Hybridization

Chapter 167 – Sub-Dimension, Super-Problem

Chapter 167 – Sub-Dimension, Super-Problem

“I knew it was him as soon as I felt the ward I placed on Kurt react. It wasn’t like the time a god was spying on Kurt. This was much smaller in attention. Almost like a being looking at a crowd, a small portion of its attention on multiple things and people. Penny called and told me where everyone was and I portaled directly too them. After that, things got weird.” – Jay, after action report.

“Is there a back door?” Kurt asked. He was pointing his rifle at the front of the store, watching as people rushed about in the street and the barrier shimmered from bullet impacts.

Frank called from the stairwell. “Yes, but there are people out there too.”

“Best hunker down then.” Kurt growled and had to take a breath to try and calm himself. “We are going to take the front.”

“I can create a big distraction. As long as you can use thermal.” Val said. “Inari taught me a couple tricks. But we need a plan after that since it will only last a few seconds.”

Anna hopped forward, holding her silenced 300 Blackout rile in slightly shaking hands. “I can help with crowd control if I can set something up. It will only take a moment.”

She then went on to explain that she had variety of spectral summons that she used for fighting. All she needed was enough space to toss out the portal ring and it would take care of itself within a few seconds. The creatures were controlled by subliminal intent and wouldn’t harm any friendlies that Anna knew about.

“Great. You do that.” Val nodded and scooted closer to the door. “Rindi you and I are going in the shadows for a while. Kristi?”

“I will be with Kurt.” The dragoness responded and adjusted the grip on her 7.62 machinegun, completely forgoing the smaller 5.56 version. She clipped on one of the enchanted lenses Kurt made in front of her red dot reminding Kurt to do the same. “I am taking the sniper first then suppressing the street.”

Plan hastily made, they got ready and Val shook her arms out as she reached for the door. “Ok. Here we go. Ready Rindi?” when the felitaur woman nodded and summoned her wings Val counted down. “Three. Two. One-Go.” Both her and Rindi vanished with a puff of shadow leaving the door open.

The outside went completely white. Like being inside a cloud, white. Kurt and Kristi stepped out, going wide to clear the entrance and raised their weapons. Between his enchanted glasses and his thermal optics, he spotted three people standing near a planter on the other side of the street. Each of them got a triple tap. He heard Kristi open up with her machinegun just as he dropped the last one.

Two more further down on his side of the street met a similar fate as he felt Anna move behind him. He saw something being thrown out of the corner of his eye and glanced over after engaging the obvious threats just as the white light faded and he could see again.

Anna had tossed another one of her metal hoops out before she quickly retreated inside the building. It uncoiled in mid air before suddenly halting and turning on its axis to present a vertical plane. Then the interior flashed a rather lovely pastel purple color that reminded Kurt of the little flowers that grew along the ditches and roadways in springtime.

A moment later, dozens of large animals began pouring out of the portal. They came in every size while seeming to be both predator and prey animals. He couldn’t tell what most of them were, other than a few he recognized despite the glowing blue of their spirit bodies.

His attention was pulled back to the fight a moment later when another attacker came around the edge of a building on his side of the street. This one was wearing tactical gear and seemed to be trying to say something, but Kurt couldn’t understand it through a heavy accent. The pointed rifle was very clear and understandable, however.

Before Kurt could begin to address the new threat, a shadow materialized behind the man. It was tall and had a very ‘Rindi’ appearance as it grabbed the man from behind. “YEAiidp-“ The mans shriek of panic was cut short as Rindi shoved a long bladed dagger upward into the bade of his skull. The body crumpled to the ground like a rag doll.

Another similar scene repeated itself a moment later as she grabbed another one. Kurt thought it was a brutal method of handling the aggressors but he wasn’t going to complain. He didn’t have time as he shot two people with wands who had stood up from the ground several yards away.

“Fuckfuckfuck. Kurt, not good.” Kristi said through the implant since he couldn’t hear anything she said over the noise from her machinegun, regardless of the silencer on it. “Powerful shield over there.”

Kurt turned to see five people walking down the street, with a bubble-like shield of swirling miasma. Everything about it made Kurt’s hackles rise, figuratively and literally.

