Alien Evolution System-Chapter 160: Flight

"We will fight anyone, anything for the Sovnar!" said Thokk with unbridled enthusiasm. He was almost giddy to try and see what flying in the air was like.

"Sovnar, unlike yourself, we cannot fly," said Goromir. "It will be difficult to aid you in the air. Nor even realistically to defend ourselves if flying monsters beset us with attacks."

"That is understandable and accounted for," said the Collector. "The platform of ice utilized to transport you will be shielded by my Sapian magic in the case that extreme difficulties arise. None of you will fight unless my attention is completely taken by unforeseen circumstance.

This is not an under evaluation of your combative capabilities. Rather, as the one known as Goromir states, it is due to the fact that there you are currently unsuited to aerial combat and due to the fact that the weather conditions on the mountains are considerably more frigid.

The Alpha Amorak specimen can weather it, but you goblin specimen must spend approximately thirty five hours to adjust to the temperatures."

The Collector clicked its mandibles as it hovered its hands forward, its palms open as purple magical energy began to radiate out from them. "None of you will attempt unprompted attacks. Focus merely on survival and staying upon the transportation platform. The transportation process will take approximately three days.

During this time, there will be strategically placed ten resting points to charge my magical energy reserves. In these times, the platform will be grounded and you will have the duty to guard me. Then, may you fight.

Is this agreeable?"

"Of course," said Goromir.

Kandak grunted in agreement.

"Always ready to protect Sovnar," said Thokk with a beat of his chest.

The goblin swarm joined in with their own grunts of agreement, and the Amorak Alpha growled lowly to indicate agreement.

"Agreeable, then," said the Collector. "Then it is time to move."

The Collector closed its four fists, and the earth began to tremble. Snow atop the ground shuddered, oscillating and hovering in mid-air as Sapian force began to form a circular outline around the swarm. The deep, rumbling cracking of shattered earth echoed through the air as the Collector's Sapia carved out a platform capable of fitting all of the swarm comfortably.

The Collector flew up in the air, and as it did so, the platform arose off the earth. Slowly, tentatively, at first, snow and ice spilling off its edges. The goblins murmured among themselves as they felt the earth underneath them shake and raise them into the air.

Soon enough, the goblins were all gathered around the edges of their circular platform, pointing down and gawking at the enormous crater left behind from the platform's raising.

"I will move fast," said the Collector. "Return to the center of the platform and dig in with the best of your balance. I will provide minor Sapian shielding to prevent individuals from spilling over from excessive gravitational forces, but I expect you all to adapt soon enough."

With the Collector's command, the goblins returned to the center of the platform, but they mostly gazed around themselves, at the novelty of hovering in the air, at seeing the ground beneath them – ground that they had never left in all their lives - slowly start to shrink.

Only Goromir, Kandak, and the Alpha were serious in anchoring themselves, with the twin elites using their light blades as picks and the Alpha digging its large claws into the platform.

The Collector clicked its mandibles and determined they would learn from experience.

With a massive flare of magical energy that emitted a concussive shockwave, the Collector shot forwards like a red-wreathed bullet, and the Sapia tethered platform followed rapidly behind it.

The Collector did not move at maximal speeds significantly exceeding the speed of sound, but it did move fast enough where on the platform, the average uplifted champion would perceive everything as a dizzying blur.

The Collector rapidly covered hundreds of meters of altitude within seconds, and the goblins groaned and grunted as they tumbled around, hitting the Sapia barrier and scrambling to try and balance themselves.

When the Collector was high up in the air, right beneath the cover of clouds, it stopped, giving the goblins a chance to properly balance themselves now that they understood its necessity.

The goblins took a moment to stop their dizzying before they followed their elites, digging their blades into the platform and holding on for dear life.

Thokk, however, unlike the rest, dug his light blades in at the very edge of the platform, still wanting to look down with unbridled curiosity. Likely, the Collector determined, because the specimen had been ascended into an elite when it was essentially a child in its maturity stage, retaining some characteristics of that stage of growth.

