Suxen doesn't give me time to find an alternative to brute force as she starts assembling a second construct in her left hand, this one formed of equations. I counter with an air-blade, finishing before she does.
I propel it through the tongue of fire for two reasons, so she doesn't see it coming until it's too late and so that it splits the continuous flames and gives me some relief.
With the blaze split, I jump to the side and slash at Three who parries it with a quick swipe of his two-handed longsword. I dodge his comrade's retaliation and bring my scimitar back, attracting his attention, and lion's step my heel into his knee while he isn't looking down. Crunch.
That's all I manage to do before Suxen turns the fire construct back to me, forcing me to retreat while raising my weapon once more to block. The other construct she was making is gone but she's uninjured.
“It's insulting to have such a woefully inadequate construct used against me, in the institute no less.” Suxen complains.
I frown because whatever complaint she has towards the air-blade, it distracted her long enough for me to take one of her Numbers down. I shape another, a small one that I coat in blood from my wrists.
I use my absolute control over it to manually direct the air-blade. I propel it at Three, avoid his sword as it is glowing golden, and split his skull. I then recall the air-blade and direct it at Suxen.
Unfortunately, I have to launch it as the Number's blood mixed with my own which shattered my control. The Director raises her left hand and... blocks my air-blade with her bare hands. I blink, baffled by what I just witnessed.
“Specimen, use lightning constructs.” Suxen demands.
I ignore her because the female numbers are approaching from my back, obviously aiming to sacrifice themselves to allow the men to charge both of my flanks. If I trust their sword's golden glow, then they're using very low powered armor piercing constructs, meaning that I need to deal with that.
My defensive construct's energy is dropping, Suxen has burned through two portions so far which means I can't afford this any longer. I first assemble a lightning-armor-piercing construct and apply it to my weapon before even considering the next step.
No matter the personal cost. My symbiont shivers in agreement and, likely understanding that I would be unable to do what needs to be done, dismantles the defensive construct protecting me from Suxen's fire construct.
The flames, no longer restrained by the defensive construct, shower my scimitar, blade and handle. The sleeve glove on my left hand catches fire but my symbiont doesn't let the agonizing pain, which I can indirectly feel, distract it.
It slashes through two of the women's swords to cut through their rib-cages. The upper halves of their blades hit the ground before the two Numbers do, the second one doesn't make a sound as it lands on putrid smelling bowels.
“The air-blade construct barely even does what its name indicates, it is preposterous.” Suxen rants while she writes down equations in thin air with her left hand.
Fucking fight me instead of lecturing me. I gripe within the confines of my own mind. Shit. I barely manage to avoid a woman's short-sword because of the distraction.
I rush into the middle of their group since they're trying to die and let my symbiont strike out with my scimitar, which is protected by a runic defensive construct optimized to counter the armor-piercing construct.
I focus on dodging their attacks while it wildly slashes at the women. It takes almost everything I have to do so as I no longer have the information supplied by my symbiont's sense, the fire is 'blinding' it.
I block an overhead swing by striking the pommel from bellow with my right palm while my symbiont slashes behind me, twisting its elbow beyond a human's capability. It seems to be using its sense of smell to detect our opponents but, to be fair, it could be swinging without aiming and still hit something.
My symbiont achieves little in terms of disabling fighters because they're using odd golden barriers to block my scimitar's sharp blade, but the sheer brute force is behind each blow is enough to shatter the constructs which means they're burning through their oddly large reserves while it takes little of my own flow to protect my weapon.
I feel a muted pain in my back so I rotate on my feet, twisting away from the weapon trying to impale me. I catch sight of the man responsible, his arms are extended out as he hasn't had the time to pull his two-handed longsword back.
I use my right hand to seize one of his wrists and retake control of my symbiont to counter-attack with a stab of my own. A golden barrier appears over the left side of his chest, blocking my scimitar's large tip.
I immediately change tactics, sending a burst of energy into my strengthening construct to pull him in while I step in his place, propelling him into the women at my back who are no doubt about to impale me as he tried to do.
Shlurk. The wet sounds and a very vague image from my symbiont tell me that my improvisation worked, he was stabbed in several places by the other Numbers. I make use of the empty space to leap out of the melee and rush the Director who is a dozen meters away from me.
She shut down her fire construct, replacing it with a large equation construct floating in-between her hands. Fuck me. I lion's step to my left, causing her to lose sight of me for a split second, enough time to assemble a lightning construct with five portions.
She finds me again and launches the construct at me. It's quite large, about three portions, but there isn't all that much flow into it considering how much there was scattered in the room earlier. That tells me that she has likely been supplying the Numbers with energy.
I activate my lightning construct, striking out at her but ensuring the bolt's path goes through her construct. The bolt flashes and both constructs obliterate each other in a flash of light. Damn, five for three and that's the best my most efficient construct can do?
“Well done.” Suxen nods approvingly. “You can follow directions after all.”
