Intruder (Nius)

OOC: Continued from "Testing the waters"

Rei was annoyed. It had been a month now since he had gathered the group of hollows to this area. Under Moldale's instruction he had joined the group and been welcomed as a powerful ally. A group of ten hollow and two adjuhas putting aside their primal wants and needs. All of them ready to strike out against their enemy. Or so they thought. Moldale was a crafty one. There was more to this than he was telling. And none of them gathered knew their true purpose. For now they were vying for supremacy over the extensive white desert.
"Damn that Moldale." Rei muttered. He didn't like waiting, but that's what he was instructed to do.
"We're on the look out for a metallic monster." Roun's voice cut in telepathically to Rei's head. Rei turned to look at it's conjoined twin.
"I know that!" he hissed. He hated being told what to do, but when ever Moldale said something he was usually right. That's what made the creature so annoying. But Moldale's words had saved him more than once. He'd be a fool to ignore him now. The hollows began their hunting. Sweeping in opposite directions for food and sport. Rei and Roun stayed. They weren't hungry at this time. The camp was nearly empty now. It wasn't much to look at but it was a small hill and valley with a cave at it's rear. The cave mouth was one of many tunnels leading down into the Menos Forest. An escape route should a truly massive attack some. Rei observed their encampment two other hollows, he thought about eating them.
"But then we'd have to leave, and I think the adjuchas would chase us down." Roun pipped in. Staring at it's brother. Rei clicked his tongue and continued his lookout.

N.I.U.S was prowling quietly through the sands, lately it had found itself being a lot more suspicious after what it was told regarding 'rebels' from the hollow Moldale. Ever since it had been keeping an eye out for organized bands of hollow outside of the areas designated by him, yet it had found nothing. The complete lack of organized resistance was replacing the old suspicion with something more directed towards Moldale, it was considering whether it should take the rogue shinigamis offer after all. That line of thought however was broken by what it found up ahead.

Its receptors could register four hollow, yet two of them appeared almost attached. Was this the rebels that it had been informed of or simply a small band of hollow, it required investigating. The massive creature moved closer, slithering its way closer on the side of the small valley, heading towards the cave. It was not long before it was in the middle of the camp, raising the 3 meters that made up the top of its body high up as it made itself apparent to the group of hollow.

Rei turned his head as the large metallic head came into view. He chuckled at the sight.
"And here I was expecting a little guy. Not to bright to come waltzing straight in." he laughed. The other two hollow were first to see the metal being and advanced on him despite his size. The first to reach the larger creature was small even when not compared to their opponent. No bigger than a dumpster it had large webbed legs like a frog and no arms. It's mask was a teardrop shape giving it a horn. It had two large blades akin to shark fins on it's back.
"What the hell are you doing here!?" he roared, it's round body opened to reveal rows of teeth. The other hollow appeared to be a cross between a starfish and a butterfly. Five arms each lined with elegant looking wings plucked straight from a monarch. Two on each side and the fifth hanging down like a tail. A "V" shaped mask and a bird beak. Not much bigger than the first hollow, but much wider due to it's wing span. The thick arms flapped and the four wings fluttered. Even from the distance Rei could see the small sparkles in the air with each flap. The creature had already set the ground for it's attack. The Flutterfly (I think I'll call it that) gave a cry and the air suddenly burst into flame. The Hopper (also like this name) had already jumped back as the dust it's ally had released ignited and like gunpowder around the metal frame

The first response it received was something it had not expected, that it had been expected? It was curious and this required further attention from it. Its desire to do so however was interrupted by the other two that were quickly moving in to attack it, but perhaps it was for the best as it would allow it to show what it could do. It quickly examined the two of them, both tiny by comparison to it but it had quickly found that such a thing means nothing in the spiritual realms. It was however confounded by how surprised those two seemed to be over its presence.

It didn't get much time to consider their surprise however as only moments passed before they went on the offensive. The fire singed and burned the beautiful chromed shell and it could detect that some of the wiring inside start to take damage. However the metal monstrosity remained perfectly quiet as its massive form lunged forward, opening its jaws in an attempt to quickly get rid of the flutterfly, releasing one of its electrical shocks in the process to try and paralyze its prey before it could get out of the way.

The metal monstrosity's mouth opened to snap the flying hollow. Hopper gave a squeal a red field of energy crackled into existence around him. In the next instant he was catapulted straight up by the powerful hind leg. He collided with the bottom of the opening jaw. The crimson field exploded sending Hopper back to the ground. Flutterfly was knocked back by the gust caused by the explosion in addition to it's efforts to back away from the opening maw of Nius. It's sparkling dust covering it's escape. The red ball's explosion ignited the powder in a chain reaction. The dust cloud in and around Niu's head caught ablaze.

Rei watched with surprise. It had wanted to come to their rescue. But it would seem that they had things well in hand. "I don't think they'll last too much longer." Roun countered. "I wouldn't have it any other way." Rei snickered as they burrowed underground. As their large body sunk deeper they were sure to keep a lock on the robot's spiritual pressure. Deeper and deeper they dove and moving closer and closer to their pray. The sands were alive with small hollows that moved out of the way as the twin headed hollow swam the sands. They were perfect for hiding their larger presence. Now they had only to wait for the right moment to strike.

