Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

Chapter 175

Everything was going fine as the squad carefully scouted the place, leaving no corner unchecked. We ascended Floor by floor, carefully watching for any signs of trouble. We couldn’t just leave floors unchecked either considering we were looking specifically for the spare part storage. Unfortunately, every floor so far was a mish-mash of offices, so we wasted quite a bit of time.

It wasn’t until we were about a dozen floors from the roof that said trouble made itself known. Everything started fine enough. We went up yet another set of crumbling stairs, carefully watching our steps as we drifted along the greenery-clogged building. Renold led the way, pausing at a door as we stacked up on it.

Just before we could breach, a loud cry radiated down the staircase. Corvid’s cry. “Caw! Caw! Caw!”

Hampton was the first to react, SMG up as he snapped to the top of the staircase. The rest of the group took various firing positions aimed at every approach, all while I stood around. Of course, I took up a position too, but it was very much delayed compared to the professionals. Part of it was thanks to the fact I recognized the call.

”What was that?” Lia asked as she crept back down the stairs slightly to get a better view of the shaft.

Yonrow moved with her. “Sounded like a crow.”

”Just a bird?” Hampton’s tense shoulders relaxed slightly. I decided to hold my tongue.

The resident Magus was quick to ruin his slight relaxation. “Maybe. Aether is all sorts of fucked here though. No telling what it was… could be a Crow Sprite for all we know. Might be someone else here.”

”Regardless, something startled the bird.” I shifted the conversation slightly. Unfortunately, I had no idea what made Corvid react, so I could only opt for heightened awareness within the group. “Something is probably up there.”

The squad went silent for a few moments before the leader took charge once more. “Alright, move as we have been. Lia, keep trying to work your magic. The rest of us will slow down a bit more and move as a group. No stragglers. Zuku, since we can’t have Lia sweep ahead, think you could start pre-checking floors with your drone?”

”I’m not that good at flying it.” I’d only flown in wide open spaces so far. No way I could get through the narrow corridors of the office, especially considering the occasional collapsed wall or fallen pillar blocking the path. That wasn’t even considering the heavy amount of foliage dangling from the roof and vines stretched across hallways.

”I can.” Yonrow offered. “Lend it to me?”

Hmm… give my tech out to someone else… I felt a strong possessive urge to keep it to myself, but there was no denying scouting the way forward would be highly beneficial. I unwillingly took out my deck and drone, handing both over to the quiet gunner. 

“Here. Don’t go snooping through my deck.” I didn’t have anything on it that was a secret since most of my files were memorized or on my phone, but I couldn’t quite remember if I left anything on it.

“No problem.” The guy took both, immediately getting the silent drone up into the air. Renold cracked the door into a small gap, barely enough for the drone to get by in an impressive feat of piloting. 

That’s how we moved forward. Yonrow swept all he could of each floor, only being blocked by doors and collapsed walls as he checked for danger. Occasionally he’d call out old claw marks or piles of bones, but for the most part, the floors were clear of everything except plants as we moved through office spaces and rapidly approached the roof.

Honestly, it was pretty boring. There wasn’t much to do but hold angles since I was in the middle of the pack, so I found myself drifting to daydream about what kind of tech I’d make when I got back home. Most of the floors passed by in a blur outside of the occasional reflexive burst toward a plant that looked too suspicious. I'm not paranoid.

Us waiting for Yonrow to drone got me thinking though. Maybe I should make some kind of grounded drone too? I could probably even merge it with my sentry gun idea somewhat considering weight wouldn’t be too big of an issue. It might be a bit more stable and quicker to scout things out. It would be a lot of added weight in my bag though…

Speaking of scouting things out, we paused on a set of stairs, once more allowing Yonrow to sweep the way forward. This time, he didn’t stay quiet for long. “Massive room ahead. It goes up into the next three floors with balconies looking down onto it. Recording room, maybe. Signs of a nest. Recent tracks of… some kind of large bird? I don’t see it around”

“Can you sweep more?” Hampton asked.

“Negative. Drone is about to die.” That being said, Yonrow skillfully flew it back to us, carefully landing it before handing everything back to me. I stored it all back in my bag, remembering to plug it all into my battery. Still had half a charge, so I wasn’t in too rough of a state. I'd have to unplug everything at a fourth of the charge to ensure the Drop Chutes would have enough power for an emergency though.

”We haven’t seen or heard anything coming or leaving New Tress Radio yet. There’s a good chance whatever it is still lurks in some corner.” Hampton sighed, closing his eyes tightly. “Okay. Take this floor slowly. We’ll sweep everything else before checking the recording room.”

And that’s exactly what we did. Renold led the way, his chrome limbs easily cutting through occasional spots of thick foliage as we carefully checked every hall and room. We stumbled across quite a few storage rooms for various recording equipment, including some of which I could use. Instead of loading up here though, we continued checking the area out until there was just the large recording room.

We paused at one of the several side doors, this one wrapped tightly in vines as if to keep the way locked. Hampton took point at the door. “Renold and I will sweep the place. You three watch the balconies. Lia, how’s your sprite summoning coming along?”

Lia shook her head. ”No good. No one wants to come to this city. Silver is on the ropes about being summoned again, though I think I’ve almost got him with the promise of steaks.” 

