He used to think that the guillotine was a barbaric device. A relic of a bygone era, when people were less educated, particularly in the teachings of morality. Indeed, people must have been crueler, back then, more bloodthirsty even, to be executing people in such a savage way.
So he had thought. But now he knew that it was, in fact, one of the best ways to die. Given his options, possibly the very best way. A feeling of pressure, just the briefest jolt of pain, and then it was over. Being unexpectedly beheaded was a blessing, given all the horrible ways one could meet their end.
It wasn’t something he’d ever expected or wanted to have an opinion on. Carpenters, he supposed, would have all kinds of opinions about wood coatings or nails, perhaps even about deforestation. If you wanted to know what kind of powertool to buy, you’d be well off asking a carpenter. A tailor, on the other hand, might go on at length about the benefits and downsides of double woven cotton. When in need of expertise on fabrics, they’d be the perfect person to turn to.
Barry hadn’t considered himself an expert in anything, though he would have been able to explain a few interesting things about evolutionary biology. In the old world, if you’d had him over for dinner, he would have happily gone on for hours about different styles of dance. That was before.
Now, Barry knew about dying.
Given the circumstances, he fancied that he might well be the world’s foremost expert on it.
He’d died thirty eight deaths in the virtual training environment and remembered every single one in great detail. It wasn’t the kind of thing you could forget, no matter how much you tried. Each death was an extremely intense experience, burned into his soul.
The general rule with dying was simple: the faster, the better. He’d been unpleasantly surprised by the resilience of the human body, his in particular. There had been too many opportunities to regret bringing his Durability as high as he had. It kept you alive longer, whether you liked it or not.
How ignorant he’d been just a few weeks ago, to think that being cut in half was a terrible way to die. Today, he’d have to rank it somewhere in the top half of possible deaths. The shock to the body made everything hazy and prevented you from feeling too much pain. You’d bleed out quickly. An unpleasant yet acceptable death, all things considered.
If you were perforated by spikes, on the other hand, they would keep the blood from flowing out and it would take much, much longer. In a fit of hubris, he’d gone straight into the obstacle course right after a considerable increase in his Speed and stumbled off the top of the first wall. Never again.
This had several effects on him, which he observed with morbid interest. He knew a thing or two about evolutionary biology from his studies, so he could fully appreciate how evolution was letting him down here.
The process was simple: once something seriously hurt you, certainly when something killed you, you would fear it. Even just glancing at the spikes would now cause his body to release adrenaline and cortisol, increasing his heart rate and making him feel anxious. As a result, his performance actually got slightly worse in areas where he’d died before, which added to his frustration. He thought he was starting to notice some improvement again though. It might be his body simply building up resistance to the constant spikes of cortisol and adrenaline, similar to what happened with a seasoned alcoholic.
On the positive side, there was another effect at work here, which he’d learned of as the range-frequency theory. The actual theory had been quite complicated, talking about the role of range and frequency in how people evaluated various things. His simplified recollection of it was something like this: people subconsciously rank new experiences against all similar experiences they’ve had so far.
For someone who’d won the lottery, finding a thousand dollars on the street was not that meaningful - they’d already reached what one might consider the highest possible experience of ‘lucking into money’. By contrast, a person who’d never won anything in their life would be ecstatic. It worked on sensory experiences too; if you’d grown up in a quiet environment, the traffic in a city would be felt as extremely loud, and the reverse was true as well.
For someone who’d repeatedly felt some of the most excruciating pain possible, well, a cut to the arm was barely worth noticing anymore. It seemed to be helping with his anger issues, too. He’d gotten much better at taking a beating without losing his temper. Pokka had given some useful exercises too, as promised, but mainly his advice had been that ‘repeated exposure should yield positive effects’.
It was thanks to his suffering in the last two weeks, that he could now look at the Roid-Bull standing across from him and feel only a moderate amount of fear. After five previous attempts, the preliminary conclusion was that it delivered good deaths most of the time. It was nearly as big as a bus and moved incredibly fast, so a frontal hit would kill him instantly. Being crushed under its feet was also a relatively fast demise. The worst it had done so far was to snap him up in its jaws, which still didn’t take very long to kill him, but was an awful experience nonetheless.