"Amazing!" shouted Thokk as he peered over, eyes widening as he looked at the vast wide world beneath him. "Up so high, everything seems so small! The air is so fresh! This must be how the birds feel!"

Thokk's enthusiasm leeched to the others, and the Collector sensed desire from the rest of the swarm to look down as well.

The Collector spoke. "I will stop for thirty seconds. You may utilize this time to perceive the environment below. Sate your curiosities, for I sense this will allow you to better focus on future objectives."

The goblins nodded and went to the edge, peering down now that they were hundreds of meters up.

Goromir, Kandak, and the Alpha did not move, however.

"I have flown before," said Goromir as he noted the Collector's gaze. "Upon the back of a Winged Tendril. A wriggling, snakey leech beast with scaley wings. They were a common mount in our time, though Kandak here was a little too fat to ride them well."

"Not fat. Muscular. Not skin and bone like you," said Kandak. "And there was no point in me riding in the air. I fought on the ground. Where the battle truly was."

"Haha! In that regard, I was never far behind you, brother. I just knew when to not get hit," said Goromir.

"And you?" said the Collector to the Alpha. "You do not possess curiosity of this phenomenon of flight?"

"I scared of heights," said the four-meter-tall ball of muscle that was the Alpha as it shivered with its tail between its legs.

"You will be conditioned against this fear soon enough," said the Collector. "It will simply take time."

The Collector waited out thirty seconds and projected its intent and, for good measure, voiced itself as well. "Return to your positions and brace yourselves."

The goblin swarm did so, even Thokk returning to the center now that his curiosity was a little more satisfied.

Once everyone was in position, the Collector sped forwards again, and the platform followed right behind it, a purple line tethering it to the Collector's tail.

The Collector moved with expert agility across the mountain scape. It was a complicated place to maneuver, for though there were twenty five mountains, they possessed multiple peaks and heads of varying heights from glacier growths.

Many of these reached above cloud cover, and so the Collector had to spin, swerve, and rotate around to dodge around them. It accounted further for the platform behind it, but even with its calculations, it could not guarantee a comfortable ride to those on top, and many times, the goblins were left dangling upside down, holding onto the platform from their lightblade picks for dear life.

After one hour, the Collector stopped and entered its first resting point for it had reached 40% of its magical energy reserves, largely from having expended them before. From this point onwards, it would only ever reduce down to 70%.

It landed the platform at the base of a pristine white glacier, beside a cave that the swarm could clear out and use for shelter as snap freezes could occur that would instantly place the swarm under cryostasis.

There was a large basin of water funneling down from the glacier, and it sparkled with an azure glow.

There was no fall of grain here, simply an ever-present fog that was just as dense with primal energy.

Every part of this land was supercharged with magical energy, the Collector noted.

The goblin swarm would grow incredibly strong here if they persisted and survived.

"Scout the cave and report any anomalies," said the Collector to the mass of dizzied and stumbling goblins as they oriented themselves on flat ground. "This environment will be harsh to your kind as you adapt. The air will be too thin. The magical energy charged in the atmosphere may cause some of your spirit roots to overload, causing blood vessel rupturing.

I will ensure these wounds are not fatal. With consistent exposure, you will begin to absorb the power in this area and adapt to its strength level. Simply survive until then."

The Alpha was the first to leap off the platform, pawing the solid ground on all fours with a relieved sigh.

"Understood, Sovnar," said Goromir. He hopped off the platform with Thokk and Kandak and waved everyone else down. "You heard the Sovnar! Get a grip of yourselves and move!"

The goblin swarm groaned and followed the command, tumbling off of the platform in varying states of disorientation.

"I will charge my magical energy here," stated the Collector. "As my magical energy reserves have grown tremendously, the rate of my energy recharge has not scaled up to it. Thus, it will take some time to fully restore my reserves.

The exact amount of time, I must constantly calibrate as I investigate more efficient means of restoration. But an estimation would be five hours with a margin of error of thirty minutes."