The Pilot of Wrath

Chapter 18 – The Decline

Matt fired a series of short bursts, each one taking down a wolf as they circled him and Tobias. There were only a few remaining in the pack after the brief but furious encounter. Matt and Tobias had been taking a break at a small stream, using the opportunity to refill on water and collect some more herbs that had been growing on the banks. Van had detected them approaching from quite a way out, closing in fast from downwind.

Having known the treat was coming, Tobias and Matt had time to prepare a hasty defense, separating only a few meters and picking fields of fire. Van had decided to move in behind them and use his height to spot and provide cover. The level 20 something pack had burst from the undergrowth face first into a hail of bullets and a couple grenades. Of the 32 wolves, only 18 had made it out of the impromptu ambush alive.

From then on it had been a series of short bursts and magazine changes while the pack circled, trying to get behind the trio and close in. Matt changed his magazine and turned to face a wolf rapidly approaching from his 8 o’clock but before he could pull the trigger, a flash swept the beast up and away. In its haste, the wolf had passed a little too close to the mech and Van kicked out, punting the wolf straight into a tree. There was a wet, muffled crunch as the mech’s foot connected and a second crunch when the beast hit the tree.

Matt looked around again, not seeing any more enemies in his detection field but wanting to confirm with is eyes. There was a nagging from system messages in the back of his mind, but he cleared the area before checking them. Tobias called a clear from his side with Matt and Van both echoing the same. Matt picked up his empty magazines and put them in his dump pouch, recycling them and conjuring more. He broke the seals on his helmet and pulled it off, looking over to Tobias who was walking his way.

“That went way better than last time we fought wolves.” Tobias said. He slung his weapon and wandered over to where one wolf had skidded to after taking a round to the face. “They seem to have been using a couple skills. A few used that dash ability when they broke out of cover.”

“Yeah, I could sense the mana being used. I couldn’t pin down the type, but they also had a strange aura.” Matt paused, sipping some water and saw Tobias looking up, waiting for him to continue. “When I sense your aura or even that of the treeants yesterday its very densely packed around you. These wolves have it dispersed, only gaining density when they group together.”

“Huh, what’s the deal with that?”

“No idea. I’ll let you know if I find out.”

Van knelt down and decided to offer his theory. “It probably has something to do with the pack mentality. Individually they are weak but together they are stronger than they should be, they seem faster and stronger when they are together.”

Matt wasn’t sure if that was right, but it sounded good. “I like it more than anything else we have come up with.” He thought briefly about the aura he felt before continuing. “There is still something weird about the aura though, I can’t pin it down yet.”

The wolves delt with and the rest of the herbs collected, Tobias and Matt loaded back into the mech and set off. The woods were starting to clear a little from the dense brush and the enemies they had found over the last few dozen kilometers had been on the lower-level end of the spectrum. Matt wondered if this was the enemies getting weaker like Tori had mentioned. He didn’t have a way of asking and probably wouldn’t get a response even if he did ask, System interference and all.

Matt opened his System messages to read over the log while they moved, Van promising to keep an eye out for trouble. There was the plethora of kill notifications, 12 to be exact, but also a level up.

Class: Pilot – Gun Fighter is level 26

Stat points awarded.

Having 28 free points after this level up, Matt decided to allocate them. He put 4 into his primary stats, or the primary ones for his class at least. 4 each into dexterity, endurance, and intelligence then 2 into the rest. That left 8 remaining incase there was a sudden need for them in any one category. He zoned back in halfway through a conversation between Van and Tobias.

“… Would be nice to have. The need to drop a weapon when deploying another is sub optimal.” Van said.

“How far is your reach? I mean, can you reach your arm all the way over your shoulder or behind your back.” Tobias was clearly asking questions with a plan in mind.

“Oh, its pretty far.” I have the same range of motion as Matt does.”

“What did I miss?” Matt asked after Van responded to Tobias.

“I’m working on ideas for the autocannon. You guys can’t just be dropping it or setting it down all the time, but I also don’t want anything that will get hung up if you need to get out quick.” Tobias said, nose buried in his modeling display.

“Ok, with that in mind, what do you suggest?”

Tobias hummed and shrugged his shoulders before responding. “Well, I was originally looking at making a sling, but it would have to be awfully strong to hold that cannon. My next though was some how locking it onto the back of the mech but I don’t know if that’s viable.” He paused, looked at his hand, then face palmed. “It’s literally right in front of me.”

“The only thing in front of you is Matt.” Van point out, oh so helpfully.

Tobias sighed. “Not like that, Van. Storage rings is what I mean.”

