by Tao Wong
The adults of their kind often exhibit additional psychic abilities including enforced hypnotism, suggestion, and psychic attacks. The elders of their species have been known to exhibit the ability to fire condensed bursts of solar energy.
“Thousand Hells. Look at those hit points,” I say. I could throw my Skills at it as much as I want and I’d be well out of Mana before I took down even half its health. And that’s counting my blades hitting. Which, I’d have to admit, I was pretty sure would happen. Hard to miss with something that big.
“Oh God, we’re going to die.” Harry sounds as if he’s panicking. I kind of understand that. It’s not as if any of his Skills will matter if the leviathan decides to eat the ship he’s in. Being collateral damage makes him just as dead.
“What is this ‘size: massive’ notation?” Mikito says, sounding a bit annoyed.
“Ah. Right, you haven’t fought one of those,” I say, realization dawning.
Before I can add anything, Bolo cuts in. “Certain creatures, due to their size, have gained the Size status. This allows them to take less damage from attacks that don’t cover sufficient area. Designations like that normally start around a hundred meters or so and go from there. Hard to injure something that’s the size of a building if your hammer can’t reach its internals. Monsters such as this are quite common in Forbidden Zones.”
Mikito swears in Japanese. After all this time, I’ve picked up enough to know that what she’s saying is rather coarse. It’s amusing how the polite, civilized Japanese woman I knew has sloughed away under the intense heat of combat and familiarity.
“It seems it’ll be up to you and me, Redeemer.”
“John. Just John,” I say. Might as well correct him. “And no stupid ‘I’m an alien’ joke of calling me ‘Just John’.”
I eye the distance between the monster and me, considering our options, then mentally command Ali to overlay an image of my Portal options. As I do so, the leviathan drifts closer, its movement seeming to be slow but in fact covering a huge distance. It’s a trick of size and perspective, one that is only revealed when it turns its body to chase after the Nothing’s Heartbreak.
“I’ll lead. You follow,” I say.
No more time to chat and think. I pop open the Portal as I see Mikito and Bolo kick off in my minimap, leaving the ship and my vicinity. Obviously, the Samurai isn’t going to sit and wait. Instead, her ghost steed forms beneath her legs and she rides off through the void. As I head toward the Portal, I see them heading directly for the monster rather than through my Portal. Works for me. Saves me Mana.
Myself, I appear right above its head, but distance and speed means by the time I appear, the creature has moved on from my target location. I turn on my thrusters, boosting down toward the creature who seems to be ignorant of my intentions. I put that little blessing to good use and finish layering my usual complement of buffs. As I land on the creature’s back while cutting apart a couple of questing tentacles, I tense for a reaction. Even as I land lightly on the leviathan’s scaley back, I see that the nubs of the tentacles I sliced off have begun to regrow.
I stomp on the scales a little, testing them out for my footing. I figure out a few things immediately. One—the scales are incredibly hard, offering no give. Two—the scales are non-metallic, as the magnetic properties of my boots fail to catch. Three—every reaction has an equal and opposite reaction.
Shoulder and hip thrusters on the suit turn back on, guiding me back onto the undulating creature’s body before I float away too far. Even the short time I’ve been goofing around, I’ve lost another hundred meters. It does make me question how a giant tentacle snake can float through space by wriggling its body.
“Any time now, John!” Harry’s voice is growing even more panicked.
I glance at my minimap, pulling it backward as far as possible to get an idea of what’s happening. Only to realize that the leviathan is catching up on the Heartbreak, its tentacles close enough to reach for the ship. A mental command pulls up the rearview cameras on the Heartbreak and I get to see the entire scene up close, as the courier ship dips and ducks, weaving between grasping appendages.
“Right. I guess we’ll start with this?” I mutter, eyeing the head as I push myself alongside the monster.
Beacon of the Angels flares to life right over the monster’s head as it literally swims into the attack. The column of energy seems to manifest from nowhere, collecting the light around it before lancing downward. The attack bathes the creature’s head in power, burning a large spot and blinding one of the creature’s many eyes. Even as the column fades, I trigger a second then a third, targeting different areas of its head.
