Chapter 15: Chapter 0-15

While standing in front of a massive mantis shrimp with only a cobbled together spear, I came to the realization that I absolutely hate fighting things. It's much better to deal with your problems another way: negotiation, bribery, blackmail, and- although I don’t have personal experience with this last one- poisoning. Actually being in a position where things can kill you is very low on my priority list.

 

But here I am. While I have come to find I suck at effectively stabbing things without being hit in return, there were two things I was betting on in this instance. The first was the hope that it had a brain or something I could give a few pokes and be done with. I only have a foot more reach than the demon’s punchers, and after seeing what they do to concrete, I don’t want to have to see what they could do to flesh. 

 

The second was that I could use my Improvised Weapons perk to do more than just alter physical aspects. In that vein, I imparted my spear with the idea that it was ‘better at killing.’ Nothing really happened. A small portion of my dwindling ULE supply got consumed, and I got the feeling I was being too vague. As the oversized shrimp closed in a few more steps- now only just out of reach- I tried to make the spear ‘a really fucking powerful cattle prod’ while imagining arcs of electricity leaping from the tip for good measure.

 

Not bothering to confirm with my apparent innate sense to know if my magic worked or not, I took a step in and stabbed at the things horrifying face as hard as I could. By sheer blind luck, I managed to hit it in the mouth and get the tip stuck in its flesh. A fraction of a second later, all of my remaining ULE was sucked out of my body and channeled through the spear. Apparently I had a good amount left, because the clarity radiating from it lit up the entire garage- which acted more like a flashbang with the amount of information my brain now had to process. Just as quickly as it appeared, the clarity dissipated- ULE transmuting into electrical energy which coursed through the demon’s body.

 

Two thumps, louder than any of the ones before resonated through the space as all its muscles fired at once. The smell of overcooked seafood wafted over me as my returning senses gave me the impression of smoke rising from its head. Once the electricity had run its course, the demon collapsed- quickly followed by myself as all strength left my body and a migraine overcame me.

 

From where they sat on the seat of the running motorcycle, I could hear Cleo say, {Lucky for you, it looks like the constructor is more interested in getting through the gate than killing you. As far as your… fight with the destructor, there are so many things you need to improve on that I’ll hold off until we are somewhere safe. For now, crawl over here and refill a bit of your mana- your body now kinda requires it as an MG, and if you haven't noticed- you are unhealthily low on it.}

 

Not feeling up to trying to form words but also having too much pride to resort to crawling, I unsteadily got up and shambled my way over to the bike- only almost tripping twice in the ten foot journey. Once I was there, I started feeling better almost immediately. With each breath, I could sense some of the ULE radiating from the bike was drawn into me and circulated around with my blood. While I was waiting to feel more like a person than a potato, the constructor must have finally reached the gate and started to cut through. The sound of screeching metal was unpleasant to say the least, and from the limited amount I could make out it was really going at it.

 

After a few minutes, the demon had made a hole large enough for it to drag the car on its back through. I was happy when it didn’t even look back and just started walking away. Very slowly.

 

The fight had screwed with my perception of time, so there could be anywhere from five to ten minutes until the fourth wave appeared and I wanted to be out of here by then. Luckily for me, this fancy bike I now had could get up to 300 mph- which was terrifying to think about, wholly unnecessary, and unusable in the vast majority of circumstances. Before the subduction event released ULE, only the highest end sports cars could go that fast- but with the wonders of practically free energy I guess those past limitations are irrelevant.

 

I took a few minutes to refamiliarize myself with riding a motorcycle. Being ‘electric’ this model lacked a lot of the bits older designs needed. All I had to really worry about were the throttle, brakes, and balance, with everything else being handled by the onboard computer. Nice and simple if I ignored the fact I wasn’t wearing any riding gear and could only make things out to a distance of about thirty feet.

You are reading story A Guide to Safe Use of Magically Enhanced Chemical Weapons at novel35.com

 

“Got anything that will help me not crash or not die if I crash?” I asked, expecting that any perk would take a few minutes we didn’t have to apply.

 

{While there are a myriad of options that would improve your driving directly or indirectly, most would require you to practice with them before they were just another thing to think about. While many of the survivability perks are quicker to activate, if you crash, there will be so many parts of your body injured any individual perk wouldn’t help that much. My best advice would be to try to activate your costume.

{Since you now have the MG Suite turned on, you should have access to it. The only issue is that transformations are particularly strange magic. Once you know how to transform, it should be very easy to do so. The catch is that initially finding the trigger is a crapshoot. My only advice is that it is the answer to a question that is important to you.

{Before you ask- yes, it does have to be something you say out loud. And yes, people have lodged complaints like “that's cringe” or “this is super embarrassing to say.” There’s nothing we can do to change it.}

 

“Needed to get that last bit out of your system?” I replied as I straddled the bike. “Also, ‘a question that is important to you’? That could be anything from what I want for lunch to if I really think it's worth wasting so much money trying to keep my body from attacking itself.”

 

With a hint of a smile in their voice, Cleo said, {There have been a few cases where an MG’s transformation phrase was something along the lines of “pancakes.”}

 

That got a chuckle out of me as I gave the bike a little bit of throttle. The whirring of the turbine picked up a little and we started to roll. I kept us slow as we exited through the hole the constructor had made. That demon was now a dozen or so feet away, heading in the direction of the front entrance- so I decided to just ignore it.

 

I was still wary or going too fast with my limited range of perception, but sped up a bit to around twenty. At this speed I would have about a second to react to anything before I hit it. Not the best, but better than if I was gunning it. From the pulsing in my manasight, it appeared like the vast majority of the demons were staying in the building, and from what Cleo had said, probably making it as close to a fortress as their little minds could manage. There might have been a few out and about, but they probably wouldn’t bother us. 

 

The real problem right now was the environment. It was close to midnight in October- so the air was cold. Not having a proper jacket while going at a reasonable speed on a bike only made it colder. The bike was radiating a little heat, so I laid low on it; I didn’t need to use my eyes to see, so there wasn’t an issue with trying to stay behind the small windscreen and still be able to see. After only a few minutes, I was shivering like crazy- partially from the cold and partially from the adrenaline from the sheer danger of what I was doing. Like everything else that happened tonight, I would have never done this under other circumstances. The one silver lining was that it wasn’t raining and hadn’t been for the past few days, so I wasn’t in danger of sliding off the road on a patch of water or ice. 

 

As I wound my way down the road, I got used to the feeling of being on the edge of crashing and calmed down a little. I was still freezing, but I was getting to the point where that was numbing and just leaving me deeply tired once again. I knew that once I hit the main highway, there was a small town around ten miles north. Hopefully when I got there I could find somewhere to warm up and get a nice long sleep in. Everything else could be put on hold for a few… dozen… hours for all I cared.

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