Mistrunner - Chapter 51 - The Cost of Victory (Patreon)

Happy New Year, everyone!  Enjoy today's chapter:

Every victory comes at a price. Sometimes, that price can be paid in advance, via preparation and training. But most of the time, the true cost doesn’t present itself until we’ve already committed to the game.

Jeremiah Braddock III

I lay back, breathing hard as the giant, scaled rodent dissipated into motes of Mist which then dissolved into the too-heavy air. Even though Pain Tolerance was still in full effect, my entire body was in agony. The worst of it was confined to my shoulder, which was completely immobile, but the various other injuries I had sustained were almost as bad.

Through gritted teeth, I growled, “If only I would’ve passed out…”

For a moment, I’d thought that was where I was headed, but a deep breath had sent tendrils of agony to wrap around my body, preventing me from letting unconsciousness overtake me. Until I took care of my wounds, I would have no solace.

So, after a few minutes where I tried to work myself up to it, I finally decided to push myself to a seated position. I did so with a scream of pure pain, but with tears in my eyes, I kept going until I was upright. Summoning a anesthetic hypo, I slammed the injector into my least-injured thigh and let numbness spread through my body. Once it did, I bent myself to the task of removing my clothing. With how gravely I had been injured, I knew I would never manage to undress in a conventional manner, so I grabbed a pair of scissors from my medical kit and started slicing it to ribbons. My work took longer than I expected, but in the end, I found myself peeling the clothing off in layers, taking some skin and drying blood along with it. Even with my pain dampening ability and the anesthetic working against it, the pain was nearly overwhelming. But I persisted until I was naked but for a pair of black underwear.

My body was scraped raw, with bite and claw marks everywhere. But I knew my shoulder was the worst of the bunch. Without quick intervention, it would never heal properly. So, I grabbed a capsule from my medical kit, pressed it against the wound, and depressed a big, blue button. Immediately, the contents of the capsule went to work, invading my wound and resetting everything in the proper place.

The auto-mender was a miracle of modern medicine, and it only had one purpose – to use Mist to reset bones, reattach ligaments, and seal muscle fibers back together. It accomplished that purpose with aplomb. However, it was incredibly expensive, even for my uncle, and once expended, the hunk of plastisteel was useless. It was, as my uncle had reiterated time and time again, only for emergency use. Even that would’ve been impossible if I didn’t have my Triage ability; without that or some other comparable ability, the auto-mender would be unusable.

Considering that my arm was only hanging on by a few thin ligaments that had somehow managed to survive, I thought my situation qualified as an emergency, so I hadn’t hesitated before using it.

The process took almost twenty minutes, and it was not a pleasant experience. The anesthetic helped. So did my Pain Tolerance. But no abilities or drugs could ever mask the feeling of having your insides twisted and turned and reattached. Idly, I wondered which hurt more – the rending teeth of the now-dissipated monster or the auto-mender. Even when the capsule beeped, letting me know that it was finished, I still hadn’t come to an answer.

I threw the capsule aside, then went to work on my other injuries. First, I cleaned them. Then, I administered targeted antibiotic injections. Finally, I sealed them with foam bandages. All in all, the treatment of my wounds cost a veritable fortune, but it was difficult to regret it when, without that treatment, I would never make it out of the Rift alive.

But that was a worry for later because, as soon as my wounds had been treated, I slumped to the side and let unconsciousness overtake me. This time, I didn’t wake up for almost ten hours, and when I did, I felt as if I’d been in a fight against a bear-sized rodent. Which was accurate.

Groaning, I forced myself upright, then checked my various injuries. Fortunately, my Regenerationas well as my treatment had worked wonders. And while it would still be some time before I was back to a hundred-percent, I’d made quite a bit of headway. So, after making certain that things hadn’t gotten worse, I dressed in my spare set of fatigues. Then, I got down to the business of eating. My body needed plenty of fuel if it was going to heal, and though the ration bars weren’t exactly tasty, they were packed with all the nutrients necessitated by my healing body. I choked them down with a smile on my face. Figuratively. Literally, I was grimacing in mingled pain and disgust.

Once my hunger was sated, I found a corner of the room and took care of my biological necessities before settling back down to heal and think about my situation. And while things were looking up in terms of my injuries, my circumstances were decidedly grim. For one, both ledges in the previous room had crumbled into dust, which meant the only way out was for me to attempt the leap I’d shied away from in the beginning. Twenty yards didn’t really seem like much until you considered trying to make it in a single jump. Then, it felt insurmountable.

Of course, I knew it probably wasn’t. With a running start and my enhanced constitution, I felt pretty good about making it. The problem really showed itself when I thought about the second leap, which would be just as long, but from a standstill. Of making that jump, I was far less confident.

