"Then why haven't you done a 'special hack' already?" Phanya hissed.

"Because the program requires more focus than I can spare while also keeping Salazar safe," Tapper explained. "Now you and he can hide while I incant; so long as it does not beguile me, I can curse the monster and we can escape!"

Phanya took one look at the slagged remains of the security drone and shook her head. "Nope, too risky. You need a distraction." She plopped the bag of medgel tanks onto the cot and started to quickly stretch out her joints, and Tapper gaped at her when the implications clicked into place.

"Surely you do not mean to put yourself in harm's way — "

"We don't have time, Tapper!" Phanya's Aerobic Set responded to her stretching and buffed her Dexterity with an internal pulse. Ricky often wondered about the exponential potential of the system's attributes, and now Phanya wished she had sat down with him to measure its effects. But she still felt like she could balance on a pinhead, and her Commander senses were already mapping out where she could move on the battlefield. "Just get it done!"

One of the monster's eyes caught them and Phanya leapt, flashing her numan markings on and off as quickly as she could flip the mental switch. Unfortunately it worked and all the inhuman eyes followed Phanya's trajectory upwards, including the sharp knobs of crystallized flesh. A purple gem flashed with its own internal light and a computer terminal crushed inwards, destroyed by unseen gravity a split second after Phanya kicked off the very same surface. She tumbled through the air and skipped off the next countertop as soon as she made contact, too terrified to spare a glance behind her.

But she heard the crunch, and noticed which gem caused it. She noticed everything in these life-or-death situations, as time slowed and her plan devolved into an endless chain of split-second decisions. And every answer said that she needed to keep moving and vaulting and sliding, no matter what. Rays of light, cones of fluid, and ripples of misfortune cut across the operating room from the monster's arsenal, and it took all of Phanya's focus to keep ahead as the laboratory melted and warped around her.

Thankfully, that was the entire plan.

Tapper gave chase; he still needed to aim and ensure his hex hit the beguiler, without catching Phanya as well. He spared just enough processing power to keep his limbs moving while he focused on the monster, and started to chant:

"Twisted ankles and sour grapes, Curdled milk in all your crêpes. Broken mirrors reflect bad luck, Discombobu­ — whoop!"

Tapper couldn't look away from his target, and he didn't see the patch of ice in his path. He felt all friction vanish beneath his feet and Tapper's limbs snapped out to catch his fall, but a perfect layer of slick ice covered every surface within reach. Nothing found purchase and Tapper tumbled, causing the mana building up in his chest to spin out of control and tear across his mind.

[Spell component Suck has fizzled!]

It hurt, but Tapper's shout was filled with frustration at himself for losing the spell component. And now he couldn't move! The only thing Tapper could grab was Salazar's bed, and the two spun about as they flailed and wailed.

Phanya saw them scrambling in the patch of ice, several aisles over, as she arced a long jump over a row of computer monitors. Panic made her fumble the landing and Phanya tripped over the edge, rolling and slamming into a large glass tank containing gremlin body parts. She grunted once and pushed the pain in her shoulder to the back of her mind, focusing as hard as possible to come up with a plan to save Tapper. If she jumped over to him, then the monster would follow. If she fought the monster up close, then it would definitely win. What else could she do without any damn magic?

Reflected light from a nearby desk caught Phanya's attention and she snatched the object, a novelty paperweight that looked like a large pill with Fusion Pharmaceuticals lasered across the side. Phanya flipped it over to get a feel for the heft and sprang to her feet, pivoting her heels to aim as she wound up her pitch. The monster was already turning towards Tapper when Phanya threw the paperweight in a straight pitch, smacking the monster's backside hard enough to visibly dent its soft flesh.

Phanya doubted that she did more than anger it, but the monster roared and snapped back around at her. Lightning cracked from one of its gems, but Phanya had already started to dive aside when it reacted and the bolt exploded against a computer instead. Phanya rolled and kept running down the aisle, popping up to throw the occasional desk decoration and add more distractions. She quickly realized that the monster shot down everything that came near, no matter what she threw, and tried using that to lure its attention away. She just needed to keep this up until Tapper could think of a way out.

"Damnit bot, do something already!" Salazar snarled.

Tapper responded by clambering on top of the medical bed, much to Salazar's verbal annoyance. "I am sorry, but that ice is supernaturally slick! Maybe I can use this leftover limb to latch onto something…" He fumbled with the medical drone arm and pried it off of his own, marveling at the line of sticky black tape that stretched between them. "Even better! Please hold my legs steady, Salazar, and I shall have us freed lickety-split."

