by Ben Ormstad
“Yes, sir,” he sniffled and grabbed it by the barrel.
“No, no,” I said, took the gun again and gave him the grip. “Hold it like this.”
“Yes, sir.”
What the hell did a little kid like this do out here, anyway? And how fucking evil could the daemonorgs be – first disposing of him and now ganging up on him like a piece of game for their leisurely hunt? A warm cloud of frustration arose in me. Of course, this was only a game, but still, what the fuck?
“So, Daiji, who told you to be out here and fight?” I asked as I led him to a group of mishaps by the entrance.
“No-one,” he said and looked up at me, uneven, green eyes twitching uncontrollably. “I was outside playing, and then the guards sealed the gates when the attackers came… before I got back in.”
“Outside playing – you mean here?”
He looked down at his feet. “Yes, sir.”
“But there’s lava here.”
“So?”
“I just…” I said, but shut my mouth. First, this was most likely the only environment he knew, and second – again – it was a game. Instead, I added: “Nothing. Just be careful, kid.”
“I will, sir.”
Three badly hurt mishaps were exchanging weapons and ammo. Two of them barely distinguishable from normal humans – their limbs just didn’t stick out from the correct places. The last one had purple skin like Ayamii, two regular legs, but out from the vest stuck two coiling tentacles instead of arms.
“Hey, peeps,” I said, patted the kid on the back. “Found this little guy in deep trouble, but I got him out.”
The two who looked most like humans bowed their heads in appreciation. The tentacle-guy approached me and swirled an ‘arm’ around the boy’s shoulders. “Sincerely thank you…?” he said and asked, hinting for my name.
“Uhm, Dex.”
“Thank you so much, Dex. And your comrades as well. Without your help, I think this would have played out a lot diff–”
Monk-like chanting reverberated through the area, cutting off his sentence: “AAAAAHHH!”
Fuck, no! Not again. Beams of fear spiked through me as the following sound was a deep rumble that vibrated through large parts of the cavern. Judging by the sound, they came from the same direction we’d arrived. I didn’t see them, but it wouldn’t be long before the ugly drone-heads came flying.
“Don’t thank us just yet,” I said, crouched by the kid and placed my hands on his shoulders. “Do you hear that, Daiji?”
Wide-eyed, he nodded quickly up and down with his little, blue head. “Yes, sir.”
“Listen to me. This is important. I do not want you to stay out and fight, okay? Those monsters are a lot worse than the others. They are incredibly dangerous. Do you understand?”
Again he nodded quickly. “Y-yes… sir.”
“AAAAAHH!” the voices chanted in the background, followed by a loud crackle that rumbled the cave’s stony structure.
Closer now.
“I need you to go hide, okay?” I told the boy. “Can you do that?”
“Yes, sir. I know a safe place where only I fit. A hole in the wall,” he said. The little body trembled between my hands. I wished I could just stuff him in my backpack and keep him safe until this was all over.
“Very good, Daiji. Hold on tight to the gun and run there now. Right now. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Go!”
The kid bolted in the opposite direction and disappeared behind columns and stalagmites. I faced the three mishaps again. “Quickly, gather all your people. Then split into small groups of two or three and spread out. We do not want to be easy targets. Okay?”
“AAAAAAAHH!” This time the chanting voices came from the pathway leading into the area.
I turned and saw a ball of white crackling energy shoot through the air. It collided with a stone column. Electric sparks erupted from the point of impact, shattering the column and spewing debris in all directions.
After it, the first nasty drone-head appeared. Metal propellers on top merging into the fleshy Buddha-like face with a bull terrier snout, and then merging into spider-like, metal legs beneath. Its empty eyes shone beams of bright, white light, like lasers scanning its environment.
In other words, a horrifying fucking sight.
I pulled myself out of the fearful fascination and waved a hand in front of the other’s faces, drawing their attention back to me. “Okay?” I repeated. “Are you with me?”
Accepting my suggestion, they bowed their heads.
“Good. Gather your people and spread out in small groups. Hurry!”
As if a fire ignited under their asses, they went off in different directions to collect whoever still could move.
