《LEGION》 Chapter 0, THE LEGION I will try and keep the chapters up to around 10 pages each, which is what this one was. Although, some might be shorter due to a lack of tables. I think the tables make up a large portion of this one... Anyway, if you were presented with a similar "Workshop" place your species build in the comments and I will probably include it later on in the book as an enemy or ally of sorts. ---------------------- In the most simplistic and unrefined sense of the word I was stupefied. I stood still and stared moronically as I tried to comprehend what it was that was happening. In front of me was a blue screen, vivid and clear with its white text in the dark room. On the other side of the semi transparent blue screen was a white circular platform, roughly 5 feet apart. Floating above that platform was a mannequin roughly the size of a human, but it was pure white and possessed no features whatsoever. It was hovering, slowly turning around in midair.
Along with five thousand other members of your species you have been given the glorious opportunity to walk through the ages with a species of humanoid of your own design.
As soon as my eyes hit the end of the box, it faded away. A moment later, above the white figurine another box appeared in the same manner as the other one.
Hovering in front of you is a generic species mold, used by the Universal Genetics Control Unit, UGCU for short, as the groundwork for the creation of more intelligent life in the quest for perfection. You have been given the opportunity to create your own species and conquer a world filled with various other sentient life forms as part of a simulation. Some of these lifeforms will be created and controlled by your fellow ¡°humans¡±, however others will be sentient or controlled by the UGCU. Please do note that this ¡®simulation¡¯ will take place in a pocket universe to determine if your combination of genes was successful in its adaptations to the designated environments that you were placed under. Anything created or reproduced inside of the simulation is real, death means death, life means life. You are literally creating an entirely unique species of creature, specified by the mannequin before you. Say ¡°Controls¡± now to begin your creation.
I gulped, reading through the message. Once again, when I hit the end of it it disappeared. I waited for another one to appear for further explanation, but after waiting for a dozen seconds no new window appeared. ¡°C-Controls?¡± I hesitantly voiced out the words that I had been instructed to say by the window, and instantly another window was created before me. This one had various separate boxes, portioned out almost like statuses for games.
Unnamed species
Strength- 0 +
Vitality- 0 +
Utility- 0 +
Intelligence- 0 +
Agility- 0 +
Available Points300
Woah¡­ Thats interesting¡­
This is the species creation table. Touching the plus and minus on either side of the status value numbers will add or subtract points from that specified value. Although you may have figured it out already, the uses for each are as follows. Strength is the overall arm and leg strength for your species. This number defines the highest level of strength as well as the average strength your species can have. For example you ¡°humans¡± have a strength of roughly twenty five. This means that the strongest of your species can attain about twenty five strength in their statuses, while the normal is around half that. Vitality influences how durable the bodies are, humans have a vitality that ranges between 5 and 20 depending on gender and how well they take care of themselves. This means that the most durable humans can withstand roughly the strength of one of the strongest humans in brute force. This can be altered however, as even the most durable humans can be severely injured by humans with lesser strength through the use of weapons and technique, such as hand to hand martial arts. Stamina is also derived from this number, influencing the amount of distance your species can run and for how long, although that also takes into account agility. This also affects how well your species fights off infections, viruses, poisons and other forms of disease. Utility determines how well a species can figure things out. You ¡°humans¡± have a high utility, which varies from specimen to specimen. The average is somewhere around 30, however higher cases and lower cases have been observed throughout UGCU¡¯s observations. Utility generally determines how rapidly technology and society adapts as well as how rapidly a species learns. This is once again a more complex figure than it appears, as it also requires intelligence to come up with new ideas. You may figure this out on your own, due to your naturally high utility and intelligence among your species, however I shall explain it in detail now. A species with high utility but low intelligence will not come up with ideas on their own, but when encountering new technology they will be quick to figure it out and implement it. Vice versa, a species with high intelligence but low utility may figure something out or create something yet be unable to look outside of the use it was invented for and overlook other applications of whatever it was that they invented. An example in human terms would be ¡°gunpowder¡± It was by a human with high intellect as a means of entertainment, but it took someone with a high utility stat to apply this towards war. This is a simple example and the stat has many other uses, but the general idea behind it is versatility in all its forms. Intelligence is rather plain and simple, it is the ability to create and learn efficiently. They are the species or individuals which press technology forwards, and your species is a prime example of this in action, using various methods to domesticate your once hostile planet into a thriving metropolis. Your species has a naturally high intelligence factor, made even higher through selective breeding within your species. Your intelligent males made it to the top of society above their strength based counterparts, leaving behind intelligent offspring, as the stronger ones died off¡­ The process continued, cycling on for eons bringing about a civilization with low strength, vitality and agility, yet extreme utility and intelligence. ¡°Evolution¡± Your scientists called it¡­ This stat is around 80 for you humans, but again, higher and lower examples have been found, reaching upwards of 130 and down to about 30 for your weakest links. UGCU identifies and species as sentient when it possesses more than 50 points spread across intelligence and utility. This could mean 50 in intelligence none in utility, vice versa or anywhere in between. Lastly, Agility¡­ This determines a few things, and most of them stem from these two: Speed and Mobility. This stat determines these to a point, but combines with vitality for a more extensive results. Humans have pitiable agility, being outclassed by almost every animal on your planet. The average for this stat is around 10 for a fit human in their prime, but examples have placed this stat as high as 16 and as low as 1 for certain conditions. You may put points into various fields as you wish, however do remember that you may not change these settings after the initial creation and may only alter them through selective breeding in the future, or through bonus points given for various achievements and interbreeding. It is recommended that you do not put all of your points into one or two aspects, such as intelligence or agility, as your civilization may have to contend with other civilizations right at the start and a weak species will be removed from the simulation through conflict.
I took a deep shuddering breath, remembering to re read the entire thing before I hit the last word, making sure that I had a good grasp on the parameters of a species and how humans related to them. Honestly, it¡¯s almost laughable how weak we are in comparison to how we could be. A strength of 10? An agility of 10? Out of 200? Seriously? I paused for a moment, crunching the numbers as I caught a discrepancy. Humans only had around 200 points¡­ Why did I get 300 to toy with? A window instantly popped up to answer this question as the thoughts entered my head.
UGCU rewards specimens and subjects that prove that they are above the rest, and you have proven that with your accurate observation. 5 skill points have been gained through an astute observation, good job in noticing the discrepancy. Further explanation shall be given to you due to your thorough analyzation of the rules. The pocket dimension that you are being transferred to will be exceptionally more dangerous in comparison to your old world. In order to weed out many of the impractical species designs, such as a species with 200 intelligence 97 utility and 1 point in every other status. Such a species would rapidly be overrun in a natural environment, and despite the warnings placed at the end of the introduction explicitly explaining not to do this, several contestants have done it already and have thusly been put in precarious positions due to their lack of understanding towards the rules. Call it a starting bias due to their attitudes and aptitudes. You as well may get a starting bias, positive or negative, based off of your species design.
My mouth hung open as the message disappeared. I was planning something like that¡­ I mean, intelligence rules our world right? Humans went from weak and pitiful scavengers to an advanced civilization through the use of tools, machinery, technology in general!! Can you imagine, a species the potential of a species that had more points in intelligence and utility than humans? It has to be massive. I was toying with the concept a moment ago, but now? Now I threw that thought out of my mind as I closed my mouth as I thought back to the exact words the message had used. ¡°The pocket dimension that you are being transferred to will be exceptionally more dangerous in comparison to your old world¡± I mean, what use is a species that could have plasma weaponry if they were slaughtered on the first day by a pack of wolves. Without the abilities to at least defend themselves, how could they even advance to the point where they would control the world¡­ Natural selection at its finest¡­ The process had to be slow¡­ Strong enough to survive the early game, intelligent enough to survive the lategame¡­ A mix between the two¡­ I started to tap the buttons on the panel in front of me, watching the physique of the white mannequin change as I allotted points into various stats. With strength the body would grow larger, and more robust, with agility it would grow leaner, with vitality it would grow denser, intelligence it would grow smaller, yet its head would grow more pronounced. Utility did not affect anything externally as far as I could tell, but I couldn¡¯t be sure. Soon enough, a table sat in front of me after several hundred clicks and several minutes of messing with the settings.
Unnamed species
Strength100
Vitality40
Utility50
Intelligence100
Agility10
Available Points0
I glanced over them, then frowned¡­ There weren¡¯t enough points in the physical stats. I frowned as I erased those settings and then started to allocate points again. I had to make this perfect, the way the computer put it, it was a death match between me and 5000 other species controlled by humans, and an unknown number of species/ civilizations that were autonomous or controlled in the simulation by the simulation itself. It also said that anything that the ¡°simulation¡± isn''t a computer simulation, it was a pocket universe¡­ This design is what my life will depend on from now on, I have to get it right or I will inevitably die. I fiddled with the settings for a while, unable to make up my mind on what exactly it was that I wanted. Any strength or agility would be essentially useless in the late stages of the simulation, as everything would be based off of technology then. Any intelligence would be useless early, as technology would take time to get relevant. I was stuck trying to balance out the difference while still remaining relevant. I tried to think back to my history classes, what I had learned about human civilizations and what it was that had made certain ones flourish. My mind fell upon arguably the greatest empire in human history. ROME¡­ I kept thinking back, remembering all of this documentaries that I had watched about ancient Rome. Their most prominent aspect was their legions, their warmachine was unstoppable. What they lacked they took from those that they conquered. They took technology, god¡¯s, idea¡¯s, cultures. Rome assimilated, they grew, they expanded. All of that was built on the backs of armed conquest. Why should I compromise? All I had to do was conquer, other civilizations would make up for my inadequacies. But Rome wasn¡¯t good enough¡­ Rome was undoubtedly the greatest civilization in human history, but there was a problem. They collapsed under their own weight, Rome¡¯s model was unfit for the large scale. Once they ran out of people to conquer and assimilate, their political system started to corrupt and eat the empire from the inside out. I was planning on staying alive for a long time, so I could not allow that to happen. I don''t need civilians who were pressed into combat, I don¡¯t need politicians waging wars for their own profit, I need something that would last a lifetime. Something without farmers, something without pause to enter combat. Combat was their greatest honor, to die for the country was their purpose of birth. What I needed was an army that would respond to commands without question. A legion of mindless Zealots whose only purpose in life was warfare¡­ Stolen story; please report. My mind sped, trying to think of a societal model that would fit my purposes. I wasn¡¯t actually going to follow through if there was no precedent for a civilization like the one that I was planning. That would be idiotic. Through several thousand recorded years of human history, all kinds of civilizations have rose and died, each for specific reasons. What good would it do to mindlessly repeat history in a different world¡­ Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it¡­ My mind flew, searching through all of the history that I could remember, searching for that one example of the society that I wanted to create¡­ SPARTANS!!!! I clapped my hand in the silence of the dark room when the name of the model came up in my head. Spartans were warriors above all else, the logistics were handled by slaves. Their lives were lived for Sparta and for Sparta only. They were exactly what I needed. I smiled as I started to allocate points into the table in accordance with this new idea. Now it isn¡¯t completely up to me. Now all I had to do was follow a societal model that was established, follow Spartan law¡­
Species name : THE LEGION
Strength90
Vitality75
Utility70
Intelligence35
Agility30
Available Points0
Yes, that''s it¡­ That is what I wanted¡­ A legion to follow orders. Human tanks, with insane strength, insane agility and insane vitality. They have the adaptability of a normal human, able to think their way out a problem. They are witty, but not intelligent to the point of creating new ideas or questioning my decisions. They should fit their purpose just fine¡­
Do you wish to proceed to the next stage?
