The Pilot of Wrath

Chapter 24 – Just Trying Something

The only thing worse than having a gunfight at the dead end of a box canyon was having a gunfight with a walking tank at one end of a box canyon. In this situation, Matt and his mech were not the tank. The giant bear that was 5 time the size of the mech was the tank and seemed to be just fine doing what tanks do best, taking hits.

Matt had backed around the bend of the canyon, staying close the wall until he was far enough back to move to a more open spot. The first magazine from his autocannon hadn’t had all that much effect on the shield and stone plating of the creature but he wasn’t going to stop trying. It was at this point that he was really wishing for some AT capabilities. One or two shaped charges would crack that thing wide open or at least put it down long enough for him to target some vitals.

“Van, see if you can come up with an idea better than me just pumping shots into it like a pledge at a frat house.” Matt said as he waited for the bear. His detection field was showing it rapidly approaching the apex of the corner.

Matt didn’t have to wait long. A few moments later the bear rounded the corner in hot pursuit and got a 25mm surprise delivered at 1200 meters per second, straight to the face. The shield flickered for a fraction of a second before the round punched through and smashed it in the face. The bears head snapped back only to return to its original position, blood and broken stone covering its face.

“That seemed like it worked. Do that more.” Van said.

The bear roared again and charged at Matt who only got 2 more rounds off before it closed the distance. The bear reared back to swipe a now glowing paw at Matt who decided to use his teleport ability rather than try to dodge or tank the hit. As usual with this ability, he left a little plasma surprise behind.

The fan of plasma shot forward into the bear, causing the glow around its body to flicker significantly before going out completely. The creature roared again, this time in pain, as its body was engulfed in the superheated gasses. Matt had reappeared off the creatures left, keeping away from the walls of the ravine where he fired a few more rounds at the thrashing bear.

The effect of the rounds was hard to determine right away since the plasma was lasting longer that it had in the past, but Matt kept at it. After a dozen shots landed, the fires went out and the bear oriented on him again. This time, instead of charging, it swiped its paw through the air again causing arcs of brown mana to shoot towards Matt.

Matt didn’t have time to teleport or even think about dodging as the lines of energy slammed into him. One moment he was on his feet and the next he was flying through the air before slamming onto his back. Without missing a beat, he rolled to the side, avoiding the follow up charge and stowed his autocannon. Matt drew his tomahawk as he got back to his feet, ready now for a proper close quarters fight. He could feel the damage caused by that ability and knew he had serious damage to the front armor of the mech, but he had to ignore it for now.

As the bear turned to face him again, Matt saw the spot behind its shoulder blade where he had focused his fire after teleporting. It looked like someone had taken a jackhammer to a concrete sidewalk. Cracks ran through the overlapping segments of stone and a little trickle of blood seeped from the wound. A few perfectly round holes could be seen at the center from where rounds had made it through intact.

Matt and the bear began to circle each other in the narrow canyon, a scant 25 meters between them. Less than one full rotation and the bear charged again, not bothering with its ranged attack. Matt had seen what it was trying to do with his rear camera, but he wouldn’t be pressed into the wall so easily. Once the bear was close, he teleported, once again leaving a mana blast behind to occupy his new friend.

The bear clearly knew what the plan was and turned as soon as Matt disappeared. While it might have expected another teleport, it guessed wrong and turned to the left, assuming that he would reappear in the same spot as the first time. With its body engulfed in the wave of plasma, it didn’t notice that he had reappeared to the bears former right and was now behind it.

Swinging the spike side of the tomahawk, Matt pushed as much of his mana into it as he could. The formerly yellow-orange glow had turned a pale blue and easily pierced the stone hide of the bear. It roared as the point bit into its body but that wasn’t the end. Matt changed the blade that was receiving the mana, leaving the spike as its plain steel and the blade now acting as a can opener. Using the leverage of the handle, Matt pushed as hard as he could and split entire chunks of stone, ripping them from the monster.

