Jonah released the cradle and the small metal ball shot out. Freshly charged, the wrist rocket launched the metal ball at incredible speed with its alternating magnetic fields.
It impacted the barrel of the turret and its beam peeled off of Jack and Yuma, continuing briefly into the cloud and then plunging into the wall as it bubbled and warped the metal.
The first thing Jack noticed was a sudden lack of pressure and the next thing was the unstable flickering of his Shield. That was too close.
He heard Yuma’s gasping breath in his ear, thank God she was quick.
He stood up and the current that was locking them together started to fade. He shook the Zappa and looked to her questioningly.
“No don’t zapp me, I’m good.” She shivered. He hoped that was from the electricity, he had tried to funnel some back into her.
He didn’t know and she didn’t say anything but it wasn’t entirely from the electricity. The flesh and blood that covered his back had contributed plenty to her current shivering. She had caught noseful after mouthful of the cooking mess.
“It’s not down! Don’t just stand there!” Jonah’s voice cracked through the moment like a gunshot.
Jack was drained, he tried to funnel as much extra electricity back to Yuma as he dared. “Yuma…”
She looked at him then a spark lit as she saw his newly deployed, and precariously translucent shield. She jumped into the middle of the Shield and leapt at the end of his Bash.
He wanted to be impressed but settled for a staggered walk to where she was fiddling with the cannon. By his guess, after that shot, they should have 10 or 20 beats to breathe before it was a problem again.
She redirected the cannon towards the wall and her hands started to roam over the cannon.
It wasn't pointing at him so, he started to think. He looked around and saw Jonah debating between looking at the Nano cloud and looking at Tule with wary concern, Tule on the ground, starting to twitch and stir. Deciding to risk exposure, despite her warning, he tossed up the AI disk.
She caught it then glared at Jonah. He didn’t catch the glare, his wide and curious eyes were now focused on the disk in her hand.
Jack saw Yuma blink her eyes and rub them deeply and slowly.
“Yeah it’ll make you feel weird when you’re holding it but it goes away after a while. Just maybe don’t keep it next to your head.”
She placed the disk against a closed, flat pad on the top of the backside. After a pregnant moment the cannon lit up with a wash of static. It cycled down and turned to face the wall for another long moment as if it was looking at something. It then turned its gleaming aiming reticle at Jack directly below it.
Jonah dove and turned to yell, Yuma scrambled for her claw-blade.
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Across the Cryo-Lab
It had found the room where the human’s Pod was located. The humans could be clever creatures. It took It entirely too long to find the room concealed as it was. This was far from the Core and the Mother.
The man had tricks, so did a perfected specimen like It. The bipedal crab peeled back the layer of metal concealing the handpad and placed one of Its lower hands onto it.
Blood, It was disgusted by the sensoral interaction with any Human blood that wasn’t personally shed by It. The room rankled Its olfactory fuzz, causing a twitching flow to ripple across Its neck and face. It took out a Tubed device and hovered it over the stains on the floor.
The insufferable man-computer was calling all crabs to the Core.
It would not. It was made different, trusted with certain tasks. The computer was as foolish as the humans.
It took out a blue disk and approached the Terminal.
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Where’s Tule, where’s Tule. Korl desperately thought as he continued his desperate fight in the blinding Nano-Cloud. The crab-man had stopped running as Korl did, keen to continue the fight.
He found it incredibly difficult to break through the crabs defensive pincers but Korl was slowly scoring hits and managing to avoid retaliation. He was having more difficulty adjusting with his arm than he thought.
He had taken out four, perhaps five, of its six eyes. He was having serious trouble punching through its carapace as he struggled to coordinate his technique and apply force with his offhand. He was awkward and knew it, but getting better.
In an effort to blind it completely Korl parried a doubled slash from the crab’s blades and snapped his blade towards his opponent’s face.
Constantly thinking of mirrored techniques was taking a heavy toll on his mental sharpness. The crab was ready for him with its pincer and it deflected his stab into the back of another man-crab.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
There’s more than one?! The hit hurt the other crab but it had just finished taking out its own Human opponent. Now that the other crab-man had won its fight, Korl was in a bad spot against two.
The mind-forms and techniques that Tule had taught him flashed through Korl's head, calming and stabilizing him as he looked for an advantage.
At least the Nano is starting to clear.
He narrowly sidestepped an overpowered swing from above then brought his blade around to block a sweeping cut that would have cut him in half from the top of his stomach. He took a risk to finish blinding the first crab and an impact to his right shoulder flung him to the ground.
The Medjel shell on his right shoulder blocked the second crab’s swing from piercing through him. It didn't create a new wound but the crab still could hurt him as it kept the pressure behind its blade.
He was pinned against the floor. He jerked his head to the side as a blade punctured through the steel deck behind him. Close.
He brought his sword up and jabbed the tip into the face of the one-eyed hybrid that was approaching from the other side to finish him. It flinched back, overly cautious of losing its other eye. He turned the stabbing feint into a sweep to catch the other crab holding him down across the head.
The man-crab caught his blade between its pincer, plucked it out of his hand and flung his sword behind it.
The flinching crab erupted as a green beam punched through its exoskeleton and popped it sending ichor over the two of them. They both paused for a second.
