30 Taking Off the Shackles (1/2)

We walked out into the clearing of the quarry before Althea said, ”I wanted to thank you for capturing me that day.”

I frowned as I said, ”What? Why?”

”Because life wasn't the best were I was. I hated it. Life isn't exactly amazing here either but I...I can deal with it.”

I shrugged as I said, ”I didn't do it for you. I did it for me.”

”Does it really matter?”

A sly grin crept onto my face as I said, ”Eh...I guess not. You ready for another fight?”

Her eyes turned to stone as she said, ”Always.”

I rolled my eyes as I said, ”Now you're stealing my lines.”

I dashed towards her before she aimed her gun and fired. The same harpoons drilled out towards me. I shot out an arm and diverted the spear. Instead of knocking it away with force, I shifted my momentum as the spear landed, angled the back of my hand, and adjusted my armor just enough. With boundless storm, the spears couldn't even force me back, let alone do any damage.

A few more spears shot my way, but I didn't need to dodge. They glided off my armor with well timed deflections. I bent my armor so that the spears had perfect landing pads for skidding off me. I didn't even think about it. It just happened. She tried kiting me by running sideways as I approached. I didn't lose sight of her as I approached. I cut her off as I ran towards her.

She grew a fleshy sack of green from her skin before shooting it towards me. The green sack detonated as I breathed in a gulp of the air. It burned my lungs like mustard gas. Needles grew out of my lungs before I could taste blood in my mouth from my throat.

I shot outward from the green gas before reaching right beside her. In a horrific display, a pair of wings jutted out of her back. I could hear her clothes tearing, her bones creaking, her skin and flesh rupturing. A fresh coat of blood covered them, each wing several times longer than her body. She flew upwards evading my charge.

I stomped my heel into the dirt, a wave of power rippling through the clay surface. A crater appeared under my feet as I flew up towards her. I met a pair of talons instead of feet. She gripped the long, black talons of her fucked up feet straight towards my arms.

My armor grew and shifted in response. The bladed talons slid off, gliding past my arm as my armor guided them. In the end, her toes clamped onto my arms with surprising force. It wasn't enough to stop me, however. She was in my domain now.

I pulled my legs up, throwing her off balance. My legs whipped around before smashing straight into her face. She collided into the ground as I landed on my feet, skidding on the ground. I pushed off my back foot, bolting towards her before she thinned and burrowed under the ground.

As she disappeared into the ground, I leapt into the air above her. With a momentous slam, I crushed my heels into the ground, sending another shockwave through it. The sound of claws tearing the ground stopped before I dug my hand into the ground. I grabbed her before pulling her out of her little escape.

Tiny claws covered her elongated and deformed body. She writhed in my hand, more like an insect than a human. I turned her in my hands like a whip before slamming her into the ground. After several slams later, The bottom half of her body detached like a lizard's tail.

She reformed, her clothes tattered as I threw the piece of her aside. I ran toward her again before stomach bulged. When I reached her, the bulge traveled up into her mouth then out of her mouth. She vomited the green acid straight onto me.

This time, my armor reformed into a solid, smooth shell around me. The acid poured on me before I rolled onto the ground, wiping it off. When most of it was gone, I uncovered myself before looking up at her. Her bio rifle was pointed right at me.

As I saw the momentum sink slide out the back, my mana swelled inside my chest. The fiery aura and arcs of lightning flashed out of my arms as I clapped them together. The spear spun in my hands, heating my armor as I gripped with all my strength.

Heat built in my hands until the metal of the armor glowed. My feet skidded backwards as I caught the spear in my hands. The dust settled as I stared at the harpoon, riveted so that it looked like a narwhal's tusk. I jumped forward, diverting another spear with my other hand before lobbing the spear with my right arm.

The spear shot straight into Althea's throat, ripping through her flesh like tissue paper. She fell backwards before I darted towards her ,stomping onto her chest. My foot fell through her sternum before it showed the inside of her ribcage. Like a horror movie, her ribs had become two sets of teeth. They clamped down onto my foot.

They stabbed into my armor before working their way through it. I grit my teeth before growing my armor from my foot like a set of spikes. They stabbed through her chest and ribs, but her ribcage of teeth kept clamping before slicing through my foot. I fell onto my left side before she writhed on top of me. From inside her sternum, intestines poured out. They crawled into my helmet, digging under my eyelids and into my nose and mouth before I screamed in horror.

Oppression cut on, and her body retracted completely. Like a bug being thrown into the fire, her tentacles withered and wilted as she scrambled away from me. I heaved on my back, my eyes wide with terror. I shook my head before coming back to my senses. I cut off oppression before turning towards Althea.

She'd returned to normal, all of her skin singed off and blood leaking from her mouth. I frowned as I said, ”Sorry.”

She glanced at me and said, ”Uh...no. I was wrong to do that. I was just so close to winning. I wanted it so badly.”

I frowned as I said, ”Eh, you pretty much had it.”

She shook her head, ”Whatever that skill was, it was like my entire body was thrown into a vat of molten acid. I couldn't even think it was so bad.”

I said, ”It was oppression, an aura of mine. In fact-” I turned towards Torix's cave as I said, ”I just used oppression on accident. Is that okay or naw?”

Torix said back, his voice sounding into my ears as if he were right beside me, ”It's fine. I've already carved a ritual or two into the surrounding area that disguises any abnormal energy signatures. How else do you think I've been able to cast magic so freely here?”

