GRIFFIN TUCKER VASILIAS, GREAT HOUSE SCION, REBORN LVL 5
VASILIAS COMPOUND, HELDON
Griffin manipulated the virtual controls his DEEP Suit had created for the shoulder-mounted guns, pointing them in different directions, and getting a feel for them. They swung around and a couple of camera feeds popped up in his HUD with views down each barrel.
“Where the hell is it?” He muttered, panning the gun cameras slowly back and forth.
The blue-painted area Kismet had marked out for the Grass Stalker’s likely location was pretty wide. If he just started firing indiscriminately into it, he doubted he’d hit anything.
He tried to catch a glimpse of the little hints that had convinced him it was stalking him in the first place. He thought for a moment about how ridiculous he must look, stumbling slowly forward in the middle of a bamboo forest, hands held in front of him holding nothing while his thumbs twitched and the little pen guns on his shoulders swung around and moved slowly back and forth.
Griffin’s attention was brought to a particular spot in the blue area. He wasn’t sure why, but there was something off about it. He stared at the spot, trying to figure out what the hell had caught his attention so fiercely.
It was subtle. Very subtle. Griffin had been staring at the spot for ten minutes before he figured it out. It was the way the sun reflected off that thin branch…that wasn’t a branch! It was one of the monster’s long spikes on its back!
Even now, Griffin could barely see it and was mostly guessing at its shape from what he remembered in the image Kismet had displayed earlier. He thought he could see some of the spikes on its back, but its camouflage was so ridiculously good, the only reason he knew it was facing him was because it was so close.
Its outline blended entirely into the shifting bamboo background, making it impossible to tell what its position was. He knew he didn’t have the luxury of time, so he aimed a little below where he saw the spikes and pulled both triggers on his invisible controllers.
The guns on his shoulders each fired once and Griffin saw bright red blood splatter everywhere. “Take that!” He shouted, continuing to fire as quickly as he could.
He still couldn’t see the Grass Stalker, though he was sure he’d injured it. The quiet of the bamboo forest was shattered by the roar of the guns on his shoulders as he blasted the area with a hail of fire that had bamboo being blasted apart and shattered. After a few seconds, Griffin stopped firing, feeling his tensa pool getting alarmingly low. The bamboo forest once again fell quiet and Griffin tensely waited for the monster to show itself from the smoking ruin he’d made, keeping his shoulder guns trained on the area.
His Ten Star Vortex anima configuration was working overtime to supply his ravenous tensa pool with more energy. He was learning that the DEEP Suit was quite liberal with his tensa, often multiplying costs so that he was only able to use the various subsystems in short bursts. That made this fight—like every other fight before it—an exercise in resource management. The guns chewed through his tensa pool, so he’d have to do a little more aiming and a lot less indiscriminate firing if he was going to defeat this thing.
That part of the bamboo forest had been blasted into a smoking clearing of splintered wood and leaves. It smelled like gunsmoke, though his DEEP Suit’s filters were working overtime to prevent him from choking on it.
“I might have gone a little overboard,” he muttered and realized that the suit had also protected his hearing because his ears weren’t ringing or anything.
Still, the sentiment rang true. He’d utterly demolished a five-meter section of forest and he couldn’t find any sign of the monster now. He kept scanning, hoping to find its body slumped beneath a pile of bamboo or maybe some blood: some kind of evidence that he’d killed the thing.
Instead, he got tackled from behind by something that felt like it weighed as much as a car. Frantically, he tried to turn, but his whole chest and upper torso were in a vice-like grip that was squeezing harder and harder. He was violently shaken and felt his tensa pool once more dip perilously close to empty as his DEEP Suit scrambled to keep his bones from breaking.
Throwing caution to the wind, he jammed down the triggers of his guns as the Grass Stalker’s jaws tried to crush him. He held down the triggers for only a couple of seconds but one of the guns must have been pointed right at it. The creature shrieked, the noise so loud it was like a physical blow, and blood splattered all over his face and torso from a couple of ragged wounds.
It still hadn’t let him go, so he kept firing until a dry clicking noise came from the little shoulder guns. He was out of ammo. Wait what? He wondered. I thought the ammo came from my tensa pool. A wave of nausea swept over him as pain bloomed in his head.
How many shots had he just done? He checked his tensa pool and found that it was completely empty. With no tensa circulating in his body, his Attributes were deactivated leaving him utterly enervated. He was a limp noodle, only barely able to stand in the sudden immobilizing weight of the DEEP Suit.
