Gamma Protocol (105)

[105]

The ground crunched under my claws, a mix of pulverized concrete and sand that'd been baking under the sun all day. I'd covered maybe two kilometers in the last ten minutes, carving through scattered G and F-class monsters like they were paper. My body felt like a freight train, dense and heavy, every step leaving compressed prints in the sand-crust. My bones were thick enough I could feel them grinding against each other with each movement.

The badlands stretched out in every direction, just dust and craters and the worn-down remains of what might've been buildings at some point in the past hundred years. Everything had been blasted to bits, dug up, and then blasted again over decades of monster assault. Foundations jutted up like broken teeth here and there, but even those were barely recognizable as having once been part of something larger. To my right, maybe half a kilometer out, the shore cut a jagged line against the almost-black ocean. Half-submerged ruins poked up through the water, the only structures that'd survived by virtue of being underwater half the time.

I could taste salt and rust in the air, and the putrid reek of frothing monster corpses.

A mouther shambled into view ahead, all teeth and no brain. I didn't slow down, just stomped it flat in my wake. The impact pulverized its core and sent chunks of dissolving flesh spraying outward. My AP ticked upward. With no stats they could be spent on, I pooled them in case I'd need to use my traits or skills.

I slowed to a stop near a crater that might've been thirty feet across. My muscles were still buzzing with power, every breath came easy despite the weight. My claws flexed, scraping against each other with a sound like grinding stone.

A quick glance around confirmed this looked like a good place for the prospective fight, and I could already feel the D-class approaching.

It was a vibration coming from the ground. Just a low tremor that worked its way up through my claws and into my legs. I turned south and watched as a core lit up in my awareness, maybe two hundred meters out. The wrongness it carried wasn't like the others. It had weight, density, like grabbing a block of lead rather than iron.

The tremor grew stronger. Rhythmic. Footfalls.

I could see it now. Big. Low to the ground. Moving at a steady pace that wasn't fast but covered distance anyway because of its sheer size.

It looked vaguely like a bull, but wrong.

Twenty feet at the shoulder and about as long, not counting the tail that dragged furrows in the sand behind it. Four massive horns curved up and forward from its skull, each one a different size, the largest easily six feet long and thick as a human torso. Its hide looked armored, not like plates, but like the whole thing was carved from stone that'd been left to weather for centuries. Thick overlapping layers over corded muscle that bunched and shifted with each step. The hooves glowed faintly, a dull orange like heated metal, leaving prints that steamed in the sand.

I didn't recognize it from any of the encyclopedia entries I'd seen, not exactly a surprise since D-class and above tended to be more unique. The core inside this monster felt distinctly more wrong than the ones I'd fought until now. Its intent didn't manifest like an oil-slickness but as a sound, a barely audible screeching focused on my chest.

I raised my claws, feeling wary. The intent was sharp enough that I half expected to have to dodge some kind of ranged attack. But it didn't move, just tracked me with its eyeless faceplate, waiting for an opening.

Time wasn't on my side. I started forward, lowering my center of gravity, claws digging into the sand-crust for purchase. The acceleration would help close the gap fast. The strength would let me hit hard enough to matter. The improved durability and unbreakable bones meant I could take whatever it dished out and keep going.

The world blurred at the edges as I launched forward, using the acceleration to close the distance in three bounding strides. My claws came up, aiming for the gap between its skull and shoulder where the armor looked thinner.

The pressure sensation intensified, spreading across my chest and shoulders like invisible hands pressing down.

I was maybe ten feet away when something slammed into me like a truck, invisible and wrong. Something inside my chest compressed violently, ribs flexing inward and vibrating.

My body moved more on instinct than certainty, using [Surge] in the opposite direction, forcing my momentum to flip in a violent yanking motion, followed by [Slip]. Reality evaporated into nothingness for a fraction of a second as I reemerged ten meters out, body crashing into the sand and skidding to a stop in a cloud of dust.

AP: 112 / 200

Pain lanced through my torso like broken glass. I tried to breathe and got half a lungful before I coughed out blood, leaving a warm copper taste on my tongue. I spat it out and forced myself upright.

The monster hadn't moved a step, head still tracking me.

What the hell was that?

I hadn't seen an attack. Hadn't felt a physical impact before it hit. Just pressure, and then force, and then pain. The air around the thing looked normal. No distortions. No projectiles. Just the low hum of its core and that dense wrongness pressing outward like a field.

