Chapter 9 (Patreon)

It took an hour for Bruce to heal enough to stand up.  Every moment of agony wore away at his willpower as he knew that all he needed to do to end the pain was purchase and activate Regeneration.  Of course, doing so would mean highlighting their location to any nearby shades and triggering another fight.

He managed to restrain himself.  Barely.

Finally, pains shooting up his legs and back, he managed to pull himself upward with the help of the Maze’s wall.  All the while, Maddox had chattered about everything and nothing, his disabled arm hanging limply by his side.

The conversation was a transparent attempt to keep Bruce distracted from the soul searing agony, but that didn’t make it entirely ineffective.  More than once he found himself laughing along to a dumb joke only to hiss as the action put painful pressure on his lower back.

Sweat was pouring down his face and soaking the torn rags that were his shorts and muscle shirt by the time he was ready to proceed, but now that he was mobile, Bruce didn’t want to wait any longer.  The siren call of Regeneration and an end to the pain coursing through him was too tempting even if a little more delay might have helped.

A short shopping trip later, he was ready to activate his brand new abilities.  Bruce and Maddox shared a quick nod before they both began to invest power in the patterns at the same time.  After all, the second they started everything in the area would know exactly where they were.

Regeneration came first.  Almost immediately the ache that had sunk into Bruce’s bones began to diminish.  Then he upgraded both of his weapon patterns, nodding in cold satisfaction as heir designations on his HUD ticked up from Phase Hammer and Phase Shield I to II.  That left him with five EXP after his purchases, barely enough to empower another tier of Augmented Body.

Even on the short list provided by Treekip there were still plenty of abilities that he wanted to buy, but choices needed to be made.  The sixty points of EXP which had seemed like a lot before he had made his selections had faded quickly.  Now he was left with one, not even enough to activate the remaining point of Will from the beginner package.

Still, 3 Body and 2 Agility with Regeneration and second tier phase weapons felt like a huge step forward.  Of course, Bruce didn’t have any baseline to compare the new abilities to, but he sure felt like he could rip a door off of its hinges or punch his hand through a car window without much effort.

As for Maddox?  The other man was upgrading to Multi Bolt as well as picking up the map and sonar.  Hopefully he’d be able to activate another point of Will soon as even the increased efficiency of Multi Bolt wouldn’t mean much if he ran out of juice after two attacks.  That said, the exploration abilities were a must.  As soon as Bruce felt comfortable fighting shades he was going to grab them as well.  After all, even if he could tear through the monsters with ease it didn’t mean much if he got separated from Maddox and the fuzzy little pattern store clinging to his shoulder.

Distantly, the howl of hunting shades sounded again.  Bruce hopped up and down, trying to clear the pins and needles from his legs as he rotated his torso from side to side.

“Really wish there was some way to activate abilities without triggering another attack,” he grumbled.  “I know it’s necessary if we’re going to activate new abilities, but it’s getting old fast.”

“Oh!” Treekipp exclaimed brightly.  “You should have said so.  If you can find a sanctuary, it is safe to activate patterns and paths there.  Of course, if a monster sees you enter they will follow you in so it’s hardly completely safe from the roving denizens of the Great Labyrinth, but it will shield your presence and psychic signature while you rest and heal.”

“For the love of-” Maddox began only for Bruce to interrupt.

“Are you seriously trying to tell us that we could have found one of these sanctuaries and loaded up our new patterns in safety?  Avoided a pointless fight with the shades?”

“No, no,” Treekipp replied hurriedly.  “Not pointless.  Killing shades earns you EXP that you can spend in my shop and increase my profit margins.  That is far from pointless.  It is significantly more pointy than most things.”

Bruce glared at the tiny squirrel but it didn’t show any regret or remorse.  If anything, it was proud of maximizing its profits.

Another howl sent a chill down his spine, much closer this time.  Maddox walked over to him, slapping him on the shoulder with his right hand while the fingers twitched on his left.  He had grabbed Accelerated Healing during their purchasing binge, but it was far from done fixing the damage from their first encounter.

