NOVEL NEXT Chapter 84: Harpy Diem
The Moon Rabbit ran.
The yellow-wings had found it again. Both of them. It had tried to catch them in its trap-field, but they had learned not to get too close. One of them had a ranged attack, a stinging beam that hurt a lot.
It wanted to kill them. It needed to kill them. It
itched
to kill them. But it was smart. Smart enough to control the bloodlust. Smart enough to find a new place for a better trap and kill the yellow-wings properly.
There were too many glowy shells around today. The Moon Rabbit had lost to them before, but it had not died then, it had been pinned and taken away from its home, left here. And this place would have been a nice place with lots to eat if there weren't
so many glowy shells around!
It just had to keep moving. Not running away. The
itching
wouldn't let it run away. It was just finding a better spot.
It knew one. It knew this area. It just had to go past this hill and into the trees behind it. There was a ditch there that it could hide in.
But as it approached the trees, another glowy shell, a purple one, one that it could not recognise as belonging to Nya, blocked it. A curly line of death surrounded its feet and the Moon Rabbit had to skid to a halt before it was struck.
It changed tack, avoiding the hill - going up the hill would just be an invitation for the yellow-wings to snatch it up - and instead streaking across the open field.
Every inch of its body
itched
with the desire to stand and fight, to destroy the glowy shells. But it knew that if it did, it would die. Only promising itself that it was just finding a place to set up a trap, to turn the tables on the glowy shells, kept the itch at bay.
<=====}—o
As soon as the Moon Rabbit appeared in the distance, Mikayla drunk a Mana Potion to refill the Mana she'd wasted so far today, then twisted the imaginary dial that brought the Black Knight up to size five. The Rabbit wasn't that large by Kaiju standards; going all the way up to size ten would be a waste of Mana, and might even cause her to get in her own way as she went for it. Ironically enough, it was actually easier to fight a giant rabbit than a normal-sized one.
Her Mana finished filling -
[MANA: 2125/2125]
- and she conjured her Oaken Protector, waving it in the air and hoping for its attack-targeting Engraving to kick in.
The Moon Rabbit skidded as it approached her, panic in its eyes. Crackling gravity Mana collected in its paws, and it slammed its hind legs down on the ground, making the earth underfoot shake. Mikayla yelped as her footing became unstable, and the bunny took advantage, throwing itself at her with bared teeth.
But Mikayla's sword swelled as she angled it to cover herself, promising a painful impalement when it landed while raising her shield so that its own gravity would drag the beast towards her blade. For a fleeting second she thought they'd won - you couldn't dodge in mid-air, after all - but the Moon Rabbit surprised her by turning its magic on itself, reducing its weight to almost nothing and soaring freely over her head.
Fortunately, the practice she'd been doing with Nya on Yevgenia-style size changing paid off. Adjusting the dial in her Core Controller with her Mana, the Black Knight grew two sizes as its weapons faded away, and she twisted, grasping for the Rabbit before it escaped.
Her fingers found one of its legs, and she tightened her grip, carrying the momentum forwards to swing the Moon Rabbit around and slam it into the ground.
It let out a piteous squeak, and Mikayla's heart melted. It really was just a big fluffy bunny - no, no, not in this world, Kaijus are Kaijus and they need to die-joos.
"Excellent!" Nocturnus cheered in the back of her helmet. "Utter brutality! Full marks!"
Mikayla pressed down on the bunny's abdomen, keeping it pinned with one hand as her Sword emerged from her gauntlet once again. Hardening her heart, she made to open its stomach - but a sudden change in her balance caused her stab to go wide.
Her feet had left the ground; the Black Knight and its captive were floating into the air.
Disoriented, she was caught off-guard when the Moon Rabbit used its free leg to kick her in the visor. The blow was more powerful than it had any right to be - no doubt it was one of the Kaiju's whatever-monster-Techniques-were-called, sending her flying backwards and letting the Moon Rabbit slip free.
The Black Knight drifted out of the null-gravity zone and landed in a heap. Dropping back to size five, Mikayla looked up in time to catch the Moon Rabbit bolting into the treeline.
That was fine. That was where Irin was waiting.
All the same, she needed to go after it. Her Mana flowed into the last of her new cores, the Motocross Core. Time to cross something off the bucket list.
