Better served cold

"What the fuck is this!?!" Marcus cried in outrage"Where is the laser horns feature!?!"

He was sitting near the corpse of the deer, his hands bloodied after skinning it.

A few minutes before, he had made various portions in order to share it among all the hive: most of the meat went to Achilles, who could barely move and needed a lot of nutrients in order to heal from the burns. The rest was shared equally by Marcus, Cooper and the other two drones.

The raw meat of the deer had been incredibly delicious, easily the best food Marcus had since he had come to this world. Not even the boar could compare to it: the texture and flavor were incredible, and the blood seemed more like a sauce, salty and sweet at the same time.

And then, the rush of genetic information came: as expected, they were incredible. From the power of the muscles to the hardness of the bones, it was clear that the deer had been a force to be reckoned with.

Marcus had smiled thinking about what kind of powerful minions he could make with those informations, and waited for the info about the laser antlers to appear.

But when the rush of informations had stopped, there was no trace of the ability fire lasers among them.

This was the cause of his outrage and anger.

"Perhaps I missed it." he wondered, accessing his mental databank of genetic informations.

But even upon a more accurate exam, he didn't find anything.

Or rather... there were a few genetic informations about the deer's antlers, but apparently he wasn't able to process them. He tried to, but they made absolutely no sense to him: he couldn't put it into words, but it was the same confusion one may experience when presented with a purposely nonsensical problem, the like of "If you have an orange and your brother has a pear, what color is the bookshelf?".

"The fuck is this!?!" he wondered, scanning each genetic information, trying to make any sense out of it "The fuck is that? The fuck are those!?! Argh!"

He moaned in pain, Trying to probe those impossible genetic codes had given him a migraine.

"This is it! Fuck this! I'm out!" he said, stopping his investigation, and looking at the mostly devoured corpse of the deer with rage "Keep your fucking secrets, you fucking animal! I hope that you're happy that even in death you're a pain in my ass!"

He stood up and stomped his foot on the ground in frustration. Then, he stopped, a doubt appearing in his mind.

"Well... maybe the information it's not in the flesh?" he wondered "Maybe it's in the antlers? But what can I do if that's the case? It's not as if I can eat them... or can I?"

He gave a quick, appraising look at the crystal horns, then he grabbed them and tried to take a small bite off them.

"Ouch!" he cried in pain, as the crystal proved to be just as hard as he thought it would be "Nope, can't fucking eat them. Ouch!"

He shook his head, waiting for the pain to subside, and finally he sighed with resignation.

"Well, let's look at the bright side... I managed to kill this fucking deer, I got a delicious meal and I have the river all for myself now. Also I can make a new shelter in the deer's cave, and tomorrow I'll finally be able to take a bath. All things considered, I have plenty of reason to be happy." he stopped and sighed again "I really wanted some laser minions though!"

With this deliberation, he and the builder drones took the remainings of the deer, mainly the bones, the hide and the crystal antlers, and started walking towards the end of the gorge, where the cave was, followed by Cooper, the flying drone and the limping Achilles.

The following morning, Marcus was definitely feeling more positive when he woke up.

Apart from a good night of sleep, his new cave was also a reason for his good mood. It was much bigger than his older one, and much more comfortable.

The cave itself consisted of three main chambers, all crossed by the river which then disappeared into the rocks. The first room opened directly on the gorge, and it was roughly the same size of his old cave, but with higher ceiling. Marcus had called it the "porch".

The second room was much, much bigger. It was a circular cave of more than thirty meters of diameter, and at least 10 meters tall in its highest point. On its ceiling there was some sort of big window in the rock, from which light entered and illuminated the whole space. The cave was cut in the middle by the river, and it was covered in moss, mushrooms and small vegetation. It had apparently been the house of the deer, since in a corner there was some sort of nest made of moss and grass, with the deer excrements on every corner.

Finally, the third room was much smaller than the other two, a small roughly circular room of 4 meters of diameter. The river disappeared in the ground right before the entrance of this room, that was therefore a bit more dry than the rest of the chambers.

All things considered, this was the best shelter Marcus could hope for, and it was perfect for hiding a great number of minions.

As soon as he got off his bed, a comfortable hole in the second chamber full of soft moss, he started organizing his hive.

Achilles had already healed quite a bit, but it was still rather weak, so he'd just rest in the cave for further recovery.

