Chapter 36: Razorena Tango

  As soon as it appeared, the demon dog bounded forward, letting out an angry snarl as if offended at seeing a human standing around uneaten.

  Jack hurled a spike directly at one of its eyes with his power’s full strength, aiming for a debilitating, possibly fatal piercing wound. The other three floating spikes shook briefly and dropped downward slightly at the momentary loss of applied focus and magnitude, but it was only for a moment. He had practice at this precise juggling act, regripping the other pieces a split-second later.

  Almost entirely by instinct, he made one small adjustment mid-flight on the hurled dart to be better on target, as a micro-application. There were some advantages to a slower projectile…

  The razorena had efficient, twitchy reflexes and flicked its head away at the last moment, dodging an eye-shot. The spike clipped it along the side of the jaw, hitting bone with little more than a scratch. It quickly flipped end over end out of play.

  Jack did not have the precision of control to make use of the unstable projectile efficiently, so he left it by quick pragmatic assessment and was already launching another dart, even as the monstrous dog was pivoting in a display of powerful, wiry muscles under it’s thin fur, a cloud of dirt rising from the ground.

  This time, Jack curved the dart’s flight — technically, mostly a series of tiny adjustments, but fluid in feel to him. His floating darts did little slow spins as they floated downward, again the result of back-and-forth efforts.

  The razorena slowed, unsure how to deal with the threat. The unfamiliarity caused it to get juked out, and Jack did nothing fancy — he went for the beast’s torso, ensuring he took advantage of the opportunity given to him to make his attack unavoidable.

  With the satisfying sound of torn flesh, the dart buried itself into the canine’s torso, an excellent piercing strike between ribs, with the dart jammed halfway in. The beast jerked and yelped in surprise and pain in a sudden seizure. Sadly, it didn’t go down, hatred and adrenaline fueling the fanatical advance — with a dash, perhaps, of remnant supernatural origin.

  It was partially stalled, at least, and so it made it halfway across the distance between them. Jack backpedaled slightly, but he was still focusing mostly on his darts, so moving fast was out.

  As the snarling beast got closer and gained some momentum, Jack went for a two-pronged effort. First, with the dart buried in the razorena and some lingering memorite still left in control of it, he did the quickest of little jerks or twirls, aiming for raw shock and pain. Almost simultaneously, not even waiting for the reaction, Jack sent his third dart on a slight curve coming from the opposite angle.

  The beast jerked again as it bounded forward, twisting and snapping its jaws sideways in agitation, as if it wanted to bite the dart, but was unwilling to delay itself and fully go through with it.

  It did not see the dart on its blindside until it was too late, and its sudden turn let Jack adjust the incoming dart to run straight into its eye, lodging itself with a spout of gore.

  The razorena howled in pain and pitched downward into the dirt, not too far from Jack’s waiting fourth dart. It rolled right underneath it, kicking up dirt, and popped back up, thrashing itself violently and chaotically.

  Jack was still backpedaling with the thrashing beast right in front of him. With a good line of sight to it, he quickly poured all his power, control, and force into the dart already embedded in its eye and jammed it inward again, harder, hoping to make it slip further into the skull and brain.

  There was an audible cracking sound as the metal dart pierced the back of the eye socket and through, embedding deep inside. The creature flopped down immediately, spasming with its legs locked up.

  Jack thrust up his spear in raw, victorious elation. “Take that, shitdog! Hnnhn! Hell yeah!” After a moment of Jack watching the beast spasm, as he grinned, panted, and sweated buckets, the body disappeared as if it never was, the darts that were previously jammed into its bleeding form left to roll in the dirt, unstained.

  “Well done, Jack!” Lindsay called. “Now two come!”

  “Wha- Shit!” Quickly, Jack turned to lay eyes and reached out with his full collection of memorite for where he’d previously mentally noted the location of a big length of steel chain, four meters in length and over eight kilograms in weight. His memorite collapsed and distributed within it, and he lifted and flung it in the path of the canines, affecting a line with a slight, snaking curl to it.

