Chương 17: Emotional Damage

To pull this off, the timing would have to be immaculate; their margin of error less than a second. Scarlet opened the bunker door just enough that it was no longer latched shut, leaving less than a centimeter of an opening between the frame and the door. Synching fully with Maus, she set the little guy on the floor facing the wall to the left of the door and in a direct interception path.

All decked out in what she was calling her 'combat attire, Scarlet, for her part, moved far enough back that the door wouldn't collide with her, but central enough on the landing that, if she'd calculated things correctly, she would be within striking distance of the bat. The slow coalescence of mana began to peter off, and Scarlet sent a 'ready' signal towards Maus.

The bond was already as open as it could get, and while the constant feedback from Maus was slightly disorienting, she was able to compartmentalize the foreign sensations and focus on what was going on outside. With the door cracked ever-so-slightly open, it was easier to feel the mana fluctuations, but even more, now that her focus was on all her perception, she was getting significant emotional feedback she hadn't expected. There was aggression there, but also something like determination and, possessiveness?

The emotions that she'd found slightly alien before were coming through with much more clarity than they had the first time she'd engaged the bat, and she didn't think it had anything to do with the stealth skill she speculated it had. She put 'wondering what changed' to the back of her mind as she tracked the shadow bat's measured retreat. The 'setup' before the 'charge'. The moment it accelerated, both she and Maus were ready.

There was a flurry of movement, an abrupt acceleration that distorted the mana around the bat in a way she might have found disorienting if she'd been any less focused. Five meters, four, two, one: A sudden spike of mana, and then instead of the 'thump' of the reinforced-bat hitting unmoving metal, the door was thrown open so violently, it chipped the concrete wall. The metal of the handle set doorlatch deforming slightly as very stoppable force met easily movable object.

The bat slammed through the gap with a violent burst of motion, its form barely resolving before it tumbled inside. Most of its momentum had been lost in the collision, but it had enough remaining inertia to carry it just inside the bunker. Disoriented, it fell to the ground in the same moment its skill wore off. She didn't even need to give the order as Maus was already moving. He was on the dark, greyish-black creature about the size of a rugby ball before it even hit the floor.

He vanished in a flicker of motion and reappeared directly behind and on top of it. His tiny form was a blur as he activated both Blink and Ravaging Bite in rapid succession. He struck like a cobra, his sharp little teeth finding their target before he blinked away again, reappearing outside in the yard, barely a meter away from the entrance. Scarlet was moving the instant before he blinked away. Making it to the bat the moment he cleared the space.

When she'd been a young child, perhaps six or seven years old, her father had sent her to skating lessons. Wanting her out of his hair on the few days he'd had custody, but refusing to allow her to disgrace him by doing some 'sissy-ass ice-fairy dance', - his exact words – he made sure she was enrolled in ice hockey instead.

(How leaping half a meter into the air, spinning at 400rpm, then landing on the blade of a knife was 'sissy' she'd never understood, but she could say that about a lot of things that man believed.) The man had attended one game. Her first game. Back then she still didn't have particularly good control of blocking out the 'noise', and the waves of energy that had buffeted her when the teams hit the ice had been so overwhelming she'd barely been able to skate in a straight line.

She'd had possession of the puck only once the entire game. She'd hit it, dead centre even. Only she'd hit it with her face, her headgear saving her from a broken nose and more missing baby teeth. She'd swung so hard she'd turned herself all the way around, a full 360, lost her balance, and faceplanted into the small black disk that had promptly skittered away. Her father had never attended another of her games, but she hadn't let that stop her from practicing her swing with a zeal that bordered on obsession.

Textbook perfect form and balance had become muscle memory. All that practice came flooding back like a buried instinct as she flipped her cane over, midair, and approached the now dazed and bleeding bat. She stepped in, pivoted, cocked back, then drove forward – through the hips, mind the core – in a clean, controlled swing that would have made any Canadian proud. The motion instinctive and efficient as the metal handle connected with the creature's side. The impact was clean, solid. Dead on target.

It barely did any damage. While worrying about timing she'd neglected to factor in her own low stats. It didn't matter how weak the creature was to damage if she didn't have enough strength to deal any. With Strength being her weakest stat, it was a measure of just how fragile the bat had to be that she'd even managed to stun it. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The impact had sent the bat reeling backwards, keeping it distracted and disoriented, and shoving it back out of the bunker, and towards Maus. However, Scarlet hadn't broken any of its bones, caused it any serious trauma, or done any meaningful damage that she could see. Maus blinked back in, intercepting again before the creature could regain its bearings, forcing it into another erratic tumble as it tried to orient itself.

Thinking fast and realizing blunt damage was not going to get her anywhere, Scarlet changed tactics. The cane twisted in her grip, her thumb finding the hidden catch in the handle. As she pulled, the head of the cane came free in one smooth motion, revealing the narrow blade concealed within. Precision over force, she reminded herself. She remained steady, even as her body shifted to compensate for the slight drag in her injured leg. The bat jerked as it was pummelled by Maus once more.

