by Dawn Chapman
Everything was so much bigger. As a denti, I was tiny. But I was also something that they didn’t know.
The control to pull out was easy to find. The helmet of the mech popped open, and, with some struggle because there was no unit for me to pull myself up on, I lifted up and out. Then I dropped, landing hard and rolling, just as the creatures came hurtling over the top of my mech. I only had Nehi’s shield and my sword. I hoped that it would be enough. I spun around quickly, activating the shield as I saw fangs bite deep, separating what was my mech’s arm from its shoulder. Fuck me!
I tapped the side of my head. No way to communicate with Dylan now. Hiroto, get me through to him any way you can. I need him to take on the smaller ones while I go for the mother.
What? Hiroto asked.
You heard me. Get me patched through to Dylan! Now!
There was a huge explosion as another fireball came hurtling towards our position. Dylan was luckily quick enough to get out of the way even without me taking the hits for him. However, I could see that the smaller tigers had landed a good few slashes on his mech. Steam and liquid flowed out the backside of one of his legs.
The female Traixic was just sitting there now, her eyes following Dylan and her kittens There was a huge growl to my right as one of the smaller ones noticed me. I didn’t have the energy or the hit points to take much from it if they came at me. I was more than sure I would fit inside its mouth. If it decided it wanted to eat me.
I tried not to think about it as the mother glanced to the kittens.
I knew I had to run for her. She may have been much bigger, but I also thought she wouldn’t move as fast. Giving birth was hard, right?
You may be onto something there! Xirob said.
I hoped so. If I could get out of the moment I seemed stuck in and close to her. Maybe I could get in a few strikes. Maybe we could win, even if the kittens would probably turn ballistic. Maybe the others would retreat, or I could somehow activate my sword and take them all on. I could win.
CONFIDENCE BOOSTED!
BELIEF IN YOURSELF IS A HUGE THING! GO TEAM KYLE!
I knew that wasn’t going to happen without serious work. Turning to face her and not the one who was hoping to make me lunch, I made a run for it, putting distance between us as fast as this denti could. I wouldn’t be able to outrun it over large distances, but I knew that here now in a sprint for life or death, with Dylan in the way, I had the ability to get there.
Through! Hiroto shouted.
Dylan, you gotta block. I’m running by your left side, defence behind. In three.
Two.
One.
I skirted around him, barely avoiding being stepped on. He spun, and dropping to his knees, lashed out with his blades, stopping the Traixic that was after me by shoving his blade through its chest.
Fantastic kill!
I now saw notifications go off as usual. This was a good thing. I pulled it up really quickly and saw I had something else I wanted to shout for—Quick Points!
Xirob, you know what they do!
If you want to, assign them now, something that will help you, here.
Now! Xirob said.
As I ran for the mother tiger, I pulled up my sheet and quickly dropped one of the Quick Points I had into Intelligence. I was never going to be quick enough or strong enough to kill her. I had to outsmart her.
FUCK!
I’d hoped that using them for this would give me something else, and boy did it! From a 14 to 28!
The rush with the extra brainpower seemed to do something. I realised she hadn’t seen me. Right behind her, I saw something else: the inside to her cave.
Oh shit, yes!
Dylan, keep fighting! I’m going for her kittens
Shit, you’ll get sliced in half with one swipe. Fuck! Dylan screamed. Hit!
I couldn’t turn back. I knew that he was out, and I heard the sickening crunch as one of the Traixic got a bite where they shouldn’t have. Maybe his head? Crap.
The mother Traixic seemed to just sit there, her red eyes on the fight.
Was that a grin?
I slipped past her and into the cave, my eyes adjusting to the light within seconds. There I saw what I wanted to see. Ahead there was a nest and several crawling kittens. Dang, they were almost the size of a fully-grown dog.
I put the weapons away. I wasn’t going to get anywhere trying to kill them in here.
What I had to do was much harder. I moved to find the smallest out of the pack and noted that there were metal parts to these creatures. But fur patches also. They were both, like me, flesh and metal. I grinned.
