Chapter 14: Chapter 0-14

“Thanks and fuck you,” I replied as I backed away from where the pulsing in my perception was telling me the demons were. If they were both like the previous constructors I had encountered, they would be slow and direct- which would give me plenty of time to figure out how to deal with them.

 

All I have on me as a weapon is my beat up pocket knife. If their armor was too tough it would snap, and given that it is actually a weapon, I likely couldn’t buff it with my Improvised Weapons perk. Combined with my newly increased strength, only purpose built weapons or things I buff to be more resilient would last if I tried fighting with them. With this in mind, I attempted to scan the room with my manasight but objects just blurred into indistinct shapes if they were smaller than my margin of error- which was now down to about five and a bit feet. I could make out the shapes of the cars that hadn’t been taken by the group that just left me here, but I definitely wasn’t strong enough to push- let alone lift- one and try to use it as a weapon. I couldn’t even steal one and run the bugs over because they were all new ULE powered designs that didn’t have ignition switches to hotwire.

 

“Hey, Cleo? Can you see if there’s any pipes or debris laying around?” Then as I remembered about it, I held up the key I had intended to look into. “And maybe see if there's something in here that has a logo matching the one on this.”

 

As they used some of my ULE to manifest their mouth, I was surprised at how well I could perceive them. Unlike everything else, I would actually say that it was close to sight. I could clearly tell where their mouth was, what shape it was, and even the color of it. It was a little disconcerting being aware of all sides of it at once including the manifested interior- but I guess that’s just how this worked. As I focused a little harder, I could tell they were shedding some of that clarity in a small radius around them as some of the ULE holding their body in this plane was shed to the surroundings.

 

When they moved away a few steps, the small zone of clarity illuminated the leg of one of the demons- apparently much closer than I had guessed. I took a few hurried steps back, and could hear the sound of something solid hitting the ground hard around where I had been. A few flecks of concrete pattered against me as they were blown away from the force of the impact. That must have been the destructor. Definitely don’t want to be hit by that, even if Cleo thinks I could live through it.

 

The last few moments had given me an idea: if things with a lot of ULE acted as ‘lights’ to my new sense, then if I imparted some into an object, it would ‘light up’ an area for me. Taking a few steps back and placing a hand on the ground, I imagined a specific circle of concrete as my ‘weapon’ and pushed some thoughts of brightness into it. The circle I had imagined became more clear in my senses, but not by much. Also, the circle was more of a fuzzy amoeba than anything. The important thing was that my idea had worked- the only issue was that I couldn’t just radiate it myself, and my only way of pushing it into something was through weapon buffs. 

 

Done with that, I decided it was time to move again. By now I had circled halfway around the garage, but with how slow and stupid the demons were that wasn’t an issue. I could just walk circles for days and probably not get caught. Well, at least for another dozen minutes until wave four probably spawned things that were designed for combat.

 

As I was trying to figure out exactly how much time was left, Cleo finally reported in, {Silvia, I have found what the key goes to. It's a fancy looking sportbike. Must have been designed by a particularly crazy human because it looks like it has a jet turbine instead of an engine.}

 

“Oh yeah, It must be one of the current-year designs based on the winner of last year’s MotoGP+. You’re correct: It actually is a jet engine built to run on atmospheric ULE so they save weight on batteries. On the lower end of their output, the power is used to spin the back wheel like other bikes. But when you want to go fast, it uses all its power for thrust and just has the wheels so you can steer the thing. There is some legal debate going on as to if they’re even road legal. 

“My dad was offered the chance to switch to one for his racing, but mom vetoed that so he wouldn’t be tempted to see how fast it could go and become a meat-pancake. That got him bumped back down to MotoGP. Super cool design, though.”

 

During my long-winded explanation, I was forced to move again. The demon sounded like it was getting frustrated- repeatedly smashing the ground as it moved. In all this time, the construct had only moved a few feet- heading towards the garage’s gate. The bastards that left me here had closed it on their way out.

