RB Chapter 186 A Sticky Situation

Elder Muti entered the situation room to find it rowdy. The people in the room who had been calm in the morning when he was last here were talking and reporting things at a very fast rate. Everyone that he saw with his eyes was very tense, terrified of something. Many were even committing little mistakes, like tripping and falling over something they could have avoided. He shook his head at their incompetence. This was the problem with starting a war with people who had never been in one.

'It seems like I first have to deal with these young ones.' The elder sighed. He was still at the entrance, Bunyogovu at his back.

"Can I have your attention?" The elder called out. He had empowered his vocal cords, causing his the volume to surpass the clamor in the room. All turned their heads towards him after he had uttered that. Some had already turned to him the moment that the door had opened.

"Why are you panicking? This is very unsightly. You were all chosen to be here for your expertise. If you are panicking here, how are you going to be able to reassure the other people out there? What if you make a mistake that causes the loss of lives or wasting the war supplies?" The elder asked, his gaze sharp, taking in the faces of everyone it fell upon. Shame colored most of their faces at his words.

"You need to get a grip. It isn't like the beasts are matching at Kampala city. Even if they were, you were chosen to stay calm and rational in such a situation. Now, go back to your duties. Terror and fear aren't things I want to gaze upon in here." He dismissed them and headed towards the front of the room where the wall screen was showing the battlefield. This footage was live as there were still some downed weaponry that was still working.

'A slaughter...'

"How did this happen?" He asked Bunyogovu once again. He had posed the question because she was now calm and able to use her mind faculties rationally. 

"The battle was going well until seven beasts abruptly appeared..." Here she paused and manipulated her tablet where seven beasts appeared in the screen, well, more like six and a distortion...?"

'Invisibility?' He wondered while staring at the distortion, but his gaze still moved in and lingered a bit more on a white furred monkey with red eyes. It was just too eye catching. Something in the eyes made it appear too intense, even on the verge of craziness.

"We believe that white furred ape is the leader of the other six beasts." Bunyogovu said upon seeing the elder's gaze focused on the beast intently.

"...I wouldn't expect any less from it." The elder mumbled to himself. This beast had something in its eyes the elder had only seen very few times. It was something like a powerful will.

"What did you say?" Bunyogovu asked after failing to catch his words. She was still shaken judging by the way that she failed to capture his words.

"The monkey is going to be a troublesome opponent." The elder commented.

"...because its group has seven spectrum level beasts?" Bunyogovu asked, though she understood that that was the most correct answer as this situation was unprecedented.

"No, its eyes, there is something about those eyes..." The elder answered.

"...anyway, has this information been forwarded to that woman in Cairo?" The elder asked.

"Yes it has. So far we haven't yet received word back..." Bunyogivu worried.

"They will contact us. There is no need to worry." The elder reassured.

"Now, we have to deal with this chaos..." The elder pointed at the hologram from his patch were a discussion was taking place...

"Have you guys seen the video?"

"The entire North-western front line was decimated!"

"What were those seven beasts? Are they all at the spectrum level?"

"Of course they are! How else could they have taken out the energy channellers that simply?"

"This...I don't want to appear on the front line anymore."

"Has someone managed to get into contact with the theatre of operations to find out how they are going to handle this?"

"I haven't!"

"Me neither!"

"What about that legendary guy?"

"You mean the lightning summoner, right?"

"My idol!"

"Where was he in all this?"

"Yeah, he could have at least managed to save some of the people."

"With the volume of lightning that he summoned, he might have died. How else do you explain his absence in all this?"

"Hmph! You above! Don't insult my idol!"

"What idol! He's just  a brat from a fallen clan who became lucky..."

"This is just one of the many chat groups. The others are either criticising us, that boy, or terrified of going to the front lines." The elder said after closing the hologram. 

"I don't think we can pacify the public sir. This has already spread like wildfire. This is unprecedented! The appearance of seven spectrum beasts is a very serious thing." Bunyogovu's voice contained a hint of exasperation, something rare.

"And I doubt that the Cairo theatre of operations will conveniently have seven spectrum warriors in hand who could be called upon." She continued with a grimace on her face.

"How goes that boy's healing?" The elder asked after some time. He was leaning by a table.

"He is still not yet recovered. It will require multiple weeks before he's ready to go back to the front lines." She answered.

"Hmmm..." Elder Muti tapped at the desk.

'The solution to this entire thing hinges upon the decision made by the Cairo theatre of operations. I won't be able to solve anything with just myself...why couldn't those beasts.have appeared at another city?' The elder was panicking inside.

'Though there is a silver lining here, the beasts seem to lack the drive to push inside. I need to call Kiwuka...'

"Bunyogovu, contact that brat Kiwuka. Tell her I need her here asap!" The elder acted on the thought in his head.

"We will need to use guerilla tactics while we wait for a spectrum warrior to arrive." He mumbled.

