Chapter 31: The Kryle Abnormality (2)

Gerald's attack had left a massive crater in the earth, spanning nearly ten meters wide. The whole area was covered in uplifted soil and chunks of rock that were blasted away from deep underground. As for those strange, veiny tendrils that had burrowed through the ground around the blast zone, they had been destroyed too, leaking the same acidic blood as the Kryle.

However, as the blood soaked into the ground and eroded it simultaneously, the tendrils began to pulsate, despite their apparent destruction. A few seconds later, that pulsating turned into an active movement, almost snakelike in nature.

They started to grow, or perhaps the right word was regenerate, starting slow but speeding up by the second. Once again, the newly grown sections of the tendrils began to dig their way through the ground, circling the crater's edge while slowly connecting with one another.

Watching this from a distance, it didn't take much for all three of them to figure out that trying to destroy this thing from the surface was next to impossible for them. But since it wasn't taking any immediate action, Mia took this opportunity to explain what she had observed.

"From what I could tell, the whole hive is like one massive living creature. What we're seeing here is just the surface. Deep underground, I managed to catch a glimpse of its main body. They've dug tunnels and chambers, all lined with that thing's flesh. That's why we couldn't find the entrance; they're hidden under the earth."

Behind them, Gerald, who was still clutching his greatsword, got up from the ditch in the ground and walked over to them while cracking his neck.

Having also overheard Mia's explanation, he spoke, "So, you're saying the Kryle that ambushed us came from inside that thing? If that's the case..."

"Then that thing is also a Kryle?" Marcos finished Gerald's thought, and Mia nodded to the both of them.

It was the only explanation that made sense. The Kryle were known for their voracious appetite, and it seemed unlikely that they would coexist within another creature without consuming it. The only things the Kryle didn't devour were other Kryle, as long as they were alive that is.

"From what we've seen and what the reports have told us, the Kryle have never shown the ability to evolve into anything beyond their basic insectoid forms. But this hive suggests otherwise. Not only that, but look," Mia gestured for Gerald and Marcos to survey their surroundings.

Across the area overrun by the Kryle Hive, the ground was cracking as something beneath it was opening its maw.

The soil collapsed under its own weight, no longer supported by anything. From these holes, searing heat vented into the outside world, hot enough to scorch skin. The smell was rancid, a mixture of various decaying odors, so putrid that it would make an ordinary person feel nauseated.

Casting a glance into one of the nearby holes, all three of them saw that a few meters down, the inner walls of these pits began to become lined with pulsating reddish-pink flesh. The veins that had been burrowed into the ground like trails changed from blending in with their environment to sharing the same color as the flesh in the pits.

Skittering sounds echoed from the gaping holes as dozens of Kryle began to emerge.

Unlike before, there was no randomness to their emergence. If the initial mob that ambushed them could be compared to a disorganized group of mercenaries, now they had formed a cohesive army, with not a single unit acting inefficiently or out of place.

"Well, shit. Those bastards really wanted to trap us, maybe even before we got here. They lured us to this area with that initial ambush. They even knew how to avoid being detected by us. If we hadn't pulled back and launched the first attack, we'd be completely surrounded right now…"

[Based on this encounter, we have come to the conclusion that the Kryle, have somehow developed intelligence…]

Major General Arbarth read that sentence over and over again, each time the sense of dread crawling up his back grew.

"They always claimed this could never happen... said it was impossible," he muttered, the weight of the situation sinking in. The Kryle had always been a threat, not just to humans but to all life on the continent, but there were reasons they had not yet been wiped out.

The foremost being the fact that they had dug themselves in deep, like soldiers entrenched on a battlefield.

Within the confines of their home territory, they had already stripped everything bare and transformed it into their ideal habitat. With no one to keep them in check, their numbers had already likely grown beyond anyone's wildest guesses, even if they were limited to a confined area.

Furthermore, the human kingdoms and non-human alliances were still embroiled in a war against each other. Neither side had the resources to spare for an all-out assault on the Kryle, and even if they did, it was a risky endeavor.

