Chapter 216: Attack in the Forest

"What is that!?" shouted Thokk as the ground rumbled beneath him. He bent his knees a little to steady himself, for the shaking was significant.

"Calm yourself, young one," said Goromir, and Kandak grunted.

The rest of the goblin swarm scrambled to alert, some of the less coordinated ones picking themselves up from the ground with quite the struggle, for the innards of the Vanguard shook tremendously. The fighter specimen known as Kui, however, simply stood with perfect balance, his arms crossed with his usual unamused expression.

"The Fortress Vanguard suffers attack," stated the Collector in its usual absolute calm. It began to link with the Vanguard's senses to see outside of its colossal body.

The Collector clicked its mandibles as it saw the scene outside.

Draconids.

A massive host of them, their white scaled, icy bodies thronging in a massive crowd all around the Vanguard unit. The Collector manifested a multitude of smaller eyes throughout the Vanguard's body so as to see the full breadth of the attack.

The Collector rapidly counted all of the draconids it saw and determined that there were five hundred and seventy seven draconid specimens. However, because of the Vanguard unit's colossal size, even the draconid host of nearly six hundred strong were concentrated only in one spot of the Vanguard unit, specifically the back of its semi-spherical head out of the reach of its grasping tentacles and powerful beak maw.

The draconids smashed against the Vanguard, slamming into it with hammer fists and stomps with powerfully muscled limbs to try and crack into it. Their individual blows lined cracks through the Vanguard's carapace, but because the Vanguard unit's carapace layer was so thick, it would take them hours of a sustained siege to make any sort of real progress.

The Draconids were different, the Collector noted. Physically, they were just as muscular as the regular variant that the Collector saw, but it seemed that their forms had different in evolutionary growth. They lacked any fins or gills, their aquatic adaptations almost completely erased.

Their forms were far more mammalian, almost simian with oversized, heavily muscled arms with five fingers that included opposable thumbs for enhanced and more delicate grip. As they moved, their hands hung low and nearly dragged on the ground.

Their grey scales had fused together to form into large plates. The ordinary Draconid possessed a durable weave of strong scales that were flexible enough to warp around their joints, but here, the larger plate structure functioned like tinkering armor almost, with gaps and seams around the joints to not compromise mobility.

Through these gaps, long tufts of white fur peeked out, swaying in the air with their savage movements. Their legs were not digitigrade but instead plantigrade, further cementing their more mammalian appearance, and their tails were thinner, meant less for navigating through water and more for grasping.

Their enormous jaws and reptilian heads, however, remained relatively intact.

"Draconid specimens," stated the Collector. "A collection of five hundred and seventy seven, though it is likely more may approach."

Kui put a hand to his beard in wonder. "Hm. Judging from feel of mana in the air, this seems to be at or near the Glacial Forests, no?"

The Collector immediately assumed from contextual clues that the 'Glacial Forest' that Kui spoke of was the enormous collection of spiked glaciers that formed the environment around the Vanguard unit now.

"Indeed," stated the Collector. "What of it? Does this environment indicate a lack of Draconid specimen in your observational experience?"

"The Glacial Forest marks the separation of the central Wailwaste to its eastern glacial ranges," said Kui. "The Draconids had always made their nests in the western tundras. Never once had I seen any make their way this far west.

Especially not with the Dweller."

"The Dweller? Explain further," stated the Collector.

"The Dweller is a Millennial Beast whose movements could shake this entire forest," said Kui. "But I personally had never seen it. My journey throughout the Wailwaste was limited to meditations here and to the eastern ranges, exploring Jotnar ruins, and even in this forest, I have only felt the Dweller's presence, for it is quite reclusive."

"Any specimen that is classified in the 'Millennial Beast' range has always been one spoken of as possessing enormous strength," stated the Collector.

"For good reason, too. A Millennial Beast is capable of destroying an entire kingdom by themselves. In Adventuring rankings, they are the very minimum an A+ ranked threat, requiring a group of seasoned A rank adventurers to reasonably contend with or a single trained S-ranker," said Kui.

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"And this specimen has not warded away these annoyances as it has done before?" The Collector clicked its mandibles at the aggressive Draconids trying to beat their way into the Vanguard's carapace. They indeed were mere annoyances, especially in this low a number.

What the Collector desired to know more of was the presence of this 'Dweller'. "Or made contact with the Fortress Vanguard so far?"

"I have not been past the Rift in over a decade," said Kui. "It may well be that in that time, the Draconids have defeated the Dweller and made this land their own."

The hypothetical scenario formulated within the Collector's mind that it was possible that the Draconids had assimilated the Dweller and that there was a Fang level specimen among them that housed the Millennial Beast's powers, easily rendering it a sizable threat to the Collector.

That meant that extermination of these current Draconid specimens was of utmost priority.

The Vanguard unit shook again, and the Collector analyzed once more the outsides of the Vanguard. It understood that the landing of nearly six hundred Draconid units could cause an initial impact capable of shaking the Vanguard, but to do so again when the Vanguard was now tensed up and ready to deal with strikes indicated that it was not a mass of units creating an impact, but a single unit generating significant force in one centralized point.

The Collector quickly found the unit in question.

Another Draconid specimen, but this one was far different than the others. It was twice the size of the average Draconid, easily reaching four meters in height, and physically quite different. Where the other Draconids lacked aquatic adaptations, this one possessed even more of them than the ordinary variant.

The Draconid lacked scales and instead possesses softer, leathery dark blue skin coated in a shining layer of slime. Its arms were still muscular with webbed fingers and more than enough power to shatter deep chunks into the Vanguard unit's carapace. Its legs had fused into a single tail and six powerful dark blue tentacles sprouted from its back.

The Draconid's jaw had completely changed, turning instead into a circular mass of tentacles with a serrated, round maw underneath. Its eyes lost their reptilian, slit-pupiled gaze, with the pupils turning into squares.

This specimen was dangerous, the Collector immediately noted. Not quite at the level of a Fang, but still dramatically more dangerous than any ordinary Draconid.

The tentacled Draconid raised its fist in the air and brought it down again, shaking the Vanguard unit once more.

"They cannot get away with hitting our home like this!" shouted Thokk indignantly. He pulled out his lightblade longsword. "We will fight, Sovnar! Show the intruders not to mess with you!"

"Your will is superb, but we must fight with information, first," said Goromir. "Sovnar, how is the battlefield?"

"All of you may fight," stated the Collector. "Engage any Draconid you see possesses white fur. These ones, you should find a worthy but manageable challenge. You will join them, fighter specimen."

"Understood," said Kui.

"There is a singular specimen possessing tentacles that I will engage myself," said the Collector.

"But there are six hundred of them!" came a goblin's nervous voice. "We are not even thirty. How will we fight them?"

Loktal, the Amorak, growled. "I smell fear. A pack that smells of fear before they even set a foot into the fight is a pack that is destined to lose."

"You believe the numbers disadvantaged against you, but I attribute this to your limited memory and excitement due to sudden emotional stimuli." The Collector raised a hand to the air.

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Countless created Collective units started to swarm outwards.

Striders, Spitters, Breakers – all of them began to emerge pour into the Holding Bay until the entire place was nearly packed with them, their jaws, claws, and weapons systems clacking and clattering.

"You are no longer alone. You are part of a greater Collective," stated the Collector. "And within the Collective, there is no fight that is taken alone."

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