“Ok. Then what’s the plan and who are we killing?” Were the next things out of my mouth once the revelation had settled properly into my mind. I understood Zerg well enough to know that this wasn’t just an expected question, but an appreciated one. The nightmare reptile-centipede spider thing before me gave me a nod in appreciation.

“Understanding one’s prey is the first step to pulling it down.” The elder huntress nodded in approval, her front most almost mantis like arms twitched in anticipation as a long tongue shot up from between her jagged maw to lick at her eyes, some of her foremost eyes, and then the edges of the jagged claws. I hadn’t quite notice the resemblance before, but now that I looked again, I could see the similarities to the Viper strain in her overall look. But clearly where her relatives had taken to the sky, Isnana had chosen to entrench and entrap ground and forest level areas.

I nodded to her insight, a modern upbringing and exposure to any number of educational sources at least helped to allow me to keep up with the hard won understandings of the super-predator before me. I supposed though Zerg education on such matters was usually fairly ‘school of the hard knocks’, the sort of things a smart predator either figures out on its own, or never gets a chance figure out at all. It led to an idle thought that tickled my fancy, what would Primal education look like? I could hardly imagine a system akin to that of my home, patient teaching in a single location. Maybe some kind of survivalist mentorship thing.

Maybe that was already a thing...

“So what is it exactly? And how is it my fault?” I was curious, the feeling of danger lessened as I eased into the conversation. “I mean I suppose I was tearing up that niche a bit more than I’d realized, but even so, I can’t really imagine it getting all that out of hand, what with so many imitators all competing for the same Essence now.”

It felt like a motherly smile as the scary centipede nightmare lady pulled together the mantis like front claws and steepled the fingers at their ends against each other.

“Ah, a bright and humble child, the essence of your mind is likely delectable.” She ‘smiled’ indulgently at Uvigd, who practically preened under what he clearly considered indirect praise on his life choices. “You are correct that the problem is not one that is directly attached to you, but it is more an indirect consequence of your methods and actions. You see as far as I have gathered, a fool experimenting with your body form and combat methods seems to have attempted to take on an elder Hell-Shell, Maldivs, one of the oldest of its clade, and considered almost impregnable for many years, its roots sunk deep into an ancient mountain to leech the metals from within it for its shell. The fool died of course, but in the process broke open the elder’s defenses leaving it too weak to defend itself as a mindless, packless one devoured it alive.”

She nodded as alarm leaked out into my communication, alarm enough that Skizzy too was agitated as well, its sensory hair and tentacles spread out in alarm.

“Good.” She spoke approving of my reaction. “One can never tell what will result when a packless worm finds its way into such a rich feast of essence, its instincts guiding it to integrate the essence hurriedly and without thought or consideration, without guidance, or self-control, and with no heed to developing an intellect for survival. After all what need is there for a complex mind when a simple one has so served it into gaining such power so quickly?

The resulting beast is nothing but turmoil... roiling chaos that in its frenzy strips everything it can gather bare and flails about until it either settles down into a configuration that can properly survive what it has become or is broken by something else. Our pack aims to be that something else, my Alpha commands it!”

I could feel the intensity roiling from her, hot and dire.

In that moment... I wanted so very badly to follow her into the hunt, to forth and slay, to kill and consume.

I wanted so very badly to kill her.

“Ambitious child, lower your eyes from such obvious lust.” She chided, bringing me back to my senses, embarrassed at that peculiar slip in my mentality. “One day, you and I might tangle. Make something of yourself child, and then come back to me as the feast you could be. That is if this little prodigy beside you doesn’t devour you first.”

“Powerful as you are elder, restrain yourself from offering such temptations to MY rival before our dance is complete.” Uvigd stepped forward with a low growl.

“Fine youngling, I will be less rude.” Isnana merely chuckled to herself.

“Still I want a bit more information on the actual state of the creature we’re hunting.” I interjected, trying to keep this little meeting on track, every little scrap I could collect here would help shape how I’d stay alive in the coming hunt.

“So impatient child.” The great beast stared me in the eye, one of her many doll like leg-hands reaching out to make light contact with my body. I wasn’t quite sure if it was supposed to be either a comforting or threatening gesture. “The Wrong-one will be an upset in this part of the jungle, it is still wild, grabbing essence and welding it together without thought or understanding beyond the fact that it has it. Every step it reaches out, trying to grab prey, bludgeoning anything it can grasp and adding adaptations to eat anything it can. Its body has no plan, barely any rhyme or reason, but it is slowly shaping what it gains into something successful. So far has taken wild advantage of the tentacles it has inherited, as well as the armour smashing mechanisms from the failed fool. It barely understands the essences it wields, crafting redundant structures to hold its bulk aloft as it tries ambles senseless. I cannot fully say what it will be by the time that our pack manages to challenge the creature, drunk on essence and bloated on biomass as it is, but it is this very senseless nature which as both been its boon and it’s curse.

We would bring a force to dog and harry it, wittling away flesh and essence using its unaccustomed size and power against it. Piece by piece we will break it down, make it desperate, and bring to the fore the instincts of the Packless Prey which it has never stopped being. Then the most powerful among us with step forward, and crush it as it panics.”

Ruthless conviction coloured her every word, all but painting a vivid mental picture of the very moment of the opportunistic giant’s fall.

“Is this a clear enough picture for you child?