Chapter 169: Chapter 163

At midnight, I stepped into an underground room, hidden beneath BlueCleave’s primary military base, in Prescott.

Rayna had led the way, unsealing a hatch, and walking down a staircase before shouting for us to follow. The room we clambered down into was like a plastic brick-laced box, carpeted in old BuyMort cardboard boxes. A small cargo elevator sat against the far wall and appeared to have seen recent use.

Large crates of PRDs and melee weapons were stacked against the walls, waiting for us.

Once everyone had come down into the oversized storage area, Tollya closed the door behind us, sealing it with the turn of a wheel. Fresh, night air flowed in to us from surrounding vents, none large enough to admit a reaper hound.

Rayna had chosen our arena well.

She and Tollya had briefed me on the plan for the meeting. The idea was to display our suit’s primary weakness, in a way no hobb wearing one could ignore. Then we trained them on how to fight while cut to ribbons, a skill they would all soon need.

I was no longer looking forward to it, and I was super glad I’d gotten some rest.

The troopers lined up against the walls, and Jada stood at the rear, near the ladder. Rayna stood with Tollya near the old cargo elevator and opened one of the stacked crates. I stood in the center of the room, where everyone could see me, and stripped off my shirt.

I wore a pair of basketball shorts, and my helmet. Taking in the looks on the hobbs around me, I started the meeting off.

“Tonight,” I said, my voice bouncing off the walls. “Tonight we teach you all something important about the suits. Something we should have taught you before you put them on. Something our enemies already know.”

Some muttered grumbling resonated in the chamber, and Rayna stepped forward. She handed Tollya a machete and raised her voice to the crowd. “You all hear true! No suit makes you immortal! Tollya show you.”

I gestured at Tollya and braced myself. The hobb woman charged, raising her blade. I summoned my breaker gauntlets and readied my defense.

She got past it, as I had expected, and lightly clipped the back of my knee in passing. I went down, and Tolly nimbly hopped back into range, slicing through my armpit.

“Look,” Rayna said. My warriors looked. “Tollya take right arm and cause major bleed. This what reaper hounds do. How they killed our tribe. Piece by piece. This how they mean to kill you!”

I raised my left arm and blocked the next blow, meant for my throat. Tollya’s machete came in too close, and I shrugged the tendril swarm in my right armpit toward her.

She dropped the handle of the machete as my tendrils enveloped it. My starfish suit shredded the weapon, letting the disparate pieces fall to the floor.

“See what suit does? Suit will help defend you, not just heal. But only if attacker inside range of tendrils,” Rayna shouted. “Listen to cartoon! It annoying, but it tell you what you need to stay alive. To stay in the fight.”

My own cartoon starfish appeared to drive home her point. It insisted I be careful and told me I would want to find some charge soon if this kind of damage kept up. I ignored it.

Tollya trotted back to Rayna’s side and grabbed another weapon from the crate. Our BlueCleave blacksmiths must have been busy, as she grabbed four machetes. The first two she tossed to me, the second pair she kept for herself.

I sighed and picked up the weapons. At a nod from me, Tollya charged.

I caught one of her blades with a counter, but she was simply better than me and got a blade through my midsection while avoiding my other blade entirely.

“Reaper hounds distract,” Rayna said. “You think they attack one way, but they attack behind it.”

Tollya turned and rushed me again. I readied my blades but fell for her obvious feint. Once both my arms were overextended, she stepped in behind me and clipped both armpits. My blades clattered to the floor.

“They disarm,” Rayna called.

Tollya didn’t let up this time, she sunk her machetes into the back of both my knees, and I toppled, strings cut.

“Make you helpless,” Rayna added.

My suit deployed tendrils and started on repairs, and once I could stand again, I retrieved my blades.

This time, when Tollya jogged toward me, I managed to catch both blades and divert them with my own. She kicked at the side of my foot in passing, and I slipped on the soggy, crimson-stained cardboard.

“They use your footing against you, use your suit against you,” Rayna called. “They know suit heal you! They work to waste it’s charge, not to hurt you. They work to kill, even if you wear starfish! Because you wear starfish!”

The fog of painkiller overwhelmed me, and I roared at Tollya as I stood again, tendrils swirling.

Behind me, through it all, I heard Rayna add, “They smart. BuyMort-smart, use your rage against you.”

Tollya neatly skipped past my lunging blow, before dragging her blade across my wrist and disarming me again.

The suit deployed more tendrils, and I roared again. I swept my remaining blade wide, with a furious blow that caught Tollya across her thighs.

Her armored pants sparked as she was thrown back. I lurched into the air above her and slammed downward, blade extended. Tollya grinned and shoved back hard, scooting free as I landed. My blade snapped as it dug into the plasticrete floor, and I cast it aside, blood pounding in my temples.

“Don’t lose control,” Rayna said, as Tollya neatly cut my throat while rolling away. “Reaper hounds won’t.”

Tollya didn’t let up there. She slashed at my armpits, then across the back of my thighs. Finally, she pinned me to the floor with her blades, before skipping away to the crates.

