Dark Matter Ascension
Chapter 20 – What are claws if not foot-knives?

Jace patted his messenger bag that was slung alongside his duffel bag. "Right here," he lied. "Got some left over from that animal attack."

"I don't want you, just the goods." She kept her palm raised, "Throw the bag to me." Her voice was harsh and demanding. Gruff and coarse, as if she had spent years screaming orders.

Good thing it's filled with water, Jace thought as he knew the shifting form would make her think it was filled with the ferrofluid. He used his prosthetic arm to remove the bag from around his shoulder and held it over the ledge. "Not a step closer."

She lowered her hand, "Terms?"

Jace put the bag back on his shoulder, "You want the bag? Slowly walk towards me, and I'll give it to you." He spotted a shark Wayreplaceer hovering just behind the person.

Ollie flew behind him and whispered, "He is querying the system! You have to get within ten feet so I can stop him. Xera's restrictions can only keep him out for five minutes, tops. But that timer resets if I can get close."

The woman nodded and began to slowly approach. Jace whispered back to Ollie, "If we can get out of here, I think it'll be fi-"

"If he finishes the query, then people will know your Cosmic Power, Class, Tier, and if enough time is spent querying, he could even replace out your real name and faction. He does not need you to stay in line of sight for it."

Damnit. Jace knew that if all that information got out, then he would not be as useful an asset to Xera. That would lead to less rare rewards, and a loss of progression pace. "Ten feet?"

"Ten feet," Ollie confirmed.

Jace nodded. Thankfully, he still had his sword in his left hand – and it was completely invisible to his opponent. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Henrietta," the woman replied as she got closer.

"Flicker," Jace replied, and he began to walk toward her. "I was going to deliver it, you know. I just got caught up in the whole Cosmogenesis thing."

She shrugged, "You're on the blacklist as a courier. Took too long. Also, they want your feet repo'd."

"Closer," Ollie whispered.

"The feet got shredded," Jace replied. "I got new legs from a Quest, want to see?" He poured as much enthusiasm and naivete as he could into his tone.

"Sure," she stated plainly without interest as she moved closer. "Give me the ferrofluid, and you can lea-"

"Otter punch!" Ollie flew forward and slammed into the mako-shark – who up until that point was just hovering behind Henrietta. Ollie's paw smacked into it, and it writhed before the two began fighting with each other. It was almost humorous, as they could not hurt each other. But Jace knew that neither would be able to interact with The Cosmic System while engaged. He could focus on the threat in front of him.

Henrietta raised her left hand. A cascading icy-blue mist exuded from her palm and rushed towards Jace. "I should've guessed you'd try something sneaky."

Jace ran to the right in a tight circle – keeping close enough for Ollie to do his thing – and got out of the bulk of the misty cone-shaped Skill. It did touch his left side, and he felt himself grow more tired as his Dark Matter Shield sapped his energy to prevent the bone-chilling frost from reaching him. Raising his prosthetic, he thumbed the release. It shot right past her, and he activated the retraction as it planted into the wall behind her.

Shooting forward, he released the cable as he got into range with her and swung his still-invisible weapon. He caught her by surprise, and the blade did not cut into the armor but did carve a gash across the front. The purple miasma began to spread, and she let out a scream of rage. The icy shell around her exploded, and Jace felt extremely tired as he took the point-blank effect head-on, his shield draining even more energy. Dark Matter Shield (Rank 1). The barrier shifted, and he had the heater shield on his right forearm.

She swung her frost-laden hammer at him, and he could feel the cool rush of air streaming off the weapon, setting his teeth to chatter. He put his shield up and caught the blow. If not for the magitech prosthetic, he was sure that the force of the blow would have broken his arm. But it held firm. Almost faster than he could react, the woman drew a stockless shotgun from her back and aimed it at Jace's torso.

Nope! He moved in close to her and sliced at the shotgun, cutting it in two at the breach, disabling the weapon. She let it drop to the ground and brought down the hammer once more. To both of their surprise, he was able to duck under her blow as his legs bent in the opposite direction; as if his body was guiding itself to safety thanks to the Swordmage Stance Skill. Oh, that's useful.

Jace used the moment of her being off guard to spin his body around as he came up, slicing along the backside of her arm as her momentum carried her by. The icy shell gone; the dark, purple energy spread over her armor as the slowing effect took its hold. Within the purple, tiny singularities slowly shredded the armor, and the deep crimson nebula burrowed deep. He could see the blood seeping out from her injury.

