Chapter 102: The Parasyte Alpha
Nathan opened his eyes at the first hint of light.
The fireplace fire had reduced to almost cold red embers. The shelter’s air was cool. And through the single small window, the gray light of dawn was beginning to filter through with the specific quality of an early autumn morning.
He sat up slowly.
Liaraen was already awake. Sitting at the table with her father’s green sword unsheathed on the wood. Polishing the blade with a small cloth she’d taken from her bag. Yorel slept on the narrow bed.
Nathan approached the table.
He sat across from Liaraen.
With a low voice so as not to wake Yorel.
"Sprout."
"Nathan."
"How long have you been awake?"
"Approximately two hours."
"You couldn’t sleep?"
"I slept what I could. Then I woke up. I preferred to get up."
Nathan nodded.
He poured himself water from the jug Yorel had left on the table the night before. He drank slowly.
Then he spoke.
"Sprout."
"Yes."
"The plan."
"The plan is solid."
"It is. But there’s something we didn’t discuss."
"What?"
"The cost if something goes wrong."
Liaraen stopped polishing the sword.
She looked at him.
"Go ahead."
"If the alpha creature is stronger than we calculated. If Yorel gets hurt. If you get hurt. If something slips past our plan during execution."
"Nathan."
"Yes."
"I’m prepared for it to go wrong. I’m prepared for me to get hurt. I’m prepared for the alpha creature to be stronger. I processed it during the night while I couldn’t sleep."
"And?"
"And still, the plan is correct. The settlement’s children are going to be saved. The adults who can be saved will be saved. We accept the combat risk as part of the job."
"Sprout."
"What?"
"If you get hurt."
"Nathan."
"If you get hurt, I’m not going to be able to maintain suppression mode. The parasite’s killing intent toward you is going to activate my lethal mode faster than I’ll be able to process it. And if there are hosts nearby at that moment, they’ll all die uncontrollably."
Liaraen looked at him for a moment.
"Something else."
"Go ahead."
"The alpha creature watched us escape last night. It smiled. As if it were waiting for us. As if the confrontation seemed amusing to it."
"Yes."
"That doesn’t match the logic of a standard parasite. Parasites operate by survival. They seek to expand. They avoid fights that could destroy the anchor. The alpha creature should have fled or defended the settlement. It shouldn’t have watched us escape with a smile."
Nathan processed that.
"So there’s something different."
"There may be something different. This vidhraki colony may be unusual. The main consciousness may have developed a personality beyond basic instinct. Or there may be something else behind it. Something using the colony for its own purposes."
Nathan sat thinking.
*Something behind.*
*Someone behind.*
*Like with yesterday’s empowered Drakain.*
*The strange aura.*
*Vidhraki don’t empower hosts with red auras. That’s not in the elven treatises.*
Nathan looked at Liaraen.
"Sprout."
"Yes."
"The red aura of yesterday’s Drakain."
"Yes."
"It’s not from the vidhraki."
"No. Vidhraki don’t produce that signature. I’m sure."
"So there are two things operating in this forest. The vidhraki colony. And something else that’s empowering other fauna."
"Yes. Probably related. But they’re not the same."
"Got it."
Silence.
Nathan drank more water.
Then he spoke with a calm voice.
"Sprout. We’re going to execute the plan as agreed. But with extra caution. The alpha creature may have capabilities we didn’t anticipate based on what you said. And if something goes wrong, absolute priority is for you and Yorel to get out of the area."
"Nathan."
"It’s non-negotiable, Sprout. If something goes wrong, you run. I stay."
Liaraen looked at him.
Without arguing this time.
"Alright, Nathan."
"Acceptable."
*There, I said it.*
*Acceptable.*
*Good.*
*No corrections. Doesn’t matter. Let’s go.*
Yorel stirred in the bed.
He woke up.
He sat on the edge with his face swollen from interrupted sleep.
"Nathan. Liaraen."
"Yorel."
"Is it time?"
"It’s time."
Yorel nodded.
He stood up.
He began preparing his things.
And approximately twenty minutes later, with the morning already established and with a minimal breakfast consumed, the three left the shelter toward the path leading back to the settlement.
---
They rode for nearly four hours.
Yorel indicated detours Nathan hadn’t noticed the previous day. Secondary paths that circled the settlement from the west. Routes that crossed the deep forest without approaching the meat tree area.
Around midday, Yorel stopped his indication.
"Here."
Nathan stopped the horse.
The place was a wide clearing approximately two kilometers northwest of the settlement. Surrounded by tall trees forming a natural ring. Firm ground. Without dense vegetation that could limit movement. And with clear visibility in all directions.
Good for combat.
"Yorel."
