Mistrunner 3 - Chapter 53 - Round Two (Patreon)

I don’t want to spend the rest of my life fighting a war. I know the cause is just. I get that. But why does it have to be us? Why can’t we just leave and let someone else shoulder the weight of resistance?

Patrick Ward

As I dropped into a slide, the android’s sword neatly severed one of my braids. I lashed out with my own blade, slashing the back of his knee before my momentum carried me out of his immediate range. I knew he wouldn’t let me escape so easily, so I slammed my foot into the ground and leaped high into the air. As I flipped, I brought Ferdinand II around and fired. The round took him in the face, tearing through more of his faux skin but leaving only a scuff mark on his metallic skull. It did throw him off balance, though, so his follow-up attack – a sweeping strike that might have bisected me – went wide enough that it only barely nicked my stomach.

I landed in a crouch and skidded across the tarmac.

The android sneered at me, but he didn’t speak. Instead, he ripped the remaining flaps of faux skin from his skull before tossing it aside.

“That’s better,” I growled. “No more hiding behind your mask, huh? Must be freeing.”

He snarled, then raced forward. His sword ignited with blue Mist as he swung, but by that point, I was already gone. I dove aside, rolled, and came up firing again. The bullets continued to thud against him, but even with all my modifiers, it just wasn’t enough to get through his impressively sturdy armor.

I knew he wasn’t indestructible. It had taken an entire magazine from my Dragon, but I’d killed the one that had attacked me in the mine. But reloading that particular weapon took time that I didn’t have.

I dragged a grenade from my arsenal implant, then tossed it in his direction. It exploded into a dense cloud of white smoke. Then, I turned and ran. When I got a couple dozen feet away, I embraced Stealth.

I knew it wouldn’t last. An android as advanced as my enemy probably had all sorts of ways to see through my ability, and the smoke grenade wouldn’t change that fact. But I didn’t need long to drag my Pulsar from my arsenal implant. Then, I used every ability I had.

Mark Target, so I could see through the fog.

Then, Explosive Shot, which drained a good portion of my remaining Mist. I hoped it would be worth it.

Next, I used Execute, increasing the damage of my next shot by five-hundred percent. It was only usable so long as I was undetected, but with the smoke and my Stealth, I satisfied the requirements.

Finally, I activated Empowered Shot.

After waiting two seconds, I fired. The bullet tore across the tarmac, parting the smoke on its way to hitting my target directly in the chest. The impact sent him flying backwards, but I didn’t dare wait to see the damage. Instead, I tossed out another grenade – this time, a flash bang – then canceled my Observation right before it exploded.

Even with my eyes closed and my hands clapped over my ears, the effect was nearly overwhelming. And that was with Blast Shield blocking the worst of it. Surely, the android – whose momentum had sent him tumbling across the pavement – was much more affected.

Using that window of opportunity, I took off, tossing yet another smoke grenade out. I sprinted away as fast as my legs could carry me. Then, when I thought I’d made it far enough, I wheeled around and repeated the process. Even as I layered my abilities, the android was picking himself back up. I could only see an outline – the effect of my Mark Target ability – but that was enough.

I fired again.

This time, he reacted far more quickly than I could have anticipated, and the deadly shot only clipped him in the shoulder. Even that sent him spinning to the ground, giving me further opportunity to relocate.

For the next few minutes, that’s how the fight went, and I used an entire magazine of sniper rounds to tear him to pieces.

But it wasn’t enough.

I knew it even as I fired the last shot.

I needed more power. I needed the Dragon. As I exchanged the Pulsar for the huge weapon, I could only hope that I’d have enough time to reload. I should have known he’d never give me that chance.

The smoke cleared, and I looked on with horror as I saw the result of my bombardment. Most of his flesh was gone, exposing his metallic endoskeleton. His jumpsuit was nothing but tattered, red cloth that did nothing to hide his ravaged body. But he was still alive, and though he was dragging one useless leg and one of his arms hung limp, he didn’t look like he intended to stop.

