NOVEL WEB CHAPTER 98: JUST HANGIN’ OUT
GRIFFIN TUCKER VASILIAS, GREAT HOUSE SCION, REBORN LVL 5
PROVINCE OF ARAGONIA WILDERNESS
Griffin’s helmet sealed itself around his head as he was wrenched through the air wrapped in white-hot spiked chains with links as big as his fist. He slammed through intervening trees with such punishing force that even within his heavily armored DEEP Suit, his HUD was screaming about all the structural damage his armor was suffering.
While he was getting yanked through the terrain like a fish on a line, Kismet was prepping her assessment and packaging it for Griffin for when he was less…indisposed. When he was at least Stone rank, he’d have received the training necessary to allow him to absorb information in even the most dire circumstances, but he was a long way away from that point.
The System eidolon analyzed the effects of the graft on Griffin in a far more clinical and empirical manner than Griffin had been able to. She used those variables as relevant search terms in the System Graft Database, making sure to give her queries priority with her Enhanced System Access token that she’d been granted by being bonded to Griffin.
While that query was running, she simultaneously checked in on Griffin’s DEEP Suit Sensor Suite to find out what he was sensing and hadn’t noticed. That enabled her to pinpoint their attacker’s direction—even though Griffin’s anima was currently funneling him tensa through his Ten Star Vortex gathering configuration, she could detect his attacker’s anima because they were doing nothing to hide it. She pinned the attacker’s location on the local maps in Griffin’s HUD and began trying to figure out who was attacking them.
All of this activity was near instantaneous for the System Eidolon. Her graft queries returned seventy-eight results: far too many to be immediately useful. But she’d keep the results in mind as she observed whatever else their mysterious assailant would bring to bear against them. She noted that Griffin’s DEEP Suit was holding up, but several stress fractures were developing in plates protecting major organs and prioritized the DEEP Suit’s self-repair function to those areas.
When Griffin finally came to a stop, he’d been pulled dozens of meters through the forest, down a ravine, and in front of a dark grotto made from tumbled boulders amongst looming dark trees. The chains terminated in the darkness of the cave and even though they were glowing with heat, they didn’t illuminate the darkness.
Animated by a malevolent force, the red-hot chains whipped around tree limbs smoking and hissing as they burned into the wood. They tightened and Griffin rose painfully up into the air so he was dangling like a teabag. His arms were pinned to his side by burning metal and he was dizzy and disoriented from the trip through the forest. He groaned in pain and tried opening his eyes to see if the world had stopped spinning, but had to close them again immediately.
His whole HUD was lit up with red warning notifications that overwhelmed him when he first opened his eyes. He hung there for several long moments, trying to regain his bearings. Sarah was saying something in a calm, yet insistent voice in his ear that he was only just now beginning to process, “…--in you need to focus. Wake up! Come on, you need to—” he turned his head toward her and she stopped her repetitive coaxing. Her tone became even more urgent, “Your Particle Cannon, Griffin, you need to activate it now.”
“What—” Griffin couldn’t quite understand. “What are—what happened?” He coughed and winced as he felt his ribs ache. “Why’m I so hot? And what’s that burning smell?”
“Griffin! Focus! Use your anima!” She used simple, short words and that seemed to get through to him.
Griffin shook his head, which set him swinging from the chains, and did as Kismet told him, trying to harness his anima and put it into his familiar Ten Star Vortex configuration. He felt low on tensa, probably due to it being shunted to his DEEP Suit for it to repair the damage it had suffered and was still suffering from the burning chains. As energy started to fill him once more, his head cleared and he started thinking clearly.
“I was an idiot,” he said out loud, “I can’t believe I got—wait, use the Particle Cannon?” Kismet’s words clicked into place. “Where… oh right! Gotta navigate these menus…”
He started trying to find out how to make his DEEP Suit use the Particle Cannon synergy that his Dream Consumption graft had made. He ended up bringing up the Dread Consumption graft as he did, trying to see if the description had any indication of how he was supposed to use it.
Dread Consumption [Void] – Growth 14
Next Rank: 1 Uncommon ethershard of the Void, 1 Uncommon ethershard of the Empty Belly
Cost: 10 ks
Cooldown: None
Description: Select 1 dead monster or a volume of 3(Growth) cubic meters. Target is broken down into its constituent parts and absorbed. Temporarily gain any 1 graft or special ability/feature the target had for (Growth) hours. This is a Harvest ability, so any items, ethershards, or materials in the affected area will be transferred to your ownership.
Passive Effect: Anything you eat will give you sustenance, including traditionally inedible things. Some items may grant additional effects. You gain immunity to poison and poison effects.
