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Chapter 616 - The rage
🕑 Added 2020-09-18 12:07:18 +0000 UTC
When the bellow of pure rage shook the stone around the Legion camp, Aurillia was one of the few who didn't start wildly staring around themselves, trying to understand what had happened. She'd soldiered with the commander for a long time, and it wasn't the first time she heard him get angry. She was surprised, to be sure, that roar had shaken everyone, such was the sheer volume and depth of anger contained within it. She just wasn't confused, she knew what had happened.
"What was that?!"
Aurillia turned to see Titus' daughter, the young Morrelia, approach her. The berserkers eye were wide, as if she wasn't quite believing what she was hearing.
Aurillia raised a brow.
"You've never heard your father get angry before?"
She shook her head.
"No, never."
The tribune was initially surprised at this, but then, considering her parents, it was most likely the mother who'd displayed the most temper. Only in the field did Titus experience these sorts of eruptions. The man himself then appeared, storming out of the communications tent, the rage rolling of him in waves. So powerful was his aura that even experienced Legionaries were forced to draw back.
Morrelia watched, wide eyed, as her usually unflappable father stormed across the camp, his fast a mask of black rage. When he reached the stone wall of the tunnel, he pulled back one fist and slammed in into the rock so quickly she couldn't see his hand move.
BOOM!
The stone exploded, sending chips flying throughout the camp and leaving the enraged commander with his arm buried up to the shoulder. With inhuman strength, he yanked it out in one solid pull and shook it, clearly irritated by the dust now coating the armour which had only moments ago been pristine. Aurillia decided to seize the moment whilst Titus was distracted to approach.
Expression carefully neutral, she marched in front of the commander and offered a crisp salute.
"Commander Titus, tribune Aurillia reporting."
"Stop it," he grunted.
She maintained her parade ground perfect form, feet flat, shoulders down, the exact angle on the saluting arm.
"I don't know what you mean, commander."
"Every time I lose my temper, you march over, as formal as possible in a misguided attempt to inject some calm. It's irritating."
"But effective."
"That's why it's irritating."
Titus closed his eyes and drew a deep, slow breath. He focused his mind and concentrated on pushing his anger away, forcing it out of his clenched muscles and pounding heart, out of his racing blood and into his lungs. From his lungs, he imagined forcing the emotion into the air contained therein, which he then breathed out. It only took a moment, but he was noticeably more calm. The almost physical pressure he'd exerted had eased, if not completely, at least enough that it was more comfortable standing close to him.
Though she tried to hide it, Aurillia breathed out a sigh of relief as the waves of anger stopped battering against her consciousness. Whatever had set him off this time, it must have been bad.
"I presume you’ve just finished communicating with our valued allies?" She enquired as Morrelia tentatively approached.
At the mention of the Golgari, Titus' face twisted once more, but only for an instant before he was able to smooth it back to its normal state of smooth stone.
"I have."
He paused for a moment, ensuring he had mastered himself before he continued.
"When they requested the Legion assist them in this endeavour, it would appear that the House communicating with us withheld some information."
Morrelia came and stood beside the tribune, a worried expression on her face. She tentatively tried to speak up.
"Fathe -"
"How bad is it?" Aurillia asked.
"Bad," Titus ground out. "Not only did they not tell us there is an abomination in this Colony of insects, apparently two others might be present, as they have somehow joined forces within Golgari territory."
"Quite a coincidence."
"Indeed," he spat. "If that were all, it would be bad enough. I'd have brought a second Legion on this extermination, just to be sure."
"There's more?" Aurillia sounded appalled.
Keeping information from Legion simply wasn't done. What sort of colossal moron had decided it was good idea this time?
"The ant abomination has modified the core of at least one Queen and turned the whole damn Colony Sapient."
There was a moment of silence as the tribune absorbed that.
"WHAT?!" She bellowed.
"That's what I said," Titus nodded.
Morrelia winced at Aurillia's outburst, but mustered her courage and tried to inject herself into the conversation again.
"Comman -,"
"The species is apparently called Formica Sapiens. Numerous tier three, some tier four specimens spotted, and that was weeks ago. We can expect far more fours and possible some fives mixed in. On top of that, there are magic capable ants, as well as some with their own pets and healers in the mix."
The tribune was aghast.
"This is a disaster! The potential damage from such a swarm is.. Is… monstrous!"
She was staggered by the sheer scale of the disaster. A normal ant colony, when left unchecked, was enough to tear down kingdoms, destroy cities and consume tens of thousands of lives. A Colony where every single insect was intelligent?
Titus breathed out slowly.
"Yes. If I'd been told this ahead of time, I'd have brought five Legions. Cornering the Colony and ensuring none of the damned monsters escape to continue to the species is going to be a nightmare with our numbers. Even managing to engage the filthy beasts is going to be pain."
Expression grim, Titus began to think about what he needed to do.
