Mistrunner 4 - Chapter 39 - Cornered Prey (Patreon)

Everyone else is always one step ahead. I understand the reasons behind it. Mira and I, as well as the rest of humanity, are playing catch-up. The rest of the universe already knows how to win the game, but we’re just starting to learn the rules. I just hope we can figure it out before we end up losing everything.

Patrick Ward

I felt weak.

Useless.

As if everything I had done since leaving Nova City had been for nothing.

And I wasn’t going to stand for it. So, kneeling there, with the Mist inside my body swirling out of my control, I wrestled my shock and fear into submission. As I did so, one thread of thought remained trained on my surroundings. The smug alien stepped closer, a smile spreading across his face. With each passing instant, I felt the Mist normalizing.

But I wasn’t going to wait for my skills and abilities to be available. The moment he came within range, I sprang at him, yanking the Interdiction Blade out of its sheath on my back. With my other hand, I pulled Ferdinand II from his holster at my waist. Yet, I didn’t bother shooting the mystic. Instead, I fired on his lackeys.

The first shot smashed through the nearest alien’s head, exploding it like an overfilled balloon. But I didn’t pause to appreciate the way its blood and brains misted into the air, because I was too busy aiming a lethal strike at the mystic. My sword came in low, but it never reached the smug creature. Instead, my blade bounced off of an impromptu Mist shield, rebounding so violently that it sent me stumbling to the side.

Then, shackles of Mist latched onto my wrists and ankles, lifting me high into the air. Another tendril of Mist grabbed my forehead, preventing me from moving even a muscle.

Then, I heard a ringing laugh.

I seethed as I saw the alien grip his slender belly, cock his head back, and let out a good-natured chuckle. It sent a shiver up my spine.

“Impressive,” he said. “You’re almost on the level of a real mystic. But –”

One of his followers dropped dead.

“What?”

Then another.

He whipped his head in that direction, clearly unsure of what was going on. Another fell a second later. Then, his Mist shackles dissolved, and I fell to the floor, landing lightly. Even as I did, more of his followers dropped.

“I’ve figured you guys out,” I said, bending down to pick up my sword. “You talk a big game. You act like you’re these mysterious experts.”

He lashed out with his aura, but I batted it aside. Now that I knew he was there, I could do so easily. He wasn’t nearly on the level of the female Mystic I’d fought back in the Templar town, so it wasn’t even that difficult to block his strikes. The only reason they’d landed in the first place was because I wasn’t expecting it.

Which was stupid.

But it wasn’t the first time I’d let my own hubris get me into trouble. Fortunately, I was powerful enough to push past my mistakes and take control of the situation. And I wasn’t going to give my enemy that kind of opportunity. So, I grabbed my Stinger from my arsenal implant as I continued, “But you’re just a different kind of mediocre. I’m not.”

Then, after infusing the magazine with Explosive Shot, I fired. He blocked the first few rounds with his swords – he could move incredibly quickly – but once I flipped to fully automatic, he didn’t stand a chance against the powerful assault rifle. In seconds, I’d filled his body full of gaping holes.

The moment he went down, something huge rushed past me, and it wasn’t until I saw her stomping on the mystic that I realized that Gala had recovered. That shouldn’t have been surprising, given that I could feel that the oppressive Mist had dissipated. That didn’t last long before one of the Adjudicators responded to my sudden freedom.

Wearing that same all-black armor, they threw a grenade in my direction. I dove to the side, but it didn’t explode. Not the way I expected, at least. Instead, I felt another wave of Mist tear through the area. However, this time, I managed to shield myself with Mist Authority. The explosion ate away at the corona of Mist I’d raised around myself, but that attack dissipated before it made it all the way through.

I fired on the nearest Adjudicator, and the kinetic force of each shot knocked them backward. However, their armor remained intact. However, Gala had once again been stunned, and Patrick had never recovered from the first surge. So, I knew I was on my own.

I also realized that I was in a terrible position.

Surrounded by Adjudicators who couldn’t be touched by Mist Authority, I knew it was only a matter of time before they overcame my defenses. So, without further hesitation, I rocketed towards Gala. As I did, bullets flew in my direction, clanging off the plastisteel tiles of the floor. After sliding to a stop next to her, I dragged her to her feet. She grunted, saying something unintelligible, but I wasn’t interested in hearing it. Instead, I pulled her to safety behind a low wall, where we took cover from the still firing Adjudicators.

“I need you to get Patrick out of here,” I shouted over the sound of gunfire. “Can you do that?”

“If they don’t throw any more disruption grenades out,” she said. “What are you going to do?”

“Distract them. Kill as many as I can.”

“Those are Adjudicators…”

“I know. I’ve fought them before,” I said. I reached into my arsenal implant and retrieved a smoke grenade, which I tossed out into the open area. It hissed and spat a wall of billowing smoke along the way, and I shouted, “Go!”