  It gave the razorenas significant pause as they hesitated and slowed upon its approach. He threw it at them, and they both grabbed it in their teeth in annoyance. The left side had significantly more length extended past the canine, so Jack focused on wrapping around the left target, knowing he’d be splitting his focus and effort if he tried complex maneuvers on both of them.

  The full strength of Pressure at 71 was applied in this instance as the chain whipped around and wrapped up the canine around the front legs and swiftly back around to the head. It quickly thereafter tightened up. The razorena dropped to the dirt, growling and biting at the chain, twisting and jerking its body in aggression, though to little use. It wasn’t biting through those reinforced chain links.

  The other razorena threw a rather limp end of a chain into the dirt and kept bounding forward, gaining speed and quickly on track to barrel right into Jack. He had little choice but to let go of the chain and hope it stalled the other one long enough.

  Jack noticed its path was right over one of his metal spikes. He crammed his full power and control into it and waited until the split moment the beastie was immediately over it, then shot the spike up into its body as hard as he could, aiming as best as could be managed for the vitals and a random prayer to hit the heart, despite the difficult timing and angle.

  He scored a strike in the chest cavity, the metal dart jamming halfway in. The beast hitched and stumbled but kept coming, charging at him chaotically. The disruption was enough that Jack easily kept his shield between them, and it more or less did nothing more than a body block as he retreated and backed up. Whether hallucination or simulation from Memoria, he felt the impact. Jack tried a stab with the spear thanks to the opportunity presented, but his awkwardness with such a weapon made the canine easily avoid it.

  Tough bastard! Okay, maybe melee with the spear isn’t so smart.

  The razorena tried to trample the shield with the full strength of its body bearing down, which might’ve been an effective shock against an average human. Jack was not that on multiple levels, though, and he rebuffed the display of strength backward, even though it jammed the shield back into his arm briefly.

  As the canine adjusted its strategy, Jack spared a glance at the other one. It was just shaking free of the chain entangling it and stepping forward-

  Jack switched his control over to the chain as fast as he could, and lashed out with it from behind the razorina, entangling it from behind, wrapping up its legs and jerking hard to bring it down. With a howl, the beast fell and contorted itself to try pawing and biting at the chain once more, now absolutely incensed with its rather dogged foe.

  Meanwhile, the closer canine was trying to dart around the shield and snap at Jack’s legs, or anything it could get its teeth on. It was wheezing and bleeding, likely dying a slow death from a pierced lung, but the hatred within it kept fueling it forward, unwilling to give up. Jack adjusted to keep the shield between them as it snaked left.

  It managed a quick maneuver to come around the right side of the shield, but it was then that the spear did some work, waiting to strike. Jack more or less interjected the spearhead at the last second, jamming it in the hard cranium and keeping it at bay. The razorena snarled and twisted its head, pivoting itself again.

  Jack did not have a good eye on the dart, meaning that he’d have to rely on Interpret to move it accurately. Jamming it randomly wasn’t the worst play, but he preferred a more conclusively lethal strike. So, he dropped the spear into the dirt and backed up quickly, hoping the razorena would ignore it.

  It did, immediately trying to circle around him on the right again.

  Jack caught sight of the spear now behind the beast. He poured his full control and power into it and lifted it high. Still dancing around with the canine, he aimed from above and dropped the spear down on the beast like a rod from heaven, steering it the whole way.

  The spear took the razorena in the back of the neck and pierced right through with a crunching sound, carrying through to stab into the dirt, impaling it. He must’ve split a vertebrae as it collapsed instantly with the simple whine of air escaping lungs. The head was a bit suspended as it slowly slid down the metal pole to catch up with a limp body. It made gurgling sounds as blood began to pour from the wound and its mouth.

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  Eugh. I really don’t feel like I’m looking at a sim.

  He turned his attention to the other beastie, already bounding away from the twice-rebuffed chain. Nonetheless, Jack re-established control of it and shot it out in pursuit, even as he squatted behind his shield in reception of a charge.

