Siya, wings unbroken.

There is only some side leg flesh showing. And just a reminder that all the characters in the story are fictional, and are not representative of any real people or moth girls, should they be reading this.

"My GOD how did we ever survive without GPS! This is absolutely horrendous! Italy please buy some goddamned road signs!" I whined out loud as we finally found a dirt path off the dirt road that I'd ended up just Slipfolding to after seeing the winding, up-the-side-of-a-mountain-bullshit we would have to trek. This looked like it would finally lead us up to the E45 road.

Slipfold would be the ultimate solution, were it not for the line of sight requisite to place the anchor.

My wire thin patience was also being banjoed by the sheer density of trees and bushes that lined our path, with the core memory of the giant house cow being effortlessly ravaged by the hidden giants just happily playing over and over in my head, like a certain female singer's song during the festive holiday season..

Or who knows! It's probably the wrong way!

Agh. This should be a minor thing given the current climate, but still, my expectations were not that high, even once we had the maps, and yet somehow, I didn't make them low enough.

#Siya# Apologies. If I were more adept at scouting-

A pang of guilt slapped the back of my head.. Truly the only reason I had the luxury of throwing a tantrum was because I was not alone.

"Aw not at all Siya. It's not your fault don't worry. We used to rely heavily on locals or devices that would map out routes.. Bit like Majik but… huh well quite a lot like Majik to be fair, but a bit more crude, in a sense…" I trailed off, dangerously close to going down a few rabbit holes.

But reaching the top of the track, we saw the fabled E45. All the way up on huge concrete thick stilts probably 100 metres in the air.

"Y-YE-NO! Oh motherffff!-"

*ROOOORRRRRRG*

#Siya# We must leave. Fast. That was a territorial warning.

Say what.

#Godu# Shit okay. Do you know what it was? Or how close it is? That sounded really close.

#Siya# Very close. We call them Ogreat. Big. Powerful. Heads shaped like-

BALLS.

She crossed her claws in a Y shape and my heart sunk.

A huge gust of wind blasted through the hillside nearly blowing me over and causing Siya to shield herself with a wing.

#Godu# Woah. Okay let's try and find a way to get u-

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAGH"

A truly enormous head erupted up from the edge and was opening its maw wide for us, knowing exactly where we were somehow.

Label: Ogreat

MAGN: ?????

Notes: O_O

I reacted instantly by phase dashing away into the air and gliding.

#Siya# Godu!

She burst into a pink and blue blur as she shot forward and grabbed me under my arms, lifting me straight up. She could slowly carry me for short periods, but it was incredibly draining on her so it was only for emergencies.

Like right fucking now!

The airbus sized mouth followed us with speed that outpaced our own. We had only managed to travel halfway when it already had us inside its cavernous mouth.

A mouth that would no doubt shortly start to close.

#Godu# It's going to get us!

Shit shit! Go eat something bigger for fucksakes! I don't want to be eaten and then have to Slipfold again! I'll probably end up in bloody Space, or worse, Australia!

Australia. A place where the wildlife had health bars before the apocalypse.

Inevitably, the jaws started closing on us, cutting off the light. So, thinking quickly, or rather the best thinking I could with such little time, I pulled free from Siya, placed my palms under her feet and shoulder charged up and hurtled her out of the rapidly closing gap. But pushing me back towards the gloom of the creature's throat.

#Siya# No!

#Godu# Siya! Move up fast! We'll meet up on the road!

I activated Slipfold.

ERROR. NO ANCHOR POINT FOUND.

NO. NO. NO.

Desperate for a way out, I looked up and tried to place an anchor in the air but a stream of failure messages told me what I already knew.

Failed. Anchor requires a visual focal point.

As I fell and the light dimmed to just a small window, I could just make Siya out and it looked like she was about to charge the giant beast.

PLEASE WORK!

Using Siya, I tried to place an anchor-

SUCC-

And PULLED as the light snuffed out and silence devoured my senses.