For now, simply holding the line against the Kryle was considered a success. This decision might seem nonchalant, but it was backed by years of research and experimentation. As fearsome as the Kryle appeared, they were ultimately just monsters, not mana beasts. This meant that, as long as they had mages and knights, they could be kept in check.

More importantly, the Kryle lacked true intelligence.

They operated as part of a mental hivemind, driven solely by instinct. They couldn't strategize or plan ahead; concepts like cause and effect were beyond them. If a button capable of wiping them all out were placed in front of them, they would likely press it by accident without understanding the consequences.

Moreover, their memory and ability to recognize long-term threats were severely limited. Even if they encountered the same enemy repeatedly, they would treat each encounter as if it were their first, wasting time adapting and evolving anew each time.

It was akin to creating a specialized kit to combat a specific boss in a game, only to delete it after the battle and remake it when facing the same boss again. All of these factors served as limitations, reducing the Kryle from a world-level threat to a species that was frustratingly difficult to eliminate but not dangerous enough to require immediate action against.

But... if what's written here is true and the Kryle have really become intelligent, then this isn't just about the eastern borders anymore. It would affect the entire kingdom. I can't be hasty about sharing this kind of information; mishandling it could lead to major consequences.

As he considered his next move carefully, Arbarth went on reading. However, this time, he read each word more slowly, his expression growing serious.

[After realizing the possible repercussions of letting such Kryle survive within the borders of the Batis Kindom, our captain, Mia Reiheim, gave us an order…]

"We can't let this hive grow anymore, especially if its central link is somehow intelligent. We need to wipe it out, and fast." Her words went uncontested by both Gerald and Marcos. They both understood the potential danger of the enemy and what it would mean if it was allowed to survive.

"What's the plan, then? These aren't our average Kryle. We can't be too reckless," Marcos cautioned. Mia's eyes drifted past the Kryle in front of them to the nearest pit leading into the Kryle Hive before she spoke.

"Gerald, clear a path to that pit. Just charge forward. Marcos will keep the Kryle off your back. The moment I see an opening, I'll go in first. With my connection to the wind spirits, I can avoid any hazards. Once I send the signal, that means it's safe for you guys to come in after me."

Hearing her plan, Gerald couldn't help but grin as he tightened his grip on his greatsword's handle.

"Sounds like this is going to be fun!" As everyone got ready, Gerald let out a battle cry. Various muscles in his body bulged as he charged forward, and as a result, the Kryle, who had been acting out of character and carefully observing their prey, leaped into action.

Six Kryle immediately blocked his path, their bodies covered in thick armor with two sickle-like appendages arming their fronts. The blades almost seemed metallic in nature, from their sharpness to their gleam, despite being completely natural.

Rushing at Gerald, all six of them attacked with both of their arms ambidextrously, each cut slicing through the air swifter than an arrow. In mere moments, Gerald's vision had become a kill zone of blades ready to rip him apart from every direction.

Still, his smile didn't fade. Instead, the sight only urged his body to move faster. Reeling back the arm holding his greatsword, he swung in a slightly upward arc, preparing to clash with every single attack the Kryle were sending his way.

A sharp ring resounded as the great sword met with a multitude of sickles. The force of Gerald's swing and the six Kryle canceled each other out instantly, causing their weapons to grind against one another.

"Oh? Not bad. You guys are way stronger than the trash we were dealing with before. But..." The veins on Gerald's body began to bulge even more as he gritted his teeth.

Taking one solid step forward, the ground under his feet gave way slightly, as suddenly the six Kryle suddenly felt their strength being overwhelmed.

"There's no way in hell a bunch of insects are stopping my swing!" The sickles of the various Kryle suddenly cracked under the immensity of growing pressure as Gerald's blade was freed from contestment and arced through the air in front of him.

In the silver shine of his blade, the six Kryle ahead of him were all beheaded, their heads flying into the air as blood sprayed from their new apertures. Still, the Kryle knew no concept of fear.