  He didn’t beat its built-up momentum, and it leapt at him. Jack ducked down further, and the razorena ended up jumping entirely onto the shield and over to the other side, where Jack was forced to compete with its speed in spinning around and awkwardly presenting the shield again in the momentary confusion. The beast slid around it on his right and snapped at his leg, scoring a four-pronged rip from penetrating fangs.

  He moved his leg just in time to avoid a chomp at his knee. Enhanced reflexes saved the day.

  Jack more or less moved out of the way of his barreling chain as it slammed into the canine — though not behind it, the sudden appearance was almost as good as a blindside. It couldn’t avoid the twisting, adjusting shape as Jack coiled it around the beast, including a front leg. He twisted with his power’s control, forcing it to pitch in the dirt and fight against his pin. The most it could manage was to flop around, growling and seemingly glaring at him.

  Jack backed away slowly to eliminate any chances of stray lunges. He shifted the chain to get around its neck and then tightened hard, beginning to choke it. It thrashed around violently and helplessly as he tightened harder.

  As it began to ‘lose consciousness,’ it met his eyes. The very picture of boundless enmity, fangs bared to the end.

  “Is this deliberate? A message?” Jack asked, glancing up at Lindsay as he caught his breath — for him, it was only slightly more than he’d used to breathe normally.

  She merely raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. The beast disappeared, and she said, “Very well done, Soldier. Three, now. Good luck.”

  “You gotta be frag-” He cut himself off despite his frustration, spinning back around, knowing he had to make every second count.

  Three razorenas, and the one in the middle was bigger, its head nearly up to Lindsay’s height and full of rippling muscles, with wicked horns on its head. It was some kind of bullshit alpha dog like out of a game!

  It can’t be real.

  As the beasts started bounding forward for him, Jack had little time to think. He grabbed the chain almost by instinct and hurled it at them, stretching it out and hoping to stall them.

  The alpha slowed, as meanwhile the two flankers did not. They darted forward at the chain as it fell upon them, both jumping on either end and grabbing it in their jaws and holding. In coordination, they held it and pivoted, letting the alpha wheel at a slight angle and charge past.

  Jack was flabbergasted. Wha-?! They learned?! No fraggin’ way that they’re this smart! He recalled Lindsay had said it would be like they saw the battle before, but this was ridiculous!

  He did one last jerk with the chain to keep the dogs distracted at least, then shifted his control to the heavy spear, pulling it out of the ground but keeping it surreptitiously low.

  The alpha wheeled around it, and Jack turned it and fired it from behind, quick and dirty from the ground, thinking it wise not to do anything from the last round exactly the same.

  The alpha stopped short and spun its head around, using a hind leg to kick the spear off course, sending it back into the dirt. Once more, Jack was stunned by the event, and the incredible speed with which everything was happening.

  He had just enough time to retreat and present his shield as the beast was on him. Instead of a body block, it bit the shield firmly in a grasp and then slung hard, picking Jack up and slinging him with it into the dirt. There was a simulation of pressure and numbness in his damaged arm, and a bit more in the body.

  Rapidly, the beast’s open jaws were coming down for his legs.

  It seemed like time rapidly slowed down in this pivotal moment, his adrenaline going into overdrive. Memorite channeled out to the most extreme degree imaginable. His brain and body turned on fire.

  Jack rather spontaneously came up with a last-ditch instinctive effort, squeezing more time than he had any right to: he pulled as much memorite to him as he could and threw it into the beast’s face, rapidly transforming it into solid particulates. It flinched, but it didn’t stop it from chomping him right in the thigh. As its teeth were sinking in and crunching, Jack once again had a stress-induced epiphany: the dust was in its eyes, and it was squinting…

  He grabbed the dust and swirled it, twisting it inside the beast’s eyes with all that he had. Instantly, he saw damage and blood pooling as he ruined its eyes.

