Shadow Runner [LitRPG]

Now that I had a moment to stop and breathe, I immediately sent out another Ping. Unfortunately, the quickhack failed to latch onto anything, assuring me there was no more tech on the ground floor for me to hack.

Did that make sense? I'd ruined the cameras on entry, sure. But I refused to believe that the regional Zerx HQ, even fried to all shit and back as it was, had only a few cameras on the ground floor.

"They've done something to their security system." I vented my thoughts aloud, my eyes tracking over the few cameras I'd taken out. "I have no idea what they're planning, but I'm pretty sure there's something. Actually… I haven't used this very often, but…"

I closed my eyes and tapped into one of the skills I was admittedly guilty of underutilizing. Tracking swelled out of me, powered by Essence. Simultaneously, that same irritation I'd experienced the first time I used it full blast rose up to swamp my mind.

The presence of humans in my vicinity was a red hot irritant begging me to do something about it. My eyes snapped open as my lips pulled back in a vicious snarl. My claws rent the air, my fingers writhing and wiggling without my consent.

"Adrian?" It was Mela's voice that broke through, and I quickly dropped Tracking.

"They're up there," I hissed. "Thirty-four individuals, I think. Four of them felt… off."

Mela's eyes sharpened as she glared at the ceiling. "Off how?"

"Like they were… less? I don't know, my ability to sense them was a bit fainter than the rest." I gritted my teeth in frustration. "Sorry, I should have practiced with that skill more. I just don't like the way it affects me."

Even with my increased mental stats, Tracking still made me feel like there was a buzzing deep inside my skull, and the only way to silence it was to tear a couple of idiots apart. I could keep it mostly under control, but I didn't exactly enjoy putting up with it.

"Hrm. Yer fine. We just need to take these fuckers out, and then we can take a break. I want to be out there and rip some more Zerx apart, but… we're paying the mercs to do it, so we may as well let 'em do their job."

Mela was practically growling. I knew that, if she could somehow pull it off, she would end each and every Zerx ganger herself. Personally.

"You sure we can't just collapse the building on these idiots after all?" I asked.

The look Mela gave me made a shiver race down my spine. It was nothing like the nice shivers Amelia inspired. This one was all cold and dread and tiptoeing carefully around a drunk cyberpsycho.

"Okay then," I rushed on. "Let's just… Amelia, what are you doing?"

"Hmmm? Oh! Look, Adrian! Isn't this amazing?" Amelia chirped. "My creation is going to keep us safe and end all the Zerx and hunt down my father. And then we can relax and finally have some peace and quiet!"

She sent me a most dazzling smile…

…which, for once, failed to send my stomach into a twist and make me want to kiss her.

Probably because she was kneeling next to a person-sized sack of squirming flesh that was rooted to the ground through what looked like pulsing tendons.

Honestly, the first question that popped into my head was 'How?!' I'd taken my eyes off her when the battle started to wind down, sure, but that was barely six or seven minutes ago. The last time I'd seen her, she'd been elbow-deep in a Zerx…

I looked into her eyes, really taking in her condition, and felt like cursing my own stupidity.

Her green eyes were as radiant as ever, but there was a certain mania gleaming in them, while her face looked oddly relaxed in contrast. Every inch of her arms that I could see was rippling as hints of tools or odd fleshy-looking tendrils emerged from them, instantly smoothing away into the familiar appearance of her cybernetics.

"Okay… that's nice, love," I said as softly as I could manage. "What is your creation, exactly?"

"Oh! Well, I realized I was being stupid! Of course things weren't going that well when I was trying to alter bodies the way I was doing it. Sure, it can work, but there's a better approach. I can just craft a cocoon, like a butterfly! Then I can just melt all my material together in there while keeping my base subject's nervous system intact!"

"Right…" I trailed off, working very, very hard to keep that image out of my head.

I risked another glance at the cocoon, grimacing at the fleshy, pulsing walls. They were almost transparent, but not quite, so I couldn't make out any details of what was happening inside.

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Which, honestly, was a bit of a relief.

"And, um, what's your creation going to be once it… emerges?"

"Oh! Well, it's almost ready. Just need to… and… heeeeere it comes!" Amelia declared happily, pulling her arms away from the creepy flesh sack.

Pitch-black claws sliced through the walls of the creature's prison, sending some kind of fluid splashing across the floor. Long, spindly limbs emerged, quickly followed by an equally emaciated body.

The head was what really got me, though. It was almost completely covered in eyes and maws, with some kind of odd hair-like tendrils covering any open space.

I didn't notice any obvious ears, but when Mela took a startled step backwards and her feet scuffed the floor, the thing immediately snapped in her direction.

"Amelia… what?" the redhead deadpanned, her eyes wide and admittedly terrified.

My lover laughed as even more mouths ripped open over the rest of her creature's body, all letting out a horrible screech.

"It's a hunter! I based it partly on Shadows and some other eldritch creature files I read. Don't worry, it's friendly! Well, to us." She turned to the monstrosity. "Now, go, and make sure this building's empty of all threats!"

