Heroic
Page 62
That wasn't Leric. I swallowed nervously, this time the simulated function came through easily. That definitely want Leric, that want some low tier weakling villain. That was fucking Grave Pace.
He let out a scream of all his might this time, it was loud enough to shake the ground under me. Warnings flashed that my sensors were destabilizing and breaking. Then my vision cracked, Grave Pace splitting into two.
For a moment, I stared thinking a hero had come to save and they had cut the villain in two. Then he turned long red tongue reached at least four or five inches out his mouth as it dropped acidic white spit. He hadn't been cut in two by a hero, he had broken my eye lens. He had shattered the glass, by the sound he emitted alone.
Warning: Sensory system at 1% integrity. Remaining active sensors: Sight.
Usually, when I brought up a list of active sensors, it was so long that I couldn't really comprehend them all. This time it was just one thing that was still functioning correctly. They would be the first things to go, they were the most sensitive bits out of everything. I checked to make sure that nothing else was wrong. I could move my legs and arm, though I couldn't really tell which direction.
Logically I knew that I was lifting them up and down, but physically I couldn't tell what direction I was moving them. Ahhhhhh! I thought, struggling to move my arm in a way that would get me to my feet.
He is coming.
I snapped my head in the direction of Grave Pace. Sure enough, he had locked his eyes on me and was moving in my direction.
We still have one weapon left.
I blinked. “We do? I mean I do? Who are you?” I blurted, though I wasn’t sure my speaker still worked, my microphone didn’t so I couldn’t tell.
Does it really matter at this point?
“You mentioned a weapon?” I asked instead.
Indeed we did. Our left arm. Though the dispenser is mostly malfunctioning, we can fix that easily enough. The container holding the tile cleaner is still fine, with a little bit of my help I could make it useful to us. It replied.
R-right. I simply replied. Terror, boiled in my stomach as I watched Grave Pace close the distance. He was less than two meters away at this point. He was significantly larger than before too. Leric had been somewhere around two meters. Grave Pace was an easy four meters tall. "Why don't you get started on that, so we don't die," I told the voice in my head.
I felt a flash of… something. Which was odd since I literally couldn't feel right now. My sense of touch was literally broken. Something green flashed and slithered from my chest to my arm, for a few moments before dissipating.
We are ready.
“Okay, thank us. I mean you.” I started to shake my head, I nearly toppled as I did. Something landed in front of me, it was a big gray leg. For a moment, I blinked in confusion and stared at the limb, I lifted my left arm, sparks flickering off it in protests, along with my gaze to Grave Pace's chest. I reached out with my power and activated the dispenser. A fine green mist blew out in a two meter wide and three-meter long cone.
The spray quickly took Grave Pace in the chest.
For a moment I didn't think that anything was happening. Then Grave Pace reared back and presumably bellowed, as his chest burst into bubbling boils and he staggered back.
Then I watched as my hand and arm started to evaporate, the acidic residue melting both dispenser and limb. So that was a one trick type of thing. One done and gone?
Indeed, it appears we are unable to defeat Grave Pace. I blinked as the voice replied, to my thought.
“Well shit! What are we going to do now?” I replied mentally.
We have been lucky the blow seems to have stopped him long enough for the energy signature to arrive.
“What?”
Then I Grave Pace reappeared in my sight again, one hand raised as he stepped closer to me. Before the fist could descent, there was a reddish-golden light that collided with Grave Pace sending him back a pace. I blinked a barrier of the same color appeared between us.
A softly red-glowing man floated into my view. Suit sticking tight to his body, emphasizing his lithe, athletic frame, his hair blowing in a wind I couldn’t feel. Red-golden light emanating from his eyes.
The man was started articulating and moving his mouth while looking at Grave Pace. As he did, the faint aura of light intensified until he cast everything in a red-gold light. If I hadn’t recently done some in-depth research on him, I might not even have recognized Galenor.
He lowered himself onto the dome of light he had conjured to protect me. He said something else to Grave Pace, and the creature pulled back its lips in a black snarl and stuck its tongue out. At that point, the light from Galenor flared too bright, and my last sensor broke, destroyed by the intense energy…
Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Five
A red tongue peaked out from completely black teeth as Leric let out a deep chested cry.
Opaque white saliva drooled from his mouth as his skin changed to the same gray as his eyes. Red started running tracks down his face from his eyes.
That wasn't Leric. I swallowed nervously, this time the function came through fine enough. That definitely want Leric, that want some low tier weakling villain. That was fucking Grave Pace.
He let out a scream of all his might this time, it was loud enough to shake the ground under me. Warnings flashed that my sensors were destabilizing and breaking. Then my vision cracked, Grave Pace splitting into two.
