Pride X Familiar ReVamp (Pride X ReVamp Book 1)

by Albert Ruckholdt

  He filled me in quickly, and I realized I would have to wait until Rina did something about the girl with the arm cannon.

  So, for the next couple of minutes I did nothing but wait while listening in on the conversations between Severin and Kaleb’s group consisting of Pervert Desanto and Faint Smile. Severin had included the audio feed from that channel into the encrypted one, allowing me to hear their discussion. The Student Council President must have had his hands full, but then I remembered he mentioned something about enlisting the help of the computer club.

  I heard a faint rumble in a distant corner of the building, and Severin said, “Rina’s begun engaging her target.”

  I didn’t ask about Simone and the girl with her, Haruka Amiella.

  I let someone else worry about them, only because I needed to keep my mind clear and focused. No emotion. Just a cold, emptiness that would allow me to absorb what my five senses were telling me and process the information as though I possessed a sixth sense.

  Abruptly the Enforcers chose to make their move. I heard the woman issue the order to engage. Their armor-skins flickered as their thermoptic camouflage activated. They didn’t disappear perfectly from view, but it was still good enough for the casual observer to fail to spot them.

  Oddly, my Fragment seemed to sense them, as though it could feel their presence. It was a weird feeling that worked its way up my arms, my shoulders, and into the base of my skull. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

  Was this the Fragment’s way of warning me of what I couldn’t see?

  But if I could feel them, then surely the hacker inside would sense them too?

  Or maybe his Fragment was different from mine since it wasn’t designed for combat.

  Then again, I shouldn’t assume he was defenseless simply because his Fragment was the covert type. Truthfully, I just didn’t know and in those moments of doubt, the Enforcer squad entered the library via the top floor entrance.

  I crept into the library behind them. My skinsuit had no thermoptic function so I was visible to all.

  I had to assume that was probably why I was the first to be attacked.

  My body overclocked the instant I sensed something spearing toward me. I dove to my left, and the skinsuit amplified the action. It boosted my sideways leap by several extra feet. That saved me because not one but two spears lanced through the air I’d occupied milliseconds ago.

  Executing a roll and coming up in a crouch, I stared at the weapons impaled into the balcony floor where I’d once stood.

  They resembled giant arrowheads around three feet long.

  Both had short tails mere inches in length.

  Silver wires looped around their tail ends, and both arrowheads were pulled out of the floor where they had buried themselves. As they were pulled out of sight, I scrambled to my feet.

  With both okatanas held before me, my eyes searched for the owner of that Fragment.

  There was no doubt in my mind that those arrowheads were part of a Fragment.

  Then I heard weapons fire from the Enforcers.

  And I heard them start to shout in a panic.

  I ran to the balcony balustrade and looked out at the circular library chamber. I was surprised to see the Enforcers were spread out across the ground floor of the chamber. I had to assume they had jumped, but could armor-skins really handle a three-storey drop?

  As I watched them, the armored men focused their fire on something that moved around on the second level balcony. Then an arrowhead flashed through the air and impaled a thermoptically cloaked Enforcer, tearing right through their armor-skin like it was paper.

  Another Enforcer went down seconds later, but I couldn’t help them. They were firing heavy caliber rounds. If I dropped into their midst I would be caught in the crossfire. Sure, my gauntlets could generate a barrier-field that would protect me from the bullets, but I’d be forced to focus on defending from two directions, rather than focusing on engaging whoever was throwing those giant arrowheads.

  When the third man died and I made my choice because my conscience would only allow for so much death.

  I screamed into the open channel, “Severin, get them out of there!”

  Then I used the skinsuit’s power amplification to jump down three floors to the library ground level. As I fell, I aimed both okatanas down at the ground, and willed the effect-field barrier to manifest. The barrier-field that formed ahead of my swords cushioned my landing, but even so it was a hard fall.

  Pain shot up my legs, catching my breath in my lungs.

  I pushed myself to my feet.

  I had landed between the Enforcers and the Fragment user.

  I held the okatanas upright before me, and widened the barrier my swords generated, spreading it like a wide wall in front of me.

  The barrier caught the next arrowhead, blocking it from killing the man off to my right.

  A second arrowhead failed to claim the man behind me to my left.

  “Get out,” I screamed at them. “Your armor-skins can’t block his piercer-field.”

  It was an effect-field that canceled other effect-fields, but that wasn’t all it was.

  It was also a field that disassociated matter. It augmented a bladed Fragment’s already impressive cutting ability.

  It worked on every known effect-field but that generated by another Fragment.

  Only another barrier-field or piercer-field could stop it.

  In that respect, it was like meeting the cutting edge of the oncoming blade with the flat of your blade, or with your sword’s own cutting edge.

  I didn’t want to block his weapon piercer-field to piercer-field, or edge on edge.

  When that happened one of two things occurred: the piercer-fields acted like barriers against each other, or the piercer-fields warped and cancelled each other.

  When the latter took place, it meant the strike was Fragment on Fragment. With his arrowhead spear being larger and broader than my okatanas, I was at a disadvantage in terms of weight and size.