The goal of this training was simple: to stay alive while continuing to move around for at least thirty minutes. Pokka had more or less forced him into it after a discussion about Barry’s odds of survival against a Roid-Bull. His reasoning had been that he’d managed to outsmart one with just his base Stats, so after several weeks of training and with higher Stats, he should almost certainly find a way to survive. Pokka had insisted that his survival was an unlikely fluke, projecting that he’d die at least ninety five out of a hundred times.
So far, the score was zero to Barry, five to the Roid-Bull.
Considering whether to still increase his Stats before this attempt, he remained perfectly still so as not to trigger the huge monster. Despite being several hundred yards away, he knew it would sense even the smallest vibrations and would promptly investigate.
An increase in Speed would take time to get used to, and most of the other Stats wouldn’t help, except for Senses. He still had trouble tracking the Roid-Bull’s movements and reacting in time, so an increase there could help. It would sharpen all of his senses, but also somehow improve his processing time, so that he could better keep up with things that were happening at high speeds.
With a mental command, he increased Senses by another two points and looked at his overview.
Stats
Strength: 14
Durability: 16
Speed: 26
Senses: 13
Intelligence: 10
PE Capacity: 100 KJ
Abilities
[Halt Wave - Sphere]
[Cast Wave]
[Direct Manipulation - Waves]
[Blur Image]
[Camouflage]
[Direct Manipulation - Light]
Wallet
Unallocated Value: 6640
Value allocated to Stats: 390
Value allocated to Abilities: 480
Value spent on items: 1350
He’d been steadily increasing his Stats the last two weeks, which was necessary to get used to the changes. An increase of more than two points in Speed would cause him to stumble with nearly each step for at least a few hours. It was getting better though, as the relative change of a single point became lower.
Looking down, he’d perhaps gained a bit of muscle mass, but the changes were barely noticeable. As Pokka had explained, they were somehow changing his body on a molecular level. Fiber by fiber, his muscle tissue would be changed to a stronger material with all the same properties that were needed to keep his body functioning. The receptors in his eyes, ears and nose would be improved, as would the nerves running through his body.
Intelligence was the most baffling, where the size, strength and something called the ‘dendritic complexity’ of his neurons would be increased in line with the Stat. The growth was slower than other Stats for some reason, but over time it would increase speed of thought, improve memory and allow for more connections to be made.
The thought of being changed like that was deeply disturbing to Barry, but he had no choice but to accept it.
Given his focus on Speed, Pokka had advised him to maintain his Strength and Durability at least at a fourth of his Speed Stat, ideally a third, as otherwise he’d risk damaging his own body over time. Senses needed to be kept closer to fifty percent, or else his environment would turn to an unrecognizable blur when he moved at a sprint.
With a Speed of 26, he felt that he was ridiculously fast, three times faster than he was before. From the tests he’d done, he was sure he could sprint a hundred meters in under 6.5 seconds. If he went to the Olympics today, he’d easily win all of the running competitions. He’d probably win most of the other categories as well, come to think of it.
And yet, that was still nowhere near the speed of the Roid-Bull. It was a monster in every sense of the word. It looked exactly like the ones he’d encountered before,easily twice the size of a rhino but without a horn, covered in thick, overlapping slats of gray hide, with a long and flat maw lined with vicious teeth.
The best tactics for dealing with this beast remained the same no matter how often he thought them over: avoidance. In this virtual environment, there was no cliff to try and lure it off, no trees or rocks to hide behind. There was just a dull, gray sky above an endless expanse of desert. Which was why he’d been spending most of his time getting better at Abilities meant to keep the bull from noticing him, regardless of the environment.
He toggled [Direct Manipulation - Waves] on and shifted his mindset, focusing on something beyond his normal senses, creating imaginary feelers as Pokka had taught him to do. After a few moments, he was ready, not needing to meditate anymore after many hours of training.
Then, he cast [Halt Wave - Sphere], which created a sphere around him that would stop waves of a certain kind. Pokka had spoken at length about different kinds of waves and how the names in the Abilities were unfortunately imprecise. For his purposes, it was important that the sphere would stop sound from traveling, no matter through what medium. So it would cover for any sounds he made, but also the sound traveling through the ground which the Roid-Bull was highly sensitive to.
The challenge was that the sphere from this Ability would remain in place instead of moving along with him. What he had to learn to do, was to somehow pull it along using Direct Manipulation.
