Book 5: Chapter 46
The intelligence in the sphere cursed electronically inside what constituted a mind for its kind. Several of the foolish youngsters hadn’t obeyed his directives, and now thanks to their incessant chatter through the radio band they’d been found. The fools, trapped in scouting layouts and lacking the resources to upgrade their shells didn’t have the necessary sensors to detect the movement of the natives on the ground above where they were buried, but the intelligence did. It had long learned to be paranoid from the unending internal wars over resources on the old world, and it always included more than was strictly necessary in to its shell. Quickly, faster than any organic beings could think, it planned out its next moves.
However these natives acquired their impossible abilities, they were outside the intelligence’s knowledge, making evading whatever ability had found them next to impossible. Without knowing how it worked there was no way the intelligence could work around it, not with its currently limited capabilities. A large enough store of s̸̚ͅẗ̶͉r̴̘͝a̷̹̽n̷̹͘g̴̘̽e̷̛̤ ̷͇̄m̸͚͊ă̶͚t̷̃͜t̶͚̾ě̷̡r̵̳̽ would give it an infinite number of chances to overcome any obstacle short of complete destruction, but it had no s̸̚ͅẗ̶͉r̴̘͝a̷̹̽n̷̹͘g̴̘̽e̷̛̤ ̷͇̄m̸͚͊ă̶͚t̷̃͜t̶͚̾ě̷̡r̵̳̽ on hand, meaning it could take several minutes to convert a mere pound of matter into a much smaller number of n̸̡̻̈́a̵̝͂͌n̸̫̅̏i̴͖̇͘͜t̸͇̏e̶̹͋͛ͅs̷͎͙̐̍ That was nowhere near fast enough to evade capture or destroy the enemy.
When the natives began ripping chunks of the earth that covered its hiding spot from the ground without touching them, it decided that living to see another day was more important than evading a scolding about wasting n̸̡̻̈́a̵̝͂͌n̸̫̅̏i̴͖̇͘͜t̸͇̏e̶̹͋͛ͅs̷͎͙̐̍. It readied its hidden transmission engine and, when it was too late for the young ones to do anything about their impending doom, it left. Jumping from its shell to a hidden backup it had stored away long before leaving to act as an infiltration hub, the intelligence abandoned the young ones to the fate they’d brought down on themselves.
It made sure to lock the shell it was leaving behind before it lost all connection to it, of course. No need to give the children an extra weapon to possibly save themselves with. Less intelligences meant less rivals for resources after all.
╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦
Kay followed the adventurer who’d been tasked with leading him to the discovered site at incredible speeds. The scenery around him looked like it was being played on fast forward as they sprinted forward. Eleniah and a couple of Alahna’s royal guard were behind him, keeping pace, and the Blood Guard weren’t terribly far behind, although only the speed focused member that Kay had brought along on the trip was able to keep up with people a tier higher than she was. The adventurer was also specced for speed, and probably even more than the Blood Guard, since he was constantly looking over his shoulder as he sped up impatiently before dropping back to make sure Kay didn’t lose him.
They skid to a stop outside an obviously newly made grove of ripped up trees and torn up chunks of the landscape. The adventurer guide looked startled to see combat underway when they arrived. The investigation team that had thought they’d found some of the eldritch enemy were mid-battle with a group of at least a dozen separate entities, all of the unsettling glossy black color of the nanomachine beings. They were all a mix of shapes, some vaguely humanoid, some amorphous blobs, and others taking on shapes Kay couldn't put a name to.
Kay’s fangs dropped down into his mouth as he hissed at the eldritch beings and he could feel his throat begin to burn with the sensation he’d learned to attribute to vampiric bloodlust. Whatever changes the System had made to turn vampires into hunters of eldritch corruption, it was tied into his drive as a predator and his thirst for blood. It had its benefits, he didn’t feel the need to bite anyone when he got that kind of thirsty, but that same benefit became a drawback in these circumstances. His instincts screamed at him to throw himself at the goo monsters and start biting, but he didn’t want any nanomachines in his mouth, or any other kind of eldritch substances.
Ignoring the drive to bite, Kay snapped his armor into place around his body and pushed into the fray. The investigation team weren’t real fighters, but they had enough Combat Classes among them to hold their own. They were losing before backup arrived, but not so badly that they would have died if the guide bringing Kay here had taken longer. Flooding the area with blood would melt all of the enemies, and immediately deprive Alahna of the prisoner she’d asked for. Technically she’d requested samples, but Kay had no idea how many nanomachines needed to be present for whatever these beings actually were to count as “alive”. Even one nanomachine might be a prisoner and a sample at the same time. With his easiest option to win the battle sealed for now, Kay decided to go for melee, using his newfound Class to slice and dice the monsters closest to him.