What in the hell was this creature? It was like a massive featherless crow from hell.
Except massive crow was an understatement!
As I began climbing even higher to gain an advantage against this unfamiliar enemy, their proximity caused me to realize they were each larger than Harper! Shit, and here I thought giving her wings would be an advantage, but it barely put her on equal footing with this monster!
Never mind several hundred of them!
My only hope at this point was that their defenses were low, because there were more of them than I had shots available, by my rough estimation, which meant I’d be using my bladed-tail for at least some of the kills.
So much for target practice. This was too many!
Dammit!
If only fire magic didn’t use so many resources! It was a good thing I had decided to stock up a little, because I never imagined I’d be willingly taking on so many enemies at once.
I could hear them now, their collective screams sounding like a massacre of tormented souls, coming back to haunt the living, hungry for raw flesh. Or the shrieks of hundreds of wailing women who were being tortured heinously, like a thousand wildcats being skinned alive.
Holding up my hand, red cracks began developing all along my body and running down my arm in order to merge at my palm, all while a low hum began singing in my core, a sound I could barely hear over the predatory cries. I aimed the best I could as the murder of hellish beasts swarmed closer, beginning to curve upwards together as they aimed for me – the flock was so large, like several hundred Harpers, that it was like being attacked by one massive beast the size of a building.
For the first time that I could recall, I felt anxiety peak in my chest.
Having no need to aim at this point, my body hummed louder as a burst of hot energy shot out, straight into the face of the humongous beast, causing one to fall, knocking three out of the formation along with it. Realizing there was no reason to hold back, I immediately held up my other hand and began firing without regard, the crimson cracks on my body growing brighter, the hum singing louder.
More and more dropped from the sky, as we quickly began playing a game of chicken, with the overall behemoth charging at full speed.
Finally, after several dozen shots, I was out of time.
Waiting at the last moment before collision, I immediately folded my wings and dove straight downward, causing the front of the swarm to change directions as well, only for those behind to slam into them, not having the capacity to make such a tight turn as a group.
The entire murder of hell-crows rapidly disintegrated into a swarm of massive blood-thirsty mosquitoes, many beginning to bite at each other, while others continued to chase me straight down.
Now that I had thinned the flock, I extended my wings in order to arc in a circle, coming around to begin firing at individual monsters. At first, I ended up missing every other shot due to my inability to use a sight for aiming, not to mention my unfamiliarity with their movement patterns, but then a momentarily distracting prompt appeared in my vision.
Processing enhancement request…
Invalid.
Assessing functional utility…
Complete.
Systemic calculations in process…
Complete.
Activating systemic assist.
Instantly, my vision began filling with rapidly moving spheres that followed the hellish crows perfectly, prompting me to move my hand over one of the spherical hallucinations in an attempt to see what would happen.
The moment I had chosen a target, several wide rings appeared in my vision, rapidly growing smaller and then larger repeatedly as I attempted to chase the moving enemy down. I felt like it should have been easy, but just as I was getting ready to try firing, my instincts kicked in and I folded my right wing, causing an instant barrel roll as one of the beasts dive bombed me from above.
Barely avoiding the attack, and tired of attempting to get it perfect, I shot the nearest hell-crow down and began fire in rapid succession as I chased spheres around, slowly growing more accustomed to the oscillating rings, realizing that firing just as they collapsed on the targeting sphere meant I’d land the hit.
I also realized it was even predicting the monsters’ movements some, because occasionally the rings would collapse sooner than I assumed, prompting me to shoot ahead of my enemy’s trajectory just enough to blast its beak off, along with half its skull.
But still, there were far too many of them, and now I was beginning to spend more time dodging than firing, since I didn’t want to waste my shots with reckless blasts. Instead, I was rapidly swinging my tail everywhere to slice what I could aimlessly, only to evade another beast, only to find myself colliding with two more, using my claws to slice at their eyes while they attempted to impale me with their sharp beaks, or even bite my head off entirely.
Dammit!
I couldn’t keep track of them all! If only I could see behind me!
White letters immediately overlaid the multitude of darting spheres.
Processing enhancement request…
Invalid.
Assessing functional utility…
Complete.
Systemic calculations in process…
Complete.
Upgrading systemic assist.
More spheres appeared in the corner of my vision, confusing the hell out of me, until one of them began fluctuating wildly, brightening and dimming in rapid succession, just before claws tore into my wing, shredding a small tear.
Well shit, it wasn’t perfect, but it was better than nothing.
After blasting the hell out of the bastard that got me, my dodging rapidly became more effective, with me beginning to evade those attacking from behind, knowing at least the rough direction based on where the vibrating spheres appeared on the sides of my vision. In fact, it was effective enough that I was able to take up the offensive again, blasting more and more out of the sky, while still swinging my tail around to wound others who got too close.