Closing his eyes, he focused on the imagined tentacles sprouting from his back, creating six in total. With them, he could sense the minor ripples around him, coming from the sound of his breathing. As he followed their trajectory through the air, he could sense where they stopped, absorbed by the invisible wall of his sphere. He then attached three to one side of the bubble, at different heights, that he could use to push it out.
It took a while to get the bubble to move, as he had to push a minute amount of energy into it, without changing its properties. Far too many accidents in his PE training had taught him to be careful when pushing energy out. He’d blown out his eardrums or blinded himself during Light Manipulation training often enough that he’d started doing the exercises while hooked up to the Fixer Upper.
Barry had proposed to train free PE Node usage in the virtual environment, but apparently that didn’t help to strengthen the brain to PE Node connection. Something about how the VR helmet worked, made it impossible to develop a better link while using it. It was still useful to practice applying the existing connection, but he also had to train while not using the helmet.
Finally, the bubble stretched out to the side, elongating into more of a distorted oval shape. He stepped along with it, then pulled at the other side to bring it back to its original round form. Stretching it too far would cause it to collapse.
He had to keep repeating this, pushing at it to stretch it out and pulling the other side over, as he very slowly started to move forward. At first about a minute passed between two steps, but as he got into a steady rhythm, it gradually decreased until he could move at a slow but steady pace.
Then, adding to the challenge, he still had to add light into the mix. Pokka had once hinted that other predators were around, so despite the Roid-Bull’s poor eyesight, moving around in plain sight would be risky. Luckily for him, there was an Ability called [Blur Image] that did track your movements after you activated it, so he didn’t have to manipulate it himself.
He’d spent his final token on [Direct Manipulation - Light], which he now toggled on as well. With that decision, he’d basically committed to focusing mainly on sound and light based Abilities for the foreseeable future, which was necessary to survive the dangerous zones ahead. Learning to keep his attention on multiple Abilities at the same time was extremely hard, but as Pokka had tactfully noted, his life would depend on it.
Observing and manipulating lightwaves thankfully did not require him to develop some new type of imaginary tentacle. Instead, he had to focus on his vision, somehow allowing signals sent by the PE Node to expand it. It was a different type of mental exercise, and to work on it simultaneously with his sound-manipulating feelers felt like juggling with both hands and feet. For now, all he had to do was observe what [Blur Image] did and how it moved along with him.
Thus Barry moved, with long, slow strides across the reddish brown sand and cracked rock. He didn’t pay any attention to the sounds he made, all of his focus taken up by manipulating the sphere that contained all sound. From the outside, he looked like a fuzzy smear of colors due to [Blur Image[, mostly black from his hair and jumpsuit interspersed with smaller areas of lighter shades.
Sweat rolled down his temple as he took one careful step after the other, looking straight ahead with a vacant gaze, unaware of his surroundings. The steady pace helped him get into a rhythm; a push to the side of the bubble, followed by a long step, finally followed by a pull on the other side before repeating the cycle. His PE capacity was steadily ticking down as the Abilities consumed the energy.
He headed straight for the Roid-Bull, which had shown no sign that it was aware of him, then bending to the right to move past it.
All went well for a good while and he made it past the monster, but as he reached the twenty minute mark, inevitably, his exhaustion built up to the point where he made a mistake. Barry was so absorbed in the rhythm of his steps, that when his push to the side unexpectedly brought no result, his right foot, already moving, landed outside of the bubble.
Instantly, he realized the mistake and looked back to see the Roid-Bull already turning around to face him. The downside of [Halt Wave - Sphere] was that it would stop all waves in both directions, so he didn’t hear its movements nor could he feel any tremors in the ground.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Gathering his focus, he pushed again at the side of the sphere, needing to step out of its path without being detected. It moved this time and he took a step to the side, but he saw the Roid-Bull bracing for its rush and knew it wasn’t far enough.
He deactivated the Ability instead, stepping out to the side and ducking. Having anticipated its path correctly, the beast flashed by his side, just barely missing him as its jaws snapped closed over his head. There was a blast of air as it moved past.
Knowing he had but a moment while it came to a stop and turned back, he made to reactivate the Ability and push the sphere out to the side once more, but again he was too slow, the monster turning around too fast. As the Roid-Bull came at him again with that impossible acceleration, he instead bent his knees, braced, and jumped straight up. He kept the Ability active, planning to have the bull pass underneath him so that he would come back down inside the sphere, hiding the sounds of his landing.