“I got it.” Kurt said and turned to face them. He paused when a bullet pinged off his armor as he stepped out of the cover of the doorway and he quickly returned fire at the woman in plain clothes who had taken a pot shot at him. Based on their appearance he guessed there were two groups in the area, three if he counted the ones at his home.

He saw the majority of people that had been shooting at them were already dead or dying, their bodies strewn along the ground. The only things openly moving were the spirit beasts that were now chasing the few survivors down alleys. It seemed the entire force had been completely routed, except for a select few.

Kristi followed as he stepped into the street, each of them pausing momentarily to engage the remaining people who the animals and Val had missed. They didn’t hurry, as the group approaching didn’t seem to be inclined to rush either.

Kurt was wondering how long the shield would last as he saw Kristi put more than a few bursts into is as they closed in. Even one of the spirit animals tested the barrier, charging it but bouncing off before dissipating into a blue mist. The man in the middle smirked at the display before his gaze settled on Kurt.

Deciding there was no point in trying to duke it out with the shield using mundane weapons, Kurt dismissed his rifle before letting his wolf take over. He let the shift come freely, encouraging it to happen and pushing it to be quick. In the blink of an eye he was looking down at the now hesitating procession and his ears picked up a faint yet familiar snap-pop from next to him.

“That’s, ole shit-bag supreme. Mr. X. Go ahead, big guy, I’ll cover you.” Jay said. As he materialized from a portal to Kurt’s right.

Kurt couldn’t contain himself any longer and threw his head back, releasing a bass howl that shook nearby windows in their panes and drowned out the noise of approaching police sirens. The call was echoed by two more howls elsewhere in the town. Then he lunged, aiming to cross the fifty yards in two bounding leaps.

Mr. X was now frowning, looking at Kurt with a mix of hesitation and disgust. A moment later the four people in the shield with him suddenly collapsed, their bodies quickly withering and turning to black, eel-like creatures that swarmed toward X.

The man himself had also rapidly changed, even before the strand eels reached him. His skin had peeled and split, revealing a writhing black mass of more Strand underneath. His clothes quickly shredded and his body swelled as the other Strand joined him and he began to resemble the ‘lesser construct’ that Kurt had seen in the murals.

It wasn’t exactly the same, but Kurt had the feeling that no two of them ever were. This one had adopted a strange 5 limbed arrangement with no head, two arms and three legs. The limbs all seemed to rotate and move like there wasn’t much of a normal resting position and began rolling toward him like a giant, diseased tumbleweed.

Contact was made a moment later and Kurt did not get the upper hand.

The initial clash saw Kurt do the monumentally stupid thing of trying to tackle the amalgamation and overpower it by weight alone. That worked great on most enemies, not so much on ones that were in the same weight class.

The amalgamation swung one of its limbs upward and intercepted Kurt in the chest, deflecting him to one side as another limb came swinging down like a sledgehammer. He was able to dodge by rolling after hitting the ground, barely regaining his feet before the amalgamation once again rolled toward him.

The second exchange went much differently. Instead of Kurt leaping at the monster and getting smacked aside, he darted low, snapping his jaws at a leg in an attempt to hobble it. He got a broken jaw for his troubles.

Kurt whined in pain as his flesh and bone knitted back together and decided to change things up. He leapt back, gaining several yards of distance before focusing his will and mana into his hand. He lashed out in a horizontal swipe that sent arcs of amber-gold waves toward the amalgamation.

The waves of divine mana hit, causing black vapors to burn off its body and the lesser construct made a horrible noise. It sounded like a high-pitched shriek through a plastic air horn that had a whoopie cushion over the end. Unfortunately, it recovered quickly and pointed a limb at Kurt. From the end of that appendage came a spray of black, gem like projectiles that spread like a shotgun pattern. Kurt had no chance to evade it and hunkered down to weather the storm of… not that bad mana.

He was shocked, astounded, some might even say bamboozled. Kurt had assumed that the blast of energy would be just as powerful as the fist that suddenly connected with his back, seizing on his distraction. He was driven to the ground but managed to spring forward inside the guard of the construct and reflexively bit into the joint of a limb.

Kurt bit down, grinding his jaw back and forth against the fleshy appendage to no avail. Getting a little inspiration, he forced some of his mana to be expressed into his bite, extending his teeth to pierce deeper into the wriggling flesh of the construct.

