“Come at me,” Hammer shouted as a darker blue hydrasnake lunged from one of the caves. Hammer didn’t seem to care as he swept a hand through the air, crushing or severing all seven heads in a single blow.
I stood at the top of the hole while Light and Ward both moved in without hesitating. Neither man was smiling, so I didn’t think they enjoyed it. But they did it anyway. I didn’t see any fear of death. I didn’t see a risk assessment. I just saw . . . I can’t say heroes because they weren’t saving anyone. But I can say I saw two of the most determined men I’ve ever witnessed. It made me doubt whether or not I could ever live up to the expectations they placed on me. I really didn’t know if I could.
“Are you waiting for a written invitation?” Hammer yelled up at me, snapping me out of my thoughts.
Right, battle. I rushed down the slope and into the hole to stand with the other three men. As I was coming to understand, slowly, very slowly, I couldn’t afford to just stand around. I needed to act and not think so much. I picked my targets. I went after the ones that were preparing to pounce, trying to kill them before they moved. And when my Nanos got tired, I hid behind Ward’s barriers until I could attack again.
I didn’t understand how there could be so many hydrasnakes. There must have been a hundred corpses laying all around us. It was enough that Light and Ward both finally looked tired. Hammer looked bored and not tired in the slightest. I could only guess how high his Stamina was.
“Here, queenie, queenie, queenie,” Hammer bellowed down one of the tunnels.
Ignoring Hammer, I finally had a chance to look at the tunnels closer. I could see they were much too small for a grown man, so there was no way we were going in after the queen. At the same time, I wasn’t even sure how the hydrasnakes fit through them. And if the queen was larger than the other hydrasnakes, then I wasn’t sure how she was going to be able to come for us.
There was a slight tremor under my feet that worried me.
I looked to Hammer, who was grinning broadly and said, “Here she comes. Don’t wet yourself.”
There was a heavier tremor and then another even stronger tremor and several after that, each one stronger than the one before it. The queen hydrasnake burst from the hole, sending dirt and debris through the air, stirring up a dust cloud large enough to obscure all but her shadow. A twenty-foot tall nine-headed hydrasnake.
Hammer punched and a shockwave followed. With it, the dust cloud was blown away, revealing the purple snake, which thankfully only looked twenty-feet tall in the dust. The queen was barely nine-feet tall when it reared up like a cobra, just waiting to strike. Then Hammer said something that I’ll never forget . . . or forgive. “She’s all yours, Davis, good luck!”
I gave the mental command of ‘Scan’, and over her head flashed a ‘19’. She was a full three Milestones above my own.
“Ha, just kidding,” Hammer said, jumping ahead and punching one of the heads, crushing it in a single hit before the queen suddenly spun, her tail lashing out and swatting Hammer . . . who didn’t even flinch. “Is that all you’ve got? Shoot, maybe Davis should take this one.”
“Aim for the heads. We want to preserve as much of the meat as we can,” Ward said, focusing on creating barriers in front of Light and me.
Light took a few steps to the left to put some space between us, firing light bullets from his index fingers as he ran. He seemed to be focusing his shots on the head to the farthest left.
Hammer was nonchalantly batting away the heads after he determined it wasn’t much of a threat. “Alright, new plan. Davis, if you don’t kill at least one of these heads, you don’t get to eat any of it tonight,” he said. I think he was trying to motivate me, but honestly, nothing about eating hydrasnake sounded appetizing.
Still, I knew I’d regret it later if I missed out on a chance at gaining a free enhancement point, though nothing about killing this thing was free. One wrong move and I’d be dead. I stopped that thought in its tracks. I needed to focus.
I activated Time Compression and picked out a head. I could feel I had just about enough energy for one full power Void Burst or eight, maybe nine, of the smallest ones I could make. With time slowed, though not for long, I needed to act fast. I was assuming the queen was going to be tougher than the regular or even the royal guard. I also needed to aim for the head which liked to move around. It wasn’t very fast with time slowed the way it was, but it was still faster than I would have liked if I was going to pin all my hopes on a single shot. So, multiple shots. I couldn’t count on the minimum damage shots to do enough damage either. I needed something in between my minimum and maximum. A half-inch diameter is what I settled on, and I used all four shots, surrounding one of the heads.
When time suddenly resumed and all four Void Bursts went off, I killed not one head but three.
“Well, well, well, looks like the kid has some teeth after all,” Hammer commented. “But was that intentional, or just lucky?”
“One was intentional,” I replied. There was no point in claiming otherwise. However, now that I knew the power of the half-inch Void Burst, I knew I could have killed four heads at once. Unfortunately, my Ability was out of power until my Nanos had a chance to rest and recover.
Hammer nodded. I couldn’t tell if he was pleased or annoyed, but less than a minute later, the remaining heads were dead, and the cultivation began. And of course, competing against the cultivation monsters around me granted me just 57,423 Nanos. That was 1,399,541 out of 1,400,000 Nanos to my next Milestone. At least dinner should get me the last few Nanos I needed to reach my 17th Milestone.
15
“Okay, Light, shoot him,” Hammer ordered calmly, sipping from a mug filled with what passed for coffee in this world.
