RB Chapter 204 The Seventh Appears!

"What the hell is that?!?!" A cold voice, tinged with both surprise and bewilderment asked.

This was the command center located within Kampala city, in the central part of said city. It was the early 9pm, a time that most people would have been home, eating dinner, watching a few TV shows, or even having hit the sack. But the current situation was different...

The entire command center was filled to the brim with people, all clicking away at their stations, monitoring everything that was going on at the various battlefields, relaying information, and even processing requests for reinforcements.

What was different this night though was that over half of the people in this command room had been ordered to drop their previous work and take on the work of monitoring the northern battlefield where the battle with the beast horde was raging.

"That is one of my babies!" Kiwuka's excited voice rippled through the room. Her eyes were practically glowing as she looked at that figure which had appeared on the huge wall-mounted screen.

The image was showing something covered in a black exoskeleton. It's upper half was humanoid looking with two limbs and a head while the lower half appeared to be different, an abdomen being held up by four legs. The abdomen extended towards the back, making the creature resemble a mythical beast, the centaur, except that its lower half was made up of an insectoid abdomen covered in a black carapace.

The limbs connected to the upper body ended not with fingers, but pincers, like those possessed by crabs, but large enough to snip the head of the snake like a pair of scissors. Spikes, each sprouting from the exoskeleton protruded on its back and shoulders, following its spine down its back. Some red was covering its front due to the blood which had been sprayed out of the snake's torso where the head had been.

Its appearance was menacing to the extreme, the glinting spikes serving to enhance that immensely.

The head was in the form of that which was possessed by a housefly and even the compound eyes hadn't been left out. Mandibles replaced the lips of the mouth and they were menacingly moving, as if they wanted to drag something into the mouth of the insectoid.

"'Too weak' it said, how cool!" Kiwuka cheered.

"'Its my baby', that's not a sufficient explanation! Explain so that I can understand?" Bunyogovu's voice came from the other side of the elder. Her curiosity had been piqued. This time even her usually cold countenance had crumbled, revealing another facet of herself. 

"Hehehehehe...just watch. The effort I put into creating these new babies was tremendous. That was just a glimpse of its power, the tip of the iceberg." Kiwuka said while snapping her fingers, something she was sound subconsciously due to being overly excited.

-----

"What is that abomination? Its too gross of a creation. Did it fail to take the proper evolutionary path." The voice came from the frog, reverberating on the entire battlefield. Except for the mindless beasts and the energy channellers on the wall, all the others had stopped their exchanges to gaze at the new combatant. The frog's eyes were glinting, and for some reason, it appeared to be utterly disgusted by the ant.

Poooof!

The black carapace on the abdomen of the ant opened, clouds of steam coming out, as if something was boiling on the inside! The quantity of the steam released alone added something sinister to the ant when it floated around it before dispersing within the night.

'It was fast! Such speed is abnormal! I even believe it hasn't yet shown all of its power. This must be the surprise that Kampala city spoke about highly. An insectoid...it must be the work of that woman.' Chloe reached such a conclusion. The frog had regained itself and was now once again facing her, though it wasn't as laid back as before. There was even a trace of fear within its eyes that hadn't been there before. Its previous confidence had been shattered. It could keep up with her in linear movement, but when it came to the subtle maneuvers, it found itself beat, something that prompted its current grim countenance.

Zzzzzzzzzt!

Electricity danced along Chloe's skin while steam obscured her body. The steam was coming from her own body. Such high speed movement had caused some of the water in her body to directly turn into water vapor. The steam was being forced out of her pores and then through the spaces within the black scales of her SYMOR.

The steam, coupled with some of the electricity which swarm within it was painting an otherworldly picture of Chloe, a picture of a goddess of Lightning.

"Should we get back to it?" She turned her attention back to the humanoid frog and asked with a ferocious grin, a grin she didn't even notice she was making, after all, this frog was providing quite the exciting challenge.

"Human, don't get ahead of yourself. Life doesn't turn out smoothly without some effort." The frog said, trying to sound sagely, and give itself confidence once again.

"Oh! What do you mean?" Chloe asked, her light blue eyes jolting with electric sparks.

