Wow. Tough room.
(Life been busy for you guys, too?)
**********
Before I went anywhere, I took the time to examine what my Area Search sphere was telling me. Hole's in the corner of a room- a breakroom, looks like. One door on the wall to the left, near me. Closed. Two doors on the far side of the room, both open. Bunks visible through doors, two high- looks like barracks space. Benches filling room; large shields on wall.
Okay, I've got this. Don't need this search spell up any longer.I levitated myself off of the floor of L7, spinning in midair to point towards the far wall, and floated over to the hole... and then up through it.
Good. Room's still clear. Time to check the barracks rooms.Thankfully, the benches were laid out the long way across the room, so I didn't have to work my way around them. I just floated over to the nearest patch of floor, cut my Air Comet, and began stalking down the aisle towards the far wall.
WHOOSH-
I got about six feet from the hole when I heard a door open behind me. Third door- must be soldier- turn/shoot/DODG-
BLAM!THUMP.
So this is what tile tastes like. I'm not a fan. The soldier's attack hadn't done any real damage- it barely even scratched my barrier, actually- but what it did do was knock me flat on my face. I reached down, and began to lever myself back off the ground again-
BLAM!
-only to get shoved back down again. Some sort of concussive blast? Whatever it is, I can hear another one charged. Not going to just stand up again- probably the goal."Intruder located- repeat, intruder located! Level 8, room B3! All units, prepare for heavy shielding!"
Great, he's called in reinforcements. Better do this fast! I rolled over, firing a burst of blue light at the ceiling- and began to rise, as the inverted grav-field I'd placed made me fall upwards.
"Intruder is now UP! Used some sort of pull effect on the ceiling!"
The expected concussive blast came, this time catching me in mid-air; unfortunately, it failed to send me flying, instead putting me into a spin as I continued to rise. I ended up landing on the ceiling arms-first, rolling to the side reflexively, and kicking myself back up onto my feet... just in time to raise a shield, and block another blast.Why am I sliding? Oh, right- kinetic force transfer. I- whoa!The blast pushed me back, just over the edge of my grav-field, and I felt the disconcerting sensation of up becoming down again. Don'twannabeonflooragainDOSOMETHINGFAST-GOT IT!As I fell, I quickly charged up one last spell. The moment it finished, I shot two bursts of mana- one at my boots, and the other at the far wall, behind the soldier that'd been giving me so much trouble.
The ground rushed up at me, and I braced myself to hit- only to start abruptly falling sideways, mere instants before hitting the ground.
The fact that my opponent was directly between me and what currently counted as 'ground', as far as I was concerned, was not a coincidence. The fact that I landed directly on his crotch, instead of his chest like I'd planned? That one was.
The two of us fell, me standing right on 'top' of him, right into the wall. He impacted with a painful-sounding crunch, and I jauntily walked off of him, canceling the gravity effect and flipping onto the real floor. The soldier- one of the PMC's special forces, if his skill and heavy armor was any indication- fell to the ground right in front of me, and I pumped eight Magic Missiles into him, just in case, before checking his vitals.A few broken bones, and a good bit of bruising. He'll live... but he won't enjoy it. Good."FREEZE!"
I froze. The reinforcements? When did they get here?!"TURN AROUND!"
I did... only to find myself looking at about a dozen men and women, all of them wearing that same type of heavy armor.
All of them had spells readied, and pointed at me.Welp.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
(Life been busy for you guys, too?)
**********
Before I went anywhere, I took the time to examine what my Area Search sphere was telling me. Hole's in the corner of a room- a breakroom, looks like. One door on the wall to the left, near me. Closed. Two doors on the far side of the room, both open. Bunks visible through doors, two high- looks like barracks space. Benches filling room; large shields on wall.
Okay, I've got this. Don't need this search spell up any longer.I levitated myself off of the floor of L7, spinning in midair to point towards the far wall, and floated over to the hole... and then up through it.
Good. Room's still clear. Time to check the barracks rooms.Thankfully, the benches were laid out the long way across the room, so I didn't have to work my way around them. I just floated over to the nearest patch of floor, cut my Air Comet, and began stalking down the aisle towards the far wall.
WHOOSH-
I got about six feet from the hole when I heard a door open behind me. Third door- must be soldier- turn/shoot/DODG-
BLAM!THUMP.
So this is what tile tastes like. I'm not a fan. The soldier's attack hadn't done any real damage- it barely even scratched my barrier, actually- but what it did do was knock me flat on my face. I reached down, and began to lever myself back off the ground again-
BLAM!
-only to get shoved back down again. Some sort of concussive blast? Whatever it is, I can hear another one charged. Not going to just stand up again- probably the goal."Intruder located- repeat, intruder located! Level 8, room B3! All units, prepare for heavy shielding!"
Great, he's called in reinforcements. Better do this fast! I rolled over, firing a burst of blue light at the ceiling- and began to rise, as the inverted grav-field I'd placed made me fall upwards.
"Intruder is now UP! Used some sort of pull effect on the ceiling!"
The expected concussive blast came, this time catching me in mid-air; unfortunately, it failed to send me flying, instead putting me into a spin as I continued to rise. I ended up landing on the ceiling arms-first, rolling to the side reflexively, and kicking myself back up onto my feet... just in time to raise a shield, and block another blast.Why am I sliding? Oh, right- kinetic force transfer. I- whoa!The blast pushed me back, just over the edge of my grav-field, and I felt the disconcerting sensation of up becoming down again. Don'twannabeonflooragainDOSOMETHINGFAST-GOT IT!As I fell, I quickly charged up one last spell. The moment it finished, I shot two bursts of mana- one at my boots, and the other at the far wall, behind the soldier that'd been giving me so much trouble.
The ground rushed up at me, and I braced myself to hit- only to start abruptly falling sideways, mere instants before hitting the ground.
The fact that my opponent was directly between me and what currently counted as 'ground', as far as I was concerned, was not a coincidence. The fact that I landed directly on his crotch, instead of his chest like I'd planned? That one was.
The two of us fell, me standing right on 'top' of him, right into the wall. He impacted with a painful-sounding crunch, and I jauntily walked off of him, canceling the gravity effect and flipping onto the real floor. The soldier- one of the PMC's special forces, if his skill and heavy armor was any indication- fell to the ground right in front of me, and I pumped eight Magic Missiles into him, just in case, before checking his vitals.A few broken bones, and a good bit of bruising. He'll live... but he won't enjoy it. Good."FREEZE!"
I froze. The reinforcements? When did they get here?!"TURN AROUND!"
I did... only to find myself looking at about a dozen men and women, all of them wearing that same type of heavy armor.
All of them had spells readied, and pointed at me.Welp.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.