Chương 72: 71-4D Fight

Eight minutes left"Jesus, they have all gone mad; they are attacking each other," Bob said as he saw the howling mob of Timespiders go berserk.

"Dissonance will have that effect on them," explained Billy.

"It is in their nature to attack anything that emits it."

"The situation is not good," Jenna said.

"We have eight minutes to reach the cellar before the dimensional lock deactivates for thirty seconds—that is our window of opportunity to leave this plane."

"Why do we need to go to the cellar to teleport out of this plane?" asked Billy.

"The Lamplight is, first of all, a defense against extradimensional invasions. The dimensional lock can be programmed to allow people to bypass that defense, but only in its presence," explained Jenna.

"We are going to have to cross the mess hall, and, from the sound of it, it has become a killing field."

"Will the spiders ignore us if we don't interact?" asked Billy.

"I don't know, Billy. They are spiders, but they behave more like hive insects. Ants will always attack other ants from other hives first, but we are also emitting an awful lot of Dissonance. I think both factors will cancel out," said Bob.

"Can't you speak plain English, Bob?" Jenna said.

"I think we will probably be attacked," he said curtly.

"We will have to chance it; this place is no longer safe," said Jenna, pointing at a group of four Timespiders that were climbing the Lamplight's walls, trying to find an alternative route into it. They were at the base of the tower, their shapes mutating as they screamed in agony. Assassin Timespiders were shapeshifters, and paradox was wrecking their powers—strange organs and appendages were continuously manifesting and being reabsorbed into their bodies.

"Let's go," said Jenna as she neared the only exit leading down into the main building. It was protected by a steel hatch that could be locked from the inside. There was a metallic lever on the wall near it. Jenna grasped it.

"What does that do, Jenna?" asked Billy.

"It lowers a steel grid that covers all the windows from this level. It will stop intruders from entering through this floor." Billy did not need to ask how she knew that—her enhanced mind had probably already dissected and classified every feature in the building. Jenna pulled the lever. With a loud rumbling noise, steel grids descended from the ceiling, covering all the windows.

Four Timespiders suddenly climbed inside the tower, their shapes shifting as they scuttled in just one second before the grid fell, sealing the entry. Only twenty feet separated them from the Losers.

"How did they do that? They were still a good way off when you lowered the defenses," exclaimed Billy.

"They are still climbing the tower, Billy," Bob explained.

"They have traveled from the future to one second before the grid fell. They can do that, according to the Gaze of the Eternal Warrior."

"One second, eh?" asked Jenna.

"Follow me and do what I say, when I say it," she ordered as she ran towards the hatch. She made a hand signal for Bob to use his Flamethrower perk in the direction she was pointing, down the hall past the hatch. Bob extended his right hand and threw a wave of white-hot plasma, so powerful that Jenna had to be enhancing his mind. Horrible shrieks sounded from the corridor. Four burnt-to-a-crisp spider-corpses were now inside it.

What the—" Billy started, but he could not finish the sentence, as Jenna shoulder-checked both Bob and him into the corridor, quickly closing the hatch behind her. The whole procedure took one second. Billy tried to imagine it from the spiders' point of view: they had rushed towards the door, only to have it closed in their faces, then instinctively dodged one second back in time and jumped through the entry just before Jenna closed it—only to be greeted by the Skillmaster's flamethrower.

They ran down the corridor, trying to make as little noise as they could. Six minutes left"When we enter the hall, push your back to the walls and try to reach the door at the west end without attracting their attention. They seem to be focused on each other, but that could change at any moment," Jenna said. Chaos does not even begin to describe what was waiting for them in the hall, as the shapeshifting Timespiders attacked each other.

Some were still partly in the forms of the troopers they had replaced; others appeared in spider form. All of them mutated continuously, their forms shifting as they screamed in horrible agony. They were in exquisite pain, but it did not seem to hamper their fighting ability at all. Billy saw many of the spiders blink in and out of existence, as they continued their fights in the past and the future, stalking each other through the timeline.

Two spiders faced each other, both of them in partly human form—Billy recognized them as the jokester and one other trooper. Suddenly, there were four of them. Their shapes glimmered, and they became eight. Billy understood that their future selves were jumping into the past to lend a hand in the fight. Their shapes changed continuously, granting the illusion of variety, even though there were only two of them.

The Losers advanced cautiously, clinging to the wall, trying not to draw too much attention to themselves. They passed by a trio of spiders viciously attacking each other. One of the spiders stopped fighting and glared at them. An opponent seized the chance to bite it on the neck, decapitating the beast. Billy watched in horror as the other two fighters' heads also fell from their shoulders, striking the ground with a wet sound. Two of the bodies disappeared, leaving only one beheaded corpse.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. The first spider to fall had been fighting its future selves. Billy then understood the depth of their current madness. Jenna guided them expertly through the hall, her mind somehow playing the battle in its four glorious dimensions at the same time.

"Stop," she ordered tersely, just before another spider materialized twenty feet in front of them, only to vanish again three seconds later.

"How did you know that would happen?" asked Bob softly.

"That one got killed five minutes ago. During one of its time jumps, I saw our faces reflected in its chitin armor for just one brief instant. The image was only possible from this angle." They finally managed to creep out of the hall without being attacked. They ran through a corridor leading to the stairs down to the cellars. A spider manifested in front of them for one brief second before vanishing back into the future it had come from. It was carrying Bob's lifeless corpse between its pincers.

Four minutes left"Bob, stop right there! Don't you dare set foot in that corridor," ordered Jenna.

"That will not solve anything, Jenna. You saw me. I was already dead. That thing may have killed me anywhere and dragged my corpse here," answered Bob with the weary voice of a man who had just realized he was going to die.

