6.17 Labyrinthine

Warning: Universal Support System Manna Network Lost

Well, that came as no surprise to Derrick. The Hunter turned his gaze onto the Substrate and found it changed for the worse. Whereas before, it had been unnaturally still, now it writhed and squirmed like he’d walked into a sea of worms. Ughh, he could feel it in his Core the most. He shuddered at the touch of it and tried to push it away, to claim nearby Substrate with the raw warding Third Striker had taught him.

At that moment he really wished he had half the talent with manna as he did auril. There was just something horribly other about the sensation.

It was horribly difficult to affect the Feral Artisan’s power with just his raw manna. Where the two manna types met, the raw manna acted unruly and unpredictable. Which made making a defence out of it extremely hard.

Yet he managed because Third Striker had drilled it into him during their lessons. The diminutive Crusader was big on the basics. Resisting and defeating Feral Artisan’s was the entire point of being a Warder Crusader after all. Derrick pushed back the Feral Artisans influence a few feet from himself and felt the ground grow more solid beneath his feet. That was reassuring, although the sensation might just be in his head.

Both Jenny and Blake were on their toes, no doubt trying to be ready for an attack from below. It was kind of sad how pointless their alertness would be if the Feral Artisan decided to attack.

“I’m cut off from the Abomination’s manna,” Jenny said unnecessarily. “I’m not going to be able to help much. Why are we just standing around?” Jenny continued, the gun in her hand pointed at the nearest patch of seething earth. “We need to escape.”

“It is not going to be that easy, is it?” asked Blake as he hacked at a metallic limb that was trying to drag a familiar sphere shape out of the ground. His passenger, the young boy, was off his back and standing near Jenny for protection.

“No,” admitted Derrick. “Just running won’t get us out of here.”

This must have been a Rebel Instrument base, Derrick noted. Just hours ago, they must have been regrouping here when the the Feral Artisan showed up, turned the landscape against them and dragged them under it. Now the Primal Scourge was letting them come back to the surface.

The scavengers long and sharp limbs fought for the purchase to drag themselves out of the liquified Earth. They also stabbed out at anyone that got too close. The greenish tint to them was a reminder that they were effectively poisoned with Zausite.

The enemy that Blake was fighting was the only one that had managed to break the surface so far. Even though it was halfway trapped in the ground, it was putting up a fight. The legs waved wildly in Blake’s direction, keeping him from getting close enough to attack its spherical body.

That stalemate didn’t last long though. The sword wielding User chopped off a limb and kneeling beside the machine, buried his blade halfway into its main body.

So far, Derrick hadn’t helped out much. That was because he was far more worried about the Feral Artisan than the scavengers. Where even was it? Last time he had fought this particular Scourge, it had been floating in the sky, obvious to anyone who looked. Was it hiding below the ground?

What was the next step here? Running? He couldn’t bring himself to believe it would be that simple. The Feral Artisan was too in control for that.

Should he try to shield his allies? No, he wasn’t even sure how long he could keep his current ward up, he could feel the edges of it unraveling already. It took constant effort and power to keep it up.

Derrick grimaced and began hacking at a metallic limb that shot out of the ground near his feet. Very soon this spot was going to be a battlefield. If every one of the half a dozen moving patches of ground contained a Rebel Instrument scavenger, they were in a lot of trouble. The metal monsters were tough and relentless.

Even if it had been able to shield the others, he couldn’t trust his ward on others. He was trying his best to keep the manna that created his wards free from the Canvas kind, but it had never been harder to keep his manna pure. Despite his efforts, it twisted and writhed inside his Core just like the Feral Artisan’s did outside his ward. It didn’t take a genius to know how bad letting it out could get.

Canvas manna had never felt closer, that strange layer of the Fold was just a thought away now. Colors like a gasoline spill and eager whispers in the back of his mind.

Stepping away from the rising scavenger, he noticed its severed limb sinking back into the ground.

“Begone,” shouted a high pitched voice dramatically. “Touch not what does not belong to you, Scourge.”

Then, all of sudden the external pressure disappeared. In its place, Derrick felt a hum of reassuring energy. Derrick looked to Third Striker.

“How far does your warding reach?” Derrick asked the short Crusader as the world continued to shift around them. Buildings, trees and streets were somehow moving without falling apart or cracking. They were sliding together and apart into new forms and blocking the group’s escape. That wasn’t even the worst part either.

