****
Dealing with the dragons in China, the kraken near Japan, and the great snake in India had been easy work for Freedom. The witch had awoken all of them from their long self-induced slumbers and demanded that they rampage about, but in the main the dragon found them all lounging about peacefully and merely studying the many changes that had occurred to the Earth since they were last active. None of those elementals were particularly interested in destroying life and were more curious about it and amused by humans than they were opposed to them. The snake and kraken readily agreed to immediately renewing their hibernations, while the Chinese dragons agreed also but insisted on first completing the conversations they had begun with Chinese scholars.
That left only the European rocs and the Pakistan locusts. Both were stupid and vicious. The rocs had fortunately all been disposed of by KraKara except for one now approaching North America. George was well positioned to deal with that one, Freedom reasoned.
The giant locusts in Pakistan were proving much more difficult to deal with. The creatures were too stupid to reason with and deadly to all life-forms that they encountered. They flew about in dozens of swarms, each consisting of hundreds of thousands of murderous individuals, multiplying their numbers as they consumed all organic life they found, including humans, domestic animals, and even crops, forests, and wooden structures. Millions of people fled before them in terror!
The creatures were mostly material in structure and as such could actually be killed by human weapons. However though only rabbit-sized, they were very hard to kill as they quickly healed themselves of most injuries. To be killed a locust had to be burned to ashes, blown up, or hacked to tiny bits. Military weapon attacks proved only partly effective, as the agile flying creatures easily dodged away from most attacks against them. Defending humans found that primitive hand-held swords, axes, and machetes were more effective against them, but most towns and villages were quickly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the attacking insect-like creatures. Their swarming tactics were far more efficient than the plodding attacks of the monster KraKara had been, and humans died by the thousands.
Freedom's initial attacks on the locust swarms were at first only partially effective and quickly became even less effective. The locusts quickly learned to disperse when the dragon approached them, such that his dragon fire burned only a few individuals when he attacked each swarm. The dragon soon realized that though as individuals they were each small and stupid, in swarms they somehow collectively devised strategies and coordinated their actions.
Freedom discovered that locusts communicated using ultrasonic sound, and studied their conversations. In hours he learned how to call them to himself where he could easily destroy them with dragon fire by the thousands. Soon they would all be destroyed and he could rejoin the Witch hunt.
While hunting down the monsters the White Dragon had discovered much grisly evidence of the passage of Greble. Amazingly, entire towns and forests had been totally obliterated by the witch. According to the memories passed on to him from his dragon forbearers, this was an extraordinary amount of destruction to be wrought by a single Narma witch!
"MAYBE YOU SHOULD FIND SOME STARS AND A SUPER NOVA OR TWO TO FULLY POWER YOURSELF UP BEFORE WE TAKE ON THE WITCH," said George, after Freedom spoke with him about his progress.
"AGREED," said Freedom. "I WILL SOON DESTROY THE LAST OF THE LOCUSTS, THEN QUEST FOR STAR ENERGY. HUMAN ASTRONOMERS ARE CONSTANTLY DISCOVERING INSTANCES OF SUPER NOVA. I'LL SCRY INTO ASTRONOMICAL INFORMATION BEING SENT BY SATELLITE. IT SHOULDN'T TAKE LONG FOR ME FOR TO ABSORB MY LIMIT OF ENERGY, AND TRAVEL BY TELEPORTATION IS INSTANTANEOUS. IN THE MEANTIME IF YOU ENCOUNTER THE WITCH HOLD BACK FROM ATTACKING HER UNTIL I ARRIVE."