"Look, Bob, I think we are way past what the Observer Effect can—Billy! What the hell are you doing? Billy!" Jenna shouted as she saw her boyfriend dash back into the hall they had just left. Billy ignored her as he threw himself amidst the fighting monsters, spending all his remaining Achievement Points on explosive charges. The explosion threw both Bob and Jenna to the ground. Only the fact that they were already inside the corridor saved them from harm.

Billy reappeared in his basic form, worth only a single point. He had gotten around half of the fighters with that explosion. The survivors blinked into the present, coming from the future and the past, intent on finishing that pesky human. Time to buy more charges with the AP those first deaths had provided. Billy exploded again, finishing the job. He read his character status. You have slain forty-two level 21 Assassin Timespiders. You have gained 882 Achievement Points. Billy returned as an Assassin Timespider.

Time for part two of Operation Saving Private Bob. He had already been in Timespider form before, though not this particular variety. The weird array of temporal senses Timespiders used did not surprise him this time. He could feel the Icosahedron emitting Dissonance like heavy, sticky tar. The very air was heavy with it—the maddened Timespiders had unleashed their powers with no worry at all about the Dissonance they were causing, normally the main limiting factor on their use.

He checked his template quickly: some shapeshifting powers and many temporal ones—they would have to do. Mimicry of Form (Shapeshift 3): You may shapeshift into the form of any being of your own mass, taking ten seconds to do so, and remain indefinitely in that form. Billy willed his body to change and felt his legs retracting into his abdomen as he took a humanoid form. Then he charged past the gaping Jenna and Bob into the corridor where they were taking refuge, but he was no longer Billy. He was Bob.

Just as he expected, as soon as he passed over the planned spot, a hidden Timespider jumped on him, piercing him with its mandibles. The wound was serious, but not powerful enough to kill Billy while he was in that form. He used his shapeshifting powers to widen his wounds and make them look more lethal; he increased his pallor and shut down his motor nerves, paralyzing his body and turning it into a limp doll. He could not look more like a corpse than he did now. He used time magic to finish the job.

Time Blink (2): Jump up to one week into the past for one second, taking with you anything you can carry. This power may cause Dissonance if not used with care. Thirty-second cooldown. For one instant, he was ninety seconds in the past, dragging his attacker with him. He saw Bob, Jenna, and himself gape in horror at him, looking like Bob's corpse. History had been satisfied. The magic ended and took them both back to the present.

Jenna had been ready this time, expecting the creature to return and beheading the Timespider with one swift sword stroke. Bob's corpse stood up and changed into Billy.

"That was creepy as hell," said an awed Bob.

"Thanks for that, Billy," he added. They ran down the stairs towards the cellar where the dimensional lock was located, two steps at a time. Two minutes left A surprise awaited them when they reached it. Activating the defenses at the top of the tower had triggered all the tower's protection mechanisms. Another heavy steel grid had fallen from the ceiling, cutting off their access to the dimensional lock. It was protected by a keypad with Beli numbers.

"We are not going to make it. We only have two minutes left," shouted Bob. Jenna sighed; she knew what she was about to do was extremely dangerous. She lowered her Mind and Body and pushed her Spirit to the max. Spirit +5 Rapport +5 Luck +5 She quickly entered random digits on the keypad. After the fifth digit, the grid clicked and retracted into the ceiling, unbarring the way. They quickly crossed into the room holding the lock.

"I am not going to be of much use for the next few hours. I have to keep my Luck stat high without abusing it to avoid karmic debt. The universe will punish me for this incredible stroke of fortune if I drop it," she explained.

"There we go, just in time," said Billy as the dimensional rift opened in the middle of the chamber, granting them an exit from the plane for thirty seconds. Then Bob stepped on the hidden trap, another of the tower's many defenses. A huge pendulum blade was released from the ceiling, arcing toward Bob. Jenna released her hold on Luck and put all her freebies into Reflexes. Time seemed to slow down as she pushed Bob out of the way of the blade. The Universe suddenly noticed her. Her karmic debt became evident.

Time to pay.

"Run!" Jenna screamed.

"Through the rift, now!" The Losers ran toward it at full speed. A solitary Timespider emerged from the Continuum, crashing into Jenna and pushing her into the adjoining room. Billy and Bob went to help her, not giving the rift a second look. Jenna tried desperately to keep the spider's jaws from her face. Bob used Death Cut to behead the beast with a single blow and helped Jenna to her feet. They ran back into the main room, only to see the rift swiftly shrinking into nothingness.

Billy thought for a moment that he could see someone on the other side. Then the rift vanished. No time left Bob groaned.

"We are marooned here for the next few hours, and there are still Timespiders coming in." The sound the beasts made as they poured into the tower could be heard even from the cellar.

"We are not going to be able to resist for so much time," the Skillmaster finished.

"Time is what you make of it, Bob. You should know that by now," Billy said as he grabbed both Jenna and Bob by the waist with his supernatural spider strength, lifting them both off the ground. Time Blink (2): Jump for one second into the past, up to one week away, taking with you anything you can carry. This power may cause Dissonance if not used with care. Thirty-second cooldown. Uhh—some time left? Suddenly, the rift was open again.

Billy jumped through it with both his friends, falling to the ground on the other side. He only had one second, but that was all it took. As he stood up, he caught a vague glimpse of his past self watching in dismay as the rift shrank into nothingness.

"We made it," Bob said.

"We finally made it." Billy looked around. They were in the middle of a huge city, vast and mysterious. It was night. There was a huge moon in the sky. He gasped as he recognized it. He had seen it once, when he was Turandal the Liberator. It was Valaia, the giant blue moon that had once crossed Belona's sky before being sundered into three parts.

"We are back in Belona," Billy said.

"We are back where it all began."