..

..

#Godu# SIYA! BEHIND YOU! CATCH ME!

With a rush of wind, light flooded back and I successfully made it out and phase dashed towards her, gliding up and clasping her clawed hand with mine.

#Siya# I have you. Safe.

"SIYA! You are the best! Oh my god, thank you, thank you! THANK youuuu!...AND FUCK YOUUU!" I cried out and flipped off the huge grumbling head.

Fortunately, my desperate move had worked. By using Siya as the focal point, I could place an anchor where she was and it stayed, even after she moved down. Which was also a good thing, because I hadn't tested what Slipfolding into something would do yet. Would rather not ever try it either.

The giant head bellowed out but we just made it up to the motorway and Siya dropped me down and I dashed forward to keep going.

The road ahead briefly surprised me, as it would take us through a pitch black tunnel that went through the mountain, but that didn't matter, we needed to gain more distance from the Ogreat right this very second.

*BOOOOOM*

*CRRRRRRRRRAK*

An almighty boom and the sounds of rocks shattering sounded off behind us, but I didn't bother to look.

#Godu# Siya, hop on my back and tuck your wings in. We're going to fold ahead NOW!

Without question she dived down, tucking her wings in and thumped lightly into my back, clutching on as tightly as possible.

#Siya# GO!

Rojer that.

We Slipfolded the distance, easily 100 metres away, so I slowed and dared a glance back.

The Ogreat had burst through the column bridge and was staring-

Wherever the fuck its eyes are!

-daggers at us, so I went for maximum psychological damage and double flipped it off. It had halted its pursuit, but I still backpedalled a few steps.

#Siya# That was close. Godu. What does that hand action do?

Perfect chance to help corrupt an innocent.

I spun round and moved forward and explained one of the many truths of this world.

#Godu# Siya, whenever you see something you dislike and want to offend, just put a middle finger or claw up like this. It's like a non verbal way to tell someone you don't like them.

Can't wait to see her flipping off every monster we see. But, hooo boy that WAS indeed too close..

#Siya# Interesting. Thank you for sharing this ranged curse. I will memorise.

She stayed on my back and I smirked as I jogged off into the blanket of darkness of the tunnel.

..

.

Once we had reached a point where it was pretty much pitch black, Siya hopped off and I took out the EXP orb and our candle lantern. Both of which generated enough light for us to see a few metres around us.

The tunnel was cold and smelled damp with a sporadic gust of wind whistling through every now and then. But other than that it was quiet, empty and probably infected with abhorrent nightmares.

Yes. Cosy. Definitely the kind of lovely place a monster family would choose to lay eggs in their victims.

It was interesting to note that the thought and the dark, both didn’t scare me much.

There are definitely some things that are scarier than the dark. I’ve seen them.

We walked cautiously without talking for a bit more, but my mind had been drifting during the time and I had a few new burning questions for Siya, ones that I hadn’t thought about asking because of how it had become such a weird taboo subject, although nobody could explain exactly why.

It was exactly the same kind of feeling you would get if you tried to talk about your explicit sexual activities with a colleague you barely knew. It was absolutely stupid when I thought about it, but there was no denying the compulsion to avoid the topic.

You COULD do it with people you were comfortable with, but it just felt really really strange to discuss with people you didn’t know that well.

With Siya, we had been through the crash course on how to become best buddies for life however, so I actually didn’t feel too awkward.

#Godu# Siya, can I ask you some personal questions? If you don’t or can’t answer then it’s not a problem and whatever I ask, you are welcome to ask me back.

Without skipping a beat she responded.

#Siya# Yes. I would never hide anything from you. You have shown me nothing but trust.

Daww. And you literally just saved my life so you earned that trust many times over.

#Godu# Awesome. But still, I will understand should you not feel comfortable answering.

#Siya# Thank you. Please…flame away. Was that right?

