Lair

by Carl Stubblefield

He barely had time to reattach Razorback to his belt and secure his spear with sweat-slicked hands as the lead creature approached. Pointing at the larger of the two monsters, he yelled, “Wreck-luse!” But nothing happened. One of the creatures barreled in to him and Gus barely had time to block with the haft of the spear. Upon contact with his spear, the creature reared up and abruptly changed direction.

  Since they were so close together, one of the creatures skidded into the other, clambered to its feet then rushed off the path to the right. Gus’ eyes followed it as it disappeared into the vegetation, then he snapped back to focus on the immediate threat. The distracted creature was tripped by its partner, but deftly executed a forward roll and slid past Gus down the trail without even losing any momentum. Spinning around, it hissed and made a loud chirruping click and its lower mandible split open, revealing two shark-like rows of teeth on top and bottom.

  Gus had been thrown onto his back and almost had the wind knocked out of him. He cast furtive glances to the jungle as he tried to get up, not wanting the other creature to come up from behind. Clambering to his feet, he faced the creature. It bared its teeth, which moved forward and back, flexing and contracting toward the creature’s maw.

  It was the first time that Gus had gotten a clear view of what the agility-based mob looked like. It reminded Gus of the movie ‘The Fly.’ Partly human, but with praying mantis bits for the arms and a grasshopper’s for the legs. Its outer skin or shell appeared bumpy and hard like a crab, and shimmered with an iridescent green hue reminiscent of a dragonfly.

  It made a powerful leap toward Gus, talon-tipped arms outstretched. Gus used the base of his spear to deflect the attack and allowed the momentum to carry the creature forward. One talon stretched to gash Gus, but the haft of the spear protected his forearm. The talon struck the spear, lifting a shaved curl of wood as it slid down.

  “Dag yo!” Gus screamed and turned to face the abomination. It had a svelte figure and was catlike in how it crouched, back legs trembling in preparation for another pounce. Pumping for a couple seconds, the back legs telegraphed to Gus their intention to jump and he struck out with his spear.

  The head of the spear penetrated into the sinewy muscle under the right arm of the creature and hit bone. Snapping its arm back in a tucked position, it altered its trajectory enough to miss Gus, but snapped off the spear tip, leaving him holding what amounted to a jagged-ended broom handle.

  The creature leapt upward, grabbing onto a branch with its hale arm and clung there evaluating its prey. It screamed menacingly in anger and pain with its Predator-esque jaws, and Gus had to fight the urge to turn and retreat.

  There was a sudden rustling off to his right, and Gus could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears, ever increasing.

  I’ve got to get out of here!

  Pushing his fear down, he switched the broken shaft to his left hand and unsheathed Razorback. He tried to recall how far back he had left his other spear. Slowly he started to walk backward carefully, keeping his eye on the creature. The beast dropped to the jungle floor and followed. The pierced arm hung limply, slightly tented away from the body by the angle of the protruding shaft. He slowly shuffled his feet as he retreated, keeping them always in contact with the ground so he wouldn’t misstep and trip over anything. He made painfully slow progress, and kept waving the broken spear and Razorback in front of him to keep the creature at bay. He did not dare break eye contact. The creature held its hale arm curved in front of it like a praying mantis with its talons curved downward, so Gus decided to call these things ‘Mantids’. The insect-like mouth sealed the deal on the name.

  A scream disrupted the tension between the two, startling them both as the other Mantid flew onto the trail between them. Gus’ heart tightened as he realized the effect of Wreck-Luse must have worn off. What was left of the creature amazed Gus. A large section on the side of the Mantid had sloughed away and looked like a huge shark-bite on its side.

  It flailed about and gunk tumbled out of the large wound on the side, revealing an oily, metallic sheen surrounding the bones visible through the breach. The creature had difficulty maintaining itself upright as the wound was extremely large, to the point that the torso was not being supported appropriately, so it folded and straightened as the creature attempted to maintain its posture.

