If I recall correctly, the first croc-commander we fought burnt down a good section of the Marsh Expanse without even trying. I’ve no doubt this double-chinned beast could unleash a similar level of devastation if it so wanted. Inside the Dungeon, that is. Up here? Who knows.
Satisfied that I wasn’t likely to run out of Mana in the short-term future, I begin work on re-establishing the Mind Bridge to Morrelia that I’d let lapse during the fight. I’ll still need to be careful Mana-wise. I burned a good chunk of Gravitational Mana in the fight, and the gland’s already drawing Mana from my core to replenish its stock. Normally, not a problem, the core is replenished a heck of a lot faster than the gland can drain, especially when I can get my feet stuck into some Dungeon turf. On the surface, my core doesn’t absorb Mana fast enough to sustain me under ideal circumstances, let alone with any extra demands on it. I’ll need to retreat back to our mini-Dungeon base to refill the tank before we go any farther. Better safe than sorry.
[What’s the problem, Morrelia? You’re looking a little confused?]
[Have you been hearing those growls?] she asked, a little vaguely.
[Well, yeah? Of course. I felt like my carapace had been jammed into a sub-woofer. Way too much base. Do you have any idea what might be causing it?]
Instead of answering my question, Morrelia posed another of her own.
[Do you know what species of monster this is?] she asked, pointing at our victim.
[Yup. Garralosh Commander. No doubt about it. One of the eldest children of Garralosh herself. This is the second time we’ve put one down,] I boasted, even as my antennae wave back and forth, attempting to sense the source of the intimidating noise.
[Have you ever seen it?] Morrelia asked faintly. [Garralosh, I mean?]
Surprised by the question, I turned my whole body to face Morrelia.
[Ah, no. Why? Have you?]
GROOOOOOOOOOOOWL!
Again with that bone rattling growl! What in the name of heck is it?
[I think we might be about to,] Morrelia muttered.
Waaaait a second. That is the sound of GARRALOSH growling? I thought it was a freaking earth tremor or something. No way a monster can make that kind of noise.
[Are you sure?] I demanded.
She turned toward me. [You want to find out?]
[Absolutely not!] I barked out orders to Tiny and Crinis. [We’re getting out of here on the double! I want to take a few cuts of this prime croc and then we skedaddle stage left!]
Morrelia doesn’t bother to wait for us, turning to run as soon as she realises what we’re doing, and sprinting at top speed back down the trail we followed.
Tiny and Crinis leap into action and I assist in the rather disgusting task of Biomass butchery. The whole croc was way too heavy for us to carry, but are we really willing to leave behind hundreds of Biomass points lying in the dirt?
We may be stupid, but at least we’re stupid for greed!
[Cut like you mean it, Crinis! We need to be out of here five minutes ago!] I bellowed.
[What’s a minute?] Crinis wailed.
[Just hurry up!]
In reality, it only takes two minutes for us to finish separating the two arms Crinis had been working on during the fight and one of the legs, which Tiny promptly picks up, and we’re out of there!
[Go! Go! Go, dammit! Move those legs!] I roar at Tiny as he struggles to run whilst carrying his grisly cargo under his arm. Crinis collapsed onto my back the moment we were finished carving and retracted to her compact, travel sized sphere.
Dashing with all of our strength, the trees became a blur in our race to put distance between us and the scene of the battle. The inside of my carapace was sweating bullets at the thought of big momma Garralosh rolling over the horizon and burning us all to death in an instant.
Horrible visions of six-headed crocodiles with nine tails fill my mind, and it isn’t long before I’m focusing my attention on the horizon behind us, waiting to see if our doom approaches.
[Come on, Tiny, run faster! Eat an arm or something. Pick up the pace!]
Only too happy to oblige, Tiny stuffs his face whilst we flee from the shadow of the mother of all crocodiles.
59. Regroup
We run as if the devil himself were behind us, liberally applying a pitchfork to our most tender commercial interests. Tiny is significantly slowed by having to carry his Biomass burden, but I don’t consider leaving him behind for long. We make it back to the small Dungeon entrance we used previously and dive inside, slaughtering the small number of spawned monsters before standing still, ears peeled for any sound of encroaching doom.
[You hear anything, Crinis?]
[Master, I don’t have any ears.]
[You know what I mean! Do you detect anything?]
[No… I wasn’t able to detect anything on the surface either. Whatever was making that noise was far outside my range.]
[Fair enough. How about you, Tiny?]
[Whurfft?]
[Get that Biomass out of your face, dammit! And why would having food in your mouth make your mental voice sound different? Do you hear anything?]
[No…]
[Good!]
Somewhat of a surprise, Morrelia chose to join us in the Dungeon. Perhaps she wanted the shelter of being concealed below ground level. She seemed to be fairly shaken after that fight. I don’t know why she’s so rattled, but I can only imagine she has good reason. I haven’t seen her do anything she wasn’t absolutely sure of.
[You feeling a little better?] I asked her.
At the moment, she has her ear cocked into the air, her face intent as she listens for any hint of pursuit. She doesn’t respond for a full minute until she’s confident there isn’t anything coming after us.
[I think so. I just couldn’t believe that a creature like Garralosh could actually be on the surface.]
[Yeah, shouldn’t that be impossible?] I protest. [It’s painful enough for me to be on the surface. Some gigantic monster, that’s hundreds of years old and evolved ten times more than I have, should be drained of Mana after a few minutes on the surface, surely!]
Morrelia looks at me carefully. [How much… do you know about Garralosh?] she asks with some reluctance.
[Pretty much nothing. From the System messages I get when I eat monsters, I know a little. That the various Garralosh monsters are her offspring, that she’s a giant croc and raised her children for some sort of purpose. That’s about it.]
Morrelia appeared to think hard before she continues speaking.
[I can give you a little more than that. Though speaking too much would break faith with people I care about, so I won’t tell you everything.]
I sense secret knowledge!
[Whatever you’re happy to share, I’ll be more than grateful for!] I tried to appear harmless and cooperative.
Morrelia snorted, seeing through my guise in an instant. [You’ve been willing to help my people so far, Anthony. It’s only fair we help a little back. Firstly, I’ll say that Garralosh is probably not as highly evolved as you might think.]
[How could that be?] I wonder. [She’s hundreds of years old, isn’t she?]
[Yes. She’s around two hundred and fifty years old. Nobody can know with precision unless they were there to see her spawn, but that’s the best guess.]
[So how could she not have evolved much? I’ve evolved three times already and I’m not even a year old!]
[You’re not one year old?] Morrelia’s eyes narrow and her voice becomes sharper.