John was overjoyed at the teenager waking up. 'Maybe I can ask what their names are,' John thought to himself before he felt a tether to the teenager. 'Julie and Will are alright,' John heard a voice in his thoughts before it descended into panic. 'Wait, Where's Damian!?'
The teenager's voice was loud, so John connected himself towards the tether and tried to calm him down. 'Calm yourself,' John's voice was soft as he took control of one of the Tanks. The teen looked upwards with wide, surprised eyes. The Tank John took control of was standing upright, its shadow looming over the teen and his siblings. The two tendrils in its shoulder blades stuck close to its body and curved up like a scorpion's tail. The teen moved quickly and crouched in front of his two siblings. "Stay behind me!"
'I mean no harm, child,' John made a placating gesture. 'I was just checking in on your siblings; they came here out of the blue all of a sudden. You, on the other hand, were delivered here by a member of the Wolf King's pack,' John informed him while multitasking in checking the tether that connected him to said teen. The teen then held his forehead like he was recalling something. "What…" He said confused, trying his best to recall anything. Meanwhile, John was suddenly bombarded with a fragment of a memory. Like a recorded film, it showed the perspective of the teen running while a few metres in front of him were the two children running as well. John could hear the wails of the baby and the rapid breath of the teen. "Keep running!" A yell broke out before the memory faded.
John was surprised by the fragment suddenly appearing and the new ability he didn't know about. 'Memory reading? Maybe I could only use that ability on my creations or outsiders that assimilated themselves with the black liquid?' John wondered, his mind racing and creating a few theories and experiments. 'It hasn't been long since I also found out about the unknown energy Scorran and I can use and manipulate.' John then focused back on the teen when he noticed him move. The teen used his knee to stabilise himself before attempting to stand. Legs wobbly, he failed and dropped back down to a kneeling position. 'You just woke up, and who knows how long you were well-rested before the wolves came and brought you to me,' John stated, guessing from how tattered the siblings' clothes were, that they didn't rest much. The memory fragment only made him wonder how long they ran and how possibly little to no rest they had. 'It's already a surprise that your younger siblings are this energetic.'
The teen looks back at his siblings by simply turning his head and glancing at them before looking back to John. "It's true big brother! While you were out they gave us fruits to eat," the little girl, Julie, piped in with a happy smile. 'What is your name, by the way? I have been calling you child and teen for a while now.'
The teen cleared his throat before answering with a calm façade. "My name's Riley Everhart, call me Ry," Ry said with a nervous tone, expecting something to happen. John made the Tank's eyes narrow slightly before tilting his head. 'Are you expecting me to say something about your name? You've tensed your body like you were prepared for a reaction,' John observantly said, controlling the Tank to walk around them and heading towards the banks of the pool. 'Your name fits you perfectly,' John attempted a compliment. He made the Tank crouch down and put one of its hands into the pool. 'If the energy Scorran and the host I took control of used, have a theoretical limit, how about my main body?' With that thought, John attempted to sense the theoretical limit of the energy by half entering his consciousness into his main body and the other half in the Tank.
What came next was something John did not expect when translucent purple energy suddenly slithered in the Tank's arm and situated itself into its chest before pulsating like a heartbeat. 'This is a plus for protection. I wonder if this'll freak out the siblings will freak out?' John thought of passingly, unknowingly however, something sparked in the depths of the Tank's mind. The spark was so tiny that John didn't notice it at all while he removed the Tank's hand out of the pool. A thought whispered in his head, urging him to give the Tank a name. So he blurted out towards Ry. 'Call me Amalgam.'
Ry, in turn, looked surprised before he nodded his head for acknowledgment. "Nice to meet you," he said with a hint of uncertainty while he looked at John. The two siblings hopped to the sides of Ry and greeted John and the Tank he named Amalgam. "Nice to meet you, Amalgam!" They shouted in sync. John smiled inwardly from their action and nodded at the Tank's head. 'And to you too, little ones.'
