Catalyst

Chapter 30: Zero

Bane faced towards the centaur hunting party. "Are we ready to make these forests safe once again?" The only response was an eager wave of shouts and the sound of stomping hooves. The hunters' faces were determined, their resolve firm. Today was the day they took back what was theirs.

"We attack at dusk. Be prepared."

(Transition)

"Abathur, as much as I'd like to see whatever it is you want to show me, do we really have to go this far into the Forbidden Forest?" Luna asked as she followed Abathur through the trees. "Daddy always says that that's where the Rotfang Conspirators like to hang out, and I wouldn't want to run into them. They probably don't like what Daddy's written about them at all." Overhead, the light was beginning to fade from the sky.

"Necessary. Subject, only located here. Sole location on planet," Abathur responded. He wished he had more broods setup, but for now, he still was learning psionics from the humans, and he only had so much range of control. Perhaps if he worked with the essence from Aragog...

"Oh, well why didn't you just say so?" Luna asked, beaming. With new vigor, she skipped forward.

Abathur was dumbstruck. They had been walking for several hours, and he'd had to cajole Luna every step of the way. If only he'd known that all he needed to do was tell Luna that his brood was unique, the trip could have been much more pleasant.

The unlikely duo continued into the woods, blissfully undisturbed. By now, the native creatures knew to avoid Abathur in either form, so he and Lune were undisturbed by any potential attackers. A pity, really. It would have been interesting to see her unmodified reaction to danger.

Before long, the duo had arrived in Abathur's territory. Almost everything here was under his direct control, and the local wildlife was either repurposed, reduced to biomass, or no longer present. And so, the first major encounter that Luna had with his brood was when a few members of the Hive chewed a branch off a tree, and dropped it directly onto her head.

"Ow!" she yelped, before putting a hand to her head. "Where did that come from?" Abathur put a hand to her head and pulled back her hair to examine the wound. He pressed his fingers into the wounded flesh.

"Abathur, stop it! That stings." Abathur ignored her, and flexed his finger. A single drop containing millions of copies of the hyper-evolutionary virus oozed from the tip, and dropped into her wound. He released a quick pulse of power, directed at her head. The wound closed in an instant, sealing in the green goop, and leaving Luna's head undamaged.

Luna lifted her hands to her head, feeling where the branch had knocked into it. Her fingers ran over the smooth, unblemished skin.

"Abathur, since when could you do wandless magic? You've been holding out on me!" Luna exclaimed.

"Cannot. Different process. Will explain later," Abathur responded. Whatever the human psionics did was beyond his ability, at least without the aid of a wand. He would have to look into exactly how they worked. But the simpler things, such as the manipulation of flesh and bone were all too easy. Abathur began walking again, moving further into his home base.

"Um, Abathur?" Luna asked hesitantly. "Are those... dragons?"

Abathur glanced over to where Luna gaze was pointed. She was looking at the infested dragons, who were patrolling his borders until he found some other use for them.

"Mostly. Have been... altered," Abathur answered.

"Wait, are these the dragons from the tournament? So that's where they've been hiding," Luna commented. "Oh, that one's hurt!" she said, before running straight at them. Straight at a trio of highly dangerous, highly aggressive, fire breathing reptiles dozens of times her size. "Oh, this one has a big scar on his head!"