Travis Gardin
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Chapter 17: Bacon
🕑 Added 2024-10-09 18:00:03 +0000 UTC6/21
Washington D.C.
11:15 PM
We all slide into the room and as soon as we do the door swings shut behind us, then has some magical seal appear on it. An identical seal is on the far wall. I'm assuming that's the door forward.
The room itself is a flat field covered in waist-high green grass. There seems to be sky overhead, complete with sun and big cumulus clouds. The room must be a mile wide circle, ringed with the tall wooden fencing that looks like it's made from giant sequoias. Aside from the giant death boar, this place seems like a great place for a picnic.
Jose casually fires a shot straight up, using a technique to make the shot silent. We hear a CHACK! a half second later as the bullet hits a ceiling, probably around 500 feet up. The cloud there fizzles into static then reforms. Ah, an illusive sky.
The boar has noticed us, and has turned to face us, but isn't attacking yet.
“I think it's sizing us up,” Scarlett says. Indeed, it looks at each of us with appraising eyes. Is it that smart? I guess there's nothing that says a big giant boar can't have a big giant brain.
“Everyone fan out,” I say quietly and calmly. We begin to spread out and still the boar just watches. “Play to your strengths. Don't get cocky. I don't think most of us can outrun it, so if you get in close I'll come get you.”
We're each about 30 feet apart. Madeline and I are up front, Henry and Kailani in the middle of the pack, everyone else fanned out. Parker is on the far right flank while Cappy is on the far left side. Both are ready to move quickly when the fight starts.
I create five teal Lunar katana and five hot pink storm arms. I pull three arms in front of me and begin to charge three Tempest Buster Rifles. The storm energy accumulating is enough for the boar to begin its attack. It stomps its feet and waves of flame shoot out, covering about 30 feet in each direction. He, of course, is immune to his own flames. My team opens fire. Jose's lightning gets drawn to the boar's tusks and seems to get absorbed. Guns blare but it doesn't look like most attacks are doing damage. This thing is tough. It charges. I'm still not done with my spell. It's coming straight for me but Madeline interposes herself. The boar gets about 50 feet from me before she dashes in and cuts into its front left leg. There's a spray of blood but the beast keeps moving, a wave of flames pushing Madeline back. She's in time to block with her shield, which smokes but will be fine.
Triple Tempest Buster Rifle is complete. My storm arms spread out and each targets the boar's face as it's just 10 feet away from me. I feel the flames of its stomping fire waves wash over me but my Lunar armor is protecting me from the fire. The three massive spells fire off and the boar is pushed back, its hooves grinding trenches into the ground as I blast it back. Three seconds. Three seconds of concentrated storm energy from three directions. Enough magical destruction to wipe out hundreds of P'Orcs. And as the beams fade away all I see is stone armor plating that's sprung up over the boar's face. His eyes have translucent plates over them.
And I astutely say, “well, fuck.”
Chaos ensues. The boar slams down with his two front hooves, sending a massive wave of flame in all directions. I leap over it, but the wave doesn't seem to stop like the others. It's a second from burning Kailani and Henry. I jump back to where they are and level my Lunar katanas directly at the four-foot tall flames licking up from the ground. I fire Eclipse Beam from all five blades and the thin teal energy beams cut right through the fire. I swing the katanas, and their beams, right to left, carving a wide gap in the flame wall just as it passes us. My left sub-mind clocks what the boar is doing now and it raises five Typhoon arms in front of us just in time to block a massive blue lightning bolt from the boar's mouth.
“I've got this!” Rutger shouts and finishes charging a massive Lightning Lance spell. Before I can shout “you idiot” the lance turns emerald green before firing off like a rocket. It punches straight into the boar's left side and waves of green electricity ripple all through its body, wracking it with pain.
Rutger is already downing an Arcana Point recovery potion that I gave them earlier. Lightning Lance is powerful but costs a whopping 50 AP. I can't imagine they can do that more than a couple more times. Rutger snaps their fingers as they finish the potion and shouts, “keep cool!” and for five seconds everyone's physical attacks deal ice damage.
All of a sudden bullets start smashing through the stone plates. I leave Henry and Kailani and fly up over top of the boar. I start throwing my katanas down at the thing's back, and find that the Lunar blades, enhanced with more Ice energy, cut right through the armor. I send my blades over to the boar's head and in the last second of the ice enchantment, I thrust all five blades towards the boar's left eye.
The blades just barely manage to shatter the translucent armor plate there, and I hear a loud, almost cannon-like gunshot in the split second after. Jose's Ki enhanced shot leaves a trail of golden sparks in its wake and the boar's left eye explodes in blood and gore.
