Jonah and Tule stepped into a small atrium, beyond it was a circular room. That being, they assumed it was circular as all they could see .was the soft curve of the walls curving away from them, toward or, around, something across from them. The ring hallway was more than 30 feet wide and their vision was only occasionally blocked by larger, tree-like mushroom stalks, sometimes alone, sometimes grouped together.
They both stepped out of the atrium, gingerly, carefully, slowly.
Tule’s eyes darted back and forth as he smoothly swept his head back and forth. Jonah wasn’t as smooth, tense, jerky motions dominating his movements.
“Jonah, what is your Psi at?”
“6… yours?”
“5. Try to relax.”
“Relax? Ship knows what’s in here, maybe you can but it’s impossible when a brain explosion could be around any of these damn shrooms.”
Tule had to give him that point. He’d only crossed paths with 2 Psy-Users before and the mental effects, while strange and somewhat debilitating, weren’t anywhere near close enough to stop his blade. He wasn’t particularly motivated to have to meet a significantly stronger one. His normal stoicism was compromised but, as most things, he didn’t realize it at the time.
Jonah whispered, “Do you think we should head back?”
“No, we are supposed to be here. How is the disk?”
“Getting warmer.” It was something they had figured out sometime before. The AI disk would indicate the correct path by heating up.
“Good,” Tule managed between gritted teeth.
They continued their way around the room. There were sealed, half-open, broken down, and completely missing doors to what were, presumably, cells.
The giant stalks were becoming more and more common, thicker now, in denser clumps. Their sightlines were becoming worse by the step.
They looked into the door that read C13 above it. The Cryo-Pods they had passed looked much the same as the ones in the Cryo-Core. That was, until they came across the one in C13. It was an arcane and evil looking contraption. Needles and odd prongs looked to attach themselves to whoever found themselves inside it at the time. They went inside to inspect it.
“What does it say Jonah?”
“I can’t make it out.”
“It’s called a Crypto-Purgative Pod.”
“Jonah what did you call it?” “What did you say Tule?”
They spoke over each other before locking eyes and slowly exiting the room, backs planted against each other. They entered the curving hall again to meet a forest of mushroom smiles.
“They’re smiling again.”
“Yes.”
They entered the main curved hall.
“I think it wants us to head, over there…” Jonah pointed at a wall of thick mushroom stalks. He paused, “Wait, were those there before?”
Seeming to sprout from the ground was a creature. No, a man. No, a swarm of mushrooms interacted, melded, blended, and wrapped over each other, twisting together in near mockery of the Human form.
It continued to sprout and mutate as layer upon layer stretched over one another. Bands of white mushrooms simulated bone, or a perverse facsimile of it. Red and black formed webs of arteries and nerves. A thick layer of putrid green and pus-white formed over the figure over and over again, layering on ever deeper and thicker still.
This process continued in miniature on the first creature’s shoulder until another vile facsimile appeared.
Eyes, misshapen and a mouth, expelling toxic-looking spores with each breath appeared on the two. The big one turned to small one on its shoulder, “Little Brother-” The ‘little brother’s’ beady eyes turned its hateful glare away from the two of them to meet its larger companion, “there should have been more.”
'Little brother' protested in a wheedling voice, “I didn’t detect any in the Net! Do you want me to rejoin?”
The big one said, “We will both check after finishing these perversions.” It was a huge and heavy looking thing, folds of mushroom-spawned fat covered it in uneven lumps. Still, despite that, it looked formidable at, what Tule estimated was more than 7 feet tall. It reached out a hand and a thick heavy looking brown mushroom stalk grew at an unbelievable pace. It’s swollen hand grasped the stalk and detqached a mean-looking club from the mycelial floor.
Tule launched himself forward, his Toothpick carving a wicked chopping arc downwards. Blade met club and continued through it, the lengthwise slice carving through the bloated body. Jonah fumbled with the Wrist Rocket and hammered a barely invisible ball of metal through the small one’s forehead. A wet mass of congealed spore puffed and splashed against the stalks behind it.
The two circled around the bisected and still standing ‘big brother’ and debrained ‘little brother’.
