Somnus V - Chapter 40

“KAT!” Cobra screamed, and they both blurred into motion simultaneously. Kat’s gravity doubled and her Pseudopod pushed her toward the ground as she drew her pistol.

 Ice Cobra fired first, her bullet whipping past Kat and ricocheting off the floor behind her. Kat’s shot didn’t miss.

 She didn’t bother shooting at Cobra. The other woman ducked back under cover faster than Kat’s hand could track. Instead, her bullet shattered the overhead light, bathing the entire stairwell in darkness.

 Her gravity turned off, and Kat’s Pseudopod pulled her to her upright in the blink of an eye. As soon as both of her feet were on the ground Kat stepped forward, burning stamina to Shadow Step under the stairwell.

 Another two shots rang out as she quickly drew one of the butter knives from her pocket. Holding her breath, Kat thrust forward.

 Shadow Strike ignored the intervening space, and Kat felt a flash of cool air around her wrist as her hand appeared just behind the bald man. More stamina drained out of her as Penetrate activated.

 The dull butter knife punched through the back of the man’s neck like it was nothing, stopping only when the cheap blade lodged itself between two of the samurai’s vertebrae. Mana pulsed down Kat’s arm, activating Blade Burst, and she hurriedly released the knife just before it exploded above her.

 His knees thudded onto the staircase before a headless body tumbled down and slid to a halt just in front of the doorway. Kat took a deep breath.

 Part of her had wanted to attack Ice Cobra with the sneak attack. She knew how tough the other woman was, and fighting her while injured would be a problem. That said, if Mr. Red was actually one of Mr. Jackson’s tower companions, that meant he was at least a half dozen levels higher than her. Even if he wasn’t conquering every dungeon on every floor, that meant that his stats would be absurd, especially if he got anything interesting from his class evolution.

Cobra’s gun cracked two or three more times, sending bullets in the general direction of the doorway that Kat had been standing in.

A flash of hope filled her. The other samurai couldn’t see. Ice Cobra was shooting blind.

Kat quickly began casting Resist Poison. It wouldn’t be enough to stop the powerful toxins she’d seen the other woman use, but hopefully it could buy her some leeway. Still, she couldn’t treat this like an ordinary knife fight. There would be no trading nicks and slices with an enemy that specialized in venoms. That was just asking to have your lungs seize up halfway through the fight.

The temperature began to plummet around Kat. She licked her lips nervously. Maybe she could use Shadow Strike on Cobra as well. Kat didn’t know her opponent’s exact location which would make the attack a risky expenditure of stamina that she might use later.

Frost began to form in her hair and eyebrows as Kat tried to make up her mind. She was out of time to think and prepare.

She gripped the stun baton tightly in her right hand, one of the disposable butter knives in her left. Kat’s Pseudopod reached up above her, grabbing onto the railing for the stairwell and flipping Kat’s weightless body upward. Her body tumbled in the air, her shoulders tracking Cobra even as her legs swung past her until she was looking down at the other samurai.

A burst of magic filled the bottom floor of the stairwell with frigid air, coating every surface with ice just as Kat reversed gravity, swooping toward Cobra like a hawk.

The other samurai looked up at the last second, alerted by some sixth sense right before Kat could hit her. Cobra jumped back, swinging her gun upward, eyes widening as Kat’s control of gravity shifted the course of her dive into a parabola.

 Her shoulder crashed into Ice Cobra’s chest, driving the air from her lungs. Kat’s hand stabbed upward with the butterknife, prompting Cobra to shift her body right into Kat’s stun baton.

 Electricity coursed through the woman and Cobra’s body convulsed. Before Kat could press her advantage a half dozen paper thin circles of razor sharp ice zipped at her from behind.

 She reached out with her mind, grabbing hold of Ice Cobra and pulling the other woman’s gravity toward her even as Kat yanked herself toward the floor with Pseudopod. The other woman grunted in surprise, her shins slamming into Kat’s sides just before the unbalanced samurai toppled over the railing of the stairwell and into the path of the ice shuriken.

 Kat quickly hoisted herself up with her right arm, grasping the rail awkwardly around the stun baton in her hand. With her left, she stabbed downward with the butter knife, taking advantage of the unlit stairwell to use Shadow Strike a second time.

