Chapter 217: Charge

The Collector waved one of its hands, and from the ridged ceiling of the Holding Bay, several tendrils fell down. Each of these were tendrils meant to allow units within to access transportation pods.

"Pull on these to enter transportation pods," said the Collector. "You will receive a psionic message within your minds that will ask of you what your destination is. This should be obvious: it is below to destroy our enemies.

Do not fear for whether this mode of transportation is safe. It is at the very least capable of allowing your kind to survive entry within an oxygen rich planetary atmosphere from high orbit. This level of fall will cause no damage, though it is advised to brace yourselves mentally for impact."

The Collector's language automatically simplified down into an understandable form to all the goblins via its Shard of Succession, and the goblins all nodded as they hovered by tendrils.

"A portion of the units I have created that are classified as golems shall accompany you as well in these pods, and the remainder will assist you if the battle becomes significantly disadvantageous enough that reinforcements are required. Now gather your armaments for battle," said the Collector.

"Fight for the Sovnar, and without this fear you feel," said Goromir with a threatening snarl. "Without him, you would not even be alive. Without him, you would still be hiding out in the snow, eating rotting carcasses while you cry and mewl at the very sight of an adventurer.

Without him, you would be weak.

Use your strength, fellow blood of Gob, strength that the Sovnar has granted you, and show these lizards your strength!"

"Fight!" said Kandak simply, his deep voice booming throughout the confines of the Holding Bay.

"Battle to the best of your abilities but maintain an adequate sense of self-preservation," said the Collector as it projected its voice with Higher Calling. Sapping away the goblins' free will entirely drained far too much energy and made the goblins less capable of fighting effectively, but the Collector could reduce their inhibitions and fear such that they fought more emboldened.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" shouted the goblins together as they raised their glowing light blade weapons up and down with the rhythm of their war cries.

The Collector clicked its mandibles. "I shall join you soon. Now go."

The goblins roared as they pulled down on the tendrils dangling from the ceiling. They were whisked up one by one into the ceiling where the ridges opened up and swallowed them, encasing them in transportation pods to funnel them below where additional Draconids were while some would fight on the body of the Vanguard Unit to clear it of Draconid pests.

All the goblins, leaving a notable exception with Kui who stood with arms crossed as he stared at the Collector with deadpan expression.

"So, how much do you want me to fight?" said Kui bluntly. "If you and I fight seriously, we can kill every single one of those Draconids with ease."

"That is true," stated the Collector.

"But you want to test out their strength, correct?"

"That is a correct observation."

"Then I will moderate my strength," said Kui. He put a hand to his beard as he thought about it. "Enough to make the goblins fight hard, but not enough to seriously put them in harm's way."

"Your judgement is sound and within the boundaries of the expectations I was to place upon you," said the Collector.

"I am beginning to learn more of how you operate, Endbringer," said Kui. "But still, these Draconids are unlike any I have seen before. I knew they changed their forms quickly, adapting to the world around them, but I had never seen a kind like this before.

It was my impression that they changed over the scale of centuries, not mere years."

"The baseline genetic code of the Draconids lacks the sufficient flexibility to enact these forms of changes," said the Collector. "It is likely that they have melded with a specimen that is capable of inducing evolutionary change in the same way that certain noteworthy specimens among them have merged with the beings known as 'Old Gods'."

"Well, we will find out, will we not?" said Kui. He pulled on a tendril, and in an instant, he was whisked away.

The Collector clicked its mandibles as it flew upwards, the ceiling opening up for it. It did not need a transportation pod for it could control the Vanguard unit at will.

==

Thokk felt ferocity surging through his body in the form of an unquenchable heat. His muscles, his heart, all of it burned for battle. The initial transportation pod thing was a little uncomfortable, what with a sudden mass of flesh and gooey liquid wrapping around him, encasing him in darkness before violently booting him out of the big monster ship.

But the insides of the pod were surprisingly comfortable. Accompanying Thokk were three goblins and five Striders with the Striders curled up into compact balls to make for efficient spacing. Thokk's stomach lurched as the pod moved rapidly down for Thokk had chosen to defend further down on the large ice tree that the ship rested on to prevent more Draconids from moving up to the monster ship.

