When I arrive at the nest, I see Mother filling an egg with liquid biomass before putting my siblings into the egg. My brother who likes to punch stuff and a sister that can dodge is standing beside mother. They said that they are not injured to the extent that they need to rest in their eggs. I drop the Broon and walk toward mother.
"Mother, how are they?"
I look at the eggs in which my siblings are submerged inside with worry.
"They'll be fine but it will take time before they are healed. But it is too late for this one..."
Mother rubs the corpse of my sibling. Her voice filled with loss and rage. I can feel Mother's wrath and it fuels my own rage. The information in my head said that I shouldn't be feeling like this or even know this feeling but I do. I know and feel rage and loss when I see my dead sibling.
Mother reaches out and takes my dead sibling's core and eats it. Then she looks at me.
"Eat him."
I follow Mother's order and eat him, this is the first time I don't like the taste of Biomass. It tastes bitter.
[You have devoured LV1 Brood Worker]
[Brood Worker]
[The muscle and flesh of the Brood. They are the most abundant member of the Brood and also the busiest. They take care of all the menial tasks of Brood and are also the Brood soldiers.]
[You gain 1 Biomass!]
[You gain 1 Biomass!]
Mother waves her hand and one of the eggs collapses, it was the egg of the fallen sibling. Mother looks at me while caressing her abdomen.
"With this, he is inside us and will follow us as we grow stronger."
I nodded.
"We need to quickly increase our number."
Mother points at me and my brother with the Fist bone mutation.
"Other than the two of them, all children will focus on digging the new chamber."
After Mother said that, my other three siblings started digging. New chamber? I see. Mother wants to increase our number, that's why she is building another chamber, it's for placing the eggs.
If we have numbers on our side, then a predicament like this won't easily happen again. But I wonder why there is such a difference between us. I and my brother beside me can take on Broon alone, I can deal with two if I push myself, but my other siblings can't.
Maybe because they haven't mutated their strain. After they recover, let's help them. At least, until they can take on a Broon alone.
Mother looks at us and rubs our heads.
"You two are the strongest and the fastest to grow out of all the children. Now, I need you two to hunt and gather as much biomass as you can for the sake of increasing our family."
Warmth and exhilaration fill my body hearing Mother praising me. My brother beside me also feels the same.
"Leave it to me, Mother! I'll gather as much biomass as you want!"
"For the Brood! For Mother!"
Mother smiles.
"Go, children."
My brother and I rush out of the nest and into the jungle. I asked my brother if he needed rest but he said he is fine. I look for a tall tree.
"Brother, wait. I'll see if there's any prey around."
My brother nods and waits as I climb the tree. I look around for prey, there are many Pringos. Usually, that will be great but I need a prey that can give us much biomass after eating it, like Broon or Linoprey.
I look around once more and finally find a Linoprey in the distance. I drop off the tree.
"Brother, this way."
Nodding, he follows behind me. In the way, I think of plans to quickly kill the Linoprey. Unlike the Broon, it is warier. I don't think I can use the same way I use to kill Broon. Thankfully, I have a brother that can help me now.
I tell him my plan and keep it as simple as possible, my brother nods. We soon reach the Linoprey.
My brother leaps and his First bone lashes out, while I stay hidden. The Linoprey, while caught off guard, it still reacts fast. It jumps back and my brother's fist hits the ground.
The Linoprey glared at my brother, probably wondering why my brother, being smaller than it, dared to attack it. My brother, just Like a Broon. He rushed at the Linoprey recklessly and swung his fist at it. The Linoprey jumps to the side and turns, its tail lashing out.
My brother didn't dodge, he crossed his arms and took the hit. He got pushed back five steps. The Linoprey attacks again with a peck but my brother's first is faster, he punches the Linoprey in the face and quickly follows with a body blow.
Seizing the chance while the Linoprey is recoiling from the body blow, I leap out. My blade fully charged with energy swings down and hits the Linoprey's neck, I pin it to the ground and strike again. Energy-filled blade penetrates the Linoprey's head, ending its life.
I look at my brother.
"Sorry for pushing the hard part to you, brother. Are you okay?"
