Sen bit his tongue to focus through the pain.
I should have taken the monster’s head. He berated himself. But the arm had been closer and a guaranteed target. He had also honestly thought that severing it would give him a clean attack on a distraught opponent. He wouldn't underestimate the monster again.
The diverged conduit was still focused on his hiding spot, and he did a rapid situation assessment. The amputation had been completely cauterized, so blood loss was at a minimum. He had also been holding his sword in his right hand at the time. But those two truths were the only good things he could say about his current combat capability. Unlike his fractured facial bones in the alley or Joshua’s wounds in Gaia’s temple. His arm wasn’t healing at a noticeable pace even when he focused his Essence on his left arm. With all his Essence concentrated at the severance point, there was some small regrowth of the charred stump but not enough to get his arm back to finish this fight. Sen knew that in the deep space of a physical matter iteration, there could be dozens of reasons why his body wasn’t healing like usual. But he didn’t have to look any further than the massive levels of irradiation coming from the exposed Star Gen conduit that the hive queen was somehow immune to.
Sen checked his status and confirmed that his Essence was trickling down in steady digits as it healed the continual damage to his body from the conduit. He also noted that his health was only rising at a rate of less than half of the Essence cost.
Physical Health Status:
5000/3865→ 3867→ 3869 Spherical cultivation units.
Free Essence:
1200/968 → 663→ 658
Spherical cultivation units.
Joshua had taken a direct blow to the chest to save Lt. Nang. A very brave move. Via their Bond, Sen could tell that he was alive but not presently coherent. He was likely suffering from the same slow healing as Sen.
There was no way Joshua would be able to defend himself or the space marine if the queen decided to direct another attack at them. He had to get back into the fight to keep her attention on him. It wasn’t going to be easy… With only one, his tumbling skills were drastically reduced. And the Star Gen conduit was no laughing matter! Aside from his missing arm there had been numerous near misses, leaving burned holes through his clothing and scorching his skin transparent and rendering the underlying muscles desiccated almost to the point of uselessness. Any direct hit would defeat his combat capability and end the fight now. Then, all of them would die.
But that doesn’t change the fact that I must keep the pressure up on her or all will be lost!
Sen’s face was a mask of total commitment as he launched himself in a fully enhanced one-armed handspring from behind his deteriorating shelter and redirected himself back toward the still-raging matriarch. Once in the air he spread his Essence to enhance his whole body in order to keep the healing of the radiation damage at maximum. The conduits beam immediately left its focus on the stairway and tracked his looping form –
–A strong and stately voice yelled from across the room. “Specimen 626! Stop this wrongful behavior immediately! I designed you to save the lives of spirit beings from harmful exposure to the Star Gen conduits. Not to use them as weapons to kill with!”
Sen, already rotating in that direction, saw that the voice had come from Lt Nang. From the radiation poisoning, blood was running in steady tracks from her ears, eyes, and mouth. Nonetheless, even bound, she was standing straight as though at attention.
There was also something slightly off about her demeanor. Physically the young girl was in her early twenties. But her current body language held the countenance and composure of an older and more experienced woman as she barked her command. Without a doubt, the mature woman before him fully expected the hulking beast to obey her given command.
The beam chasing after Sen’s erratic gymnastics immediately dropped its pursuit and cut off as his attacker issued a startled hiss. “Mother? But how… You’ve been dead for millions of standard rotations… I killed you myself…” The matriarch's voice trailed off for a brief moment of uncertainty.
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The beam surged back on as the queen’s voice changed from to angry vehemence “...Your trick won’t work on me–”
But it was already far too late.
Sen landed his enhanced jump directly behind the four-meter monster. With teeth clenched and bared his enhanced shorts word swept in a downward diagonal directly through her thick neck exiting just above her shoulder’s exo-plating. Still screaming the last word, her neatly separated head spun off massive twisting shoulders.
Dark blood sprayed in all directions, polluting the air with a rancid odor as her spasming extremities and twisting body collapsed to the ground. Despite his greatest efforts, Sen was not successful in avoiding the grisly shower as he landed in a fighting crouch, next to her crumpled gray form.
Sparing one glance through narrowed eyes to assure himself the queen would not be rising again, Sen flashed over on enhanced legs as Alysa Nang’s body slumped forward on top of Josh’s stirring frame.
