RB Chapter 188 The Beast Horde

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

The pebbles made such a sound as a multitude of feet stepped upon them. The temperature was high, with the time being 2:00pm, the hottest hour in the tropics. The area was sparse, except for a few trees which looked like they had been baked in the sun. Anything lush and green was probably dangerous, that's what the yellow furred monkey thought while trudging upon the hot ground. Some herbivorous animals had already proved it by being devoured when they had tried to feed on the juicy leaves. The monkey even suspected that the smell from those trees and plants was probably irresistible to the mindless herbivores.

The seven were leading the beast horde, not caring if any more were being killed by the vegetation because more were joining with each attack they were carrying out. The humans were constantly being pushed on the retreat, something which ought to be good, but the yellow furred monkey was getting more and more unsettled.

The white furred one was definitely budding as socialpath, something not good for the group. It was constantly experimenting with the way it was killing, trying to perform the perfect kill.

That distortion-looking comrade was more focused on feeding on the humans than caring, and the others simply followed along, not caring about what the boss was doing.

Its stomach churned as it remembered the last victim, the man had been turned into three tall parts, one containing the head, down to the mating parts, the other two had each contained a leg and a hand. The white furred monkey had been so concentrated on the task that the yellow furred monkey shivered despite the heat. The only saving grace was that that little experiment hadn't yet been used in its fellow beasts...though it could catch the telltale signs that the white furred one was thinking of using the others as experiments.

'The boss is losing it. He is on the verge of losing sight of the goal." The monkey shook its head. The fearful humans were retreating while sending the mindless ants to harass the group. This was one of those respites where they weren't being attacked.

'Shit' once again inwardly cursing at the heat, the monkey trudged forth. It had the mind to bend the light from the sun like some of its brethren were doing, but it opted to save its domain. The others had been feeding on the humans, which it didn't want to do. It had decided to remain vegetarian as the first slaughter had been too grotesque. 

The mindless ones were following along since they were the strongest ones around. So far, they hadn't yet run into those so-called former leaders of the horde. They had probably fled, or were hiding, not wanting to surbodinate themselves to the seven.

As the sun continuously burned its back, the sweat continued to run down its body, itches spreading within its fur-covered skin, making the entire ordeal uncomfortable. It developed another idea of having one of the mindless ones as a ride, before banishing it as the mindless ones were very fearful. Any attempt to get closer would make them retreat. Their instincts for danger were overpowering rational thought, surpressing them from gaining sentience.

'Now that I think about it, there was that special boy among the humans who managed to slaughter my clones, will the humans send him? If they do, I must find a way to negotiate.'

As it was walking, the boss sat down under the shade of a tree, causing all to halt. The white furred boss closed his eyes and leaned into the tree. None among the six had the authority to question the boss, so they just simply found shades of their own. The mindless ones spread out to enclose the seven, some were even fighting for the limited shade.

"Meat! What sweet delicious meat! Hey! Yellow fur, why aren't you devouring the humans? Your fighting is even half-assed! Could it be that you have a soft spot for the humans?" The distortion popped by, asking something that even attracted the leader's gaze over.

The yellow furred one panicked, flaring their domain at the fastest speed to distort the light. Its heart was beating very fast, but it put on the greatest angered expression it could, an act meant to obscure the truth further.

"What the hell are you talking about? The humans attacked my forest and destroyed all my clones, how could I have sided with them?" The yellow furred monkey stood up and walked step by step towards the distortion, trying very hard to not give anything away.

"Do you want me to rip apart your camouflage?" The yellow furred monkey pressed.

"There is no need to become that worked up!" The distortion retreated while the leader averted his eyes from the interesting skirmish. The yellow furred monkey was soaking in sweat, but had to keep up the impression that it was still very angry, glaring at the retreating distortion. The anger had gone from mock to true upon thinking of what might have happened if it had been exposed.

-----

The wilderness was quiet at night. It was just a few minutes past 8pm. There was no moon, but she could see very well in the dark. Her domain was full on activated, ready to warn her of any threats that might appear. The night wind rustled her hair. This wind would eventually die down giving way to a rise in temperature brought upon by the slow rising heat from the ground. She was running through this wilderness. Many shrubs rubbed in her SYMOR, down in her legs. They were very hard and sharp, a trait needed to prevent the evolved herbivores from eating them.

She had left the car far behind to prevent the horde from detecting her a mile away. Right now, her domain wasn't simply used for detection. It was also curving the light away from her form. There was very little light in this darkness but it was better to be on the cautious side. A backpack was slung over her shoulder, its contents not making a sound even when she ran.

