Chapter 369. Incubator.

  “Get him,” I ordered to my team. Glurk was the first to act, firing off an arrow from his enchanted longbow. The arrow struck the figure in the overcoat square in his back. The figure gave no indication of any pain and merely turned its head to look at us.

  What I saw was a nightmare made flesh. A normal looking human body, albeit with blood stains all over it, was topped with the head of something else. There were no eyes, no ears, and no hair. It was just like a bulb of flesh had attached itself to where the head of the man should be. The flesh was grey and craggy, looking tougher than shoe leather. Protruding from where the mouth would normally be, a long, hose-like tendril that squirmed disturbingly. The tendril detached from the victim lying before it and whipped around to face us.

  A glance at the victim on the ground showed that half of the head had been eaten away, and as the monster moved the tendril, I could see rings of teeth swirling inside like an industrial grinder. I cast duplicate on the drone and ordered him to attack. Any further threat from this creature was put to rest as a beam from the duplicate drone lanced out and hit the monster square in the face. With a disgusting pop, its head exploded when the fluids inside vaporized under the plasma beams heat.

  The hulking figure in the overcoat collapsed and I had the Glem stab it a few times with his spear, just to make sure it was no longer a threat. It, and its poor victim, were dead. There was no completion notification from the system, so we weren’t done dealing with this just yet. Movement near the front door of the vacant building revealed three more figures approaching. Facing us were two women in business attire, and a man in track clothes. All had the same horrifying head and tendril that the other monster had sported, which made it easy to identify them as hostile.

  Arrows from Glurk, and the beam weapons from the drones lashed out at our foes. The three creatures quickly fell, though one of the women gave us some insight into what we were dealing with. The drone had burned through the chest of the monster with its plasma beam, an attack that should have been fatal. Instead of dying the woman toppled to the ground, and the head separated from the body. It grew four insectile legs and began scuttling toward us.

  Glurk hit it with an arrow which knocked back the head-sized monster. His Longbow Summoner ability activated and a simple goblin in a loincloth and wielding a dagger attacked the monster. The monster’s tendril lashed out smacking the goblin in the face where it began to chew through flesh and bone. It pulled itself onto the goblin’s face, the legs already digging into its neck as the tendril made short work of the goblin’s head.

  “That’s just gross, kill it,” I ordered, and as the summoned goblin turned into mana vapor, the monster plopped to the ground where another arrow from Glurk pierced it through. The monster squirmed a bit before going still and rapidly decaying. Before I could order my team forward, I felt a blow on the of my skull, the impact staggering me.

  A crunching sound accompanied an intensifying pain, causing me to reflectively cast Switch and Replace, targeting the duplicate drone that was still facing the fallen trio of monsters. I appeared in my new location, quaffing a healing potion before I passed out. The magic in the potion went to work and the crushing pain at the back of my head lessened. I cast Health Bloom over me as well, trusting that it would help to boost the heal over time effects of the potion. The regeneration provided by my Trolls Belt would finish patching me back together.

  Back where I had been standing, the summoner’s apprentice cast Fell Fire Blast at another of the creatures. It was the man that had been killed near the car. Some metamorphosis occurred and it now stood with the creepy tendril head, just the same as the other monsters. Gore from my injury coated the tendril, which quickly burnt to cinders as the apprentice’s spell went to work.

  “Okay, new plan, make sure everything we kill, and every monster victim that we find is really dead,” I ordered, and the others bashed and slashed each of the fallen to make sure there wasn’t going to be another reanimation. None of the other bodies showed any signs of activity, and I began to believe that this was some kind of parasite, and once the head was killed, the monster was done for.

  An involuntary shudder hit as I realized how close I’d come to dying and being transformed into a monster. After taking a moment to gather myself, I sent Glem around the building to check for any stragglers, but it appeared that the front entrance was the only one open and the rest of building was secure.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  There was only one way in or out for these monsters, and if they broke through some window or another door we hadn’t spotted, I was sure we’d hear their efforts. My team headed inside, the duplicate drone leading the way, with the goblin trio and the apprentice following behind. I was next, with the real drone acting as my bodyguard.

  Switch and Replace had a five-minute cooldown and I was going to have to be extra careful until it was ready to go again. Inside the building, things were much darker, and little of the dim security light outside was able to penetrate through the gaps in the boarded-up windows. As my stats had increased, so had many of my senses, including my vision, but even with the system generated enhancements, it wasn’t quite up to picking out threats in the dark recesses of an abandoned building.

