Mania and the Executioner

by A. L. Bridges

  “Alex felt it necessary to try and get revenge for last night so he had two elves restrain me while he tried to freeze me. I waited until he burned through my skin and then I formed a ball of C-4 in his hand. Inside of the ball was nitrogen triiodide which creates a sizeable cloud of red smoke so I essentially made a smoke bomb; oh, and his hand is probably a mess…or it’s just gone.” I explain.

  “Eh, don’t worry about it; he deserved it anyway. You two should probably go back to Natasha’s room and take Kita with you. She scampered in barking about ten seconds before you arrived.” Pinga says as Kita slinks out from behind her; Kita’s ears are flat and she looks ashamed overall.

  “It’s okay; I know that you did the best you could.” I tell Kita as I pick her up. She licks my face once in response, but still looks slightly ashamed.

  I port Natasha, Kita, and myself back to Natasha’s room where we just hangout and watch TV for a few hours. Natasha announces that she is hungry and leaves to go get some food. Cheza comes back while she is gone and we make small talk until Natasha comes back with a cart that carries three, covered plates. We all eat dinner, watch TV for a while, and go to bed.

  …

  [June 5th]

  That night, I had another dream about the fox-girl. I wake up the next morning to find Kita asleep on my chest. I gently move her off of me and go to the bathroom. I shower, get dressed, and exit the bathroom to find Natasha eating on the couch. I sit down next to her and eat as well.

  “So I need to run some more explosive experiments today, are you in?” I ask while finishing my omelet.

  “Sure, but let’s keep the ear perforation to a minimum today.” Natasha says with a smile.

  “Haha definitely! I just need to port home quickly to grab a notebook, pencil, tape measure, and…I think that’s it.” I say.

  “Well, if that’s all, I can just fetch that stuff for you.” Natasha says and walks over to her desk, digs through the drawers, and pulls out the things I need. “Ready to go?”

  I nod and port us to the field from yesterday. Natasha moves back about thirty feet and I engage my helmet. I start the day’s experiments by making the same smoke ball that I did yesterday. I measure the ball, finding that it is 2.5 centimeters in diameter; I throw the ball at the ground and I disappear within a cloud of smoke. When the smoke dissipates, I measure the resulting crater from the explosion: 15 centimeters.

  “Airi, how much blood did it take to make that?”

  (0.1 Liters)

  I decrease the size of the next ball to 1 centimeter, which results in a 6 centimeter crater.

  (0.04 Liters)

  So it appears that the smoke balls have a resulting crater that is six times their size and use up one tenth of a liter per ball. I record all of this information in the notebook and then I move on to experiments using solid RDX.

  I’m able to determine that at least five milliliters of nitrogen triiodide per centimeter of spherical crystal RDX is needed to detonate it, the crater ratio is 1:20, and 0.1 liters per centimeter is needed to make RDX.

  “Alright, I’m starting to feel my blood loss now so let’s call it a day.” I tell Natasha. We port back to her room where we watch a movie.

  “Let’s go get something to eat!” Natasha exclaims when the movie is over. I look at the clock and see that it is dinner time anyway.

  “Sure.” I say while shrugging my shoulders.

  I follow Natasha to the dining hall that must be exclusively for the head family because I’ve never been so instantaneously despised upon entering a room before. I just keep my head down and follow Natasha over to a servant who already has cart waiting, and we wheel the cart out of the hall.

  “It looks like this will be over soon!” I hear someone say as we are heading down a corridor and away from the dining hall.

  “Hey Airi, does my blood make me resistant to poisons?”

  (Yes it does; any damage a poison will do to your stomach will be repaired and the poison will be consumed by your blood after it automatically forms a chemical compound to break down the poison)

  Natasha and I get back to the room to find Cheza waiting.

  “YAY! Food!” Cheza says as we come in.

  “Sorry Cheza, but I’ll be eating all of this. Where do you guys want me to get food from?” I ask.

  “What? Why?” Natasha asks.

  “Oh, I’m pretty sure that all of the plates are poisoned.” I say blatantly.

