Pain of The Lone Spectre

by Adrian P

  “Here we are!” Bryant shouted to the channel.

  The big man landed near a Brotherhood fortification with fully-engaged armour and helmet.

  Bryant grabbed a conscript and threw him to another who manned the emplaced guns. He ransacked improvised covers and supply boxes, turning the neatly architected ground into a mess of chipped woods and bloodied soil. Other conscripts blazed their gunfire onto Bryant, but his armour was too strong.

  “Watch out!” Christina shouted.

  A conscript launched a rocket to Bryant.

  But the rocket turned upwards.

  Christina landed next to Bryant and deployed a small automatic gun from her armour.

  “Watch your surroundings, damned gorilla!” she fired at a conscript. “That rocket is strong enough to tear apart an armoured tank. If not for my jammer, you’ll be shredded to pieces.”

  “My bad,” Bryant laughed. “Thanks for the assist, Chrissie.”

  “My name’s Christina!”

  The Brotherhood called in reinforcement. The pair faced twenty conscripts with automatic rifles and explosive weapons. The marines seized opportunity and flanked them, encircling Brotherhood position and opening up their defences.

  At the same time, more Brotherhood reinforcements arrived from the opposite hillside. Crowned Confederacy Troopers climbed up, turning the small skirmish into a full-scale battle. The hill lit up with flashes from guns and explosions, leaving the other hillsides dark and quiet in comparison.

  Audi kneeled behind a tree and opened his UFX-PDA, setting its brightness to the lowest and covering himself with an insulating cloth. He watched a live strategic map showing Troopers and Marines converging on Brotherhood position, but enemy reinforcement opened up their formation, turning the battle into a stalemate.

  They are tougher than I thought. Audi zoomed into the map. I thought the encirclement would finish up their resistance, but they have powerful reserve squads waiting, allowing their soldiers in the pocket to retreat and establish a new frontier of defence. Damn it.

  He closed the UFX-PDA and pocketed it.

  The boy took out his pistol and climbed up the hill, ensuring his footsteps were silent. He kept himself low, dashing from foliage to foliage like a snake hunting his prey. The sounds of battle distanced away, and the boy arrived on a flat ground.

  No scouts. I can move more liberally here—

  “You’re not so hard to predict.”

  Audi turned in abrupt.

  Standing on a higher ground was Sasha Gryaznov. His arms were relaxed on both sides, but his posture made his shoulders look broader. The man’s face was calm, but an immense pressure struck the boy. Audi stepped back and assumed fighting position on reflex. He scanned his surroundings without moving his face.

  “Don’t worry,” Sasha spoke English with a strong Russian accent. “The conscripts are busy fighting off your Tyrant warriors. You need not worry about ambushes or encirclements.”

  “What do you want?” Audi frowned.

  “Do you remember a young man you killed three years ago? Dirty blonde hair, green eyes. He was part of the vanguard scouts you butchered into pieces to lure The Patriot of War out.”

  “I killed five scouts,” Audi aimed his pistol. “Whoever you’re describing is—“

  “Whoever I am describing was my son, Bandana Boy,” Sasha clenched his fist. “Someone I raised alone. My legacy. Everything I was fighting for.”

  Silence.

  “The death you gave him was not the death he wanted. Not the death I wanted. He dreamt of seeing the end of our Great Liberation, when we can finally fix humanity for all the mess and suffering they inflicted upon themselves.”

  “And what do you want me to do? Resurrect him? Try asking one of your Brotherhood bastard out there. There’s a lot of you, statistically, someone should have the power to reanimate a rotting corpse.”

  “Your insult means nothing,” Sasha frowned. “What’s meaningful is my presence in this planet. Your presence in this planet. Come on,” the man readied a fight position. “Your death won’t bring my son back, but it will return a slight bit of my peace.”

  His Eyes Were Crimson Red.

  Darn it! Audi stepped back as Sasha launched himself towards him with speed. As the boy dodged, the man punched the ground with force, blasting the soil upwards like an explosion. As the boy landed on the ground, Sasha lunged forward and threw a hammer kick. Missed. His feet hit the ground vertically, and the soil exploded upwards again.

