Part 3 of my crossover of Legend Untold and OverLordTitan’s Frontier series The trail wasn't very hard to follow; beat up branches and bushes marked the path, along with the scrapes of dragged supply crates and dripped trails of Mind Fluid. "These guys have a serious problem with trees," William's Ghost, Rush, commented as he floated above his Guardian's shoulder. "And with balance," Spark chimed in, "How do they spill so much of everything?" "It's not spilling," William told us dourly. "You mean they're drooling it just like that Hunter?" Spark inquired. "If they were drinking that stuff, wouldn't they be dead by now?" I followed up. "Vex cells are infectious and hallucinogenic," William explained, "Even being near the Vex can drive one insane, although being exposed to them doesn't seem to necessarily quicken death. My guess is we're dealing with some Winter Splicers that thought drinking Vex radiolaria would improve them." "Splicers?" Spark and I repeated. "There are different divisions within each House," William explained as if straight out of an encyclopedia, "Splicers are Fallen that study both biological and technological ways to improve their species." "Mad scientists," Rush paraphrased. "But what about those dead Fallen? And the busted up plants?" Spark asked, his mind following the same track as mine. "These Fallen seem to have become aggressive with the insanity of the Vex, they probably killed those others for getting in their way and infected the survivors. The trees are probably just the need to release their aggression regularly so they don't turn on each other. That also explains the Hunter breaking branches," William was really starting to creep me out with his machinelike analysis. "But they're insane, how could they be traveling in a coordinated team and experiment on a Guardian?" Spark pondered. "Insane means of unsound mind and judgement, not that one is thoughtless," William seemed especially intrigued by this line of questioning, although not at all disturbed or surprised. "So they're working together to make others like them?" I checked his logic. William nodded. "Then we'll have to destroy them and their projects," I stated flatly. Silent agreement followed the end of our conversation. The woods thinned, although I still couldn't see very far ahead of us, and the drag marks in the ground grew less defined to show that our query had sped up. I began moving faster, my partner following suit. "Is the trail clearer or something?" he questioned as we ducked under a fallen tree. So he wasn't a tracker after all. "They picked up the pace," I answered, unable to help a touch of smugness. I could tell he wanted to ask how I knew, but kept his mouth shut anyway. The ground underfoot grew harder, making most of the footsteps disappear so only the drag marks remained. "Why do are they dragging these around without a Skiff anyway?" Spark thought aloud. "Probably don't have an available Skiff," William again beat everyone else to the reason why, "Whatever's in those crates is what they use to keep themselves going, to hold whatever Vex parts they have, and to make others like them. Those empty crates before had probably held Mind Fluid and been emptied, so were abandoned." "So how did they-LOOKOUT!" Spark began to ask, but cut himself off with a warning cry when something in the trees above us moved. A Vandal pounced down in us from a branch, knocking William to the ground with its weight. It's arms jerked around for a moment before it managed to bring its swords up above its head, ready to stab down at my ally. But William was quicker than I expected and brought his knee up into its back, toppling it over but unfortunately leaving himself with an alien on top of his face and chest. The Vandal seemed to have trouble planting its twitchy legs and arms underneath it, which gave me the second I needed ok kick it off the Guardian. Somehow gaining the coordination to kick upwards during the tumble, the Vandal landed on its feet, swords raised threateningly. "Rush, translator," William signaled his Ghost as he got to his feet, "Don't kill it Orion." "Tell that to it," I smirked, drawing my knives. A Shock Blade appeared in William's hands, and he took up a fencing stance with it, again surprising me. "Hope you can use that thing." The Vandal charged with blades swinging madly. It only took a flick of his blade for William to drive the swords away, but the Vandal drove forward uncaringly, bouncing drunkenly off of the Guardian and heading towards me. The undisciplined blows were fast but easy to block even with my small blade, although the force of the Fallen's onslaught kept me at a slow backpedal. William tried sneaking up from behind, but one of the Vandal's power arms jerked backwards into him at just the wrong moment, alerting him of an enemy presence before William could make his move. A blade swung out in each direction, although the Vandal seemed too crazed to realize that the two of us were having an easy time keeping both of its flying slashes under control. It was sad really; like we were a muzzle and leash holding down a rabid dog. After only a moment William decided to swing the flat of his sword into the Vandal's knuckles, making it drop the blade with a crack. I followed up by stepping forward and breaking the Vandal's wrist so it would release its other sword, although I was battered a bit by its waving arms. We brought it down together, pinning it by the arms and steering clear of its kicking feet. "Like a beetle on its back," Rush remarked. "Insect," I spat at the Vandal. The creature hissed and spat and growled, some Mind Fluid dribbling out from behind its mask as it struggled with no real strategy to break loose. Drinking Vex jizz clearly had some disadvantages. Even as someone who knew the Fallen language, I couldn't make sense of anything it said. "It's just gibberish!" William grunted, taking a knee to the thigh, "Random words. Vex…become gods…kill…rock and camp…share immortality…pain, filth, humans." So his translator was to understand the Fallen…cute. I decided to let him focus on what the Vandal was saying rather than bother myself with nonsense. "Still has enough sense to be mad at us," I gave a strained chuckle. "Wait…Rasis…will bend us to him…the Corrupted…snap…mind…," the Vandal hit its head on the ground a few times and screeched as William translated, "Release release…yeah, not on your life buddy…Archon Rasis…the Corrupted will claim us." "Well that's all we need," I snatched my knife from by belt and stabbed the Vandal's skull, releasing a stream of ether dotted with drips of Mind Fluid into the air. Noticing that William had turned his head away and stood up, I cleaned off my blade and joined him as we continued down the path. Link to part 2: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/233584981/0/0 Link to part 4: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/233586191/0/0