Derrick could sense a ward around him, but impressively, it extended further in every direction than he could sense it in the Substrate. With his eyes he could see the ground grow still in the nearby area as well, the rising scavengers were now stuck in normal dirt and rock.

Third Striker didn’t answer his question right away. The short Crusader was standing perfectly still, completely focused on something else. Warding no doubt, fighting to prevent the Feral Artisan from controlling the ground beneath their feet.

“I’ve managed to ward about eighty feet in every direction.” Third Striker said all of a sudden. “I can’t push it back further without risk. This takes most of my manna as well. You will all need to defend yourselves for the most part.”

“We’re still being moved,”Derrick pointed out. That was the worst part of the shifting landscape. The fact that the ground beneath their feet was moving towards the center of the town and the spot the Station should be. Like they were trapped on a massive escalator with a hungry Feral Artisan waiting at the bottom. Apparently, the Feral Artisan’s control went deep beneath the ground, even a ward a hundred and sixty feet across wasn’t enough to stop it from dragging the entire area to where it wanted.

“You're the expert, what do we do?”Derrick asked his teacher.

Derrick really didn’t like the way the youthful looking Crusader hesitated. He looked like he was going to say something, when he was interrupted by the earth shuddering.

The mounds of dirt that had frozen began to move again, growing larger as the trapped creatures below fought their way to the surface. Third Striker stared at them in obvious shock. Even Derrick was surprised, he could still feel his ally’s ward protecting their group.

“How?” Derrick blurted out.

“It is reaching through my ward by using the machine’s manna hubs. The situation becomes more dire by the minute. We must move from here,” The crusader said and began running towards where they had entered the town. Or his best guess anyway. It was already hard to tell exactly where that was, Derrick realized. All around them, the background was still shifting, the entire town being twisted by an alien entity. “These machines are a distraction. Escaping with the younglings should be our priority. ”

“Damn straight,” Jenny said, her wide eyes darting everywhere as she followed. The brunette was freaking out more than a little, Derick saw but was holding it together. Both the little girl on her back and the changing landscape must be worrying her a lot.

Blake was taking it a little better, he seemed tense but focused as he grabbed the boy they had ‘rescued’ earlier.

This would freak most people out, Derrick imagined. Himself not so much because… because he once… he shook his head and focused on survival.

“This is atypical of the Shaping Strangers,” Third Striker informed them as they moved. “The level of fine control and understanding of our reality this ‘Grasping Grinder’ displays is very worrying. It’s kind are usually more blunt in their manipulations, barely able to perceive and understand the rules of our universe. This is all too elegant to be normal.”

Both he and Derrick were careful to keep pace with the other, slower Users. The group still moved quickly, much faster than normal humans could. In just seconds, they came to the first obstacle, a row of suburban houses that had been squished together. The space between the otherwise normal looking homes was reduced to mere inches.

Third Striker shattered a street level window with what seemed like just a look and leapt through it and into the house.

Derrick followed him inside after clearing the window glass with a swipe of his gauntlets. Once inside, he looked around and grimaced. There were no doors leading deeper into the house. The two front rooms seemed to be isolated from the rest of the house, something that couldn’t be normal. The rooms were furnished but contained no doors or stairways.

Looking around, Third Striker hesitated again.

Oh well. He didn’t need Third Striker to tell him what to do here. Drawing both axes, Derrick carved a new door, cutting a horizontal line above his head to sever the studs and just body checking a Derrick shaped hole into the wall.

Whatever the Feral Artisan had done to the building, it hadn’t made it noticeably stronger. It was still just wood, nails and drywall on the inside. Brushing drywall dust off of himself, he found himself in a tastefully decorated kitchen that had no doors or windows.

He immediately began hacking at a spot dead ahead but Third Striker stopped him.

“No, over there. It’s all twisting,” the Crusader said and pointed to the far side of the room. Apparently the ground was not just moving, but turning beneath their feet. That was just fucking unfair.

Derrick moved to where the Crusader was pointing, raised his axe and then had to duck when a sharp spear of greenish metal shot out of the white wall at head level. Derrick’s axe swung up to block and carved a groove in the attacking limbs hard surface. The leg twitched in the air, just inches from his face before disappearing back into the wall.