  I cursed the entities that created the Fragments. I wanted them skinned alive for creating weapons of such horrid power. The question I’d asked myself for months since awakening as a Familiar repeated through my mind.

  Why was it only Familiars could operate Fragments?

  As they were reeled in, the arrowheads flew upwards to the second level balcony. Their tails joined with the opposite ends of a short spar only a couple of feet long. Together, the weapon resembled a twin bladed spear fit for a giant.

  But the Fragment wielder – my opponent – was no giant, though he was a tall man with a lithe build not unlike Kaleb Deneve’s.

  For a heartbeat I thought it might be him but I knew that wasn’t possible. Kaleb was keeping Pervert Desanto and Faint Smile company somewhere underground.

  This man wasn’t Kaleb. His face was half hidden behind a stylish visor. His skinsuit was a mixture of crimson and black.

  I had to admit, I thought he looked rather cool. A kind of sexy cool – the way Kaleb looked when sparred with us, or when he stood arms crossed watching us train against Pervert Desanto and Faint Smile.

  I felt my face heat up.

  My gods—why am I blushing now?

  Why the Heck am I thinking of Kaleb looking sexy?

  Does this mean—does this mean I like him?

  I mean, I do like him. He’s calm, tall, well-built, good looking, and sexy.

  I squeezed my eyes shut.

  No, no, no! Get a gods damn grip, Maya!

  I opened my eyes, swallowed hard, and yelled up at the man on the balcony. “I’m your opponent.”

  “Think you have what it takes,” he yelled down at me.

  I didn’t get to answer him with words.

  He took a running leap off the second floor. At first I thought he would land in front of me, but he aimed one end of the spear down. I felt the air grow incredibly heavy, and realized he was pushing down using a narrow effect-field generated before the tip o
f the spear. In other words, he was pole vaulting over the Enforcers and I.

  He landed behind the three remaining Enforcers.

  Damn it. He completely played me like an amateur.

  Actually, that’s exactly what I am – an amateur. I’ve never faced someone in this kind of situation before. Everything before this has been training.

  Shit! This is the worst. I’m completely outmatched.

  The spear flashed, the arrowhead flowing through one Enforcer into the next.

  I ran forward, knocking the Enforcer closest to me out of the way using the amplified strength of my skinsuit. The man tumbled off into a collection of chairs and tables but he was now in the clear.

  I leapt against spear wielder and yelled, “I told you—I’m your opponent!”

  He smiled. He actually had the nerve to smile at me.

  I ignored the taunt aside, and slipped into the practiced forms of two-handed swordsmanship. The okatanas were as light paper in my hands as I swung at him in the time-honored katas the sword masters of my family had taught me.

  The katas were sword forms drilled into me along with countless others.

  I was fully overclocked now.

  I had no doubt he was the same.

  Not every Familiar can overclock, just those with a high compatibility with melee style Fragments.

  Coincidence? Not a bloody chance. I refused to believe that was the case. It wasn’t a case of us choosing our Fragment. It was our Fragments choosing whether we were worthy of them.

  That is what I believed.

  A single sword could never beat a spear. That’s what I was taught.

  But two swords is a different matter.

  I threw ten years of training into the fight.

  I realized after the first five strikes that I was overmatched.

  From that point on, it was simply a matter of staying alive.

  “Sorry Severin,” I hissed.

  I narrowly avoiding having my feet swept out from under me. The table I jumped onto disintegrated a heartbeat later, smashed to pieces by the spear and its effect-field. As the synthetic wood shattered I leapt back and landed on another table. I was finding that height did not translate into an advantage. The tables compromised my footing, and exposed my legs to his piercer-field.

  “Sorry,” I repeated. “I don’t think…I can beat…this guy.”

  I heard nothing but silence from his end.

  Was Severin evening listening? Was he distracted by something happening elsewhere out on the Academy grounds? I couldn’t hear the rumbling while inside the library chamber. Was Rina still out there trading shots with that insane cannon girl?

  My opponent snapped at me. “Hey, pay attention.”

  The moment I was distracted, he shot one end of his spear at the last of the Enforcers, tearing the man’s chest apart. The soldier had been trying to get a shot at him. Now the man slumped a dead weight to the ground. Aventis or not, he wasn’t going to survive a wound as large as that. It was simply beyond what the Symbiote could heal on its own.

  I pushed off the ground and threw myself into the fight once more.

  No more distractions.

  No more doubts.

  I was going to kill this man.

  I promised that in my heart.

  I would kill him as mercilessly as he killed those men.

  He laughed and met my attack head on—or rather ‘spear’ on.

  “You know,” he cried out while blocking my flashing blades, “I’m really starting to like you.”

  I kept quiet, concentrating on snapping my left blade up and knocking one end of his spear out of the way. Both our weapons were manifesting effect-fields. As a result, it wasn’t Fragment on Fragment, but rather field-on-field combat.

  He laughed again. “Girl, I think I could fall in love with you.”

  I hissed through clenched teeth. “Sorry. I don’t date psychopaths.”

  “Give it time,” he offered. “In time, you’ll be just like me.”

  My right okatanas’ field clipped his swinging spear. The piercer-field around the spear tip brushed against my throat. It felt like my skin was burning.

