“In through the nose, out through the mouth,” Samuel told Hiro as demonstrated what he meant. “Just like my wife’s prenatal class. Cleansing breath, mate. Think of your rage as a bloody contraction. Let it go. Let it go.”
A bloody contraction? The absurdity of Samuel’s instructions broke Hiro from his spell. As the enraged statue of Christopher Columbus continued to beat at their protective shell, Hiro followed the Australian’s suggestions.
At first, it felt like he was hyperventilating.
But then Hiro reached a happy medium where the breathwork coupled with Samuel’s almost comedic instruction—the man now on his back, legs pulled up, and huffing alongside him—worked. It worked well and the utter fury he was experiencing passed.
“Ah, looks like Columbus is about to get what he deserves,” Samuel said as the statue took a staggering step backward. The statue dropped his sword and started to itch. “We just need to wait it out a little longer.”
Hiro had never imagined what it would look like for a statue to vomit. Yet, as it had proven before, the Doom System and the way it warped reality truly knew no bounds. Columbus quickly went from itching to dropping to his knees, dry heaving, and eventually releasing a puddle of antifreeze green liquid onto the pavement.
Columbus coughed and vomited until his health bar started to drop.
More twitching led to the statue to reach for his sword, batting at an invisible enemy as if he were hallucinating.
The statue went stiff once his health bar reached the halfway mark. By this point Columbus has pulled himself up to his feet, his stone exterior cracking, bile dripping from his chin as he glared at Hiro and Samuel.
“Looks like he’s taking his second form,” Samuel said. “I don’t know how much longer Poxstar is going to last, but I reckon we wait until his health bar stops falling and pounce.”
“Works for me.”
“Terra! Terra!” Columbus screeched as his stone form cracked away, revealing a sinewy muscled man beneath, his muscled riddled in veins of gold. “Terra! Terra!”
“What’s he keep shouting?” Hiro asked Samuel as he continued to get his bearings.
“Terra. Latin for Earth, but it’s also used for land. The only reason I know is because Australia was once called Terra Australis Incognita, ‘Unknown Land of the South.’ I think I made flag with that on it in high school,, or something—”
Columbus drove his own blade into his stomach. Rather than kill him, his flesh absorbed the weapon and bulged his skin, which grew over his shoulder and down to his wrists, effectively turning both arms into jagged blades.
“Looks like his health bar has stabilized,” Hiro said. “You ready to do this?”
“Born ready, mate.” Samuel stood and his cloak came alive. “Any ideas for an opening attack? I guess we should have discussed that back when you were giving birth.” He grinned over at Hiro as the Columbus statue seethed outside of the protective barrier.
“I should probably call my demon cats.”
“Probably, yeah. Those buggers are fierce.”
“I don’t want to waste any more energy drinks or vape cartridges if I can help it.”
“Makes sense. In that case, let’s use your cats and see how strong our attacks are on their own. If it looks like we’ll need an additional something, we can adjust accordingly.”
“Terra! Terra!” Columbus barked. He struck the protective barrier with both arm blades and stumbled backward.
Whoosh!
The barrier dropped and both Hiro and Samuel exploded forward.
Hiro triggered {Bounce} and leaped over Columbus, where he landed and summoned his phantom demon cats. The cats rushed toward Columbus, who swatted at them as Samuel moved to engage the statue while Hiro stood back, preparing for a {Blade Whirlwind}.
Fearless as ever, the Australian flitted to Columbus’ left, struck him, vanished and appeared on his right, avoided a scissor-like attempt from the statue, and hit him again. He jumped back as cats piled on Columbus.
Hiro released a gust of razored wind at Columbus. One glance to the statue’s health bar told him that their strategy was working.
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“Hit him harder!” he shouted to Samuel.
“With pleasure!” Samuel’s entire body turned into what resembled a caped cleave, something that Hiro would have imagined a magical Batman would have been able to do. The Australian twisted and turned, the ends of his cloak doing enough damage to allow Hiro to get off the final attack.
Columbus staggered and fell. Hiro’s cats vanished as red Soul Essence poured into them. The Zone of Influence vanished as Columbus righted himself and took a knee, his head bowed.
[A Sentry has fallen.]
You have new followers!
“Well, that worked,” Samuel said, a proud look on his face.
Hiro sheathed his blade. “Poxstar is a game changer. I could probably do something similar with a poison cartridge. Although, I don’t know how long it will take for the poison to finish an opponent.”
“Yeah, another test for another Interim, I reckon.” Samuel adjusted his bucket hat. He took out his phone and checked the time. “So good luck, yeah? Got less than nine hours for the Spectators start dropping from their boats.”
