Behind the barrier before us was a fifteen feet tall Drakoshi. Its body, not covered by the armour like those earlier, was on full display, displaying sheer rippling muscles that put my physique to shame. Its arms were thicker than Sapphire’s whole body and its legs followed that trend. It was an entity of peak physical strength

Just by looking at its skin, I could tell its strength and resilience were off the charts, how they managed to capture this brute was a mystery I wanted to uncover, and yet despite my amazement with the beast, Onyx called it an Abomination? I could feel her mind watching the creature with great interest so I allowed her to do so while listening to Yacob.

"Everyone, Meet Grimshank. A Warlord of the Emoth clan. Grimshank, say hello to everyone."

Grimshank was sat down, his back resting against the edge of the room as he turned to look down at us all, his face flashed a sneer before looking away. " O’ Piss off Petrotis. Before I shit all over this cage and force your lackeys to come clean it up. Give your little chin wag, but leave me alone. Oh, but I will say this. Anyone that wants to come in here and attempt to finish me off, please try, I’ll even go easy on you during the scrap. I am that bored."

Having dealt with the consequences of attempting to call Grimshank’s bluff before, Yacob turned away from the brute and continued. "Grimshank, having spent his entire life going from battle to battle isn’t taking being captive well. A warlord lives and ultimately dies on the battlefield. So for him to be in this disgraceful place, well it is a great insult to his honour."

*BOOM*

The surroundings shuddered as Grimshank bashed the barrier with his fist in warning at the insult. ’Jeez, that wasn’t even its full power.’ I thought in awe as I watched the creatures muscles at work ’Would getting a science boner now be gay?’ I also couldn’t help thinking as I continued watching the creature intently.

"For those that don’t know, the Emoth clan are considered experts among the Drakoshi race at melee warfare. They get up close, smash into lines and cause disruption. Coincidentally thanks to Spartari Ingenuity they are also the ones we have killed the most of. So while Grimshank is our enemy, you have to admit to yourself the resolve and combat prowess of the big lad for managing to live at least fifty years. Which of course almost all of that time would have been spent in warzones. Ironically though, we had no records of Grimshank before we managed to catch the big lug, so that leaves the question with whom was he fighting? As we also know it wasn’t the Coalition. But he’s keeping tight lipped on that one, aren’t you, big fella?"

Grimshank then grumbled something in an alien language and Yacob then asked. "Any questions about Grimshank so far?"

...

With the first question being an argument for allowing a group to go in there and try and kill the creature, I reached out through our link and asked. ’Onyx? Are you ok? I’m sort of worried by multiple things right now. Why did you call that thing an abomination?’

I immediately felt Onyx’s disgust overwhelm our link before she spoke. "Apollo, for a creature that size with that much meat. It should be a biomass wonder. But that thing is so biomass insufficient it’s actually making me nauseous."

I raised my eyebrow in surprise, not expecting that answer. "Really? Are you sure? I’m not doubting your words, love. I’m just surprised."

"Yes, My everything I am certain. The creature, its whole body... It has the same amount of usable biomass as a thousand of those robots the queen hunted down for their data when she was creating her mating body. And those things were so biomass insufficient, we don’t even bother hunting them anymore, there isn’t a point. So for this seemingly delectable morsel to be so... Wrong. Abomination is the only correct word."

My brain kicked into gear immediately as I began inspecting Grimshank. Something that big, made up only of biological mass could be so biomass insufficient that it prompts Onyx to feel this way? ’Well if it’s gay, I don’t care. My science boner is at half mast.’

’Wait, what about those other Drakoshi? Were they a waste of biomass too?’ I asked.

’No, my everything. Those Grey snacks looked quite delectable. More meat on their bones than gross humans. Oh, no offence, my eternal one. They seemed fine, which is why I am even more disgusted by their leader caste being so abhorrently biomass insufficient.’

After hearing that, my hand immediately shot up for a question. I waited until Yacob was finished with answering what does Drakoshi shit smell like before pointing to me with a hopeful expression.

" Sir, do you happen to have any flesh samples of this Warlord? If so, I would very much like to apply for one for my dispensation. I think it could do wonders for my research." I asked politely and more formally than normal to indicate that this was an academic venture.

Yacob, however, frowned at my request and looked at Grimshank before coming back to me. "We can discuss this later, Apollo. I cannot say yes at this moment as there are quite a few hurdles revolving around the exhibits. Any more questions? Yes, you." He said pointing towards another first year judging from the robes he was wearing.

"Yes, how did you manage to capture that creature? My Father said he fought a warlord in his knight and it took him and twelve others of his lancer order to take it down with all of their armour basically destroyed. Them and eight others who did not live to see the next day."

Before Yacob could reply a loud chuckle erupted from Grimshank. "Ahaha yes. Your heavy armour. Your knights use their chassis to much greater effect than Clan Dinnac use their mechs. What glory it was to crush them with my warhammer! Your father must have killed some weaking, Pinky. Some lucky sod that just became a warlord if twenty was all it took to kill a warlord. How many did you send after me Yacob? Two ’Orders’ alongside how many little phalanx playthings? Pathetic."

The man who asked the question looked irate and was about to shout before Yacob struck critical with his words. "You say this Grimshank, yet your kin was still allowed a warrior’s death. And here you are rotting away like the excrement you are."

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHH! LET ME OUT OF THIS CAGE WEAKLING! I’ll kill you all!

*BOOM BOOM BOOM*

Grimshank began beating the crap out of the barrier like it owed it money. His flurry of blows was shaking the entire building. I was transfixed. The way his muscles moved all that power... It made me question my previous decision to stay ’small’ . I would be close to ten feet myself at this point if I let my growth be unimpeded, Jewel and Orchids milk was an ultimate superfood after all. But I still wouldn’t look right, I wouldn’t be that titanically muscular... Yet.

As others began to make distance from the rampaging Warlord I held my place alongside my arm decoration.

Gabrielle was perfectly calm. She had killed dozens of warlords with her team. Sure they were resilient to ballistic and laser weaponry, but Psionics? They had none and were vulnerable.

Though vulnerability did not mean weakness. Just that Psionics evened the playing field. One still needed to be incredibly skilled or outright powerful to attempt to duel a warlord. Gabrielle then turned to look up at her son to see how he was faring and then clocked onto his fearless expression. As a result, she felt a biological reaction in her lower abdomen and resisted the urge to shudder.

Yacob also stayed put and sighed before reaching into his pocket and pulled out a doohickie with a single red button on it. Once he pressed the button, the room Grimshank was in began to fill up with gas.

Whatever the gas did had immediate effect and the colossus Drakoshi’s swings became slower and slower, losing power until he slunk down against the barrier. With his head on the floor, he glared at Yacob now they were eye to eye. "I vow, you will die by my hands, pink skin."

Yacob said nothing as watched the warlord slip into unconsciousness while muttering that accursed high Drakokic dialect no one else could translate...

"Queen?"

Suddenly the Warlord’s eyes shot open with the last of its fight towards the human that just said that word before its eyes rolled back into its head.

Yacob seeing this reaction turned to the one that spoke the word with morbid fascination. "You? How do you know what he said? What else did he say? Tell me boy! Tell me!"

Yacob looked up at me with such a hopeful look, I didn’t want to let him down, but all I knew was this.

"I have no idea."