288 Chapter 288: Patrol (1/2)
”…what's going on?”
Looking out over the marshes, I felt a chill crawl down my spine. There were a bunch of monsters swimming toward our position, each of them a twelve-meter-long crocodile covered from head to tail in armored scales.
It was only my first shift and already I was confronted with the fact that monsters had come to attack. Even with the barrier generated over the dig site by the spirit formation arrays, the flimsy screen wasn't going to stop monsters of that size and numbers. It looked like I had to find a way to eliminate them.
Oh, right. I should go back a few hours. After the Silver Wolves had constructed the spirit formation arrays around the dig site, we were assigned to patrol the area in pairs. Each of us were given a specific sector to handle, and naturally I was paired with Anastasia.
Since both Anastasia and I did the most in repelling the Spirit Devouring Bees, Brent had allowed us to rest first. Each pair would patrol for four hours before the next pair took over. Fortunately, in addition to the ten mercenaries who made up the core command staff (which included Brent, Redfield and Anastasia for some reason – I was surprised how quickly she climbed the ranks of the Silver Wolves mercenaries), the hovercraft also carried a battalion-sized contingent of lower-ranked mercenaries armed with rifles. That translated to about three hundred soldiers, including the ten officers that comprised the command staff and logistics elements, who were even now organizing crates of food and equipment. Normally, they would be handling ammunition as well, but the best thing about modern rifles was that they relied on the mana of the soldiers, and thus didn't need actual ammunition. That saved us a lot of trouble regarding logistics and resupply.
After the first four hours, Anastasia and I took over a pair of soldiers. Despite her supposedly being on the command staff, Anastasia was still assigned sentry duty. I wasn't sure what to make of that, other than to surmise that she hadn't reached that high of a rank that I thought she did. Or perhaps the Silver Wolves still didn't trust her because of her past as an Assassin, and therefore she was treated the same way as the common soldiery.
Not that I was going to ask her about that. In any case, I couldn't, because of the emergence of the crocodile monsters.
”Marsh Alligators,” Anastasia muttered. I did a double take and peered closer adjusting my lenses to magnify the image.
”Oh, you're right. I thought they were Marsh Crocodiles.”
”Nope.” Anastasia pointed at them. ”Crocodiles have a more pointed snout, whereas alligators such as these have wider snouts. You can also tell by their teeth – crocodiles are unable to hide their teeth when their mouths are closed, but alligators can conceal their teeth when their jaws are shut. See? Those Marsh Alligators over there, with their mouths closed, don't show any teeth.”
I nodded. ”Yeah, I know. But I was thinking that these are monsters, not the same type of alligators and crocodiles that existed on Earth in the past…before the Emergence events. I know they aren't the same species, they are monster versions that come from another dimension.”
”Now that's an interesting thought.” Anastasia pondered for moment. ”I wonder if the monsters in the other dimension originally had different forms, but when they crossed over and emerge into our world, they assume the shapes and characteristics of the native organisms in order to better adapt to inhabiting our dimension.”
”Wow…” my jaw dropped. ”I never thought of that. You could be right! That explains why so many monsters bear such a great resemblance to preexisting animals from the past. Their original forms in their home dimension are probably very different, and perhaps they are influenced by this dimension when they tear their way through the fabric of time-space to emerge here!”
I was suddenly reminded of how spirits were without form or shape in their dimension – so far as forms that humans couldn't perceive, anyway. At least Dad told me about that during his flashback arc. It stood to reason that monsters also existed in a similar state back in their home dimension, their shapes unperceivable by humans until they manifest in our world. And in order to manifest physically in our dimension, they had to adapt by taking on the forms and shapes of organisms that already existed in our world. Perhaps even to replace them.
That was quite the sobering thought. The monsters weren't just terraforming our world. There was some sort of compromise where they were adapting to become more like the organisms populating our world. Something between terraforming and adaptation. They weren't just foreign, alien organisms that sought to invade our territory and completely destroy and uproot the environment here. They were meeting us partway by taking on our characteristics.
I shuddered. Would there be human type monsters in future? Or perhaps they already existed, but had chosen not to show themselves to the mages yet?
”There's no need to think too much,” Anastasia assured me cheerfully, spinning a poisoned dagger on the tip of her finger. Hey, that was dangerous. If you cut yourself, wouldn't you die? Then again, perhaps that was Anastasia's way of honing her skills. ”Even if it's true, it's not like it will change anything. They're still our enemies. If we want to survive, we can only kill them. Like those Marsh Alligators approaching our position.”
”Yup.” I nodded, and then tilted my head inquisitively. ”You know a lot about the monsters in this swamp.”
”I have to.” Anastasia smiled. ”I was trained here. As part of the Veneneum Sect's curriculum, I was brought up in a place where the most venomous monsters known to men existed. We had to learn how to extract toxins from the monsters.” She looked up at the dark sky wistfully. ”Out of a cohort of a hundred, only seven of us survived the training here.”
”Uh…” While I appreciated hearing about Anastasia's past, I suddenly realized something. ”What if the Assassins Guild and the Veneneum Sect are still training here? Wouldn't we be in trouble?”
”Who knows?” Anastasia shrugged mischievously. ”If they try to attack, we'll just drive them off. They have no reason to attack us, though. Not unless someone ordered a hit on Professor Porter or someone in his team.”
”Or the Silver Wolves,” I added. Anastasia nodded.