“Just think of it this way Bruce,” his team leader said with a quick grin.  “We’re field testing new gear.  It’s a lot more efficient like this.  After all, now we’ll be able to find out about the flaws and defects that Trekipp forgot to mention sooner rather than later.”

“Like the fact that my shield fades after it takes too many hits,” he growled back.  “A fun trait to find out about while I’m being pummeled by a monster from another dimension.”

“Exactly,” Maddox replied, his voice taking on a faux-serious tone.  “I’m sure there are cool downs, range limitations, and stressors galore that we don’t know about yet.  Better that we find out now in a fight to the death than over slow experimentation in a safe place where we can explore our new abilities’ limits and adapt our fighting style to them.”

Bruce cracked a smile.  It was hard to stay stressed when Maddox was around.  His legs still itched and screamed like they’d suffered the worst sunburn of his life, but a couple idiotic jokes was all it took to deflect his worries.

He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and then letting it all out.  In a sense, Treekipp was somewhat right.  They could run from one fight, but if they were going to make it to the Phobos Relay, they were going to have to fight.  Over and over again until they earned enough EXP to survive in the harsh cold of the airless moon.

His eyes opened again.  Maybe it would have been better for them to wait until they had fully recovered and practiced with their new abilities, but at least for Bruce there wasn’t much to rehearse.  His hammer and shield flickered into being, each implement slightly bigger and packed with denser energy.  It was hard to describe, but outside of the increase in size, both of the weapon patterns seemed more substantial, like there was some sort of barely constrained malice crackling up and down their blue-white cores.

A slight breeze, cool and carrying the scent of mothballs brushed past him.  Bruce swung his hammer once, taking some comfort in the angry thrum it made as it burned through the air.  He wouldn’t know what exactly the new pattern and point in Body would do until the fight actually began, but Bruce felt like he could climb a cliff face and wrestle a mountain lion.

“Contact,” Maddox called out, his eyes distant and unfocused.  “About a half dozen coming up behind us fast.”

The breeze turned into a gust of wind, notes of sweet rotting flesh layering on top of the other stale scents.  Bruce walked past the other human, wincing as his feet tingled and smarted with every step until he was about ten feet in front of Maddox.

He didn’t have to wait long.  Six shades, all four legged monstrosities that looked like wolves or big dogs, were tearing down the corridor.  Four of them were on the ground, but at least two ran along the walls, purple claws sending sparks flying as they galloped madly toward the living.

“Take the climbers!” Bruce shouted, throwing himself toward the four on the ground.

Bolts flashed to either side of him as his shield interrupted most of the charge, slamming into two of the running monsters and sending them sprawling to the ground.  His hammer followed a second later, blasting through the snarling head of one of the shades and into the ground below.  Almost immediately it began to fade.

“Missed one!”  Maddox yelled.  “Watch your back.  I’m on cooldown right now.”

Bruce felt his lips curl back into a snarl as he jumped past the two downed shades, sprinting into the open before he spun around, hammer twirling in his hand.  The monsters were a half step behind him, their movements still absurdly fast but unable to keep up with their reflexes.

One slammed into its shield as another stopped and opened its mouth to disgorge another energy whip.  He didn’t let it finish, pounding the hammer through its shoulder and chest.  It flickered once before puffing into a fog of glittering violet.

The other two shades were on their feet.  For a moment, there was some indecision as they tried to pick between Bruce and Maddox.  Then they tore down their hallway after the unarmed man, drawing a yelp from Maddox as he turned and ran, zig zagging randomly with his left arm flopping behind him as he tried to buy enough time to recharge Multi Bolt.

Bruce swung his shield at one of the two creature’s accosting him, knocking it to the side.  The other lunged at him, its purple body moving faster than he could bring either weapon pattern to bear.

He went over backward, planting his foot and kicking upward with all of his might even as the translucent wolf passed through the spot where his chest had just been.  It hit the ceiling with a loud crack just as his back hit the ground.

Stars flashed in his vision as his leg screamed in agony.  The impact of the floor on his back ignited the mostly healed nerves there, sending pulses of shrieking pain through his body.