Some form of telekinesis? Had it tried to get to my organs through my hide? I had to assume this was why CYPHER had given me some horrible success odds. If that field was automatic, I doubted I'd be able to do much without at least a small horde of weaker monsters to use to mend myself back up.

The monster began to move, each step leaving a glowing hoofprint on the sand that steamed with heat. The core inside it pulsed, and I felt its intent coalescing around my chest again, sharper. Like it knew exactly what it needed to do to end me.

Tier 3 Achievement:
Reach +375 Adaptive Durability, Unlock Form of Power Available.
Form of Hunger (Durability) [Activate? Y/N]

The system had a few opinions about that claim, a mix of excitement and anticipation, one we shared. Baseline established. Time to see what this thing did.

I activated it. The change hit different from the other modes. Not gradual. It slammed into me all at once like a switch being thrown.

Form of Hunger (Durability)
Traits gained: Obsidian Bone Scales, Corrosive Fungal Blood, Fang Hook Blades
Stats: +500 Durability, +100 Strength, +100 Speed, +50 Senses
Passive: Become tougher against everything you've consumed

WARNING:
Earning New Achievements has been disabled!
Autophagy (The hunger will consume you if it goes unsated)

I didn't get the chance to parse through the implications, rushing to put some distance between myself and the approaching monster. I could feel the changes even as I bought myself time. My skin was hot like I was standing in front of an oven, while my blood itched within my veins and my bones crackled like shearing glass. To call it uncomfortable would've been an understatement, but the sudden searing-hot-nails-in-my-gut pang of hunger made it almost pleasant by contrast.

Current Stat Bonuses: 

Endurance - +500
Speed - +572
Senses - +315
Agility - +444
Strength - +544
Durability - +1.000

Looking myself over, it reminded me of the form I'd taken during the C-class attack, except milder, more controllable. The thick obsidian plates were now smoother, creating skin-tight scale armor. My claws looked even more wickedly sharp and serrated. My body didn't feel heavier despite my durability stat having doubled. Rather, I felt lighter, like everything that had made me tougher had optimized in some significant way.

Was this the system integrating the form I'd spent so many days stuck in?

You are Starving! Your body is consuming itself!
Autophagy [Active]: All Stats Bonuses -1 / Second

The problem wasn't that I had eight minutes before the bonus stats reached zero, but that the longer the fight went on, the weaker I'd be. In all actuality it likely meant I only really had four or so minutes of autophagy. Anything past that would leave me lacking  the strength to do anything significant against the D-class, and probably would no longer have the speed to escape either.

I would've sworn, but I didn't have the time to sit around and do nothing.

I charged in an explosion of movement.

The bull-monster sensed something was different. Rather than stay back and wait, it rushed at me in a burst of steam, meeting me halfway. The pressure from before intensified as I closed distance, but I pushed through, ready to use [Slip] if I started feeling like my insides were going to melt.

The distance closed to nothing, and everything happened in a split second.

Twenty feet, the force had turned into something trying to punch through my chest. At ten feet, the pressure turned painful. At five feet, my vision blurred slightly. I was already swinging.

Claws caught it across the muzzle, [Concussive Touch] turning the glancing blow into a harsh impact. Its head snapped sideways, blood welling from the gashes, welling from the gashes and frothing into steam.

It stumbled and I lunged at its exposed neck, ready to rip its throat out.

The next instant, my instincts screamed alarm. I pushed my weight to its limits, quadrupling it right as the world exploded into a scream. Everything rattled as my thoughts were replaced with a deep ringing sound, consciousness fading at the edges as my brain was suddenly trying to think through molasses.

Had I been stunn-

[COPILOT ENGAGED]

My body pushed through, sinking claws through metal skin, fangs biting down through flesh. My mouth exploded with the flavor of stone and satisfaction, ripping through its tough hide. The monster didn't have a mouth to roar through, yet I could feel the sound in my bones as its whole body exploded outwards with force. I flew back despite the weight, skipping across the dirt like a pebble down a steep road, crashing against the side of the crater.

The copilot didn't waste an instant, pulling me out of the crater and away from the monster as I finally managed to catch up and regain my senses.

Licking my lips of the taste of… my brain scrambled to identify what it was. It tasted like something that vibrated hot and loud. It was as if I'd just bitten into a flavored flaming loudspeaker, except it was somehow deeper and richer and… delicious.

It was delicious.

The ache in my gut returned slowly at first, then suffused into my scales, the obsidian coloration gaining streaks of silver. Was this a sign I'd consumed enough to be a bit tougher against its powers?

