***Tirnanog***
***Astra Frost***
The firehorn wasnt the fastest nor the most dangerous creature on this world, but the exiles hadnt gone through a single evolution yet. Hence, they had no chance against such a predator. Not even I was comfortable with coming too close to sothing that could spit napalm and regurgitate exploding fireballs.
I fud as I watched them through the tremor senses of my filants.
The exiles paved their way through the underbrush as fast as they could. It was agonizing just to follow their pitiful struggle. Luckily for them, the firehorn had eaten its fill for the mont.
Unaware of Rodericks presence, the creature waddled along not far away, unhurriedly following the exiles trail through the forest. Its belly was bloated like a balloon and hard at work to digest the bodies. Bones, hair, and clothes included.
For the ti being, the exiles were faster than their hunter, but one defining feature of firehorns was their relentlessness. Mama firehorn would stay on the exiles trail until it caught up to them.
I guessed it would take a few hours for the firehorn to digest and crap out its al and then it would go after the survivors at full speed. It would inevitably catch up to them and eat another dozen or so.
If nothing was done, the ga would repeat itself once more until all the exiles had gone down the firehorns gullet.
The big question was, why was an alpha-predator from the marshlands in this relatively safe part of the forest? An area that firehorns normally avoided because the vegetation was too thick for them to move easily. Additionally, this forest didn't belong to their preferred hunting grounds for the lack of easy prey.
Most of the forest animals were adapted to moving through the underbrush quickly, while firehorns were definitely not. They weren't small enough to weave past the larger trees. Nor large or strong enough to simply break through the underbrush. The main danger which ca from them was their flammable saliva.
Thankfully, I already knew the answer for the creature's presence.
You are a cunt, Roderick! I comnted from above while I watched the newest batch of exiles run for their lives. From my hidden spot high up in the tree, I had a perfect view.
Roderick flinched slightly when I revealed my presence.
He looked around, then up to the canopy of leaves. Hah, Astra! Dont surprise like that. I almost had a heart attack! He reached for his chest, trying his best to look like the surprised party, instead of the guilty one that he was.
His eyes searched the canopy, but I could tell he failed to discern between the leaves. His evolution had taken him down a road of physical power, but his senses were woefully inadequate for survival.
Roderick smiled up at where he thought I was hidden. Why dont you co down so we can have a proper chat?
I moved the decoy I had created with my filants, making it seem like I dissolved and re-erged in a different spot.
That quickly wiped the stupid grin from his face, as it showed him his own foolishness in wrongly assuming my position.
Normally, I didnt bother ssing with people in such a way, but Roderick had pissed off with his stupid gas. We made a deal and he had broken it.
If I hadnt thought of making sure he held his side of the bargain, I would be wondering a few days from now why none of the newcors had made it to the Old Camp.
So that you could attack ? I asked while sending out my filants further, having them creep slowly down the trunk and partly erge from the canopy. A few seconds later Roderick found himself surrounded by an eerie spectacle of shimring bands which seed to float freely through the air.
So of the other survivors at the Old Camp called them tentacles, but I preferred to use filants as a description. Thinking of them as filants allowed to cling to more of my humanity. 'Tentacles' felt too dehumanising.
He chuckled. Why would I attack you? The Aeries wouldnt take it lightly. I am not stupid enough to ruin my chances of joining one of the larger clans.
Because I caught you flat-footed violating our deal, I explained calmly. My filants were now creeping further down from the treetop. The little black bands glowed slightly as they writhed and moved, giving a better impression of my surroundings.
Roderick found himself surrounded by a floating light show which was just as pretty as it spelt death for anyone who knew the creatures I had gotten my evolution from.
I am not aware of going back on any deal. Roderick still didnt feel the need to run, but he swatted away one of the filants which ca too close for comfort.
At least I had made him sweat.
He deserved no less for betraying . Thankfully, I had learned long ago there were only cut-throats and dishonourable scoundrels in this world. Even among the clans, I wouldnt dare to present my back to anyone other than my parents.
I sighed and swung one foot over the other. I paid you with a really good catch so you would do a proper job with the exiles. To make sure they got a good start with their nanites. Plus, you took the Earth bastards bribe too. I really wouldnt have cared about you breaking your deal with those who landed us on this world. But, as I see it, you took two paynts for the sa job and didnt put half the effort you should have into your task.
Yeah? He circled, trying to keep track of my filants as his eyes alternated between them and the trees canopy where I was hidden. I did everything you ordered to. Got them good DNA to start their evolutionary path with. A mix of everything useful. Better than I got at least. Not my fucking problem if they are screaming through half the jungle and go for each others throats instead of eating the at. Why do you bla for so predator snagging them?
Roderick, you really must think a fool. You raided a firehorns lair, slaughtered its brood and led the mother directly to the exiles, I explained calmly and stabbed at him with one of my filants. I can still sll the sulfuric stink of the firehorns eggs on you.