Matt perked up hearing that. He hadn’t considered using a storage ring, it had enough space to hold the weapon in theory. “Think I can store it through the mech?” He asked both Tobias and Van, holping one would have the answer.

“Worth a try.” Tobias said. “Worst thing that happens is it doesn’t work.”

Stopping the mech, Matt tried to focus. He could feel the ring on his hand but imagined it on the hand of the mech, superimposing it in his mind. Then he concentrated on the thought of stowing the autocannon into his ring. To his immense surprise, it worked, the giant gun blinking out of the mech hands.

“Holy shit, it worked.” Matt said. He didn’t have high hopes going into this little experiment but was very happy with the result. “Now the opposite.” Focusing again he willed the weapon back out of the ring. Instead of reappearing in the mech hands, it materialized hovering in the air right in front of the mech, promptly falling to the ground.

“Well one out of 2 aint bad.” Tobias said with a little chuckle.

“Yeah, funny but if I need my weapon, I don’t want to just yeet it onto the ground and have to pick it up.” Matt huffed. Still, he picked the autocannon up and tried again. It went into the ring without a problem just as before. He focused, visualizing holding the gun in both hands of the mech, being very clear about the mech’s hands. The second try ended up working, and it was summoned into the exact place it had left from.

“Hey, nice!” Tobias cheered. He patted Matt on the shoulder to congratulate him, not failing to notice Matt’s hand touch his own weapon where it was in its mount. The rifle vanished into Matt’s ring, obviously being more secure in there than in the mount beside the pilot seat. Tobias didn’t say anything as he did the same, causing his PDW to be stored into his own ring. They would just pretend that they knew about that all along.

Matt practiced the summoning and stowing of the autocannon a few more times before moving on, confident that he could use the ability if needed. He kept the weapon ready, preferring to have it in hand rather than having to summon it in the heat of the moment.

They traveled for a little over an hour after the testing with the storage ring before happening upon another familiar enemy, or so they thought at first. Matt was looking at the boar that was rooting around in front of him, not 200 meters away. It was the same shape and appearance as the ones before but much smaller.

Steel-Flank Boar. Level 23

Where the previous ones were massive, their backs the same height as the shoulders of the mech, this one only came up to its waist. Matt was very confused, he saw the “Giant” part of the name was missing but didn’t expect them to come in 2 varieties. With a shrug, he raised the cannon and fired a normal round, hitting the boar just behind the shoulder.

Unlike with the larger ones, the round went straight in, punching through the armored hide like it was nothing. Once inside, the round did its job and of course, exploded. A gout of gore sprayed from the entrance wound and the beast fell over like it had been hit by a truck. It didn’t get up.

“Toby, was that what..” Matt began but was cut off by 3 more boars rushing onto the scene and charging straight at him. Matt just leveled the gun and fired a salvo of rounds, most hitting the boars in the head and neck. All 3 crumpled and rag dolled, sliding a few extra meters on pure momentum. “As I was…” he was cut off again as 2 more rushed from behind a stand of trees and charged. He saw them coming from a long way off but didn’t recognize them in his detection field, they moved too fast from the far edges and their profile was weak.

Wash, rinse, repeat is what Matt thought as he put down 3 more small groups that converged on his position. After the last ones had been delt with and a new magazine was loaded, Matt waited. He waited for a solid 60 seconds before trying to finish his sentence.

“Ah, as I was saying. Are these just juvenile …” Another small boar came blazing into the clearing that was now littered with bodies. “You have got to be shitting me!” Matt roared. He didn’t fire this time, instead he stowed his autocannon and pulled out the tomahawk, rushing forward to meet the attacker head on. A kick to the face of the boar stopped its charge with a crunch and an imbued edge split it right down the spine.

Tobias, deciding to just skip past another restart of the question, weighed in. “I think they are the same species as the big ones but haven’t hit the level 25 evolution yet.” He said, watching the camera feed on his display to see if anything else decided to come out to play. Nothing did.

Matt just grunted. He didn’t want to start a jinx this early into his new life as he still held some of the superstitions from his time in the military. He wasn’t a tanker back on Earth, but he would be damned if anyone would be bringing apricots in his mech. Wait, does this world or System even have those?

Moving away from the dead pigs, Matt moved farther into the trees. He was getting some feedback from his sensor field, but nothing was large. Most of the returns seemed to be moving away from him and were seemingly weak returns. He was beginning to associate the “weak” sensor returns as low-level enemies or at least low threat. Either way, the rest of the afternoon was uneventful as they strolled through the woods.

At some point in the journey, Matt wasn’t sure when, they decided to dismount and try to find some enemies on foot. The plan had been that since it seemed that nothing wanted to fight with the mech, maybe they could get some good fights without it. They had some success, getting the drop on some more of the smaller armored dinosaurs, deer and even another group of the small boars.