As he saw it coming and could judge the distances with his improved Perception, Barry had a moment to regret his decision before the top of the bull’s head clipped his feet, and then the barren landscape turned into an incoherent blur as he was sent into a spin, coming down hard, vision swimming.
He was too dazed to get up fast enough and felt resigned, thinking that at least it would be a good death, when another idea popped into his head. If he couldn’t move away fast enough while remaining unnoticed, perhaps misdirection would work instead.
With a thought, he activated [Cast Wave] and pushed what he hoped was the right amount of energy into it, aiming a few yards to his left. He kept himself still and to his surprise, the bull took the bait, veering to the left and snapping at the air.
It then brought itself to a stop, faster than before, turning around as it grunted with frustration. He suspected the beast was using some form of Momentum Ability to make itself move so fast, but that didn’t help him at all.
Instead of activating his sphere, he used [Cast Wave] again, manipulating it with his feelers to create a series of small waves in the rock that he hoped would mimic his footsteps.
Again, it rushed forward, then stopped and turned around with another angry grunt. It began to dig at the spot where he’d cast the waves as it produced ever louder noises, until it finally stomped at the ground, cracking the rock. Barry was surprised to see it repeated this several times, even rearing up on two feet, then stamping down with its front hooves to thoroughly smash the rocky soil.
Then, it stood still, and Barry watched with amazement as the broken rocks floated up from the ground, then shot forward lightning-quick, covering a wide arc in front of the bull. He remained still as the rocks flew wide to his left, not making any noise, but then it turned towards him, the next batch floating up.
He had a moment to wonder at its intelligence, if it was smart enough to methodically comb the area around it as a countermeasure to stealth, when it fired the next wave of rocks. Despite his increased Speed and Perception, he barely saw the rock coming before it smashed straight through his head.
The next moment, he was taking the VR helmet off, still shaken by that flash of horrified realization that he was about to die. The effect stayed with him for a while, his heart pounding and body breaking out in sweat, even though he wasn’t hurt.
It had been an excellent death, all things considered, but that didn’t help his mood as he sat, staring at the all too familiar walls of his prison, waiting for his body to stop shaking.
***
Barry only had time for a short lunch break, before he was back to Ability training. He always inspected his food closely, as if by gaping at it he’d somehow learn more about its mysterious origins. He chewed slowly, savoring the meal. Eating and sleeping were the only times he felt normal, just for a little while. There might be a few blissful moments where he wasn’t fearing for his family’s lives or contemplating the arduous journey ahead of him.
Then, it was back to training. He felt hollow as he sat cross-legged on his carpet, working to move the wave-halting sphere in front of him from left to right. Although he preferred to focus on it completely and get lost in the exercise, it actually went better if he let his mind wander. Similar to how walking or breathing became harder when you focused on it, he was learning that communicating with the PE Node worked better on an intuitive, subconscious level.
Pokka had said that he was showing signs of grief and depression, to which Barry had replied with a snarky remark, as he always did these days. Obviously, he was depressed. How could he possibly be doing well, stuck in a cave, forced to go through grueling training every day, knowing that there was not even the comfort of civilization to return to?
It was only getting worse. The AI had also claimed that in small, subtle ways, Barry was seeking death. Things always moved fast in the training environment and his life often depended on a split-second decision or reflex. Pokka was saying that in those moments, when he had a chance of taking a non-lethal hit to his shoulder, Barry would often fail to move or even tilt his head to take a fatal hit. Too often for it to be a coincidence.
He wasn’t sure what to make of that. Was he losing his survival instincts? If so, what could he do about it?
As he considered whether to reduce time spent in the virtual environment, and find a more relaxing activity that would take his mind off things, the soundproof bubble in front of him was moving smoothly from left to right. Absently, he was using [Cast Wave] to create soundwaves next to it, building an intuitive feeling for how it nullified them. Instead of absorbing them, it seemed to mirror them and produce a wave that would cancel it out.
What did he used to do, when he was stressed and feeling down? Get some exercise in, perhaps. Read a good book. Eat comfort food while watching a feel good movie. Dance.