As I thought, I looked around the room. Predictably, it had another floating boulder which contained Rift Shards that were half-again as large as were available in the chasm room. However, I didn’t make an immediate move to harvest them. Instead, I spent the next few days healing, eating, and resting. To occupy my mind, I continuously went through my puzzles, making better progress than ever before. But eventually, even that lost its luster. I wanted to move. I needed to make progress. I needed to see what awaited on the other side of the door that led even deeper into the Rift.

It was another week before I could move my arm, and a further four days before I regained full range of motion. Two more days after that, I could do so without pain. During all that time, I kept up my routine, steadily incorporating physical exercises into the mix. It was a curious period for me. On the one hand, it felt almost like a waste of time. And it was. I could think of a thousand things I could’ve been doing that would have resulted in more progress. However, it also taught me a valuable lesson about optimal recovery. I learned to listen to my body and use what it said to inform how hard I pushed myself, but even more importantly, I learned to take pride in my efforts. Just like lifting a few extra pounds brought a sense of accomplishment, so too did lifting my arm an additional inch. It might have been even more powerful, because the effort involved made recovery one of the most difficult things I had ever done.

Eventually, the combination of my rations starting to run low and my recovery finishing up pushed me into making a decision. Either I needed to go back and risk jumping across the chasm, or I needed to keep going and hope the end of the Rift came with an exit.

The leap didn’t seem quite so difficult as it had in the beginning because, during my recovery, I’d incorporated jumping into my training. And if I did everything right, I could just make it. Of course, that wasn’t enough to engender confidence, but it was a step in the right direction. If it came down to it, I would give myself about a fifty-percent chance of making it, which was a little better than I probably should have expected. Or maybe I was just being optimistic for once.

Either way, I felt like I’d made my choice the moment I had entered the Rift. Either I was going to finish what I’d started, or I was going to die trying. And considering how poorly the last two rooms had gone, the latter seemed far more likely.

In a lot of ways, I knew it was probably a bad idea. After all, I didn’t have a death wish. But I also knew I was being tested, and not just by my uncle. I was testing myself, too. I had spent the last few years engaged in constant training. I had pushed myself to my limit on multiple occasions. And now, I needed the validation that would come with completing my exploration of the Rift. Otherwise, it would all feel as if I had wasted my time.

None of that was really the case. Rationally, I knew that. But reason doesn’t always prevail. Sometimes, emotions get the better of us. So it was with the Rift, which was how I ended up standing before the door, all my weapons loaded and my rifle in my hands.

Without further ado, I slipped to the side and, reaching out, opened the door. Fortunately, no horde of rat-like reptiles came pouring through, so I took a quick glance into the next hall.  And I was surprised to see that it was far grander than any that had come before. The ceilings were nearly twice as high, the walls nearly three times as far apart, and the glowing lights far more vibrant. When I finally stepped inside – after first making sure that I wasn’t going to melt my feet on gelatinous acid – I felt as if I was stepping into another world.

I was so entranced that I hardly noticed the tiny flecks of light drifting lazily along the hall’s subtle air currents as they descended from the ceiling. And when I did notice them, I stared in awe at the beautiful bioluminescent display. They looked a lot like the fireflies I’d seen in the forests around Mobile, only they weren’t flying. Instead, they merely fell, drifting down from the ceiling to create an ethereal display of natural beauty.

And then one of them hit my upturned face, and a tormented scream ripped itself from my throat. Pain lanced through my entire body as I was wracked by an agonizing seizure. My every muscle cramped all at once, and I fell to the floor where I couldn’t stop myself from writhing in pain. Then another hit me. And another. I felt like I was bathed in fire, though, once my Combat Focuskicked in, I was aware enough to note that nothing was actually burning. The effect, according to the senses that came with Triage, seemed purely neurological.

Not that the information helped me to overcome the deluge of pain. I lost all control as I flopped around on the floor. Every few seconds, one of the motes fell upon me, extending my torment for that much longer. Before, I thought I knew what agony was, but my experience with those devilish lights put the lie to my previous understanding.

I had been stung by a deadly jellyfish. I had been shot multiple times. And I’d had my arm nearly bitten off. But none of it compared to what I felt in that hall, largely because I was powerless to stop it. There’s a certain agony to being helpless, and it was one that, convulsing there on that floor, I felt incredibly keenly.

Slowly, I managed to gather enough control to turn my head and look at the door leading back the way I had come, but I was distraught to find that it had disappeared completely. Not surprising, considering that the doors didn’t present themselves until I’d dealt with the room’s challenge, but distressing because, in the back of my mind that was still sheltered from the agony, I had hoped to drag myself back into the other room.

But no. That was no longer an option. Instead, I would have to crawl my way to the end of the hall. Suddenly, the distance, which had felt trivial when I could traverse it on my feet, seemed entirely insurmountable. I very nearly lost myself to despair at that thought. But somehow, I managed to gather myself and, with convulsing fingers, drag myself forward an inch that felt like a mile.

