“My father does not take appointments and rarely keeps the ones he makes,” Love_Monkey stated coldly to Lyra. If the child-framed daughter of Dr. Monsa was intimidated by Mother Lyra, the tall and beautiful noblewoman, she did not show it.
Lyra smiled pleasantly down at the girl. “It is imperative that we speak to him. Certainly you can grant us an audience with your bio-father.”
Love_Monkey smiled sweetly. “Perhaps I should do this as payment for the live entertainment members of your party gave us-you know, the performance that left two unrecognizable corpses up on stage in the middle of my groksta?”
Lyra’s lips turned into a thin line.
“No matter,” the girl continued. “I’m not even going to ask why there was a rabid seeker chasing after your friends or how you might have run afoul of the Authority.”
“The seeker was a rogue product,” chimed in Djoser smugly. “They are no more than predators. Surely one is bound to snap. It is we who should be upset. Mother Lyra just lost a good man, an exceptionally talented and dedicated guard. It will be expensive to commission and train a new one. Perhaps we should upload a formal complaint.” Djoser made the threat in a casual tone, but his smirk was instantly wiped away when he saw the expression on Love_Monkey’s face.
The girl glared back at him with her small, pale hands clamped into fists. Her watery blue eyes then darted over to one of her guards who stood at attention nearby, loaded crossbow at the ready. “I suggest that you not speak again,” she snarled, malice dripping from every word.
D_Light sat on the soft dro-vine floor, paying no attention to the conversation. He had stripped off his skinsuit, wearing only his undershorts. A medic with product tats knelt down on one side of him, rubbing some chemi into D_Light’s leg while a medical bot scurried around, instruments extending in and out of its metal body as it ran its routine diagnostic protocol.
D_Light’s mind was still reeling. Having left the groksta and its overwhelming sensory overload, he now felt numb, deaf, and mute. Fortunately, the LoveGas™ had not yet begun to wear off, so he felt fine despite the pain in his leg.
Lily stood nearby, leaning back against a wall. She too appeared to have stepped out of a chainsaw massacre. D_Light lay back, flat on the floor, and reached up to stroke the back of her calf. The snakeskin texture of the microlenses hissed softly with his strokes. Her large blue eyes shot open at his touch. She watched him. Her expression was neutral, an unreadable mask, and she did not move her body. D_Light just stared back and smiled for what felt like a pleasant eternity.
Katria watched over and over in shock as her rented seeker was butchered on stage in front of thousands. It was as though she could hear her god laughing at her. First, against all expectations, the demons escaped the spanker ghetto. Next, their path was wiped clean by a cleaning crew. Then their trail was obliterated again in the lake, and now this? This grisly public spectacle? Could it be that the OverSoul was conspiring against her? My Soul, are you testing me? she wondered.
That seeker flew off the leash! Rhemus pinged.
It’s not supposed…it’s just not supposed to do that, was all Katria could send back. She felt as though her life had drained from her.
Yeah, where the hell is the subtlety? I mean, damn! The… Rhemus tripped over his thoughts. I mean, first the Tool gets knocked out, and now our seeker gets fragged? Are we insured for this? Rhemus’s blink thread was somewhat garbled.
Katria did not respond.
Rhemus broke the silence. What now? I can get another seeker-that is, if anyone is willing to lease one to us. Actually, I think we should go with a human seeker this time.
No, Katria said at last. I’m not risking any more points chasing them. They’re in the inner sanctum. If they come out we’ll know it, and we can deal with it then.
Yeah, Rhemus replied, the key word here is “if.” Maybe the doctor’s little infamous Darwinian gauntlet will solve the problem for us.
Eventually, the MetaGame team was ushered through the multiple airtight portals that guarded the entrance to the inner sanctum and were left there. Love_Monkey, the watcher and high hostess of the lounge, had given them permission to enter the inner sanctum, but only because she wanted them out of her sight, or so she said.
This arrangement was not what Lyra and Djoser had hoped for. From what they could tell, Dr. Monsa was not expecting them. “So we’re just going to what? Tell him we were in the neighborhood and thought we would drop by?”