Unfortunately, it had wised up to his attacks, and while he'd managed to clip a wing, he hadn't been able to get a substantial bite on anything more vital. The bat was recovering. Maus had been forced to blink away as a sudden spike of mana caused distortions in the air around the bat's body. It wasn't out of mana then, and it obviously had more active skills, it just didn't have enough power to shield itself with. Scarlet was approaching as fast as she could.

She could feel as the shadow bat became more frantic, its intent coming through to her clearly. It wanted out. It wanted to escape. After almost an hour of harassment, and a near fatal ambush, this sneaky sky-rat wanted to run away. The going got tough, so the bat got out. Was that it? Not a chance. Not on Scarlet's watch, and with her current PER, that watch extended quite far.

Scarlet stepped forward, her world narrowed, it felt like her mind had added a 'zoom' feature on her thoughts and senses, then dialed all the way in. Her focus was not on the creature itself, but on the space it occupied, the space it would occupy, and the potential actions it might make, lines of movement that branched out from its current position like a web of possibilities. Her perception stretched, sharpened, and she felt her mind accelerate to meet it, calculations snapping into place faster and faster.

She added and discarded variables, taking in its emotional fluctuations along with the faintest mana emanations and most probable escape routs. She wasn't trying to aim for where it was, but at where it would be. Her grip tightened on the blade, and she adjusted her stance, compensating for the slight instability in her leg without breaking stride, or train of thought. She wasn't going to make it.

Feeling through the bond, she could sense that Maus was low on mana, his Blink was a hungry skill that he wasn't yet able to execute more than once or twice in succession, and he'd already done two big blinks and a smaller one in just the past ten or so seconds. She needed to stall the bat. Needed to slow it down, just for a moment. To keep it off balance enough for her or Maus to get to it. She thought about throwing her blade, but giving up her weapon like that seemed beyond foolish right then.

Part of the reason the bat was trying to flee at all was that it recognized the danger of the blade. Whose to say without it the bat wouldn't just try to attack her like it had attacked Maus, only this time she'd be weaponless. No, she couldn't give up her weapon, but she also couldn't let this enemy get away. She needed to do something, find something to delay the creature. Barely three seconds had passed from when she'd pulled out the blade, to watching the bat begin to take flight once more.

That's when it happened. That same, strange pressure she had felt before, when she had wondered if her Empathy skill was bleeding into her own reactions, pulling her emotions inwards, now pushed. Instead of directed at herself, her skill 'pushed' outwards from her in a way she didn't fully understand. The frustration she had been feeling began to spread into the passive field and actively seep into her target. Her feelings compounded with the bat's own panic and caused some sort of overload, or disruption.

She wasn't quite sure. What she was sure of was that it was doing something to the bat that the creature couldn't handle. The effect was subtle – externally it wasn't even notable unless someone else had her Empathy or something similar, however it was enough to make the creature hesitate. During its moment of confusion, Scarlet had made it within range. The blade flashed. The slice was precise, cleanly cutting through the space she'd precalculated in her mind.

Unlike when she'd swung on it, the resistance she felt was brief, almost negligible, as the strike landed exactly where it needed to, bisecting the bat with little fanfare. It hit the ground in two uneven halves; the bottom third falling straight down while momentum carried the top section just a little further before both pieces stilled. Scarlet didn't move right away. She watched it for a moment, her breathing heavy but steady.

After a few seconds she realized she was still holding the shaft of the cane in her off hand. Chiding herself for the useless thought she used it to nudge the top half of the bat.

"Quite dead, my dear," she told Maus, who was equally focused on the, frankly, gross remains of the creature that had given them such a headache. At least this time none of the gore was on her nice, clean clothing. She let out a slow breath, some of the tension draining from her shoulders. Her gaze shifted briefly toward Maus, who had reappeared at her feet in a blur of motion, his small, blood-soaked body scrambled up her clean pants and jacket, and settled onto her shoulder.

"Oh, for–" She stared down at trail of crimson that led in a straight line from the toe of her boot to her shoulder, and simply sat down. Right there in the grass. In front of the bodies of her defeated foes. The laugh hit her before she could stop it. It wasn't graceful or controlled. It was a laugh of sharp, sudden release. Of complete catharsis as she sat on the grass under the early night sky, and the glow of the floodlights that had automatically turned on not too long ago.

Her hands came up to cover her face as she hunched over slightly. Knees raised, feet planted, and shaking with laughter as the adrenaline bled off in the only way it could.

"Of course," she managed, watching from the corner of her eye as Maus began to groom himself. Scarlet dragged in a breath, then another, forcing herself to rein it in, and being careful to do it without the aid of Empathy. She'd had enough of crutches for a lifetime, and she wouldn't allow herself to use one unless she absolutely needed it. Dragging in a deep breath, she pulled herself together. The glowing notification indicator in the corner of her eye was glowing brightly.

Looked like the System had something to say.