Chapter 40
As soon as Jennet realized the bear was charging at her, and unlikely to stop, she quickly drew the Yin attuned Heirloom blade from her back, and triggered the spell [Incorporeal steps] and the ability [Spectral (Yin) Blade Storm], dancing back from the bear creature slightly, looking to line up a good angle before activating her new Neural Cortex Implant’s activated ability.
She’d completely forgotten about Justin, standing slightly behind her original position. The Squirrel-Bear kept charging, directly at the Specialist. Just before she activated her Implant, he seemed to realize the threat he was under.
As time slowed, and she began sprinting towards her target, she caught the hint of golden lines beginning to sprout into existence near the specialist, but she was out of time. She focused on her target, willing energy from her core into her blade and the summoned storm of cutting energy around her, enhancing its power. She'd decided the greatest threat the bear presented would be either a swipe with its tail or standing on its hind legs and slamming down onto someone or something.
In order to reduce the threat, she decided to attempt to sever the bear creature’s hind leg closest to her. With the enhanced speed of her Implant and her improved attributes, she was able to move fast enough that the bullets around her seemed to be going no faster than she was.
Three paces from her target, she canceled the [Incorporeal Steps] spell, needing to gain all the momentum-enhanced power she could for the strike. Her family's style, and indeed traditional Chinese straight swords, were not designed with this kind of cleaving strike in mind. The straight sword had been designed to fight humans, even adapting to allow the blade some flexibility to slide around and between armor plates if the user had enough skill. Slicing and piercing were its strong points. Not to say it couldn’t be used to hack, it simply wasn’t designed to, the way a scimitar or falchion were.
Instead, she relied on the principles behind the concept of death by 1000 cuts. She would look to sever as much flesh and tendon as possible and leave the spectral blades swirling chaotically around her to finish the job. Even if the limb remained attached, a severed bone would prevent the bear from delivering the two attacks she was most worried about.
Even without the activated ability, she had been able to recognize the aid she was receiving from her Implant. Her power and precision had gone up no small amount. It was almost like she could feel the guiding hands of a master gently, but firmly, making minuscule adjustments to her form.
First, she took a lightly springing step forward, right knee up, and brought the blade diagonally from her lower left hip to her right shoulder. With the next step, she began to twirl slightly, left foot and arm coming across the right while she changed her grip, right hand taking the lead and left hand shifting down to allow better control, as though preparing to deliver a stabbing strike that would sunder rock to a target behind her. Lastly, the right leg came down low, as though she would trip the bear, but instead used it to transition into the cut. Her arms moved only very slightly, forward and up, letting the weight and speed of her body rip the blade through fur and muscle and sinew and then muscle and fur again.
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Flecks of odd green blood splashed across the ground behind the bear, propelled by the motion of her sword. She took another low step forward, leg moving more like a snake through grass than it normally would have. She needed to get out from under the bear, in case it tried to put weight on the injured leg and crashed down on top of her.
She activated [Incorporeal Steps] just as the effects of her implant’s active ability began to wear off. Before she could step away, the 6th sense she’d begun to develop since the system came warned her of impending doom. The only safe direction was down, and she decided to trust her instincts, allowing herself to fall flat on her back.
Moments later an absolute storm of golden glowing bullets flooded the space she’d been standing in. More than a few flew just inches above her chest.
*******
SPC Justin knew he had to do something. Jennet was standing behind him, further forward in the marching order than he was. Memories of that first horrible day, and then again during the second attack, flashed through his mind. He would not allow any more team members to fall. He had accepted the duty to stand and face the enemy, and he would be unable to help no longer.
A guttural roar tore from his throat as he activated [Endless Ammo], [Bullet Hell], and [(Yang) Energy shield] at once. The golden shield sprang up behind the bear, ready to catch any rounds that passed through the monster and harmlessly absorb them. Meanwhile, Endless Ammo and Bullet Hell affected his weapon almost immediately. Thousands upon thousands of rounds poured out of his newly issued M250, each one a shimmering golden agent of his will to destroy the threat.
The effect was almost overwhelming. 2/3rds of the creature simply melted, flesh and blood turning his semi-transparent shield into a red wall. Unfortunately, Justin couldn’t see it. Dumping Mana and stamina into a set of spells and abilities that paired with each other wasn’t the best of ideas. The crash from burning his entire pool of mana and stamina had him passing out before he even knew what happened.
*******
It took the rest of the company an embarrassingly long time to realize what had happened. What was left of the bear crashed to the ground. SSG Davis rushed toward the carcass, needing to make sure nobody got crushed.
When he got there, he found SFC Ming lying on the ground, breathing heavily. Based on her position, she would have been crushed if the bear had fallen left instead of right.
“What the hell was that?” The Chinese national asked.
“A big fuck off bear, apparently. Or maybe a squirrel? Maybe we better ask the Captain what it was.” Alexander replied.
“No, I know what that was, or at least as much as you do. I mean, what the fuck was all that golden machine gun shit? Somebody needs to watch their trigger discipline.” She bit off.
“I was more wondering how the hell you got here before I did,” Alexander questioned. “I saw you over there just before the bear got stopped by SPC Wallace. You mean you were standing under the bear the whole time?”
It took about an hour for everyone to figure out what was going on, move the corpse out of the way, and take some statements about what had happened from various eyewitnesses before the element started moving again.
Alexander wondered if Ming had even gotten a chance to discuss whatever she wanted to with SPC Wallace before the bear attack. Likely not. And now that they knew there was the potential to be attacked by mutated animals the size of trailer homes, the company had to go to a 50% security posture while moving through the woods. Things were adding up to make this a long march indeed.