The oversized horror with far too many mouths and teeth screeched once more. Then it bounded for the stairs to do its mistress' bidding, vanishing from sight. It moved quickly enough that even my Clairvoyance barely let me keep up.

Mela and I were left staring at Amelia. The ripper hummed cheerfully to herself while heading for the next nearest mostly-alive Zerx.

"Right," I muttered to myself. "Nope. No. Not okay."

I marched up to my lover, wrapped my arms around her, and hugged her to my chest before she could spawn another eldritch abomination.

"Hmm? Cuddles? Not right now, Adrian. There's so many things I could be doing right now! I have all these subjects to remodel and make them useful to us!"

What was I supposed to say to that?

"Amelia, dear, when's the last time you dropped your skills? Stopped tapping into your cybernetics, for even a second?"

She actually paused to think about that, tilting her head in a way that I found irresistibly adorable, even under the circumstances. "I dunno? Like… I've been busy! Had to make enough enhanced drones, and then we started this fight, and I wanted to be useful! Isn't my hunter great?"

Shots rang out somewhere above us, followed shortly by screaming.

I cleared my throat. "Yep. Very useful. How about you take a short break now, hmmm? I think it'll help you get even more inspiration for what you can make next."

She paused again to consider that, shrugged, then sent me a blinding smile. "Okay! That sounds good!"

Her cybernetics rippled one final time, then fell still. Her feverish eyes blinked at me once, twice, as the manic gleam left them… and then she promptly passed out, right there in my arms.

"Uh…" Mela ventured. "So… we don't let her use her abilities for too long again, yeah?"

I looked up, meeting the redhead's startled gaze. "Yeah. I think that would probably be for the best."

While the whole episode was definitely worrying, there was a much more pressing situation to consider. My lover had passed out in the middle of an active warzone, and we were inside a building we'd only partly cleared.

At least the continued sounds of screaming and combat coming from above us made me feel hopeful.

I risked one more pulse of enhanced Tracking. This time, only twenty-two irritating presences reflected back at me. Even as the skill faded, another scream tore through the building, and the count of Zerx on the floors above us fell by one.

But I also noted something that made me squint my eyes at the ceiling unhappily.

I couldn't feel Amelia's 'hunter' at all.

Then again… Amelia and Mela were, at best, rather fuzzy presences. Amelia even more than Mela. That was a rather alarming discovery all on its own. I used to sense far more 'irritation' when I used the skill around her, no matter my feelings on the subject.

"We need to wrap this up quickly so we can take that break." I laid my ripper gently down on the floor. "Take care of Amelia while I check on things upstairs?"

"Fuck no! Last time ya fought the guards around here, ya almost died. I'm coming with. We've got enough drones to spare."

We did. They had taken heavy losses, but we still had more than enough pawns to play around with.

"Fine." I turned towards the drones and picked out ten of them. The toughest of the lot, from what I could tell. "You stay here and look after Amelia," I ordered. "Don't let anyone hurt her. Don't let anyone even get close to her. As for the rest of you…"

When we ascended the stairs a few minutes later, we had a group of ten drones clearing the path for us, ready to soak up any bullets that might come our way.

Thankfully, we encountered no opposition. Oh, there was plenty of blood to be found on the very next floor up, along with the mangled bodies of several Zerx. These were dressed more like the guards I'd faced, meaning they had actual body armor and weapons and stuff, but at least they weren't alive and spraying us with bullets.

Another reassurance was the continued noise from overhead, though the screams had fallen silent. All we heard was the sound of combat, along with inhuman screeching.

Another two landings revealed much the same. Blood, bodies, and discarded weapons, some of which were shredded or twisted beyond repair. It seemed that whatever force had been planning to meet us on the way up was beating a hasty retreat in the face of Amelia's hunter, and losing people as they did so.

Finally, we reached the highest floor. I tried to steady myself as I engaged Clairvoyance. Then I ordered our lead troops ahead, following hard on their heels.

The scene we found made me freeze up in pure shock.

Five Zerx guards were huddled further down the hallway, guns up and spraying with startling accuracy. Nearly every round found its mark, dinging into the horror Amelia had created. Said horror simply soaked up all the fire with very little consequence. The rounds failed even to penetrate its skin. It looked like they were slamming into metal rather into anything organic.

In spite of that, the creature was missing an arm, and its chest was dented in. It was dashing back and forth, screeching as it tried to end the humans giving it so much trouble.

Practically dancing around the creature were four more Zerx, one of whom was my old friend Gorilla Guard. Even my eyes struggled to keep track of them as they pushed their cybernetics to their utmost, slamming punches into the creature's body and discharging high-caliber shots at close range. These bullets actually made it through, perforating the thing's skin and muscles and painting the hallway in the darkest red color I'd ever seen.

Mr. Gorilla must have heard us arrive. He looked up, his eyes latching onto mine even through the Stealth blur.

They ignited with hatred so potent that I stepped back.