#Godu# Great! And uh..OH-wow, close, ha. That one is ‘fire away’. I’m impressed you picked that up, I’ve never explained that to you and it’s incredibly nuanced. Amazing.

I heard her trill and ruffle her wings.

#Godu# Okay, so, my questions are about the place you dream about when you sleep, where you put points into skills and your attributes. What does yours look like?

She didn’t respond for a few moments.

#Siya# Apologies. I am struggling to explain the concepts. This place you speak of is new to me.

#Godu# Huh? It’s new?

Confusion was shortly quashed.

#Siya# New to me yes. Before our meeting I had not been to such a space. Secrets only the strongest of us have spoken about. Oh.

She paused and made a thoughtful chirrup noise.

#Siya# Soul. Space. Yes. Soulspace. That is an accurate word to use.

#Godu# Okay. How did you assign attributes and skills before?

#Siya# I did not.

What?

#Godu# Then…how… where did your skills and attributes come from?

#Siya# They would just be. After enough enemies were slain we would simply grow. After our soulbind I received a name and my Soulspace. Only the strong get a name. But I do not know if any have a Soulspace.

Receiving a name for being strong…

#Godu# So what were you called before you got the name Siya?

#Siya# The same as all the other unnamed. Terracorda Arthroprima.

Phew… for a sickly second there I thought she was going to say something like 'NPC_Mothgirl#420'.

Terracorda Arthroprima. It is still confusing but at least it sounds Italian, albeit a little cultish or tribalistic. But hey, if this Majik and EXP stuff can store information and memories, then anything changed by it could get snippets of info and decide to name themselves.

Just like how ants instinctively know how to communicate complex paths or where food is, they must therefore 'know' what food is, through instincts passed on via genetic or chemical processes. Organically-mechanical by nature and also scientifically-verified observed phenomena. I'm not a scientist, that's for sure, but where the hell are these thoughts coming from?

The data felt like it was there’ in my mind, like I had everything I needed to know the answer, but I didn’t understand it all enough to comprehend the ‘information’, like a word on the tip of my tongue..

Anyway, that would all sort of fit in with if you were a group of ex-human people that, oh let's say, mutated into moth girls and boys. Or maybe moths mutated into half humans…Baah, so much crazy shit has happened in a few months, who knows!

#Godu# Okay I'm just going to take that on the chin. So lastly, now you have a name and access to the soulspace, do you ever see anyone else in said soulspace?

#Siya# None that I am aware of.

Figures.

We talked a bit more where I decided to give her as much knowledge as I could share.

It was mainly me explaining things such as the significance of the attributes and to avoid any weird skills like cooking or heavens forbid, something insane like a charisma or diplomacy skill..

Imagine wasting a point in that, only to meet an Ogreat the next day. "Hmm I see you are ravenous Ogreat, but have you considered tr-arghjhh" chomp-dead.

But I also gave her a few titbits of human culture, mostly to make sure she understood concepts like sarcasm and dark humour or other things that she might need to know for social reasons but it was actually her inquisitiveness that led the conversation down that route.

The tunnel exited out into a short open road before heading back into another hillside, with this one being a bit straighter as I could just make out some sunlight at the end of it.

"Oh. Yay.. Hopefully this is the last tunnel." I said unimpressed.

It was probably not.

And just to spite me, there was another tunnel right there.

"YUP. THERE IT IS." I pursed my lips. The fearlessness had been draining the longer my imagination was left to run wild and my bravery cup was down to the last few drops.

#Siya# Do the dark paths trouble you? Should we find another way?

She clearly hadn't watched any horror movies. Or is just not a wet-wipe like me.

"Ah naw, they are just creepy. We wouldn't get much warning if something was lying in ambush. I have been thinking if we should go over but.." I pointed a finger up and silently waited.

And sure enough, after about 5 seconds, we could see subtle movements of hulking nightmares in the dense tree lines.