Dismissing the tomahawk to his ring, Matt kicked hard, flinging himself away from the rampaging bear. “Really glad that worked.” Matt said to himself as he resummoned the tomahawk. He took the initiative and closed with the bear which squared up to him, ready to receive the blow. It didn’t have a chance as Matt sent another mana blast at the bear, this time in a thin line that impacted so hard the monster was knocked over.

Matt didn’t bother with another teleport as the bear had already fallen to the ground. Instead, he stowed his tomahawk and resummoned the autocannon. He lined up on the first wound he created and fired a few imbued rounds into the hole on its flank. After the first three, he switched to normal armor piercing explosive and emptied the remaining 15 rounds from his magazine into the hole.

The bear was not taking its abuse quietly and roared in rage. It was burned deeply across its torso from the last mana blast and had huge chunks of its stone armor missing. Knocked down as it was, all it could do was roll to try and hide the wound in its side. Just as Matt fired the last round out of his magazine, the bear rolled over its back, covering the now gushing wound in its side and regained its footing.

Seeing the bear back on its feet, Matt began wondering how much vitality it had before he noticed it was swaying and blood was now dripping from its mouth. Its breath was coming in great heaving gusts, practically spraying the frothy pinkish blood from between its teeth. Seeing this, Matt knew the battle had turned to one of attrition, the bear bleeding out or him running out of mana to make more ammo. With a fresh magazine in the cannon, Matt couched the stock under his arm and brought the barrel level, assuming one of the assault firing positions.

The bear and pilot squared off, having a good old-fashioned stare down for a handful of seconds, both waiting to see who would make the first move. The bear, running on limited time was the one to break the standoff. It skipped its usual roar, instead sweeping its paw up from the ground, sending the arcs of brown mana rushing toward Matt. He had expected this and teleported once more this time getting a little more creative with his exit position. The bear watched as the construct disappeared and began its turn to reorient and fend of the attack. What it failed to notice was the giant, multi-ton mech pop into existence 15 meters above it.

Matt discovered that he could indeed teleport into the air, what he also discovered was that it was not at all recommended. His body screamed at him from the mana consumption, his reserves and the mech’s almost completely wiped out. Still, he pushed through the blinding headache and focused, plummeting like a rock and landing hard atop the bears neck and riding it to the ground. He pushed the muzzle of his auto cannon into the back of its head and pinned the trigger back.

The bear had pancaked below him, limbs going out from under it as his mech bore down from above. 50 rounds of A.P.E. ammunition delivered from literal point blank was apparently enough to do the job. Matt wasn’t exactly sure how many it took but 50 is what he had and 50 is what he used. A spray of stone, blood and bone was all he could see for a few seconds as the ammo counter ticked down and the creature spasmed beneath him.

Once the bolt locked back on his cannon, Matt jumped clear of the bear in case that hadn’t been enough. He watched closely as the monster twitched and spasmed on the ground. Waiting patiently, tomahawk in hand, he tried to ignore his headache as the life faded from the bear. Silence was all he could hear for minutes afterward. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, a system message appeared in his mind.

You have killed: Granite Ursine Guardian. Level 40

Class: Pilot – Gunfighter is now level 30

Stat points awarded.

Skill Selection Options Available.

Matt breathed a sigh of relief; he didn’t expect the damn thing to get back up but there was no telling with its constitution. He allocated his stat points, feeling a wave of relief at the boost to his mana capacity and regeneration. He would still need some time to regenerate, even with his perk. Given there was nothing else to occupy him, he opened his window for skill selection.

Pierce (Common)

Empower an attack to pierce deeper than it normally would. Ignore some kinds of armor.

Rend (Uncommon)

Deal extra melee damage by removing portions of the target. Additional damage increased as wound size increases.

Decoy (Uncommon)

Create an illusion or noise of either yourself or construct to distract enemies. Illusion or noise will follow predetermined actions.

Identify Weakness (Rare)

Pinpoint weak points in armor or sensitive areas in a target. Area will remain highlighted until skill is allowed to end. Highlighted area will remain visible from any angle.

Shaped Mana (Rare)

Create temporary constructs using mana affinity. Constructs can take any simple shape and will remain as long as skill is channeled. Strength of constructs varied based on amount of mana channeled.

