Chapter 12

  Bonds will strain and bend, but you must hold fast. Separated we are but hills, united we are an unscalable mountain.

  -Collected Teachings of the Exalted Sovereign

  The “Commission Board” was a holographic display right in front of the temple. Here listings for hunts remained scrawled across the screen. There were all manner of listings that had various hunting party request and sizes: protecting chefs as they looked for ingredients out in the jungle, two Ignited requested; arresting poachers of the native wildlife, three Ignited requested; Hunt an invasive behemoth that was traversing into this continent, fifty Ignited requested, transportation provided. The board was updated live with rites of vengeance and other notably important commissions displayed across the top. From what Phaidros had been told, the Order of the Ignited worked similarly in the galaxy at large, getting requests for assistance and aid from organizations, governments, and from within the Order itself.

  It was usually crowded here in the morning but by the time Phaidros and his companions had made it there it was clear enough where they didn’t need to shove their way past anyone to get any jobs. However it did mean that the more challenging ones were most likely already taken. “Alright let’s see here,” Dom said, squinting at the board, Phaidros couldn’t help but notice how he was staring at the behemoth one, as if considering if the three of them could handle that. He let out an internal sigh of relief as Dom looked away from it. “Bah, nothing worthy of the burn here,” he said with a huff.

  “That’s good, we should worry about something easy just to see how we work together,” Zenovia suggested.

  Dom waved the thought off dismissively. “Back on Rodina if what you went up against didn’t have a chance to kill you then it wasn’t worth Ignited time.”

  Zenovia narrowed her eyes, “Didn’t you say you were in a civil war? Wouldn’t every commission have a chance to kill you?”

  Dom grinned though Phaidros noticed the faintest strain to it thanks to his enhanced vision. “It did. The best ones were when those eh, what do you call them, Defiant Ones? Were involved.”

  “The Children of Defiance,” Zenovia corrected.

  “Yes, yes those ones.” Dom nodded. “They and some dragons decided to stick their greedy little noses into things and it gave us plenty of challenging Ignited to fight.” He points to the board. “That is what we need! Ignited opponents, they are always good for the potential, yes? What about this one, a big jaguar vulture is coming close to becoming shaped!”

  Zenovia shook her head, “I don’t need another surprise and for this one to end up shaped by the time we get to it like the last beast was. What about this one? A herd of Barkbiter Saurus are endangering the ecosystem to the west of the Razor River.”

  Dom scoffed. “You want us hunting herbivores? What is the worst they could do?”

  That sparked an argument and Phaidros watched as his two trainers got too distracted bickering with one another to pay attention to the board. He shifted in place, not sure what to do but he glanced at the board, ignoring them for the moment as he scanned what was available. Nothing seemed to jump at him, but he needed to stop the verbal firestorm that was slowly growing next to him. “Hey! What about this one?” he called out.

  They both turned to glare at him instead and he regretted getting their attention for a single moment as they both said, “What?” In unison.

  “It says a colony of Chorus Apes has a new matriarch to the south and they’ve been interrupting other commissions in the area and that they’re Ignited, would that work?”

  “Chorus Apes?” Zenovia questioned for a moment, before humming thoughtfully. “I don’t know, Phaidros, hive minds might be too difficult for a first mission.”

  “Did you say Hive Mind?” Dom immediately pushed Phaidros, gently, away from the board so he could get a better look. Phaidros had not seen a more determined look on a man’s face before he poked his finger through the holographic display and stared at Phaidros. “We are doing this one.”

  That reaction piqued Phaidros’ curiosity and he smiled a little. “Alright, let’s do that one.” He looked to Zenovia, a hint of pleading in his gaze.

  Zenovia mulled it over, arms folded. “I’m not sold on it but…” She looked to Phaidros then sighed as she glanced away. “Alright, alright. You should have a say in your own training I suppose.”

  Phaidros beamed and Dom let out a cry of victory, “Yes!” The three accepted the commission on the board, information on it being transferred to their datapads and their armor when they returned to them. With the matter settled, the three split ways, Phaidros eager to see how the three of them stacked up against this new challenge.

