Seeking Strays - Chapter 88 - Rust and Despair (Patreon)

A wave of Fog Crawlers rushed at me from beyond where I could see. Vigil’s flashlight illuminated them, casting deep shadows across the fog like there were unimaginable horrors hiding in it. In a way, there probably was.

My claws appeared from both hands, and I dodged to the side to avoid the initial wave. Even without much force, the ghastly blue claws ripped and tore through the fluttering monsters. Notifications popped up one after another, though I ignored them. Even at a glance, though, it looked like I was starting to get less points per kill. I didn’t have the time to think about that as metal whistled from behind me. 

The crowbar whizzed past me as I jerked my shoulder back. My claws ripped backward at the passing hand, cutting through a layer of Fog Crawlers across the Anarch’s arm and digging deep into her wrist. “Gah!”

Before I could fish her off, she vanished back into the fog. “Ah, so close. You’re getting rusty, Reyna.”

“Shut up.” Heh, right. I can use that. My eyes narrowed as Seek locked onto her crowbar. The Fog Crawlers, which I’d been originally trying to track, were living beings. My usual methodology of tracking clothes was totally thrown off by her. 

Seek spun around me rapidly. She didn’t look like she was moving very quickly when I could see her, but in the fog she was dashing around quick enough for my ability to swing around in confusing circles. Charging out to attack wasn’t an option. She’d be able to reposition before I could attack.

Unfortunately, that left me in an extremely passive situation. I could feel her approaching, but couldn’t chase after her. It would only be a matter of time till I caught her, or she did enough damage to bring me down. The odds were in my favor in this case. Blood for blood and flesh for flesh had always been my preferred style of fighting. Still, that didn’t mean I shouldn’t try to get more advantages where I could.

”Mother doesn’t love you! I’m her favorite!” I shouted out into the fog to bait out an attack. She was unstable, and I planned to take full advantage of that. “She’ll never love you as much as she loves me!”

”Shut up!” She screamed and flashed toward me from the fog. Seek snapped to the side, instantly alerting me to where she was coming from.

Clang!

Sparks flew as my claws ground up against her crowbar. I parried it to the side, and was more than a little surprised to find the crowbar still in one piece. Rend was extremely sharp. With the strength of our clash, any normal steel bar would’ve been shredded by the nanites. Her crowbar wasn’t just any weapon.

While parrying her to the side, I punched forward with my other fist. It gouged deep into her body, clawing apart the Fog Crawlers covering her. She dodged at the last moment, causing it to dig into her side instead of a lethal blow to her heart. The amount of the monsters feasting on her body had dropped enough that strips of red were visible through her ‘jacket’.

”Ah! Let go!” She slammed the crowbar into my wrist with a loud crack that made my ears twitch. Awoken, regardless of their ability, had enhanced physiques with their halos out. I felt that fact as something in my wrist shattered under the force of her blow.  

My claws were forced to rip out through her arm in a spray of blood. The little white moths surged toward me to keep from attacking her once again. My ears flicked to ward off a couple of Fog Crawlers trying to find a snack as I shredded even more of them into pieces.

She once more darted around the fog too quickly to realistically track. She was slower this time around, though. A few more attacks like that, and I’d be able to take her down. I wrenched my wrist to the side to get an idea of how injured I was, feeling a flare of pain shoot up through my nerves. Definitely broken. 

My tail swung low between my legs as I backed away from the warehouse toward the diner entrance. She had advantage out in the open. If I could get her to—

Bang! Bang!

“Agh!” Two bullets slammed into me, tearing through my stomach. I felt something pop inside of me. Before I could even recover from the gunshots, the same pistol I’d used to shoot her in the head launched at me from beyond the fog. I clutched at my stomach with my broken wrist and used my other to rip apart the gun.

“Are you alright, Operator?” Vigil’s flashlight flicked back to me. He’d done as I requested so long ago and stayed silent throughout the fight. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a wave of warmth roll through me at his concern though. Or maybe that was just the organ failure.

“Fine.” My voice came out short and clipped. Ugh, that feels like my kidney.

My shoulder slammed into the door leading back to the diner, and I forced my way back into the hall. The door swung shut behind me. Seek stopped just in front of the door. She was out there, likely staring at the door and trying to decide what to do. Assuming whatever was left of the woman could still think through all the corruption.

My hand shook slightly. From between my fingers, a dark red thread sparked to life. My attention slipped as Seek flicked to the side, and the thread disappeared. She wasn’t attacking just yet, though, so I tried again to dredge up my psions. While doing that, I pulled up my shirt to have access to my injuries. 

