Antelligent Design

147. It’s Getting Hot

Beds are wonderful things, don’t you think? Especially if you have a good one. My family had never shown me affection in any meaningful way, but I did have decent stuff. At least, I did until the collectors got hold of me. My bed gave me the welcome and comfort that was missing from everywhere else in my home. Warm, snug, safe. My head resting on a soft pillow, the reassuring weight of sheets and blankets. It had been my sanctuary. A vessel that could carry me out of my life, away from the rejection, harsh words and angry eyes. How bad can life be when you have a comfortable bed? Probably terrible, but hey, I have my own policy.

I wonder if Garralosh felt the same way in her past life. Gandalf, the System, said all of us were a little odd in our lives, which was why we were chosen. Perhaps this would be a common thread between us. At least, increase the thread count… heh.

As the increasingly irate crocodile prepares to attack, I hit her right in the face with all of my most fluffy bed time memories. Sinking into a mattress, drowsy with sleep, cool sheets covering me and my pyjamas. Pyjamas! Damn, I miss pyjamas. Why the hell didn’t I wear them all the time? Superior to regular clothes in every respect.

Ah!

I let myself get distracted by my own mental attack! How’s Garralosh responding? The giant crocodile has faltered and I take the opportunity for another cheeky Omen Chomp. The mountainous reptile is missing a few chunks from various places, and ichor is steaming off her still-burning scales. The hiss and bubble of it is a constant background noise in the battle at this point.

CHOMP!

Take that! In fact, she still isn’t responding. I’ll take a chance and go for a sneaky second chomp, inflict some of that deep damage.

CHOMP!

The hit to my stamina is massive, but the outpouring of energy from the Vestibule replenishes me. The Will of the colony is becoming my strength! Already, my health is near full and the Regeneration Gland is almost ready to go once more. This is insane!

A wall of anguish slams into my mind, stunning me for a short moment. Awww, snap. She is not happy!

[STOP BRINGING IT BACK!] she screams and then promptly explodes.

Not literally explodes in the ‘flesh flew everywhere’ kind of way. But power and heat burst from her in a calamitous wave of rolling fire that blows me backward and gives me a thorough roasting at the same time. Pain erupts all over my frame as my carapace sizzles, the organs and muscle beneath rise to a temperature they don’t like to operate at. I’m a smoking ruin of an ant! She did that in an instant!

“Vibrant! Are you alright?”

“Fine-fine! I’m too fast!”

“HCK! Good for you…”

I cough and a small cloud of smoke is spat out of my mouth. I need healing! I activate my healing gland, the precious fluid that built up since my last use floods into my system. Only half of a full dose, but I’ll take what I can get!

My vision is hazy as the wall of fire that rolled over me toasted my eyes to a degree, but the Mind Bridge is painting a picture of what Garralosh is currently doing.

She is full of rage, thrashing and clawing at the dirt, snapping at the air. Tons and tons of reptile lashing out with all her strength is a heck of a thing to be close to. Her anger is cataclysmic. The ground shakes. The air fills with the sound of her fury. She’s like a natural disaster made manifest, a titan, something primordial from before the gods were born.

All I can do is try to keep my feet and scramble to create some distance as I heal up. I really need to thank the unshakeable faith the colony has in me at this point. Their energy continues to flood my body, healing me and restoring my reserves. I’m not sure why they have faith in me right now. I’m not sure I would!

My eyes come back into focus and I can see Garralosh in all her fury. Her eyes are mad with rage as she unleashes her terrifying strength in an uncontrolled frenzy. So strong is she, her strikes into the ground cause shockwaves that collapse the colony’s tunnels beneath us. Long sections of ground fall straight down to create troughs and trenches where before there was only flat earth.

She’s not liking this! I would go so far as to say that she’s really hating it…

I should keep going!

My sub-brains continue to churn out magic. The most powerful of them is maintaining and operating the Mind Magic Construct on its own while the other two cooperate to weave together the sensations and illusions. It appears as if the Vestibule is also supporting my brains, as even they seem to be holding up under the strain of constant spell weaving admirably well. The Vestibule is the gift that keeps on giving!

The ground around Garralosh is destroyed, burnt and thrashed into a mess. She doesn’t look like she’s going to stop any time soon. With Vibrant behind me, keeping her Speed Aura covering me, I decide to go in for another hit and run. I need to take every opportunity to do damage!

As I Dash, I smack her with more memories from Earth. Cola. Fast food. Couches. Television. Sports. Anything I think she might be able to remember. Anything that might disrupt her thinking.

As the barrage of Mind Magic slams home, I maintain a little distance, just in case she decides to explode again, but she doesn’t. I’ll have to take a chance.

CHOMP! CHOMP!

At this close range, I decide to take a risk and do something different. I raise my abdomen up and lower the front sections of my body to improve the angle and expose my business district. Even with just this position, I can easily fire my acid straight forward thanks to my new additions!

POW! POW! POW! POW!

I rapid-fire a few blasts of my new and improved merchandise straight into the wounds I just caused before I turn and Dash away as fast as I can. A ripple of pain runs through the enormous frame of Garralosh as the acid eats into her. Why isn’t she healing? She must have a healing gland of some description, surely…

All the while, I continue to send a constant stream of Mind Magic across the bridge. Any impression, any thought or sensation that might work, I package it up and blast it across. I can feel it impact against her mind. Each time the magic hits home, her thoughts shudder away from it, desperately trying to protect herself from remembering what her life had been like.

Then something changes. Her mind opens up, reaches out across the Mind Bridge and seizes hold of mine. I’m a mouse gripped in the fist of a gorilla. What the hell is happening? She batters me with her pain and fury, turning her madness into a weapon she uses to beat me right in the mind.

You want to play this way? I doubt you know Mind Magic like I do! If she’s going to open herself up to me like this, then I’m going to step on through.

All four of my minds switch focus and my body grows completely still as I spin together a spell of incredible complexity. When it’s finished, it appears like a ship woven together of spider thread. I put myself aboard and launch it across the bridge, straight into the mind of the maddened croc.