Chapter 117 - Path to the Fire

*(mood song: "Metallica - Fuel for Fire")

In the workshop Erik was finishing repairing Amanda's battle bot body so she could use that instead of his power armor, it had taken him the use of some replacement parts, but having the synthesizers it wasn't more than reinstalling the parts, once he finished repairing it and stopped concentrating he was overcome by pangs of hunger, as his hunger was getting higher and higher due to nutrient deficiencies so he went to the kitchen, and washed and chopped up some abyssal stomachs, he was tempted to cook them and make some callos, but he decided against it as he needed to mutate fast, he put stripes in his mouth and they were tough and chewy like biting on rubber, his jaws hurt by the time he filled himself eating stomach stripes, then he ate some bone dust pellets like every morning to reinforce his bones that were already almost as hard as steel, with mineral structures containing iron, he also took some flavored sweet jelly drink to clean his palate.

His belly full he went to the avatar bodies room, finding the elders and Inky already there as they ate and refreshed themselves "well I see we are all ready, it's time to go back to dealing with those crabs"

Everyone nodded as they seated on their submerged seats and Erik went to his.

--- Deep in the caves ---

Meanwhile, deep in the caves, in a village built with stone in a giant cavern with a bubbling river of lava crossing the middle was the fire tribe, lot's of mollusks and other fauna like fire mushrooms grew by feeding on bacteria and plankton that grew by eating the minerals in the volcanic fumes, and the fire tribe grew those mollusks for their meat and shells, enormous metallic clams and mussels harvested of their shells as they were then taken to a big stone building near the river, heat up in the lava and hammered into different shapes, by tireless crab people of both genders, their blacksmiths being those with the thickest shells in the tribe, trained and evolved since young to resist the scalding temperatures, but even then they had to rest once in a while and go to the outskirts were some cool currents cooled them.

In the middle of the left side of the tribe, crossing thick stone bridges over the lava river was a bug stone palace, statues of heroic crab heroes from the past decorating the entrance, a messenger now nervously crossed the imposing doors and a long pathway under the watchful eye of the royal guard, crab men and women fully geared in heavy armor, to reach a pair of metallic doors inscribed with depictions of past heroes, the walls were slowly opened by two silent royal guards as he came inside the spacious throne room, an orange glow from big fire mushrooms illuminating the room while vents on the ceiling allowed the hot water to ascend and pull cold water in using a siphon as hot water is less dense. In the middle of the room shitting on his metallic throne was the fire tribe leader, average looking but with a shell covered in scars, a suit of armor that covered his face, and a long sword to his right.

The messenger gulped at the imposing sight leaned forward "I came for a report my lord"

The fire tribe leader supported his sharp pincers on the armrests, snapping them closed as he answered with a simple word "speak"

messenger: "an injured soldier came back and reported the result of the assault my lord... t-they... they were..."

leader: "go on"

messenger: "they were annihilated sir... all of them"

the leader frowned: "how? I even lent them one of my tunneler beasts..."

messenger: "they had help from an unknown force sir, apparently they had explosion launchers and really loud weapons that shredded our forces to pieces..."

leader murmured "those bastards... how did they do it?" and then looking at the messenger said, "I'm in a bad mood... but since it's not your fault you can just go spy the shadow claw tribe, come to report again if you see anything unusual".

The messenger bowed "yes my lord" and went away.

As he was alone the leader talked to himself murmuring "but who would even help that bastard king...."

--- Octopeople city ---

Meanwhile, while all this happened and the Elder's and Erik descended down the caves, Crabina was outside in the sand dunes with the rest of her class, her teacher, four octopeople hunters, and two warriors to act as guards.

The teacher stood at the front and started talking "today kids we will learn about the environment of the plateau and the role of the hunters"

One of the hunters stepped forward as she took her heavy harpoon launcher from her back "this kids is a heavy harpoon launcher created by the Fifth Elder, in the past, we used a poisoned spear and had to get too close to the prey, with this we can shoot at prey from a safe distance, sounds easy right?" some of the kids nodded "but that's not all, hunters have to bait prey or track it down, sometimes we come back empty handed, signs to look for are marks on the sand or leftovers of their meals, but the best way is to use bait, now we will go to the kelp farms for a demonstration"

They went there and hid behind a rock as they observed a cautious pig fish approach the farms, munch on some seaweed, and then crack open a chicken clam cage and start eating them in mouthfuls as they were crushed whole inside its mouth.

