Chương 44: Mach 4

Day 3 For the trip to the hyenas, I picked the Might of the Meek version of the crow. It was my innate shape, and the fact that I had never gotten around to flying in it was a shame. Also, it was a bit smaller than the hawk and thus needed less room for take-off. Even the crow reached an impressive wingspan of nearly 9 feet. And despite the extra weight and size, flight came easily. While this shape lacked the super vision of the hawk, it compensated with better hearing and a stronger sense of smell.

What was even more interesting about them was their complex vocalization ability. I briefly attempted to puzzle this out while flying, but that exceeded my multitasking ability. But even that brief experience was a weird one. This would be complicated. They didn't have lips. It all happened somewhere down in the throat. Even as I approached the junkyard, I spotted a group of three hyenas stalking a nearby street. I'd need to expand the warning signs.

The last thing I wanted was them pouncing on unsuspecting Blessed. I swooped by and dropped a dire badger corpse out of my inventory. I chose to interpret their screams and laughter as gratitude. A brief swoop over the compound confirmed a theory. While the forest seemed to respawn Created, and I assumed most unconquered locations would, the pack's numbers remained steady. A handful were unaccounted for, but I assumed they were also out there, stalking the city.

I landed above the former matriarch's throne and said, "Caw." She glared at me and growled but lowered her head in submission. Even in this shape, she knew exactly who I was. Good. I dropped another corpse in the clearing and flew off to the river. They had plenty of gnoll corpses to eat, but I figured I should still prove my worth as their leader. Eating the same corpses all the time had to be boring, too. Gliding just over the river's surface, I had to admit I was a bit nervous.

The orca was so unlike anything I'd experienced. I shifted into it anyway. The massive difference in mass meant I lost just about all momentum. I remembered to take a deep breath before my massive body plunged into the water. Even days after the end of any industrial waste, the waters of the East River were murky. But orcas could deal with that, couldn't they? After a bit of trial and error, and relying on Instinct once more, I managed to generate the click I needed for echolocation.

But perceiving that echo might have been the single coolest thing I had experienced in those last days so far. It wasn't a visual sense. I couldn't suddenly see through the murky waters. It was something entirely different, but just as detailed. Now that my spatial awareness was back online, I finally noticed that I was hearing things, too. The one that stood out the loudest was the rumbling of an engine. There was a boat nearby. Besides that, there was a more subtle noise.

Also mechanical, but significantly duller and erratic. Machines operating near the water? I'd tackle those one by one. After I filled my lungs, I dove back under the surface and stalked that engine. It was somewhere in the direction of the coastline and couldn't be too far off. Minutes later I spotted it. With the boat moving away from me, the water between us was extra murky. Underwater I could only make out the propeller and a bit of the boat's underside.

But my minimap provided the crucial detail—three red dots aboard. I slowly emerged, just enough so that I could see what I was dealing with. A police boat, manned by three orcs. They were uglier than I had anticipated. With how cute the kobolds had been, I feared the Blessing would pretty-up most Created. But maybe it disliked cops as much as I did. The ship was relatively small but compensated with weaponry. On both sides it was armed with honest-to-god cannons, along with smaller swivel-guns.

Which might have deterred me if they looked at all aware of the danger they were in. The two who weren't piloting the ship were firmly fixated on the riverbanks on both sides. I dove back underwater and activated Focused Fury. This shape wasn't too fast. But that didn't matter. When an effective fifteen tons of orca breached underneath the orcs' ship, it was obliterated. I grabbed the first one I could spot and dragged him back down into the river with me, leaving the other two alive.

I didn't want to take any risks by lingering. At the same time, I didn't want this orc to die by drowning. With one bite I tore off the leg I'd been holding onto, and with another I crushed his skull. One first kill of the day was secured. Two more to go. The water became red with blood. I was grateful I left the goggles on. Or I would have gotten orc blood into my eye. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

With a bit of finagling, I got the corpse under my right fin and pulled it into my inventory. There was a perfectly usable heart in that corpse. And more food for my hyenas. I continued further down the river to investigate the other sounds I had picked up. After another ten minutes, I emerged to see what had been the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It had become a high-tech dungeon. Buildings of sleek steel, turrets sliding along rails guarding the riverside. There were even tiny shapes floating around it.