I circled left, keeping distance, watching the D-class circle in the same direction, its body vibrating as steam rose from the injuries I'd made. I could hear it now, a faint hum, so low it had to be below subsonic, layering together with every flaming step it took. Closing the distance slightly, I could hear it more acutely. At fifty feet, there was a force to it, like a soft wind that vibrated against my scales.

Sound. That was how it had managed to blast me off. Had that also been how it had injured my guts earlier? Some sort of resonance frequency? As we watched each other, I noticed something else about the sound: it was shifting. Subtly, barely there, yet it felt like it was… modulating.

Searching for a weakness.

The realization pushed me to explode forward, not wanting to give it time to potentially find a way through my new scales. The D-class didn't lunge at me, backing up onto its two rear hooves as the sound cut off. The pressure of intent shifted from my chest to the entirety of my being as its front hooves came crashing down in a flash.

I triggered [Slip] before the flames reached me.

AP: 67 / 200

I appeared right in front of it, feeling an intense wave of heat behind me that I readily ignored in favor of smashing it with a shoulder tackle. Despite being twice my height, its bones cracked under the force of the impact, launching it into a wild tumble as I chased before it got a chance to recover.

It kicked wildly with its glowing hooves, one of them clipping into my shoulder and leaving a trail of red heat against my scales. I pivoted and chased after its softer underbelly. My claws tore the metal-like hide as if it were paper, but I didn't get the chance to dig deeper, as one of its hooves connected squarely with my hip.

We rolled away from one another. It got back up and I did the same.

The moment its head aligned with my body, I felt the intent wash over me and braced.

It was like getting hit by Fulton's air-wall, but somehow worse because it made my bones sing as if I were a struck bell.

Worse, it came in quick succession. Another blast followed the first, then a third. Each one knocked me further back, and unlike the flamewall, there was no time to anticipate or dodge.

The monster bellowed as I was shoved further away, forcing some proper distance between us. Its body glowed, the injuries I'd made releasing a faint red light, the glow from its hooves intensifying as the very ground beneath it began to steam and seethe with angry heat.

Its attacks had forced me into the portion of the crater it had partially melted underneath the flame attack I'd dodged earlier. The sand and soil pulsed with the heat of an open oven, but I barely registered it, forcing myself back up to my feet, my bones bleeding the ache into the rest of my body.

The D-class' horns were the source for the sonic attacks, and using them appeared to generate internal heat. My immediate thought was whether there was some way to get it to overheat, but I discarded the idea. Based off of the earlier flamewall, it had the power to let it out as an attack. Maybe I'd be able to keep it from committing to such an attack, but that was gambling on whether or not it had other tricks up its sleeve.

The autophagy notification pulsed at the edge of my vision, insistent. The numbers were dropping. I could feel it in the way my muscles responded just slightly slower than they should. Every second I stood here catching my breath was another second closer to being too weak to matter. The hunger gnawed at my gut, demanding more.

The D-class pawed the ground sixty feet out, steam rising from where its hooves melted sand into glass. Its horns hummed with that subsonic frequency. Still searching. Still modulating.

No more time for careful approach.

I launched forward.

The monster's head snapped toward me, horns angling. The sonic blast hit at forty feet and I felt it compress my chest, ribs flexing inward, but the silver-streaked scales absorbed some of it. Enough I could keep moving. At thirty feet another blast. Pain lanced through my torso, something tearing inside, but I pushed through it. Used the acceleration to eat up the remaining distance in three bounds.

The monster tried to pivot. Too slow. My claws found its flank, sinking deep into the armored hide. My jaws followed, fangs punching through metal-like skin into the meat beneath.

The flavor hit my tongue and everything else became secondary. Sound and fire and vibration, rich and complex and utterly delicious in ways my human brain had no reference for. I bit down harder, tearing, ripping chunks of tissue free. The silver streaks spread in branching patterns.

The monster bellowed. Its whole body bucked, violent enough to make my ribs groan and creak. It started launching blasts of sound in every direction. I held on anyway, jaws locked, trying to land something significant on its face or neck and bring this to a close but not getting a good angle.

The D-class' body exploded with heat, flames pouring out from the very wound I'd been chewing on and giving me a mouthful of searing fire. I roared and pulled away as my face was enveloped by the flames, and in that hesitation it found an angle and blasted me again.

I flew back, hit the ground hard, rolled through sand that burned where the monster's hooves had melted it to glass. Came up ten feet away, blood on my muzzle, the taste of its flesh and of the flames still coating my tongue.