My brother nods his head.
"Okay."
"Then let's store this somewhere and go back to hunting."
He nods again. At first, I wanted to be the one to distract the Linoprey but my brother insisted on being the one to do it, so I gave the role to him. While I admit that he is tough, compared to me who already mutates my body. It is obvious who are the tougher ones. Hmm, let's hunt for Pringos so my brother can mutate his body.
I frown and look at my brother.
"Brother, it's hard to always call you brother and it'll be confusing later when we hunt with the other, so can I call you Fist?"
My brother looks at me and nods after a few moments of silence. I smile.
"Then Fist, you can call me Blade."
My brother, Fist, nods. I look around and decide to hang the Linoprey on a tree. I put the Linoprey on my back and held it with my Bone Blade.
The climb is arduous, the Linoprey is heavy as hell. I cover the Linoprey with black sludge so it will not attract other predators and harden the sludge to further secure the Linoprey. After making sure it is secure and won't fall down, I climb down. Then we continue our hunt. Our next target is two Broons not far from our current location. I took the chance to look for prey when I'm up on the tree.
Also, there's a group of Pringos just before the Broon, we quickly take care of them. I eat one for staving hunger and give the rest to Fist. As for how to fight the Broon, we decide on fighting it separately. I climb a tree and Fist will attack at the same time as me.
I aim for the one near the tree and Fist takes the other one. Fist and I act at the same time, my energy blade pierces the Broon's head, killing it instantly. The other Broon is taken aback by my surprise attack and isn't aware of Fist behind it. Fist punches its head from the back and pushes it to the ground, he stands on its back and begins pummeling the Broon's head until it dies.
I bumped my blade with Fist's fist before we hoisted the Broon on our back and ran back to the tree, where we hung the Linoprey. I let down the Broon on my back and bring the Linoprey down, before putting the Broon on my back again and dragging the Linoprey to the nest with Fist.
We receive another head pat and praise from Mother when we show her our prey.
Energize, I just about to return hunting, when Fist stops me.
"I'm mutating."
With that said, he goes inside his egg. Left alone, I can only lay down beside Mother's throne, waiting.
When he comes out, I instantly notice which strain he mutated. His arms are now bigger and more buff than before, it is kind of a mismatch with his body.
Just how much does he like pummeling things? To think he mutates his arm for punching too. Fist admires his arm for a little bit before coming toward me.
This time, however, we can't find any prey near our nest. There are some Pringos but no Brood or Linoprey, so we hunt and eat it ourselves. I got 4 biomass.
After searching for long and still not finding a Broon or Linoprey, we decided to venture further from the nest. We venture out from the range of Mother's mind link, as to not lose our way, I carve a sign on a tree, marking the direction of the nest. And I don't just mark one tree, I mark a lot on our way.
Then I got bored and asked Fist.
"Fist, what did you pick for your arm?"
"Power Arms."
Fist doesn't talk anymore. And that's it? Can't you describe it a little? Oh well, I can check it for myself later. Now that I think about it, other than me, I never saw another sibling communicating with each other or with Mother. They are usually silent and only speak when I or Mother speak to them, even then they only let out yells like "for Mother!" or "for the Brood!"
Why am I different? Now that I remember, Mother did look surprised when she looked at me for the first time. Is there something wrong with me?
I shook my head. No matter, I'll have time to ponder about this later. For now let's just focus on the hunt.
We walked a long way and left the forest, the area in front of us is a rocky plain. It stretches for as far as our eyes can see, a land of red ground with large white rocks. There are some creatures we haven't seen yet here. A creature with a big hairy body and six legs, a creature with three arms and legs, and a creature with a round body and no limbs. This place is packed full of prey.
We look around on the plain and the abundant amount of prey. With this amount of prey, if we hunt it all, we can increase our numbers and still have surplus for the others. I look at Fist and nod at him.
Our first target is a creature with three arms and legs. The creature's skin is colored dirty yellow with sparse thin hair. The creature has a weird shaped body, the bottom is wide and thick but the body is tall and thin. It doesn't have a head, only a big long mouth is placed vertically on the thin body.