Djoser spoke, but his voice seemed to get swallowed up by the alien vegetation around them. It was extremely dark, which was no surprise to the party since the elevator they had used to get there seemed to travel downward for ages. According to their familiars, they were now under the bottom of the lake.
All was quiet, except for the sniffles and soft crying emanating from D_Light and Lily. Still bloodied, they hung onto one another, belatedly mourning the loss of Brian.
“He rescued us!” Lily sobbed. “He was a rescuer. And that thing…”
“He was like a lion, fierce and with no thought for his own life,” D_Light blubbered. “Oh, the horror! He was my brother!”
Lyra looked back at the two mourners, contempt clouding her face. “My Soul, when will that damned drug wear off?”
Djoser said nothing, only smiled. Moocher, his familiar, was facing back toward D_Light and Lily, its oversized eyes fixed on them. Ah yes, record it all, Djoser thought. This will be worth a good laugh later.
“Notice, Lyra, that whenever one of your entourage dies, your new friend D_Light is somehow involved?”
Lyra rolled her eyes as Djoser continued. “Certainly he has proven himself useful, and I expect that with his help we may very well win this game, but I fear none of your employees will survive.”
Lyra laughed. “Lucky for me I’m out of henchmen. Maybe he’ll move on to yours!” She smirked at Amanda who, heedless of the conversation, was carefully surveying their surroundings.
“Oh, I wouldn’t underestimate him,” Djoser said. “I suspect he can kill your people remotely. Maybe you should check in with your servants back home.”
Lyra smiled as she was teased, but she had to fight the urge to open a blink with her house. The team had agreed not to communicate with anyone unless absolutely necessary since no one was sure what the Authority could trace. They were probably being paranoid. Although it was true that the Authority used to eavesdrop on blinks and data-mine the minds of players via their mind interface chips, the Authority later imposed a series of privacy rules-collectively called “Free Agency Rules” (FARs)-on itself. Apparently, these rules were in response to a study the Authority sponsored which concluded that players who knew they could be listened in on showed a decrease of “free and innovative thought” and that this led to “suboptimal productivity.”
Nevertheless, Lyra did not feel like testing the validity of the FARs just now. The stakes were too high.
Lyra turned her attention to the black foliage ahead of them. It was a dark zone, a place void of nanosites, so no one could jack into a skin to see. The dull, greenish light that filtered in from the plexi portal seals behind them was their only source of illumination. It was eerie and unsettling. Djoser and Lyra piped their familiars’ night vision into their own minds in order to get a better look.
The vegetation that surrounded them was dense and much of it unfamiliar. There was no discernable pattern to the plant life, just a wild hodgepodge of alien flora. The only thing that the trees and plants seemed to have in common was the size of their leaves, all of which were enormous. Lyra supposed that the purpose of these gigantic offshoots was to maximize photosynthetic potential, yet there was no sunlight.
“Is that a breeze I feel?” Djoser asked into the darkness. The nobleman confirmed through Moocher’s night vision that they were indeed indoors. A smooth ceiling loomed about two hundred meters above.
PeePee, Lyra’s familiar, swiveled her head about, surveying the area while Lyra faced forward with her eyes shut so as to better concentrate on what she was seeing. “I presume the good doctor is trying to simulate the outside world,” Lyra proposed. “If so, then I expect the sun to come up at some point, an artificial one…although, the inner sanctum is obviously not synced to local time. It’s dawn in the outside world right now.”
“I don’t know. Seems warmer in here too. Probably an optimized climate for parasites to infect us,” Djoser said sarcastically. “Anyway, we’re not going to find the doctor just standing here. Looks like a path over there.” Djoser pointed to a stone paved path and stumbled toward it.
“Our familiars have a different vantage point, so we’re going to fall off a cliff or something if we try to walk around using them as our eyes,” Djoser said gruffly.
“Stick Moocher up on your shoulder or hold his head in front of you,” Lyra suggested, holding back a smile.
“Screw it, let’s do it the old-fashioned way,” Djoser exclaimed. He then pulled out a tiny glow stick from his pocket and turned it on.
Lyra frowned. “Might that attract unwanted attention? I suspect there’s more than experimental plants in this place.”
“Well, I’m not walking around holding a flippin’ ferret in front of my face,” Djoser snapped while continuing his journey toward the rough stone path ahead.