I pull my blades back as Rutger's Tactician enchantment fades. The boar roars and lightning shoots out of its mouth in various directions. I see a bolt hit Kailani, another strikes Cappy, who's in the air with me. She falls to the earth with a sickening THUMP. A bolt zig-zags towards me and I punch it with a storm energy fist. The electricity gets totally absorbed by my punch.
The boar turns its massive head and charges at Jose. With a burst of speed I fly towards my best friend. He's running to the side but the boar just turns as it steps, keeping him in sight. I fly alongside the boar, then get past him. I fly low along the grass, my hand outstretched to Jose, and then I feel heat behind me. The boar has used some technique that coats its body in flames. It looks like a wall of lava, charging at 120 miles per hour. He picks up speed and overtakes me in a flash of flames. I'm sent sprawling as his head bashes into me, and I can't see what's happened to Jose. I hit the wall and I'm stunned. I drop, losing control of my Atmos flight powers.
My left sub-mind acts while I'm dizzy, pulling one of my Atmos hands to me and casting Restoration Palm on me. Why? Was I that hurt? I look down and see the bone of my left forearm punched through the skin there. Ah, okay, heal away then.
“Stay cool! Stay cool! Stay cool!” I hear Rutger's chant as I get to my feet. Where's Jose? I can see a form underneath the boar's body as it stomps in place, turning to face Rutger. It scrapes a front hoof, preparing its charge.
A massive column of bamboo punches up from the ground, lifting the pig up 10 feet. I dash for the downed, and now on fire, body. It's Parker. Jose is against the wall, firing up at the pig. Parker must have dashed in to push Jose out of the way. I pick up Parker with my one good arm, ignoring the fire, and immediately use Restoration Palm on her broken form. I pull a Typhoon hand to her and use the water essence of Atmos energy to put out the flames. I run to where Kailani is and drop Parker at her feet. Parker's legs, which weren't covered by the dragon armor, are absolutely crushed and a broken mess. Shit. Shit shit shit.
Mercy's Oni Princess Kaguya form is strong. She's running towards the boar, naginata held high. Madeline is charging over with her. Looking at Parker's smushed legs, I can't imagine their attack going well. The bamboo column starts on fire from boar kicks to it, then the whole thing explodes into splinters and the boar drops back to the ground. I fly forward, towards it. I have to reach it before the girls get there.
I reach it and the boar moves to headbutt me again, but I'm prepared. It moves to bash through me as I complete a Moon Crash spell. It smashes into the mystic moon, only for the chunks of moon to fly back at high speed and pelt him in the face with impressive force. One of the stone plates on his face shatters and I point five katanas and five storm hands at the exposed point and fire Eclipse Beams and Storm Streams at it. To my great satisfaction, the beast's upper lip is ripped apart and the skin is torn away down to the bone. Blood flows down, into its mouth and down through stone plates on the bottom of its face.
Another emerald Lightning Lance slams into the pig's side. Mercy and Madeline perform an X slash dual tech, cutting the beast's front left leg from two sides at once. The legs are more lightly armored, and their attacks smash the plating there. They whirl about and go to town on the leg until the boar rears back on its back legs. The two women try to run away from whatever horrible attack is about to be unleashed, but neither is very fast. I push forward with all of my strength and punch and slash away in rapid succession, targeting the boar's exposed neck. With Rutger's ice enhancement, my blows smash through stone plates and push into neck flesh, spraying blood across the now burning field.
The beast shakes its whole body to fling my attacks away, but in doing so it topples backwards, away from my two favorite females. It's on its back, stomach exposed, and from high above I hear Cappy say, “gotcha.”
Golden, Ki enhanced bullets rain down on the pig's belly, smashing through stone plates and drawing blood, albeit via small bullet holes. That's fine though because the exposed flesh is all our snipers need. Exploding arrows and cannon-like rifle shots punch into the pig belly. Gallons of blood flow out, but I notice something much more horrifying. It's face has regenerated.
“Its got regen!” I shout as I hit the ground and prepare for my final assault. “Focus fire on the belly!” The beast rolls over but now it's got enough exposed to give us all room to shoot. An emerald Lightning Lance hits the pig again, and the pig responds with a bolt from its mouth. The boar's blue bolt rakes right to left across the arena, and I hear people dive, yell and scream. I need to end this thing, now.
Madeline and Mercy brave the flaming stomp waves, both moving forward behind Madeline's shield. They reach the pig's side and start attacking. The boar opens its mouth again to fire its lightning at them, point blank.
6th step, Astral Pathbreaker, Star Swarm.
