Shadow Runner [LitRPG]

To say my stomach dropped like a rock would be an understatement. Pure shock rippled through every inch of me. I watched in silent stupefaction as an entire section of the rubble exploded outwards, obscuring my vision just enough that I could barely make out a massive set of shoulders attached to two differently colored arms.

It was a good thing the drones were immune to paltry things like shock. There was a real chance Mela, Amelia, or I would have gotten clawed apart by the doctor's leftover abominations if our guys hadn't finished gunning them down. Thankfully, the drones took out the remaining monstrosities just as Amelia's father straightened up…

… then the doctor immediately collapsed to the side, revealing the form of Titus Flinn.

Blood dripped down my father's face. His left arm looked like a crushed, empty soda can. His once pristine armor was covered in scuff marks. Breathing heavily, he started to look around, his wary eyes swiping over the scene.

I watched him take in the situation. All the Nightfall Squad members he'd brought with him were down. So were all the doctor's guards. Only our drones — or, in his mind, Nightfall-Squad-working-as-Zerx — remained standing.

That was when I remembered what I should have been doing from the start. Tapping into Clairvoyance, I moved my hand towards the grip of my gun. Almost instantly, though, I let the same hand flop uselessly by my side.

It's kind of pointless to shoot at a guy when your magic, future-glimpsing eyes are assuring you that he will dodge every bullet.

"He's dead, then." Amelia's voice snapped my eyes towards her. She had removed her face mask and was staring at her father's limp form with utter fascination. "You finished him?"

Titus' eyes narrowed at the sight of her newly revealed face, but to my surprise, he answered.

"I did. His skull was thick enough to stop a bullet, but that ended up helping. The bullets bounced around inside quite a bit after I shoved a gun into his mouth."

"Heh. Doesn't surprise me. He was always… thick." She stretched dramatically, cracking her fingers overhead as she did. "Well, one father down. One to go! You're not going to just… drop dead for us, are you?"

Even though I could tell he had so many questions, Titus simply glowered at her. Then he swept his gaze imperially over the Zerx-branded idiots. "Men, Patch's mercenary group has betrayed us. Kill them."

That would have worked, of course, if they weren't already drones.

"Yeeeeah…" I stood up slowly beside Amelia. "Not gonna work, I'm afraid."

I loved every second of the shock and rage his face passed through before resuming its blank mask.

"Even more traitors. That is disappointing." He spat that final word like it was the greatest curse known to humankind. Or alienkind, really. "Why are you doing this? You know as well as I do about the only future awaiting former soldiers! Have I not treated you fairly? Is money, or whatever else they're offering you, really worth it? Is it going to support you for the rest of your lives?"

He was actually trying to appeal to our drones. Who, of course, remained as silent as the grave.

"Again, not gonna work." I kept my tone light. Teasing, even. "Seriously, though, I'm almost touched. Who knew my dear old dad was such an idealist?"

That cracked his indifferent expression right in half.

"… what?"

I cackled as I gripped the side of my current 'face.' It was so tough to remove that I almost made a fool of myself, but my superior enhanced strength managed.

"Hello there, Father. Very nice to finally meet you."

He stared at me for one full second. That's all it took before he was back in control of his voice and expression.

Which, I gotta say, annoyed me.

"Isobel's son. I see…" His eyes drifted back to my lovely ripper. "And you are the doctor's daughter?"

The sheer indifference. That's what was getting to me. We were face-to-face for the first time, and he seemed way more interested in Amelia.

"Yep. Fuck, I can't tell you what a relief it is that he's dead!" Amelia laughed, sounding just a touch unhinged. "Don't worry. We'll get Adrian's daddy issues resolved shortly, too."

Titus didn't even blink. "That's it? All of this? The loss of life, attacking me… all over some misplaced anger? I've done nothing to you, boy."

He actually looked like he meant it.

"Nothing? Nothing?!" I snapped. "You abandoned us! Threw my mother out! She died, all because of you!"

"No. Because of you."

He wasn't shouting or anything. His voice was infuriatingly calm. Still, I actually stumbled backwards.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Isobel should have known what her true duty was," went on that fucking horrible calm voice. "Our loyalty is to our comrades. The people who bled, suffered, and died alongside us. Not some pathetic whelp that never knew hardship. I told her to be careful, and then I told her to just get rid of you. She refused, and she left. I had nothing to do with that."

I felt like he'd cracked a steel beam over my head.

All my life, my hatred for my father had been oddly detached. Directionless. Even when I found out what he was doing, how he was trading in lives, my disgust wasn't really personal. I just had more justification to feel it.

But right then, as I realized that Harkness had shown more fatherly care and affection than Titus fucking Flinn…

This man in front of me?

I hated him.

"She fucking died. Died! You could have helped, and —"

"And nothing. She was sick before she left. I was looking into treatment, yet she chose to abandon it all for you." He scoffed. "And then, when she realized she was dying, she pulled that nonsense."

"What nonsense?" I demanded, taking a step closer to him this time.

I wasn't entirely stupid. I kept Clairvoyance up. It was the only reason I still wasn't wasting my bullets on him, too.

