Travis Gardin
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Chapter 31: Crumpled
🕑 Added 2024-11-11 19:00:03 +0000 UTCThe cannon of the USS John Finn turns, aims at the winged monster, and fires a 50 foot wide bolt of lightning so bright that it lights up the dark night. The bolt slams into the winged half of the monster and electricity arcs across its now grey body. The creature lets out a wheezing gasp. More missiles blast into its now blast resistant body. Jose opens up again with a weaker, yet still massive bolt from his cannon. The monster's flesh turns yellow, I'm assuming to resist the lightning bolts. That's a mistake though, and more warheads fire down at the monster, blasting apart the top of its head.
I see it. A core. It's a large black gem the size of a minivan. We can win! And in that split second, the winged Esoterica gets pulled under the water.
An explosion from one of the sinking ships lights up the sea, showing me the black shadow of the Esoterica. Its two halves have reattached, and now it looks like an eel with ten arms. Fuuuuuuuuck.
I can see the sea bulge from the bulk of the massive creature, and it's headed for the USS John Finn. Jose's ship. I fly. I fly as fast as I can. I race past the bulge in the water and reach the cannon turret. I rip open the door and find Ivy, Jose, Henry and four navy personnel inside.
“Out, now!” I shout. I get only one objection. The others flee immediately but Jose stays put, his hands on a keyboard. “To the chopper!” I yell, hoping they can make it to the helicopter before it leaves or the monster crushes this boat.
Jose looks at me. I look at him. We lock eyes. In a moment, in a second, there's a lot said. He's saying that he's got a chance. He's not suicidal, but he has a chance to deal real damage to the Esoterica. And he has to take that chance.
And I, I have to give him as much of a chance as possible. “Its arms shoot straight up for about three seconds before it wraps them down around the ship. You'll probably only get one shot.”
He nods and goes back to the screens and controls. I see Ki flow through his arms, into his fingers and then light up the inside of the turret with a golden glow.
The ship rocks backwards as the creature arrives under the boat. I go back outside and shout to him, “I'll take the left side!” I spin up.
Astral Pathbreaker, Star Swarm, plus Lunar Mind, plus Devastating Dragon Style!
My hundred plus stars shine around me. The arms of each one thicken, widen and become more like throwing stars. At the same time their white light turns teal, and I draw my revolver. Four shots left.
Four arms shoot straight up. Two are grey, two are blue, one of each on each side. The turret rotates to the grey arm on the right. I fire my revolver twice, sending a White Dragon Breath Beam each blue arm. My stars form a star scythe once again and I fly to the remaining blue arm. I fly in a circle around the arm, using my scythe like an awl, scoring a circular cut into the arm. I know I can't cut all the way through. That's not an option when the enemy's arm is- My scythe is cutting too easily! I flick my wrist and the stars realign into a 30 foot long star katana I I immediately slash. A huge slice of the arm is ripped away, and the arm starts to crack and fall like a tree in the forest. To make sure it falls the right way I shoot a Tempest Buster Rifle shot from my revolver into the hand at the top of the arm.
I don't even look at Jose's shot, I know he's going to hit. I hear the discharge, like an exploding power line transformer, and see electricity crackle through every part of the monster's body. It's so much that the sea around us flickers faintly with electric light.
I turn and look at the other two arms I shot. Giant craters are in the arms, which seem to be writhing in pain as Jose's electricity also shoots through them.
A hand. A gigantic hand the size of the turret shoots across the deck from the prow of the boat. It always had more than four arms. The hand wraps around the cannon turret. I can see Jose inside. I can't reach him. This is happening too fast. The monster doesn't move like a kaiju, it moves like a predator, snapping in flashes of speed. I can't reach him. I see one of seven monster fingers slide across the doorway, trapping Jose in. I can still see his face. I can still...
I teleport, using the Skip ability. The boat lurches and instead of being inside with Jose, I'm outside. My cooldown on that ability is one and a half seconds. I don't know if- I do the only thing that I can. I give him my blessing. I give him 70 points of Luck.
And then the turret crumples like an aluminum can. I check my radar. As an ally he appears as a blue dot on my radar. He's there. And then... And then the dot turns grey. That's what happens when someone-
More arms wrap around the boat. I see the helicopter take off from the rear of the ship. I see the cannon explode inside the Esoterica's grasp, blowing the hand off. I get blasted 30 feet back, and am pierced with shrapnel. I'll worry about that later.
