Chương 111: Tarnished Honor - Chapter 3 - A Different Perspective

Hey, you back with me now? I blinked, feeling… not my consciousness, but maybe awareness return to me. I didn't quite recognize where I was, it appeared to be a lobby, just not the one I started in. I half turned, looking behind me, only to find my father's building across the street, and a trail of bloody carnage between me and there.

"The fuck was that?" Hyper focus. You just kind of cut out anything that wasn't related to killing antithesis, until I cut the drugs.

"What? Seriously? How long was I like that." Two minutes, twenty seven seconds and change.

"Pardon?" I spun, pointing at the street.

"There's no fucking way I did THAT in less then three minutes, there must be dozens of antithesis out there." You can, and did. It's a good thing too, if you hit three minutes it would have exponentially increased your chance of permanent damage. You should probably buy some healing items by the way, you pushed your body way past it's normal limits, and you'll be feeling that soon.

"Fine, whatever," I replied. I had something more important to do, and that was checking my grandfather's sword. I cleaned the blade off on my shirt, then examined the blade. There didn't seem to be any knicks, or new damage. It really was an exceptional sword, but I was done using it.

"What sort of blades do I have access to?" The Blades in the Dark use mono molecular disintegrator blades. They cut through literally any substance, and will set you back a hundred and fifty points.

"How many points do I have?" I asked. Four hundred and forty five. I paused, then looked up at the street again. There WERE a lot of corpses out there.

"Fine, give it to me. Do they have any secure bags? I'm still carrying my grandfather, and his possessions, I don't want anything to happen to him." There aren't, but a class 0 armored kevlar backpack can be purchased for only three points. I can even customize the size and balance for your frame for an additional point.

"Do it." As soon as I gave permission a pair of boxes landed at my feet, one long and narrow, the other rectangular. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know what was in them.

"That leaves me with two hundred and ninety one points, anything else in the 'Blades in the Dark' catalog that would be worth investing in?" The class I Black Blade combat focus implant, and the class I Discipline muscle reflex enhancement. Both would be required to replicate what you experienced outside, although at a much more controllable level, but they're a hundred and fifty each, so you don't have enough for both.

"Then give me the implant first." I didn't even have to really think about it. It would be better to dial in the implant, and get used to my new reactions, before I had to deal with the faster reflexes. A second later a third, much smaller box materialized on the other two. I knelt down, and opened up the backpack first. I took a minute to carefully transfer grandfather, and all his possessions, over to the new bag, before securing his blade to the side.

When I was confident he was safe I cracked the top of the long box and checked out my new blade. The handle, and sheath, looked remarkably similar to the blade I'd just been using. Pulling the blade, however, was an entirely different feeling. The blade literally hummed with power, and the edge shimmered with purple energy. Do not nick yourself with that. I wasn't joking before, it'll go straight through everything. It can sever your limbs before you even register being cut.

I carefully sheathed the sword again, then picked up the third box. Inside was something that looked like a half halo, or maybe some sort of ancient headset, and a pair of disks. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Place the loop behind your head, resting the ends on your ears, then place the disks on each of your temples. It'll only take a few seconds, but you might want to sit down while it happens.

I nodded, grabbed my equipment, then popped into a nearby door. From what I could tell, I'd stepped into some sort of old janitor's closet. Not that it mattered, I just wanted a little privacy, just in case. I closed the door, sat down, and placed on the applicators, and waited. I sat there for a few long seconds, long enough to believe that nothing was happening, only to be struck by one of the worst headaches I'd ever had. At the same moment my vision blurred, and I started feeling… heavy.

"Artemys, what the fuck?" I asked, or tried too. My mouth didn't seem to be working that well. You'll be fine. The implant needs time to calibrate, you're actually moving at regular speed, you're just perceiving, and reacting to stimulus much faster than you're used to. Once it's done you should be able to effortlessly slip into accelerated mode. I started nodding, much slower than I wanted, but by the time I ended everything began to normalize again.

"That was fucked up." You'll get used to it. Now, I suggest you head towards the basement. You managed to clear out the street, but I do not know how many antithesis made it into the building before you arrived.

"Right…" I quickly put on my new backpack, taking a moment to marvel at its perfect balance, before strapping the blade to my hip. I slipped out of the closet before taking a look around, "Which way to the stairs?" I asked. Rear of the lobby, on the left side. Shelter is in the lowest sublevel. I jogged to the back of the room, where I found a door had been busted open, warped by some heavy impact. I couldn't hear movement, but there was the faint sound of gunshots echoing from somewhere else in the building.

Bad sign. Cautiously, I stepped inside, giving myself a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the gloom, and low emergency lights, before rushing down towards the shelter. The gunfire got louder the further down I went, so I increased my pace, breaking into a full sprint when I hit the bottom floor. The sub basement door had been completely smashed off its hinges so I just sprinted into the room. The area was cavernous, and reminded me of an old metro station.

The area must have doubled as a storage area, based upon the numerous small enclosures dotted around the perimeter of the room. The center of the room was a mess, I could see bodies all over the area, torn apart by the antithesis that made it to this level, but there was still hope. Some people had thrown together a flimsy barricade, constructed out of the benches, gate panels, and miscellaneous furniture from around the area.

A couple of the security guards were running back and forth, firing at the approaching antithesis. The problem was, all the snarling monstrosities were between me and the survivors. It was mostly dogs, which were throwing themselves against the barrier, trying their best to find an opening in the defenses, but they weren't the only things down here. At the center of their formation was a six legged, heavily armored behemoth the size of a small car.

It was smashing the barricade, taking a few steps back then charging, causing the entire thing to shudder with each impact. Those people weren't going to last much longer without my help. I drew my blade, and flicked it on, filling the area with a low hum. The sound seemed to attract the larger antithesis, which stopped, and eyed me up for a minute before taking a deep breath and letting out a 'huff' noise. An instant later the dogs all turned towards me, ignoring the barricade and sprinting across the open space.

My new implant kicked in when they were only a few feet away, allowing me to analyse their attack, and react accordingly. As the first one lunged I stepped to the left, slower than I'd like, but still faster than the antithesis, and swept my blade through the dog. I honestly thought I'd missed for a moment. The blade thrummed, passing through the creature as easily as the surrounding air.

It was so easy that I just continued the strike, passing through two additional dogs in a single motion, then two more when I brought the blade back around. Without resistance I quickly fell into the rhythm of scything multiple antithesis down with each strike, easily cutting down the approaching monsters before they could get into range to bite me. When I cut through the final dog, the monstrosity snorted, lowered its head, and charged.

It moved more erratically than the dogs, but still had a relatively basic pattern, so I faked moving to the right, before jumping back to the left. As the creature passed by I brought my blade up, easily severing the creature's head, sending its body crashing to the ground; It slid for a couple feet, before coming to a stop. I stood there for a moment, breathing hard, before I slid my sword back into the sheath.

Suddenly aware of how quiet it was I turned towards the shelter, only to find several dozen eyes watching me through the gaps in the barricade.

"What? Haven't you ever seen a samurai before?", I asked. I only got silence in return.