”I didn't really know. Thanks for the info.” I turned back to Althea. ”I can't believe you pushed me so hard.”

Althea frowned as she said, ”I listened to what you said. I needed to use what I had intelligently. If I didn't fight using my strengths, I'd lose every time.” She hugged her legs against her chest as she said, ”Even if that means becoming a thing when I fight.”

I looked at my hands before beaming a grin at her and saying, ”Did you see me catch that harpoon? Talk about badass.”

From under the cover of her knees, she said, ”Maybe a little. I can't believe your aura is that strong. It's unbelievable.”

I shrugged as I said, ”You just need more constitution to fight against it. If you had maxed out damage resistance, then I'd have lost. Hell, I can't believe you wormed it out of me like that. I thought I'd stomp you once we got close.”

She rocked back and forth as she hugged her knees. She said, ”My uh...power makes me really good at overwhelming my opponent once they get close. If we were standing, I think you'd have gotten me. Once I get you onto the ground, I can just block your lungs.”

My skin crawled as I said, ”What skill is that?”

She put her chin onto her knees as she said, ”Flesh of eldritch. It lets me use my mana to manipulate my body like I was using magic of origin. It also converts my mana into eldritch mana. This makes it a bit...unstable. You saw.”

I nodded before saying, ”Why so chatty all of the sudden?”

”I don't know...I just feel like I have a place here now.”

I leaned back onto my arms as I said, ”I get that. I suppose the way you got into our group was rocky at best.”

Sheshrugged her shoulders. ”I guess. I thought I was going to die for the longest time. Torix is scary, maybe even scarier than the doctor. It's hard to say.” She lifted a hand, morphing it, the flesh mushing together as she continued, ”The doctor did this though.”

I frowned before saying, ”Is that what let's you penetrate my armor?”

She shook her head and said, ”No. That's my other passive skill. Forbidden knowledge of the old. It has something to do with the old ones...probably.”

I sighed as I said, ”Man they fucked you up.” I crossed my legs and leaned onto my knees as I said, ”Eh, I'm pretty fucked too. This armor's someone else's deformed soul. It's mine now though. Maybe. I don't really know anymore.”

We sat there for a second before Althea stared at her hands. She said, ”Do you ever feel like we're not who we were anymore?”

”Well no fucking duh.”

She frowned at me before saying, ”I know we're different. I mean do you feel like we shouldn't be here? Like we shouldn't exist?”

After a little sardonic laugh, I said, ”Honestly? Who gives a fuck if we should or shouldn't be here. I've got a lot better shit to do than trying to answer questions without answers.”

She hugged her knees again, hiding her face behind them as she said, ”Really? It sounds more like you just want to avoid hearing the answers to those questions.”

I narrowed my eyes at her as I said, ”You wanna hear the truth? Alright. You and me, we're fucking freaks. We're completely fucked up, deep down into our bones.” I pointed at my chest as I said, ”See this shit? It's evil. It's not going anywhere either. Why should I bother worrying about it, eh? Dwelling on shit I can't change never helped me, neither did crying about it. Trust me. I tried both.”

She frowned as she glanced away and said, ”Yeah. I know.” She turned back to me and said, ”You sound like Leda.”

I raised an eyebrow as I said, ”Who's Leda?”

”One of the other experiments. She always told me to stop crying when I was younger. She went away with the doctor and never came back. She wasn't special like I was.” Althea closed her eyes and said, ”That's how everyone was...but they all withered away, sooner or later.”

I stood as I said, ”I've got a revolutionary tactic for preventing that.”

”What's it's called?”

”Not dying.”

She giggled a little before saying, ”Tell me how that strategy works out for you.”

I walked off as I said, ”Sure thing. Let me know if you find some other answers. I wouldn't mind hearing them.”

I walked off towards Kessiah, dead set on learning some more augmentation magic. Althea had closed the gap despite the fact that I learned boundless storm. I'd been focusing too much on non combat stats, like luck and charisma. If I faced off against an Althea with full damage resistance, then I'd be in serious trouble.

It was exciting though. I couldn't help but bounce off my heels as I went towards Kessiah. Having a rival was fun and challenging and new. It gave me a nice benchmark for checking my progress, and gave me someone to chitchat with about skills and stuff.

With that spurring me on, I paced towards Kessiah, finding her carving into a block of wood with her finger. It was an intricate carving of a sleeping child, delicate and detailed. She hummed a lullaby as she worked, her finger hard enough to press and mold the wood like it was clay. She had a light, almost motherly expression on her face before my foot hit a branch.

She turned to me, her eyes soaked in wrath. She hissed, ”How long have you been there?”

”I don't know, a few minutes?”

Her shoulders slackened before she dropped the carving beside her feet. With a quick stomp, she crushed the wood as she said,

”So what is it that you want?”

”Ah, I was wondering if you knew anything about augmentation? I was trying to learn it and struggling during the process.”

Her arms dropped to her side as she looked around. She laughed a little before saying, ”Ah, yeah, sorry about that. I thought you were spying for Torix or something.”

I shook my head as I said, ”No. I'll keep the humming to myself.”

She walked over, placed her hand onto my shoulder, and splintered the shoulder plate between her fingers as she seethed, ”You'd better.”

A drop of cold sweat poured down my temple as I saluted her and said, ”Yes ma'm, miss Kessiah.”

She laughed while pushing me off, her old self returning. She leaned onto a hip as she said, ”Alright then. What are you struggling with?”