  His Bionika is…super strength? Is it something to do with strengthening muscle structure—

  “Focus on me, Bandana Boy,” Sasha kicked a gravel, and the rock flew towards Audi with a speed of a bullet.

  The rock hit Audi’s thigh.

  He tumbled sideways and fell on the ground. “Fuck!”

  “Come on,” Sasha grumbled. “You could stand your ground against our Patriot of War, and yet, how can you grovel so pathetically in front of a mere Beta-class like me?”

  Pain reverberated from his thigh to its surrounding. A blunt heat pulsed, followed by sheer sharp agony. It bled.

  Not super strength; he deflected Konstantin’s thunder with a punch. It must be something even more fundamental. Punches. Strength. Attack. Audi looked at Sasha.

  He vanished.

  What?

  “Behind you.”

  Sasha kicked the boy away.

  A force so powerful pushed him flying towards a distant ground. He hit the ground back first, scrambling blunt pain all over his body. The boy stood up and quickly aimed his pistol, firing five bullets within three seconds, but as they hit Sasha’s body, the bullets stopped in abrupt; falling straight to the ground without backward recoil.

  I have a general idea of what his power is, but there are still too many puzzles to narrow my conclusion down to a specific, fundamental aspect of nature. He holstered his pistol and put up a fighter’s pose. This is going to be risky.

  Sasha dashed forward with the speed of a bullet. He swung his punch, but Audi timed his dodge and sidestepped, swinging a hook punch to the back of his neck.

  A direct hit.

  But as his fist touched Sasha, the boy’s strength was drained like the punch lost its power.

  “Is that the strongest punch you can throw?”

  He kicked Audi with a powerful force.

  The boy flew back and hit the ground back first, but he stood up and ignored the pain on his stomach. “Momentum.”

  Sasha’s eyes opened wide.

  “Your Bionika allows you to manipulate momentum, a physical quantity proportional to the mass of an object and its speed.”

  The Rear Admiral grinned. “Momentum, huh? Not a bad guess for a Tyrant slave,” he said. “What I reign over, however, cannot be thoroughly described through classical mechanics. My Bionika presides over a section of the quantum timespace, a realm which defines both mass and velocity, instead of being defined by them.”

  The boy frowned.

  “Ah, what am I doing? A powerless being like you—who is incapable of perceiving dimensions beyond the mundane three—cannot possibly comprehend it,” Sasha clenched his fists again. “But rejoice, at least you’ll die in the hands of a force you slightly understand.”

  He launched forward.

  Sasha threw barrages of powerful punches, and the boy barely dodged each. Collateral damage. His punches broke through thick concretes and large boulders, and Audi’s bullets ceased their motion the moment they touched his body. The boy grew exhausted as Sasha’ bionika forced him on the defensive.

  I can’t attack. I can’t break through. No matter how strong my bullets are, no matter how strong my hits are, he’s just going to absorb the momentum and—

  The boy stopped.

  Hold on, he absorbed every momentum of objects I threw at him, but where did all the momentum go? He thought. The law of momentum conservation requires any excess momentum to be transferred. Did he increase his own mass? That makes no sense.
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  Audi dodged another punch, which broke a tree in half.

  And how do his attacks become so powerful? Considering the strength of impact, he must be absorbing momentum from some reservoir, something on constant motion, with mass and velocity. He frowned. But what? It’s not like he’s carrying an engine he can absorb momentum from.

  Sasha kicked the boy’s stomach, sending him down to a distant ground.

  Fuck! I can’t formulate a counter-measure until I solve these questions! He stood up and clenched his fists. There must be something—

  A grenade rolled on the ground towards Sasha.

  An explosion bloomed.

  Amid the bright shine, a large armoured figure emerged as a silhouette in front of Audi. “In trouble?”

  The boy clicked his tongue. “Big man.”

  Bryant grinned.

  “I don’t need your help.”

  “Nonsense,” he clenched his fists and bumped them onto each other.

  “The only way to win against brute force, is through brute force.”