The builder drone meanwhile would start growing another field of mold wax. Since the second cave had both water and sunlight, it was perfect to grow the stuff undetected.

And finally, Cooper would get out and hunt something to eat, with the flying drone acting as a spotter.

Marcus gave those orders rather quickly, and as soon as he was done, he headed out of the cave. There was something he was dying to do: take a bath.

Right outside of the cave, the river formed a large pool of water, which seemed absolutely perfect to swim in. Marcus looked at the sky: it was a clear and sunny day for now, but he could see some dark clouds approaching from north.

"Better take a bath now!" he said, although he didn't really had any intention to wait "Then I can dry myself in the sun and get back in before it gets cloudy."

Without further ado, he threw off his few clothes, putting them on the ground, and ran into the water, diving in it with and splashing water everywhere.

"Fuck! That's cold!" he cried as soon as he emerged, but he forced himself to stay in the water nonetheless.

Soon, he got used to the temperature, and then he started washing himself, trying to whistle happily (and failing because his almost non-existent lips weren't suited for that).

He spent a lot of time in the water, getting rid of all the dirt, mud, blood and other dirty things that were covering his body.

He also tried to wash his hairs, which proved to be difficult as they were messy and full of knots, but using his fingers as an improvised comb he managed to give them a semblance of order.

Finally, when he was done, he grabbed his clothes and gave them a quick wash too, before getting out of the water and laying on the rocks near the river, warmed by the sunlight.

"Aaaaaah!" he sighed with satisfaction "I really, really needed that. I had never thought that being clean could feel so pleasant!"

He stood there naked for more than an hour, until some passing clouds started obscuring the sun and the air started getting more chilly.

Then, with a sigh of irritation, he left that spot and headed back into the cave.

Later that afternoon, it started to rain.

The sky was now gray, and big droplets of water started falling.

Luckily, Cooper and the flying drone had managed to come back right before the storm started: the hunter drone had managed to catch a couple of big rodents, similar to beavers with reptilian tails.

It was barely enough to feed everyone, but it would do for now while waiting for the mold wax to grow.

As usual, Marcus gave most of the meat to Achilles, reasoning that the sooner the warrior was able to heal, the sooner it would be able to join the hunt.

Because of that was left for Marcus was a rather small portion of meat, at least for his present standards.

"Well, guess I'll have to tighten my belt for now" he sighed "Let's look at the bright side: at least I won't have to... to... give b... I mean, lay eggs for a while." he said these words with a hint of embarrassment and disgust. "But sadly, I need to do start doing that again soon. If those humanoids find me right now, they will kill me. I don't even have another dragon I can call upon if I get discovered, so I need to make my own fighting force." he sighed "But I really, really wished there was another way of doing so!"

It took about 3 days for Marcus to get his new hive going.

The mold wax grew at an amazing rate in the cave, engulfing most of the ground of the main chamber and absorbing all other forms of vegetation. That meant that they weren't dependent on the hunting of Cooper and Achilles (that had almost completely recovered), which was actually a very good thing since the weather had considerably worsened, and the almost constant heavy rain really hindered the hunt.

After the mold wax had grown enough to be eaten at will, Marcus started eating more than his fill. The stuff didn't provide him with any new genetic information, but it gave him more than enough nutrients to produce new minions.

The first batch he made were some other builders, in order to produce even more food. After all, with all that rain hunting was rather difficult, and a diet of mold wax was just as nutritious, even if more bland and boring.

It kept raining for more than a week, and in this time Marcus didn't get out of his cave, focused on making the greatest amount of minions he could.

When the sun finally showed up again, the hive have seven additional mature builder drones, plus another three builder and four hunters which still had to reach full maturity.

Marcus had also tampered with their genetic project a bit. The builders had a more humanoid torso now, but he had also given them the ability of walking on vertical surfaces of geckos and spiders: this way, they could also start farming mold wax on the ceiling of the cave.

Meanwhile the hunters were (or would be, since they still had to reach maturity) both bigger and stronger than Cooper, without losing any of their speed. Marcus had used the informations about the deer to create them, and their muscles were both slender and incredibly strong. In addition to that, he had also allowed them to fully grow their third pair of limbs, but instead of legs he made them become some sort of appendages which sprouted from their backs like featherless wings: those pseudo-arms were tipped with sharp, vaguely hook-like claws, which could be used both for combat and for grabbing their prey.