It found itself quickly overwhelmed by the combined attack of both the two hollow, its head engulfed by flame as its attack was repelled by the unusual duo. And in the middle of it it noticed the complete dissapearance of the other hollow that had been there. It wasn't something it could consider for the moment however as it was getting beaten enough as it was, it needed a new tactic.

The creature suddenly rushed for the ground, the head rushing for cover at the walls of the valley before it pressed forward, the head surging underneath the sand and rushing in to reach in with the entire body. The snake coiled itself underneath the surface, scanning for its opponents before slamming its tail upwards and aiming for the flutterfly and releasing another electrical current at the same time.

Hopper ran toward the metal hollow as it dove into the ground, but it was too late. The other hollow had gone into the sands.
"Move away!" the Flutterfly hissed. It opened it's beak and a cannonball shot of energy slammed into the ground where the creature had dove down. Hopper jumped out of the way. It continued to fire burst after burst at the white sands. It's bombardment hid the tail emerging from the ground and sending a burst of electricity. The creature fell from to the ground stunned from the jolt. Hopper spied the tail and curled into a ball as the red field covered it again. This time it started to spin vertically. The field started to spiral and flatten. It looked like a buzzsaw as it dashed forward and hit the tail. The energy field didn't shatter rather it started to spark as it impacted against the metal tail trying to cut into it.

Under the sand

Rei sensed the metal snake's descent. He laughed inwardly. It would be hard for it to avoid him now that it was submerged. Rei and Roun rose at an incredible speed and tackled the metallic hollow and pushed it out of the ground and into the air. The twin headed hollow was stuck it's head out of the newly made hole and shot it's acid at the airborne target.

Its attempt to lose some heat by going underground quickly proved to N.I.U.S that it had overestimated the efficiency of such a tactic. While they weren't able to hit it right as it entered it quickly took a turn for the worse. First came the instant bombardment the moment it pierced its tail upwards once more tore and smashed against the plating, leaving it with endless gashes across the chassi and heavily denting it. And although its electric bolt had hit the target it was never given the chance to take advantage of it as the hopper came crashing into it, sending vibrations through the entire body as it tore through the metal husk with its spinning strike.

But the worst was yet to come, because then the third threat returned from underground and smashing into it. N.I.U.S was hurled into the air, a massive jagged gash having been torn open by the powerful strike that sent it upwards with a hole full of torn wires and leaking lines of hydraulics fluid. And then came the acid. The metal began to corrode and give away, making the gash even larger then before and even more wires and fuel lines were ripped apart.

Once all that that done, it crashed back into the earth with a loud thud. Despite having taken such a beating, it was still mobile although it was only barely. The head slowly rose, the joints sounding like something fitting for a robot from a 300 year old sci-fi. Distortion clouded its optical receptors, while still managing to make out most of it, when it looked back over to the ones who had beaten it so low.

The metal snake hit the ground like pile of scrap. Flutterfly remained still on the ground as Rei and Roun emerged from the hole. Stabilizing itself on it's massive two feet it lumbered over to the prone body and nudged it. With a single motion Roun open wide his jaws and scooped the body from the sands. There was a sickening crunch as the body was smashed to pieces. A fount of blood dripped from his mouth as it finished chewing and swallowed the dead creature. A look of utter surprise on Rei's gruesome face.
"I was hungry." was the mental reply. Hopper ran up to the twin monster's side.
"What are we going to do with it?" the monster studies Nius closely, it didn't look like any hollow it had see before. "Do we eat it?"
Rei shook his head. It doubted the thing would taste any good. The metal plates, wiring and oil less than appetizing.
"We toss him back, he will be a message to all that oppose us. As word spreads others will join us. They will know the fate of those that oppose our new order." Roun mentally snickered "Moldale gets his way yet again." Rei snorted. He turned to Nius "Go tell them, all that we are not to be messed with." Having said that both head clamped their mighty jaws upon the robot serpent and heaved the heavy creature with all it's strength away from the encampment.

It watched as the two headed creature consumed the hollow it had previously incapacitated, so it had atleast managed to end this fight with one of them dead. Now came the issue of what would happen to itself. Every nanometer of its very survivalist hardware and every byte of software was preparing itself to reboot everything into the smallest component as a survival method, but it was proven unnecessary by the sound of the two headed ones reply to the hopper. It simply nodded at the inquiry, understanding that it needed to be compliant for such a situation.

As it was thrown away it was not able to even readjust itself for a proper landing position and landed with a loud thud as its neck region smashed into the sands followed by the rest of the body. Immediately its nanites began to work at repairing everything, but it was going to take a while. For the moment it simply laid there, inching forward by simply redistributing the nano-machines on its body in such a way as to provide movement. It was merely heading for some dune to hide in as it recuperated while its mind kept berating itself for its hubris.