by Tao Wong
On my minimap, I see Ali dashing ahead as fast as he can. As he spots new and interesting monsters and my map gets updated before they disappear again as he leaves their presence. Still, it’s enough to let me know how much trouble we really are in—the swarm just doesn’t seem to ever end.
I keep sprinting, my companions lost as we each make our way through the swarm. Powerful as these Skills or technological toys are, they all have their own timers. The moment they run out, if we’re still in the swarm, we’ll shrivel up like a plastic bag in flames. Our only hope is speed.
I thunder down the passageways, running through shadowy Frakin until I see something that makes me pause. I don’t think, I just hammer the switch and flip back into reality, making sure I don’t pop into anything too dense when I shift back. I’m already programming the drone, sending it winging back as I land and spin, using the built-up momentum to open up the Frakin I spotted from abdomen to leg. It’s a monster of a creature, three-quarters the size of the entire passageway itself, and its armor is so tough that without the added levels of my Soulbound sword, I probably couldn’t even scratch it. The Frakin are slow to react, their senses scrambled by the illness, so I have a few moments to lay into the creature in peace. A few moments to tear a chunk into the creature’s body and a few moments more to pull a grenade to plant in its body. The moment my hand is inside it and I’ve let go of the grenade, I trigger the QSM.
I run through the creature, three seconds barely enough time to get away before the explosion contained in the monster ripples outward. It buys the drone and my friends a few moments, since the Frakin will have to move the corpse. A few moments to get ready for the other three Titanic Frakin behind it. I don’t have time to keep up this fight—in fact, draining the QSM to pop in and out like that might have been a bad idea.
Ahead, the tunnel splits and I take the right turn. It’s the direction that Ali went. Even as I run, I unleash a lightning bolt, the energy from the Spell scarring the walls. I can only hope that it’s a good enough indication for Vir and Shadow-girl to avoid this tunnel.
Four minutes into QSM with barely thirty seconds left and I finally pass the last of the Frakin. I dash past them all and the cavern they stream from, then I slide to a stop behind cover. Marginally hidden as I am, I kill the system, shifting over into my own dimension. I breathe raggedly, pulling in pure oxygen from Sabre’s tanks as I recover, hoping that I’m hidden enough. I have to be—I don’t have any other choice. Tucked in the corner as I am, the only sense I can rely on is my hearing. I find myself straining to hear something, anything that might tell me if I made it.
The drip of water, the skittering of insects and spiders, and the far-off tromp of Frakin are all that I sense. No sign of pursuit, no sign of my friends. I slowly exhale, pushing away from my hiding spot, and head deeper, following the trail Ali blazed. I can only hope that the others are doing their job and searching for the Boss too.
“Boy-o, take the right. Dead end here.”
I nod to Ali’s instructions though he can’t see me, doing as he says when I reach the split. I can see Ali flying back from the cavern that dead-ended on him, eager to catch up and take back his scouting duties. I can’t wait for him, knowing that my friends are fighting with everything they’ve got behind me. I can’t hear them or see them—even the updates to my map have stopped—but I know, I know, we’re running out of time.
Time… I’m constantly fighting against it. I pick up the pace, dodging the occasional Frakin I spot curled up in a corner or wandering around, too sick to be controlled by the Spores. I’m moving so fast that I barely notice the immobile Frakin that comes alive the moment I bound over it.
Scouts. Or guards. Whatever the case, they know I’m here. On the other hand, guards probably mean I’m on the right track. I keep an eye out for more as I run, dodging from side to side as the Frakin behind me spits out bolts of destructive light. I turn the corner, finding myself hoping to run into more trouble. Trouble would be good.
My perverse desires rewarded in a few minutes with another sighting—a trio of Frakin that lie in wait. Their reactions are staggered, not coordinated, which is all that allows me to dodge through the barrage that opens up. The trick to actually dodging faster-than-sound attacks isn’t to dodge the attacks themselves but to forecast and dodge around where they will fire. Bodies rise, mouths open, and glinting teeth reflect the building charge. I just make sure I’m never where they’re pointing. It’s a calculation I could never have made as a non-System-registered human—but with my upgraded abilities, it seems trivial. At least against three of these monsters.