Ah, that’s right. Sprites don’t like this place… so why was Corvid so easy to summon? Was he just a superior breed of sprite? Were there even superior levels of sprites? Actually, now that I think about it, he was one of the few sprites with an actual name. Was there some correlation there? I really need to do some more research when we get back to the city. Maybe even pay Crow’s shrine a visit if I can find it.

”Chek.” Hampton moved up to the door just as Renold finished clearing it. I could hear a low-pitched whistling from the other side of the door. “Three. Two. One.” He slammed his foot forward, flinging up the door with a loud bang.

They moved as a unit, with me struggling to follow along in the middle. Trying to check balconies, aim, and walk without looking was surprisingly difficult. I nearly tripped over a fallen mic stand as we pushed out into the massive space.

It was a large room, just as Yonrow said. What he failed to mention was the massive hole in the wall right where the newscasters would’ve sat, looking out into free skies. Nor did he mention just how much cover the scattered equipment provided for potential ambushes. The constant thrill of Insight down my spine made matters worse as my eyes jumped around erratically.

”Clear!” Hampton called, though from the slight twitch of his fingers as he caressed the trigger, I got a feeling he felt something was off too. It only raised my stress levels as my finger twitched towards my rifle's trigger.

”I don’t think-“

A rush of ethereal Insight from directly behind me cut me off. Something was moving in the Aether. It was as though someone was casting a spell, but our only spell caster was Lia who was currently incapable of such a feet. Danger.

High-strung as I was, I reacted before I even realized what was happening. My long hours of practicing close-quarters combat at the Battle Born Arena finally paid off as my brain ran through a dozen calculations. My rifle was too slow with a one-eighty, so I opted for a straightforward punch. My fist lanced backward before I even saw what we were fighting. Whatever it was wasn’t aiming for me, so I had the momentary freedom to attack back.

Just as something appeared out of thin air in a deadly strike towards a dazed-looking Lia, my fist slammed into it. Electricity arced out of the shock gauntlets as an electric buzz filled the air. The entity froze as a burning stench erupted, staggering backward from its failed ambush. The gauntlet seemed to get overloaded by the electricity arcing to the creature, backfiring as electric thrills surged down into my arm, numbing the limb entirely. My own weapon backfired, temporarily paralyzing me so I couldn’t pull back even if I wanted to.

Then the creature staggered back far enough away to stop pressing in the pressure plates in my shock gauntlets, giving me my first real look at it. The thing was a hawk of some kind, though it was sized up to my height. Deadly long talons hung from its clawed feet as it scrambled backward, and even more sharp spines hung from its black wings. Several bullets fired from around me, striking the feathered body as the rest of the squad reacted.

”Kreee!” The thing cried loudly as a flash of Insight hit me. The noise hammered my ears, causing my head to momentarily fog up. By the time I realized it was some kind of mental attack, the beast had already disappeared with another tingle of ethereal Insight.

”Form up!” Hampton called, pulling a still-stunned Lia into the middle of the group. “Zuku, check Lia out. Weapons free! Yonrow, you see anything?”

”Negative. Not even air disturbance.” Yonrow replied. “Nothing on thermal either.”

I fumbled my rifle back into a sling, my arm still entirely numb as I backed into the group alongside Lia. I wasn’t an expert at medical treatment by any means, but I was at least competent enough to see that there was something seriously wrong with her as I snapped my fingers in front of her face.

The magus was entirely out of it, seemingly not even noticing my snapping fingers outside of a small flinch. Based on what its cry did to me, it was a mental attack of some kind. I checked her pulse, doing several other checks to get a better idea of her condition. “She’s in a daze. Might be fine in a few minutes, but it looks like some kind of mental attack from that bird thing.”

”Chek-“ 

Noise from above cut him off, quickly followed by a table flying at us from the second-story balcony. Insight tingled with a heavy hit across my ribs. Renold acted first, shooting the thing several times with his HMG before kicking it aside as if it weighed nothing.

”Move to the wall under the balcony!” Hampton ordered out. We quickly followed as I dragged Lia along. Although she was still out of it, she could mindlessly walk as I pulled the tall woman along, granted the act was slow and clumsy.

I cloaked my movements with my poncho, hiding my actions as I summoned Crow’s Canteen of Chaos. With the canteen in hand, I changed it to start producing Ammonia, one of several chemicals I imported from the labs under Cold Moon Solutions. Even with it just starting production, there was enough to let off that strong, nose-burning stench that ammonia was known for.

I carefully wafted the chemical in front of Lia as an improvised smelling salt. I then turned it back to water and banished it in one smooth movement. Lia immediately took a sharp breath, which quickly turned into a coughing fit as her mind seemed to free itself from the daze.

”Lia?” Hampton glanced back at us as I supported the Magus.

As soon as the woman could speak, she did and pointed towards the roof. “It’s- ugh- it's-“

A pulse of Insight hit me from above, feeling as though a dozen sharp spikes coldly impaled my limbs. A whistling noise came from above as the hawk appeared for a brief moment, catching several bullets from Hampton and Renold. Just as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared once more in a spray of blood and feathers.

The spines it released, however, remained as the sharp projectiles plummeted toward us.