 Stamina left her body in a sudden burst, and Kat felt the eerie sensation of her hand passing through intervening space only to reappear by the other woman’s side. Cobra jerked to the left at the last second, barely dodging the knife thrust.

 Without making contact, Kat couldn’t use Blade Burst so she canceled the ability. Cobra raised her gun, firing a handful of shots up and in Kat’s general direction.

 Kat jerked herself backward, hissing in pain as she instinctively put weight on her leg. A fraction of a second later, Pseudopod snagged hold of the staircase above her, pulling her upward in the flash of an eye.

 Chips of cement sprayed off the wall behind her as Ice Cobra’s gun ravaged it. Once again, she was at a disadvantage. The pistol she’d stolen was a simple mid caliber semi automatic. Whatever Cobra was shooting packed some serious punch and could put out a lot of bullets in a short period of time.

 She fired a pair of shots back at Ice Cobra, forcing the other woman to scramble back out of the stairwell, taking cover behind the doorway. Kat took advantage of the moment to begin channeling mana into Gravity Spike.

 By the time Cobra ducked back into the stairwell, the light of the third level turning her into a vengeful silhouette, her spell was ready. Just as the other samurai brought her carbine to her shoulder the reinforced concrete wall she was using as shelter folded in on itself, competing gravity sheers crumbling it into gravel and twisted rebar in a matter of seconds.

 The other samurai skipped backward, her gun tacking upward toward where Kat was hiding. There was no way that Ice Cobra could actually see her, but that didn’t stop her from spraying bullets toward Kat’s hiding spot.

 Gravity fluctuated around Kat, pulling her to the side even as her Pseudopod darted downward, grabbing hold of the bottom of the stairwell and yanking her toward the doorway from above.

 Bullets whipped past her, but Ice Cobra was firing blindly. None of them got terribly close, but Kat was at a clear disadvantage. She needed to close the distance and make use of her pilfered silverware before a lucky shot put an end to their struggle.

 Mana pulsed as she cast Dazzle, sending a strobe of flashing light directly into Cobra’s eyes. The other woman hissed, dancing back a couple of steps as a pair of Thrown butter knives, still glowing red from the power of the skills Kat had used on them, quivered in the floor where she had just been standing.

 Kat arrived a fraction of a second later, swinging her stun baton clumsily at Cobra’s head. It crackled ineffectually as her opponent blocked the strike with her gun.

 Before Cobra could use a spell or find some way to open the distance, Kat jammed her butter knife into the gun’s action, pushing enough mana into the cheap blade to detonate it in a shower of sparks that melted and warped the weapon well beyond usability.

 Ice Cobra retaliated with a kick that hit her injured leg before Kat could dodge. White hot pain blinded Kat, and she acted on instinct, her Pseudopod grabbing hold of Kobra’s foot before she could pull it back.

 Gravity flipped, sending both of them hurtling toward the ceiling. Her Pseudopod yanked on Cobra’s ankle, using the momentum to rotate the two of them so that Ice Cobra tumbled and hit face first.

Kat landed on her good leg, dropping into a crouch to cushion the impact of her fall. Her hand slipped into her pocket, the knives jingling slightly as she pulled out another one.

Cobra spun over onto her back only for Kat to release her hold on the gravity before the other woman could ready an attack. A puff of green gas left the opposing samurai’s mouth as she exhaled some sort of poison.

Then Kat kicked off the ceiling, her mouth and nose shut as she launched herself toward Cobra. A single butter knife flashed out in front of her, hitting her target in the shoulder and detonating as Blade Burst overloaded the dagger.

It didn’t do much damage. Kat hadn’t used Penetrate on the knife so it didn’t manage to punch through the armored infiltration suit that Cobra was wearing, but the explosion was enough of a distraction to stop whatever she was using to produce the noxious green gas that was streaming from her mouth.

Kat’s shoulder slammed into Cobra’s chin and they hit the ground together. The impact did what Kat’s thrown knife couldn’t, knocking the other woman senseless for a moment, but that moment was all it took.

Another butter knife, this one empowered with Penetrate, stabbed upward through the bottom of Ice Cobra’s chin and into the palate of her mouth. The other woman’s eyes widened in shock, and then Kat squeezed the knife, sending a surge of mana through it.

The knife exploded, taking her head with it.