The Hunter pointed at the fish "that, kids is a male pig fish, they will become female's if there are too many males in one same area and grow bigger, those clams it's eating are poisoned, and were left unguarded deliberately as pig fish are really elusive, today we are gonna capture one to study it and see if we can raise them on orders of the Fifth Elder, I have been following this one for quite some time too already".

A kid then asked, "what is a pig?"

hunter: "... I don't know, it's the name the Fifth Elder gave to this fish.... anyway, any other question?"

another kid: "why we need to raise these fish? my parents always say all food is the same, it's all meat and we shouldn't be picky"

hunter: "well the Fifth Elder asked for-"

But she was interrupted as the mean kid in the class chuckled "that's cause your parents are scouts working on the farms, how could they afford to ask for meat, warriors need the meat to get stronger in case they need to defend the tribe so-"

hunter: "shut up ignorant kid, you are not only insulting the scouts but also the entire hunter caste, we hunt and we also eat meat, scouts work on the farms and secure a source of nutrition for all of us in case there's no meat available, but if they hunt anything they can also eat meat" she patted her harpoon launcher "the launchers made by Fifth Elder have made hunting much safer, so some scouts hunt in groups using smaller launchers and just poison their prey to death, don't underestimate them" she then turned to the kid who asked, a petite octo kid "so who knows, you might be a farmer or a hunter one day, but it will all help the tribe develop in the end, as for why we will raise them, the Fifth Elder said it is so we can secure a source of meat for everyone on the tribe, and become all of us stronger" she sighed as she reminisced "meat used to be a luxury reserved only for the elders so they got stronger when i was young, but with the devices and machines developed by the Fifth Elder... once summer arrives we will be swimming in meat if we can boldly defeat Abyssals from now on... the future of our tribe will go way past the glory of our ancestors!"

Crabina: "mister hunter, didn't we need to keep quiet?"

Hunter: "ah... shit..." he turned around and saw the pig fish looking at them *chwiiikkk* and then swim away "dammit! after it! it won't last long after eating so much poison!"

--- Shadow claw tribe ---

After hours of travel, Erik, the Elder's, Inky, and Rose's puppets finally arrived at the shadow claw tribe with fresh ammunition and sharp gear, ready to blow or tear apart any enemies.

They were saluted as they crossed cavern after cavern of forts and finally arrived at the main tribe, crossing the big carved bone doors to get inside the prosperous Shadow claw tribe, thousands of people already waiting in the plaza in front of the palace as they arrived, a solemn seriousness as Erik and the others ascended the stairs and looked down at the masses below, the shadow claw warriors standing side by side with rebel soldiers "today... starts the time for a change! the fire tribe has been abusing their power all this time! but we will put a stop to that! we will turn their power and techniques, their very people into ours, and those who refuse..." *SNAP!* he snapped his pincers "SHALL BE CRUSHED UNDER OUR PINCERS! WE WILL CREATE A NEW CRAB PEOPLE EMPIRE!"

The plaza erupted into cheers "FOR THE QUEEN!!! FOR THE EMPIRE!!!"

--- 2 days later ---

They traveled through the tunnels as they slew and captured any fire tribe spies they found with Rose's help, directly executing those who refused as it would be a hassle on the move, and chaining those who surrendered, adding them also an explosive collar around the next for extra safety, all the soldier impressed with Erik's seemingly inexplicable ability to detect anyone, and some even starting to deify her inside their hearts without realizing it, partly due to the enormous amount of hormones Erik and the Elder's modified bodies emitted, that instantly made other's had a better opinion of them.

As they went deeper the heat intensified and there were fewer algae and wild creatures until there were none, having to activate the lights on their helmets as the crab soldiers behind also took out chemical lamps, a combination of light blue and white lights, they encountered some wild fauna in the way, but most just ran away from the big clamor of the army marching by.

They finally arrived at the first fire tribe fort and thanks to Rose, Erik found the secret tunnel used for reinforcements and tore the enemy crab people to pieces as they slept, they continued on their way, destroying fort after form without letting any messenger out that could report.