Chapter 28.South

It took a week for Trgl's army to be within attacking range of the chicken. The thing was massive, so it was visible from a long way off. It wasn't surprising that the chicken noticed the army, despite the distance. My avatars were flying higher than trees were tall and they were bright enough to cast visible shadows during the day, if only for things close to them.

Many of the weaker teams begged me to change my mind, to allow them to run from this battle. Seems like they still feared death. They could never die so long as they belonged to me. Even chickens would need to bow to my perfection.

As the chicken grew in their eyes, their fear only increased. They were the minority, however. The Flappers, in particular, only became exited as the chicken grew larger as it came closer. When it was finally close enough for them to realize the true scale of the creature due to having something to compare it so, the team immediately started a team orgy as they were all too excited. Most teams weren't like the Flappers or those that cowered, they were in the middle. Trgl was excited for the battle, but she didn't think they'd win. Mgrt thought they'd win but she wasn't looking forward to the battle. Specifically, she thought the army would be eviscerated mercilessly and then I'd capture the chicken while putting them back together. I didn't agree. I thought there was potential for the army to face down the chicken. If they could, maybe the whole army would advance to the inner orbit at once as they finally digested how superior they were now to how they'd been before I intervened.

Either way, the influence of the mana excreted by the chicken was getting difficult for the army to handle. The Flappers were running ahead of the rest and their skin was starting to boil. Their natural regeneration was powerful, but nowhere near enough to survive like this. I mobilized my avatars, each one building a true circuit with themselves at the center to calm rampant mana. It was a circuit that usually cost very little mana, but the scale was so large it cost more than an average fourth level and class circuit.

Finally being in range, the chicken activated its first circuit. It wasn't like a human circuit, it was much more similar to mine. It was sixth level, though. It opened its massive jaws and let loose a massive fireball. It was still leagues away, but it had built in anti-air circuitry that allowed it to fly without being suppressed. This battle had just gotten more complicated.

Before the first had even stopped glinting off of the black flesh of the chicken's face, another was starting to form. It was still approaching, but it wasn't hurrying anymore. At this rate, it would be dark by the time the army was in range to fight back.

I was very appreciative of how I'd used goblins as bases for these two avatars, though. Their eyes were remarkable. In any other army, I wouldn't have been able to see the circuit the chicken made, and as such wouldn't have learned how to cast magic at a distance greater than my crystal bullets could fly. Using the crystal bullet method of constantly pushing it would cost a ton, but the air resistance was much cheaper.

My avatars started building countermeasures to the chicken's fireballs. The first one was approaching fast, so the counter was just a massive wall of earth that I erected in the path of the fireball. The force of the blast crushed the wall and sent debris hurtling into my army, crushing several, but the damage was much easier to repair than burn damage. The counter to the other fireballs was easier as they were built to explode on contact. I simply had to hit them with something while they were too far away. An issue would have been getting something large enough to trigger contact with the fireball larger than an ogre, but the chicken had taught me what I needed.

With the fireballs countered, the chicken changed tactics. A good sign for my future worshipper. Something so advanced lacking sufficient intent would be pitiful. The change was surprising, though. It started stomping in a pattern. The second strategy wasn't another type of circuit, but stomping.

I was confused until the way the earth reacted to the stomping started to change. The ripples it could generate increased in size and the distance they could travel. It wasn't circuitry, but physical manipulation of how the earth worked.

It was genius. Unfortunate for the army, though. As the waves spreading through the earth got bigger, they became more violent as well. Once the chicken had enough range, it started jumping. Each jump caused instant suppression from the air with such power the army could feel it where they were. The result was repeated impacts against the earth that were exponentially more devastating than before.

The waves that reached the army were no longer one or two pedes tall, instead they were dozens of pedes tall, with many that crested, stretching beyond the flexibility of the earth and dropping boulders as they broke from the waves that turned the dead zones between waves into dangerous avalanches. Had the chicken used this on any other army, that probably would have ended the battle. It was easy to understand how cities could fall to singular beasts given the attack pattern the chicken had already used.

