Chad watched as the cloud of incoming insects arced over the treeline. Their long, thin bodies and vibrating wings cast a shadow over the clearing as they flew.

Locust Swarm (Lvl 13)

"Oh," he sighed. "It's just some locusts. They don't even eat meat."

"Maybe they'll pass us?" Squawkers whispered hopefully. "Maybe they're not--"

Before the words left his beak, the entire mass of insects swirled in midair, circling their position. The cacophony intensified to a nearly deafening level. Then, they dove.

"Incoming!" Squawkers cried again. "Chad--"

"On it!"

The temperature seemed to drop by a few degrees as the swarm blotted out the sun. Chad reached into his bag to pull out ammunition for the coming fight. Reaching past the perfectly good rocks and stones, he dug for a handful of gravel and flung it skyward at the locusts descending on them. 

He didn't throw them particularly hard. Not by his standards, at least. In fact, he had to be careful not to throw them too hard or else the rocks would disintegrate from the air pressure. 

But even his "gentle" throw sent the gravel forward like a barrel full of buckshot.

His projectiles spread out in a pulverizing wave as bug guts sprayed everywhere. It rained down like too-thick rain from the greenish cloud above, covering all three of them in a light coating of gunk. Squawkers shook his feathers out in annoyance and disgust as Chad reached down again.

Despite the ridiculous number of locusts he'd killed, it wasn't nearly enough. The brief gaps in the cloud soon filled in with more buzzing creatures, leaving their numbers practically unchanged.

"My plants!"

Chad glanced over to see Nick screaming. He waved some sort of gardening tool frantically through the air, trying to shoo the insects away from his plants as if they were flies around a plate of barbecue.

"Don't let him touch the Era Seed!" Nick yelled as he attempted to guard the needlelike plant in the center. Its bulbous top swayed dangerously in the breeze. However, as much as he wanted to help, Chad didn't have the luxury of watching for long.

He ignored the panicking alien and flung another handful of rocks, this time with less effort or care. At this point, it was nearly impossible to miss the descending swarm. He barely had time for a third throw at point-blank range before the insects started to touch down.

The edge of the swarm engulfed hi. His vision turned into a nightmare of legs and wings and bug eyes. He could feel the wind from their flight and the disturbing tickling sensation of their crawling as they landed on him. He began to wave both of his arms frantically, each smack taking out dozens upon dozens of locusts. But there were always more to take their place.

A little belatedly, he realized that the locusts weren't actually hurting him. Not directly, at least. He had to clamp his mouth shut and exhale steadily from his nose to prevent them from crawling in his orifices. And if that wasn't enough, he could feel them beginning to work their way down his shirt and up his pant legs.

Nope, nope, nope, NOPE. Not happening.

Chad flailed, smashing bugs blindly, but it seemed hopeless. All his efforts barely made a dent in the swarm. Squawkers had left his shoulder and he just barely managed to hear the bird's cries as he flew somewhere high above.

He waved in front of his mouth, continuously working to keep it clear as he shouted out, "Can't you do something about this, Squawk?!"

"Like what?! This isn't Pokemon! I don't have some magical advantage over bugs, here!"

"But don't you eat these things?"

"What kind of savage do you think I am!? I eat fruit! Fruit!"

Chad felt the swarm move past him, finally giving him room to breathe for a minute. The trees on every side had been stripped bare, their formerly green leaves gone without a trace. Looking at the center of the clearing, it seemed that those plants weren't long for this world either.

A dense hemisphere of insects completely blotted out the garden. At its edges, colorful flowers were pulled up by the root and eaten whole, disappearing into the chaos.

Geez. It's like a black hole. Or a greenish-brown hole, I guess. That sounds weird.

He could occasionally make out the end of Nick's hoe as it poked out of the swarm to swat at the things. Just like with Chad, the enlarged insects seemed to be focusing on the plants. But that didn't mean they wouldn't suffocate the poor alien kid if this kept up.

Chad swore. He couldn't throw gravel into that -- not without shredding Nick as well. There were too many to handle, anyway. He needed a better idea.