There was one bit of good news at least: the monster had been hurt by his desperate move. He tried to lever himself out of the monster’s jaws, but his hand brushed one of its wounds and it let out a piteous, bellowing wail. With a flick of the Grass Stalker’s powerful neck, Griffin was flung through the forest, crashing through bamboo until he came to a rest almost four meters away, a trail of broken and cracked trees in his wake.
His limp bonelessness ended up proving to be fortunate: he didn’t end up with any broken bones at all. Through it all, he somehow managed to keep up his Ten Star Vortex technique, greedily refilling his tensa pool as fast as he could. He groaned as heat and light suffused his being, his desolate tensa pool rapidly refilling.
Griffin cudgeled his will, forcing the energy within him to flow along his tensa pathways, flooding his body with strength and clearing his mind. His Attributes activated again, rocketing his endurance through the roof and reducing the roaring pain of his injuries to a dull murmur. Shakily, he got to his feet, anticipating the next bone-crushing attack to come at any moment.
Flashing damage indicators in his HUD practically screamed that his DEEP Suit was holding together more with hopes and dreams than anything else. Bamboo cracked off to his right and he turned, his eyes widening at the sight.
The Grass Stalker stood there, four meters away from him, blood pooling around its muscular feet. It looked savage and desperate, its eyes burning into his with mad hatred and bloodlust. Its sides heaved as it panted heavily, a blackened tongue lolling out of its mouth and dripping thick grey drool to mix with its blood on the ground.
“Griffin!” Kismet’s voice filtered into his helmet. “It’s recovering! Kill it before it can recover completely!”
Kismet appeared near the monster’s head in a twinkling, glittery, hot-pink bodysuit flying in tight circles around it. The bleeding monster shook its head as she got close to it, splattering blood from the two gaping gunshot wounds on its neck. It squinted at Kismet, swiping at her once with one clawed arm and missing.
The Grass Stalker’s keening whine turned into a wet growl, making his insides feel a little watery. He desperately wanted to shoot another barrage of magic bullets at the thing, but if he zeroed out his tensa pool again, he’d be a sitting duck. He wasn’t a good enough shot to be confident that he’d hit the monster with his shoulder guns.
Time to bring a sword to a gunfight, Griffin thought grimly. Or maybe, ‘chop this thing down to size’? Funny how James Bond never mentioned how difficult coming up with pithy one-liners is.
He dismissed the shoulder guns, selecting the Deadly Melee option from his DEEP Suit’s HUD, and watched the creature warily while the DEEP Suit reconfigured itself. The draw on his tensa pool was minimal since he was dismissing the guns at the same time, thankfully, and he was just able to keep his tensa pool refilling with the Ten Star Vortex technique.
It took a couple of seconds for the little shoulder guns to retract into the armor and for the big sword Griffin had used against the plasma cybercentipedes to start materializing. The Grass Stalker started charging at him and Griffin had a moment to think, Oh shit! Before it leaped at him, jaws gaping and claws outstretched.
It was just at that moment that the sword finished appearing in his hand and he thrust out in desperation, knowing that he’d either kill it or get crushed by the monster. Instead, something else happened entirely. His sword cut cleanly through the monster as he thrust through it, but it was almost entirely weightless.
Dry grass exploded from the creature as he destroyed it and Griffin had a sinking feeling that this was exactly what the monster had wanted him to do. He had enough presence of mind to get back into a defensive stance right as the actual Grass Stalker slammed into him from the side.
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“It’s still hurt like it was before!” Griffin called out, “Where the fuck did it come from?!”
He barely held back the creature’s fervent bites by shoving the pommel of his sword into the monster’s mouth. That made it difficult for him to bring the blade to bear on it, but at least it wasn’t biting him anymore. Grunting, Griffin lashed out with a fist, punching the creature in the neck where he’d shot it. It screeched and backed away, giving him a moment to breathe.
Kismet’s voice came through his helmet, “I’m reconfiguring your deadly melee weapon into something more useful for you right now! Try to stay alive while I work!”
Griffin grunted as the Grass Stalker lunged at him again and he got the flat of the big sword up in time to prevent its jaws from closing on him again. Then the sword disappeared.
“Shit!” Griffin yelled, suddenly having to hold the thing back with his bare hands. “You didn’t tell me the sword was gonna disappear!”
“I suggest you compensate for the lack as I finish up the final changes,” Kismet said in his ear. She’d stopped expending the tensa to keep her hologram running so she was just a disembodied voice now. Griffin didn’t respond as he dove to the side, barely avoiding another lunge from the monster.
