The Runner

Tuesday, 27th of October, 198 A.C, 15:52

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Probably wasn’t the best plan to give the guy with tunnel vision the most jobs, but there we were.

I found myself amongst a crowd of terrified restaurant-goers who were staring at me expectantly. Oh, right, I thought, I’m the big imposing Veiled here.

I cleared my throat. “Don’t worry guys, I’ve got a knife!” I took it out of my pocket and waved it around enthusiastically

A couple patrons glanced up at the very big, very angry bull monster rampaging around, then back to my knife.

“Um, yeah,” said one, “Got anything else?”

“Hey!” I said indignantly, “This is a good 20 centimeters! Nothing to scoff at!”

The taurus must’ve noticed me waving the knife around, as just then a tremendous crash rocked the countertop and caused several of the patrons to scream.

“Alright, alright,” I said. “I’ll admit you’ve kinda been stuck with the B-team. But you’ll be fine! We’ve got this!”

That raised a few more grumbles from the crowd. “That’s supposed to *comfort* us?! Are you just gonna take that thing on by yourself?”

The crowd was right: I was gonna need some help. I locked eyes with Beck who gave a sheepish look and surreptitiously indicated to her left. A middle-aged man wearing a courier’s jacket was next to her, glaring *intensely* at me.

Ah. I see.

A plan started forming in my mind. I’d have to get everyone somewhere (marginally) safer, but where? I spotted one of those swingy double doors in the corner of the room to the left of the counter. That’d be a good start.

There was another problem though. Several of the survivors were wounded, a few to the point of being immobilized.

“Alright,” I said, “Who here’s got experience fighting Psychons?” A few hands, including Beck and her dad. “We’re gonna try to get everyone here through those doors in groups. You’re gonna be responsible for covering each group while they run for it. If you’ve got a weapon, use it. If not, find something like a bottle or chair leg. I’ll stay here to heal up and protect the people who need it. Any questions?”

Surprisingly, all I got were nods. Even Beck’s dad, angry as he was, kept a lid on the feuding.

I unslung my backpack. “Oh, one more thing. You there.” I pointed at Beck, pretending as if I had picked her at random. “Take my backpack. I’ll let you use what’s in there at your discretion.”

She caught the backpack and slung it over her shoulder. “Alright!”

The move was clearly not popular with Beck’s dad, but his continued glaring at me indicated that he didn’t suspect his daughter. So that was good at least.

“Ok, I’m gonna activate my Veil now. I should have a squadmate coming up soon. They’ll distract the taurus, which’ll be your cue to get moving”

I focused on healing the wounded as my Veil sprang to life. I had to get these people on their feet. The taurus would get them if I couldn’t. Or maybe the Berzerker would. Point was, I had to heal them. I had to heal them. I had t-

My aura faded off as the counter shook violently. Looked like the taurus had freed itself. I braced for impact, but the second attack never came. Instead, I heard a sharp thwip and glanced up to see a throwing knife stuck into the beast.

I turned to the right and saw a stressed out Berzerker in the process of regretting her life decisions. Perfect timing.

I reactivated my Veil, this time focusing on taking in my surroundings.

The taurus rushed at the Berzerker, whose Veil sprang to life. Pink veins of light shot out of her heart and spread throughout her body. She shuddered, paused a moment, then let out a feral scream.

The taurus was fast, but she was faster. She dove out of the way and rolled up into a fighting stance.

Meanwhile, the survivors sprung to life. Two of the ones with fighting experience went first, including Beck. After that they started making breaks for it in groups of five or six, each with one defender to make sure they were covered.

I turned back to the fight. The Berzerker, eyes wide with terror, barely edged out of the way of the Psychon’s right horn. She cursed as she fell back, and lashed out with a swing from her falchion.

The Berzerker’s sword connected with the horn, clanking off but chipping out a decent sized piece of it in the process.

The Psychon roared and dipped its head down for another charge. A charge that was… directed right at the counter. Uh oh.

Summoning all my willpower, I managed to slap myself in the face, enough of a shock to deactivate my Veil. I glanced around, noting that there were still a few survivors that wouldn’t be able to do much more than crawl.