Over 100 points of light spin around me and I level my gaze at the pig. An explosive arrow takes the porker in its open mouth, knocking its head back. I see the exposed neck again. I dash forward, pulling my stars into my fist. I stop right under the boar as it begins to pull its head back down. It's not fast enough. With a flash of light my punch explodes upwards, stars flying into and through the boar's neck, cutting all the way to the bone. Cutting through throat and some glowing blue organ which must be its lighting gland? And as that organ splits apart electricity crackles through the exposed gore of the pig. I do not relent. I pull back the stars, then punch up again. This time I aim right for the pig's spine. A wave of stars shoots into the exposed flesh. A fountain of blood rains down on me and the boar falls. I leap away from the collapse.
The stone panels fade and gunfire rips into the pig, blasting apart its corpse until it fades away and drops loot. No time for that. My team. Parker.
I wheel around and see mama Kailani over Parker's body. I dash over and see that her legs are once again three dimensional, but still thoroughly fucked. Henry is here too, his face and uniform scorched. Red, bloody cracks show in his burned face. I use Healing Palm through storm hands to try and help both of them.
“Boss!” I hear Rutger yell. “Here! Scarlett!” I spin and look at Rutger, who's got an unconscious and singed Scarlett in their arms. I run over, leaving the two storm hands to work on Henry an Parker. Scarlett isn't breathing. I try Restoration Palm but it doesn't seem to help. “She got hit by the lightning. CPR?” Rutger asks.
I help place her down on the ground, then use my Amry CPR training that I've literally not used since the training class nine years ago. I have to be careful with compressions, since I could easily crack her ribs with my Strength. I pump, carefully on her chest. I know the whole breath in the mouth thing is pointless unless they swallowed water, so I skip that. I use compressions. I can't lose another person to goddamn lightning. I combine compressions with Restoration Palm. This has to work. This has to work. I keep up compressions. “She hasn't dropped her loot yet, so she's not dead!”
I call out, “Biscuits, I summon you!” and my little orange, winged cat appears in a puff of flames.
“Papa!” she says with delight, and then rubs her head against my foot.
“Biscuits, can you heal her?” I keep up compressions.
She tilts her head and sniffs the air. “She's not broken, she's just turned off. So nope!”
“Then can you go help the others?” I keep up compressions.
She yawns, turns to the other wounded, and bounds off.
Everyone is around us now except for Parker and Kailani. How long have I been doing compressions? Thirty seconds? A minute? Two minutes? It doesn't matter. I keep at it. I feel a hand on my shoulder.
“In cases where the body isn't destroyed, loot doesn't drop immediately.” It's Mercy. I don't believe her. “She's gone, Jun.”
“I can fly.” I keep up compressions. “I can shoot lasers.” I keep up compressions. “So this... Is... Nothing!” I keep up compressions.
I feel Jose's hand on my other shoulder. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Not-
Scarlett lurches up, gasping for air, then coughing repeatedly. I fall back. I'm not exhausted, physically. No, just mentally.
Count your losses and your victories.
Franco is dead. Deacon is dead. Scarlett will live.
-----
Three days ago
Lewisville, TX
A low-rent furnished apartment
9:45 PM
Quins had the neighbors over for a party. The small furnished apartment wasn't much more than a hotel room, and true, the neighbors had identical rooms, but it was the spirit of the thing, really.
The neighbors in room 304 were a poor family with four kids and an alcoholic father, who was only sometimes around. Now wasn't one of those times. The neighbors in 306 were a couple of strippers from the clubs on Harry Hines Blvd. Not fancy strippers. Really low rent strippers. The kids played with Quins's Xbox Series X. He'd gotten extra controllers just for this occasion. The strippers lounged around the card table, talking to the single mom (Gretta) and relating to her man issues. They knew all too well about drunk guys.
Quins moved between the two groups, coming over to play a round of Halo Infinite one minute, then popping open a bottle of New Castle with the ladies the next.
“Quinnie,” Wanda asked, “how you got money for all these tamales?”
Quins had ordered a stack of tamale bowls from Tommy Tamale over in Coppell. “Oh, you know, one of them horribly dangerous jobs that put the arse.” He grinned wickedly.
“It's not drugs is it?” She didn't even bother whispering the D word. Quins wouldn't be the only dealer in their complex.
Quins looked appalled. “Now, do I look like the sort to deal in illicit goods and services?”
“Yes!” all three women said at once.
“I am horribly wounded, my kind ladies. Your words draw blood from this old stone.”
“Is it Dracosys?” Crystal asked. By now everyone knew the real name of the system, even strippers in the shitty part of DFW.
Quins tilted his head. “Could be, could be.” He winked at the aging stripper. “Legal all the way, though. My rougish days are quite behind me.”
Wanda took a swig of New Castle brown ale. “Oh I doubt that.”
Quins could only grin at that, then went over to the kids to show them how a real marksman threw a fusion grenade.
