Unity

by Carl Stubblefield

  “You just can’t admit that anyone could have beaten you fair and square, can you? It just doesn’t compute in that small brain of yours. You know, Razor, some people are wise enough to learn from the experience of others, but some just have to put their hand on the stove and get burned before they actually believe that they’ll get burned. I’ve had enough of taking the higher road. It obviously doesn’t work with you. If you start something, I’m not pulling any more punches. I won’t hold back from here on out. Don’t start no shite, and won’t be no shite.”

  Razor rubbed his hands in eager anticipation. “This is going to be so much fun.”

  Behind Darik, one of the others crept up, having been stealthed the entire time, waiting for the signal. He cocked back an arm, ready to hit Darik in the back of the head and disorient him. With a swing, the punch connected and the sound of bone crunching was audible. Spittle flew. It was on!

  If there was one thing that Darik excelled at, it was scrapping. He and his brothers loved to wrestle and often the bouts escalated to actual blows until their mother came out to lay down the law. ‘Beat the hell out of each other, but don’t make more work for me. Either by bloodying your clothes, or making a mess.’

  Roughhousing was strictly forbidden for that reason. The large field behind their house had the ground constantly churned up by their incessant bickering. A smile of anticipation curled the side of Darik’s lip.

  Darik’s spatial awareness had grown by leaps and bounds since he had left the Academy. As such, he was always aware of anyone or anything within a certain space around him. The super who thought he was being stealthy didn’t realize that he displaced air with his movement, giving it a different density and thus changing the feel of the ‘field,’ as Darik liked to think about the space around him where he could move and maneuver with almost subconscious skill. The further removed the space, the more difficult it was, but up close, that was his wheelhouse.

  He effortlessly calculated where the exit portal should be and when the attack came, it was easy to connect the two. The attack that was meant for his ‘unprotected’ head was redirected as he opened a portal behind him, allowing the punch to connect with Razor’s jaw. The ferocity of the attack surprised all involved. Darik narrowed his eyes. So they weren’t pulling any punches either, eh?

  Everyone sprang into action simultaneously. The super behind Darik lunged and grabbed his arms, pinning them behind him. Another took the opportunity to punch him hard in the gut.

  Darik just rolled his eyes as the punch was redirected into the kidney of his captor. Expecting the momentum to push him forward, he opened another portal right below him. It swallowed both him and the super holding him much less tightly after the unexpected hit from behind. The sensation of falling caused him to totally let go as he spun his arms to regain his balance.

  Darik was used to the feeling and opened another quick portal. It winked closed as his previous captor passed through the air in its wake… landing on top of one of the others. They crumpled to the ground in a tangle of arms and legs.

  He oriented the portal’s exit so he would be propelled horizontally to the ground, and aimed to kick another super in the back. When he thought he should connect, he just sailed through the form and landed badly on the ground, right in the center of the group. As he scrambled to get his bearings, his shoulder and back exploded in pain. It felt like he had been hit with a cannonball. The force of the impact pushed him down and he slid face-first into the dirt, plowing a small furrow.

  A well-timed kick spun him around and he curled in on himself. As he rolled onto his side, he saw Razor’s eyes, wild and bloodshot. Blood dribbled down one side of his jaw and it definitely looked like it wasn’t hinging correctly.

  “Your mouth can’t stop writing checks that your ass can’t cash!” Razor taunted. A neon blue glow emanated from his knuckles and Darik tried to shy away from the blow, but was not quick enough in forming his portal. The impact forced him eight feet into the ground, his portal tunneling downward. Without the time to create an exit portal, he was forced to ‘hold’ the material, a process that chewed up a huge chunk of his MP as the dirt and rock below him were displaced. He strained to open a portal at the limit of his field and forced out the dirt and rock, but the damage was done.

  The effort caused him to spasm, and was akin to a dry-heave from hell. Blood vessels burst in his eyes, turning them a bright red, giving him a demonic look. At last he expelled all of the material, but it had taken a lot out of him, physically and mentally. He lay panting at the bottom of the hole and one of the supers began stomping, caving in dirt that tumbled down the incline.