The Dragon took a long time to reload, and it involved deft manipulation of my arsenal implant to do so. In perfect conditions, finishing the process would take at least thirty seconds. It was too bad, then, that he only gave me fifteen before he sprang at me.

I raised the Dragon to block, but to my horror, his Mist-wreathed sword sliced right through it – not a great thing when it had so much Mist coursing through it. Knowing what was coming, I dropped it, but before it had fallen more than a few inches, it exploded.

I was thrown backwards, and the android went in the other direction.

I don’t know how far I went, and for the briefest of seconds, I passed out. And when I finally managed to shake myself back to reality, I saw the aftermath of the explosion. A crater – maybe ten feet across – marred the tarmac. A couple hundred feet distant, the android was picking himself back up. His sword was gone, and all of his faux flesh had gone with it. Instead, he’d been reduced to nothing but a heavily damaged endoskeleton.

I pushed myself to my feet, cataloguing a hundred wounds along the way. The silhouette in my interface that was supposed to indicate my health was almost entirely red, which couldn’t have been good. But it didn’t matter.

I wasn’t going to stop just because I was half-dead.

So, dragging my assault rifle from my arsenal implant, used most of my remaining Mist to empower it with Explosive Shot, then took aim. I fired. The android, who’d so far been almost entirely unaffected by that weapon, didn’t even bother to dodge. It was his mistake, because the explosion had clearly taken its toll on him at least as much as it had affected my health. I didn’t know if it was the lack of skin – perhaps it functioned as some sort of armor – or that I’d finally injured him enough that he didn’t have the Mist to maintain his defenses. Or perhaps it was something else entirely. I had no idea, but what I did know was that this time, my shots tore through his torso, sending metallic shards flying and puffs of Mist into the air.

He staggered under the barrage.

I advanced, heel-to-toe, just as my uncle had taught me so long ago, and continued firing. The first magazine did the most damage, empowered as it was by explosive shot, but the second was effective as well.

But by the time I reached the android, I was running low on both Mist and ammunition. That was fine.

My blade needed neither.

As I drew the sword, the android tried to respond. But by that point, it had been reduced to a quivering pile of damaged parts. I kicked it over, exposing the Nexus Implant at the base of its skull. I raised my sword, then brought it down in a swift, vicious slash. It wasn’t enough. So, I did it again.

And again.

And again after that.

Finally, the Nexus Implant shattered, and the android fell limp.

Breathing hard, I stood there, staring down at the monstrous thing. Then, I spat on it before dragging my last Mist booster from my arsenal implant and jabbing it into my hip. As it discharged, I used Stabilize, which sent a pulse of healing Mist through my body. It was expensive and only marginally effective, which was why I almost never used it. The ability only meant as a last-resort sort of ability to keep someone from dying. And for that, it was great. In my current condition, it improved my health by only a little, but I hoped it would be enough to get me to safety. I watched my silhouette turn from red to orange, which was probably all I could’ve hoped for.

Then, I exchanged the booster for a med-hypo, which I jabbed into my hip as well.

With that seen to, I limped toward where Caleb had taken cover. At the same time, I dismissed the Cutter. When I reached the man, I asked, “Are you hurt?”

“H-how…how are you still standing?” he asked.

“Just lucky, I guess. Are you hurt?” I repeated.

“Uh…no…”

“Good,” I said, reaching down. I grabbed him by the upper arm, then pulled him to his feet. “Let’s go.”

As I dragged him along, I heard the distant sound of Mist engines and footsteps as the remaining Pacificians descended upon my position. I estimated that they were about a minute out. Maybe less. Which meant that I needed to hurry.

Marshalling what strength my body had left, I limped into the hangar. There, I saw five ships. They were small and normally, they were only used to transport resources from the surface to the lunar base. But for my purposes, they would do just fine. So, I selected the first one, then used Misthack to disable any locks before boarding the ungainly ship.

“Sit,” I said, shoving him into the co-pilot’s seat as I took the controls. “And strap in. This’ll probably get bumpy.”

Then, I dragged my personal link from the Hand of God and plugged it into the control terminal. I could’ve piloted it the old-fashioned way, but I’d found that, with unfamiliar craft, using Mistwalk was much easier for me.