"You will see..." The frog crossed its arms across its chest in a very humanlike manner. It appeared relaxed as if it didn't fear Chloe taking advantage and attacking.

"Why are you relaxed? In the previous exchange you lost...I almost severed that disgusting tongue of yours." She taunted, the electricity that was flashing on the surface of her body increasing in intensity for a split second, causing the frog to flinchingly take a step back, the fear once again appearing within its eyes.

Chloe had the urge to laugh at its behaviour but that's was cut off when a major development happened where the ant had beheaded the snake.

The torso which had been squirming in place ceased its movements, only for a new head to pop out of the severed part, like it was inside the body all along! It had been so fast that by the time she had turned her attention back, the new head had already grown out, seemlessy connected with the torso as if all the damage before had never occurred!

When the new head sprouted, the snake retreated a bit, keeping a distance away from the ant. It didn't stop there, stretching out its neck to devour the one which had previously been severed, its slotted eyes, still keeping an eye on the ant.

"Instantaneous regeneration!?" Chloe exclaimed in shock. She wasn't the only one as the other humans who had caught sight of the development, too exclaimed or cursed.

"You see...there is no way you will manage to get rid of us that easily." The frog said smugly.

"You are mistaken about something...when I set out to fight you, that ant wasn't in my considerations at all, and it still isn't!" Chloe said before her body blurred, appearing right in front of the frog instantly, giving it very little time to react!

-----

"Interesting...I wonder...which human...among you all...is the ant queen?" The question originated from the white furred monkey which was currently standing opposite him. Its question was posed with genuine curiosity, no mockery intended.

Eric wasn't interested in the question or what had happened with the appearance of that ant, nor the subsequent regeneration of the snake. Such matters were unimportant as far as he was concerned. What he needed to do was find a way to keep the distortion, bull headed and the white furred monkey spectrum beasts here.

So far, the bull headed beast was the one he had most confidence in keeping as it was in an enraged state, its eyes hadn't left him for even a moment. Its every exhale puffed out clouds of water vapor. It wanted to charge over and kill him but it didn't dare under the watchful eye of the white furred monkey.

For the distortion, he couldn't get a read on it since it preferred to remain hidden by warping light and other waves around itself. He could force his spectrum domain to clash with its own, preventing it from distorting the light around itself, but there was no way the white furred monkey would ignore such a chance. The clash of spectrum domains wasn't something that couldn't be taken lightly after all.

'Since its still in place, I will just take it as if it has decided to stay...'

"I see you have collected a team for yourself...what should we call it?" Eric asked, trying to keep this stalemate like this. If the white furred monkey attacked, he would be hard pressed to hold the others back from making it to the brown wall of the fortress and engaging in a slaughterfest.

"A team...I need...one...attacking alone...would be...a fool's...errand." The white furred monkey said, its crimson eyes gazing at him. For some reason he found that its gaze was filled with puzzlement and contemplation.

"Human...what's your...name?" It asked, something that was so surprising that Eric felt the distortion's control over the electromagnetic waves waver for an instant.

"Eric Masanyalaze." He answered, not before raising his eyebrows.

'What's up with it? I thought it wasn't interested in humans.'

"Your genes...the transformation...last time...a beast betrayed us...directly giving its cells to a human. Something...unacceptable! I will...engrave your...name in...my brain...if I ever find...that beast...I will dismember it...in the most...grotesque ways possible!" A threat escaped its lips, its eyes suffused with a particular glint.

Booomm! Zzzzzzzzt!

Spider web cracks appeared on the ground as Eric took a step...you could even say he stomped on the ground with force, the electricity slithering around his body increasing in intensity, small worms reaching the level of snakes in an instant.

The moment the white furred monkey had spoken about killing someone whom Eric took as important, everything else had been thrown away from his mind, rage instantly taking over! Even though, he hadn't met the maternal origin of his genes, the efforts it had went through to leave behind the message in his blood, had made him feel warmth, something he hadn't felt from Baguma.

Boom!

