“Breaking your own mental chains is the first true barrier for a Samurai. If you had something going on with you before initializing, odds are it's gonna get worse when you do before it gets better. But sometimes, it never does get better. And that’s ok. You just take a bite out of it at a time. Like an apple. Great, Shadowtag, now you have me craving apples.”
2045, Mindwitch
I gripped the Requiem Piercer tight, twisting my hand on it as I mulled over my thoughts in the moments before I would launch back out into the open sea.
Was I ready for this? Mentally prepared? Healed?
Physically healed? Yes. Mentally? …We’ll get around to dealing with the full breadth of issues that is Macy Adams soon. Just not now. While I needed to take it smarter and calmer, I still needed to move fast if I wanted to save Nate.
“One quick ask before I go out again. My eyes have been hurting badly due to the water since my goggles kinda fell off before, after the explosion.”
Are you asking for a new pair of goggles?
“Yes.”
Well, I have a tool for you that you will be able to implement into your future eyes. How does a set of goggles add to your augmented heads-up display that will allow you information about your periphery as well as tracking enemies in front of you with sonar?
“Kyos, I just wanted a pair of goggles. But, all of that. Yes. Please.”
Kyos sighed sarcastically.
Why do I bother even being fancy for you, Macy?
“Because you know I’ll like what you bring up?”
Always.
New Purchase!
Class II Huntress’ Eye Goggles - 200 points
Points reduced to…7168
A pair of goggles appeared over my chest and dropped onto it, letting me pick up the new goggles. They were crystal clear, the band looked comfortable and snug, and most of all…there was no sight of any tech within the goggles. Huh.
“Kyos, why do these look like a regular pair of goggles?”
Macy, put them on.
“Fiiiine,” I jokingly whined, placing on the goggles, and immediately saw an additional layer added to my augs’ HUD.
Nanotech. Thank the Stalhas for that.
“I’ll be sure to write a thank you letter after all of this,” I said, actually kind of meaning it. They were saving lives today.
I could already see small notification markers for life signs around me moving ever so slightly as I naturally idled. I also saw small markers of where my Sharks were. This was good. This was very good.
“Alright. Let’s try this again. One more time, with feeling.”
The top of the Anemone opened, and I leapt into the water, as ready as I could be.
It was a surreal feeling to let the hollow core of my body fill with the catharsis of swimming through the ocean once again. That feeling of emotional hollowness had not entirely faded, but I glided through the water without as many cares as before. While I did care about my mission, it didn’t hurt as much.
It was truly a dance, my path through the deadly waters. I wasn’t excited, I wasn’t angry…
Just existent. And that was ok.
My tail flicked behind me as the Bloodchaser slid me to the side, dodging a charging Anti. I threw the Requiem Piercer at it as it was still within range, landing a hit. As I bolted forward to finish the Three off, I called back the harpoon to my hand and struck down just as the shaft of the weapon teleported back to my hand.
“I really need to figure out a good way to clear up these bodies. I could be feeding the horde, and I’m doing nothing about it,” I tossed around in my head.
There are ways to do it, though at the moment you do not have the reach you would need to clear your entire trail of bodies. I would suggest…against my better judgment, waiting.
Three more Model Threes came to take the first’s place. The new goggles had a built-in compass function, so it was much easier to track if I was going in the right direction: East. And I was actually heading in the right direction this time. Neat.
The right direction was blocked by those Threes…for about five seconds. I shot the Feeding Frenzy at one of them, shocked all three down as the electricity arced from xeno to xeno, and stabbed all three before continuing on.
Stab. Blow up a few. Dance around the dangerous charges from single-digits and the low-tens that decided to come and run me over.
I was less afraid than before. I had less room in my heart to be afraid thanks to the emotional drain, so at least it helped me get through the hell I was facing.
The horde broke minorly soon enough, leaving me with a relatively open space between me and the shore.
“Okay, we’re making it somew-” I thought to Kyos before pausing as new major problem revealed itself to me.
A ping of danger showed up in front of me as I neared the shoreline wall, having broken through the oncoming tide for now. Except…something was off. Where was the dange- oh no.
I stopped.
“Hey, Kyos? Are you seeing this?”
…What the fuck?
