Primal I (7)

So… apparently I’d just been voluntold to tame the new recruits... that selection of lookalikes that had been so hungrily staring at me since the moment I entered the valley, and this was under threat of not just the usual ‘blah blah die now’, but the promise of an elder strong enough that I couldn’t help but wonder how she tasted every time she flexed her essence to communicate with me, that she would ruin me utterly, in pain and torture till the end of my days if I fucked this up.

All moral judgments aside, I was fucking terrified. Every other thought in my head came back down to the viability or running and maybe somehow escaping the grip of this insane culture of killers and vore fetishists... But just as much as I was terrified of the outcome, I couldn’t help but begin to assess my chances against what I’d seen in passing.

My raspy tongue slid out to brush against my three part beaked jaw, sensitive despite it’s extremely solid make, getting that bit right was the work of week’s worth of experimentation, balancing the fact that I wanted to be able to feel and taste what went into my mouth with not wanting little things like tooth ache’s… or rather beak aches... should some damage happen to it.

“You are my prey and mine alone.” Uvidg spoke with his usual self-assuredness. It seemed his main mode of communication in the short time I’d known that he could speak. None the less it suited him, even being hunted by him I’d always thought the fucker to be a bit on the regal side, or maybe it’s that my impression of him was colouring how I received his communications... I couldn’t quite tell. “Do not shame me before the pack by falling to this… rabble. Tame them crush them into obedient submission then make them as your fangs and claws. We are Zerg, singular and grand, yet unified in our hunger above all else. And the hunger of a Pack shall always be greater than that of one alone. You are pack now… you are as our hunger, reach out and make them yours.”

I was only slightly surprised, not at the pep talk, Uvigd had been taking every chance to talk me up, to build me up in the eyes of his pack, affirmation that his choice was a good one, a wise one, one worthy of respect. It seemed that evolving under a pack dynamic had made him fairly socially aware in a manner which likely I would be an idiot not to pay attention to. No my surprise came with the philosophical bend, the stress of the singular nature of the zerg. It gave me small pause as to just why he felt the need to stress this, and possibly a small clue as to when I might be in the timeline.

Either way, such worries were far away.

Other worries loomed before me like monsters, a good twenty to thirty odd monsters. Again my eyes swept over them, taking in their features, this time sizing them up as I hadn’t truly taken time to do before. Already it seemed that there had been a bit of a pecking order established, some of them shying away from others, as they snarled and snapped and bullied their way to the front. Four of them stood out to me, body plans which took after mine like all the rest, but with alterations which were plain to see. Differences in approach and maybe in how they envisioned my approach had been. And clearly large enough specimens to definitely have been well fed themselves.

The largest was nearly three times my size, huge fists encrusted with layers upon layers of armour, eight of them in all though he was missing my wonderful legs, opting instead for what seemed like a centipede like high stability configuration. He seemed to have taken the armour cracking track to be one of power against power, and then adapted himself to deliver as much power in his blows as possible. In fact I wouldn’t have been surprised if he himself had some kind of rooting mechanism to bolster his blows and in turn his resilience; a valid tactic, but one that was definitely him being lucky that he hadn’t run across any of the Hell-Shells with more esoteric defenses, the types that would have cooked him alive in his own armour. A surge of electricity ran down my spine and sparked at the tip of my tail at the thought of potentially using that against him. His essence gave an interesting smell, not particularly rich or complex, but definitely solid, like he’d built foundations and kept building foundations without branching out from what he’d started.

Straight forward, but solid.

The next was a more novel setup, vaguely in my body form, but instead of using bludgeons at the ends of the four upper ‘arms, it’d set up much more force concentrating spikes conical in nature I got the impression of a set up looking to pierce the armour of a foe rather than crush it. Against most of the younger shells this would have been not simply a viable offensive weapon, but a devastating one. Unfortunately against older shells, it would have likely done less than nothing. I knew, I tried something like it myself, too much force concentrated even with my more esoteric attack actually was counterproductive when it came to some of them, adaptations to spread out forces working against any attempt to use only shape to that advantage… and even with the vibe tooth setup which I’d been gifted with by ‘dear old mom’ I found wasn’t fast enough to shatter the shell before a devastating counter attack came. Instead the somewhat flattened seeming three-part vibe tooth setup allowed me to harmonize three different frequencies and basically set up a shattering tone calibrated against practically anything on the fly.