He paused on that last one. How long had it been since he had last danced? He hadn’t even thought of it since being teleported here. It always used to cheer him up, though he hadn’t ever faced anything like this. But as he remembered the feeling of going through the practiced motions, getting lost in the music, there was a small, pleasant flutter in his stomach. He’d have to give it a try.
An ominous sound caused his attention to snap back to the bubble and soundwaves, which he immediately realized he was losing control of. His thoughts had wandered too far and he’d somehow put too much energy into it. Realizing the situation was beyond saving, he instead activated [Halt Wave - Sphere] again, to protect himself from the inevitable soundblast.
He’d moved the sphere all the way to the one side of the cave, right besides the entrance and there was first complete silence as it exploded, then a final whistling sound as his PE Capacity hit zero and the Ability deactivated.
“Bah. That was careless.”
The outburst came from Pokka, whose face was unusually expressive, carrying a deep frown.
The AI only ever said things deliberately, so Barry felt a prickle running over his body, giving him goosebumps as he got to his feet.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m skirting the rules here, but they’re my own rules and I abhor waste, so I will give you a hint. That blast exceeded the range of your Energy Shroud. The rest is up to you.” His tone was urgent and serious, and after the last sentence, the AI promptly disappeared.
Barry stiffened as he processed the words, knowing this was not a prank and he may not have much time. That blast of sound had gone past his cloaking device. Why would that prompt a warning from Pokka?
It could have been picked up by a Roid-Bull, but they would have no way to reach him. No, he corrected himself, that wasn’t quite right. There were other monsters out there. He had to be prudent and assume something had heard and would come to investigate. Given the danger level of the zone he was in, if a creature did come to investigate, it would be extremely dangerous. At the very least, he would have to get ready to run.
He moved, making for his portable teleportation device. Reaching the Totem, he pressed the button that would change it to mobile mode. Without delay, it started packing itself up, the disc and feet sliding back into the central pole, which in turn collapsed on itself, different sections moving into each other until one thick rod was left, about the size of a water bottle. He put it into a kind of strap which he slung over his shoulders like a backpack.
Next, he started the deactivation of the Energy Shroud, which took a while but was necessary to take it out of its anchored position, making it moveable again.
Barry caught a flicker of movement from the corner of his vision. There had been a faint glow of sunlight coming in through the thin lip that formed the entrance to his cave, which was now gone. Then, there was a loud crash, making him flinch. It could only be something smashing into the cave wall from outside. Something large - the impact was strong enough to make pieces of rock fall down from the rock wall.
It caught him by surprise; he’d still been focused on vibrations traveling through rock, imagining some sort of subterranean creature that would burrow into his cave. But of course, any other animal could have simply heard the blast, though he had no idea how it could have reached this spot on the cliff side that quickly.
Whatever it was, since it was blocking the only exit, there would likely be no escape. His only options were to hide or fight.
Making the most of his increased Speed, it took only a short moment for Barry to reach the other end of the cave, pressing himself against the wall before activating his Abilities.
[Camouflage] was a new, light-based Ability he’d picked up recently. It would take around a minute to activate completely, requiring you to hold still, but it would then effectively make you blend into the surroundings seamlessly. If he could eventually, through direct manipulation, get this Ability to remain active while in movement, it would be an amazing addition to his arsenal.
Barry suppressed a curse as he realized his PE Capacity was still close to empty. It would take hours for it to recharge again from the ambient energy here. Recalling something he’d seen in passing, he opened the system interface, searching for a solution.
There were scratching sounds coming from outside, followed by something hammering into the wall. Barry clenched his jaw, cursing the overload of information and options that were available in the interface.
The cave wall trembled as it took another hit, and he thought he could see more light coming in as the entrance was being widened. He was almost out of time, considering to stop the search and just re-activate the Energy Shroud, leaning on the cloaking abilities of the device instead of his own. But it had a wide range and as soon as anything passed it, it would be able to see and hear everything. If he re-activated it here, the range would still run close to the entrance, so it would be a huge gamble.
He finally found what he was looking for as another piece of the wall crumbled inwards. Not having any time for doubt, he purchased a PE Capacity upgrade for 400 Value, bringing his capacity to 1000 kJ. His bet paid off, the expansion coming with a fresh fill of energy, bringing his capacity back over eighty percent.