  *

  The group set out the next morning at first light and began heading south outside of Gate Six. The area of jungle the Chorus Apes were situated in contained a species of trees that were about twice as tall as the ones near Dasos, and all of them were Ignited. Phaidros was never certain on how trees could ignite, but if Suneater had once been a tree and made it to an Ideal, then clearly he was missing something. The fact they were Ignited meant that they were no longer going to be dealing with a docile jungle around them; it would fight back if it saw them as weak. “So how do you fight a hive mind?” Phaidros had asked as they were traversing the jungle at a bounding run. With the armor and their ignited souls, it might as well have been a nice morning jog that they could keep up all day.

  “That’d be a great question for Dom,” Zenovia said, glancing over to the zhuk. “The nazeko are all capable of tapping into one, it’s what helped them carve out their place in the galaxy.”

  Dom was uncharacteristically silent for a long moment. “Tear off the head and the body will not know what to do with itself,” he replied, a hint of venom in his tone. Phaidros noticed he seemed even more intense today than he did when the two of them fought. Dom was more than eager to fight these apes and the curiosity ate at him but he pushed that aside for now. “So we just need to kill the matriarch?”

  “Yes,” Zenovia answered. “The rest of the apes won’t make it easy, however if we approach this with caution and coordination then it should be simple enough.”

  Dom grunted at that and Zenovia and Phaidros had begun to think of how to tackle the situation as the jungle slowly changed around them.

  The trees extended further into the sky, the jungle around them growing darker as each tree struggled to get as much sun as possible with their wide leaves. Phaidros couldn’t help but notice how each of those leaves were covered in spines and when a bird had made the mistake of swooping in too close to one, it snapped it up inside of one leaf and did not let go. He made an effort not to imagine himself getting snapped up next. The trees themselves swayed in an invisible current, their bark creaking with each bend, their branches stretching out far and wide in a tangled web. “We’re getting close,” Zenovia began, switching to their internal communications which made her voice sound like a series of clicking and chattering mandibles to anyone not on their frequency. “Listen closely, Phaidros, and you’ll be able to hear them, your suit will pick them up after you’ve spotted them. It’ll have to be what you rely on since you still can’t use life sense.”

  Phaidros nodded and listened to the jungle around him. Between the usual buzz of insects and chirping birds there was a distinct howl of an ape echoing in the distance. Another answered it soon after. “I hear them,” he answered, drawing his sword off his back as the group stopped their dash through the jungle and began moving with more caution, weapons ready.

  “They will do all they can to protect their matriarch, you’ll find her where the most apes are,” Dom said, eyes up towards the trees. “They most likely already know we’re here. They will begin to surround us soon.”

  “Then I am getting to a higher vantage point,” Zenovia said, then immediately set off towards a tree, scaling its trunk with ease before kicking off to one of the branches. Phaidros could hear more howls echoing through the jungle, noticing more and more how they began to come from all directions, Dom was already jogging up ahead, hammer at the ready. Phaidros and Zenovia had tried to come up with a plan beforehand, but they did not have too much knowledge of the colony, so they would need to see how it worked first… which meant that someone had to be bait. That bait, obviously, was Phaidros. “Just keep yourself ready, Phaidros, Dom and I will keep you from any real danger.”

  Dom grunted his assent. Phaidros didn’t know where Zenovia was anymore, but her assurance was enough to make him feel a little more at ease. The howls were loud now, surrounding them completely as Phaidros scanned the trees, looking for any signs of their quarry amidst the ever-shifting jungle.

  He spotted it after it howled at him, its brown fur making it blend with the warm tones and colors of the trees that surrounded it. It was as he expected, a large ape high up in the trees, one strong hand gripping the wide branch beneath and the other one carrying a stone. Phaidros’ armor outlined the creature the second he saw it, then the other two dozen that he had not managed to spot a second after. He brought up his sword in a defensive posture. “Yeah, they’re all here,” he said with some wariness.

  “I got sight,” Zenovia replied. “Dom, can you–”

  Dom had switched to open communications as he shouted into the open air, “Hello my furry friends!”

  “Dom, what are you doing?” Zenovia hissed.

  “You will be showing me to your matriarch now! And I will free you all! This is a promise.”

  Phaidros looked to Dom with an incredulous look as the apes began to howl, stomping their hands and feet on the trees above them in a raucous chorus with one another. He saw Dom’s head swivel around before he peered off into the distance. “There you are…” he said with malicious excitement before the jets in his armor roared to life and he rocketed off into the distance, devastating whatever plantlife might be between him and where he was going.