  “How do you know that?” Natasha asks.

  “I uh, heard some guy say ‘it looks like this will be over soon’.” I inform them.

  “Then why are you eating it!?” Cheza asks.

  “To throw them off; They will see that we are still alive after eating dinner, probably try poisoning breakfast or dinner tomorrow, and when we are still alive after all of their attempts, they will stop trying...or that’s the plan at least. Airi tells me that I’m resistant to poison so I’ll be completely unharmed! So is where shall I fetch my Mistresses’ dinner from?” I ask.

  …

  Chapter 36: Good Times with Explosives

  [June 6th]

  I had another fox-girl dream last night. I taste test the food that Natasha brings for breakfast and Airi tells me that it isn’t poisoned. I run more explosives experiments but today’s experiments are on ONC: Crater ratio is 1:30, 0.15 liters per centimeter, and five milliliters of nitrogen triiodide per centimeter is necessary to detonate it. Natasha and I head back and proceed to lounge around for a few hours until Cheza gets back. All three of us go to get the dinner cart when Cheza returns. I taste test the food and Airi tells me that the amount of poison has quadrupled from last night. After dinner, the girls make wedding plans while I go to bed.

  …

  [June 7th]

  Once again, another fox-girl dream; I’m tempted to just toss Kita out of the bed to see if the dreams stop, but it’s like she knows what I’m going to do and makes that begging face until I set her back down. I look on the bedside table and see a note that reads:

  Cole, I’m going with Cheza today so that we can plan for the wedding while she’s training. -Natasha

  Looks like I’m flying solo for today’s experiments. I take a shower and port to the laboratory. Today’s experiments will be using Octaazacubane. I form a crystal sphere in the palm of my hand.

  (0.15 Liters)

  Using the same amount of blood as ONC indicates that nitrogen is the limiting reactant when I form explosives. I drop the crystal onto the ice and walk away before I realize that I forgot to drip some blood onto it so I turn around…

  …and I wake up in Natasha’s bed.

  “COLE!” Cheza screams to my right.

  “Looks who’s back with the living! How are you feeling buddy?” Natasha asks from her spot near Cheza. I see that Pinga is also in the room.

  “What the hell happened?” I ask.

  “Well, you are going to have to tell us that, but by the state your legs were in, I’d say a big ass bomb went off a few feet from you.” Natasha replies

  “I was able to heal them but I couldn’t do anything about your penis…” Pinga says.

  “It’s okay Cole, we still love you! Chezarei and I might just have sex without you from now on…” Natasha says.

  “WHAT!?” I scream over Natasha as I make a mad grab for my crotch.

  “Because I didn’t need to.” Pinga finishes.

  “Although Chezarei and I will most likely still include you.” Natasha finishes.

  “Cole? What happened?” Cheza asks before I can yell at Pinga and Natasha.

  “I’m not sure…I was testing explosives like I have the past few days. I don’t understand what could have happened. I didn’t detonate it and the chemical should have been stable—” I say before Airi interrupts.

  (Metastable)

  “What do you mean metastable?” I ask aloud.

  Airi displays the Wikipedia page from my memory and right at the top is says that Octaazacubane isn’t therm
odynamically stable.

  “Oh…it looks like I screwed up a little bit. The chemical became unstable when it touched the ice and exploded on its own.” I explain.

  “How much did you use?” Natasha asks.

  “The same amount as the past few days: a spherical crystal that was one centimeter in diameter.” I tell her.

  “Cole…that crater was almost two feet wide.” Natasha informs me.

  Well it looks like that one is a winner if I can figure some way to make it stable, but for right now, I’m going to have to rely on ONC.

  “Alright well we should probably get something for dinner.” Pinga says.

  “What? How long was I out!?” I ask.

  “You were unconscious for nearly six hours.” Cheza informs me.

  “Shit…sorry, it looks like I ruined an entire day of training for you.” I say.

  “Don’t worry about it; we were able to finish a lot of planning for the wedding so it panned out alright.” Pinga says

  “Well, that’s good I guess. I’m starving so let’s go get—” I say as I stand out of bed and subsequently fall to the ground.

