388: The Monkey King (Patreon)

The missile became audible. At first as just a faint whine, but the sound was turning more shrill and piercing with every moment.

‘It’s a missile. A goddamn missile. Since when do the godless, motherless bastards of this world have fucking missiles?’ snarled Maverick.

‘Such defensive Arts are common for large formations,’ replied Yue coolly.

‘What do we do about it?’ yelled Serrin. ‘We can’t let it reach us.’

Finally, Nicolai thought, someone asks the important question. He hadn’t wanted to chime in—Research and Development said it was important to keep interference light, so as to observe the subjects natural behaviour, but Threat Analysis believed the missile was absolutely not something he wanted to be hit by. In fact, it’d be best to not be within 100 metres of one of those when they went off. But it also told him that he’d only need to leap off the dragon and fall for perhaps five seconds to bring himself outside even double what the Module predicted the blast radius to be.

Whether he’d be able to drag Serrin with him was harder to predict. Still, if it seemed likely these idiots would just sit here and let themselves get hit by a missile, he wouldn’t be sticking around to see what that felt like.

‘Don’t worry!’ called Junko. ‘Silver says he can handle it!’

At that moment, the dragon’s Soul Sense all around them stirred, shifting and buffeting them in spiritual winds, only to abruptly pull inwards. Three great spiritual arms snapped out, the dragon’s Soul Sense tendrils firing towards the missile in a squirming mass.

The group fell silent, all turning to observe. Nicolai zoomed to watch more closely as the tips of those Soul Sense tendrils engulfed the missile. The dragon’s Soul Sense was pulsing, tugging and pressing on the missile from all directions, and the stuff of it tumbled apart. Defeated by some method Nicolai didn’t entirely understand, but which his Modules were frantically analysing in the hope of data-mining a new technique. Silver had used pure Soul Sense, without any sign of a Symbiote, to destroy an active Art.

The dragon’s Soul Sense tendrils wound back in, as its Soul Sense once more expanded into a cloud.

‘If he can keep that up, we might get through this,’ said Marlowe. ‘It’d be good to deal with those towers, though.’

As though in response, the dragon’s Soul Sense flexed, and Nicolai glanced down warily as he sensed currents of Oma shifting. Around the dragon’s head, motes of silver energy began to gather, forming into a shining beacon. A beam of silver energy lanced forth, spearing towards a distant tower which had just coughed up another missile.

They all watched with bated breath, but a shield shaped like a great fan appeared before the tower and flicked. There came a dull boom and a flash of light as the beam spent itself against the shield, sharp barbs of silver energy crackling out like lightning from the point of impact.

Silver followed up with two more beams, but the fan flicked them away, too. It looked a little the worse for wear after doing so, but far from broken.

Nicolai certainly wouldn’t want to be hit with one of those himself, but it looked to him like these towers possessed significant enough defences that the dragon was unlikely to get through. Silver didn’t bother gathering any more energy, seeming to come to the same conclusion. However, the towers were doing something, gathering energy.

A moment later the energy formed up and spat out. It came faster than a bullet, a line of pale light slicing through the sky.

The thing passed through a hail of gunfire from Maverick without effect, then slammed into Silver’s Soul before it could react, pulling a grunt from the dragon. The end of this great length of spiritual tentacle was a wriggling, gnawing mouth surrounded by thrashing claws. It was one of the nastiest-looking Soul Sense tendrils he had yet seen, if that was what it was, and it was digging and biting into the dragon’s Soul, attaching itself to the dragon.

Around where it touched, he saw shimmers of red, signs of the dragon fighting back against this parasite-like invader.

‘What is that?’ cried Junko, horrified. ‘It’s trying to chew into him!’

‘A lamprey,’ said Yue grimly. ‘I don’t think it’ll be able to do much actual damage to him. They’re used to hamper a fleeing enemy. Whatever is powering it will use it to drain energy from him and weaken his Soul, though it will take more to do anything meaningful.’

‘Fight it off, Silver, you can do it!’ Junko seethed, turning back. Her Soul was brightening, Oma moving, and Nicolai saw streams of energy moving over her hands and into the dragon, melding with its Soul. She was using some Symbiotes to assist it, and whatever they were they felt powerful. Like healing and energy and strength all together. Nicolai was quite surprised to see her actually do something that looked useful.

Yue raised a hand to Sora, and the wind elemental spun a rushing circle above her then plunged down, slamming into the side of the lamprey where it set to biting and tearing. Nicolai opted to join in, raising a hand to form the Spectral Claw then lashing it downwards to slice three big lines down the lamprey’s side. Felt odd to strike it, a thing with no physical form but a dense, spongy spirit.