  Darik began to paw at the dirt like a dog, trying to make it out of the hole and push the dirt aside as it tumbled inward; while he was not claustrophobic, he didn’t want to be buried alive. He only had 25% of his MP left, and might not be able to force a portal if enough material surrounded him. He quickly realized that he was not going to make it.

  Yuki turned and dove off of the branch, forgetting the physics of this world. She was coasting downward, but the lowered gravity was almost lazily pulling her towards the ground. The rabid lemurs were not hindered by this at all. They pulled themselves along branches and tree trunks, moving in short hops. They stopped on the branch she had just vacated, with more and more populating the space. There were hundreds of them, and their savage faces looked out of place on their fluffy, skinny bodies.

  Yuki tried swimming through the air, pulling in a breaststroke that made no apparent change in her speed. She floated over the top of one of the smaller trees, its top barely slipping past her fingertips. She tried again and was able to grasp a little bit of a thin trunk and she yanked. Her hand stripped off the leaves and slid off. She was rewarded in gaining a little more downward momentum, but no trees were around her now. A loud Jurassic Park bellow from behind her made her look over her shoulder.

  No, Yuki. Never look!

  The rabid lemurs were gripping each other, holding tightly as their conjoined forms created a large gorillemur, for lack of a better term. The last few lemurs crawled into place on the head. Once again it threw out its chest and roared. The AI environments were thankfully free of certain biologic needs, but Yuki could have sworn she peed just a little. When she finally managed to pull her eyes away, the last thing she saw was the gorillemur leaping off of the branch.

  The volume of the roars was getting louder and was like a demonic Doppler effect. Her frantic paddling stirred up dust and pollen in the still air. Paddling madly while scrolling through her display, she found the perfect avatar—if only she could get to the forest floor. Absolutely nothing was close unfortunately, and she was still over a hundred feet away from anything at all. She didn’t want to use her only flier avatar, which would be difficult to use in the thick forest, and would not lend itself to fighting this creature.

  With inhuman agility, the gorillemur used its monstrously long arms to swing to a perch above her on the nearest tree. It opened its large mouth, which was rows and rows of claws lined up. It looked like a shark’s maw. The talons like claws flexed and extended.

  No, not a shark. Its mouth looks like a Sarlacc!

  And then it jumped.

  Chapter Seventy-Five

  Seeds of Destruction

  The diminished gravity made the gorillemur’s fall appear surreal, like bullet time. Knowing she had nowhere to flee, it had not propelled itself off the branch and fell at a similar rate to Yuki.

  It reached out a long arm towards her, and she saw the gnashing animals that made up each finger cackling in anticipation of their next meal.

  With as much willpower as she could muster, she stopped staring at the approaching monster and resumed paddling while mentally scrolling through her avatars, looking for alternatives. The more she did, the more she realized she needed the one she had chosen. She didn’t want to transform until she was close though, as her small size would make her a more difficult target if the beast got close. It
felt like trying to dive to the bottom of the pool, and she had some residual buoyancy that wanted to resist her efforts to get to the forest floor.

  This was what sucked the worst about an AI hack. You never knew what to expect. She had liked the challenge when she was younger, but the field had really improved the complexity and difficulty of the bosses. It didn’t help that the AIs leveled up with each failed delve, so they became harder and harder to beat the more people tried to hack them. She didn’t know why she hadn’t thought about how Green was probably cutting their teeth on trying to hack into Purple’s mainframe on a regular basis.

  But as much as she hated the inability to plan, she loved the challenge. There was always something new. It definitely was never boring or routine. And she preferred the escape from her mundane life. If she was honest, she was an adrenaline junkie too. She wouldn’t admit it, but she liked getting the shi—

  A deep roar interrupted her thoughts as she worked to move, urging her to pull harder and descend faster. She dared another look and was horrified to see that it was closer than it should have been if they were both falling in the same environment.

