“No,” I said suddenly, “It was a gift, I don’t want you to change it.”
“Gift or no gift, if I don’t at least reinforce it and clean the flayed flesh up a bit, it won’t last much longer.”
“Fine,” I said, “But don’t change it too much. Please.” I added at the end and fastened Sumahon back into his holster.
I watched as the tattered and raggedy looking book holster morphed slowly into polished brown straps with sturdy thickness and polished clips to hold it together. He changed it more than I would have liked, but it looked better, so I found it hard to argue.
“Let’s blow this joint,” Sumahon said, as I grabbed the helmet and held it under one arm.
“You are so strange,” I muttered in mind speak towards Sumahon. It didn’t take long to get back to the explosive and even less time for Sumahon to point out the most effective place to place the bomb.
“I’ll never be able to get it to stay that high,” I said to Sumahon.
“I have an idea! Go to the abdomen of the spider there. The hard carapace should have kept the spinneret gland intact. Yes, ok, perfect, now cut into it right here, and you will find a sticky substance that we can use to attach the bomb.”
A spot glowed on my overlay, the spider’s midsection. I reached down and grabbed the sword-like blade that was once the spider’s leg and plunged it into the flesh of the spider.
With a crack and minimal resistance, the foot plunged into the spider. I looked down and saw a mix of greenish goo and white stringy goo.
“Grab the white stuff, but be careful it is very sticky.”
I opted for plunging my new spider leg sword into the goo and bringing out a large globular of the stuff.
“Now what?” I asked, holding the stuff far from my body. It stunk, and if it was as sticky as Sumahon seemed to think, I wouldn’t want this stuff to get on my new clean clothing.
“Tap that bit on the rock where you want the bomb to stay and then place the bomb.”
I did as he instructed, and soon the bomb was placed, and the sword discarded. Without Sumahon’s prompting, I moved away from the wall and found a place behind the ship, hoping the large, resilient ship would prove proper protection for the blast.
“Three, Two, One, Blastoff!”
An explosion rocked the cavern, and I was thrown from my feet and smashed into the wall some dozen feet behind me. I was dazed, but otherwise alright.
“Whoa, that was powerful!” Sumahon said, his voice dripping with enthusiasm.
“Are you telling me you weren’t sure how powerful it was going to be?” I asked, feeling my face growing hot as I stared down at the book strapped to my hip.
“Well, I had an idea, but numbers can only mean so much when you haven’t experienced the real thing first hand. These were made for space battle primarily, so there was little recorded data on how it reacts in atmosphere explosions.”
I humphed at Sumahon while working my way around the ship. To the spacecraft’s credit, it hadn’t moved and appeared to be in relatively the same condition, minus a few new scrapes from rocks that had been blasted at it during the explosion.
What I saw as I rounded the ship took my breath away. The mountainside opening that had been blasted before by the lizardman was nowhere to be seen. We hadn’t moved the loose rocks, we had removed the side of the mountain. Just a few feet from the ship, a crater started and rose high enough that just above the ship now, there was only sky.
Beyond the once cave, where In’ah and I had fought so many giant rats, lay a scattering of large rocks and debris. There was no way that the entire planet hadn’t heard that explosion, I thought.
As I marveled at the destruction that the one explosion had made, I heard a familiar clatter of feet against rock.
More spiders were coming, a lot more.
I turned to face the clattering of legs, and my eyes went wide. Over a dozen spiders of various sizes were racing towards me. At least one was bigger than the previous spider, but most were just a hair smaller.
I need room to move if I were to survive this attack, so I jumped backward, infusing myself with Sri. It wasn’t a perfect maneuver, but I was able to distance myself from my attackers and managed to stay on my feet.
Pulling power towards my hands, I squatted down and readied both hands. I would attack with a wide barrage and then try to focus down on them one by one.
“Ahhhh!” I screamed as I let orb after orb of Sri energy burst from my palms. A part of me knew that this wouldn’t be enough, but I had to try something, there were just too many of them.
The first few orbs crashed into the dirt ahead of the spiders, and they scattered to the side. I watched as one spider jumped back and skittered the vertical edge of the mountain. They moved scary fast when in the open, I realized.
Several of my Sri blasts connected, and a screeching filled the air as spider after spider met their end. A dust cloud from the activity began to obscure my vision, but I kept the attacks going. I widened the area of effect, hoping to catch any that had tried to avoid my onslaught.
I cut off my attack. I had used up almost 70% of my Sri Potential, and I could still hear the scurrying of spider legs. My eyes scanned the dust waiting for one of the spiders to break the cover.
“To the left! Pay attention to the overlay, I will mark them as they come!” Sumahon’s voice filled my head just as a spider cleared the dust.
I straightened and brought my hand to my shoulder. Then as the power surged at my fingertip, I cut my hand down and yelled.
“Finger Cannon!”
A tight beam shot towards the black spider and impacted it directly in the eyes. It didn’t even have time to screech as it lurched forward and hit the ground, dead.
My overlay blinked. Another spider sprung from the dust charging towards my location. I fired a tightened blast of Sri energy towards it but missed.