I draw and send out a Blade Slash, the brilliant line of force slashing open the Frakin as I near them. I take a few moments to finish them off, figuring that I’d better deal with stragglers now rather than later. As it stands, I have a feeling I’m close.
“Ali, can you find the others?”
“Maybe. Don’t you want me with you, boy-o?” the Spirit replies.
I shake my head. “No, if you can get them or get close enough to get a message to them, that’d be better. Never know what kind of trouble I’ll run into, and this looks like the way to the Boss.”
Left unsaid is the fact that if I fail, we need one of the others to succeed.
Down the hallway, as I close in on the upcoming cavern, my eyes widen. I guess they held back a couple dozen. I snarl, skidding to a stop. The sudden eruption of acid blobs, plasma bolts, and beams tell me that my arrival was expected. Crouching out of sight, I draw forth grenades and toss them in one after the other. I’m sure the Spores will send the Frakin to me eventually, once they realize what’s happening, but it’ll take time for them to figure it out and even more time to send the commands to the sick creatures. Time I can use to whittle down my opponents.
Explosions ripple outward from the cavern as I sling grenade after grenade, explosions and disappearing red dots telling the tale to me. Unfortunately, I can’t kill enough of them before they’re on me, trundling up the slight slope of the cavern to enter the passageway. I find myself fighting in the middle of a swarm again, sword spinning and cutting, moving from one hand to another as I cut, kick, and punch my way through the monsters. I know better than to hold still, so I dance into their midst. Blasts of plasma and globs of acid fly all around me. Pincers glance off my armor and add to my momentum. Don’t stop—don’t ever stop.
I find myself through the group, a pair of grenades in hand. I flip them into the center of the swarming mass, the resulting explosion barely muffled by the press of bodies. I hop backward, raising my rifle and spraying the remaining monsters on full-auto, dumping the entire magazine into them in a few seconds. I land, sword appearing in hand to deflect a spike of stone, as I scan my opponents. Only a half dozen left, most of them pretty damaged.
I flex my legs, dashing forward to finish this. Time to get rid of these minnows.
Finding the Boss Frakin and, hopefully, the core of the Spore mind is easy after that. There’s only one passageway from here. As I sneak forward, I wonder how bad this is going to be.
Well, at least I know why the Spores haven’t gotten much more active in spreading themselves—the Boss Frakin is so big, there’s no way it could fit through the passageways. Of course, that also explains why the Spores have gotten so smart, if they’ve taken over that as their Overmind’s body.
Eight legs, a double pair of pincers that fit over its bulbous body, three stingers, and more teeth than I have bullets make up the reddish-brown monster. Scrambling around it are more Frakin, maybe a dozen, that are each about double the size of a normal creature. And clustered around those are another score of smaller Frakin, a mix of glowing green, red, and purple stingers indicating a slew of nasty ranged options.
The fact that half the Frakin are watching my passageway and the other half are looking to my left has me giving the cavern a more thorough investigation. A moment later, I realize why—there’s another entrance that way. Smaller, tighter,
and more exposed than mine, but definitely another way in.
I draw a deep breath, exhaling as my mind runs. This is bad. This is more than I can handle. Certainly the Boss is a lot bigger than I ever expected. This—this is something I’d want my whole party to tackle.
On the other hand, it’s not as if there’s anyone else here to help me. If I want it dead, I’m going to have to do it. Biting my lip, I start planning.
Chapter 22
Five minutes later, I’m done. First step was to set up a few sensors down the way I came to ensure I have some warning when the monsters come for me. Sure, I could theoretically spot it in my minimap, but if I’m in the middle of a fight, I don’t want to count on that.
Second step is to split their forces. No reason to try to fight all of them, not if I can help it. I tap into my Altered Space, grab the guns I stored there, and set them up quickly, along with more Claymore mines in two separate locations. I then push them outward and flick their targeting software on, watching as they spew fire at the monsters beneath me. I back off from the ledge and around cover as return fire comes in short order.