The ping covered the entire tide wall for a reason. Now aware, I noticed the “breathing” holes for something big. Something that must have been taken from an earth-based creature’s DNA. I saw tentacles spanning out far, a sheet of algae-ridden webbing between them.
This creature was encrusted in barnacles. And as the openings of the barnacles opened slowly, I realized just how fucked I was. I huffed in frustration, trying to shake my tangible fear at such a major roadblock this close to the shore. What karmic deity in a previous life did I piss off? Seriously.
That is a new variant of Model Five.
“The big thing or the barnacles?” I asked.
The barnacles.
“Then…”
That is a variant Model Twenty-Nine. This is no longer a matter of beating the enemies along the way. It’s getting past this one.
“Ah. Shit.”
An eyeball opened up on the wall. And then another.
AND THEN TEN MORE.
Ah.
Nightmare fuel, my beloathed.
A terrifyingly large tentacle unstuck itself from the wall and began to swing towards me as the artillery fire of the Fives began.
I am a nerd. I know this. So, when I tell you that this is like one of the bullet hells that pre-incursion gamers used to play…Touhou I think it was called? Yeah, this was that. Except I had no screen clears, and I was not attacking to win. Not in this situation. I could go for the Chemical Element explosion, but this close to the shore? That would be too much collateral for even me.
However, there were other elements that I could use to incapacitate.
“Kyos! Pure Element Needle Buckshot Torpedos of something very conductive!”
Silver it is.
“Huh! Neat!” I thought back as Bruce and Jeff darted around with me.
New Purchase!
Silver Needle Buckshot Torpedoes x 20 - 200 points
A notification from my HUD let me know that the torpedoes were loaded, and I smiled mentally. This was either gonna work really well or flop horribly. Hopefully, the symbiotic nature of the barnacles could give me an opening that I really needed.
The shots hit across the Twenty-Nine, penetrating deep with micro-needles across its body and into some of the Fives, which did actually do a good job at killing a few of them.
Time to see if this will work. Crossing my fingers.
I shot the Feeding Frenzy tip of the Requiem Piercer, letting the automatic course correction weave the spear tip towards the body of the Twenty-Nine, while I bobbed and weaved around a volley of neurotoxin spikes and sped past near misses of building-sized tentacles.
The shot landed true, or at least that’s what my HUD told me. And in moments, electricity arced all around the giant creature, shocking it from within. I was right. Its armor was compromised by the barnacles’ presence on its body.
And then, I stopped for a moment as the barnacles began to fry off the alien’s body. I thought about whether I could try finishing the job now or try again later. Time was not on my side…but maybe…just maybe.
“What other kinds of explosives do we have, Kyos?”
That could break through this thing’s defenses? Very little.
“I just need a small hole.”
Oh? I think I might understand what you’re going for.
New Purchase!
Black Hole Torpedo x 1 - 200 points
Points reduced to…8491
The shot went out, shredding the outer layer of sinew of the kraken-like creature.
“Cesium injector javelin or whatever you can do, like it!” I shouted.
ON IT!
New Purchase!
Remote Detonating Payload Javelin - 100 points
200 g Cesium Payload - 30 points
Points reduced to…8361
A javelin appeared in my hand as I threw the Requiem Piercer to the side and bolted forward. Landing on the creature, I struck hard into the exposed innards of the creature, breaking flesh with as much strength as I could put behind my strike. I then released my hands from the embedded javelin before pressing off, calling the Requiem Piercer back to my hand without the Feeding Frenzy tip yet, and zipped upward.
The water’s surface was nice. It was a nice day. Why do the Antithesis have to ruin such a nice day?
I burst out of the water and called out to Kyos. “NOW!”
A loud thoom could be heard from under the water, and bubbles swarmed up to the surface, letting me know the deed was done.
I landed, barely keeping my balance, on the shore.
Congratulations, Macy. You are finally back on land. And you have done something very few Vanguard can say they have on their first day. You beat a model in the Twenties. Through sheer cunning and ingenuity. Do not expect all run-ins to be so easy.
“I know, Kyos. I know.”
You also just got two tokens for getting back to land and for beating that enemy. And…another for the boat that just arrived a bit to the north of here, closer to the active…and mildly failing other Samurai.
“Oh shit, nice. Not about the failing samurai, but you know…silver linings.” I mumbled as I raced forward, not forgetting my ultimate goal.
I still had to save Nate.