  No-no-no-no-no-NO! The creature was moving so fast!

  It shouldn’t be able to fall at a quicker rate than she was. Gravity didn’t work like that. If this was an evaluation, that developer would definitely get points off for his physics engine. If anything, it should fall slower from more drag. The gorillemur cocked an arm back to take a swipe. It was close enough it could snatch her from this distance.

  She blinked as something caught in her eye, stinging and burning. She pawed at it, wanting to be able to see in case she could somehow dodge the attack coming for her when something else got in her other eye. What was that, an eyelash?

  The wind hit her like an unexpected wave on the beach. It carried her laterally through the air, and through blurry eyes she saw an enormous hand swing where she had just been, leaving contrails in the pollen. The wind picked up in earnest, carrying her out of range again but she had to shield her eyes. Either the size of the pollen or the fact that there was so much of it was wreaking havoc on her eyes like a sandstorm.

  She tumbled in the current as a roar of frustration rose above the whistle of the wind. She was heading for a tree. She was hesitant to hit it, but realized this was exactly what she needed. She tried to roll with the hit as she collided with the mossy trunk and nearly lost her grasp as a large green chunk of something tore away from the tree trunk like sod. Her other hand managed to dig into some gnarled bark underneath and her momentum wrapped her around the trunk of the tree.

  She rapidly side-shifted, moving to the leeward side of the tree trunk. Though she was upside down, she didn’t feel light headed as she pulled herself down the trunk toward the ground. There was a thinner layer of the tree-sod on this side, but still it was there, sloughing off if she tried to move too quickly, but now she was making a much quicker descent to the ground.

  The sound of splintering wood nearby prodded her to go even faster, taking more chances. She began ripping off the sod in large strips and throwing it to the side as she pulled herself down, kicking occasionally with her feet to propel her downward when they could snag some ridge of bark.

  Only about a hundred feet. So close. A ripple of force traveled down the trunk. She could see a large hand made of bloodthirsty lemurs holding the tree she was on, pulling itself down toward her. She just hoped it was far enough away. Fifty feet. Another flash of movement to her left but she refused to look. Her eyes were fixed on a small patch of black soil between two roots of the large tree. That was her world. Everything shrunk down to a small foot and a half square.

  Like an Olympic runner, she reached for her finish line, extending her arm to its utmost and triggered Summon as her middle fingertip touched the loamy dirt.

  Cedarhowl Splintermaple

  Born as the seventh offshoot of the seventh generation of her line, Cedarhowl was born under auspicious celestial signs as well as in a time of great fertility, granting her unique connections to two of the realms. They allow her to cross environments and she has used her abilities as both a warrior and mediator between those in her sphere, making her one of the most respected among animate and inanimate life. All who know her respect her as the most bitchin’ spriggan this side of creation.

  Nourish: Pull life force from the inanimate environment to grow at an accelerated rate.

  Barkskin: Protect outer surface with a hardened shell of dead rhytidome which shields the user.

  Compost: Pull residual life force from decomposing organic material, breaking it down to base nutrients. Does not affect living creatures.

  Me So Thorny: Cover a limb with barbed, hollow, detachable thorns that cause a constant bleeding debuff until removed. Forcible removal will result in a base damage of 25 HP per thorn.

  This avatar has not had its Ultimate unlocked. Hidden Conditions not met.

  Yuki felt roots spring from her fingers and anchor her to the ground, quickly crawling through the dirt as easily as if it were water. She activated Nourish and Barkskin simultaneously as she pulled her other arm and feet to the ground and found areas to dig them into the dirt, anchoring them as well. A heavy scab-like mass began to form on her back, and she felt like a turtle hunched on all fours.

  She pulled greedily at the ground, drinking in the energy, absorbing it, making it hers. She sipped through each limb, like a dehydrated hiker finally drinking something cool and refreshing through a straw.

