Mask of Humanity

Some of the deafening boom of the chaffbang and a flicker of the blinding light made its way through his hands and eyelids, and Cyberwarfare growled at him when his Link connections fuzzed, the result of the anti-network filaments contained in the grenade. Not something he’d needed at this moment, but he hadn’t purchased any pure stun grenades as he’d expected to be using the chaffbangs against people with augments, not giant birds.

The bird let out a great scream and its body and wings flailed, its movement through the air now more like an out-of-control aircraft than its previous smooth mastery, and its Soul Sense caught at him as it came into range but ineffectually, and despite how much stronger and larger it was he managed to shake it off, his experience sparring with Beth paying dividends. However, he wasn’t sure exactly what it was trying to do with its Soul Sense, and that worried him.

It was blinded and pained and confused for now, but it was still coming right at him and Nicolai had learned from their last encounter. Instead of moving sideways or upwards he simply cancelled the Pegasi ring’s Art, his stomach flipping as he dropped through the air. He reactivated it just as the bird passed overhead, a great wash of air which it had dragged in its wake catching at him and pulling him after it.

The bird was still screaming and flailing and shaking its body, and he watched with rising eagerness as it continued in a straight line right towards a heavy stone bridge.

Alas, as it drew closer it suddenly veered down and away, letting out another shriek, this one sounding very, very angry, as it beat its wings and distantly regained altitude, already turning to try and spot him.

It was far enough away that he had some time. ‘Come on,’ he hissed, increasingly perturbed by his slow speed of rising no matter how much Oma he shoved into the ring. His eyes widened as he realised he’d been using too much, that his Node was near empty, and he dragged out an Oma crystal to refill himself.

As soon as it crumbled he took the dismembered hand from where it rested, somewhat uncomfortably, between his belt and body, and managed to drag the hand from the metal gauntlet. He spied the ring, glinting under the leather wrapping one of the fingers. All the while, the occasional gun-shot had been ringing out and bouncing off the walls of the bastions.

As he cut at it with a knife the anti-network chaff filling the air disbursed and Cyberwarfare managed to re-establish his Link to Jo and Beth.

‘What’s happening?’ he asked.

It took a moment for one of them to reply. ‘There’s a group, a big group,’ said Beth. ‘Chosen, I think. They’re shooting at us from another bridge.’

‘Can you get to where the dead archers are? Shelter behind the wall?’

‘We can, going there now,’ said Jo after a pause during which he’d heard a quick exchange of gunfire

‘Which bridge are they on?’ he asked next, his eyes scanning what was above. The Chosen weren’t shooting at him which suggested they didn’t have an angle from wherever they were. That, or they didn’t realise he was down there and were focused on Jo and Beth.

Jo sent him her video feed in reply. In the feed her saw her POV shift as she lifted her head to peer over a wall, then her hand came in to view, finger uncurling to point at a bridge distant where he could make out vague, tiny figures. Through the feed and with his own ears, he heard a crack and Jo quickly ducked back down, chips of stone raining from above her where the bullets impacted.

After a moment he worked out where the bridge she’d pointed at was. Right above him.

He finally got the ring free and let the archers hand fall. The bird had recovered and was coming back, and it didn’t look at all happy.

He injected Oma into the new ring and activated its Art, and his speed increased noticeably, though less than he’d expected. The effect of this second ring seemed to be halved, as he had sped up by around fifty percent. He judged the distance between him and the bird, and his own speed, and he grinned. He was going to make it. He pulled out another crystal and drew on it, wary of his Node falling empty.

As he reached the bridges supports and began to rise up towards its top, he saw the bird shift its line, beating its wings, rising higher.

Looking to get onto the bridge now, where it saw him going, and meet him there.

From above he could hear voices. He saw the barrel of a rifle poke out over the stone wall at the edge of the bridge, then, flash-bang, it jerked and fired.

Nicolai was just below it.

There came an angry avian cry, then yelling and shooting, the sounds of its wings beating the air, another cry. He felt the bird’s Soul Sense thrashing around but for now it was focused on the others, not him.

He saw the bridge shake slightly, dust bursting off out of the stone, as something very heavy landed.