As I finished reading, it opened up a new panel, having already read my mind I guess. This new panel had several sliding dials and a few color scheme options. The mannequin shone with a bright white light, instantly becoming less and less opaque and becoming more and more defined. Currently it was still rather vague, but as I messed with the dials, the figure morphed. When I turned one dial one way, it grew larger, when I turned it the other way, it grew shorter. It was like character creation in a game¡­ Interesting¡­ I fiddled with it for a while, getting something mostly human looking, but for the hell of it I decided to give it red skin and make it on average around 6 and a half feet. I asked a few questions aloud, and got a few sketchy responses from the AI computer thing about the physical traits that it was allowed to have. I could, hypothetically, make it twenty feet tall and weigh ten tons. This would have an adverse effect of agility though, making it almost unable to move swiftly. Inversely, I could make it two feet tall and despite the rather small agility number it would still be incredibly agile. It¡¯s body durability and strength would be negatively impacted however, so I decided to stick with a general human form in the end. I wanted something like heavy infantry, and they would be unable to fight hand to hand evenly with a human if they were too small, or if they were too large it would be stupidly hard to feed them, and in the battlefield they would get outmaneuvered by more agile enemies, leading to them having a large weakness. It would also take a fortune to fully armor something that was twenty feet tall, let alone getting a mount for the giant warrior. Ya, six and a half feet is tall enough¡­ I selected my settings, red skin, black hair, for the hell of it I threw a pair of cat ears on there, and they also got claws and a tail... What do you know, a bit of aesthetic fashion and perhaps they got a powerful natural weapon. Although, those claws are probably not going to be strong enough to take on a knife or anything¡­ A thought crossed my mind about whether or not both sexes of the species would have the same appearance or I was just designing one half.
UGCU rewards specimens and subjects that prove that they are above the rest, and you have proven that with your accurate observation. 5 skill points have been gained through an astute observation. You are now granted access to both genders of the species instead of just one.
Once again, as I finished reading it the window disappeared, and the species design that I had been working on for my legionnaire started to brightly glow before splitting into two, as another white pad forming next to the one I was working on. On that pad the tall broad figure that I had been messing with instantly became slightly feminine, growing a pair of breasts and a vag, while the one I had been working on grew a dick. I cringed, directing my eyes away from the masculine body parts of the right model and towards the newly created female one. Of course, this one wasn¡¯t any better as it was almost an exact clone of the male one with the exception of the tits and its lack of a junk. I cringed again, it looked like a man with breast implants¡­ Almost instantly another holographic control panel appeared in front of this second platform, identical to the first one. I secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and once again started to mess with the settings, taking another few minutes to get the appearance to something more¡­ appealing¡­ Eventually I ended up with a thin tall body type, with a long face, red hair and red skin. She was hot, but not exactly beautiful in the human sense of the word. She was also reaaaaallly tall. I fiddle with it a bit more, sculpting her face a bit and changing her eye color, from the pitch black that the man had to yellowish gold iris color. I knew that this was only going to be a generic woman, and the facial features of the other ones would differ a bit, so I didn¡¯t spend an extreme amount of time on them, but I did make sure that they were at least pretty. As I finished up her face, I took a step back to appreciate my work, my hand reaching out subconsciously and touching her tit. Unfortunately, it felt like a mannequin, very firm and fake, like a plastic, unlike skin at all. I was disappointed, in myself and the mannequin¡­ After I nodded at my work, confirming one last time that I liked the appearance of the six and a half foot tall cat woman, the control panel disappeared, and was replaced by another status table.
Species name : THE LEGION
Projected Status : Female
Strength50
Vitality40
Utility90
Intelligence45
Agility75
Available Points
What? The female¡¯s status is different from the men''s? Even more, its agility and utility are ridiculous!!?!? I gawked for a moment, but I accepted the stats, I mean, it would be good if both genders could fight, but I would need swifter members to scout and it would be nice to have a few agility based fighters instead of pure heavy infantry. This would do well I guess¡­ The projected status window disappeared, then another window popped up as the two mannequins floated away from me.
THE LEGION
Proficiency
TraitCurrent Points InvestedPoints until next upgrade
Builders01
Warriors01
Thinkers01
Farmers01
Traders01
Current Available Points5 + 10 (Bonus)More Information...
Well, that is rather self explanatory, but I decided to ask anyway. Gotta get those bonus points, who knows how many I will be able to get later... ¡°More Information¡­¡±
You have already understood all of the information from your own conclusions. Well done¡­ Be careful, points may only be given, and not removed once placed.
Well¡­ Rip¡­ I just assumed that every status was self explanatory and it turns out that it is. Saves me time though, so I guess that''s a bonus in its own way. No hidden loopholes, no hidden passives somewhere, no unbalanced picks¡­ Since I am going for a warrior society, I put my first point into the ¡°Warriors¡± category, and instantly the point cost doubled.
THE LEGION
Proficiency
TraitCurrent Points InvestedPoints until next upgrade
Builders01
Warriors12
Thinkers01
Farmers01
Traders01
Current Available Points5 + 9 (Bonus)More Information...
As far as I could tell, this was a one time decision, and I found no way to move the point which I had invested in. I pondered for a moment, then put in two more points into the warrior category, to find out if my hunch on the prices was correct. Put simply, there were two ways that the number would increase, it would either double, to four, or go to three. I would prefer three, because three would mean that I don¡¯t have to waste points and I would be able to attain a higher level warrior buff with a smaller amount of points. When the price doubles every single time shit gets expensive quickly¡­ I put in 2 more points as I held my breath. Luckily, the price only went up to 3. I gave a sigh of relief, then started to carefully allocate my points. The pricing went like this, 1,2,3,4,5 which means that I would have to invest 1, 3, 6, and then finally 10 points total into a trait for it to reach level 4. with the eventual result being this.
THE LEGION
Proficiency
TraitCurrent Points InvestedPoints until next upgrade
Builders Level 113
Warriors Level 4105
Thinkers Level 233
Farmers Level 112
Traders01
Current Available Points0More Information...
This time it didn¡¯t wait until I was satisfied, as it just instantly closed the window when I allocated the last point. The two figures faded away, leaving me alone in a dark room with no light source. Once again, a small blue window appeared before me, burning into my eyes that had adjusted to the residual darkness.
You have completed your species creation. UGCU will now begin deployment of ¡°THE LEGION¡± onto the pocket dimension. This world is almost infinite, yet will slowly grow smaller as the simulation progresses. You may interact as you wish with other civilizations, both contestant controlled, and autonomous. You may slaughter them, befriend them, enslave them. The choice is up to you. In order to keep the simulation fair, all knowledge of past technology shall be eliminated from your mind. You shall have access only to what your species has access too. They have access to whatever is available, self discovered or taken from those which they conquer. However, in order to keep your individual uniqueness prevalent throughout the simulation, your memories and knowledge shall be given back as your civilization advances. For example these ¡°Guerilla tactics¡± or the ¡°Spartan¡± civilization model shall be available from the moment you enter the simulation. However information regarding things such as Iron Working or Electricity shall only be remembered once your civilization reaches the technological level where the information becomes relevant. As you may have guessed, this is to prevent you from artificially giving your species aid in the form of advanced technology. Your exceptional skill in forethought has impressed UGCU, and it has decided to give you a starting bias as well as a starting inhibition. Your starting zone shall fit your intended use for your species, as well as keep the difficulty up to par despite the starting bias. Remember. UGCU will always watch and monitor you so that your files can be used in the creation of new species. There will be certain milestones in the simulation, such as the first extermination of a settlement, or the first contestant war. For every milestone you and your species survive through, you may or may not be granted additional help depending on your progress and input. To merely survive is not enough, you must thrive... Good luck...