I gurgled, spraying more blood in the air as I snapped both blades and rolled over. Tollya returned with two machetes, and I focused on my gravitic drive. As her blades plunged down, I fell across the floor to avoid them.

My tendrils repaired the ligaments in my legs, and I rose to my feet, arms dangling limply at my sides and painkiller clouding my mind.

“You are BlueCleave!” Rayna roared, as I activated my drive and plunged toward Tollya. “Not mindless animals! You can cheat!”

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I slammed into Tollya, accepting both blades through my midsection as I grabbed her by the shoulders and swung us around, before throwing her at the wall.

Her body cracked audibly as she struck, and I floated in the middle of the air. I couldn’t hover intentionally, but when caught up in a moment of violence, my mind simply knew how to control the drive.

“Use BuyMort! Use your brains!” Rayna roared. “Cheat! Do not fight on their terms, fight on yours!”

My suit sawed the machetes apart and dragged them out of my torso, spaying flesh foam and lasering the wounds, while I hovered above the blood-spattered floor.

Tollya laughed, picked herself up, and rushed me. She went to her knees and slid under me, dragging her hand through my blood.

When I turned, she flicked it into my face, covering a portion of my helmet, and blocking my view.

“Reapers make you bleed, so use it against them! Find them with it. Make them step through it, whatever you can do!” Rayna called.

I wiped the blood off my faceplate and growled. The sound echoed off the walls.

“Reaper hounds distort light!” Rayna shouted. “Don’t trust your eyes.”

Tollya smiled, pressed something at the center of her vest, and vanished.

“Hear them!” Rayna called. “Feel them!”

I landed on the ground, suddenly aware that I had been hovering. The awareness seemed to knock me out of the ability, and Tollya took advantage. Her blades were invisible, and she cut me from the front and back at the same time.

My cartoon appeared again. “Okay user! This is too much, I’ll need a recharge. Break something user, break something!”

I raised a lip and waited. The instant I felt the next attack, I lunged, and caught Tollya by the arm.

Invisible, she whirled and took a wild slash at my elbow. I hauled back and her blade bounced harmlessly off my gauntlet.

“They have blades on long arms,” Rayna informed the gathered group. “Catch them, you catch the hound.”

I whirled and tossed Tollya at a nearby wall. Her invisibility cut out as she impacted and I leapt at her, driving my knee into her ribcage hard enough to crack the wall behind her.

She coughed and dropped, wheezing as her suit got to work repairing her torso.

Scollya, Tollya’s sister, stepped forward, but a harsh look from Rayna stopped her.

“Don’t let up, if you get one,” the tribe leader said, looking me in the eyes.

I slammed an elbow into Tollya’s throat, and her eyes bulged. With a lazy right, I dislocated her knee, and the hobb woman went down.

“Maim, cripple, hurt them however you can,” Rayna said.

My painkiller receded, and I dismissed the gauntlets. Tollya gasped on the floor as her MK-1 suit popped a new larynx in.

“And most important part of reaper hound fighting!” Rayna shouted, getting the rooms attention again. “Never forget your charge!” She swept open the lid to the PRD case, exposing the little glinting glass tails to light.

“Break anything to charge. With your hands, feet, or head, break their bones if nothing else!” she shouted. “Reaper hounds rely on wearing down your charge, so don’t let them!”

I slowly walked over to the case and crushed a PRD’s tail in my hand. My cartoon starfish gasped and started gyrating beside Rayna. “Thank you user! All charged up!”

The hobbs in the room were all staring at me, so I dismissed my helmet and showed them my face. “These enemies are here for us, specifically. They will draw us out, pick us off, and destroy our reputation across the multiverse. Reaper hounds can control who and what sees them, at will. They were sent here as a message, from our enemies in Dearth. They mean to kill us all. Don’t let them kill you.”

My message delivered, I sat down on an unused crate and sighed. The example was dramatic enough that our troopers wouldn’t be thinking of much else until the reaper hound threat was neutralized. 

That had been our goal, and why I’d agreed to getting my ass kicked.

I hadn’t expected to be schooled so completely. I’d seen Rayna and Tollya sparring before too, if they’d both attacked me at once, I’d have stood no chance at all.

Tollya walked over next and crushed a PRD tail, giggling lightly at the soft explosion in the containment foam. She sat down on the crate beside me and rubbed at the back of her head, which was now hairless. It clashed with her usual undercut but would only take a few days to grow back.

“Skull fracture cheating,” she quipped.

“Hey, you chose not to wear a helmet. And besides, we agreed ‘no holds barred,’” I replied.

Tollya snorted and nodded. “Think it work,” she whispered. “Hobbs love a good fight.”

I looked in their eyes and saw the truth of it. The shine in their eyes and exposed teeth coupled with the heavy breathing in the room, and the looks of awe cast at Tollya and me. My hobbs were all drunk on the blood in the air and ready to cut each other up for fun.

 

 

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