The monster once again released a trumpeting scream and flailed wildly. The thrashing grew even more intense when Kurt leveraged his foot paws inward and began to tear at the creature with his hind claws. His grip suddenly became slack and he was thrown back by a shoving appendage.

Falling to the street, Kurt rolled to abate the impact and avoid a follow-up strike. He was pleased to note that the limb he had latched onto was still firmly in his mouth and trailing a line of rapidly dissipating miasma back to the body of the construct.

He spit the limp appendage out on the ground and swept a glowing hand over it, causing the entire tentacle to begin burning away. Ghostly amber flames consumed the limb in moments after it was disconnected from the main body, and his feeling of success only grew when he looked at the creature.

One of the five limbs was mostly gone, leaving four and a bit of a stump that still had whisps of his golden energy rolling off it. Better yet, the lesser construct seemed to be unsure of itself and was hesitating.

Kurt used that moment to do a quick check of the street. He saw Val and Kristi moving around, with Rindi occasionally popping up in random spots. They were holding down the security aspect and seemed to have finished moping up the remains of the Keepers.

The two wolves that Kurt had called earlier had been redirected to form a cordon around the area and he saw one of them flash past on the south side of the buildings, leaping across an intersection. A gunshot followed by a too short scream told him that they were still busy.

Jay had completely disappeared, fucking off to do whatever it is he did. Kurt huffed, knowing the daemon was probably still around and watching, working more on the higher end than the brawl Kurt was in.

He stared down the monster for a moment, having a standoff for only a couple seconds before a series of flashing lights behind a music shop set them in motion. The screeching of tires after the flash was like the starting pistol to the race Kurt and the Strand had entered. A race to see who dies first.

The standoff ended when Kurt saw one of the limbs point his direction. He swept his arms up, creating another wave of his divine energy that raced out in a wide arc. He was hoping that his was the more powerful of the two types of mana which wo-.

Halfway between them, the two energies mixed then detonated. The blast was like a firework, spreading out in every direction and buffeting both of them with a strange, spiritual pressure. Kurt had already been moving when the wave hit him, following up his own attack as he pounced on the stunned Strand.

He rode the construct to the ground, pushing his mana into his limbs and teeth as he did. A bite to the upper portion of the monster secured his position as all his paws began tearing at the construct. He shook his head back and forth, ignoring the unearthly shrieking as he tore away gobbets of black, sinewy flesh that began to smoke and turn to vapor when separated from the main body.

Kurt worked his paws like he was trying to dig a hole through the Strand construct. His hind paws sought the joints and places where the limbs attached to the body, weaking the blows that rained down on him. His front paws, more hand like in nature alternated between holding and slicing with the longer claws on each finger.

Every piece of the monster that was flung away began to dissipate into miasmic smoke. It seemed that the smaller chunks were unable to survive in the amber-gold aura he was radiating like a miniature sun. The greasy-grey miasma became so thick that he one again felt like he was in a fog bank, illuminated by an impossibly bright light and blocking his view of the outside world.

Finally the shrieking noise of the Strand suddenly ceased and Kurt felt the construct go slack in his grip. A grip that was suddenly empty as the fleshy mass rapidly turned to a vapor and joined the miasma that was being burned away.

Unable to help himself, Kurt stood up and howled once more. This time the tone was different, slightly higher pitch and was joined by two more, slightly quieter howls from behind a row of buildings.

Movement in the corner of his vision made Kurt’s head whirl around and his gaze landed on the girls, both of them hovering over a completely unmoving Rindi. He began moving toward them, staying partly crouched, muscled tensed as he approached. He was wondering if there was another Strand, an unseen att-.

“Rindi is hurt!” He heard Val cry out, her voice filled with worry.

He immediately adjusted his thinking, returning to his more ‘human’ way of thinking tactically and began shifting, mouth and throat first as he stumble-ran his way to the girls.

*****

“Three. Two. One-go.” Val counted down and grabbed Rindi’s hand, dragging her into the sub dimension they both had an affinity with.

“What are we doing exactly?” Rindi asked. She noted the concentration on Val’s face and thought she saw a faint outline of another tail but couldn’t be sure.