“That hurt Big Brother!” Came a wheedling, whining tone. Split in two, the two mouths moved in unison, “Agreed, that sword is anathema, a vile thing of separateness.” The last word awoke the forest net around them. “Nearly as dangerous to us as the Primordial foe.”
“It’s that bad?” The small one squeaked as new mushrooms sprung up in its skull and quickly, much too quickly, reformed its head.
“Yes. This One will kill him and end it here. This one will take your help.”
Tule moved to close the distance again but the severed halves poured a nova of spores that flashed every subconscious warning bell in his finely-tuned instincts, Human or otherwise.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He backed off. Something that could recognize the Toothpick and survive being bisected by it was a special, dangerous class of threat.
Tule continued to back away from the growing spore cloud and caught Jonah preparing himself next to him.
“Jonah. Focus, get the disk to where it wants to go.”
“You… you’re sure?” Jonah’s teeth were gritted.
“Yes, go now.” He turned and made it less than a dozen feet before a shrill, high-pitched “Not so fast” came with a wall of thick mushroom stalks grew to block the way forward. A thick ring of mushrooms stalks that reached the ceiling had trapped them inside the makeshift arena.
Jonah harrumphed then sliced a contemptuous wide-beam of anti-life through them and pushed the stalks over.
“Big Brother! He’s escaping! Should I pursue?”
“I know and no. Middle Brother, hurry up! The white-haired-individual is your responsibility!” Its voice sneered at the word 'individual'.
There was a response as the teeth of the surrounding mushrooms opened and a harsh, echoing laughter sounded out around them. It rippled outwards among every mushroom in haunting echo.
Tule’s mind wasn’t focused on the laughter, he was processing the new voice that was layered over the big brother’s words. His mind reached the conclusion the same time his eyes confirmed it. It was two, slightly smaller copies of the big one. The two, in perfect unison, wrapped their hands around freshly grown clubs.
They didn’t wait for Tule to move this time.
Tule’s weapon was ready, a double grip keeping his form tight in the hostile environment, he dodged and swung laterally looking for a horizontal bisection of both of them. He’d make it before they struck.
He saw it in slow motion, it was moving too quickly and was noticed too late to redirect his swing. A small, red-glowing mushroom cap sped toward his hands. He grit his teeth as the explosion knocked against his grip and redirected his swing downwards through the legs of one of the creatures. The Toothpick sunk into the ground for a brief moment, enough time for Tule to take a rough upwards club swing to the head and shoulder from the second’s creature's club.
“Heheh I’m sorry, did I distract you, Separator?” The small one was half-melded into the circular wall of mushroom trunks, juggling three more of those explosive caps between its small grubby hands.
Tule shook his head and watched as the nearly split in half creature released a slightly smaller spore-nova from both halves. It reformed quicker this time. There were now three ‘big brothers’, all differently sized.
"Ch." Tule started to circle, looking for advantage. He easily had the superior weapon but against three opponents with a fourth able to distract him? Trouble. He was having to compensate for the swimming feeling he felt from taking that hit to his head. There was serious power behind those swings.
Tule faked committing himself forward then rolled to the far side of the three to dodge the inevitable explosive cap. He finished the roll with another sweeping strike, this time he was able to follow through with the slice to another target. He carved through one’s feeble defense and rode the second's glancing strike to lobotomize the third in a counterattack. He hopped back as the spore novas detonated around the corpses. Between repositioning to avoid counterattacks and the spore nova's exploding from the carved bodies it made any effort to finish it with multiple strikes, impossible.
“Little Brother, you should help more.”
“Sorry Big Brother! Middle Brother is almost here.”
Tule was tracking the small creature but, it was gone. Had disappeared.
“Looking for me?” Tule flashed his blade behind him carving a deep chunk through the wall of mushroom stalks.
“Over here!” The small one yelled as the exploding mushroom went off in Tule face. His hardened skin protected him from the worst of it, eyelids included. Tule’s nose, not hardened was ripped almost entirely off. Underneath it was not the expected nose holes but smooth and hard, black skin.
Tule ripped off his offending nose and sneered at the little creature.
