IMPERIUM INSECTUM

The night prior….

Pov: Joshua [spell sword]

“I think we should make camp here”, a moan of approval escaped all of us. I banged on the roof, signalling to the driver to pull to a stop.

“Finally”, Ashwin the hunter complained. “ Tell you what, Ristran got the cheapest carriage around. My ass is red raw.”

“Seconded” said Gwiynn

“Thirdeded”, I chimed. And of course, nothing from our tank, Gordon. The carriage slowly came to a stop, and we barrelled out of the carriage. Several hours in a wooden box feel like a punishment the devil wouldn’t give to his worst enemies. Seriously, Ristran, you couldn’t get a carriage with ass padding?

 I continued to complain as we quickly assembled our camp. Before we knew it, we had a fire and tents set up in no time.

“Good god, this is the most comfortable my ass has been in a while. It feels like I'm in heaven”

We all nodded in agreement as the fire flickered and crackled. It was a relaxing moment which I had to ruin with an annoying question.

“So, who's taking the 1st watch?” I asked; several collective groans hit my ears from the others. I know, I know. But we have to figure out a rotation of who goes when.

“Ill go first.”, Gordon echoed. He didn’t elaborate more than that.

“I guess I'll go second” Gwiynn replied

“Fuck third it is”, Ashwin replied, leaving me with the final shift. We'd all take turns keeping watch for 3 hours as the others rested. I leant my back against the carriage and looked up at the night sky.

“Fuck I’ve missed this” I said.

“You miss the sore asses, rough ground and dog doo doo food”, Ashwin  said as he put a spoonful of brown goop from a tin in his mouth. Adventures ration tastes like pure uncut butthole, but it keeps for years.

 “If I'm being honest with you, Ashwin, yeah, the misery has its charm.  The Ashdowns shutting down the city after the bombing really put a spanner in everything.”

“Yes, it did”, Gwiynn chimed in. “It sucks, how are we supposed to make an income? I mean, last month I had to risk my life in the damn underground tournament to earn some cash. I nearly died down there if it wasn’t for dumb luck”

“You entered that tournament?!” I shouted. Everyone, including Gordon and the driver, looked at her.

Gwiynn nodded. “Yes, I did the worst mistake of my life.”

“Are the rumours true that  A demon joined and wiped out almost everyone in the tournament?” Ashwin asked.

She chuckled. “Well, for the record, this never happened *wink* wink* but everything you hear about the demon is correct. It killed without care or remorse. It's by pure luck I survived.”

“How did you survive?” I asked.

“Like I said, Dumb fucking luck… we had an earth mage with us who had the brilliant idea to tunnel underground to make navigation easier. And well, luckily for us, we went underground at the right time. Before it released its attack. I'd never seen anything like it, so much death so easily as well. a few minutes later and we…… I don’t want to think about it.”

“Jeez. That sounds awful.”

“It was. And the worst part of it was that I spoke to her afterwards. She didn’t have an ounce of remorse on her; in fact, it was like she didn’t care at all that she ended 50+ people in an instant. To think someone like that is out there….” Gwiynn said. Whoever this demon is sounds like a psychopath.

“I heard it killed its ally. Is that true?” We all snapped to Gordon, who has probably just said his longest sentence in 2 days.

I glanced at Gwiynn, whose face had become solemn

“As I said, everything you heard is probably true. She did. right in front of me without a single ounce of care. Poor girl, she was so young and scared. More scared than anyone else because, unlike us, she had to spend time with that thing…..”

The camp went quiet; the only sound we could hear was the crackling of wood.

“Maybe it's time to call it a night” I said.

We all nodded and headed towards our tents. Well, all of us except Gordon, of course. Jeez, just thinking about what Gwiynn saw makes my stomach crawl. Thankfully, this mission is nowhere near anything like that. I have no idea what I'd do if I met a monster like that….

The following morning….

The carriage rocked side to side as we moved down the road. The consecrated forest has to be one of the dullest places of all time. It's hard to believe that this was once the most highly contested place in the country.

“Hard to believe this used to be a warzone.” I blurted out as I glared out the battered, hazy windows.

“Used to be” Gordon chimed in.

We all glared at our mostly mute tank.

“My great, great-grandfather fought in those wars back then. From his books, he said that the Odatis Empire levelled miles and miles of trees to make the trenches and battlements needed for the war. Even after the war was finished, there was so much timber left over that they used it to furnish every administration building, guild hall and mayoral palace in the country. Much to the chagrin of the pure spirits”

“You seem to be quite knowledgeable with this stuff”, I chimed. The tank turned to look at me and gave me a slight nod before returning to look back out the window.

“And just like that, he’s back to his old self”, Ashwin said. The 3 of us chuckled Honestly, this has been a fun trip so-

“Aaaghaaa!”  we yelled as our bodies shot forward.

“HEY DRIVER WHAT THE HELL!” Ashwin screamed.

“S…sorry! but you guys need to see this!”

We all glared at each other before barrelling out of the carriage. Ashwin was the first to leave, and what we saw was the sign of a serious fight. The ground was scorched, and chunks of wood splinters peppered the surroundings, and of course, the elephant in the room the green and red blood splattered on the floor

“Looks like there was a scuffle”, Gwiynn said, scrunching her face as she moved toward us.

Ashwin rolled his eyes “You don't say”

Gordon walked past us and inspected the blood stains. Without warning, he put his fingers into the puddle of green blood.