"See that? There's definitely something up there. Knowing my luck, if I used Slipfold, we'd fold right into an Ogreat or end up completely lost. Best to just stick to the dark scary tunnels.." I let out a defeated sigh and stared into the abyss, feeling only a mild sense of impending doom.

Well, nothing for it. The tunnel awaits.. Huz-zah.

…

..

.

60 Seconds later…

“FFFFFFUUUUUUCKKKKK!!!”

A stench of warm putrid death-breath brushed against my neck as me and Siya raced through the pitch black with a train-sized, skull face nightmare slithering and snapping at our heels.

#Siya# We must try and slow it down!

If Siya wasn't such a sincere, nice person, I would have responded sarcastically with some expletives thrown in for free.

#Godu# Y-YES! Agreed! But I am not sure h-

A flash of light reflecting caught my eye, giving me a wild idea.

#Godu# Siya! Count to five then cover your light, but keep running, starting from.. now!

I'd really grown fond of you, you know?

5..

I know we had our differences.. and we never said much to each other

4..

Aaaand that was mostly your fault.

3..

But, I'll miss you.

2..

Little orb.

1..

Goodbye. I'll come back for you one day.

Siya's light disappeared right on cue, so I jumped in the air, twisted around, and sonic boomed the FUCK out of the EXP orb, right into the dark oblivion; phase dashing up and gliding the moment it left my hand.

It shot past the terrifying creature, unveiling the majority of its eel-human hybrid skull face and parts of its thick snake body as it went.

Fffffffrick, it's big!

Somehow, the idea worked, with the huge eel snake thing violently coiling back around and following the EXP orb, focused heavily on the light itself.

My throwing strength was astonishing as the orb just kept going like it was floating and eventually disappeared.

It only took 10 seconds for the sounds of slithering to grow fainter and fainter.

#Siya# No! Godu! Where!-

#Godu# Sorry! Don't worry! I am okay, hold on a sec. Can you show a bit of your light and I’ll come to you.

She was a bit ahead of me so I caught up and gave her the news about the orb. She seemed genuinely sad by the loss but we stuck close as we hastily pressed on, not wanting to wait around for when the snake realised the trickery that had been played.

…

..

.

10 Minutes later…

"MORE! FUCKING! SNAKES!" I shouted out in frustration with claws out swiping, and my shields in config:mirror with all available appendages darting around intercepting the wriggling masses around me.

They had not stopped slap chopping the little mutant bastards for the last, god-knows how many minutes.

They weren't big or strong on their own, but they were bloody everywhere! What is up with this pissing bloody legion! Literally thousands of them!

And it had all kicked off after, in our hurry to get further away from the big one, I tripped over a metal box, cursing to high heaven, before realising it was a box of honest-to-heck flares!

But my happy little accident apparently triggered some little shit into screeching-mode, which then triggered the entire tunnel and like a bunch of drunk Friday night clubbers, once one piped up, the entire crew joined in.

Realisation had slapped hard that we were most definitely in some snake eel monster's nest and were currently mowing down all the little snake eel babies, but there was no room to even think, let alone feel bad.

The big one was probably Momma. Which meant we needed to leave, like, yesterday.

Siya had resorted to sort of jump-flying, but also doing swirls and corkscrews, using her shield wing to slice through swathes of the critters in my path, becoming a sweeping spiral of pure carnage, whilst I stuck to running and flailing my clawed hands everywhere.

Which was moderately effective I must admit.

But without her, I would have been dead many times over by now.

*SCRAAAAAAAAAAGH

…

Scratch that. We're definitely dead.

Momma is angry.

…

..

.

Unknown time later...

Finally, after fighting and running and flying AND THEN resorting to spamming shoulder rush for what felt like hours, we had finally started to see a speck of light up ahead and the distant curved walls of the tunnel were now starting to become visible from the ambient light.

I had been bitten and bruised, then repaired by the mass drain thousands of times over, everything hurt and my skin felt acid-hot and raw.