It would have been an unholy terror to anything else around its own size though, especially with the sleek build it had opted for, weasel like and low in armour of its own. This one had a stronger scent, mature essence though maybe a bit under-utilized? As if the essence it had stored up contained more variations than it was allowing to express.

The third looked even more like me than the others, opting for the legs which were part of my trademarked kit, though only two arms were at its sides, and a bunch of what seemed almost as much like meat-hooks as they did like legs. His torso armour was thicker than the second imitator, definitely geared towards closing quickly and grabbing hold of prey items before beating on them till they were a bloody pulp. Its tail was long, wide, thick and ropy, shivering with a nervous energy which I couldn’t help but think was more to do with some kind of weaponry hidden inside it than anything else.

It looked like this one had adapted to grabbing up young shells on the side, but was still dedicated to hunting generally more mobile and less armoured prey. This one wasn’t particularly strong, and didn’t have great essence actually… but that in itself was intriguing. Apparently it’d put together a kit that was good enough to make it successful here among its peers despite its own lesser power and essence.

The last of the ones that had taken front stage looked like me superficially… but it was as if it had simply grabbed the traits and added them in, multiple spikes sticking out from all over its body, arms of different lengths and thickness of their armour, multiple grasshopper-like legs that seemed almost as if the Zerg before me had found them useful and simply decided to grow more of them, just in case. Even the tails, two of them, were chaos, one longer than the other, thicker, asymmetrical and offset. As if this zerg was still experimenting like crazy with its form. Somehow it seemed messy and disorganized, and the way my form was added in seemed like it was almost an afterthought. It had a rich, but ultimately confusing scent, its essence strong but almost as if much of it was simply taken from something else and executed as it was. Cluttered was the way I’d put it. I could just have imagined this thing having killed something else that had been trying out my body form that had been stronger than it, and deciding to put on the body form as if it were trying a bad suit. No innovation or reason, just the bare stealing of traits and infusing itself with them.

“You all know who I am.” I spoke. All of them paid attention, their eyes shifting towards me in a deep abiding hunger. I may not have noticed it as I made my way through the madhouse of the Zerg forest, but I’d grown quite a bit from the squirming larvae bursting out of some poor unfortunate’s chest. Even others who were not part of this group looked on, some staring towards Uvigd much the same as they were towards me, and his position near me, almost at my back where I’d be a bit more vulnerable than not. A position of trust, even if inside I couldn’t help but refocus the eyes facing him to know what he was doing. Skizzy burbled by my side, not quite sure if it should be hostile or try to hide itself down. “My name is Xi’Cree, and I am strong. My essence reflects this strength, but it is only the beginning of my strength. If you have names, then speak then speak them in challenge to me, if you have fangs then bare them in challenge to me. If you have strength then brace yourself to challenge me... But if you wish to survive and prosper, then subordinate yourself before me. The wise among you will understand me.”

I spoke as a gambit, as much to draw out the ones who would be the most trouble, the most hostile, as I did to gauge the strengths of those that wanted to be akin to me, who wanted to share in my success, and to figure out just how much of that success they understood.

All but the four I’d already identified backed away, already beaten into submission, or forced to bide their time. Like a pack of sharks waiting for blood to spill into the water.

The puncturing puncher volunteered itself first, its essential ‘voice’ sharp and quick. I almost missed it for how much so it was, as if ready to get this all over with. “I am Atmaz.”

“Borgus.” The one with the meat-hook legs spoke, almost quiet and reserved as it did. Though young and distinctly less powerful than everyone else here, I could respect the way in which he carried himself, how he watched and waited, roiling hunger barely hidden, ready to prove himself in a strike even with the odds against him.