  The apes acted immediately, half of them hurling their rocks at him and Phaidros and some of them leaping off the trees after Dom. An unfortunate one managed to land right into the way of his hammer and was left a mess of bone and viscera against one of the great trees with a swing that might as well have been Dom swatting a fly and he disappeared into the underbrush.

  Phaidros was by himself, his training kicking in as his sword flashed through the air, swatting away some of the stones that were raining down towards him. Gunshots followed soon after and he saw several outlines fade to nothing as apes fell from the trees in a lifeless heap. Zenovia was stringing out curse after curse into their internal communications, aimed at Dom, but the zhuk didn’t seem to register it in the slightest.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Zenovia! New plan?” he asked, sword cleaving through one ape that had tried to jump down onto him. He was surprised at how easy it was, this was his first time fighting something that wasn’t in Ignited armor. It gave him a new appreciation for the smiths and also the suit that protected him. Some stones rained down from him but they might as well have been rain drops. This also had the unfortunate effect of covering him in ape blood, coating his visor in the stuff but a filter change in his visor corrected all of the colors. He didn’t want to give that setting any more thought than he had to.

  “Chase after Dom, we can’t get separated,” she said. “Move ahead, I got you covered, get up into tree level if you can.”

  “Right!” Phaidros called out and moved to follow her instructions. More apes descended upon him but a regular, pointed rhythm of gunfire made any that were an actual threat to Phaidros drop to the ground in a bloody heap. What he thought were dozens were actually hundreds and Dom’s path had been clearly marked by the destruction left in his wake. Phaidros began to wonder what Dom meant by ‘freeing’ them. He tried to follow after him but apes were beginning to flood the jungle floor in front of him, forcing him to divert up a tree with more hot on his tail. With a quick pivot Phaidros leapt off towards a tree, feet planting and scraping against the bark before he kicked off to grab one branch. An ape landed right above him but Zenovia landed a shot right between the eyes that sent it falling backwards. With the newly made free space, Phaidros pulled himself up atop the branch and took a moment to survey the situation.

  It was here that Phaidros could see why Zenovia had called them a hive mind. His suit began to highlight more he hadn’t seen before, with Zenovia being a single green highlight in a sea of red. They moved as if they were one organism, a horde of the creatures moving forward and retreating as if they were part of a sentient, amorphous blob. One that was beginning to completely encircle Zenovia. “Zenovia!”

  “I see them.” She raised her rifle, firing a shot that sent three in a line tumbling to their deaths in the jungle below. In the same second she pulled the trigger she twisted around, jets flaring to life as she kicked the skull of another ape and sent it spiraling off the branch before she completed her turn and sent off another volley that downed more. Phaidros had to force himself not to stare in awe as she made each motion seem effortless and calculated like a choreographed dance. It was different to watch her now that he wasn’t training directly with her. To see how years of Ignited training and experience could blend together in one awe-inspiring display of skill and discipline. He hoped that he could become like that someday. Though if he wanted to get there, he needed to stop the trees from trying to eat him.

  While he was distracted, several leaves of the tree he was perched on had been slowly creeping up on him, spined leaves ready to snap shut. He made a run for it right as they snapped, sword arcing around him and cutting through giant sections of leaf. There was more resistance than he expected, with a rip like he was cutting through thick, threaded tarp. Vines snapped after him seconds later and his quickened reactions made him cut away several more before he tried to run. Apes had gathered on the other side of the branch but kept back from him, making him have to choose his opponent. He was about to choose the apes when, mid step, another vine whipped around his ankle and hoisted him into the air foot first. A leaf three times his size then snapped him up, pinning him between spines that locked him into place. He struggled against its grip before he activated the jets in his armor, the heat burning the leaves until it caught fire and was forced to let him go. As graceful as a fish on land, Phaidros fell back to the ground with flailing limbs.

  Dom’s voice finally crackled through the team’s internal communication. “Hah! I have found the Matriarch!”

  “Dom!” Phaidros shouted as he had to fight off a bunch of apes that swarmed and beat on him with heavy fists. “We’re surrounded back here and need help!”

  “Do not worry, little friend, it will be over soon, just give me two minutes with this oversized monkey. You should see it, it is three times my size!”

  “I would love to see it!” Phaidros shouted as he finally managed to get one of the apes off of him with the help of the stinger in his gauntlet. “But you left us behind!”

  “Eh? You both are fine, though there are a lot of apes around here now that I see that. Must be even more than there!”

