Colossal Soarers

Kore proceeded to tell the four, about the entire history of Colossal Soarers, and his own personal history with them.

Us Colossal Soarers.. were birthed seventy years ago.

A grouping of islands we later learned is called the Blackened Archipelago, is responsible for our existence. We were nothing more than mindless maggots, feeding upon the scraps and leftovers an abandoned human ship had remaining. Once we passed onto the stage of being actual flies, it was only natural for us to leave the ship in search of further meals. But most importantly, ideal locations to plant our own maggots. We just so happened to have ended up on an island that was capable of mutating even the most insignificant and mindless creatures, into nightmarish monstrosities. Which is precisely what happened.

I cannot say I recall how, but something that is within that island, evolved our bodies into what you all know as our standard appearances. Humanoid, excessively muscular flies. Not knowing much of anything, we roamed the island in confusion. As time passed, however, we grew used to our recently developed bodies. We learned of the dangers the island had, the food it held, and also discovered that some of us had evolved more than others. Myself being the most developed of the first generation Soarers. I was capable of speech right away. The only other Soarers capable of such, were my dear friend, Nare, and a female Soarer, Ayah.

We lived upon this island for a full year, and believe me when I say, it was a nightmare. Every day was a struggle just to make it to the next. The creatures were beyond hostile, and would regularly kill members of our kind as we'd search for a meal.

Back then....

"Good morning, brethren. Today marks yet another day of traversing the island forest." Kore stood in front of his entire species, alongside the other two intelligent Soarers, Nare and Ayah. "As you all are aware of by now, many of us will not pull through this encounter. The beings we've discovered reside here, are highly aggressive and powerful. With that being so, we must proceed with excessive levels of caution in order to minimize our losses. Now that we've come up against these creatures a number of times, Nare, Ayah, and myself have developed a plan which will allow us to do precisely that."

Nodding, Ayah continued what Kore was saying. "Yep. So shut up and listen well. Unless you want to get yourself torn to pieces, crushed, eaten alive, or whatever the hell else I'm forgetting."

The Soarers looked at each other, chirping a couple of times before returning their full attention to Ayah.

"Our plan.." Ayah resumed. "Is as straightforward as it gets. All we're going to do, is take advantage of what's special about us. Our ability of flight. We're dumb as shit to not think about it before. But we haven't existed for very long, so I can't blame us for blindly running in there up until now. I have to say, we're lucky some of us were blessed with the ability to speak though. Otherwise we'd really be fucked."

Nare spoke up next. "A-A-Ahem. A-Anyway, we'll be.. uh... using our advantage of flight to develop a.. a special formation in the sky. We'll have an initial group of us fly in a-at specific angles, depending on how many... ehm, how many enemies were reported to be in the area during our previous en..counters, in order to d-distract them."

"That is correct." Kore stated. "Following so, a team on the ground will gather as much food as possible, then retreating back here before the creatures are no longer distracted." He briefly paused, allowing the Soarers to take in the information. "Does that sound satisfactory to you, brethren?"

While not being able to speak themselves, the other Colossal Soarers always seemed to understand us. They chirped amongst each other before inevitably agreeing to our scheme. We spent the next several hours assigning them all roles, forming the separate flight and ground groups, and informing them of each of the tasks they would be responsible for. Once we had finished doing so, our first attempt at a truly successful encounter, began.

A set of gruesomely thin and tall legs, completely covered in veiny eyeballs, trudged back and forth. It was the species in which inhabited the earlier sections of the forest area. If the area could even be called that. The trees were a mix of messy grays, blacks, and blues. They pulsated and throbbed, and had a flesh like texture. Rather than leaves, the trees were covered in a wet mucus like substance that hung from the branches. This mucus also served as the primary food source for the eyeball creatures. The ground was flakey and fragile, and regularly came apart as it was walked on. Even with that being so, it was a generally quiet surface to traverse.

A grouping of twenty eyeball creatures roamed the area, occasionally slurping up some mucus. Up above, and to the sides, the first group of flying Soarers, which consisted of ten members, suddenly appeared, and zoomed past them. Gradually, the creature's eyes narrowed into a deep, horrid glare. They focused their attention toward the direction the Colossal Soarers had flew. Their countless pupils began to split, and opened up into mouths filled with needle like teeth and leftover mucus. An agonizing moan blared from said mouths.

As the monstrosities had their attention focused on the Soarers who flew by, just as planned, another group of ten Soarers quickly approached on foot. They each went up to a pulsing tree, and plunged their arms inside. It had been discovered early on by Nare, that within the trees upon this island, resided miniature glowing spheres of pure light. These spheres were edible, and each satisfied the appetite of a Colossal Soarer for roughly a day. It was the only source of food they knew was present on the island. Nare gave them the name, Consumable Orbs.

Each tree redeveloped their consumable orbs once per year, a fact the Colossal Soarers were unaware of. At the present moment, however, the only remaining trees that held consumable orbs, were in areas heavily populated with the eyeball creatures. Nare had also given the creatures a name, Lanks. Taken from the word lanky, which affectively described the creatures unnatural build. An incredible number of Colossal Soarers had been killed by the lanks in each of their previous attempts to gather orbs.

"Our brethren have all done very well. I didn't really expect anything to go wrong in these early stages, and I'm pleased to have been correct. However, we are about to witness how intelligent and powerful the lanks truly are. Do they have minds capable of noticing our plan? Let us see..." Kore said, observing their plan unfold from a distance, hovering in the sky.

From the wide open, moaning mouths of the lanks, powerful beams blasted toward the direction where the flying Soarers had gone. These beams easily traveled far enough to reach them. While most of the flying team was able to dodge the attack, a couple were hit. Two losing limbs, and a third being killed after taking a direct hit.

