Chapter 170 - Assaulting the assaulter
The clean knife gleamed and reflected the man's twisted visage as he used the force of his whole body to thrust it into Vern's skull.
kacha…
Right before the man could bask in the satisfaction of puncturing the skull and flesh, Vern shot up his hand and firmly clasped his wrist. With a little nudge, he redirected its momentum and shot off the chair, ducking past his extended arm.
"Whaaa—" the man gasped, utterly flabbergasted by the turn of events.
However, Vern didn't give him a single moment to get his bearings, and circled behind him, twisting the wrist as he did so.
"How…how did you—Aghhh!!"
Vern cut his ramblings short with a smack of his cane, and he dropped the knife on instinct. With a flick of his feet, the knife was out of their range for good.
"I—you—this can't be! My vision. It worked, it worked—"
Tackling the fumbling man for real this time, Vern slammed him into the ground, and the wretch tried to scratch Vern's face off as he screamed incoherently.
Shut up! he thought, a little stressed. While the man had taken care to close the door before messing with Vern's head, the walls weren't exactly thick, and these screams could attract undue attention.
Smack! Vern decided to cut it short with a full-powered smack of the cane straight to the head. The screams died down instantly as the man's eyes rolled over, and his body went limp.
"Hahh hahhh," Vern breathed heavily as some of that pent-up terror finally found a release. Still, he had to do his very best to resist his violent tendencies. Something told him to hit the man harder and harder and harder. Hit him until he was gone for good.
No… he steeled himself as he got up—his knee pressing against the man's back. I have no way to confirm whether these feelings are real. What if this was the lingering effect of this man's vision? Axiom's singularity was still merged with his own, but he had almost lost his memories because of being too angry just a few minutes ago. What if this was another trap?
Nothing was a perfect defense, and he didn't feel like overestimating himself.
Regardless, he went down too quickly for someone who had me cornered so bad just a minute ago. He'd expected the man to resist more than this and was ready to switch the cane's face to Duality during an opportune moment to eke out a victory.
"Well, I'll take it," he mumbled amidst his ragged breaths. The altercation was short, and by the textbook, but all of this was quite a ride for his heart.
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After keeping a hawk's eye on man's every movement and not finding anything suspicious, he let himself relax a tad.
Still, I can't let my emotions overcome me. There had to be a limit as to how much stupidity this borrowed singularity could defend him against. If he intentionally walked into the trap, then there was no saving him.
Even with all this going through his head, he raised the cane high once again and…Smack! It was another one to the head for good measure. "Fuck you if that gives you a concussion," he spat. It was only deserving for someone who was ready to cut out his brain and do lady-knows-what with it.
He had no delusions of solving this situation without harming these raiders or outright killing them, but this 'mercy' went further than just his need to keep his emotions in check. After all, if he really wanted, he could wait for his nerves to calm down and end this man in cold blood.
But, no! He emphasized to himself as he quickly created a makeshift gag with a desk cloth to block this man's scream once he woke up. These people belong to a larger organization.
Vern didn't know the influence of these people, but he knew one thing, and that was to not attract too much attention to himself. That was the reason the people from Asea's church hadn't come for him.
*And they were simple preachers of preservation.* These guys, on the other hand, were far more scary with their control over memories, thoughts, and emotions.
As much as it irked him to think like that, he didn't want to offend them too much, even in this disastrous situation. If he went all in and killed each of their members, he might just paint too big of a target on his back.
I already have enough of those as is, he sighed. Grabbing a long steel wire from his drawer of trinkets, he tied up the man's arms. I should let Vigil take the blame for this. He nodded to himself. As long as it isn't terribly obvious that I'm the one who messed up their jolly plans of spreading amnesia, it shouldn't be too big of a problem.
A good balance, he agreed internally. Neither too rash nor too tame.
Vern rushed to tie this man as soon as possible. He wanted to get away from him and stop consuming the already-diminishing singularity of Axiom. Fortunately, his perception of the hotel told him no one was too bothered by all the screaming and went about their business, which was surprising but welcome.
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In no time, Vern wrapped the man up in wires, immobilizing him completely. But even he knew that wasn't nearly enough to keep him in check. Such was the power of observers—they didn't need to move to end him.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Vern looked at the cane and wondered if he should switch to duality and leave a wound infused with unstable energy. It was a good idea, but that would mean he couldn't continue pretending it was just a simple cane. Since switching back and forth would mean he would have to deal with the penalty of losing his sense of distance. He couldn't afford that in this situation.
He narrowed his eyes, Well, I can do something else. Essentially, he had to give the man enough pain so as not to have the mind to engage with his perception and possibly thwart any of his subsequent actions.
Vern nodded.
Pushing his coat to one side, he eyed his vapor blaster. Hmm, it could work, but I'll have to somehow silence it. A couple of screams might be ignored, but there was no way a gunshot wouldn't alert everyone.
Maybe… he looked at the metallic contraption thoughtfully.
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Yep…that should be possible.
With a deep breath, he pulled it out and aimed at the man's legs. Some part of him may have been against this gory violence, but a bigger part of him was wondering how to make his idea work.
Hmm, so the sound waves are generated because of the chamber's ignition, which is followed by a controlled explosion of steam behind the barrel. This was to say that as long as he stabilized the air around the sides of the frame to a high degree, the sound waves would have nowhere to go.