The room fell into darkness once more as I stood still, unsure what to do now. A strange pain hit my brain as some unknown force sifted through my memories and thoughts, barring off those which it deemed too advanced for this level of civilization. Wait¡­ WAIT?!!?! NO!!! I NEED THAT!!!! Instantly, the thoughts hit something far more rudimentary than it should be looking for, and it started to take it away. I grit my teeth and strained against it, trying desperately to keep the memory of what could be the most important invention in all of human history¡­ After a few moments of intense fighting, it finally let go of the memory and moved on to something else and I took a breath. I saved it.. I saved the wheel!! Take that you blue memory stealing bastard!!!! As soon as I let out my breath in relief, the floor fell out from under me, and I started to fall, my conscious fading away as I fell¡­ Nomadic Age, Chapter 1. A River and Naked Cat people... Anyone played Civilization? This is going to (hopefully) work in a similar manner. Once certain technologies are acquired a civilization will unlock new avenues for advancement. Although, its not as straightforwards as Civ, there is no "Put points here and get this technology." The real world doesn''t work like that... Its a "Discover it yourself or take it from someone else" system. Fun right? Anyway, this chapter is the start of the nomadic arc. This arc shouldn''t take long, but it will be a pace setter and a mood setter. People afraid of death and slavery, turn back now or forever whack off to slave chicks getting knocked up for slave babies. (Later thou, still have to find them...) My comment still stands though, put your "builds" for a species down in the comments and I will probably use them later. Maybe not in this arc, maybe not in the next one... But EVENTUALLY!!! ------------- My eyes flickered open when a bright light hit them. I groaned as I sat up, struggling to open my eyes as I searched my memories for where I was¡­ My hand stretched out, unconsciously rubbing my face as I started to yawn. Oddly, it kinda hurt when I scratched my face with my hand. I opened my eyes with a wince at the sudden pain. Instantly I started to squint at the bright light that entered them. The world seemed so vivid, my eyes couldn¡¯t take it. The world had never seemed so bright, it was like I was staring at a perfect world, filled with color and light. After a few seconds of squinting, my eyes adjusted to the newfound light and I was able to open them and examine my surroundings. What I saw were layers upon layers of trees, with loads of dirt and foliage beneath them. I was beside a small river, with only a few feet of clearance on either side of me before more treeline. Has the world always looked like this? This is insane, forget 20/20 vision, this is like 20/5 or something like that. I can see the patterns on the back of that butterfly thing over there... fifty feet away¡­ Hi definition on top of hi definition¡­ I don¡¯t know what that means, but its like that¡­ I guess¡­ As I adjusted to my new super vision I started to look around again. Scattered along the riverbank were the members of the species that I designed. It seems that surrounding me were about twenty Legionites, each one sleeping like I had been.. No, scratch that, nineteen exactly. Nine men, ten women¡­ They, and I for that matter, were completely naked. I spent a few seconds appreciating the bodies that I designed. Their bright red skin gave off a soft glow amongst the sunlight. The women were rather beautiful, although some had a better appearance than others. One of them in particular, the closest one to me infact, was the best looking of the lot. The muscles on her nude body gave off a definite undertone, They were tall, although they looked shorter now¡­ Around my size. That is interesting, I was only around five foot ten, they should be at least six and a half feet tall¡­ ¡°WHAT?!?!!?¡± I looked down at my hands only to find that they were covered in red skin, with claws along the finger tips. ¡°NO FUCKING WAY!!!¡± I spun my head around, my gaze falling on my backwards legs and cat tail that was sprouting from my naked ass. My hand instantly went to the top of my head, feeling around for the last defining marker. Yep¡­ I had fucking cat ears¡­ What a joke¡­ At least tell me if you are going to put me in the body of the species I designed¡­ This is rediculous¡­ I put my legs beneath me, a strange feeling due to the double jointed leg, and attempted to stand up. As I put the force into my leg, I naturally stood up, my body making no awkward or unnatural movements despite its changes. Perhaps they had the decency to adapt my mind to the new body¡­ *Urrggg* I heard a groan from beside me, as the female Legion member started to move, waking up from her sleep. Her red hair fell from her face, revealing it in the bright light of the sun. Damn she was hot¡­ She opened her eyes and my gaze instantly fell on her bright golden irises that almost instantly started to look back at me. She sat upright, making no effort at all to hide her nude body as she studied her surroundings. Apart from her, the others in the group also started to wake up, evidenced by the rustling noises and grunting sounds that my highly tuned ears could hear from behind me. The female who was infront of me kept her gaze locked onto my face for a few seconds before standing up herself. She was the almost the same height as I was, except she was thinner, lighter and leaner. She started to walk around me, her gaze drinking in my entire body like it was candy. After a few circling she stood infront of me, inspecting my face thoroughly. I kind of just stood there awkwardly as this naked pretty woman thoroughly examining my body. After she finished she stood infront of my with her head cocked before she revealed a wide smile and then took my hands in her own. I awkwardly smiled back for a moment before shaking her hands loose and then covering up my growing boner. Not the time body, not the time¡­ I glanced around at the small group of legionites that was here. I guess I am the tenth male? 10 females 10 males of this new species¡­ Good enough¡­ I gave a sigh as I inspected the gathering group. I appeared to be the tallest male, as the others are a few inches shorter and they seem to be less burly then I am. Good, I will need something to control them with before I can set up a society. Speaking of whic--- *GGGGGGGGGGRRRRRR* My thoughts were cut off by a low growling sound that came from the river. Instantly, the idle cat people in front of me grew into some kind of battle hardened unit, spreading out and lowering their bodies. They were alert, their eyes darting all around and checking every inch of the river for a sign of danger as they backed away from it carefully. With a massive roar and a great splash of water a massive toothed maw shot out from the river, covering the distance between it and its target in a split second. Its head alone was five feet wide, the parts of its body that were outside of the river were massive, like a gigantic alligator. It had hefted well over twelve feet of its body out of the river in an instant, and its jaw was now firmly latched onto the right leg of the female Legionite closest to the river, and instantly the woman started to violently scream in agony as it teeth bore into her leg. The rest of the group charged towards the overgrown crocodile, trying their best to injure it, but hardly scratching its skin with their claws. The woman started to scream even louder as she bashed her fist against the lizard¡¯s head as powerfully as she could. The beast flinched from the sudden force applied to its face, twitching its head to the side and bringing the woman with it as it tried to slither back into the water. It¡¯s head was still quite far from the river, and it had started to sink into the mud from the massive amount of weight that it had placed onto the shore. My mind finally started to move again as I saw the beast retreating. ¡°QUICK!!! GRAB ITS LEGS, DRAG IT ONTO THE SHORE!!¡± I shouted out orders as I glanced around for some form of weapon. A large branch hanging down from a tree near me caught my eye, my hand reaching out and tearing it off from the tree after a substantial amount of effort. The edge splintered when I twisted it off, creating a jagged point. I flipped it around, realizing that a jagged point would deal more damage to the beast then a simple stick if I could get it into a weak point in the beast¡¯s hide. Almost as if on cue, a flood of knowledge about spears and what they were streamed into my head.. I guess I just invented a spear.. Interesting¡­ The cat people by the riverbed had each grabbed a section of the flailing beast and had started to pull it back onto the shore with an extensive amount of effort. The soft mud gave way under the insane amount of force that they were using, causing their legs to sink into the mud quickly. The beast was sinking as well, with one of its feet already buried completely in the riverbank while the other one was not far behind. With my new spear in hand I charged towards the almost immobilized beast, breaking into a full sprint before jumping and shoving the point into its eye with all of the strength I could muster.. The force of the thrust forced the beast back a foot or two as my spear shattered from the impact. It¡¯s jaw loosened a tad bit as the sheer blunt force of the blow hit its skull. Taking advantage of this, I positioned my feet, one on its shattered eye, and the other in the mud. I then proceeded to lift with all of my strength. I could feel the muscles in my back and arms straining as I put all of the force I could into lifting up its jaw. To my right I saw another pair of hands follow my example and then another one on the other side. 16 members of our group held down the gargantuan monster, while 3 of us worked on freeing our comrade from its mouth. We hadn¡¯t made any progress after a few seconds of extremely stranious effort, and the riverbank was slowly sliding back into the river at this point, giving the beast more leeway with its movements. Off to my right I saw its tail come up from the river in a massive torrent of water, on a collision course with the woman I was next to earlier. I tried to voice out a word of warning, but she jumped back at just the right time, the tail missing her by only a foot or two as she leapt away from the beast. I refocused my attention on prying open the lizard¡¯s mouth as it started to use its tail to give itself a bit of leeway, constantly swinging the massive scaled beam randomly, sometimes hitting nothing, sometimes narrowly missing one of our members. After a few seconds of this, it finally got lucky, scoring a massive hit on one of the men in our group, throwing him far away, out of my vision range. I heard a massive crack as he hit a tree somewhere. We had to finish this now before we lose more people¡­ As that thought went through my mind, I heard a shout from behind me. ¡°AHHH!!!!!¡± I didn¡¯t have the spare attention to look away from the beast that was trying even now to struggle from my grip, but almost a second later a narrow piece of wood flew past my face and planted itself in the other eye socket of the beast. A warm body hit me from behind, the force of the impact pressed me into the beast and the foot that I had placed in the eye of the beast gave a sickening crunch as it caved in. The beast let out a roar, releasing its jaw as it attempted desperately to return to the water. I grabbed hold of its mouth, shutting it with my arms when I saw it try and open. The beast, blinded and stuck started to thrash around even more, throwing a few more people off of it. This only lasted a few seconds, as they would instantly get up and return to their job of pulling it onto the shore. ¡°QUICK, SHUT ITS MOUTH!!! I screamed for help as the muscles in my arms strained to keep its jaw shut. The beast was putting more and more force into its jaw, and my arms could no longer handle it alone. Soon though, several other people came alone and thoroughly shut its mouth with their own arms. After five people were firmly grasping its mouth I released my arms, horrified at the bloody streaks left behind by the rough scales on its snout. I took a quick breath, briefly ignoring the stinging pain in my arms as I searched for something that would be able to hold closed the reptile¡¯s mouth. Once more my eyes flitted around, falling briefly on the figure of the crumpled body next to the shattered remnants of a tree. I cringed at the bloody pulp that he had turned into, almost vomiting as I tore my eyes from the devastating sight. I swallowed my saliva as I scanned the area. I grabbed a thick vine, almost the width of my fist, taking several dozen feet of it from the tree before running back to the group that was holding the monstrosity down. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.They had managed to mostly pull it onto the shore, with only its tail remaining partly submerged. It was massive, almost forty feet long from its head to the tip of its tail. That tail was being held down by several members of the group while its head and body were completely suppressed by the rest of the cat people. Almost everyone in our group was bloodied in some form, the scales from the beast tougher and rougher then our skin. Most had only light wounds, but a few of us, myself included, were actually injured. Towards its head I could see a woman with blood running down her leg and several large gaping holes where the teeth had left their marks. One of those teeth was still there, the bony spike was penetrating cleanly through her calf. As I ran towards the group, I threw the other end of the rope to her, and she held it for a moment before understanding what needed to be done. She held it below the horizontal mouth of the creature, while I passed the entire bundle of vines over its mouth, tightening it as fast as possible. After a few more passes around its mouth, one of the men holding it closed let go abruptly. I was startled, but kept going all the same. What was the point of the vines if they didn¡¯t free up hands in the first place. The man hopped onto the head of the beast, raised his fist, and then started to pound on its skull. After another few layers of vine, another man deemed it safe to let go, as he went and assisted the man ontop of the mammoth lizard, wailing away on the back of its neck. This process continued until the lizard stopped struggling completely, its head a bloody pulp from all of the abuse and trauma that was placed on it, and its entire body was wrapped up in vines, taken from the surrounding trees in order to assist with the subjugation of the beast. It had taken us only a minute to subdue the beast and drag it from the water, but it had taken well over half an hour for us to kill it with blunt trauma. I had tried to use a spear to kill it, but its skull was too thick for the spear to penetrate, as it simply shattered on contact after a heavy thrust. Eventually the woman who it had grabbed originally took its tooth from her leg and repeatedly jabbed it into the belly of the beast, probably puncturing a vital organ inside its body. After she did that, it started to die way faster. When the entire event was over I vomited out whatever was in my stomach. The adrenaline emptied out from my system, and a dull throbbing pain overcame me. Honestly, I was expecting these wounds to be far worse than what they felt like. I glanced over at the splintered tree, taking a moment to ponder what to with our dead comrade. A second later, I turned away in disgust, my eyes turning back towards the tired and exhausted group of cat people who were resting on the mud of the bank. I spotted the injured woman, her leg still bleeding, although not nearly as much as one would expect considering what it was that attacked her. I decided to take the initiative and approach her. She seemed to notice my approach, as she attempted to stand up. As she tried to put weight on her bad leg, her body lost its balance. I rushed forward and caught her before she could completely fall over. ¡°Hi there¡­¡± She seemed surprised at my sudden actions, but she didn¡¯t reject my arms that were coiled around her body. She seemed to understand what it was that I was trying to say. Thinking back now, they all seemed to have understood what it was that I was saying or what it was that I wanted, but none of them have spoken yet. The closest thing to a word that I had heard was that grunt that the pretty one had yelled when she drove the spear into the lizard¡¯s eye. I turned my head away from the woman in my arms, searching the area for that woman. Fuck it, naming them woman this, woman that, is confusing¡­ I will give them names from now on. The injured one, I guess I will name her¡­ Fluffy? For real though I guess she will be named¡­ Linda, ya that kinda fits I guess¡­ Linda and Tessa. After a few seconds I found the other woman, now named Tessa, over by the side of the alligator, using it¡¯s dislodged tooth to cut into its belly. I slowly lowered the woman in my arms, now named Linda, about to head over to the alligator / crocodile/ komodo dragon thing. As she touched the ground and my hands left her, she reached out with an arm and grabbed at my leg, a small voice escaping from her open mouth. ¡°Ah¡­¡± It seems that she wants me to stay. I guess I can¡¯t disappoint the ladies. I took a look at her nude body, but that was kind of a buzz kill, as she was covered in mud and blood. I gave a sigh for my inability to keep lewd thoughts out of a life or death scenario before swooping down and carefully picking Linda up, placing her on my back so that she wouldn¡¯t have to put weight onto her leg right now. I took the two of us over to Tessa as I glanced at the mushy and deformed body of the giant crocodile. Honestly we were brutal in our methods of killing this thing, gouging out it¡¯s eyes and then beating it to death as it slowly died from internal bleeding. Honestly though, I don¡¯t feel any remorse. It had started this conflict, trying to eat Linda and all¡­ That and in this world it would be kill or be killed, a dog eat dog world¡­ Speaking of eating, we should find something to eat, I am sure all of us are hungry. Apparently my words were said too late, as the group of Legionites closest to the dead beast had started to eat it raw. When I had been ranting in an inner monologue, Tessa had managed to open a hole in the side of the beast and the others had started to widen it with their bare hands, tearing large chunks of flesh and skin from it. WAIT A MINUTE ¡°NO!!! BAD CAT PEOPLE!!! Don¡¯t tear the leather, we need that¡­¡± I yelled out angrilly at the group that had been destroying the leathery hide of the reptile, and instantly they backed away, laying on the ground with their belly¡¯s up and their tails between their legs. Tessa looked at me with sad cat eyes, her golden irises no longer looking regal and dignified, instead they looked pitiful and on the verge of tears as her cat ears pressed against her head, tips pointed backwards. She lowered her head after our gazes met, and she took the piece of meat that she had been eating and offered it to me with both hands. What is this? Am I the bad guy here? Taking away everyone else''s food? I gave a hefty sigh, pushing her meat back to her, prompting a rather confused look from Tessa. I lightly pushed her away from the opening in the alligator, and she gave me a few feet. I placed Linda at her side as I walked towards the edge of the gaping hole in what was once a strong and durable hide. My eyes fell upon the tool that was used to create this hole, the tooth from the alligator. My hand reached down and grasped the tooth, and I was instantly surprised. I expected it to be smooth, but it seems that the tooth had natural serrations on the inward side of the curve, like something a fish hook would have. Tessa had forcefully opened the hole with it, but it looks like force wouldn¡¯t be needed really, considering the curved part of the tooth was rather sharp already. I reached out towards the skin, my hands coming in contact with a leathery scaled hide. The scales were thick and durable, no wonder we couldn¡¯t cut through those with our claws, they were like armor plating, half an inch thick of some kind of chitinous substance. I slid the sharp part of the tooth through a gap in the scales and it cut like a dream, slicing apart the skin like it were paper. I grinned, taking a rather large amount of time to get reasonably clean and clear cuts. I had this nagging feeling that this material would be incredibly useful, and with the discovery that these teeth were sharp on the sides and not just the tip, they would make for excellent spear points. What a way to start a civilization off. Tons of food, tons of material and tons of high quality weapons. After I made the first cut, Tessa and another woman went to the front of the alligator, trying to pry the teeth from its mouth so that they could copy me. The women really were smarter then the men in this species, and I guess I am the only exception to this rule. Hopefully that will change with time, we need a higher IQ for our civilization to advance. Infact, it stil worries me that I have not heard a complete word from any of them. They are completely silent, with the exception of Tessa and Linda. I guess I will name the rest of them as they distinguish themselves¡­ While I was musing to myself, Linda managed to crawl over to where Tessa was attempting to get the tooth out of the lizard¡¯s jaw. Linda started at the problem for a moment before grabbing a fist sized rock and hitting the bottom section of the tooth, putting a rather firm crack in the base of the tooth. It¡¯s a good thing that we saved her, she seems to have the highest intelligence stat of our group. It would have been a massive blow to lose our most intelligent member on the first day. After that, several more teeth were taken from the jaw and the women started to get to work cutting apart the skin into nice and clean portions of around 5 square feet each. This thing was a behemoth, at around 40 feet long and 5 feet wide, so there was a TON of skin to be harvested from it, and I was planning on taking all of it. I made sure to tell them to be careful not to injure the hide, and I think they understood me, but I am not sure if they ACTUALLY understood me. I think they just get the jist of what it is I am saying. Anyway, with the women doing the job I had been doing, I decided to take a look around. And it¡¯s a good thing I did because I discovered something akin to an apple tree a few dozen feet away from the bank of the river. To be safe I cut open the fruit and checked the insides, but as far as I could tell it wasn¡¯t deadly. It looked almost exactly like an apple, except it was orange¡­ Not an orange, but an orange apple. Interesting stuff¡­ I told the men that had come with me to start gathering the ¡°ripe¡± ones, which again, were orange and not red. They seemed to only half understand what I wanted them to do, but I left them to their own devices as I went about making something to carry our haul in. It took me a while, tying several thick sticks together with some vine and then layering the inside with lizard pelt to make it sturdy. After the first one was made, Linda and a few other women stopped what they were doing and started to automate making those as well, taking the large 5 by 5 sheets that were coming off of the lizard and putting them into the backpacks. With my tasks done I sat down on the bank of the river¡­ Before seeing the water, and then inching myself backwards another ten twenty feet. Once there I sat down, took another scoot backwards until I finally felt safe enough to contemplate what I should do now. We have a water source right here, but I am not sure we want to stay here if there are other predators like this prehistoric dinosaur lurking around. We should find a cave somewhere, become true cavemen¡­ Ya, let¡¯s do that. No.. no wait¡­ We shouldn¡¯t create a settlement right now, it is too early in history. We need tools, we need a steady supply of food, we need to get out of this goddamn forest. Perhaps we should be nomads, roaming in the forest until we find a suitable location to set up shop and start a civilization. Or until we find someone else''s civilization to take over¡­ Ya, lets do that one. My civ probably has the most insane starting stats in the game, and I was told that there would be a starting bias and a starting inhibition. Let¡¯s assume that the giant fucking deathtrap that was lying in wait next to our spawn was the inhibition. Where is the bias? It has to be one of those weaker civilizations that the system was talking about¡­ Sparta oh Sparta.. I shall found you eventually, but I need farms, builders, and slaves to farm the farms. Oh.. and a farmable crop. That is the most important one¡­ Nomadic Age, Chapter 2, Leonidus Thanks to those who comment, follow rate and favorite. So far, we have 4 /5000 species other than the Legionaries. The Frame(BlueRiddler) and The Hive (Lift-off). Also by Liftoff is ¡°The Vengeful Ones¡± and following along with Humans is Aegyptus by Balthazar. The Frame may show up early, or they may show up later, the Hive will show up in the middle of the series somewhere for sure. Don¡¯t worry, their entrance will be epic. As for the other two,they will show up Seeing as you three took the initiative and put down your idea¡¯s first, your idea¡¯s will play an integral part of the book. I am creative(probably?) , but I won¡¯t be able to come up with 5000 different species (although most of those would be killed off before they come into contact with THE LEGION) I also want to actually use the ¡°Reader Interactive¡± Label for my fiction, which requires the readers to be, well, interactive? Btw, I will post an Index of the different species w/ descriptions later and update it as the fiction grows. Now then, no other chapter for today¡­ I have two 9 hour shifts to work between today and tomorrow, so expect a chapter Sunday morning?
