The Pugilist

Tuesday, 1st of March, 199 A.C, 04:45

“Real victory requires a death of the self. No legends, no heroes, just individuals pulling together towards a common cause. This, I think, is the great failure of the Veiled.” - Personal recording by [redacted]

Killing this thing wouldn’t do us much good if Psychons got in through that hole in the wall. I had to assume that the others had things covered on that front.

The Berserker had lost control as soon as we engaged our target, and was now doing a sort of frenzied dance where she stabbed at the beast’s legs with her sword and then tumbled away to avoid being trampled. Fortunately for her prolonged health, it seemed the beast was focused entirely on shooting more arrows into the city, opting to only devote its lower half to the task of swatting us away.

The six-man militia squadron had their backs to the monster in a nervous semi-circle, giving us some breathing room to do our work. The smaller Psychons were getting more bold now, perhaps trying to cover for the monster’s lacking self-preservation instinct.

What I really needed was a plan. Saying that we were going to take down a never-before-seen, building-sized Psychon was good and all, but how would we back it up?

I started with what was in front of me. Namely, the Berserker. Her movements seemed unordered at first, just wild attack and evasion. But she was only going for the places she could reach. Maybe I was overcomplicating things. Don’t try to find a way up to the head, find a way to bring the head down.

The Psychon drew back another arrow, prompting the Berserker to make another pass at its forelegs. I moved in to follow. This would require a coordinated strike, and in the throes of her Veil as she was, she wouldn’t listen to orders. As much as it pained me, I would have to follow her lead.

I slipped my Veil over my eyes and brought it to life. My stride faltered — the pain wasn’t something one got used to — but I pushed on as the familiar warmth of blood spread across my face and down my body.

I couldn’t see in this state, even without the blindfold, but I could steel *feel* things. Fear behind me, mixed with a twinge of hope. A bit of horror too, as a few of the militia members turned to look at me.

Ahead was a whirlwind of terror and violent intent that I immediately clocked as the Berserker. The massive Psychon was colder, but just as murderous.

Even the objects around me had feelings. Simple ones, usually, but enough for me to not run into anything. The buildingo my left was tired, but stubborn in its stature. At my feet, a rock’s wicked glee turned into dejection as I barely avoided tripping over it.

I threw my first shot into the air like a flare, then followed up the Berserker’s slash with a shockwave-enhanced punch to the same spot on the monster’s leg. It bellowed and, sensing its urge to strike back, I hopped to the side. The ground shook, but I was unharmed.

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Two shots rang out from the direction of the wall. The first, dead-on as always, whizzed past my ear and buried itself into, I presumed, the Psychon’s leg. The second, an angry shotgun slug, went a bit high from the bullseye but still left its mark.

I smiled. They had understood my signal.

The Psychon’s leg buckled from the concentrated attack. It crashed to the ground and a few seconds later there was an explosion to the far left. Probably the arrow, shot harmlessly into the ruins.

One more leg and we might have a shot at that head.

***

The Surgeon

I always knew this was going to happen sooner or later.

My warnings might have held her back for a day or two, but eventually she would push it too far. She wasn’t the kind of person to respect her body’s limits.

I applied my anger to my work. I was, quite frankly, pissed off at her for that idiotic move, but I would be even more pissed if she had the audacity to die without so much as apologizing.

I had stopped the bleeding. The external bleeding, anyway. The chance of internal hemorrhaging was quite high, but she wasn’t showing any symptoms yet and I didn’t have the tools here to check. Another reason to get her to a hospital, stat.

What was the saying? All bleeding stops eventually?

The truly bothersome part was that inscrutable purple… whatever it was that had gotten into her blood. What was the safe practice for something like that? My gloves had gotten covered in the stuff just trying to stabilize her. Another job for the fine folks at a better equipped facility.

Movement ahead made me look up. Not again. What was it this time? I didn’t know if I could handle putting yet another of my squadmates on a stretcher.

I quickly changed my gloves and passed the Aegis to another doctor. I had done most of what I could anyway. He would mostly just be securing her admission to an ICU.

There weren’t any Veiled to greet me, thankfully. Just ten or so Psychons that had gotten through the militia.

Medical personnel were fleeing, helping whatever patients they could to safety. I applauded the effort, but there really wasn’t any need for the panic. Undue stress made for poorer patient outcomes.

I brought my Veil online. Possibilities stretched out ahead of me, like strings pinned to the people and animals nearby. My retinue of tools splayed out in my mind, ready to go at a moment’s notice.

I opted to start with my scalpel. My real one, mind you, not the one I could conjure. That would come later.

I was a pacifist by nature, the kind to take the Hippocratic oath with absolute sincerity. I didn’t enjoy fighting even Psychons, as I feared I would get used to the violence. But when push came to shove, they weren’t living creatures in the same way that humans, or even other animals, were. If the situation called for it, I was more than capable of efficiently taking them down.

The fight, if you could call it that, was over in a matter of seconds. The first few went down to my string-guided scalpel while I tangled the rest in conjured suture threads. They put up an admirable resistance, two even managing to break free and initiate a pincer attack. That was where my conjured scalpel came in. I told you it would be handy.

I looked out beyond the wall. That monster was getting ready for another shot. I hoped those two knew what they were doing. I had just about reached my limit for the night.