Myth//OS - Chapter 56

It started with a bang. Literally. The cannon on top of the APC fired off when they closed in, starting the entire fight off. The cannon wasn’t aimed at Temoc and the Wardens, who could probably survive one way or another. It was aimed at the grunts in tac-gear. 

When the cannon fired, several things happened almost instantaneously. The entire cave shook for one. The sound echoed around loud enough to destroy my eardrums if I didn’t have Ebonshroud earplugs on hand. 

The runner with my orb of Radiance bounced out the back door in the initial confusion, darting to the back of the convoy. Reinforcements from the back wouldn’t be coming though. The woman was ordered to get everyone to watch the back in case this was a two-pronged attack.

The driver kicked the APC back into gear and turned it horizontal, filling the entirety of the tunnel and blocking the group from moving forward. It also gave cover for the rest of us to spill out and get ready for the fight.

Finally, Jinx made her move. As a Cipher, she had a whole host of nasty hacks in her arsenal. Based on the signals, of which there weren’t too many coming from our attackers, she was the only Cipher on site. That gave her free roam of the place.

The first thing she did was get access to their internal communications and upload a nasty virus that would blow out their eardrums. After that- well, after that I lost track. Temoc definitely started to slow down though. His chrome limbs stalled with each movement. Not that it mattered. He was out of the fight almost instantly.

I moved in time with all the chaos, launching myself over the top of the APC and into our attackers with the Will Wire like it was some kind of catapult. Micro white hooks flicked out from my body, controlling my flight with paper thin strands of Ebonshroud.

Mid air, I summoned Thorn’s Defiance. I raised it up, quick-scoping in on the flaming man. This wasn’t just any shot either. I was worried about him surviving it, so I pulled some strings to ensure that wouldn’t happen.

Pling!

An enchantment surged down the Echoing Reinforcement shrouding the tip of the thorn. Generally, I used Ether Strings for crowd control. There wasn’t much at first that would be super effective for me. There were a whole host of spells though. With the discordant tune ringing out, I cast Necrosis.

Necrosis inflicted a single-target magic plague. At least, that’s how it worked with the Weave. I wasn't a hundred percent sure how it would work with Ether Strings and Echoing Reinforcement. I’d never tested it. Regardless, the tip of the spear flickered, decaying into a dull green shade.

Wumph!

I pulled the trigger, quick-scoping the fire Warden who was still recovering from the initial attack. If someone were to be watching this, they’d think I was the ambusher and not the other way around.

The thorn splintered through his chest without any resistance, slamming down hard enough to spike through the cave floor. The fire Warden didn’t even have a chance to move before he died.

The Necrosis spread through the wound, rapidly turning his flesh white and inflicting all sorts of nasty effects that ultimately didn’t matter. Then came the scatter thorn, tearing his body apart without much resistance.

[Nighteye’s whiskers twitch. A little overkill there, kitten.]

Um… there was no such thing as overkill… but you might have a point. Thorn’s Defiance was meant for C-ranks. If I had to guess, that guy wasn’t even close to being able to survive the attack.

I dropped, slamming into the ground in a superhero position. Echoing Reinforcement and Ebonshroud made micro pads to protect me from the fall. The ground cracked underneath the heavy slam, though I took no damage. I casually looked up, staring at the other two Wardens through my sunglasses.

”Cover!” Temoc just reacted, shouting out to his men. He drew his two axes, though his movements were halting. His face flushed crimson. “Moon! I can’t wait to tear you limb from limb. Arachne! Poison!”

Arachne, the lady with the four spider-like cyber limbs coming off her back looked at me, at the dead fire Warden, and finally at Temoc. “Our contract was just for the initial poison… I surrender.”

Then, just like that, she walked the opposite direction back into the cavern. In less then a minute since the battle started, it was just Temoc and the strike squad. It wasn’t cowardice. It was recognizing when she was completely and entirely outmatched. 

Temoc didn' see it that way. He hurled a volley of bone spikes at her that her spider chrome easily deflected. “You- when I’m done here, I’ll hunt you to the ends of the earth!”

”Won’t live. Long enough.” I coolly called and stood up. Ebonshroud flowed down my arms, pulling into two axes that were an exact match for Temoc’s. 

Temoc’s entire body flushed red with rage. He must’ve used his trait, Ossuary, quite a bit in prep for this battle. The guy was already swelled up like a giant. His muscles had muscles and his entire body was maxed out in terms of strength. “There’s no cameras here now, Moon! I won’t have to hold myself back!”

”…” I simply raised an axe. He wasn’t the only one who wouldn’t have to hold back anymore. 

A burst of bullets fired at me from one of the strike squad. I casually twirled my axe, swatting them out of the air with ease. The guy that shot at me immediately had his entire body blown apart by the heavy cannon of the APC. The rest of the strike squad was too busy dealing the Tenok to care about me.

”Rah!” Temoc flung himself at me with full force. It seemed his rage was finally getting to him.

