Chapter 7 (Patreon)

Bruce glared at the squirrel, but it refused to show any remorse.  Already the strange wind carrying the scent of decay and mothballs was beginning to blow over the two of them.  He turned back to the hallway, rotating his shoulders in their sockets as he tried to work out the lingering pain and stiffness from the first hit he had taken.

The injury wasn’t entirely gone, after all he’d only had Accelerated Healing for a minute or so, but it wasn’t slowing him down anymore and that was what really mattered.  Bruce extended his right arm, mentally focusing on the words “Phase Hammer I” in the bottom of his vision.

A blue white light ignited in his hand, growing in either direction to create a handle.  About two feet from his right hand, the hammer itself grew.  The front had a face about four inches wide with a pick on the reverse end.  He swung the glowing weapon once, getting the feel for its almost weightless form as it whistled and crackled through the air.

Then, Bruce summoned his shield.  It grew from his left arm, a simple rectangle of light that was about two and a half feet wide and four tall.  It didn’t cover his entire body, but it would provide him a fair amount of protection from the frantic and unfocused attacks he’d come to associate with the shades.

The wind grew in strength, cold and clawing at his skin as it carried the scent of the grave with it.  There was no doubt about it now.  The hiss rasp of cloth was everywhere and far louder than it had been when the two of them were attacked in the portal room.

He glanced at Maddox, and the other man flashed a quick grin that wasn’t reflected in his eyes.

“Don’t worry Bruce.”  His tone was jocular, but somehow it didn’t land right.  Bruce could tell that the man was stressed.  “If all else fails we can just run again.”

Bruce didn’t say anything.  In the back of his mind he could feel the twenty minute limit they had given Trey ticking down.  There was no way that the rope Maddox had tied to his wrist had survived their transition into the maze.  If they couldn’t beat back this attack, Trey would leave and take all of the rovers with him.  The two of them would be trapped in the labyrinth until relief could arrive.

He nodded.  There really wasn’t anything to say.

The shades howled one last time before swerving around a turn in the maze some fifty feet away and barreling toward the two of them.  A hissing crackle marked Maddox firing a bolt over Bruce’s shoulder.  The ball of light hit a four legged wolf-like light beast that was loping along the tunnel’s wall.

With a blast of release energy it was flung through the air, dissipating in sparkles of light as the power that held its form together began to fade in death.  The attack was even stronger than Bruce had expected, but already Maddox was beginning to show the early signs of exhaustion.

“Save your strength for anything that gets past me!” Bruce yelled, throwing himself at the flickering violet monsters.  “You’re injured.  Keep yourself safe.”

His sudden attack had surprised the monsters.  Once again they moved fast, far faster than Bruce felt comfortable with, but they didn’t seem good at processing new situations.  Before the shades could react, his shield had slammed one of the bipeds in the chest, knocking it backward and to the ground even as he swung his hammer, embedding the weapon in another biped’s chest.

He ripped it free, motes of violet light streaming into the air from the gaping hole his blow had left in the monster.  To his left, a quadruped reared onto its hind legs, opening its mouth to spawn a three foot long whiplike appendage made from the same violet light as the rest of its body.

Bruce didn’t wait for it to attack, instead throwing himself at the creature with his shield held high and at an angle to deflect the incoming blow.  It hit hard enough to stagger him, the shield and energy whip squealing as their conflicting energies struggled against each other.

As soon as he got his feet back under him, Bruce launched an attack at the shade’s midsection. It jerked backward out of his reach, but he followed it, unwilling to let himself be pinned to one spot and surrounded by the energy constructs.

One of them, a biped, curled around his right flank so Bruce threw himself to the left just ahead of a clumsy but lightning quick punch.  His shield rammed into another shade, shoving it to the side and knocking it to the ground.  Before it could stand again, his hammer came down, slamming through the creature’s hip and severing its leg.

The amputated limb disintegrated into flickers of purple light, and the rest of its body stiffened.  Bruce swung his hammer a second time crushing its chest and finally killing the monster before he lunged away from its disintegrating corpse toward another four legged shade that was swinging an energy whip wildly above its head.

He almost made it.

Bruce’s eyes were locked on his target, shifting the positioning of his shield to block the energy whips as it flickered through the air, almost too fast for his eyes to track.  Then an anvil of burning ice slammed into his back, knocking the wind out of him and sending him flying toward the ground as a dangerous numbness began to spread from the site of the wound.