For a moment, I stared thinking a hero had come to save and they had cut the villain in two. Then he turned long red tongue reached at least four or five inches out his mouth as it dropped acidic white spit. He hadn't been cut in two by a hero, he had broken my eye lens. He had shattered the glass, by the sound he emitted alone.
Warning: Sensory system at 1% integrity. Remaining active sensors: Sight.
Usually, when I brought up a list of active sensors it was so long that I couldn't really comprehend them all. This time it was just one thing that was still functioning properly. They would be the first things to go, they were the most sensitive bits out of everything. I checked to make sure that nothing else was wrong. I could move my legs and arm, though I couldn't really tell which direction.
Logically I knew that I was lifting them up and down, but physically I couldn't tell what direction I was moving them. That’s terrifying. I thought, struggling to move my arm in a way that get me to my feet.
He is coming.
I snapped my head in the direction of Grave Pace. Sure enough he had locked his eyes on me and was moving in my direction.
We still have one weapon left.
I blinked. “We do? I mean I do? Who are you?” I blurted, though I wasn’t sure my speaker still worked, my microphone didn’t so I couldn’t tell.
Does it really matter at this point?
“You mentioned a weapon?” I asked instead.
Indeed we did. Our left arm. Though the dispenser is mostly malfunctioning, we can fix that easily enough. The container holding the tile cleaner is still fine. With a little bit of my help I could make it useful to us. It replied.
R-right. I simply replied, terror boiling in my stomach as I watched Grave Pace close the distance. He was less than 5 feet away at this point. He was larger than before too. Leric had been somewhere around two meters. Grave Pace was an easy four meters tall. Why don’t you get started on that, so we don’t die.
I felt a flash of… something. Which was odd since I literally couldn't feel right now. My sense of touch was literally broken. Something green flashed and grew from my chest to my arm. In a moment or two it stilled.
We are ready.
“Okay, thank us. I mean you.” I started to shake my head, I nearly toppled as I did. Something landed in front of me, it was a big gray leg. For a moment, I blinked in confusion and stared at the limb, I lifted my left arm, sparks flickering off it in protests, along with my gaze to Grave Pace’s chest. I reached out with my power and activated the dispenser. A f
ine green mist blew out in a two meter wide and three meter long cone.
The spray easily took Grave Pace in the chest.
For moment I didn't think that anything was happening. Then he reared back and presumably bellowed, as his chest burst into bubbling boils and he staggered back.
Then I watched as my hand and arm started to evaporate, the acidic residue melting both dispenser and arm. So that was a one trick type of thing. One done and gone?
Indeed, it appears we are unable to defeat Grave Pace. I blinked as the voice replied, to my thought.
“Well shit! What are we going to do now?” I replied mentally.
We have been lucky the blow seems to have stopped him long enough for the energy signature to arrive.
“What?”
Then I Grave Pace reappeared in my sight again, one hand raised as he stepped closer to me. Before the fist could descent, there was a reddish-golden light that collided with Grave Pace sending him back a pace. I blinked a barrier of the same color appeared between us.
A softly red-glowing man floated into my view. Suit sticking tight to his body, emphasizing his lithe, athletic frame, his hair blowing in a wind I couldn’t feel. Red-golden light emanating from his eyes.
———
**“Grave Pace!” A pleasant and manly baritone called out. “Where have you been hiding all this time? You knwo I’ve been loking for oyu, rihgt? It really isnt liek you to got play wtih newbies like that. You’re usuallæy much more mature than this.”**
———
The man was started articulating and moving his mouth, while looking at Grave Pace. As he did the faint aura of light intensified until he cast everything in a red-gold light. If I hadn’t recently done some in-depth research on him, I might not even have recognized Galenor.
He lowered himself onto the dome of light he had conjured to protect me. He said something else to Grave Pace and the creature pulled back its lips in a black snarl and stuck its tongue out. At that point the light from Galenor flared too bright and my last sensor broke, destroyed by the intense energy…
Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Six
I lay there. Shadows and darkness enveloping me. Choking me. Everything was so close. Too close. I couldn't breathe. I was dying. Choking on the too thick air. I tried to struggle. But I was pinned. I was held too tightly for any sort of movement.
I don't know how long I lay there, wrapped in my own terror before light returned, but it as definitely for far too long. No one should ever lie in such complete darkness, no one not ever.
Along with light came other things, sounds, scents, and feeling. More specifically, pain.
My left arm, especially the forearm, throbbed horribly and stung with small invisible needles, like when a limb falls asleep. I let out a gasp and twitched involuntarily as further sensations enveloped me.
Kani was hovering above me with a worried look in her eye. “My arm, do something about my arm.”
Her eyes flickered down to my arm for a moment, and she visibly reacted to my pain. The pain was slowly increasing, the throbbing growing more and more intense as the sensation spread up the arm and onto my shoulder and neck.