D_Light and Lily giggled as D_Light mocked Djoser. “Flippin’ ferret in front of my face! Flippin’ ferret in front of my face! Try saying that three-”
“Shhh, listen!” Lyra whispered.
“What?” Djoser hissed back.
Lyra was straining her eyes into the darkness ahead. The light from the glow stick cast long shadows into the forest. “I thought I heard a cry or a shout, but not like a person. I dunno, something freakish.”
Djoser’s eyes narrowed. “How the blazes can you hear anything over those two?” He pointed toward Lily and D_Light, who had reverted from giggling back to their inconsolable sobbing.
As though an afterthought, Djoser dispatched Amanda to shut them up. Amanda was not practiced at this particular task, and so she simply pulled them apart. When they continued to sniffle and whine, she hissed threats and slapped them both-once for Lily and three times for D_Light-after which they finally quieted down.
The nobles concentrated on the sounds around them. After straining their ears for a minute, it was apparent that the forest was packed tight with bizarre noises. There was screeching, singing, and something that sounded akin to burping. One unsettling call from the forest sounded like a voice, but it was too guttural to have come from any man unless that man’s vocal cords had been violated. Upon hearing this last sound, there was some discussion about waiting for the faux sun to come up-assuming there was one-but Lyra insisted that they did not have the luxury of time. She reminded them that they were on an urgent quest and that the stakes were high.
Finally in agreement, Djoser gave Amanda his glow stick and sent her out in front to lead them down the narrow stone path. The party walked in single file with D_Light and Lily-still consoling each other, albeit quietly-bringing up the rear. The path was uneven and not particularly well maintained, boasting large rocks, roots, and a constant encroachment of plants. This made for a clumsy march for D_Light and Lily since those ahead of them blocked the light from the glow stick, casting dark shadows down over the path. D_Light multithreaded his vision so that he could see from his own perspective, limited as it was, and from Smorgeous’s perspective, who at least had night vision, although at a different angle. Lily held onto D_Light’s hand for guidance.
After many minutes of this quiet and clumsy march, Lyra began feeling more comfortable with using artificial light and so turned on a glow stick of her own. She held it high so that D_Light and Lily could see as well. Lily let go of D_Light’s hand, no longer needing him to guide her; he, however, did not let go of hers. He felt the need to keep her close. To protect her, he thought, although he knew this was not his true motivation. From what he had observed so far, she was handier in a fight than he was. D_Light did not look back to see her face. The LoveGas™ had finally worn off, for the most part, and he no longer felt that bold. Presently, her hand returned his grip.
Lyra eventually stopped and looked around intently as though to penetrate the wall of alien plant life. She scowled. “What? That kid couldn’t give us a map? We have no idea where we’re going,” she said plaintively.
“If you’re referring to the girl who goes by Love_Monkey, I don’t think she’s actually a child, at least not in terms of her age,” Djoser said.
D_Light agreed. Love_Monkey was obviously much older than suggested by her appearance. It was uncommon for someone to go into age stasis before attaining physical adulthood, as it was typically disadvantageous to remain weaker and smaller than one’s full potential. D_Light knew of only one example of a “stunted” being, a concubine product girl whom his brother C recommended as a “unique flavor.” However, D_Light never rented her. To him there was something unsettling about the prospect, although he could not identify specifically what it was.
“Smells like a trap,” Lyra muttered. “This whole ‘walking around in the woods’ thing is really suspect.”
“Hmm, what was your first clue?” Djoser asked sarcastically. “Was it the angry woman-child whose guards shoved us into her dad’s wild laboratory and locked us in? We’re probably already infected with some incurable flesh-eating bacteria.”
With a feeling of impending doom creeping over them, the team moved faster and they no longer took the time to stop and listen. They stormed along the path for what seemed like hours before the trail suddenly plunged into a long, steep stairway. Down below they saw what looked like an immense garden that stretched out as far as they could see, which was quite far because the garden was festooned with light-emitting plants providing patches of light in a variety of different colors, highlighting all manner of flowers, trees, fountains, sculpted rocks, and statues. Tall and short hedges were carved like soft stone into arcs and swirls. Paths threaded though the garden, bending this way and that, fading in and out of shadow. Perhaps the game involves a maze. That would be classic, D_Light thought.