  “Cole!” Cheza exclaims as she helps me up. “We’ll go get dinner while you stay here and let your legs heal.”

  Cheza tucks me in and then she, Pinga, and Natasha leave the room. Kita jumps up on the bed and snuggles into my side.

  “Well, at least you’re here.” I say quietly as I pet Kita.

  (I’m always with you, Master)

  “Haha, that is true Airi!” I say aloud.

  Cheza and Natasha come back with food and I do my taste test for poison. It’s clean; looks like my hypothesis was correct. We eat and watch a movie in bed, and then we go to sleep.

  …

  [June 8th]

  That night, the vixen shows up in my dreams again, but there is a slight difference this time. Mid-coitus, the fox-girl stops and starts speaking.

  “Cole, you need to wake up. There is a problem with Natasha!” the fox-girl says and then she bites my earlobe.

  ****

  I jolt awake and find Kita biting my ear.

  “Ow!” I say sharply to Kita. She narrows her eyes at me in response and looks to my left.

  I look over to find Natasha breathing heavily and sweating profusely. I gently caress her cheek and her eyes snap open.

  “Cole! The base is going to come under attack in less than an hour; roughly three hundred werewolves, some with automatic weapons. Make sure you wear your armored pants!” Natasha exclaims.

  “How many snow elf soldiers are there?” I ask as I feel Cheza wake up.

  “Around one hundred, but twenty of them are currently out of commission and the majority of those twenty are squad leaders!” Natasha says while panicking slightly.

  “I’ll get ready. Can you find me some plastic bottles or glass jars? Anything that is easy to throw and re-sealable. I need you to tell Jorgen to get any soldiers together, give them automatic weapons, and have them on standby in the tunnel. He should also have a two foot thick wall of ice constructed in front of the door so that the soldiers won’t take fire when coming out. I need several pillars of ice constructed for cover as well. My plan is to create a large smoke screen and use the smoke screen as cover to mow down the werewolves with the Obliterator.” I explain. Natasha nods, gets dressed, and hurries out of the room.

  “What’s going on Cole?” Cheza asks.

  “We are about to come under attack by about three hundred werewolves, and I’m going out there to stop them.” I explain as I get out of bed and walk over to my luggage.

  I search through my luggage, only to discover that I didn’t bring my armored jeans. I quickly put on some normal jeans; I’ll just have to be careful. I notice Cheza starting to get dressed in her armored jacket, which is a good idea, but I get the feeling that she isn’t putting it on a precaution so much as battle attire.

  “Cheza, I need you to stay here. You have little combat experience and I’m not going to allow you to gain that experience against three hundred opponents.” I tell her.

  “Cole! I can’t let you go out there alo—” Cheza says before I interrupt her with a kiss.

  “I’ll be just fine, I promise, but I need you to be safe, Cheza.” I explain.

  “Okay Cole…” Cheza says quietly.

  “Thank you Cheza.” I say before I kiss her again.

  Natasha runs back into the room while out of breath.

  “Alright, Jorgen said that he’d have the soldiers ready; Pinga is constructing the pillars and wall right now; and I couldn’t find any bottles, but Pinga said that Chezarei should be able to help with that.” Natasha says once her breath returns to her.

  “Alright Cheza, let’s port to the area where you’ve been training.” I say as I grab her hand and touch my triskele.

  “Okay, I need you to construct a basin that is a foot in diameter and two feet high. This is going to be a test of your control because I need you to cool my blood so that the ice won’t melt, which in turn would dilute my blood, but not enough to freeze it.” I say and Cheza nods with a determined look.

  Cheza squats down, presses her hand against the ice, and closes her eyes. About fifteen seconds later, the ice begins to respond to her and thirty seconds after that, a basin grows from the ice like a tree.

  “Good work Cheza! In between the time when you are cooling down my blood, I need you to construct five bottles that are three inches in diameter and six inches tall; these ones don’t need caps. I also need you to construct four more bottles that are two inches in diameter and four inches tall; these ones need caps.” I explain as I slice open my left arm with my ring and drain a half liter into the basin. Cheza gives another determined nod in response.