Roderick jumped and cursed at the small injury my filant had caused on his thigh. It wasnt sothing grave, but even the smallest wound would draw predators with the sll of blood. Bitch!
I think I have explained that the point of your task is to have at least a few of them beco powerful enough to make it to the Old Camp, I explained. I want more options to make it into the trials. At least so better ones than the disgusting idiots who are joining right now.
You could have told you are randy. When you gave the mission you avoided the core of the topic. If you had just told plainly what you want, there would have been no problem. How was I supposed to know you want more tryouts in the trials. He licked his lips. Though, I am happy to provide.
You are perfectly capable of reading between the lines. I stabbed him again and he jumped when I got his behind. I dont believe for a second your subterfuge with the firehorn wasn't intentional. You are a stupid brute, but you arent that stupid.
I was almost a hundred per cent certain he had intentionally tried to wipe out the newest batch of exiles so he would have higher chances of being chosen by one of the clans at the next trials.
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Ah! Stop it! He turned and drew a knife, ready to defend himself if one of my filants ca close again.
It had taken him so ti, but he had finally caught on that I didnt intend to let him get away with his gas. Especially not after he had taken paynt from .
That was why I hated staying at the Old Camp. It was a place for the newcors and those who didnt fit in with any of the clans. The backstabbers and other filth that could be trusted even less than a sworn enemy.
With his attitude, it was no wonder Roderick was still stuck at the Old Camp after several years of being on this planet.
Knowing his thods, any clan would think twice about sheltering him, even if he had so rare evolution. Which he did not.
The clans depended on each other for survival. Picking new mbers from the newly arrived exiles could backfire just as much as it could benefit a clan. Because of that, joining a clan wasn't easy for a new exile. They had to bring so benefit to the table and prove they could be trusted.
So groups had tried the tactic of adding as many people as possible to their numbers. Those clans were no longer around. It was proof enough that such a strategy was dood to fail in this environnt.
Maybe if the people who were sent through the portals were average humans. But with the filth of society at our hands, it was hard to build any working social structure.
I even dared to say it was almost impossible.
I have no interest in a re strength-evolution like yours, I clarified I had no interest in him. Roderick was apparently the type of person who needed to be told things plainly.
The re thought of laying with a brute like Roderick felt like an insult. It would also ss up my evolution even more than it already was. The filants were a wonderful survival tool in this world, but they also dehumanised in the eyes of many exiles. No matter that so of them looked grotesque in their own way, humans still found ways and reasons to single out others.
Most of the people at the Old Camp didnt dare to approach because of my appearance.
Roderick grumbled while he rubbed his butt. At least I am still mostly human and not so mutated monster chick
You said sothing? I questioned, irked that he had stabbed right at the core of what bothered .
No no He turned and tried to weave through between my filants. I think it's best for to leave.
I crossed my filants in front of him. No. You will stay here until you have corrected your mistake. I insist.
Corrected? He huffed and searched the canopy once more for my main body. How am I supposed to do that?! I cant fight an adult firehorn! The thing will roast before I get close.
Its okay. I licked my lips and tasted the air with a flick of my tongue. You just have to stay here for a little longer. If you behave, I wont even hamstring you any more than necessary to keep the firehorns attention.
Rodericks eyes widened and he looked at the two small wounds I had caused during our conversation. Then his eyes turned in the direction of the firehorn, which had changed its course. The creature had recognized the scent of the thief who had slain its brood and it was coming to even the record.
Which reminded of the second trait firehorns were feared for. They were vengeful suckers. Hurt one of their family group and they would be after you as if you had a blood feud with them.
Bitch! Roderick scread and tried to run, but I moved my filants to catch his leg, quickly pulling him up into the tree where his larger strength wouldnt matter so much. All I had to do was to jostle him around without allowing him to get a hold of any of my filants.
Which wasn't as easy as it sounded.
Naturally, Roderick struggled and managed to catch one of my filants, ripping it. His knife posed another problem, so I avoided his upper body as much as possible while holding onto his ankles.
I winced, feeling each ti I failed and lost a filant, but over a dozen were on him as I tried to delay him for as long as possible. The filants were very much a part of , but losing one was more like getting your fingernails clipped. It wasnt anything like losing a limb.
Still, I couldn't risk losing too many of them, as it would impair .
Insane whore! he scread as he fought, incurring more small injuries as he struggled.
His strength was enough to rip my filants, but the thin bands had sharp edges which cut into his reinforced skin. The injuries weren't deep, more like paper cuts, but they added up.
The problem was, I couldnt just kill him. I needed him alive so that the firehorn would hunt him instead of the newcors. It was the least he could do as atonent.
I lost four more filants before I had to let him go.
Roderick fell unceremoniously to the ground. His great agility allowed him to turn mid-air and land on his feet. As soon as he was back on the ground, he imdiately made his escape, but not without grabbing his crate.