She swung the hammer back at him again. But he kept to her backhand and pivoted with her. Starfire Stride, he thought as he activated the Dragonclaw Devastation Legs' once per day Skill. His lower body flared with a deep crimson for a moment before a neon purple flame consumed the foot-claws. Wherever his feet touched, the trail of fire burned bright.

"Just stay still!" she shouted as she pulled out a grenade. Jace jumped back away from her, counting seconds in his head until the fire effect would fade. She brought the grenade up to her teeth, pulled the pin, and threw it on the ground in front of him. Jace had never seen the design before, and he winced slightly as static electricity filled the air as the sides of the object opened. An EMP grenade? He smiled as he knew that Dark Matter being his Cosmic Power meant that electricity and magnetism would not affect him.

He took advantage of Henrietta's momentary lapse from confusion and leaped forward – propelled by his powerful prosthetics. She swung out with the hammer once more, and he got his shield in the way to deflect the blow and swing her off balance.

She turned with the spin, drew another grenade, and threw it directly at his feet – all in a single, deft movement demonstrating her battle prowess. There was an explosion of yellow goop that quickly spread and caused Jace to slow down as it coated him in the foam-like substance.

For all of a second. The foam was ignited from the fire trail he was leaving – and both combatants were standing in a blazing inferno as the flame spread. She screamed in pain and her body exuded a cool, icy mist as the flames began to die out. But Jace was unaffected, as they originated from his prosthetic's innate Skill. He took advantage of that and slashed her twice more before she had fully recovered. The purple and crimson nebula slowly spread over her armor from the two wounds.

"Just die!" she shouted as she slammed her hammer into the ground. An explosion of sharp, icy spikes shot up from the ground.

Jace jumped straight up ten feet, aimed his grapple up at the antenna, and tethered himself to it as the ice below began to radiate a freezing mist that extinguished his flames. Dark Matter Dart (Rank 2), he thought, pointing his sword at the woman.

The Skill launched all three darts at her torso, and they tore through the chest armor. Blood seeped from her body before the armor released some type of medical foam that sealed the wounds. Jace felt so, so sleepy, but forced himself to keep his eyes open. The woman below him was heaving from exertion as well, and the icy ground faded away.

Jace let himself drop down to the roof once more and assumed a dueling stance with his shield in front of him and his sword extended to his left side. "Just give up," he said confidently, grinning to put her off her game. "I have plenty of energy. I can do this all day."

She shook her head and turned on him, "You're exhausted, just like me." She hefted the icy hammer and grinned, "A straight-up brawl."

Jace smirked, "You'll lose. If you haven't noticed, I'm kicking your ass."

She used her left hand to tap a button on the armor. There was a loud fwsh noise as some type of liquid flooded either into the armor or possibly into her. She charged forward and thumbed the hammer's rocket – imbuing her swing with insane force.

Jace took the blow on his shield and dug his claws into the rooftop. To the woman's surprise, her strongest blow did not even make him waver, and Jace just grinned at her. He slashed at her wrist at the same time he pushed her hammer away with the shield.

She was huffing inside the armor, "This isn't worth the money," she let the hammer fall to her side, and he heard a laugh come from her. "This just isn't worth it."

Liar. Jace knew a lie when he heard one. He stepped forward and stabbed into her torso. She looked up and him, the helmet a faceless visage, and she grabbed his left, real arm with her hand. Jace cried out in pain as he felt the crushing strength that threatened to snap it in half. She raised the hammer in the other hand and brought it down. He barely got his shield in the way in time.

"Not falling for that, eh?" She slid her hand down to his and squeezed – breaking his fingers. Jace screamed in pain as he was forced to let go of the blade which became visible as the auras faded. "Oh, invisible sword. Neat trick."

Jace backed away when she let go to grab at the sword, pulled it out of herself, and threw it aside. The miasmic glow spread from her torso – but the wound foam that the armor kept pumping out seemed to counteract the effect. She kicked the sword further away. Think Jace. What else can you do? He could try and use the grapple line as a means of injuring her. Or he could just try to keep his distance and hope the [Rending] effect would finish her off.

She ran forward with speed that caught him off guard, as she covered the space quickly despite the purple miasma surrounding her. If she were not slowed, he was sure he would have been dead by now. She brought a crushing forehand swing across his body, and Jace barely got his shield in the way. Instead of stopping the blow, he let himself spin with the momentum.