“This shade of green. It’s not blood of any known creature in the forest.”

“W… what does that mean?” I asked. “Is it a new species of creature in the forest?”

Ashwin's eyes suddenly lit up. “Guys, you know what this means, right? They pay out big for new creatures; hell, if we're lucky, they might let me name it!”

“You mean us right….” I replied

“Of course…Hahha..ha..”  I rolled my eyes at this guy…. Whatever, the prospect of a new species is exciting and would explain the sudden increase in missing persons. However, the downside of this is that we know nothing about it.

“Alright, gang. We've got to be careful moving forward; we don’t know who or what's out there. If it is a new species, we have to be extra careful as we have no idea what it’s capabilities are.

The group nodded.

“Good. we all know our positions?”

“I'll take rear support”, Gwiynn said.

“Ill hold the middle”

“Ill be the forward scout” Ashwin replied

We all turned to Gordon, who was glaring up at the sky

“Everything all right, big guy?”

He glanced down towards us. “Nothing. I'll lead”

We all glanced at each other. And by our similar demeanour, the same collective thought ran through all 3 of us. ‘Let’s not question it’

“The blood appears to trail into the forest in an easterly direction. We'll follow that. Maybe if we are lucky, it's already dead” Ashwin said.

We all nodded. I turned back to the driver and gave him a run down of the situation.

“Driver, if we're not back in 8 hours. Assume we're dead and head back and tell Ristran”

“i…I understand….”

With everything set, we all marched forward into the forest. Ashwin shot ahead of us with a black Smokey aura leaking from his body. Moments later, he completely disappeared out of sight. We ventured steadily behind him, going deep into the forest, all the while keeping our senses active for anything but, oddly enough, for the first hour or so, there was no sign of anything.  It was odd but nothing alarming yet.

We continued moving deeper through the barren, quiet forest. The quietness was really starting to become off-putting. Usually, you would expect to hear something like birds tweeting, deer grazing, and so on and so on, but instead, there was nothing. Just leaves rattling with the wind.

“This doesn’t feel right”, Gwiynn said. And I agreed. Nothing about this feels right. we all stopped moving.

“I think we can all agree something is amiss here. Do you guys want to call it and head back?” I asked.

Gwiynn nodded. I looked towards our tank, which was staring deep into the forest. Does he see something down there?

“Gordon… is everything-“

“There's nothing at all…” We turned around to see a black mass slowly revealing itself from behind a tree, revealing Ashwin. His skin was as pale as moonlight, and sweat cascaded down his face like a waterfall.

“A… Ashwin.” I said, he glared towards me. His eyes were hollow and staring into my soul.

“There is nothing. No animals, no corpses, no DAMN ANYTHING,” he yelled.

“Easy, easy. Tell us what you saw,” Gwiynn said, trying to calm him down, but it didn’t even work.

“ You don’t get it! I didn’t see anything! Whatever this thing is, it's killed everything! It out competed every living thing in this section of the forest!”

“Relax…. I get it, everything is going to be”

“NO, DO NOT GIVE ME THAT, JOSHUA! Do you know what kind of monster this thing has to be to completely silence an ecosystem like this? Whatever this thing is… it's.. We need to get outta here! now! fuck the mission”

“Weren't you the one who was eager to find a new creature. ” Gwiynn asked, trying to put on a brave face and failing. She is just as shaken as Ashwin.

“That was then; this is now! We need to-“

“SILENCE!” our mute tank yelled. My eyes met his, and I immediately got the message.

“Battle formation!”

The 3 of us shot into position as Ashwin's body blurred as he quickly moved up to a high vantage point in a tree.

“Gordon, where's it coming from?”

“Unsure, stay aware!”

We all scanned our surroundings looking for anything, but the forest was still eerily silent.

“I don’t like this…I don’t like this at-“

“Aaarghaaaaaaa!” My head shot to the side just in time to see something yellow flash past my eyes

“WHAT HAPPENED!”

“It got Ashwin!” Gwiynn yelled.

“Where!” I snapped my eyes, darting around looking for any sign of our rogue. “ DAMMIT! WHERE THE HELL IS HE!”

“He’s right here…….” We all snapped to see a yellow unknown monster glaring mockingly at us as it stood in a tree. It had 4 arms, 4 sharp pincers on its back and a large serpentine tail.

“Any idea what this could be?” I yelled

“FORGET THAT, Josh! It can talk!” Gwiynn yelled. The realisation hit me like a ton of bricks. It can talk. Then that means.

“Yes, I'm intelligent. How very astute of all of you”

The creature dropped to all fours and walked adeptly along a tree branch “It's been quite a while since I’ve had some fresh prey in my domain.”

“Fresh prey…. Did you do this? Kill everything here?” I asked.

“Hahaha, no, it was the other guy”

Our eyes bulged. Wait, it didn’t do all this that can't…it-

“HAHAHAH,  Come on, don’t make it that easy for me.  It was me,” the creature mocked. This is bad. This level of intelligence from a monster is unheard of. This is bad, very bad.

“Look, this isn't the place for jokes! Where is ASHWIN!” Gwiynn yelled

“Ashwin... so that’s his name. He’s fine. I haven't killed him. hell, I won’t kill any of you…”

“Then what do you want…” I asked. Maybe because of its intelligence, we can reason with it. It's worth a shot.

“Oooh, nothing much, just to test out a few new tricks I have, so humans… Let's dance…”

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