The fight itself is weird, the creature’s thrashing a parody of atmospheric battles. There is no sound. The blood that gushes from its wounds becomes nothing more than crystals. There’s a surreality to the entire thing, like being a vocal character in a silent movie. Between the filters in our audio headsets and the silence of space, when the silence is interrupted, it’s all the more intense.
“Aaaarrrggh!”
The scream erupts from my mouth and from the party. Even as I gather hold of myself and push back the mental assault the leviathan leveled at us, the screams continue. A command lowers the volume, but I watch as Mikito and Bolo swerve drunkenly as they fight off the assault. Even the ship has stopped its evasive maneuvers, allowing the leviathan to catch them.
“That hurt,” I bitch, mostly to myself.
If it hurt me, the others must be really feeling the effect of the psychic assault. Bolo has decent resistances, so I can see him already steadying his movements. But he’s still a distance away, and the pulses of psychic power assault my mental defenses without stop. The crippling pain is much reduced, at a level I can handle. That leaves me with the task of buying my friends some time.
Around me, a dozen blades appear, spinning. I swing my hand down, now holding my own sword, and together, all the empowered Blade Strikes tear through space. I marvel at the sight as blades of force and light spin, leaving behind only a ripple that exists in my mind. They impact hard, tearing apart scales and destroying waving tentacles, digging deep into the leviathan’s muscle. White and blue muscle parts while green blood disperses, crystallizing in space. The psychic assault stops then begins again, but at a lower intensity.
“Mikito! Free the ship. Bolo, get your ass over here. Harry, I know you don’t like getting involved but you’re going to need to start using the ship’s weapons.”
A mental command has me burning fuel as I attempt to keep up with the now-thrashing leviathan. I’m tempted to call forth Army of One again, but it’s an expensive Skill and this fight has just started. Instead, I focus on the low energy output of Blade Strikes, pulling away from the creature to dance in the void as tentacles reach for me.
Thousand Blades comes into its own once again. Blades are grabbed and thrown, my sword swung to slice off tentacles that come too close. Big or small, when they impact my blades, they either slow down or are sliced off entirely. In either case, it gives me time by creating a razor field of sharp death. But it’s still not enough.
Thus far, I’ve managed to avoid getting touched, but each moment, the tentacles get nearer. On closer inspection, I see that each tentacle is filled with tiny barbed hooks that surround what I can only call mouths. Getting touched by those things would be a gruesome death. In the corner of my eye, I can see how the ship’s AI has taken over escape attempts, afterburners straining against the leviathan.
“I guess it’s my time to shine,” Ali says.
Almost directly opposite from me, the Spirit raises his hands as the ball of energy he’s gathered builds up. It’s not lightning per se, just pure energy contained by the Spirit’s will and affinity. When Ali makes a throwing motion, the energy tears a line along the monster’s hide. Scales are rent asunder, flesh and blood superheated and fried, liquid boiling away before freezing in a spray of sparkling green and pink crystals.
Mikito and the Heartbreak wobble a little but recover, Dornalor taking an active role in the ship’s defense. The little Samurai seems to have made it to the ship, locking herself down on the vehicle while she cuts apart tentacles. Her naginata has expanded, becoming nearly as long as the ship itself. I wonder if Hitoshi grew its new ability due to its most recent interaction with Bolo’s weapon or if it was just a Skill that was never yet necessary. On top of the physical size growth, the blade of the naginata has doubled as a shell of red flame energy coats it, giving the Samurai a larger cutting area.
And cut she does. Mikito swings and chops, and with the now active weapon suite on the Nothing’s Heartbreak and her Skills, they’re slowly whittling down the fast-regenerating tentacles. Even the leviathan’s ability to replace its tentacles seems to have a limit.
