“Good thinking,” Arodorros gravelled.
“Not really?!” Bia shouted. “It can just break through the walls.”
“Oh right, thanks!” Grim squeaked from outside and a clawed fist collapsed through a wall.
“Fuck’s sake Bia!” I snarled.
“Shi – sorry!”
I waved my arm around and slammed Grim’s fist out with a block of energy. I’m getting tired of saying red energy but energy doesn’t have much of a ring to it either. More red shielding covered the rest of the cabin. The strain shuddered down my forearm in vibrations and that one annoying sensation of needles when you sit on your foot for too long.
“You got any tips for this?!” I turned at Arodorros between glances across the cabin windows.
“I can’t fight dysphorium,” he shouted, fingers scrabbling across the boats dashboard to get it running. “I’m not one of you Hastors. Reality bending has to be met with reality bending.”
“Great,” I elbowed Bia. “Can you help?”
“Ari, I haven’t casted in –”
“Try it, goddamnit. Blast the bloody shitbag out when it gets in.”
Bia folded metaphorically and then folded her fingers. Red light crackled across her fingertips.
“Ow!” Bia shuddered. “That is vile.”
“See what I have to deal with,” I growled. My eyes caught three metallic points breaching the cabin wall in their peripheries. “There.”
Bia pointed her hand and a whirl of light blasted Grim away – along with several chunks of metal. Arodorros finally got the boat started and it lurched forward.
“Nevermind,” I elbowed Bia out of the way. “Does this boat go any faster?!”
“Not fast enough to run out a dysphorium,” Arodorros said grimly.
“Right,” I said. “Could I modify the engine with the necklace?”
“Do you know how an engine works?!”
“Lloyd does,” I pointed at him. “Get your shit together. Let’s go.”
“What about the shielding?” he worried.
“Grim wants the necklace, not the background extras.”
“It murdered an awful lot of background extras just now!” Rosa blanched.
“Do you want to live or not?” I said, then grabbed a stuttering Lloyd by the arm and pulled us out the side of the cabin, a bubble of red energy following us.
Grim screeched with delight and immediately came down on us, scratching at the barrier. Several hooded figures on the shore also began shooting various ranged abilities.
“What are – they’re at least tier thirty – ”
“Cultists,” I hissed. “They’re all over this fucking city apparently. Probably took the fucking administrat – DUCK!”
Lloyd cringed as I dragged his head back into the barrier. We struggled belowdecks and shrouded the inside with the barrier. I could hear the demon snorting outside, then racuous banging as it rammed against the shield. My fingers heated up.
“Are you holding up okay?” The barrier lit Lloyd’s cheeks red. Ominous.
“Where do boats usually put engines?!”
“It’s right in front of you!”
“Say faster next time!” I aimed my hand at the tangle of machinery that was apparently an engine.
“Now what?”
“Use your skill book thing.”
“I don’t have a whole-ass engineering skill book just on me!”
“The ability!” I snapped.
“Oh, right.”
“Come up with a design right this fucking second and send it over.
I winced as I felt indentations begin to burn into my fingers.
?[Lloyden lastName] is requesting to use ability [Transmission] on you.
Accept? Y/N
“Why is your last name not rendering on the window?” I asked, and gave the prompt my mental assent. His response faded away as I was inundated in detailed principles of steam engines and aura conversion and ritual engraving. Transmission-gained information tended to be impractical for anything longterm – but for this, it was enough.
?Ability: [Transmission] (Cognition)
Incantation: none.
Cost: low mana (both parties)
Cooldown: 30min
Damage Output:
- None
Effect:
-
Tier I
- Convey your knowledge of a concept to another person. Requires consent. Transmitted knowledge quickly fades and cannot be easily put into practice without reinforcement.
-
Tier III
- Improvement in information retainment. This will also improve with every successive rank.
-
Tier VII
- Convey affiliated concepts along with base concept.
?You have received knowledge of [Lloyden’s Boat Engine].
My fingers glowed bright red as I put the knowledge to work. Concentration enveloped me as the rest of the world faded into more red haze and the engine focused in my vision – like one of those new camera things Bia keeps trying to show me. There was a great big racuous BANG as the engine morphed and rippled and turned from coppery reddish to Deliran white and blue.