“B… Brother it didn’t work." Tule sliced through another of the big creatures and took a hit in response that sent him to the wall. He ducked a strike aimed at his face and followed with an upwards strike. Before he finished it he was hit and sent sprawling again. He scrambled and rolled away from a rash of explosive spores that trailed his path.
“Wear him down Little Brother. Use acid-caps.”
The dizziness from the first strike to his head had finally cleared. He kept moving, outpacing and keeping his steps and flow erratic to avoid the bomblets. The sizzled and burned, the offal of their impacts leaving toxic looking piles where they landed. He wasn't sure how much his hardened skin would protect him from those.
He continued to cut, dodge, and outright tank crushing hits from the continually-splitting creatures. He lost count of the number big creature’s surrounding him, by now they were roughly his size and there were more than 10. ‘Big brother’ must be the one with the distributed intelligence and the small one throwing the bomblets must be the one with the life/space Affinity considering that it was teleporting within the mycelial stalks. The knowledge passed through his mind, there was only forward and through.
He spun away after managing to catch three of them in a wide slash. The spore nova’s meant he couldn’t stay and keep cutting to try and finish the job. One cut, then move, move and then cut. He caught a club swing before it picked up momentum and sliced through the creature's knees. He spun and caught another on the flat of his blade before slicing open its guts and rolling, an acid spore melted down through the net and continued to bubble against the metal of the floor.
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Jonah picked up the keening of Tule’s Toothpick and the impact of a blunt object as he worked his way towards his destination. The Disk was heating up.
Ship damned shrooms.
The smiling mouth caps snapped at his feet and shoulders. He continued pushing his anti-life energy in whipping arcs around him. Jonah absentmindedly kept his finger in swirling motion, weaving an absent minded defensive web of anti-life to keep away the most offensive-minded mushrooms that were threatening him.
There! Jonah’s eyes landed on a Door Terminal that the AI disk confirmed in a flash of heat.
“Middle Brotherrrrrr! Hurry!”
He quickly moved towards the Terminal.
“I’M HERE BROTHER STOP YELLING AT ME! So you’re the gray-haired one. Clever mind you have there, I’ll enjoy consuming it.”
Jonah kept his back to the voice. Preparation and surprise took a moment to prepare.
He whirled around and fired a metal ball at the ‘brother’, it struck a rippling wall in the air and exploded out into a storm of Nano.
Tick. “You didn’t seriousslllllllll…. Tock.
Jonah burned IQ Nano to speed up his temporal perception. Tick.
He could charge and try to finish the Psy-User with his anti-life or he could put the AI disk on the Door Terminal. He onboarded another mental-track and considered each potential action both separately and together at the same time.
“llllyyyyyyyyy tthhhh…” Tock.
If he attempted to follow up his attack, who knows where the conclusion of that could lead. Through his goggles he clearly saw his modified Nano-cloud missile blocked by an invisible wall. He knew it was scientifically explainable but telekinesis stunk like the idea of ‘magic’. If he could get close he might have a chance. He reviewed the list of known Psy skills. He didn’t know which ones this 'brother' possessed.
“iiinnnnnkkkkkkk aaaaa chhhhh…”
Tick.
The AI disk clearly wanted to connect to that Terminal. It was close, about a meter and a half away. There was an open door next to it and beyond that a deep hall that ended in another door. This one was covered in constantly growing and decaying mushrooms. Despite how close the Terminal was, by inserting the AI disk Jonah would lose whatever advantage he had managed to seize thus far. Nothing he had could fire through the cloud except his Wrist Rocket. Tule was right, the AI hadn’t led them wrong… so far.
“eeeeaaaaaaapppppp trrrrrriiiiiiicccccckkkkk liike-”
Tock. Jonah moved. He fired a second ball, this one an extremely volatile explosive, as he strafed towards the door. He didn’t see it deflected into the door behind the brother but the concussive wave moved his hand the slightest bit and he lost a half-second fumbling it into the disk-slot then moved his hand down toward the Pad.
“Mind Hunt!” A voice screamed with entirely too much glee.
His hand froze, centimeters above it.