SlaughterBot

90: New World, New People

‘What are they talking about now?’ Jo whispered.

‘Food, sounds like they’re running low.’ Beth wore a focused expression, frowning towards the door as though able to see through it. Which, somehow, it seemed like she could.

‘And him?’ asked Jo.

‘Sitting, thinking I guess. I can’t read his emotions. He’s… better at using this thing than I am.’ Beth’s face creased in an irritated frown.

‘Just need to practise.’ Jo smiled at her sister. ‘Yo...

89: Nicolai, Ear of Kindly Sympathy

Outside, he set Kleos onto a handy table where it could watch proceedings. John started towards him but Nicolai waved him off. ‘A moment,’ he said, pulling Jo into a quiet corner of the main area.

‘I’m guessing you’ve not told her about what you had to do, to get all those Seeds,’ he began, his voice quiet, below the hearing of the others.

She shook her head, mute, her emotions a writhing mess of guilt and self-loathing.

Nicolai frowned, momentarily uncertain. So...

88: Sibling Struggles

After a time, as the Integration continued, Beth’s moans of pain turned into gasps of pleasure. Nicolai recalled how he’d felt in the same moment as the consuming pleasure of the finalising change wracked his body. There was a vague pulse of voyeuristic lust within him which he stamped to death, and he politely turned his head away as her writhing took on a different cadence.

He busied himself examining the room. They had quite a few helpful little things. A medkit, which Jo was kee...

87: Minions

Nicolai was feeling very pleased with himself as he left. He’d used up his two remaining Contracts, but he felt it well worth it.

He’d already seen how effective the woman, Jo, was with her sniper. Under other circumstances he’d have taken it for himself, simply because he tended to believe in his own abilities above others. That, in fact, had been his original intention. But since he’d been able to get her under a Contract, bound to aid him in combat, he figured leaving her wit...

86: Contractual Capture

Jo moved quickly, jogging through the castle, her drone moving out in front of her. She knew this latest haul of crystals wouldn’t be enough, but until she reached her sister she could pretend to herself that they would.

She slid through the crack in the wall concealed behind the tapestry, ignored the cruel murmurs of the painting as she always did, now, and ran up the stairs. As she went the same terror as always rose within her. Beth was no longer able to lock and re-open the door b...

85: Coin Flip

‘Don’t go,’ broke in a new voice, and Nicolai looked up to see Cait looking at him. The squirming of the dark in its cage faded as his attention shifted away from it. ‘We don’t all agree on this,’ she said, and glanced at John, eyebrows raised. Her throat flexed as though speaking. Communicating to the man privately over Local.

What was she saying?

‘What are you saying?’ he asked, surprising himself.

She frowned at him.

‘You’re talking to him.’ He...

84: FPS Player

‘What about the guy who ran?’ Nicolai continued his questions, gesturing behind the Chosen field leader, to the tunnel the only survivor of her group had ran through.

She threw a glance over her shoulder, following his pointing finger, an unconscious reaction.

There was a flicker of metal, the rapier springing from its sheath as Nicolai made a twisting gesture which ended in a strike. The rapier moved through the air in mimic, whip-snap, and it slammed through her throat.

83: Vikrum

‘This is Vikrum. Everyone, get back here. Now. We have a problem.’

The Radio receiver clicked and Vikrum placed it aside.

‘Are they all gathered?’ He glanced at Katnin, his second in command, doing his best to wrestle his anxiety down.

The red-haired woman was peeking out the door, and his gaze lingered on her back, every detail apparent from the skin-tight bodysuit she wore. Over her head floated blue limned words: Loyal - Pillar.

‘All the ...

82: Bullet Dodger

Bullets snapped around him, cratering the walls, chips of stone raining from where they impacted. None of them touched Nicolai. He was behind a column, a grin on his face.

Nicolai felt achingly, gloriously alive. The gunshots and the chips of stone pattering on his back and the smell of blood and rapier floating beside him were all part and parcel, connected, wrapped in this beautiful moment. The Thrill had come to life and his Soul burned with it in endless, hungry delight. 2024-05-08 16:03:01 +0000 UTC View Post

81: Guns and Bombs

Wearing everything of use, Nicolai lurked in the crack like a spider, peering down into the Gauntlet.

The big skeleton was pressed up against the tunnel out. When he’d began watching, he’d seen a few bullets blast through it, splinters of bone spraying out whilst it flailed with anger. From what he’d seen, getting shot had had little effect on it.