Even with the deaths of six of their own, five more Kryle instantly rushed in to attack Gerald from behind. However, almost in time with their attack, three projectiles flew from their sides.

Two throwing knives covered in a dark, hazy aura pierced straight through the armor of two of the three Kryle, skewering their brains directly, while the third had a hole blown directly through its body as an arrow shot through it at subsonic speeds.

Seeing that there were still two Kryle left attempting to attack Gerald from behind, Marcos's aura began to shift, wrapping itself around his arms like a gyre while vibrating violently.

"Resonance Arts: Aerovortex..."

His voice was ever so quiet, but his actions spoke louder than his words. Reaching out, his hands moved as if he were trying to grip the very air itself. In an instant, the air in the line of sight of his hands began to move in the form of a vortex, like water down a drain.

The two Kryle, who were in mid-attack, froze in the air as they were suddenly and violently yanked toward Marcos. Before they could react, they had both crashed into his hands.

The instant they made contact with his aura, a powerful vibration began tearing the two Kryle apart from within as he slammed them into the ground. The vibrations flowed from the Kryles' bodies into the earth, turning the arid ground beneath their lifeless corpses into a dusty grave.

Even when faced with Kryle much faster and tougher than any they'd encountered before, it didn't disrupt the group's rhythm.

Gerald continued to pour more aura into strengthening himself while Marcos dealt with Kryles attempting to flank him. Those two working together, plus Mia's expert long-range support, quickly turned them into an unstoppable force.

Within a matter of minutes, they had already gotten close to their goal.

"Ragh!" Gerald roared as he cleaved a Kryle in front of him in half.

At the same time, Marcos quickly rushed up from behind and used Gerald's back as a springboard to leap at a Kryle attacking from above. Reaching out, he was aiming to grab the Kryle's head with his arm as it became enveloped in his manifested aura. But just as his hand was about to meet its target, the Kryle did something unexpected.

Using its body weight, it subtly shifted itself in the air to avoid Marcos's grasp. This sudden maneuver left both Marcos and Gerald stunned. Although the Kryle had become more organized, it hadn't yet gotten to the point where they actively dodged attacks, or at least they had thought so.

"Dammit!" Caught off guard, Marcos swiftly used his aura to defend against Kryle's counter as it slashed down at him. The strike didn't pierce his aura, but still, the force sent him crashing into the ground with enough of an impact to crack it.

"Hehe, clever little bastard!" Gerald grinned with a mix of excitement and bloodlust, ready to take care of the Kryle himself. However, someone else beat him to it.

As the Kryle fell to the ground under gravity's pull, two arrows perfectly arced through the air, striking both of its sickle-like appendages with unnatural force, aided by the wind itself. Both of the Kryle's front limbs nearly snapped off from the sheer power of the projectiles. Meanwhile, a shadow seemed to glide through the air and quickly make its way onto the back of the Kryle.

Mia's gaze was sharp as she locked onto the Kryle. For a moment, it seemed both she and the Kryle defied gravity, suspended in the air. But the moment she entered striking range, the space around them turned into a vacuum, creating an airless zone.

Simultaneously, Mia's legs were suddenly bolstered by her aura. Her next two strikes weren't the result of any specific technique; it was the simple absence of air resistance combined with her inhuman strength.

The kicks were lightning-fast, fast enough to break the sound barrier. The first strike killed the Kryle instantly, shattering its body entirely and rupturing its organs, while the second sent its corpse hurtling toward a group of three Kryle who were blocking the pit leading down into the Kryle Hive.

When the air returned to normal and filled the vacuum, there was no sound generated from her attack except for the crash of the Kryle's corpse as it crushed its allies.

"Nice one, captain!" Gerald yelled up at her, grinning.

"Me and Gerald will cover you as you go in," Marcos added, already on his feet and ready to move alongside Gerald toward the entrance of the Kryle Hive.

