Chapter 49: Project "Camp -> Settlement" (4)

He launched his body at it, slamming it to the ground, before sliding to regain some balance. However, before he could even stop, he was already galloping towards the fallen shroom.

His body moved of its own accord, his tail slithering in front of him, wrapping itself around the shroom-being's neck like a snake, while he landed a flurry of punches into its face.

"Where is your leader," he shouted out, his mind so numb with furry that he could hardly form the words.

"Speak!" he shouted a second later, before slamming the shroom-being into the ground, stomping on its head as it rebounded. His tail slithered around its neck once again, picking its head off the ground, before he kicked it, rag-dolling it a few centimeters away.

A purple fluid began dripping from the shroom-being's orifices, and its head seemed to be swelling.

"Where is your leader!" Lucius asked again, walking towards the barely unconscious shroom.

"I-I d-do-don't kno-"

"Don't lie!" he shouted, saddling the shroom, before gripping one of the projections in its mouth and ripping it out. The shroom screamed in pain, shouting strange words in its dialect as it tried to escape.

"Where?" Lucius shouted again. At this point it was all he could muster, his rage wouldn't allow him to process anything more.

The shroom-being continued throwing out strange words, before releasing a could of purple gas, that forced its way into Lucius's body, burning him from the inside out.

As if on instinct, Lucius called out his crux and whispered, "Solar cleanse," before using the tooth-like projection he had ripped out of the shroom-beings mouth to stab it in the eye.

"P-Plea- Pl- I- don't know. I have no leader. My old commune was wi-wiped out, I- I was just looking for a new one. I'm sorry- pleas..." the shroom-being stuttered, its body shivering in fear before losing consciousness.

However, Lucius hadn't heard a word of what it had been saying. He couldn't hear a damn thing. He wasn't in control, his rage had consumed him.

But he was certain of one thing, whatever was going on wasn't natural. He felt like a passenger in his own body.

"Luci," Ghost whispered, a frightened look on her face as she emerged from a shrub right behind him.

Lucius battered the shroom's unconscious body a few more times before he could regain his composure. It was now a bashed-up mess, barely recognizable, and barely breathing.

"Stay here and hide," he said once he felt that his rage had completely left him. He had to make sure that their camp wasn't nearby.

Ghost just nodded in agreement, staring at Lucius as if in shock, before he galloped out on his search.

He searched around a 15-minute radius in all directions and found nothing. He tried backtracking the shroom's footprints but found that it passed through a patch of grass, making it nearly impossible to follow after.

Seeing as how that was the only shroom in the area, Lucius assumed that it must've been a scout, perhaps separated from its group. That, or he would be forced to believe what it was saying, which was the last thing on his mind right now.

"We're returning to the camp," he ordered once he got back to the spot he had left Ghost.

"What about... that?" she asked, referring to the still unconscious shroom.

"I'm going to take it with us... for questioning. I have to find out where their base is," he replied, dragging the shroom along as he ambled his way back to the camp.

*

When they finally got back to the camp the sun had already set, and the leaflings were all waiting for his return.

"Get Alpha and Hannibal. Tell no one else of this," he whispered to Ghost, stopping before he could reach the camp.

A few moments later Ghost returned with the two, both of them keeping their distance from each other of course.

The moment they saw the shroom, they became immediately alert. Alpha, took a few steps back instinctively, looking around to see if there were more of them.

Hannibal on the other hand calmed down a lot quicker, realizing that it had been completely incapacitated before shooting a look at Lucius.

"I caught it an hour away from the camp. You are to tell no one of its presence. I will tie it up here, and no one is to touch or even speak to it except me," Lucius began, not even giving them time to relax.

"Alpha, you can tell your men, but make sure no one else hears. When you go on guard duty, post one of your men here to make sure nothing happens. Tell them to keep their distance, this thing can spew a cloud of poison," he continued.

"Now stay here and watch it while I go get some rope," he finished off, leaving them alone with the unconscious shroom.

When he returned with a few lines of rope, he found Alpha standing on top of the shroom, his foot planted on its bashed-up face.

"What are you doing?" Lucius whispered loudly, pushing Alpha off the thing.

"Why didn't you kill it!?" Alpha shouted back, quickly picking himself off the ground.

"You'll do well to keep quiet Alpha. If the other leaflings see this and begin to panic, I'll expel you from of the commune," Lucius replied, staring coldly at the angry Alpha.

"As for why I brought it here... Hannibal," he continued, turning to Hannibal as if waiting for him to answer.

"I-I suppose you want to get information from it? Since you only brought one, I-I'm guessing that's all you could find," Hannibal answered after a moment of thought.

"If you want to become a good leader, then you have to learn to think," Lucius chimed in, turning back to Alpha.

"You have to suppress your emotions long enough to make the right decisions... though I don't blame you for getting angry. I myself nearly killed this thing," he continued, tying the shroom up as he spoke.

"I don't want the other leaflings to get worried over this. They aren't a threat we ought to be worried about anymore, I'll hunt them down and exterminate them myself," he whispered as he finished binding it.

The shroom's legs and arms had been tied in a handcuff knot, and then those were tied again as if it was livestock.

"Don't get me wrong. This is a test, I'm constantly testing you. The well-being of this shroom will be a clear reflection of how good a hold you have on your squad mates," he said, looking at Alpha.