  Chapter 3 / Part 5

  Sasha jumped high towards the sky, and plunged down with both feet towards Audi and Bryant. The latter two dodged, but the ground shook with great tremor. Leaves blasted away from their trees. Rocks jumped from the ground. A huge crater opened where Sasha landed.

  “Sod off, you inferior Tyrant slave!” Sasha yelled at Bryant. “This battle is between me and The Bandana Boy!”

  Audi readied his posture. “You’re pissing him off, big man,” he said. “Why aren’t you retreating?”

  “With all the quakes that shook the ground?” Bryant grinned. “I knew you needed help. Like hell I’m falling back like a coward.”

  “War status?”

  “Troopers and Marines are gaining grounds, though bit by bit,” Bryant replied. “Chrissie and Rachele are securing their flanks, so we’re not going to lose.”

  The boy frowned. Konstantin ought to realise the situation.

  Sasha punched the ground and blasted a large piece of soil to the air.

  He paused for a second, then jumped and punched the chunk of soil towards Audi and Bryant. The latter two somersaulted away.

  What was that? Audi thought. He paused before he jumped. Was that necessary?

  Bryant stood and clenched his fist. “What will happen if I punch him hard?”

  “He’ll absorb the momentum of your punch.”

  “So we can’t hit him physically?”

  The boy shook his head. “Until I can figure out from where he gets his momentum, I can’t organise a countermeasure. We need to deprive and disconnect him from this momentum source.”

  “I don’t see him carrying anything.”

  “That’s the mystery,” the boy frowned as Sasha launched another attack. They separated onto both sides and surrounded him.

  Sasha took a deep breath. He stood straight and suddenly, a sudden force pushed him high towards the sky.

  Hold on—

  Like a meteor, Sasha used one foot as a spearhead and launched himself towards Audi. The boy grabbed a wooden stick and threw it at him.

  Sasha’s expression changed.

  He bent his body mid-air and barely avoided the stick, landing a distance away from Audi. As his foot touched the ground, an explosive tremor blew the surrounding ground upwards like a volcano. Audi jumped back, covering his face from the debris by crossing his arms.

  He dodged the stick? I thought he could just absorb the momentum and take it?

  Bryant launched forward with his fist and swung it at Sasha.

  “Wait, big man! Don’t—“

  The fist stopped as it touched Sasha.

  “Huge mistake, Tyrant slave.”

  After a pause, Sasha punched him away to a distant ground.

  As Bryant landed on the ground, Audi dashed away towards him and helped him up in an instant.

  “Shit, man,” the big man laughed. “He returned my punch’s entire power. So that’s what absorbing and redirecting momentum does.”

  “How can you tell?”

  “I thought that’s what he’s doing? Reflecting force?”

  “Not force, but momentum.”

  The big man grumbled. “What’s the difference?”

  “Momentum is a little different from Force,” Audi readied his posture and faced Sasha. “Change in momentum is equal to Impulse, which is Force multiplied by the change in time—“

  He paused.

  “What?”

  So that’s why he needs to pause every time he uses his power, Audi smirked. Absorbing momentum must’ve require him to transfer these momentum onto his body first, but the faster he tries doing it, the larger the Force inflicted upon himself. He can’t afford that.

  Audi turned to Bryant. “Big man, don’t hit him hard; hit him fast.”

  “Why?”

  “Do it. Launch your punches like a barrage.”

  The big man glared at Sasha. He dashed towards him and swung a punch. It hit him without effect, but Bryant swung another punch right afterwards. No effect, yet Sasha winced.

  It’s working, but—

  Bryant threw rapid punches at Sasha. Sasha showed distress. Gradually he stepped back, and small pebbles around his feet jumped. The ground under Sasha’s feet sunk. He shouted a yell, and punched Bryant towards Audi. The Bandana Boy sidestepped before the big man hit him.

  Bryant winced as he picked himself up. “Lucky my armour’s strong, but it’s taking damage. Your plan didn’t work too well.”

  “It didn’t,” Audi replied. “But I’ve made several observations.”

