Chương 98: 2.39 Not Out of the Woods

Hector skulked through the marsh, eyes focused on the javelin crane as it, in turn, stalked one of the leathery, spine-covered mollusks in the muddy trench below. He glanced over his shoulder to where the others crouched, huddled around one of the trees, struggling not to slide in the wet, clay-like soil.

While travel through the marsh was dangerous, it was arguably easier than out on the stony plains and ridgelines; at least among the trees and predator-filled channels, there was only one apex hunter in a given area. As long as Hector took out the javelin cranes, progress was, more or less, steady. Stop celebrating. Decades living among soldiers had ingrained superstitions that wouldn't die; Hector was convinced that if he let himself believe they were going to make it, then something would go wrong.

When he was just ten meters from the crane, he channeled aura into Ghost Reaver, and as the veil fully embraced him, bringing with it the strange stillness and clarity of a monochrome world, he leaped. He'd performed the same sort of ambush seven times since his first use of the ability, and he was growing accustomed to the way he moved inside the veil. As a result, he'd perfected the timing for when he summoned his Aura Blade.

It burst into crimson life just centimeters from the crane's long, slender neck, and Hector's momentum brought it through flesh and bone almost instantly. He took two quick steps up the embankment and turned to watch the crane's corpse fall. He released the blade and cut the flow of aura feeding Ghost Reaver. The world rushed back to him just in time for the thud of the crane's head striking the slick clay to reach his ears.

Hector squatted to claim his potentia, taking hold of one of the crane's long, slender legs to keep it from sliding down into the channel. He stared back the way he'd come, toward the tree where his team waited, wondering how clearly they could see him as the aura rushed through his hand into his pathways. //27 potentia gathered. Potentia available: 158. // Getting up there again. //True. You'll have enough for meaningful advancements after you exit the rift. // How long until the phase ability finishes?

Hector stood and jumped toward a tree on the opposite side of the channel. //Within the next two hours. // Send them the go ahead. I'll monitor their progress from here. //Message delivered. // He saw the distant figures move away from the tree; clutching each other for support, they followed the high bank until they came to the first muddy channel. Mathews leaped over first, scanned the area, then waved for Paige and Willa to follow.

Freddy and Kristy stood on either side of Ling, his arms looped over their shoulders. Hector could almost hear them count, though it was just in his head: three, two, one… jump! In tandem, the trio cleared the channel, and Mathews caught onto Ling's suit, tugging them forward. They repeated the process, clearing another channel, and then there were just two between Hector's position and them. He could see everyone clearly by then, and Paige offered a quick wave as Mathews leaped ahead again.

Hector waved back, allowing himself a small, secret smile. Something about Paige's ability to muster up a bit of cheer in spite of everything they'd been through—everything they had yet to do—was endearing. Things were going so well that, even despite his earlier cynicism, it caught Hector utterly by surprise when it all went to hell. A snapping sound echoed off to his left, and he turned to look, scanning the tall, narrow tree trunks for the source.

He didn't see it at first, but when he was looking, he heard a gasp, a thud, and then the unmistakable squelching splash as someone hit the muddy bank and slid into the water. Hector's legs were already exploding into a leap when he turned back toward his team. He flew over the closest trench, landing beside a tree. One more trench separated him from the others. Kristy, Ling, and Freddy were down there, fighting to scrabble up the muddy bank.

Kristy was in the water; three massive, eel-like drake fish were attached to her legs, their thick, muscular bodies undulating with the force of their thrashing bites. Mathews started shooting, aiming at the crabs and mollusks swarming out of the water. Freddy flared with his pale-indigo aura, and his doppelgänger appeared in the water, charging away, splashing and kicking. The ruse worked, to a degree; dozens of the frenzied fish and other bottom-feeding scavengers gave chase.

Meanwhile, Mathews blew the back half off one of the fish chewing on Kristy, but that wasn't her goal; she was firing full-auto into the water. Her mags were loaded with explosive rounds, and the resulting thunder and blood-tinged spray filled the air. Hector saw Ling, crawling on his single knee and hands, halfway up the bank, when a massive crab erupted from the mud, latching onto his hand. The ground veritably rumbled as dozens more of the creatures with shells half a meter across woke from their hidey-holes.

Everything had happened in a handful of seconds, and Hector didn't waste time gawking; he channeled five aura into a Speed Boost, summoned his Aura Blade and leaped into the fray. The world slowed down—water splashed in slow motion, Mathew's gun started to sound like she was taking carefully aimed, single shots, and everyone's screams took on a deep, slow note. Meanwhile, Hector moved like a hummingbird among them.

He slashed the drake fish attached to Kristy's legs, cutting their bodies from their heads; they'd have to remove the heads later because the fish had barbed, backward-facing teeth. In the next second, he cleaved three mud crabs, stabbing his blade through their thick shells and dragging it to the side, spilling their innards onto the wet clay. Ling was screaming, his limb firmly in the mandibles of the crab beneath him. Hector saved him the horror of a mangled hand, severing his wrist in a crimson flash.

