Chapter 16: Dangerous Battle

John made Amalgam move a little faster. From the memory he read in the Wolf King's mind, he could vaguely tell that he was nearing the area where the wolf pack battled an unknown mutant. 'All units converge around my vicinity,' John ordered, spreading out his senses to grasp each unit's surroundings. John had discovered this trick by complete accident while doing a test run on the Host. The immediate surroundings of the entire wave were clear, but the faded marks of wolf tracks and signs of battle, like dents in the ground and drag marks, caught his attention.

'We're near,'John sent out orders for the entire wave to stay vigilant. Although he had only seen brief glimpses of the mutant the wolves were fighting, he inferred that it was large yet fast. Caution was always the best course of action in times like these.

The entire black wave spread out slowly, each unit prepared for combat as they entered the mutant's territory. While the Host was still wrapped around Amalgam's neck, John watched his connection to each unit. After a while, the entire wave had entered the mutant's territory. John positioned them into balanced teams: 10 Wickermen, 10 Drones, 20 Blades, and 1 Siege Beast per team. Swarmers were given separate roles as scouts. From above, the formation resembled a black, oddly shaped oblong moving sporadically.

A few moments passed with no sign of the mutant. John questioned whether it had moved away due to its wounds or was hidden somewhere, possibly sleeping. 'Maybe it's nocturnal?' he wondered, looking up at the sky. The few rays of sunlight piercing through the thick clouds indicated it was late afternoon, nearing night. John sent out three groups of Swarmers to scout the entire area.

What John didn't account for was something fatal to him and his units. The ground beneath the entire wave began trembling. Before John could react, he felt his connection cut off with the three scouting groups. 'Battle–!!!' Amalgam and the Host were thrown into a swath of trees. John felt his connection to some of his units cut off. 'Full attack!!!' John yelled, and chaos erupted as the ground beneath the wave burst upwards. Two pillar-sized, thick tentacles rose skyward, almost reaching the clouds before whipping around like massive whips. The tentacles looked like human limbs covered in bluish-black veins, ending in stumps.

From his connection and senses, John perceived that the tentacles were whipping everything within a 30-metre radius. 'Spread out and attack the ground! FIND THE BODY!!!' John ordered. Siege Beasts and Tankers began digging while Drones assisted. Wickermen and Blades guarded the diggers and fought the tentacles. The Blades' agility and nearly endless stamina allowed them to dodge the tentacles, while the Wickermen fired at the tentacle bases. The needles left scorching marks but shattered upon impact. Repeated firing only caused slight cuts.

Some Blades managed to slash at the tentacles, but the contact only produced sparks. This cycle repeated, and John noticed he had lost 2 Blades in a few minutes. 'Where is the body!?' John felt worry and uncertainty creeping into his mind, which he consciously fought down. Initially, there were 5,910 units; a few minutes later, he had lost 1,345 units. Most of the losses were Swarmers, crushed or squished when other units were flung away. The Hunters, however, suffered no casualties, only minor scratches and wounds, as John had focused on their agility and defence.

'Shit!' John exclaimed, losing another handful of units. 'Siege Beasts, open fire!!!' He ordered half the Siege units to fire at the tentacles and the other half to randomly fire at the ground, essentially gambling to find the body. Needing more time, he took control of Omen, leaving the Host loosely hanging on Amalgam's neck. John began to morph Omen's ember sword, though most of the energy and embers were nearly depleted. He absorbed withered trees, sending a marginal amount of energy to the connecting thread. Focusing, John morphed a handle and hilt on his right arm, collecting heat from the surroundings, causing frost on the ground and snow to form in the air. Using the heat to burn the wood in his abdomen, he turned it into burning charcoal, crushed it into pieces, and let the energy imbue itself into the pieces.

The pieces turned into a liquid-like state, the same colour as the purple energy the pools produce. Letting it flow into Omen's right arm and into the hilt, the liquid formed into a viscous blade. 'I'll aim here first!' John gripped the handle tightly and charged at one of the tentacles. The conversion of wood to embers and then to a blade cost him another 300 units. The tentacle, as if sensing him, whipped toward him. 'Vibrational sense?!' John quickly dodged left and swung the viscous blade like a whip, attempting to wound or cut the tentacle. When the blade met the tentacle, John felt a profound pressure before being pushed back a few metres. The blade returned to its crystallised form. 'Did I do it?!' John quickly looked at the tentacle and sensed that Omen's body was slightly injured internally. The blade had left a large cut, almost severing the limb. 'Did it just reverse the kinetic power towards me?'

John shook himself out of his thoughts, although he did manage to almost cut it off, now he knew the reason why the Blades were having a hard time causing even a small cut. The mutant before him uses vibration to catch and attack its prey while its kinetic repulsion ability protects its body in causing damage. 'No wonder a lot of the Wolf pack members were slain or injured,' John inwardly thought before he stood up and charged towards the tentacle. The viscous blade hardened into a sharp but jagged crystallised form. 'Time is not on my side, so let's buy as much as I can.' John targeted the halfway cut he caused, fully intending to cut off the tentacle to reduce its range. 'Round 2!!!' He bellowed while a roar escaped his mouth.