  The Mantid that had been winged by the spear swatted at the other, irritated at the distraction, noting that its prey had used the opportunity to retreat down the path in a sprint. Leaving its brother to flail on the path, it loped after Gus.

  Gus was amazed at how quickly the jungle flew by as he ran. It felt like he was running on a moving walkway, which added to his speed. He would have to ask Nick later how speedster’s powers worked, as he did not feel like his muscles were exerting themselves any more than usual, but he was moving much faster than he should be. Or maybe he was just getting stronger and quicker. A loud screech brought him back to the present.

  The Mantid kept screaming in anger at its lost prey, which inadvertently helped Gus, as he could gauge how far away the creature was by the sound, and spurred him to run faster. Gus reached the spear he had left behind. He threw the broken shaft and Razorback aside in his hurry to wrench the spear free. He spun and rushed the creature, hoping to take it by surprise. The Mantid saw Gus change tactics and jumped to a nearby tree, out of range.

  It bared its maw at Gus in quiet challenge, and a chime sounded. A quick check on his minimap showed the distant yellow circle had become hollow. The other Mantid must have succumbed to its injuries. He slowly crouched down and picked up Razorback and reattached it, eyes locked on the monster.

  “It’s just you and me, ugly…” Gus challenged. The Mantid swung and leapt, stretching its hale arm outward. A membrane under the arms billowed out and allowed the creature to half glide toward Gus, foot talons extended. If it had full use of both of its arms, its attack would probably have been successful. Its injury threw its coordination off just enough to give Gus time to twist and let the creature slide past. He stabbed outward and scored a deep gouge on the creature’s right thigh. The Mantid’s red health bar dipped to a little less than half.

  Pressing his advantage, Gus moved to attack again, but the Mantid scuttled away on all fours. Realizing its situation, the creature became frenzied, snarling and brandishing its talons. The Mantid had the luxury of only needing to score one hit that punctured the skin and Gus would be done.

  Gus remembered his training session and got into his stance. When the creature got close, he would jab defensively and the Mantid would back up in ever growing frustration. It was hitting itself with the shaft embedded in its flailing right arm, and the blade must be doing some internal damage, because there was a slow drain on the red health bar. Encouraged, Gus set in to wait for the creature to damage itself to death. He sighed in frustration as the Mantid turned tail and ran back the way it came.

  “Dammit! Nothing’s ever easy!” Gus screamed. He pursued the Mantid, squinting his eyes as he came upon the fiend leaning over the crumpled form of the other Mantid.

  What the hell is it doing? Turning back, black ichor dripped off its prehensile jaws. And its health bar had regenerated to about 80%! They eat brains to heal? They shouldn’t be able to do that to each other! The head of the other Mantid was cracked open and the empty cranial vault testified as to how the Mantid was able to regenerate so quickly.

  “Hells to the bells! I am seriously done with you…” Gus roared, pointing the intact spear at the Mantid, who looked back, the expression on its insectoid face somehow resembling a sly smirk. This was not looking good. Gus’ thoughts bounced around, trying to find something that would allow him to defeat this enemy. He tried to jab at the Mantid, but it had relaxed into a defensive posture and was quick enough to easily avoid Gus’ spear.

  “That rules out Wreck-tums!, if I can’t land a hit.” A brief glance at his display showed that Wreck-luse still had a long cool-down period remaining. The beginnings of an id
ea began to coalesce. “Nick, play Cherry Bomb by the Runaways!” The thrum of the song energized Gus, and he set his mental focus on the spear head lodged within the Mantid. He waved his own spear back and forth in time with the song. Giving in to the beat, he imagined each attack and feint was pushing energy toward the Mantid.

  Focusing on the energy being absorbed by the spear head inside the Mantid, ever increasing the tension between the molecules. I hope this works… Gus had very little experience so far using Wreck-It-Gus, or Wreck-ord but maybe they could be used offensively. Hopefully.

