NBB - A sphere's tale - Chapter 11 Made to last forever

GD18s mind spun quickly, scanning around. He sensed nothing, but he didn't believe Mutar would just make this up. Although he had no map of the city, he did have a road map of the area. Through the status popup, he quickly searched for Terento. A spaghetti-like roadmap appeared, and he zoomed in on the city to determine his current location and the directions out of the city. With only one six-lane road in the city and two spots with the setup of ramps he had just passed, he located himself. There were three roads out of the city ahead of him, two major ones and a small highway.

"There it is," Mutar said.

GD18 didn't smell or hear anything yet. Ten seconds later, a soft whirring sound began that turned louder fast.

"What is it?" GD18 asked.

"It's like those smaller things chasing us, but it flies. Can you move faster?"

GD18 heard a slight panic in the undead's voice. Spurred by this and the quickly approaching whirring sound, he squeezed a little more speed from his thousands of legs.

Coming up ahead was the first offramp that would lead away from the city. His smell detected two gaps in the asphalt, and he knew the turn was too sharp. He'd careen over the edge. Looking at the map, he saw that the next offramp would be shortly after. It also angled left, but it was a four-lane one and the angle much less sharp. If he slowed a bit and went from right to left, he might make it.

The whizzing changed to buzzing then to something akin to an ancient supply drone. A sharply tinged, metallic red smudge appeared in his smell-o-vision, approaching quickly from the right.

"It will be here in a moment. Can you attack it?" GD18 asked, wondering if the flying version also needed to enter through his mouth.

"No," Mutar said as he moved to the opposite edge. "It seems to be carrying four of the smaller ones."

"Can you defeat those?"

"No," Mutar said, moving so close to the edge of GD18s plated back he was bound to slide off soon. "Unless you can go faster, those things will end you."

GD18 felt momentarily confused until he realized the implications of Mutar's words.

"Are you going to run away?" he asked. Somehow it stung, even though he hadn't really trusted the undead to begin with.

"Why should I stay here and be destroyed with you?" Mutar asked, sounding confused.

GD18 had no answer to that, and his analytical mind couldn't come up with any reason.

"You should not," he finally said.

"I don't know why, but something inside me hopes you make it out," Mutar as his body began to change. Then he jumped away, diving towards the side of the road and an offramp that led back into the city.

The other's white bony smell began rushing away, moving at a breakneck speed, right when the flying red smudge reached GD18s wide panoramic vision of the sky. A flying undead that resembled an insect, similar to the spiderling but ten times larger and with four translucent quickly flapping wings, shot towards him. The high-pitched whine drowned out every other sound, including the thumping of GD18s thousands of feet on the hard asphalt.

A spiderling queen? GD18 had no information on such a being, but it made sense.

Four of the spiderling hung from the flying thing's long, spindly legs, and as it shot past GD18 and ahead of him, they dropped on the floor to block his path.

Good, they need to go through the mouth, GD18 thought, as he prepared his long tentacles.  The four spiderlings raced forward, then jumped and turned into balls that shot towards the center of his mouth. GD18 calmly grasped the first, drawing it to the side with the minimal number of tentacles, then the second, third, and last. Before the fourth was bundled up, his two tongues were already starting to dismantle the first one and tossing the mana-orb and body parts down his throat. As the second perished, a fresh burst of energy came from his first stomach.

Now, what will you do? GD18 thought as he examined the hovering flying spiderling queen. It waited for only a second, and as GD18s tongue masterfully disassembled the last spiderling, it opened its maw and shot a glob of white and green acid.

The acid splashed across GD18's head before leaking between the interlocking plates. A moment later, a burning sensation spread from the flesh below, and a brownish stink tainted his smell-o-vision—the smell of burning and melting flesh. The flying spiderling queen spat another glob, then commenced to pelt GD18s full length until he was leaving a trail of smoky air behind.

What is it doing? GD18 thought. It was painful, yes, but it barely damaged his plates. Even if he hadn't evolved, a normal wyrm shouldn't be-

His train of thought stopped as his energy reservoir started draining away at an insane rate. Within a moment of trying to determine where it was going, he found the cause. The tissue below his plate armor was melting away, and his body was trying to regenerate it and barely keeping up.

