The hivemind is conquering for me?

Footsteps pounded furiously like drums as she parted through the dense jungle floor. She didn’t attempt to traverse the terrain, she just ran through any obstacle fragile enough with brute force. Not far behind her, shouting could be heard. She didn’t have time to growl in annoyance at her pursuers, the last time she stopped she got a bullet in her arm.

She had tried to fight the cowards on numerous occasions but they were slippery, they didn’t have the courage to face her head on and had the nerve to consider themselves elites. They were pitiful.

But with that said, they had big weapons and dangerous Psionics. She begrudgingly admitted that thanks to her training with the pervert that she had underestimated the Psionic prowess of those present.

Having only been with Sigfried and the others before coming here and the missions they were put on, she thought they were the best of the best. And while Sigfried was, she was beginning to understand that she might be lacking.

So she ran. And continued to run for hours, dodging occasional pop shots and that annoying Psionic one that could manipulate plant life to snag at her feet and lacerate her arms. She was starting to seriously hate this jungle and luck must have listened to her as in moments the jungle ended and below her was rock.

As she continued to run, she realised she had climbed altitude quite far and had made her way to the top of a large rocky hill As she made it to the top of the hill, she realised that there was a large gap between here and the next portion of terrain, a large ravine was present that spanned for miles in each direction.

’Perfect, this will slow them down, if even for a few minutes.’ She knew she could make that jump easily, it was only fifty meters and she had elevation as well. Tamara began to run down the bit of terrain she had left with all her might and positioned herself into a jumping stance and began her jump

”!!!”

She was suddenly grabbed by the ankle as she left the floor before being dragged down into the ravine. She was then taken hold of quite tightly as her mouth was covered. She was about to fight as she turned to see who had caught her, but was shocked by something alien looking, giving her the shush finger before pointing upwards.

Seconds later Tamara could hear voices above her. ”What the? Did the mad bitch jump?” Tamara frowned at being called that, but stayed silent thanks to the powerful gauntlet holding her tight.

”Fan out, she might be here. Vine, do you have anything?” The same person spoke before a feminine voice followed up.

”Negative, there isn’t any foliage here I can use to sense her and- Wait! I felt movement from across the gorge, it was at the edge of my detection, but it was not local fauna. Best bet it’s her and she jumped.”

Another voice then shouted from a distance. ”Area secure!” Some mumbling occurred shortly afterwards before the leader shouted. ”Get the grapnels! We have lost time here.”

Moments later grapnels were launched across the gorge and were secured. Tamara’s eyes went wide, It might be dark, but they were right in the open and could easily be spotted. Tamara was then spun around and placed tightly against the flat rock, the hand was no longer covering her mouth and she let out a soft murmur.

”What was that?” The leader said, prompting Tamara to freeze and cover her own mouth as she looked at the two purple eyes staring directly at her. The next few seconds were agonizingly long before she then heard.

”Hmm, must have been the wind?”

The leader then went down the grapnel line and from the small gap Tamara could see from, the group went into the jungle. As Tamara was about to speak up, she was promptly grabbed around the waist and carried up the slope.

Once her feet were back on the ground she looked up at the armoured figure and was about to express thanks before the helmet was removed, at which point anger overtook her. ”Y-”

”-Stopping you right there, we don’t have much time, we have to move.” I said and a moment later, a scream of agony was heard from the other side of the ravine.

”What was that?” Tamara asked, prompting me to look over and see Zircon flying towards me. ”My sword, taking out the tracker. Come on, we can make distance now. They will find us, but it will be a while.”

I began running away back the way Tamara came from. The woman in question lingered behind for a moment, seemingly contemplating before I heard a grunt of frustration followed by her running to catch up with me.

”!!!”

I then stopped for a moment as anger took hold of me, I resisted the urge to go back and kill everyone in that team, but as Tamara caught up to me I carried on. Vengeance would come later.

....

”Aaaahh! Aaaah! My fucking leg! It bit off my fucking leg! AAAHHH-...” The man stopped yelling as he was knocked out by one of his allies.

”Thank you.” Hunt leader said as she walked over to the blue beast responsible for taking out her second tracker. ”Inspect the area.” She declared before walking over to the dying beast. Its eyes were looking at her in an almost mocking nature.

Her spear had pierced its heart. She grabbed hold of her spear. And was prepared to mercy kill the animal. ”I don’t suppose you can tell me where your master is before I kill you?” She asked, not expecting an answer, but the beast looked directly at her and its maw twisted into what looked like a grin before.

*Poof!*

The thing just vanished out of thin air, All that was left in the vicinity was her spear and the bottom half of frost’s leg. ”Interesting.” She had never killed something and then said something just removed itself from existence, but judging from what Valerica said, it probably just went back to its master or something of that nature.

Speaking of. ”Any visuals on Target Alpha?” She asked. After receiving a negative, she was about to return to the air to try and find signs of him, but before she could, she received a communication. ”Hunt leader, This is sub leader, our scout is down, need to send back up medic has called for evac of vine.”

Already frustrated, Skaja asked. ”What do you mean she is down? I told you to skirmish only. You should not have been close to her. This is unac-”

”-Hunt leader, it was not target Beta, it was a flying sword, it came from nowhere and pierced clean through Vine. Luckily, it missed all vital organs, but she needs serious medical care.”

Skaja blinked in surprise and replied. ”Hold on one second sub leader.” And muted the connection. ”SON OF A BITCH!” She screamed at the top of her lungs, prompting everyone to look over towards her before unmuting.

”Sub leader, we have been duped. Target Alpha had us chasing a false trail, slipped to the wind. Judging from what you have told me, he has rendezvous with target beta and has taken out three of our scouts. I am calling a regrouping for battle strategy. Let them have this night, we begin again tomorrow.”

Skaja then received confirmation from her sub leader and a moment later, the dark sky began pouring down with rain that was freezing to the touch. Skaja laughed at their prey’s misfortune before mustering the group.

”Come on fella’s, we are heading back, let the slippery fuckers enjoy a night in this wonderful weather while we fill our bellies. Tomorrow we fight them both head on with our body’s rested and our allies healed. Tomorrow we show no mercy!”

...

Six hours of torrential downpour later, Tamara and I had been running the whole time making distance between our would be pursuers. However, Tamara had begun to slow down. I had recommended taking a few short breaks over the hours, but she was having none of it saying she was fine.

If I did the same again, she would deny a break, so I changed my tactic. Stopping suddenly, I rested my hand against a nearby tree and began inhaling and exhaling heavily. Tamara also did the same, but asked. ”Why have you stopped?”

”I need a break, I am exhausted. Look, there is a small cave entrance over there we can camp in. Please, I need the rest.” For a moment, I saw a glimpse of thankfulness in Tamara’s face, before she put on her bitch face again.

”Fine, whatever. If we get caught because of this, I will kill you myself. Let’s go.” She said, before running over to the cave. Walking over myself I realised the cave entrance was pretty much the entire cave.

However, it was out of the rain and that was enough to allow some recuperation.