  I skipped back, gaining precious room. “I will never…be like you.”

  He followed me, forcing me on the defensive with a flurry of attacks. “I thought so too. I changed. You can too.”

  I had to cross both blades in order to block his effect-field with mine.

  He wasn’t smiling anymore. “I used to be just like ‘him’.”

  His field was stronger than mine. I gave ground, then darted aside. The spear sliced toward me and I narrowly avoided being cleaved in two.

  Again he followed me, weaving a figure eight pattern with the spear, knocking back the okatanas I held. The spear’s barrier-field punched into my chest, sending me tumbling backwards up the steps leading to the elevated floor space that circumnavigated the base level of the library.

  I gained my feet, only to find the tip of the spear pressed against my throat.

  I held my breath, and felt my heart skip a beat.

  I lost. I was going to die.

  For a moment, I thought back to that time in the bathroom – to that one moment when I realized, as I slipped away in a pool of my blood, that I didn’t want to die.

  To that one heartbeat where I prayed someone would save me.

  To the instant when I saw Katalina’s terrified face as she stood in the doorway, choking back a scream, before rushing toward me.

  I looked up at him.

  His lips were set into a thin line.

  “Take off your visor,” he commanded. When I refused to move, he said, “I want to see my opponent’s face.”

  “Before you kill me?”

  “Yes.”

  I closed my eyes, then slowly raised the visor-headset, revealing my eyes and much of my face. I made the decision to keep my eyes open. Even if I couldn’t see them, I wanted to look into his eyes as best I could through his visor.

  He spoke softly. “Khayman…the child prodigy…it’s no wonder I was pushed so hard….”

  His lips curved into a smile. I saw no malice or mirth in it, just something akin to admiration.

  He had me at the tip of his spear, yet he was admiring me?

  Wordlessly he reached up and slowly raised his visor, eventually taking off his own visor-headset. He did all this while holding the tip of the spear millimeters from my throat. His degree of physical control was truly phenomenal.

  He tossed his visor-headset to the ground.

  I stared at him and my heart skipped a beat. I saw a familiar face, yet it belonged to someone I didn’t know.

  Could it be? Are they…related? Who is this man?

  He nodded very faintly. “It’s been a long time since I faced a worthy opponent. A very, very long time.”

  His admiring smile shifted on his lips.

  I recognized what I saw on his face, and my heart skipped again.

  “And I definitely like what I see,” he voiced softly.

  Again, I blushed and wondered what the Hell was ‘wrong’ with me.

  “Now,” he said. “Let’s start again. We still have time to get to know each other better.”

  He withdrew the spear, and jumped back down to the circular floor of the library chamber.

  I reached up and took off my visor-headset.

  Then I stood up and regarded him.

  Steeling my heart and my nerves, I walked the steps leading down to the floor.

  I felt like a gladiatrix stepping into the arena, and this library would serve as my coliseum.

  He held his twin bladed spear at the ready.

  I held my two okatanas up in a posture of equal measure attack and defense.

  He gave me a silent nod, dropped the smile, and leapt at me.

  Our Fragments clashed anew.

  #

  (Severin)

  I looked at the various holovid displays floating in the air before the seated members of the
computer club.

  I had enlisted their help when the first of the breaches happened.

  They had been briefed and brought into the trusted fold, so to speak, many months ago.

  They were my most trusted operatives within the school.

  The eyes and ears of the Student Council.

  Now, at the makeshift command center that was really just their clubroom, the members of the computer club huddled before their holo-terminals, fingers flying definitely over photon keyboards, occasionally using photon gloves to reach out and manipulate a holovid window.

  To an outsider, the room and its members resembled a covert operations command center.

  This was my command center.

  From here, with their help, I was monitoring the events taking place in, under and around our Academy.

  One holovid displayed visuals from the various security cameras still functioning on the Academy building exteriors. The fight between Rina Sayen and the psychopathic cannon girl was still ongoing. Even down to one eye, the cannon girl was proving to be an equal match for the inexperienced Rina. For a while she had received support from a handful of drones that flew in over the Academy grounds, but cannon girl obliterated those drones as quickly as she did the earlier ones.

  Then a group of Enforcers tried stepping in, only to be sent running with their tails between their legs.

  Then it was back to a running duel between cannon girl and Rina Sayen.

  So far all of Silia Alucard’s attempts to subdue the members of Crimson Crescent had ended in failure. This wasn’t going to go down well for her, or the Prides, to say nothing of how this was going to affect the Student Council.

  I was confused as to why Familiars with combat experience had not been deployed. Their skills and Fragments would have gone a long way toward subjugating the Crimson Crescent forces.

  What the Devil was Silia Alucard Raynar thinking?

  Did she want Crescent to come in like Steiner suspected?

  Was this all to lure in Celica Desanto?

  In the process, the Academy was getting wasted piece by piece by just a handful of Crimson Crescent’s members, and our Familiars were fighting tooth and nail to keep up with them.

  I was aware of one program that was keeping a running tally of the damages the various battles were costing the Academy. I would submit that program’s reports to the accounting department once the dust settled – provided the Academy was still standing.