Chương 89: Chapter 86: George Ascendant

[Combat Resolved] George lowered his hands.

"Max." Max lifted the force weapon again.

"Take off your helmet."

"I can't," George said. >>Oh, the drama! >>Right now, he's thinking, "But if this is my dad, why didn't he say anything before now?" >>"How did he get dad's voice?" >>"My dad was flabbier than this guy!" >>Little does Max know that his father doesn't even remember what his own son looks like.

"I can't take the helmet off, but I am George."

"Bullshit," Max said. >>The tension is tangible. >>And I will be narrating it live for our viewers at home.

"Shut up, Nod!" George said aloud.

"Max, stay in this warehouse. There are two kids in the healing aisle. Go find them and keep them safe. I will be back and I will explain." Then, George activated his ability and ran past his son into the warehouse where Hollywood was still battling the crew of the Trial Nine. The giant had lifted a cart above his head and was in the process of launching it in the direction of the squad of soldiers that had come into the hangar bay. At some point Loveland and June had come through the portal.

They were already sprinting for the back wall, away from Hollywood and the Trial Nine soldiers. Ignoring the battle around him, George ran for the portal and looked through. Aeternum stood neck-deep in black smoke on the lowest tier of the chamber. He showed no signs that the smoke around him bothered him. The gnacker had climbed out of the smoke to the next-highest tier and had the vordigan clamped beneath one paw. As George watched, it bit down on the vordigan's head, releasing a spray of dark green fluid.

[Feral Gnacker inflicts fatal damage on vordigan spawn.] Top was curled into a ball near the wall in the same spot he was in when he teleported into the room. From his vantage point, George could see the squat pillar of the slime flopping its way toward him on the tier above Top. Pine did not seem to be shooting anymore, but George still lifted his shield above his head anyway and ran toward Top, shouting his name. Across the chamber, a new entity rose from the place where the voidling had attacked Ezra.

George's Identify tagged it. <Troll Gremlin—Necromantic Incarnation> George remembered Pine saying that all necromancers got a second incarnation as a monster. The troll gremlin was hideous. Long spindly arms rippled with muscle. Inky claws tipped each finger. A rictus grin split its oversized head as it noticed George. George grabbed Top by the shoulders and shouted, "Run to the portal." Top didn't respond. His hands were clamped over his ears. His eyes were squeezed shut. His whole body trembled.

George glanced up at the wall above them, sure he would see the gelatinous blob of the slime toppling down on them at any second. George shook Top again but the man would not even open his eyes. George slid one arm behind Top's shoulders and the other beneath his knees and lifted him easily. With his upgraded strength stat, Top weighed almost nothing. George ran back toward the portal. With Ezra transformed into a monster, they needed Top to use his ability orbs if their plan to remove Neco had any hope of working.

George turned his head and glanced at the troll gremlin across the room. It was starting to take ungainly steps, unused to its new body. George wondered how much Ezra was left in that monster. He was only a few steps from the portal when a movement of shadow crept from behind it. The voidling came around the portal and sprang at George just as he passed through into the Trial Nine. [Voidling: Physical attack. Void talons. George: Minimal damage.] The moment he passed through the portal, his ability activated at the highest level yet. Ability Notification! Threat Level 7 Knickknack Savant - Level 34 Time Dilation Maximum: x 800% Immediately, the heightened state of his mind took hold of him, instinctually assessing more variables than George's conscious mind could grasp. Even in slowed time, the voidling's momentum knocked him forward as he crossed the portal. As soon as the creature touched him, it entered his timestream.

George felt Writher throw itself off of his back and George threw Top clear of him even as he fell. The voidling raked at his armor with the claws on its hands and legs. George could feel the impact on his back, but there was only pressure and no pain. It could not find any exposed skin on his newly upgraded armor. George curled into a ball and sent a mental command to Writher to rejoin the fray.

Once George was on his side, Nod's arm was free to reach up and try to get a grip on the voidling, but all Nod could manage to do was protect George's helmet from some of the voidling's attacks. Writher came bounding back into their timestream, throwing itself at the voidling and knocking it off balance. All three of them were on the ground now and George got his legs between himself and the voidling and kicked out hard.

The instant the voidling and Writher were separated from George's body, their movements seemed to slow. George stood, reached one arm back through the portal, and cast draw toward the pool of black smoke. Cassie's lightning sword slowly rose clear of the smoke and glided through the air toward the portal. Writher had maneuvered itself to the voidling's back and entwined its eight arms with the voidling's limbs. George told the spider automaton to lock onto the voidling's body and hold tight.