“Why are they even attacking us?” Blake asked as he climbed into the room with his charge still on his back. “Why aren’t they trying to escape.”

Derrick eyed the wall carefully, there were loud noises coming from the other side. Noises that quickly faded. Everything was quiet but the whispers in the back of his mind.

“These machines are unconnected to their combined soul. I doubt they understand what is happening,” Third Striker answered. “They are just trying to remove any threats they encounter, hoping we are the ones behind this madness and our deaths will free them.”

Derrick began chopping at the wall, enlarging the hole made by the scavenger. He burst through and found the room torn apart but empty of any enemies. There was a large hole in the wall that led to a hallway that somehow seemed to stretch the length of the street. He stepped into the hallway and the fell. About three and a half inches.

He took his foot out of the hole. For some reason, the hallway’s floor was made of drywall. It had failed under his weight but beneath that was what felt like concrete.

Huh. That would sort of explain why there were doors on the roof. The Artisan must have twisted everything to make some sort of maze of hallways.

Not that it mattered. The Rebel Instruments had smashed right through the hallway. The scavenger he’d fought seconds ago had carved through the walls of the hallway and the exterior brick behind it with ease. No doubt thanks to the fact it was essentially an extremely mobile circular saw. Well, the hole was convenient for him and his allies, even with his axes, making doors would have taken a bit of work.

He jumped over the weak floor and exited the building.

Less convenient was the literal wall of trees that blocked the direction they needed to go if they wanted to escape this trap. On the outside of the building was a small yard that ended in a badly broken fence and a road. On the other side of the road, it was all impenetrable woods as far as he could see.

“Shit,” Derrick swore as the other joined him. “This isn’t working. We were too slow. All that running and I don’t think we are any closer to escaping.”

“Well, this is a nightmare,” said Blake with a sour grin. “What about stealing a vehicle and driving out of her?”

“Unless it’s a plane bulldozer, it won’t help us much. Too easy to block with walls and trees,” Jenny said. “We need to keep the distance short and straight.”

“What about splitting up?” Blake asked tentatively. “If the area is small enough… nevermind.”

Stress and fear were obviously building up. Derrick felt his heart race even as the ground continued to move beneath his feet. The landscape was twisting and turning to trap them and whispers assaulted his thoughts. Speed was the key, how could they...

A skidding sound caught the group’s attention. From around a street corner, three battered looking scavengers drove towards them. Every single one of them was missing at least one limb but that didn’t slow the murderous machines down.

They shot towards the group of Users and children at full speed, propelled by the spinning wheel that surrounded their main body. They were travelling as fast as vehicles on a highway. Just the impact of them would be enough to kill.

Derrick had had enough of being toyed with. He needed out of here and these soulless things were in his way.

“Let’s put these things out of their misery,” he said and no one argued. “Jenny, step back with the kids.”

“Sure...” Blake began, but was interrupted by a harpoon launched at his face. Amazingly, he managed to deflect it to the side, although the force of it still sent him staggering back.

Derrick turned to stare at the closest scavenger, watching it until it was just a half dozen feet away. A second before impact, he threw an axe with all of his strength. He aimed for the moment when one of its legs touched the ground. It was already missing one leg, so he hoped that would stop it from deflecting the projectile.

It did, the manna propelled axe hit and bit deep into his target, the scavengers central body. Derrick heard an unholy screeching as he dove out of the way. He caught himself in a role and saw his target veer off the road and smash through the wooden fence. He lost sight of it and his axe but wasn’t too worried. He had clearly hit something important.

That still left three more enemies to deal with though. He turned to help his allies. Before he could take the situation in, he felt Third Striker’s ward weaken. Had he been injured?

No, Derrik felt relief as he saw the Crusader had simply been forced to split his attention. When a scavenger had charged him, he had ducked under a swiping limb and unleashed a blast of blue energy into his foe.

Blake had the least success, he had a manna core and so wasn’t completely cut off from manna like Jenny was, he seemed to be struggling though. Blake’s manna empowered slashes didn’t do as much damage as Derrick had seen them do before.

The sword wielder’s enemy made it by him without receiving anything more than a few scrapes. It then made a physics defying turn and swerved directly at Derrick, its legs spread around it like a pouncing spider.

