by Dawn Chapman
Name - Kyle Ranz
Species - Human/Denti
Year of Death - 2629
Class = Fighter/Sorcerer
Age 18
Level = 14
Respawns = 2
Memories = 94%
Health = 76%
Mana = 17
Nanites x 58,591
Body Type = Unknown
Structural Integrity = Tungsten and Alumi
Internal AI Chip = X Class
Skin Strength = 9
Blood Capacity = 8
Healing Speed = 14
Strength = 10
Dexterity = 12
Constitution = 13
Intelligence = 12
Wisdom = 14
Charisma = 6
Luck = 5
Quick Points = 0
Skills =
Foot Soldier - Rank 7
Battle Mage - Rank 8
Merc - Rank 2
Sniper - Rank 10
Gun Smith - Rank 6
Nanite Engineer - Rank 8
Mech pilot - Rank 8
Human/Machine Interface - Rank 11
Shadow Awareness - Rank 3
Deception - Rank 5
Sword Play - Rank 4
Vrolsh Coding Learned
Special Traits Awarded x 4 – Any extras here do not show on your Stat Sheet Totals.
Healer = Internal AI Chip X Class – Crystalline and Silver metal chip with integrated healer nanites led by Xe Aria.
Intelligence = Internal prototype AI Chip, inserted on 17th birthday, with consciousness of Hiroto.
Knowledge = direct from Xirob if he freely gives it. Extra skills and training available.
Shade Brain – One in a million, you managed to not only keep your memories, but you can also hide them. Your character sheet is elusive to even the strongest of will. Be aware, this will be your downfall in high company (expert and above).
Spell - Active - Minor Healing = Requires BATTLE MAGE RANK of 2 and x 1 Mana per second.
Spell - Active - Medium Healing = Requires BATTLE MAGE RANK of 7 and x 10 Mana per second.
Spell - Passive - Intensive Healing = Requires BATTLE MAGE RANK of 14 and x 100 Mana per second.
Chapter Eighteen
Firing on all cylinders, the line that spread out now consisted of many heavy mechs totally tooled up with things I had no clue about. Even if I had, I was sure I’d die for trying one.
I barely kept myself from falling. I concentrated on my breathing and what I could see, which was the whole field. I realised then that I could also direct better than any commanding officer on the line. So I did. I started to send out orders for the others. To manage the line.
They were reluctant at first, but those who followed my orders started getting kill shots, and it didn’t take long for the others to follow suit.
“Saskia,” I said. “Grid 281, then 428!”
She turned and fired without stopping. Both her targets went down. I swallowed. I could see what was coming for us, and it didn’t look pretty. The three larger boss monsters were incoming, surrounded by a smaller set of obviously high-powered minions and M-Wolves.
We’re fucked, I thought. My insides churned; there had to be a way out of this. My brain started to work overtime. There had to be something else I could pull off. Something.
Then I remembered the fluidity of the mech I was in, the design. The layout of the room where we stole these from. Recalled the picture at the end of the room. Even though I only glanced at it and didn’t quite grasp it then, my new stats helped me piece it together. I knew it! I’d seen it back then!
What are you thinking about? Hiroto asked.
I thought of the image and it flashed before me. The six mechs merging into one. Xirob? That’s possible?
It is. Came his reply. But, I have no idea if Tyto will go for it, and I sure don’t have the skill to do it on my own. Even if I really wanted to.
I don’t want to do it, I said. I had to let Tyto do it, though. “Tyto,” I said. “We won’t defeat them without using everything we have.”
“Fuck them!” his voice came back. “What do you need?”
“You need to merge us,” I said simply.
Tyto’s shock reverberated through my head. It actually hurt. “You want me to merge you? Do you have any idea what that means?”
I did not. “Fucking. Do. It.”
It was as if a silver shadow crossed over my vision. Then scrolling started to fill it. My mech was getting conflicting orders from all sides. Hiroto and Xirob were fighting him.