An idea crystallized as George's enhanced perception mapped the battle around him. The voidling seemed to mindlessly attack the nearest warm body, so George would give it a larger warm body to attack. Cassie's sword flew into George's hand, but instead of attacking the voidling directly, he ran toward Hollywood Cole. With his time accelerated eightfold, George found it easy to avoid Hollywood's oversized legs even as he sidled up next to the giant's body.

With a mental command, Writher hauled the voidling upright, and George cast the lightrope at the spider, reeling both it and the captive voiding toward Hollywood. The voidling thrashed and screamed as it scraped across the hangar floor. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. When George was directly beneath the giant, he snapped the lightrope off.

Writher released the voidling, caught George's arm with a tentacle, and flipped smoothly back into position along his spine. The voidling, now free, realized it was within reach of Hollywood and threw itself at the giant. It clawed and bit its way up his torso and Hollywood began to swat at the creature clinging to his side. [Voidling: physical attack. Void talons.] Hollywood Cole: Light damage.] The soldiers from the Trial Nine were moving from cover to cover around the perimeter of the room in an attempt to flank Hollywood. George ran back toward Top, who was only just picking himself up off the floor. The entire fight with the voidling had lasted only a handful of seconds in subjective time. At least Top had opened his eyes and taken his hands off his ears. George scooped him up again and sprinted toward the warehouse entrance. His plan was to hide there until the soldiers dealt with Hollywood Cole.

As he passed the desk where Johnny used to sit, George noticed that even the defense drone that had replaced him was firing tiny projectiles at Hollywood. But under the influence of whatever powerful shard fragment had triggered his transformation, Hollywood seemed to have gained the ability to heal continuously and was shrugging off the damage to his body.

George looked back at the battle and saw that Hollywood had managed to get a hand around the voidling's body and he threw it into the mass of soldiers, scattering some and bowling others over. Most of them continued to fire at the giant, not cognizant of the more immediate threat that had just landed in their midst. George ducked into the warehouse and deactivated his ability, setting Top down. George said, "We'll be able to stay safe in here.

There's a fort up near the ceiling we can hide in until the battle is done or the round is over." George looked around. Max was nowhere to be seen.

"I need to get the kids. Come with me." George ran toward the healing aisle and Top picked himself up off of the ground and followed. Top's mouth hung open as he looked down the aisles they passed, taking in the racks of exotic, enigmatic goods. George came around the corner of the healing aisle and saw Cassie still in her pod jutting out into the aisle, but the other kids were nowhere to be seen.

He triggered his ability, and time slowed just as a sleek silver craft floated out of one of the aisles toward the hangar bay. It looked like an airborne canoe made of chrome and sinuous curves. The hovercraft glided through the air at head height, bright blue light shining from its underside and making the air shimmer. Even slowed by George's ability, the craft moved fast—but not too fast for him to catch a glimpse of its three passengers. Marcus, Lavender, and Max. >>Those precocious little blighters…

"Stop!" George shouted. But the slender craft shot toward the warehouse doors and slipped out into the hangar. George sprinted back toward the hangar bay, leaving Top in the warehouse. The hangar was even more chaotic than when George had left it moments ago. Under the drag of slowed time, the chaos resolved into a sharp detail. The voidling was still rampaging through the soldiers, even as more ran in from elsewhere in the Trial Nine. Hollywood was moving toward the soldiers.

Those not caught up with the voidling were still firing on him. He was still the biggest, most violent thing in the room. The gnacker had come in through the portal at some point and was bounding toward the place where June and Loveland crouched behind a stack of supply crates. Lavender had parked the floating canoe a stone's throw from Hollywood. As George watched, Marcus lifted a futuristic rifle to his shoulder and aimed at the giant. Max clung to the sides of the hovercraft, wide-eyed and alarmed.

[Marcus: Crimson Carbine. Hollywood Cole: Light damage.] Marcus fired. A sparkling red beam ripped across Hollywood's arm, carving a burning gash before raking across his back. Hollywood roared and spun toward the attack, raising one massive arm to swat the craft from the air. But Lavender had already hauled back on the controls, pulling the hovercraft sharply away. Hollywood's backhand strike cut through empty air where the silver canoe had been a heartbeat earlier. The kids had his attention now.

George deactivated his ability, and everything sped up. Writher swung down into George's arm, hanging from his hand by one tentacle as George began to swing the spider in circles like the sling that it had once been. He shouted Hollywood Cole's name and immediately got his attention. The giant fixed his eyes on George and shouted, "Saar!" George let him take two steps toward him and watched as the giant raised a fist and then sent it down toward George to smash him.

George activated his ability and stepped forward, raising Cassie's sword. Under the accelerated time, he swept it upward through Hollywood's abdomen. The wound rained blood down on him. [George: Attacks with Fulminara Rapier. Hollywood Cole: Light damage.] Before the wound could close, George hurled Writher up into the wound and watched as the spider crawled into Hollywood's belly. The giant stood up and howled even as the skin of his torso closed back together, sealing the spider inside.