Without any further delay, he activated [Camouflage] as well as his sound-proof bubble. All sound disappeared and he was left to wait in silence, trying not to move. Looking out at the messy cave, he realized all of his things were still there. The best scenario would be for the creature to leave after a short investigation, so it would be better if it saw nothing at all.
Barry had never used the storage function of the MAFT, so it took him a moment to find the right tab in his interface. As he activated it, there was a visual overlay that let him select objects to put into storage. One by one, he marked the items, starting with the mattress and the carpet and ending with the Energy Shroud, which had supposedly been keeping him from being detected by predators all this time.
He let out a sigh of relief as the items simply disappeared, having been teleported away to be put into ‘stasis’ somewhere, as Pokka called it. The cave was empty and dark now, and Barry could only watch in tense silence as the wall shook, ever larger pieces of rocks falling to the ground.
Counting down the seconds for [Camouflage] to be complete, he focused inwards. One benefit of his grueling training was the ability to somehow distance himself from his own body, minimizing the impact of his emotions. He noticed the usual symptoms of fear, but of a different kind than he had when first facing the Roid-Bull. That feeling had been deep and primal, making him feel sick, nearly paralyzing him. What he felt now was more subdued and controlled, closer to caution than fear.
But there was something else too; excitement and curiosity. On the other side of that wall, there was something new and dangerous, something that might break the depressing training cycle he was trapped in. Thinking back to Pokka’s warnings about him seeking death, he clamped down on that feeling. No matter what, he could not die here.
He noticed his finger tapping quickly on his thigh, and put his other hand over it to keep it still. Contrary to the paralyzing fear, this feeling was electrifying, jolting through his body, making him focused and antsy. Maintaining his emotional distance as he noticed those symptoms, he then forced himself to keep still, eyes trained on the wall to the outside.
There was a pause in the strikes to the outside wall, followed by a different kind of attack. The whole cave trembled and Barry felt alarmed as he noticed how quickly his PE Capacity was draining, already down by a third. Was that an earthquake? No, that didn’t make sense. Some type of sound-based attack?
Whatever it was, the outside wall was crumbling now, large holes opening up and letting sunlight in. When Barry saw something moving to peek in, he quickly fed some additional energy to [Camouflage] to ensure he was well covered.
It took his eyes a moment to adjust, but even then he had trouble making sense of the unnatural shape. Large claws were closing around the remaining ridges of rock and tearing them loose, but still the massive creature was too large to fit inside, blocking most of the light with what he thought were colossal wings. That would explain how it had got here so quickly; it could have simply flown down.
The huge monster was covered in beautiful feathers in light shades of white and blue, but the rest of it looked nothing like a bird. There were two strange openings in the middle of its torso, which took Barry a moment to identify as eyes. Instead of a head, it had three long, swan-like necks, two of which ended into a kind of sphincter, reminding him of a worm’s mouth. The middle one was the longest of the three and it ended in what he thought was either cartilage or bone, shaped in a thin cone.
It was clearly an airborne predator. Its feathers would make it hard to spot against the sky. With its three, worm-like appendages, it looked like a monstrously large three-headed bird that had been beheaded. Would it use those to feed? It didn’t have a beak, nor were there any teeth as far as he could see.
A shiver went down Barry’s spine as a membrane closed over the large eyes in its torso and opened again. He remained as still as he could, barely breathing, fear welling up from his stomach as he stared at its dark pupils.
Should he bring his spear out from storage? If he was fast enough, he might be able to get a surprise hit in, and if he skewered it through one of those eyes..
The monster seemed frustrated, moving in short bursts as it tilted its torso to scan the cave with its eyes, massive claws scratching angrily at the rock. He kept still, taking this as a sign that his [Camouflage] skill was working and it couldn’t see him at all.
After a moment it stopped scanning the room, keeping its body still. Its immense chest inflated, growing even larger, then it stretched its cone-shaped appendage away from its body, pointing it into the cave.
As its chest deflated, Barry’s PE capacity rapidly decreased, already nearing sixty percent. It had to be some kind of sound-based attack, then. A way to stun its prey? Would it be enough to kill him, if he didn’t have the protection of his bubble? He decided that would not be a good death.
The cave shook as his capacity took another dive, larger pieces of rock crumbling from the wall and now also the ceiling. The shaking intensified until it reached a critical point, when a blast came from the cone. Barry could only watch in horrified silence as a visible shockwave traveled through the air, slamming into the rock surrounding him, then into his barrier.