Leave a species, and I will use it
--------------------- According to my biological clock, it took the better portion of two hours to finally finish dismantling most of the usable portions of the crocodile. What was left was its bone structure and a few patches of skin towards the ends of its body as well as its internal organs. Most of its meat had been stripped away, and after a while I decided to swap from wood to bone for building the backpacks. The bone was heavier, yes, but holy fuck this species is strong¡­ The men have around 90 strength on average, but from what I can understand by the stats, the points seem to work multiplicatively almost. I mean, a human¡¯s max strength stat is somewhere around 20, right? That is the biggest, baddest, meanest badass on the planet. The Arnold Schwarzenegger meets The Rock hybrid that can bench something ridiculous like 500 pounds. Those would be the world record holders and the ones with the most points in strength. Whereas, the 1 strength point people are the fatasses who can¡¯t even lift their arms up from their motor scooters. Obviously the buff guy has more than twenty times the strength of some fatass who can¡¯t even get up off of his ass. Right? I mean, I have met people who can¡¯t lift up a gallon of milk because it''s too heavy, and there are people who can benchpress like 400 pounds. Obviously stats are not as clear cut as they seem. Anyway, despite the thicker and heavier bone¡¯s being substituted for the wood, the Legionites (With the exception of Linda) hefted the backpacks with little to no effort. I had expected the men to be able to do it, considering that each pack must have held hundreds of pounds of meat, bones and skin. But I mean, the women put their packs on too, and from what I could tell they hardly noticed the weight. I gave a sigh, lamenting on all of the times that I had wanted to be strong during my time as a human. Alas, I was simply born as part of the wrong species¡­ Anyways, after all of the members had put on a pack including Linda, I knelt down infront of her, pausing momentarily to glance at her vajayjay. Unfortunately, despite the well sculpted view of a nude woman, the picturesque imagery was ruined by the large amount of blood and grime covering her body. I gave a sigh, my exposed boner fading away as my gaze continued downwards to her leg. I moved my head closer to the wound, intent on seeing the amount of damage that the teeth had done. What I discovered left me pleasantly shocked. Her leg wounds had stopped bleeding for the most part, and the holes looked¡­ less gruesome? Ya, lets go with that. I was initially expecting the holes in her leg to be massive, but other than the single one that went all of the way through, it seems that the other holes were only about an inch deep. Still a deep wound, but it had already stopped bleeding and from the looks of it, so long as we kept it clean it should heal over time. I think¡­ HOW WOULD I KNOW, I''M NOT A DOCTOR!!! I gave a hefty sigh. I would take a piece of snakeskin and wrap it around her leg, but the problem is that we don¡¯t have anything to sterilize it. I don¡¯t have rubbing alcohol or lysol hanging around somewhere to sterilize this shit. I mean, it was on a gigantic reptile only an hour earlier, it can¡¯t be safe to just apply it to an open wound. Well, when I think of another way to sterilize it I can then treat the wound. I mean normally, you wash it and then bandage it, but the only water source near here is that river, and I''m sure another lizard jaws is just waiting down there for us to walk close. Not to mention that river water isn¡¯t necessarily the cleanest water. It HAS to be filled with all kinds of shit, from parasites and bacteria to microorganisms or something else like it... I stood up, sweeping my eyes across the clearing once more, before my vision landed on the crumpled body of the man who had died at the hands (tail?) of the behemoth crocodile. I took a deep breath, steadying myself and solidifying my resolve as my mind drifted to the realization of my situation. That could be me¡­ I could have been killed on day one¡­ This is real, this isn¡¯t a game. My life is on the line here¡­ My thoughts went on a tangent as an old saying surfaced from somewhere in my mind. ¡°Survival of the fittest¡± My feet started to move on their own, as if my subconscious wanted a clear cut affirmation that this wasn¡¯t a happy go lucky jungle adventure with a bunch of nude cat people. Someone had died, miserably at that. I could have died¡­ Note to self¡­ Don¡¯t take part in the attacks against giant beasts unless my own life is on the line. These Legionites are essentially animals. They have low intelligence, they arnt human. That creature over there, propped up against that tree. He didn¡¯t exist before a few hours ago. I created him¡­ I am his god¡­ I created him and then ordered him to die for me¡­ I am selfish.. No, I am important. I am human. Without me this tribe is doomed. The women have some intelligence, but one day someone will come along with guns or arrows and will slaughter these crimson cat people. They need a leader, they need an alpha. Someone to take them in the right direction, the direction of survival. I calmed myself, taking another step forward towards the sight of the first casualty in the war for survival. As I neared the shattered tree and the crippled body came into my sight, I turned around on impulse and a torrent of green bile flew forth from my mouth onto the brush below as my stomach convulsed. I wretched three times before I had nothing else in my stomach to vomit up before I finally turned myself back to the corpse, no it wasn¡¯t a corpse¡­ He was still alive¡­ From his sunken chest, several ribs had penetrated his chest skin, blood still flowing from the holes that their shattered points had made when they had broken the skin. His chest, despite being held down by several bony nails, was still raising and lowering weakly as his labored breathing could be heard, faintly struggling to keep him alive. He had lost one arm, his left torn off by the impact and thrown behind him leaving a bloody stump from elbow down, while his right arm was bent backwards and dislocated, popped out of its socket. I could faintly see his blood soaked tail twitching behind him, as blood from some unseen back wound dripped onto it, dying the already red fur even more crimson. I gulped, my body continuing forwards, until I caught a glimpse of his back from the faint gap between him and the tree. I turned my head away, tears flowing down at the absolutely brutal fate that had befallen him. His spine was shattered, he was paralyzed¡­ I collected myself as I dry heaved several times, before finally turning my gaze back to him. His eyes were staring at me, his mouth opening and closing faintly, hardly twitching. I gulped once, turning away from him. No¡­ I won¡¯t pussy out¡­ Be a man, put the soldier out of his misery. ¡°Y-you know¡­ I-i think t-that I should give you a name¡­ A brave hero, fighting and dying for something you will never see..¡± At first, my words were shaky, but as I continued to speak, my resolve became as hard as stone. I continued to speak as my spear rose to shoulder height. ¡°I shall name you¡­¡± I twirled the spear around, pointing the roughly serrated bone point towards him, keeping it balanced in the palm of my hand as I tried to keep my voice stable and steady. This person, despite being only a few hours old¡­ He was sentient, able to comprehend speech, just like a human. He was able to think, to feel, to live like a human, if he had only been given time. I shook my head, my thoughts returning to the task at hand. ¡°There was once a great Spartan King¡­ He was placed against forces far beyond anything he could imagine, far beyond anything he could ever defeat... For his country, he left his children, his wife and his country, taking only 300 soldiers with him to fight this massive enemy. This king took his men and stopped this great force, stalling them enough that a defence could be mounted by his country and its allies. Eventually, his sacrifice and the sacrifice of all those who stood with him brought about an era of peace and prosperity instead of tyranny and destruction as was promised by the enemies he had fought. Today, you have proven yourself worthy of a name, taking charge against an enemy you couldn¡¯t possibly defeat. You sacrificed yourself for the greater good, and for that I thank you Leonidas¡­ Now, sleep solder¡­ Sleep and join the tales of valor that the Spartan soldiers will tell for centuries to come. The first of your name, the first of your cause. The first soldier to fight and die for Sparta¡­ Be proud to have died a warrior''s death without any dishonor. You have fought well, now rest¡­¡± He closed his eyes, his mouth closing firmly as he listened to my words and waited. I took a deep breath, hoping that I don¡¯t fuck this up. After a small moment where he made peace with his life, and I made peace with taking his life, my arm shot forward, driving the bone point into his neck with pristine precision. His weak breathing stopped, only a weak gurgle was heard as he started to suffocate on his own blood for a moment before death¡¯s embrace finally started to take him. His head lost the strength that had been keeping it upright, and it slanted to the side. I once more turned around and dry heaved with all of my might before turning back around to the dead body of Leonidas and saying a prayer. Although I don¡¯t believe in god, hopefully his short life and artificial creation had left him with a soul of some type for some form of Karmic retribution in the next life. A strange thought struck me. I created them, so hypothetically I am their god? I put those thoughts aside, standing up and then turning around only to find Tessa and Linda standing there waiting for me. Interestingly enough, they didn¡¯t seem all that surprised with my actions, let alone rejection or anger. Tessa snuggled up against me for a moment, then started drawing me back towards the group with quite a bit of force. I wanted to go with her, but I paused for a moment, wrenching my wrist from her hand. I then squatted down on the ground, motioning for Linda to take her place on my back so that I could carry her. She seemed slightly confused for a moment but understood what I wanted her to do a second later. She pressed her bloody dirty nude body into my back, her breasts pressing into my shoulder blades as she did. As I reached behind me and grabbed her legs while being careful not to touch her wound or agitate it, I felt her soft tail coiling around my arm. She gave off a light voice of surprise when I hefted her up, but after a second she got used to it and nestled her head into my back. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Like that, we were ready to set off into the forest¡­ ----------------- The bright sunlight peered through a small gap in the branches of the canopy a hundred feet up in the massive forest. Illuminated by that small canopy was a small patch of spiky grass, with twenty feet on either side of it mostly cleared away of large pieces of brush or branches. From one side of the cleared area, a brown animal appeared from the surrounding forest. It was tall, standing almost nine feet from its four legs to the tips of its set of wide horns, spread majestically to ward off predators and attract mates. It walked on two pairs of powerfully built legs, and was almost as long as it was tall. The quadruped seemed very majestic, and under its tight fur skin were muscles brimming with power. To a predator of a similar size, it might find it hard to catch this animal, yet it might also find it hard to fight the animal due to its surprisingly strong body. The brown animal stared at the patch of spiky grass, its nose twitching as it scanned its surroundings for signs of predators. Finding that the clearing lacked the signs of a large predator lurking in the bushes it approached the bush, its posture and advance gave off an excited air, as if the bush in front of it was a very rare delicacy that it had been looking all over for. *Rustle* Instantly, it stopped, it¡¯s legs spread out and ready to bolt in a moments notice. frozen like a deer in the headlights as its four ears spread out, listening for any form of predator in the area. A moment later, a bird flew down from a branch of the nearest tree, and the oversized dear seemed slightly relieved, its body posture returning to a state slightly more tense than its normal attitude. After standing stock still for a few more seconds, it cautiously proceeded to walk towards the patch of grass that had lured it into the clearing in the first place. Upon arrival at the grass, it leaned down its head to start eating it, only to suddenly find itself being overwhelmed by an intense force from behind, throwing its head into the ground and breaking off one of its horns. As for why, well I was sitting on its back with my spear jabbed into the back of its neck while Tessa had shoved hers into its gut. Humans were endurance hunters, wound an animal then chase it for hours on end. Legionites have enough brute strength to just force the animal into the ground. I mean, our arm strength alone is ridiculous, let alone our agility. We, myself included because I am one now, are faster and stronger than an Olympic athlete by several times. It''s actually really fun being able to scale a hundred foot tall tree just by jumping on it twice and then hanging from the top branch with only a finger or two. Finger pull ups are an