The hivemind is conquering for me? Chapter 911: Do You Wanna Play A Game?

After a few more minutes of enjoying the heat with Sigismund, the doors to the steam room opened and in walked a techno-mechanic holding a thin, pointed metal rod and a hammer.

Sigismund sighed hearing that before turning to me. "That time already... Son, I’m going to have to ask you to leave. For safety reasons, people aren’t permitted to be around me for a while until my brain has regenerated from the wound. Only authorised individuals. Go, enjoy your time on the remainder of the voyage. With the Ships advanced FTL drive and the fact I opened a direct FTL lane from the home star system to here, we should be back within a day."

...

After getting changed I began to make my way back to my appointed room. On the way, I saw, or rather heard a loud commotion and shouting coming from one of the training rooms. Popping my head in for a moment I spotted two Praetorians having a seriously intense fight.

One was using these chakram like rings, throwing them towards their opponent, When the weapons were evaded, they recalled back straight away making the attack twofold. The second individual was using no weapons, Physical weapons anyway, but judging from the commotion I was hearing, what I saw next made sense of that.

The Praetorian proceeded to sing rather violently towards the opponent. I knew it was violent as the wall behind the Praetorian that dodged the invisible attack literally cracked and the rest of the destruction around the room only confirmed the attack was deadly.

I studied the training with fascination. My vocal amplification was still basic. I could yell insults loud enough to seriously piss off a Warlord and an entire Drakoshi army, but I couldn’t do damage with them, except emotional damage.

Still, my lips began to curve into a smile as I recalled the dream I had involving this specific power. I wanted it so badly.

The fighting went on for a little while and I was engrossed. That was until the singing Praetorian deflected one of the Chakrams with enough force that it didn’t come back right away. Instead it began flying directly towards my head in the doorway.

I raised my arm to absorb the blow with my armoured arm, but as the Chakram hit the doorway, a red barrier suddenly emerged from nowhere, destroying the weapon.

Straight away, the fighting between the two stopped, at which point the chakram wielder dropped their shoulders and sulked. "Aww! I spent two months perfecting that thing. Why did you do that?"

"Because you threw it directly at my face, why else? Come on, we should go back before- Oh?" The Singing Nymph paused, spotting me in the doorway. She then turned to the other Nymph and spoke.

"Brother, look. It’s the infamous Sentinel Lambdason."

"Hmm, so it appears, Sister. Why is he just standing there?"

" Perhaps because we still have our barrier up? You go fix the room while I have a little talk with the man." The Singing Nymph stated.

"Hmm, Alright, just make sure he doesn’t infect you with whatever has occurred to Nerissa and Rhapso." The chakram Nymph replied, before pulling out a hammer from somewhere and walking to the edge of the room while the singing Nymph began to walk to where I was.

Looking at the Nymph approach, I noticed her armour, while of course following the Praetorian basic look, was a little different. The armour itself appeared a bit more brighter and form fitting. The colour was more of a rose-gold colour than actual gold. That wasn’t too bizarre considering Rhapso’s was mostly green. The height wasn’t an issue either. Most of the time Praetorians were between 6ft6 to just over 7ft in their armour, this Praetorian was 6ft2. The same size as Rhapso out of her armour.

What really caught my attention though was all the pink. The Pink eye slits were cool, I had seen multiple colours already, pink included, but the gems? The Nymph had dozens of them all over her body. Her chest, her shoulders, the centre of her helmet, her hips, her upper and lower legs. Everywhere.

This intrigued me greatly. Nerissa only had a few gems and each sequence did something different, with so many gems, I was very curious about what they could do.

I snapped out of my staring when I heard the Praetorian speak right in front of me.

"Had a good look? Your eyes are so piercing Sentinel, I do hope your gaze isn’t lecherous in nature?"

My eyes went wide, I did the space out staring thing again. To another stranger.

"Sorry! Truly, I was just admiring your armour, I promise."

The Praetorian placed her finger over her helmet, where her mouth would be and hummed, "Hmmm~ Ok. I believe you. Since your apology was truly sincere. However, I do demand a payment for a true apology."