The dragon’s Soul Sense came next, lashing at the lamprey, and that did it. It was detached and sent tumbling away, but at that moment there came a spiritual explosion from the direction of the towers. Dozens more lampreys came lashing across the sky. They arrived in an instant, slamming in and biting down on the dragon’s Soul, setting everyone to yelling and clinging tight as it thrashed in the air, raising its head and screaming with rage and pain, a scream that Junko mimicked, the energy around her surging.

‘Kill them! Kill them!’ she screamed, in a tone that gave Nicolai the distinct impression that whatever Symbiotes she used were linking her up with the dragon so she felt what it felt.

Serrin leapt up, spear in his hands, spiritual wings buzzing. He threw himself down, yelling, his own Soul Sense tendril arising, to slash at the nearest of the lampreys. He was joined by the dragon’s Soul Sense tendrils, which rose, formed into claws, and began tearing into them.

Though the dragon was ripping lampreys free almost as fast as they could attach, more kept on coming in unceasing waves from the compound. And at this point, with many more now digging into the dragon, it was slowing significantly.

Nicolai rose, pressed his M99 into the Big Mouth and pulled his knife. He’d kept his actions fairly minimal until now, curious to see how it would develop. But this fight was quickly going from something that had seemed quite manageable, with little need for him to do anything—a good opportunity to see what the others were capable of—to an actual dangerous situation.

Most pressing of all, there were signs, according to Threat Analysis, that the monkeys and this compound were working together, which made this a coordinated ambush rather than them simply getting unlucky and attracting two separate enemies at the same time.

He activated Symbiotes, flicked out his own spiritual wings and set them to buzzing, then cast his eyes down over the snake-like lampreys. There were a few nearby which had so far avoided being plucked by the dragon. If these things could be killed fast enough, they’d likely be able to get away just like that.

He let himself drop and half ran, half flew over the dragon’s side. He was at the first clinging lamprey in a moment, slashing out, and the knife tore into its side, but it felt strangely hard, tough and sticky, and the knife did not have its usual effect. He slashed again and again, and the thing was squealing, but he knew he was doing little real damage. It was like he was attacking it with, indeed, just a knife—an Artifact knife for sure, capable of damaging spiritual things, but limited by its short reach. He realised he was doing less damage than Serrin was with his spear, which had a large blade capable of big slashing strikes, and deep, penetrating stabs.

These things he was attacking didn’t have true Souls. They were more like… advanced Soul Senses, and the Knife didn’t do anything more than the average Artifact to Soul Senses. It was designed to neutralise actual Souls. Typically each stab would cause a powerful resonance that caused such Souls to literally implode, but it wasn’t working here.

Frowning, he tucked it away. It used quite a bit of Tier 2 Oma, something that took him time to produce. He had a number of Tier 2 crystals to stock it up with if he needed them, but this was a bad return on investment.

He formed the Spectral Claw instead. It was still only Tier 1, a serious limitation that meant it would only be somewhat more effective than the Knife, but it was designed to deal heavy spiritual damage through the simpler medium of just slashing into something. Overall, better in this situation. Easier to use, too. He was able to reach out with it while rising back up towards the others and tear almost absently into a lamprey, while his focus was on what was coming.

Two more missiles were approaching, and as before the dragon’s Soul Sense lunged out. It took them apart as quick and neat as it had the last one, dismantling them within a few seconds. But during that time the number of lampreys attached dramatically increased, as the dragon had to turn its full focus to dealing with the missiles. Threat Analysis also noted that the distant towers were starting to fire their missiles off closer together, and judged that if four approached at the same time, the dragon may not be able to take them all apart in time.

Below, the monkeys were a raucous, shrieking cloud, spreading out and rising quick towards them, and abruptly they multiplied.

There had been perhaps two hundred, but with an odd shifting there were twice that many. Then the same again, and again.

‘Are you all seeing this?’ spat Marlowe. ‘There’s more of them! Hundreds more!’ He’d pulled a heavy revolver and let out a series of equally heavy bangs as he fired, one-handed, into the rising cloud.

‘Kill ’em!’ growled Maverick in reply. ‘Kill ’em all!’ Guns of all descriptions had come free from the corgi’s armour, and an endless cracking and rattling sounded as he sprayed bullets into the cloud. He possessed a spiritual storage of his own, and one of his armour’s robotic tendrils was continuously delving into it to fetch more ammo, while another was wound around one of the dragon’s spines to keep him steady.

