Chapter 31: Chapter 31: Time to Take Charge.

Chapter 31: Time to Take Charge.

 

Jack threw up twice as Eleanor piloted Lovelace to dance, spin and zig-zag gracefully through the horde of Demonspawn rushing them from all directions. Trampling any that neared to close while Jack thinned their numbers with gunfire and wind blades.

"Why are there so many of them?!" Jack yelled in frustration as he tossed away yet another gray metal rifle magazine and slammed a fresh one into the smoking gun. He'd already run through thousands of bullets with only two magazines left, yet despite his constant barrage of metal and magic the horde didn't seem to be thinning out or giving up their pursuit.

“Jack! You wouldn’t happen to have any long-range devastating abilities that I don’t know about would you? Any secret powers?”

“Sara! Do I have any long-range devastating abilities I can use?!” Jack asked while attempting to keep himself from throwing up again. Sahaqiel nonchalantly dangled her legs off the back of the machine without a care in the world before shaking her head with a “Nope.” at Jack.

“What she said!”

“Well then this is going to suck for both of us Jack! Hit the green button on your harness and hold on!”

“What? What's going to suck?” Jack asked in confusion before turning his head to see that they were heading straight toward a cliff that led to near bottomless chasm below. “No! No no! nonononono! No WAI-”

The Mechframe leaped, with the twenty-ton machine immediately plummeting straight into a canyon below. Jack’s heart pounded in his ears as the wind smacked into his face. He was screaming the entire way down but the sound of the rushing wind drowned out his desperate cry of "Why?!"

Suddenly a bone-white spike ricocheted off of Lovelace’s crimson carapace, nearly hitting Jack and jolting him from his panic. He turned and eyed the culprits with a scowl. The leathery bats were still in pursuit, but this time they had grown white spots across their bodies and had begun firing bone projectiles at the falling duo.

“Piss off!” Jack yelled, turning his rifle and shooting at the creatures attacking him. When several bonespikes nearly hit him, Jack could feel his mana being drained before the spikes inexplicably veered off course.

Sahaqiel is that you doing that?

“Jack, just keep shooting! I’ll try and divert any of the spikes heading your way!”

“Since when can you use my abilities?!”

“Don’t worry about it! Just keep shooting!”

Jack kept his finger on the trigger until the gun made the familiar click and went to replace the magazine, but suddenly a force slammed into his back making the teen go “oof” as the mechframe altered their trajectory. Lovelace's rear thrusters came to life as Lieutenant Eleanor activated them, halting their escalating freefall and turning it into a rapid glide toward the ravine below.

Getting his bearings to stabilize himself, Jack momentarily froze at the view. Gliding several thousand feet in the air gazing down, It was beautiful or would be if the bone-spikes being shot at him weren’t constantly interrupting his vision.

The duo hit the rocky riverbank, hard, but thanks to the shock absorbers and hydraulics of Lovelace’s legs, Jack hardly felt the impact. They were still being chased though, with a number of flying abominations still hot on their trail, but at least they had eluded the massive swarm on the cliff allowing most of the stress to fall off of Jack’s shoulders.

Eleanor kept the machine going, scaling several scraggy brown rocks and heading straight for a bundle of trees ahead as Jack slapped another magazine into his gun.

“Great more forest,” Jack murmured upon seeing their destination.

After a combination of gunning, running, and generally fleeing for their lives for several hours the duo finally stumbled into a golden meadow, free of any demon spawn.

“Ugh. Finally,” Jack groaned before uncoupling himself from Lovelace’s back and rolling to the ground where he immediately began vomiting on the grassy terrain. “I hate… I hate cars. What's the point of inertia resistance if it doesn’t-”

Before Jack could continue his whining he vomited again. His inertia resistance leveled up and so did his wind blade, it would have been a cause for celebration if not for the tangy sour taste coating his lips.

“Don’t get that all over Lovelace please,” Eleanor chastised as the cockpit opened and she exited from the machine.

“Maybe if you piloted-” Before Jack could form a rebuttal the Pilot stumbled, crumbling to the ground like a wet blank where she began seizing on the ground.

“Lieutenant!” Jack scrambled to the woman’s side, putting her in his arms as he tried to pry her helmet off to get her fresh air. “Why won’t this helmet come off?!”

Suddenly Lovelace shifted, the twenty ton machine stepping forward and kneeling down in front of the pair where its head opened up and produced a red sensor that focused on Jack.

“Good evening recruit Jack Knight. Lieutenant Belfusa is currently suffering from Nerv overload. Please disengage the helmet via the mechanism on the base of the helmet. Failure to do so in a timely manner may result in my Pilot’s termination.”

Jack hastily followed the instruction, feeling around the back of the helmet until he felt a switch and flipped it, removing the woman’s helmet with an audible click and tossing it away.

The woman was corpse-like, with blood leaking out of her nose and dribbling onto Jack as he tried to ponder what he could do to bring the woman back. Then it hit him, he was a Mender!

Jack wasted no time and touched the woman’s chest firmly, activating the trigger for mend.

Suddenly a stream seemed to erupt from his body and connect to Eleanor. It was tiny, but he could feel it. Mana. His flowing into her.

