The hivemind is conquering for me? Chapter 894: More Praetorians

"Oh yeah. Aren’t you a beauty." I purred with delight as I lasciviously stroked the body before me.

"Apollo, are you getting on or not?" Nerissa asked, doing her best not to be jelly of an inanimate object.

Pulling back from the anti-grav bike, I frowned at Nerissa. "You need to appreciate the little things in life, Nessy-bear. This machine here is a beauty. I mean its so thick and robust! Daddy likes thick bikes... Apparently."

’Nessy-bear?’

’Daddy?’

Nerissa and Rhapso both began to blush and turned away.

Seeing the two Nymph look away from me, their body language indicated they were cringing from second hand embarrassment.

I shrugged my shoulders. I liked bikes. Especially wheelless floaty ones. In fact, the last and only time I was on a bike was with Jinx and that was an eventful night. ’Good times... Wait, why do I consider murdering a bunch of gangers a good time? Uh oh...’

"Apollo."

"Right. Sorry!"

I clambered onto the bike between Nerissa and Rhapso. I then unwrapped Sithrik from around my neck and tucked the danger noodle into my shirt so the air wouldn’t hurt her eyes as we travelled.

Once I was nice and adjusted, I felt Rhapso scoot forward in her seat and press up against me as I was sandwiched between the two Nymphs. It would have been a nice experience, only there were no soft parts, only armour.

I then wrapped my arms around Nerissa’s waist and Rhapso did the same to me. Resting her entire body against me as she did so. Squishing me further.

"So, how fast does this thing g-"

...

As the landscape blurred past us I suddenly felt the hands grasping me begin to brush up and down my abs. I thought nothing of it at first, especially considering I bonked her a few hours ago.

The drive continued in silence for a while and I presumed I was in fact mistaken, but the hands began to explore again. I was about to reprimand her before I felt Sithrik begin to squirm within my shirt and a few moments later I heard.

"Oww fucker!" Rhapso pulled back her gauntlet and in a less armoured part of the glove, two small beads of ichor were visible as Sithrik bit her through my shirt. I wasn’t worried about Rhapso as first, she deserved it. And second, Sithrik wasn’t venomous so a love bite was fine.

’Wait.’

I tucked my head into my shirt. "Hey, you didn’t get venomous after getting your new body did you?"

The little blue snake looked up at me and flashed her tongue. "No, I am still a constrictor at heart, my king." She replied. I pulled one arm off Nerissa and gave her a little stroke through my shirt for doing a good job before getting a grip again.

After driving a bit further, we suddenly began to hear the sounds of gunfire and conflict. Not long later I became witness to a massacre as a group of twelve Praetorians were chasing down several hundred Drakoshi. They were mowing through them like a scythe through wheat.

And not just with their weapons. I almost caused a ping in Nerissa’s back armour as I watched the myriad of Psionic attacks being slung about. Lighting, Fire, Ice. Someone was even shooting rainbows!

I had been idle for a few days at this point and could feel the call of the battle. "I’m going in!" I declared and jumped up and off the bike. As they began to speed off themselves into the fray. I landed on something big, blue, deadly and cute as she began to charge at full speed.

"Sithrik, do you want to stay in my shirt? The fight won’t take long." I asked.

"Ok, I am very comfortable here so that works." She replied.

As Sapphire continued her charge, my armour engulfed me with more than enough room for Sithrik to remain comfy and I summoned Zircon. One hand holding Zircon, the other holding one of Sapphire’s back spikes tightly. I readied myself as the Drakoshi line drew closer.

The retreat of their forces wasn’t cowardly. One warlord might be dead, but another still lived, as such, the Drakoshi still had tactical fighting strategies. They were running then turning to take a stance and fire.

One Drakoshi did that just in time to see a large blue object run past its body, the next moment its world began to spin before seeing its own body without its head attached.

Mounted atop Sapphire. With a heavy lean to my left or to my right, Zircon was at perfect height for decapitations. I had found this out months prior when we committed hammer charges into the Drakoshi backlines for hours.

Then, of course, Sapphire herself with her sharp claws, powerful maw and pure physical mass was a killing machine of Drakoshi herself. She raked, she bit, she squashed heads of the fallen all while running non stop to prove as difficult a target as possible. Though with a body that chonky, hits still landed.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Nerissa and Rhapso weaving through the ranks on the bike. Nerissa was like a pro racer. Meanwhile Rhapso on the back was manifesting spikes on the ground as she passed. Killing multiple Drakoshi per second. The mental processing speed and skill required to do that at the speed they were going was beyond impressive.

And of course, it was not just us. The Praetorians were right on the Drakoshi’s heels. The swiftness and ease in which they cut down these enemies proved just how elite the order was.

Considering the lack of bodies on the way to the battle, we must have caught the Praetorians in the first few minutes of their engagement, but after another six, the several hundred Drakoshi were dead.

All of them.

Once the battle was over, I suddenly realised I was still being observed. Turning around towards the multiple sources. Every single Praetorian present was just staring at me. Their multicoloured eye slits in their armour piercing through my own armour.

Telling Sapphire to go back to her favourite activity, sleep, She poofed away from under me and I dropped onto the slick wet ground. I gave the Praetorians a collective wave, of which only seven waved back, four of which were slow, confused, while the remaining three were fast and sporadic, reminding me of Rhapso and her giddy nature.

The rest just continued to stare, uncomfortably.

Fortunately, I did not need to break the ice on my own as Nerissa drove over on the bike and the two best Nymphs in the universe got dismounted and came to my side.

"Psst, Apollo, look!" Rhapso leaned in and pointed at her kin. "They like you."

I turned to Rhapso and removed my helm. "Really?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I don’t know. They have their helmets on."

I then turned to Nerissa and she also shrugged her shoulders.

Feeling very reassured, I wanted to wait for one of them to start walking towards the other Praetorians, but they didn’t budge. So I had to walk over towards them. As I did so, the other Nymphs began to bunch up and point towards me. At which point a Praetorian amongst them suddenly gestured for them to stay where they were and began walking towards us.

It was a tall Praetorian. Maybe an inch or two shorter than me, but it was hard to determine just how much height the armour added. The armour itself, like all Praetorian armour, was a work of art in itself. With flowing, complex patterns and engravings of gold and purple. The armour shone a golden glow as sparks of electricity jolted around it, most likely from the Praetorian’s own power.

The Praetorian’s helmet was sharp and pointed narrowly at the mouth which reminded me of a bird of prey. It had two horns jutting out from the front of the helmet and a metal inlaid crest running front to back and the eye slits of the armour were a lilac that contrasted well with the flowing purple cloak of the Praetorian.

At the centre of the armour’s chest, there was a small symbol of sorts that while I couldn’t read, had a vague feeling it was Ancient spartari in origin.

As we approached, I turned to Nerissa and asked, "Is this guy Thespius?"

"Yes." Nerissa replied simply, clearly not feeling as nervous as I was. I don’t know why I was so nervous. I wasn’t even nervous around the King.

Once we were a few arms apart, I stopped walking and began to speak while raising my arm for a handshake. "A pleasure to meet you, Thespius, I am-"

Thespius continued to walk, swatting my hand out of the way while he just resumed to stare at me. I thought something was going south, but the very gentle, very passive way he suddenly got close, wrapped his arms around me and lifted me up before squeezing caught me completely off guard.

I was then double thrown off guard as a very deep, warm and jovial voice spoke,

"Nice to meet you too, Sentinel Lambdason."