The energy whip slammed into the ground next to him in a spray of sparks before zipping back up into the air for another attack.  Whatever had hit him had knocked him far enough that the four legged shade’s blow had gone wide, a mistake that it seemed intent on rectifying.

He rolled over, agony coursing through shattered and screaming nerves.  The shield hummed as Bruce pulled it into position a fraction of a second before the whip fell a second time.  Sparks and a discordant screech filled the hallway,

Bruce took the second while his shield flickered, repelling the attack, to take stock of his surroundings.  Two of the shades were dead, but a half dozen more were crowding around him, including the vaguely humanoid monster that had sucker punched him.  Another two were moving past him toward Maddox, meaning Bruce’s chances of being saved by a strategically timed Bolt were slim to none.

A quadruped that resembled a bear with a longer neck blinked out of existence, and entirely on instinct Bruce kicked out with his right foot, connecting with the side of its head as it reappeared.  There was a flash of blue light and the monster was knocked back on its heels, but unlike his weapon pattern, Bruce’s hands and feets didn’t do enough damage to quickly cripple or kill one of the translucent energy beings.

Another shade leapt into the air, hanging there for a moment, its knees pulled up toward its chest as it prepared to stomp downward with both of them.  A quick calculation brought a hiss of pain from Bruce as he frantically rolled to the side, barely dodging the burst of ozone and purple sparks as the creature crashed to the ground.

He was still on his back, shield awkwardly covering most of his body.  Bruce knew he had taken classes on how to defend himself in this situation, but all of that knowledge fled him.  There was probably some sort of fancy maneuver that would bring him back to his feet while putting his stiff and numb back to a wall, but he didn’t have time to reason out how all of that would work.

Instead, he swung his hammer at ankle level at the shade that had almost stomped him flat.  The creature’s legs barely slowed his weapon as it smashed through them, reducing both of the limbs to puffs of dissolving light with ease.

Its torso dropped to the ground, still alive but shocked from the attack.  Before Bruce could follow up, another heavy blow landed on his shield assaulting his ears with a high pitched squeal.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another Bolt hit one of the shades charging toward Maddox, evaporating the monster, but he didn’t have time to follow his commander’s fight.

Both of Bruce’s feet dug into the ground, glowing vaguely blue as he pushed off the floor and sent himself skidding.  Agony jumped up his left leg, joining the half numb tempest in his back as one of the quadruped’s heads snaked down, biting deep into his calf.

He stopped with a jerk just outside the circle of shades that had been raining blows down on his shield.  The monster that had a hold on his leg growled at him, holding Bruce fast.  He didn’t try to pull his leg free, instead partially sitting up and awkwardly swinging his warhammer with all of the strength he could bring to bear.

It hit the side of the creature’s head.  Not hard enough to crush and shatter it, but with enough force to break the outer layer of the creature.  Anywhere else, the blow would have been a wound, but the attack destroyed something important, dissipating the shade into a cloud of purple dust.

Another biped jumped toward him, both of its hands linked together in a single fist high over its head.  It swung downward bouncing the attack off of Bruce’s shield in another shriek and spray of sparks.  He kicked with his good leg just as the heavy blow was landing, letting the momentum send him plowing into a nearby wall.

The remaining four mobile shades flickered and rushed toward him.  Bruce couldn’t straighten his leg to stand, and entire body was a tapestry of numbness and pain, but for the first time he actually felt like he had some control over his surroundings.  His back was to a wall so nothing could sneak behind him and his shield covered most of his body.

A four legged tiger-like shade leapt toward him, catching a hammer blow to its chest for its trouble.  Bruce couldn’t plant his feet and swing properly so the attack didn’t kill it, but it did launch it into the air further down the corridor.

More shades flowed past it, the eerie sound of cloth on metal heralding their rapid advance.  Bruce shifted the hammer in his grip, turning it to its spike end just as the biped that has previously hit his shield ran into range.

His good foot snapped out, catching the creature right where it should have a knee in a flash of blue light.  The kick knocked it off balance and the shade’s momentum carried it toward the crouching human as he shoved his right hand forward, impaling the falling monster’s face on the spike and letting its inertia punch the weapon matter deep into its head.

Even as the monster began to dissipate another filled its place.  Bruce barely got his shield up in time to block an energy whip.  He could feel his stamina starting to flag as the tendril of purple light screamed and smoked as it tried to burrow through the barrier.

Another shade flowed smoothly around the quadruped attacking him.  Bruche lashed out with his hammer catching the creature in the thigh and sending it staggering back.  Once again the attack wasn’t enough to kill it, but the spike managed to punch a hole through the shades’ ‘skin’ letting streams of purple light leak out and turn into a violet fog.

