It was more than a little jarring walking out of the airlock dressed only in standard armor. Gideon was tempted to hold his breath, but Maddox insisted that he should act normally and let the sigil do its work.
Thankfully, the moment he stepped out into the unforgiving, non-atmosphere of the lunar surface his breathing remained the same, as did the temperature of his body and the pull of gravity.
“All good so far,” he radioed back. “Feels normal, so I’m gonna try running.”
“Good,” Bullseye replied. “I would suggest stressing your body if possible. That way we can truly test the capabilities of the sigil and ensure that it functions under high stress conditions.”
“Yeah, right, and what the hell do I do if it stops working and I’m a mile away with no way to breathe and gravity all screwed up?”
“You float your way back to the base as quickly as you are able,” Bullseye suggested. “Your echo body should be able to sustain several minutes in a hostile environment, particularly now that you have assigned a good number of enhancement points into your Grit attribute. If you increase it to a high enough level, it may even be possible for you to survive out there without the sigil.”
“Okay, great,” Gideon offered.
He suddenly had a thought. “How are you guys even hearing me in there? How am I hearing my own voice for that matter? This is space, I shouldn’t be able to hear anything.”
“We are communicating by means of your echo and the environment sigil you wear. Though technically your mouth makes no sound, the sigil and echo are able to translate into audible sound. It will be the same with Mia and Red once they have acquired their own sigils.”
“Right. Okay, I suppose I should get to it then.”
Gideon started running. He didn’t want to think too much about that little word may. He may be able to survive in the coldness of space. His newly acquired sigil may pack in at an inconvenient moment and land him in a pile of hurt. May just wasn’t helping.
“Okay, running is fine,” he said, checking his mini map and finding the cluster of red dots up and to the right a little. “Heading for the nest now.”
“Very good,” Bullseye replied.
While he ran, Gideon caught sight of a much larger red dot situated in the lower right corner of his mini map. The figure was surrounded by a red circle that throbbed with crimson light, no doubt indicating the strength of the enemy.
He’d seen the same thing thousands of times while watching hunters track down particularly large prey. It was known as the Boss Ring, or the Death Halo, depending on who you asked. The size and redness of the halo indicated how strong the enemy was as will as giving an indication to the hunter as to how close they could get before they were in range of the enemy’s offensive abilities.
Given the size and swell of the ring around The Ashen Harrow, Gideon guessed he could probably get within fifty feet or so before he was in danger of being hit by direct spells and abilities the figure possessed. That didn’t mean that the enemy wouldn’t see him coming and rapidly close the gap, of course. It was just a simple way of indicating to hunters when there were boss level monsters around. Clearly the System had adapted that same mechanic to work with the Harrow Collective.
As he drew closer to the nest, Gideon saw a sprawling mass of rocks spread out ahead of him. There were dozens of them, standing like forgotten sentinels each three or four times his height like the jagged teeth of some long dead giant. A large, flat rock sat at the center of the group, flattened at the top to form a hundred-foot table with at least five enemies milling around at its center.
The moment he closed in on the rock formation the mission updated.
MISSION UPDATE: Clear the Nest
ENEMIES KILLED: 0/6
REWARD: 6 Enhancement Points
“Bullshit!” he hissed.
“What? What is it?” Bullseye said.
“Just got a mission update. There are three more Stalkers up there and the System is only going to give me a single enhancement point for killing the extras.”
“That is fairly standard, Gideon. Surely you’ve witnessed the same thing many times while watching the Hunt?”
“Yeah, but I guess I figured seeing as this was for the survival of the species and all, the System would cut me a little slack.”
“The System is the System, Gideon. It does as it wishes, and we must work within its strictures. Be thankful that you are able to access it at all.”
Gideon slowed his running, squinting at the figures as he approached the large flat rock at the center of the formation. The enemies above were blocked by the lip of the rock as he approached, so he couldn’t get a good look at them. His mini map didn’t offer any elucidation on the subject either, showing them as ordinary enemies with no further information.
He drew near to the vast rock and began circling around it, looking for a way up. For the most part the rock rose up vertically from the surrounding area, but he caught sight of a sloped section a short distance ahead which looked like it would provide easier access.
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Gideon moved slowly around to the ramp, keeping low as he climbed to the top of the flat rock. Of the six Stalkers gathered around in a circle at the center of the rock, three looked like ordinary scouts, two looked like defender Bloodborns and one was a Viper, standing with a bow in its hand as they all stared down into the center of their circle.
“What the hell are they looking at,” Gideon wondered.
“A fallen comrade perhaps? Or some object of value.”
“What kind of valuable object would be out here in the middle of nowhere. It’s the moon for God’s sake; there’s nothing here apart from the transit station.”
“Perhaps. You will simply need to draw closer and investigate. Though I would suggest dealing with the enemy first.”
“Thanks, Bullseye. Great advice.”
“You are most welcome,” the AI replied, completely missing the sarcasm in Gideon’s voice even though he’d laid it on thick. “It is my duty after all to prepare you for any obstacle you may face. Sage advice is merely one way in which I aim to fulfil that duty.”
Gideon bit back a snide response and looked over his available abilities, making a plan of attack. Seeing as there were no fellow soldiers to protect and no one to pull aggro away from, he went with stealth, triggering Shadow Veil and channeling a little ether into it to allow him to close the distance before the stealth broke.