I yelled to the remaining crowd. “Clear out of the way!” People started scattering to the sides of the counter, dragging those who couldn’t move themselves.

Without thinking, I launched forward and vaulted over the counter. The Berzerker would be able to avoid the attack. I just needed to do one thing: stop the bull. I braced myself, my aura flaring to life moments before the bull reached me.

Impact from the front. Keep traction. Impact from the back!? Decelerate. Decelerate! There we go. Slower… Slower… Stop.

Pain exploded in my chest as I deactivated my Veil. The taurus was pinning me to a section of counter that had come clean off. I had managed to stop the bull about halfway between the rest of the counter and the wall. Craning my neck, I could see a wounded survivor behind me who I had just barely stopped from being pancaked against the wall. Phew.

Beck’s dad was to my right, having pulled another patron out of the way in the nick of time. His scowl had deepened.

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“What the hell are you doing!?”

I made as much of a shrug as I could manage with one of the taurus’ horns stuck through my shoulder. “Yeah, uhm… *cough cough* Maybe not my best idea ever. But hey, nobody is dead? Er, nobody else, anyway.”

Beck’s dad stammered exasperatedly. “Not your best idea?? Bullshit! You’re just playing hero!”

The taurus started raising his head, in turn lifting me off the ground.

“Hey,” I said, “we’re *cough* we’re doing our best here! Not our fault we’re the B-team!”

The taurus shook its head in an attempt to shake off the piece of counter. I winced. Yeah, definitely a few broken ribs.

Beck’s dad started grabbing patrons and dragging them behind a more secure section of the counter. “Got another brilliant plan for us?”

I glanced past the taurus. “Yeah, actually.”

The Berzerker flew over the taurus, delivering a wicked slash across its back as she went. The taurus roared and staggered back towards the center of the room, past the counter.

The Berzerker went right over my head and behind my currently-available sightline, right into the crowd.

“Oh shit,” I said. “Y’all might want to get out of her way!”

Sure enough, I heard a terrified scream from her, followed by a thud as she tripped over herself in panic. She recovered quickly though, soon whizzing back into my line of sight.

Thankfully, she’d had a flight response this time.

The taurus turned to face her, turning my sightline back to the counter.

I activated my Veil again. I wouldn’t be able to do much right now except watch the fight, so I might as well get started on fixing up my ribs.

The taurus lowered his head in preparation of another charge, taking me and the counter with it. The bull shot forward, but the Berzerker appeared to my left, chipping its left horn in a counter.

Not letting up, the Berzerker lept towards me before the taurus could turn around. She let out a vicious yell and swung with all her might. Her falchion arced down just short of me and carved cleanly through the taurus’ damaged horns.

My Veil shut off as I fell flat on my back and got the wind knocked out of me. It was all I could do to roll myself out of the way of the taurus while I gasped for breath.

I managed to get to my feet and dashed out of the way of the two combatants, my not-quite-healed ribs protesting with every step. I took cover behind a capsized table and glanced over to the counter. The only ones left were those too hurt to move.

Suddenly, a small figure burst out of the doors people had been fleeing to. It was the Scrapper, geared up, Veiled up, and ready to go.

I signalled her over. She took a wide path around the Berzerker and taurus and slid behind the table.

“Alright,” she said, “ready to go. Sorry I took a bit.”

“No worries, no worries.” I glanced around the room. “I think the Berzerker has the taurus handled, but there are still a lot of injured people around. I’m gonna make a break for the counter and set up shop there. Can you try to bring anyone who’s still alive here over there so I can try to stabilize them?”

She saluted. “On it, boss!”

She started to run off, but I grabbed her hand. “Hold up!”

She looked back at me. “Shouldn’t we get going asap?”

“Yeah, there’s just one thing you should know first. The Berzerker gets a teensy bit on edge when she uses her Veil. Might want to steer clear.”

With that, we broke. I took off to the right, hugging the wall to stay as far as I could from the fight. The Berzerker sprung left, zipping from body to body and checking their vitals. She only activated her Veil in short bursts, primarily whenever she had to get close to the action.

I made it behind the counter and crouched down, activating my Veil with the intent of surveying my surroundings once again.

