The suit was warning him about a dozen different things, Abbas abruptly realized. He began his descent, having no real choice in the matter, and just tried to focus on not crashing. He managed it well enough, but the suit buckled around him, and he toppled down the side of a sand dune.
He could hardly breathe or feel any of his limbs, and these were problems, because his reaper wasn’t around to invoke the regeneration. He ejected the chest piece in order to alleviate some of the pressure on his lungs. It felt like he’d broken a rib or two, though he wasn’t sure at which point that might’ve happened. His grip had grown weak as well, and the Salesman’s skull slipped out of his hands and rolled to the bottom of the dune.
Abbas tried to stand back up but found he could barely even crawl. The Salesman’s ability had taken an even larger toll on both the suit and his own body than he’d realized.
He had to hurry, though. It was true that without a body, the Salesman had no conduit through which to channel the ability from his brain, but there was still the matter of severing communication. So long as Ivan’s brain remained unfrozen, he would still be able to talk to his reaper.
Abbas was kicking himself for not freezing it as soon as he’d gotten his hands on it. Sure, it was a surprising victory, but that didn’t excuse such amateurish work. He’d acted like he’d never captured an enemy combatant before. He grumbled Valgan curses into the sand as he crawled after the skull.
“Are you okay?!” came a sudden voice.
Abbas twitched. Who was that? There shouldn’t have been anyone else out here. He wanted to check the suit’s sensors, but they were down for the count, too.
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every day at noon PST by ~400 words.
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Monday, January 4, 2016
Page 1156
The gap between them closed within seconds, and Abbas reached out to grab him.
Ivan saw him. Half his face was gone. Only one eye, a few teeth, burned muscles and shattered bones remained. But the man was still able to fight back.
Abbas felt it. The sudden crushing weight all around him. Even with the antiparticles protecting him, a sea of pressure was trying to swallow him. And the debilitating effects, too. He could still feel them as well. Weakening his grip, blurring his vision, numbing his mind, sucking the very breath out of his lungs--the very life out of his body.
But he reached him. Abbas’ armored hand found its target, and the suit still had enough power to clamp down on Ivan’s neck. His other hand arrived to help, and suddenly he had the leverage he needed. He didn’t need to think. His hands reacted on their own and tore the rest of the Salesman’s head off his shoulders.
Immediately, the pressure lessened, and Abbas could sense himself again. His hands were still going to work, tearing the rest of the smote flesh from Ivan’s head, leaving only the bloody-and-hairy skull with the still-living brain inside.
Abbas had to consciously stop them.
He lingered there in the air, floating in place, still struggling to come back to himself. A few more blinks and he realized.
He’d won. The Salesman was incapacitated.
He almost couldn’t believe it. Theory was one thing, but to think that it had actually worked...
His whole body was trembling.
‘...I have captured the Salesman,’ Abbas reported in Valgan.
There came a long silence. Or at least, he thought there did. It might’ve been that he just didn’t catch what Worwal said.
‘Abbas...’ That seemed to be all the reaper had to say.
Ivan saw him. Half his face was gone. Only one eye, a few teeth, burned muscles and shattered bones remained. But the man was still able to fight back.
Abbas felt it. The sudden crushing weight all around him. Even with the antiparticles protecting him, a sea of pressure was trying to swallow him. And the debilitating effects, too. He could still feel them as well. Weakening his grip, blurring his vision, numbing his mind, sucking the very breath out of his lungs--the very life out of his body.
But he reached him. Abbas’ armored hand found its target, and the suit still had enough power to clamp down on Ivan’s neck. His other hand arrived to help, and suddenly he had the leverage he needed. He didn’t need to think. His hands reacted on their own and tore the rest of the Salesman’s head off his shoulders.
Immediately, the pressure lessened, and Abbas could sense himself again. His hands were still going to work, tearing the rest of the smote flesh from Ivan’s head, leaving only the bloody-and-hairy skull with the still-living brain inside.
Abbas had to consciously stop them.
He lingered there in the air, floating in place, still struggling to come back to himself. A few more blinks and he realized.
He’d won. The Salesman was incapacitated.
He almost couldn’t believe it. Theory was one thing, but to think that it had actually worked...
His whole body was trembling.
‘...I have captured the Salesman,’ Abbas reported in Valgan.
There came a long silence. Or at least, he thought there did. It might’ve been that he just didn’t catch what Worwal said.
‘Abbas...’ That seemed to be all the reaper had to say.
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Page 1155
He couldn’t see the Salesman’s translucent ability against the blue sky, but he could certainly feel it. The draining effect. Even this suit wouldn’t be able to withstand it for long.
But Abbas had counted the seconds correctly. His cruise missile arrived in time to flank the Salesman for him. Ivan noticed it too late, only capable of giving the warhead a look of bug-eyed anger before impact.
The force of the explosion might have knocked Abbas off course if not for the suit’s automated impact mitigation system. Far quicker than Abbas himself could have reacted, the suit calculated the path of least resistance and corrected his course for him in order to incur as little turbulence as possible. This meant that, rather than curving out and away from the explosion, the suit dove headfirst into it, keeping his body perpendicular to the blast’s point of origin, like an arrow piercing a balloon.
He came through it, no worse for wear, and the Salesman was no longer in the way. Abbas knew that he only had precious few moments to press this fleeting advantage. He rocketed toward the smoke and radiation and lingering antiparticles of his expended jet and let his suit absorb their effects.
The result, as expected, was more explosions. But these were only physical, and his suit had soul-strengthening on its side. The antiparticle effects were not going to last long as they tried in vain to collide with their oppositely charged counterparts, so Abbas had to act immediately, even while wreathed in subatomic annihilation.
He curved around and pushed through the debris of his cruise missile. He saw the Salesman, a half-missing husk tumbling through the air. One might be forgiven for thinking that the man was no longer a threat in such a state, but Abbas knew better. This job was not yet done.
But Abbas had counted the seconds correctly. His cruise missile arrived in time to flank the Salesman for him. Ivan noticed it too late, only capable of giving the warhead a look of bug-eyed anger before impact.
The force of the explosion might have knocked Abbas off course if not for the suit’s automated impact mitigation system. Far quicker than Abbas himself could have reacted, the suit calculated the path of least resistance and corrected his course for him in order to incur as little turbulence as possible. This meant that, rather than curving out and away from the explosion, the suit dove headfirst into it, keeping his body perpendicular to the blast’s point of origin, like an arrow piercing a balloon.
He came through it, no worse for wear, and the Salesman was no longer in the way. Abbas knew that he only had precious few moments to press this fleeting advantage. He rocketed toward the smoke and radiation and lingering antiparticles of his expended jet and let his suit absorb their effects.
The result, as expected, was more explosions. But these were only physical, and his suit had soul-strengthening on its side. The antiparticle effects were not going to last long as they tried in vain to collide with their oppositely charged counterparts, so Abbas had to act immediately, even while wreathed in subatomic annihilation.
He curved around and pushed through the debris of his cruise missile. He saw the Salesman, a half-missing husk tumbling through the air. One might be forgiven for thinking that the man was no longer a threat in such a state, but Abbas knew better. This job was not yet done.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)