I discovered Evyl within a few feet from me. Her charred mummy lay on the floor unmoving. Her split blackened skin smoldered; her hi tech suit surged with blue sparks of electric charges.
“Grey, she’s not dead! You need to finish her off, quick, while she’s still in shock!”
My left hand was free. I wriggled my perfectly good fingers. The rest of the damage to my body was gone too. I had a brand new body which didn’t hurt one bit! Now I had to somehow free myself. I still had three steel cuffs to tackle.
Using my free hand, I tried to bend or break the one on my right hand but the metal was too strong.
“Use a lever!”
I arched my body, trying to reach for Evyl’s toolbox, and managed to grab something that looked like a long steel chisel. I slid it into the handcuff’s hinge and invested all my strength into prizing it free from the table. Screeching and caving in, the cuff finally jumped free from its base.
“Now leg it!!! Quick! She can come round any moment!”
I arched my back like a professional gymnast and forced my legs free from their bonds with the help of my makeshift lever. Free at last! I slid out of my fetters, grabbed the Azure battery which Evyl had so imprudently left within reach, and dashed toward the shelves with my stuff. Regular weapons couldn’t kill a Possessed one... but my Blue Steel could give me some advantage.
“Grey, to your left!!!”
The smoke parted, releasing the silent figure of the giant cyberwarg — Evyl’s bodyguard. Leaving a comet-like smoky trail in his wake, he went for me. I was saved by the fact that he was blinded and probably also stunned. The electromagnetic impulse must have damaged his implants and cyber reinforcements; he limped, shook all over and his reactions were slow.
I dodged his attack and lunged on top of him before he could get his act together. Grabbing the chisel with both hands, I buried it deep into the back of his head. His thick skull crunched with the impact. The chisel became well and truly lodged in the bone. There was no way I could pull it out.
But even after that, the cyberwarg kept snapping his teeth trying to get to me, dropping froth everywhere. Come on, you bastard, die now!
You’ve received 730 Azure
Total Azure count: 3524/14300
Miko kept urging me to hurry. Her voice rang with anxiety. Seconds elapsed; Evyl could come round any moment.
I dashed toward the shelves with my stuff. It hadn’t been clever of you guys, leaving a prisoner’s possessions in the same room, had it?
The Fox suit’s zipper zinged shut; the heirloom cryptor ring slipped onto my finger; the Fang slid out of its sheath — I needed to finish Evyl off pronto!
“Grey, aim it here! This is the only place where you can hit an Incarnator’s ethereal body!”
She placed a bright red marker right at the center of Evyl’s chest, exactly where the Source was supposed to be: the receptacle of the ethereal matter which animaturgists call “anima” and ordinary people know as “soul”.
So that’s how you could kill an Incarnator for good, then? By hitting him or her right in the Source while the Incarnator’s bodyless spirit was inside their host’s body?
“Yes, yes, but you need to do it with an Azuric weapon! Stab her, QUICK!”
I lunged at Evyl, raising my dagger.
A powerful blow met me, almost knocking me out, as Evyl jumped to her feet and gave me an almighty whack with her clawed hand, sending me flying across the room. My back hit the opposite wall, very nearly knocking the dagger from my hand again.
I hadn’t made it. She must have come round a split second before my attack. A pale-blue glow enveloped her body as she activated Reincarnation, just like I’d just done. Once again she was in mint condition, not a burned wound in sight. Her high tech suit kept sparking though from my EMP attack.
She hadn’t said a word. The bluish-black plates of a new protection suit closed over her body like fish scales, as if growing from her skin, creating an impenetrable armor veined with the familiar pale-blue pattern of Azure.
“This is Azure-resistant armor, Incarnator! It’s one of her Azuric modifications! Now you can’t hurt her with a Flash!”
Evyl growled: a perfectly natural beastly growl. A helmet very similar to an Anubis mask closed over her face. Its eye slits lit up crimson. Her suit’s left forearm released the triple blades of curved steel claws; the round barrel of a pulse gun clicked out of her right one. She seemed to have transformed to her combat form — a creature in scaly armor which bore only a fleeting resemblance to a human being.
The red dot of her target finder focused on me. The black muzzle of her gun glowed with the pale-blue light of an upcoming energy pulse. Angel’s wingsuit used to have it too, albeit a bigger caliber.
“Grey, follow my instructions!”
Evyl opened fire.
Now I could appreciate the true purpose of these cogitor things. Had it not been for Miko, I’d have been dead within the first ten seconds. But my sweet neural network had already mapped out the entire room, overlaying it with augmented-reality diagrams and highlighting potential projectile paths, working out optimal escape routes and cover positions. All I had to do was follow her guidance and repeat every movement of my 3D copy as it threaded its way amid the red lines of new assaults. It was a game against time, a mad dance which demanded all the resources of my modified body.
Luckily, a pulse gun — even a weak one like hers — couldn’t fire non-stop. The brief two to three-second pauses was all I needed to change my position and escape the fire arc. Still, even though her first projectiles had missed the mark, I knew my luck couldn’t last forever: she must have already called in reinforcements. I needed to do something to disrupt her plans, but how could I do that?