Val didn’t respond, instead she held out both hands like she was holding a box up at arms length. She then curled her fingers, pulling her hands back toward herself like she was trying to scoop up a big pile of pillows in her arms. But, instead of pillows, she gathered shadows.

Every shadow within 50 yards was suddenly pulled toward her and compressed into the small area right in front of her. Val held the pose for a moment, shaking with the effort of the ordeal as she strained herself. The world brightened around them, though still distorted by the sub dimension and its strange monochrome appearance. Val had just condensed the darkness into one spot rather than creating light to blind the attacking force.

A couple seconds later, she let the ball of shadows go and everything sprang back to how it was supposed to be. She then doubled over, heaving huge lungful’s of air while bracing her hands on her knees.

“Go. I’ll catch up.” Val managed to say between gasps.

“Got it.” Rindi replied before darting off toward one of the indistinct blurs that wasn’t one of their people.

Val watched for a moment as Rindi exited the shadow dimension, grabbed a man pointing a rifle at Kurt then drove a large knife upward into his skull. She then slipped back into their shared dimension and looked to Val.

“Nicely done. Keep it up.” Val said having caught her breath. “Alright, see you on the other side.”

“Ha, see you then.” Rindi smirked and enjoyed the praise for a moment before flapping her wings and rocketing to another shape in the distance.

Val, not having a movement skill that worked in this dimension yet, started running to the back of the building. She wanted to take care of the people that Frank said were back there in case they tried to break in or go after Kurt.

She rounded the corner to see three individuals hunkered down behind a large dumpster. She considered how to handle the situation as she approached and got a better look at them. All of them were holding weapons, only one of which was a wand.

“Easy-peasy.” She said to herself before summoning her rifle.

Reentering normal reality only a few yards behind the trio, Val took a quick sight-picture and flicked her selector to full. She then applied a precise 3 to 5 round burst into each of their backs. The last one managed to flinch and began turning at the noise but didn’t even manage to face her before having his insides splattered across the sidewalk.

Val then disappeared into the shadow dimension once more. She did a quick circuit around the building and popped up next to Rindi who had just pulled another soul out of a person. “I’m going that way.” Val said and pointed in the direction Kurt was moving.

“I will go the other way and loop around the back of these buildings.” Rindi pointed to their side of the street.

They once again split up, and Val took a chance to try and touch one of the spectral beasts that were still running around. They had a strange, fuzzy, geometric appearance, like someone had covered a cut gemstone in cotton fluff. Her hand passed right through the creature, but it still stopped and turned, as if looking for the source of the touch.

Momentary distraction aside, Val continued onward toward where she saw a flash that looked an awful lot like a spell being cast. The whole alley had been illuminated by the mana discharge and there was a strange red vapor that floated out of the alley.

When she got there, Val saw one man holding a wand and two heavily armed people writhing on the ground as they bled out from horrific slash wounds. The man with the wand turned and looked at where Kurt was approaching a group of what appeared to be mages. At least she thought so when she saw the barrier they used.

Then Kurt began to shift. The man backed away, muttering under his breath as his eyes went wide. Val took the opportunity to slide out of the shadows, this time using her sword instead of her rifle, hoping to prevent her from distracting Kurt.

The man must have sensed something because he whirled around and began to raise his wand while she was only halfway emerged. Val acted on reflex and went to bat his arm away. But, because she had a razor-sharp sword bathed in shadow, it took his hand off instead.

Val sucked her teeth in a tisking sound without fully emerging into the normal layer of reality. “Tsk-tsk. Naughty boy. You shouldn’t have such dangerous things.”

The man’s eyes went from confusion to wide open in panic as he saw her. As much as Val wanted to play around, she had work to do. So, she rolled her wrist, bringing the sword point up with the intent to stab him in the chest but underestimated the length of her blade and drove it for his throat.

The man screamed for the briefest of moments before he went completely limp as the blade severed his spine after cutting his throat. She swept the blade to the side, trying to give it a little flick to get some blood off before she moved on.

Looking at the two other bodies, she noticed something was different about them. Most obvious was the equipment but secondly, there were the remains of a talisman on each of them.