Searching in his bag again, his hands met something cold and hard. The item clanked as he pulled it free. It was a heavy boat chain that he had thought to bring along just in case, but it might do well here.

The eight-foot chain clattered to the ground as he pulled it free of the bag and gripped the end. Carefully, he began to swing it around over his head in an arc -- not so much that the metal would start to bend, but enough that he could feel the wind whipping around him. The pitch of its whine increased as its speed grew. 

"Duck!" He yelled out to Nick. Hopefully, the alien heard.

Chad began to roll himself forward, whirling the blender of death above him so that it bit into the swarm. He could feel the thousands upon thousands of impacts on the chain as the insect guts began to pour. Locusts above its range began to fly away, but were pulled back by the vortex of wind. But not once did it even begin to slow as it mowed down the bugs like a field of grass. 

You have defeated a Locust Swarm (Lvl 13)! +75 Exp.

If I beat it, then how the hell are there still this many?!

After a few more feet of movement forward, Chad felt his wheelchair wheels bump into something fleshy. He couldn't entirely see what it was, but he could guess. He kept rolling on past, lifting his chain-saw a little bit higher just in case. He saw a flash of blue skin scramble away to safety.

With Nick taken care of, he could get a little more aggressive. He rolled forward and continued spinning, the solid disk of death cutting deep swaths into the locust swarm. Unfortunately, many of them remained on the ground, flattened by wind.

I don't want to play deadly jump rope with this thing, so…

He spun the chain a little faster. The turbulent wind intensified into a column of swirling air. The intensity of it whipped locusts through the air and dislodged them from the ground below, pulling them further into the grinder. Scores of the locusts entered into its deadly orbit and fountained their remains into the sky. 

The sparse remains of the swarm scrambled about in the air, attempting to fly up and away from the clearing in search of an easier meal. Some made it, but many didn't. As he watched, The significantly smaller group buzzed away in a hurry.

Turning, Chad took stock of the situation. Squawkers sat on a nearby tree brach, frazzled but seemingly ok. Nick knelt at the edge of the clearing, jaw hanging open as he trembled.

It wasn't hard to see why. What had once been a beautiful garden now lay in complete ruins. Gooey chunks and insect limbs littered the ground, coating it in a thick sludge. What scant bits of vegetation hadn't been eaten outright were now scattered about the area amid dirt and debris whipped up by the storm. Even some of the trees at the edge of the chain's range had been ripped into or felled entirely by its passage.

Chad rolled over to the elf. "You ok, Nick?"

He opened and closed his mouth like a fish before words finally;y came out. "It's... it's gone..."

The arm wrestler glanced over again. Sure enough, the large plant at the center of all this had disappeared entirely. All that was left of it was a tiny stub of purple stalk.

Geez, Chad winced. Those things ate fast.

He set a hand on Nick's shoulder, causing the kid to flinch. "It's ok, buddy. Maybe you can grow another one?"

"It's too late." He swallowed. "I'll be dead by then. My dream..."

Before Chad could ask what he meant, the sound of heavy boots sounded through the forest. Suddenly, Major Geoffries and his men burst through the trees, weapons raised and scanning the area.

"What in the hell?!" The Major shouted. "What happened here?"

Whoops. Guess we made a bit too much noise.

"Er..." Chad scratched his chin. "Don't worry! We're fine. Just ran into some bugs."

"Some bugs?" Geoffries growled. "You're saying you caused a damn tornado over some bugs?!"

"There were a lot of bugs," Chad pointed out.

"A lot of them," Squawkers agreed. "Too many."

The man took a breath, visibly calming himself before speaking again. "Then do you mean to tell me that fellow right there is a bug, as well?"

His gaze settled on Nick's kneeling form and narrowed in suspicion. Multiple rifles were already trained on the foreign threat. Yet when Chad glanced down, he saw that the kid had barely registered their new arrivals. Instead, he continued to stare at the spot where his garden had once been.

Squawkers took that moment to flutter down onto Chad's shoulder. "Er... no, he's an alien. But, uh... he's a little different, we think. Maybe we should make some introductions."