“Probably should’ve opened the main doors for this,” I muttered, firing up the engines. “Oh well. We’ve gone too far to worry about that now.”

“Um…”

I ignored Caleb as I directed the ship to lift off. It did, though I could tell that it wasn’t built to hover. So, I used Mistwalk to accelerate through the thin doors. The came down with a crash, and as we broke through, I saw that every Pacifician in the city had descended upon the hangar.

“Guess it’s time, then.”

I finally activated the Ghost I’d uploaded into the main communications hub. For the barest moment, nothing happened. But then, suddenly, the Pacificians – each and every one of them – exploded.

So did the rest of the buildings.

And, unfortunately, the ship tried to as well. Because I was connected directly to the system, I managed to cut it off, but the same couldn’t be said for the ships that remained in the hangar. The force of the multiple explosions buffeted the ship I’d commandeered, nearly sending us into the ground. But I barely kept it aloft long enough for the dust to settle.

“What did you do?” gasped Caleb, looking out the window at the devastation. Olympus had fallen, and it had taken every Pacifician in the area with it.

“Completed the mission,” I said. The purpose of the Ghost was simple. It was intended to destroy their connection to the Hive Mind. Clearly, doing so had activated some sort of failsafe. A good thing, as far as I was concerned.

I saw a few figures in red coveralls and amended that assessment. Most of the Pacificians had exploded. The elites – I still wasn’t sure how that worked – clearly hadn’t.

It didn’t matter. The Mist shield had fallen, which meant I was free. Still, the ship was unsuited to the task before us, and it had been damaged in the series of explosions. So, I barely managed to keep it aloft long enough to escape the city’s vicinity.

Still, it did its job, and when I set it down, we were more than a dozen miles from the destroyed Olympus.

That’s when I got a communication request from Alistaris.

“What’s up?” I asked, establishing a Secure Connection.

“What did you do?” he asked.

“People keep asking me that.”

“Just answer the question,” the Dingyt said.

I told him, omitting any details as to how I’d accomplished the feat before asking, “Why? Thought you’d be happy about this.”

“You have no idea what you did, Mira.”

“The job I set out to do.”

“And so, so much more. Reports are still coming in, but it looks like whatever you did severed the connection between this sector’s local Governor and the rest of the Pacificians.”

“I have no idea what that means,” I said.

“The governor is the hive mind in charge of their population,” he said. “You just…you just killed millions of Pacificians without even meaning to.”

“Good.”

“Good?”

“I don’t think I stuttered there. This is a good thing, Al,” I said. “I told you before – I intend to kill every last one of them. This just means I got a little bit of a head start.”

“I don’t think you understand…”

“Yeah? Well, explain it to me.”

“You just started a war,” he said. “A real one.”

“War was always coming,” I argued, though his assertion was a little worrying.

“Not like this,” he said. “When the Initialization is over, you’ll have real armies to contend with. Not private security forces, either. That’s what were going to come, and you’d have had a chance against them. But now? Mira, even if you and the other Earthlings manage to win somehow, your planet will be destroyed.”

“Then help us,” I said far more calmly than I felt. The implications of what he’d said were enough to send a chill of fear up my spine. “That’s your thing, right? You and your little Alliance can –”

“It won’t just be the Gomari Confederation, now,” he said. “The Pacificians have allies, and they’ll descend up on this planet with the intention of carving it to pieces. And they’ll do it under the guise of protecting their ally. They won’t have to hold back, either. I can see it now. The Pacificians will call you a terrorist. They’ll say you attacked them unprovoked. It won’t get them support from anyone. Not really. But it will muddy the waters enough that, by the time anyone gets around to caring about all those poor, dead Earthlings, it’ll be too late. Then, the bottom feeders will show up. Pirates. Mercenary groups. Private corporations. They’ll all try to get what they can out of it. They won’t be gentle, either. They’ll kill anyone who gets in their way.”

“What are you saying, Al?” I asked. “You aren’t going to help?”

He sighed. “Of course I’ll help,” he said. “But it won’t be the entire Alliance. Our presence here will be limited, just like before. The only difference is that we just had the deck stacked against us. We won’t succeed.”