#Godu# Siya. Go. I will Slipfold.

My body and mind were exhausted, nearly completely drained of all resources; My stomach ached with ravenous hunger and it had gotten so bad that I’d actually been wondering what snake eel things would taste like-

“SCROOOOOOOOAAAAGHHH!!”

-buuuut we did have one rather large problem still with us.

We had managed to keep ahead but if we had to do another big fight or carry on, I was not confident I could make it right now.

We need..to find a place to hide and rest, desperately.

Siya shot off to the exit, a pink and blue haze trailing behind. I plonked an anchor the second it would stick, folded and tumbled out into daylight, the effort of doing so taking my last few dregs of stamina I had left, leaving me practically paralysed on the tarmac.

“S-Siya-” I barely managed to even croak out her name, but it was enough.

She picked me up and with a powerful downward flap of her wings leaped up the side of the hill, easily covering 20 metres.

Thudding down she growled with exertion, crouched and then launched up, repeating the same leap with a pained rattling cry.

We shot up and tumbled onto a road with the grace of a sack of potatoes, but she quickly recovered, scrambled back up and pulled me to my feet; a precious one percent of my energy had recovered during my princess carry rest.

Down the hillside we had just jumped up, an almighty screech bellowed out, followed by the sounds of thousands of smaller hisses and screams. There was a huge boom combined with rocks crunching and cracking.

#Siya# There’s a den. Hide. No energy. Need. Rest.

Nodding, I glanced up and saw the building she was talking about and grunted as I took a step forward. She stumbled, eyes fluttering and rolling and started to collapse, but I had recovered a slither of energy by my short rest and I caught her and threw her over my shoulder and pushed towards the building.

There was a thin iron fence in the drive padlocked with a rusty chain that I tried to pull off, but didn’t have the strength. About to freak out, I cursed under my breath as I noticed there was space for me to climb around the edge, a knee high metal fence was at the top of the steep vegetation filled verge and I quickly shimmied around and ran up to a side door that was unlocked.

Inside was dark and mouldy with the place looking like it had been in the midst of a renovation some time ago; it still had furniture covered with dust sheets. We had entered the kitchen that was open plan with the living room, so I quickly stumbled over to one of the sofas and plonked Siya down and rushed back to shut the back door, barricading it with a chair under the handle.

It will have to do for now. Need to check the house next.

Running on autopilot, I drunkenly checked the house but found nothing concerning, so I crashed back down into an armchair opposite Siya, resting for a long time, listening to the horde of really pissed off snake eel monsters raging about the tunnel entrance and roads further down the hill.

When we exited the tunnel, we had travelled straight up the hillside and should currently be out of view. I hope it will be enough for us to stay hidden.

Enough time had passed and the noise had grown quiet so I decided it was time to deal with the next big issue..

“..I really.. need…food.” I muttered under my breath and groaned like an old man as I leaned over and grabbed my pack.

There wasn’t much food left at all, a tin of mixed veg, a tin of tomatoes and a tin of tuna. I did have a pack of spaghetti and some small chocolate snacks, but I briefly thought back to the preppers house I had miraculously found my first night.

The treasures that the palace still holds…

But for now we needed to focus and I needed to stay on guard. And eat…really wish I could have a fire and heat this up.. Hmm I wonder…

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I went to the kitchen and checked around the cupboards, they were filled with pots and a few things, but mostly everything had gone mouldy, leaving only herbs and spices. But to my great joy, there was a cupboard full of coffee and tea supplies that included big 5 litre bottles of water AND the gas stove was just connected to a large canister that was in a cupboard.

Minutes later I was boiling clean water and preparing a huge feast, throwing garlic granules in with some chilli flakes, and I chuckled grimly to myself thinking about how maybe an hour ago we were not even sure if we would survive and yet here we were, napping and cooking.