interesting thing, they shouldn¡¯t be possible nor enjoyable, but they happen to be both at the same time. I cut my musings short when another thump is heard and another spear is driven into the beast beneath me. I turn my head towards Linda who was panting from either the pain or the exertion of her leg. I reached out my hand, gently stroking her head as a form of praise. In response to my hand, her ears swept back, pressing flat against her face as a smile appeared on it and she nestled her head into my hand, forcing more force into the stroking. A moment later she started to softly purr, and my ears twitched as my heart melted at the sound. HOLY FUCK, THEY PURR!!! THAT IS ADORABLE. My mouth hung open as I tried to comprehend the sight of a six and a half foot tall lightly muscled cat woman, clad in snakeskin and wielding a spear PURRING. My other hand started to reach towards her head subconsciously, intent on scratching behind Linda¡¯s ears. Contrary to my plans however, my hand was commandeered from its course, as a stupidly quick pair of hands snatched it from the air and placed it somewhere else. I turned my head, feeling the silky smooth feeling in my both hands at once. What greeted me was the sight of Tessa holding my hand to her head with her ears drooping and her eyes watering. I was caught in the trap of the sad kitty cat eyes, as they asked me why she wasn¡¯t getting pet as well. She had actually done better than Linda in the hunt, but I had only pet Linda due to her ability to perform well even with the injury. I smiled at Tessa, as my hand started to move in a similar manner to its counterpart on Linda¡¯s head. Soon enough, both scantily clad catwomen, still bloody with the spewing blood of their fresh kill were purring loudly in the clearing from the hands that I had placed on their heads. After a minute or so, I separated my hands from their heads, struggling with all of my might against the sad eyes that they gave me when I did so. ¡°Not now, later¡­¡± With those three words, their disappointed looks were pacified, and they quickly went about their work. I got off the beast so that they would be able to work more efficiently. Apparently, a high agility stat gave extreme levels of dexterity. It was something I had found out in the past 5 days after arriving. I had been trying to invent a way to hunt from a distance, but alas I was unable to invent anything other than just throwing a spear. I mean, who knew it was so hard to think of ways to attack someone at range. I am sure its simple, like taking a rock, putting it in a cup and then just spinning it around.. Oh wait¡­ A sling¡­ FUCK!!! MY!!! LIFE!!!! I knelt down on the ground in depression, extremely mad at myself for overlooking the overly simple solution to my problem. Yes, I remember now. A sling, one of the most primitive weapons ever invented, but also one of the most widely used. Why couldn¡¯t I think of this before? I mean, while I sent out hunting parties to find something to eat, I sat around for hours just thinking. I spent so much time trying to recall what it was ancient people used¡­ Little did I know, all that I had to do was figure out how to do it, the same way they did. ¡°Technology for dummies. Book 1 : The Stone age¡± ¡°To hunt : Throw rocks using sticks¡± Brilliant, I can take a rock, and carve it on a flat rock tablet! And then sell it to all of the other people still stuck in the hunter gatherer stage!! I will be a millionaire!!! While I was screwing around and lamenting at my own stupidity, Tessa and Linda had essentially finished up with what they were tasked with doing. They had tied the body of the Mongo dear to a large branch. Although I say branch, it was about as thick as a fully grown human¡¯s thigh, and fifteen feet long. It was essentially a tree. From the bushes, two of the male legionites walked forwards, taking both ends of the log, hoisting it up onto their shoulders before walking away. Tessa reached down, picked up the plant that had been used as a lure for the giant deer, as Linda walked over to me. She came up behind me and then pressed her body into my back. From behind me I could hear her soft purring as her head nestled against my neck. It was fucking adorable¡­ She had gotten into the habit of standing behind me and pressing herself into my back ever since I carried her on our first day due to her leg wound. In the past 5 days, Linda¡¯s leg wound had healed significantly, with the inch deep minor holes almost sealing completely by now, while the biggest hole already had a layer of flesh on the inside. Though I am not a doctor, I can only think that that recovery rate is insane. And although it looks moderately healed, she still shouldn¡¯t be walking around on it. With my thoughts being such, I wrapped my arms around her legs and then lifted both of our bodies off of the floor with hardly any effort. I am loving this enhanced strength stuff, it makes life easy. I can sprint for hours, I can run for days, I heal wounds faster than I ever thought possible, I can lift my body with a single finger. All of this pales in comparison to my male ¡°tools¡± though. Honestly, even I was surprised at what it turned out to be. It seems that with the rest of my body becoming superhuman, it did too. I thought eight inches was long man, i sit wayyy above that at well over twelve inches. It was actually hard to keep it down the first night, I had to sneak away from camp and whack off in the woods after Linda and Tessa spent the night snuggling up against me for warmth. Anyway, embarrassing moments aside, the ¡°tribe¡± has progressed rapidly in the past few days, with the women now catching on on how to hunt. They have the intellect, the men have the brawn and the sheer inability to die. Like no shit, if it had been a man that was caught by the crocodinosaur, I think it¡¯s teeth might not even have penetrated an inch. The men, myself included, have this strangely resilient body. Infact, two days ago one of them had been stabbed in the best by a bone spear after trying to have his way with one of the women, but the next day he was up and walking about, albeit painfully. These spears are no joke, but I mean¡­ DAMN SON, my skin is like stone, and most things only scratch it. My thoughts shifted back to poor Leonidas and how thoroughly his body was destroyed. Perhaps we aren''t indestructible, but anything that wants to kill one of the men has to do it with a ludicrous amount of blunt force or it won¡¯t work. With Linda on my back and Tessa to my right I started to walk. Tessa followed me without any sounds, her gaze lingering on the surroundings before it swapped to Linda on my back. I saw a look of irritation in her eyes as she dashed forward, far faster than I could react to. *RRRWWWEEAAARRRRWWW* With her two hands outstretched she gave a catlike cry, putting her strength into tearing Linda off of my back. After a second of struggle between the two, she succeeded in throwing Linda off of my back and then with her agility she quickly wrapped her body around my back, throwing a challenging glance at Linda in the process. Linda¡¯s hairs stood on end, ready to pounce at Tessa, but I interceded, wrenching Tessa off of me and placing her on the ground much to her displeasure. Once she was on the ground, Linda jumped at her, the two falling into what was a literal Cat fight. They spun around each other for a few seconds as I struggled to set them apart. Neither side seemed to pay attention to me, focusing solely on their opponent. ¡°ENOUGH¡± With a single angry word from me, the two stopped fighting. They were both in a sorry condition, scratch marks and bite marks were all over their bodies, their durable snakeskin clothing was torn in several places, revealing Tessa¡¯s breasts and nipples. I gave a hefty sigh seeing the state of the two, turning to walk away in anger. Tessa followed behind me, eyes downcast. She brought her arms up to her mouth and had started to lick her wounds, however superficial they were. Perhaps it was instinct¡­ Linda attempted to take a step to follow us, but her injured leg gave out, and she nearly face planted into the dirt. I had noticed it early enough and had reached out to help her before she hit the ground, but she was still an extremely pitiful sight. I put Linda on my back once more, taking her weight off of her leg as fast as possible. From my side I could hear Tessa hissing quietly. When I looked at her, she had her mouth open with her fangs bared and her ears back. I couldn¡¯t take it anymore. ¡°TESSA!!! ENOUGH!!!¡± She closed her mouth, turning her head down to look at the ground in shame as her tail coiled around my leg cutely. I gave a hefty sigh as I continued my walk through the forest. Nomadic Age, Chapter 3. Catlike agility and Speech... Alright, sorry for the delay. Have been coming down with something, among other things... I rewrote this chapter several times from scratch several times because I didn''t know where I wanted it to go or what I wanted to do with it... Too much choice lmfao... Don''t know if I credited everyone with their species yet, but so far we have :The Legion (Me) The Hive (Lift-off) The Frame ( BlueRiddler) The Vengeful Ones (Lift-off) Aegyptus (Balthazar) Actulus (Icecranium) The Pack Race (Pmag25) I didn''t see anything else (That I can remember), but if I missed yours, put it in the comments and I will add it in... So, a few question/ answer portions... 1) Humanoid is just the base, there are other forms which I didn''t mention. You can create anything, so long as it qualifies as "Sentient" Reminder, Sentient means anything with a total of 50 points spread across utility and intelligence. Could be 50-0 could be 0-50 or anywhere in between, or anywhere above. 2) The difference between a level 4 skill and a level 3 skill is massive, because the amount of points to get it to level 4 is almost equivalent to get it to level 3, IE it rewards you for making a specialized species. 3) In regards to which species comes first, which comes last, it will be decided as we progress. Some species will be met early, other will be met late. But I can assure you that anything you put in will at least be MENTIONED, as in part of an enemy civ, or something that exists in another area, or even as something which is about to be conquered. 4) About the release schedule... It revolves around two things. My motivation to write and my free time. Free time is (sort of) at a premium for me, and I am overflowing with motivation to write right now. So we should be set for a chapter every two-three days (possible less) for the foreseeable future. The fact that the story is open ended, with a "build it yourself" type of world really helps with the ability to create a world and the "fun" or writing a novel.. 5) God damn, this is taking a while... Anyway, About immortality and reproduction. This hasn''t been touched on yet, but it will be mentioned at a later date. It is being stated here so that you guys can''t say I am putting it in as plot armor or convenience. A) The mc is immortal (Age wise) B) The mc''s mates are immortal (Age wise) (Up to ten...) < more on this one when it is mentioned in the relevant chapter C) The Mc''s children are not immortal (At all...) D) Everything can be killed through combat... (including Mc, Mc''s mates, Mc''s children, the human members of different species, ETC... EVERYTHING MEANS EVERYTHING) Is that all? Anything else, just ask. I read every comment... Red window this time?
Leave a species, and I will use it
------------------- ¡°LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL¡± ¡°ELLLELLLLELELLELELELLLLL¡± ¡°No, no¡­ LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL It¡¯s one constant sound, try it again¡­¡± ¡°LLLELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLELLLLLL¡± ¡°Close, but, again, just keep it constant. Keep your tongue at the top of your mouth, then say the letter¡± ¡°ELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL¡± ¡°Ya, there you go!¡± I gave a sigh of relief at her progress. Tessa has been trying to learn how to speak for three days now, but she has only gotten to the letter L. Linda on the other hand, had mastered most of the alphabet and could already speak a few words in broken English. I honestly expected it to take far longer to teach them language, but it seems that they already could understand it, and only needed to learn how to speak. It was a simple matter of explaining how to sound out letters, and then combine those into words. It¡¯s different from a child in the sense that you have to teach the child the meaning of each word after they learn in. The cat people, the females anyway, already know the words and their meanings, but they only have to learn how to speak them. As far as the men go, I think they only get the jist of what I am saying. They can understand commands, but only because of some form of translation that goes on by a female that is repeating my words to them. I reached my hand out and started rubbing Tessa¡¯s head a bit as congratulations on her progress. She giggled and started to softly purr as she nestled her head into my palm. I gave a smile at the cute appearance of the brutal warrior. It¡¯s so different from how she normally appears that it is almost frightening. I gave a grunt as I put some strength into my legs and stretched them out, cracking my arms and back in the process. Instantly, Tessa was behind me, her hands tracing my back muscles as she nestled her head on my shoulder, her purring loud and proud as it resounded directly into my ears. I could actually feel the vibrations of her throat where she had pressed it into my shoulder blade. ¡°Alffa. Smell. There.