I'm lucky it even worked, she was likely double bluffing me by telling me to use lightning constructs. Or she's so mad that she thought telling me what to do would get me to trust her.
“Hold, purge, reform.” She orders her Numbers.
My symbiont's sense detects no movements near me so I straighten up and use the opportunity to form air-blades coated in blood from my back. I then use them to cut my burning sleeve glove off, shredding a good part of my shirt and bra as I do.
I step away from the flames and catch my breath. Suxen pushes her runic glasses back up on her nose and then starts tapping her chin. Her white blouse is still pristine even though there puddles of blood, limbs, gray matter, and bowels spread all across the room.
“The air-blades are easy to break once you understand that it doesn't compress air to solidify it.” The Director tells me. “To begin with. It would at the very least take two-hundred portions of energy to solidify air by compressing it. No, compressing the air serves to bring the molecules closer together which reduces the energy consumption of the construct's primary function.”
“And that is?” I ask to buy time since she isn't creating another construct.
“Solidifying air.” She replies with an amused but polite smile. I groan. How can this woman be so calm in the middle of this carnage? “Fret not, specimen, the explanation is quite simple. The air-blade construct strengthens the bonds between air molecules which allows them to break through even rock if propelled at a significant speed. The construct was created from an analysis of how the Lizards make their scales and equipment tougher.”
Crash. A small tremble quakes the stone floor. A whole section must have fallen for me to hear and feel it. My symbiont's sense is still blurry, and I can feel pangs of pain coming from the burns across the entire surface of its rubbery skin, and even mine at the shoulder.
I got out of that a lot better than I hoped, good thing Cetyz didn't teach her that fire construct or my torso would be in flames right now. I don't look down to my limb, knowing that it would be hard for me to stomach the sight of burnt flesh.
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Suxen opens her mouth, about to speak to distract me from the Numbers closing in on me, two women and three men left. My symbiont apparently took some out. I activate two lion's steps to charge the Director.
She hurriedly raises her hand, creating a construct in the couple of seconds it takes me to close the twelve meters. A golden barrier appears in front of me, sizzling and crackling. It's much larger and thicker than the ones her Numbers used.
I stomp down and twist to redirect my forward momentum into my scimitar, launching a horizontal slash at the flow shield. Dwuuu. The construct stops my blade with an odd sound but consumes about two-thirds of its energy to do so and it really didn't cost me much.
“Kill the specimen, recover the parasite.” Suxen orders calmly.
I blink, taken by surprise. I expected her to try to keep me alive. No matter, she tried to capture me long enough for me to eliminate most of the Numbers. I bash the golden shield again to directly attack Suxen but, without momentum, I fail to break it.
The last two women Numbers start running, taking the point of the formation and apparently about to tackle me with their swords. I kick the ground to jump the side, switching to a reversed grip on my scimitar and letting it slide down in my left hand to take hold of the handle just under the spike, maximizing my reach.
As I land, I take the time to assemble a lightning-armor-piercing construct and a single lion's step. The reason I can do that is that the Numbers are reorganizing to flank me, showing how inflexible they are as they merely apply the formations they learned.
Shit! I use my lion's step to jump backward, barely avoiding a spinning short-sword flying straight at me, thrown by a bulky redheaded Number. She picks another one up from the ground while the other woman charges me with no regard for her own life.
I spin on my left foot to dodge the first slash but, without the lion's step, fail to stop her from crashing into me. She starts pummeling me with her fists. I let go of my scimitar to seize her jaw and the back of her head to twist her neck. Snap.
I inject a burst of energy into my strengthening construct and propel her dead body off me, towards the male Number closing in from my left. He dodges it but it slows him down enough for me to grab my scimitar and slash at the other one.
A vivid pain shocks my brain, disturbing my attack. The blade plunges into the ground, severing half of the Number's foot which is far from what as I was trying to do. I block the runic array that Suxen partially reactivated.
With my mind occupied, I fail to see the five-toed man's stabbing attack coming towards my heart. My symbiont reacts by letting go of my weapon and slapping the two-handed longsword aside.
The killing blow is redirected just enough that it only cuts flesh, leaving a stinging cut in my side. I assemble a lightning construct with half my reserve, about ten portions now, and shower the Numbers in lightning.
The last woman falls along with the two men on my left and right. I get back up on my feet, scimitar held in both hands. An odor of charcoaled flesh reaches my nose, telling me that the construct killed them.
I rush the last of the Numbers who is still reeling from the bolts that hit him and stab his stomach. The scimitar catches in his flesh, stopping before truly impaling him because I haven't used an armor-piercing construct.
I shove him back by pushing my weapon and let go of the handle with my right hand to kick him in the chest. My blade tears its way out, bringing a mess of guts and muscles along.
The number starts shaking, likely going into shock. I inspect the room, finding that Suxen bailed out of here like Aisha did. I remove the bits and pieces of flesh from my scimitar's spikes as I make my way to the observation room.