Although most of the people scattered about the room were already dead, the Scrapper was able to find a good number of people still hanging on. She wouldn’t normally be strong enough to drag them over on her own, but with a bit of clever Veil use she managed to make it work.

When she got to someone, she would hoist them onto her back and activate her Veil. Though it didn’t give her more leverage per say, she was able to do much more work over the same interval, enough to move them around at a decent clip. It was a little ridiculous looking, her legs moving far faster than the progress she was making would imply.

Ahead of me, The Berzerker continued to square off against the taurus. She was doing a good job of controlling the tempo of the fight, but was struggling to land any decisive blows. She would dance around an attack only to find herself too far from the beast to land anything more than a glancing blow.

The Scrapper was edging close to the fight, trying to get in and grab a survivor. She let out an “oops!” as she tripped over a chair leg and slammed right into the Berzerker.

The Berzerker yelped in terror at the contact. She reflexively swung her falchion in a vicious arc aimed at the Scrapper’s neck. The falchion swooshed through the air, dissipating the girl’s red-tinted afterimage.

The real Scrapper had activated her Veil just in time to avoid a quick death. She rolled back and launched off her hands, landing on her feet at a safe distance.

“Yeeeee!” She exclaimed. “No touchy! Got it!”

She wiped a bit of blood off her cheek. She hadn’t been quite fast enough to avoid injury entirely.

The Scrapper tried again, this time activating her Veil beforehand and taking more care in her approach. She slid under the taurus and dragged the body out from under it.

Once the body was safely in healing range, she sat herself down, back and head leaned against the counter and the slouch setting cranked to the max.

“Whew… *pant* That’s… That’s everyone, I think. I’m *wheeze* gonna take a breather here, if that’s okay. Well, *heff* I guess it has to be, since *horf* since you can’t exactly tell me otherwise. What with your Veil and all.” She chuckled weakly.

The gravity of the situation seemed to catch up to the Scrapper, now that she was out of the action for a second. Besides the two other Veiled, the only people in the room were dead, unconscious, or in too much pain to notice as she flipped up her Veil for a second.

Tears suddenly began streaming down Beck’s face. She rubbed the palms of her hands into her eyes, then slapped herself. “Stupid eyes, stop crying!”

She slid her Veil back down over her face and looked over to me.

“Oh shoot, I’m sorry!” The Scrapper had noticed that my eyes were welling up with tears of my own. “Sorry!” She looked around awkwardly. “Um, I think I’ve done what I can. I’m gonna go change before Dad gets too worried.”

She put up a quick salute. “Good luck!” With that, she was off to the back rooms.

Shortly after she left, loud but muffled blasts started sounding off from the back rooms. Oh, good, the Scout must’ve made it. He’d be helping the survivors fend off some Corpi then. Well, probably bad news that they were having to fight off corpi, but still.

I turned my attention back to the fight, noticing with some alarm that the Berzerker had her back against the wall. She held up her falchion defiantly as the taurus pawed the ground, ready to charge.

Just as it lurched forward, the Berzerker changed stances. She crouched down low, then sprung up just before the taurus reached her, easily clearing the Psychon as it smashed into the wall.

As the taurus stood dazed, the Berzerker began her descent. She plunged down, twisting her body to get every ounce of power possible behind her blade.

The blade made contact, slicing through the monster’s neck like it wasn’t even there. The Berzerker landed with a thump at the same time as the taurus’ head.

Due to its size, the taurus took its time to dissipate. When finally it was gone, all that remained was the two horns the Berzerker had sliced away.

If nothing else, the trophies would give us a nice paycheck.

The Berzerker glanced around anxiously. Slowly, the veins of her aura began retreating back to her heart until it dimmed to nothing.

She sheathed her blade and took a few deep breaths.

“Alright,” She called, “taurus dealt with. Gonna go make sure all’s well in the back.”

She exited through the doors, leaving me alone with my pile of wounded patrons. Other than the fact that they would probably die if I left, I was also realizing that my little self-slapping stunt wasn’t going to work again. Try as I might, my Veil wasn’t going to be turning off (and I wasn’t going to be moving) without some outside help.

So there I sat, passively tending to the wounded while I waited for someone more qualified to take them off my hands.