Chapter 112: Sand Lice

Chapter 112: Sand Lice

Road’s been long, too long since I’ve seen my pack.

Think they’d forgive me if I fessed up and explained things?

Being out here without your family, with just your ride... Lonely, each problem makes you think it might be your last, and damn, it might be. Especially with those two relying on me.

But what kinda man would I be if I crawled back to them with a daughter in toe and a wife who’s gonna lead the Pendragon on a fucking warpath.

Damn it all.

Fuck it, I’m driving back to Vega tonight, maybe I’ll make it right, maybe I’ll give my head if I can’t.

-Yniol, Drunken Napkin Scribbles, (3rd Era, 290)

The first thought Erec had when the odd probable monster reached him was, Glorious. The second was: Wait, what? The third was, This has to be a joke.

It was apparent why the monster appeared as an odd formation of sand from the distance because they essentially were. A cloud of buzzing tiny dull colored insects. Confusing little light brown bugs with small glowing blue eyes. He caught one of the air and brought it close to his helmet to get a better look.

“Is this even a monster?” Erec asked in pure confusion, even as the swarm still circled, some of them latching onto his Armor, but the bulk still hoarding around in a ball.

[Yes. I’ve no reference to insects of this type.]

Erec squished the bug-monster between his fingers, and in an instant, the mass of insects formed together and whipped outward as a tendril, a pure group of clawing insects, and slammed into the side of his Armor. Erec flew across the wasteland and tumbled across the dirt.

[Whoa! Nearly similar to nanites. They linked together to transfer that force? Did I also trace anomalous energy—]The initial posting of this chapter occurred via Ñøv€l-B!n.

Erec clambered to a sitting position, his head still spinning as he stared at the cloud that’d once more dispersed into a more loose cloud.

[...Oh, that isn’t good.]

“We’ll just squad them,” Erec growled, his voice deepening as the fires of Fury lit. “It’ll be easy.”

[Not easy. This might be an enemy outside of your skill set. They’re already duplicating. It seems they’ve leached anomalous energy from your Armor by latching on to you. They are admirable little parasites and too small for you to out-kill their duplication. It might be best to call for help in this case.]

“No way.” Concede defeat to these bugs? Something he could squish with ease? “There has to be a way.” The fire burning inside demanded it.

[I doubt your ability to form a glyph in this state, but... How would you feel about an experiment in the name of science?]

Unease dripped through him since he knew what the machine would propose before it did.

[We could try that unknown power of yours. Soul, was it? Given what happened last time, I think it’d still be prudent to call an ally as a backup.]

“Mhmm. Goal is to murder the bugs. You’ve shot a gun before, right? Maybe not one of these bad boys, but with steel like that...” she shook her head as if it were natural for people from the Kingdom to touch a gun. But, oddly, in an annoying way, she was right. He had. “Whoever kills more wins. We set our bet now... Let's see if I win.... How about you let me see that helmet of yours.”

[Rifle. Demand to keep the rifle.]

“If I win, you tell me how you managed to follow me all the way out without spotting you.” VAL might sulk about it, but Erec felt it was related to a Divine Talent—and whatever gave that girl her ability might interest Boldwick.

“Deal’s a deal. Shake on it? Since it’s a proper bet, you gotta honor it right.”

Erec met her hand, careful not to grip too hard with the steel gauntlet. Compared to his Armor, her hand was tiny; but she treated this whole thing as if it were the most natural thing in the world. After their shake, she practically forced the lasrifle into his hands.

[Oooooh.]

VAL was buzzing with excitement that Erec tried his best to ignore. Instead, he focused on staring down the barrel of this foreign weapon. A weapon that’d get him exiled. Aiming it usually couldn’t have been simple, but then he’d had an advantage she could’ve never predicted. Even as VAL gushed over the specs, the Q.A.P. ran and projected the movements of the insects—even highlighting the path his laser would travel and making micro-adjustments to aim his shot to land at the best possible point of the insect’s mass.

It may have been considered cheating. But VAL, the Q.A.P, and his Armor were the tools he came into the competition with. Not using them was a handicap, and he didn’t owe this girl a fair game.

Erec took his shot, and the streak of red light seared the bugs into smoke.

“Whoooa.” She clapped and laughed. “Damn, better than I thought. Maybe I’ll call you gunslinger, slick. Dunno if even I could’ve kept it that steady. In that Armor, huh, or are you just that skilled?”

“Luck and a bit of the Armor.” Erec partially lied, trying to hand the gun back to her, much to the protesting of VAL.

She scrunched her nose at him and slowly shook her head, her smile deepening. “Mhmm. No thanks. Why don’t you hang on to that a bit for me, gunslinger? I’m itching for something a bit more fun.”

What?

She reached into the bag haphazardly slung on her side and yanked free a rusted metal can with welded metal on either side.

[By Dan, she was carrying around a homemade explosive?!]

“This is where the real fun is,” She yelled, springing to her feet and whipping the metal can through the air, landing right in the middle of the bugs.

Immediately after it smashed the ground, there was a loud bang and a flood of light. It felt like a spell. It looked like a spell and was more potent than the Seven-Snakes gun. With that ball of flame, very few bugs remained. If it weren’t for VAL highlighting them, Erec wouldn’t have seen the survivors fleeing into the wasteland.

“Way too long since I did that. God, I missed it.” She said, still looking at her explosion's crater in the landscape. “What would you rate it? Outta ten? I'd lean towards six—tried something new in the mix to speed up ignition on impact, but I don’t think it fully combusted.”

Erec blinked, a white sear still in his vision from the sudden glow of her explosive. The girl went on gleefully about the sound was good, at least, then onward about her theories for adding copper sulfate to the mixture since ‘blue explosions will have a greater shock value and cool factor,’

She was mad.

Suddenly she cut herself off, swiveling on her feet and settling those piercing gold and brown eyes on him. She held out a hand, a sly grin on her face. “Well, gunslinger, gonna let me see that helmet of yours?”