Val knelt to inspect the scrap of velum that was hanging out of their shirt pockets. She didn’t know what to make of it but gathered what she could and stored it in her ring before looking in the direction they came from. She couldn’t see anything so she glanced back to the fight in the street to see Jay headed in her direction.

“We got someone else in here too.” Val pointed at the bodies.

Jay nodded. “You go and help out Kurt or whatever he needs. I can take care of the adds.”

Not needing anything else, she went back to the street and managed to pick off a few stragglers who were still crawling around or lurking nearby. Most of the enemies seemed to be the same people who had initiated the attack, but a couple were the more well equipped variety. The entire time she could hear sirens getting closer and closer.

Both her and Rindi stayed near the edge of the fight, not daring to get involved in the titanic struggle taking place in the intersection. She watched as Kurt took a few early losses, getting his bell rung pretty solidly. She also noticed that he was doing what he did best and adapting to the fight, learning patterns and tells quickly.

Eventually he managed to make use of his stored divinity and land some serious blows, causing a massive shift in the Strand. It seemed to be taking Kurt more seriously and was hesitating to reengage.

In that brief pause, Val saw Rindi flash over near the fight and take out another person before slipping back into the shadow dimension. Just as she did, both Kurt and the Strand released magical attacks. Kurt with an extended wave from a swipe of his claws and the strand with another spray of its black projectiles.  

The two forces met in the middle, ahead of both combatants closing the distance. There was a magical detonation when the two attacks met, rippling out in a pulse that buffeted her hard enough to knock her over, despite being in a sub dimension. Rindi had it much worse, however, being closer to the clash.

Val watched in horror as the blast wave hit her and she was thrown several yards before crashing to the ground not far from where Val was. The larger woman then rolled to her back, thrashing and gasping while clutching at her head, screaming in pain. She went silent and limp a moment later, before Val could even regain her footing.

“RINDI!” Val shouted as she rushed to her downed friend.

Upon reaching her, Val grabbed hold of her hand and forcibly pulled her from the sub dimension and back to the normal world. The transition seemed to do something because Rindi coughed and groaned but remained unconscious.

She didn’t know what to do. How was she supposed to handle this? She tried lifting her but couldn’t quite manage it. Left with little choice, Val grabbed the handle on the back of her armor and began dragging her along the street toward Kristi.

“Rindi’s down, I need help!” Val called to her through the implant and saw Kristi immediately rush her way. “Somethi-“

Her explanation was cut off by a very loud, wet, tearing sound mixed with the unnatural shrieking of the construct. She looked up to see Kurt using his divine energy in every limb and his mouth to tear the Strand construct to pieces.

Black, squirming flesh tore and smoked, burning from the light Kurt was emitting. They fell to the ground in a writhing mass that quickly became obscured by miasmic smoke. After the last of the yips and shrieks died off, a single figure rose within the cloud and released a familiar howl to the night which was echoed from two more locations.

Val sighed in relief until the howl stopped and a pair of glowing amber eyes landed squarely on her as Kristi slid to a stop at her side.

They both looked up to the figure of a massive werewolf emerging from the clearing miasma and stalking toward them. Val was once again confused on if she should be terrified, relieved or proud but settled for letting her emotions do their own thing as she cried out to Kurt.

“RINDI IS HURT!” Blink. The glow vanished from his eyes and were replaced by his normal amber hue.

“JAY!” Kurt bellowed, his voice still slightly distorted. “I need a portal!” he began to shift back to his human form and his clothing reappeared on his body like it had never left.

The daemon appeared next to Kristi, and Kurt was there a moment later as a portal was opened. He reached in and seemed to fish around before dragging a very stunned-looking Penny out of it.

Their manager, thankfully dressed for a fight with armor and her weapon, was still holding her cell phone to her ear and nearly dropped it when she saw Rindi on the ground. She looked to Jay who quickly filled her in.

“She needs whatever medical attention you can give her on site.” Jay began. He then opened another portal and began quickly explaining. “It’s to your driveway, close as I can get from this side with the wards up. Go, I will handle clean up. I’ll send the others along once I can get them in one spot.”

Kristi scooped up Rindi and Kurt lead the charge through the portal to their next fight, now down one person. Val followed behind, seeing the worried look on Jays face as she vanished through the portal.