That meant my plan would work even better.
I picked the kitten up and turned around heading out of the cave entrance quickly.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I struggled with the weight of the now-crying kitten. But no sooner had I gotten out of the cave when the mother turned, saw me, and her eyes flared red again.
“Stop the assault, or it dies!” I shouted at her.
She crouched down, her claws scraping along the ground. I was sure she was trying to figure out if she could get to me, kill me before I killed her kitten, but I lowered it to the ground and pulled out my dagger so she could see it as it lit the air with psionic power. What? Had I done that too?
The light in her eyes faded, and the assault on Dylan stopped. He was lying still on the ground, but the smaller animals that were attacking his mech had stopped.
She watched me and her kitten. I stroked the top of its head as it cried. There, there.
Her muzzle contorted into a snarl at my actions. I continued to stroke till it calmed a little. She started to edge forward, and I pointed the dagger closer to her baby, watching as her growl lessened, but she didn’t stop.
“That better be a friendly approach!”
She snarled again, and I pointed the dagger at her instead, letting go of the top of the kitten’s head. It didn’t really know where it was or what it was doing, as it was blind. But it stayed still, its eyes and nose sniffing out, making tiny mews as it called for the one thing it wanted: its mum. She was now around fifteen feet away from me, and as it tried to crawl away from me, I reached out again to grab hold of its scruff. It was quite strong, and though it had no claws to dig into the ground, it tried to grip something. I managed to hold onto it. She drew in even closer.
Ten feet. She was really huge. I couldn’t meet her in the eyes. She was as low to the ground as she could be, trying to seem like she wasn’t a threat to me. Her teeth were the size of my forearm! Her eyes were like large globes, filled with huge swirling angry fire bolts. I didn’t look away. If I had, I knew it would also be my death. She was testing everything I was. Was I strong enough of willpower alone to stand up to her? She was levels above me as I was a mere denti. But as the mech sure, we could have gone toe to toe. I tried not to shiver, but that wasn’t coming from me. It was Hiroto.
What? he said. That thing is terrifying.
I held her stare as she got to five feet. Her breath billowed towards me as she growled once more. I pointed the dagger back to the baby.
Two feet. Her teeth were so close.
Then she was right before me, less than a foot away. Her eyes didn’t leave mine. All I could smell now was something else—was that her fear? Or just wet cat? Naw, it was just dang wet cat. I couldn’t help it. I laughed.
Slowly, I patted the kitten’s head still as it cried. It knew its mum was there in front of it, just out of reach.
I did what I thought was right. I reached forward with the knife.
Touched the top of her nose with it.
Her fangs retracted, and the shine to her eyes faded.
YOU DOMINATED A TRAIXIC!
YOU ANIMAL! NO HALF BREED CAN WITHSTAND THAT LOOK IF DONE RIGHT! PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT, AND YOU HAD HER KITTEN ON YOUR SIDE. DON’T THINK IT WILL WORK ALWAYS. THEY ARE FEROCIOUS!
ALL BONDED ANIMALS NEED A NAMED CARER. YOU MAY TAKE THIS ON OR PASS IT
TO SOMEONE ELSE.
I had no idea what to do with a pet, a familiar. I had to leave. So did Dylan.
I knew someone who would have adored her, though, and that was exactly what I was going to do. With a thought, I brought up the Traixic’s details and shivered. This animal was higher than anything I’d ever seen in levels. I was in awe and feeling a little stupid to give her away.
I put the knife away and watched her as she eyed me with a really painful curiosity.
“You shouldn’t be contacting me!” Saskia’s voice screamed in my head as I dialled in. “How the fuck did you?”
“Nice to talk to you, too. There’s a gift here waiting for you. She needs a friend, and so do you.”
I quickly pushed the contract over to Saskia, and the Traixic’s eyes changed colour before me, as if they’d matched Saskia’s.
I heard her squeal through to me. “Oh. My. God. You didn’t?” Then another squeal and, “Why?”