“Worked,” I said as the boat revved fast. I turned to Lloyd. “Let’s – what…”
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
My eyes widened. Lloyd was collapsed on the ground, chest excavated, haloed in blood. His face was pale. The only red in the room was on the floor.
A claw gripped me from behind.
“Thanks for letting that shield down for me,” Grim smiled saccharine. I can tell because its sparkly ass teeth reflected onto the wall in front of me. I flipped my arm backwards to point my fingers at Grim – and it slapped it away.
“Ah-ah-ah,” Grim sizzled. “No more of that. I’ve had enough of getting blasted into the skies. Do you have any idea how many people I could’ve eaten in the time it takes to come back down?”
“Fuck off,” I said. I had to get out quick. Lloyd was bleeding out – his tier seven would last him a little while but not long enough. The others would also be worried and I don’t want them coming down here and – oh shit. What if Grim already –
“A bit rude!” Grim tightened its grip. “I am here to revisit my previous offer – ”
“I don’t have the necklace!” I blurted.
Grim loosened. “What? But I can feels it, I can sense – ”
“Decoy,” I gritted my teeth. “It’s in the ocean somewhere.”
“When did you visit the coast?!”
“Didn’t need to!” I grinned. “You made a bloody ocean of dish soap in the last town.”
“Fuck! Which direction?!”
“Behind,” I said and it turned. For an all-devouring demon of hunger, this thing was pretty goddamn stupid. I immediately pointed my hand at it but the stupid piece of shit saw and whirled around. In a flurry of metal, the arm ripped right off.
“Shit!” the word came out incoherent as I screeched in pain.
“You little – ”
A kick to Grim’s shins probably hurt me more than it, but it got the demon distracted. Red lightning flared against its back for the fourth or fifth time this month.
“Hope it’s a good view,” I snarled with venom. “Bye, asshole!”
I didn’t actually take that long before using the lightning, on account of Grim being really damn fast. Wish I could have.
A bang sent it away, hopefully never to return. Grim sailed off the boat and straight through the… roof? We’d entered a transport tunnel, I noted blandly.
The smell of burning flesh reached me. Deep, burnt lines arced their way across my forearm. No more reality bending for a while. With the difficulty of one arm, I downed a healing potion.
“Ari…?” Lloyd mumbled. Somehow he had healed his entire chest cavity in a few minutes.
“How did you heal so fast?!” I asked.
“I thought you did that…”
“Wha – whatever.”
I dragged Lloyd upright with my single arm and shambled upstairs. The boat was now moving far faster than before, and still accelerating. White eyes scribbled lines across the sides of the tunnel, the cultists somehow all possessing wall-running abilities.
“Bia!” I yelled over the din. “Grim’s gone!”
“Yeah, I kinda noticed it being launched out of thn fucking roof!” Bia launched blood-blades between the words. Our pursuers were slowly falling behind with the boat’s speed – but were hanging on enough to shoot projectiles across the hull. I waved my hand – growing limper by the second – and several stacks of shields appeared and followed her. That bought her enough time to back up to me and glimpse Lloyd.
“What the – ” Bia mortified.
“Grim,” I hissed. “I’ve fed him a potion – and myself for the matter.”
“You’ll be fine! Get him in the cabin,” she said and started covering fire, her blood projectiles now targetting the enemy abilities.
“Thanks,” I whispered and slowly dragged Lloyd back to the cabin. I got inside where Arodorros was still driving and profusely slamming at the lever for more speed.
“Why are you still driving?!” I shouted. “Dan, Rosa, get the damn wheel.”
“I don’t know how to dri – ” Dan started.
“It’s a straight fucking line, it’s easy. Get to it!” I dropped Lloyd onto a chair on the side. I grabbed Arodorros on the arm and we snaked outside.
“You got the dysphorium right?” Arodorros yelled over the projectiles. We met up with Bia as I summoned more shields with the cooldown off.
“Blasted straight back to the sky,” I said and blazed light blades across the walls. Several white eyes fell into the water.
“Hell yeah!” Bia cheered. “Delete these bitches!”
