Chapter 126: Blink, You Disappeared

//DIAMOND PLATING ACTIVATED

//MONSTROSITY DETECTED, ACTIVATING GRAVITY DYNAM, REVERSING 

//SHIFTING ASSASSIN ACTIVATED

Alta recommended we take the far right to the west, and the snakes were on us immediately. I cause an explosion in the sand every time I detected movements, making craters as my reverse grav blade blew the snakes apart. We traveled on a south-west angle and then took a sharp right, and then continued down the corridor marked. 

The snakes were starting to appear less, leaving us for easier prey. We turned right and followed the next path to the east and then turned south to turn back west immediately. The twisting paths were annoying, but they were easy enough to move through with the map's help.

After that, we made three right, four lefts, two rights, two lefts, two rights, walk some, two more rights, two lefts, three rights, two lefts, and about fifty-five more turns, and we had reached the end. I was so glad to get out of this place, but when we got to the last part of the area, a large group was trying to fight a massive five-headed Sand Hyrda.

/Uck, that thing is in the way to get out, what do, wait... What is going on?

//Are you okay? -Kyrina.

//MONSTROSITY DETECTED, ACTIVATING AIR DASH AND PLAIN SIGHT STRIKE, ENGAGE SHIFTING ASSASSIN

Suddenly all the color drain, and everything was in black and white, time slowing as target locations appeared on the Hydra. A path activated as I dashed forward and disappeared, something happened with the suit to cause it, but I left into the air. Everything moved so slow as I ran through the air and then slid into the first two head, severing them both in an explosion of sand.

I stamped and changed directions in mid-air dragging through the last three heads, kicking down to shot myself up into the air, above the regenerating heads. 

//GRAVITY DYNAM, MAXIMUM ENGAGE 

The massive katana dropped down like a rock, ripping me down with it. I smashed down and through until I was at the ground.

//GRAVITY DYNAM, MAXIMUM REVERSE 

The Hydra exploded, and everything came back to average speed. I placed my sword on my back and looked up to see everyone staring at me in awe. Ya, Ya, stare away; I did the work for you, so leave me alone now, okay? I wanted to say it but decided to use the breath to see how Kyrina was doing. 

/How's it going? What are you waiting for?

I looked at Kyrina, but something else caught my nose; oh no! I dropped the connection partially to turn back to see a small robot cleaning puke from the floor. Kret was plastered with puked on the fur of his face. I had thought he was the best, right?

//Is Kret okay? -Kyrina.

/Kret? He through up and passed out, but he is breathing fine; why are you so concerned about him?

//You must not have noticed that you broke the sound barrier four times; I'm surprised Kret is alive after that

/Was I that fast?

//To say the fight lasted five seconds would be an overstatement. Blink, you disappeared, blink, then then the Hydra lost two head, blink, lost three more, blink, the thing exploded, and you were all that was left -Kyrina.

Now that Diamond and I had fully synced, he must be able to speed up my consciousness and coordination. Now my reaction time was almost as good as a computer, and it felt good. I didn't have time to waste on this planet or this game set we were playing in. The faster this race was done, the sooner I could get to Xeno, then to my real goal, Greg.

/Can you change with Tarclaw?

In response, Kyrina came running over and shifted as she ran. Her body fell forward and transformed into her black and red tiger form. I could hear both Kret, who was awake again, and Tarclaw cheering at Kyrina's transformation as she raced to me.

I grabbed the mane of Kyrina massive tiger form, and she bolted out of the city into the storm. I could feel something similar to pulling duct tape off your skin as the tattoo that held the time disappeared. I had unsynced briefly to check on Kret and what the feeling was on my wrist and noticed the temporary tattoo was gone.

Once outside the city walls, the storm enveloped us, but we could see blinking lights ahead. 

/Follow the lights and move fast. If we can keep ahead of everyone, then there is less of a chance of us running into man-made problems on the way

//Tarclaw says in about one thousand meters, there is a canyon we must be being led to, but it had a perpetual twister inside of it. The tunnel leads down way farther than the lower level we will have to get to -Kyrina.

I could see that same info on my map, but I was a bit confused, so I disconnected and willed my mounting harness to turn around to Kret and shut off my mic.

"How does Tarclaw know where we are going?"

"Alexander is always in the same place, and the exit to the city is always the same. So, there really aren't that many places for you to travel to, and we have run most of them on foot. Besides having my insides ejected from me, this has been the best race yet!"

That made sense, there would only be so many paths that could be used, but the traps could change if The God used more than the sand elementals. I switched to the mic to onboard so Kret and Tarclaw could communicate with us. I asked them about the traps, but their answer was what I had expected, the traps would be of the sand variety, that wasn't the most helpful info, but it did confirm about Alexander using more than just sand elemental.

Suddenly, red dots started to appear around us about five-hundred meters from the whirlpool. The MAS that appeared were medium-class style units, similar to Diamond's standard form, but they were all gold and white. Each held white lances with gold tips; the suits they wore looked like they had hanging cloth, great.