by Tao Wong
“Not. Now,” I snap, a fireball flying outward to impact next to the genetroll as Ali speaks, my focus on surviving the next few minutes.
Flames explode, coating the creature, which screams in pain and catches some of his friends in the blast as well. Within seconds, I’m sprinting away, trying to put some distance between my attackers and me. Smoke grenades are pulled and tossed from my inventory as I focus on running and dodging. My Soul Shield falls, another shot ripping it apart, and the laser beam splashes on my skin, burning it away and leaving muscle and tendon exposed. I jerk reflexively, moving away from the path of the beam before I Blink Step away, furious at myself.
I should have known they’d buy my location from the System. Once they realized there was only me out here, the first step would be to figure out where I am. Not track me, just buy my information. Even if it was expensive, they could do it once or twice to narrow down my location, then send their teams at me. The only good thing is they shot their bolt too early. Rather than consolidating their forces and hammering me all at once, they sent their closest groups to attack me.
Ahead of me, blocking my way to the river, is a group of nine Sect members. Half of them are human, the other half aliens. A couple of reptile folk, a wolf-like creature, and a Hakarta open fire the moment they see me. My hands twitch, and I pull the remains of a Level 38 hard-shelled beetle the size of a car from my Altered Space. Holding it in front of me, I let the corpse soak up the damage as Ali darts ahead.
Seconds to cover the ground, to give me the distance I need. I Blink Step again into the sky above the group and release a Blade Strike downward, the wave of blue and red light cutting my attackers below me. I could have added more blades, more Blade Strikes, but I need to conserve my Mana. A part of me regrets the deaths of the humans, wishing they’d stayed away. But we all make choices, and theirs was to attempt to kill me. Idiots weren’t even Level 30.
“Above us!”
The scream cuts off abruptly as I land directly on the gnoll’s body, my knee and shin crushing its collarbone a microsecond after my blade enters its body. I rip sideways, tearing the head off the creature, then dance among my attackers, blood flying. Basic Sect members, all in the mid 20s to low 30s. Nothing exceptional, some having as little as a few hundred health points, none above five hundred. Seconds to cut and injure, to kill. Soulbound, my sword does nearly a hundred points of damage without enhancement and targeting. With their pitiful armor and defenses, my attackers fall all around us, their screams of despair resounding. Experience flows into me as more Sect members die. Each second, I inch toward my next Level.
A giant bone hand swings, catching in my hastily brought up guard. A hand reinforces my blade, the force of the blow sending me skipping through numerous buildings as physics and a Skill knock me away. My arm cracks under the force of the blow, nearly a quarter of my hit points disappearing under that single attack. As I struggle to my feet in the rubble of a building, the Bone Monster is rushing toward me.
I plunge a needle into the exposed flesh of my thigh, the healing potion injected directly into my body. Flesh knits and my arm pops back into place with enough force that I drop my sword. Staring into the glowing freight train of a monster, I grin and Blink Step away.
“Gotcha,” I chortle as I get away from the Advanced Class.
I’m between my initial pursuers now, the group having spread out a bit as their running speeds pull them apart. Next to me is a Mage or support Classer of some form. Truthfully, I don’t have time to tell, only noticing that his health pool is tiny.
I spin, sword recalled into my hand, to lop off his foot above the knee then plunge the blade into his body. As another Sect member raises a gun, I grab the Mage by his face, pulling him in front of the attack to take it before I cast Mana Dart, forming the spell right on my hand. As I shove the Mage at his teammate, I release the spell, the Mana Darts ending the Mage’s life and giving me time to cover the distance to his friend. Something slams into my side, breaking a pair of ribs and dragging out a whimper.
“Mana,” Ali sends to me as I cut apart my latest target, grinning savagely in pain.
More dots, ever more dots converge on us and I take off running again, each step shooting pain through my body. A hand flickers, stabbing a Mana Regeneration potion into my body as I run and form another Soul Shield.
“Hopscotch,” I send to Ali.
Too many Sect members are boiling out of downtown now, some flying across the water, others screaming across the bridge and up Main St. No way for me to cross, and I’ve got less than half of my health points left. Still more than most of the Basic Sect members, but each time I stop to kill, they target me and chip away at my regeneration. And scarily enough, I’ve only seen one of their big guns.
“On it. Stay alive!” Ali sends to me.
I nod, taking a second to duck behind a house that nearly instantly gets obliterated by a pair of spells and what looks like a mortar shell. The explosion kicks wind and debris around me, hammering my Soul Shield as it drains down again.
Twisting in the air, I call forth Sabre and start the transformation process. I haven’t done it before because I didn’t have enough space and cover, the transformation process being the most vulnerable time. Even as I think that, another spell hits me, wind blades combined with a freezing spell cutting into the mecha and my shield.
We land, Sabre already blinking yellow as readouts tell of damaged circuits caught during the change. Immediately, I layer the mecha’s shield on top of the Soul Shield and take off running, picking up speed.