Rising a little higher his head popped over the top and he saw them, almost a dozen Chosen, all scrambling, and the bird amongst them, its beak lancing down to catch and snap at a man who vanished in a burst of blood and broken bones. One of them levelled an SMG at it and the rattle of automatic gunfire sounded, blood bursting from its feathered body, but the bird just lurched forwards and stomped on him with its talon, his brief scream morphing into a bloody crunch.

None of them were looking at him, far too busy with the bird. There was a woman right in front of Nicolai, holding a rifle, struggling with its bolt as she tried to load another bullet. He waited a patient moment until she’d finished loading it then his hand-talon emerged with a snick and he buried it into the side of her head. As she fell limp he reached out and seized the rifle from her hands, floating back down, disappearing, heading along the side of the bridge.

A good day’s work, he thought as the sounds of death and carnage continued from behind him, the new rifle cradled in his hands. But as he went he felt something immaterial rushing up. Suddenly the bird’s Soul Sense was all around him, clawing and grasping at his own. Nicolai grit his teeth and kept floating, and he held his Soul Sense tight in the shape of a sphere around him, forming a shield of it.

However, with each blow he received from the bird’s invisible tendril he felt his own Soul Sense damaged and his Soul with it, the draw on his Node ticking up as it began to consume Oma to restore his Soul alongside powering his flight. Fortunately he was quite far from the bird, it was only just able to reach him which limited how much of its Soul Sense it could bring to bear upon him. He heard heavy footsteps and saw the bird on the bridge behind, stepping in his direction, but it found the edge of the bridge and stopped, screaming at him. The Chosen, those still alive, were fleeing on the other side. Why was the bird still hunting him, and ignoring them?

He reached the bastion and floated up and over the guard-wall at the same moment as the bird launched itself off the bridge, and its Soul Sense tendril was pulled away from him as it went out of range. He got behind the guard-wall and scurried in the direction of where Jo and Beth waited. As he went, he drew on more Oma crystals and activated his Blue Hornet, lightning beginning to zip over his body, fuelled by his movement. Now he was out the air it was worth keeping it ready, just in case.

‘Gather the bodies, the polearm, and anything else, and take it into the nearest tunnel,’ he sent his order ahead to the girls, and received an affirmative from Jo. He heard a piercing shriek and he glanced aside to see the bird gaining altitude, circling. He grinned at it. It wasn’t going to make it in time.

He reached the area above where his polearm had been stuck, empty now, and he heard the sounds of the girls dragging the dead archers and, hopefully, his polearm, from the darkness of the tunnel.

Then he heard a yell, panicked.

Nicolai dove into the tunnel at the same time as a gunshot echoed through it, the sound magnified in the close space, his hearing momentarily dulling as his BIS’ ear implants worked to protect him from the sound. He saw an armoured figure falling away, one that he recognised even in the brief moment before it collapsed into the dark. The archer he’d taken the ring from so long ago, still here, still waiting to do its part of the ambush.

He’d forgotten about it. Failed to warn the girls.

Beth had shot it, and now she shot it again, roaring, shrieking. Jo was leant against the wall, clutching at her stomach which was stained red, letting out high, shocked little gasps.

‘It stabbed me,’ she said. ‘It stabbed me.’

‘Put pressure on it,’ he snapped as he passed by, striding over to where Beth was preparing to shoot the fallen archer again. It no longer had a head. She was wasting ammo and making noise that could draw others, when he needed her on lookout. Nicolai grabbed her by the arm before she could fire. ‘Stop.’

She wheeled to face him, face stretched and tense and terrified and furious. He grabbed her by the shoulders before she could scream at him. ‘We need to save your sister!’ he hissed at her. ‘Help me!’

Her eyes went wide. ‘What do I do?!’

‘Go check out there,’ he told her, nodding to the exit.

‘But…’ she began, looking to Jo.

‘I’ll get her,’ he assured her, and turned away without looking to see if she followed his orders.

Returning to Jo he looked at her and she looked at him, her hands pressed to her stomach, blood coating them. Seeing her injured he felt something similar as he’d felt when the archer had dropped his polearm off the edge. He had no Rejuvenating Orbs. She’d already proven herself very useful and now he might lose her.

