Chapter 67: Round Two |
The third monster they ran into turned out to be another Abnormal Hunter, the flickering creature of living static spinning in space the instant they saw it, somehow glaring at them despite its complete lack of eyes. Or a head. Or anything even remotely recognizable as “normal.”
And then it hurled itself across space towards them as a streak of light that seemed to be both moving and still, rippling all over the place and condensed down to a width so narrow their weapons would have trouble even targetting it …
Somehow, Derek could not find it within himself to hold onto any of the confidence he’d gained by adding the new weapons systems.
The lasers were the first to open fire, followed by the particle beams a split-second later, weaving a web of deadly light that would do absolutely nothing against this monster if it were the same as the first one they’d encountered, but they had nothing to lose by trying.
And, if the creature had even the faintest semblance of recognizable “psychology,” it might even distract it somewhat …
That was when the first elemental cannon fired, dumping a torrent of hellfire into the creature’s path, the equivalent of twice Derek’s mana pool unleashed in an instant, enveloping the monster in what should be a lethal embrace.
The yet-black hellfire proved almost invisible against the darkness of space, and for an instant, it seemed as though the monster had vanished entirely. Perhaps even consumed … but they couldn’t rely on that.
And besides, the autocannons had already started firing, an ammo-saving steady metronome of one round every second streaming towards where the monster had to be.
The hellfire cloud suddenly twitched to the side, the projectiles starting to flash past into the void. And then it moved backwards.
Atticus cut the stream of projectiles at that; the creature was clearly still more than capable of dodging them at this range.
“We need to save some energy in the cannons,” Derek finally decided, half-wondering whether or not he could risk heading out to reload the weapon himself.
The monster crossed the remaining distance between itself and the ship in a matter of seconds, and for the briefest of instants, the impression of three massive claws manifesting slammed into his mind …
A loud screech, like monstrous nails on the world’s biggest chalkboard, rang through the Dragonfly and made Derek’s hair stand on end while something dripped from his eye, a glance down revealing a spot of red on his shirt where it had likely landed.
Well, that wasn’t good, though it seemed like their opponent had just definitively proven that it couldn’t phase into the ship. Just cut deeply into it in a way that completely ignored the hull armor, judging by the identity of the damage warnings. Unless the creature was smart enough to deliberately underpower its first attack to screw with them.
The autocannons were unable to turn fast enough to target the creature so close to the hull, but laying a string of explosive munitions in the beast’s bath was perfectly possible, dozens of detonations forcing the Abnormal Hunter back, its annoyed hiss tearing at Derek’s ears despite the fact that he shouldn’t even have been able to hear the damn thing.
Once again, the creature seemed unsure, hanging back as projectiles streamed towards it. And then it began to dodge and weave. Emphasis on dodge.
One moment, it was a curtain of energy that seemed poised to launch itself in any direction, to tear into them wherever it chose to go; the next it was a living bolt of black-and-white lightning that could probably have danced between raindrops. Or at least come shockingly close.
There was a brief pause in the fuselage of fire as a new firing solution was added, then the next hundred or so rounds began to fly out in rapid succession, at speeds that made the German postal service look fast by comparison.
At first.
Each new round flashed out faster than the last, each new round flew on a different vector than the previous, each new round plugged another hole in the net, the two autocannons were weaving in space.
Until nearly five hundred rounds crossed the same ten-meter-diameter sphere in the same millisecond.
Over two hundred missed outright.
Another hundred or so would have hit, had the creature not contorted to avoid them.
And yet, with how many they’d fired downrange … had there ever really been a chance that none would hit?
The eldritch monstrosity writhed as shells exploded against its impossible form, like a string of firecrackers lighting up the dark, sparks flying off its body like gouts of blood …
Form fraying, the monster suddenly flickered, streaking across space as a singular beam of light, dodging the second net of projectiles, only to eat a lance of hellfire in exchange as it had found itself drifting into the range of the elemental cannon that hadn’t been emptied, hellfire consuming a third of the eldritch beast before it shot off in a different direction, a loud screech ringing through the Dragonfly as it somehow scraped across the hull, claws rending some kind of system of lesser importance, judging by the fact that Mimi wasn’t swearing. Yet.
And then, finally, it shot across the bow, diving to get out of the line of fire of the still-active elemental cannon, it found itself in the path of the railgun. The big one, running the entire length of the ship. Space ahead collapsed down to a tiny sliver of distance, and before the monster had even the faintest ghost of a chance to react, a massive railgun round hammered into it. And the last tatters of the creature’s form came apart.
