263 Reconquest 2

"... And that makes 6, they must start to realize what's going on at this point."

Cutting the supply of mana, Dax let go of the battleaxe which was still embedded in the elder's core as it dematerialized at the same time as he stood back up to look at the field of carnage and destruction which surrounded him. Once more he had fought and survived long enough to enter a new stage of warfare, but compared to the times he made rebels disappear from the shadows or when he advanced over earth scorched by nuclear fire, this level of destruction truly was something else, the visceral amount of blood and gore from his opponents combined with the destruction which was like countless natural disasters had happened all at once filled Dax with a truly ecstatic feeling, humans might call this feeling 'the joy of battle', but Dax and all other qiton's called it something else.

The joy of existence.

(Shit, again?... I would seem I've been more off centre than normal lately.)

Needless to say, Dax was repulsed by such a feeling, for the simple reason that his mother had taught him doing his childhood: An excited qiton is the same as a dull blade, while still somewhat effective its nothing more than a blunt, imprecise instrument.

(Return to zero…)

Completely killing what little emotions were still left inside him for the moment, Dax once more focused on the state of the reconquest of the Imperial continent. 

Phillipa, Lux and Ifrit had each killed a handful of elders themselves as they had advanced inland together with Dax while spreading a newly developed herbicide capable of killing the elder's flesh and electricity eating fungus they had brought with them from the lost sanctuary. Although he wasn't sure what exactly the elder's needed that fungus for, Dax figured it wouldn't hurt exterminating it, at best he had taken something important from the elder's and at worst he had exterminated the fungus that a lot of imperial natives utterly despised.

(Still, there has to be some reason why they bring that stuff with them wherever they're going, otherwise, they wouldn't do so… Then there's the issue of the towers made out of fungus and biomatter which we've found in every major city so far and the missing recon force, biological matter aside we should at least have found some kind of remains, but there's nothing…)

With too many mysteries still surrounding the elders, Dax was well aware he couldn't afford to act on emotions, but it would seem fate had other ideas for him. 

[IMI REPORTS: HOSTILE CONTACT, BEARING: 003, RANGE: 5.091 METRES, CLOSING FAST.]

(... Here we go again.)

Snapped out of his train of thought by IMI reporting imminent hostile contact, Dax fired up his neural connection and accessed the supercomputer aboard the Hermes to aid him in spell creation. Falsely believing this was going to be a fight like any other Dax sent out the N generation drones to deal with the closing elder, but as the first one was destroyed only a few seconds later the qiton realized his mistake. With the destruction of the first drone, the next ones quickly followed as the elder targeted them without issue, completely negating any of the drones attempts at cloaking or dodge, indicating that it had figured out how to neutralize the passive jamming Dax and his drones had so far used to hide. Nailing home the fact that it could see him, the elder's mana flared as it pointed a mass of tentacles directly at Dax.

"Oh fuc-"

So far the elder's had attacked without any sort of tactics or combat knowledge behind their actions, this had lured Dax into a false sense of security, something he only just realized at the same time as he rushed to create a defensive spell formation in time. As a shield made out of black mana crystals formed in front of Dax, every part of the surrounding vibrant forest which faced the elder turned black and charred, then it caught fire.

(A thermal pulse? When the fuck- No, more importantly, I need to close the range, and fast!)

[IMI report to all operators: Irregular elder encountered, all attack drones lost, requesting backup and fire support!]

Activating the flight components of his manatech armour, Dax set off the ground in a full on sprint as a pair of large wings made out of mana crystals formed on his back. While Dax desperately attempted to close the range before his armour melted, the elder didn't just remain idle and wait for its advantage to be neutralized. With its free tentacles, the elder injected mana into the ground around it before ripping up large chunks of the earth which compressed into javelins which it hurled towards while it continued bathing him in ultra high energy protons, hoping that its opponent would melt before it started posing a real challenge. In addition to the thermal pulse and constant barrage of javelins, the elder also started creating shields made out of mana crystals, not unlike the ones Dax relied on for defence. The reasoning behind that move only remained a mystery for a few seconds, as the elder suddenly surrounded itself in a multi layered shield wall just before it came under attack from orbital artillery. 

[Artillery ineffective! Switch to smart and armour piercing munitions!]

[DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED, TASKING CAS.]

With the brief break in attacks from the elder as it shielded itself from the artillery, Dax continued to close the range while preparing an array of offensive spells at the same time. Knowing that he needed to take this fight seriously, Dax decided to go straight for the kill as he formed a lance made out of superheated plasma which he rammed towards the elder's shield formation with all his weight and the added momentum of his flight formation, but in the end, he only managed to penetrate a few layers of shielding before he was forced to retreat away from the elder's tentacles which swarmed out of the gaps in its shield to trap and immobilize him. Abandoning his cumbersome lance Dax instead materialized a pair of short swords while his armour was covered in spikes and blades made out of mana crystals, dissuading the elder from capturing him with its tentacles as he started breaking down its defences while avoiding blade tipped tentacles that the elder continuously tried to stab him in the eyes with. Slashing at tentacles whenever he had an opening to do so, Dax found himself more pressured than he had been in several hundred years, thus he had absolutely no room or spare reassures to think about anything other than the current fight, doing so would certainly lead to his death. waving in, out and around the elder's tentacles like a boxer aided by manoeuvring thrusters, Dax continued to try and reduce the elder's mass in hopes that he could soon target the elder's core and kill it for good, but alas nothing seemed to go according to plan as the elder transformed its numerous shields into blades of all different shapes as it went on the offensive as it once more started attempting to fry Dax alive with a sustained high energy thermal pulse. In response, Dax was once more forced to abandon all offensive manoeuvres as he covered himself in multiple layers of defensive shields while opening up the range and making sure that he kept as much natural cover between himself and the elder as possible. 

Keeping cover between himself and the elder, Dax continued trying to reduce the elder's biomass as he flung out whatever spells he could, hoping to buy whatever time he could, but the current situation continued to deteriorate the more cynical parts of Dax's mind found it increasingly more logical to compare his current situation to that of a single foot soldier stuck in a fox hole facing a tank.

Simply put, he was shit out of luck.

(HOSTILE OFFENSIVE PATTERN CHANGE CONFIRMED, HYPOTHESIS: STALLING FOR TIME… 95.6% LIKELY, PROCESSING…)

Keeping up its offensives the elder had realized that its opponent was stalling for time until they could be reinforced. 

(COUNTERMEASURES FORMULATED: CHANGE OF DOCTRINE REQUIRED, TASKING BIOMATTER RELOCATION SCRIPTS, ALLOCATE FOR MAXIMUM MANEUVERABILITY AND FIREPOWER… ***** SHAPE NECESSARY, PURGING UNNECESSARY BIOMATTER.)

While the elder continued to fight its shape suddenly started to change, its writhing, decaying tentacles started leaking a black, goo like liquid as other parts of its formless body was covered in a complex array of runes which slowly started changing the elder's shape while optimizing it for close quarter combat as it had calculated those functions where vital in killing its current opponent and secure a new processor for its kin.