Guys, I said. You need to trust him. He didn’t get where he is now by sucking.
He’s taking over the system controls, Hiroto said.
I know, let him. This needs his expertise, not my beginner fumbling.
Xirob’s disgruntled growls came through too, but he didn’t give up firing until the last minute.
As my legs moved of their own accord, I found the whole thing surreal. I wanted to stop it. I didn’t want Tyto to have any control over me, but there was no other choice.
All five of us pooled on Tyto’s position, though, and I watched as the merge began. The two tank mechs he commanded joined together to make a pretty decent pair of giant legs. That’s when Dylan joined them— he made up the centre portion of the unit, hopping right up into his place.
SYSTEM MERGE – YOU AREN’T TRAINED FOR THIS. YOU MUST GIVE UP FULL CONTROL TO TYTO JACK
Y/N
I really didn’t want to.
DO IT! Hiroto said.
I mentally hit the Yes. I was next to merge, and my unit made up the left arm. I wasn’t sure how any of this would actually work as part of the same body, but I was going to find out.
Saskia’s voice came to me inside my mind then. “You have to let go, Kyle. He can’t command your unit or use your energies without it. As much as we don’t like each other, we need this. Don’t let that be our downfall right now.”
I had to take a split second to think about this, but I couldn’t think too long or all was lost. Tyto and Saskia were everything I despised. I was sure. But we all needed each other.
As I relinquished control to my unit, I started to see other things. There was something else inside Tyto that I hadn’t ever dreamed of.
It seemed strange to see them as people, but all three of us looked in front of us to the code that was Tyto. Pain. There was excruciating pain.
What the all-ever fuck is that from? Xirob let out a wail.
I stopped it getting in any further, stopping the code dead. I looked left and then right. There in my mind were Hiroto and Xirob, standing with me.
What is he? I asked them.
I don’t know, came a joint reply. He’s not human. That’s obvious. I don’t recognise anything about him, either. But he is part denti.
Tyto began to work all the units. The legs stood forwards, and he was controlling the weapons that were now merged together between us in some extra ass-kicking firepower, but the closer we got to the shielding, the more I could see what he intended. I need to be the blade, I thought. So does Saskia.
Tyto intended to fight the three Trel bosses as he now stood, a giant among them, much larger than any of their mechs, and with possible ten times their combined levels. I could see why this would work much more than any other way of attack. I could see why it was also something that very few teams actually did, or could do. The trust needed was extreme, and even I wasn’t sure I was ready to accept it all.
Tyto reached behind, pulling forward a blade from his weapon pack.
To my shock it lit up in flames. It was my blade, and I was the one wielding it. The three bosses split up, their minions around them scattering. Tyto started to kick them out of the way. Those near us were dead in seconds, and what remained was squashed in his wake, the large metallic feet of ours planting down, one after the other. This made the bosses pause in their movements, then they pulled out other weapons and started to fire at us.
Missiles and projectiles just bounced off our combined shields, and I grinned. This was better than any other game I had ever been a part of. I laughed, and Hiroto and Xirob started to laugh with me.
This is the wildest thing I’ve ever seen in my life, Xirob said.
We stood in my mind’s view and watched, watched the fight as though it were in front of us. That we were a third party just witnessing it happen. There was nothing I could do at all. Tyto had one hundred percent control, and I wanted something as a failsafe, a way out. So, I tried the backdoor, hunting for a way to access the control.
MECH MERGE OVERRIDE – ACCESS DENIED = YOU CAN’T OVERRIDE
Worth a try, right?
I know you know. Tyto’s voice came to me. We will discuss this. Not. Now. Though.
Shit, he’s going to kill us! Hiroto squealed.
Tyto swung hard at the first mech, and the sword that was Saskia struck deep. Cutting it in half, within a few seconds it had vanished off my viewer. That surprised me. She’d managed to create something out of herself, for him. That fascinated me.