Hiro peered up at the ominous sky over Central Park and returned his focus to Samuel. “Good luck, and see you at the gate in the Financial District.”
“Will do.” He tipped his bucket. “Cheers, mate.”
“Wait,” Hiro called after him. “Did you say you were married?”
“I am, yeah.”
“Is your wife… here?”
“Nah. She’s back in Melbourne with my son. Or not.” A sudden flash of intense sadness traced across his eyes. “I don’t know. I haven’t been able to speak to her since the Doom System took away the Internet. I wanted to fly back there, obviously, but the supers and their sky wars and all that made it dodgy as hell. I tried. Believe me, I tried. I guess the lesson there is to not go on business trips after magical gates open up across the world. That was my first mistake. My second was not taking a superpower myself, but my wife and I discussed it, and we both decided it wasn’t worth it. Anyway. I’ll catch ya later. Try not to die, yeah?”
“Same to you,” Hiro said as Samuel moved on. Once the Australian was gone, Hiro turned toward Central Park.
There was still the merchant in the subway system near Columbus Square, but Hiro had a feeling he would need more followers before he would be able to upgrade his vape pen.
And as he had quickly learned, one of the best ways to gain followers was through combat.
****
Hiro’s new {Rune of the Reverse Blade}was much stronger than he originally thought.
Triggering the Unique Item came instinctually as Hiro changed the grip on his katana and moved into action with his blade held upside down, a wisp of red trailing off its tip as he cut into one of the rat-human amalgamations.
The Bleed damage was where it really hurt, Hiro noticing the creature’s health drop quickly after two slashes. It seemed to compound, and while holding the katana this way was awkward, it certainly helped him clear out a nest of the creatures and gain a boost of followers and Soul Essence for doing so.
A suspicious trash can near one of Central Park’s numerous entrances caught his attention after it attacked a fleeing rat-creatures and swallowed it whole. Hiro turned his backpack around, got out one of the pill bottles, and rushed toward the mimic, which opened its mouth only to receive a cocktail of legal narcotics.
He bounced away and watched as the mimic soon gave up the fight, its tongue flapping against the ground. The beast expired, fell to the side, and started to fade as Soul Essence rushed toward Hiro.
Nice.
After another quick look around, he pushed deeper into Central Park, and was just turning onto a new path when a pair of bats wielding swords dropped from the trees. He cut one away as the other was thrown off course by Hiro’s mask. The bat landed, blinked at him in confusion, and was subsequently killed by a perfectly timed{Blade Whirlwind.}
Soul Essence poured into Hiro as he crouched for a moment and got out his phone.
“Can I use the teddy bear?”
“I’m hungry, and I ate all my Survivor Tenders with Samuel. A restaurant would be nice. So fucking nice. No, it would need to be fast food. Or…” Hiro looked back toward the entrance to Central Park closest to Fifth Avenue, where there were always hot dog stands. “That could work. I wouldn’t be gone long.”
His Companion didn’t respond.
01:08:01:56
01:08:01:55
01:08:01:54
Hiro noted the time until the Spectators would join the fight and the gates would reopen. In glancing above the park, he saw their boats glowing red in the sky. Samuel was right to suggest sleeping some of that off.
There had to be a thousand boats.
After scanning the area, Hiro reached one of the toppled hotdog stands and hid behind it. He checked his surroundings once again, made sure he was clear, and took the teddy bear out of his backpack.
“A quick hot dog,” he told himself, his mouth watering as he squeezed the bear to his chest.
Hiro felt a lurch in his stomach as he appeared directly behind the same hotdog stand in Central Park just days before the Doom System appeared.
“Hey, what the hell are you doing—” the guy running the stand said.
“Sorry!” Hiro grabbed the hotdog out of the guy’s hand and took off running. He stuffed the hotdog in his mouth, and was turning back to the man to apologize again when a police officer yelled for him to stop.
Hiro swallowed the bite, dropped the teddy bear out of shock, and instantly appeared in the present, the bear on the ground in front of him.
That was something, he thought, a slight grin taking shape on his face. He imagined what it would have been like for the hotdog vendor to see a disheveled man appear out of nowhere clutching a teddy bear, steal a hotdog, and then disappear.
I really need to get some cash, Hiro thought as he turned back to the park.
Beyond, somewhere deeper in the wooded section, Hiro saw a great white flash. It was like a spotlight in reverse, the blast coming from the ground.
I’d better find out what that is.
Hiro readied his katana, and moved on.