Goosebumps prickled my spine as I saw a total of four drone-heads graciously enter through the pathway. The translucent, blue text above their heads displayed information:
Bio-Drone Screamer
Level 4
Nothing I hadn’t already been through, though – and dealt with all on my own, even. Remembering the FL-Armor’s Lock-On functionality, I watched them consecutively, intending to place a marker on them. Like magic, the visor created translucent, blue circles around each target. Awesome, I thought, ran to my friends, and kept my eyes on the drone-heads while they observed the area by sliding the bright eye-beams across all objects.
Hiko gripped his Rap-Attack tightly. “When we put out the fire in the laboratory when you saved me, are those what we heard from upstairs – Bio-Drone Screamers?”
“Oh yes,” I said. “That’s what Frida and Ayamii fought, and the reason we had to try to help them as fast as possible.”
Aimed at Frida, Hiko asked: “But you did not need our help.”
She stroked a manicured hand across her face and wiped off sweat. Droplets trickled down her smooth cheeks, dripped from her chin. “No, we didn’t. Who knew?” She giggled nervously.
“I am impressed. They look fierce.”
“They are,” I cut in, still keeping a keen eye on the flying heads. Electricity crackled about their heads. “But we don’t have the luxury of time to discuss that now. So, as far as I know, regular bullets from regular guns don’t hurt them.”
Frida nodded. “Indeed. Some kind of shield protects them from speedy projectiles.”
“AAAAAHH!” they began chanting again, which meant buzzing balls of energy-bullshit awaited imminent arrival.
“Hiko, I need you to hold your distance while we take out these. I’m afraid one single hit by their energy-balls will kill you.”
“Of course, Mr. Walsh. I will stay as far away as possible.”
Locking eyes with Ayamii, I said: “Maybe you and Hiko can guard your people back here?”
“Ye-yes, but Dex, I am s-strong enough to join you.”
I grabbed him and whispered in his ear: “I know, but it would be great if you could watch out for Hiko right now. He’s, uh, an old man and I don’t want him to… overextend himself. You know? Please?”
“As you w-wish, Dex.”
“Thanks a bunch, buddy,” I said, turned to Frida and slapped her shoulder. “It’s you and me, girl.”
She pushed me away. “Don’t call me girl, boy.”
“Whatever you say, woman.”
We both laughed.
The short-lived, joyous moment abruptly ended, however, when a sparkling energy-ball smashed into a column right beside us. We jumped out of the way as electricity crackled and tore it to pieces with a loud ripping sound. The upper part, which connected to the ceiling, loosened and fell and brought with it large pieces of rocks and stalactites crashing into the surrounding ground.
Immediately after, another cluster of ferociously burning energy swished right past me and impacted the ground next to us. Even through the FL-Armor, I felt my arm hairs stand on end from the electrical current.
The ground shook.
-8 Armor
-13 HP
Next t
hing I knew, I gasped as every muscle in my body spasmed and froze for a few eternally long seconds. Considering the strange, choking noises coming from Frida, I suspected the same happened to her. While trapped in the spastic, uncontrollable body, I realized the FL-Armor perhaps didn’t protect too well against electricity. Wrong element, maybe? If that was the case, then why hadn’t the body armor’s description mentioned it?
Either that, or the armor’s protective ability just now went to shit, the Voice of Reason said in my mind. Of course – my armor was gone.
Suddenly, I noticed the ground cracking beside us, where the energy-ball hit. A fsssh! sound came as steam puffed out. The deep reddish light of lava colored the stumps left of the broken column.
The Voice of Reason spoke in my mind again: We’ll be devoured by it if we don’t move.
“Fuck this fucking shit-fuck,” I yelled, forcing myself out of the spastic state and crawled up on my knees. Gripped Frida’s arms and dragged her up. “Come on, girl. We gotta get outta here.”
“I…” she moaned. “A really good… kick in that one.”
“Yeah, crazy. Get up.” I grit my teeth and arose with her in my arms. Gently slapped and shook her thighs, stomach, lower and upper arms, until she could move on her own accord.