Korl was faster, he shoved back the crab and tried to create distance. The crab reapplied the force on his shoulder and rocked him painfully back to the deck. It’s free claw-blade, on its right, shot towards his chest from the side.
He just managed to grab it at the base of its bladed arm, the beginning of the claw blade slicing into the groove between his index and thumb.
Despite having recently lost an arm to the green beam he found himself praying for another. The crab, less wounded and with the advantage of gravity, inched its blade closer and closer to his side.
Seeing, no, feeling the clawblade start to separate the flesh on top of his ribs, Korl’s pride flared.
The sting of pride reverberated with the sting of loss; the loss of his Master’s strength, the loss of his friends, the loss of his position. The thought of losing this fight was too much to bear.
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The cannon fired into the mist then started a restart cycle. It moved erratically, swinging Yuma back and forth, dislodging the bladeclaw in her hand.
Jack yelled up, “Yuma come back down, I don't think it will shoot at us anymore.”
Off to the side, Jonah looked skeptical as he helped a groggy Tule to his feet.
He offered up his hands to catch her but she made the 20 foot or so jump look easy and she softly landed in a crouch. She handed Jack back the disk and gave him a quick zapp.
He was pretty sure that was a “thanks” zapp. Her non-verbal communication had gained another layer of complication with the addition of the zapps. She had a bit of a weird walk now, it was a shaking, off-kilter movement she used to build up charge.
Looking weird when walking was better than not having a charge when it was needed. He flexed his arm as he squeezed his fist, small trails of electricity flickered over his skin. He smiled.
The Nano-cloud had started to clear and visibility picked up. Strewn through the small area were dead Humans and man-crabs. The amount of bodies were not proportionate to each other. No one noticed.
Jack walked up and stood next to Tule who was watching the last fight.
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The fog had now mostly cleared and the crab’s blade had now started to push through his ribs. He had to dodge the pincer above the threatening blade and used both of his feet to hold off the other arms. The crab’s human arms tried to interfere with his defending legs.
Then he heard something on the edge of his hearing, “You think he’s going to die?” It sounded familiar but he didn’t recognize the voice.
“I hope not.” That was Tule’s voice. He tried to look to his side and the claw-blade punched another half inch into him. Shit, he clenched his teeth another degree.
What was Tule doing? He was a fraction of a second too slow and the pincer, above the blade intruding into his chest, took a chunk out of his ear.
Korl knew that if this kept up he would die. He was not known for his Endurance; Strength and Agility were the proper Allocation Priorities for a future Lord of Sword. Well at one point that was the plan anyways.
Still, as a scion, he had, of course, placed enough into Grit to not piss himself when things turned bad. Even so, this was a worse spot than he’d ever been in. He noticed the cloud dissipate further still.
Losing face was worse than death.
He gathered his remaining Strength and pushed and kicked back. Severed right arm leading he dove towards the crab’s face. The shock of hitting the crab’s face with his wounded arm made his teeth grind and his jaw clench. He reached deep, past the damned incessant itch and pulled on his Nano for all he was worth.
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Tule watched the final part of Korl’s fight. His heart nearly tore in half as he saw the abomination’s blade push deeper and deeper into his side.
Still, he did not intervene. His crossed arms and relaxed manner along with the sudden lack of crabs and traps had gathered the survivors to watch alongside him. He didn’t notice them beyond quick words shared with Jack.
The Run was more deadly than he had been expecting, much more deadly. He would not have Korl scrape and survive as an urchin, a weakling.
He had known the boy since he was a child, he was proud of him, despite all that had happened. He had seen the boy’s heart when he cut off his arm. A seed of weakness had taken root.
If there were more crabs he would assist him but this was individual combat and he would not intervene.
Korl would be strong or Tule would honor the youth as his Witness.
He had not worked his way to be the Wandering Lord of Sword’s Shadow by displaying weakness. He wouldn’t allow weakness to ferment in his young charge either. Even if he wasn’t the scion anymore.
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Jack would have helped the kid but if his bodyguard or dad or whatever wasn’t going to get involved then he wouldn’t either. Yuma watched aside as she spoke to Jonah.
The sword discarded behind the two combatants had been vibrating and now it clattered up and down. The cloud dissipated further and the boy pushed into what Jack was sure was his final effort before dying. The blade shot off the ground towards the two, punching through the back of the crab’s skull.
Jack’s mouth dropped, it seemed that everyone had Skills, maybe they were less unique than he thought.
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Korl tried to drop back to rest on the ground but the sword’s blade had punched through the back of the crab’s skull and continued deep into his arm.
His high Grit let him push past the pain as he moved his feet to push both the blade and the dead crab away from him.
Tule looked down at him with a smile, “Congratulations Young Master.”
He smiled back, “You know you could have stepped in at any time Tule.”
“Yes, I could have.” Tule’s smile grew wider and he grabbed Korl’s left hand and pulled him up. “Excellent Mod Development,” he yanked the sword from his arm and Korl hissed.
The man with the blond-tipped hair walked up to them and tossed a packet of Medjel. “Cool Skill. Glad you didn’t die.”
Korl stared at him, the man’s behavior and way of speaking was strange. “Uh thank you. I think.”
Jack walked away and Yuma walked towards him.