Chapter 279: Out of your League

Chapter 279: Out of your League

Okay, let’s think this over, Perry thought as the Mimic lunged away from the wall, charging at him while a swirl of essence coalesced into a potent spell designed to paralyze him entirely, rendering him insensate while the creature devoured him.

It was happening at a snail’s pace, all things considered.

It’s not really that odd considering I was just fighting the fastest super on earth.

The previous fight with Solaris had only taken a minute or so, and most of that was the talking.

The mom-creature’s – We’re gonna call her Momimic – limbs bent a little, tensing against the wall.

Here’s the situation, Perry leisurely thought while the creature crawled it’s way through syrup-thick air towards him.

I’m surrounded by mimic. My mom is a mimic now, and trying to kill me. I’ve got a magic scrambler on me. I’ve only got one weapon, but if the damn thing has half a brain it’ll just crush me inside it. If I cut my way out, there’s a good chance Solaris will find me and I’ll be at square one.

My other four Possibilities got wiped out fighting Solaris while we were eating cereal, so this is the path we’re on. I wonder if the cereal was mimic? Given my Body stat, I bet I could digest it before it became a problem.

Perry refocused.

So I guess step one is ‘get rid of the scrambler’.

Step 2: Disable the portal block Momimic put on the outside of the bunker-mimic.

Step 3: Escape to Australia once my Portal.exe refills?

Wouldn’t take more than a few hours. Most of his Essence batteries were full, just a few of the shared ingredients from Gretchen’s Idyllic Manifestation, the Probability Dodge, and Seraphine’s Ouchie Corrector were bottomed out. Which was problematic.

Few hours? Son of a...Hmm.Maybe I can...

There were a few spells he could still cast. Specifically ones that didn’t involve teleportation or healing.

Aw, shit, that includes the Pernicious Prison.

But...he still had Essence from Echo Parrots and those Hadoken Crabs.

Yeah...that could work.

If Perry managed to remove the scrambler, then he went from being at a disadvantage to basically having ‘won the fight’ already, but winning the fight was a moot point. There was an excellent chance this Bunker-mimic has some kind of exterior façade, and if Perry damaged it enough, that exterior façade would shudder or shift in pain as the Tasmanian Devil that was Perry tore up it’s insides.

And if that happened, Solaris would notice, because the man was probably zipping around the American Continent looking for any sign of his AWOL prey.

I’m really starting to sympathize with Professor Replica’s Solaris trauma.

To sum up: Perry needed to break the enchantment on him and teleport away...without doing too much damage to the Bunker mimic he was currently inside of, and fast enough that it didn’t say ‘fuck it’ and turn the entire room into digestive juices.

Momimic’s tendrils left the wall as it began sailing slowly through the air.

You know, there’s a bright point here: Perry mused to himself as he walked around the flying ball of taloned tendrils.

If this thing didn’t know how fast I am, that means that Dad is alive...or at least not mimicked.

Dad had not only designed The System, he had also had a fist fight with Perry to work out some issues after he’d hit level 18. Dad knew how fast he was, and that was about it.

Since the mimics were unaware, Dad must not’ve told them what he was capable of.

So he was either dead and with mom in Elysium, or alive.

It was a nice thought, him and Mom hanging out on the beach, with Elysian Attendants taking care of their every need. Perry would have to ask after this was over.

Alright, let’s see what this scrambler is made of.Yôur favorite novels at n/o(v)el/bin(.)com

The magic scrambler Momimic had cast on him was based on an ancient design that was quite potent, able to effectively muzzle any mage that allowed it to come into contact with their skin.

Any ancient mage, without access to a powerful system and pure essences unburdened with meaningful connection to a living Soul Symbiote.

If Perry had to make an analogy, it was a bit like a steel collar attached to your neck, and the tools that you could use to remove it without a proper cutting instrument.

Similar to a steel collar, you could hit it with liquid nitrogen and then a blowtorch, and it would explode (ignoring the damage that would do to your neck).

Now, an ancient mage only had a few Souls Symbiotes and every essence they produced had to jive with each other in some respect. You couldn’t get totally opposite Essences from the same creature (save one) nor would those essences be purified into perfect wavelengths.

So the enchantment could adjust and adapt to the strain of any essence streaming through it without too much trouble.

But run two perfect wavelengths of essence through it that created destructive interference with each other?

BOOM!

The essence scrambler against his skin lost cohesion and exploded outward just as the Momimic landed on the other side of the room, seemingly confused that Perry was now standing behind it.