Kani disappeared from my field of view. I tried to follow her, but I couldn't move properly. She must’ve strapped me to the table, which was fair.
System Diagnosis Rebooting.
A series of messages flashed before me too fast for me to register what they were saying until finally, a new message popped up. Then the pain stopped. One moment I was writhing and twitching as the throbbing steadily increased, the next it was like it had never been.
Slowly I focused in on the text before me, and I realized why.
Frame Compromised - Heavily damaged.
Less than 40% of frame is still fully functional.
Then came a long line of messages that told me what was missing, what was broken and what could easily be repaired. That latter was depressingly small, the former held the most disturbing though. Top among that one's list of items was my left arm. It was written simply, Left Forearm. Just like that, a simple description of something that had huge issues associated with it.
I had taken similar damage during my last fight with Leric, or Grave Pace, I guess. But back then Kani had already gotten me set up in my old frame, this time I didn't have a new frame to flee to. And surprisingly I found myself increasingly reticent about moving to a different frame.
I realized then that Kani hadn’t tied me to the table or otherwise restrained me. I was just mostly incapable of movement.
I turned my head, the movement slow, stilted, and loud, the motors clicking as my head turned until I could look upon her. She was a vision, lovely in the afternoon light that bled through the nearby window. She looked worriedly at me, so I tried to smile at her, that only seemed to make it worse. I realized that my sight had returned to normal.
I raised my hand to my face, the movement causing the motors of my arm to whir loudly. My face still wasn't whole, so I guess Kani just replaced my eye. She winced at my movement.
"Yeah, I know, we'll have to see about replacing most of your modules." I shuddered at the idea, but reached for her with my arm, the sound of it working the only noise in the room as it slowly closed the distance, and she took it in one of her hands. "Galenor dropped Val and you off after he had fought Grave Pace."
"There is something you should know about," She said, tentatively. She pulled up a mirror with her other hand, revealing my chest to me. It seemed surprisingly hale, there were a few burnt spots and nerves that had clearly been burned out. However, on my lower right ribcage, a green piece of metal stuck out from between my ribs.
I started when I saw it, the metallic green vines reaching all the way up to my sternum and around to my back. "I've already tried to remove it," Kani said, revealing a bandage on her forearm, "It lashed out at me when it realized what I was doing."
"I gotta get it out," I said, worriedly though a thought immediately started questioning my decision.
Why? We are better together.
"I gotta get it out now!" Panic distorting my voice horribly. Awkwardly, first tried to reach for it with my left arm, before realizing. Then after I remembered, bent my right arm to get at it. It was tricky to get a hold, but the metal was ragged with lots of grips.
Noo!
The moment I touched the fragment, the vines ripped free of my skin and started lashing out at my hand, both trying to cut at the flesh and wrapping around fingers trying to make me let go. I heaved, the Power Core sounding off as I tore the sentient shrapnel from my ribs.
Immediately, the vines started wrapping around my fingers and tried to push down for my hand. In moments, my entire hand was entangled in reflective green vines.
"Use the armor," Kani yelled. I hadn't seen her run off, but she was returning with Val's first aid box. It was old and made of metal. She dumped out the contents on the floor as she approached. Understanding her words, I connected with one of the only module's that was still working.
The skin on my hand went taut, as it solidified, turning white. Suddenly, the vines pinged off my skin, instead of lashing at it. Kani offered the open box to me, and we kind of scraped the piece of metal off with the box lid. Closing it the moment it was off my hand.
I looked up at Kani still lying on the table. She looked back, wide-eyed, slightly out of breath and smiling from ear to ear. “Whew,” She said, “That was exciting.”
Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Seven
I lay there. Shadows and darkness enveloping me. Choking me. Everything was so close. Too close. I couldn't breathe. I was dying. Choking on the too thick air. I tried to struggle. but I was pinned. I was held too tightly for any sort of movement.
I don’t know how long I lay there, wrapped in my own terror before light returned, but it as definitely for far too long. No one should ever lay in such complete darkness, no one not ever.
Along with light came other things, sounds, scents and feeling. More specifical
ly, pain.
My left arm, especially the forearm, throbbed horribly and stung with small invisible needles, like when a limb falls asleep. I let out a gasp and twitched involuntarily as further sensations enveloped me.
Kani was hovering above me with a worried look in her eye. “My arm, do something about my arm.”
Her eyes flickered down to my arm for a moment and she visibly reacted to my pain. The pain was slowly increasing, the throbbing growing more and more intense as the sensation spread up the arm and onto my shoulder and neck.
Kani disappeared form my field of view. I tried to follow her, but I move properly. She must’ve strapped me to the table, which was fair.