Variance Read online

  He felt sore and slow. “All right, I guess.”

  “I know you’re not up to full capacity yet, but I couldn’t help myself from showing you the upgrades I made while you recovered.”

  He appreciated her work and anticipation, but his headache was distracting him. He closed his eyes and pressed his temples with his fingers.

  “I’m sorry if I’m rushing you. Registration for your next match in Forever Fall is opening in two hours. It seems that the series was designed to minimize recovery, which helps us with our schedule.”

  Of course. Shadow would have wanted only minimal recovery for his opponents. Paul still could not believe his little princess had stolen something.

  Paul wanted to rest. He slapped his forehead. He should not think about being weak. Someone who had the chance to save the world should use every second for that effort. Headache and fatigue should not stop him. Be strong.

  Paul shook his head.

  He followed Ryan through a tunnel within the mountains of Forever Fall. His sphere rolled on a concrete deck tainted with streaks of oil and probably blood. They reached bay one, a compartment large enough to fit two Legacy suits. Massive closed gates were situated above them.

  Ryan turned and faced Paul. “Are you all right?”

  “I feel—”

  “It doesn’t matter what you feel. You better fuck shit up out there, or else they’ll churn you into food.” Ryan slapped Paul across the face. “You need to be pumped right now. You sound like a weak pussy.”

  Paul blinked hard with a slight moan. Pussy. The meaning equated to a weakling.

  He needed to motivate himself. “All right.” He slapped himself harder than Ryan’s slap. “I’m ready. Why would the other fighters churn me into food?”

  “You traveled millions of kilometers to fight in Divine Might without knowing how humans were able to conquer Xameeshee?” Ryan looked as if he wanted to pull his hair out.

  Conquer Xameeshee? “Conquer from who?”

  Siren shrugged while looking at history data.

  Ryan threw his arms in the air. “There were giant monsters everywhere. We blasted the shit out of them, and now we have them contained and controlled. Get ready; you’re about to meet Mama Ester. Good luck.” He walked away and stood at the edge of the deck, waving good-bye.

  Battle type: Beast survival. Platforms: Conventional warfare. Primary obstacle: Beasts. Time: 30 minutes. Bonus: None. Restrictions: Boundaries. Report to bay one.

  The gates opened. Sol’s reflection on Prism and then on Xameeshee created a flood of orange light. The deck ascended toward the surface. Paul heard the echoes of cheers and chants of “Ester.” He had no data on disarming monsters, only battle suits.

  “We have to adapt somehow,” Paul said.

  Siren scanned available databases. “I have nothing on them.”

  Paul knew Ryan had to have something to provide him. Why would Ryan leave him helpless? He Audialed, “Ryan, do you have any data you can give us for an advantage?”

  Ryan chuckled. “Monsters are just as proprietary as Kalliro suits.” The deck halted flush with the gates. “Plus, they are upgraded all the time, so they’re never the same. There’s always a surprise.”

  Paul noticed an object blocking Prism’s light. It was large enough to cast a shadow around him. He looked up with an immediate gasp.

  A metal-clad beast with two sets of wings, a muscular body, and a long tail flew along the terraformers barrier. A trail of fog followed the giant because of radiation emitted from the armor, turning moisture into vapor. Its arms were comparable to a midsize transport vessel that could fit a hundred passengers. Fire jetted out of its sharp talons. The armor resembled Kalliro technology, with swirling liquid material traversing all around the surfaces. The creature’s long tail swung into the energy field, creating sparks of electricity, and the crowd’s cheering intensified.

  “Are you analyzing this?”

  Siren answered in a drawn-out “Yes.”

  The armor shifted in jagged and jarred motions, accompanied by echoes of scraping metal and bone-creaking sounds. Ester transformed into a worm. It dove from the sky and crashed into the distant mountains, shaking the deck at Paul’s feet. A dirt cloud remained in its place.