  While most of the thrusts appeared as mere feints, the Mantid began to sense something was off. Cocking its head suspiciously, it furrowed its brow and looked quizzically at Gus to see what had changed. It could neither hear the inner soundtrack Gus was using, nor could it feel the slight warmth building up in the embedded spear head. The same changes that allowed the Mantid to fight without feeling pain also prevented it from detecting anything as subtle as what was happening with the spear head. The Mantid continued to sidestep the attacks which were not intended to connect.

  Subconsciously, Gus felt power channeling from his core upward and then extending out of him, coming slow at first but becoming easier and flowing more as the process continued and the music approached the guitar solo. It was vaguely reminiscent of when he had lit the coconut husk fibers, but the quantity of power he was using was much more dramatic. His MP bar was quickly draining, and he worried that he would run out of juice before anything happened.

  The pulses began to coalesce into a virtual beam, partly emanating from his chest, but mostly funneling down his arms and down the length of the spear. His low MP alert began to chime, but Gus pressed on, just a little longer.

  “…Cherry Bomb… Cherry Bomb… Cherrr-y Bomb!” the song finished, and the spear head finally detonated. Gus hit the trail and covered his head as shrapnel whistled through the air, shredding the Mantid’s torso. The last thing Gus saw before covering himself was the separated head flying off into the foliage, an expression of wonder and disbelief upon its ugly face.

  Getting to his feet, Gus cheered, “Scott Pilgrim, eat your heart out!” Luckily, the force of the blast extended mostly sideways and backward, so Gus remained thankfully clean from the entire ordeal. A ding sounded and Gus checked his display.

  Mantid added to bestiary and estimated stats added based on battle.

  You have defeated a Level 9 (Mantid) 1000 XP gained!

  You have defeated a Level 9 (Mantid) 1000 XP gained!

  LEVEL UP! Congratulations, you have reached level 6!

  500 FP awarded

  3675 XP to level 7

  You have (5) stat points to assign.

  Your apt use of Wreck-ord has unlocked a sub-skill of Wreck-It-Gus: Indi-Wreckt (Level 1).

  Allows you to destroy items not directly in physical contact with you, given they are suffused with enough energy.

  Range of effect: 10 feet

  Damage done: 1:2 ratio of MP invested to HP damage

  100 XP awarded

  3575 XP to level 7, 2400 FP total

  Gus looked at his MP bar and it was at 3%. That would have been almost 350 HP of damage, possibly more because it had been delivered internally. He quickly dumped all five stat points into constitution, to improve his increasing stamina needs and buff up his HP pool. This brought his constitution to fourteen. Stamina and HP jumped to 260 as a result, giving a nice buffer against new dangers.

  Checking out his new suit, he noticed that the tiny splashes of Nth blood had beaded up and rolled off the suit, not even leaving a smell. That in and of itself was a feature worth wearing the suit for. The added flexibility during battle and not having to worry if everything would rip or fall off was another.

  Hopefully, he would never have to find out how resistant it was to being cut or punctured by an attack. His spear had also saved him, but it made him much more aware of how most of his body was only protected by a spandex-y fabric. Another trip to the armory should be on tomorrow’s to-do list.

  Grabbing what was left of his gear, he jogged back down the trail, just in case there was a second wave of reinforcements coming. Grateful for the earlier training that kept him alive today, Gus mentally committed to double down on training and to try to come up with some new tactics in case the enemy came in larger numbers. Now it was time to eat and evaluate the battle. He had a lot of questions for Nick that he intended to get answered, about his own powers and the Mantids.

  ###!###

  The One began to feel a feeling that had eluded it for so long that it was unfamiliar in classifying it. Doubt. What was that? He had been in total domination for so long. Resistance was non-existent. He commanded. He was obeyed. This was how it happened. The severing of these two higher tendrils introduced another feeling that was foreign in its scarcity. Pain. Uncertainty. More control could be placed in the fast ones. They retained more of themselves and were more effective tools. The anger. This was familiar. It came stronger. From the loss. From the pain. From the defiance. The One wanted to send a large attack. But the doubt. It said no. The anger said yes. The One decided.