When I felt the call for me to become more than something he could slice with, I struggled. I couldn’t think of myself as anything but human, and I watched as his left arm morphed from a gun, stalled into a mix of something that wasn’t real and was.
MECH MERGE OVERRIDE – STALLED MERGE – DISCONNECTING MERGE
The mech on the ground saw us pause and reached out with the largest sword he could and swung towards me. Even as good a shielding as my mech had, and top of its line, it sliced right through my side.
Fuck, Kyle! Follow my orders, or you’re going to get us all killed, Tyto barked at me. This was your stupid idea! If we lose this mech, I’ll keep coming for you to kill you again and again.
Understood?
I understand! I replied while I was desperately trying to get around his control. He was going to get us killed, not me!
MECH MERGE OVERRIDE – ACCESS DENIED = YOU CAN’T OVERRIDE
COMBINED HEALTH x 535%
It had dropped a whole chunk. This was totally down to me. I’d let them down.
What happened then confused the hell out of me, too. Pain. I felt like I’d been cut in half. The pain was so severe I nearly lost my battle of wills.
Numbing as much as I can, Hiroto said.
Fuck! I screamed. Help me do what he’s asking!
The pain fuelled my vision, and the more I thought about what he was asking, the more I could see it happening. The left arm started to morph once more, and as it struck out this time, it was sharpened into a blade that matched Saskia.
Better! Tyto said. Now let’s do this!
It was easier now to feel like the tank. We were doing all of this. We danced in and out of the three mechs that were trying to best us. It was close, but Tyto was as his scores said on the leaderboard: a master. I had no reason to argue with their assessment of him, which I witnessed as he started to win against them. Taking fewer slashes and damage, he wounded them instead.
I watched as our joint health started to fall again. 426%.
Then Saskia punctured through one of the mech’s chest plates, and it fell.
CRITICAL HIT
YOU HAVE HIT MECH 73 FOR FULL DAMAGE. MECH 73 IS DEAD.
No kidding. We watched as its loot box blinked at us. I wondered what the hell it would have that would help me. I was stopped as the remaining mechs did something…off. They did what we had. The last remaining mech called them all together, including the remaining M- Wolves and we watched them meld as one. Its HPs started up again, much higher than ours. It was huge, much bigger than us. I felt the joint cringe. I didn’t know if we could beat it now. We were losing.
No, Hiroto shouted. We aren’t! It’s the last switch for it, and it’s got nothing else left. Don’t even think about giving up.
That was good. I had forgotten that sometimes when almost out, bosses would pull a fast one, a last-ditch attempt to fight back. This was it. Its metamorphosis was great. Now we just had to get over our shock and fight.
Tyto, however, was getting tired. Really tired.
Saskia struck forwards as I defended, taking the brunt of a hit once more. I felt the pain as it sliced into the chest area and knew Dylan was struggling, just as much if not more than I was.
Then I felt something else. Tyto wasn’t just feeling the hits—he was losing the battle for control of our mech. I noticed alongside the health bar, it listed his control of the full machine. He was losing it. That would mean we’d collapse, that the enemy would just squash us.
Shit. I concentrated as much as I could to pull energy towards what he was doing, everything he was missing. Everything he tried to do that the machine fought. It worked for a while, and we were granted a few more minutes in the fight.
But his mind started to crumble.
Saskia called to him. Don’t give in, my love. You can do this.
He was giving in, though.
She just didn’t know how much I was holding him up. As the mechs clashed together once more and the enemy got a sneaky stab into the lower leg, Tyto dropped. He was going down. I felt his mind lose full control of the make-up. The way it shifted and started to crumble on a more fundamental level was just phenomenal.
MECH MERGE WILL COLLAPSE IN TWENTY SECONDS – NEWB, YOU CAN’T CONTROL THIS…DON’T BE AN IDIOT!