Mia nodded and dove into the pit without hesitation, using her connection with the wind spirits and her aura to deal with the intense heat as she descended. Marcos and Gerald only needed to wait for a minute as an arrow erupted from the pit, leaving a violent gust of wind in its wake.

"That's the signal. Let's go, Gerald." Marcos quickly avoided a nearby attack from a Kryle and immediately headed for the Kryle Hive entrance before leaping in.

Seeing his comrade's move, Gerald grinned, slicing through a group of charging Kryle before following Marcos and leaping into the pit. And just like that, all three of them ventured into the depths of the Kryle Hive.

As Marcos slid against the flesh-covered walls of the pit, he used one of his hands and feet to slow his descent. After getting close enough to the ground, he quickly jumped the rest of the way, and mere moments later, Gerald landed next to him with a heavy thud, having free-fallen the entire way down.

"We must have fallen at least over a hundred feet; no wonder your attack from before didn't reveal anything. It's pitch dark down here as well." Marcos's voice seemed to dully echo against the fleshy tunnel they were standing in.

"Ya, and it smells horrible too, ugh. Mia, do you know which way we need to go?" Gerald held his nose in disgust as he looked in Mia's direction, or at least where he felt she was.

Unlike the Kryle, who had adapted to such an environment, aura wasn't so convenient that it could give knights night vision in places where there was no light, but it could make up for the loss of one or two senses by enhancing their others.

"Yeah, from what I can tell, there's a large chamber not too far ahead of us; we just need to navigate through the tunnels. But we'll need to be fast; I can already tell multiple Kryle are making their way here." With Mia's words, they all began to move, with her taking the lead.

Only minutes after they had started to run, they could already hear the sound of Kryle's joints clicking and the distinct sound of their legs against the fleshy surface of their hive.

"Looks like we really stirred up the hornet's nest!" Gerald yelled as they ran through a multitude of different tunnels. Each one was about ten feet in diameter, yet they split off into even more tunnels countless times.

If not for Mia, anyone who fell into this place would be lost in the Kryle's maze, doomed to be swarmed and devoured.

"Watch out above us," Marcos called out. He was running low on throwing knives, so he left the frontal defense to Mia.

"I see them." Locking onto her target, Mia nocked an arrow, as she saw three Kryle crawl from out of a tunnel on the roof in the direction of where they were running.

The putrid air in the Kryle Hive weaved itself around the arrow as she let it loose mid-sprint.

It flew through the air as a blur, piercing through the head of Krlye in the middle, killing it instantly. But that's not where it stopped. After flying a few feet, it lost its momentum and seemingly fell, only for the wind around it to suddenly take control.

The arrow aimed itself at one of the other two Kryle, as it was suddenly launched forward at the same speed it had been launched from Mia's bow. It was like a heat-seeking missile, killing yet another Krlye before reorienting itself in the air and firing again.

It was only after the last of the three Kryle was shot through that the arrow lost its strength and dug itself into a wall.

The three of them paid no mind to the falling corpses as they ran by them because, just a few seconds later, the corpses were run over by the massive swarm of Kryle that were chasing after them.

They were pouring out from everywhere; every tunnel behind them added yet another stream to the river of insectoids; there had to be hundreds of them, and a few were even pouring out from the tunnels ahead of them as well, which Gerald and Mia had to take care of.

"We can't deal with the central link and all those Kryle at the same time." Glancing back, even Marcos took a deep breath; there were just too many.

"We won't have to. Mia, you said the Kryle Hive is just flesh outlining the tunnels and chambers, right?" To Gerald's question, Mia nodded and replied.

"From what I can tell, ya. They must have dug it out first, and the Kryle Hive simply grew to cover up the stone." That was all Gerald needed to know as he spoke with a grin.

"Then leave it to me!" The two of them had no clue what he was planning, but they trusted Gerald all the same as they nodded.

After running for a few more minutes, they saw the tunnel they were rushing through begin to open up wider, and not too far ahead of them, it led to a giant open space. Mia and Marcos were the first to rush into the large chamber, with Gerald right behind them.