I remember the holes in the arms. Lunar elemental damage deals wounds it can't regenerate. I have to move. I have to fight.
Franco is dead. Deacon is dead. Jose is... Jose is...
My star swarm rips into the monster's arm. I just launch the cluster of stars like a wall of blades into the arm that just... That just...
Fuck you. Fuck you! FUCK YOU!
I feel it inside me, wanting to rip and tear this mother fucker apart. My stars glow bright. They expand, each one going from about six inches across to six feet across. I. Will. Rage.
I run along the length of the boat, whipping my stars left and right in massive slashes. I chop straight through the remaining arm on the right side of the boat. I leap to the left side and chop straight down with my stars in a single long line. The line of blades tears lengthwise down the arm as I nearly bisect it. Then with a flash I chop horizontally and the two halves slide away, falling into the sea.
The boat rocks. The monster is just going to sink this destroyer with its bulk. Fuck that. I leap straight off the side of the boat, my stars trailing behind me. I hit the water and dive. I can swim quickly with all my Agility and Strength. I pull myself through the water, down past the bottom of the hill of the John Finn. I spread out my stars to give me enough light to see the beast. I feel the first pains of Ki and Arcana Point deficit. I don't care. I pull my stars into the shape of a harpoon and thrust, a shaft of teal light tearing into the side of the monster. I telekinetically pull the harpoon out and thrust again, and again and again. Three arms come for me and I burn them away by casting White Dragon Breath, sweeping the teal beam across the oncoming hands. My head is splitting. I can't keep this up. I will keep this up.
The monster, now with only three limbs, tries to swim away. That's when the torpedoes find it. The underwater explosions look like massive bubbles, aberrations in the water. I have to get out of here. I will not get out of here until this fucker is dead. The torpedoes are coming from the monster's right. I go to it's left. I spin up my stars into their star drill formation and rip into the side of the Esoterica's head. Close to where I saw the corr before. I have to kill this thing. There's blood coming out of my ears and nose. The Ki drain is making me feel exhausted. I have to kill this thing.
My drill spins faster and faster. I send it ahead of me, controlling it from a distance to keep myself from being blown up by the near constant barrage of torpedoes. The torps are much weaker than the cruise missiles were, but that's fine. I just need the monster distracted. I see the slimmest gleam of the core and it is no longer distracted.
It whips around at me, opening a football field sized mouth and coming to swallow me whole. Its mouth is filled with thousands of teeth. Like the seats at a stadium, I realize. Huh. Bears. Birds. Maybe supposed to be eagles? Is this whole fucking monster a football reference? Jesus fucking christ I'm going to kill my brother.
The mouth closes around me. That's fine. I'm fine. I'm inside the massive monster. The only light in here is one lonely star I kept with me. The mouth unnaturally collapses, sending the top and bottom teeth hurting towards each other, towards me. That's fine.
I saw your core, fucker.
My star drill spins against the crystal heart of the monster. I can't see it, but I can feel it. Feel the resistance my drill is getting. I pull it hard towards me, through the core, through the head, through the teeth. It's getting there. It's making progress. I feel a bottom tooth punch into my back as I have nowhere else to go. I feel a top tooth slice my right leg right off. Blood streams out. That's fine. Legs are replaceable, not best friends. I pull on the drill. The vision in my right eye turns red as my blood vessels pop from Arcana Point drain. I must be at negative 300 by now. The pain is keeping me from falling asleep due to Ki point loss. The second I kill this thing I'm probably going to collapse and drown. That's fine. That's-
Mercy is waiting for you.
I pull hard on my drill, urging it, forcing it back to me and I hear the crack of crystal followed by the red and teal light of a hundred stars ripping through the roof of the monster's mouth. I wrap the stars around me, forming them into a shell, and it carries me up and out of the monster. I see it behind me, drifting and sinking. I check my radar and the massive red dot on it turns grey, and then fades away. It's gone. Jose is...
I surface. I keep flying up. I get to the deck of the John Finn and tumble onto my back. I summon Biscuits. I can see Mercy flying towards me. I pull a cabinet of potions out of my inventory. She knows what to do. She'll save me.
Not like me. I couldn't save...
I couldn't save...
I couldn't save...
...
...
Franco is dead. Deacon is dead. Jose is dead.