  Siren highlighted data and presented it to Paul. “It’s biological and mechanical. It flies using antigravitational engines and shifts the biological brain and heart during transformation. Its armor uses electromagnetic technology. Probably Kalliro. In worm form, its body is one kilometer long. In beast form, its body height is four hundred meters. High-radiation sources detected, and danger fields estimated. Transformation delay is five point three seconds. I really don’t know how to disarm something like this. Do you?”

  He kept his mouth open. “This wasn’t in the commercial.”

  His heart rate increased as the clock in the distance began a countdown of ten seconds. His muscles stiffened to the point that he had to force his body to move. He slapped himself again.

  “Systems activated.” Siren breathed heavily in unison with Paul.

  Spotlights shined down onto him, and the crowd chanted, “Killer.” Paul did not like the name.

  Siren highlighted the faces and suits of three other competitors. “Three fighters resigned. Seven fighters remain, including Corda.”

  “Resigned?” He shielded himself and turned invisible. “Defensive maneuvers.”

  “Let’s just hope it can’t track us down.” Siren shook her hands in distress.

  “One!”

  The crowd cheered as fireworks exploded outside the arena.

  Ryan Audialed, “Knock ’em dead, Paul.”

  A loud horn blared across the mountain range. Paul flew and hugged the curved, invisible ceiling to position himself near the center of the arena. The dome limited wind flow, making the arena quiet. The crowd sat in silence. Ester and other fighters remained hidden. He only heard himself breathing.

  “No activity.” Siren highlighted the borrowed tunnel. “Several stationary fighters identified.”

  “What’s going on?” Paul moved around in circles. He imagined Ester rising out of the ground in an explosion of dirt and devouring him in seconds or firing energy rays everywhere.

  Siren pulled up the rules. “Beast survival rules are simple. Stay alive. Evasion is the key to success.”

  “I wonder if other fighters use each other as bait. I don’t think anyone could evade Ester.” He scanned the area for the slightest movement.

  In the distance, a reddish energy beam erupted from the ground and clashed with the arena’s force field. Lightning and sparks appeared everywhere. Multiple invisible drones exploded. Some burned and flew away. A Controller fighter evaded by using multiple protective layers of drones. Ester’s beam continued to dance for several seconds.

  Siren’s data showed that a direct hit from such energy would reduce his material inventory to 40 percent. “We need to constantly be on the move.”

  Alarms blared, and the highlighted terraformer energy field on his Visuals shrank in size. He kept a safe distance from the field as it drew closer.

  In a location farther from where the beam had erupted, the ground exploded upward. Chunks of earth hurtled into the boundary as Ester transformed into a dragon. Paul dodged a large section of earth and drilled through another. A sizzling beam of energy shot out of Ester’s mouth and sprayed around the dome. Despite Paul’s luck in avoiding the beam, the field continued to shrink.

  Corda and another Legacy fighter fired rail guns at Ester’s eye. Everyone with long-range weapons took the opportunity to attack. Drones in multiple formations fired missiles and lasers. Frequency suits emitted beams of concentrated energy to Ester’s belly. The beast’s armor zapped with electricity, and all the nearby drones drew close into the beast’s mouth for disintegration. Hypersonic projectiles dramatic
ally curved away, repelled by its magnetic field, and soared into the boundary. Missiles exploded prematurely prior to reaching its body.

  Nothing could defeat Ester.

  “The magnetic field is strong, but its gravitational field is weak. We should be able to outrun it.” Siren highlighted the best route to follow.

  “And what if we can’t avoid the thing? Its mouth doesn’t seem like the best approach.”

  Siren highlighted Ester’s rear end. “We can hide in its asshole as a last resort. I mean, how can it see you hiding under its tail?”

  Although fear and adrenaline controlled him, he could not help but laugh inwardly at the definition of the word asshole. She definitely meant the anus.

  “It probably shoots radiation back there.” He hoped to evade the beast throughout the entire battle.