Within moments the color of the woman’s skin seemed to return, with the Lieutenant waking up not long after.

“So I Overloaded huh?” Eleanor said as her eyes fluttered open. She wiped the blood off her face before pushing herself away from Jack and using a nearby tree to stand up.

You are reading story Awakening The Angel System (LITRPG): S1 The Great Escape/RE/EDITED/SH VERS. at novel35.com

“Hey, careful. You should rest Lieutenant!”

“So you know how to heal?” Eleanor said, ignoring Jack’s cry, and picking up her discarded helmet. “Wonder what else you can do.”

Eleanor tried to climb onto Lovelace but the machine moved away.

“What are you doing?”

“Lieutenant Belfusa, per protocol one I can not allow you access to my controls until you are fit to fly. Please sit-”

“Override Code Lyn Zero-One-One. Unlock cockpit.” Suddenly the machine knelt with its cabin unsealing.

“Please Belfusa. Consider your health.” Lovelace pleaded, yet Eleanor ignored the Machine, already pressing buttons within the cockpit even as blood trickled from her nose. She almost stumbled out of the machine but managed to catch herself at the last second.

“Lieutenant!” Jack yelled as the woman clutched her face in pain.”You can’t keep doing this. if piloting is hurting you we should rest!”

“No!” Eleanor snarled putting out a bloodied hand to stop Jack from removing her from the machine. “Just… We can’t. Not unless we want to die. The swarm has our scent now and we’re still half a day away from the relay station. Just a little bit further.”

"Sahaqiel, is there anything we can do?"

[If we were stronger I could analyze what's wrong. However, the best we can do is mend but it won't cure whatever it is she going through.]

Jack reached out for Eleanor's pale face.

"What are you-" before she could finish her protest Jack planted both hands on the side of her temples and activated mend.

The blonde woman obliged, allowing herself to relax as Jack's Mana trickled into her again.

"Wind, fire, healing, and bodily transformations..." Eleanor muttered. "What kind of wonder class did she give you?"

Jack pondered her words, realizing she didn’t know as much as he thought she did.

How much does she know? What did you tell her? Jack asked internally.

[I told her that you were blessed by the heavens, that you were chosen to be my champion to root out the evil that exists in the world and restore it to its natural balance.]

What?! You make it sound like I'm some sort of hero! That's not even remotely true at all!

[Isn't it? You're blessed by my presence, a true Awaken from Heaven and your pact with me is to find the Smiling man. A figure of evil and help me get revenge for his actions. Seems pretty spot on to me.]

Now that Jack thought about it, technically Sahaqiel was right. He didn't know about being blessed by the heavens though, it felt more like being cursed. Ever since his meeting with the angel his days had been filled with nothing but high tensions, stress, and mostly running and fighting for his life.

"My fault for wanting a change of pace."

"What?" Eleanor asked as she slumped over in the cockpit, fighting to stay awake.

"Nothing, just thinking to myself. Lieutenant, you should rest. Can't Lovelace move on its own? I can ride on top and deal with any monsters that come."

Before Eleanor could protest, Lovelace Interjected. "Lieutenant Belfusa. You are in no state to pilot. I recommend proceeding with Recruit Knight's suggestion."

Sahaqiel appeared next to Jack, adding her own voice to the duo pleading with the woman to stand down. She was breathing heavily but opened her eyes to gaze at Jack intently.

"I… Fine." Suddenly Eleanor sprung forward in a burst of energy and grabbed Jack by the back of his neck, yanking him close. "Jack, listen to me… Lovelace can't fight as well or maneuver quickly without me on the controls. The best he can do is keep the machine moving. You'll have to do all the fighting... Do you understand?"

"Yes Lieutenant. I understand, just rest. Please." Jack said gently, lowering the woman into the black seat before crawling out as the woman muttered "Just a little bit further."

The cockpit sealed with Lovelace standing up and holding an arm out for Jack to mount up.

Jack hooked himself on the machine and tapped on Lovelace. "Let's go, Lovelace, we need to get the Lieutenant some help."

"Yes, Recruit Knight. I concur."

The machine wirred to its feet, taking off slowly through the woods at a considerably slower speed. And not a moment too soon.

Demonic screeching echoed out as they moved through the forest, making Jack grimace as a bone spike impaled itself into a nearby tree.

"Lovelace, go faster!" Jack yelled as he readied a wind blade at the pack of Hounds hot on their trail.

You can find story with these keywords: Awakening The Angel System (LITRPG): S1 The Great Escape/RE/EDITED/SH VERS., Read Awakening The Angel System (LITRPG): S1 The Great Escape/RE/EDITED/SH VERS., Awakening The Angel System (LITRPG): S1 The Great Escape/RE/EDITED/SH VERS. novel, Awakening The Angel System (LITRPG): S1 The Great Escape/RE/EDITED/SH VERS. book, Awakening The Angel System (LITRPG): S1 The Great Escape/RE/EDITED/SH VERS. story, Awakening The Angel System (LITRPG): S1 The Great Escape/RE/EDITED/SH VERS. full, Awakening The Angel System (LITRPG): S1 The Great Escape/RE/EDITED/SH VERS. Latest Chapter