He pulled her by her shoulders and turned her around. ‘Fall backwards,’ he murmured, ‘I will catch you.’ He put a hand to her back and one behind her thighs, and gripped her shirt to pull her. She came, and he caught her and lifted her. Any amount of movement would be bad for her wound, and he figured he could ensure there was less if he carried her than if he had her walk. The tunnel wasn’t a good place for him to treat her, too dark and too open.

Jo groaned as he lifted her and started down the tunnel, moving as fast as he could manage whilst keeping her relatively still. She’d left her rifle and he’d dropped the one he’d stolen from the Chosen. His polearm, his prize, was on the ground along with the dead archers and their Pegasi rings. Problems for later. She was more valuable than any of it. Beth was at the exit, waiting for them, peering left and right into the corridor.

Just as they were about to get there, he felt the stone beneath tremble, heard a heavy scrape. Something boiled up the tunnel then his Soul Sense received a heavy blow and he stumbled, pain ringing through his head.

A twist and a glance behind revealed one giant yellow eye peering at him from the other side of the tunnel, the bulk of the bird crouched on the ledge out there. His Soul Sense took another great blow as its Soul Sense tendril slammed at him, then some kind of balance was tipped and his Soul Sense broke and retreated back into him despite his attempts to keep it out, and Nicolai let out a pained hiss as a savage pounding headache erupted behind his eyes. He pointed a hand at the bird and activated the Blue Hornet’s lightning, but, unable to guide it with his Soul Sense, it foiled his hopes that it would work anyway and instead drew a random spike of blue energy that grounded itself in the wall halfway down the corridor.

The bird’s eye glowed with pale yellow light, illuminating the tunnel, and he felt its Soul Sense latch onto him along with something else, and then he was stumbling toward it, grabbed and pulled by some invisible force, a force that was tightening its clutch and working to pull harder.

‘Hey!’ Beth yelled, and she grabbed him from behind, and her Soul Sense came forward, still intact, knocking the bird’s Soul Sense loose from him and he regained his footing, stumbled backwards. The bird’s Soul Sense drew back for just a moment then lunged forward and he heard Beth groan as her Soul Sense was swamped, broken, pressed back into her as his had been, and the bird’s Soul Sense surged around them and locked onto the nearest target, and once more its eye glowed.

Jo yelled as she was jerked in Nicolai’s hands and his teeth grit as he held onto her, his feet sliding. The closer they came towards the bird the more leverage its Soul had. His Soul Sense had recovered after only a moment and was ready to push back out of him, but the bird’s wrapped him tight, trapping it inside.

‘No!’ screamed Beth, joining him, grabbing onto Jo who was letting out one continuous wail of pain as the bird tried to rip her out of their grip, her body tugged and wrenched, blood pouring from her wound.

Nicolai’s lips drew back and something snarled within him in response to the challenge. In a savage eruption the darkness burst from its cage and poured through him.

His Soul Sense exploded out of him, limned in red, and it crawled around the Bird’s like spiked vines, tearing and rending at it as the Bird’s Soul Sense flinched in pain and surprise.

He slithered backwards, his grip on the girl aided by the one beside him, then turned and darted away, the one in his hands moaning in pain at the jostling she received. The Bird clenched tight around him but Nicolai’s Soul Sense was slippery like blood, its desperate spiritual claws finding little purchase.

After a passing moment he was there, out of range of the bird. Nicolai delighted in the bitter rage he felt from it, through his fading awareness of its Soul Sense. He heard the rasp of its talons and the beat of its wings as it gave up and left, letting out a singular, echoing cry.

Nicolai paused then, teeth grit, a grin on his face, struggling with himself. His Soul Sense surged around him. Hungry. Demanding. The walls pulsed and breathed, the shadows crawled and writhed. He looked at the blood-coated woman he held and he felt her pain and it tasted like a warm meal on a cold day. Shadowy claws emerged from his hands, connected to the stands of darkness writhing beneath his skin. There was an odd chill in the air and the hole within was open wide. Strange, alien energy was beginning to feed into him.

He heard a click and turned to see Beth, shotgun aimed at his face.

‘Put her down,’ she hissed.