Synergies: DEEP Suit [Ocean] – Dominion 15 {Particle Cannon}: Instead of gaining 1 graft or special ability, gain 1 shot of Particle Cannon ammunition. Higher quality/different kinds of items/monsters absorbed will grant different attributes to the Particle Cannon shot.
Particle Cannon Shot: 5 ks +1 Particle Cannon Ammunition. Fires a wide beam of concentrated Light+Fire+
“Well, well, well,” a deep, rough voice said from the darkness of the boulder cave—where the chains came from, “ain’t this a pretty sight. The Vasilias Scion, caught by my Burning Chains. Who could have imagined such a fate would befall you?” A towering nightmare wolf-man stepped out of the grotto.
He was covered in a thick layer of midnight fur and walked on heavily muscled lupine hind legs. His face was something Griffin would rather not think about. “Oh right,” he said, and Griffin was surprised that he could articulate so well considering how many sharp metal teeth were jammed into his mouth, “I could imagine it.” The monstrous thing grinned, showing evenmore sharp metal teeth and Griffin shuddered uncontrollably.
Frightened!
You are under the Frightened condition. Your mental faculties are limited and reduced to basic responses while the condition is active.
Duration: 00:22
“You’re under a fear effect!” Kismet whispered, “It’s not real!”
“I can tell you for sure that the fear is real!” He hissed back, “This guy is fucking scary!”
“All the more reason to blast him with your Particle Cannon!” She displayed the System’s description for his Dread Consumption graft, focusing in particular on the synergy that made the Particle Cannon:
Dread Consumption [Void] – Growth 14
+Dread Consumption
Synergies: DEEP Suit [Ocean] – Dominion 12 {Particle Cannon}: Instead of gaining 1 graft or special ability, gain 1 shot of Particle Cannon ammunition. Higher quality/different kinds of items/monsters absorbed will grant different attributes to the Particle Cannon shot.
Particle Ammunition: 0 / 1
Griffin quickly grabbed one of the ethershards he’d picked up from his recent Quest rewards, a shard of Cybernetics, and, calling upon the Dread Consumption graft, he felt the mouth appear in the hand that held the shard. Even though Griffin couldn’t move his wrists or fingers, the mouth managed to maneuver the shard into a more comfortable position before it slurped up the shard and Griffin saw the Particle Ammunition available go up by 1. He briefly entertained the idea of trying to read through his attacker’s System entry, but it looked like it was going to attack at any second. He just didn’t have it in him to blithely read while this thing stalked him and did who knows what to him.
Frightened!
You are under the Frightened condition. Your mental faculties are limited and reduced to basic responses while the condition is active.
Duration: 00:14
The alien werewolf tilted his huge shaggy head back and howled. Griffin didn’t waste the opportunity the werewolf thing presented; he figured he had just a few seconds left to live if he didn’t do something to drastically change the situation.
At least I don’t have to use my hands to get it! Griffin thought with relief. Then he realized, I don’t know what the hell I’ll need since this the first time I’ll be trying to do it. Fuck it, it’s not like I have a better idea. He looked over his HUD, hoping against hope…There! A button that read:
Enable P-CANNON
Griffin gave the mental command to activate the “P-Cannon” and felt the Suit begin to react internally almost immediately.
His DEEP Suit was making whirring noises and the chest plate started bulking up and sprouting bundles of wires and circuits that led to…Griffin couldn’t see. But the wolf-man-thing stopped howling and tilted his head, looking at him with amusement. His disturbing mouth hung open in a very wolf-like grin, all his sharp teeth glinting and long tongue lolling out.
Frightened!
You are under the Frightened condition. Your mental faculties are limited and reduced to basic responses while the condition is active.
Duration: 00:07
“Ooh, that’s a cute little thing,” the werewolf said. “Is that a graft, Vasilias Scion? Are you going to attack me?” He laughed uproariously like he thought this was the funniest thing he’d ever heard.
His DEEP Suit’s transformation completed and where Griffin’s chest plate had been was a futuristic-looking cannon that took up his whole chest. The cannon reminded him of the bio-suit in The Guyver, an old 90’s sci-fi action movie and anime. He felt himself grinning crazily as he saw it; he loved that old movie—the anime too! The barrel started glowing like the end of an arc welder and a subsonic hum began rumbling from the weapon.
Frightened!
You are under the Frightened condition. Your mental faculties are limited and reduced to basic responses while the condition is active.
Duration: 00:01
The burning chains hadn’t loosened their grip on him, but Griffin didn’t hang there waiting for the perfect shot. As soon as the Particle Cannon had finished forming, Griffin fired it. In the frozen instant that happened between Griffin willing the Particle Cannon to fire and it firing, he saw motes of light get sucked into the barrel of the cannon on his chest and the subsonic hum ratcheted up to a world-ending roar. In the next moment, the cannon fired, and Griffin was blown out of the chains as the entire world around him was obliterated in a chaotic conflagration.