As this went on, the Soarers on the ground gathering consumable orbs retreated. Eventually making it back to the front of the island successfully without a single casualty. While the flying team couldn't say the same thing, a majority of them inevitably did end up making it back unscathed.

This sequence of events was executed identically in several different areas of the forest. The lanks never behaved differently, bringing Kore to the conclusion that they were likely not sentient.

Kore returned to the front of the island along with Nare and Ayah, who had been similarly observing the events but in separate sections of the forest. They came back to all of the other Soarers celebrating, and basking in glory. Even the few who had lost limbs or been severely damaged showed signs of pride and triumph. It was their first ever success.

Kore crossed his arms and happily watched them. "I must say, I did not believe we'd execute our plan to near perfection on our first attempt. It seems the lanks are far less dangerous than their immense strength led us to fear. Without having intelligence, even the most basic of plans will be successful against them. This is a tremendous discovery. With enough time, we may be able to conceive something that allows us to search deeper within the island to see what else it has to offer. But that will be for later. For the next while, we'll be focusing on perfecting this strategy."

Nare nervously nodded, however Ayah wasn't nearly as uplifted.

"We're celebrating the fact we're actually able to eat. The fact we were able to distract mindless god damn monsters. What the fuck. That's just pathetic. I can't blame us too much. Like I said earlier, we're new. But let's not get used to it. What we need to do, is figure out how to actually.... kill.... these things....." her voice faded. She became numb to all of the noise around her. Not too far off in the distance, she had noticed a lank. One that had followed them back, and already had all of its mouths wide open.

It blasted its beams toward the Soarers, gruesomely wiping out half of the population. Screams and screeches filled the air. All of the remaining Colossal Soarers frantically scattered.

Calming himself down quickly, Kore yelled. "You mustn't lose yourselves in a panic, brethren!! Focus on the lank and tear it to pieces!! Otherwise our species itself will be annihilated right here and now!!"

Glancing to the side, Kore's heart rate shot up even more than it already had, seeing Ayah's left arm and the left side of her face that had been burnt off from the beam. She was still standing however, and looked back at him. "I'm okay. It hurt like fucking hell, but I'm alive."

He slowly nodded, and returned his attention to the rest of the Soarers, who had heeded his words. All simultaneously swarming the lank, relentlessly beating it to a pulp. Even Nare was over there with them, taking on almost a commander like role. He had a confidence neither Kore or Ayah had ever seen from him before. It seemed like it was instinctive.

"You're correct." Kore eventually said. "It was foolish of us to be satisfied with such a weak plan of moving forward. You weren't even able to complete your sentence before it cost us. From this point onward, our skill in combat will be heavily focused upon. Until one day, rather than it taking an onslaught of two hundred, a single one of us will be enough to eliminate a lank."

The brief fight ended. The remaining Soarers mourned the tragic and sudden loss of so many. Ayah was patched up with some material found on the boat they had arrived on.

Nightfall came. Most Soarers were asleep, however some stood on guard duty. Kore and Nare were also awake. They sat around a fire they had made, and discussed things.

Nare sat upon a log, and placed a hand on his chin, leaning forward. "I can't believe that lank killed so many with only one single attack. They may not be too smart, but a little screw up like that, is way too costly when it comes to them. Half of everyone.. were gone so suddenly. Those beams are so lethal."

Examining his consumable orb for the day, Kore ate it, then responding. "This may come as a surprise to you, but I see what occurred today, as the best possible outcome."

Nare looked up at him. "H-Huh..? The best possible outcome? Kore, what are you saying?"

"Today not only served as our first true success, but it also displayed to us just how swiftly success can crumble. Without the tragedy occurring, we would have remained naive. Believing it was enough to survive and nothing more. Perfecting a strategy that involved forever avoiding the lanks, instead of building ourselves up so the lanks must avoid us. If they are even smart enough to do so. I also noticed you acted surprisingly well when faced with such adversity. You stepped up as a leader, Nare. Because of these things, I don't believe today could have gone any better. I'm rather thankful, even with the heavy price we paid through the lives of our brethren."

"That's... I mean, I guess you aren't wrong." Responded Nare. "If it didn't happen, all of us could've ended up being killed later down the line. We would have no defense if our plans ever went south. So yeah, I guess this was a good wake up call. We need to make sure we're powerful enough to defend against the lanks and any other creatures we discover here, and I actually have a really good idea for how we can do that."

"Oh? Please, do inform me of this plan you've developed."

"It's not exactly a developed plan yet, but we were turned into these things after flying somewhere on the island in our mindless state, right? Well.. what was it that caused the mutation? If we went back there, could it mutate us more, making us even stronger? The problem with actually training for combat ourselves, is we don't know anything about fighting."

"Nare..." Kore looked at him intensely. "You are precisely right. Locating and reintroducing our bodies to whatever mutated them in the first place, could be the key to solving every last problem we have. Earlier, you also discovered the consumable orbs, and developed a scheme which allowed us to avoid the lanks and gather orbs with minimal casualties. With that being so, I believe you, Nare, are the one who is most capable of guiding us as a species moving forward."

Nare was caught off guard. "Me.. guiding us all as a species?"

"Yes, you. As I just now explained, all of our greatest achievements are directly a result of your intellect. You also are responsible for giving the orbs and lanks their name. So... Nare, I wanted to ask, what shall we call ourselves? What will our species be known as?"

Frozen with further surprise, then considering it for some time, Nare eventually brought himself together and came to a conclusive answer. He looked back at Kore and firmly claimed. "We will be known, as the Winged Warrior species."