  It allowed her to increase in mass quickly, and she began to hear a susurrus as her need was sated. Instead of breathing through her mouth, she felt herself siphon energy that distilled down from the meager light above and from the air itself. She felt like a giant sieve, pulling in from every direction.

  The murmurs got louder, and more pronounced and she began to understand some of the whispers.

  That is not the way, an old voice said with disdain.

  Too much. It is unseemly, a childlike voice interjected.

  It will upset the balance. Balance at all costs, a stern voice reprimanded.

  With a start, Yuki realized they were talking about her, and how she was taking in energy. She stopped sucking in and removed one hand from the ground, bracing it on one of the thick roots to the tree she had just descended.

  Please child, no more, the thought resonated back from the root, whose outer bark had taken a blanched, almost peeled texture, like a croissant or a bad, peeling sunburn.

  Yuki stopped taking any energy when a Kaiju-sized claw pried her off the ground and flipped her through the air.

  Chapter Seventy-Six

  We Intertwined

  Light flashed as Yuki flipped ass over teakettle, landing in a large clump of ferns. Slightly dazed, but not hurt, she could sense the gouges in the bark-like plate that had formed on her back. Instinctively, she sunk her hands into the ground, burrowing past the fern and the whispers became sharp, like tuning in a radio station. Though multiple minds were speaking, she could sort and understand them all simultaneously. There was a pause in the conversations as she joined in the awareness, lacking only the awkward record scratch.

  One bold tiny voice spoke up. “You were meat. How can you hear us?”

  Yuki’s attention drifted downward to a small tree. Though its form was small, Yuki saw its inner essence, which was stocky and had its arms crossed, looking at her with an expression that demanded Yuki explain herself.

  “I was being attacked, so I shifted to this form.”

  “The matters of meat are no concern of ours!” one of the tall trees boomed.

  “Until they invade…” a female voice warned.

  “You took from one of the Elders, explain yourself!” a grumpy old man voice demanded.

  “I meant no harm; I was just trying to protect myself from… some other meat. I am sorry if I took too much for myself.”

  “Insufficient…”

  “At least she knows what she did.”

 
; “She is disturbing our rest. I was ripped from my home!” a thin moss spirit whined.

  “I do not mean to disturb any of you,” Yuki explained. “Help me defeat this other… meat, and I will leave you.”

  “Your kind always takes. Take. Take. Take. Using us for your selfish ends.”

  “I… you are right. I have done nothing to merit your trust or assistance, but believe me that I do not want to harm any of you,” Yuki admitted.

  “I sense sincerity.”

  “Yes. Cannot be denied. I will lend you my poisons, it will stop the meat.”

  “And my thorns will taste its liquid iron.”

  “My pollen is quite irritating to most meat, here.”

  Yuki shuddered as small vines extended and touched her head. They slithered in like little snakes and once they had found a crack, they began to push. Then grow. While the process did not hurt, there was an audible crunching noise that was unsettling. Visions of a nutcracker crushing a walnut were the best description of how it felt as the multiple threads pushed their way inside. When sufficiently rooted, there was a surge. And Yuki just knew.

  You have received new abilities:

  Spore: Release virulent spores that induce violent allergic reactions.

  Toxin: Poison your target in multiple ways, through many different methods. [See variants.] Can be combined with other growths for added effects.

  Shred: Create vines studded with thorns to hamper movement and damage enemies.

  “Now go. Keep your promise and restore our rest,” the tall tree boomed again, petulant that Yuki had been given anything.

  Time moved differently here. Though this communication had felt like a normal one, she knew the entire parlay had taken only the briefest of moments. The transfer of knowledge was another near-instantaneous sliver of time. She could not see the gorillemur. However, with the newfound connection to the others, she could tell how far away it was and shared in the discomfort the plants were feeling from being bent, uprooted, and crushed by its passing as if they were done to a distant appendage of her own body. Pressure from its steps tickled along roots underground, and provided a ping like echolocation or a radar.