As the interaction settled in, John could still see lingering uncertainty in Ry's demeanour, likely stemming from worry and fear for his younger siblings. 'This place is controlled by my master. The wolves respect our truce, and the infected or mutants are too weak to come near this place,' John assured Ry's apprehension. 'If you wish to move, there is also a similar pool towards the mountain.' John made the Tank turn around and pointed towards the direction of the mountain pool. 'No!' Ry yelled out. John turned back and saw him standing upright, even though his legs shook. John thought that his legs were probably screaming in pain from how Ry was trying to maintain his resolute expression, refraining from wincing or showing any emotion that may be seen as weakness.
"Your disagreement is noted; then you have no choice but to stay here. I also won't suggest meeting with any unknown humans that aren't official authorities from Elden. We wouldn't want anyone kidnapped because of your…special circumstance," John gestured towards Ry's shoulder. Ry turned his head and looked towards it. The black liquid that entered Ry's injured shoulder had now mostly covered his left shoulder and was slowly spreading to his left forearm like webs. It had also started to spread towards his chest. "Wait, Master?" Ry asked quizzically, although he felt alarmed by the black area that had spread from his left shoulder, but Ry could barely outline a bite mark on it. 'Yes, my master was the one to inject you with the black water in order to save you. You and the water are now in a symbiotic relationship, even though this is new to me.' John told Ry as he stepped away from the pool.
John was telling the truth. He truly didn't know what kind of possibilities and powers the symbiosis had given Ry. He even considered if Ry would be considered a Symbriont like Scorran or be considered as a newer type like Assimilated. John mentally shook his head and shelved the idea. 'Too many things have happened today,' he thought to himself before focusing back his thoughts towards the trio.
"Where's Damian?" Ry asked worriedly towards his younger sister, Jullie. She, in turn, pointed towards a Drone a few steps away behind Ry, rocking its body side to side gently with the infant nestled in its arms, quietly sleeping. 'The master has sent Drones to search for milk for the infant, along with that, to gather edible food that you and your siblings can eat,' John informed Ry as he stepped towards the Drone holding the infant. Ry followed suit while the two kids ran ahead.
'The symbiosis of the black liquid into your body, in theory, collects energy to use as weapons or such,' John then made the Tank gesture to the pulsating glow in its chest. 'For example, this gives me the ability to manipulate surrounding objects to transport and such,' John then used the energy in the Tank's chest to make an example. Pointing the large talon-like hand towards a withered tree, John let the energy stored in its chest travel towards the palm of the hand before sending it out to grab the tree. The air in front of the palm distorted and travelled towards the tree in a few seconds before John made the Tank raise its arms slightly.
The tree slowly floated up with a slight groan as the soil connected to its roots slowly fell off. 'You can use such actions with the energy to affect the surrounding areas. But it does cost a lot of concentration and practice to use in…combative fashion.' John then showed Ry by manipulating the energy into a blade-like form that distorted the air. 'It is a pure form of energy and only can be visually seen through the distortion in the air.' Although John believed that part as merely a speculation, he had to work with what he got for now. He has much time to experiment with different forms, techniques and types for this energy on a later date.
John manipulated the tree to fly towards him. With a swift motion, he slashed straight through the middle, splitting it into two. As the two parts flew past them, John used the Tank's other hand to slightly push Ry to the side, causing a gust of wind to blow into Ry's face. The tree parts landed into the black pool with little resistance, slowly sinking and transforming into newer energy. Releasing his hold on the energy, John let it return back to the Tank's chest, which began pulsating once more.
'Hm? The glow is slightly dimmer than before,' John thought to himself. The purple glow in the Tank's chest became slightly smaller. Before John used it, the glow was at least the size of a yoga ball; now it looked like the size of a basketball. 'Interesting, but somehow expected.'