Hiroto’s voice came through almost garbled. I can bypass it! Kyle hold on, give me thirty seconds.
I wasn’t listening.
Twenty seconds!
Tyto was fighting me, though. He wouldn’t let me take the control.
Tyto. I tried to speak directly to him, so no one else could hear us. I can save us. Let me.
You’re nothing! He tried to retaliate.
I can take this machine with or without your permission. But I will not give up on them! Don’t you give up. Pass me control!
Holy crap! Xirob said as we started to melt away from the unit. I’d die. I knew the thoughts of his life and mine flashed through him in a split second.
TYTO! LET GO!
MECH MERGE ACCESS DENIED!
The red flashing lights hurt my eyes, but then they turned to Orange, then Green!
Nailed it! Hiroto shouted. Together!
Now we weren’t letting go. We were holding our own. The machine struggled against us, and the pain tripled as we held on with everything we had.
Will. Not. Let. GO! I shouted to the ether, forcing my will alone to keep us here.
I could feel Tyto’s will ebbing, then a much softer voice. If you can save it, do it. It’s too valuable to lose.
TYTO JACK – KYLE RANZ = SYSTEM OVERRIDE – FULL MERGE CAPABLE AS A COMBINED TEAM
Combined?
The system is recognising all our stats, yours and mine, Xirob said.
Together we are strong enough to lead the mech merge!
You have character sheets? I wanted to see them, but not right now… As the materials moved and lost their coherency before me, I stared up into the eye of the enemy mech. I looked into its eye. I had the top position now. I was in the head of the mech. We’d moved from the arm, and everything that I saw now was as clear as the codes as were the details that also flew past me.
We were strong, and we were much stronger than the enemy. I lifted Saskia up, felt the shiver of her as she forced herself to become a sharp blade once more obeying my command. She moved with a swiftness I could only wish for in battle. She slammed upwards as the enemy came down.
Dip! I screamed to the legs. Feeling them give way, we dropped into a different position.
The way I felt was weird, but I knew I wouldn’t want it to happen any other way. I knew this was exactly what I needed to have happen to prove my point every time someone would ever look at me. This would be it, that moment that I stood up to everyone and everything.
It was the way I took control of the whole thing. It was failing. More than it ever could have. And I needed to make sure it didn’t. We had t
o survive!
The surge of energy whooshed past me, and I sucked it in. The pain that came with it reached peak level for me. I mean, everyone took it all. But I could take much more than they ever could.
It was like my eyes were opened. I knew we had it in us!
Tyto’s health flashed before me, though, and I knew. I saw it. He was done for. How the hell?
I sucked in a breath; there was one thing I could still do, and that was to make sure that I never had to leave anything behind.
I turned Saskia to the monster that was on my case, and I made sure she lashed into it with all that she was. It surprised me, because her blood lust was real. Over ninety-nine percent.
That pushed me to look at my other stats. I’d never seen them like this.
Mech Model = UNIQUE
Class - Special - Mech Merge
Operational level required = 260 - BYPASSED
Overall Personal Level required = 540 - BYPASSED
Internal AI Chip = Combined
Nanites x 2,480,43
Structural Integrity = Combined
Hull Strength = 1935
Mana Core = 100%
Strength = 1620
Speed = 932
Weight = 630 Tonnes
Cockpit Strength = 1330
Heat Tolerance = 2620
Because of these I knew we also wouldn’t fail. I knew it was all different. Tyto’s skills and combined health were much more than I would ever be on my own, but now he was failing to control the merge.
TYTO JACK – HEALTH = 34%
From inside myself and pushing towards him, even if mana wasn’t real, I cast Medium Healing. It worked—his health came up a notch! I tucked in, made sure I could see what I had to do, then I reassessed our full system. I could do this now. I had the edge. I would lose another thirty percent at least. But I also knew sacrifices had to be made. Saskia would respawn, and so would her other teammate, and maybe even Dylan.