Gala sprang into action, racing across the chamber and scooping the unconscious Patrick up in her huge arms. A couple of Adjudicators tried to follow, but I took aim and fired upon them, sending one sprawling and the other diving for cover. That told me that those suits of armor weren’t quite as impervious as I suspected. Did I have enough power to get through them?

Maybe.

I would have to find out.

The moment I saw that Gala had left the huge chamber, I went on the offensive. Dragging the HIRC from my arsenal implant, I leaped from cover and let loose, bathing them in a barrage of gunfire. The results were predictable, and even though most of those rounds didn’t get through the Adjudicators’ armor, they could do nothing about the enormous momentum of those shots.

It was only the first salvo, though. I continued to fire, even as I reached out with Mist Authority and snatched the Mist away from anyone who wasn’t protected by that Mist-insulating armor. The Adjudicators were incapable of responding because I kept them off-balance with the HIRC’s prodigious rate of fire, and soon enough, I was among them. My Interdiction Blade fell upon the spots where I knew the armor was the thinnest. Necks and joints were my favorite weak spots, but there were a few others that I wouldn’t turn down.

In the end, I tore through them without mercy but with a significant degree of difficulty. The Adjudicators were no mystics, but they were highly trained and high-leveled, which meant that they were equipped with skills and attributes that were potent enough to give me quite a bit of trouble.

But I persisted, pouncing on every weakness I could find, and one by one, they fell before me. Eventually, the room went silent, and I was all alone. The Mist still felt extremely unstable, but it was enough that I could still activate Secure Connection.

To my distress, Patrick didn’t answer, so I contacted Gala instead. “Is Patrick safe?” I demanded.

“He’s fine,” she answered. “We retreated to my shop. I can’t protect him anywhere else.”

“Won’t they be looking for you there?”

“If they come looking for me there, they’re going to regret it,” was her response. “I needed to go there anyway. All my equipment is stored there.”

“I’m going to keep going. I finished the Adjudicators and the mystic. The regular guards on the outside of the facility, too,” I said, eyeing the squarish building across the massive chamber. It was a hundred yards across, and it looked like it was at least that deep as well. That meant it was large enough to house hundreds, if not thousands, of enemies. “Do you know where they’ll be keeping him?”

“Sending you a packet,” Gala said. “It’s a map. I’m not sure how accurate it is, but it should be close enough to get you in the general vicinity. But I’ll file my horns if there’s not another mystic or two inside.”

“Then I’ll kill them, too.”

“Mira, you can’t –”

“Don’t pretend this isn’t what you wanted,” I spat. “You knew we were going to have to fight through the facility if we wanted to rescue Alistaris. Probably wanted to see how your little experiment performed, huh? Well, I’m about to show you and everyone else that I’m not going to just dance to your tune. You wanted a weapon, didn’t you? That’s what this was all about? That’s what you got. So, don’t even try to act like you’re concerned for my welfare all of a sudden. We both know that’s a lie, except as a means of protecting your investment.”

“That’s not fair, Mira.”

“Well, that’s life, ain’t it? If I don’t come back, make sure Pick gets out. You owe me that, at least.”

“I…do. I will,” Gala said. “When you get him, meet me back at my shop. If you have anyone on your tail, I’ll take care of them.”

“Affirmative,” I said, then severed the Secure Connection.

After that, I took stock of my ammunition situation. I still had plenty of grenades and more than half a magazine of Stinger ammunition. However, the HIRC was down to ten percent. I reloaded Ferdinand II, which took care of that, and the ADS hadn’t even seen any use during the previous fight. Neither had the BMAP, so it was full as well.

Of course, the Interdiction Blade was ready to go as always.

With that, I took a few extra moments to let my Mist regenerate before finally using Vanish and slipping into Stealth. I would have used the latter straight away, but I was being watched. Regardless, once I used the former, I was invisible to anyone who might be looking for me.

And I knew that my little battle with the mystic and the Adjudicators hadn’t gone unnoticed. They were going to be ready for me, so I needed to be at the top of my game if I was going to avoid getting caught. That in mind, I took a deep breath, then trotted toward the building. I spared a brief thought for how odd it was that people had built structures inside the space station, but it seemed to be a common custom, so I supposed I was missing something. Or people just didn’t like having open space above their heads.

Whatever the case, I quickly covered the ground, but instead of entering through the front door, I took a leap, kicked off the wall, and propelled myself to the lip of the roof. With my attributes being what they were, it was simple enough. When I got there, I knelt in place as I watched the trio of guards who were watching the location where I’d just used Vanish. They weren’t Adjudicators, so I didn’t even have to leave Stealth to reach out with Mist Authority and infiltrate their systems. I uploaded a new Ghost called Braindeath, the purpose of which was just what the name suggested – it severed all neurological connections, rendering the victim permanently comatose.