And although he still didn't gave birth to any, Marcus had also done some small mental modification to the project of the warrior drones: they would be also faster, bigger and stronger than Achilles, although their general shape wouldn't change that much.

Imagining what those warriors could do to the humanoids that had chased him out of his previous home, Marcus couldn't help but to make a ferocious smirk. But for now, he kept this project in reserve, as those drones would require a huge amount of food, and he wanted to grow the mold wax more before actually producing them.

In the meantime, since it was sunny again, he decided to take another bath, also because he wanted to take a breath of fresh air.

When he got out, the air was quite chilly despite the sun. He looked around, and was surprised to see that the leaves on the trees were starting to turn red and yellow.

"So fall is coming." he thought "I didn't know that this world had seasons too... well, I was lucky to appear here in the summer then! To wander around naked in the winter would have sucked on ice!"

He then proceeded with his bath, taking much less than he had last time since the water was positively icy in comparison, and when he was done he was trembling.

"F-fuck!" he stuttered "I n-need to light a f-fire as soon as I c-can! I c-can't stand t-this cold!"

He then covered himself with his fur mantle, while giving one of the builder drone the mental order to find some sticks to use to light a fire. Not that he expected to find some dry ones since it had just stopped raining, but at least it could put them apart and wait for them to get dry.

That same day, he sent the flying drone to explore the valley where his old cave was. He had been caught flat footed once and he didn't want it to happen again, so he decided to keep an eye on the activities of the humanoids.

The drone flew for a few hours before reaching the old cave, and the spectacle that Marcus saw through its eyes made him furious: his old shelter had been set on fire, burning all of the mold wax. Even after a week of constant rain, the rocks were blackened by fire.

But sadly, that wasn't the worst of it: as it was flying back, the drone saw some figures moving on the ground: it was a patrol of those gremlins, made of three of the more beast like ones and a couple of more humanoid ones armed with short spears.

The more beastly creatures were on the ground on all four, sniffing like hounds and occasionally raising their heads and pointing in a random direction.

The patrol advanced very slowly and carefully, since the beastly creatures took a long time sniffing the ground after every step, but Marcus had no doubt about the objective of their search: the path they were following was the same he had used to escape that valley.

Luckily for him, the constant rain had probably washed away most of his trail, and the patrol were constantly getting lost, wandering away from the right path and coming back to start again.

Marcus kinda wondered why it had taken them so long to send hunters after him. But the reason didn't really mattered: what was important was that those creatures had lost the occasion to kill him while he was vulnerable. Now, with his new hive, he could make them pay.

"So, they really are that intent on killing me, uh!?!" Marcus said to himself, his voice full or rage "Too fucking bad for you then. Because this time I'm done pulling punches!"

Kragg was feeling uneasy. He had very good reasons for it, to be fair: being in the middle of the forest during the night with just four other goblins was very dangerous. Those hills were full of beasts capable of killing three Ferals and a couple of hobs: a pack of nightwolves, a tuskboar matriarch... and of course, there was the King of the Ashwood Hills roaming in that valley. Just thinking about the forest dragon and the death and destruction it had caused recently made Kragg shudder.

In his mind, he cursed the General for the crazy order he had given his group: finding a few monsters in that forest after more than week was basically impossible. To make things worse, the constant rain of last week had all but erased the traces of their passage.

But, being a human hob and therefore a bit smarter than other goblins, Kragg could also understand the reasons the General was still worried about those creatures: in a short time those bug-reptile things had managed to create a nest near their city, and to makes things worse they had proven to be smarter than most monsters, using the King of the Ashwood Hills as a defence against the force sent to eliminate them.

But even then, sending a scouting party after more than a week was just ridiculous. They couldn't get in the valley sooner because the dragon, enraged by the invasion of his territory, had been rampaging for days, searching and slaughtering all patrols it found in his valley.

By the time it had calmed down, the rainstorm had started, making exploration very difficult.

In that time, those bug-reptile creatures would surely have escaped very far from here... maybe they were already back in the Dark Heart, together with all the other monstrosities that resided there.

But the General had to be sure. Having to deal with a nearby enemy right now would mess up all the plans for the invasion, so he had sent Kragg and the others to make sure those beings were really gone.