A laser beam fires, this one coming from the Wall Center, and cuts through both shields before losing its effectiveness against Sabre’s armor. A single shot did over a thousand points of damage! At a guess, that’d be the Sect Enforcer in play. I shudder and start dodging, glad that whatever Skill and weapon he’s using, it must take some time to charge.
“Ali…”
“Almost there, boy-o,” Ali sends.
Walls erupt ahead of me. I grin behind my helmet, jumping upward and hitting the jets to get me higher. That’s when tentacles come bursting out of the wall, reaching for my body. Even as one grabs my torso and another my head, I reach through Ali’s senses and trigger Blink Step. Surprisingly, I see my Mana drop even further than normal.
A microsecond to recover my footing, another to grab and smash my fist into the Sect member. This time, it’s a gilled purple creature, its eyes widening comically as my blow catches it. Surprisingly, the Sect member folds over, bones crunching under my attack. I don’t stop, can’t stop, as I spin around it and plunge my sword through its back. A quick twist, a strangled scream, and I’m off. Experience flows again and another notification flickers in the corner of my vision.
“That was too easy!” I send to Ali.
“Non-combatant Sect member,” Ali sends to me as he flies away.
A part of me winces—a small part, since I’m too busy running away. We’re behind the main converging line now, the group turning to follow us. Ahead of us, even more Sect members are hurrying forward. I pick a group to fight, watching my health creep up as my regeneration kicks in and pulls ribs back into place. Just over nine hundred hit points, but only three hundred Mana. This is going well. For getting caught in an ambush.
“Aaaarrrgghhhhhhhhhhh!” Ali’s mental scream catches me by surprise.
I look back and see the Spirit twist in the air, clutching his head. A second later, he disappears in a burst of light, banished. Through our connection, I can feel the burning pain from the psychic attack he was under.
Swearing quietly, I trigger the Temporal Shift module and a Mana potion from within Sabre. It floods my body, giving me a few hundred more Mana to play with. That’s enough of a leeway for me to Blink Step to a nearby power pole. A second to orient myself, then I trigger it again. And then once more, crossing nearly a kilometer and a half in seconds. No time to rest, so I port straight to an abandoned alleyway and transform Sabre so that
I can take advantage of the greater speed and mobility the bike provides.
Without Ali, I can’t skip away as far as I want to. Can’t even sneak out, not with everyone looking for me. The only advantage I have is that I’m in Burnaby now, outside of Vancouver itself, which means the main sensors they’ve installed are probably reduced in effectiveness and I broke out of their initial encirclement. Speed is my only advantage right now.
This might have been a bad idea.
***
Once my breathing calms down, I assess options as I eye my much-reduced minimap. Without Ali’s greater sensing ability, it’s shrunk to only what my Greater Detection Skill can provide. Less detail, lower range. It’s still better than what most others have, I know, many having to rely on technology or enhanced senses. Still, without Ali, I feel half-blind.
A small blinking notification in the corner of my eyes attracts my attention, pulling me from my worries as I gun down side streets. A moment’s thought is all I need, the notification making me grin. Finally!
Level Up!
You have reached Level 40 as an Erethran Honor Guard. Stat Points automatically distributed. You have 9 Free Attributes and 3 Class Skill Points to distribute.
Tier III Class Skills Unlocked
Now we’re talking. I slam the first free Class Skill point into Portal, my long-range teleportation ability. It flashes, the details coming up within seconds. I crouch down further behind my bike, watching attacks splash harmlessly against Sabre’s recovered shield as I zoom past another group of attackers.
Portal (Level 1)
Effect: Creates a 2-meter by 2-meter tall portal that can connect to a previously traveled location by user. May be used by others. Maximum distance range of portals is 100 kilometers.
Cost: 250 Mana + 100 Mana per minute
Damn. I’m slightly disappointed with the range. Nowhere near as far as I wanted it to go. After all, once you’re bending the laws of space and time, why should distance matter? I push the thought aside, knowing that bitching about distance isn’t the point right now. Still, I take a turn down a side street and onto a main thoroughfare, catching the next group of Sect members by surprise.
The sonic pulser gives me enough time to use my blade as an impromptu spear as I lean dangerously away from the bike. I leave my sword speared in the Sect member’s chest where his heart should be. If its physiology is human-like. The fireball I launch afterward finishes the job, a blip in the corner of my eyes telling me I probably got experience for that kill. No time or desire to check it.
I leave the other two points unused for now. While I have plans for them, those plans rely on me surviving the next few hours. Tapping into those points for a sudden power boost might be all that I need to make it out of here.
By reflex, I turn my head, scanning around me. Something high above, a flicker of light, catches my attention. Looking up, I see not one but a half-dozen drones spreading out along my lines of retreat. With a crunch, a flicker, Sabre’s shield goes down again. Something pink and fluttery, meaty and garishly blue flies past me as I turn forward again and pay attention to where I’m going. No experience notification this time, so I probably didn’t kill whoever—whatever—I just ran over with my bike. I mentally shift the power drain by the shield recharger higher, drawing more from the Mana battery and overheating the poor shield.
