While waiting and transiting between our meetings, I spent the hours in-between creating the System Mana equivalent of pre-packaged viruses and code. It was a strange thing to build such code in twists of System Mana that’s connected to me and my personal Status Sheet. Each program I formed and stored was loaded into a separate location on my sheet, hidden from normal viewing and access and yet, there in my new Skill Edit sense.
Just as interestingly, the act of creation and storage of such programs gave me experience in my Class. Not a lot, not nearly as much as actually processing and interacting with the System outside of myself did—not like the flood of experience I gained from touching the Shop for example—but it did give experience.
And in so doing, made me wonder if I was wrong. If that was the way you’d Level the Class. By creating programs and viruses in one own’s Status Sheet, not exploring anything beyond that.
Except of course, the flood of System Mana was still significant. Perhaps not enough to bother me as a Heroic, but for a Basic? Certainly too much. But perhaps a Master Class.
I’m not certain, like so many other things, so I can only prepare myself. Prepare such that when I access the Shop, I breach the defenses, clear the logs, and slide in to deposit my note, it happens in one continuous surge of energy and concentration.
And then, I exit, long before the Mana accumulation is sufficient to injure me. It helps that this particular program-cum-note is simple. Left in the administrative section of the Shop’s interface, where a cursory check would find it.
A simple program with an eye-catching title—”Hey Assholes!”—where a single program repeatedly forms a single sentence and appends it into the end of the note. A single sentence repeated over and over. Taking up more and more resources, the way a virus would. A single, direct sentence.
Let’s talk.
Chapter 13
They find me as we travel through the air. Rather than deal with the delays and waits while using public transportation, I’ve rented an aircar. Being able to head straight for the location I want is so much more convenient, even if you have to provide your route beforehand.
In this case, we’re headed out of the city again. It’s late at night, which doesn’t mean as much as you’d think with people with high Constitutions, an overcrowded metropolis, and nocturnal inhabitants. But it is quieter, and since I’m looking for another Shop access to check on my messages, I’m moving through less savory parts.
What that translates to in terms of the environment are shorter buildings—only twenty stories tall or so—with a lot less air traffic. And what air traffic there is, it’s in vehicles like mine. Solo flying permits are just too expensive for those here.
My first clue is Ali, who is watching a reality TV show about hot men and women vying for attention on a deserted island. I’m not sure which one it is, and really, I don’t care. I do care when he stops spinning in place and stills, head tilting.
“We have multiple Class Skill lock-ons.” Even as Ali speaks, he’s drawing upon my Skills and tossing a Soul Shield on me.
I trigger a secondary shield option on one of the rings I wear, a cheap ablative Shield meant for an Advanced Classer.
Not a moment too soon, as the aircar shatters around me. A glowing comet slams into the body of the car, the glow from the dropping orbital cutting through the thick, durasteel armoring of the aircar moments before the impact arrives. Durasteel melts and tears apart, whereupon the heat and illumination of the comet fills the inside of the car. Overheated air expands, tearing the car apart as kinetic energy imparts through the still falling attack.
I am smashed aside by the approaching shockwave, then burnt from the contact heat. Leather seats smolder and crisp, my shields fall, and even a hasty addition to my Soul Shield barely lasts as I’m thrown aside.
On instinct, I conjure my sword and throw out a Blade Strike, realizing only too late what I’ve done. My attack tears at the comet as it begins its return journey, turning about in space at an unnatural angle. For a moment, the glow around the comet parts and I get to see within. As flames disperse, I see the wide-eyed visage of a golden-haired, masked female with ram horns before the flames close again and the cut I’ve made is sealed by heat and flame.
As I tumble through the air, the second attack arrives soon after the first. This time around, it’s a giant green hand that swats me out of the sky, the green energy clinging to me as I spin through the air in another trajectory. In a corner of my eyes, a notification flashes as I attempt to locate my attackers.
Lantern of Decay Resisted
“Got him. Keep being a good punching bag, will you? I’ll find the others soon,” Ali sends to me, highlighting my second attacker.
I tumble through the air, dealing with the now multifarious green hands that bat me away from the edges of buildings and keep me in the center of the open space I’ve been forced into. I get to casting, ignoring the burning, cloying green energy of decay that wraps around my shields, around me.
First comes Fates Thread, anchoring the comet to me. Then I toss Toothy Knives, a couple embedded with Cleave. The melee attack slams into the poor bastard, distracting her from me reeling her in. Which means she’s striking the green flames too, burning up with the energy of decay.
Instinct has me block the next attack, the crossbow bolt deflecting off my sword. It doesn’t help though, as the bolt implodes. Instead of falling, I’m drawn into the miniature gravity well. My hand, holding the sword, reaches it first and I feel bones twist and warp as skin and tendons are crushed and shrunk. My sword actually lasts longer than my flesh and bone, but not much.
Another crossbow bolt, targeted at my foot, is dodged but implodes as well. I’m suddenly drawn in two different directions as gravitic wells tear me apart. My chest and groin strain, and I fight back with the full Strength of the System.
“And got him too!” Ali crows.
Another light blinks on my minimap as my body goes through intense pain. Health regenerates at the same time as tendons and muscles tear.
The green hands, no longer needing to keep me busy, wrap my body in their flaming fingers while Cometgirl hovers close by, peppering me with flame-imbued Mana attacks that tear off her flame body to crash against me.
Blood pours as constrained flesh and bone rip open and holes appear in my body as the concentrated flames punch through strained flesh. My shields are gone and I’m wide open to attack, which means my health is dropping. Pain tugs at my consciousness as the decay energy finally latches on, breaching my resistances. Surprisingly, it doesn’t damage me directly, but instead retards my regeneration.
Normally, I’d Blink Step away, but with multiple Dimension Locks in place, options like Blink Step are much less viable. I’ve not had time to switch to my Hod either, so I’m hampered in terms of other options. Never mind how distinctive the Master Class work is.
“That way!” Ali gestures to the side, and I see them. They’ve split into three compass points, each at nearly a 90-degree angle to the other. Which means…
“One more?”
“Probably waiting.”
Unable to get away and hoping against hope that my presence is still hidden, I stop playing punching bag and get to work. A mental yank pulls on Fates Thread. It drags the comet closer, and she blazes higher in an attempt to burn me away.
I’m not done though. The paired gravitic imploders hold me still, forcing me to be passive in this fight. I turn within, to the Strength within my body and Status Sheet, and flex. This time, with my System Edit Skill, I can see how that changes, how the shift works and the aid that the System provides.
Rather than let it just happen via will and a slight sense of the past, I guide the shift in my Strength attribute via the System Edit Skill. Instead of a forty or fifty percent shift, I crank it all the way up to eighty.