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51 Days Until Magic And the Uncertain End (part 5)
Heia’s arms ached. Her legs felt like lead. Her breathing rasped against her throat scratching against it. She wanted nothing more than to sleep, and yet the Aralax continued to fight. Waves of magic fell atop the enemies followed by gun fire. For every one Aralax destroyed six more were in its place.
“Will the waves ever end?” Heia asked into the private connection. She was the only one in as Zeydar had gone dark an hour ago and Eveter was off with his own issues.
“These ones are easier to kill then before. I almost think they are a different breed, not as sentient.” Zeydar spoke up. She had not heard him connect back in. He sounded almost… elated? “I think… Hold on.” She listened as his connection beeped off and then waited on bated breath.
Kim and Kori were nearby her giving out orders that she vaguely understood based on their hand gestures. The team that had once been resting got up and started off again. Heia had no idea how the other units were doing. She hoped that they were doing better than her’s and Kim’s. Kori nodded to Heia and Heia got up.
“What did I miss?” Evester asked as soon as he clicked in.
“War. As you sit inside your safe house.” Heia hesitated to tell him that Zeydar had connected back in. She wasn’t sure it it were real or not herself. She was so tired, that she wouldn’t be surprised if she started hallucinating.
“Uly has the Towers all on lockdown. No casualties of civilians have been reported anywhere. Current casualty count hasn’t exceeded more than ten thousand world wide, thanks to the aid of the mages,” Evester reported to her.
“That’s more than we ever should want.”
“Uly is predicting we won’t lose much more.”
Heia hoped it would be the case. She then asked. “Is Zeydar jumping again?”
“He is.”
She had only ever seen him do it in later recordings, but she assumed that he had to do so, if there were no causalities at Ovaria, which was one of the largest targets. Once he had understood his powers better, from what Heia understood from Evester’s reports, he had jumped around the Tower clearing it out of Aralax as he could. There was the familiar click and Zeydar was back.
“Get to the main channel and get all of EverDanger there.” He said before he clicked out.
Heia hesitated, and then connected to the larger group, telling all those who were in the connection to tell all EverDanger members to report to the EverDanger channel. She then did so, and reported in. One by one everyone connected in.
“Maverin, here.” Maverin said.
“Why? What is happening?” Uly asked.
“Is everyone here?” Zeydar asked without reporting in.
“What did you find?” Maverin asked.
“There is a leader, for every one hundred or so. Kill the leader and they go blank for a second before connecting to another. I think there might be a unit above these… Hold on.” Once again Zeydar disappeared.
“A leader?” Evester asked.
“How big is the attack on Ovaria?” Trace asked.
“The largest reported.” Uly answered. “Your’s is second largest. We suspect that they will spread out more as the night goes on.”
“Yes.” Zeydar connected in again. “So far I have found four tiers. I think there may be more but my tracing can only go so far, because I — Sorry, you don’t care. The brainless soldiers, their leaders, then the captains, and then a commander. Those are the groupings. One Leader for one hundred soldiers. One Captain for one hundred Leaders. One Commander for one hundred Captains.”
There was a long silence. Heia looked at Kim who shot her a look back. How many Aralax were at Ovaria if Zeydar had been able to calculate and track that many Aralax?
“The Hive mind is complex and thus when one leader dies, the control of a unit moves on to the next closes. I’ve killed a few Commanders but the whole army has not collapsed, which makes me think there is a General. These soldiers are easy to kill than normal Aralax. I suspect that they were built specifically for the battle to act as canon fodder. After investigation they lack the general characteristics of intelligence that Aralax have show in the past.
“I think that the Scouts that we are used to, are the same as the soldiers we’ve fought before. However due to their casualty rate, from previous battles, they created these lesser soldiers in mass. For that reason I think that the Scouts are somewhere between the Soldiers and Leaders. After my last connection to the Hive, I was able to identify the possibility of another higher power above the Generals.” Zeydar spoke quickly as sounds of fighting continued on his end.
“The Queen?” Maverin asked.
“I have not been able to find the way to her. The Hive mind is complex and changing. It will take me more time.”
“Identifying features?”
“The leaders are not like regular Aralax, nor are the Captains. Commanders can think for themselves, to a degree, and are harder to kill than the regular Aralax. Generals are… well I haven’t found one.”
“They’ve evolved?” Robee asked above a whisper when no one else would.
“When we brutally massacre them, they have to adapt.” Zeydar answered. “Or rather when I did. Last time. They changed in order to kill us. Either way. Leaders have a yellow stripe on their head. Captains have red. Commanders have blue. When I find a General, I’ll let you know.”
There was another click and Heia knew that he was gone.
“I need bodies!” Maverin told them all. “Collect them, and the moment he connects back in, to whatever channel it is, tell him I need them.” Maverin said as Uly jumped to give orders.
Without a thought, Heia switched out quickly going back to the main channel with all the units. “All units report. Have you seen Aralax with yellow stripes, red or blue. Beware, of the Red and Blue. They are highly dangers but are our high profile targets.”
There was silence.
“What about white?” Kori asked a minute later.
“White?” Heia asked.
“Team Immortal here.” They were at the Southern battle front. “We spotted an Aralax with a white stripe. Highly intelligent. We stayed away.” A soldier reported.
“Hold on.” Heia switched back to the private connection, hoping he was there. “Zeydar. White?”
“White?” He asked through static.
“We saw a white stripe over here.”
He went silent humming to himself before casting out a spell, and then another. “Give me a minute.”
“Wait—” She yelled as he disconnected and Evester connected back in.
“Zeydar, my father wants the bodies for study.” Evester requested.
“He’s gone. I’ll get them too.” Heia was pissed that she had missed the chance to tell Zeydar what was needed.
“Well.” Zeydar huffed when he came back. “He ran, when I attacked. The most difficult to kill. I will continue to attack and clean up here. Operate under the presumption that if we kill the white stripe the army will stop.”
“Get bodies for my father to study.” Evester repeated.
“How many?” Zeydar asked.
“Preferably more than ten each. He said a hundred, but that doesn’t seem reasonable.”
“I’ll do what I can.” Zeydar spoke again before Heia returned to the others. Evester clicked off, no doubt to tell the others of the news of the white stripe General.
“All teams head towards the white stripe, kill all other striped Aralax you find, ignore general soldiers. White is our target.” The whole responded with a resounding understanding. Heia found herself smiling.
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Marlena Marie 
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