The guns last all of a few seconds before they get blown to pieces, which is the main reason why we didn’t even bother setting them up for the swarm. However, they do what I wanted, which is attract attention and drag the Frakin to me. They come, but they come in force, nearly half the group that was watching my passageway rushing in.
I cast Polar Wind immediately, the Spell freezing and slowing the monsters as they trundle forward. It does very little damage, unlike the high explosive projectiles I unleash next, but it buys me time and, more importantly, bunches them up. When the vanguard is past the immediate blast area, I trigger the Claymores.
Only two thirds of the Claymores go off unfortunately—it seems they aren’t rated to handle the intense cold brought about by my Spell. Pressurized air and thousands of ball bearings spin outward, confined in the passageways so that even those that miss on the first pass have a second, third, and even fourth chance to kill and damage. Of course, even backed off as I am, I get smashed by a few too, but Sabre’s armor is more than sufficient to take the bouncebacks with little additional damage.
Once the explosion dies down a little, I wade into the group, cutting and chopping and firing into open wounds. Fun fact—screwed-up, System-enabled world or not, you can still do more damage by shooting into exposed wounds than you can just shooting indiscriminately. Of course, it isn’t that easy—the Frakin Champions are true monsters, big and tough, and even injured, they put up a good fight. At the end of it, I’m limping and Sabre’s down to eighty-two percent integrity. As my bullets get reloaded, I cast a quick Healing to speed up the recovery process for myself.
Stage two done, I poke my head around the corner carefully before pulling back as shots come within seconds. It’s enough to let me know that not much has changed, other than a redistribution of the monsters inside. I scurry to the side then poke my head out again, noting they aren’t coming up. My precautions are of little use as the Boss decides to let loose a blast from its stinger. The explosion throws me into the wall and backward down the corridor. I groan, seeing the flashing damage icons.
Stage three it is then.
I wish I could say I have a brilliant, mind-shatteringly smart idea. I don’t. I don’t even have a particularly good idea. All I have is a bunch of explosives, my Spells, and the need to finish this off. I take a running start, crossing the ground to the entrance of the cavern as Frakin continue to lob attacks at it occasionally. As I near, I Blink Step into the air, bypassing the additional reflexive fire that comes at where I should be if I exited normally. This gives me more than enough time to launch my first set of missiles into the gathered Frakin, and I watch the missiles throw up flame, dirt, and blood below me. Even as I land, I’m casting Polar Wind with one hand and snatching smoke grenades to toss onto the ground with the other.
As I sprint to the side, I keep my head swiveling, tagging monsters in my display with a thought as I keep dropping the temperature via Polar Wind. I have to keep them on their toes, keep rocking them with sudden changes and new tactics, so that I can fight them piecemeal and whittle them down. As the smoke grenades begin to fill the air, I add my last additional toy to the battle—high-tech white phosphorous grenades. I throw the self-propelled grenades into the air, where they split apart, each separate portion tracking their pre-selected targets. The portions attach before igniting the phosphorous and directing the burning substance into the creatures as 2760 C, or about half the surface temperature of the sun.
The Frakin go crazy, the incendiaries burning through their chitin and ticking down their health. Of course, the System does reduce the amount of actual physical damage based off their health points, but pain is the major goal here.
Instinct makes me trigger Blink Step and not a moment too soon, as the Boss’s stinger smashes into the column of stone I was hiding behind. As I reappear, I spin around and trigger my rifle, going full-auto into the creature’s side. The Boss is a weird image of wireframe outlines, infrared shading, and normal vision as my helmet compensates for reduced visibility. I’m targeting a single spot—just below the second pair of legs. where the creature’s heart is. If I can chew through enough of its armor, I just might be able to do some real damage. My heart thuds faster, my breathing shortening slightly as I recall the stinger, but I don’t have time.