As he prepared to meet it, he heard the sounds of bullets impacting metal. Not that it helped much, the scavenger didn’t slow. So, Derrick took out his own pistol and hit it twice with armor piercing bullets. Neither he nor Jenny stopped firing as it advanced on him. When it was just a few feet from him, a hissing sound announced that he’d activated his gun’s second type of ammunition, pure light energy. Commonly known as a laser.

Whatever strange metal the spider-like machine was made of, one small part of it melted and boiled as light became heat.

There was a sound like a bug zapper activating and the scavenger fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. A puppet moving at high speeds anyway. He still had to dodge the falling wave of metal.

“Not much armor protecting the important bits.These scavengers are really all about speed,” Blake mused aloud. “I don’t suppose we could somehow ride them out of here?”

“Creating or even riding any kind of vehicle is sadly outside my speciality,” Third Striker admitted with dry humor. “The idea of having a ride of some sort has become more tempting with every passing moment though.”

“It does, doesn’t it.” Derrick agreed. He had just been given a motorcycle too. He’d give his left arm to have it here with him now. On that note, an idea occurred to him.

“What about a rescue?” he said as he went to retrieve his thrown axe. Damn thing was really stuck.

“Because the first one is going so well?” Blake asked, confused. “Rescue who anyway?”

He managed to wiggle his weapon out of the broken machine, he grimaced at what he saw. The weapon’s edge was mangled. Hopefully, it would self repair.

“Us,” Derrick stated hopefully. “I mean what are the chances Breakneck sends a rescue? They have to have eyes watching us.”

“That would end poorly for them,” Third Striker said. “They lack the ability to shield themselves from the Artisan’s power.”

Shit.That was true, wheels were no good if the ground under them melted. It had slipped his mind that they had only gotten this far thanks to the Crusader with them. It was possible he’d been taking the hybrid’s presence for granted. As bad as things were, and they were pretty bad, they would be much worse without Third Striker here.

“Anyone got any better ideas?” Derrick asked.

“There’s a path here. We could keep going,” Jenny offered reluctantly.

Had there been a path through the trees? From his angle he hadn’t seen one. He moved next to Jenny and saw it, a thin but navigable path through the unnaturally dense woods.

Derrick winced, a spike of pain hitting him as he stared at it. The whispers grew louder and more worrying, more familiar. Something just on the edge of recognition. Something he should remember but couldn’t.

Gah, it was eating him from the inside. The fear, indecision. All he wanted to do was escape but everything was so complicated. It was all against him he...

“Everything all right there buddy?” Blake asked, actual concern in his voice.

“No, it isn’t. Something is wrong with this picture,” Derrick announced, taking that ball of raw emotion and shoving in back into the deepest parts of himself.

“Just catching on to that now are we?” Blake asked lightly, the tension leaving him. “Since we entered this nothing town, everything is like a waking fucking nightmare. We’re lost in a moving maze and my manna is failing me.”

A nightmare. Manna failing. Something wrong with this picture.

Involuntarily, a grin split his face.

“There's something wrong with the trees,” the boy, Adam offered.

“They’re dead,” Derrick responded, trying to force calm on himself. “Totally lifeless, but preserved it seems.” Auril had told him that a while ago, it just hadn’t seemed worth mentioning. It would be strange if the trees were alive after being puppeted by the Feral Artisan. Every leaf and branch looked alive but he could feel how dead they were. Everything around them was lifeless now that he thought about it. Stripped of life by the invisible monster that was hiding ‘behind the scenes’. That wasn’t what was bugging him.

Why did this feeling of confusion seem so familiar? Even the pounding in his head felt oddly familiar.

Picture. Nightmare. Manna failing.

His manna wasn’t failing. Even though he had to fight off contamination from the Canvas, it was as strong as ever. Stronger even, he thought as he remembered the power behind the axe he’d just thrown. That must be why his manna wasn’t failing. Because he’d been to the Canvas before.

The memories exploded out of whatever forsaken part of his mind they’d been hiding in.

He’d been to the Canvas before and it had looked like this. Not exactly the same, but the theme was as exact as the Feral Artisan could make it from the materials at hand. That was why things were so different from the last time. The Feral Artisan was acting weird because it was bringing his nightmares to life. An endless shifting maze. Hallways, streets and forests. These were all from him.

He felt something stir in his manna core, a connection growing stronger as his realizations grew. Power and understanding flowing back and forth.

“Damn me,” Derrick spat out. “This is my fault. It’s getting this from me.”