He then focused his gaze towards Ry with a hint of expectation in his eyes. 'You will train this ability on your own, since I believe the process you do to manipulate it is far different than ours.' John then moved his head towards the two children that stood beside the Drone, playing with each other something similar to the Rock Paper Scissors game. "I got Saladin, I won!" Will said, pumping his arms to the air. One of his hands enclosed into a fist while the other was spread out with the fingers intertwined, vaguely reminiscent of something like an animal with many tendrils or legs. John found it interesting and hoped that he would see more of this world's wildlife. 'The Wildlife I had interacted with are mutated ones. I want to see their original looks.' John thought aimlessly, while Jullie pouted while her eyes looked like they wanted to either push her older brother or annoy him. Ry also noticed what his little sister planned to do and shook his head with a slight chuckle. "I guess I have to stop her before she does anything to Will." Ry said to John while he hastened his steps and called out the two children's names. John stilled to stop and watched as the two brother-sister pair ran to Ry, while playfully arguing with one another. He was relieved that the blankness he initially saw in the duo's eyes at that time was slowly disappearing, then John thought about Scorran and the blue survivors John left them with.
'Maybe I could send the siblings to them, Merelia was the one that Scorran carried. I could check on their current progress I guess, hopefully a shelter was made.' John thought to himself before he began removing his control from the Tank and sending his consciousness back to the pool, bent on creating a new type had thought of. Once his consciousness was back at the pool, he began focusing his thoughts and reusing the Wickerman template and some parts of the Swarmer template.
In the depths of the pool, John meticulously manipulated the templates. Drawing inspiration from the lethal prowess of the mantis species, John controlled the pool to create a humanoid look and harden the template in bone-white chitin. He aimed to create a type with unparalleled ferocity and adaptability, focusing keenly on close-quarters combat, with a robust exoskeleton of the mantis for durability and agility.
A normal pair of arms, but instead of hands, they sported sharp scythe-like blades. Another pair of the same arms slowly formed in the middle of the template's shoulder blade area, also with scythe-like appendages. On the template's thin yet muscled torso, in the upper region, another pair formed but with five sharp talon-like humanoid hands, each meticulously crafted to serve a specific purpose in the heat of battle. John made their eyes pure crimson, with the ability to use consumed energy to see infrared and night vision. The head of the template looked humanoid with a beastly maw, and on both sides of the cheek were razor-sharp mandibles that appeared capable of tearing into flesh and steel. Behind its head were needle-like spikes, inspired by quills, as an exchange for antennae. The quills were made to sense air flow and temperature. After the upper body was complete, John focused on the lower body. Weaving the liquid around, John made the template's legs bend at the joints for enhanced flexibility and rapid directional changes. Then, its feet were serrated and multi-jointed like regular mantis feet. John then added a long whip-like tail for balancing purposes and for crowd control situations.
Looking at the template, John then added a finishing touch of small pointed bumps at random parts of the chitin for aesthetic reasons before producing the new type. The energy it cost to make the new type surprised John. It was slightly cheaper than the energy cost of a Drone, but slightly higher than the energy cost of a Swarmer. 'This may be my new fodder type unit that heavily focuses on combat, unlike the Drones,' John thought to himself as he switched his perspective above the pool's surface.
A moment later, the pool stirred wildly, gaining the attention of the siblings while the Tank that John previously controlled stood silently a few metres close to the siblings. The Tank also looked at the pool's direction before tilting its head in wonder, the pulsing glow in its chest slightly glowing stronger.
A few seconds passed before a slender arm covered in bone-white chitin armour pierced the pool's surface, and its talon-like hands grabbed the edge of the pool. Hoisting itself up, the rest of its upper body showed the four arms with scythes instead of hands stabbed at the soil and dragged itself forward. It let the rest of its body out of the pool before using its arms as stabilisers as it slowly stood up. With a height reaching 6'3", the new unit began flexing its body like it was testing out its strength. Meanwhile, John began to think about a name for it while he reconnected himself to the Tank once more, to keep up the Amalgam identity.
'How about Mantisknight? No, that sounds too weird,' John refused his first option. 'That's it! A straightforward and impactful name, Blade, emphasising its primary feature for combat!' John yelled inwardly before spreading his thoughts out towards it.
'Welcome to the world, First of the Blades.' The Blade looked towards the Tank, specifically John who was controlling it currently, before dropping down onto one knee and bowing its head towards him. One of its arms on its upper torso placed it on the middle of its chest, the mandibles clicking onto one another like a sort of greeting. 'Now this is interesting. Maybe I was right, that every first creation of a new type is smarter than the creations after it.' John thought to himself while he metaphorically nodded.