The three arms are long and thin, two on the left and one on the right. The legs, on the other hand, are big and wide with thick hair. It's like a tree stumps with roots.
We only reach the creature's leg. For its height, it is three times taller than me.
Since it doesn't have a head, sneaking to attack its head is useless. So, we opted for a pincer attack. I attack the left and First takes the right side.
We take our position and attack at the same time.
When I leap out, the first thing I see is a yellow palm.
PAAAKKK!!
Before I could react, I was already slapped and hit the ground.
What?
My brain still hasn't registered what has happened.
How did the creature know our attack and even our exact position? It can even launch a preemptive strike.
I see First also lying on the ground with the same perplexed expression as mine. Unfortunately, we aren't given much time to ponder about it, the second strike is coming.
I get up to my feet and jump back, avoiding the coming slap. Fist rolls to the side to dodge a punch. I thought I had evaded the attack but I forgot that it had two arms on my side.
I hastily put up a guard and take on a slap from the creature, it's hit is heavy.
Thrown away for a few meters, I land on the ground and swallow hard. I didn't swallow blood, what I swallow is a piece of the creature's flesh I bite when it hits me.
I thought a little knowledge would help to deal with the situation.
[You have devoured LV1 Hecas.]
[Hecas]
[A monster with three arms and legs. It is slow and dislikes moving. Almost all of its organs are located in the lower bottom part of its body, hence the odd-shaped body.
It had hypersensitive body hair that the creature used to sense its surroundings. The sparse but evenly distributed hair on its body sense the airflow, the thick hair covering its legs sense the vibration on the ground. With the combination of the two, it can sense the world around it for threat or food better than using sight.]
I see, now I get it. No wonder it knows where we are. It can sense the vibration and airflow from our movement. It is more annoying than a normal enemy with eyes.
But, so what? In a battle, it makes no difference. I rush toward the Hecas, it launches a slap toward me. Fist also running toward it, the Hecas sent a punch toward him.
I jump and the Hecas follow with a punch, probably thinking I can't dodge it. But who says I had to dodge it? Energy courses through my blades and I stab it deep into the yellow fist coming toward me. I still feel the impact but I can handle it.
The Hecas howls in pain and swings its arm frantically, trying to throw me off but I hold on. Fist dodge the punch to the side and continue running, then he swings his fist at the Hecas feet.
A loud dull sound comes out, Fist doesn't stop with one hit and keeps punching it. His arms and Fist Bone launched a flurry of punches. The Hecas lifts its leg and kicks Fist, my brother crossed his arms and guard against the kick but he still pushed back a few steps. Then he jumps back, avoiding a slap.
I release my blade from the Hecas's arm and drop to the ground before heading toward the Hecas's leg. The Hecas throw a first at me from above, but I don't dodge or jump back, I accelerate and slip away from the fist.
My blades, already charged with energy, slash at the leg. I carve a deep gash on the Hecas's leg. With a pained roar, the Hecas' two arms clenched and came toward me. I stay still and jump away at the last minute, the two fists hit the wounded leg and the Hecas's leg gives out.
The Hecas tilt as one of the legs gives out. I climbed up unto the Hecas's body.
"Fist, attack the lower body!"
My blades are fully charged, stab down and buried deep into the hecas's body and I drag it as I run, making the wound bigger and longer. Fist run toward the Hecas and start pummeling its body.
The Hecas howl in rage and pain, it tried smacking us away but we dodge most of its attack. Even if we are forced to take some distance, we can quickly close it again.
We dodge and attack, repeatedly. Until, after a while, the Hecas finally breathes its last. The three arms drop and the legs give out. Fist and I also dropped to the ground because of fatigue.
The Hecas, while strong, is sluggish. Making it an easy target. The hypersensitive body hair is making ambush impossible, but it doesn't do anything more than that. The most annoying part of it is its stubborn vitality.
It takes many attacks to take it down. Fighting it is a test of endurance, but we manage to take it down. I got the last hit, by the way.
[You have slain LV1 Hecas, you gain EXP]
We look at the huge and bloody carcass of the Hecas.
….how do we take it back to the nest?