I detect Aisha in a corner long before walking in. She's bandaging a bleeding gash in her belly with pieces of her shirt. I walk in and my eyes lock in on her bare chest, her consequent but not too large breasts.
I relish the sight for a moment, feeling a burst of desire to mate but it seems hollow, likely because my symbiont is in pain from the burns covering its flesh. I lack the healing construct to fix it. I doubt the Rykz even have one considering its a new organism.
“Hey.” I speak up. “You bailed on me.”
“I helped.” She groans, briefly looking up.
“Hm.” I nod.
“You look indecent.” She teases.
“The blood?” I ask before looking down. “Ah.”
My shirt isn't covering my right breast anymore, it was torn along with my bra when I cut the sleeve glove off. Their remains are hanging around my waist so I tear them off and hand them over to Aisha.
“Mind bandaging me?” I ask, settling down in front of her.
“No, but do we have time?” She questions.
“It'll only take a minute and we both need a moment to get back to full strength, Suxen is long gone either way.” I reply.
“Alright.” She says.
I notice that her real face shows relief at hearing that the Director made it out. Aisha takes the strip of cloth which was previously my bra and starts wrapping it around my left arm. I would almost have preferred it if the Shade abandoned me because now I have to take her along with me.
“That looks nasty.” She says with a grimace. “You okay?”
“I'm fine.” I reply, repressing a shudder. “But I really hate fire.”
“Um.” She starts but pauses.
“What?” I ask.
“I'm pretty sure you set the institute on fire.” She tells me.
“How? It's made of stone.” I blink, surprised.
“It's mostly coated in stone.” She corrects me. “And you broke the northern wall so... yea. I mean, you can touch these veins if you want to see for yourself.” She glances at the wall her back is up against.
I reach out and touch the wall. The metal veins feel warm under my touch, which I suppose is unusual. Well, shit, just my luck, I have to explore a fucking burning building to extract Cetyz before it crashes down on us.
Aisha's wrist brushes against my right breast. I throw her a glare but she returns the most innocent smile I've ever seen as she continues passing a bloody piece of cloth around my torso, bandaging the cut.
“Too bad we don't have time, we'll be going in different directions after this.” She tells me with an air of regret.
“Aisha, it wasn't going to happen.” I tell her honestly. “Even if I was free, which I'm not, I don't think I'm capable of treating it casually like you are.”
“Okay.” She acknowledges with a gentle smile.
“What do you think Suxen's going to do?” I ask, changing the subject.
“Regroup and assess.” The Shade replies. “You're going to have a lot of trouble reaching Cetyz.”
“Do you know where she is?” I ask, letting pass the fact that she's implying she won't be coming along.
“Basement A if I were to venture a guess but you'd be wiser to follow the flow.” She tells me.
“Because they would have to keep it supplied with a large amount of energy in case she wakes up.” I nod.
Aisha ties the strip of cloth into a knot on top of my injury, pressuring it. I use my sense to check her stomach, it's more than a little blurry but enough to tell me that the wound isn't serious. I'm not surprised to find that she has a dagger stashed behind her back but I do wonder where she found it.
As I inspect her weapon, trying to figure out whether it's bloody or not, I detect some movement far behind me in the array room. I get up to my feet and rush back, finding Turpin trying to escape on all fours. A short laugh escapes me at the sight. I totally forgot about him.
“P, please!” He stutters.
I ignore the plea, walking up to him. He accelerates towards the double doors, still on all fours. I kick him in the stomach, which ironically makes him fall on my foot. I lean down and punch him in the back of the head, knocking him out and breaking his nose against the ground.
“Leave him and let's go.” Aisha says.
“One second.” I reply.
I take his white blouse off and hand it over to her before stealing his shirt for myself. As I slip it on, I ponder what to do with him for a moment and decide to bring him along to use as a shield since I broke the others. I pick him up and settle him on my right shoulder.
“Alright.” I say, adjusting my left hand's grip closer to my scimitar's center of gravity so I can easily use it one-handed.
“You pick up the weirdest pets. First me, then Tsek, and now this one.” Aisha chuckles.
I shake my head, smiling in spite of myself, and go through the double doors. I don't detect anyone further up on the ramp so I press on, hoping to find the way down to the basements before running into another fight.
We emerge into the room with shelves filled with the madwoman's samples, I notice that the tendril is missing. The oak door reinforced with metal strips, which leads into the corridor with the cells, is closed. I can hear sounds of battle on the other side.
“We should wait, these poor people don't stand a chance.” Aisha comments sadly.
“Which is why we should go, Aisha.” I counter.
“I won't convince you, I know that, but we both have missions that matter more than their lives.” The Shade argues.
I turn away from her, disgusted by her suggestion to use these people's lives to tire the institute's guards out before we attack. I head straight to the door, finding it locked. I place my left palm on the lock and start pressuring it.
It starts creaking, signaling that it's working but I detect someone naked dropping with a sword in their throat at the edge of my range and decide to burn some of my energy to accelerate the process. Crack. The door slams wide open.