He moved his gaze to the screen where the cameras still functioning inside the laser guns and robotic arms were still transmitting. The beasts were still in that one place, and one even managed to capture that white furred monkey which was holding a human's head, gazing at its expression with a disturbing gaze. The elder wondered whether the monkey was really mental.

-----

What was shit? This was shit right here, a shit storm in the making, that's what Cleo was feeling right now. The news about the seven spectrum beasts had gotten here about the same time that it had gotten to elder Muti. Words were flying between the citylords who had been invited to help in the war as they debated upon which spectrum warrior to mobilise and how many.

This had been an oversight, something that they hadn't taken into consideration, something which could have started as a question, 'what if the spectrum beasts rallied together?' It wasn't her fault as those beasts that managed to reach that level wouldn't want to work under another or even ally themselves to another, but her head pained just thinking about the failure to have predicted something like this!

Of course anticipation wouldn't have meant that they could have avoided it, instead they could have prepared better, setting aside a team of spectrum level combatants to deal with this.

'What a pain!' Cleo groaned inwardly. She had half a thought to just run away from this situation, dumping it on someone else to handle. Oh, how that would be good! 

'The Black Diamond group only has about four spectrum warriors still hidden. They can't be exposed unless necessary. We need to have them as trump cards against the other groups. Though there is still that one woman...I wonder whether she can be convinced to leave the boy's side.'

"We need to handle this in the swiftest way possible!" The conversation she had tuned out entered her ears after she decided to turn her attention back onto the others. Seven still images were layered side by side on the large screen in 2D. They were the images of the seven beasts, one of them in particular attracting her attention. It was a white furred monkey with a very intense gaze which she took to hold intense hate and malice. According to the video she had seen before of how it slaughtered the people, its intense emotional state was directed towards humans.

'I wonder why that beast has such intense malice.' Cleo had a stray thought, an attempt at ignoring the growing argument.

"So, what are your thoughts Cleo? Cleo?" Someone's voice brought her back.

"We are severely understaffed. The spectrum warriors are less than the territory that needs guarding. We might have to scrounge a bit but, we might get the seven needed...there is also another spectrum warrior guarding Kampala city apart from the b...lightning summoner." She revealed.

"Another!? And how long were you seating on that information?"

"Couldn't he or she had helped with the war? Why would they skulk in the shadows?"

"This is a very important piece of information! A medium tier city having two spectrum warriors!"

With all the questions and suspicions, Cleo started to burse a growing headache.

"Shut up all of you!" She finally exploded.

"Who the fuck wants my chair? Come on! Take it! See whether you will be able to perform better than me! I dare you to try!" She shouted. Looks of greed for the offer appeared in some of their eyes, but they curbed them just as quickly. If she had offered the position at the start of the war, many of them would have eagerly jumped up to take on the command, but now, they had witnessed the stress and pressure that came with the seat. It was something none wanted for themselves.

'Pathetic trash!' She cursed in her mind.

"There are many spectrum warriors being hidden by some of you here...I won't order you to turn them over to the war efforts, but do remember one thing, don't try to antagonise me or else I will be forced to bring up names." She gave them a long and hard look causing some to lower their gazes.

"The spectrum warrior I am talking about is a friend of the lightning summoner, she is looking after him in a recovery room. I will ask her personally whether she wants to participate." Those words shut all the others up.

-----

Piak! Zzzzzzzzt!

Sparks of electricity lit up the surrounding darkness before fizzing out, returning the place to what it once was, but that didn't last more than a few minutes before other sparks appeared abruptly in the air. 

This was a dark room with only a single source of light apart from the sparks. The source came from one large incubation chamber horizontally placed in the middle of the room.

It was 5m long and 2m wide. The inside was filled with a greenish-gokden liquid and a mass of flesh was inside. Parts of it were charred dark while others were showing healthy skin. The body appeared to belong to a male boy with black hair. He was floating within the liquid as if he was dead but the beeping of the chamber said otherwise. He was so peaceful that Chloe, who was seated at the edge of the room leaning against the wall was taken in by his face.

She appeared to be a daze in this darkness, but the sparks of electricity occasionally lighting up her face said otherwise. Her domain was in full usage, countering something. That something was Eric's domain. Even though he was unconscious, his domain occasionally turned itself on, something brought about by something bordering on a dream. If she wasn't here counteracting his out of control domain, the incubation chamber would have been fried in seconds, causing his death. The good thing was that this rarely happened, though she had to be here at all times to monitor him.

'I was too weak! If I had known what you were about to do, I could have helped you.' She berated herself. Her days were spent like that after that stunt that Eric had pulled. She had heard that title given to him, 'lightning summoner.' It was cool, but he had simply been trying to save his and their lives after being pushed to a brink. If he hadn't acted, they would have lost their energy eventually, the consequences of that would have been severe.

Elena had said that there was nothing that would have changed at that, but she still couldn't stop blaming herself. It was the only way that she could prevent the guilt from gnawing at her mind.

Support on patreon to read ahead!