Then two.

Three.

It took a hellish eternity, but eventually, those inches turned into feet, and those feet turned into yards. Bit by bit, I dragged myself through that hall, and all the while, the motes of light continued to fall upon me. Like that, I crawled through hell, and when I finally reached the next door, I had forgotten what the lack of pain felt like.

Then, the moment I touched the door, it stopped. I collapsed to the ground, my muscles still spasming. But I was blessedly free of the agony that had been coursing through my body.

Slowly, my mind embraced the lack of pain, and, after some interminable amount of time, I pushed myself to my feet. I felt a degree of soreness I hadn’t felt since the end of my Hell Month, and even that had been couched in exhaustion. Now, though, I was wide awake – almost energized – so I could feel every ache to its fullest extent.

I glanced back into the hall to see that, only a few scant feet away, the motes of light danced in the air, looking almost eager to inflict more pain upon me. And they continued all the way to the other end of the hall. Whatever else happened, I wouldn’t make it back the way I had come – not without enduring the same pain all over again. I wasn’t certain I could force myself to do that. Not now that I was free.

That knowledge only served to fortify the decision I’d already made. Onward was the only option left to me. So, I flattened myself against the wall and opened the door. The moment it was open, I heard a series of loud thuds, and when I looked in the appropriate direction, I saw a handful of long, black spikes protruding from the wall.

“What the…”

I leaned out, only for an instant, but even that was nearly enough to get me killed. I jerked back just in time to avoid ending up with a bunch of black quills in my head. That was enough for me to remember my tactical training.

Until now, I’d mostly disregarded the training I’d undergone to help fight other armed combatants, but whatever was in there – my brief glance hadn’t yielded any results – was not so dissimilar from a man with a gun. So, I chose to use similar tactics.

Mentally reaching into my Arsenal Implant, I retrieved a pair of grenades. With the first, I pulled the pin, then tossed it inside. A moment later, a loud bang preceded a blinding flash of light. With that, I repeated the action with the second grenade; it erupted as well, but instead of a flashbang or the incendiary I’d used against the lizard-rodents, this one was packed full of tiny metal shards. When it exploded, I was rewarded with a series of shrieks.

I waited a few seconds, then tossed another flashbang inside, and when it detonated, I rushed into the room and searched for the closest cover. I found none, but then again, I didn’t really need it. With my Kicker in hand, I ran forward, searching for my targets. There were nine of them, and they were all still disoriented by my last grenade.

The creatures were vaguely humanoid, almost as if someone had crossed rodents, human beings, and lizards. They had elongated snouts reminiscent of an alligator, ears like a rodent, and torsos that reminded me of a person. However, their entire bodies were covered in green scales, and they had long, thin tails like rats. At the end of those tails were rapidly regrowing spikes that looked distressingly similar to the ones I’d seen embedded in the wall.

I opened fire.

Fortunately, these creatures were a lot less durable than the giant lizard-rodent I’d fought in the previous room, and my bullets tore through them with relative ease. Still, they didn’t go down without a fight. The moment I started shooting, the entire group whipped their tails forward, throwing those spikes in my direction. Most went wide by a fair margin, but a few came distressingly close. One found its way home, clipping my left arm.

I ignored it as I continued what had rapidly become a massacre. Circling the huge, floating boulder in the center of the room, I made quick work of the remaining creatures, and soon, I found myself alone but for the corpses, which were rapidly dissipating into motes of Mist.

Of course, I remained on my guard for any other threats that might present themselves, but to my surprise, nothing did. More importantly, instead of another door, I found the same formless blue prism I’d used to enter the Rift. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that it was an exit. Or maybe it led to the next level of the Rift, if such a thing existed. Were there Rifts inside of Rifts? I realized that I had no idea, and my ignorance was definitely a hinderance. Still, there was nothing to be done about it.

So, with my way clear, I turned my attention back to the floating boulder. It was of a size with the previous one, though instead of a multitude of Rift Shards, it only had a single one. And it was the size of my head. Nestled atop the boulder, it was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. So, I wasted no time in climbing to the top and using my dagger to pry it free. Once I did, I held it in my hands – curiously, it was nearly weightless – and stared into its depths. As I did, I was beset by the feeling that I was looking at an entire miniature galaxy, and it took me a couple of moments to tear my attention away and store it in my Arsenal Implant.

Thankfully, despite its size being on the edge of what I could store outside of an access point, it went in without any issues. And so, after treating my latest wound by applying a foam bandage, I stepped up to the prism-like gateway and, taking a deep breath, stepped through.

After a brief moment of disorientation, I found myself standing in the bright light of a midday sun. And I was surrounded by robots as well as red-hued aliens, a few of them looking and feeling like actual warriors.

“Crap,” I muttered to myself as a couple dozen weapons were trained in my direction.