Thokk felt weightless as he floated in the pod's liquid, but this feeling only lasted for a few seconds before the pod crashed into the hard surface of the ice branch below. He braced for impact just as the Sovnar had told him to, but surprisingly, there was almost none of it.

He felt the outsides of the pod rattle, but the strange gooey liquid inside stopped the rattling from reaching and hurting him. Another one of the Sovnar's miracle creations.

The pod split open at the top, peeling apart into four quarters. Liquid splattered out, revealing Thokk and the goblins. All of them shook in unison, getting the goo off their bodies, though it strangely did not make them wet and cling to them, instead sliding off their bodies automatically.

"Weapons!" shouted Thokk as he raised his longsword, the one had had gotten the Sovnar to personally hand craft, while keeping his free to arms to his sides, ready for attacks at any angle.

And there were definitely attacks from every angle. Maybe fifteen white fur Draconids cirled around the small crater the pod had gouged out.

"Got it!" shouted one of the goblins, and they all huddled close to each other, their glowing golden light shard weapons held in their hands tight as they covered each other's backs. Goromir and Kandak had taught the goblins over time about military strategy and martial arts, and this, standing back to back when circled, was something they had learned and now put into practice.

The furred Draconids growled as they stared at Thokk and his small group. Their fangs were highly visible, and their enormously muscled, thickly furred arms rippled as they readied to smash.

"We are circled. Not good," said Thokk. "When one of them attacks, I kill them and then charge. Break their circle and make it so that they have to come to us one by one."

"We will follow right behind you," said a goblin female. In her hands were two daggers, representing that she had shown significant skill to be rewarded more than one light blade.

"Shel," said Thokk, remembering her name. She had been a fighter and hunter back in the tribe, too, when they occupied the Snowmound. Leanly muscled, fast, and flexible. "You are fast. Cover me when I charge."

"If you don't slow me down," said Shel.

Thokk grunted. "No, I won't. Here they come!"

The Draconids started to lunge towards them. All fifteen at once. This was going to be difficult, Thokk realized, to break their ranks with pure force alone, but then the Sovnar's words rung in his head again in remembrance.

"Within the Collective, there is no fight taken alone."

The Striders uncurled from their balls and loosed shrill cries as they sprinted off, their insect-like wings fluttering and powering their leaps as they hurtled straight into the Draconids. Each of the Striders was tiny, less than a third of the weight of an individual Draconid, but the Striders had abnormally powerful leg muscles which, coupled with their wings, allowed for immensely powerful charges.

Every single Strider collided with a Draconid, sending the bulky lizard creatures hurtling backwards while the Striders used this opportunity to stand on top of them, slashing down at them with their mandible jaws and razor sharp claws.

This left just five Draconids charging towards Thokk and his group.

"Hold!" said Thokk.

The Draconids all lunged towards them. Thokk immediately swung at one that lunged at him, slicing apart the Draconid diagonally across the midsection. The force of the swing blew back the Draconid, and soon enough.

The Draconid's skin was tough, but the Sovnar's light blade cut right through it, gouging out a massive gash in the monster's chest. That wound filled up with golden light, and Thokk fully expected to see the Draconid blow up.

However, the Draconid instead roared as it curled up. The wound started to bubble up, as if ready to pop and explode, but then it simmered down, the golden light fading away and turning into smoke. The wound had not healed, instead cauterizing, but the Draconid had not exploded either.

"Wh-what?" said Thokk.

"Sovnar's weapons not working!" shouted the other goblins as they watched as the Draconids they slashed at and drove back also growled and stopped their dagger wounds from turning into lethal explosions.

"Doesn't matter!" shouted Shael. "Go, Thokk, go!"

Thokk grunted and charged, shoulder bashing the Draconid he slashed at while the monster still recovered. He drove the monster back a dozen meters and more while the rest of the goblins followed behind him, covering his back so that no further Draconids could swarm ahead of them and block them off to circle around them again.