There. Done.
Derek sighed happily, only to jolt bolt upright in his chair as he saw a small marble shoot off into the distance from the site of the creature’s destruction.
Although, maybe “saw” wasn’t quite the right word. “Felt,” perhaps? It merely brushed the furthest stretch of the [Aura] he’d draped across the ship, but he knew it was there.
He immediately rose to his feet and hurried towards the airlock, taking just one second to check and make sure he was carrying the storage ring with spare rounds. And then he was outside.
First things first, the orb that was hopefully an Aspect. Derek took a couple of seconds to make sure the ship wasn’t going to be in danger if he took a minute or so to go grab it, then hauled himself after the orb as it sped off into the distance.
The damn thing had been moving at a good clip, continuing off into the distance at the same velocity the creature had been moving at, unslowed by gravity or air resistance, but unlike it, he could still accelerate, which made catching up to it doable, if tedious.
Transform his palms, reach out, grab space, pull, grab space with the other hand, pull again, and so on. Basically, hauling himself up the side of a cliff on a rope, with the extra issue of there not being a rope, with the added danger of a single errant pull sending him careening wildly off course …
In the end, it wound up taking him a full ten minutes, including a brief pause to ask Atticus whether or not there were any creatures in the area he was entering, but in the end, his hands closed around the smooth baseball-sized sphere of solid magic … and immediately sped back towards the Dragonfly as quickly as he could, even pulling out a trick he really should have used previously, compressing space between himself and the ship in brief bursts.
It still took him another five minutes to reach the ship, and in hindsight, they probably should have taken the ship after the Aspect instead. But in the end, the mistake hadn’t actually resulted in anything negative happening, so in the end, it would only amount to a learning experience. Hopefully.
Either way, Derek eventually reached the first of the elemental focus cannons and began the charging process.
He flipped up the maintenance access hatch, slapped his palm against the circle of arcane sigils found underneath, and unleashed hell. Well, hellfire, but who cared?
Rather than melting into a puddle in an instant, the metal failed to so much as heat a single degree, even his body heat being absorbed and transformed into ammo for the weapon, a reservoir of energy capable of becoming beams that surpassed anything he could throw himself by an order of magnitude.
Once he’d poured out the entirety of his mana pool into the weapon, Derek brought out a potion, began to screw off the top all the way to the edge, and stuck it in his mouth to try to wiggle off the cap with his tongue. After all, he didn’t want to lose half the potion to it boiling off in the vacuum.
Weeeeeell … it’d still boil off in his mouth, it wasn’t like there was any air in there either at the moment, but at least then the vapors would go where he needed them. Or, at least that was the plan at the moment, if he could get the goddamn cap off.
There has to be a better way to do this, Derek cursed internally as he tried to get at the magic potion, the stopper proving both frustratingly slippery and apparently not having been nearly as loose as he’d imagi- … the stopper popped off with a shocking amount of force as the small amount of air in the bottle explosively expanded, launching the metal that had kept it contained down his throat, leaving him thrown backwards, hacking and coughing, the blue magic liquid poofing into vapor before his watering eyes.
Fuck! Seriously, how to make this work? Go back to the airlock, drink it, then head out, a grand total of three times to power both weapons?
I mean, it’d work, it just wouldn’t be very fun. I … I am a moron, Derek suddenly realized as he pulled out a second potion, then popped the top off with his fingers with ease. Immediately, the potion began to vaporize and begin its escape, but space twisted and funneled it into his mouth long enough to actually lift it to his lips and drink directly. Bit of a waste since the process cost him mana, but much simpler and less complicated.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Oh, and using potions at all was a risk; tanking his natural mana regen in a place likely teeming with enemies could easily bite him in the ass. However, it wasn’t like sitting around waiting for his mana to tick back up was risk-free either. And the potential temporary loss of his in-battle abilities was much easier to compensate for than a lack of ammo and power at a crucial junction.
That done, he also topped up the autocannons and headed back.
Once back inside the ship, he stepped around Mimi, who was buried up to her hip in the guts of the ship, muttering something about how “that shouldn’t be possible.” Apparently, the monster had been able to phase through the wall despite the fact that it had been enchanted against that, and sliced through half a dozen conduits that should have been protected from any damage, not capable of gutting the entire ship. Or, at the very least, any attack that damaged these parts of the ship should also have granted easy access for repairs.
Derek waited until he was back on the bridge to pull out the (potential) Aspect he’d grabbed and check it out properly.