"Alright. Aurillia, I want you to assemble the officers. Ten minutes. We have to redraw the parameters of our campaign here. We'll try and get reinforcements, though I think it'll be a struggle to get the numbers I want. That means every soldier is going to have to carry more weight. I want the troops informed of a shift in policy within the hour. Things are going to get rough and they need to be warned."
"Yes, Commander."
The tribune offered a crisp salute before she turned on her heel and walked swiftly away, leaving Titus and Morrelia alone together. The commander offered his daughter a weary smile.
"I apologise for losing my temper. I always tried to control around you and your brother."
Suddenly addressed by the person she was trying to speak to moments ago, Morrelia could only nod.
Titus sighed.
"Things are going to get ugly here. Sentient monsters are a nasty fight at the best of times. The sort of numbers we're dealing with here? We're going to lose good people. Dead Legionaries, all thanks to that prideful trash pile."
He reached out and placed a hand on his daughters shoulder.
"Get some rest while you can. There's a lot of killing to do soon. It's not going to be easy, but it's necessary to keep people safe."
So saying, he removed his hand, squared is shoulders and marched forward into the camp. He had work to do.
Morrelia slumped her shoulders.
"Ah, hell," she said.
Comments
Matthew Walker
It's past time. She should have said something as soon as she knew where they were going and what they were doing. Staying silent this long let's down the legion and the colony.
Veritas Dolor
As I understand it, reincarnators are getting two significant advantages - one is free stat boost to int and/or will, that helps them to survive and in some cases lay good foundations for their future by forming/upgrading core and evolving manually. Second is access to abilities unknown to the world, like gravity magic. Most likely explanation for this would be knowledge/understanding of concept as one of requirements for unlocking related affinity/gland.
Khanalas
You doubt because you forgot to account for survivor bias -- most reincarnators are not impressive so they die early, and the only ones that grow to deserve Legion's attention are bloodthirsty powerhouses that rose from hell
Rak87
@Alan: Garralosh only did that to get revenge on the humans (same as legion in her eyes) for keeping her from descending.
Apollo that sun person
I was running with the false memories that you could only unlock the names through the biomass profiles since i havent seen the system notifications in a good while Rinoz XD My bad
Cindermoth
But containment isn't really possible. Since ant monsters can simply dig new tunnels. Which is one of the reasons they are considered such a massive threat by default.
ZaneofBane
Doubt it. You attack the colony, you deserve what you get.
RinoZ
The Golgari defeated a few Colony members when busting Anthony out. The System notification would give the species name: Formica Sapiens. There are also ways to get the profile.... The rest can be safely assumed.
IdolTrust
I wonder if Anthony has a no-kill order for certain humans as a bulletin built into the ants daily.
Kristaps Kramins
Can't wait for Morrelia to have ''the talk'' about Anthony with her father. Should be a fun chapter :D
Alan McBrayer
At the very least she could convince she could try to convince him that trying to wipe them out is a fools errand. Mere containment is the best the legion could hope for with what they've brought
Alan McBrayer
The demons seem to keep to themselves and their level. Garralosh went rampaging on the surface.
Edgar maya
Amelia too chicken shit To confront her dad? Maybe she’ll sneak away to talk to Antony Strange that no news of the ants saving all the people from garralosh
What I mean is if there might be something more to it than that. Like from the sounds of it creatures like high level Demons are way more trouble than most reincarnated end up being, so the fact they still warrant enough attention to have a term applied to them other than just reincarnated implies there might be more going on than has been revealed so far. Of course, it could just all be surface level as you have said.
Nikita
Finally the cat is out of the bag. I can imagine how upset Titus is. If the Legion was unprepared, their casualties would be not small. Though either way the Colony is going to fiercely fight back.
Sportpix
I'm wondering if Morrelia can convince her dad to at least try to communicate with the colony. Considering its a sentient race that has already shown fair treatment to humans through Morrelia's experiences. Considering the lore filler we've seen in a few of the chapters, it could be possible that the Legion could become one of the colony's first equal alliance.
Milton Skipper
agreed time to explain the colony to Dad.....
Marter
Morrelia needs to come clean
Khanalas
Well, the train of thought is pretty obvious -- a human soul in monster's body, destined to become a bloodthirsty madman. That's simultaneously unnatural and some of hardest opponents to deal with
Unenviable position for Morrelia, if she refused to fight the Colony then Titus would probably keep her from a punishment like death, but it would probably still be pretty severe, especially if she got sent back to legion HQ. I also wonder if there is anything behind them calling the reincarnated abominations outside of them just being tougher monsters to deal with.
Apollo that sun person
Ahhhhhhh now i recall ty Yeno
Yeno Memevig
Uh Gravin knew. Hope he's alright.
Apollo that sun person
"The ant abomination has modified the core of at least one Queen and turned the whole damn Colony Sapient." That is some.......highly specific information; i hope it gets clarified how they got their hands on it.