He picked the Viper first, keen to get rid of the only enemy with venom in their arsenal, but as he moved in closer the hairs on his neck and arms stood on end and he was forced to change tack. He turned to the right, heading to a section of space that seemed completely wrong.
Although Gideon had only encountered the sensation once before, he knew exactly what this was. A Phantom Stalker, one of the bladed rogue types that had pounced on him and the others when they first made it inside the station. He had no idea why this group would have so many different types of Stalkers together in one place. It was almost as if they were a squad, a special unit sent here for a specific purpose.
He moved to what he hoped was the rear of the Phantom, but just before he could strike a single, long blade shot out of the air directly ahead of him, missing his face by an inch as he ducked to the left, summoned his Voidfang Talons and swiped out at the invisible attacker.
MISSION UPDATE: Clear the Nest
ENEMIES KILLED: 0/7
REWARD: 7 Enhancement Points
Gideon ignored the update driving forward with Abyssal Pierce with his talons and scoring a jab to the abdomen of the enemy Phantom. The soldier’s stealth broke and it hissed in pain, slashing out with its samurai style blade as Gideon moved around behind the figure, narrowly missing an arrow from the Viper which whizzed past his head and flew off into the distance.
He jammed both talons up into the back of the Phantom, feeling the creature go rigid as he dealt the death blow. Another arrow flew past, while a third thudded into the Phantom’s chest, causing it to begin convulsing as the venom ate its way through the creature’s body.
Guess they’re not here to rescue one of their own, he thought as he dropped the dying Phantom and triggered Shadow Charge.
Aiming directly for the Viper, Gideon moved through the intervening space in a split second and appeared in front of the bow wielding enemy. He slammed both talons into the ground and the resulting shockwave drove the Viper backwards, giving him the perfect opening to thrust forward and jam his blades into the enemy’s chest.
The talons slipped past armor almost as if they were sentient beings trained to find the weak points of Gideon’s enemies. He ripped out the blades, spinning around just as two of the scouts raked their claws at him.
They seemed to move far too slow, their attacks becoming predictable as he triggered Phantom Step and appeared behind the pair, simultaneously driving his blades into their backs before lunging at the scout on the right and finishing it with a jab up into the neck.
Blood gushed out, bubbles of dark, oily liquid that floated eerily as he darted toward the second wounded scout and parried their attack before slamming his right talon up through its chest plating. The scout died just as quickly as the first.
Something was wrong here. It was too easy, too quick. It hadn’t been more than twenty hours ago that he’d faced an ordinary scout and almost been killed by the soldier.
He turned just as the remaining three Stalkers approached; two Bloodborn with tower shields and long curve blades, and the last scout. It was only as he triggered Shadow Smite and stunned the closest Bloodborn that he realized he was not the same person who had stumbled out of the crashed ship when he first awoke.
He''d gained Grit, a host of new abilities and spells, and he was just a few missions away from leveling up. That was why he felt faster and stronger than these enemies, why it felt like they were moving in slow motion.
Focusing on the enemy forced to attack him because of Mark of the Abyss, Gideon used the Bloodborn as an obstacle to hold back the other two enemies. He dodged a strike from the huge curve sword, then ducked around behind the figure and stabbed the scout through the shoulder, before pulling himself around and jamming his second talon up into the Stalker’s neck beneath the head and back armor.
Gideon found that having the talons attached to his wrists made it much easier to maneuver himself around. He could slam a talon into an enemy soldier and then grabble the figure with his hand, using that grip to shove or pull as necessary.
It was also impossible to get his weapons stuck between armor plating or anything that might threaten to disarm him. The moment that happened, he simply willed the talons away and they retracted into his arm, allowing him to reposition before calling them out again.
For the most part the talons acted as a pair, shooting out when he needed to fight and receding when he wanted to pull back. It was possible, however, to summon them one at a time and Gideon knew instinctively that with enough practice he’d be able to manipulate the two blades independently.
With the scout dead and one of the Bloodborn defenders so fixated on him that he was basically a mindless zombie, Gideon used Blade Flurry to overwhelm the second Bloodborn, driving the soldier back and cutting its armor to pieces before ending the strike with a simple duel thrust through the enemy’s chest.
He turned to the final Stalker, still obsessively lumbering toward him, and ducked around behind the enemy without even having to use stealth. It took a few seconds to end the soldier after which Gideon looked around the rock plateau, checking for other enemies.
There were no other enemies nearby, but his mini map did show something directly ahead of him.
MISSION COMPLTED: Clear the Nest
You have successfully killed a protective Stalker squad.
ENEMIES KILLED: 7/7
REWARD: 7 Enhancement Points
ITEMS LOOTED
Ether +80
Stalker Hide Scraps +4
Stalker Oil +3
Viper Bow +1
Tactical Insight +1
Bladed Weaponry +1
Stealth Sense +1
“Protective squad?” he said.
“It seems so,” Bullseye replied. “Perhaps you should see what it was they were protecting.”
“Yeah, I’m going to check it out now.”
Gideon walked over to the space the Stalkers had been gathered around. There was a hole in the rock, a dark gap that seemed to stretch down into the stone below.
The hole itself was only a foot or so wide, too small for any of the Stalkers to get into. He wondered whether they’d dropped something down the hole as he leaned over and looked inside.
It was dark inside the whole, but it wasn’t empty. There was something down there, something orb-like and glassy. He narrowed his eyes to try and focus on whatever was down there. Was it a crystal ball of some sort or an ether sphere?
While he stood hunched over, squinting into he hole, the eye staring back at him blinked.