Ether pulsed below me. I casually sidestepped a bone pillar that stabbed up through the ground. To add insult to injury, I used Mictal Fog for the first time since getting the skill. It spilled out of me, covering the cave and drawing the gunfire to a grinding halt.

Pulses of the fog draining the life force of my enemies let me know where my attackers were though. Not to mention Temoc couldn’t keep his mouth shut. “You bitch! How dare you?!”

I was never one for stealth. That being said, it took me by complete surprise when I approached Temoc, attacked, and he didn’t even react to the strike. With my causal strike, the ether buffed axe struck deep into his chrome arm, splintering the metal and completely disabling it. His axe flopped out of his hands.

“Gah!” He turned toward me, one arm still at the ready to use Whirlwind. The effect was so much weaker with just one arm though. It was full of gaps. Gaps I easily exploited to forcibly shut down his attack. When he was using it, he was forced to hold a certain stance. One with his arm outstretched. Without his full guard, it was easy to duck into his attack range and slam my other axe into his chrome.

Just like that, the meat head was entirely armless. Or, at least, enough components were damaged in both arms that neither of them worked. Both of his axes clattered to the ground. For the first time since this started, his face flushed with fear. “Bone barrage!”

The Skill uselessly flew over my head when I crouched down to pick up his two discarded axes. They flew off through the fog, banging against the APC’s armor. Temoc grit his teeth and used his fire boosters to launch himself back into the fog. I knew where he was though. 

With a flick of my wrist, I double baffled and sent out the Will Wire. It wrapped around his neck like a collar and whipped him back to me. The wire cut deep into his exposed neck, strangling the Warden. 

“Agh- you- haah- you were act- ugh- ting this whole time!” Temoc’s face was a weird mixture of flushed and pale. He looked up at me with accusatory eyes.

”No? You’re. Just weak.” I approached the defeated man, twirling his axes in my hands. He tried to struggle away, but the Will Wire collar bound him where he was. “Lucia Sends. Regards.”

I slammed both axes down like scissor blades. Temoc’s head flopped off, eyes wide eternally in terror. A spray of blood flung out of his neck. I tossed the axes down into the ground. They joined the dead Warden’s head. His corpse fell over a moment later, flopping to the ground.

Temoc… what an idiot. No, I mean seriously. The guy had an ability to scale and buff his muscles. It was his Trait, even. And what did he do? He went and got chrome limbs. Chrome was sometimes good, I could admit that, but it completely defeated the purpose of his Trait.

I yoinked my axes back out of his chrome with a flick of Will Wire, allowing them to resettled back in my hands. With that, I dispelled Mictal Fog. The obfuscating fog melted away, revealing the tunnel in complete chaos. 

The fighting abruptly ground to a halt. It didn’t even take five minutes for me to clean up the Wardens. It also didn’t take a genius to realize what that meant for the strike squad of mundanes. “Give up. You live.”

Weapons clattered to the ground unanimously. The four people left in Tzon’s strike squad surrendered the fight without any fanfare. I nodded my head and flicked my wrist once more. Will Wire followed my movement, creating temporary binds for the four survivors. They dropped to their knees to wait for further decisions from us.

“Sarge!” I called out to Temoc’s side. My voice lost its huskiness and turned hoarse with the effort. “Sit-rep?”

Sarge popped next to the APC with his gun still up just in case. He scanned the field. “Minor injuries in the back. One of the APCs crashed with the sleep poison. Otherwise, we’re still good. Reinforcements have an eta of ten minutes.”

I shifted, allowing the axes to melt back under my skin. I flicked on my clothes, using the Ebonshroud to scatter the blood and dirt. I returned to completely white like nothing happened. “Continue?”

”If you want. Or we could wait for the other squads.” His eyes flicked to the two dead Wardens. He shifted from foot to foot. ”Do you think there’s a second ambush?” 

I likewise looked down at Temoc. He was Tzon Enterprise’s official Warden. If he was here, I doubt they’d set up another… unless this was a psy-op to get our guard down for the real ambush. Tzon wasn’t big though. They might not even be able to afford another ambush.

I dragged one of the ambushers toward me with the Will Wire. The man trembled in absolute terror as he was forced to kneel at my feet like a dog. “Second. Attack?”

He barely managed to speak through his fear. ”N-n-no, ma’am. N-not that I know of, a-at least.” 

Hmm…. What were the chances this was a massive psy-op? Low, right? I shifted from foot to foot. “We wait.”

The chances weren’t small enough. And I saw how cheap some Anarchs sold themselves for on Lotus’s app. There could very well be a full squad of them waiting up ahead in the cavern. It’d be smart of our enemy, at least. 

And that poisoner that left might’ve gone back to warn them we were coming… not that she’d need to. The APC cannon was loud enough. If there were more enemies back there, they’d already be waiting for us.

“Right.” Sarge turned back toward the Tenok behind us. “Set up defensive positions! We’re waiting for reinforcements!”

I stared out at the cave shortly beyond the tunnel for a moment and then turned back to join the convoy once more.