  Cheza cools down my blood, showing masterful control over her power as she creates the bottles simultaneously. I fill up the first container and port to the entrance of the complex. I see that Pinga has already set up a wall and the four pillars, which are equally spaced across the natural basin and parallel with the wall. I pull out my Diamond sword, grind a hole into the ice in front of the leftmost pillar, and place the first cylinder in the hole. I port back to see that Cheza has finished all of the containers. I drain more blood, fill the bottle, port to the front, place the bottle, and port back; I repeat that sequence three more times, and when I’m finished the containers make an X that spans the width of the bowl. In the center canister, I drop a spherical crystal of ONC that is seven centimeters in diameter.

  I return to Cheza as Natasha runs in breathless.

  “Cole…they reached…the bottom checkpoint!” Natasha gasps out.

  “Looks like it’s show time! Don’t worry Cheza, I’ll be careful!” I exclaim and then I port out to the battlefield, a little disappointed that I don’t have enough time to fill up the canisters that I was going to use for grenades.

  Chapter 37: Havoc and the Farm Animals of War

  I take out my gun and equip the silencer before holstering it and whipping out the Obliterator. I take cover behind a pillar and expand my hearing to listen for their footsteps. About five minutes later, I hear the crunch of the snow and ice under the weight of the approaching werewolves. I engage my helmet and listen for the majority of the force to enter the large X and for the front guys to reach the line that the two closest blood cylinders make. I snap my fingers and I feel the explosion caused by the ONC that is over thirty feet away; understandable when the seven foot crater is taken into consideration. Since there aren’t any fragments to cause injury, this explosive acts like a concussion grenade; it most likely just killed anyone within ten feet of it and perforated the eardrums of most of the werewolves, which is exactly what I was counting on.

  I poke my head around the corner while listening to the beautiful screams of havoc. The frontline is freaking out and trying to figure out what is happening as I step out from cover. I whip the Obliterator from left to right, severing the heads of five werewolves. I continue whipping the Obliterator
back and forth while spinning every so often to add extra centrifugal force into my attacks. I notice that a few of the werewolves are in wolf form so I start hitting lower so that my attacks don’t sail over them, whose heads only reach chest level.

  The smokescreen from the nitrogen triiodide is doing its job perfectly and the werewolves never know what’s hitting them. I’m making pretty quick work of them, killing multiple enemies with each swing as the snow and ice become red with blood and the sweet smell of hysteria fills the air; my line up of werewolves was perfect training for this as they are never in groupings of more than five, which is about how many I could cut through consistently.

  The psychological effect of hearing your comrades dying and not being able to see what is killing them is having a fantastic effect. I’d say that the amount of friendly fire has accounted for a quarter of the total deaths; however, it also results in me getting nailed in the chest with three 5.56mm rounds from a Steyr AUG A3. I continue slicing, dicing, and ripping through the werewolves, but I run into some issue once they are roughly down to half of their number.

  I take half of a dozen 7.62mm rounds to each of my thighs. I look where they were fired from and see a small squad equipped with thermal-vision goggles and FN FAL rifles with fifty-round box magazines. Knowing when I’m beaten, I make a tactical retreat behind the second pillar on the right as quickly as possible; however, my thighs are so torn to shit that I end up ripping the muscles just making it to cover, which effectively immobilizes me behind the pillar. The small squad starts advancing on my position.

  “HEY SNOW ELF GUYS! A LITTLE HELP!?” I shout towards the door only to sense absolutely nobody down that tunnel.

  Okay, I’m pretty fucked, but I’m not out yet; I still have one hundred WFNGC rounds, which should allow me to buy enough time for my legs to heal. I’m glad I had the forethought to attach the silencer so that the other werewolves won’t be alerted to my position. I pull out my gun and quickly double tap each of the five thermal-vision equipped werewolves before a few bizarre occurrences take place: A large chunk of the ice pillar explodes, the basin echoes thunder throughout it, and a small meteorite impacts the left side of my chest.