Under our feet, the ground broke apart. More steam spewed out, revealing boiling lava underneath the frail surface. We stepped away just as an entire stone plate loosened and was consumed by fire.
The translucent, blue target markings drew my attention to the opposite side of the area, where two drone-heads chanted their aaaahs. They aimed for several groups of mishaps who had lumped together along the entrance wall – even when I specifically told them not to fucking gather in one spot. Well, nothing we could do about it now. You reap what you sow.
“I got an idea,” I told Frida as we ran toward the other two drone-heads, focused on us. “When we fought the failed mutants, I acquired a new ability which makes me go freakin’ nuts – as long as I’ve got enough MP.”
”Go nuts?” she said through heavy breathing.
“Yeah, you know, like when you go ‘berserk’ in Doom and just splat everything in your way?”
“Oh, yes. You got that?”
“Kinda. If you’ll just go as far right as you can and shoot like crazy in order to draw them in, I’ll activate my ability and hopefully end this once and for all.”
“Okay,” she said, checking her weapons. “But be quick – I don’t have a lot of ammo left.”
We split up.
She took off from our path and diverged right while firing her shotgun. The drone-heads’ bright eye-beams stopped pursuing me and trailed after her.
I slowed my pace and let her guide them away, closer to the cavern walls. The loud buzzing from their propellers mixed with the crackling of electricity that began building up prior to the next release.
Not having used any MP since the last time I activated the Self-Induced Aggression ability, I knew I had a lot left. To be sure, though, I checked.
MP : 50/50 [+15 – FL-Armor]
Smoothness! 65 MP in total. Furthermore, I knew the aggression ability required 1 MP per 2 seconds, which meant I’d be able to go loco for two minutes and ten seconds. More than enough. Guaranteed.
“AAAAAAAHH!” the drone-heads began. They flew closer to each other – the same tactic they used to block my only exit on our first encounter.
“No reason to wait any longer,” I whispered, grit my teeth and focused on conjuring the intense anger that had boiled in me last time. Flexing all muscles and breathing in the anger and frustration of a life lived with uncaring, indifferent step-parents, and the abysmal sadness remaining after the death of my wife, I willed the Self-Induced Aggression ability to activate.
And it did.
Like the blossoming of a meat-eating plant, I flowered into a burning hot madness. Everything I lay eyes on glowed red. Only what I focused on directly was clear and crisp; the rest of reality just a blurry mess.
I equipped a Ball-Buster grenade. Bit the safety pin and spit it out while running toward the ugly heads. With incredible strength I didn’t know my character possessed, I jumped at the closest one. Was able to grab hold of the spidery legs. My weight caused it to wiggle back and forth, trying to stay in the air, but slowly fell to the ground. When my feet touched the surface, I forcefully stuffed the grenade into its gaping mouth. Choking on it, I let the head fly – but giving it a good push in the direction of the other one.
“Take cover,” I yelled at Frida. We both jumped to the cave floor and lay flat as the Ball-Buster went off above us. Bright light flashed around the cavern when it exploded. The closest columns got pulverized by the furious force.
When the debris and rubble stopped falling from the ceiling, I stood up and scanned the area for them. There. Sprawling like limbless imbeciles five meters away. I still shook from adrenaline pumping, so I ran at them, equipped the Ripper machete.
“Enough is enough,” I said hoarsely, feeling drugged by the immense power surging through me.
During the next ten seconds, my blade became their doom.
As I finished them, explosions thundered on the opposite side of the cave. The mishaps – and Hiko and Ayamii, I noticed – brought the enemies down to the ground, whereupon they all charged and hacked and slashed and bashed the ugly heads in.
Sighing from relief, I felt the Self-Induced Aggression fizzle out. Soon, only a mild, buzzing sensation flowed through my body. I returned to where Frida still lay on the ground. “You okay?”
“Yes,” she whispered and smiled. “I am.”
“Good. I think it’s over now. For real.”
“Let’s hope so.”
“Here, lemme help ya back up,” I said and gave her my arm.
“Thanks.”
As she got back to her feet and wiped dirt from her clothes, we both stopped moving.