Since the garden was below a sheer cliff that bent around it, the only visible way down was the stairs ahead of them, which was also where their trail ended. With no better idea, the team began their descent into the unknown. As they walked, the only audible sounds were from fountains and streams of varying sizes, most of which were in the shadows or hidden behind something. Cool colors from the photoflowers glowed invitingly, soft blues, reds, greens, and every other color imaginable; each color dominated a small area containing a centerpiece, like a flowering nectar tree, a stone sculpture, or the falling water from a fountain. Having only slept for a combined hour or two, D_Light was exhausted. Peering into the private nooks and crannies of the garden, he longed to lie down in one of those dark shadows and let the soft, spongy grass cradle him and the gurgling waterfalls lull him to sleep.
D_Light left the path and inspected a long-stemmed blue-petaled flower that glowed. Looking into the bulb, he could not see any obvious light source. It appeared that the light was emitted from the tissue of the plant itself. Remarkable, he thought as he ripped one of the succulent petals. It tore easily enough and excreted a thick, glowing liquid that ran down between his fingers. It was viscous and sticky.
“D_Light!” Lyra whispered from the path. “Don’t mess around with these things. You don’t know what they are.”
Lily was at his shoulder peering down intently at the torn flower. She dabbed a finger into the palm of his hand where a few drops of softly glowing juice had run down and collected. She then brought her finger under her nose and inhaled deeply. Just as D_Light was about to bring his sap-soaked hand up to his own nose, Djoser opened a blink to the team. There is someone behind us.
Instantly, D_Light was given a visual. It was a large humanoid shape that moved quickly, visible only for an instant before disappearing behind a tall flowerbed. It’s gone. What is it? Djoser asked. Without waiting for an answer, he played the visual clip back slowly. D_Light could not make the figure out clearly, as it had been largely concealed behind beds of flowers and the trunk of a tree before disappearing behind thicker cover. Even so, D_Light thought he could make out a large humanoid head like that of a large man.
Djoser immediately sent over a version of the video feed that had just been enhanced by his familiar. The creature was shaped like human, a man, more or less. It was naked and had no hair, save at its groin, which had only a tuft of hair and no visible testes. His skin was striated with what D_Light supposed were bulging veins over well-defined muscles. The eyes were oversized and showed up well in the image. They were pink as though thoroughly bloodshot. The nose was enormous, and it glistened as though wet. The mouth was shut, but it also looked several times too big. A large flap of skin hung underneath the jaw, such that no neck was visible from that angle.
Master, no organism in the public taxonomy fits the characteristics of that image. Smorgeous’s calm voice in D_Light’s head contrasted with the feelings of panic beginning to wash over the robot’s master.
The others shared D_Light’s feelings of anxiety as the blink went rapid-fire. It was standard for members of House Tesla to be trained in psychological strategies for times that required quick action. Extraneous thought patterns were shut down to focus on the problem at hand while still keeping the senses keen.
Options? Djoser pinged.
Hide, Lyra responded.
Hiding good, D_Light sent as though he had a vote.
Stay together, Lyra commanded.
Because Lily had no familiar, she could not handle the security processing required by an unfiltered blink without a long delay and was therefore completely unaware of the discovery and discussion that had occurred over the last few seconds. Without even realizing it, D_Light grabbed Lily’s hand to guide her. She did not resist. He then had Smorgeous create a summary of the situation and send it to her as a standard, low-security message.
The team’s familiars watched their backs for any pursuer. Through the blink the team discussed other tactics. It was decided that if evasion failed, the party was certainly capable of defending itself. All of them carried weapons, and based on the image, the creature did not appear to be armed. They decided on a “bear trap” configuration if the enemy attacked alone. This consisted of a simple line with Amanda, the strongest, out a meter in front of the others. This would ensure that Amanda would meet the attacker first and that the others could then surround and snap shut around the attacker. If, however, there were multiple enemies, they would instead use a “flesh fortress” configuration, which simply meant they would all stand back to back, Amanda facing the most likely direction of attack.