It had drawn itself low in the last possible moment and sprung at me feet leading before it. If it landed on me, I would be pierced by eight sets of knife-like legs.
I let my fist fill with Sri energy and slid to the ground under its attack. The spider overshot me, and I punched upwards as it crested over me. With a satisfying crunch, I impacted the lower belly of the spider and the energy unleashed from my hands. The spider’s innards flew upward and rained down all around me.
My overlay blinked and identified one last spider. The largest one had avoided my attacks by going on a long flank, and I barely had time to get to my feet before it was upon me.
-Neak’o, Sri Projector, Level 17, 57,540/170,000 -
I wouldn’t be using any Sri to dispatch this one, I knew that much as I glanced up at my display. I danced between the spider’s attacks and looked for an opportunity to strike. The spider was definitely bigger than the last I had fought, but it seemed slower. Even as tired as I had made myself in my rapid use of Sri, I was easily dodging these spider’s attacks.
I decided to test my new strength on the spider. I let the attacks get closer and closer and waited longer and longer before moving myself clear of the attacks. Then as one of its front legs came forward and it spit its acid at me, I pivoted around and grabbed the front leg, and pulled. With a sickening crunch and squish, the leg came free of the body.
The spider screamed in agony and rushed its bladed feet towards me, but still, I dodged with little effort. I took my new spear leg and slashed down at the spider as it frantically stabbed at me.
Another crunch followed, and the spider laid still. I was much stronger than I had been before I realized.
“I might have a chance against Mesh’el and the lizardmen now,” I announced proudly to Sumahon. Sweat beaded on my forehead, and I found a place free of spider guts and sat down.
“I think you might be right. You have the raw power required to go toe to toe against them now, but you d
on’t have the battle experience that they have, so don’t get too cocky. I still think our best chances lie in getting that ship or perhaps one of the lizardmen’s ships working and leaving before we get killed.”
“I told you. We will leave as soon as I get In’ah free. Then we can convince her to leave and escape this hellish world.” I pushed myself off the dirt and stood. These new clothes appeared to repel the dirt to a certain extent, I liked that. It was time to prepare, and I had a few ideas about how I could deal with this invasion.
“How many bombs are left in that ship?” I asked Sumahon as I pulled a leg free from one of the dead spiders and snapped off a long-bladed portion.
“Half a dozen at least,” Sumahon answered back. I could hear the confusion in his voice.
“Good. Let’s get started.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Dust blew all around me, and I took in a deep breath. I felt so alive, even in the blighted lands. Even with the threat of death of myself and my only friend looming over me, I felt a certain measure of calm.
Whatever changes that had happened to me while I slept, they were profound. I could feel the Sri coursing through me with more depth and density than it had before. The spiders had fallen to my attacks with an almost too easy effort. I could match Mesh’el now. I knew I could.
“Be careful,” Sumahon’s voice echoed in my mind no matter how much I tried to block him out of it, “You keep thinking thoughts like that, and we will have to expand. There is already to much space and too little thought in here as it is.”
I heard the books quiet snickering as I brought my thoughts back to more pertinent problems. I found the case of explosives in one piece. The case they were kept in was heavily armored, and I guess that some trigger needed to be activated before the explosives could be detonated.
“That’s correct, and I can do that from a considerable distance it would seem. I’ve locked in on the special frequency that is used to com-”
I stopped listening and pulled the case to the pile of bodies and legs I had prepared. My plan was simple, I would use these powerful explosives to kill as many lizardmen as it took, and then I’d rescue In’ah.
“The sack around the sticky spider goo; if I can get that out, will I be able to touch it without getting stuck to it?” I asked Sumahon, interrupting his continuous flow of information.
“It stands to reason.” Was his quick reply.
The sky above me was clear of clouds, and the suns had reached the position that made the sky fill with reds and dark blues. It would be easier to make my way across the blighted lands soon, and I would have at least six hours of minimal light before the largest of the suns crested back over the horizon.
It would be enough time to trace my steps back, it had to be.
I picked up the first spider legs I had collected and pulled free the long tendon-like rope that I found inside. Using a smaller broken piece of the legs, I collected a small amount of the spider’s silk and attached the first bomb. Then once it was stuck into place, I lashed the make-shift rope around the bomb and the leg, holding it tightly.
I did the same thing for five more, each of the spider leg sections were no more than six feet long, but they would do for what I needed. Once I had them all attached, I collected some rope-like tendons from a few extra legs I had and set it aside.
My nose flared from the strong scent of spider death, but I didn’t let it stop me. I had a mission and a plan, I couldn’t fail now.
Approaching the largest of the spiders, I used the small bladed edge of one of the spider’s feet to slice the caprice open. Then, despite how disgusting it felt and looked, I worked my way inside of it with my hands and pulled free the silk sack. It was intact and had a small opening on one end.
I brought it over to my spider spear bombs, and one at a time shoved the bomb ends into the silk until I had all six inside, then I lashed the tendon rope around the edges and created a loop so that I could carry them over my shoulder.
