Hyperion Evergrowing

Chapter 23: The King and the Princess

Szesis was bored. Not in the ‘I have nothing to do’ way that you probably imagined. But bored in the ‘I have nothing of value to do’ kind of way. He had never been good at waiting, it hadn’t helped that the last few interesting events had given him conflict blue balls.

The two humans he had caught snooping around had been after the same thing he was. But instead of fighting to the death they had agreed to his proposal of doing his work for him. That had sucked, no entertainment value at all.

The second event had been… well, almost alarming. It wasn’t every day you witnessed a member of the Darkwoods roaming around outside their vast territory. He had partially hoped the one he had noticed casually walking through the ruined streets of Pherin had been a scout. But no invading force of Blight Beasts or Grim Ents had shown up which was very disappointing.

He shifted uncomfortably on the slanted roof he was taking a nap on. His makeshift armour clanked and that made his mood worse. Yes, wearing it made the goblins think he was one of their own but he missed his actual armour. He reached through a ring of shadow and pulled out a half empty bottle of wine.

He drained it and casually dropped it off the side of the building. A screech of pain came from below but he ignored it. With a brief effort he hopped to his feet and leaped a quarter of the city's district with a few hops, only to land within the ‘command centre’. It was a pile of rubble but the goblins were very pleased with it.

“General.” he nodded to the goblin on watch and half heartedly saluted. The goblin dropped his spear in shock and returned the gesture.

“G-g-general?” It stammered.

“Congratulations on the promotion. Where are the others?”

“I-i-inside my l-lord.”

“Wonderful. Go kill a mountain drake and bring me its head. Oh and do it alone.” Szesis benevolently commanded as he strode past. The newly promoted and soon to be dead goblin practically skipped down the street.

He approached where several evolved goblins were bickering over a poorly made map of the city drawn in debris and dust. “Gentlemen! I have detected a great enemy of our people and must make haste to slay it! I’ll be back in a day or two. Don’t kill each other while I’m gone, okay?”

The oversized green children scrambled to salute him, praise his existence or beg for something. He ignored all of them and swapped places with a shadow positioned on one of the outer walls.

Szesis stretched and yawned. Exile was fun when it wasn’t so dreadfully dull. Now then, what should I spend the next few days doing? Go fight something worthwhile in the mountains, see what the humans were doing down south?

If only I could… “Oho! What is this?” He asked outloud to nobody.

A dark speck was rapidly approaching from the western horizon. Szesis squinted, making out a humanoid shape in dark slender armour and two sets of rapidly beating insectile wings.

“Well well. Isn’t this a pleasant surprise!” He said before shooting off a condensed pulse of his aura. The dark shape slightly altered its course and moved directly towards him. Szesis looked down at the scrap the goblins called armour and sighed. Then he started stripping.

===

A minute and a half later the newcomer swooped down to Szesis’s level on the city's wall. The orc nodded a greeting as he affixed a sleek red breastplate to his torso, then he pulled a similarly coloured pauldron from his spatial vault.

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He gave the newcomer a friendly smile and continued getting dressed. “Welcome! Or should I say; welcome back? I take it this city was your fine handiwork?”

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The dark figure shared many similarities to a human woman with pale skin and jet black hair, but Szesis knew better. The midnight carapace around her waist and antennae on her head gave her away. So did the wings, and the aura, and her compound eyes. Okay, lots of things gave her away.

At least she hadn’t been foolish enough to cast off all her monstrous components like some other awakened beings Szesis knew of.

“Yes.” She hissed without emotion.

“Great! It’s mine now. I’m not giving it back. You shouldn’t have disappeared for half a decade if you still wanted it.” Szesis confidently proclaimed as he pulled on an armoured greave.

“Where?”

“Where what?”

“Where is she?”

Szesis hadn’t the foggiest what the ant lady was on about. “Who?”

“You know. Where is she?”

“I really don’t, sorry. Also I’m Szesis, the greatest king you’ll ever meet.” He generously gifted her with the truth and a name.

“I am the one called X of the Obsidian Hive. And you lie! Tell me where she is!Where is she?”

“I told you I don’t know. Do you want a drink?” He asked politely and with great kindness. He tightened a leather strap and eyed the formian. X seemed roughly equivalent to himself, as a second strata incarnate he was no slouch.

Maybe a few levels higher than myself… this could be fun.

The woman buzzed in anger. The first trace of emotion so far. “You know who. Where is my mother?”

Ah, he probably should have guessed that. Formians only got so worked up about a very select number of things. Well, he had no idea as to the fate or location of the formian hive queen. “Dead. Sorry for your loss.”

“LIES!” The word hit Szesis like a steel fist. He would have rocked back from the force if he wasn’t, you know, the greatest.

“Not lies! She’s dead and I killed her. Sorry for your loss.” He lied honestly.

These words made the formian try to kill him. Which was exactly the point.

===

Shockwaves of gravitational power cracked buildings in half and sent chunks of city wall tumbling. Goblins died in their hundreds as they scampered for cover.

Szesis dodged a scythe-like blade of energy with a casual hop and twisted mid-air so he could observe the chaos. This… well. This was great. Honestly everything was wonderful. He definitely had the situation in hand.

X was, maybe, just a little bit stronger than him. A dark blur raced across rooftops, a volley of navy blue spears lanced towards him. Szesis dodged by swapping with a nearby shadowy copy, it died in a puff of black essence above him.

“Should have waited to put on my boots before saying anything stupid.” He complained to himself, finishing his getup and standing up. He reached out and summoned a long blade wreathed in shadows. Time to prove he wasn’t a total pushover.

The formian spotted him and let out an ear piercing screech. Goblins tumbled to the ground, blood trickling from their long ears. Szesis cracked his neck and burst into shadowy power. He stabbed forward and a mimic of his strike manifested a split second later right in front of the formian.

X cut it to pieces with suddenly clawed hands and continued right towards him. So he followed up his attack with fifteen more, each coming from a new direction. This made X retreat, her wings a blur as she skimmed backwards.

Szesis was already moving in pursuit, he darted from shadowy alleyways to shattered buildings, his every step propelled by his immense attributes and movement skills. He flitted around the city, never staying in one place for more than a moment. His aura naturally making him harder to detect.

Above the formian lost track of his position so instead decided to launch destructive beams of energy in wide sweeping arcs through the city. The attacks had no hope of catching someone as slippery as Szesis, he burnt through stored energy to manifest new shadowy copies and sent them scattering through the newly ruined ruins.

This is fun. Szesis thought happily. I hope the Mythhold survives!

A lance of power sliced the metallic titan in half.

Hopefully.