GD18 calculated the energy drain versus the distance he had to go to the road that led out of the city. He would make it, but if that road was blocked, or the spiderling queen followed him away from its nest. His focus became divided between minding the road and searching through one of the datasets connected to the status window. It was filled with basic information about creatures.

Within moments he found that there was no way to tell if the spiderling queen would follow its prey far outside of its territory. It depended on far too many factors.

Either I continue there or take my chances and ram off the road at the next place, GD18 thought. His mind lingered for a moment on where Mutar had gone off, then he banished the thoughts and focused on balancing his speed with his quickly diminished energy. A quick calculation told him that if he hadn't eaten the wyrm and the other things recently, he wouldn't even be moving anymore

A burning pain came when a glob of acid splashes across one of his eyes, clouding its vision until it was almost gone. The intensity of the pain was new, and it took him all his effort to banish it to the back of his mind. I can't wait till I can shut that off if need be, he thought. It would be one of the perks waiting for him with his own made class evolution.

It took almost ten minutes to reach the next offramp, and by that moment, his energy reserves were halved, and the incoming energy had started dwindling, showing he had absorbed almost all of the matter.

The spiderling queen was still after him, but its attacks had slowed down considerably. Moving from the edge of the left side of the four-lane offramp,  he began angling in as much as he could. He had to slow down a bit and ended up almost toppling over the right edge before the road straightened again. Ahead of him lay a long stretch of asphalt, leading to a far offside of the cave. His remaining eye only detected open skies, but that didn't mean anything.

"Geed, wait!"

A scream tore through the air, and far behind him, his smell detected Mutar's distinct odor approaching rapidly across the road behind him. It was impossible to see how he was moving so fast, but the skeleton was gaining on him. Behind him, a building collapsed, then another, and a vague, metallic-smelling large shape chased after him.

Minutes later, Mutar's image had cleared enough to see he had morphed his body into a shape vaguely reminiscent of that of a leopard of ancient times. A wyrm much larger than any GD18 had seen before was chasing after him. It was different from the others, with its body obviously capable of bending much more than a regular wyrm should, and it was using it to its advantage too, compared to other wyrms, deftly move.

The spiderling queen ignored the approaching undead and just continued its slowing attacks. But GD18 wondered how long that would take as he compared the other wyrm's speed to his. It was over twice as fast, perhaps more. Are other wyrms carnivorous? He couldn't find the answer in his status window.

Mutar reached GD18's tail and clambered on easily, rushing towards the front while dodging around the now skeleton high spikes across GD18's back.

"Why are you back?" GD18 asked, feeling angrier than he had expected. He immediately put a lid on it. It would help him nothing, and he was not interested in becoming too emotional. The anger immediately turned to annoyance before fading away and leaving nothing but a lingering sensation that he easily ignored.

"I found that wyrm, and it began chasing me around. I could have gotten away, but then I realized it was much faster than you. I thought that thing chasing you might like it more than you?"

Either that's a lie, and he has become conniving very fast, or… he is trying to save me? GD18 couldn't be sure about either and decided right now it didn't matter. He could use all the help he could get.

"If that wyrm was still in that city without getting eaten, it means those spiderlings probably can't end it," he shouted.

Mutar didn't respond but sat down on GD18's head.

A while later, the spiderling queen's attacks had dwindled to under one per minute, and the metallic scent was close enough for GD18 to see details.

"The other wyrm is almost on us," Mutar said.

GD18 didn't respond. Instead, he scanned the confusing image he was getting from what lay ahead. It was an odd mix of stone, metal, and other materials, causing a mixture of colors.

"I know. What do you see ahead?"

"The cave collapsed atop a few buildings, and one of them fell back against the rubble. It looks like a ramp," Mutar replied.

"How wide is it?" GD18 said, trying to distinguish the building from the rubble and failing. It all looked like a confusing mash of yellow, grey, black, and white scents.

"Wide enough for you to go up, but I'm not sure we can reach it before that one bites in your tail."

"What?" GD18 snapped, trying to make out more details of the wyrm. At that moment, the spiderling queen spat another globe of acid, and he braced himself. It wasn't needed. The acid splashed across the wyrm behind him. A loud keening cry came, and it blew a swirl of hot air and metallic stench forward that enveloped half of GD18s body.

The acid and the breath caused the thick metallic stench around the wyrm to let up slightly, and for a moment, he got a clear picture of the other wyrm's maw, twice as high as he was, opening and snapping at his tail. Then something tugged him back, and a sharp pain sprang from the tip of his tail before he shot forward again.