My skin stung and ached, the scales on my face had partially melted, turning into something far more brittle. The silver streaks had deepened, making me more resistant, but clearly not resistant enough.

We circled. Both limping slightly. The monster's flank steamed where I'd torn chunks out, red light leaking from the wounds, the wound cauterized by its own flames. My whole upper body throbbed where my scales had been deformed, partially merged, making my movements stiff.

Its horns hummed louder, shifting in tune with the pulsing light of its hooves. That subsonic frequency shifting, modulating, searching.

Then it changed.

The hum locked onto a single pitch, then held it there. The pressure of intent sharpened into a needle aimed directly at my chest. Unlike every previous instance, the massive bull turned to charge at me. I moved to intercept, preparing [Slip] for a potential fire attack because those sonic blasts were too quick to evade.

It used neither.

I was barely twenty feet in when I felt it, my ribs vibrating like they'd become tuning forks. Then my breath got knocked right out of me as my lungs suddenly contracted without my command.

[Slip] was triggered out of panic and pain more than any actual plan, the world and the sounds vanishing for a split second as I kept my inertia. The relief was temporary. I appeared right in front of it.

But the monster had anticipated the move. When the blast hit, the world twisted and my body felt like it was tearing itself apart from the inside while my bones conducted the vibrations through every connected piece of tissue.

I could barely choke in a lungful of air, feeling the vibrations building up again for another attack.

AP: 52 / 200

The system cried out inside my skull, trying to urge me to retreat. I had just enough AP to escape.

No.

I charged. I used [Surge] and immediately followed it with [Slip], then a second [Slip] without a moment's hesitation. The monster had launched a sonic attack but it missed. The second panicked sonic blast was weaker but I felt it in my skull, blood filling my mouth, vision going red at the edges.

But I didn't slow.

Fifteen feet. Another rushed blast. My eardrums ruptured. The world went muffled except for the bone-deep vibration. Blood ran from my nose, my ears, the corners of my eyes.

Ten feet. The monster reared up, hooves glowing like rocket engines.

I dove under them, rolled, came up beside its rear leg. Claws found purchase, yanking me up and around, allowing me to mount the monster. My fangs sought its neck and sank in, the taste exploding across my tongue again, that delicious wrongness. I tore chunks free, swallowing without pause, seeking to get through the wall of muscle and flesh and to its spine.

The monster thrashed. Bucked. Tried to shake me off. I locked my legs around its torso, claws digging through the metal hide and into muscle. Every mouthful made me tougher. Every swallow spread the silver further.

But we were close now. Point-blank range. The horns were inches from my head, and even though they weren't aimed at me, they were still producing that frequency. My skull vibrated. My teeth ached where they were locked on the monster's neck. My brain felt like it was rattling inside bone that couldn't break but conducted every ounce of that terrible hum.

The monster's hooves flared. Heat erupted outward, its whole body became a furnace. I pulled back just enough to trigger [Molt], my skin itching and sloughing off as fresh scales replaced the old. The moment the flames weakened I dove right back in.

I kept eating.

The hunger was quieter now. Not gone, but manageable. The silver covered most of my body, my scales more silver than black. But the monster kept launching its sonic attacks, generating more heat. The temperature spiked and my scales cracked, obsidian fracturing under thermal stress, the flesh beneath started cooking. And at the same time the sustained hum tore at me from the inside.

Even with the resistance, it was too much.

But I could feel its spine right within reach. My claws dug toward it while my teeth held on. Despite not having a mouth, the monster screamed through its horns, darkness closing in at the edges of my vision. More insufferable heat, more fire. Not enough AP for another molt. I kept clawing away at the massive body beneath me in a shower of steaming bits of torn monster.

One claw scraped bone.

The monster knew. Its thrashing reached a new level. The horns ramped up, frequency shifting to something that made my vision go black and my thoughts scatter.

[COPILOT ENGAGED]

My right claw sank into the spine and held on, squeezing the searing hot mass while my left landed a first blow that made its whole body shudder, then a second blow that caused its head to buckle. The frequency from its horns became chaotic, jumping between pitches, no longer searching just trying to do as much damage as possible.

My organs were liquefying. I could feel it. Blood filling spaces inside me that shouldn't have blood in them. The silver scales were buying me time but not much.

I squeezed every ounce of power I had and thrust downwards, [Folded Force] activated on impact.

The world was heat and sound and blood.

Something gave. For half a second everything stopped. The thrashing. The heat. The sound.