  The beast jerked its head violently as it howled in anguish, sending him tumbling and his leg ripped apart, bloody with visible hanging flesh he knew he shouldn’t look at as he had to focus on survival.

  Survive, survive, survive!

  He tried and failed to scramble out of the dirt with the weight of numbness in him and the lack of leg use. Suddenly, a muzzle was in his face. Open jaw. Just barely, he moved his forearm in the way as the jaws came down on it. Staring into those eyes of pitiless hatred, Jack let out a feral cry and jammed a finger into one of those eyes. Even as his hand moved, liquid metal enshrouded the finger, solidified, and made a sharp spike.

  The spike stabbed into its eye, and blood gushed. He felt resistance from the bone. It yelped. It didn’t let go.

  Before he could react much further, he felt another jaw close around his throat and crunch-

  “End Sim Now!” Lindsay called, and everything was gone in a flash. Demonic dogs, numbness, blood, all wiped out. Gone. Except, of course, for the piercing headache and body ache as he was pushing himself over the limit. Lindsay quickly commanded, “Let go of the fraggin’ memorite, Jack!”

  He didn’t immediately register it, sitting up, memorite cloud swirling as he looked around in a panic for threats.

  Lindsay fell down right in front of him and grabbed his face with both hands, nearly screaming in alarm, “Let go, damn it! Not real, Jack! None of it! Let fraggin’ go — that’s an order!”

  It finally registered and he did so, letting the memorite rapidly collapse back into him, though he kept his head enough to not do it instantly to avoid additional damage. It touched his skin, broke down, and absorbed over a couple of seconds. When it was through, adrenaline fled like a bandit, too, as a wave of supreme exhaustion swept through him. He went limp, and Lindsay let him fall back downward gently.

  No problem, here, Missy! Jack couldn’t even turn that into a comment mentally to Mini. His body felt like too-dense jelly. There was no getting up. He took deep breaths as his heart rate was elevated, and even that was an effort. It slowed a little bit almost immediately, though. Fast reoxygenation.

  “Not real,” he breathed out, and then coughed something of a hysterical laugh.

  “Don’t scare me like that, damn you,” Lindsay admonished. She was still kneeling in the dirt next to him. She was staring at him, her back stiff. A very serious expression was on her face, and her cheeks were red. Anger. The first time he’d seen it. Her eyes were like lasers. “I don’t give two frags about whatever the gains are. One hundred and two percent. That’s effectively over one hundred and ten for you. You will not exceed ninety percent without my express permission, or I will write you up. Do you understand me, Junior Agent?”

  She had seemed so hard-nosed about this when we started it. Was it an act?

  He met her eyes and replied, “Sorry. Yes, ma’am. Shifu.”

  “And I’m putting a pause on this bullshit until I’m confident-”

  “Belay those orders, Jack.”

  Jack felt pins and needles in his skin at whose voice that was and he craned his neck up to see and verify. There she was. The Boss Lady in a blue pinstripe suit, gold tie, stylish gold boots, and smoking a cigarette. Memoria.

  Where the hell did she come fr-? Nah. Dumb question. She came from thin air, and she’s not really there.

  Jack started to force himself to rise, to stand at attention and salute the highest authority, but he had to settle for a salute while lying on the ground. Memoria didn’t look at him, but she cracked a grin and blew out smoke.

  Strangely, Lindsay didn’t salute or even turn around. She shut up immediately, though, and her eyes were down in the dirt. She might’ve sagged a little.

  “Jack here can push himself a little more than others,” Memoria continued as her eyes shifted to look upward, “thanks to a more robust System architecture on account of his situation. There’s greater stability, as we just proved. Moreover, crisis breeds innovation. We might not repeat this exact trick, this degree of authenticity through his survival instincts, but the results are just too good. If perhaps inefficient as yet. But I bet that’ll change. You agree with this objectively, don’t you, Agent Nonpareil Boiler?”

  Lindsay did not respond instantly, her lips just barely parting and hanging. Her eyes flickered slightly Jack’s way. But finally, she said, “Yes, Mother.”