Chapter 76 - Run some Tests
The ‘ignarog’ barked as it and Geddon charged one another. Meanwhile the army of smaller scourge flooded in from everywhere else with howls and angry snarls. With several of the guns preoccupied trying to bring down a target that wouldn’t die, the little ones were back to being a huge problem.
Crowd control. Right.
Unfortunately, the turrets were my crowd control. That was my whole damned thing, and, suddenly, that wasn’t good enough. What was I supposed to do?
Well, there was at least one part of that horde I could delay with a thought. Better to do it now before the scourge got curious as to why we were out here in the first place. I triggered Volatility, setting off the explosive cores inside the constructs we’d just deployed.
The charges went off flawlessly, almost entirely in sync, each link of the multi-hinged “chain” sending explosively formed, penetrating projectiles through the gnawed flesh of the mendau trees and severing what was left of their metal cores or at least enough of them to matter. With an earth shaking groan the two slain titans fell, crashing through the branches of the neighbors before finally sending a towering storm of dust and debris high into the sky.
Through the cloud of dust, glorious, brilliant rays of white-hot sunlight lanced down, cutting through gloom that hadn’t been disturbed in centuries. The scourge that were lucky enough not to be crushed under the building-sized falling trees were practically vaporized. Their flesh bubbled and steamed before peeling away while their blood dissolved into smoke. Others went up in flames, eyes first. Collectively, the tenor of the howling voices shifted, adopted a pitch with undertones of fear.
As for me, I fought not to retch.
Oh, I’m seeing that in my nightmares, for sure.
Suddenly, that part of the forest was very unpopular. The scourge redirected its minions to go far, far around the new no-go zone.
That job done, I spared one last glance back at my friends as they surrounded the big toad. They seemed to have things well in hand on their end, or at least no one had died yet. Now, what was I going to do on my end?
I’d thought about this problem before in my spare time, being caught out in the open like this. Of course it was always a remote, unlikely thing, something that would happen if many, many things had gone wrong all at once, a ‘wow, I’d be really screwed if this happened’ sort of thing that I spent most of my time and preparations avoiding instead of being in the middle of. My working philosophy was, generally, if I was having to think on the fly, I had failed in some way. I frontloaded my thinking, choosing to do it when I was calm and rational.
Until recently, that had been working pretty well. No reason to mess with success. Plus, I had all sorts of other stuff to occupy my time and brain space.
Well, now the moment was here, and I was thinking on the fly, meaning I’d failed spectacularly, and all I had to hand were the beginnings of projects, untested ideas, an exploding sword, and a pile of stones that I meant to use for Volatility.
That left the science projects. The untested science projects.
I let out a long breath, hoping my misgivings and sense of self preservation left me with it.
The mortar tube appeared in my hand.
Okay, so ‘mortar tube’ was probably a misnomer. This thing sucked at being a mortar tube. Despite the System still classifying it as such, the device in my hand didn’t launch things high up in the air to rain down on my enemies like I’d envisioned. Whether that was because my munitions were too heavy, or my propulsion method was too weak, it just didn’t work like that.
It was one of my first forays into air powered munitions, essentially a long, wide tube with piping and several Trigger bulbs with ultra compressed air attached to a shuttle plate that pushed munitions out of the tube at high velocity. I wanted it to be able to launch explody things over long distances, so that we could tackle big masses of scourge before they could form a good charge.
The problem with my air powered designs was that they just didn’t have the oomph of my explosive Volatility cubes. The test rounds, spherical hunks of metal about the size of Trix’s fist, only flew about fifty yards at the maximum. Rocks only got us another ten or so yards further afield. At that range, we’d be better off letting the turrets do the job.
However, the way I figured, I could still make the time I’d sunk into the design worth it…
By attaching it to me.
I flipped the tube until it was pointing out then slipped the forearm of my prosthetic into the new attachment rings I’d Shaped onto the side. The Triggers activated automatically, tightening the clamps around the black metal of my arm until the whole thing was solidly in place. I didn’t feel much of anything, my metal arm being what it was, but with the forces involved, I was pretty sure I’d become an amputee again if I’d tried this little maneuver with my fleshy arm.