But fighting was plan B. Plan A was still to hide, and to do this they sprinted with the intention of getting some distance from the thing and then hiding once out of sight. The plan seemed reasonable to D_Light, but he was also afraid of dashing headlong into another one of these things. Or something worse.
My familiar is scouting ahead, D_Light informed the others. The familiar’s quadruped robotic legs afforded it much greater speed than its master or any of the other bipeds in the party.
Lyra’s thoughts came fast. Good, Djoser, Moocher watches our back. Princess watches our flanks.
Djoser was beginning to breathe hard from the run, but unlike audible speech, this had no effect on his blink communication. Moocher can’t see it back there anymore. That thing probably knows the garden though. Knows where we’re heading.
Fine, see that large stone ahead? To the left is cover. At the hedge, we’ll leave the path and hide. Lyra pinged the location in the team’s minds. Princess will maintain along the path. She can mimic my voice. She can mimic us all! With any luck, the thing will follow her.
Momentarily, the four arrived at the stone, at which point they moved quietly off the path while Lyra’s familiar continued on. They crawled and slithered in among the thick stalks of a patch of large, broad-leafed plants.
D_Light tried to suppress his panting from the run, but it was a few long seconds before he had quieted himself enough to faintly hear Djoser’s voice off in the distance saying, “Run! Don’t stop!” to which his own voice answered, “But I’m tired…and scared.” D_Light could see Lyra smirking at him. When he cracked a smile back, she winked.
I want to get a look around, Djoser sent telepathically.
Stay hidden! Lyra seized Djoser’s wrist. If you can see it, then it can see you.
That freak show might be creeping up on us right now. Djoser splayed his free hand out in frustration. We don’t know its capabilities.
Exactly, Lyra sent back. We don’t know anything about it. In fact, we don’t know anything about this place at all, so I say better to play it cool.
Djoser’s eyebrows shot up. I’m not suggesting I peek out myself. I’ll send out Moocher. He’s small, so he’ll be hard to spot. And he can see better than any of us anyway.
Lyra nodded. Moocher, with his tube-shaped body, then began a low, slinking crawl around the plant stalks out toward the dim light just outside the thicket.
Pipe Moocher’s visual and audio to all of us, Lyra commanded.
Djoser, Lyra, and D_Light were now looking through Moocher’s eyes. Since the shadows were no problem for the familiar, they could all see pretty well. Unfortunately, the garden was full of obstacles and plants that blocked much of the familiar’s view, but nothing seemed to be moving in the immediate vicinity.
“Oh Soul, I think I soiled my pants!” D_Light could faintly hear his own voice yelling from off in the distance. Princess’s imitation of D_Light’s voice was unnervingly accurate.
Great, I get all the good lines, he thought.
Djoser, have Moocher pan over to his left a bit, Lyra ordered. Their collective vision swung to the left. There, see that tree? Lyra placed a highlight over the tree to which she was referring. Have Moocher climb one of those to get a better look around.
The tree had a thick base from which sprung two thinner trunks that wound around one another like a DNA molecule. Numerous branches extended out from both trunks, and the leaves on the branches glowed dimly, not enough to cast significant light on anything else, but enough to glow clearly in the dark with a deep violet hue.
As D_Light re-immersed himself in Moocher’s deft ascent up between the branches of the tree trunk, he was startled by Lyra, who suddenly spoke out loud in a shallow whisper. “I lost PeePee! I don’t know how. Destroyed I think!”
She then let out a loud gasp and said in a rapid whisper, “I don’t have time to reconfigure my blink settings. Without a familiar, I’m going to have to fall back to speech.”
How? D_Light sent the thought, and then he realized that Lyra had dropped from that form of communication.
“How?” D_Light repeated in a whisper.
“I said I don’t know how! I wasn’t watching her. I can’t play back her archive because she’s completely gone.”
D_Light could see Lyra’s hand was shaking as she reached up and grabbed Djoser’s arm. “Have Moocher look over to where my familiar ought to be. She ought to be…how do you say it?”
Lyra struggled as she tried to describe in words the whereabouts of her familiar. Being accustomed to simply sharing a map and pinging on a location, verbalizing locations was awkward. “You know, down the path we were on.”
Djoser nodded distractedly as he communicated with Moocher. A moment later he gasped, “Oh shit!”