I hoped something there would turn her away from the side she’d chosen, maybe. I had no real clue. I just didn’t know where else to send the cat that might benefit us. I cut her off, walking away from the Traixic to my fallen comrade. I knelt beside him. He was in a pretty bad way.
This was going to take some fixing. But looking up at the leaderboard, I grinned. Ten names. What once was on the bottom of it was now actually moving up. Dylan and I were in fifth and sixth place still. Long way to go, but I felt like we could do it.
He groaned, and I focussed in on his mech. Hiroto?
Looking now, my tech-head said. He’s not looking good, but we can fix him, and we have time now that the Traixic isn’t on our backside.
Good. I sat down, suddenly feeling exhausted. My stamina and health were pretty low, and I could do with a sleep. I shook my head. No, I just need to re-charge. Xirob? What’s good in here to eat? Help me out. I’ll pick some stuff up, rest, then wait for Hiroto’s orders on what I need to fix Dylan up. We need one working mech at least.
I heard a rustle behind me, and there was the Traixic. She was eyeing me still, even though I had given her up. She looked to Dylan and the doors, and then I heard it. A hiss, slide, and a thunk. We had company.
Fuck.
I was weak, and Dylan needed a lot more time and healing. We couldn’t take an attack from anyone right now, even if they were lower levels than we were. I pushed myself up, watching as two mechs came in. Though they were lower-level fighters, I could also see they had full health. I didn’t even have a weapon to defend us.
Dylan came to. “What’s going on?”
“We have incoming.”
“Shit, man. I can’t get up.”
“We’ll sort that. I need to get you some stuff from my mech. We’ll be fine.”
I glanced back as the cat lowered itself to the ground, her hair standing on edge. Then I noticed her little minions were back. The smaller Traixic surrounded us.
Saskia’s voice came to me. “They all think you’re part of the pack. Get food into you, get Dylan healed up, and they’ll handle the others!”
I didn’t know what to say. “Isn’t it—”
“No, nothing of this is cheating. You’re playing to the environment. Well done!” Saskia said.
I hadn’t expected it, but I was glad of the praise.
Xirob’s voice came to me. There’s some fruit to the left. If you can’t knock them out the tree, there should be some that are on the ground, but they may be a little on the soft side.
I didn’t mind soft and moved quickly to where he was pointing, where a little flag popped up, and I followed it. I heard a lot of noises as the other mechs made their way towards us, and a timer started to tick off. I quickly plucked fruit off the lower branches, and with one hand stuffed one then another into my mouth, swallowing the small round fruits almost whole. My health started to climb, and I actually started to feel better.
That’s good. Grab some more. Dylan could do with a few, Xirob said.
You can get them into him through the suit.
I smiled as I headed back to Dylan, making sure I did what I had been told. Dylan chomped happily.
Now to fix up his mech, you’re going to have to get parts off yours and integrate them. Xirob said. Get him to drag his ass over to your corpse, then to the kitten’s cave. We will all work better in there, and she will feel safer.
I did exactly as they asked, and so did Dylan, though the unit was pretty much destroyed. We also had opposite parts that were intact. As one unit, we stood a chance. It took a few minutes to get back to her cave, but they were right; it was the safest place to work, and the other mechs outside might not be as stupid as I was.
Shots fired above my head, and I flinched. The growls, screams, and attacks were getting closer, but the main Traixic stayed with us. She wasn’t leaving, and that was good.
Small tool set at the base of the mech’s torso. You can detach his leg and arm with it, and yours should just snap back on.
It was painstaking work. The fighting outside stopped, and I could hear the mother Traixic come back into the cave. Her young called for her, and she got in with them as I worked with Dylan, who was now out of the unit and helping where he could. He had been terrified of getting out in the cave with the Traixic at first but had soon befriended her. He realised she was just like any other cat creature and wanted a head scratch or ten.
When her purring vibrated through the cave, I had to turn to him. “Hey, you know you should be helping me here!”
He laughed. “Man, would I love one of these.”