¡± Linda came from the sides of our small clearing, speaking three words with quite a bit of effort. I grinned as I tried to walk towards her. Tessa clung to my back rather firmly, preventing my motion however, as her grip grew tighter and her purring stopped as her tail whipped back and forth. Her sharp gaze fell onto Linda as her claws dug into my chest. I used the arm that she was hanging on to to swat her ass, and instantly she changed her attitude, retracting her claws and putting her ears back. Linda walked forwards only after this happened, probably weary of getting to close to Tessa after what happened yesterday, the claw marks and bite marks still visible on her arms. I peeled Tessa off of me as she gave me the sad cat eyes and her tail coiled around my leg. ¡°Not now Tessa¡­¡± She released me after I spoke those words, her mind taking them as a confirmation that later she can cuddle with me. Reluctantly she slid her arms from around my chest and backed away a few feet so I could move without her hindering my movements. ¡°Linda, how are your wounds?¡± ¡°Alffa. Worry?¡± She spoke two words, turning her body so that the long and dark claw marks were semi hidden from my sight. She looked towards me, her eyes tearing up, but once she saw Tessa hovering behind me, her gaze shot downwards and she didn¡¯t look up anymore. Tessa seemed slightly smug at this as a smirk crossed her face. It quickly disappeared after I gave her a harsh glare. I gave a sigh at the problems that Tessa¡¯s possessiveness had caused, and then I walked towards Linda, my arms encircling her body as she shivered. ¡°Of course I worry about you Linda¡­¡± She glanced up after a few seconds, her teary golden eyes landing on my face as she pressed her body into my body. After we locked gazes for a moment or two, she turned her head away and buried her head into my chest, the soft fur of her cat ears tickling the sensitive skin of my abdomen. She then let out a small sniffle that made me want to just cuddle her here and now, but I resisted because if I did do that, not only would I have to force myself to stop cuddling the adorable cat woman, but Tessa might just straight up kill her like she tried to yesterday. I gave a sigh, unwrapping myself from the slightly shorter cat woman as her tail coiled around my leg and she hugged my tightly. ¡°You were saying something Linda?¡± She sniffled again and then wiped her tears from her eyes as she separated her body from mine. She reached out to a tree, using her wounded legs to push herself off of the ground with great effort. She sailed through the air, rocketing a third of the way up the tree in a single jump. As her feet touched a branch, her body shot off again, rocketing towards the top of the tree only a moment later, scaling the hundred foot piece of wood in only four seconds. She appeared as light as a feather, her enhanced agility making it so that her body hardly swayed the branch that she landed on. Tessa did the same thing, jumping straight up to the halfway mark from the ground, and then jumped again to the same branch as Linda. When she arrived, she seemed agitated by Tessa¡¯s presence, but she didn¡¯t do anything except observe her surroundings. Cats and trees man¡­ I gave a sigh, and prepared myself. I took a deep breath, bending my knees and crouching down, far enough that my knees almost touched the ground. I always hated doing this, it feels so wrong to just force my way up, its like using a fist to kill something instead of a knife. It lacks precision, it lacks finesse, it lacks grace¡­ Its just the brute force way of making up for a lower agility¡­ I then put my strength into my legs, and instantly my body was airborne, on a direct course with the tree¡¯s trunk. I braced myself for impact, and a second later the entire tree swayed as my body hit it. I sunk my claws into the tree to stop my descent and then gauged where I was. Judging how Tessa and Linda were a few branches above me, hanging on tightly to the branch that was swaying vigorously along with the tree, it appeared that I was about twenty feet below them. I decided to just climb up the last part using my claws, planting one hand as far up in the trunk as I could reach, I sunk my claws into the trunk and then used my arm strength to shoot my body up a dozen feet, pulling out my claw as I went. Its like rock climbing, but with excessive amounts of strength added when you scale it¡­ Another jump, and I was on the same branch as Tessa and Linda. The two seemed unphased by my atrocious climbing skills, as they waited patiently for me to regain my balance on the still swaying tree. It took me a few seconds of wildly flailing my arms to regain my balance, all while they just sat at the edge of the small branch, hardly having any trouble remaining like that. They made what I did seem like child¡¯s play¡­ I feel like a fool¡­ I gave a sigh as I finally regained my balance. I know a fall from this height probably wouldn¡¯t kill me, with my ludicrously sturdy body and all, but it would sure as fuck hurt. It might even break something if I landed poorly. I made super sure that I was balanced enough that I wouldn¡¯t fall off of the tree like an idiot, and then cautiously walked towards the edge of the branch where they were just standing nonchalantly, perfectly balanced despite their feet only having a few inches of clearance on each side. ¡°Alfha. There.¡± Tessa then lifted one of her arm¡¯s weakly, careful not to reagitate her wounds from yesterday. Her arm pointed to what appeared to be a small hill in the otherwise universally similar forest. It wasn¡¯t visible from the ground, hence the need to scale the tree to show me, despite her previously deep wounds. A look of confusion must have crossed my face, none of my hunting teams had gone off in that direction, most of them just hunted in a smallish perimeter around our ¡°base camp¡± which was nothing more then leaves propped up by sticks to give us a bit of shelter from the pouring rains that we encountered on the second day here. Linda saw my confusion and her ears wilted from their originally happy appearance, pressing flat against her head as she lowered her voice and spoke sullenly. ¡°Alfha. Doesn¡¯t trust?¡± She turned around and started to limp towards me. Her leg wounds had been reopened by Tessa¡¯s attack yesterday, forcing her to limp. I am sure jumping fifty feet twice didn¡¯t help it, and infact it had probably made it worse. I gave a sigh, placing my hand on her shoulder and then swinging her body around so that it landed on my back. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ¡°Show me where Linda.¡± She pressed her face into my cheek from behind, and then nodded. ¡°Alfha. Smell¡­¡± I took a deep breath, according to her instructions. The smells of the forest, so vibrant and vivid, started to flow through my body as my enhanced nose started to analyze it. Trees, markings from predators, more trees, plants, and more plants¡­ ¡°I don¡¯t smell anything Linda¡­¡± From behind me, Tessa started to approach, causing Linda to cower in fear on my back. Tessa only shot her a glance, before taking my arm and leading me to the edge of the branch. She then nestled my hand into her face, a small purr breaking out at the contact. ¡°Tessa, do you smell something?¡± She nodded, as her mouth opened and she tried to form the wording and letters needed to enunciate what it was that she smelled. ¡°Bllll... BBBBBLLLLL¡­¡± She tried a few times, only getting off two letters before her tongue stopped making sound as she searched for the next letter in the word. BL? What the fuck is BbbbbLLLL Linda started to nod, seemingly agreeing with Tessa from behind my back. An odd sight really. Where the two were mortal enemies just moments ago, now they were agreeing on something that I had no idea about. Whatever it was they must think that it is important¡­ ¡°Alfha¡­ Blood¡­¡± Those two words made me understand what it was that Tessa was trying to say. Tessa nodded, and proceeded to jump off of the tree, doing a backflip as she descended into the dense forest, away from our small camp. I stared at her in awe, as she started to speed up in the direction which she had smelled the blood from, jumping from tree to tree with insane acrobatic ability. I sat there in bewilderment for a moment, and Tessa seemed to notice that I hadn¡¯t followed her, as she had stopped at the top of a tree a few hundred feet away. She is insane¡­ I knew it¡­ I yelled out, trying to get my words across to her despite the large gap between us. ¡°TESSA GO DOWN TO THE GROUND, I WILL MEET YOU THERE.¡± With my enhanced vision I saw her nod, despite the large distance, and then she followed my instructions, getting to the ground with no problem in only a few seconds, disappearing from my sight under the dense tree canopy. I paused for a moment, figuring out how to get down from the tree with the least amount of injuries and in the fastest way possible. I gave a sigh, at my predicament. I was the worst at this among our entire group. I should, by definition, have the same ability to scale trees as the rest of my species, but for whatever reason I don¡¯t possess the ability to just let myself go and let my catlike instincts to take over. Even the other men are better at this than I am, perhaps it¡¯s the rational part of my human brain that doesn¡¯t know how to control my strength. Perhaps it¡¯s because I think that this is all just an impossible pipe dream, and I am in a medically induced coma¡­ Whatever the reason, I hope that I can get over it and learn how to be spider man meets Tarzan of the jungle, jumping from tree to tree with little to no effort¡­ In time perhaps¡­ I took a deep breath, preparing myself as I spotted a rather large branch beneath me that could probably hold my weight. I jumped down to it, the entire tree swaying again as I hit the branch with a stupid amount of force. The branch snapped, and faster than I could react, my body had wrapped itself around Linda, protecting her from damage as I barreled into the ground hard enough for me to feel quite a bit of pain. Luckily I have a stupidly resilient body, and it wasn¡¯t Linda that took the full force of the fall. My weight and her already injured state would have probably killed her, or at least caused her great pain. I uncurled my body as I lay in my crater, my mind still swimming and my body screaming in pain. I opened my closed eyes, and set my gaze on the bundle of human shaped furish stuff snuggled against my chest. Her hair all stood on end, as she was crying into my chest. ¡°Are you alright Linda?¡± She lifted up her head, her golden gaze piercing into my eyes as if she was looking for something specific. She nodded, wiping away her tears as she weakly stood up. ¡°Alffa.. Hurt¡­¡± I tried to sit up, my back gave me dull warnings of pain as I shrugged off the dirt that had gathered on my body. Luckily I had landed in a soft spot in the ground, and not a root¡­ or a rock¡­ or a plant¡­ or something that wasn¡¯t mushy mud. I smiled at her, rubbing her head with my dirty hand, regretting my action as I put some mud in her hair unknowingly. ¡°Not really.. I am glad that you are ok¡­¡± From behind her I could see Tessa running up in full sprint, her top speed was way faster than I had originally pegged it at, she must have been running at over 70 miles per hour as she crossed the few hundred feet in only three or four seconds. She sprinted up, pausing at the edge of the crater, before her pretty face filled with worry contorted into fury, her body disappearing from my sight as she grabbed Linda by the throat and threw her off of m. Linda¡¯s body landed outside of my vision range as Tessa instantly knelt down on top of my body which was still stunned for the large part. Her fury disappeared, and was replaced with tears and worry. Her worried eyes scanned every part, searching for some form of damage or some injury. Finding none she seemed to give a breath of relief, and her head turned towards Linda, her gaze turning hateful and her face contorting again, as she pressed her ears backwards and bared her fangs. Tessa stood up, her entire attention turned towards Linda. Her body crouched down, and her hair stood on end as she pounced viciously towards the wounded catwoman. They fought for a few seconds outside of my sight range as I fought with my body to get up. I was shouting at Tessa the entire time, trying to get her attention enough to stop the fight, but she wasn¡¯t paying attention to me. She was so focused on fighting Linda that she hardly heard my words. After another moment or two, frustration gave rise to anger, anger gave rise to rage and rage drove my strength forwards, my numb arms once more gaining feeling and my unresponsive legs once more started to work. I shot up from the crater where I had been lying, and what I saw made my rage soar. Tessa¡¯s body was covered in Linda¡¯s blood as Linda was held under Tessa¡¯s arms in a choke hold. I rushed forwards, shoving Tessa off of Linda rather forcefully, as I took her place and inspected Linda¡¯s wounds. I gave a sigh of relief, luckily Tessa had only had a few seconds to wail on Linda, and had only done damage on her surface. Big cuts that bled a lot, but nothing permanent I think. Just scary looking wounds, not exactly damaging. In fact, the bleeding had already stopped on a few of the lighter wounds, evidence of the higher vitality stat than humans. Linda¡¯s breathing was rough, weak from the