  “Dom!” Zenovia bellowed in fury.

  “Fine fine, watch this.” Nothing happened for another painstaking thirty seconds as Phaidros and Zenovia were struggling not to be dragged to the ground and beaten to a pulp, but all of the sudden all of the apes howled out in an ominous, pained cry in perfect unison. The weight of their voices made the leaves of the trees shake and a moment later the apes began to all run off into the same direction save for a token few. “That got their attention,” Dom laughed over the comms.

  “What did you do?” Phaidros asked, watching the apes go while cutting down the few that tried to distract him.

  “I gave the matriarch a new limp. You better hurry, friends, otherwise it will be me who is monkey food instead!”

  Zenovia landed besides Phaidros, loading a new clip into her rifle. She switched away from their private channel to speak openly, “If they don’t, I’m going to kill him instead, are you alright?”

  Phaidros nodded. “Yeah, so much for the plan, huh?” He said, trying to lighten the mood and began to run in the direction Dom went.

  “If this is how Dom is going to behave when we fight the Shaped Beast he’s going to get us killed. We don’t need a bull charging blindly ahead, we need someone who will work with us, no matter how good he is,” Zenovia grumbled as she followed after him.

  Phaidros frowned, not that Zenovia could see it and the two chased after the fleeing apes, clearing through any that had tried to delay them.

  When they had reached Dom, the zhuk was laughing as if he was having the time of his life as apes swarmed him. Each swing of his hammer sent waves of them flying through the air and blowing the rest back from the sheer weight of his swings. The jungle was littered with corpses that the trees were eagerly snapping up, starting to see the apes as prey. “Hello! I am glad you managed to show up, the Matriarch is escaping, but it will be difficult with a crushed knee haha! Are you both happy now?”

  Zenovia muttered, “Yeah, that’s it, I’m going to let him die.” Phaidros nudged her shoulder and gestured towards the Matriarch that was limping away, the smaller apes covering her retreat. The Matriarch was a large ape as wide as the tree trunks that surrounded them and hands that were as big as Phaidros was tall. Her legs were much shorter than her arm and as she moved on all fours Phaidros could see the clear limp. “Let’s just get this over with,” Zenovia said with a sigh and leapt up and off towards one of the trees to give chase from above.

  Phaidros looked to Dom. “We’re going after it, can you keep the apes off of us?”

  “What do you think I’m doing? That thing is more scared of me than you! Go, little friend, and give that thing a good stab for me, yes?”

  Phaidros nodded and without any further delay chased after the Matriarch. It wasn’t hard with her crippled leg but the apes began to switch targets whenever he got close. That was, until Dom noticed and began carving a bloody path towards it again, which would send all of the smaller apes back after him. Zenovia kept Phaidros’ path clear until the Matriarch saw she had no choice but to stand and fight against him. Internally, Phaidros felt like this moment could have been the entire hunt if there was better coordination, but that was a thought to share after the fight was over.

  The ape howled in anger at Phaidros, drumming her fists against the ground in an effort to intimidate him. He was intimidated, but he did not back down. He readied his blade and charged the Matriarch. The ape swung at him with one of her massive hands, hand outstretched to try and backhand him into a stain against the tree. He kicked backwards, narrowly avoiding the first swipe as the second hand came down to try and crush him from above. It slammed into the earth where he just was and he twisted around and stabbed his sword through the back of her hand and into the dirt beneath. She howled again and Zenovia took the opportunity to unload a few rounds into her exposed chest. The bullets pierced her hide, but she was a large enough beast that she wouldn’t go down like the others did. Still, Zenovia managed to make the Matriarch bleed from her chest.

  Despite their efforts however, they could not get in close for the kill. All it would take was one good crushing squeeze from her hand and Phaidros was as good as dead. Every few swipes or snaps at Phaidros he’d narrowly dodge before Zenovia and Phaidros would strike back and prevent her from getting the upper hand. It wasn’t until Dom had come barreling towards them that they had an opening. Perhaps he had just gotten bored of crushing small apes. Stragglers came after him but he just bowled through them as if they weren’t there. “Phaidros, after me!”