Ooooh ... perfect.
Aspect of the Abnormal Hunter:
This is the distilled essence of what makes an Abnormal Hunter an Abnormal Hunter. Ensure that your chosen prey can never open the distance, create claws capable of striking past all but the thickest armor, hide from the technology that so many trust to keep them safe, or allow your attacks to rend not just flesh but your foe’s psyche!
Requirements for Activation:
1,000 XP
Open Aspect Slot
Grants:
+15 Agility
One of the following Skills:
Inescapable Hunter
Eldritch Claws
Flickering Cloak
Traumatic Hunt
Just one problem … he could only grab one [Skill]. In order to grab multiple, he’d have to have lesser Aspects to build on.
It was a far lesser issue for him, personally, because thanks to [Aspect Hunter], he could just unslot the Aspect, put in lesser ones, and re-add this one, but it did mean he’d have to be very careful to make a choice here.
[Inescpable Hunter] was its power to prevent escapes, but also prevented you from escaping while it was active, and that wasn’t going to jive well with Derek’s build as a squishy mage.
The others, though …
Granted, [Eldritch Claws] he could make with [Aspect Integration], but [Traumatic Hunt] was a melee ability that he’d love to get.
Yet in the end, the obvious choice was [Flickering Cloak], which seemed to be an ability the monster hadn’t even had itself, effectively being the Abnormal Hunter’s appearance turned into a [Skill].
Flickering Cloak (epic)
Flickering Cloak hides the user from indirect forms of observation, including scrying, tracking, and digital sensors. Furthermore, it makes them less likely to be perceived as falling into the “target category” for anyone and anything searching for their like.
Cost: 15 mana per minute
Hide from sensors. Screw with the algorithms interpreting the feed from said sensors. Hopefully, drive his enemy nuts.
‘Nuff said.
***
Eventually, they fell into a steady rhythm of jump in, find something, kill it, jump out, make repairs.
And they were starting to make more and more runs without taking damage, judicious applications of expendable munitions and sheer experience making more and more of a difference.
Algorithms that made the sensors infinitely more effective at finding creatures, firing solutions that let them land hits they wouldn’t have, even a single day earlier. Better enchantments that were two or even three times as effective as the more generic ones he’d been playing around with earlier. Even the “unique” fuckery that was the damage the eldritch critters swanning around this star system were doing was no longer stymying Mimi’s efforts at repair quite as much.
And while the XP wasn’t quite rolling in, it was enough for several Levels.
From there, Derek decided to buy himself a new [Skill]. Not the other central [Skill], though that had been tempting as hell. That would have required another Level, however, and he was unlikely to get that, so he’d instead picked up a solid movement ability instead.
Flash Forward (legendary)
No matter what those who see this Skill in action might claim, it is not a teleportation ability. Technically, it is not even a movement ability.
No, what this Skill does is remove the time component of moving from point A to point B, either for the user or their starship. However, in order to function, the user must already be moving upon triggering this Skill; they cannot accelerate during the skipped time, and cannot take major additional actions, should they be required to move in a specific direction (i.e., opening doors, breaking down barriers, etc.).
The minimum skip is one second, after which this Skill will be unavailable for a period equal to the time skipped.
Cost: 20 mana per second skipped, multiplied tenfold when applied to a starship
There were three massive advantages to this [Skill].
Firstly, it functioned on the basis of a mana cost, rather than a cooldown, making it much more spammable. Granted, with his current mana pool, it might as well have had a cooldown, but it would become absurdly strong later on.
Secondly, despite the fact that it functioned like a teleport, it wasn’t, and thereby it would be able to bypass most anti-teleport measures.
And thirdly, because it also worked as a personal transport ability, the second benefit also worked on him, personally. The power to even partially bypass teleport locks was the sort of trump card that could really fuck over your enemies.
Though ultimately, it was important because it was what fell under the category of “Warp” [Skill]. An ability that could move an entire starship that did not fall prey to the disruptive effect of large gravity wells, like [Alcubierre Bubble] and the Koinian equivalent, whose name presently escaped Derek.
That level of tactical flexibility was pretty important when fighting within a star’s interference zone, one which tended to extend quite a bit beyond its Goldilocks zone, covering most places one might want to fight.
All in all, a solid upgrade, much like most things that had happened in this star system.