A motorbike appeared in her hand, sized for a normal person.
Mikayla wasted several seconds blinking at it. "Size up. Size up! Mana Assistance, Motorcycle to size five!"
There was no reaction. The motorbike stayed stubbornly at normal size.
A sinking suspicion filled her, and she flipped open her Profile, accessing the Motocross Core's description.
[PEARL OF MOTOCROSS (CORE): Expend Mana continuously to conjure a Motocross Bike. Enhancements: Efficiency Up]
It didn't have Goliath. It couldn't change size.
Hegemon starring damnit.
At this size and with the forest terrain to deal with, just running was faster than using a motorbike at normal size, so Mikayla took off into the treeline, chasing the little grey blur that was the Moon Rabbit.
An eruption of teal light heralded Irin's own Moonlight Rose appearing to block the Moon Rabbit. Mikayla floored it in her semi-imaginary mech cockpit, hoping that Irin would hold its attention long enough for her to catch up and pin it.
But Irin collapsed to the ground, and the Moon Rabbit sped past her. Mikayla continued pursuing, accelerating enough that she was leaving metre-deep footprints with every step.
As she passed Irin, Mikayla saw that her kusarigama was on the ground, and the right hand of her Moonlight Rose was pinned under it. Irin was straining to lift her weapon enough to free herself. Some kind of hyper-focused gravity effect applied only to the weapon?
Mikayla winced, hesitating for a moment as she weighed up whether to help Irin or continue the pursuit. "Are you okay?"
"I'll be fine as soon as this wears off. Go after it!" Irin commanded.
Mikayla nodded, continuing to charge through the undergrowth, following the trail that the Moon Rabbit was leaving.
It didn't matter that she was slower than it, only that she kept it within her line of fire. She just had to chase after the Moon Rabbit and keep spamming Psychic Bolts. Either she would slow it down enough to catch up, or it would lose her.
There was no reason to consider the rest of the world. The only thing that mattered was the pursuit.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
She caught sight of it again, but this time it was squaring off against a copper-coloured walking honeycomb. She recognised that Armour Core; Beekeeper. That was Geri. Where had he come from?
"Stop right there!" Geri barked, and a cloud of tiny conjured insects left his upper body and swarmed the Moon Rabbit.
There was a tangible ripple of gravitational magic and the entire swarm was sucked to the ground, becoming a carpet of crystal dust.
Geri squeaked, flinching at the complete failure of his attack, and the Moon Rabbit capitalised, launching itself at him in a full-body tackle that drove him to the ground in a sprawling heap.
Mikayla changed tacks, rushing to her classmate's rescue as the Moon Rabbit started clawing its way into Geri's chest, shredding the honeycomb-like armour in an attempt to get at the tasty flesh within. "Psychic Bolt!" she yelled, and a burst of blue light staggered the feral lapine.
"What are you doing?" she broadcast at Geri even as she tackled the rabbit off him.
A stammered response came. "A-ambush?"
Mikayla rolled her eyes disbelievingly and growled, "Kill stealing is not cool!"
The Moon Rabbit beat its foot against the ground and ripped several boulders from the earth with its gravity magic, launching them into the air and then bringing them right back down towards the Black Knight. In a blur of Mana, Mikayla dropped her Sword and conjured her Blunderbuss, her Stamina twisting into one of the moulds that Asika had imprinted on her body weeks ago. "Point Defence!"
Three sprays of scattershot broke the projectiles into pebbles and dust that clattered harmlessly against the Black Knight's exterior shell.
She charged, and the Moon Rabbit bolted again, rapidly outpacing her. "Psychic Bolt! Psychic Bolt! Psychic Bolt!" The monster, unfortunately, was too agile, dodging her projectiles with ease.
But then, suddenly, the Moon Rabbit froze, its whole body perfectly still, tripping over its paws and hitting the ground with enough force to leave a furrow in the dirt.
Suspecting a trick, Mikayla hesitantly drew closer. It was like the small Kaiju was petrified, paralysed. What could have done that?
Skyward Grasscutter appeared in the air above her, bouncing right around her with Ghastreaper in hand. The Scythe's blade came right down on the rabbit's back, ripping a hole straight through it.