According to the information that was being fed into her communication patch, the horde had taken a break for the night. She was puzzled that instead of it pushing into the encirclement to attack the city, the beats were clearing the front line. The humans had already retreated, leaving the ants to slow down the horde. It had been estimated that the beasts were around 200,000 strong, making what she was going to do a death sentence.

The terrain was very welcoming to her, the undergrowth prevented her from making any large noises due to lose stones as she hurriedly moved forward. She was hoping to be able to make camp right beside the horde. If she tried to infiltrate deeper, she won't be able to mask herself from the heightened senses of the seven spectrum beasts. Masking herself with a domain would only work on the normal beasts as domains clashed the moment they met each other. If she entered a domain, she would definitely be found.

Every movement of the beasts was being tracked via the satellites. The threat of seven spectrum beasts working to get her proved too much to ignore, so a satellite was being directed to the task of watching over their movements. It wasn't one of the orbiting ones, this one seemed to follow the beasts.

Chloe took a moment to pause and once again check upon the beasts. She did this every fifteen minutes so that she could anticipate everything. The image was showing mostly heat signatures, but she could make out where the seven beasts were. Their signatures were distorted, the good thing was that they still hadn't found out that they were being monitored. A spectrum domain could capture many things, so they were passively using the heat to form an image instead of releasing any waves along the electromagnetic spectrum.

After a few minutes of running through the chilly night air, she slowed down as she neared the horde. She was about 1000m out, so she needed to make it within 500m, a very hard task.

'Should I just camp here?' She asked herself as she stated into the horde, her eyes gaining a ting of violet. Heat signatures were everywhere, from tiny bugs to large beasts. Some were even flying within her domain, but since she had warped the light and any waves around herself, she hadn't yet been spotted. 

'Nocturnal beasts are acting as patrols, it looks like I won't be able to slip inside.' She gave up, her gaze roaming around until she found a tall sparsely leafed tree. She climbed up, making sure that she released as minimal vibrations as possible. It would be sad to be caught when she has just made it here.

-----

"Shit! Is she throwing away her life?!" Elena cursed loudly as they finally managed to get the full information about the situation. 

"She probably wanted to get revenge on the white furred monkey." Leah gave a weak defense. She herself had also been enraged upon coming to the realisation that it was the same monkey.

"What are we going to do now? Should I go?" Elena asked, Leah not missing the glint of excitement deep within her eyes.

"There is no point. You will just slow her down." Leah shot her down causing her to visibly deflate.

"Why didn't she tell us?" Leah asked. She was trying to stay calm as she knew that if she snapped, her friend might go off to bring Chloe back, a very bad decision.

"Haven't you seen her these past few weeks? She has always been in a state of depression. She probably finally snapped after being given a chance." Elena spoke.

"That is beyond reckless! If she dies, he won't be happy!" Leah was on the verge of shouting.

"It will all be her fault. I hope she survives until I find her. I will beat some sense into her then." Elena said through gritted teeth.

'I feel the same as her. I was too weak to help, but there is no need to be that impulsive. Chloe, I hope you don't die...if you do, then I don't know how I will be able to soothe him. He's lost far too much!' Leah worried after calming the bubbling rage within herself.

-----

The next morning, before the sun even rose from the eastern depths, she rose. She hadn't slept a wink, relying in her superior body to prevent sleep. The air was suffused with a chill. She had resorted to controlling the heat waves radiating off her skin to form a protective layer around her body. It was commfy but, she had to direct a sliver of her attention to the task, a tiring endeavor considering that she had also had to monitor the beasts.

'I need to prepare to ambush that monkey. I already have plenty of energy, it has to happen today.' She thought as she looked at some of the beasts. They were in the middle of waking up, some had woken up even earlier than the others.

Moooooooo!!!

A very powerful voice filled the area while Chloe had been enjoying the sight of the early morning. It was so powerful that even the space had vibrated, causing her to pale slightly.

'That is definitely the Bull beast of the seven.' She concluded. It had probably used plenty of energy to release such far reaching sound.

As she was still recovering, a collective of sounds entered her ears from the front of her. All the beasts that had been lying down, still sleeping abruptly woke up as if what they had heard was an alarm.

'So, that's how they control the beasts...the roar came further in, so the spectrum beasts must be in the center. This isn't the time to attack, I will follow and wait for the opportune moment.' She thought.

THREE CHAPTERS AHEAD ON PATREON!