Day 67 continued

Stupid.

Stupid idiot!

You stupid mechanical rat moron, I'm talking to you!

I know you can hear me. Because I'm you.

You caused this.

Goddammit.

This is what happens when you do something idiotic with people's minds. Fucking geas.

God... how I hate myself right now.

Whoops... pay attention! You nearly crashed your irreplaceable machine. Keep acting like this and soon you'll screw everything up further! Don't you understand the tightrope you're walking?

Somehow, looking back my death seems directly a result of my own carelessness. Drive carefully fool or you're looking at a repeat performance.

A shadow...

Something up ahead.

Should I run it down?

Should I brake?

…

As much as I want to reduce monsters to mincemeat, I have no clue about the thing up ahead.

Brake.

The engine slams into a slight skid as we decelerate. I've rubberized the wheels with refined plant sap and devised a relatively decent suspension. Small things I added on when I upgraded the roof. They take the edge off the sharp and bumpy braking maneuver.

I leap out of the cabin and look at a dog man, like Karamech and the Royal Pains traveling with us.

The cats exit, Niala following.

I warm up the golems, but keep them back.

Karamech, Hensai and his sister approach the wayward dog man.

The huge canine humanoid is carrying several normal sized heavy packs as if they were nothing and isn't armed.

He doesn't immediately answer hails.

After a few shouts to them the stranger speaks.

He is lost, fleeing from their ruined cities.

“Spare me some water and food. I am starving.” [Strange Dog] “Do you have a safe place to rest?”

Something seems odd.

“Do you live near here? Can you give me shelter?” [Strange Dog]

“Can you allow them entry? I ask on behalf of my people.” [Hensai]

“No.” I walk closer, looking for what is bugging me. There is something.

I have the golems at the rear arm themselves and prepare to fight.

I don't like this.

Kitten in Niala's arms says something about silence... eager silence.

What is going on?

Not a monster obviously; or Kitten would hear the control signal.

That's what has me concerned...!

This person isn't even mentioning the train or the golems!

The stuff that equates to black magic or monsters to the ignorant.

He hasn't said a peep about them. What gives?

I flick through several vision modes trying to detect unusual phenomena.

There is a skill involved here somewhere, I can almost smell it. Someone is setting us up for an ambush.

I don't get why the dog is willing to betray his own. At first.

I sense a dome of impenetrable air. Like a mirror. It keeps all visible light and many other wavelengths of energy from entering, rendering the area (a little over a three yards wide in a sphere) functionally invisible and scentless.

On top of this, I get a really creepy look at the strange dogman. It has no body heat unlike the trio trying to persuade me to accept it into my home. It is room temperature. It is a fucking, walking, talking puppet.

No, scratch that. A walking, talking, corpse! The skin, the eyes... at fifty times magnification I can see it is real skin, decaying. The eyes are glass. Someone had the guy stuffed. Someone with the power to animate it. Who I suspect is hiding in the bubble dome.

I have the sniper golem fire a round through the barrier, at mid-torso. Let's see you live through that, you damn skulker. The sound makes everyone else jump.

I set the Willows on the hidden threat and the corpse puppet.

The barrier is still up?

Shit. It's still alive.

Probably a healer too.

“Clever.” [????] “Worked it out already?”

“Get away, the stranger is attacking!” [Rick]

I didn't immediately report the 'dead' status of the dog because who would believe it?

But that moment was all he needed. The undead dog grabbed at the men as they tried to process the warning.

Karamech fell kicking his attacker, the creature itself didn't budge at the hit. Hensai however was immediately caught and bitten.

The difference between the honed reflexes of a consummate professional and a trained amateur. Hensai had his shoulder ripped open in moments.

I left the hidden threat to the first pair of Willows, entwining their wires to completely smother the enemy. The second pair backed up the friendly dogmen.

Karamech's kick seemed to be a very lucky move, as it became apparent these dead things were tremendously strong and tough. With the full force of a Willow focused on it, the dead thing is still coming!

Try as I might, the golem failed to control the real problem. Hensai was being torn open. He was fighting, biting at the dead dogman. This simply wasn't enough. The unnatural toughness repelled his attempts to bite it's head off. The unnatural strength allowed claws to pierce his abdominal cavity. His sister struggled with futility, unable to even make the attacker change targets.

The corpse is being directed, it is a single-minded attack. It dropped the fatally injured dog and forged ahead, trying for the second. The sister immediately fell at his side and dragged him away, desperate. Karamech was stumped about how to respond. He hacked at it with the heavy sword he carried, but this wasn't even scratching the enemy.

The walking corpse was literally bending the thick steel wires of the Willow out of the way by hand as it approached him. It's grip strength was enough to bend the individual wires, something the ape soldiers couldn't do with full strength blows of their swords. How is this possible?!