numerous amounts of things that had happened in the eight that we have been here¡­ I gave a sigh, picking up her frail body with my two arms as I walked over to where I had thrown Tessa. She was kneeling on the ground crying, in a fetal position, roughly thirty feet away. Damn I had pushed her hard. I gave a sigh, wondering how the situation had turned out like this. Tessa seemed to notice my approach, inching her body away from me as she sniffled pitifully and curled her body up into a fetal position. I came to a stop a few feet from her, as she tried to make her body smaller and smaller, her tail coiled around her leg and her ears pressed into her head. I saw a large bruise forming on her leg, evidence of my unrestricted use of force just now as I tried to get her off of Linda. There was no trace of her normally happy go lucky attitude, there was no sign of the normally strong alpha female. What was left was a sad and pitiful woman, injured by someone she had been worried about, thrown off of someone who she blamed for my injury, however nonexistent it was. I needed to end this between the two, before one of them killed the other one. Who am I kidding, Tessa is the one who would kill Linda¡­ Not the other way around, at least, not for now. I walked the last few feet towards Tessa¡¯s body, each step causing a shiver to run through it as I stepped closer and closer. Eventually we were only sperated by a single foot. I placed Linda¡¯s still bleeding body infront of Tessa, taking one of my hands and lifting up Tessa¡¯s chin so that she was forced to look at Linda¡¯s body. ¡°Look at what you have done Tessa¡­ This is not ok.. You can¡¯t do this, it has to stop¡­¡± She shivered again, her neck moving as she forcefully ripped her head away from my grip. She didn¡¯t speak¡­ She couldn¡¯t speak¡­ But I knew she was able to understand. Which made this a one sided conversation, no, this was a lecture¡­ ¡°Tessa¡­ You have injured Linda, you have betrayed a member of our species. This is not ok¡­ I will have to punish you for this. If I had been slower in stopping you, you would have killed her¡­¡± I was preparing my next words carefully. This is not acceptable behavior, even if she is the most powerful female, even if Linda is the weakest female, they are both important, we can¡¯t have a civilization that starts killing itself off only a week in due to jealousy, as much as I like Tessa, this can¡¯t go on. Monkey see, monkey do. A single bad example might kill us all by setting a bad example. If all of our females kill each other out of jealousy, there won¡¯t be any left to breed, and our species will go extinct. ¡°Alffa¡­ Don¡¯t blame Tessa¡­¡± A weak voice broke me away from my thoughts, bringing me back to the crumpled blood stained body that was lying before me. Her words echoed through my mind, and Tessa looked up on her own initiative, her golden eyes locking on to the weak woman before her. ¡°Linda... blame¡­ Alffa blame Linda¡­ Tessa. Not problem¡­¡± I stared at Linda, unsure how to react to her words. Linda moved one of her weak arms, pressing it weakly into the ground as she weakly pulled her body towards Tessa. Tessa hid her face, unwilling to look at Linda as she slowly crawled towards Tessa. Linda finally reached Tessa¡¯s feet, and nestled her head onto Tessa¡¯s leg, her eyes falling onto the bruise that I had given Tessa when I threw her off of Linda. Linda leaned forwards, and started to lick the bruised spot on Tessa¡¯s legs. Tessa looked up in astonishment, as I looked on bewildered¡­ What the fuck is she doing??? Tessa looked at Linda with a similar expression, but soon enough Tessa leaned forwards, her face descending towards Linda¡¯s wounds that were still bleeding and she followed Linda¡¯s example¡­ Soon enough the two women were licking eachother¡¯s wounds from their catfight. A form of cat fight make up? I guess? I stared on, once more bewildered at the strange spectacle of two scantily clad catwoman, covered in blood and wounds and ripped clothing, licking each other. I gave a sigh, and started to rub my back in an attempt to alleviate the pain as I tried to make sense of what I was seeing¡­ Nature is weird sometimes... ------------------------------------ So that problem is solved? Lesbo Cat people? Will be fun when we get into the reproduction section of the nomadic age... So far, the species has existed for 8 days now, and has lost 1 member due to combat. Not dead yet... Srry for the delay guys, my friends decided to drag me into a game called "Sins of a solar empire" with the Star Trek Armada 3 mod.... Several times... Well, they are heading off to school now and are losing the good computers and open schedules that they had enticed me with, meaning that this book shall continue at its old rate of update. TLDR; Expect an update tomorrow, possibly today... If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Decided to go with the Frame as a first species, since they were well thought out and seem like a good starting point. See you later, Pyrhus out... (Back to reading an MTL version of ATG... For the second day in a row T.T) (Please, send help, I can''t stop, the wuxia has me in its grasp) Nomadic Age, Chapter 4 Part 1 Is this how two cats in nature make peace with eachother? They lick their wounds mutually? I gave a sigh rather loudly, but they still disregarded me, continuing to lick eachother vehemently as I pondered what it was that they were doing¡­ Eventually, after a minute or so of their tongues roaming eachother¡¯s dirty bodies, they separated and Tessa stood up. A moment later, Linda poised herself to stand as well, and as soon as she did, Tessa¡¯s hand was hooked underneath her arm. Tessa easily lifted Linda off of the floor, having nestled her head on Linda¡¯s shoulder as soon as Linda was out of the mud. Linda leaned forwards, placing her weight on Tessa as the two of them started to purr loudly, their arms encircling eachother. Their eyes closed, their purring growing louder as they hugged eachother tightly. ¡°Linda, Tessa, what happened?¡± Linda opened her eyes, directing her golden gaze straight onto my face. ¡°Tessa. Make friend.¡± She then closed her eyes again, her tail wrapping around Tessa¡¯s leg. Tessa opened her eyes at this, giving a bright smile as she snuggled Linda harder. ¡°Anyway...We need to find the source of the smell, think you could leave this for later?¡± Linda opened up her eyes, her tail uncoiling from Tessa as she separated her arms. She gave a slight nod, as she turned her body towards me. Despite her normally unstable stance, this time Tessa supported her body, leading to Linda¡¯s steps being stable and steady. ¡°Alffa. Blood.That way¡­¡± Her largely uninjured arm swung up, giving me the same direction as last time, pointing towards where I saw the hill from the top of the tree. I nodded, picking her light body up with hardly and effort and placing it on my back. ¡°Tess Tess¡­ Lead please¡­¡± From my back the soft voice of Linda rang out in the morning air, and off to the side Tessa nodded, instantly friendly towards Linda instead of her normally hostile attitude. God damn, this feels weird¡­ Tessa looked at me, making sure that I was ready to follow her when she started running. ¡°Take me there Tessa¡­¡± She nodded, speeding up into a run that must have been at least 30 miles per hour, which I had trouble keeping up with but was still able to do. To her it seemed like she was hardly jogging. That makes sense, considering that her agility was probably more than twice mine¡­ As we sprinted through the dense woods the numerous obstacles hardly slowed us down at all. For different reasons of course. With nothing to do but run, my eyesight wandered and my mind went with it. My eyes fell onto Tessa¡¯s figure as she was running, the way her body moved, the way her muscles contracted and expanded, she was beautiful. Like a moving work of art, jumping a branch here, flipping over a fallen log there, using that tree as a foothold to spring forward with another burst of speed. Like a dancer or some form of acrobatic panther, unhindered by the dense forest terrain. She seemed right at home here... Truly beautiful¡­ On the other hand, I am just brute forcing my body forward, smashing a log here, snapping a tree branch there. A fallen log? Just run forwards¡­ Tree branch in the way? Just run forwards¡­ No need for fancy acrobatics, I have the momentum to just force it all out of my way. Like a rhino or a bulldozer.. Whatever that is... ¡°Which Type of blood is it Linda? Predator, or Prey?¡± Linda shook her head. ¡°Don¡¯t¡­ Know¡­¡± She doesn¡¯t know? That means that she hasn¡¯t smelled it yet, right? Could it be something we haven¡¯t hunted yet? Or maybe something we encountered but never fought. We continued on in silence for a few moments, the sound of the heavy winds were the only things that filled the gap as the hill grew larger and larger in the distance, its peak growing and growing so that I could now see it over the tree layer. ¡°Alffa. Blood, stronger.¡± I forced myself to take a deep breath, disrupting my steady rhythmic breathing that I had been using to keep myself on track with Tessa. The smells of the forest once more filled my nose and I set to work analyzing them once again, the memories of the previous hunts filling my mind as I sorted out what was in the air around me... Tree, Tree, Plant, Plant, Prey, Plant, Tree¡­ This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. I then chanced upon a small strand of a scent that made my body go cold. Blood¡­ This blood was new¡­ unlike anything I had smelled before¡­ What¡¯s more there were two types, each with a different smell, pervasive in the air of the forest, growing in thickness as the seconds passed. Whatever was wounded, it was dying quickly. I propelled my body through the terrain as fast as possible in order to see what it was that was waiting for us near the hill. Ahead of me, Tessa stopped, her body crouching down on a fallen log as her hair stood on end. I slowed down, stopping a few feet from her. ¡°What is it Tessa?¡± She flinched, her ears twitching rapidly at my words. She swiveled around on a dime, her movements almost too quick to follow with my eyes as she placed her hand over my mouth. Her free hand moved to her mouth, placing a single finger vertically over her lips. Ah, even I know this one, the universal ¡°Shut the fuck up¡± message. I complied, only slightly annoyed that I was unable to be as aware of my surroundings as my entourage. Following her lead, I pressed myself into the damp moss that was under the log. Silently Linda slid down from my back, and if she wasn¡¯t connected to me by touch I would have never even noticed. Her two clawed feet landed in the moss, and she repeated Tessa¡¯s movements, keeping her motions limited, and her sounds muffled. There we sat, motionless, soundless, for a minute, with Tessa¡¯s eyes peering above the log, searching for whatever it was that had set her on edge. A moment later, her ear twitched and she looked at me, as her gaze snapped to a point far off. She turned her head to me quickly, then gave me a light smile as she lifted her body onto the log soundlessly. I watched in wonder as she hopped lightly, reaching a dozen feet into the air. Her right hand latched onto a branch, causing it to sway gently as she pulled herself up without any effort. A split second later she had poised herself on the branch and jumped to some place outside of my vision. As I was putting strength into my legs to follow her, a hand was placed on my shoulder, pressing lightly down. The strength used was minimal,but the message was clear. Don¡¯t go. I looked at the source of the inhibition, finding Linda giving me a stern look as her golden eyes stared straight at my face. She shook her head then pressed her body close to mine and put her mouth right next to my ear. She spoke in a quiet whisper, hardly loud enough for me to hear with my enhanced hearing, so soft that it almost didn¡¯t make sound at all. ¡°Tessa go alone. Alffa trust Tessa.¡± She removed the hand from my shoulder, placing it back into the moss at our feet as she leaned on the log. My gaze wandered towards her body, now that I don¡¯t have anything to do but wait for Tessa to return. Linda¡¯s body was covered in wounds, from the puncture wound in her leg to the claw and bite marks caused by Tessa. Honestly, I was surprised that she was still moving let alone alive, the amount of blood loss would probably have killed most humans. Then again, she isn¡¯t human, or anything remotely close to one. Infact I think some of her moderately serious wounds were already sealed, as they had all stopped bleeding a long time ago, and the skin seemed less inflamed then it had when we left the clearing. Perhaps the licking sessions between the two was actually helping instead of just healing mental injuries. Maybe it was something like a coagulative saliva thing that makes the bleeding stop and helps recovery¡­ Ya, something like that¡­ ------------ Oh god, I cant concentrate¡­ Too many chapters to read, too many things to think about. I promised this yesterday, but due to complications (Party at my house IRL) I couldnt write this¡­ For real, I will continue with the story, just¡­ one more chapter of Wuxia¡­ maybe two¡­ Oh god¡­ I can¡¯t stop¡­ Enjoy, sorry if I missed your species, I noted a few more down in the google doc, will upload the list soon, with the next chap. Things be happening in the book, and it will start to take off¡­ I don¡¯t have the mental strength to sway myself any longer.. To wuxia once more T.T