 

Once again reaching out to me, Cleo asked, {It might be the only way we can get out of here besides running. Do you know how to ride a motorcycle?}

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“Oh yeah, I’ve always been interested in them. Before I was repeatedly confined to a hospital, my dad secretly helped me practice and get a license while my mom was out of the country on business. She wasn’t happy about that…”

 

I focused on where Cleo was and started to make my way over. They had helpfully inserted the key into the ignition for me, so when I reached the bike I gave it a quick turn. Like with how Cleo had become much more clear, the bike lit up like a beacon to senses. The clarity it shed allowed me to notice the piping running over its parking spot. As it was the only weapon-like thing around, I jumped up and tried to pull a section off.

 

All it did was bend slightly, even when I pulled as hard as I could. I guess it was made to resist erosion and wear…

 

Another idea flashed into my head and I infused the pipe with weakness and yanked again. This time, it bent and crumpled in my fist a little- but didn’t break off. With no better ideas, I pushed the idea harder and tried again. It glowed brightly with mana and tore like thick cardboard. Water immediately poured out of the break, soaking me and the grounder under me. Now wet but riding the high of my idea working, I grabbed at where it had bent from the weight of me hanging off it and repeated my process. When I fell back to the ground, I was triumphantly holding a three foot section of piping with crumbled ends.

 

Looking around again, the bike’s radiance gave me a rough idea of the destructor a few dozen feet away. Now that I could ‘see’ clearly, it looked like a giant mantis shrimp- big punching legs-things and all. One of those legs tensed up for a fraction of a second before slamming into the ground, creating a small creator and the thumping sound I had been hearing as it moved. Seeing that gave me pause on getting near it, but I steeled myself in preparation of going in anyway.

 

With a bit of will, I infused my pipe with resilience and ran at the demon. It almost looked surprised- if a car-sized mantis shrimp could look surprised. Not wanting to trade blows, I ran to its side and stayed there as it tried to turn to face me. I spent a painful handful of seconds just trying to get in position for a good hit before bringing it down on the demon's back. There was a crack definitely quieter than its own impacts that left only a small dent in the shell and made my wrists sore. I stepped back and to the side to stay away from its punchers and tried to come up with a better approach.

 

There was no way I could brute-force my way through, but the clarity emitted by the pipe had revealed that the shell was sectioned like the shrimp it was apparently based on. Between the plates would be weaker, but the pipe was too thick to wedge in the gap. I could try my knife, but if it wasn’t affected by my buffs, it would just break. While I continued to back up and circle, I properly investigated the knife. It was chipped where it had hit the dog-demons ribs, and had some of the coating melted off from its time in my improvised chemical weapon’s cloud. Importantly, the handle was just a bit smaller than the opening at the end of the pipe- even with it being a bit crumpled.

 

I bet that if the knife was part of a jankier whole, it would be improvised enough for my perk and jammed it in the end of the pipe. After a few stomps, the pipe had deformed around the handle and I had the worst looking spear I had ever had the misfortune of seeing, let alone using. A quick infusion of durability appeared to affect the whole thing and I stepped back into range.

 

I held my contraption like a javelin over my head and added ‘penetration’ alongside the durability buff. The repeated use of ULE had left me feeling a bit empty, so I needed to deal with this quickly before I ran out. Staying to the demon’s side, I once again spent an uncomfortably long time lining up the tip with a crack before pressing in as hard as I could. There was a little resistance before the blade slipped in up to the pipe, causing the demon to thrash around wildly.

 

In the sudden flurry of motion, I was flung away but managed to keep hold of the spear- ripping it back out. Much to my frustration, the demon didn’t appear to be too bothered and only a little fluid leaked from the wound. As much as I wanted to play it safe, I probably wouldn’t be able to inflict any meaningful damage without hitting something important- which meant I was best off aiming for the head.

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