“You will know Relur before you die.” The biggest one spoke voice blazing with volume, as if to make up for the fullness of essence which it did not have. I almost sneered at his bluster, ready to call his bluff in as spectacular a manner as possible. Though for all that, the largest of my imitators did no more than speak, still and glaring at me as if wondering how dare I exist to contradict the narrative being carried out in his head.

The last merely chattered and watched... each of its many eyes visibly tracking each of the rest of us with the strongest essences. And then after a moment more it surprised me with speech as it finally moved forward a bit, hunger gleaming in those clusters of eyes which were focused upon me. “I… am.”

It was a moment of tension, heated as I surveyed my potential subordinates. I would need to kill here, too many eyes were on this, too many minds thinking that maybe they could have a chance at me. I would need to single out one of them, and when they didn’t give in, to put them down with ruthless finality.

The next move here was on me, I would have to decide based on the information I’d gleaned from them thus far which would be the most useful for me to slaughter. The strong upstart, the overbearing powerhouse, the barely intelligent mess, or the somewhat sloppy yet potent hunter. Every one of them held pros and cons in keeping alive, in trying to civilize and utilize them.

Ultimately though, I realized... the mutant would not fit what was needed soon, its lack of intellect would drag it down and make it a liability. Which was unfortunate, because of all the creatures here, it had the essence which most closely matched my own in potential… potency. In fact I might even say that it exceeded my own. Yet the chaos of it, the lack of unity of theme or format pulled it down.

In the end though, I couldn’t say if was my very human desire not to kill someone who’d just given their names to me, or the ever present pull of Zerg hunger... a need deeper than sex ever had been for me a human being. And oh god I wanted to dive in to that attractive mess.

I turned towards my prey as a surge of realization and desire washed over me like a river.

Not all that smart, but it knew when it was under threat as the oddly proportioned limbs lashed out with a rabid snarl, it eyes all focused on me now as the clumsy legs threw themselves forward at me, wild and distorted as the creature itself.

“I have spoken already.” My essence rippled, as I blocked the first blow, shallow because of the hand which had lead the attack, even as I dodged the limbs which would have been more devastating to take head on. “And you have spoken your names to me, you three who watch on as I do what you doubted.”

I uncoupled a mechanism from within the carapace of my arm, the sibilant hiss of gases escaping from the holes in it punctuated as I pulled back from the wild lunge smacking away his arm in the process. In response the creature spun, tails whipping out hard as I found myself picked up off of the ground by the large one, the small almost slashing a long blade against my face in the process, but I’d managed to push off at the moment of connection, my launching legs softening the force of the blow as I rolled with the attack, a reflex I’d programmed in a while back to deal with the harder faster tentacles of older Hell-Shells.

This was only the start of the assault as the mutant pushed himself forward, folding the front legs in so that the back ones would have clearance to get off the ground enough to drive him at me, the first set of legs slashing out awkwardly as they passed. Again a reflex saved me from disaster, an energetic punch slamming into the tree beside me, the kick back knocking me off course and putting me into position to retaliate.

I didn’t hesitate.

Within the same moment as I kicked off of the nearest object, I found myself hurtling almost direactly into the mouth of my prey, a cavern of teeth, spikes, and grinding plates which opened wide, wider than I’d been expecting, to receive me.

I obliged.

There was a reason for the new holes in the carapace of my forearm, after all I didn’t put hissing pores there just for show. Two arms cocked as I flew, leaning back slightly as I engaged both right arms, triggering mechanisms which I’d only recently perfected.

The roar of flame and power launched from the arms, propelling their trajectory upon the curve which I’d positioned, essentially adding the force rocket boosted arms to my powerful legs, throwing myself into a spinning doubled right hook which connected directly with the facial armour of my foe. The three part armour breaking system flared to life behind the massive force, creating the powerful ringing tone which I desired.