Then he killed the mud crab, grabbed Ling's collar, and threw him up the bank to land near Mathews's feet. Freddy was on his back, pointing his vambraces up the channel. The young Royal fired his electrified needles into the churning water a dozen paces away, and blue lightning arced through the foaming mess. Not gonna work. Hector didn't have time to explain to Freddy that the water might conduct the charge, but it probably wasn't enough to do more than momentarily stun the drake fish.

He killed two more mud crabs, grabbed Kristy under her arm—nearly severed at the elbow from a crab's pincer—and hauled her up the slope. Mathews was swapping a magazine, and she seemed to be moving normally again, which was Hector's first clue that his Speed Boost had worn off. Freddy was crab-walking backward—the irony of that thought wasn't lost on Hector—but he wasn't the focus of the mud-creatures' attention; dozens more crabs had come out of the bank on both sides of the channel.

They weren't the only ones; crabs were climbing up from the next channel over, eagerly snapping their claws as they approached Paige and Willa.

"We made too much damn noise," he growled, and that was when he saw the javelin crane streaking toward them, leaping ridge-to-ridge with gentle flutters of its wings—a dancer, perfectly at ease in its natural environment. Hector's Aura Blade still flared, and he pushed another six aura into a second Speed Boost. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. //Warning! Corpus vivum pathways strained—nearing critical—//"Not now, dammit!"

As the rush of his boost hit him, Hector leaped into motion, flying to meet the crane head-on. He might have stood his ground, trusting his already fast, powerful body to fend off the beast while Mathews readied her gun, but he knew it was a gamble. Like a reaper, the crane moved like it was boosted—all the time. When he met the thing, just five meters from the huddled party, it tracked his movements with ease, lancing its spear-like tail at him, quick as lightning.

Hector twisted, taking the blow at an angle so it pierced the width of his pectoral instead of his heart, and then he brought his blade down, slicing the tail off. The crane shrieked and stabbed its beak at him. Again, the best he could do was mitigate the damage, ducking and twisting so it stabbed his shoulder instead of his throat. His answering slash ended the fight, taking the crane's head off in an upward, backhanded hack.

Not wanting to waste his boost, he spun and charged past the tree, his steps too light and quick to get bogged down in the soupy clay. Mathews was shooting again, but there were four crabs almost on top of her. To his surprise, as he split one in half, the high-pitched buzz of SMGs cut into the din, and he saw that Paige and Willa had taken aim at the crabs crawling up the far bank. Freddy was on his feet, his armor sizzling with blue electrical arcs, a pile of dead fish and spined mollusks at his feet.

His rifle was slung, and Hector imagined the mag was dry. As his Speed Boost faded, and the world sped up, he was relieved to see that the water was roiling, frothy with pink foam as the fish stopped leaping at them and instead began to consume the banquet Hector and the others had provided.

"Eyes out!" Hector barked.

"See if any other cranes are coming." He scanned the forest in every direction, but he also jogged back to the dead crane.

"Start scraping!" Without waiting to see what the others would do, he bent to follow his own advice.

"Kristy's not breathing!" Paige cried. Hector glanced at her, watching as she knelt beside the downed merc, trying to pry off her bunny-eared helmet. //31 potentia gathered. Potentia available: 189. // //Warning: you've suffered aura overload. Your pathways are damaged and will be unable to channel aura abilities to full-effect until healed. //"Shit," Hector muttered, standing. He didn't need the system to tell him; it felt like he had fiery cables running through his body—from his chest to his fingertips and toes.

His pathways were burning. Mathews and Freddy were walking among the dead crabs, trying to gather what aura they could. It was worthwhile, as long as they weren't in immediate danger; even the crabs probably had ten or twenty aura. The fish might have even more.

"Just don't go down the damn slope," he growled, eyeing the piles of corpses near the water. When he stood beside Paige, looking down at Kristy's pale face, he felt himself hardening his heart, ready for the bad news as he asked, "Well?"

"She's alive. I think the bites had a paralytic effect." Mathews looked up from a crab, her gloved hand shaking as she held the cylindrical scraper close to the corpse.

"We should move, right?"

"Yeah, soon. We're only half a click from the edge now."

"Where a hook titan is waiting," Mathews barked a cynical laugh.

"I've got two mags left."

"I've got none," Freddy said, scrambling on hands and knees toward the tree. Apparently, he wasn't about to chance slipping down the bank again.

"Fired all my darts too, and my suit's batts are at nineteen percent."

"Wonderful." Mathews groaned.

"And Kristy's out."

"I'll carry her," Hector said.

"You two help with Ling." He glanced at the tech, sitting with his back to the tree, severed arm cradled to his chest. Someone—maybe himself or Paige—had already sprayed it with wound foam, forming a hardened crust over the stump. Despite everything, his face looked determined. Poor bastard.

"Sorry about your hand, Ling." The words took a moment to register, but then the tech looked at Hector and actually smiled.

"Better my hand than my head."