Perry was more than happy to break out his B-list: The stuff that wasn’t quite up to snuff against a walking ball of nuclear fusion, but perfectly good enough against things that didn’t move at light speed.

Paradox’s Ethereal Dodge.EXE

The light in the room wobbled a moment as for all intents, Perry’s hitbox shrank.

A bundle of lasers from the ceiling pierced the place where his body should’ve been as dozens of turrets emerged from the ceiling of the bunker.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Ah. Perry thought as the information about the spell flooded into him.

He didn’t know the name of the rapier spell she was using, as it was probably a personal hand-me-down from Gramma, and he hadn’t seen it in Mom’s spell-book. Essentially, it was designed to only interact with living flesh, and the edge bore a rather nasty curse that Perry had barely avoided when he’d slapped the tip of the sword without cutting himself.

The copy with the bitten sword took a step back and began fixing her blade while the other five unleashed a flurry of attacks.

Perry injected a pinch of Vivant Root Essence into his rebar sword, making it technically living for the purposes of the enemy’s spell.

He parried all five simultaneously, crimson copies of Lung Piercer appearing and diverting the attacks.

The mimic seemed surprised when his living sword didn’t rot away on contact with the cursed edge of her blade.

“It’s gotta actually make a cut to curse something,” Perry said, motioning to the flawless, unmarked blade in his hand.

Beat-up Lung-Rebar was highly susceptible to Spendthrift.

Momimic snarled, but Perry copied her lunging stance, stepping forward and aiming for her shoulder.

He withdrew the vivant root, allowing his blade to pass through hers, and all five failed to divert the attack, taking Lung Piercer to the lung, staggering back with wide eyes.

Perry felt the last one coming from behind him and stepped out of the way, sending vivant root back into his sword and diverting her attack into one of her copies.

The copy’s eyes went wide a moment before it unravelled into raw essence. Her clone spell was designed not to spread curses back to the original, self-deleting instead. Good stuff.

Perry took three quick steps back and to the side, breaking the encirclement and putting all five remaining copies of the mimic in his field of view.

“For most people this is a euphemism,” Perry mused as the holes in their lungs healed over thanks to the rapid physiology of a mimic.

“...But I could do this all day.”

Est. Time until Essence runs Dry: 15 Minutes.

Est Time until Portal.EXE charge regained: 2 hrs.

***Brendon***



R-R-R-R

Brendon’s truck let out a pained grinding noise, causing him to wince internally.

“You gotta let off the clutch at the same time that you press the gas. Just a bit at first.”

“I did,” Jay said, sweat beading on his forehead as he squinted down the road. The younger kids in the back had taken to chanting his name every time he grinded the gears.

“Did you do them smoothly?” Brenon asked.

“How am I supposed to know what ‘smoothly’ even means?”

“Just keep trying it, you’ll get a feel for it,” Brendon said.

R-R-R-R!

“Jay, Jay, Jay!” The backseat drivers shouted.

“Why is this so hard?” Jay demanded.

“It’s not hard, it just takes a knack is all,” Brendon reassured the irate car thief. “Jess can be a little temperamental, but she’s definitely not the pickiest truck I’ve ever driven.”

Jay looked at him with furrowed brows. “You named your truck?”

“Eyes on the road!” Brandon shouted, directing Jays attention toward the massive tree root that proceeded to nearly flip the truck.

The oldest robber’s name was Jeremy, but he hated it, so he introduced himself to everyone as Jay.

I’m sorry, Jess. You were like a truck to me, and I shouldn’t’ve agreed to do this to you.

Brendon saw Jay’s eyes, now haunted, tracking the bushes and surroundings as they went past.

“Don’t look to the sides. Stuff at our sides is going by too fast to do anything to us. you gotta look out way ahead. Those are the things that can be a problem. A hundred feet for every ten miles an hour you’re going...roughly.”

Jay nodded, silently refocusing his attention on the distance.

“And I know this doesn’t really apply right now, but for every ten miles an hour on the highway, you want a car length between yourself and the guy ahead of you. You could also use the three second rule. Mark something they pass, and if it takes you less than three seconds to reach it, ease up on ‘em.”

It took nearly an hour of painstaking instruction, but eventually they offroaded all the way the kid’s home base.

“Whaddya think?” Jay asked, motioning to the tree fort haphazardly assembled in the branches of a towering oak.

“Part of me thinks it’s probably not OSHA certified,” Brendon said with a shrug as they approached. The tree must’ve Triggered, or something, because it was roughly the size of a four-story building, and twice as wide.

“The rest of me thinks it’s freakin’ awesome!” Brendon shouted.

“WOOO!”