I keep moving, opening fire with rifle and missiles, leaving my sword to cut and slice monsters as I dance through the cavern, always trying to keep my target in sight. Occasionally I toss a sticky grenade at a monster that nears me, capturing and locking it in place. Unfortunately, I forget I’m fighting a thinking creature and my movements are too predictable.
As I lop off the leg of a Champion Frakin, the Boss’s pincer catches me and throws me into a wall. It’s only the reduced visibility and its sickness that makes the Boss’s next swing mostly miss, the pincer smashing into my upper left side and crushing Sabre’s shield, sending me careening off in a different direction. Lucky for me—otherwise the follow-up blast from the other stinger might have finished me off.
My ears are ringing and I can taste blood as I slowly look up. The Frakin Boss isn’t stopping though, rushing toward me as I stagger to my feet. I need time, so I slap on my Mana Shield just in time for one of the Plasma Frakin’s blasts to be caught on it. I trigger Blink Step again, wincing as my Mana pool drops once more.
A glance at the Boss Frakin is all I need to tell me that this isn’t working. Fighting a monster like this head-on was a vain hope, but it’s not as if I had a choice. Somewhere back there, my friends are fighting, maybe dying. I have to finish this.
Of course, wishing something will happen doesn’t mean that it will, and all I’ve got right now is a lot of wishes and dreams. Running to the side, sword slashing out against the monsters, I stare at the blinking icons indicating that I’ve loaded everything I have. Once I shoot this, I’m done—then I’m down to hacking and cutting at the Boss.
“Keep it busy for another minute, boy-o.” Ali’s dry tone almost makes me shout in joy.
I nod, thinking a confirmation as I switch directions, running straight into the incoming pair of Champion Frakin. I catch one of their stingers on the sword, spin around with its momentum to help me dodge the second, then Blink Step away as the blast from the Boss’s stinger turns the Champions into so much crispy meat. A wavefront of the blast catches me, tossing me to the ground. I roll with it and spin up, loosing a short burst that tears open and ends the Acid Frakin rearing above me. Warning lights blink as the damn acid eats into Sabre, but I’m up and running again.
I trigger Blink Step, watching my Mana plunge as I flicker to a spot that gives me a view of the Boss monster. Or will, I hope, as I fire the missiles. The monster spins just like I figured it would. Or perhaps I should say its reactions to my previous actions are predictable. Either way, it puts itself perfectly in position to receive the full load of
mini-missiles into its side, each tiny guided package impacting and ripping deeper and deeper into the Boss’s torso.
In anger, the monster swings down a pincer to crush me and I don’t have time to dodge. Instead, I conjure my sword and take the blow on it, gripping the blade with my other armored hand as the weight of the monster bears down on me. Power-assisted knees buckle and pain shoots up my thighs as I crumple, the too-sharp edge of my blade having cut through the monster’s chitin such that the rest of the pincer smashes into me. Oops…
Warning lights shriek all around me and I whimper slightly, the ringing in my head having gotten so much worse. My sword, still embedded in the pincer gets taken into the air as the monster withdraws its appendage, leaving me in a crumpled camel pose. I watch in slow motion as the monster aims its glowing, beam-casting stinger at me even as I attempt to scramble away. The explosion of light and sound that comes from the side catches both of us by surprise.
A red beam of light with twisting green and white streams erupts from the second entrance, smashing into the creature with such force that its own beam is jerked aside and played across a trio of unlucky Frakin charging toward me. I stumble to my feet as the maelstrom of energy digs into the monster’s side and tears off a stinger and two legs, ripping a giant hole in the Boss’s body. The legs flop to the ground, still twitching, as blood spills in a waterfall, just like the Boss’s health bar. The beam adjusts and continues to burn through the monster. A bare fifth of its health is all that’s left when the beam finally stops, but the Boss is still standing.
I snarl, dodging to the side as a Champion Frakin staggers up to me. I recall my sword, cut at its pincers, and when a chance comes, I call up Cleave to help shear off a pincer entirely. I do all this while my brain switches to overdrive, trying to figure out what other options we have left.