  “Huh?”

  The rapid attacks must’ve stressed his control of the power quite a bit, but he’s adept enough to drain the momentum little by little. Unless I can figure out how he gets momentum out of thin air, and how he rid of received ones, I won’t be able to do anything.

  He watched the ground around Sasha. The soil has sunk.

  The boy flinched.

  Sasha punched the ground at an angle towards them.

  Like an eruption, high speed projectiles of soil, gravels, pebbles, and wood chips flung towards the mercenaries. Audi dashed behind Bryant in reflex and used him as a shield. The debris showered Bryant like a barrage of bullet, sending his suit’s danger detection system into full-scale alert.

  “That hurts,” Bryant grumbled. “My armour can’t take another hit from this guy.”

  “Steady for a while, big man, I think I know the messed up secret behind his power,” Audi clenched his fist. “But this is much more screwed up than I thought.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Audi glanced at Bryant with cold sweat pouring down his nape. “Don’t you get it?” he frowned. “There’s only one object around him, around us, that carries a huge amount of momentum, no, nearly infinite in our scale,” he paused. “Likewise, this object can absorb massive amount of momentum without budging.”

  “Stop the cryptic talk! What’s his source of power?”

  Audi glanced to the ground.

  “This entire planet.”

  “What?” Bryant flinched. “How can he—?”

  “This planet’s rotation around its axis provides a celestial amount of Angular Momentum, free for this bastard to absorb and throw at us,” Audi replied. “Likewise, any physical impact he receives can be transferred to the ground without consequences. That is a screwed up Bionika; I can’t believe he’s just a Beta-class.”

  “So how can we defeat him?”

  “No clue, separating him from the source isn’t an option, unless you can punch this planet away from him.”

  “Don’t be stupid—“

  Sasha dashed with bullet speed towards Bryant.

  He rammed him with his shoulder.

  Bryant flew and crashed onto a tree. His armoured suit blinked red and spat out steam. Its torso opened, and Bryant jumped out onto the ground, crawling on all four. Sasha grabbed Audi’s neck and threw him away to the distance.
The boy swore loud as he landed shoulder-first.

  “Now that the nuisance is gone, come at me with full force, Bandana Boy!” Sasha shouted. “I’m going to kill you with one decisive punch!”

  I wish that was an empty threat, but now I know better. Audi shook as he stood. How can I beat him? No matter what I throw at him, he’ll just absorb the momentum or dodge it—

  He paused.

  The boy grabbed a long piece of broken tree bark and snapped it in two, turning them into improvised wooden spears.

  “Really?” Sasha frowned. “Is that how desperate you are?”

  Audi kept silent with a sharp glare.

  “Very well,” the man clenched his fists. “If that is your choice of funeral arms, then I shall respect your wish,” he paused. “Pity, you would’ve made a fine Brotherhood warrior.”

  The boy dashed back and distanced himself away.

  “Run as far as you want, it won’t matter,” Sasha kneeled. “I have the power to chase you to the end of the world.”

  He jumped to the air several metres high, and launched down towards the boy.

  Audi threw one spear at him.

  Sasha flinched. He twisted his body sideways and skewed his trajectory.

  The boy threw the second spear with full force.

  Before Sasha could react, the wooden spear jammed straight through his chest; spraying blood to the air behind him. The man screamed an empty breath as he tumbled down on the ground.

  He grabbed the wooden spear and tried pulling it out of his chest, but as he pulled, he screamed even louder. Sweat poured. Blood spread through the soil and his coat. His breath grew more rapid yet short—like a man suffering from asthma.

  Audi walked towards Sasha and stopped, staring down at him. “Don’t even try, you’ll just hasten your death,” he said. “If I were you, I’d rather fall unconscious slowly, and vanish from existence without having to suffer awake.”

  Sasha coughed. “So…this is why…The Patriot of War respected you…”

  The boy frowned.

  “A Tyrant slave without Bionika…yet powerful enough to best even the strongest…”

  “I don’t need Brotherhood scums to compliment me,” Audi replied. “Now stay where you are—“