This skill selection had a couple interesting options. Matt rather liked the decoy skill and could thing of several cases where it would have been useful. The only problem was that Tori had specifically mentioned mana constructs in relation to domains. The Shaped Mana skill would be exactly what she had mentioned. This made it a no brainer or mostly since he still actually needed to select the skill thus needing some mental ability.

Selecting the shaped mana skill, he once again felt the sensation of knowledge flowing into his mind. It was surprisingly simple to use, as far as skills went. All he had to du was imagine a shape and where he wanted it. The shape could be moved but he guessed it would be easier to summon a second one and cancel the first. It would require some testing and playing around to get firm information.

Matt glanced over to the body of the bear. He was going to have a hard time breaking that down but would at least try to get the core. Maybe pelt it out with the tomahawk if he could flip it over. While he was waiting, he identified the beast.

Granite Ursine Guardian. Level 40

An Ursine variant of a guardian that developed an affinity for earth mana and a unique defensive layer. The guardians are typically stationary beasts that act as gatekeepers to protect treasures or high value areas.

Matt perked up as he read the flavor text that came from defeated enemies. He bypassed the terribly understated part about defenses and skipped right for the good stuff. Treasures and high value areas. He wasn’t sure what constituted a high value area, but he was sure that treasures were always good. He would continue to rest and recover for a while before going to check out the end of the ravine.

As it turns out, creatures lost a lot of durability after death. For Matt, retrieving the pelt and core was still a bear of a time, pun intended. The core was roughly the size of his fist and had a lovely brown color that made it look like a piece of amber. The pelt ended up fitting in his storage with plenty of room to spare but he did forgo any meat. Bears on Earth had parasites that could make people very sick, and he wasn’t about to risk it.

After retrieving everything he could from the bear, Matt moved on to the end of the ravine and took a look from the opening. It was a mostly circular shape, backing into a sheer cliff and was over 100 meters across in most places. He could see where the bear had liked to sunbathe judging by the 4 little scrapes in the ground. He also noticed that there wasn’t much in the way of carcasses or remains of other creatures. This was odd to him since he wasn’t sure how the bear sustained itself without food.

Matt scanned the clearing before entering, using every available spectrum including mana to try and spot any traps. There wasn’t anything on the ground, but he did see a crack running vertically along the back wall. He cautiously advanced into the natural caul-de-sac, ready to teleport if anything triggered or attacked him. Nothing did and Made a few laps around the perimeter making sure to get a view from every angle.

Not seeing anything of note, Matt dismounted and approached the opening in the cliff wall. He already had one bad experience with random openings in cliffs, so he went cautiously. The gap was big enough for him to comfortably walk in, leaving some room on either side of his shoulders. The walls became smooth after the initial opening, but the floor was covered in gravel and larger rocks.

“He Van, I’m going to check out what is in here. Not sure if its anything valuable but its worth a peek.” Matt said as he leaned in, trying to se around a slight bend.

The mech turned, facing away from the opening. “I will stay here and make sure we don’t get any surprises.” The core rumbled as it leveled the autocannon toward the entrance of the clearing.

Matt didn’t say any more and slowly crept inside the gap in the stone. While there was light coming from the outside, he made sure to turn on his night vision and thermals just to be on the safe side. The passage turned to the left after only a couple meters and Matt stopped, poking just his head around the corner. He saw only a little more tunnel before a hard bend to the right.

Advancing down the second leg of the tunnel, Matt stopped again when he came to the turn. Once again poking his head around he was not greeted with the sight of more tunnel, instead his night vision washed out from the moderate light coming from a circular room.

Turning off his night vision cameras, Matt surveyed the room, still only exposing one side of his helmet. The room at the end of the tunnel was small, only 5 meters across with a ceiling bust over 3 meters in height. Sitting right in the center was a pedestal with a clear glass orb atop it. Matt first thought the ball was the source of light but then noticed that the entire ceiling was the source of the illumination. Other than the orb on its pedestal, the room was empty, so Matt used identify on the orb.