  Ester’s energy beam collided with the boundary. The beam drilled into the ground, revealing a Frequency’s protective energy field. Ester turned into a worm while in a dive and devoured the Frequency. The fighter only had a second to react. Dirt and dust covered the hole, and Ester vanished.

  Ester had obtained its first kill. If Ester were to trap Paul in its line of sight, he would have no escape. Siren changed her flight path as the boundary steadied.

  The entire side of a mountain range within the boundary separated and flew toward the opposite end. The sheer size of rock covered most of the airspace, and its speed prohibited avoidance. It was a good thing he flew close to the arena’s peak.

  Several fighters fought through the wall, firing missiles or energy. A Controller fighter used its drones to cut a hole. Corda pulled out dual energy swords and dove toward the wall in rotation. Behind the wall, Ester, in dragon form, flew toward Corda’s path.

  “We have to save her.” He calculated their relative dynamics.

  Siren moved the flight path away from Ester and Corda. “We can’t afford that.”

  He dove and calculated the intercepting point to Corda. “We’ll force her to descend.”

  “We might disable her permanently.” Siren hovered by his side with her eyes closed. “I can’t watch.”

  “Get ready.”

  Corda penetrated through the rock, and Paul cut through her suit’s collarbone, through the flight controls, and out of the hip joint, missing the cockpit. He inverted and watched Corda’s suit fall lifelessly. Ester’s mouth tapped her suit’s feet, causing her to spin out of control.

  Siren pointed at Corda’s fighter portrait on his Visuals. “She wants to talk.”

  Corda appeared friendly with a Utopian complexion. Her straight brown hair led into a braid that curved against her soft face. He hoped she wanted to thank him for saving her life. “Accept.”

  Corda’s voice, familiar to Paul from when he’d heard her in despair, growled with fright. “You destroyed my suit, you fucking asshole! Fuck! That creature’s gonna eat me alive.”

  He flew toward Corda as Ester banked to devour another fighter, who exited the wall. Corda continued her string of curses. Paul’s sphere turned into tentacles and grabbed Corda’s limbs to stabilize her as they approached a forest of golden leaves. He lowered her to the ground, crushing trees beneath her suit’s feet.

  “Incoming.” Siren provided him a path out. “Go, or else we’re trapped in its dive.”

  “We have to guide it away from Corda.” He flew toward Ester and changed his sphere into a spearhead. Ester followed and changed its flight path. “This is not good.”

  So much for avoiding Ester’s line of sight. “We’ll have to hide in its mouth.” He was not sure where else to go. “Fly inside and away from its radiation sources. Then figure out the next step there.”

  Ester blasted a wave of energy, which deflected off his shield. Plasma flew behind him, and his energy meter decreased to 60 percent as Siren converted the energy flow into thrust. He reached record speeds and approached the mouth.

  Siren disappeared. “Entering in three, two, one.”

  There was darkness.

  His shield cut through multiple layers of biological matter and metal. Like a porcupine, he turned his material into thousands of long spikes to stop. The spikes illuminated to reveal Ester’s artificial esophagus, parts of battle suits and drones, and green liquid seeping out of the biological tissue. Ester’s insides were more mechanical than biological.

  Slimy tentacles with suction cups and teeth at the ends wrapped around his body and pulled him farther down into the throat. Thin needles pierced his suit and skin, sucking blood out of his body. Siren severed the needles and pulled them out. The sensation of losing blood pressure petrified him as his heart tried to stabilize.

  His body’s energy level dropped. “What just happened?”

  Ester roared and randomly changed its direction. The inertia sank Paul’s spikes into the lining and piping to control his descent. He felt a force tug his legs, and a bulbous creature with a large, acid-filled mouth chomped at him. He severed the tentacles and shot a spear through the creature’s head, sending it down the throat.

  Siren reappeared. “What was that?”

  Radiation and acid froze sections of his spikes. “We need to drop deeper into the throat.”

  “There might be more of those things.” Siren scanned around him.