Monts later, he was running through the underbrush, but thanks to the delay I had caused the firehorn was now close enough to be firmly on his trail.
I had to make my own getaway and clean my filants from Rodericks sll. It would be a nuisance if I had to run from the firehorn in his stead. Luckily, Roderick made so much noise that the creature would ignore its sense of sll for now and go after him directly.
While the monster crashed through the vegetation beneath, I made my way higher up the tree where I waited until the jungle returned to its normal noises.
Once I was sure the firehorn was chasing Roderick, I made my way across the interconnected treetops back to the lake where the exiles had been dropped off. I didnt bother with stealth and instead relied on speed, knowing that the sll of blood on my filants would make it impossible to move unnoticed.
I reached the lake unaccosted and launched myself directly into the water.
The eel-like creatures called starfish which inhabited the small body of water may be a threat to unevolved humans if they attacked en masse, but to most more advanced exiles they were nothing more than a nuisance.
Using the water as cover, I swam to the spot where the firehorn had attacked the new arrivals.
My hope was that so of Rodericks samples had been left behind.
I could have spared myself the ti because aside from the empty crate and one body, the shore had been picked clean.
A flock of zippers watched from the trees. I didnt even bother with them, knowing the small creatures were far too fast to catch. Early arrivals on Tirnanog had surely wasted more than one precious magazine of bullets in a vain attempt to shoot down the agile nuisances.
They were scavengers by nature, but their agility and swarm ntality allowed them to hunt creatures far larger than themselves, given they were hungry enough to do so.
Thankfully, creatures the size of humans and bigger targets werent on their radar. Though, I was sure that if an entire flock attacked, they would easily be able to paralyse a grown man with electric shocks and pick him apart.
I blinked and sighed.
This world was getting to if I was already starting to make up ways to die which didn't exist. As if there weren't plenty of deadly threats just around the next tree.
My attention was drawn to the body on the ground when it twitched.
I walked up to the middle-aged man who was apparently still alive.
The next mont, I realized I had been stupid. The firehorn would have hardly left a body behind.
His eyes twitched beneath his closed eyelids and an occasional shudder ran through his sweat-drenched body as it changed.
Thats quite the spot to go into evolutionary hibernation. I clicked my tongue and cursed Roderick for failing to explain the process. Normally, he should have kept the exiles safe at the shore, watching over them while they hibernated, and then allowed them to make their way to the Old Camp by themselves.
Hibernation was a process of rapid genetic and physical change as the nanites and the virus rebuilt the body. It always happened upon receiving the first, primary mutation. Then a second ti when people partnered up with soone.
This wasnt how I had imagined things to go.
It was a bad on to wish ill on other humans, but hopefully, the firehorn would catch Roderick.
I scratched the side of my head and wrapped my filants around the hibernating man. Then I dragged him beneath so vegetation where he was out of sight and further away from the bloody battleground where his comrades had died. It wasn't the best solution, but at least he wouldn't be chewed on by so opportunistic critter.
Less likely at least, I corrected myself. Going into hibernation without protection was still stupid.
The fact that the zippers were still around hinted nothing too dangerous was roaming the forest nearby. It would be up to the exiles luck to survive from here on out.
I jumped and returned to the treetops, then followed the other exiles. If I wanted more of them to survive, then I would have to take a more active role once the next few batches arrived. According to my sources, Earth would send four more waves of fifty in the coming days.
The survival rate among them would be next to zero if they too trampled through the woods like the current batch. Not that the current batch could be blad for fleeing the firehorn.
It took half an hour to catch up to the other exiles and to set the remaining survivors on a path for survival.
When I found them they were already being stalked by a large omnieye. A massive insect-like predator which looked like a tyrannosaurus and a praying mantis had an unholy child. It owed its na to the twelve eyes which covered every direction and granted the creature omnidirectional view. Hence, omnieye.
The monster was intimidating, but all its brethren had a fatal weakness in the protective plate on the back of their heads.
The eye located there sat directly in front of what substituted for its brain.
A single precise stab with one of my filants was enough to bring down the apex predator. From there on, I didnt waste any more ti with the current batch of exiles.
Killing one of the larger predators stalking them might have looked like I had done them favour, but it wasn't. Even if they ate the omnieyes flesh, the evolution they would get wasnt a desirable one.
In fact, most of the evolutions provided by the larger creatures of this world werent desirable.
Us older exiles had learned the hard way it wasnt the large things you had to fear on Tirnanog. Not knowing an omnieyes weakness made them intimidating hunters to newbies, but omnieyes were large and loud. Such creatures were easily avoided if soone knew to hone their senses.
The things you had to fear were the things faster than yourself and the monsters you couldnt see which went bump in the night.
But those of the newcors who survived the next few hours would learn this soon enough - once the sun fell beneath the horizon.
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