It was a risky and probably useless mission, but it had to be done, although Kragg was quite unhappy with being the one actually doing it.

He looked at his companions, an Orc hob and three feral goblins. He was in charge there, so everything that happened would be his responsibility... but he really didn't want to get any further from the city, risking his life among the wilderness.

He paused for a moment, then said:

"Ok gobs, let's stop here for tonight. We'll resume the search tomorrow." he smiled "And if we do not find anything by the time we leave this valley, we'll get back to the city. After all, if they're gone further than that, it means they're not a threat anymore!"

The other goblins nodded, looking a bit relieved. Even they understood the dangers of the forest, and were very happy to hear that they'll soon be back home.

Kragg and the other hob started preparing their camp, when suddenly a feral raised his head in alarm, his ears in the air. He had heard something.

"Danger... danger!" he growled with his guttural voice "Close! Danger!"

Kragg immediately grabbed his weapon, while the other goblins jumped in attention.

He and the other hob stood back to back, with their spear pointed out, while the ferals started growling.

"What is it?" Kragg asked. Even though his own hearing was almost as good as that of the ferals, he couldn't hear anything.

Or could he?

He could hear a buzzing sound coming from above, almost like that of a big bug. But that was quite a normal sound in a forest, so he hadn't paid attention to it.

But now he noticed that that buzzing was the only noise present: all the other animals were silent, and that meant that a dangerous predator was nearby.

"Stay close!" he ordered his companions "Prepare to defend yourself! If we flee now, we are dead!"

He looked at the forest. Goblins had very good night vision, not perfect but they didn't have any trouble seeing about 30 meters away even in the middle of the night.

And Kragg could now see something. Dark shapes moved through the trees, circling them, and occasionally he could see two pair of purple lights, eerily similar to a bug's eyes, staring at him.

From what he could guess, there were at least 5 shapes around them, all of them bigger than a hob.

"P-prepare to engage!" Kragg ordered, stuttering a bit "W-we will show t-these m-monsters what a real goblin is made o...!"

He couldn't finish the phrase, when those creatures attacked.

The ferals, incapable of controlling themself, charged at their enemies, three dog-shaped animals who had clawed limbs sprouting from their backs, meeting them halfways in a vortex of fangs and claws. But their opponents were stronger and more heavily armoured, and the ferals were quickly overwhelmed.

Kragg was wondering if he should rescue them or just run away together with the other hob, when suddenly a movement came from his side.

Another monster, this time an abomination that was three meters tall and walked on two powerful clawed legs, had charged at him, and now was trying to slash him with its huge scythe-like arms.

Kragg dived away at the last second, and those scythe limbs hit the orc hob, cutting him neatly in two.

After that, there was no more room for doubt in Kragg's mind: he just let go of his spear, got up and started running as fast as he could, his rationality lost in a sea of pure terror.

He ran downhill at maximum speed, not daring to look behind, but he could easily hear the monster that was chasing him.

Not caring about anything but putting some distance between himself and those creatures, Kragg ran like a madman, foaming at his mouth and blinded to everything by his own panic.

Then, as it should have been expected by running blind in a forest, he tripped, tumbling down the hill and seemingly hitting every part of his body on the way.

He jumped on his feet almost immediately, but then he collapsed as soon as he took another step: his ankle was sprained, and he couldn't run anymore.

With panicked gestures, he took out his knife, a pathetic weapons against the monstrosities he was facing, and pointed it in the direction he had been fleeing from.

There was nothing there. Not a single one of those creatures.

Gasping wildly, he darted his eyes left and right, but he could see nothing.

Then, with a sigh of relief, he lowered his knife... and then he heard something behind him.

He turned and found himself face to face with another of those dog like creatures, although this one was a bit bigger and lacked the limbs on its back.

The monster looked at him with its four glowing purple eyes... and Kragg could perceive something in that stare. Something was watching him through those eyes... an intelligence full of anger and hate towards him.

Kragg screamed. The last thing he saw was the maws of the beast opening, and its teeth closing on him.

A few kilometers away, in its cave, Marcus looked at the scene through the eyes of its minions.

A wild, ferocious satisfaction filled him as he took his revenge upon those humanoids that had tried to kill him

"Told ya I was fucking done playing nice!" he whispered "I hope you motherfuckers are happy now. Because since you couldn't leave me the fuck alone, I'm coming to wreck your shit now!"