Trial Orb

Well, that’s not helpful. Matt thought as he moved closer and stepped into the room. After confirming the room was truly empty, he filled Van in on his findings which was redundant due to the cameras on Matt’s helmet. Still, it allowed them to have a quick discussion which resulted in Matt walking up to the orb and placing his hand on it.

You have activated a trial orb. Requirements: E Grade

Requirements met. Please select trial type:

Combat

Creation

“Huh, it says trial orb and is giving me the choice of either combat or creation trials.” Matt said to Van over the radio.

“That means combat since you don’t have a non-combat class.” Van replied.

“Think I should do it now or wait a while?” Matt asked. “My resources are full and I’m well rested.”

Van didn’t respond right away, weighing the options. “I think you should try it now. We don’t know if there is a time limit or if it will disappear now that the guardian is dead.”

Matt didn’t care either way, but Van had a point, so he selected the combat trial. His vision blurred, faded then went black. After a moment his vision came back, and he found himself standing in a blank room with a System screen floating in front of him.

Welcome to the combat trial. This trial is designed to test your strengths and weaknesses in a variety of situations. Rewards will be based upon performance and your ability to overcome challenges. Note that while death is not possible, pain certainly is.

Your first challenge will begin as soon as you are ready. Ready? Yes/No

Matt selected the yes option and a door opened in the wall to his left. He looked at it for a moment, shrugged and walked over. As he reached the threshold, another System window popped up with the details of the trial.

Ranged Combat Trial.

Participant will engage targets in varying conditions from both static and moving platforms. Score will be determined on number of targets successfully engaged in given time at each position. Step through the doorway to begin.

Matt stepped through the doorway and into the first trial. Inside was what could only be described as a small arena of grass, trees and boulders. Directly in front of him was a glowing square with the number 1. He readied his rifle, checked his magazines, and stepped onto the platform. A countdown flash before him, starting at 3 and ticking down to 1.

When the 1 disappeared, a diamond shaped target materialized 50 meters in front of him out of the grass. He sighted and fired a single round, hitting the target in the middle and causing it to shatter with a very satisfying ringing noise. Immediately after, a second target popped up at 150 meters and he engaged again. This continued for 8 more targets, the distance moving back and forth with the closest at 25 meters and the furthest at 400.

Things started getting a little trickier after the 10th target. They started with semi covered exposures, some behind bushes other partly covered by trees and rocks. 10 more targets down and they changed once again, this time to half exposure, forcing him to consider the drop of his round. The targets peeking over rocks at 300 meters were tricky, but he got them all. After the 30th target he got another surprise with movers.

The moving targets appeared all at once and moved at various speeds and directions. Some moved very quickly from left to right, others moving directly toward him or quartering away from him. It was honestly the most fun he had at a static range in a long time and the 10 targets disappeared far to quickly. He was running 40 out of 40 so far and looked forward to the next segment.

Once the last moving target broke, the scene before him shifted and he was looing at a perfectly flat grassy field. Poppin up from that grass was 10 more targets each one spaced in 100-meter increments in a straight line moving away from him. He didn’t need instructions to understand this segment. Getting down in a prone position, he took aim at the first target.

100 meters was an easy shot, and it broke almost as soon as Matt was prone. If he was being honest, everything out to 600 meters was easy but 700 was where he was pushing his rifle a little more. The cartridge he used was very flat and very fast, but the weight wasn’t as heavy as a 6mm bullet could be at only 100 grains. Still, with no wind in the chamber all he had to do was bear down and focus on his fundamentals while remembering the hold.

The 1000-meter target took a few seconds. Not because Matt necessarily needed it but because it was the last round in the magazine, and he knew this trial wouldn’t allow a make-up shot. A steady breath out and waiting for the perfect moment, he broke the shot. There was no bullet wake, either because of the ambient humidity or because that didn’t exist, but time still did. He counted the seconds and was almost worried when he targets shattered, a few more seconds and he heard the ringing of an impact.

Matt got back to a knee and changed magazines, proud of himself for acing that course. Just as he was feeling good about his performance, a system message popped up.

1st phase complete. Please exit firing position for reset and start of 2nd phase.