I leaned round the corner and checked on the heavily unconscious Moth-Girl. She’s breathing still. Definitely earned her rest and some food that’s for sure. No way in hell would I have been able to survive all that without her help.

It was already getting dark, marking the end of today’s progress and so I finished up cooking, plating up some for myself and Siya and covering it up to hopefully keep it warm.

Once I finished, I hunted around for some blankets but only found some towels upstairs and draped a few over Siya.

As I sat down and rested with my own towel blankets, the last thoughts before I passed out were how the top floors looked rather bare and unfurnished compared to the rest of the house.

…

..

.

Waking up in my soulspace, or garden, I quite like both names, I hopped up out of the galaxy bed and wasted no time moving to the maelstrom.

Need to do this quickly, there’s no telling how safe we are right now.

GODUYNE

STRY.KYR - MAGN.45.63

HP 450 / 680

MP 15 / 734

EP 1%

DS 1%

SWRD 52

SHLD 51

FTHR 63

GLYP 63

18 Attribute Points Available.

22 Skill Points Available.

An ALMIGHTY jump from 32 > 45.

Can I get a hell FUCKING YEAH?!

..ahem.

But on a serious note, I am genuinely not surprised given the insane day we've had. What was it? Two corrupted, six vespers and probably ten thousand snakes?

EXP well-bloody earned. And look at those mouth watering skill points.

I punched in my choices for attributes, laughing a bit nervously at how much agony I would have to endure from this.

SWRD +2, SHLD +4, FTHR +4, GLYP +4.

SWRD 54

SHLD 55

FTHR 69

GLYP 69

Nice. Nice.

Skills?

22 Skill Points Available.

Skills

III Shoulder Rush -> IV Null Surge [5]

Evolves skill into Null Surge. Inherits Shoulder rush and upgrades. Allows you to drag targets when in use and you gain 5% surge of SWRD and SHLD for 5 seconds.

IV SMDS - Majiglyph -> V SMDS - Majiglyph [10]

Shields detach to create a Daemon construct controlled by Seren.

II OMDC -> III OMDC [6] (3+3)

Nervous System (NS) long latency reduced by maximum amount. Near zero-latency reaction speeds.

II ANALYSE -> III ANALYSE [50]

Vastly Expands data retrievable.

I NEC -> II NEC [5]

Share this skill with others. Note: They will need to expend SP to enable. Skill will be Tier I.

II Phase Dash -> III Phase Dash [2]

Whilst Phasing, you are immune to all physical based attacks.

I EXP Well -> II Exp Well [2]

You can now deploy [2] units.

II Slipfold -> III Slipfold [3]

Cost greatly reduced. Chainfold unlocked.

I VoMP -> II VoMP [2]

Max link increased to 20. Group connection unlocked.

I Mind Firewall -> II Mind Firewall [2]

Immunity increased to +10 current MAGN. You can share this skill.

I Null Claw Armaments -> II Null Claw Armaments [2]

Unlocks foot talon module. [Disabled] Requires integration item to enable.

I Shade Glide -> II Shade Glide [2]

Dramatically reduces cost.

New! Shed Wound [1]

Rapid Minor surface wound regeneration at the cost of body mass and MP.

New! Venom Sting [1]

Grow venom glands and stylet stingers located in the wrist that can be used as an attack.

New! Consume [1]

Consume subdued targets whole. Restructures your physique to allow dislocation of the jaw and installs a heavily reinforced digestive system.

New! TEFv [1]

Thermal and Electrical Field Vision. Reconstruct the eyes to include receptors for both thermal and electrical fields.

A wide devilish grin spread across my face.

Skills.

My eyes were instantly drawn towards a couple of the new ones, I was absolutely not interested in becoming a bug or some kind of fat bastard that ate monsters and then hid whilst I digested them so I skipped past Consume and Venom Sting.

TEFv - Thermal and Electrical Field Vision. Reconstructs the retina to include receptors for both thermal and electrical fields. No longer will you stumble about in the dark.