A deep, earth-shaking rumble sent vibrations across the stony ground, through the soles of my feet and up to my brain. Starting at the pathway into the cavern, behind the dead drone-heads, the ground’s surface cracked in innumerable jagged lines growing outward, toward us, as rapidly as lightning spread in the sky. The lines broke open as the world shook once again, unleashing the fiery magma underneath.
Instinctively, I placed myself in front of Frida, gaping at the immense, dark contour appearing behind spurts of lava erupting from the newly formed crevices in the ground.
39
Frida grabbed my right arm, squeezed my bicep and dragged me backwards. “Dex…”
“I know,” I said while coldness prickled down my spine like a shower of ice cold fear. Not since the beginning, when I crossed the bridge dangling a hundred meters above the sea of lava to rescue Darius and Frida – and with a horde of Corpse-Spiders after me – had terror like this caused my heart to beat out of my chest.
Yet again the world shook. The enormous, dark silhouette closed in, towering above the ground, its head nearly scraping against the ceiling and breaking off the lowest hanging stalagmites.
Following Frida backward, still making sure I shielded her from whatever unknown thing might happen next, I raised my left hand and gestured to Hiko, Ayamii and the other mishaps around still alive. “Everybody fall back! Fall back!”
Most of them badly hurt, they scrambled slowly to get back on their feet. Hiko ran up to Ayamii, stuffed his hands underneath the purple humanoid’s armpits and lifted him up.
As the ground trembled a third time, the monstrosity owning the colossal contour stepped into the light. Red-orange glow from multiple sources of spurting lava mixed with the bright, white light from the large floodlights on the mishaps’ community entrances, illuminated the humongous beast like a billboard. Another spike of goosebumps flushed across my spine as I took in the enormous, ugly head, which immediately brought me back to the beast Darius killed by kamikaze’ing the living fuck out of it.
“It’s…” I began.
“Anoth
er one of those,” Frida finished.
“And this time there’s no Darius to bail us out,” I continued, staring at tiny, deep-set eyes glowing intensely red in the huge, bulging head.
“Brraaaawwhhg!” the beast roared, baring rows of razor-sharp teeth behind the two, large fangs sticking up from its spit-dripping jaw. Above its head, the FL-Armor’s visor informed me what type of daemonorg it was, plus its level:
Daemonorg Pulverizer
Level 7
This has to be fuckin’ joke, I thought, still backtracking, barely keeping from tumbling over rocks and debris littering the unstable ground. I dragged Frida behind one of the broken stone monuments, reloaded the Rap-Attack and shouted: “FIRE!!”
Blasts from handguns, rifles and shotguns filled the air like fireworks on New Year’s Eve. The bullet-storm tore off rags of beige, hairy skin from the Pulverizer, spewing blood in all directions. Yet, it barely seemed to notice, and kept advancing toward us. The ground cracked open under its feet, releasing the pressure underneath, splashing lava up around the beast’s thick tank-like ankles, drenching its toes in burning liquid.
“Graaaahhhrrrghh!” the Pulverizer growled, wincing from stepping directly in the lava. The beast skipped a step in a half-jump and landed five meters away from Frida and I. The entire world shook from the weight. Rubble fell from the cave ceiling, smashing down around us.
Aiming at the massive straps across its chest, which assisted in holding the massive rocket launcher upright, I tried to sever them with a stream of bullets – just like I’d done when we escaped the first one. The bullets, however, seemed to dig right through without damaging the material.
The beast aimed the gigantic rocket launcher at us.
“Move!” I yelled, picked Frida up in a big swoop, ran a couple of meters and threw us both as far away from the soon-to-be destroyed spot where we just were. While in the air, I first heard the click from the rocket launcher’s trigger, then the initial fsshh! as the rocket exited the nozzle. As we landed behind a pile of rocks and rubble, it felt like gravity shifted when the immense rocket hit the ground and exploded. Its impact created energetic waves blasting every object in its immediate vicinity away – including us. For a moment I lost all sense of direction as I flew backwards through the air with Frida and fragments of stone and dirt. The next second my vision blurred and pain stabbed my back and flashed up and down my spine like lightning.