Fun fact, remember how they said that even plants had been mutated? Well, Coffee apparently didn’t grow in this hemisphere. And the area of the planet where it did grow was turned into a massive expanse of irradiated land after a villain . . . possibly a hero . . . either way, someone went nuclear . . . literally. Anyway, the coffee plant was now extinct. Part of me broke a little when I heard that.
“And what do you mean, shoot him?” I asked, staring wide-eyed at Hammer then glancing over to a just as surprised Light.
“I didn’t say to kill you. I said to shoot you,” Hammer said for clarification.
“But you’re still asking him to shoot me,” I protested.
Hammer sighed. “Listen Davis, we’ve been trying to get you to create portals for weeks. You seem to need a little motivation.”
“We only started yesterday,” I shouted. After killing the queen hydrasnake, which gave me nothing after cultivating the meat, Hammer decided it was time to start working on portals. The very next day, that was my instruction. Figure out how to make a portal. With no idea what I was doing, it made for a wasted day.
“Yesterday, a few weeks, same difference,” Hammer said, waving away my concerns. “It doesn’t change the fact that you need to learn faster. There isn’t anything in the world that can get someone to learn faster than imminent danger.”
“Says who?” I asked.
Hammer shrugged. “Anyway, Light, shoot him with your weakest setting.”
Light looked to Ward for help, who replied, “It’s worth a try.”
I gave Ward the dirtiest look I could manage.
“Aim for the face,” Hammer suggested. “Maybe you’ll make him prettier to look at.”
“You’re supposed to be a hero,” I shouted at the man.
“I am,” Hammer said with a wide grin. “Just think of all the terror I’ll be saving people from by making you prettier.”
“You sick, sadistic-” I let the rest of my comments trail off. “I don’t even know the theory behind portals.”
“Portals are easy,” Hammer said. “You open a hole to another location.”
I glared at the man and said, “If it’s so easy, why don’t you do it?”
“Cause it’s not my power,” Hamm
er retorted. “Now, stop dawdling and shoot him already.”
I was about to start yelling at Hammer again when I felt a sting hit my shoulder. “Ow!” I shouted, my left hand going to my right shoulder where I felt the burning sting. When I looked at where I was stung, there was a new hole in my shirt and a red welt on my skin.
Hammer laughed, then joyfully said, “Do it again.”
At least Light said, “Sorry,” before shooting me again.
An hour later, I was covered in welts and absolutely furious. I nearly shouted when Light seemed to finally run out of energy himself as he commented, “Obviously this isn’t working. We need to try something else.”
Hammer frowned. “Fine, take an hour to try and figure it out. We’ll resume then,” he said, walking toward the cookfire, probably to get more of the not-coffee.
“Ward, please, I need some science on this,” I pleaded with the man.
“I wish I could help, but like I told you before. The science doesn’t matter,” Ward replied. “Use your instincts.”
“My instincts only tell me there is a nothingness, which is what creates a Void Burst,” I replied hotly.
“Then you need to listen deeper,” Ward said.
“Stop with the wise old monk act,” I complained.
“I’m not doing a wise old monk act,” Ward replied, calm as ever. “I’m telling you what you need to do. By now, you should have developed your connection to your Nanos deeply enough to start feeling more from them. You might not get portals on your first try or even your second, but if you keep trying, you will not only get new abilities, eventually, you will get to portals.”
I grumbled unhappily. Why couldn’t the man have explained that sooner? Or did he, and I just didn’t want to hear it? Whatever, that still didn’t justify continually shooting me for the last hour, especially when I didn’t yet have the ability to create portals or even the first clue of how to do it.
Light looked like he wanted to say something but refrained. Instead, he walked to the cookfire and poured himself a mug of the not-coffee.
I sat down in a huff, accidentally irritating one of the painful welts and wincing. I would have loved to complain more but there was no one to complain to as even Ward had moved off. I grumbled under my breath about the stupidity of it all. I was starting to feel like I was in some strange kung fu movie where I would learn to punch lightning, breathe fire, and stomp earthquakes.
“Listen deeper,” I grumbled, trying to calm my breathing and close my eyes. Just as the first time I learned to make a Void Burst, I focused on the empty feeling my Nanos gave off, but nothing was any different. It still felt empty. It still tried to guide me to create a void away from my body and then collapse it suddenly. I tried to ignore what it was telling me to do. I tried to push past the Void Burst. But nothing happened and I let it go. Opening my eyes and sighing. I stretched a little, ignoring the sting from the welts that covered my arms and torso. I closed my eyes and tried again.
Once again, the Nanos guided me toward the Void Burst. In my frustration, I mentally yelled at them, ‘I know, show me something else!’. And to my great surprise, they did. They showed me . . . everything. Not everything, as in the various skills I needed to learn, but everything as in everything around me. It was an . . . awareness. I could feel the air currents around me. I could feel something the size of my arm borrowing through the ground under me . . . a worm. I was now aware of all of it. I could feel the thick walls just ten feet behind me. I could feel the stress points where the wall had begun to weaken. I could feel exactly how much damage Light’s shots had done, the cells that were damaged. I could feel everything up to about 20-feet . . . 21-feet to be exact. Then I felt the Nanos tire and the awareness faded. It wasn’t completely gone, just muted. And yet, I knew, I could gain that awareness again with just a thought. I also knew, I just gained a new ability.
