[NO ONE CAN STAND IN MY WAY!]
[Well… obviously, they can. It already happened.]
[I’LL KILL THEM!]
[Yeesh. Back to this.]
Distantly, I can feel my brains working that sweet, sweet Mana with all the grace and dexterity they can summon. The cage is rapidly taking shape.
[I WILL KILL YOU. I WILL EAT YOU!] Garralosh roars, her words a psychic barrage of madness. [I will kill ALL OF YOU. ALL of the insects will be CRUSHED beneath my feet. I will consume the humans and turn them into more of my kind. THEN I WILL DESCEND. And there will be DEATH. I will slaughter everything I see until I find the thing that brought me here, and I WILL KILL IT!]
Whoa there!
Along with her assault, she again tries to break loose from my control and I hold on for dear life. My mind strains to the breaking point. The very fabric of my mind coming apart at the seams as her desperate insanity gives the beast new strength. We fight a silent, mental war for a few minutes until I manage to subdue her. Come on, cage! I need you now!
[So, you’ve spoken to Gandalf, then? Err… the System, I mean?] I gasp out.
[FOR WHAT I HAVE SUFFERED, I WILL KILL THAT CREATURE A THOUSAND TIMES.]
Holy moly. Got some serious rage issues here. Not entirely unjustified, I suppose. It doesn’t sound as if Garralosh has truly enjoyed her second life experience. One out of five stars, wouldn’t stay again. My spell is almost complete. Just need to keep her talking a bit longer.
[One quick question. I know you don’t want to remember, but I can’t help but be curious. My name’s Anthony, by the way. I’ve kept that name from my old life. May as well, right? Do you remember your name? From… before?]
I’m not sure what I expected from the twisting, amorphous blob of white-hot fury that is Garralosh’s mind as a response. Perhaps she would fly off the handle again or go nuts in some other way. Instead, she grows still. I can feel her searching. Reaching back into memories she’d long forgotten she had. It’s as if, once I asked her, she had to try and remember.
Not that I get an answer. Cage is ready to go! Finally! Enjoy jail!
BAM!
Wait… Why am I the one that’s locked up?
[You have done enough here, insect.]
What in the jimminy’s! A new voice speaks from nowhere, shocking me right down to my commercial zone. Unlike the mind of Garralosh, which is shallow, wild, and unruly, this one is still, old, and strong.
[Uh. Mr Ka’armodo, sir, I presume?]
I get a chuckle out of it for that. Desperate, I attempt to free myself from its grasp, but much as I had held Garralosh, I am now held. How the heck did the Wizard Lizard even follow me in here! Did he craft a bridge to Garralosh and follow me in… or…
Oh snap.
Did he have a bridge connected to me the whole time and concealed it from me? That’s freakin’ scary!
[So, uh. Heck of a time to intervene in the battle. I really had her on the ropes, you know… Any chance you’ll let me finish the job? Fair and square and all that.]
I can feel a gentle probing from the alien mind as it considers my words and investigates my mental projection.
[You are like her.] Wonder and confusion fills the voice. [You are not from this place.]
[Nope. One hundred percent imported goods. Does that mean anything?]
[It means everything.]
That strange, powerful mind turns slowly as the Ka’armodo ponders. For my part, I’m freakin’ out! I’m literally at the mercy of the Wizard Lizard! Stay cool, Anthony. Lizards can smell fear.
[I had decided I would not interfere much in your confrontation with Garralosh. Should she emerge triumphant on her own, that would prove her worth. But when the opportunity came to take revenge on the creature who slew my Setsulah, I could not resist. Now. Hmmmm… I will let you go. I can say that I have aided Garralosh as I was instructed to do. That is enough.]
[Well, that’s great. Good choice! I’m behind this completely. Let us both out and we can go back to fighting, all even.]
[Not quite even.]
A cold flash of reptilian anger.
[I let her out a few moments ago.]
My awareness slams back into my body and the light returns to my eyes. A giant tail descends toward my face.
Well, nards…
150. Sacrifice
That crafty leather-faced lizard! He’d let Garralosh regain control of her body a few seconds before me. Now I’m deep in brown town! My enhanced neural network fires at a speed beyond what would normally be possible and I’m dodging before my brain can fully process what’s occurring. She rockets past me as I avoid the claws and fangs, but I’m not out of danger yet!
Synapses spark, muscles fire and I fly to the right as the mountain-crushing might of her tail falls down on me like a meteor. Burning scales consume my sight and all sound fades. Heat is all my antennae can sense and the brief glimpse into the future is giving me confusing signals. The tail is obviously my main concern, but something is also coming from my left? I don’t know! It does seem clear on one thing, though.
I’m not going to make it.
Dammit, dammit, dammit! I can’t fail here. Not now! That damned Wizard Lizard isn’t going to get the best of me! My four minds frantically spin to come up with something, anything that might get my oversized backside out of this predicament, and I come up empty.
BAM!
As the devastating tail of Garralosh is brushing against my antennae and about to crush my face, something—rather, somethings—smash into me. I get pushed twice, once on the side and once from below, almost simultaneously. My carapace cracks a little under the strain, and pain radiates out from the injury as I lurch to the side.
BOOM!
Like a mountain collapsing, the tail of my enemy crushes the ground, sending dirt flying into the air. My left side is still caught by the strike and my carapace explodes in pain as part of my body squishes in a very unpleasant way. My organs! My precious organs! And my legs? Forget ’em! Stupid stick-like ant legs…
Before Garralosh can recover, I throw my dignity to the wind, tuck what’s left of my legs, and roll like a tumbleweed, scrabbling to put some distance between us. My health has been cut in half by that one strike. Even the Diamond Carapace wasn’t able to withstand the devastating power of that strike.
Her mind may be weak, but her body is OP. Way too OP!
Frantically discharging my healing organ, desperate to fix my legs and injured body, I notice Vibrant is caught up with me, sprawled on the ground by my side.
“Vibrant?” I sputter. Talking hurts. Everything hurts.
For once, the hyperactive ant is quiet.
Not far away, Garralosh appears to be going mad. She raises her tail and repeatedly smashes it into the ground in an uncontrolled frenzy.
“You weren’t moving! Both of you went still and we weren’t sure what was going on! We tried to make sure you were okay, and then the fat croc started moving, but you didn’t! We had to get senior out of the way!”
“We?”
…Where’s Grant?
That stupid soldier had been down from the wall during the entire battle. She’d been wanting to help. I could see it in every line of her body. I’d hoped she would see some sense and retreat. She was supposed to retreat!