Matthew raced though the underground corridors, he had already deployed his Mystic flames and the heat that radiated past his containment instantly neutralized the potent nerve gas that filled the corridors
“How much personal have we lost?”
[Casualty reports have not yet been made, however given the spread of the gas and other bio-chemical weapons Doc have fielded the attention rate is likely around 80% of all underground personal and around 50% of all above ground personal]
Matthew grit his teeth, if there were any two people he didn’t want to face in a confined area, it would be Doc and Ripper, he had initially picked up his coil rifle only to arm himself only to quickly discover that it was covered in a potent poison that swiftly rotted away the palms of his hands before Aea caught it. Not feeling like trying his luck with putting on his Mk. 22 it had led to the current situation where Matthew only had his Mystic abilities to rely on
‘...And now I have to face down Ripper without a weapon or armor… I would rather be drenched in jet fuel and thrown naked out an airlock…
[Motion sensor alert, 120]
“Sh—!”
Matthew collapsed his stance mid-swearing and slid along the metal floor, narrowly dodging the monomolecular sword had come swirling though the wall to his right aimed at his head, before he could thank Aea for the timely alert from the bunkers sensors, Matthew was forced to roll to into a barrack room on his left as a hail of coil rifle fire came from a squadron of drones ahead of him
“Hi Major~”
Not having a chance to catch his breath Matthew quickly kicked off the ground to take distance from the voice of his doom as he flared out with his Mystic flames to guard himself further
“Boo~”
Feeling a palm on his shoulder, Matthew quickly shock it off and took some distance from Ripper that had appeared behind him
“Easy there Major~ That’s some serious heat you are packing”
Matthew took a few moments to look at Ripper that were dressed in a full combat outfit and most likely ready to exploit his lapse of judgement as he replied to her, still he chose to try diplomacy
“Ripper, you are under external control”
After he spoke, Ripper remained silent for a few moments before she surprisingly sheathed her sword and agreed with him
“Yeah, that makes sense… I take it you have countermeasures getting ready?”
Matthew only managed to nod before Ripper threw a sword at him, which he quickly caught and only just managed to unsheathe it before he clashed blades with Ripper which full faced helmet lit up with a neon pink full teethed smile
“Then you can keep me company meanwhile, right~”
Matthew responded by pushing back towards Ripper, taking distance before he banished his sword
‘I am thankful Ripper is such a blade maniac… That said, please finish with Doc soon, Alina’
Matthew and Ripper clashed swords, as they did Ripper unsheathed a short sword which she used to gorge out Matthew’s side as she laughedUnauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
‘Looks like this is going to be a rather painful afair…’
Matthew gritted his teeth, he knew Ripper was too much of a sadist to outright kill him in one blow, so all he could do was hold out until Alina arrived
-
Alina’s figure appeared out of thin air, after having been made to understand the entirety of the ‘Pure magic’ project her understanding on how to bend and violate what seemed like the natural order of space had reached a new level and that is exactly how she found Doc too. While Doc’s Mystic power also dealt with the bending of space, it wasn’t a one to one of Alina’s powers
‘The base principle seems to have more to do with connection rather than my relocation and movement’
The robotic eye of Alina’s body showed a slight twitch as the inner lens refocused, a tick that had remained from when she still had a body made from flesh, the next moment something snapped in the air next to her head, the force of the sudden release of power ripped thought the air with a loud bang as both sides of the bunker walls dented inwards
‘Come on now miss Anastasia… I don’t really have time to play these games’
Another snap echoed out as another invisible string of compressed space snapped next to Alina’s leg, the force once again dented metal and cracked concrete, needless to say these were traps lay down by Doc
‘...No, it’s more like a probe… Yep, here it comes’
If Alina had hair on the back of her neck they would no doubt be standing by now as she felt the surrounding space vibrate, at once her knife like ears began spinning around and a moment later the hallway around seemed to explode as hundreds of strings of compressed space snapped against her barrier
“Enough”
With her word as a trigger a wave of Mystic power spread out from Alina that instantly made the wrapped space restore, then a moment later Doc’s figure appeared in front of Alina that instantly contained her inside a barrier, Alina stared at her for a moment before she constrained her further inside the barrier
“Now then, Where’s Matthew…”
After casually containing and dealing with Doc Alina looked to her left, her eyes no longer exchanged the wall in front of her as she caught sigh of Matthew and Ripper locked in a rather intense exchange of swords, however just as she was about to fold space to reach them something about Doc caught her attention. After a few moments of thinking the features of her robotic face showed a smile as she unleashed her Mystic powers on Doc
-
‘God, Fuck, Shit!’
Cursing mentally, the Mystic heat around Matthew intensified as he fended off the increasingly aggressive Ripper that still threw herself at him with deadly intent, his body was covered in blood as his regeneration barely kept pace with Ripper’s sadistic strikes, Ripper herself wasn’t in that great shape either, most of her suit was battered and half molten, but it was still sealed… At this rate, Matthew would fall first
[Internal heat capacity at 82%]
Matthew’s back had opened up along his spine, desperately venting waste heat out of his bionic spine that were nearing overheating, the hallway around was cut to pieces, just then Ripper pulled back and gave Matthew some much-needed breathing room as she dramatically yelled out as the working active camouflage of her suit displayed a rather comical distraught cartoonish face on her helmet
“AHH! No!~ Not you too, Metal alloy experiment #183631 why did you fail me too!?”
The cause of her grief was of cause, her sword, or what was left of it anyway. After a few moments of rubbing the now very blunt blade against her helmet, she casually discarded the sword by throwing it to the side before she drew the 4th out of 21 swords she carried on her person and reengaged Matthew once more, however before she reached him Ripper slammed into a barrier of compressed space and was swiftly captured
“That… Took… You… A… While…”
Matthew complained as he caught his breath, a moment later Alina appeared next to him before she folded brought him to a bathroom in the inner bunker, then she spoke
“Clean up, I will handle the rest my love”
Before Matthew could respond, Alina’s figure disappeared once more, Matthew stared at where she had been a moment before for a bit before he let out a sigh and fell over backwards into the large pool of water that quickly began steaming around him as numerous tubes connected to his spine he asked Aea
“...Did I do something wrong again?”
[No, Mistress Alina’s mind simply appears to be on some other matter, so please do not worry Master]
Matthew let out another sigh before he closed his eyes and mouth and sunk in to the pool…
-
Not having much else to do, Matthew got his 09 serviced completely as his body healed and the nanite clusters in his body got exchanged for new ones fresh off the lines, he assumed Alina were working on some sort of plan and since neither Aea nor her had said anything to him, he also assumed that that wasn’t an option
‘...It still feels strange… Trusting someone else this much’
Matthew continued floating around in the pool, his mind was clear as he stared up at the ceiling above the pool while his thoughts echoed around in his mind
‘With things as they stand now launching a manned expedition into the spacial hellscape or any other attack on Wicka is out of the picture… At least in the near future…’
However just as Matthew were begging to shift himself mentally towards a drawn out conflict with no clear in sight Alina’s voice suddenly echoed out in his mind
[Matthew… Do you trust me?]
Feeling a little blindsided by the sudden question of trust, Matthew took a moment before he answered
‘Of course I do’
A moment passed before Alina’s voice once more echoed though Matthew’s mind
[Then get equipped as soon as possible, I have found a backdoor, we’re going on the offensive]
Matthew showed a smile as he rotated his body underwater to plant his feet on the floor of the pool before he set off and leaped out of the water, when he landed on the floor he asked
‘How long do I have?’
[5 minutes, then I am sending us in]
‘Got it’