But as he watched, he heard a detonation and saw a flash of light from beneath it, and the whole mass of it roiled, bone flying i...

80: Treasure Hunter

He hadn’t been at his practise for long, less than a minute, but already Nicolai had drained the two Oma crystals and his Node was guttering, almost out of Oma.

Regretfully, he returned to the ground and recalled his rapier. He cancelled the shield then breathed in the Oma that was released. He moved to end the Searchlight ring’s Art, but at the last moment he paused.

The pale light it released filled the room, and something had caught his eye, glittering in that light. Nicola...

79: Kleos Observes

Nicolai snatched his glove from the ground and tugged it on. Immediately he felt it, connected to it, and the same blue lines as always crawled through it as he injected Oma into it and shaped the Art.

‘Curved,’ he murmured, focusing intently, and the shimmering disc of energy appeared. He twisted it critically, checking it over. Still not as curved nor as pointy in the centre as he wanted. But, it was significantly better than his last try. His ability to shape th...

78: New Powers

Nicolai tapped the Blue Hornet, thinking I choose you. Immediately the statue shrank away, the other Symbiotes disappearing, and at the same time a new hand emerged from the statue, holding a small pouch which Nicolai, teeth grit, struggled to grab.

The reason for his struggle was the electricity surging through his body.

The Blue Hornet had immediately sunk its pincer-like mandibles into the flesh of his finger, its wings humming and crackling with energy, then blasted h...

77: Snake, Hornet, Water

[Author note: for those who saw the last chapter right after it was posted, I've made a small change since then. Now, he cleans himself immediately, so he's not covered in filth the whole time lol. Just to help with your mental image]

‘There’s a mask on my face,’ Nicolai managed. ‘It’s my mask, my mask is real. It’s, Kleos, it exists. It’s real. It’s making me feel things.’

‘I don’t… I don’t understand.’

‘B...

76: Cultivator

Nicolai felt the Seed’s eagerness and desire to start, pushing out from it, pressing against his mind from the other side of their connection. It knew it was in the right place, it knew it was ready, but it required his permission and it was begging him to grant it.

Nicolai gave it a brief pulse of affirmation, feeling just as eager himself. The Seed’s Soul Sense tendrils snapped back into it from where they’d been passively spreading in response to his unconscio...

75: Free to Soar

[Author Note: MAKE SURE YOU READ CHAPTER 74 FIRST (below)

By the grace of a Patreon update that broke things and published this chapter early, today is a double chapter day.

Chapter releases will continue as normal so there will be 4 in total this week, and the Patreon will henceforth be +11 chapters ahead of the free release.]

Back upstairs, John talked to the rest about what had happened, about the Chosen, while Cait ...

74: Just as Suspected

Nicolai encountered no issues in the night. He awoke rested to the light of the torch. He was filled with a nervous energy, like a child on Christmas day, eager for what was to come.

After taking Kleos from it’s jar, force of habit drew him through his morning routine, calming his mind and readying his body as he exercised then went through forms with the rapier.

As he did so, he observed the movements of those outside, and detected someone trying to open the main door. He could...

73: Disagreement

‘If anyone harms Kleos, I will kill them.’

The fading echo of Nicolai’s words was still faintly audible in the room. The others were staring at him, shocked.

From how taken aback they seemed in response to what he’d said, Nicolai realised he might have been a little too straight in his language. But if Kleos was harmed, it could lead to Nicolai facing Heaven’s judgement for a broken Contract. Better to be too clear, than not clear enough.

‘He is our guide and kno...

72: Home at Last

Nicolai’s Seed’s strain was increasing, and he knew it was nearing its limit. Perhaps this is unwise? But he wanted to know what was up the crack, and now was a good time to check.

He floated up and into the crack. He found the stone around him close, pressing, a vertical climb before him. He pulled his poncho out of his way, dug his feet and hands into the stone around him then deactivated the ring, gravity pulling on him once more, but he set himself, pushing on either si...

71: Nicolai, the Hero

‘Do you trust him?’ Perro asked Azure, sending his virtual voice message through their connection.

‘No. He’s a creepy asshole and he took my ring. But what choice do we have? We need a safe place. The barricades almost broke last night.’

Perro nodded to himself as he stuffed his things into his backpack. ‘His eyes are dead,’ he said, and shivered.

‘We’ll have to see what my dad decides about him, if he can stop being a pussy a...