She swung with a backhand swing, and he deftly jumped backward. The two kept this pace, back and forth with her on the offensive and him dodging or blocking. The miasma did not spread any further and even started to recede. The purple, at least. The crimson continued as per the Evolution version of the Skill.

Jace's breath was coming to him in ragged inhalations. I need to put her down. Then, an idea popped into his head. Aren't claws sort of like knives? Might as well try it. Dark Matter Blade (Rank 5) [Rending]. Jace saw his legs imbued with the purple and crimson light. He felt exhaustion kick in and almost fell to his knees from the tiredness that washed over him.

To her view, his legs vanished, and he was a floating midsection. "The hell did you just do?" She shouted.

He smirked and waited for her next blow. She came in with another backhand, and he blocked with the shield once more, spinning with the blow as he performed a kick, feeling his claw impact – he latched down. The armor crunched where he gripped her by the abdomen, and he could feel the crumpling metal give way as he dug into the flesh underneath. The crimson and purple began to spread once more.

She tried to turn to get at him, but Jace just let go and pulled his foot back – she could not replace it and failed to grab anything. She followed the grab with a shoulder check – and this pushed Jace out over the edge of the skyscraper. He began to fall and felt gravity take hold.

Ollie was tugged away from his Wayreplaceer combat and shouted in alarm at the sudden jerking of his tether tying him to stay within ten feet of Jace, "This isn't good!" he shouted in panic.

Jace aimed his prosthetic arm at the edge of the building and fired out the grapple. It sank into the metal building, and he swung in towards the side of the structure, stopping his momentum with his feet. Thumbing the retract button, he ascended, kicking off to build some side-to-side momentum.

Henrietta's head appeared over the edge of the building, and he slammed into that with his clawed foot. Releasing the grapnel with a button press, his momentum carried the two forward and caused the armored woman to fall flat on her back. Jace jammed his other clawed foot down into her torso – using the gash carved by his sword to get deeper. He opened and closed the foot claws over and over – shredding her organs as blood spurted up and out of the wound.

The mako-shark that Ollie was fighting vanished as the woman ceased moving. Jace let out an exhausted groan as he stepped out of the woman's torso and shook the viscera from his feet. "Damn…" he sat down and took in deep breaths.

Ollie flew over to him and landed on his knee. "You beat a hostile Aspirant. Excellent job. Second one you have dealt with."

Jace felt the adrenaline fading and the need to sleep crept up on him with even more strength. "Dust her," he muttered. Ollie nodded, raised his little paw, and the corpse vanished into glimmering starlight.

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[Stardust Acquired: 100.]

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Ollie nodded, "She was worth a good amount. It makes sense, since Earth is a Tier 2 world."

"Sword?" Jace asked weakly.

Ollie pointed to it, and Jace pushed himself to his feet, walked over to his sword, picked it up with the prosthetic arm, and sheathed it. "Those fingers look like they're in rough shape," Ollie commented.

Jace nodded, "I have bandages to set the breaks." He opened the duffel bag and pulled out the medical kit. Inside he found a bottle of pills that were the equivalent of painkillers. He popped several into his mouth before dry swallowing them.

Next, he set to work pulling the bones back into place. This was the worst part, and he bit down on the one shoe he still had in his gear to muffle his cries of pain. Just do it! Get the worst of it over!

The bones were definitely broken, but Jace had dealt with that before and was able to get them into the right position where they could heal up. After splinting each finger, he bound them all together with clean bandages before refitting the glove to hold everything in place.

As the painkillers set in – faster than he expected – he felt himself drifting off to sleep. "Don't let me fall asleep," he muttered. "Not safe." He felt himself slipping from consciousness despite trying to fight back against it.

Ollie flew in front of his face and nodded, "Time to make the most annoying sound that you will not be able to sleep through." He took in a deep breath and began…screaming.

It was an odd noise to hear, as it came out at a very deep pitch, and the absurdity of the situation made Jace weakly laugh. "What the hell was that?"

Ollie stopped and frowned, crossing his arms. "The most annoying sound I could think of."

Jace kept laughing – perhaps out of exhaustion, or the sheer stupidity of the situation, or the elation of living through a near-death experience. It kept him wide awake for a few more minutes. "Thanks." He got up and made his way back into the skyscraper, holding his breath as he walked past the roof entrance.

Descending to the top floor, he found the penthouse suite, shut and barricaded the door, and then collapsed onto the luxurious bed.

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