Using the distraction the pair has offered, I open a Portal and duck through it. I leave the Portal open long enough for the monster to send through a few of its larger tentacles. Then I slam it shut, slicing them off while I get busy using a series of Blade Strikes on its back. The damage isn’t much, not once it gets discounted by the “massive” condition, but every little bit counts.
“Help! It’s trying to eat me,” Ali says.
“Just fade out,” Harry says over the comms. “And you, eat that!”
The beam weapons on the ship fire again, burning off a pair of grasping tentacles. There’s a rather vindictive glee in Harry’s voice. I guess being allowed to take part in a fight can be quite therapeutic for the bystander.
“It’s twin-souled. It can hurt me even if I fade out,” Ali says.
“Worry not. I’m here,” Bolo’s voice cuts in, entirely too enthused.
“The great beyond,” Dornalor curses as he catches sight of Bolo.
I kind of want to add to my own curses, but I’m busy evading the never-ending series of tentacles. I’m even forced to use one of my dopplegangers just to get out of a sticky situation. I get a glimpse of Bolo charging his attack, having made his way to the leviathan’s twisted, multi-eyed head.
Bolo’s hammer, once only ten feet tall, has grown to the size of the Heartbreak. Its handle is twice again as long as he is, and the entire thing is glowing as Infernal Blow and his other Skills empower it. The hammer blurs as Triple Strike is triggered, moving so fast that I can only see afterimages of the strikes. The leviathan buckles under the maelstrom of attacks, scales crushed and sent flying, along with sprays of blood and guts.
The Dragon Lord is pounding the monster around like a badminton player and a shuttle cock, moving so fast he’s playing both sides of the court. Each attack is draining visible chunks of the monster’s life, the Dragon Lord putting what damage we’ve done to shame.
Impressive burst damage or not, Bolo has to slow down at some point. His Mana dips heavily with each attack, and eventually the attacks stop. Even the hammer shrinks, reducing to only half its overgrown size. All our combined attacks, all our damage, and the creature still has a third of its life left.
As if the leviathan was waiting for this, the monster opens its mouth. A stream of liquid spits out, splattering Bolo. His screams are ear-rending before the audio compensators muffle him. The Dragon Lord thrashes in the void, the liquid sticky and surprisingly refusing to freeze. As Bolo struggles, tentacles wrap him up. These tentacles aren’t connected to the leviathan, somehow moving on their own accord after they detach themselves in their attack against Bolo.
“Ali, we need to meet up,” I send to my half-pint friend.
Mikito and the Nothing’s Heartbreak swing away from where they’ve been harassing the monster, burning fission as they swoop past the creature’s snout. I split off, toward the center of its body. While Bolo attempts to free himself from the tentacles as he stews in the monster’s juices, Mikito and the ship take over distracting the leviathan. The Samurai spins and cuts, mostly doing her best to slice apart attacks that come their way while trusting Dornalor to dodge any lunging bites.
“Head for the X.”
I curve my directions, idly slicing off more tentacles as I go. I’m skimming as close to the body as I dare, keeping a minimal distance from it to ensure that I can react when the creature ripples. Soon enough, I see the little Spirit who’s shrunk himself down. Having stopped attacking, the Spirit only has to dodge the occasional tentacle that reacts to his presence rather than the concerted attacks of earlier.
“What are we doing?” Ali says.
“Fastball special.”
“I should have known.”
But complain as much as he can, Ali takes his place. I raise my hand and call forth the spell, the beginning portions of the enhanced lightning attack forming. But lightning—electricity—requires the movement of electrons between particles. Being in a vacuum, the spell cannot function without some modification.
There’s no electric charge in a vacuum, but there is an electric field. The electric field creates the magnetic field and helps the propagation of electromagnetic waves. So instead of creating an electric current—lightning—I alter the spell and use the formed spell chamber that gathers power, then give it an outlet via my Elemental Affinity. I shift the spell itself, just enough to form what I want using my Mana Sense, then release it all.