“According to my estimate, we have zero chances in open combat, Incarnator. She’s several times stronger than we are now. I’m now assessing all probabilities...”
I leapt behind the cage with the werefox, using it as cover. The blue pulses hit its bars, melting and mangling the metal. The girl was still alive albeit in a bad way. Covered in terrifying blue and red burn marks, she thrashed about the cage, expertly dodging the energy pulses.
“I suggest we use the surprise effect and leg it, Incarnator. Here’s the scheme of the trailer. Here’s the vehicle’s cab. We could set up an accident! Can you see that air duct over there?”
I realized what she was driving at. The air duct’s path was highlighted red on the truck’s virtual profile. Easy. If only I could get a moment’s breather! I kept leaping, rolling, somersaulting and squirming like a professional tightrope artist, trying to evade death.
“Ice was right, we should have killed you there and then!” Evyl growled. “You think you know what pain is? Oh no! I’ll make sure you die slowly... like a slaughtered pig...”
She laughed triumphantly, seeing me release a new Speck of Light. She must have thought I was trying to attack her again.
Not really. Obeying my mental control, the little flickering flame slid past her and headed for the air duct grill, right into the duct’s round pipe, reemerging from its other end into the vehicle’s cab.
I had no idea who was driving it. It was irrelevant, anyway: a new Flash was going to kill everyone inside the cab and disable all the complex electronic equipment. The truck might go out of control, hopefully changing the situation in my favor.
Activation!
A surge of blinding light escaped the air duct like the beam of a searchlight. The truck’s cab must have turned into a ball of white fire.
My ears were assaulted by the deafening screech of the brakes. The trailer turned its direction and speed, listing to one side as if skidding round a bend.
After a few seconds, the truck was shuddered by a terrible blow which threw both Evyl and myself to the floor. The truck had rammed into something, bowled over, then skidded for another fifty yards or so, apparently pulled by the momentum of its long trailer.
The lab’s entire contents sho
wered upon us in a deadly downpour of shattered debris; its walls, the floor and the ceiling changed places several times as the trailer kept tumbling over.
Finally, it ground to a halt after bumping into something one last time so badly that the impact crumpled the ribbed metal of the walls.
I struggled back to my feet, brushing my suit off from all the broken bits. I was alive and not even wounded, if you didn’t count a few bruises.
Where was Evyl?
I scanned the trailer but couldn’t detect her. But the big cage had wrought itself off its pedestal, hit the opposite wall and tumbled over before coming to a halt just next to me. All the high tech equipment that had been attached to it had been ripped off its mountings; the fat bundles of cables were severed, the cage’s double bars deformed by the pulse gun’s charges.
All of a sudden, the werefox girl was very close to me. Despite all the wounds she’d received, she was still breathing, reaching out to me through the bars which weren’t live anymore.
Her pleading gaze was on me. No, not on me — on the fully charged Azure battery that I was still clutching. The creature’s enormous eyes, green as forest leaves, were focused on its pale-blue glow. My interface still refused to ID her.
An unidentified A-creature
Type: ???
Warning level: ???
She pleaded for this Azure... and I knew I had very little left myself but...
But I went with my gut feeling. A hunch, if you wish. The expression in the weregirl’s eyes betrayed intelligence, and I was desperate for some allies. If she managed to get out of her deformed cage...
Ignoring Miko’s indignant protest, I lobbed the battery into the cage.
The girl caught it in mid-air. For a brief while, she seemed to stare at it in disbelief. Then the battery lost its blue glow as the girl must have absorbed its contents. Five thousand Azure for a creature who’d just been bled dry by Evyl’s extractor — to the girl, it must have been like a drink of water to someone dying of thirst in a desert.
Slowly she rose to her full height, her head almost touching the cage’s ceiling. She seemed to be perfectly comfortable with her own nudity. The empty A-battery dropped to her feet. Her eyes were firmly fixed on me — but I couldn’t for the life of me work out the meaning of her slightly deranged gaze.
Then she spat on her hand and ran it over her body. Her gesture left clean skin in its wake as all the burns and terrible wounds disappeared as if erased. She had one hell of a regeneration!
After a few brief seconds, she stepped toward the bars and grabbed them with both hands.
“Grey, this creature... this is some genetic modification. She’s capable of using Azure artifacts! She is sentient. I’m running a quick identity assessment... Here’re the top results: she’s most likely to be an A-human belonging to the following glyphs: Shiva, Lilith or Incarnator.”
Mangled out of shape by the pulse gun impacts, the cage bars groaned their protest in her hands. She was incredibly powerful, whoever she was! Transfixed, I awoke to Miko’s desperate scream,
“Above you!”
Like a giant spider, Evyl was clinging to the ceiling — or rather, to what used to be the lab’s floor. She was trying to sneak up on me to get a clean blow.