  “We have to end this match now.” He detached himself and slid down. He needed to disable Ester somehow before his suit completely froze.

  “CI’s fighting neurotoxins. Forty percent Variance.” Siren created a diagram of Ester’s body and a flight path to the organs.

  He consolidated compromised material and created a drill above him. While he cut through tissue and metal, his medical interface sent alarms of muscle failure as his CI struggled to fight off radiation and toxins. He kept his eyes focused on the transparent blue path ahead of him and thought of nothing else.

  Blue. Blue. Blue.

  A deep reverb of bone cracking and shifting resonated through his body. Siren used the electrical data from cutting slimy biological power lines to determine the source. “It’s transforming again. We’re close to the heart.”

  A blinding light lit the area. Ester ate a hole in itself, and its worm head zoomed toward him. With 30 percent of material compromised, he cut through a series of bones and metal panels.

  “I think the heart is moving.” Siren adjusted his path.

  “Follow it.”

  She established a new path. “Why?”

  With the worm’s head closing the gap behind him, he penetrated a crawling bone chamber full of bright blue energy surrounding a multivalve heart. Each beat overcame the deafening energy systems that kept Ester alive as the chamber continued shifting.

  Sections of his drill hardened. His muscles tensed. The radiation field and toxins overwhelmed him. He needed to end the battle immediately.

  “Power?”

  Siren blinked the numbers on his interface. “Two percent.”

  The worm’s mouth emitted crimson plasma toward him.

  Siren consolidated the frozen material away from his path and used the rest to shield him. With the small amount of material remaining, he formed himself into a spear and used a single flap of wings for a boost. He pierced through the heart. A clump of frozen Variance caught onto the heart’s exterior wall and pinned him into the energy field on the opposite side. Green liquid spewed and streamed all around him, mixing with the blue and red energy.

  “One percent.” Bright orange tears dropped from Siren’s eyes as she wrapped his body with hers.

  The material around his legs hardened and failed to provide him protection. The heart ceased traveling and pumping. The loud thumping died.

  Ester descended, and for a moment, Paul felt weightless. Am I falling or dying?

  “Hold on.” Siren panicked and tried to protect Paul’s body with uncompromised material.

 
A powerful impact forced his upper body to continue its descent, breaking both femurs of his legs trapped within his suit. He screamed and moaned as the pain overtook his body to the point that he could no longer scream. He finished his exhalation and held it. His eyes fluttered and rolled back as his head shook.

  Siren continued to embrace him with her hair covering his face. He could not move his hand. His vision blurred in and out of focus as the blue energy lighting the blood around him faded.

  “I have to stop the bleeding.” Siren disappeared, and the pressure of her embrace eased away.

  He felt his thighs tightening. Something was wrapping around them. He no longer felt his feet, followed by the rest of his body.

  Everything turned black, even with his eyes open. His eyes drooped, and he tried to fight the feeling of fainting.

  Fuck. No. Fucking stay awake. Stay …

  An electrical shock woke him up. Bright light blinded him as he gasped for air. He could not sit up. His head pounded with every heartbeat. His entire body burned with nerve sensations. His vision partially restored, and he noticed blurry figures surrounding him.

  Cheers from the entire arena erupted, and fireworks exploded in the sky. Corda knelt over his head. His eyes adjusted and found the armored body of the fallen, lifeless beast towering nearby.

  “You killed it! You won! It’s over!” Corda yelled with her mouth close to his ear.

  He could barely hear her. He could not move his mask. A small section of material moved for him to breathe. “Help.”

  “What?” Corda placed her ear over the opening.

  “Help.”

  “Ryan’s on his way. You’re going to be okay.” Corda’s eyes scanned his suit, and she let out a slight gasp. He knew something was wrong with his suit based on her reaction. “Thank you for saving me,” she said. She kissed his cheek.

  Several black objects descended from the sky. Drones slowed their descent and kicked dirt all around him; some of the fragments landed in his open mouth. He felt something slide underneath him and lift him into the sky.