Sen sifted Alysa’s body and gently laid her on her back. Josh rose drunkenly, sheathing his sword in an uncoordinated spiraling twist that revealed a still-smoking hole the size of a dinner plate burned through the top of his crew’s uniform, skin, and muscles. Blackened, heat-shrunken ribs sat over the still flexing muscles of a charred heart amidst crisped lung tissue on either side.
But as bad as Josh was, Alysa was worse. The skin and muscles on her hands and arms had started to slough off her bones, marring her features into an unrecognizable mass. She was unconscious, and her body’s cellular breakdown was almost accelerating before his eyes.
Finished putting his weapon away, Josh’s numb lips and tongue spoke slurred words.
“Allyysaa Naangg . . .I’m Josshh. Thiss is Senyak... Your fatherr sennt us... are yoou alrigh–”
Finally staggering around to face them, the sight of Alysa shocked Josh into full consciousness. “... Gods, Sen! She’s … her tissues are falling apart!” Josh did a rapid checking of her neck’s pulse and lifted her sagging eyelids to show the dilated pupils of eyes looking in different directions–
“We need to get her out of here. The electromagnetic field from the conduit is quickly killing her. We’d be no better if not for our cycling Essence …” Sen waved the stump of his arm at Josh’s denuded chest. Even our healing is greatly delayed.”
But Josh’s brain had already re-engaged, and with the conviction of eternity, he scooped up Alysa and blurred up the stairs on fully enhanced legs.
No words were spoken, but Sen could feel the determination of Josh’s soul through their Bond as his thoughts roared. ~This girl cannot die! If she does, I will lose Sophie!~
Sen flashed after him but didn’t respond. Josh was absolutely correct. Whatever its unfathomable reasons were, Karma, Reality, and Balance had joined the fates of Sophie Tanner and Alysa Nang. Just thinking about it sent confirmatory reverberations through his spirit.
Sen nodded toward Josh’s speeding form. ~I’m with your brother.~
* * * * *
With Alysa’s dying body in his arms, Josh directed all his Essence to his sprint and spared nothing for healing his burnt-out chest.
A constant litany ran through his mind.
This woman is linked to Sophie. They have reflective destinies.
If one is lost, so will both be.
Hopelessness tried to pull him into despair. Josh violently shook his head! He had never given up. Not when he had lost his family as a child. Not growing up as an orphan in the inner city. Not when his marriage had detonated in an explosion of betrayal and hatred. He surely was never going to give up on Sophie!
This girl can’t die!
Josh looked down at her small body in his arms as his legs carried him over the grounds around the Star Gen conduit’s maintenance facility. Alysa had only worsened over the last few seconds. Her face was purple and now had an expanded look like the pages of a pulp fiction novel that had been left out in the rain. Edema from lost fluids as her blood vessels and lymph channels break down. Organ failure is likely already ongoing in an increasing cascade from the periphery and will finalize with the heart and then brain. His science mind unhelpfully contributed.
He also saw the ruin of his chest. The importance of his condition was a distant second, but he still checked his status as there was nothing else for him to do until they got Alysa to a safe distance.
Physical Health Status:
5000/1286
Spherical cultivation units.
Free Essence:
1200/857
Spherical cultivation units.
Even with a hole blown through my chest by the mama bug from hell I still have twelve times more health than as a vanilla human. He should…his body was as dense as iron. Then he involuntarily shuddered at what that crazy monster’s blast would have done to Alysa if it had hit her...
Entering the forest proper, Josh looked down at her again. Even with how advanced her dehiscence was, Josh could see how very young she was. Still in her early twenties … Barely an adult! His parental instincts kicked up a notch. I can’t let this young woman die!
Sen was running beside him through the forest trail with equally concerned glances at Alysa’s worsening condition. Josh nodded. ~How much farther until she’s safe from the conduit?~
Sen, who had just been distracted by something behind them turned to face Josh as he thought for a moment. ~...Twice as far as this.~
Josh rushed ahead of Sen as he somehow managed to speed up.
Sixty seconds and two more miles later, he stopped and laid Alysa on the ground. Tilting her head as she involuntarily coughed up free blood and clots. Her breathing was shallow at 120 breaths per minute, pulse rapid, and thready at 180 beats per minute. Clear fluids were leaking from all her pores, and her connective tissue was sagging off all her bony structures. Even her long bones and skull were softening to his touch...
He could never get her medical attention fast enough... if it even existed. The silence of his precocious science-book brain spoke volumes to the fact that there was no known therapy on Earth that could restore her.
… How is she even still alive?!?