged attackers. But now that every time they would get hurt even from blocking my mana infused rocks, they were looking at eachother and even sneaking quick glances at the crossbow wielder, almost as if they were looking for instruction.
I knew that someone had to be issueing orders around here but the way that even the crossbow wielder had slowly started to get a worried look in its eyes was making me think that maybe this wasn't an deliberate attack on their part but more likely that this was a team of scouts or hunters that had accidently walked into one of Necro's Generals.....
Thinking about that was shortly halted as I heard a faint clicking sound coming from the distance and suddenly like a switch was flipped every one of the Raptoids started running away. The only one that was left was the one that Necro had captured.
He walked up to me while chains of shadow drug the Raptoid that also had some shadows around it's mouth after him that had by now woken up and was struggling to try and escape.... No point but good effort.
"Wonder what that sound was. Sounded kind of like what I heard in the movies, You said that the males were the leaders right?" He turned to me and asked with confusion.
"Yea, but then again they did have what they called a Mother. So maybe the roles are split? Like males for some things and females for others? That would suggest an extreme amount of advancement, especially for what was up until recently just another wild species."
"I think maybe I should have the Generals have a FOB around here and start sending expeditions in this area now that we encountered what basically amounted to a hunting party."
"So you thought that too huh? I did find it a little odd. But than again we have to keep in mind that they could have a nomadic lifestyle and could already be packing up to move somewhere else."
"Ehhhhh maybe? But something is telling me that isn't the case. They do look a little tribal but hey one way to be certain right?" He chuckled as he pointed behind him with his thumb towards the Raptoid that was now looking at us both with worried eyes.
I leaned down and smiled gently since I didn't want to start off with intimidation, I know it tried to kill me but Try was the operative word here.
"Hey little guy, I know we got off on the wrong foot but If you help me figure a few things out, I will let you go and run back to your family. How does that sound?" I looked at Necro and nodded after I spoke and soon the shadows around its mouth disappeared.
It looked between Me and Necro and then over to the General and what remained of it's party, it did that a few times before I heard what sounded like a guttural click and it looked at me again.
"I... My name is Kamele... I am a special breed that was gifted by my creator. Only a select few are like me and are spread out to the more dangerous areas.... Before you ask, no I do not know where the others ran off too since even though I am special.... We are treated as abominations by the others of the tribe and are forced to live in the wilderness, only to be called by the Matrons when needed and meet up only at a determined location."
"Wow, didn't even need to play good cop, bad cop. So why are you here? What's the purpose of your people attacking the walled cities of my people?" Necro asked with a serious gleam in his eyes.
".... Creator gave the first of us a mission. To attack and cause chaos to the nearby Cities, If we could take one over we were told we would be given rewards."
"What kind of rewards?"
"....."
"Speak up now, don't get shy when your just getting to the good part."
".... He said that we would be given control over everything we took and that he would not demand anything in return for his gifts..... At the time the most powerful only thought of obeying his words, but overtime some of the newer generations began to doubt and scheme."
"Wait? Newer generation? Hasn't it only been like a few months since you were told about the attacks Necro? How could there be newer generations this quickly?" I was super confused at that part.
"It is one of the gifts granted by the creator. We can birth huge clusters of eggs in a matter of weeks that then hatch and reach maturity shortly afterwards. But only the Matrons are capable of this, and only 1 Matron per village.... But I heard that there is a big village with up to 4 Matrons working together to advance our tribe even further, but that was just a rumor."
"Hmmmm, a hidden village with a way to increase its army tremendously in such a short time would be pretty dangerous to its surroundings.... Not to mention the food necessary to support such a growth. Is there anywhere in your territory that could support such a size?"
"I mean the boar forest for sure, Those things might aswell be roided out rabbits for all the banging they do when they aren't destroying everything.... I don't know exactly a spot to conceal such a huge force but I could send out some scouts first thing."
"Sounds good, now as for you Kamele.... Do you want to return to your people? You told me you get treated like an outcast right? Well what if I said I had a job for you, and that in accepting you would get housing and food that you didn't have to hunt for yourself? All you had to do was work for me and you could have it."
Kamele looked at me with suspicion. "You would turn Kamele into a Matron?"
".... Your female?"