Grand Saint Alloy

The buildings in the affluent section had been lived in until around a month or two ago. They were also made of stone imported from the Stone Caldera, so despite the lack of maintenance, they were still standing strong. Aside from the dirt and the moss, inner Plains Caldera looked normal.

“This is weird,” Bruce said.

Eve looked over her shoulder, a few of the smaller crabs had noticed them, however they only rotated to face them. None crossed the border to attack them. What was here that could make these mindless creatures afraid. She gripped the shaft of he halberd tighter.

“It gives me the creeps,” She said, “More than seeing bones and rotting corpses does.”

“Did your warrior friend tell you anything about this?” Bruce asked.

“No, Kale said nothing, he did not even know that they could form communities,” Tristan answered, “What he did say is that they are a favorite food for other mythical beasts.”

Eve shuddered, “So, all our information is from an environment where a hydra could waltz through and kill a whole colony?”

Tristan nodded slowly. He had not been educated on what a hydra was but he assumed it was bad. They were probably witnessing something unheard of in the whole world. A developed hive of ghost crabs was not plausible in most situations. Tristan was not looking forward to being the precedent that future generations would use to judge danger.

“Either way we need to get to the Elder’s home, thats where William will be,” Bruce said.

They made their way down the street, taking cover within inset doorways from an enemy that they could not find. There was no noise, and the silence was far worse than any noise. Despite it’s eeriness, the silence saved them. It put them on high alert, and when the sunlight reflected off something metallic, they broke the lock on a three story home and hid inside.

The three of them watched as a metallic ghost crab leisurely scuttled along the side of a building. Whatever force allowed the crab to cling to any surface, also did not create any sound as the huge creature moved parallel to the ground. The ghost crab easily exceeded two tons in weight, yet it could even move along the side of wooden structures with no issues.

“How many of those do you think there are?” Eve asked, “Could they have killed William?”

“I doubt it,” Bruce said, “they haven’t detected us, so they should not have detected William either.”

Eve sighed in relief, and turned to the inside of the house. She clamped her hand over her mouth before she let out a scream. The noise was still very loud in the silence of the inner city.

Both Tristan and Bruce whirled around weapons brandished. Tristan had expected an enemy, but what he found was even worse. In the center of the home was a tree like structure. It was growing up through the ceiling, so Tristan could not see the crown. Tree like was the operative word as it had the same reddish carapace as the ghost crabs, instead of bark. Little growths like branches jutted off to the side and balls hung like fruit from it. The balls were translucent and developing ghost crabs could be seen within.

The parts of the bark or shell that did not line up also had a membrane and inside was a cloudy liquid. However, it was not too cloudy to be able to clearly distinguish human body parts floating around the form of a large crab halfway through gestation. Tristan had seen some pretty horrible things, but he had never seen anything like this.

“What is this,” Eve whispered in horror.

“Is there one of these in every building?” Tristan said. He could not stand something like this staying alive.

A primal part of him told him that this creature needed to die. Maybe it was a latent instinct of humans, maybe it was his silver blood, he did not care. Tristan drew his long knife, and shoved it through the chitinous bark. Some of the fluid inside leaked out, and the putrid smell covering the Plains Caldera intensified. He walked around the tree, dragging his knife behind him. Tristan was about halfway around the tree, its own weight stopping the water from flooding out.

It was at this time that Bruce shouted, “Sage! Stop.”

Things happened fast after that. Bruce made a beeline for the back door, dragging a vomiting Eve behind him. The wall was ripped away to show the form of a giant crab. That wall was a supporting wall, and the imbalance relieved the pressure keeping the chitin bark water tight. The base of the tree burst open, washing Tristan out the now open wall and between the large crab’s legs.

Enough gestational fluid was pushed out that it finished destroying the wall. The home collapsed, falling towards the crab. Tristan jumped to his feet and ran down the street, but the ghost crab backed up. The collapsing building was taller than the street was wide, so the crab got a face full of stone, mortar, and the crown of the crab tree.

Tristan was shocked to see that the top of the tree had both a brain and heart when it splattered against the top of the metallic crab. It even had a vestigial scorpion tail and legs around the rim. Standard biology told him that they had been fighting female crabs this whole time, as each one deposited eggs into its target. However, what he was seeing was a clear fork in the ghost crab life cycle. One direction made them into factories to produce juvenile ghost crabs. The other path made them guards for these tree like crabs, harder shells, sharper claws and higher intelligence.

With both the hunger of the masses, the average ghost crab would definitely cannibalize the adult crabs. That was why none were allowed in. Tristan turned and sprinted towards where Eve and Bruce were, If there were more trees, there would be more guards. Sure enough another two came from the same direction. The warehouse district.

Tristan had already turned into the nearest ally, they would not be able to fit inside. At least not without destroying the buildings on either sides. Sure enough, one look though the windows confirmed that the buildings each had a tree inside them. Tristan thought that they probably built mounds like termites normally, but buildings made of stone worked just as well.

Tristan rounded a corner and found Eve and Bruce making their way down the thinner side streets towards Elder Plains home. He did not attempt to take cover, so he quickly overtook them. Eve had lost her halberd in the rush and collapsing building. She had a wild look in her eyes, not too dissimilar from the look the miners had when the dark elementals escaped. Tristan could sympathize, this was the first time he had faced something that was both more horrifying and dangerous.

“Stop,” Tristan said, “We need to stop.”

Bruce slowed down, but he did not stop, “What!” He hissed, “Why would we stop.”

Tristan met Bruce’s angry glare, “we smell like dead crab juice, more than the city does, if we don’t do something about it, we will be found and killed.”

“Who’s fault is that,” Bruce snapped back, “You went all silver devil and caused this situation.”

Eve was starting to panic even more. Her soft heart could not take seeing people torn apart and fed to breeder crabs. Tristan thought that was probably a good sign of a more stable mindset. He would have to reflect when they were out of ghost crab central.

“We need to cut open a few more trees, it will spread out the scent and spread out the guard crabs,” Tristan said.

Bruce frowned at the term guard crabs. When Tristan explained it he cursed, “You mean to say that the whole Caldera is being fought to a standstill by babies!” Tristan nodded, “Well then, lets send some mythical beasts back to the hell that made them.”

Tristan handed Bruce his long knife. He was not as robust as Tristan was, the extra six inches it had on the sword breaker might allow him to stop threats earlier. Bruce took Eve with him, but she was pale, Tristan would not be surprised if she fainted from shock. He drew his sword breaker and cut through the back wall of a building.

He found a tree its trunk had bulged with the size of a nearly full grown tier three crab. It would never be born. This time Tristan knew what to expect. Instead of cutting a ring around the base, he cut an ‘X’ into the trunk. The three stories of pressure ruptured the weak point, the difference being, Tristan was able to avoid the flood.

He cut it towards the Main Street so the guard crabs would start their search out front. Meanwhile Tristan exited the back door he had made. After running a few streets over and a few homes towards the Elder’s home, he entered another house and repeated the process. The overprotectiveness of the guard crabs actually made the task easier, even a handful of lower tier crabs would have slowed them enough for the bigger guards to catch