Tapper leveraged the spindle under his arm and aimed at the nearest ice-free wall as his mana reserves spun up. His internal spell space still felt bruised from fizzling earlier, but he had done the same thing before with Ricky's gizmo so he knew it was possible. He commanded it to, "Spray!" and directed the energies within his chest to travel down through the drone's arm, spraying out a stream of black adhesive. It stuck to the wall and Tapper wasted no time pulling them free, whooping for joy along the way.

He faltered when Phanya's pained scream cut through the air.

She knew, on some level, that something was going to go wrong eventually. The chase had devolved into an endless stream of too many split-second decisions and too many near-misses, where any miscalculation would cost Phanya her lead. Eventually she grabbed a small electronic device without noticing that it was plugged into its desk, and snagging on its cable delayed Phanya just enough for her to cross paths with one of the monster's prismatic rays. Only her forearm dipped into the light and only for an instant, and a wave of pain washed away all her plans.

Phanya fell to her knees, only vaguely aware of her momentum sliding into something with a loud crash. She couldn't hear or see much of anything outside of the white-hot pain scorching her arm, freezing Phanya in shock as she watched her flesh melt. Blisters grew up and down the length of her forearm, each one making Phanya taste bile as they burst and exposed the raw muscle beneath.

[Wounds: ⬤⭘⭘⭘] [Injury: Acid Burn Distracting pain requires a Constitution or Willpower save against the initial attack to act at all. Upon success you can move at half speed, and you also suffer -1 Strength and -1 Dexterity to the affected limb.]

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

[Adrenaline Rush Fight or flight? Whenever you're hit with a wound you will instead receive a buff that numbs the effects of your wounds for (2 minutes). Furthermore, you also receive a bonus on your next maneuver attempts equal to the number of wounds you are currently suffering. Usable once per combat encounter.]

A life ring in text format, the intrusive messages cut through the panic just enough to give Phanya an edge of clarity to grab onto. She isn't dying, this was only one injury, it just seriously sucked. Her perk numbed the pain just enough that it stopped debilitating, but she still felt every wet pop tear through her nerve endings. Moving slow enough that she only needed to wince, Phanya shrugged off her loose bowling shirt and wrapped it around her forearm as tightly as she could manage. She managed to tie it off into a sling right as Tapper appeared with his own fresh panic.

"I heard shouting, are you — you're injured! Oh goodness, you're hurt!"

"Calm down Tapper!" Phanya hissed back through clenched teeth. "It's only one wound… just need to heal it and…" She pawed through her bag, froze, and coughed with laughter at her own audacity. "I gave Ricky my health potion and forgot to grab his, right. Damnit, Phanya."

Tapper didn't hear her. "No, no… failing first promise, not doing enough…"

"Uh, Taps? You okay? You're getting kinda twitchy." Phanya ducked under a table and fought to contain her wince when the monster soared overhead, hunting for its lost prey. But she didn't get to enjoy any relief at its passing before she noticed the look in Tapper's eye. "Tapper, don't — "

"You bastard beguiling ball!" Tapper shouted, clambering up a tall computer terminal to stand defiant and completely exposed. The monster snapped around as Tapper commanded, "Begone! Drill Spray!"

Raw emotion shaped the spell and rammed it through his spritzer tip, right as the giant red gemstone embedded in the beguiler's face flashed with energy. A ray of angry red energy shot from the gemstone and collided with Tapper's stream of iridescent magic, filling the air with a tearing sound as every point of hardened mana popped and canceled out an equal portion of the beguiler's beam. The rapid reactions stacked up to an ongoing explosion suspended in the space between them, and when Tapper tried to adjust his stream of magic curved slightly to maintain the connection. They were locked in place, and Tapper felt promises of destruction on whoever let up first.

Phanya saw the stalemate, and that it started to slowly inch in Tapper's direction. She flexed her throwing arm and instantly regretted it. What else could she do? And where was Salazar? Her Adrenaline Rush perk only had another minute, maybe minute and a half before the debilitating pain kicked her ass again, and it was only going to buff one trick. So Phanya needed to make it a big one.

"Salazar! Throw a flashbang!"

"I'm too far away!" he answered from out of sight, around the far corner of the room.

Phanya spun about and started jogging down a line of countertops in his general direction. "Doesn't matter, just throw it hard!"

Her eyes darted around, judging which lab structures could still hold her weight until she saw a tiny canister arcing through the air. It didn't have nearly enough distance to reach the monster, but it had enough height for Phanya to position herself and start climbing. Her tactical sense mapped out a series of steps and Phanya sprinted up them with supernatural grace, jumping off the highest point and meeting the flashbang in midair. In one smooth motion she arched up and out, flipping backwards to kick the canister with extra momentum and send it rocketing across the room.