A bare couple hundred Mana left in my personal pool. Barely enough for a pair of Blink Steps, then I’m in Mana withdrawal and nearly useless. The few Sect members who get close get shot at, more to keep their heads down than in hopes of hurting them. But their attacks hurt, chipping away at Sabre’s shield. After that, its armor and my health. I’m reminded once again that Skills don’t matter if you don’t have the Mana to back them up.
I keep swerving, hoping to give whoever’s out there a harder time of shooting me. Instinct makes me change direction earlier than usual. A second later, the ground where I’d have been evaporates, asphalt gone and the sewer system exposed as the Sect Enforcer fires again. Even the near-miss is enough to melt my nanite armor and scorch my bare flesh, sweat evaporating in an explosion of steam.
Damn it! I can’t risk it any longer. A second later, I trigger another Mana potion, the second one within an hour. My Mana goes up immediately and I open the Portal, driving straight into its sinister void seconds before the potion feedback hits, sending me screaming into darkness.
Chapter 17
“Well, that was stupid,” Ali says, floating beside me in the inky blackness of the lake.
We’re back at the same lake bottom, the location of my Portal, surrounded by fish and the damaged portions of my mecha. Thankfully, the Portal could be set to be one-way, which meant no one had any clue I was at the bottom of a lake. And I know that because if they knew I was here, I’d probably have eaten another laser beam of death. As it stood, after porting in, I’d pretty much fainted from the potion backlash, the lack of Mana, and the damage done to me. I’d barely managed to trigger the mecha’s transformation to encase me in the suit and keep me alive under the water.
“Damian didn’t tell me about the laser beam of death,” I grumble to Ali. Sabre’s down to a barebones output of Mana, just the Temporal Shift module, life support, and the nanite factory. By the time I awoke, I’d fully healed and even the Mana headache had mostly subsided.
“He probably didn’t use it,” Ali says. “Remember, they were trying to keep the humans alive. Can’t get good prison labor out of corpses.”
“That reminds me. Necromancy…?” I ask.
“Works. You can get zombies and skeletons and the like, but it’s no more effective than any other summoner. The undead aren’t particularly smart, so an undead workforce isn’t useful outside of the most rudimentary tasks.”
“Good to know.” I sigh, taking the time to allocate the last two Skill points I have. Once I’m done, I pull out my new status, curious to see where I am.
Status Screen
Name
John Lee
Class
Erethran Honor Guard
Race
Human (Male)
Level
40
Titles
Monster’s Bane, Redeemer of the Dead
Health
1850
Stamina
1850
Mana
1400
Mana Regeneration
102 / minute
Attributes
Strength
100
Agility
175
Constitution
185
Perception
61
Intelligence
142
Willpower
142
Charisma
16
Luck
32
Class Skills
Mana Imbue
2
Blade Strike
2
Thousand Steps
1
Altered Space
2
Two are One
1
The Body’s Resolve
3
Greater Detection
1
A Thousand Blades
1
Soul Shield
2
Blink Step
2
Portal
3
Instantaneous Inventory*
1
Cleave*
2
Frenzy*
1
Elemental Strike*
1 (Ice)
Shrunken Footprints*
1
Tech Link*
2
Combat Spells
Improved Minor Healing (II)
Greater Regeneration
Greater Healing
Mana Drip
Improved Mana Dart (IV)
Enhanced Lightning Strike
Fireball
Polar Zone
Freezing Blade
“You nearly died out there, boy-o,” Ali says softly.
I have to agree with the Spirit. While I had meant to take the risk, and planned for it, I hadn’t expected it to be quite that risky. If it hadn’t been for the Body’s Resolve and my ridiculously high health, along with judicious use of Soul Shield, I would have died quite a few times. Thankfully, I can take a lot of damage, and Blink Step means it’s really hard to pin me down in a fight. Even the Erethran Honor Guard’s resistances help in small doses, mostly from side effects of damage, like fire and cold resistances.
That’s why I had to be the one to do this. Mikito is tough and fast and frankly, fast becoming deadlier than I am in a straight-out fight. Her weapon can dish out more damage than mine, has better reach, and she’s both more skilled and Skilled for straight-on duels. Lana would have died fast because she’s just too squishy, and Ingrid… well, okay, Ingrid probably wouldn’t have been caught even if they knew where she was.
“So how long are we staying here?” Ali asks, waving his hand around the water.
“Not sure. Debating if they’d spend more funds to locate me. If they don’t, this is a great place to hide. If they do, I need to be on the move,” I say, reaching up to rub my chin and finding my helmet in the way. I frown, itching to eat something but not having the option to do so. Well, outside of the damn food paste the nanites can produce. But we don’t consider that food.
“Recommend you portal out of here anyway,” Ali says.
I sigh. This time around, with more points stuck into Portal—all my remaining ones, in fact—my range had significantly increased. Even so, wielding Mana in any form hurts right now. Even summoning Ali had been painful, but I felt safer with his presence.