My sharp fingernail dug into one of the bullet wounds to pull out the bullet. It clattered to my feet, splattering fresh blood across my leg. With that out of the way, I wound the cord of psions through the bleeding flesh using my finger. I didn’t have the time to sit down and find a place of tweezers, so I had to put all of my focus into the thread instead.

The psions followed my will, dragging a glowing thread through the slightly burnt edges of the gunshot. With my focus sharpened, the end of the Binding thread sharpened just enough to pierce out through my skin. It slowly wound back through and pulled out the other side into a stitch. 

My back hit the door, and I pushed back into the diner as Binding did its work pulling together my wound. After it finished, I imbued the psions with my will to make them stick around even after my focus shifted away. With my current control over my Psyker nature, I could only get it to stick around for ten or twenty minutes. That was more than enough time for me to deal with this, and by then my Regeneration should kick in to help.

Seek darted around behind me one more time before pushing into the hallway to chase me. She only followed after I was out of it and into the actual diner, though. It was like she knew exactly where I was just the same as I knew where she was.

My eyes narrowed, and I glared at the fog. I thought it was some kind of effect from the Fog Crawlers… was it actually her ability? That fog that’d been spilling out of her when they scattered hadn’t just been the after effects of them feasting on her then. She was the source of all of this, and they were just using her like parasites feasting on a host.

If she could really sense me through all of this, then… I staggered, falling to the ground with a sharp scream. I clutched at my stomach, and let out a desperate sob. “Somebody help me!”

”Operator—“

”Anarch! There’s an Anarch on the loose!” I cried out and shot Vigil a glare to shut him up. I’d already seen that she was weak to mental manipulation. I just needed her to close in on me.

”Nobody will save you.” She practically sang with joy. Her voice echoed around me like she was everywhere all at once. Seek pointed true, even if the rest of my senses were convinced she was all around me. 

“S-stay back!” I forced a tremor in my leg, and crawled back away from her. My tail twitched as it smacked into the coffee cup I kicked to the side back then.

“Ehehehe… Mother will finally love me, won’t she?” Her red halo glowed against the fog as she approached. I almost popped off the ground to lunge at her. It took all I had in me to keep crawling away like a coward. “Then she won’t hurt me.”

Her face appeared against the fog, illuminated by Vigil’s flashlight. My tail swept to the side, drawing the coffee cup closer to my hand. Just a little closer. 

Clack!

The coffee cup smacked her upside the head, making her stagger backward in confusion. The moment it left my hand, I lunged forward. My hand wrapped around her neck tight enough to choke the life out of her, and my foot slammed into her knee. In one smooth motion, she toppled to the ground below me.

My fingers ached as Fog Crawlers covered them. Soon the both of us were covered in the white moths. Even as I could feel myself being devoured alive, I refused to let go of her. The white moths flowed up my arm like a tide, ripping and tearing into the fabric of my jacket to get at my flesh. 

”Ugh!” She slammed into the ground hard, causing the Fog Crawlers to scatter for a moment. Her eyes were entirely empty, and a gush of blood leaked out through the gunshot to the head. How the hell was she still alive?

My fist slammed into the wound again, slamming her head back into the ground with enough concussive force to knock anyone out. She proved me wrong as her limbs thrashed around wildly in an attempt to make me let go. Her crowbar, gripped between white knuckles, slammed into my side again and again to get me to let go. Every impact made me flinch, but my hold on her neck stayed strong. 

Rend popped out of my fist. The glowing blue nanites instantly cut down into her head. Even with her head skewered into the ground, the Anarch’s body continued to resist and fight against me. Something in my side cracked as the crowbar hit once again. “Fuck!”

My claws ripped out the side of her head. A moment later, I stabbed her again through the chest. A wave of putrid heat washed through my claws and up into me.  Tears flowed freely down her face as my claws greedily drank down her heart. 

++ 25 Vitae Absorbed ++

The red halo over her head blinked twice, and then went out like a light with its power cut. Her body went still underneath me. A shudder went down my spine as I felt the gushing warmth of her blood covering me all over. 

Nausea beat at me, turning my world into a wash of white and red as I realized what I’d just done. A human heart… I’d just devoured a human heart. I swore that I’d never do that. I… what kind of a monster was I?

I ripped at my own body in disgust, tearing apart the ‘harmless’ monsters nipping and biting at me. By the time the fog cleared, the last of the moths collapsed into blood soaked ribbons around me.