  I pulled a lantern from inventory, as well as the Everburn Torch. Both hadn’t seen use in some time, but I was glad that I had kept them in my inventory for just such an occasion. After confirming it wouldn’t interfere with his spellcasting, the apprentice held the torch, and I fired up the lantern. Having the two light sources made things easier. We were in the lobby of the building, but all the furnishings, save for the front reception desk, had long since been stripped away.

  It was a combination of office space in the front of the building, and a small warehouse at the back end. Not wanting to risk my minions, I had the apprentice summon a pair of fell beasts. The first was a hound the size of a large dog. A flicker of flame lit its mouth, and the claws of its feet, but this creature was puppy when compared to the monster fell hound Felljaw, that I’d battled with. The second beast, this time shaped like a monkey, appeared. It too had glowing flames coming from its mouth and feet, as well as the long claws that tipped its hands.

  “Send them in to clear the cubicles,” I ordered. The two fell creatures scampered off to look for threats. They weren’t all that intelligent and couldn’t communicate with us, but I figured they would attack or be attacked by whatever monsters that might be lurking in the area. It took them about five minutes to completely sweep the front of the building, and we found no further threats hiding among the cubicles.

  The system hadn’t given a quest completion notice, so there was still a threat remaining somewhere in the building. We’d now cleared everything at the front of the building, and a pair of doors opened into the warehouse in the back. That was where the rest of these monsters were probably hiding. Glem tested the doors, finding them unlocked, and I had him throw the door open before ordering the two fell creatures charge inside.

  They made it just inside the doorway before something lashed out from the darkened warehouse and they disappeared into a cloud of mana vapor. Something was in there, something that killed the two minions before I could even get a good look at it. There was no way I was going to order more of my minions in there, so I had the pair of drones lob some grenades into the doorway, followed by another summoned fell creature.

  Each drone banged out three grenades, shifting their angle so the projectiles would bounce deeper into various parts of the warehouse before detonation. The blasts were powerful, creating clouds of debris, shrapnel, and smoke as they exploded. Glem had swung the door closed as the last grenade entered, which protected us from any stray shrapnel. After the final explosion, Glem opened the door for the fell creature, another hound, which charged inside.

  This hound wasn’t immediately killed, but we could hear it fighting against something inside. We had an opening, so the rest of my team stormed the warehouse. The goblins were first, and almost as soon as they entered, I could see Glurk firing his longbow as fast as he could nock and draw. My duplicate drone opened up with his plasma beam almost immediately after entering, and I followed behind the apprentice as he pushed inside.

  I had expected more of the creatures, or perhaps a stronger veteran or elite of some type. That’s not what we found, instead, in the center of the warehouse there was something much worse waiting for us. It was a large, fleshy cocoon of sorts, that spit out the occasional monster. These monsters didn’t have a host and were forced to scuttle forward on their insectile legs. Several wounds from shrapnel peppered the cocoon, but it was far from dead.

  My goblins and the duplicate drone had formed a skirmish line and were dealing with the monsters emerging from the cocoon, the apprentice mage fired another Fell Fire Blast that burned through the exterior of the cocoon, causing a foul-smelling, gelatinous liquid to spill out. Taking advantage of the opening, my mana slayer drone lobbed his three remaining grenades into the open wound, and when they detonated deep inside the cocoon, it deflated, quickly decaying like the other monsters had.

  The remaining monsters scuttling toward my minions collapsed and also began to decay as a system prompt confirmed that we had eliminated the threat.

  You have destroyed the Mind Pilot Incubator and ended its potential threat to your world. Your contracted summoning is now considered complete, and you may collect the promised rewards at Somhagen Exports.

  You have been awarded 11 Experience.

  Congratulations! You have reached Tier 3, Rank 4.

  Experience/experience needed for the next rank: 8/50.

  With the announcement read, a portal appeared that returned me to my room at the academy. It felt good to help quash a threat to Earth, and that creepy incubator thing could have caused a lot of grief if it had been left alone to grow in power and spread those creatures all over. Having earned enough experience to reach rank four was also a very welcome reward. If these summonings continued with the same experience potential, I just might have a solid chance of dealing with Gary.