One flash of magic later, and I slid a little ball of Automated metal into the end of the tube and listened to the retention iris click closed.
Okay. Please don’t explode in my face.
*FOOP*
My invention might not have been a very effective mortar, but it certainly kicked like one. I felt the recoil in my entire body, like my prosthetic just got fist bumped by a giant. My Body score being what it was helped me stay upright, but if my feet hadn’t been braced, I’d have been on my ass now. The shot, angled slightly up to give it some arc, was slow enough to be tracked with the naked eye, but only just. That was okay, though. I was just relieved it was far away from me before-
*FUFFFFF*
As it was programmed to do, once the metal ball got within ten or so feet of a valid target, the Automated matter flash ionized in mid-air directly above said target, in this case: the concentrated mass of monsters. What was once roughly a pound and a half of brass became a rapidly expanding, highly energetic gas, igniting everything it touched as it suddenly became somewhere in the ballpark of five thousand degrees fahrenheit. The affected area went up like a bonfire, not just from the gassed brass but from the scourge themselves suddenly reaching their ignition point too along with the leaves on ground, the bark of the trees, the air…
The blowback reached me in under a second, oven hot, even though the affected area was thirty yards away.
The burst of experience messages practically punched me in the brain stem.
Mental note: The airburst programming works. Not to be used in close quarters.
One reload later, I brought the tiny bead on the end of the mortar into line with the next closest mass. This one needed to make contact.
*FOOP*
I didn't hit the scourge I was aiming for. I’d accidentally aimed too high. Luckily there were just so many of them.
The little ball smacked into the shoulder of some kind of hoofed creature and instantly exploded in a cloud of wild purple mana as the charged core detonated. The creatures around the impact site were thrown into the air, into their fellows, crumpled like empty cans under the shock of the explosion. A microsecond later, the bodies immediately in the blast area were reduced to bloody chunks by shrapnel as the Volatility explosion ripped the steel skin off the outside of the little ball and sent it in all directions.
The effective radius was far smaller than I would have liked. Five, maybe eight feet out, the ballistic steel had already lost a lot of its speed, maiming and crippling mostly. Any scourge further out than that was largely spared any damage. A shame, really. That one round was much cheaper, mana wise than the airburst one, and all the material was theoretically recyclable by the drones.
Need to work on that one. Maybe check the logs later to see what happened.
I only had one other type of round, a delayed one, but with the horde bearing down on us, it wasn’t going to be much use.
Think, Ryan. What else do we have?
The big toad thing bellowed from behind me, a short, angry belching call. I turned to see it open its mouth wide and just miss swallowing Samila whole. She dodged out of the way just in time, tucking her shield under her and rolling to get more distance between her and the thing’s mouth.
Or at least that was the plan. Too slow. She got up too slow, growling as her injured leg refused to straighten with any speed.
Geddon shouted and slashed at the thing’s eyes with Organ Grinder, and the teeth sparked and sputtered as they ground through the ignarog’s rock hard skin. The monster didn’t pay him any mind, though. Whatever intelligence it had, it had focused on Samila.
The ignarog kicked out with a tree trunk sized leg, faster than a creature its size had any business doing, and Samila had no time to do anything other than hunker down and brace. Her shield splintered, and her body went airborne, her arms and legs windmilling as she flew away from the battle.
She came down silently, rolling to a stop under a pile of leaves.
My heart stopped. My thoughts ground to a halt. The world shrunk until all that existed was Sam’s unmoving body and the hollow sound of my rapid breathing. She laid there, utterly still.
No. Get up. Please get up.
Then there was a twitch, a tiny flex of the dragonkin’s fingers followed by a slight shake of her head. A cough.
Something got in the way. Big, gray. It blocked me from seeing her. Was she getting up? Was she still moving?
The ignarog.
In that moment, I would have torn the creature in half if only to catch another glimpse of Samila.