Then the monster went limp, and I vaguely realized my left arm was buried all the way to the bicep.

The D-class dropped like someone cut its strings, legs folding, body hitting the ground hard enough to crack the glass-sand. I went down with it, still holding the spine in one claw, jaws still locked on its shoulder.

D-class monster "Fissure Bull" defeated!
+11 AP 

Pick your Reward!
+26 AP / 'Tuning Horns' / P: 'Fire Blood' / 'Metal'

I rolled off and away from the body as it sizzled and frothed, turning into smoke. Everything inside me felt torn. [AP Consumption] was trying its best to use the meager 11 AP to patch up the complete clusterfuck inside my torso.

Damage Feedback Triggered: [+4 AP]
Damage Feedback Triggered: [+8 AP]
Damage Feedback Triggered: [+10 AP]
Damage Feedback Triggered: [+20 AP]
Damage Feedback Triggered: [+31 AP]

A wave of relief washed over me. I couldn't help but notice the system had kept that burst of AP in reserve. I gave it a tired thanks for having the foresight to hold onto it, otherwise I would've been forced to pick that +26 AP reward to keep myself from collapsing.

I sat on the glowing half-melted sand, watching the massive frame of the D-class as it kept evaporating in plumes of putrid smoke.

I roared with everything my abused lungs could give.

I'd won. Against a D-class. The monster categorization where human weaponry stopped being useful, the kind of monster that every manual classified as "run." And I'd won against that, on my own.

I breathed the searing hot air and tasted the salt. The bull had been twice the size of a transport bus, its frame dissolving into nothing but smoke. But I was waiting for my prize. Because D-class monsters and above, when they died, they left some part of themselves behind. So I stared, waited, counted the seconds, until all that was left from the massive bulky thing was one of its horns.

I picked it up and limped toward the edge of the crater. Triggered [Molt] one more time, then gathered up the silver scales I'd shed.

I sat there for a moment, horn clutched in one hand, scales in the other, breathing hard. My whole body ached in ways I didn't have words for. The autophagy had stopped gnawing at my gut, but everything else was screaming. My ribs felt like someone had used them as a xylophone. My organs were still settling back into their proper configurations. But I'd done it. I'd actually done it.

The roar I'd let out earlier felt distant now, replaced by bone-deep exhaustion and the creeping realization that I needed to move before something else showed up to investigate the noise.

I forced myself upright, gathered the scales properly, and limped toward the crater's edge.

Shadow was waiting for me at the crater's edge.

I released the transformation after climbing out of the half-molten sand. I could barely keep myself standing, but a shit-eating grin spread across my face.

"You bit it," she said, and I wasn't sure whether that was a compliment or not.

"Tasted good," I replied, dumping my treasure into the bag she'd produced.

She gave me a weird look, followed by a grimace. "Can you walk?"

"I'll manage."

Shadow tossed me some clothes and a mag-harness to fasten around my chest. "The extraction point is a kilometer north. There are some long-range-capable monsters in the approaching horde and we can't risk the AV."

She eyed the loaded bag.

I pulled it closer. "Noted," I said, meeting her gaze. Her shoulders sagged in a silent sigh. "We should get going."

My stomach growled.

Shadow paused. "I brought some protein buckets…"

Eyes narrowing, I reached into the bag and pulled out one of the silver scales. Shadow snatched it from my hand so fast I didn't see it. Then proceeded to hand me over a plastic bucket filled to the brim. "We should move," I insisted as I tore at the lid and began to snack on it, hoping it would last long enough that I wouldn’t get swindled on the way to the AV.

Once I got some painkillers and some rest, then I…

“Crap.”

“What is it?” Shadow had been focused on the scale, turning it this way and that before glancing my way.

“Just… something I’m not looking forward to,” I said with a groan.

The last proper conversation I had with Vesper had been in my monster form right after the C-class attack. She’d been keeping her distance while I’d been stuck probably out of convenience and basic opsec, but now that I was back to normal… yeah, this was going to be awkward.

----

AN:

Sorry for the delay, too many things coincided all at the same time.

In compensation, I'm opening up a possible story-influencing opinion.

Currently Axel has 10 Monster Traits: Blades, Shimmer, Obsidian, Prickly, Stinger, Molt, Surge, Unbreakable Bones, Stomach, and Webbing. Meaning that if he takes one of the traits from the D-class, he'd have to give one up. Should he take a trait? If yes, which one? I'm curious to see what you guys think!