“Raarh!”
Logan heard Kat take a blind swing, but she clearly hit nothing. There was a whoosh, an oof and Kat collapsed to the ground. The Dorves chuckled in their muffled voices. They must have been wearing masks.
“We thought we heard somethin’,” the same voice that had spoken before said. “Didn’t think it’d be you folk.”
“Look at this, Balmir,” another voice said. “They captured one of these.”
“Brave fighters these,” a third voice said, low and rumbling.
“Or lucky ones,” the first one said and grunted.
Tumor. Can you see or sense anything?
[I don’t have that kind of magic. My senses are limited to what you are sensing and the sensory input of the Armor.]
The pain in his eyes and lungs was intense. Logan hacked up a glob of something sticky and spat it out.
“How do you like the invention of our [Engineers], humans?”
“It’s great,” Logan said and spat again.
“Wait,” the first voice said. There was some shuffling and suddenly his voice was clear. It was masculine, but it had a lilt to it. “See this fellas. Look at what this kid is wearing.”
“Is that..?”
“There is no way. So much of it.”
“Kid,” the first Dorf said. “Remove that armor.”
“I can’t,” Logan said. Technically not a lie, since Tumor was controlling the Armor.
The blue-veined creature growled and apparently tried to take a swipe. It was kicked down. Logan tried to open his eyes, but it still stung too much.
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“Why is this one so weak?” the lilting one asked.
“We poisoned it,” Logan said immediately, before his companions could answer.
“Look Balmir,” the low rumbling voice said. He had also removed his mask. “These handcuffs and the collar. They’re also…”
“Remove them,” Balmir, the lilting one said.
There was some shuffling and grunting and snapping from the blue-veined creature, but eventually the leash Kat had used clattered to the ground. A lightbulb sparked in Logan’s head.
Tumor.
[I am listening.]
Can you use sound to navigate?
[Oh! What a novel idea. Certainly a skill able to be learned by humans… Which means your senses are compatible. Let me just run some programs…]
Logan had seen a blind person even ride a bicycle, doing strange clicking noises with her mouth. Surely, Logan had no training in anything like that, but he had a really, really powerful AI…
[I can do it. You will have to constantly ululate.]
Damn, if we make it out of this mess, that’s going to be hell of a story.
[It will only be so effective. There is a 73.07% chance that they will simply capture us again.]
I have a plan.
“I can’t remove the handcuffs,” the low and rumbling one said.
“I can do it!” Logan said quickly, before any of the Dorves got a notion of cutting off the creature’s hands.
“You got a key?” Balmir asked. “Search him, Sulfir.”
“No key,” Logan said and stifled a cough. “I got a class.”
“Hmph,” Balmir said and suddenly Logan felt a cold steel blade on his neck. “What’s your class?”
“[Metallurgist],” Logan said. “I can manipulate metal.
This clearly impressed the Dorves and they quickly exchanged whispers.
“You got a lucky class, boy,” Balmir said. “Is this a class with Numa affinity.”
“No,” Logan said to avoid any suspicion.
“I never heard of a class like this,” Sulfir, the low and rumbly voiced said. “You think he lies.”
“If you lie, kid,” Balmir said, slowly sliding the blade on his neck. Logan gasped when it cut the skin and a warm trickle of blood started running down to his chest. “I will do bad things to you. But if you truly have a class like this, your life might not be so terrible in my household.”
Yeah right…
Logan scrambled forward, guided by the blade of Balmir. His vision had a hint of itself back, but everything was a blurry, aching mess. Maybe Tumor could use it.
“You okay, Kat? Balmer?”
“Yeah,” Kat said somewhere to his right.
“Damn, it stings,” Balmer said right to his left. He had to be on his knees.
Okay good, they’re close. We need to grab them.
[That goes without saying.]
Logan patted around until he found bulging muscle. The blue-veined giant was cold as ice. It growled and shuffled, trying to bite Logan, who flinched back.
Under his breath, in the faintest voice he could muster, Logan uttered a magic word.
“[Funnel].”
“Hm? Sulfir said next to him.
Logan could feel the Numa that was stored in Armor stream into this aggressively grunting creature in front of him. This was extremely risky, but it was the only way he could think of that would buy them time. A group of seasoned warriors would kill a regular one of these bastard brutes in seconds. But a powered up one…
“Hey kid,” Balmir said. “What are you doing?”
When a third of the Armor’s rather substantial Numa reserves were transferred, Logan took the leap of faith.
“Shazam!”