I couldn't make out details, but I was nearly sure they were drones. This place gave me the distinct impression that this was not something we were meant to tackle at our current level. I returned underwater and turned around. The orca was a fun shape and definitely dangerous in its environment, but I couldn't spare the slots for it. I also expected it to be even more expensive than the demon shape. Which meant I only had today to pull this trick off.

Gabriel had told me to stagger the speed Tasks, but now I had the goggles. I swam as fast as I could, breached the surface of the river, and shifted into my crow shape. The reverse had killed all my momentum. This time? I shot off and into the sky at nearly a mile a second. And thanks to my new gadget, I could experience it all, in glorious high definition. Before drag took its toll, even the very air I passed through became superheated, and I left a trail of fire in my wake.

I had gotten two notifications for Task Completions. Within seconds I passed what had been Manhattan and quickly found myself over the former Bronx. And then I dropped out of the party with the others. Fuck. There was a range limit—of course there was a range limit. They thought I was tinkering at the fire station. They were out grinding experience. They couldn't possibly anticipate that I was roleplaying as a naval railgun in the East River. They'd be worried shitless.

I made use of the enhanced control provided by the goggles and turned around. I had to return, and I had to find them.

"I really wish you had asked me before you did this," said Gabriel. ["Yes, yes. I know. I'm aware. I should have talked to you. I only thought of the risk of self-injury, not the limitations of the Blessing. I got it."] Sadly, I did not automatically rejoin the party once I returned to where it had dropped just before. When my cooldown had run out, I swapped to the hawk. Using the extreme altitude I'd reached and turning that into a dive allowed me to cut down the return trip considerably.

But just getting back to the fire station didn't mean I knew where they even were. After minutes that felt like hours, I half-crashed onto Claire's balcony. ["Do you know where the others are?"] The Pikachu regarded me expressionlessly. ["Your party?"] ["Yes!"] ["Not precisely. I spotted them about half an hour ago. They were harassing orcs until those got visited by demons. They disengaged and I lost vision of them then."] ["Fuck. Can you give me directions?"] ["Yes, I can. Why the urgency?"] I only slightly wanted to strangle her there and then. The last question I wanted to hear, when I was clearly pressed for time, was why I was pressed for time. ["I went too fast, too far, and dropped party. They think I'm in the station. They have no idea why I would drop party like that and might be worried."] Claire didn't ask any more questions and instead gave me detailed directions. I flew off and followed them. Eventually I found the police station.

There were no demons in sight right now, but I didn't leave it up to chance. I landed out of sight of the station and switched to the dire hyena shape. Within seconds I was bounding away, following Jamie's trail. After spending hours with the guy in multiple olfactorily gifted shapes, I could make his scent out against any backdrop. The fact that he used a nice-smelling lotion helped, too. Within minutes I found them, all four running in the direction of the fire station. They were unharmed.

Still, I ran after them at full speed. Liz was the first to notice me, and they all came to a halt, with various unreadable expressions on their faces. On the last yards, I shifted back to my human self.

"Guys! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to just drop out of the party." Jamie ran up to me and gave me a quick hug.

"We thought you were at the station? What happened?" I looked down at the ground.

"I had been at the station. And finished my project much faster than anticipated. So I went and checked in on the hyenas. And since that was right next to the river, I figured I could test my orca shape. And—""A fucking orca?!" Ash asked. This might have been the first time I heard him use profanity.

"Yes. The real deal. Big chonker. I destroyed an orc police boat, killed an orc, and then I found a high-tech dungeon where the Brooklyn Navy Yard used to be."

"How did any of that lead to you leaving the party?"

"Well, none of that did. But since I was already in the shape and I was not going to keep it, and I got those fancy goggles this morning… I used it to launch the crow into supersonic speed. I then learned that the party connection only works up to around 6 miles." There were a bunch of well-justified facepalms.

"Did you ever get tested for ADHD?" Liz asked.

"Of course I did. Yes, I can sometimes follow tangents to extremes. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to make you worry."

"Well?" Ash asked.

"Was it worth it? How fast did you go?" His attempt at a serious expression turned into a grin. I checked my Tasks.

"Mach 4."

"Holy shit."

"Yeah." Jamie held out his hand and invited me back into the party. I immediately accepted.