Chương 137: Book 2 - Chapter 55 - The Dynamic Duo (Humboldt POV)

I just kind of stared at Evelyn's bear casually walking through the ocean of antithesis, as it waddled through our defensive lines, and stepped over to me. Bob had just completely ignored anything smaller than a Model Twelve on his walk over, including a Model Four that had gotten snagged on his left arm, and which was repeatedly stabbing him ineffectively in the face.

"You got a little something, just there," I said, pointing at the rogue antithesis. He stared at the thing for a moment, then casually brushed the Four off his arm like it was just a fly.

"Thanks Squiddy!"

"Don't call me that," I mumbled as I incinerated the Model Four with one of my prehensile lasers.

"You know the plan?"

"Nope! Boss just said to come back you up," the bear replied cheerfully as he rocked back and forth on his heels.

"Well… You see that pillar over there?" I said, gesturing to the nearest hive.

"We're going to push our way over there and take it down." Bob turned slightly, looked at the wave of antithesis between us and the pillar, and cracked his knuckles.

"Sounds good! Follow me!" he said, slowly heading towards the pillar.

"Don't you want any more information? Shouldn't we plan this out first?" I asked, pushing my suit into a slow jog so I could keep up.

"Will your plan involve more than me punching things?" Bob asked in return, glancing at me over his shoulder.

"Maybe…"

"Then no thanks. You plan, I punch!" he replied as he once again reached our defensive line. He slipped between Executable and Grey, somehow squeaking between their attacks, only to cave in the head of a Model Twelve that had managed to get close.

"Come on! Time to go!" he called, turning and waving in my direction. Unfortunately for the bear, that's when a Twenty-Eight charged forward. One of its large tusks scraped along his back and then caught him under the shoulder. I watched in shock as the monstrous creature thrashed about, trying to spear, or dislodge the bear.

"Little help?" he asked calmly. Thankfully, Whisperer had been using the time and excess biomass available since the fight began to grow her third creature, the elephantine juggernaut. The gigantic creature casually reached over and plucked Bob off the Twenty-Eight, just before Plasmalanx disintegrated it, along with the surrounding antithesis.

"Pay attention!" Whisperer snapped from her elephant's back.

"Once you move away from our lines the swarm will be too thick for us to provide any real support. If you get in trouble again, you're on your own." Bob just saluted. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he turned and looked at me again.

"Ready to go?" I noticed that Grey gave me a strange look as I stepped past, it felt like she was judging me a bit.

"Don't blame me, he's Teddy's creation," I muttered, as if to justify myself. Once I was beyond our lines, I swapped the tentacles from targeted to free-fire mode. I wasn't planning on ripping apart any large antithesis. Bob could do that. I needed to clear enough of the chaff to not get bogged down. My tentacles instantly went to work, incinerating everything at mid-range with the multi-focal lasers, while anything that managed to get close received the sharp end of the vibro-blades.

"This is much easier!" Bob declared, as my lasers disintegrated the antithesis at his feet.

"Well, maybe you shouldn't just focus on the large models, and deal with the smaller stuff occasionally," I snapped at him.

"It's less efficient! And I do deal with them, eventually!" he shot back, lifting one of his feet to show the layer of antithesis gunk absolutely coating his legs.

"I can't believe we're having this discussion while being besieged by thousands of antithesis," I grumbled.

"How about we concentrate on getting to that hive and completing our mission without getting killed?" All around us, the antithesis were pushing in. The smaller models weren't making progress against my lasers, but occasionally a Model Twelve, or Fourteen, would push forward and take ground. One particularly tough Fourteen managed to absorb my attacks and get close enough to strike at me, only for Bob to backhand the monster away. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

"You're right! We have a job to do!" Bob declared. He didn't acknowledge what he'd done, just turned and started wading through the ranks again. Progress was slow. Even though most smaller models couldn't reach us through my lasers, and the ones that could didn't have the strength to damage either of us, Bob needed to stop every few feet to smash one of the larger models. Although he dispatched Twelves and Fourteens with almost casual disinterest, he had to concentrate for the Twenties.