He shifted his angle a little and analyzed it further, I think I should stabilize the bullet's path, too. As well as the floorboard underneath to ensure the bullet doesn't go through to 208.
Wait, I shouldn't stabilize the path of the bullet, or that would essentially be like trying to block its path. Which wasn't what he wanted, and he knew that wouldn't work. Air couldn't be stabilized enough to actually stop this much force. It would, at best, redirect the bullet to a different direction—something he didn't want. He recalled trying something like that back in the mirror realm and how it had failed miserably.
Right. So, instead of stabilizing the whole path, I can stabilize its surroundings.
In a few more seconds, the plan was ready, and he executed it without dilly-dallying.
In the gray representation of his own room, he envisioned a hollow pure-white sphere of some thickness around the gun with a hole where the muzzle lay. From there, he extended a cylinder of the same stability all the way to the man's leg—but left numerous small holes to avoid creating a vacuum inside it. They were big enough to let some air flow but small enough to keep the sound encased.
Finally, he stabilized the floorboard underneath, and once all that was set, he kept his arm as steady as possible and within his margin of error, followed by—
click
The bullet shot forward with a muted thud, encased in the pure white cylinder. Small wisps of steam burst out of the pinpricks all over his construction as the blur that was the bullet impaled itself into the man's legs.
Squelch!
"Mmmmmmhummh," came the muffled screams of the man as his dazed eyes suddenly came back alive and widened in horror as he realized what was happening. He began thrashing around, and blood flowed out of his leg freely.
Vern, however, was fully focused on slowly widening the small holes in his mental construction. If he dissipated or stopped stabilizing it completely, he believed the 'trapped sound' would suddenly release back out with a bang, and it would all be for naught.
So, as the man huffed and tried to free himself from the razor-sharp wire—only to create more cuts on his body, Vern let the stability fizzle away one step at a time. The only sounds released were tiny droning that were easily ignored.
Once done, he looked at the aftermath with a grim expression, not really pleased with this bloody affair. He had never been forced to resort to such brutish methods. He would have preferred to sedate the man over this, but who was to say a man specializing in cognition fundamental wouldn't be somewhat immune to a sedative's effects?
Heck, there was no guarantee that even this pain was a surefire solution, but when he looked back into the eyes of his captive as well as assaulter, it was clear that it worked.
The man tried to concentrate again and again as those eyes began to glow, only to suddenly halt as he screamed and shivered. After a few cycles, he flopped down on the floor—unconscious. Soon, Vern decided to stabilize the bullet wound that had cleanly pierced a hole from one side to the other.
He wanted the man to suffer, not bleed to death. The man, unconscious as he was, couldn't resist Vern's vision, who did a shoddy job of it by simply stabilizing the wound using his perception. Yes, it wasn't a good healing method, but that worked in his favor here.
He didn't want to do a good job. Heck, he wanted the man to have long-term issues because of it. A brain-eating maniac was not someone who deserved much of his kindness. The man was alive simply because it could cause bigger issues for Vern down the line if he really died.
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Regardless, the smell of blood wasn't to his liking, so he grabbed everything he needed and waltzed out of the room. There was work to be done. He couldn't be stuck on one guy any longer.
Closing the door behind him, he made some distance from the room and decided to unlink himself from Axiom's singularity.
He'd realized a couple of things and distinctions. So, they can pull me into an illusion without physical touch, but they can't mess with my memories remotely. In all the cases until now, they had to touch their victim's head before they could induce amnesia.
Which means I'm good as long as I can keep my distance from them and not get pulled into illusions. Now, the problem is—I don't know if they can force me into illusions through the wall or if they need line of sight.
The former would need him to take more precautions, while the latter was easy to defend against. He didn't have proof for one or the other because he couldn't be sure exactly when his own illusion began.
Hmm, I can't risk it. I'll have to assume it can go through walls. In that case… he narrowed his eyes. I can maybe link myself with Axiom's singularity every dozen seconds or so.
That way, he wouldn't burn away the singularity unnecessarily but also be able to see through their illusions if they pulled him into one. This would allow him to act before they could get close enough to start messing with his memories.
It was a patchwork solution, but his resources were limited, and there was only so much he could do about it. He would have liked to keep himself linked with Axiom all the time, but he doubted half an hour of this would drain that singularity for good.
Also, I can still perceive every movement in the hotel. As long as I keep my distance and not get into close range, I should be good.
Though doing so came with its own challenges, How would I neutralize them if I can't even get close? That small bout with that guy in his room told him all he needed to know about their physical prowess. He considered himself to be lowest in the rung in terms of athleticism, but these guys were even beneath himself.
Yes, he'd gotten better after practicing against Mistress Amelia so much, but damn were these guys frail. This was to say that his best shot was indeed neutralizing them in close-quarter combat, as he had done earlier.
Or… he slowed down as he focused on the potentially dangerous aspects of the hotel. What if I nudge things here and there a little bit?
Cycling to link and unlink Axiom's singularity every few seconds, his brain churned, and a plan took shape.
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After a bit, his eyes shone with a white ring, and his lip curved a little, Now that I know how you guys work, I think you all might've made a mistake coming in here...