Kat rocked back, blown off of Cobra’s corpse by the force of the blast. With a groan, she rolled over onto her back, staring up at the ceiling. Another explosion shook the compound.

Above them, her enhanced hearing made out the sounds of shouted orders and the whizz thump of magnetically accelerated rifles rapid firing. Kat flopped an arm over her eyes shielding them from the buzzing fluorescent light.

 Reply gunfire echoed down the stairwell as the 3445 cornered the last pockets of resistance. Kat sat up with a sigh that rapidly turned into a hiss of pain. She couldn’t hear anyone coming down the stairs so she would have at least a couple of minutes before-

 A shuffling sound from the stairwell shocked her back into the present.

 Kat sat up, her leg and shoulder throbbing their distaste at her. Another explosion made the lights flicker. Dust sifted down from above as she gritted her teeth through the pain, trying to ignore the pieces of Ice Cobra dripping down her face. One thing that was absolutely certain. Her outfit was completely ruined.

 That really was a shame. Whippoorwill had helped Kat pick it out, and Whip had been really pleased with how she looked in it. The thought dragged a manic giggle from her.

 In the middle of everything, covered in the blood of an enemy that had been pursuing her with the tenacity of Ahab, Kat was thinking about Whip. On the upper floors, enemies were still fighting the strike team, and Kat still had a bullet hole clean through her calf, but the only thing on her mind was whether Whippoorwill would be alright and how upset she would be that Kat managed to ruin her suit.

 Another shuffle from the stairs brought a frown to Kat’s face that quickly morphed into disgust and terror.

 The strange man in red that had been accompanying Cobra was on his feet, an all too familiar snub nosed alien pistol in his hand.

 She rolled to the side on instinct, her Pseudopod grabbing hold of Ice Cobra’s body and throwing it toward her assailant. His pulsar cracked and Cobra’s body turned into red mist that painted Kat and the entirety of the hallway behind her.

 He staggered a step toward her, pistol following Kat as gravity swirled around her, throwing her across the hallway and toward the cover of a side passage with steadily increasing speed. The man hadn’t regenerated. His head was still gone, nothing more than an oozing meaty stump atop his overly plump shoulders.

 The pulsar cracked again and the corner she had been planning on hiding behind exploded sending shrapnel everywhere and leaving deep cracks in the wall that ran almost two to three paces.

 Kat’s mine spun into overdrive. Hard cover was a lie. All she had was her agility, a dubious prospect at the moment, and her ability to hide from the seemingly indestructible attacker.

 Shadow sprang up around her, obscuring her outline. Kat didn’t know if it would do anything given that her enemy didn’t appear to have eyes, but a little extra mana wouldn’t do her any good if she took a shot from the pulsar. No amount of armor mundane or magical would stop her from turning into the same flavor of strawberry jam as Ice Cobra.

 Another shot zipped past, leaving a crater the size of beach ball in the cement behind her. Kat gritted her teeth and the gravity around her changed again, sending her skidding along the ground feet first toward her target.

 She tapped into her mana reserves, focusing on the ragged wound that had replaced the man’s neck even as he shifted his pulsar trying to track her rapid movement.

 Just as he was about to pull the trigger again, Kat reached Pseudopod range and sprang into motion. Her spell darted up, slapping his hand aside and sending his shot into the wall. The subsequent explosion covered both of them in rock dust even as she finished casting Overpressure.

 Blood fountained out of his neck, leaving a rose blossom on the ceiling. Her hand flashed out as she slid past, butter knife glowing red as she slammed it into the man’s calf.

 He turned to try and track Kat only for the newly injured leg to give out under him, sending him tumbling to the ground.

 She dug her good heel into the floor, slowing herself to a stop. The headless body was trying to roll over and stand up, its movements disoriented and weak. Evidently, the extreme blood loss was doing something even if decapitation wasn’t enough to bring the man-shaped creature down.

 Kat pulled out a butter knife. Her stamina, mana, and silverware supply were all running low, but there was only one enemy left. She felt her vision narrow as she hopped toward him, barely putting any weight on her bad leg even as she put her hours of training with Pseudopod to use, grabbing hold of her target’s injured ankle and yanking him toward her.

 The momentum from the pull sent her suddenly weightless body rocketing into her enemy even as it upset his balance and knocked him to the floor again. Her knife glowed red as she activated Penetrate, and Kat could feel her breath going ragged as her stamina dipped into the critical stage.