He typically needed to take a blow from a Twenty-One to get a bead on their location, then counter punch. The Twenty-Threes and Twenty-Eights couldn't put him down, but I noticed he actually needed to concentrate when fighting them, dodging around to find an opening before delivering his blow. Even though the nearest pillar was only a couple hundred meters away, it took more than ten minutes to reach the hive. Bob stopped just short of the gigantic structure.

A dozen meters across, upon closer inspection, it looked more like a ton of interwoven vines than a single structure. Dozens of half-formed antithesis fell from the pods, released by the headless four-armed antithesis tender models, in a last-ditch effort to stop us.

"Now… what are we doing here again?" Bob asked.

"We need to take it down to earn another token, so the team can upgrade," I explained to the bear.

"I just need to figure out how to do it…" Bob shrugged, turned back towards the tree, and smashed it as hard as he could. There was a horrible sound, like a combination of ripping vines and screeching metal as he embedded his arm up to the shoulder in the hive. When he withdrew his hand, I could see the gauntlet and hand were severely bent by the impact. As I stared at the damage I could see microscopic repairs going on, but it would take him quite some time to recover.

Considering the damage, whatever was in that hive had to be significantly harder than the model Twenty-Threes.

"I'm out of ideas," Bob admitted.

"Just watch my back. I'll figure something out," I said, pushing forward to check the hole he managed to make. The tree fibers were woven tightly together to create a sort of protective outer layer, like carbon fiber, but deep inside I could see fast-flowing fluids. Possibly nutrient delivery systems?

"Aeonys, I need something to kill this tree. Suggestions?" I asked my AI. [Although a flesh melter may work, I'd be concerned that the Hive may try to purge the nanites before they complete the job. I recommend weakening it first.] Aeonys' voice echoed out of my suit's speakers.

"Sooo… explosives?" [Yes, explosives]"Fine, give me something big enough to disrupt the system, and a nanite chaser." Purchased AMD 160 Shaped Charge - 20 Points Flesh melter grenade x 5 - 15 Points Points Remaining: 55, 432 [You know, you should probably start considering some purchases,] Aeonys said as I grabbed the two packages at my feet. [If that Forty hatches, you're going to want every advantage you can get.]"Not that I disagree, but can we discuss this when we get back behind our own lines?

I'm kind of dealing with something here," I said, shoving the bomb and the rest of my arm deep into the hive to plant it. It took me a few seconds to find something to hook it on, but as soon as I did, I shuffled back.

"Bob, time to go!" I yelled, pushing the oversized teddy bear.

"Go where?" he asked, as he caved-in the head of another Model Twelve.

"Away! The bomb's been planted. We need to get out of the blast zone!" I replied, trying to pull him away from where he was standing. Instead of following, Bob just placed himself directly between my armor and the tree.

"What are you doing?" I hissed.

"Damage control!" he replied. With only seconds left on the timer, I left him, and tried to waddle further away. I didn't get far before an explosion devastated the hive, sending razor-sharp wood shards in every direction. When I turned back, the entire bottom of the hive was gone. Nutrient liquid was spraying everywhere, and the top was creaking, straining under its own weight. Bob was standing there, between me and the tree, with wood splinters embedded up and down the front of him.

"See; damage control! You didn't get a single splinter in you!" he declared. As I watched, some of the largest splinters, including the one in his eye, slowly pushed out of his body and fell to the ground.

"That wasn't necessary! My suit can almost take as much damage as you can, I just wanted to get to a safe distance to minimize damage!" I shouted.

"Oh. Well. No big loss," he replied with a smile.

"Are we done here?"

"Not yet. We just need to melt out the rest of it," I said with a sigh.

"You want to throw these?" I asked, passing him the grenades.

"Do I ever!" Bob said with a smile. He carefully took the grenades out of my hands, stepped directly below what remained of the hive, and started chucking them up.

"Your casual indifference for your own safety is kind of frightening," I said as I watched him.

"It's part of my charm!" he replied. Once the last grenade had been thrown, the rest of the hive began to break down, showering us in debris.

"Now we're done!" I declared, shielding my head out of instinct.

"Now, quick, back to our lines!"

"Can do!" Bob just sauntered past me, and started walking back towards the other samurai. I thought I'd have to rush to catch up again, but he stopped after a couple steps, staring back towards the cavern entrance.

"Say…" he said, "Did the boss's base always look like that?"