Trgl's army just got excited instead. The Flappers were whooping at the top of their lungs as they leapt from crest to crest while the fourth class ogres barreled through the waves to clear the way for their teammates.

The chicken was too confident in its strategy and continued the assault until the army reached it, revved up and ready to go. The beast was extremely surprised. It had been watching the advance of my two avatars, but hadn't drawn the connection between them and the army below them, thinking the army was definitely defeated and the avatars were approaching for a duel.

The result was that the Flappers were able to leap onto the head of the chicken from the crest of the wave it just created. Normally, they'd never get such a chance. The chicken was one hundred twenty pedes tall, after all. The flappers missed the face they were aiming for, though. They landed in the mane that surrounded its head, quickly being torn to shreds by the impossibly sharp feathers. Luckily, the humans were small. I repaired them and they grabbed onto the base of the feathers, each twice as tall as they were. Each feather could cut them in half, but their bases were wide enough for them to grip their own wrists on the other side. Now that they were right next to the skin, they started trying to cut their way into the creature. They failed, their magic glancing off the hide that was reinforced far beyond anything humans had managed to create.

I aided them with a few true circuit crystal bullets that were class and level four. The one I aimed at a feather bounced off, crashing to the earth that was starting to calm. The rest dug into flesh one pes each. The Flappers grabbed the crystal bullets and removed them, revealing the torn flesh below. Now that they were working on inner layers of flesh, their attacks were a little more effective, though they were barely keeping pace with the regeneration. In the end it took four more crystal bullets to piece the skin and let the Flappers under the beast's skin as they wanted.

At that point the rest of the army caught up. The chicken was probably surprised at the size of the fourth class ogres, but it didn't get distracted by surprising events or the annoyances that had entered its body. It's massive maw descended on a fourth class ogre faster than it could react, the jaws snapped shut as it raised itself back upright leaving arms and legs to fall to the ground on their own. The ogre didn't mind that much, though, and started building circuits inside its mouth.

The chicken had a spike of irritation go through its will. The huge body dropped low, leaving its belly a mere few pedes over the ground. It then spun violently, using its tail to turn several teams into paste as fourth class ogres face-planted hard. As it came back around, it bit another ogre, this time from the side leaving head and shoulders to knock the legs over.

Trgl's army was continuously firing all the circuits they knew at the beast, but its thick hide was impenetrable for their level of assault. The only threats to it were the ogres that struck it with the force of a child throwing a tantrum. I had thought the Flappers would have an effect, but they'd been corroded to nothing by the blood of the chicken. I still had their will-cores, so I could make them new bodies later.

In the end, I'd underestimated the chicken. The ogres could annoy it, but couldn't do any real damage. It wasn't affected at all by the auras of my avatars. None of the non-ogres could even annoy it. The hound fire did nothing. The circuits used by the soldiers were all too basic. It was taking a long time, but the chicken would kill everyone in the army given enough time.

I had to step in. It was time to experiment with some of the more powerful spells the Conclave had to offer. One of my avatars started building a true circuit, a sixth level fourth class circuit. The Conclave called it Star Fall, but I was fairly certain that they were exaggerating. It may not be an exaggeration when used as a true circuit rather than a human one, though. It also weaponized the air and I could reach higher than they could.

The circuit was built directly over the chicken's head. As it activated, earth was created in the air. The instant rejection of the air propelled it toward the ground with constantly increasing speed.

Ten seconds later a stone ball with a diameter as wide as a human was tall slammed into the skin of the chicken's back with so much force it caused the beast to stagger. I'd thought this spell would be effective, and I was right. I immediately started activating hundreds of Star Fall circuits.

The chicken roared and screeched, but with the way its head and spine were shaped, it couldn't look up. A flaw of being the biggest thing out there, perhaps. It tried to flee, but I simply increased the number of Star Fall circuits where it was heading. "Submit!"

It took days, but eventually the heavily bruised chicken dropped to its belly before rolling to the side, panting and moaning.