Sissa must have felt the same way. She shrieked and lunged forward, stabbing at the relatively vulnerable inside of the ignarog’s extended leg. The blade tore a bloody line down the muscle all the way to the knee. The leg retracted on reflex, yanking Sissa’s sword along with it while thick black scourge blood gushed from the wound.
There was another shriek, inhuman, insane, this time from my left.
HP [290/301]
The world widened out again, became real enough to gain my attention, and I did not like it one bit. I needed to know if she was okay.
I roared, rearing up and slamming my metal fist down on the Black One that had bitten me. I held nothing back.
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Its head splattered like a rotten melon. Its stinking, black blood shot into my mouth and nose.
The monsters were getting too close.
Right. Crowd control. That’s your job. Do your job. Samila would want you to do your job.
I summoned a handful of pebbles and went back to the basics. Familiar churning blender blades scraped at the inside of my skull as I used the ability on multiple objects at once.
Volatility [1 MP/sec]
Volatility [1 MP/sec]
Volatility [1 MP/sec]
Split Mind is now level 11.
Volatility [1 MP/sec]
Volatility [1 MP/sec]
My side-armed throw released the pebbles in a fan pattern, and I detonated the volley just as they passed over the swarm’s heads. As it had been in Eclipse, the small, relatively fragile monsters were pulped, and the rest fell to the forest floor, stunned. It wasn’t enough, though. Other monsters climbed over the fallen, treating them as no more than obstacles.
I had to go bigger.
Volatility [1 MP/sec]
Volatility [1 MP/sec]
Volatility [1 MP/sec]
Volatility [1 MP/sec]
Volatility [1 MP/sec]
Volatility [1 MP/sec]
Volatility [1 MP/sec]
Volatility depth increasing [1 of 3]
You gain status: Brain Hemorrhage. [1 HP/sec]
You take 1 bleeding damage.
You take 1 bleeding damage.
You gain status: Brain Hemorrhage. [2 HP/sec]
You take-
My head felt like it was splitting down the middle. Stabbing pinpricks of white phosphorus burned behind my eyes, floating, pulsing, and I found it increasingly hard to do more than breathe through my mouth.
My throw was off, but my enemies were many.
*BOOM**BOOM*BOOM**BOOM*
You take 2 bleeding damage.
You take 2 bleeding da-
The pain was excruciating. Everything glowed, blurred. Too bright. Too loud.
Everything was too real. I tasted blood. The breeze scraped at my exposed nerves. I panted, choked on the air. My limbs trembled, and my knees threatened to buckle.
Something was wrong. Very wrong. I couldn’t-
I can’t- I can’t… ah…. What am I doing? Am I-?
Finishing a thought seemed impossible. Nothing made sense.
I felt the ground rise, so I put out a hand to steady it.
No, I was on the ground.
“Duty and mercy!” Someone shouted from afar,and something warm and soothing passed through me like a golden breeze. I blinked until the majority of the burning white spots left me. I was shivering violently now, but I could think.
Right. I was keeping them back. I’m not- I’m not going to last. Sam. We have to go right now.
You take 3 bleeding damage.
You take 3 bleeding damage.
In a flash, the last prototype round for my glorified potato canon appeared in my spasming hand. I was barely able to slip it into the tube as I fell into some stumbling semblance of a run, a run toward my friends and the ignarog.
The way home was through the ignarog.
I ran into Geddon first. The big toad was going after Sissa now that she was swordless. Meanwhile, Geddon caught his breath between furious bouts of chopping. He only turned my way when I was right next to him.
“Ryan! This thing is- gods of old, your face!” Geddon gasped.
“R-R-” I started, but my mouth wouldn’t do what I told it to. It was full of blood, and my tongue wasn’t working right. It was like I was working someone else’s mouth with a remote control.
“Rumn!” I finally got out. “Go home!” I pointed at the fortress entrance.
Geddon didn’t question me. He did, however, relay my ‘message’ to everyone else.
“Retreat to the stronghold! Ryan has a plan!”
Bless the big man for believing in me, but I really didn’t have a plan.
“Not without Ryan!” Sissa shouted back. “It won’t let him by!”