"Ok? what do you want me-"

*Boop*

The Praetorian booped me on the snoot and then giggled, "Nice to meet you again, Sentinel, I am Argyra."

My eyebrow raised for a few reasons. "Argyra? Nerissa and Rhapso told me about you, I’m sorry you said we have met before? I don’t recall."

"You don’t?" Argyra asked, her voice seemed a little sulky. "And after I complimented your jovial song with the mention of Aphrodite and dancing."

I frowned for a moment before my eyes went wide. "Oh! You were one of the ones guarding Sigismund? Sorry, so much happened after that with the battle and everything. Forgive me."

The Praetorian paused for a moment before laughing playfully. "Wow, you are really fun to tease, it’s almost second nature. I am sorry, no need to apologise. I know a lot has occurred."

I waved my hand in front of me, "Nah, don’t worry about it, I’ve been around Nymphs long enough to know the deal at this point.."

Argyra nodded in understanding before asking, "So, you came looking for me? I didn’t expect Ness and Rhapso let you come after they stormed off the way they did. You make very loyal friends, Apollo."

I shook my head. "No, actually. I just came from a summons with Sigismund when I heard you and..." I paused as the Praetorian I pointed at was clearly glaring at me. "-Uh, I heard you two sparring, you were quite loud so I came to investigate."

"Wha~?" Argyra exclaimed in confusion as she began to mock a series of positions on the gems around her body before whacking her helmet with her open hand."

"Silly me! I forgot to add sound suppression. What a ditz!" She then proceeded to visibly tilt her helmet up and down with exaggerated movement.

"So you found me by pure coincidence and not by having Ness or Rhapso give you my coordinates? Perhaps fate wanted us to meet? Come inside, I want to have a few words with you."

I was then ushered into the room at which point Argyra erected another barrier by the door, only this one was fully opaque and I couldn’t see through it.

"Argyra? What are you doing?" The other Nymph asked.

"Playing with my new friend, Phaon. Stop being overprotective."

Phaon then switched to Ancient Spartari and spoke. "I don’t think Thespius will like this. He told us to keep a wide berth of the man, just in case."

"Um, I can understand you." I said in the language spoken, not wanting to act as an eavesdropper.

Phaon turned to me, his body language conveying some surprise before Argyra patted him on the arm. "Go to the others, I won’t be long. And apologise to Apollo, it’s rude to attempt to exclude people from conversations about them. I raised you better than that."

"Sorry." The Nymph stated, not very sincerely before walking to the edge of the room and passing through the barrier at the door without issue.

Once he was gone, I turned to Argyra with curiosity. "Raised?" I asked, prompting her to giggle.

"Figuratively. I was already fifteen thousand by the time he materialised. I showed him the ropes, at my goddess’ request. We form tight bonds within our order, some have a harder time making friends with others because of it."

"Not you though?"

"Oh, goodness no. I’ve been making friends with Mortals long before he knew his left from right. Though it has been a long time since the founders disappeared. I might be a bit rusty now. Nevertheless, that’s not what I wish to talk about."

I frowned curiously. Nerissa and Rhapso just told me that this Nymph wanted to speak to me, they didn’t tell me why and for what reason. Perhaps something to do with the meeting they had?

"So what do you want to talk about?"

The Nymph shook her head disappointed before closing the distance and using her fingers, imitated walking up my chest.

"Do you like to play games, Apollo?"

I nodded my head. "Of course."

"Good. Because I want to play a game. The stakes? The winner gets to ask the loser to do whatever they want, within certain morality regulations, of course."

"What game?" I asked, curious, not too fussed about the stakes, though having a favour from a Nymph could be funny.

"Ah, Ah Ah~!" Argyra pulled back her hand from my chest and began wagging her finger and shook her head.

"The game will be a mystery until you agree to the stakes."

I had been around Nymphs long enough to know their facial expressions behind their helmets at this point and I knew Argyra had the widest, cheekiest grin imagine right now as she asked,

"So, do you agree?"