“We’re not staying,” I said.
“I know, but she’s amazing. Have you seen her levels?”
I nodded and pointed to his new leg. “You’re going to have to get back in to see how it all works, then we could think about getting out of here to the next level up.”
“She killed the other two out there, you know?” he said as he moved to climb back up in his mech.
“Yeah, I didn’t expect her to do anything else. I was lucky. If I hadn’t been able to get past her, we wouldn’t be here now. Her kitten and my luck were the only two factors that let us do that.”
No, Hiroto said as I was about to push the button to put the unit head on. Luck and intelligence. No one else would have even thought to do that.
Maybe. I pushed the button.
Pray it works, Xirob said.
I didn’t need to pray. I knew it was going to work. I could see all the mechanics connecting and the new interface for him start to show up.
With the extra intelligence, I was able to program an extra side view, for me. My view wasn’t just three way anymore. I was inside his unit with him.
Hiroto’s voice quavered. How are you doing this?
The code’s easy once you’ve started to see it.
I don’t even know how you can see it, Hiroto said. I can’t see it, and I don’t understand it. At all.
I shrugged and waited for all of Dylan’s lights to go green. I tapped the side of his unit and got his attention before I spoke directly to him through the internal system. Good to go?
He put both thumbs up at me, then he started to move. The larger bulk of his unit made the cave suddenly seem too small.
I moved behind him, trying not to let the gentle warning from the Traixic worry me. She was just letting us both know that her babies were her priority.
I turned back to her and lowered my head. “Thank you.” I wasn’t sure if she knew what my words meant, but she looked to her four kittens then back to me. Her eyes closed, and she laid her head down with them.
I didn’t know if the fact I’d dominated her would stick with her. Or would transferring her to Saskia make a difference? I hoped that she would remember me. I had a feeling that it would come back to haunt me, but I also needed to do what I did to move forward. I turned to follow Dylan out of the cave and back into the fight.
There was a lot of destruction. The mechs the others had been in weren’t like mine or Dylan’s.
>
“Think we can cobble you another one?” Dylan asked.
“No,” I said. “We have wasted too much time already. There’s only one place we have to go.”
Two more names blinked out above us. I looked to the board, and Dylan did too. There were six names left moving us up to fifth and sixth places.
1 – Chris Tanner – 24 Kills
2 – Alice Main – 21 Kills
3 – Vix Rolix – 16 Kills
4 – Jean Bol – 14 Kills
5 – Dylan Brale – 1 Kill
6 – Kyle Ranz– 1 Kill
7 – Silvi Dea – 10 Kills – Sent to Respawn
8 – Antwon May – 8 Kills – Sent to Respawn
9 – Cray Johan – 14 Kills – Sent to Respawn
10 – Raina Kārkliņa – 0 Kills – Sent to Respawn
Any thoughts before we head out of here? Hiroto asked of us.
I hope your luck follows us, Xirob said. Because we have four against two, and we’re not gonna win otherwise.
“It’s not four against two,” I said with a grin, looking behind me as several blips moved to stand with us.
I looked back to the cave. I raised a hand and saluted the Traixic. We have been assigned temporary control! Hiroto almost squealed.
I grinned up at Dylan as he looked around us. “They’re with us?”
“Damn straight they are!” I wasn’t walking out of here with nothing. “Let’s go. No one will be expecting this.”
Dylan laughed at me and went for the door. I watched as it opened, and he went through. I wasn’t sure what or how I would command the seven lithe creatures that were now waiting on my orders, but I hoped it would be with just a thought, not like several commands. When I looked their way, they cowered lower. Waiting. I looked to the door, and with a thought they darted forwards.
Holy fuck! Hiroto said. They’re amazing!
I suddenly had my vision split into eight even though I wasn’t in a mech anymore. I found it a little disjointing at first, but then as I started to work through the incoming information, I got a massive look into what was actually before us. They were like extra cameras, and it was both thrilling and overwhelming. I moved in and settled into a pace beside Dylan.