 She stabbed the silverware into the bicep of the arm holding the pulsar, activating Blade Burst the second she felt the metal chip the man’s bone.

 It exploded, severing the body’s arm. Under Kat, the creature twitched, somehow still alive despite being half dismembered. Panic began to fill her. Why wouldn’t he just die?

  Her hand closed around the last knife stuffed into her pocket. She stabbed it into his stomach. Even with Penetrate, Kat met resistance. It was like she was trying to stab through a sheet of solid steel.

 Giving up, she triggered Blade Burst. Her mana quickly overloaded the knife and it exploded as she rolled off of the man, sending a spray of blood and viscera into the air.

 She frowned. Not enough blood and viscera.

 Kat pushed herself off the ground, tweaking gravity to push herself to her feet with minimal effort. The body in front of her wasn’t entirely dead. After everything that had happened, that wasn’t entirely surprising.

 What did give her pause was the contents of the man’s stomach. A sphere made of alien alloy was cracked open revealing a brain covered in electrodes and wires. Thick green fluid dribbled out of the cavity, mixing with the blood pooling where a normal human’s intestines should have been.

 She hopped over to where she had dropped her stun baton. Picking it up, Kat thumbed the weapon on. Electricity crackled along its tip.

 Two more steps brought her next to the creature’s body. It was reaching across from itself to try and grab its dismembered arm and the pulsar with its good hand.

 Kat jabbed its functional arm once with the baton. It spasmed, flopping bonelessly to the creature’s side.

 She took a deep breath and switched to a double handed grip on the baton. Blood gurgled out of the creature’s multiple wounds, turning the ruined floor of the hallway into a sticky red mess.

 Kat jammed the baton downward, pushing it through the narrow opening in the brain case to push the flickering tip of the weapon through the outer layer of the brain.

 It sizzled. The body spasmed once under her before the sickly smell of seared flesh began to waft upward. Kat felt nausea beginning to reach its acid claws up the back of her throat.

 Heavy footsteps echoed on the floor above her. The shooting had stopped, but she could still hear the sounds of the soldiers clearing things room by room, making sure there weren’t any stragglers. Kat hopped over to the wall that hadn’t been destroyed by the pulsar, leaning her left shoulder against it before she thumbed off the stun baton.

 One minute dragged into the next, and Kat could feel her eyelids growing heavy as her adrenaline began to wear off. Finally, the sound of armor clad began to echo down the stairwell.

 She looked up, a smile spreading across her face as the blessed sight of a suit of APEX armor. A second and a third followed it. Their rifles tracked back and forth past Kat as they rumbled toward her.

 The second suit stopped next to her. With a hiss, its faceplate popped open, revealing a 3445 lieutenant. He looked her up and down once, relief saturating every inch of his face.

 “The shareholder is secure,” he announced. “I repeat, the shareholder is secure. VIPs may descend.”

 Whippoorwill was down the stairs in the blink of an eye, crossing the intervening distance with a speed only achievable after long hours working tirelessly in the Tower. She threw her arms around Kat’s neck, burying her head in her shoulder.

 Kat reached out with her right arm, wrapping it around Whip as she felt her shoulder dampening beneath Whippoorwill’s face. Then, Whip took a step back, pushing Kat’s arm free only to slap her across the face.

 There wasn’t any force in the blow, but Whippoorwill’s eyes were red and puffy, her day-old makeup smeared and leaving trails down her cheeks.

 “Never again Katherine,” she hissed, her voice catching. “You don’t get to sacrifice yourself for me. That isn’t allowed. Do you have any idea how worried I was? Do you know what the last twenty four hours were like for me?”

 “I’m sorry,” Kat mumbled, her eyes pricking as her own tears began to flow, washing the coating of blood from her cheeks. “I just didn’t think, I need to make sure that you were safe-”

 “Don’t leave me,” Whippoorwill whispered, practically tackling Kat as she hugged her a second time.

 Over her shoulder and through blurry eyes, Kat saw Dorrik run down the stairs, both of his swords drawn. Behind him, Merrimack led Jasper, Emma and Heather down, Belle bringing up the rear.

 Kat felt herself smiling. They were safe. Despite everything, she had done it. They were all safe.

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