“Yeah? Well, I disagree,” I said. “But we’ll figure that out later. For now, I’m going back to Fortune to return this idiot to his sister. Then, I’m going to take a few days to recover. After that…well, we’ll see.”

“Good luck,” was all he said before severing the connection.

Given what Alistaris had said, I could well understand his exasperation. I’d just made his job all the more difficult, and there was every chance that he’d end up dead in the coming conflict. I was sure he had plans to escape that fate, but in war, plans had a tendency to fail. But even knowing what was coming, I couldn’t bring myself to regret my actions. For one, I’d had no idea that severing the connection between the Pacificians and their hive mind would have such explosive results. But even if I had known, I would have done it anyway. After all, I hadn’t forgotten what they had done, and my resolution to kill them all still stood.

Besides, it wasn’t as if anything had really changed. Earth was still going to be inundated by aliens that meant to bleed the planet dry.

I sat there for a long moment, then turned to Caleb and said, “Come on. We need to get out of the area. There were still some of those assholes left, and you can bet they’re going to be after us.”

Indeed, at least some of the powerful elites in the red jumpsuits had survived, and I would have been surprised if they were the only ones. If I had to guess, severing that connection had only killed the weakest Pacificians. Although, if what Alistaris had said was true and the effect had gone further than just Earth, perhaps I’d really made a dent in their population.

After all, they’d all exploded, hadn’t they? Surely, there would be some collateral damage.

In any case, that was a question for another day because, as I’d told Caleb, we needed to vacate the area, and fast. So, I led him out of the ship, summoned my Cutter – which was damaged, but still operational – and sped away.

After an hour following an old, mostly crumbling road, I veered off and took shelter in an abandoned building. I took a few moments to set up Bastion, then set about treating my wounds. They weren’t as severe as I’d expected – probably because of my use of Stabilize – but my infiltration suit had definitely seen better days.

“I don’t know how you’re even alive. Do you know who that was you were fighting?”

As I bandaged a wound in my stomach, I shrugged, “My buddy Al told me his name, but I can’t remember it.”

“Edrax Kel Tanimvan,” Caleb said.

“Yeah. That was it.”

“He’s…he’s like, the strongest person I’ve ever seen,” Caleb stated.

“First, not a person. He’s a robot with a copy of someone’s brain imprinted on him. Second, clearly, he’s not the strongest, considering I just killed him,” I said.

“He’s not dead. That was just one of him.”

“And how many bodies does he have?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Hundreds, I’ve heard. They didn’t exactly tell us everything.”

I sighed. “What the hell were you even doing there? I mean, I get it, I guess. Life’s hard. But you don’t look like an addict,” I said. “And your sister clearly cares about you. That’s more than most people get.”

“I…it’s…it’s embarrassing,” he said.

“I assure you, I can’t really think any less of you. So, lay it on me. Why did you join a cult? I’m sure you didn’t know they were going to copy your brain, then kill you. But you seem at least smart enough that you had to have seen the red flags,” I said.

“It was a girl. She…she ended up getting converted right away. I was sent down to the mines where they said I could earn my own conversion,” he said. “We had it all planned out. We were going to have a life together. But now…”

“Well, she’s gone. Dead. Even the copy of her probably went down with all the rest. So, my condolences, I guess? Now, shut up,” I said. “I’ve got to concentrate on something.”

“What?”

“Shut up, or I’ll shut you up,” I muttered.

And blessedly, he went quiet, which allowed me to focus on my status. With thousands of kills – maybe even millions – under my belt, my level had skyrocketed. And it seemed I’d hit a threshold when I reached level seventy-five.

I read the message with a mixture of shame, anticipation, and excitement:

You have reached level 75. Please choose a class evolution from the following options:

I didn’t immediately look at the choices. Instead, I took a deep breath, then sighed. I’d jumped thirty levels in a single afternoon. I knew from experience that such a leap forward wasn’t the product of only a few thousand kills. I didn’t want to think about it, but clearly, I’d killed millions with my little stunt.