“Why isn’t this thing slowing down?!” Griffin yelled as he catapulted to his feet after an acrobatic roll, grateful that the DEEP Suit had the servomotors that enhanced his movements. “It must’ve bled a goddamn swimming pool of blood by now!”
The Grass Stalker circled him, making Griffin pivot in a tight circle. He was crouched in a kind of wrestler’s crouch, trying to be as prepared as he could to hold the thing off. He wasn’t prepared for what the bleeding monster did next. It bellowed again and Griffin felt a rumble in his feet that was his only warning for him to run before a mass of spiky spears of bamboo shot out of the earth in every direction.
“Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!” Griffin screamed as he sprinted away, his Attribute-enhanced reflexes the only thing that allowed him to keep ahead of the bamboo spikes blasting out of the forest floor at him.
He was desperately trying to pull more and more tensa in to refill his tensa pool so he could try something with his Reality Twine, but he had to survive long enough first. And that’s when it hit him. He’d played this game before. On a Nokia phone back in the early 2000s. He was good at Centipede.
He immediately made a course correction. In the video game, you didn’t have to sprint through a dense bamboo forest in a suit of powered armor, but you had to work with what you had. The Grass Stalker seemed content to run Griffin down with its bamboo spikes, so Griffin steered his desperate sprint into a circle around the monster. Closer and closer, bringing the walls of the bamboo spikes tighter and tighter around them, all the while pulling in as much tensa as he could with his Ten Star Vortex technique.
He read over the synergy description for his 3-D Movement System, trying to calculate exactly when he’d be able to use it.
3-D Movement System (Reality Twine synergy)
Description: Invest 10% of your tensa pool to gain the 3-D Movement System using your Reality Twine graft synergy. This will create a 350-meter-long spool of Reality Twine that the DEEP Suit uses to provide three-dimensional movement capability via autopropelled grapnel spikes.
Almost there! Griffin thought, breath heaving in his helmet.
The DEEP Suit’s air conditioning system was working overtime to blow cool air on him but even with the powered armor’s assistance, he was getting winded.
I really shouldn’t have eaten that stupid Cinnabon before this stupid test! Griffin thought, feeling a wicked stitch settle into his left side.
He gritted his teeth, taking a rapid right turn and nearly twisting his ankle at the same time. Only the DEEP Suit’s leg servos kept him on his feet, going into overdrive as he fought through the pain to keep the pace up and not get impaled by bamboo. Just as he wasn’t sure he could last another moment, he checked his tensa again and saw that he had enough to activate the 3-D movement system.
Finally! He thought triumphantly as he invested the energy and felt the nauseating feeling of his tensa pool bottoming out again, Oh God, I hate it when I do that. Keep it together Griffin! At least this time, he’d remembered to keep enough in his pool to keep his Attributes active.
“Kismet, please tell me that you’re just about ready with the better weapon!” He shouted.
Just then, a pair of spike-like daggers appeared in his hands. They were each a half a meter long and they locked onto his armor’s bracers to prevent them from being knocked out of his hands.
“Great timing Kismet!”
“What are you planning Griffin?!” Kismet asked, seeing the course he’d just plotted. “You’ve aimed behind the Grass Stalker! Don’t tell me you’ve turned suicidal and you’re going to jump into its mouth?!”
“Not quite!” Griffin still didn’t use the 3-D Movement System.
He dashed down the left side of the monster, close enough to be in dagger-striking range though he restrained himself for the moment. The Grass Stalker kept blasting bamboo spikes at him, moving to the last clear patch of ground, a narrow, three-meter-wide corridor that was entirely enclosed in bamboo spikes. As he reached the end of his run, he turned on his heel and sprinted directly at the Grass Stalker from a mere five meters away.
He activated the 3-D Movement System, feeling the DEEP Suit reconfiguring itself around him. The course he’d plotted was ambitious—damn near suicidal—but if worked he was pretty sure he’d win this little test thing. His timing had to be perfect or he’d end up impaling himself on the bamboo spikes.
The Reality Twine lines shot out from his hips and shoulders, their points anchoring in midair, pulling him forward. His speed increased dramatically, catapulting him toward the Grass Stalker. Griffin leaned back as he went, gripping his brand-new daggers. In a second, he was at the Grass Stalker and he realized he’d miscalculated: he wasn’t going to end up under the monster but rather directly into the monster’s mouth. Now Kismet’s worry made sense.