  Phaidros had barely any time to react as the Matriarch reached out to grab Dom. Dom dropped his hammer and put his hands out to both sides, stopping the beast in her tracks with a roar of effort, his plates beginning to crack and the metallic plate beneath beginning to groan from the strain. Phaidros acted immediately, leaping up and using Dom’s wide shoulder plates as a stepping stone to vault over and into the Matriarch, pulling his blade back and stabbing her down into the breached hide that Zenovia had created earlier. The sword sank deep, cracking through the already damaged ribs and into the heart as the beast reared back and then fell to the earth with one final cry of pain before she stilled. Around them the rest of the Chorus Apes stopped in their tracks, their howling now much more chaotic before they began to scatter into the jungle. No more Ignited matriarch made the tree leaves and vines descend upon them in a rabid feeding frenzy as they tried to escape.

  Dom rolled his shoulders as he stood up straight, flexing his gauntlets as if to shake off a numb limb. Phaidros was atop the creature, still feeling adrenaline pump through him as the fire within him raged with new life. They did it? A small surge of pride added to the warmth of the fire as he pulled himself to his feet and turned to see Zenovia whistling for Dom’s attention so she could punch him.

  The blow connected, Dom’s head jerking to the side but the rest of him not budging an inch. “What was that back there? Was that your attempt to be cute? We could have died,” she growled.

  Dom slowly turned his head back, a small spiderweb of cracked chitin on his faceplate now. “You didn’t and we killed the Matriarch, this is a success, yes?”

  “You agreed to join this team if Phaidros cracked your plate, he did, you’re supposed to be working with us, not just charging into danger and leaving us to deal with our problems.”

  Dom waved it off and Phaidros saw Zenovia’s hand twitch as if she was fighting back the urge to strangle him. “Ah but strategy worked! I got the apes off of you, it is all good, right, Phaidros?”

  Phaidros felt both of their gazes on him again. He looked between them both and sighed, “I mean yeah we killed the Matriarch but we were in serious trouble back there.” Zenovia was about to speak up again but Phaidros continued, “Towards the end there though, with you keeping the Apes busy and letting us make openings was good though. We need more of that, not… the beginning of all this.” He gestured where they came from. “We managed to salvage it in the end, yeah, but… we need you not to run off on us, Dom. You may think you can handle it all but let us work with you.”

  Dom seemed to shift in place and Phaidros’ words seemed to have better luck than Zenovia’s. “Forgive me, little friend. I was very excited to kill the Matriarch and free small apes from the hive mind.”

  “Good job freeing you did,” Zenovia snapped, gesturing to the picture of carnage behind them all with a bloody red adding to the warm tones of the jungle in a sinister way. They had carved through brutally, perhaps more brutal than what was necessary if they had approached this better. “They’re all dead now and the trees are snapping up what remains of the colony.”

  Dom looked behind him, then at his discarded hammer. He reached up, scratching the back of his helmet in silent contemplation. “I suppose this is true,” he eventually said, voice quieter than Phaidros had been used to hearing from him. There were no more arguments from him.

  “Let’s just go home,” Zenovia said with a sigh, holstering her rifle over her shoulder as she stalked back in the direction of Dasos.

  Phaidros hopped off the Matriarch and started after Zenovia, though he stopped to look back at Dom when he didn’t hear footsteps following him. Dom was still where he stood before, looking down at the broken corpses that surrounded him. Phaidros couldn’t see his expression through his helmet but the zhuk seemed frozen. Phaidros felt a creeping feeling of worry before he told Zenovia to wait and walked over to Dom. He placed a hand on his shoulder, “Hey, are you alright?” he asked in genuine concern.

  His voice seemed to break whatever trance Dom was in because his antlered helmet shook side to side. “Hm? Oh, yes. It is nothing, little friend.” His tone was distracted, but it quickly recovered to the same joyful tone Phaidros was more familiar with. “Zenovia is right, yes? We should be going home, today is a tremendous victory! We will need more missions to train and keep us busy until we face the beast.” He nodded, picking up his hammer and striding past Phaidros as if the previous moment hadn’t happened at all.

  Phaidros watched him with growing concern as he walked away. Everyone who had come to Dasos did so because they were at a point where they were struggling to keep their flames lit. What made them come here? Dom said it was all a vacation to him, but after that display, how he spoke in the Lion’s Share and at the board, he wasn’t sure whether or not that was accurate. What about Zenovia for that matter? He wished he had more time to ask them, but with their time shrinking by the second, he knew it would have to wait. With a sigh, he followed after them for what was sure to be a quiet walk home.