I was ready to deal death to any foe now.
-Neak’o, Sri Projector, Level 17, 155/390-
After a quick check with my overlay, making sure my Sri Energy was high enough just in case I needed it, I began my trek towards In’ah. I hadn’t gotten far when I heard the voices. Guttural and sharp, I knew they were lizardmen, at least a dozen.
“T’thrack says he will be taking the small one with him and keep her as a slave.”
Several of the lizardmen laughed, and another began to speak.
“What about Mesh’el. If that one finds us keeping one of the special ones, it’ll be hell to pay.”
I noted that for the first time, I thought I could hear traces of fear from one of the lizardmen. Not so fearless after all.
“Scrath that one. T’thrack will deal with him before we finish here. Besides, we’ve collected enough Serilacite to fund several invasions, we don’t need him as a mercenary anymore.”
“I just hope I’m not around when we have to take him down. I’ve heard he has already dispatched everyone like him, the ones that use Serilacite to supercharge themselves. To think he brought all of his races warriors to their knees alone. That isn’t someone I want to cross.”
“Shut it, Yun’el, you’re a coward. Besides, once we check on whatever the scanners picked up here, we will be pulling all the troops back. T’thrack says he has what he wants and doesn’t want to see another sunrise on this dead rock.”
They drifted out of range from my hiding spot, and I could no longer make out what they were saying. If they didn’t plan on staying much longer, I had to hurry. My original plan had been to watch them for a few days and find out when they were at their weakest before making my move, but that was no longer an option. I would need to strike hard and fast.
I weaved my way through the bone filled city of the Ki’darthians past. Not for the first time, I wondered what could have killed so many of them so quickly. Pushing my wondering from my mind, I focused on pushing out towards the area that I last saw the spaceship and In’ah.
I had traveled past the city line and out into the open wasteland of the blight. As far as the eye could see in every direction was a wasteland of desert and death. In the distance, I picked out the cry of deadly flying creatures whose names I couldn’t remember. At the edge of my vision, I caught the flicker of some wild beast that stalked in the night, but I didn’t fear it.
My overlay told me that it was much weaker than me, and as of yet, it didn’t approach any closer than my vision could detect. The odd absence in my overlay grid caught my attention. A few hundred feet ahead of me, there were two lizardmen. Their strange technology blocking them from my senses so completely that it left a void in my visual net, making them easy enough to pinpoint.
I could try to skirt around them and avoid detection, but my curiosity got the better of me. I wanted to see if I could overhear anymore talk that could give me key intel into my upcoming confrontation.
So I went low and crept towards the void in my display. As I got closer, I noticed that they had set up several bright lights and were working in a sizeable crater. It was obvious to me that this one had been from their blasting and not their landing, as it was more jagged and unnatural.
I approached the edge of the upturned earth just as the two blips on my overlay moved away. I realized too late why they were moving back. An explosion rocked the earth around me, and I was thrown into the air, and I felt a wave of something familiar all around me. Although I was in pain from the shockwave, I glanced at my display, showing my stats.
-Neak’o, Sri Projector, Level 18-
They were using some kind of condensed Sri to cause explosions, and my body had just been juiced up by the blast. It wasn’t a pleasurable experience, though. It was as if I’d had been forced to incorporate a foreign Sri, and I was shaking, trying to adjust to it.
Gritting my t
eeth, I was able to recover. I felt so strange, like every part of my body vibrated to the tune of a song I had never heard. The dust hung thick in the air from the blast, and through it, I began to hear again. Footsteps and speaking filled the air.
I wasn’t able to make out the words but did my best to stumble away from them. I was in no position to fight anyone right now. I checked on my spider leg spears and was glad to find none of them had exploded. Although if they had, I’d probably be blown to pieces.
“Probably?” Sumahon asked sarcastically.
I ignored him as I stumbled through the thinning dust cloud and slipped behind a large rock several feet from the incoming voices.
After a long while, I recovered my wits enough and made the slow trek from rock to rock until I was far enough away to begin my plan.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The winds gentle touch bent around me as I flew down the canyon opening. I could feel the subtle tap tap of my books harness on my leg as I focused on my next move. With a barely heard squelch, I pulled free the first spear and decided on a target.
Just below the edge of the canyon, I locked my eyes on a slight inward bend and threw the first spear.
It stuck.
It hung a bit lower than I had intended, but it should be fine as long as I could get the next few above it. I carefully communicated the height I needed to go to Sumahon, and he sent back a feeling of how much Sri to use in return.
Before I knew it, I was back flying just above the edge of the canyon and gliding down to the position I needed to throw the next spear.
Squelch. Squelch. Squelch.
One after another, I threw them, and they stuck in place, the spiders webbing proving to be a strong enough bonding agent.
I had one spider-spear-bomb left, and I knew exactly where I was going to use it.
For a moment, I almost wanted to fly over the blighted lands towards my target. The press of the air against my skin and the thrill and expelling such a controlled amount of Sri called to me, but I would be spotted for sure if I flew in the clear sky.
Reincarnation Page 16