DONE DEAL SAY NO MORE. 100% on that.

Shed Wound - Repairs minor skin surface wounds at a rapid but wasteful pace. Normal regenerative methods involve recycling damaged cells but who has time for that?

Compared to the abilities the medical peeps had or the insanely powerful healing tonics, this sounded a bit shit. But still, my gut tells me to get it and to be fair the skin is the first line of defence for the body!

I selected both TEFv and Shed Wound, costing me 1 point each, leaving me with 20 points left. And even though that was a colossal amount, I still had difficulty selecting more upgrades.

New! TEFv [1]

New! Shed Wound [1]

Now then. ‘Nero-zero latency reaction speeds’.. I’m going to go with this one I think, it’s been there for a while and it’s time I boosted my combat skills.. 14 points remaining and I can either splunk it all on this Seren Daemon construct, or spread it between some other highly desirables..

Pressure was mounting as I really wanted to get this over with quickly but it was important to make the right choices. NEC had been one I was wanting to do as I really wanted to share it with Siya due to the fact that if she killed a corrupted and absorbed the EXP, she would become corrupted herself.

And these corrupted are seriously bad news… sorry Seren, not today either.

I selected OMDC, Null Surge, NEC and Slipfold. Surge because 5% increases on my attributes translated to an increase of 4 - 5 which was pretty huge and would only get better. Slipfold because the skill was too damned good.

And lower cost? Yes!

Chainfold? Don’t know what it is! but yes!

II OMDC -> III OMDC [6]

III Shoulder Rush -> IV Null Surge [5]

I NEC -> II NEC [5]

II Slipfold -> III Slipfold [3]

Started with twenty-two and now I’ve got one left.

Tapping in my choices, I sprinted to the galaxy bed and nearly made it, but fell flat on my face as my legs buckled and the torture began.

Usual screaming, usual lava melting my bones and a jackhammer splitting my brain followed by a soothing rush of calm and tingly wonderful sensations.

Then came the skills.

My eyes felt like ants were crawling inside them and they itched. My mind was filled with images and glimpses into what I would be able to do with my new sight which boiled down to being able to see in the pitch black using thermal and electrical fields to create a mixed sensory drawn 3d view. My skin had changed and felt sturdier, but also smoother. In random places, the skin would split then mesh back together, with tiny black and azure glowing threads fusing at the edges.

Then the OMDC upgrade was strange, in that I just repeated the same combat moves I was familiar with already; thrusts, elbow strikes and simple kicks. The difference now was that I realised my movements felt slow but I was actually moving as fast as I possibly could, which, not to toot my own horn here but, I was fast.

For Null Surge, my new shoulder rush, it wasn’t just a straight line burst anymore, but I would enter a charging up state. A field of azure blue and black Majik orbiting me where air resistance was removed and the energy harvested. This could be released with a melee strike or even used to propel me off the ground.

Those were the main use cases given to me in the form of knowledge, but I felt like information had been withheld, there was much, much more I could do with this.

The shoulder rush component was still there, but effectively now I wasn’t restricted into having to shoulder barge targets to stun them or trigger the cost refund upgrades.

For instance, I could do a normal shoulder charge, then surge punch and then run some more and blast up into the air, all using Null surge.

Absolutely incredible.

Finally with Slipfold, the cost was much lower, now only in the single digits. But the chainfold turned out to be that, I no longer had to wait before activating. I would be able to easily fold as many times as my resources would allow me, straight after the other, with virtually no delay.

My excitement kept me zipping about, practising my jumps with Null Surge and my attacks with OMDC, mixing in Slipfolds so that I would fold to a space mid kick and then jump up using surge and then fold behind the space and pretend to elbow some monster in the back of the head, unleashing the surge attack.

And for the first time in a long while, I was having so much fun I didn’t even notice when I fell into true deep sleep.

…

..

.