"She signed up for the Full Cyberization Treatment experiment. And if that wasn't enough, she chose to kill herself before undergoing it. Pathetic cowardice and stupidity, to the very end. Had she gone through with it again, she would have been useful, at least. Instead, she chose to die and pass the pitiful payment she got out of it to you."

I saw red. Couldn't listen to him anymore, either. It took all my will not to get myself murdered by rushing him like an idiot.

"Kill him! Now!"

Every drone's gun snapped in his direction. Before the first shots even rang out, Father of the Year just gripped the doctor's body and hefted it into the air, like it was the easiest thing in the world to do. Bullets slammed into the carcass, failing to penetrate.

Then, almost cratering the rubble with a single stomp, he charged at us.

I nearly panicked. Clairvoyance wasn't filling me with confidence, at least not at a distance. But I didn't have time to second-guess anything. Mela, the brave, dumb Mela, lit up with a roar and charged right at the guy who'd survived having a building dropped on him.

"Dammit, Mela!"

I threw myself forward after her just as my father raised his foot to slam it down on her knee. My gun snapped up, forcing him to pivot. He didn't take any damage, but at least I prevented him from shattering Mela's kneecap.

The redhead chose that moment to stomp on the ground, pouring impressive amounts of Essence into the motion. I saw the way Titus gritted his teeth as his legs suddenly wobbled. My gun came up again, and this time, the shots sank into his side and forehead.

To my utter frustration, they pinged like they'd hit metal. Because they had. Thanks to the man's subdermal armor, my shots left grisly wounds instead of obliterating the impacted body parts.

Not that Mela was discouraged by my failure. She was grinning like a loon as she reared back, then slammed her head against the man's jaw. I cursed in disbelief as they staggered away from each other, Mela's forehead bleeding and my father's jaw looking vaguely disfigured.

Several more shots pinged off his body. The drones were taking whatever chances they could find to shoot, working around our proximity to their target.

Finally, I committed to a melee assault.

I swept forward, pushing myself to move with all my enhanced speed, claws out and aimed for vital bits as my body shimmered with Stealth. To my shock, my Clairvoyance vision showed that my attacks would be successful. The reason why made my face blanch, but I followed through.

We needed every hit we could land.

My claws sliced through the man's side and ribs, mauling the cybernetic organs within. At least I wasn't surprised when, a second later, my father's one good hand closed around my throat.

He held me out as far as he could. Unfortunately, thanks to his larger stature, that was far enough to prevent me from continuing my mauling maneuver. Still, from the shock and anger on his face, I could tell he'd taken much more damage than he would have liked.

"You fucking little disappointment. You are one of the experiments? How dare you dirty yourself with —"

Mela's fist slammed into the side of his head, staggering him. A second later, a chunk of debris crashed into his face from the other side, thrown by a frustrated Amelia.

"Let him go, you fucking shit!"

In spite of Amelia's demands, his grip on my throat didn't slacken. That's when my brain kicked into overdrive, and I triggered a skill I didn't usually have a ton of chances to use in combat.

Assault slammed out of me with the force of all my Essence behind it. And since I had both my hands gripping the arm trying to strangle me, he couldn't just shake me off, either. My mind, my soul, and whatever else contributed to the skill slammed against my father's brain, clawing and tearing and doing everything I could to just end him.

To my frustration, even here, he resisted.

Essence of his own rose up to fight me, and I almost choked at its volume and quality. I should have guessed, I suppose, seeing as he was a successful soldier. But it was still a bit of a shock to have this substance I'd been wielding suddenly turned against me.

One second, I was staring into his furious eyes, trying to tear his mind apart. The next, I stumbled as I found myself on a stretch of blood-soaked desert.

The sun burned high above me. Shrieks, begging, and dying gasps rang out from every side…

The fist that slammed into my face came out of nowhere, and I fell to my knees.

"You think you can break my mind? You? What have you done, gone through, achieved, to think you can do that? I am going to break you, boy, and I will enjoy doing it."

A kick shattered my ribs, even as I lashed out and sliced through the leg that did it. He faltered and almost collapsed. I tried my best to crawl to my feet, but then his expression turned steely, and his dumb leg just restored itself.

"You were a mistake. A corruption." He strode closer to me over the bloodied sands. "And I'm going to end —"

He froze as the illusory world around us wavered, cracked, and then collapsed.

The fingers gripping my throat loosened. I sucked in a desperate breath and blinked, but I could barely comprehend what I was seeing.

There, on either side of my father, stood Amelia and Mela. The former had run her arm through his back and out the front of his chest, the entire limb looking more like a sword than an arm. Mela had her hands wrapped around his head, which was now disfigured and completely out of shape due to the pressure she'd applied to it. The fact that she'd buried her thumbs into his eyes up to the knuckles probably contributed, too.

My lover and adoptive older sister stepped away almost in sync, letting the dead body of my father flop uselessly onto the ground.

I had never loved them more than at that precise moment.

Then I was enveloped in a pair of hugs, one purely for comfort and the other an excuse for Amelia's hand to slip into my neck, looking for damage and desperately willing it away.

I laughed outright. She was ranting about risks and stupidity, but I didn't care. I'd get her to forgive me later.

For the moment, I just kept laughing, basking in the knowledge that the last obstacle between us and the life we wanted was gone.