Her lithe black figure dropped down. Her sharpened curved claws glistened in the dark. Had it not been for Miko’s warning, she would have indeed ripped me open like a slaughtered pig. As it was, I managed to parry her attack — only to be thrown back like the first time, very nearly dropping the knife.
She pointed her pulse gun at me and shot me point blank. There was no way I could dodge it this time. The direct hit singed me; I saw Evyl protract her predatory claws as she dashed toward me.
She didn't make it. The furious weregirl stepped in her way, transforming into a giant lithe beast. She’d managed to escape from her cage!
The girl lunged at Evyl. The two rolled on the floor, entangled in an angry growling ball which swept everything out of its path.
Miko didn't let me see the end of their combat, mercifully shutting down my mind to blank out my death throes.
Activation No 14
Repairing the damage to your host’s internal systems...
Success! Incarnation complete!
Current Azure count: 1194/14300
By now, I was completely disoriented by all the screaming, roaring, hissing, the glinting of steel and the crunching of smashed equipment. Evyl’s pulse gun flashed blue; the shapeshifter’s claws struck sparks from her enemy’s armor as the girl — who’d once again transformed into a giant Allys — was busy ripping Evyl apart, making sure to repay her blow for a blow. The two moved so fast that I could only glimpse fragments of their movements.
I jumped at my chance. Leaping to my feet, I activated my cryptor. Its contents were all present and correct: apparently, the two Technomancers had failed to hack it open.
The Crusher felt comfortably heavy in my hand. With a soothing click, a new clip slotted in.
Azure-modified armor, you say? Let’s see how it likes a large caliber!
“Hold her! Keep her still!” I shouted to the weregirl who’d already pinned Evyl to the floor and was apparently trying to bite her head off. With all the chaos around us, I was afraid of hitting my new ally.
“Keep out of the line of fire, Incarnator, will you?”
Finally Evyl seemed to have got her act together. Her scaly armor was covered in deep whitish scratch marks. The weregirl was stronger and faster — but she only had her own body reserves to rely on. But Evyl still had a few high tech surprises up her sleeve. Although my EMI attack must have disabled most of them, the few that were still left were plenty.
The eyeslits of her elongated visor lit up with a bright red glow, releasing thin threads of laser beams which hit the shapeshifter’s gnarling muzzle. The claws on Evyl’s right forearm retracted, transforming imperceptibly into another tool: a buzzing circular saw which immediately sank into the weregirl’s flank. Howling and growling, the Allys leapt aside, abandoning her nearly defeated prey.
Now I had a clean shot. Miko calmly pointed a red marker at Evyl’s helmet, then corrected my aim with the help of an augmented-reality profile.
Nine rounds boomed as one, throwing Evyl several paces back. She dropped to the floor, rolled over, tried to get up, then collapsed back down. Finally, she scrambled to all fours and shook a disoriented, confused head.
I kept firing non-stop until I emptied the clip, hoping that the Crusher just might smash her head to bits. But all I’d achieved was several well-grouped whitish dents on her helmet and a light stun.
Without pausing, I conjured up another Speck of Light and sent it down my dagger’s blade which immediately began to glow. Investing all my strength into the blow, I hit the damaged part of Evyl’s helmet as hard as I could.
I knew straight away that I wasn’t strong enough. It was like trying to stab a slab of rock. Evyl must have upgraded her skeleton so many times that her bones had become harder than granite.
I groaned with the effort, desperate as I realized my inadequacy against her. Even when stunned, finishing her off wasn’t an easy task!
A heavy weight pressed me down. The wounded Allys had already transformed back into the girl who was bleeding profusely — and still she’d hurried to my aid. Her small hand pressed hard against the dagger’s pommel. Immediately her hand began to smolder — the Fang did burn strangers, didn't it? Still, she kept on pressing. I could see that she had much more strength in that body than I could possibly muster.
Fang’s blade kept sinking in reluctantly as if it were hardwood. Evyl began thrashing in our grip, apparently coming round, then emitted a blood-curdling high-pitched shriek.
Bang! Struggling, she hit me hard with her helmeted forehead, her Anubis mask smashing my face. I saw stars. Evyl’s next blow sent the weregirl flying.
She rose to her feet. Just like that, with Fang still sticking out of her helmet, one third of its bl
ade buried in her skull. She had no intention of dying whatsoever.
Her pulse gun pointed at me again. A blue flash glinted down its barrel.
Too late. I focused, sending the Speck of Light toward the tip of the dagger. That was the whole idea: I wanted to pierce her damage-deflecting armor and explode the Flash inside her.
Evyl jerked like a puppet pulled by all of its strings. Her shot missed me entirely. She dropped to the floor, flailing her arms and legs, as an unbearable white light poured out of her eye sockets, her mouth and the breach in her helmet. The Flash was scorching Evyl from the inside.
It didn't last long. The scaly shell of her body armor dissolved, melting. In only a few seconds, everything that was left of her was the charred carcass of an unidentifiable creature burned to the bone, which had very little in common with a human being.
The Enchanter (Project Stellar Book 2): LitRPG Series Page 4