The monkeys poured past them on all sides, screeching and howling. Some fell, bloodied bodies that tumbled down, but the rest kept on, undaunted. Amongst them were crews hauling big bulging expanses of netting, which were wrapped around masses of small, struggling creatures. Ugly things that looked to be little more than squat spherical bodies dominated by big mouths, bristling with sharp teeth, two wings set either side. One of those bundles of netting exploded, the casualty of a grenade Maverick fired, sending blood and gore in all directions.

Black rain began to fall, javelins hurled from monkey after monkey that came dropping down towards them frightful fast.

However, Nicolai and his Modules spent an instant analysing the javelins, and determined that the vast majority were entirely mundane. They had been thrown with considerable force. Like all cultivating beings, and especially spirit beasts, the monkeys were stronger than one might expect, but that was all.

And so Nicolai watched the cloud of sharpened wood rushing toward him while wrapped in the wonderful calm of a man who knew himself protected by a Silver Net.

Instead of worrying about himself, he looked towards the others. He was curious to see how Junko and her companions would deal with the attack, though he readied himself to act if it transpired that they had no answer.

It wouldn’t do to miss an opportunity to heroically save the day.

Still, if they couldn’t deal with something this mundane, he would honestly be rather disappointed.

His expectations were met when Yue called to the wind elemental. It had returned to flying above them with the realisation it would barely make a dent in the attacking lampreys.

‘Sora, shelter us!’

The elemental whistled in reply. A powerful gust began to howl only metres away, forming a shield of rushing air.

The javelins struck the shield. Many split apart around it, guided harmlessly away as though Sora had created a Silver Net of his own and wrapped them all within its protection, but even more passed straight through.

Nicolai wasn’t spared this, as some javelins speared straight at him without his Silver Net doing a thing in reaction, but he’d had a feeling this might happen. Threat Analysis was certain the monkeys were creating illusions. There was an instant of panic, everyone yelling and flinching, then the javelins struck them… and vanished into puffs of light.

The dragon didn’t benefit from Sora’s shelter, but it didn’t seem to mind. The real javelins cracked against its scales like hail upon a tiled rooftop, then fell away without leaving so much as a dent. Up above, the wind elemental’s circling slowed, looking slightly drained.

But mixed amongst the rain of mundane javelins were more threatening variants, which, conveniently, glowed bright with a yellow energy that wrapped them. Nicolai rose back to his previous position, M99 sliding into his hands. Sora was releasing a shrill whistle in warning as he arrived.

Maverick was already firing at the yellow javelins, and bullets transpired to be quite effective against them. Nicolai helped out, or Aiming did. The Module was eager to set to work, and he’d granted it permission to do whatever it thought best. Atop his shoulders his gunlimbs drummed, snapping from target to target, acting like a point-defence system as they splintered javelin after javelin. Even so, a couple made it through, but these were intercepted by a large Shield Yue formed. They cracked into it and tumbled away.

Abruptly, Threat Analysis spiked in Nicolai’s mind, shoving a warning at him in near-instantaneous military code.

Very powerful attack incoming. Instantly lethal if it hits. Likely target: Junko.

His mind and Modules pooled their resources, joined by the Mask—which, for philosophical reasons, was probably the most invested in her safety, though it also found her quite annoying. In a flash, Nicolai formed a Spectral Claw while whipping up his M99.

Time seemed to slow as he saw the object streaking towards her, felt everything around him. But what he felt caused him to lower the gun before he’d even finished raising it.

An instant later, the others cried out in surprise as Silver’s tail flashed up, intercepting the projectile.

The dragon released a tremendous roar of pain, one that was echoed by Junko, who screeched like she’d been stabbed. For a moment Nicolai saw the dragon’s tail hanging over her, impaled by a heavy metal spike.

A javelin, but nothing like those the other monkeys had been throwing. This one was coated in a darker, orange energy, which spat and hissed where it was dug into the dragon’s flesh, but it was quickly fading.

Silver’s tail whipped away and blood sprayed from the wound.

Nicolai raised an eyebrow and flicked a drop of the dragon’s blood from one of his helmet’s camera lenses. When it came to defending Junko, Silver was remarkably impressive. Probably the most competent person here, except perhaps for himself, though Yue was also a standout.

Junko was sobbing, hunched up where she was clinging to the dragon, and he caught what sounded like her apologising to it. Maverick had darted over the dragon’s back to come near to her and was asking if she was okay, but she just waved him off, seeming unable to talk. The energy was still flowing from her into the dragon, healing it through body and Soul.