Another explosion, this time being caused by him punching out! He had instantaneously moved from his position, appearing where the monkey was, except that his punch had missed, striking empty air, though, due to being faster than sound, a sonic explosion had occurred, compressed air expanding away from his fist.

'An illusion!? When?' Under this state of extreme dynamic movement, his eyes moved in his sockets, even mobilising his domain as he searched for the monkey.

'Did I fall into its trap?' He questioned himself.

-----

Along the entire northern facing part of the hill, craters appeared as the battle raged between the spectrum beings, any unfortunate casuality appearing due to being in their path. Though, what was intentional or coincidental was the fact that so far, none of the walls had sustained any major damage.

"I am continuously hearing explosions in the north, I wonder what happened?" Leah asked no one in particular as she split the skull of a beaver like mutated beast with the grip strength of her palm. This particular beaver hadn't gotten larger, like the others, instead becoming more agile and its teeth becoming even more deadly. Even such a menacing beast couldn't stop itself from being ended by Leah, a sign that she was the better combatant. 

"I bet its hell on Earth. Those energy channellers there have to keep a watchful eye on the spectrum battles, or else they might get dragged in. The only way they can threaten a spectrum beast or warrior is through long range attacks, though I doubt they have figured that out." Elena's voice came from her side. She was drenched in blood from head to toe. Trying to avoid getting dirty within this fight couldn't be achieved!

"Aren't you worried? Eric and Chloe are facing seven spectrum beasts!" Leah practically shouted out, panic within her voice. 

Elena closed her mouth, her face momentarily wrinkling before returning to normal, all this entering Leah's eyes. That had been a bit rude.

"I am sorry for taking it out on you. I was worried." She apologised to her friend.

"Its okay, I understand...just not too deep, but I do." Elena said, reassuring her.

"I am just worried that they might die. I am not worried about my life, but..." She sighed exasperately, crushing the neck of a snake with such force that it was separated from the rest of its body. What was even more surprising was the fact that the snake had been a constricter, snakes which were supposed to have plenty of muscle!

"Leah, right now we have our task. You have to keep a cool head and have faith in them. That's all that we can do." Elena said, kicking a headless body down the wall. A pile of corpses had already formed a hill down the wall, a testament to the many beasts they had killed. The originally brown walls were now coated in red, with some brown visible here and there, but diminishing rapidly.

"But I have no choice but to worry..." Leah mumbled silently.

-----

Among all the spectrum beasts that had launched an attack, there was one which hadn't yet been obstructed. It was fast, its illusory form was making for the wall, weaving between the other beasts. It was the only one which hadn't killed any other beasts, simply weaving within the spaces in the horde. 

It was two meters tall and four meters long, its form being that of hyena, yellow fur with black spots. Saliva was dripping down its tongue as it beheld all the meaty humans standing on the wall, with a cunning light deep within its yellow eyes.

With one last leap, it appeared on top of the wall, directly clamping its jaws around the head of a human, severing the head from the body...

'Delicious!' It thought as it chewed on the head, the skull shattering with the strong force of its jaws. Before the other humans even managed to react, it devoured the body too, leaving behind drops of blood and a scant few pieces of flesh.

'Humans are delicious...like eating popcorn...wait, popcorn? How can I have such a memory? Could it be that I devoured a human with that memory some time ago? What kind of food is popcorn?' It wondered even as it slaughtered and devoured the other humans on the wall. Even if an energy channeller was strong, there was an infinite chasm between them and spectrum level lifeforms. The domain alone was enough to immobilise them, leaving them vulnerable. That was what the hyena beast was doing.

'This is exhilarating! The others have been stopped leaving me to do whatever I want!' It even deliberately slowed down, savouring this small victory over the others.

Before even ten seconds passed, a chill caused the fur along its spinal column to stand on end!

'Danger!' It felt it acutely! Someone or something had locked onto it! A deadly attack was about to come, something which was capable placing its life in danger or outright killing it!

'A weapon? Those humans still had a weapon hidden away? Did I step into a trap?' Even with those thoughts in its mind, it didn't slow down one bit, opting to jump down the wall, to find hiding places within the beast horde. There was  no way it would risk it and instead step into the humans' fortress!