He hooked his good foot around the ankle of the monster’s injured leg, yanking it off balance and sending the monster sprawling.  Yet again, a shade leapt into the gap pouncing on his one good leg and sinking tendrils of purple light into Bruce’s thigh.

It exploded in so much pain that he almost lost his grip on his weapon patterns.  Then, mercifully it went numb.  The shade was leaning down to take a bite out of his exposed leg when Bruce slammed the spike on his hammer into the side of its head, sending it to the hereafter of twinkling purple dust.

The back of his weapon pattern dealt less damage than its crushing head, but it was better at penetrating defenses.  Normally, he’d use his weapon as a hammer.  It had a greater chance at downing a shade in one blow.  Right now though?  Bruce could barely twist his body to put any real force behind his attacks.  He could barely hit with a third of his strength, and that meant that the precise, armor defeating spike was his only real option.

Still, he thought, slamming the spike down on the stunned body of the shade he had injured and tripped a half second earlier.  The sliver of energy punched through the top of the creature’s head, pinning it to the floor while its limbs spasmed and began to dissipate.

Above him, the four legged shade continued to pound away at his shield with its whip.  Worryingly, the weapon pattern was beginning to dim, letting him peer through it at the frantic attacks of his violet opponent.

Bruce swung his hammer at one of the creature’s forelegs but the spike missed.  He still struck the monster, but the chunk of his handle that bounced off of its knee did little damage.  Instead, it stepped back, out of his range and glowered at him.

His eyes widened as the whip lengthened, growing thinner as it stretched beyond his reach with the hammer.  There was a strange malevolence to its movements as the shade as it set its feet and swung the lash downward at his shield again.

The weapon pattern flickered in and out of existence and exhaustion washed over Bruce.  He could tell that whatever power source he was using to fuel the shield was almost out.  His entire body ached and his vision blurred, but Bruce bit into his bottom lip, letting the familiar pang and taste of iron focus him for just a second.

He swung his right arm, throwing the hammer with everything he had at the creature.  It might have been his imagination, but there was a faint tether of whitish light connecting the hilt to him as it sailed through the air, and in a stroke of more luck than skill, landed point first right where the monster would have had an eye.

It sank deep into the shade’s head.  The monster slumped to the ground, disintegrating slowly, almost reluctantly.

Bruce let out a sigh of relief, slumping back into the wall.  His shield was fading, clear as glass and likely about as much help.  His hammer was halfway across the corridor.  But despite all of that he had won.  He had-

Some primal instinct brought his depleted shield up just in time for it to shatter on the jaws of the tiger shade that he had wounded earlier.  That bought Bruce the fraction of a second necessary to dig both of his hands into either side of the monster’s head.

It snarled silently at him, trying to push its muzzle forward to tear into his chest, but Bruce only tightened his grip.  Anger filled him.  Anger over being trapped in the belly of the maze.  Anger over lying here wounded, fighting a monster with his bare hands.  Anger over the constant lies and provocations of his tiny green guide.  But more than anything, he was consumed with anger at the thought that he might die here over absolutely nothing with absolutely no one knowing that he had passed.

His fingers flashed blue before turning a dull red.  They sank into either side of the shade’s head like it was made from pudding, meeting in the center with a sharp ‘pop’ of released energy.  It twitched once before beginning to fade.

Now he could relax.  There was only one remaining shade, and he had already demolished its legs, rendering it immobile some ten or so feet away.  It flopped around trying to drag itself toward Bruce, but he didn’t have any real fear of it.  Instead, he did his best to fight back the screaming pain that every nerve reported at the same time.

The slap of feet on the floor pulled his attention to where Maddox was walking back toward the scene.  The other human had a scratch on his chest, a trio of deep furrows torn through the fabric of his tracksuit, but there weren’t any monsters following him, so Bruce assumed that he had managed to handle the other two shades.

He nodded to Bruce as he walked past him toward the survivor, kicking it the head.  It jerked back from the blow but survived.  The second kick stunned it and the third turned it into a floating cloud of purple light.

With a sigh, he turned back to Bruce and walked over to where he was slumped against the wall, the tiny green form of Treekipp peering out from behind his neck.  Maddox crouched down, shaking his head as he took in Bruce’s blood and torn clothing.

“Goddamnit Bruce,” he said tiredly.  “You look like hell.  Y’know, I gave up smoking four years ago, but it’s times like this that I could really go for a cig.”

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