Turning on his heel, Gerald slid across the fleshy ground as he held his greatsword like a javelin and focused his gaze on the top of the tunnel exitway. His overbearing red and black aura quickly enveloped his greatsword, covering it from tip to handle as he threw it with enough force to cause a shockwave.

As the great sword flew through the air, the Kryle who were chasing after them looked like an ocean, flooding the walls, floor, and even ceiling as they charged forward.

Just as they were about to reach the end of the tunnel, the greatsword hit its target, tearing through the flesh of the Kryle Hive and striking the stone behind it. The entire exit of the tunnel shook violently as the rock forming its top half cracked and became unstable before finally collapsing.

Hundreds upon hundreds of tons of rock started to fall down, shaking the entire chamber they were standing in while blocking up the tunnel and stopping the Kryle.

"Haha, that should hold them for a while—well, until they dig their way through." Hearing him, Marcos could only shake his head as Mia sighed with a complaint.

"Gosh dammit Gerald, we can't keep affording for you to keep losing your swords like that on every mission; they're expensive!" Listening to her half-heartedly, Gerald shrugged as he responded.

"Eh, it's fine. I can just use my fist; besides, it was a mission expense, and I'm sure the Major General won't mind paying for it. In any case, we have other things to focus on right now." Gerald's tone became a bit more serious as he looked at the chamber they were standing in.

It had to be hundreds of feet wide and almost equal that in terms of height. It was like standing in a giant hollowed-out meatball; however, in this case, nearly every surface was covered in strange egg-like pods.

Walking up to one, Marcos peered inside and saw what could only be described as a deformed Kryle.

"Well, it looks like they're also using this as one of their hatcheries. They probably make the same type of Kryle that we've been fighting since we got down here." As Marcos said, his and everyone else's attention was drawn to the center of the chamber.

Connected to both the roof and floor of the chamber was a massive pillar of some sort of muscle tissue. Although it looked similar to the rest of the Kryle Hive and the flesh it was made out of, it seemed firmer.

In the very center of this pillar was a small, pulsating sphere, almost entirely covered in the tissue of the pillar. It was bigger than a boulder in terms of size, and when Mia and the others saw it, they couldn't help but be surprised.

"It looks like that's the central link... but it's huge; I don't think I've ever seen one that big before." Marcos agreed with Mia in that regard; this was the biggest central link he had ever seen as well.

The entire Kryle hive mind acted like a massive network, and between the various branches of this network there existed nodes, which represented a hive and its central link. Each central link was like a control tower, directing and moving the Kryle under their influence all the while while receiving orders from even greater nodes that existed closer to the center of their territory.

"Well, no matter how big it is, all we have to do is break it, and this hive will be done for." Slamming his fist into his palm, Gerald prepared to leap at the central link. But before he could even take a step forward, his eyes widened as he suddenly felt a force envelope his entire body.

It's just like what I felt before on the surface!

Immediately after having that thought, Gerald felt his body being forced back by something he couldn't resist. His feet were lifted off the ground, and he was sent flying through the air like a ragdoll, slamming into one of the chamber walls with a massive crash.

"Gerald!? Wha- What just-" Before Marcos could finish speaking, he suddenly felt as if his entire body was being weighed down as he collapsed to the ground.

"Marcos, Gerald! This… this is psychokinesis, but how?" Mia called out as she saw both of her comrades get attacked. However, her alarm was cut short as she suddenly noticed the pillar of muscle tissue beginning to move at its base.

The tissue morphed as it opened up slightly, and after a moment, a figure stepped out of it, disconnecting themselves from the flesh holding them inside. The moment she saw the figure, Mia drew her bow and yelled with a deadly tone in her voice.

"Who are you!?" Yet the question seemed to answer itself in her mind as she got a better look at the figure's clothing and appearance. Although her body didn't relax, her eyes went wide as she nearly stumbled over her own words.

"Lo- Lord Azer?"