Through Moocher’s visual feed, D_Light could see the monster clearly. The creature’s arms were elongated, enabling it to alternate between walking upright and on all fours like an ape, but it moved like an insect. One moment it would be nearly motionless, breathing fast and deeply with its heaving torso, and then it would suddenly sprint forward at an impossible speed.
“Looks like it’s coming straight at us!” Djoser’s voice was like a squeal.
“How does it know where we are?” Lyra asked.
“Soul if I know! Deductive reasoning, lucky guess, who cares?” Djoser shot back.
“Do we even know this thing is hostile?” D_Light ventured.
“For Soul’s sake, look at it! The teeth and the claws?” Djoser’s tone was dismissive. “Tell you what, you go on out and say hi while we watch and see what happens.”
“Besides, it fragged my Pretty Princess,” Lyra said. “Not a friendly gesture.”
Lily joined the conversation now that it was out in the open and she could keep up. “Maybe we should just stay still for now.”
“I saw a boulder that looked flat enough on top for us all to stand on,” Amanda said. The usually silent bodyguard’s husky voice startled D_Light, who momentarily thought it belonged to something else. “It would provide us with a natural defense.”
“Amanda’s right,” agreed Djoser. “If we can’t lose this thing, we’ll end up in a fight anyway. Better to choose where we make our stand.”
D_Light scrunched up his face. “Standing on top of a rock is um, well…kind of out there. Maybe we could find a spot that is defensible and hidden?”
“Okay, Dee,” Djoser said with a hint of sarcasm.
“Moocher’s going to take a good look around, and as he does, keep your eyes peeled for a spot that meets your extensive criteria. But we’re going to have to decide soon.”
The garden was full of hills, tall trees, and rock sculptures that limited the distance of Moocher’s vision. There were so many stone trails through the garden that Djoser was not sure which one to take, although he was sure they should use a trail rather than go cross-country. That would slow them down too much.
“Wait! Was that a person?” Djoser said as though asking himself. Moocher’s vision flew past what looked like a person in the distance. He wondered why his stupid familiar ignored something this important. Moocher’s field of vision swept back to reveal a small humanoid shape stooped over a plant. Moocher then zoomed in.
“What? Is that a child?” asked Djoser. “What the flip would a kid be doing in here?”
“Yeah, a little girl,” said D_Light. “My Soul, maybe it’s not so dangerous here after all.”
“What the-Moocher’s matched her to that girl from the lounge. You know, the hostess girl, Love_Monkey,” Djoser reported.
“Oh, little miss pissy?” Lyra groaned. “Likely she came down here to watch her pet finish us off!”
“Flip it, I say we make a run for the little Love_Monkey,” Djoser said. “She looks pretty relaxed. Maybe she knows something we don’t.”
“And maybe she’s just a stupid little girl who is about to be fragged just like us! Sheesh, whatever, let’s just go.” Lyra stood up.
Moocher mapped out the fastest route to Love_Monkey, and the group ran toward her at full tilt. By the time they charged up to the girl, who was kneeling in a grotto near some yellow flowers with dark spikes, they were quite winded. She looked up at them and did not appear surprised.
The girl had porcelain skin so pale it reminded D_Light of vampire children he’d seen in horror spank games. However, her eyes seemed very human. She had large blue eyes that peered back at them without fear, without malice.
“Each of you will need to take a drink.” She produced a small blue vial from a pouch on her waist. “Just one swallow though,” she added.
“I don’t mean to be rude,” D_Light interjected, “but why do we need to drink?” D_Light had only spoken to children a few times and was not sure of the best way to converse. Should he change his voice to a higher pitch like he had seen others do? He decided against it, knowing that Love_Monkey was not an ordinary child.
“It will protect you from the cullers,” she answered.
“There are several of them nearby, and they certainly have picked up your scent by now.”
Confused, Lyra asked, “I’m sorry, Love_Monkey, but I don’t understand why drinking something from you will protect me from anything.”
The girl smiled patronizingly but did not miss a beat as she patiently explained. “There are several compounds in the liquid that, when metabolized, will excrete a unique scent from your glands, convincing the culler that you are not food.”