Arodorros took the other side of the boat and was much more efficient than the two of us on account of his rank. Bia and I fired beams of light and blood blades everywhere, but we weren’t making progress and the boat wasn’t accelerating fast enough.
My other hand was still regenerating, but the mangled one would have to do. I folded my fingers and drew on the hourglass and the haze behind my eyes. The necklace shivered at my skin.
The cultists sped along the walls.
The cultists sped along the walls.
The cultists sped along the walls.
The cultists slowed.
The cultists slowed.
The cultists slowed.
The boat flew past.
The boat flew past.
The boat flew past.
“What the fu – ” Bia watched as the cultists appeared to have frozen. “Was that –”
“I don’t know,” I stared at my hand in concern, the burnt trails of flesh glowing red. The hourglass was hot.
Arodorros eyed my hands as he returned. “Good work.”
***
The tunnel continued on for many kilometres, only breaching to meet the air once or twice. The old legends say it was build by tier hundred-something ancients that founded Haelcrien and the autumn kingdom. I doubt it, seeing as we’ve barely been able to breach tier sixty since Miruen, but it would’ve been a sight to see if it was real. They said that some demigod with an earth-shaping power just pointed one way and vaporized everything in the tunnel’s way all the way to the border. Miruen must have been some sort of heavenly acropolis if they could build like that…
I only know all that because of Lloyd, of course. The man woke up from nearly fucking dying and is immediately back to spouting the knowledge of the universe. Adventurer mentality, you know?
“So how are the tunnels still standing after so long?” Rosa asked.
“Miruen architecture is really durable,” Lloyd shrugged – with difficulty, seeing as his chest was still recovering.
“Then why are there ruins everywhere?” Bia said. “It’s like, the face of their brand.”
“Weird way to say that,” Dan raised an eyebrow.
“Well, there’s a reason they got wiped out,” Lloyd gestured. “We think they got attacked by something. Maybe another civilization. We don’t know who, and they left even less trace than the Miruites.”
“Must’ve been a hell of a war,” Rosa said. “Wish I’d fought there.”
“You’d’ve died,” Lloyd rolled his eyes. “That war, or whatever it was, wiped out the entirety of Miruen.”
“Well they can’t have all gone out,” Arodorros said from the steering wheel. “Society came back, after all.”
“Took a while though, didn’t it?” I said. “The old ruins are millennia older than our earliest records. What could have done that?”
“Well,” Arodorros shrugged. “You just saw a city massacred by a single being.”
“OKAY,” I snapped. “YOU. Stop being mysterious and tell us what is happening. Who are you?!”
“That’s a long story,” he said, leaning back in his chair.
“We don’t have time, but I’ll still take it,” I narrowed my eyes.
“You know I could wipe the floor with you if I wanted. I needn’t toy like Grim.”
“But you won’t,” I snarled. “You need us for some reason. And I’m not about to take a one-sided deal. Tell us what’s happening.”
“In time.”
“Hey!” Bia shouted. “My sister may be a bit of an arse…”
“...” Thanks Bia.
“... but… ” she continued. “I won’t let you pull a storybook oracle on us. You gonna fucking tell us why you’re here.”
Rosa wrapped an arm around me – quickly punched away – and grinned. “Hell yeah!”
“I vote for honesty,” Dan raised an arm. He turned to Lloyd.
“...what?”
“He votes with,” Dan smiled smug.
“You people are hilarious,” Arodorros chuckled. “I promise I’ll explain when we’re somewhere safer.”
“Such as?” I snapped.
“We’re heading to my hideout.”
“You have a hideout?” Rosa’s interest was piqued.
“Whoops! Looks like the cult is back!” Arodorros suddenly whirled out of his chair. “Low rankers, you take these,” he handed Dan and Rosa a pair of projectile weapons – those newfangled ones that just shot metal really fast. “Get out there team!”
There were indeed Presences inching along the tunnel – several clusters in what I assumed to be speedboats. I locked eyes with Arodorros.
“Will you be helping?”
“It’ll be good practice for your ones, ” he smiled. “Don’t worry. By the time you’re done, we’ll probably be at my place.”