"Holy shit," Mathews said, and when Hector looked at her, he saw she was digging around in a crab's innards.

"It's true!" She dragged a bloody fist out and held it out, palm up, displaying a golf-ball-sized orb. It was bloody, but when Mathews rubbed it against her sleeve, a golden sheen appeared.

"A rift pearl?" Freddy asked; even he—a rich-as-hell Royal—seemed impressed. He ought to be. Hector had only seen a couple of pearls in all his raids with the Invicti, and in both cases, his squad's Decanus had been promoted. The pearls were used to fuel high-end aura engines—things used for powering city-sized gravity generators and the fold-drives of capital ships.

"That's lucky," Hector said. He looked around at the dozens of other dead crabs.

"I doubt they'll all have one, otherwise the IG would farm these damn crabs until they didn't exist."

"Let's see!" Freddy was already crawling toward another corpse, and Hector sighed, turning in a slow circle, scanning the area. Luckily, he'd already killed most of the nearby cranes, and it would take a while for others to move into their territory. I hope. //Your reasoning is sound. By the way, Hector, I have good news. // Yeah? //Your pathways are mending. // Frowning, Hector hastily grasped his chest, feeling for the hole the javelin crane had made in the muscle there. It was already closed. My regeneration.

//Yes, it's working more slowly on your pathways, but it is working. //"No pearl," Freddy said, tossing the crab—nearly fully bisected by Hector during the fight.

"Hey, their guts are all over; look through them!" Mathews, also on her hands and knees, threw a pile of yellow, red, and blue innards to the side.

"Way ahead of you, kid."

"She's coming around!" Paige cried. Hector looked down at Kristy, and something unclenched in his chest as he saw her eyes flutter open. She looked confused, and she didn't try to speak, but she was unmistakably alive. He turned to Ling, watching how the man, stony-faced, scanned the marsh in front of him. Knowing Mathews wouldn't pass up the chance to find more pearls, Hector said, "Ling, you keep watching that direction. Willa, watch the other side of the tree.

Paige, you and Kristy help with lookout duty as soon as you can. I guess I'll help search these crab guts."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Mathews added.

"Come on. This could be our ticket out of bankruptcy." Hector strode toward one of the more-intact crabs; he had his own motives for trying to find a pearl. One, he intended to scrape more of the dead rift monsters lying all over the place, and two, the thought had occurred to him that his starship, wherever it was, might not have been left with fuel in its reactor. The whole while they searched, the water below them roiled and churned, and the piled corpses down there slowly disappeared.

Despite Hector's admonition to help keep watch, Paige worked on Kristy's wounds, binding her arm in a sling and carefully cutting the fish teeth from her legs. After a few minutes, Freddy hissed with excitement and then announced, keeping his voice to a hoarse whisper, "I found one! It was in the thing's stomach, I'm pretty sure!"

"So they don't grow them," Paige said.

"Maybe it's a buildup—some kind of rift mineral the crabs can't digest, and their enzymes and acids aid in the pearl's formation."

"I mean, I've heard rumors my whole life about lucky mud crabs," Freddy said, crawling toward another corpse. On his seventh corpse, Hector found one too. It made him feel a little guilty when he slipped it into a long-empty pocket, but on the other hand, he felt like he'd earned his cut. When he found a second one, though, and so did Mathews, he realized they'd either found the luckiest patch of marsh on the rift world, or the damned Empire had been lying about pearl yields for reasons of its own.

//11 potentia gathered. Potentia available: 277. //"Got one," he announced, holding up the second pearl. See? I'm not greedy. //I know, but you still feel guilty. // Unable to banish his scowl, Hector stood and walked over to Mathews.

"We need to move. Here." He handed the mud- and blood-covered woman the pearl, and she nodded, stuffing it into an armored belt pouch.

"Yeah, okay. Four is more than good. What a lucky damn find!" She held out a hand, and Hector hauled her to her feet.

"C-captain?" Kristy murmured.

"Yeah, kiddo?" Mathews sounded surprisingly motherly as she knelt to look into Kristy's eyes.

"Why are my legs and arms asleep?"

"Kristy!" Paige hissed, kneeling beside her.

"I told you! You were bitten by some fish and they had a paralytic agent in their saliva."

"Come on," Hector said, stooping to grab Kristy's vest. With a grunt, he hauled her to her feet.

"You're riding with me." He stooped, again, scooped an arm between her legs, and then threw her over his shoulders in a fireman's carry.

"Help me with Ling, Freddy," Mathews said. Hector took a few steps, then after looking down into the blood-filled channel, he jumped over to the next ridge. Kristy grunted, but he landed lightly, careful to take the impact with his knees. He turned back to watch the others cross, and when they'd all made it, he nodded and turned to lead the way to the next channel.

"Are we gonna make it, Hector?" Kristy asked, her voice soft and breathless.

"Well…" He grinned, though nobody but Evie knew it.

"We're not out of the woods yet."

"Oh, ha-ha. Now you've got jokes."