D_Light was no biologist, but he knew that metabolizing liquid took time, so without further delay he snatched the vial from her outstretched hand and took a swig. She looked up at him without expression. Seeing no immediate detrimental effect, the others took their turns.
After everyone drank, the girl continued. “The repellant is fast-acting but will still take up to a minute to take effect, so now I think you should run. My father’s cullers are very good at what they do, so you should run as fast as you possibly can.”
Encouragement was unnecessary, for the team sprinted past the girl and down the path. Stealth was not attempted. They raced as fast as they could, but Lily was far ahead. She bounded forward, her long, lean legs widening the gap between her and the rest of the team. Lily looked behind her, her neck bearing no bulging tendons, her face no grisly smile of exertion. It was as though this remarkable pace was only mildly strenuous for her. Then, suddenly, her eyes locked onto something beyond the team and her jaw dropped.
D_Light checked behind him to discover a terrifying sight. Three of the hunters were gaining on them like an onrushing tsunami. Running on all fours, they sent rocks and plant debris sailing through the air. They were big, shadowy hunks of horrifying nightmare.
Djoser caught sight of them too. “Amanda, save us!” he cried out. At this, his bodyguard, who had been keeping pace with her master, broke off and turned to face the approaching monsters. As she stood waiting, the muscles in her arms tense, she crouched slightly. Her swords, which had been drawn in an instant, shimmered blue and green in the glow of the nearby photoflowers.
D_Light returned his head forward to watch where he was running. No missteps, he thought. Djoser was beside him. His eyes were fixed forward and wide with terror.
Ahead, up the path, Love_Monkey stood waving at them. Impossible! D_Light thought. How did she get ahead of us? As they made their fast approach, it was evident that she was not waving, but beckoning them to come to her. Lily had almost reached the girl and looked poised to follow. D_Light, figuring he had nothing to lose, decided to follow as well. Seeing that she had caught their attention, the girl then turned and began to jog-perhaps even skip-away down a path that snaked into bushy green darkness.
The monsters did not slacken their pace as they charged Amanda. It appeared that they were about to use their momentum to spring onto her, so she prepared to sidestep and slash. She doubted, however, that this move would save her. They outnumbered her three to one, and it was evident that they were fast and powerful-even for products. Still, if they underestimated her she might be able to catch them by surprise and take at least one of them out.
However, when the opportunity came, they did not pounce upon her. Instead, two of the three suddenly broke off, one leaping off to her left and one to her right. The third simply stopped with a suddenness that seemed to defy the physics of motion. She was now in the middle of a triangle. The creatures snarled, but their faces were little more than a blur to Amanda, who swiftly shifted her attention from one to the other. The beasts then darted in and out, just out of reach of her slashing blades. Are they testing me? she wondered. Are they attempting to coax me to lunge at one to give the others an opening? Adopting a defensive posture, Amanda was quite aware of such tactics, and she would not be baited. If one of them moved into range of her blades, they would pay for it; otherwise, she would hold steady. Indeed, she preferred to wait. Every second she delayed the enemy was another second for her master to make his escape.
The beasts sniffed and whined. Perhaps realizing that their opening tactic was unsuccessful, the triangle began to constrict. Amanda knew she needed to dispatch at least one of them in order to have a chance, but if she attacked one, the others would certainly close in. Amanda wanted to think that if her onslaught was swift and effective enough that the others would retreat, but she sensed no fear in these humanoid monsters that danced as though conducting some grisly, alien strip show.
Amanda was about to take her gamble when the back of her leg was sliced open. Instantly, her blade swept back in retaliation, but it cut only air. The thing had withdrawn before her swiftly flowing blood even had time to blotch her skinsuit. Another slash appeared across her stomach as though by some devilish magic. It was deep, and once again the culler had retreated out of reach before she could even the score.
Amanda was on the ground now, but they still did not finish her. She swung her blades about in vain as each of them took turns darting in and out, nicking, slicing, and puncturing. One of her two hearts was pierced and no longer functioned, but the bodyguard fought on, directing her attention to protecting her upper body and head since her legs were now shredded and useless. But then, all at once, the monsters just stopped. They sniffed the air. Their hungry, dark, merciless pupils contracted, and then, standing fully upright and sniffing their surroundings, they simply walked away.