Finally, another message popped up.
Alert!
Distributable Resources rapidly depleting.
Distributable Resources: 13
Analyzing handler biometric values…
Analyzing Quest conditions…
Complete.
Result: Quest conditions met.
Obtainable reward activated.
Current Fire Magic Skill: Heat-Ray Pulse
Effect: Rapid fire.
Resource Requirement: 0.25
Unlocking New Skill…
Complete.
New Fire Magic Skill: Heat-Wave Burst
Effect: Unavailable [Unused]
Resource Requirement: 5
The hell? When did my laser palms get a skill name? This was becoming more game-like by the second! And what in the world was this new unlocked skill? Why didn’t I need to use resources to unlock it?
And why in the hell couldn’t it tell me what it did prior to using it?!
Considering I could make four shots per 1 resource with my Heat-Ray skill, this sucker was twenty times more costly! Thus, if I had to guess, assuming this did follow game logic, I’d say it was an Area of Effect move…
Which meant I needed to try to collect as many enemies together as I could before using it. I had no idea if losing twenty shots would be worth it, but maybe it would be if I could just get them clustered together like how they had started…
Dodging another little bastard, I began attempting to climb back up in the sky, though it was extremely difficult with all the evading I was required to do. However, I slowly made progress, until I was in a good spot to dive.
Folding my wings, I turned away from the ground, watching all the avian demons chasing after me, rapidly forming a tightly packed cluster again.
‘Okay you damn system, or whatever you are. Time to show me how to use this new AOE skill.’
Attempting to start activating the ability, my body began singing
with that familiar hum, except this time the vibrant red cracks on my midnight skin didn’t consolidate on my hands, but rather moved all over my body, especially my chest, shoulders, and upper arms. I could even feel the familiar warmth creeping onto my back as well, making me suspect this was truly going to be a spherical attack – one I definitely couldn’t afford to waste.
Rapidly twisting around, I caught the air with my wings, halting my descent like a parachute springing loose, all while bracing for impact.
Just as the first few beasts collided into my back, their sharp beaks snipping at my wings, I paused for one more painfully long second, before allowing the humming to peak. All at once, I felt myself becoming surrounded with hellish monstrosities, just as the Heat-Wave Burst activated with such force that everything within several hundred feet exploded into chunks, nearly vaporizing under the intense pressure.
I had no time to celebrate though, with my descent rapidly bringing me face-first with the ground below, my torn wings beating inefficiently thanks to the new holes. Bracing for impact, I unsuccessfully attempted to readjust myself to land feet first, instead barely managing to get my arms under me as I collided into the middle of a street, creating a shallow crater, as the pavement buckled underneath my weight.
A fall from that height did more damage than I anticipated, and I found myself coughing up black gunk in the place of blood, unable to move as it began raining chunks of monster flesh as if it were hailing baseball-sized shards of ice.
Intact windshields, in the abandoned cars on the streets, shattered from the impact of pieces of legs, bodies, beaks, and skulls.
I knew I had killed a ton with that attack, but they weren’t all dead yet.
I could still hear a few tormented screams above me, looming closer to finish off their injured prey.
Dammit.
I tried rolling onto my back, so I could at least attempt to shoot the ones who attacked, only to barely manage any movement at all, feeling like my entire shoulder structure was fractured from one end to the other, including my chest and back.
Shit!
This was it. The best I could do was attempt to swipe blindly with my bladed tail, but my attack would probably only be effective after the stupid beasts did some damage. Dammit, this sure as hell wasn’t ideal.
Just as I saw one of them dive at me in the corner of my eye, I readied for impact, only to see a shadow zip over me, a clawed hand intercepting my assailant with enough force to shift its trajectory ten feet to my side as it smashed into the pavement.
A set of midnight feet were then right by my head, facing away as my protector readied to strike again at any who dared attack. Unsurprisingly, her priority was my head, which was my least defended spot on my body
I glanced up at her, but all I could see from this angle was her midnight rear and poised tail, so I looked away and finally just reserved myself to letting her do the rest, knowing my only option right now was just to rely on my one and only party member.
At the very least, I supposed I was alright with 93% obedience after all. Not that I had necessarily demanded she stay inside no matter what, but if her disobedience meant I’d live another day, then I could live with that – no pun intended.
When I realized the last few remaining hell-crows weren’t attempting to attack, a simultaneous message popped up in my vision.
Quest ‘Target Practice’ has been completed.
Quest Details: Defeat all enemies.
Result: 98.6% Completion
Reward: Unlocked New Skill [Heat-Wave Burst]
Dammit, I hoped I never got ‘assigned’ another stupid quest ever again. Sure, I supposed if the reward was that new skill, then something valuable came of it, but shit.
