The hivemind is conquering for me? - Chapter 36

Chapter 36: Need a hand?
After giving the go ahead to Orchid I changed my stance my left leg was extended towards Orchid and right was firmly planted. I held Zircon with both hands In a tail guard awaiting for Orchids Advance. Orchid shot at me in an almost blur aiming at my left shoulder, In response, I swung my sword across my body diagonally switching my dominant foot in the process, Our swords clashed and I managed to deflect /the first blow and aimed to thrust in counter while I was in ox guard.

Unfortunately for me Orchid was smart with her sword technique, she never used both swords at the same time, instead she used each sword as a follow up attack in order to cut down time on swinging as such before be she became a hailstorm of attacks.

Failing to succeed my opening strategy I quickly pivoted In order to block her next attack, then the next, and the next and so on, My strategy now was keep on the defensive under her hail of strikes until I saw an opening, fortunately for me I had gotten very good at defending myself from Orchids flurries over the years, bad for me however is that Orchid has very few openings to exploit.

I was considering using my Gyrokinesis on her like I did against the jungle predator back on the devoured planet but as soon as that idea came it went. If I used my psionic abelites during our duels, Orchid was allowed to use her gene mutations such as her petrifying eyes, I had gained a large amount of resistance to them by now but not enough to risk it during a fight.

A few moments later My first opportunity to counter had arrived, After feinting a dodge left, Orchid had slightly mistimed her flurry allowing me to thrust through her guard. The tip of Zircon had managed to only leave a small gash on Orchids chitin as she managed to use her left sword to deflect most of the power away from the attack but I pressed on with the advantage I was now given.

My attacks had to forgo some accuracy and a lot of power in order to keep Orchid on the backfoot suddenly an idea struck me, After a quick attack to Orchids left I swung an awe full strike from her bottom left to her top right leaving my entire torso fully exposed. Orchid trying to take advantage Of my blunder shot out her left arm swiftly aiming to cause a deep nick on my chest, she would not succeed however as although my strike was shambolic the positioning of my feet were perfect for what was to come next.

Like with the Jungle predator I rotated my body and with every fibre of strength and speed I could muster I sliced downwards towards Orchids extended arm. A sharp whoosh! was heard followed by the sound of Orchids sword hitting the ground. Attached to said sword was Orchids hand from above the wrist, She seemed to have noticed what I was doing at the last moment and pulled back but she was not fast enough at her current restricted movement.

After seeing her disarmed I decided to rest on my laurels satisfied with the job I had done totally forgetting The spar was still on going due to my excitement. i suddenly felt a very large gash open up from my right peck all the way down to my left lumbar region. “AAAH” I yelled at the sudden pain. “I thought I won what the heck Orchid.” I followed up slightly wincing as I tensed. “And that was your mistake My love” Orchid said in a teaching tone “You know fully well your Orchid can take an extreme amount of pain and not have it affect her mental state. Orchid is still as deadly with one hand as she is with two.” slowly a smile crept upon her face. “But well done on taking Orchids hand my love, Orchid recognised the attack you did from against the feline prey you engaged on the devoured planet. She is glad you had learnt something of value there.”

At Orchids praise I was beaming at her while I walked towards her and pecked a Kiss on her lips. “I still cant believe that worked though It felt so good using what I learned out there to inflict this to you here.” I said As I caressed her nub. “yes you have improved at an accelerated rate in such a short time my love we are all so proud of you.” Orchid said nestling her head onto my chest.

We stayed like that for a short moment being super proud of me before I decided to joke a little with Orchid. “Here” I said as I detached from the embrace and reached down to retrieve the hand she had lost. “Need a hand?” I said with a big cheesy smile on my face. “Yes thank you, It would be better to re-attach it now while the nerve endings are still alive instead of consuming it and regrowing It.”

Once claiming her hand she placed the severed parts against one another. I could physically see the flesh and chitin Of her hand and gauntlet weave and twist together as it reattached. It was honestly so impressive I got a science boner at the possibility of being able to do that one day. my healing factor may be impressive but I cant just grow a limb back like that. I could do so in a gene tank as the whole point is to improve my body but on the fly and making it look as easy as breathing? I was a long way off.

After a short break we continued our sparring session once more. Now that I had landed a maiming against Orchid at our current level she had decided she would increase the speed she was allowed to use during our spars now. 30 minutes later I was covered in lacerations all over my body but what hurt the most was my newly formed ego as it was battered out of me.

As I was sitting down exhausted, Orchid came and sat beside me “162 hits. If they were deeper 51 of them would have been fatal, Orchid is glad she has further things to teach you going forward.” Her innocent smile caused me to winch, as if she had not just beat the crap out of me for 30 minutes.

Deciding to be nice and sweet again Orchid helped me with my wounds. She ran her tongue up and along each and every one cleaning the blood and disinfecting the wounds at the same time. I could tell she was getting excited by the act of rubbing her tongue all over me But I let her enjoy her victory prize. “I swear you only went hard on me so you could give me a saliva shower” I quipped at Orchid playfully. ” Orchid froze mid lick as if caught in headlights “W-what? Orchid would never Apollo-love. Orchid just feels so bad about the pain she caused you Its only natural she help clean you up.” She said guiltily. That did not stop her from digging right back in though.

with a small smile I let Orchid finish her job before I went to look for something to drink. I tossed Zircon up into the air allowing it to follow us as we went back to the cold room.

“Orchid I thought you stayed behind to call over drones to fix damage to the floor.” I asked, staring at the still destroyed floor. Orchid looked down In guilt before quickly stammering out. “T-The drones, they were also affected by The queens heat and could not move. YES! That is it! It will be done later instead. That is what Orchid found out when she stayed behind.” I turned and raised an eyebrow at her way of answering but decided not to comment on It I was a thirsty boy and needed some drink. I was hoping the hive took some from the Ker’min planet otherwise my options would just be water or, I thought glancing at orchid, Milk.

Looking through the crates I was both happy and disappointed at my findings there was a lot of food that took my eye but no drinks as of yet. Orchid was trying to help but all the packages looked the same to her. “food should just be food why complicate it by mixing them together” she said dejectedly in the corner.

perhaps by luck I eventually found what I was looking for. As I was picking up a crate from atop another one a heard the iconic sound of glass bottles banging against one another. Excited, I gently placed the box down before prying it open with Zircon.

Inside there were 36 glass bottles. Although I could speak Ker’min rather well, out of the 4 different written languages they have I could only read 2 and they were still on rocky terrain. Looking for key words like caution and poison I found none so I decided to open one up and take a sip, When I popped the top off I heard a satisfying pop! sizzle! from the carbon dioxide inside I took a sip and my eyes went wide.

Is-is this

“BEER!”