George took quick steps away, and Hollywood pressed both huge hands to his middle, then bent double. George watched Hollywood pound at his own body as the spider tore upward through his insides. The soldiers had stopped shooting and turned their attention to the voidling still wreaking havoc among them. Marcus fired another scathing red laser beam into Hollywood's side, and Lavender got a potshot in, lobbing a throwing star that stuck in Hollywood's shoulder.

The gnacker had its jaws around Loveland's armor-plated arm, and June reached around his body with her staff, now glowing with a malevolent purple light. She plunged the tip into the gnacker's side, and the flesh that touched the staff began to melt away and dissolve. Loveland raised a booted foot and kicked the gnacker away from him. It slid across the floor, whimpered, and curled around the new hole in its side. Hollywood's incessant roaring had been replaced by a horrific hacking sound.

He coughed and emitted a spray of blood. He gasped and clawed at his throat. Then he toppled backward with a crash that everyone in the room felt through the floor. [Spider automata: physical strike Hollywood Cole: Fatal damage.] For a moment, the chaos in the room stalled as everyone looked over at the fallen giant. His body was still, then his head twitched upward and his enormous jaw hinged open. A bulbous black shape pushed its way up out of the darkness of Hollywood's mouth, covered in blood.

Eight slick legs left red lines on Hollywood's cheeks as Writher pulled itself onto the giant's face. >>Wow, George. >>If you ask me, body horror is the best kind of horror, but… yikes, bud—that was almost too much for even me. >>(I acknowledge my revulsion is slightly hypocritical since what you just did to Hollywood bears a striking similarity to what I did to you on the day we met.) >>(Guilty as charged…) George raised a hand and the spider launched itself through the air.

It caught George's arm and swung itself onto his back. George opened the store menu and selected "clean self" from the options and the gore on his armor and on the spider vanished as if it had never been there. It was at that moment that TLX came through the portal. Its scanner flickered red light through the entire room. And then George got a notification—got a message from it—along with, presumably, anyone else it had tagged with its tracker. [Do no further harm to the gnacker. It is on the red team. Eliminate the voidling, Cassie, and Tycho. —TLX] A bolt of scintillating purple light shot from June's staff and flashed into TLX, sending the floating sphere spinning into the wall. [June Dolora: Attacks with Nightbeam Staff TLX: Light damage] It righted itself and flew in a wide arc as a dozen arms sprouted from its sides. Instead of striking back, however, it swooped low, grabbed the gnacker's body, and vanished through the portal to the other room.

George saw that the soldiers had managed to trap the voidling in some kind of glowing blue cube of force. It hurled itself against the walls but could not break out. The soldiers turned their attention back to the group—the people who had invaded their hangar. They leveled their weapons at the players, but no one fired yet. One of them stepped forward, pointed his gun at George, and shouted, "Evacuate the hangar bay. The Trial Nine is now closed to players from your trial.

We have initiated a claim with the AI to sever all portals connected to active trial 8732X9. I advise that you return to your trial before the AI grants our request." Then Lavender shouted from up near the ceiling, "Oh, buzz off, Richard. They're my guests, and they can stay if they want to. These are the good ones."

"Lavender, I've also reported to the captain that you and Marcus have returned to the warehouse against his orders," the solider said.

"Well, I'm going to make sure he knows that you needed outside players to control a trial incursion for you because you couldn't handle it," Lavender said.

"How about that?" Lavender punched a button and lowered the hovercraft to the ground. Max, Marcus, and Lavender climbed out. Just then Top wandered out of the warehouse into the hangar and said, "Dudes, what's going on?" Several guns swiveled in his direction. He threw his hands into the air and said, "I surrender." Marcus walked over to George and said under his breath, "Cassie's still in the pod. Let's get everyone into the warehouse. We know how to seal the door."

George turned and motioned to Loveland and June to follow him and he moved in the direction of the warehouse. Lavender stomped up to the soldier she'd been shouting at, wagging a finger up at his face and shouting threats George didn't quite catch. The defense drone behind the counter blared in a loud robotic voice, ordering them to evacuate the Trial Nine. A moment later, June sent a glob of energy from her staff toward the droid.

It collided with the little bot in a shower of sparks and knocked the machine backward over the counter. Marcus stood at the warehouse door and waved George, Max, Loveland, and June through. Then he shouted for his sister to hurry up. Lavender turned and ran for the warehouse door. The soldiers did nothing to stop the captain's children. When everyone was inside, Marcus punched a code into the panel beside the door. The warehouse door slammed shut.