It didn’t kill them, but it was almost instantaneous, so by the time I finished uploading the Ghost to all three systems, the first were already falling. The other followed a moment later.

It was so easy, killing regular people. If someone wasn’t a mystic or didn’t have access to the Mist-blocking armor that the Adjudicators used, I could tear through them in seconds. The only limit was my perception.

Which was a scary thing, and it came with a significant degree of responsibility that I certainly wasn’t qualified to shoulder. Regardless, I had the power, so I needed to get used to wielding it, especially if Earth was going to stand any chance of survival. So, without further contemplation, I set off across the roof until I found a door leading inside. The room on the other side of the door was a typical office, with various security terminals that I was sure were meant for surveillance. I took a moment to jack into one, then spent the next couple of minutes verifying Gala’s map.

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her. Sure, she’d kept a lot of information from me, but she’d never actively lied. On top of that, I felt sure that she wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. Still, I had long since adopted a trust-but-verify attitude, and as much as I wanted to believe Gala was on my side, I wasn’t willing to exempt her from that policy.

As it turned out, her map was accurate, save for a few small details that I noted. In addition, I spent the next few minutes noting the locations of all the occupants. Along the way, I left behind a few Ghosts that were meant to eat away at their systems well after I was gone. Because I knew the Gamoris would replace anyone I killed. Bodies were cheap, after all. However, the more I could interfere with their equipment, the better.

Besides, it didn’t take long.

It also sparked an idea that had been bouncing around in the back of my mind for a little while. I wasn’t prepared to implement it just yet, but I did give it the full attention of one thread of thought. Hopefully, by the time I needed the plan, it would be ready.

Pushing that aside, I headed deeper into the building. I maintained stealth the entire way, so even though the people inside were clearly looking for me, I passed them by without incident. I also started planting seeds for my eventual escape. I knew that Alistaris wasn’t in any state to sneak around, so I reasoned that I would need a distraction if I was going to get out without getting into another firefight.

I knew I would probably win, but I was less certain that I could do so while keeping a Dingyt of unknown condition alive. I intended to be prepared for the worst, and if it didn’t come down to that, then so be it.

Soon enough, I reached a stairwell that I knew would lead me down to the level where Alistaris was being held. So, with a mixture of anticipation and caution, I descended. Yet, I encountered no significant issues until, at last, I found myself staring at a mystic flanked by three Adjudicators.

None of them had detected me, but they were placed at the end of the hall, behind which was Alistaris’ cage.

And it was a literal cage that looked fit for some sort of animal. I could feel the Mist flowing through the bars, too, and I saw the restrictive bindings that would block access to his skills. He had also been beaten to a bloody pulp, which made him nearly unrecognizable. Without his aura to identify him, there was no way I would’ve known if I was looking at Alistaris or some other similar-sized Dingyt.

The mystic was short and broad, with a heavy beard and thick muscles, which led me to believe that Patrick would have labeled him a dwarf, like in some of the ancient books he liked to read. But there were a couple of key differences, most notably that the mystics skin looked like it had the consistency of rough bark, and his eyes glowed with green light. The three Adjudicators with him seemed of similar stature, suggesting that they were the same species. However, with the black armor on, it was difficult to tell.

Whatever the case, I figured it wouldn’t be that difficult to take them out.

Especially because I intended to kill the mystic first.

I wasn’t certain if I could do it, but this was my first chance to attack one without them knowing I was there. That meant there was a good chance that I could employ the lessons I’d already learned and infiltrate the mystic’s system-like core. If I could do that, I could take him out without a fight.

But I knew it would take every ounce of concentration I possessed, so I withdrew the various threads of my mind from their current tasks, then applied them all to the new objective. Like that, I extended my a thin tendril of my Mist Authority, inching closer with every passing second.

I didn’t rush.

I refused to let my impatience affect me.

Instead, I crept ever closer, thrusting the sliver of Mist Authority forward with glacial speed. Soon, I hit my first obstacle, which took the form of a thin Mist shield that I would never have even noticed if I wasn’t looking for it. The thing was only a nanite thick, which told me that it was never intended to keep me out. Instead, it was an alarm. After coming to that realization, it was easy to find the emitter, which was a nearly microscopic device built into the wall.

Using Mist Authority, I infiltrated its system and, rather than shut it down, I merely changed its parameters to ignore my presence. Then, I moved on, soon encountering another. And another after that. In all, I was forced to overcome seven Mist alarms before I finally reached the mystic.

Then, after taking a deep, steadying breath, I pushed forward, hoping that I truly was capable of taking him out without a fight.