"Yes."
"Why here?"
"The residents never come to this clearing. It’s far from the settlement. We never hunt here. We never collect herbs. It’s a dead space the villagers avoid by habit without remembering why. The parasite probably marked it as a restricted zone decades ago so no one would interfere with its affairs. The alpha creature probably passes through here occasionally. If we lure it, it’ll come alone without the secondary hosts."
Nathan nodded.
"Good."
He dismounted.
Liaraen dismounted as well.
Yorel stayed at the clearing’s edge with the horse. His role was to maintain distance and observe. If the fight ended badly, Yorel would be able to retreat quickly south where there was another small secondary shelter he’d mentioned during the journey.
Nathan walked to the clearing’s center.
He looked around.
He checked Soul Sense.
Nothing major within approximately two kilometers. The alpha creature was at the settlement, probably, coordinating the hosts.
Nathan turned to Liaraen.
"Sprout. We’re going to call it."
"How?"
Nathan thought for a moment.
Then he spoke with a cynical smile for the first time since the previous night.
"We’re going to kill guardians."
"Guardians?"
"Yes. The ones patrolling the nearby forest. The alpha creature feels them as part of the distributed colony. If we start eliminating nearby guardians, it’ll feel the void in the network and come to investigate."
"Nathan."
"Yes."
"That’s intelligent."
"I appreciate the assessment."
"It’s not common to hear the word ’intelligent’ applied to you."
"I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that."
Liaraen smiled.
Nathan did too.
Nathan extended Soul Sense.
He checked the guardians’ locations.
Approximately four scattered within a kilometer radius of the settlement. None closer. None in the clearing where they were.
Nathan looked at Yorel.
"Yorel. I’m going to leave the clearing for a few minutes. I’m going to eliminate nearby guardians. When I return, prepare for the real fight. The alpha creature is going to come."
"Yes."
Nathan activated Pale Rider at maximum intensity.
And disappeared from the clearing.
---
Approximately twenty minutes later, Nathan returned.
With Pale Rider still active. With steady but accelerated breathing. With his hands stained with the black blood of the forest guardians.
Four guardians eliminated.
With full lethality. There were no residents nearby. No innocents in the attack line. The guardians’ killing intent toward him had activated the automatic lethal mode, and all four had fallen in less than three minutes each.
Nathan checked Soul Sense.
The alpha creature was moving.
Leaving the settlement.
Approaching.
*Good.*
*It worked.*
*Less than twenty minutes.*
Nathan looked at Liaraen.
"Sprout. Ready."
"Ready."
"The creature is coming fast. Approximately five minutes."
"Alright."
Nathan looked at Yorel.
"Yorel. To the clearing’s edge. Behind the trees. If you have to flee, flee south. Don’t look back."
"Yes."
Yorel moved to the clearing’s edge. He hid behind a large tree. With the horse tied at a distance and his eyes fixed on the clearing’s center where Nathan and Liaraen had positioned themselves.
Nathan stood in the exact center of the clearing.
Liaraen ten meters away. At the lateral angle they’d agreed on. With the green sword drawn and held with both hands in front of her chest.
And approximately five minutes later, Soul Sense confirmed what Nathan had already felt.
Major presence.
Approaching from the south.
Two hundred meters and closing.
One hundred meters.
Fifty.
And then, from the clearing’s southern edge, between the ring’s trees, the alpha creature emerged.
---
The creature was larger than Nathan had remembered.
Approximately four meters tall now, fully standing—not the three and a half he’d estimated during the nighttime escape. A humanoid but deformed body with uneven proportions. Arms that hung to its knees, ending in claws the length of a human forearm. A muscular torso with skin covered in pulsing red lines that moved visibly as if something beneath were circulating. Thick legs ending in plantigrade feet with additional claws on the toes. And the head.
The head was the most disturbing part.
Vaguely human. With the bone structure of an exaggerated human face. With two large eyes of a solid black with no visible white. With a mouth that stretched from ear to ear, divided into sections Nathan recognized after looking for a second as five concentric jaws. Each jaw with its own teeth. All visible when the creature smiled upon entering the clearing.
And the smile.
Wide.
With satisfaction.
As if it had been waiting for exactly this invitation since the previous night.
Nathan maintained his calm posture.
Liaraen ten meters away. With regulated breathing. With her eyes fixed on the creature.
The creature stopped approximately fifteen meters from Nathan.
And spoke.
With a voice that wasn’t a voice but twenty distinct voices superimposed at the same time. The distributed consciousness of all the settlement residents speaking through the alpha creature from a distance. With the effect of a discordant choir that Nathan felt less with his ears and more directly with Soul Sense.
"Hunter Voss."