At least in a game I’d get some damn experience points or something! But instead I was left depleted of most of my resources, with almost all of what I had remaining being dedicated to an uncomfortable regeneration process. Granted, I knew I could probably gain some resources from all the monster chunks lying around, but it was nothing like what I got from the isopod – at least, I assumed.
Not to mention, a quest title like that was something I’d expect to see in a tutorial! As if the real game had yet to start…
Why did this even happen in the first place? One second I was making plans to go help the humans who had been at the powerplant, and the next I was fending off a murder of hell-crows. And what implications did this have regarding this mysterious system influencing so much of my life?
Shit.
Too much to think about, especially when it felt like every bone in my torso was fractured, not to mention my damaged organs, assuming the odorless black gunk I had coughed up was equivalent to blood. This was definitely something I’d have to worry about another time – not that I had the necessary information to figure out what the hell was going on anyway.
One thing was clear though, Harper was my new favorite person – not that there had been a different one before – and my drive to raise her stats so she could use fire magic had only increased a hundredfold.
Chapter 15: Recovery
Once Harper was certain the coast was clear, she dropped to her knees and then sat down on her heels next to my head. I barely noticed though, just focusing on breathing as my body slowly put itself back together. She placed her hand on the top of my hair and began humming that lullaby again, as she had done the last time I had been injured, and I realized that I found it all soothing.
Previously, I hadn’t fully understood why she was doing that, but now I found quite a bit of comfort in the gesture after what had just happened. It was like a gentle hug a mother might give to her child after they had a bad dream, except my nightmare was real. And painful.
But it made me wonder if Harper was acting out of instincts, attempting to comfort me in a way that felt familiar to her from her forgotten memories. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if I found out that her parents used to place their hand on her head and hum as she fell asleep after waking up screaming, and in doing so, had ingrained that behavior in her as well – something that amnesia couldn’t destroy.
Ugh. I blamed all of this on my Connection stat.
Why in the hell did language have to be connected to empathy, sympathy, and feelings? I didn’t need any of that shit in my life.
Or, at least, so I told myself.
I wasn’t sure how long I laid there in the middle of the street, just trying to focus on breathing, but the morning sun had definitely climbed high into the sky. Which meant I was running out of daylight. Certainly, I was sure I’d be all healed up by nightfall, so I didn’t have to worry about being easy prey when the rest of my kind came out to hunt, but that also meant I was running out of time to take care of the horde at the powerplant.
I mean, I supposed I didn’t have to deal with it at all…
But then I saw Savannah’s face again – saw the tears in her emerald eyes – and immediately knew I was going to do it, just so I didn’t have to deal with seeing her expression. It wasn’t even about having ‘feelings,’ but was instead about wanting to avoid having feelings entirely. I didn’t want to deal with any of that shit, so I’d rather just go out and kill a bunch of beasts instead.
Ugh.
After a while longer, I finally turned my head to look up at Harper staring down at me, her crimson eyes just watching me contently. I then took a deep breath, letting it out slowly to see how it felt, deciding I was healed enough.
“I want you to go back home,” I said quietly.
She shook her head, her longer white hair bouncing slightly. “I don’t want to leave you alone,” she replied. “I want to go too.”
“I know,” I agreed, feeling like I was understanding her better. “But I can take care of normal Night Stalkers just fine on my own. So, if you really want to help, then you can go home and fill up on points, so I can start raising your Thermoacoustic stat. That way, next time, maybe you can fight that kind of enemy with me.”
We
hadn’t really talked much about the game-like hallucination I could see, but she was well aware of it due to having access to my thoughts.
She nodded slowly in response. “O-Okay,” she finally agreed. “But you should eat too, before you go.”
My eyes widened just a little, before I sighed again.
Damn girl was too smart.
Granted, I might have realized that myself – that going into a fight with barely any distributable resources available would be stupid as hell – but, unlike me, it was one of the first things to pop into her head.
“Okay,” I said in resignation. “We’ll stop by the hospital to tell your sister what we’re doing, and then go home. But you’re still staying when I leave – I don’t want to waste any time in getting you fire magic, and we have a long way to go since each point costs ten resources, not to mention the evolution needed.”
She pursed her gray lips for a moment, before nodding a second time in agreement.
Taking another deep breath, I finally lifted my head and began sitting up, hoping to take stock of my current health. As far as I could tell, I was mostly healed now. My wings still had small tears in them, but I didn’t think flying would aggravate it, considering the strength of the membrane was far greater than normal mammalian skin.
Thus, it was time to go, before I lost any more daylight.
I grabbed a chunk of hell-crow to chew on the way, but I wasn’t expecting much, simply because there had been such a night and day difference between a normal Night Stalker and the isopod. But then again, the hell-crows weren’t what I’d consider to be ‘normal’ either.
Rise of the Night Stalkers Page 17