"He bit off your tail," Mutar shouted as he got up and crouched down low and looked around.

GD18 didn't answer the obvious remark, focusing solely on the task at hand. The pain was only a minor inconvenience, but the fact it caused more of his barely existing energy reservoirs to regenerate was more troublesome.

How did that thing even close its mouth, he thought, quickly examining his own mouth and finding no jaws. It had to have evolved! But how? He recalled the clear image of the wyrm and realized it also had a short stubby horn at the top of its maw, just behind the thick fold that hid the teeth.

Putting the questions away for later, GD18 determined his current energy, and even adding the small trickle still coming from his stomach, he knew it would be close. His calculations showed that he would only reach the slope if the spiderling queen stopped pelting him with acid. And if the other wyrm bit off more of his tail? What he needed was energy, speed, or… a distraction.

"Is there anything ahead of us besides rubble and buildings?" he asked, scanning around as best he could. The lack of a clear image was annoying, now more so than when he was below the ground.

Mutar didn't say anything as he looked around.

GD18 kept his attention on the wyrm behind him, and when the other suddenly moved forward with a burst of speed, he accelerated too, causing Mutar to shout and almost topple over. The massive maw closed behind him, only nicking the top of his tree.

"He missed!"

The spiderling queen threw another ball of acid at the chasing wyrm, and it keened before slowing down.

Is it giving up? GD18 thought.

A burst of blue lightning shot from the shorthorn, missing the spiderling queen by a hair's breadth.

"Did you-"

"I saw it," GD18 snapped, interrupting the other. Without holding back, he began accelerating until he went at a bit over his optimal speed. His calculations showed he would reach the top of the slope, but he would be so depleted that he would need to find metal immediately after that. It was the least desirable outcome safe for being ended by the spiderling queen or the wyrm.

Every second towards the slope was excruciatingly slow, and he recalculated constantly. At the same time, his attention was on the pursuing wyrm. It kept shooting at the spiderling queen, who shot back, and they were slowing down more and more. As soon as the distance was more than a hundred meters, GD18 slowed a bit, trying to conserve as much energy as he could.

"What is that blue stuff he keeps shooting?" Mutar asked from his spot halfway on GD18's back.

"Lightning," GD18 replied. "Get ready. We are almost at the ramp!"

Mutar turned and rushed back to his head. "It looks pretty cracked… are you sure it can hold you?"

GD18 didn't bother to answer. Instead, he focused on his senses, trying to make out as many details as he could.

"He hit it!" Mutar suddenly cried, and GD18 just noticed the spiderling queen spinning out of control towards the ground. Just go get your prey, he thought just as his head hit the slope and began angling up. It was much steeper than it had seemed, and he knew part of the scent was wafting up, creating an image of a smoother slope. Recalculating, he immediately began slowing down, aiming to reach the top with minimal speed. It was the only way he would make it.

"It's coming our way again. Fast."

Of course it is, GD18 thought.  He would have done the same. The spiderling queen was just a small snack, but another wyrm held much more sustenance.

The slope was almost fifty meters of cracking and crumbling thirty-century skyscraper. Built to last forever? The designers would be amazed to see the thing almost did what they promised, GD18 thought as he felt another piece snap but hold. Eight meters from the top, the collapsed construction shuddered and shook.

"It's on the ramp," Mutar said.

"When we get off the ramp, look around and tell me if you see anything in the distance that looks like buildings," GD18 said. He slowed down even more, preparing to use the last of his energy for a final action. That wyrm wasn't the only one that could do something new!

As his top slid over the edge and onto a dusty flat area that seemed to stretch out forever, GD18 readied himself, and as soon as his tail was almost over, he flexed his muscles and raised the tail in the air before slamming it down. The construction shuddered but held, and he groaned as he did it again. Each attempt drained him lower and lower.

"Again!" Mutar roared, and GD18 sighed as he used the last energy he had. His tail slammed down, and with a final annoyed groan, the structure behind him cracked and began sliding back. A screech came from below that was drowned by a massive rumbling as the slope collapsed.

GD18 slid a few meters away from the edge before coming to a stop.

Great… Now how am I going to get energy, he thought as he listened to the thunderous crashes come from behind him that caused the ground to shake.