I gave Geddon a look that I hoped conveyed confidence, but, instead, the big guy looked unsettled. I reached up and wiped at the trickle(?) of blood coming out of my… what was it coming out of? Oh wow. That was a lot of blood.
“I- uh-” Geddon stammered. “I think he has that covered!”
I lurched forward and slapped the big leori on the shoulder. Apparently, I wasn’t controlling my strength very well, because the gesture also made him stagger back a step. It did get him moving, though, circling the monster opposite Sissa. Meanwhile. Sissa was slowly inching away as well. When I finally caught her eye, she too, looked taken aback at what she saw.
Beyond the ignarog, I spied Bole in the distance too, slowly helping Samila limp in the general direction of safety. They were weaving side to side, taking some kind of serpentine route. She looked okay, all things considered, favoring her left side but largely operating under her own power. She even did a little jump and a wave, which I found odd. She wasn’t waving to us but toward the gate.
If I was able to control my breathing just now, I would have sighed in relief.
Samila did the little jump wave again. I could tell it pained her, but she did it again even before she could recover. What was she-
Oh you clever girl.
She was waving at the guns, putting her hand between the barrels of the guns and the ignarog. They were programmed to not shoot through us. She knew that. When the guns would try to fire, and there was something in the way, they would move on to other targets.
I gave a sloppy salute to Sissa then held up my potato gun.
“S’okay! Halp wave!” I shouted. Damnit. That didn’t come out right. Hold on, had I bitten my tongue? Was that what was making it so hard to speak?
Sissa’s eyebrow ridges scrunched together as if I’d just told her I had cheese curds for blood.
However, it was enough to get the big toad to ponderously spin in my direction. As it did that, I lost sight of the dragonkin girl.
Boss fight time. Let’s make it a short one.
With my eyes firmly affixed to the ignarog, I let my awareness of my Mark ability flash briefly in my mind. Yes, the turrets were marking targets behind me, keeping the little scourge from getting a shot at my back. They were largely effective, but the line was inching closer moment by moment.
As an experiment. I feinted to the side, trying to circle around the giant toad to get more in line with the gate. However, when it seemed to realize that was my plan, it flailed, kicked out sharply in a bid to cut off my line of retreat. Yep. It wasn’t necessarily here to kill me. It was here to keep me from getting home.
There was that advanced thinking again. The scourge was getting smarter all the time.
That path closed to me, I switched to another. I advanced, inching closer to the ignarog until I could almost reach out and touch it.
It must have thought it had lucked into the easiest kill of its life. Its prey was practically walking into its belly. The ignarog croaked in triumph as the big mouth opened wide. It drew itself up, loomed like it had done before with Samila, when it attempted to swallow her whole. Air rushed inside with enough force to nearly sweep me from my feet.
In this very small window, I made my move. I snapped my air cannon up and fired my last round down the creature’s throat as I lurched to the side, doing a long distance belly flop into the leaves. There was a snap and a great shuffling sound I assumed was the mouth coming down on nothing but leaves and dirt.
Part one of my plan in place, I then tried to scramble to my feet and get moving toward the gate as the others had.
Yep. That was my entire plan. Shoot the thing. Do a dive roll. Run for it.
In my defense, I had a lot going on.
So far, so good, though.
Unfortunately, I was even slower to rise than Samila was, and I got the same result.
The giant toad’s leg kicked out yet again, perfectly in line with my body, and, just as Samila had done (except more clumsily), I wobbled to my feet and angled myself to take the blow on my metal side. I even remembered to activate Hardened Defense on the tender flesh just below my ribcage to further soften the blow.
I’m not sure if it worked, actually.
I came to, mid-air, just before impact with the ground. I didn’t bounce or roll when I hit. My body simply cratered, flopping heavily into the damp soil and staying there.
When I finally got my respiratory system working again, I coughed up a glob of something chunky and wet and spit it into the dirt.
You take 56 bludgeoning damage.
You gain status: Stunned.
You take 3 bleeding damage.
You gain status: Brain Hemorrhage. [4 HP/sec]
You take 4 bleeding damage.
Someone yanked me to my feet.