It was too late to change course now though. He sailed directly into the open maw of the Grass Stalker. At least Kismet had made sure he couldn’t drop his daggers! The Grass Stalker caught him in its open mouth and started trying to swallow him.
Griffin swung his arms around like hammers, driving the daggers into the monster’s neck and face over and over. He was nearly deafened as the Grass Stalker bellowed and tried to spit him out, but the 3-D movement system was steadily pulling them both into the bamboo spike wall behind the monster. Griffin gave it one more second before he launched a couple of Reality Twine tethers directly behind him, releasing the anchors in front. The action jerked him out of the Grass Stalker’s mouth, though it also hurtled him directly at the opposite bamboo spike wall.
Griffin disengaged the last grapnels and dug his feet in, tripping and tumbling on the uneven ground until he rolled to a stop not a centimeter away from a wicked bamboo spike. Dizzily, he shook his head and tried to stand up. He only managed to lever himself up a few centimeters before dizziness overtook him and he had to rest for a while. At least the Grass Stalker wasn’t making spikes explode out of the ground anymore.
“Did…” Griffin gasped, “Did we…did we get it?”
“Yes Griffin,” Kismet said, her voice tinged with disbelief. “You managed to kill it.”
As Griffin caught his breath, he felt a fundamental change in the world around him and he opened his eyes to see the bamboo forest disappearing quickly and leaving the blank white surface of the Simulation Chamber. He sat up a little shakily and looked around for Loris. He found the draakan standing nearby, staring at the Systablo in her hand and shaking her head slowly.
Loris approached Griffin and cleared her throat. "Griffin, I must say that your performance in this fight was a mixed bag,” she prodded her Systablo and a miniaturized recording of the fight appeared, showing the last few moments of the fight. “On the one hand, you demonstrated excellent resourcefulness in your use of the 3-D movement system to trap the Grass Stalker and deliver the killing blow. It shows adaptability, willingness to take chances in extreme circumstances, and cognizance of your movement abilities.” She nodded in satisfaction and Griffin felt himself starting to get optimistic.
“However,” Loris continued, tapping at the Systablo again, bringing up several other scenes from the fight, “there were also several areas where your performance was distinctly lacking. Firstly, you expended your tensa pool far too quickly. Your reliance on your guns made you drain your tensa pool at an unsustainable rate. It nearly killed you. If it weren't for your 3-D Movement System, you would have been unable to finish the fight.”
Griffin tried to defend himself, but Loris cut him off with a look that made Griffin feel about a centimeter tall. “Secondly, your inability to effectively use your sword in close quarters was a significant weakness. While I understand that the sword was temporarily disabled, you must have a backup plan for when your primary weapon is unavailable. A pair of daggers may have sufficed in this instance, but in a more challenging fight, they may not have been enough.” Her tongue flicked out several times before she continued.
She swept her hand through the holograms and they all disappeared. She replaced them with still scenes of Griffin in close combat with the Grass Stalker, many of them showing just how much damage the Grass Stalker had inflicted on him, “Finally, your choice to engage the Grass Stalker in close combat was reckless and irresponsible. While I understand that you were able to ultimately defeat the creature, you put yourself in unnecessary danger and could have easily been killed. In the future, it is important to consider the risks and potential consequences of your actions before charging into a fight.
“Your resourcefulness and determination were admirable, but your lack of tactical planning and poor resource management were… eye-opening. In the coming weeks, we will focus on improving your ability to conserve tensa and plan for contingencies in combat."
She finally fell quiet and shook her head again. “We have more tests to run of course, but this was a good beginning. Refill your tensa pool and signal when you’re ready.”
“What?!” Griffin moaned, feeling his muscles burning and protesting already. “But I thought I just passed your test!”
“We need to devise a comprehensive training plan for you, Scion,” Loris replied. “I will not let you die because of lack of training. Our House’s glory will be assured, never you doubt that.” She turned away from him and approached Xander and the rest of the team, talking with them too quietly for Griffin to hear.
Kismet appeared again, her holographic form now dressed in her mini-DEEP Suit, complete with realistic battle damage. He appreciated the extra effort. “Better get ready, Griffin,” she said, looking over Griffin’s shoulder. “Loris looks like she’s ready to start the next test whether you’ve got a full tensa pool or not.”
Griffin sighed and nodded, concentrating on using his Ten Star Vortex anima configuration to refill his tensa pool again. He was already sore all over and he thought his ribs were bruised already from the Grass Stalker’s first bite. He could tell this was going to be a long day.