The attack can’t be seen. Not in space. Unlike my other attacks—or Ali’s show-off performance—this one has no container of Mana. No wasted power escaping as light. Instead, it’s pure energy directed toward the leviathan. The blast passes within inches of Ali, between his outstretched hands. As it does, the Spirit forms and enhances the spell with his own Greater Affinity. The attack condenses and multiples as Mana drains from me at triple the cost of my normal Spell. But the results are worth it.
When my beam impacts, it’s like a welding torch taken to living flesh. Scales peel and part, skin crisps and burns, and muscles disintegrate. We draw a line down the monster, watching as flesh and muscle peel apart and its innards smoke and spill out. It’s writhing, twisting, and turning to dodge my attack, but all it does is put more pressure on its organs, sending them spilling out of the damaged container. As it dodges, the leviathan offers even more portions of its body to my attack.
“Move it, Redeemer!”
The warning comes a little too late. The tail that I had forgotten about smacks Ali and me, sending us spinning into the darkness. Bad as that is, my Soul Shield absorbs two-thirds of the impact before it fails. My armor deals with the rest. More dangerous for me is the backlash from my modification of the spell. The cudgelled-together Mana flow bursts apart from its tenuous bindings, wracking my mind and body. I end up screaming as my cells are ripped apart, my System-gifted resistances failing.
Pain.
I float in space, my body shuddering as detached tentacles float over to wrap around my body, tightening in a deadly embrace. It crushes my armor, my flesh and bones. If I don’t escape, I’ll die. But I’m too busy dealing with the fallout of my spell.
Even as I scream into the void, my friends are taking advantage of the distraction and damage I’ve done. I spot Bolo’s dot moving once more, freed from the tentacles. Mikito and the Heartbreak separate, the Samurai’s dot darting straight toward an opening in the monster’s flesh. Ready to crush the last embers of the monster’s life.
In the meantime? I get crushed until Ali frees me.
Chapter 10
“What kind of slime-brained idiot alters a spell in the middle of combat?” Ali berates me.
After we’d looted the leviathan and hooked up the Mortgage, we adjourned to the mess hall on the Heartbreak for a well-deserved rest. Of course, building up the initial momentum had been interesting as we were dragging two much, much larger objects. I’d even used my newly purchased Skills to boost us. Once we were done though, Ali decided
to bitch me out.
“Couldn’t use the Lightning Spell as is,” I point out.
“Then do something else! I could adjust the strength of your other Skills.”
“The Spirit is correct. Backlash from modifying spells or Skills is significant,” Bolo says. “It is impressive that you can do it, but foolish to do so in combat.”
“Everyone’s a critic,” I say, throwing up my hands dramatically. “It worked, didn’t it?” I look at Mikito and Harry, searching for support.
“Don’t look at me. I’m learning lots. My next segment about modifying spells and Skills is going to be a hit,” Harry says, eyes gleaming as his fingers dance in midair.
“John is baka, but we knew that,” Mikito says.
“Is baka. Not a baka?” Ali says with a frown.
“Maybe?” There’s hesitation in Mikito’s voice. Mixing Galactic grammar and Japanese seems to be throwing Mikito for a loop.
While we bullshit about the correct way to call me an idiot in Galactic, I look toward the viewscreens, where Dornalor has us on autopilot back to the station. The entire trip is taking longer than ever since we have to tow the ship and the leviathan corpse.
A glimpse at the timetable makes me wince and search for something else to distract me. My gaze falls upon a different display, one whose contents are drawn from the hacked servers of the ore ship. In the recording, the crew of the ore ship march out, one after the other, in their spacesuits. In another portion of the display screen, external cameras show the floating bodies of the crew as they reorient themselves and fly into space, headed for the leviathan’s maw.
We’re lucky in a way—rather than hit us with a wide-scale hypnotism Skill, the creature decided to save its Mana and chase our little ship. It’s possible that the Skill had a cooldown or a high Mana cost. Or perhaps it knew better than to hypnotize a trio of Master Classers. Our resistances are all much, much higher than the Basic crew of an ore ship.