“I don’t like to run *huff* either, but surely there are *huff* easier ways to travel,” Geddon panted. I blinked, trying and failing to get my bearings. It turned out I didn’t need to, however. The sometimes gentle giant was already hauling me toward the gap that was the gate.
Oh. Yes. I was nearer the gate now. Great.
“Go!” I ordered my rescuer, as if he wasn’t already doing that. Geddon was practically carrying me by my good arm to get me to safety.
“Whatever you did, it didn’t work. We will have to fight the ignarog from the walls now.”
“Waif,” was all I could get out.
“Wait? Wait for what?”
“Lanmine.” My right leg gave out just then, causing me to stumble, but Geddon took me under his arm with a pained growl.
“Gods, you are heavier than you look. What was that now?” He asked
“Lanmine!” I gasped, distracted and in pain. One of my eyes blurred and went black just then, and the guns crescendoed until they were all I could hear. The white globs were back and floating in front of me wherever I looked.
Sissa’s magic must have been wearing off.
“Light blast it. Help! Trix! ” Geddon shouted, and I suddenly noticed I was lying on my back. I was also back inside the fortress. When did we get inside?
“Holy hell, Geddon. He’s dying.” That was Samila’s voice. She sounded like she was in pain. I wanted to see her, but the desire left me before I performed the requisite movements. The ground was so comfy.
A light pressure on my chest.
“Stand back! Oh, light and gods of old. What happened?”
“That’s what I said! I don’t know. He was like this when I found him,” a basso voice explained.
“Did the ignarog do this?”
“No. Thi-”
The toad!
Suddenly, I found myself brimming with energy, comparatively at least. I gagged and sat up… or tried to. Something forced me back down before I could get all the way upright.
“H- HOW MUCH?!” I roared. My volume control wasn’t working properly. I wasn’t choosing the right words either.
“Hold him down!”
I gagged again, but the blood continued to stream down my throat, choking me. I coughed it up, but there was always more.
*WHAM*
Something slammed hard into one of the walls, hard enough for me to feel it through the floor. The guns were going full auto on something too. I summoned my focus, spat a mouthful of blood. I needed to say something.
HP [68/301]
You take 4 bleeding damage.
Focus.
“How….. long?”
“Ryan?” Samila again. She sounded terrible. Worry? Injury? How was she?
“How…. long?”
“Uh. Since you.. Since you came back? A minute. Two. Maybe more,” Samila answered. “Trix, you have to heal him right now.”
“I have done what I dared! I can make blood clot, but if I do that in his head… they have a name for that! It’s not a good name!”
“He’s going to die anyway, Trix!”
I reached for the Volatility trigger in my head. The new one. The most recent. Where was it? So slippery. The feeling was there, fleeting, squirming. Like my speech, using the ability felt wrong.
“They’re coming! Sam, we have to get up to the wall!” Sissa ordered.
“We can’t leave him!”
There! I felt the Volatility trigger there. It was jumpy, waving.
“Lamine. Down!” I tried to say.
“What?”
Trix’s claws dug into my skin.
You have gained status: Underfed(moderate).
You have gained status: Underfed(severe).
“Land mine!” I screamed. It had to have charged by now. The sequence had to have been building for… well… it needed to be enough.
“I don’t understand, Ryan!”
“Down!”
*BOOM*
You gain status: Stunned.
You have defeated scourge-touched female ignarog.
You have been awarded 8,230 experience points. [15,400 base (-1,010 level, +3,080 group, +3,080 chain, -12,320 non-combat class)]
“Augh!” Someone yelled as they dove on top of me and painfully forced the air from my lungs. Then something hot, wet, and rancid splattered down upon us followed by suspiciously warm rain.
I felt something in my head click into place followed by a pressure build up behind my eyes.
Status Lost: Brain Hemorrhage.
You have gained status: Starvation
Everything went fuzzy at the edges, ceased to matter like they used to. I didn’t try to yell anymore. I was content to lay here and just rest for as long as it took to-
“Get some food in him,” I heard Trix say. “Right now. Force feed him if you have to. Do not let him sleep.”
The joke was on him. I was already asleep.