He landed several meters away, smoking and charred. His DEEP Suit had reverted to its original configuration and Griffin stumbled to his feet, amazed that he could stand after exploding himself.
“Well,” he croaked aloud, “I guess he wasn’t all that scary.”
The forest where he’d been hanging was on fire. There was a four-meter crater where he’d been hanging and, as far as Griffin could see in a lane pointing away from where he’d been hanging was a huge swatch of burning and destruction. He couldn’t see the terrifying werewolf anywhere.
Kismet zipped over to him, her expression one of intent concentration, “I’m managing about a dozen different major suit repairs right now, Griffin. Your DEEP Suit is hanging on by just the slimmest of margins.” She got right in front of his face, eyes boring into his, “Overcharge your DEEP Suit now, Griffin. I need the extra power to repair it and we need to run.”
“What? Are you kidding?!” He dramatically flung his hand over at the burning crater and laughed, “I think we got him!”
A bone-chilling howl arose from a long way away. Griffin felt suddenly sick and dizzy, stumbling a bit. “Griffin!” Kismet yelled. He shook his head, snapping his eyes to her, “Overcharge the DEEP Suit! Do it now!”
Griffin nodded and closed his eyes. He couldn’t think with all the noise and chaos around him. A loud, persistent ringing in his ears (he wondered why he could hear Kismet so clearly with such a racket going on) made it nearly impossible to maintain the necessary focus. Another throat-ripping howl pierced through the ringing and he shivered violently, terror breaking through everything while the howl wavered in the firelit night sky.
“Griffin!” Kismet called again.
The sphincter-clenching terror had an incredibly focusing effect on Griffin, and he finally activated his Overcharge racial gift to dump tensa into his DEEP Suit. He started running, not waiting for Kismet to finish with the repairs. After all, he thought, if she was able to make repairs while I was getting blown up, she should be able to do it while I’m running away from the goddamn werewolf.
Kismet flew by his side, still focusing on her tasks and his HUD was responding to the influx of energy as all the flashing red started turning amber, then green, then disappearing altogether. Within the first minute, he was no longer stumbling off of trees and tripping and falling over fallen branches or hidden animal dens as his view cleared and the pathfinding functions started working again.
His headlong sprint through the woods became slightly more controlled and he stopped pumping tensa into his DEEP Suit as he felt that sickening lurch in the pit of his stomach and cruel tightening behind the eyes that meant his energy reserves were nearly gone. His anima was still configured in the Ten Star Vortex technique that he’d managed to maintain despite everything that had happened, so he knew his tensa reserves would be refilled soon. At least Kismet wasn’t yelling at him anymore.
He noticed that the minimap function on his HUD was moving on its own, zooming out, then rotating and panning in a precise series of movements until it settled on the last known location of the rest of the team. The pathfinding feature on his HUD updated and he turned a hard left, going diagonally back up the mountain somewhat. Another terrible howl shattered the night sky, much closer now, and made Griffin put on a new burst of speed even though his legs now felt more like they wanted to be water than legs.
“Unknown tensa burst from your left, Griffin!” Kismet called into his ear and a little red dot painted itself on his minimap. “Your armor can’t take much more punishment; don’t get hit!”
Griffin grunted and dove to the side as a bright red beam of something hot lanced through where he was standing just moments ago. It left a scorched trail of burning undergrowth and began tracking towards him as he continued to dodge and weave, his pathfinding program having to work double time to keep him pointed where he wanted to go. The red beam died out, only to be replaced by another one from the same source, still tracking him as he crashed through the forest.
“I got him!” He heard a female voice call out from somewhere up above him, and then he stumbled and had to concentrate on not falling and breaking his neck.
Branches cracked and fell and Jessaline Braedes dropped out of the treetops to land in front of him. She looked him over critically, the disturbing third eye on her forehead open and looking around completely independently of her other eyes. “Jess, there’s a goddamn werewolf chasing me!” He said breathlessly, lungs heaving from his mad dash, “We need to run!”
“What?! Are you sure?” Jess asked, “What color was it!? Shit, never mind. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change anything; the transport’s been destroyed. We’ll have to get down the mountain on foot!”
She grabbed Griffin’s shoulder and enveloped them in her Web of Shadows graft, cloaking them in darkness and quiet. Her voice spoke urgently in his head, this time thankfully without the weird echoes and thought-sharing that they’d had last time, “Don’t say anything, just follow me and don’t use any new grafts. No questions!” She interrupted as she felt his mind fill with dozens of questions.
“Now move your ass!” She grabbed his hand and led the way through the woods.