It just barely held on, sitting at ten percent. A part of the ceiling near the entrance was collapsing, but it didn’t seem to bother the creature, which was again scanning the room. Smaller pieces of rock were now falling all over and Barry let out a soft grunt of pain as a rock hit him on the shoulder and another on his foot.
At this rate, he’d be buried alive. Unless his head was crushed by a large boulder, that would decidedly not be a good way to die, suffocating slowly under the crushing weight of tons of rock. His PE Capacity was still ticking down, but he didn’t panic, instead once again turning to the one place he’d likely find a solution: the System Interface.
Quickly scanning through it, he first decided to purchase 200kJ of additional capacity to expand his reserves. Then, not having any time for a more thorough search, he got the first Ability that seemed like it would be useful.
[Reflect Momentum]
When activating this Ability, you will be able to designate a six by six foot square pane within a twenty foot radius from your body. For as long as the Ability remains active, any solid objects entering the pane will be immediately subject to a reflecting force which contains the exact opposite of its current direction and energy.
As he was trying to activate the Ability, messing with the targeting system, he noticed that the creature seemed to be losing interest with the cave, withdrawing its appendages and stepping back. It began flapping its wings outside the cave entrance while it held on with its claws, letting out a final, angry blast of sound which cost him another five percent, and then, just like that, it was gone.
It left behind a gaping hole where used to be a solid cave wall. Barry blinked at the sunlight that was streaming in, feeling like he was in a different place than the cave he’d come to know so intimately over the last weeks.
There was rubble all over the floor by now, parts of the right wall and a large section of the ceiling near the entrance having collapsed. As he watched, unsure whether it was safe to release his Abilities yet, the front right part of the cave came down, covering nearly half of the entrance. That decided it; he needed to get out, right now.
With his PE Capacity back up to twenty three percent, he activated [Reflect Momentum]. The familiar overlay appeared, with a targeting system that allowed him to move the invisible pane of force. He positioned it so that it would cover the area where most of the ceiling was starting to come down, large slabs of stone crashing onto the floor.
Dropping his Abilities, he darted across the cave, leaping and spinning between pieces of falling rock until he reached the area protected by [Reflect Momentum].
The rocks that landed on the invisible pane of force were coming to a stop, staying in place for a fraction of a second before falling down again. It was a strange and magical sight, as if time came to a stop in just that small area, but he didn’t have time to enjoy it, instead breaking into a final sprint.
Barry skidded to a stop by the cave entrance, which was now just a pile of rubble followed by a steep drop. There was a moment of vertigo and then hesitation as he looked over the edge and down the black depths of the canyon. The memory had felt distant and surreal, like it might have just been a nightmare, but there it was again, that dark abyss.
He forced himself to pull away and then turned around, facing with his back to the canyon, taking a final look at his cave. He sneered, spitting forcefully onto the cave floor, then pulled himself up and began scaling the outside wall.
Slowly but steadily he made his way up, moving his sound-proof bubble along while keeping [Blur Image] active as well. He took his time, scanning the sky for movement, every now and then pausing and activating [Camouflage] when he thought he spotted something.
Although it was a safe place, every time he heaved himself up and moved further away from the cave, it felt like a heavy weight came off his shoulders. He breathed in, closing his eyes as a light breeze blew across his skin, cooling him down. There hadn’t ever been even the slightest breeze down there.
Finally, his hands touched sand again as he pulled himself over the edge, looking out across the desert where it had all started. Pokka appeared by his side again, having remained out of sight which was apparently standard procedure for an encounter.
“That careless blast has significantly reduced your chances of survival.”
Barry did not react. Pokka let out a sigh.
“Now that we are here, far too soon, you will have to move with the utmost caution. It would be foolish to continue with so much Value in the bank, so you should at least increase your Stats. I would recommend you continue your focus on Speed, but don’t forget the recommended ratios for…”
There was a pause.
“What is happening with your face? Yet another sign of trauma?”
Barry had been staring out at the sunset, taking long, deep breaths through his nose as a pearl of sweat rolled down his temple. Only when he touched his cheeks, did he realize what Pokka meant.
For the first time in what felt like forever, he had a smile on his face.