Keldryn flipped to his feet, hoisting the impaled Moon Rabbit into the air on his blade. "Victory,"
[YOU HAVE EARNED XP FOR KILLING A MOON RABBIT!]
Oh, Mikayla remembered now. His new Scythe had a built-in ability to inflict paralysis on his foes. She wouldn't be forgetting that again.
"Damnit, we were so close," she whined.
"Sorry," Keldryn didn't sound apologetic, already starting to strip the corpse.
"Don't 'sorry' me, you damn kill stealer! I had it! Not cool!"
"Then you should have killed it before I did," her so-called best friend brushed her off.
The sound of arguing interrupted them, and Mikayla looked away, to where two Moonlight Roses were shouting at each other.
"Why did you freeze like that?" Nya demanded.
"I was hit with gravity magic! My weapon was too heavy to lift!"
"Then you should have dismissed and resummoned it to clear the effect!"
"Oh please, no one can use Cores that fast,"
Nya raised her hand, and the Huntress' Embrace flickered in and out of existence several times. "You were saying? You haven't been following the Template, have you? Put more points in Intelligence,"
Irin's nostrils flared. "I don't need your stupid Template to keep up with you!"
"When did keeping up with me become a possibility?" Nya sounded genuinely confused. "What's even the point in trying? You
can't
be as good as me, you're barely even a Yevgenia. You failed before you even began. It is futile,"
"You don't have the right to tell me that, you bitch," Irin hissed.
"Of course I do, I'm Yevgenia," Nya primly insisted. Considering the conversation over, she quickened her stride, making for the two friends.
"That's not right," Nocturnus muttered, having been listening in.
"What?" Mikayla raised an eyebrow in the direction of his screen.
"I . . It's nothing, nevermind,"
"What happened?" Nya brusquely broadcast into her Core, halfway glaring at Skyward Grasscutter.
"Keldryn stole the kill before I could land the blow. Some friend,"
"You'd have done the same," Keldryn waved it off.
Mikayla eyed him, and the Black Knight's glowing eyes dimmed. "No, I wouldn't,"
Based on the way Skyward Grasscutter stiffened, then slumped slightly, Keldryn was suddenly feeling remorseful.
"Ah, I see. We were too slow," Nya mused as Marauder landed nearby. Lydia had caught up just in time to hear her say, "Well, we know whose fault that was,"
"I'm sorry!" Lydia burst out, wringing her hands.
"What? No, not you. Irin was the one who let us down. You performed excellently," Nya assured her, the confidence in her tone unwavering.
"Oh, excuse you? And what exactly did you do? Startled it once and then watched?" Irin snarled.
"I did exactly what the plan called for me to do. Unlike you," Nya sniped right back. "Not that I really expected anything else from you,"
Mikayla winced.
That
was uncalled for.
An inarticulate scream escaped Irin's throat, and she punched Nya in the face.
Moonlight Rose's demonic mask snapped back, and they could see Nya's eye twitch. She returned the blow, striking her teammate in the chest.
No one was really surprised when Irin tackled her, driving both Moonlight Roses to the ground in a flailing mess of Armour-on-Armour violence.
"Uh. Should we stop them?" Mikayla asked.
"Let them fight it out. Irin needs it and Nya deserves it," Keldryn stopped her. "We'll intervene if they start using weapons or Techniques,"
Mikayla pursed her lips, but nodded agreement.
"How did things come to this?" Nocturnus' voice filled Mikayla's ears with lamentation.
"Well, Irin's got a Goliath-sized chip on her shoulder, Lydia is part of an oppressed minority apparently, and I've only had two weeks to even start trying to deprogram Nya -"
"Not that," Nocturnus cut her off. "This entire society that venerates Yevgenia as the perfect being,"
"Oh . . that," Mikayla nodded, her throat drying up at the thought. That was the root of it all, wasn't it?
"Yevgenia as a status symbol . . as superiority incarnate? The woman I knew would have hated that. She was a thrill-seeker. A free spirit. Shackling generations of descendants to her legacy like this, she would never have stood for it. Yet here we are . . What could have happened to her after I died, that she would create . . this?"
Mikayla considered that. ". . Sounds like we need a historian to figure it out,"