Davis Malory
Aliases: N/A
Occupation: N/A
Alignment: Neutral
Milestone: 17th
Nano: 1,410,987/1,675,000
Body
Athleticism: 8
- Strength: Average
- Agility: Above Average
- Accuracy: Above Average
- Speed: Average (7/10)
- Stamina: Average
Resistance: 1
- Physical Resistance: Average
- Energy Resistance: Above Average
- Mental Resistance: Above Average
Recovery: 1
- Physical Injury: Average
- Nano Energy: Average
Ability
Power: 17
- Time: Average
Time Compression: 65%
- Space: Weak (1/5)
Void Burst: 2.1-Uses at Maximum Size
Spatial Awareness: Passive senses may be enhanced for up to 5-Seconds
Control: 17
- Time: Average
Time Compression: 20-Seconds Uncompressed Time
- Space: Weak (1/5)
Void Burst: up to a 21-Foot Range and up to a 1.1-Inch Diameter
Spatial Awareness: up to 21-Foot Range
Spatial Awareness. That sounded extremely useful to me.
Then Hammer’s voice cut in, saying, “I’m hoping that pleased expression means you’ve figured out how to make portals.”
“Not yet,” I said, cursing my lack of attention to my new skill. I literally felt the man move into my sphere of awareness. “I learned something called Spatial Awareness.”
“Good skill to have,” Hammer commented. “I have something similar but more of a motion or vibration sensor. Not everyone’s abilities grant them any kind of extra senses.”
“Is it that rare?” I asked curiously.
“Not so much rare as just something not everyone bothers to learn. Take Light for example. He could easily learn to sense light and the changes in light. But he hasn’t. Why? Because being able to sense the changes in light can affect his ability to see. He’d be better off developing the ability to see the different light spectrums. But that is him and not you,” Hammer explained.
There were times where I just couldn’t figure Hammer out, like now. Most of the time he seemed pompous, rude, arrogant, and a host of other negative descriptors. Then there were the times where he was being helpful and offering advice and explanations.
Hammer continued, “Now, your hour is up. But seeing as you did manage to learn something. And something I deem valuable at that. I’m generously going to allow you another hour. Don’t waste it.”
I nodded, glad to avoid another hour of being peppered with stinging bullets of light. But before I started probing at my Nanos again, I needed to get up and stretch, maybe walk around a bit. And grab a bite to eat . . . a quick bite as I knew the clock was ticking.
Ten minutes later, I was back at it. Reaching out to my Nanos, which began showing me Void Burst again. I was about to try to ask them to show me something different again when a thought occurred. I wondered just how intelligent the Nanos were. Could I, for example, simply ask them to teach me about portals? I figured it was worth a shot.
So, I focused in on the feeling presented by the Nanos and sent a mental request, ‘Teach me about Portals.’ It didn’t take long for them to respond. In my mind’s eye, I saw two different places. There was nothing connecting them. But then I saw the Nanos concentrate on a spot between the two points. They built up for a moment then collapsed in a burst of light and somehow, the two different places were now next to each other, being held open by a ring of Nanos. It held for a few seconds and collapsed. Then it was gone, and I knew I had missed something. I knew I couldn’t recreate what I just experienced.
I tried again, making the same request. I felt the same thing. And again, when it was done, I knew I was still missing something. It almost felt like I had skipped a step somewhere. I tried again with the same results. I tried three more times and still couldn’t do it. But I think I finally understood why. My Space a
bility just wasn’t strong enough yet.
“Times up,” Hammer said.
“I need to get stronger,” I said, holding up a hand and hoping to forestall any further shots. “I think I know how to do it now. But I’m not strong enough yet. Or, my Space ability isn’t strong enough yet. We need to do more hunting. We can try again in four more Milestones.”
“Four?” Hammer questioned. “That should put you at what, about halfway to Average. How do you figure halfway to average is going to give enough power to do it?”
I flinched, then, with great reluctance, I answered, “That will put me at Below Average. I chose to get Time up to Average first.”
“You idiot! Of all the stupid things I have ever heard. Why in the hell would you go and do something so stupid?” Hammer yelled.
I didn’t have a good answered. Boosting Time to Average was just something I felt like I needed to do. So, I said as much.
Hammer didn’t look happy with my answer. Thankfully, he didn’t yell at me any further. Instead, he looked to Ward and asked, “Ward, if we can get him up to the 31st Milestone, will it be enough for him to pass for Dr. Portal?”
Ward rubbed his chin in thought for a moment before answering, “We don’t know exactly what Dr. Portal’s Portal ability was. At the 31st Milestone, and if Davis puts all his enhancement points for the next fourteen Milestones into Space, he will just be at Average. Admittedly, he still would have only been halfway to Above Average if he put all his other points into the ability when we began.”
Planet Hero- Civilian Page 11