Serrin appeared with a buzz, rising up from where he’d been cutting away at lampreys. ‘What was that?!’

‘There’s a Tier 3 up there,’ Yue announced, glaring upwards. Her eyes narrowed. ‘The Monkey King.’

‘You are trespassers! Give us your treasures, and we let you live!’ boomed a voice. Nicolai’s head turned. Up there, floating in the midst of its screeching fellows, was the Monkey King. A huge monkey covered in bits of golden armour and a random mess of jewellery, an actual crown on his head, wielding a long staff of light blue metal.

Before the Monkey King had even finished speaking, he was shot by a hail of bullets in all kinds of shapes and sizes courtesy of Maverick, but the bullets seemed to pass straight through. Nicolai had been pretty sure that was just an illusion, but the dog’s actions confirmed it.

‘Your pitiful weapons cannot harm me!’ proclaimed the Monkey King, letting out a big booming laugh, sounding greatly pleased with himself.

Threat Analysis said the voice seemed to come from all of them, not from where the illusory King was gesticulating.

‘Cease!’ cried the King, and the endless hail of javelins petered out, the monkeys falling silent.

The group exchanged glances. ‘I don’t like it, but we should consider…’ began Yue, an unhappy expression on her face.

‘No chance,’ Junko snarled, raising her head to glare upward, dashing tears from her eyes. ‘Fuck them!’

For once Nicolai found himself in complete agreement with her. ‘I’m not giving up anything to a bunch of monkeys.’

‘Not a lot I can do here,’ grumbled Marlowe, shaking spent rounds out of his revolver, ‘but I agree.’

The javelins started up again, the monkeys somehow recognising the group’s decision.

‘You die, then we take your treasures anyway!’ roared the King, disappearing as the monkeys around him surged forward to cover his form, their screeching resuming. ‘And we help the worms!’

Nicolai guessed the King would dismiss his illusion once it was hidden by the monkeys, a nice bit of showmanship.

Some of the lampreys, still attached to the dragon’s sides in many places, abruptly swelled. Monkeys were clustering near their trailing tentacle-like bodies, feeding energy into them.

‘We need to kill the King,’ said Yue, looking back in that direction. ‘Do that and the rest will scatter.’

‘I’d shoot him if I could see him!’ yelled Maverick, guns-ablazing. ‘Where the hell is he?!’

That was the crux of the matter. These monkeys possessed strong illusory capabilities, and the doubling and doubling was only one example of those abilities. The Modules had determined there were only about two hundred Tier 1 monkeys, but all possessed an ability to make roughly three copies of themselves. As to the Tier 2 monkeys, there were perhaps a dozen, but these threw much more dangerous javelins and could also make illusions, better illusions. The Modules had already seen through those made by the Tier 1s, but were still searching for a way to unpick the Tier 2s from their copies—but were at least able to sense them out there.

And as to the King, there was no sign of it at all. It wasn’t just powerful, but smart, and had thoroughly disguised itself. It was using what seemed to be various Symbiotes on top of natural abilities to likewise disguise its voice, attacks, and so on. The moment that javelin it’d thrown had hit, Aiming had used their constant recordings to determine where it’d come from—a big cloud of monkeys—and Simulations had worked out precisely where in that cloud the thrower must be, but when Threat Analysis ran half a dozen scans on that exact spot it returned nothing but Tier 1s, scattering in all directions.

Still, every kind of stealth had a weak point, and they would find it. Once they did so he was certain that sustained fire would bring it down. Even a Tier 3 couldn’t soak .50 cal rounds forever.

A voice spoke to him, over Local. ‘Is this as bad as it looks? You can get them out of this, right?!’ Serrin was still down on the dragon’s side, hacking and slashing at lampreys.

Nicolai looked up in response to a poke from Threat Analysis. Above them, all those monkeys with nets had gotten into position. He saw them pulling loose rope ties, saw the nets bursting open, saw hundreds of what were, effectively, flying mouths begin to tumble down toward them. In the near distance, more missiles were closing in, and he could feel that another strike from the King was imminent. Yue was up to something, her eyes closed, and Maverick was going on about an anti-illusion firing solution.

Would their efforts be enough? Perhaps. They’d clearly come through plenty of tough scrapes before this, and there was no telling what trump cards might still be in stock. Still, this evidently wasn’t an easy situation.

‘Fear not, Serrin,’ Nicolai replied. ‘Saving the day is what heroes do.’