Name: Derek Ambrosius Thoma
Class: Stellar Captain
Species: High Human
Level: 31 -> 34
XP: 407/10,500
Health Status: Tired
Mana: 2,150/2,150
Fortitude 100
Perception 100
Strength 75
Agility 100 -> 115
Magic Power 200 -> 215
Magic Regeneration 200 -> 215
Free Points: 0 Stat, 4 Skill
Central Skills
Aspect Hunter 4 -> 9
Aspect Integration 7 -> 8
Call of Adventure 1 -> 3
Skills
Lightspeed Learning 9 -> 12
Skill Fusion 7 -> 15
Knowledge Conversion 1 -> 10
Branching Capabilities 3 -> 4
Anima Bolt 3
Lifesurge 1
Predator’s Force 1
Phantom Limb 2
Flash Forward 1
General Skills
Bloodline of the Hellborne Survivor
Stellar Mental Maths 13 -> Stellar Processing 10
Spellcasting 10 -> 1 -> 2 (179 spells known)
Variable Weapon Empowerment 6
Phantom Armor 3
Knightly Discipline 1
Starship Upkeep 6 -> 10
Scholar of War 7
Alcubierre Bubble 11 -> 12
Eye of the Predator 1 -> 5
Shapeshifter’s Acrobatics 2
Superior Arcane Spatial Manipulation 1 -> 5
Enchanting 1 -> 7
Aspect
Aspect Skills
Hydra
Regeneration, Redundant Organs
Poltergeist
Ephemeral Form, Spectral Flight
Least Demon Lord
Grand Hellflame, Moment of Immortality
Lord of Time and Space
True Spatial Warp, Cosmos Soul, True Spatial Affinity, And I Shall Not Be Moved
Caladrius
Healing Light, Inner Light
Fata Morgana
Hologram, Perception Block
Cosmic Leviathan
Charging to Infinity, Cosmic Gaze, Stellar Travel, Omnidimensional Maneuvering
Void Dragon
Wings of the Void, Scales of the Void, Star’s Heart, Infinite Mind
Magebreaker Specter
Internal Grimoire, Spellbreaker
Abnormal Hunter
Flickering Cloak
***
Eventually, Derek settled in to check both his own mail as well as that addressed to his ship.
Actually, best to check the “official” mail first. A couple of requests for clarification of certain sensor data, a message from the navy, asking for a more thorough report on the monsters they were seeing in this system, as a flotilla had been dispatched to clear it out, etc.
Honestly, it was pretty much scutwork, but the requests were surprisingly reasonable, and someone had to do it. Well, should do it, at any rate. Selfish laziness was always an option.
… Half an hour later, Derek was cursing past him’s altruism as he tried to find the requested data, which turned out to be buried shockingly deeply, far beyond any of the layers he usually dealt with, even drilling down to find a hyperspecific piece of information not usually displayed anywhere easily accessible.
Fifteen minutes after that, however, he was able to send it off with a sigh of relief. Looking across the rest of the bridge, he could see that, apparently, his annoyance had bubbled over and become quite visible, judging by the way the others were trying to avoid looking at him.
Should have asked for help, Derek sighed. Share the love and all that.
Still mourning the lost opportunity, he pulled up his personal correspondence. An “if you don’t write, how do we know you’re okay” message from Dad, a couple of life updates from his sisters, and … something else.
Huh.
“Apparently, my brother is getting married in eight months,” Derek said. “And we’re all invited.”
Just one issue … they were at the ass end of the galaxy right now.
Actually, no, they weren’t; you probably wouldn’t realize their location had shifted if one compared their current position to Earth on a galactic scale. But they were far beyond even the boonies by the standard of human expansion.
“I guess the question is if we go back home in stages, or explore until we have to take the return journey in one giant leap,” Mimi summed things up after a couple of seconds.
She shrugged when everyone looked at her. “I could use a shipyard.”
“We’re going back. In stages, definitely,” Atticus replied immediately. “I’m not spending that long in FTL in one go if I can avoid it.”
Yeah, Derek definitely felt that. Even if they spent most of their time in the starship anyway, there was a very big difference between being inside of and trapped by the warped malestrom of [Alcubierre Bubble], and finding oneself in normal space, where they could leave. To be honest, they didn’t do so often, not without a clear target to visit, but even having the option made things feel far less oppressive.
“Straight shot towards Earth, stop every fifty or so light-years to check for cool stuff?” Ye-in suggested.
“Works for me,” Derek agreed, the sentiment echoed by the others.
And off they were once again.
***
Twelve hours later, the concept of “you are untouchable while in FTL” was solidly disproven.