The hivemind is conquering for me?

Not long after reaching peace, the apparently freezing rain ceased pouring. With that in mind, and the fact we had been here in one location for too long we set off again, together this time.

After donning my armour, Tamara informed me not to speak to her unless she spoke first or I had something important to say now that we were up and active, as she was still undergoing a mental battle and needed time to adjust. I simply gave her a thumbs up and began leading the two of us through the jungle.

After several more hours of hiking from one place to another, Tamara finally spoke up. ”Apollo, do you have a plan? I feel like we are walking in circles.”

I didn’t turn to address Tamara, I kept looking forward, using Zircon to clear any foliage. ”Well technically we have been walking in semicircles forward. I am hypothesising that the teams hunting us took a break last night when the rain started considering we weren’t sprung upon. I might have gotten rid of all their designated trackers yesterday, but I have a hunch all of them can actually track and during our retreat we didn’t exactly cover our tracks. As such, I want them to track this path for a while. So when they catch up to where we have been, we will have bought us some time before we fight them on our own terms.”

Tamara raised an eyebrow hearing this. ”You want to fight them? Didn’t expect you to want to. It’s useless though, I couldn’t get near them, they just kept running away. Pussies.”

”Well that makes sense, you have no ranged combat except for picking up things and throwing it at them, though with your strength you basically have a cannon for an arm, but I digress. The group that was after me at the start was mostly comprised of melee stock. And while I can hold my own in melee and prefer it, I actually am more deadly at range at this moment in time. With this in mind, we can protect each other’s weaknesses. I can take out the ranged targets while you and Sapphire focus on keeping the melee off me.”

”Your blue behemoth? I thought you said she got killed?” She asked, forcing me to stop and turn around. ”I prefer the term discorporated. She didn’t die, her physical body just took too much damage to continue existing... And yes, she did. Why do you think I was meditating all night? I was collecting Psionic energy to feed her in order to speed up her recovery. ”Isn’t that right cutie?” I said looking behind Tamara.

Tamara immediately turned around to witness a giant head looking directly at her. ”Moo.”

I then translated for Tamara. ”She said, Surprise!” I then walked up to Sapphire and gave her a hug before jumping on her back. ”Hop on, we have taken them pretty far from our final destination, they will have exerted themselves quite a bit by the time they catch up to us.”

I then reached my hand down towards Tamara. She seemed to hesitate for a moment before taking my hand and sitting behind me. ”What do I hold onto?” She asked.

”Whatever you want. Sapphire’s spikes are soft so they won’t hurt you. Just when you do hold on, hold on tight. This girl can run.” I warned and in the next moment Sapphire took off. In the next moment I heard a yelp of surprise followed by my armour compressing around my torso as she grabbed around me tightly.

After a few minutes of travelling, Tamara seemed to get used to the mount she was on and removed her arms from my waist and asked. ”So what’s your plan now? Where are we going?”

”Somewhere open, where the lack of cover will even the range advantage they have. And I have the perfect spot that will just piss them off. Haha!”

Tamara listened to that and smirked. Back when she thought he was a pervert, she had to admit, he was good at riling her up before a fight. It left her blinded figuratively by her emotions before he blinded her literally. It was a simple, yet powerful tool and she could respect it now they were allies.

...

”They were here. The place is saturated with their scent.” Bubble announced while everyone else was surveying the surroundings.

The hunt leader frowned hearing this. ’So they had respite... Unfortunate. But not a deal breaker.’ She thought before following up. ”Do you have a clear scent trail to follow?”

Bubble shook his head. ”No. I don’t know how, but the man clearly has how my power works down to a science. From what I can tell after he departed from here they didn’t travel in a straight line for over ten miles. I have no functional coordinate to lock onto, but it looks like they are still going further into the jungle.”

The hunt leader took that into consideration before yelling. ”Vine, take point, we have to traverse through terrain.”

”Alright everyone huddle up! We have a lot of ground to gain to catch up to them, but thanks to the priviliages of zero fee Psionic healing, we are all at full strength and owe these fuckers some wounds, lets fuck ’em up!”

”Oorah!”

...

Several hours of traversal through trivial terrain thanks to vine literally parting the jungle for them, they reached the end of the current tracks before something changed. large footprints. ”Frost, check. Although, I think I already know.” Hunt leader declared, as Frost came over. His face immediately scrunched in anger.

”Identical boss. That fucker owes me a decapitated limb!” He said practically shaking with anger.

’So they have the beast back? Tedious. I am going to have to-’

”Boss, I have dozens of miles straight. Shall I send us as far as I know is safe?” Bubble asked, but Hunt leader frowned. ’Why would they go straight now after all that winding?’ She had to admit that this Apollo, because she knew it wasn’t the other one, had a knack for this. He had forced them to track after winding tracks for hours and countered one of her primary scouts abilities, so why now allow her to know where he was going for certain?

”Map.” She declared and a holo-map was projected from one of the other scouts into the air. The pinging dot indicated where they were. ”Bubble, where does the straight line go?”

Bubble walked forward and pointed. ”This way, South south west. But I can only see till here.” He pointed into the middle of the jungle.

Skaja ignored that and continued to follow the straight line for quite a while, having to zoom out the map slightly and once she did, her face grew cold before she shouted. ”Son of a bitch! This cheeky fucker! I tell you what, It looks like Lady Valerica was right about this year so far. The nerve of this brat. Everyone huddle up! Bubble, lock coordinates home base.”

A murmur of surprise erupted from the group before a single hand gesture silenced everyone. ”Bubble, trust me on this.”

Being the head scout, it was ultimately up to Bubble to call off the trail hunt or not, but he trusted Skaja more than anyone he ever knew. ”Yes Hunt leader. Did everyone take their anti-nausea medicine?”

He asked as usual, most didn’t, but simply said they did, but Skaja then spoke up. ”If you haven’t taken it. I know it tastes like ass, but we are heading straight into combat. So take it.”

The prospect of combat perked everyone up. This had been one of the most scout intensive hunts there have been in years, and while it was a nice change of pace. They were here ultimately for the fighting.

After a few grimaces, not everyone enjoyed eating ass after all, the cowards, everyone swallowed their pills and gathered around Bubble. Everyone got prepared to their best ability, but they all had to discard their Psionic powers for a moment or Bubble might lose them in the Psionic plane.

Once everyone was ready, Skaja lost her wings and spear temporarily before nodding to bubble.

An opaque bubble cocooned around the group and in seemingly a moment popped and they were in another location, their temporary home base, only the place was ransacked, the radio equipment was rent asunder by massive claws. All that was left was the tent walls with not even a hole in them, quite the contrast to the interior. Everyone was on edge and began activating their Psionics.

Skaja being the hunt leader went to leave the tent first they were back on the field the hunt started on, only there was one difference. ’Are those pylons? I haven’t seen one in decades. What the fu...’ Looking in the distance and seeing what the Psionic pylons were keeping active, her face went pale as the shit responsible for her state had the nerve to smile and wave towards her.

She could only react on instinct as she screamed while using her wings to protect herself to the best of her ability.

”SHIELDS! NOW”