The flashbang hit the monster dead center and exploded, breaking concentration for its attack as it recoiled. Now freed from the contest, Tapper's spell dashed against the beguiler as a swarm of drill bits, digging into its scarred hide with enough force to send it careening back. Phanya watched the monster pinball away as she tumbled, using up the last of her Adrenaline Rush to prioritize protecting her arm over landing gracefully. The last thing she saw before crashing down on her hip was ice on the far wall crack, and then blow inwards as the frozen door slammed open.

"Oh yeah, it worked!" Ricky shouted as he slid through the door, with the cauldron dragging and scraping behind him. Before he saw what was actually on the other side and the triumph in his voice died. "...Oh shit."

Phanya wearily dragged herself off the floor and waved her good hand in the air. "Ricky! Ricky for Hand's sake, throw me your healing potion!"

"Oh shit," Ricky repeated, patting over all his pockets until he found the correct one. Of course this would happen right after he rearranged everything! But he yanked out the bottle and scrambled through the maze, only to stop short when he saw Phanya's condition up close. "Oh, shit!"

"Stop shitting and give!" Phanya snapped. The Adrenaline Rush was wearing off by now and her hands started to shake, so Phanya squeezed the potion all over her arm and slathered it in. Cooling tingles instantly washed over her shredded nerves and Phanya heaved a deep sigh of relief. "Okay, I'm good now. Hoo boy."

Ricky managed to wait until he knew that Phanya was okay before his nerves grabbed his mouth. "So on a scale of 1-10, how kicked is your ass?"

"Shut up, Ry." Something exploded above their heads and the two ducked on reflex, gawking at the firehose of magic spraying across the wide operating room.

Tapper never let up, he couldn't let up when this was the only thing that seemed to harm the monster, and his spell left a path of destruction as it chased after his prey. He still had the presence of mind to ensure that he didn't accidentally point his spell downwards, but Tapper had fallen deep enough into his emotions to ignore his programming to protect corporate property. Who cares if storage tanks and light fixtures got destroyed if it meant protecting his friends? Tapper opened his mana reserves to the ongoing spell, pouring everything he had into maintaining his attack. He'd hold this forever, if he had to.

"I'm just saying, it looks like Tapper has this thing covered…"

"He doesn't!" Phanya rounded on Ricky and jabbed a finger at the careening monster. "He's barely making a scratch on that thing! So drop the jokes and grab the gizmos!"

Ricky got the hint and dug into the cauldron, stuffed to the brim with every archaic tool he could pilfer. He chose a short pole with the gremlin horn on one end, concealing the telltale mess of gearing and springs, and the other sported his wicked knife. He looked excited as he grabbed a handle inside the funnel and wound the key, but Phanya couldn't keep the disbelief out of her voice.

"Ricky, please tell me your invention isn't a knife on a stick."

"Of course not!" The gizmo started ticking and the pole doubled in length to a full meter, spreading a wild grin across Ricky's face. "It's a lance!" He had an entire speech planned, about how he applied the Split spell to the guaranteed bleed effect on the knife and that should hopefully multiply the results, but instead he saw the shocked look on Phanya's face.

"Gremlin!"

Somehow, based purely on Phanya's body language, Ricky knew exactly where to strike. He flipped the lance around as he pivoted and jabbed it down in one smooth motion, aiming far lower than he initially expected. This gremlin scurried low on three mismatched legs, with a circular lamprey mouth in the center of its otherwise featureless body, and Ricky stabbed it in the center mass. If Ricky had worked the gearing correctly, then it should take the bleed effect and evenly "split" it over at least a square meter of surface area. And Ricky could sense the mana traveling down the channels he built, exactly how he intended to direct it.

Instead, the gremlin squeaked once and exploded with a viscous pop.

[Anklebiter Gremlin level 1 defeated! +2 XP for participation]

"Ricky! Are you okay!?"

Ricky slowly raised one hand and scooped gunk out of his eyes. Gremlin guts smelled just as bad as last time, but it couldn't dampen his spirits. "It works!" He flashed a smile at Phanya, which did not look reassuring when covered head-to-toe in oily, bright red blood. "But you didn't say there were other gremlins here, too!"

"It's the storage units!" she shouted back, gawking when she took a second look at the destruction Tapper was tearing through the room. Storage closets lined the length of this room, just like the floor above, and now dozens of tiny monsters were crawling out of various holes and cracks in the walls. All various shapes and mutations, none larger than a grapefruit or moving with any sort of coordination. Just spreading randomly and attacking anything they find.

"Oh shit, Salazar!"

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