I have the Willow bind half the wires together, braiding them into a single, mighty arm. The cable coils around the corpse like a snake trying to crush it and restrain it as the other half of the wires bind into a second cable.

Do it.

Maximum power, the golem tries to outright pulverize the corpse with both arms. The corpse however sneers.

What the Hell?!

“You think this is enough to stop me? You're living in a fantasy, Copycat!” The words come from the corpse but the source is obviously the hidden threat.

The arms, the thick bundles of steel, tear and stretch like caramel under the power of this dead thing. How can something organic do that?! It should be ripping itself apart in the process, but the corpse is still whole, uninjured.

Shit.

This is simply impossible!

Fuck it. You want to play around like the laws of reality are putty... The kid gloves are off.

The cables combine and melt together forming a single immense tentacle, only made possible by the golem's natural ability to mold metal limbs like fluid.

It grows mono-molecular edged blades on the coil, slicing them against the opponent.

Not good enough. It's only causing superficial damage at best. Skin tearing slightly. I'm not sure how this is possible, but the blades aren't really touching the corpse more than superficially. Some kind of screen? A fine, intense force is holding it back. This might even be the truth of the corpse. This force is the true nature of the corpse's toughness. It absorbs crushing impacts... even piercing and slashing. To what degree?

Let's experiment.

I snipe the corpse with the railgun golem.

Yes. I knew it. This must be why the hidden person is still alive. The bullet didn't pierce the skin. The impact sent the corpse flying as it's head went backward several feet but the bullet couldn't penetrate at full power.

I still don't understand how the hidden guy actually stood there and took it, however. That bullet would have killed a flesh and blood creature from the concussion of the hit. Hell, even the corpse is only getting back to it's feet because it is already dead. That neck is obviously broken. In a way absorbing a projectile with as much piercing power as my railgun is absurd. It only exacerbates the issue. The piercing nature of the strike would go cleanly through a person with little resistance. Instead the power of the hit is amplified by stopping the bullet cold. If you hammer a nail into a fruit or a steel beam which one takes more of the impact? Provided the nail (bullet) doesn't deflect, the beam takes the full force of the hammer behind the nail. It can't help but leave an impression. Even more so if the corpse is merely flesh under the thin veneer of a barrier.

It isn't healing. This power seems to only extend to endurance and probably the supernatural strength. So I just need to hammer it to pieces. Some of that kinetic energy is still bleeding through the force protecting it.

Using both free Willows in single arm mode to restrain it, the corpse is at a stand still. That's easily stronger than all but my original golem. Pretty incredible for a frame only nine foot tall. But I seriously doubt it has a lot to do with the actual corpse, probably it is about the energy powering it.

I simply order the two metal coils to rip the corpse apart. The blades give a tiny hint of traction and a bent limb can be held easily, made even easier by turning the ends of the arms into shackles.

“Make a wish.” I utter as snap the corpse into two pieces.

Clap, clap, clap.

What the fuck? I turn to the hidden enemy who seems to be applauding inside the barricade of wires from the remaining pair of Willows.

“Well done. As expected of an imitation of me, you actually found a way to take down one of my chosen.” [????]

I notice Minke herd the cats away, around the train... something is about to happen, isn't it?

Oh crap... this isn't possible, is it? This guy is still just playing?

“Hmm. If you're a mouse I guess that makes me the cat, eh?” [????]

Oh shit, the corpse is pulling itself back together! It just picked up the right side of it's torso and by simply pressing the gaping wounds together it was mended almost completely.

“Well not exactly permanently. But close enough.” [????] “After all it's sole purpose is as a distraction and it can't pass for anything but a freak now.”

Wait, wait, wait! That was solely a one-shot disposable puppet?

What the hell are his main combat units like?!

Wait, I do not want to know that!

“I do understand where you are coming from, I mean look at all the things you've copied! A train, a robot... I don't know what that gun thing is, but I'm sure you stole the idea from somewhere.” [????] “It's quite impressive you got this far. For an Earthling.”

Earth?

It just hit me, the guy is speaking in English...

“But you're not even at the peak yet. Not while I'm around.” [????]

A sudden concussive blast comes directly from the wire cage of the Willows holding the barrier. The hollow steel and thin wires simply can't take the explosive force and turn into shrapnel.

Minke's quick action earlier herded the others back behind the solid iron train. So that's what she sensed.

Rising from the dust, untainted by the dirt stands a man with short black hair, gray eyes and a cruel smile. His clothes are simple, comfortable and pure white. He's only about half my height.

The biggest thing that strikes me: he's one hundred percent human!

What we learned:

Rick's actually a giant compared to a standard human... finally you can compare scale! Huzzah!

Mystery Man is about to bring the pain.

Hensai's dying.

The Dog people don't know Niala's a healer. What are the odds she'll volunteer that information after that little run in during their first meeting?