  Chapter Twenty

  Take the Long Way Home

  Day 5 8:51 PM

  9:15:45 remaining

  Gus was teeming with emotions as he jogged back toward the manor. The fight was unexpected and the jungle encompassed him oppressively the darker it got. He had been surprised and afraid when the Mantids first appeared. Reflecting now that the adrenaline had burned off, he was a bit conflicted. There was an undeniable exhilaration during the battle, of being able to confront a foe and defeat them. He wasn’t expecting to feel guilty, however. Fighting the Shamblers did not feel like he was actually killing something. It was like they were already dead, but they just didn’t get the memo.

  But what did they want at the manor? He didn’t think they would have the intelligence to do anything once they got there. Weird. With an ominous undertone. The Mantids were obviously intelligent, though. They planned and attacked. He had managed to fight the other zombies without even considering they were humans at one point, because they were mindless. It was easy to dismiss them.

  But even though the Mantids physically resembled humans less than the Shamblers, it made him question himself.

  Did I enjoy killing those things, just a little too much? It was me or them, so self-defense is different, isn’t it? His attempts at justification felt a bit hollow, and he couldn’t erase the worry and concern about how his choices would shape him. His conscience also reminded him of the questionable things he had done that were ‘just part of the job’ as a henchman. That type of thinking didn’t work out so well for the Nazis either. He also felt conflicted with the whole ‘ends justify the means’ argument. His mind kept pointing to people who had done worse things, and that he wasn’t so bad.

  Everyone knew about the supers who had hunted many of the large cats to extinction, testing their new skills in single combat. It wasn’t until the Factions organized and came to an uneasy agreement on which crimes would be punished that certain atrocities stopped being committed. Some of the damage was irreparable by that time, both to the planet and the loss of some animal species.

  Was the new taste of power the Nth gave him revealing something about himself? Were his true desires hidden only by his lack of power to bring them into reality? The questions kept on coming, making Gus more and more uneasy. He always had difficulty dealing with strong emotions and always tended to push them away and not deal with them.

  Some of his biggest fights with his father had been the result of an explosive release on the pressure cooker of emotions where Gus stored all his pain and angst. His father always backed down when things got too heated, treating him with kid gloves. Probably pitying his poor reg disappointment of a son. It made Gus feel even more helpless and weak when his father did that, though. Like he wasn’t man enough to deal with any important issues.

  He didn’t feel helpless anymore.
Sure, he was worried about the future and making poor choices in his build. His powers kind of felt all over the map and he wasn’t able to see a clear picture of how they all could work together. But there wasn’t time to mope around. He had to level quickly and, in the process, try to find some synchronicity in combining and using his powers together. That goal grounded him a bit, and he felt a little better, even if he did not have all the answers. He had something to work toward, and he knew he would figure something out.

  Turning his thoughts to the recent battle, Gus had some questions that troubled him. “Nick, when I first used Wreck-luse, it was more of a defensive mechanism and I didn’t think much of it. But in reading the skill description, it mentions a toxin causing the effects. How is this toxin introduced in my target? I didn’t touch the creature, my spear did when it collided with me, so what was the method of delivery? It doesn’t make sense,” he asked.

  “You are too used to comic books. In that genre, one of the primary ways supers get their powers is due to mutation, often by radiation of various forms. Some are aliens and it is accepted this is part of their genetic nature. Years before an Nth colony reach a planet, a probe is released which contains Nth whose sole purpose is to mentally prepare the apex lifeforms to accept the possibility and even create a culture that embraces supers. In reality, all powers follow concrete laws, but many are beyond the understanding of humans as a whole. Some supers understand a few of these laws, but usually on a subconscious, anecdotal-experience level.

  “Many concepts are introduced which help open the door of possibility that something could exist. Zombies, for example. You could recognize and had some basic idea of what a zombie is and how it acts. You accept that they like brains, because that’s just what zombies do in the movies. Kernels of truth like this are seeded through a planet’s culture, usually through its entertainment. You have no context to understand what a Dark Nth is, so other origins of how zombies come to be are imagined. This information has to be delivered very carefully, as Nth are not supposed to direct societal development. That is why these concepts are often introduced in entertainment modalities.”