The second shade recovered from the shield blow to its head and pounced onto him, claws and muzzle scrabbling off of the glowing square that was Bruce’s shield.  He pushed it to the side as he rolled up onto his hands and knees, pinning it to the ground for a half second before his warhammer swung in a high arc and crashed down on its flank.

Hammer met gray flooring as it pounded through the creature, destroying it in a single blow.  Further down the hallway, Bruce saw the flashes of light that heralded another barrage of Bolts from Maddox.  Part of him twinged with concern.  The first attack had missed one of the shades running on the walls entirely, giving the new ability dismal accuracy.

Two enemies and three Bolts.  Bruce was too far away to help, and in all likelihood Maddox would be too exhausted to fight back after his attack was done.  He would either improve his accuracy or die.

The final shade interrupted his thoughts as it climbed to its feet.  It was faded, almost lavender.  Evidently, bouncing it off of the hallway’s ceiling had done some damage to it.  Still, the energy whip trailing from its open mouth was to be respected.

Sparks trailed from the weapon as dragged along the ground and Bruce could detect hints of burning ozone over the stale and sweet graveyard scent that accompanied the shades.  The two of them circled each other for a second, the air humming angrily as their energy constructs glowed.

Then, it flicked its head, sending the whip curling and snapping toward Bruce.  If he would have blinked, he would have missed entirely.  Luckily, there was something about the strange dimension of the Great Labyrinth that removed that need.

His shield came up, blocking the attack even as Bruce lunged forward, swinging downward with his hammer.  The shade tried to dodge, and like every movement the strange monsters made, it was fast.  It managed to avoid most of the attack, but that wasn’t quite good enough.

The warhammer clipped the monster’s flank, ripping through the flickering light like it was paper and sending a spray of violet dust motes into the air.  Before Bruce could celebrate his victory, the whip wormed around his shield, striking like a snake as the final two or so inches of it buried themselves into his side.

He staggered backward, hissing at the eruption of pain followed shortly by numbness, eyes locked on the shade.  It wobbled once before collapsing, purple dust exploding into the air.  Evidently, his first attack had done enough damage for the follow up glancing blow to finish it off.

Turning around, the first thing he noticed was Maddox slumped against the side of the corridor.  There weren’t any shades around him or sprinting in Bruce’s direction, a positive sign to be sure, but it didn’t look like the other human was in great shape.

Bruce walked over to Maddox, wincing with each step as Regeneration rapidly healed his nerves, turning them into tendrils of fire.  They reconnected one by one, screaming with the voices of a thousand pain receptors.

Intellectually, he knew it was a lot better to rip the band aid off and suffer the healing pains now all at once rather than over the course of hours if not days.  Still, a selfish part of Bruce just wanted the haze of agony and burning to go away.  He had pushed himself past his limit twice in the past hour or so, and he didn’t really have a third time left in him.

“Okay,” Maddox croaked as he approached.  “That sucked.  Apparently I need Agility to aim and Will to make sure that firing more than twice doesn’t knock me on my keister.  Useful things to know before I found myself with one shot left to kill two monsters.”

“Did any of them tag you?”  Bruce asked, letting his weapon patterns fade as he put his back to the wall and flopped down next to Maddox.  Absently his right hand moved to his left elbow to rub the shiny scar where the hole bored by the shade’s whip had already closed up.

“Nah,” the other man replied.  “Don’t run out of Will though.  Right now it feels like the time that some of my buddies and I found a couple crates of apple juice that had been forgotten out in the sun for a year.  Best night and worst morning of my life.”

Bruce chuckled, his mind flashing back to a couple of bonfires just outside of cornfields in his misbegotten youth.  He’d drank his fair share of indeterminate liquids made from yeast and whatever fruit mash his friends’ older brothers’ pal had thrown together.  It wasn’t an experience he cared to repeat.

“Valued customers,” Treekipp chirped suddenly, drawing a hiss from Maddox.  “It appears that both of you have just earned some more EXP.  I would be happy to go through my wares a second time.  After all, it looks like you could use a bit more oomph, juice if you will, for your next encounter with the shades.”

“Give us a minute,” Maddox grunted.  “Once I feel like I can stand up, we’re heading for one of those sanctuaries you mentioned.  I need a nap before I try something this stupid a second time.”

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