Matt was slightly disappointed about the levels; however, nothing had been above level 15 for the past few engagements. Only larger groups or especially durable beasts like boars even gave them a problem. The only plus side to this was a couple levels for them and a good number of cores and some other materials.

Matt had made it to level 28 after a full day of looking for fights, with Tobias getting his fighting class up to level 23, gaining much more from the ordeal. Eventually the decision was made to stop for the day and then make as much progress as possible afterward.

Tobias was stirring the coals of the fire, while Matt stared into the flames, thinking about all the things they had done over the past days. How long has it been now? Something like 2 weeks? He huffed and sat back, leaning against a log that had been dragged into the camp site.

“What’s got your panties in a wad?” Tobias asked.

Matt sighed. “Oh, nothing. Just thinking about everything that has happened since we got here. I was hoping to find some more good fights, but it seems we have hit the drop off that we were told about.”

“Not much we can do about that. Maybe after we contact the city, you can venture out and do some leveling and exploring.” Tobias sounded a little down as well. Matt wasn’t always the best with people, but he knew the major cues in body language. His aura detection helped but he hadn’t mastered reading all the emotions yet.

“How are you holding up? Since we got here, I mean.”

“Well at first it was all so exciting, everything was new, and the feeling of adventure was fresh.” Tobias paused before going on. “I think its hard to keep motivated when it’s been a pretty steady cycle of fight, walk, experiment.”

Matt didn’t know if he was dodging the question, but he pressed him anyway. “Ever think about home?”

Another long pause and some more poking at the fire. “Yeah.” Tobias swallowed hard. “The last few days it’s been hard to keep my mind focused. I’m constantly wondering about my family and how we left. There wasn’t any closure for them, I was just gone. What’s worse is there’s no body or anything.”

Matt moved over and put his arm around Tobias, giving his shoulder a firm squeeze to let him know he was there for him. “I’m sorry. I don’t know if security footage caught anything or if the company would tell anyone what happened if it did.”

Tobias was growing a little hoarser as the emotion was allowed to come forward. “Thanks. I miss them you know?”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Ah, shit. Dude, I didn’t…” Tobias sniffed and wiped his eyes. “I didn’t mean to compare with your parents.”

“No, I know that. Don’t worry about it. It’s, ah, it’s in the past for me” Matt said, being genuine about his feelings on the matter.

“Still, it sometimes is hard to remember what you lost when I get caught up in everything. You know man, just…” Tobias trailed off before turning to face Matt. “Thanks brother.” That was all he needed to say before Matt gave him a hug and a couple thumps on the back.

“No worries. We still got each other, so that’s something. You know I’m here for you if you need anything.” Matt said after breaking the hug and shuffling over on the log, back to his original spot.

After the rather depressing conversation, Matt tried something he had been meaning to do but didn’t have time for previously. He pulled out a book from his storage ring. This book was a small black notebook, given to him by Edmond the lawyer that had been at their integration in the Exchange.

Edmond had said to read it to get information on his race and some answers to his questions. With a deep breath he opened the book, intent on at least starting it. The first page was blank. Matt flipped the page, just assuming it was an extra. The second page was blank. Matt flipped through all the pages, finding nothing but blank paper.

“Son of a bitch.” Matt muttered.

“Who is?” Van asked. Tobias perked up at the words, looking to Matt for more.

“That Edmond guy gave me this book and said to read it when we got to a city. Well, its blank, not a thing in it.”

“We are not in a city yet.” Van said. “Why would you try to read it before hand?”

Matt just looked from the face of the mech to Tobias and back again. “Well, I wasn’t expecting him to be literal. I assumed that it would be along the lines a suggestion, general guidelines.”

“Ah, I see.” Van said, clearly moving on from the topic.

“Soooo. The book is blank?” Tobias said, trying to lead Matt back on topic.

“Oh, right. Yeah, all the pages are blank. Think its some sort of magic? Or maybe some System BS?”

Tobias shrugged his shoulder. “No idea. I don’t know how all that works. Or I don’t know yet.” He took the book from Matt and inspected it. “There aren’t any markings on it but who knows. Maybe try again after we get there?”

Matt shrugged and took the book back, stowing it in his ring again. He would try it if he remembered anyway. His next item that he wanted to work on was his aura. He sat back, relaxing his body as much as possible and closed his eyes. He worked on slowing his breathing and trying to meditate.

Matt had meditated in the past, or at least he thought he had, it was usually an attempt to clear his mind more than trying to reach an enlightened state. This time, he was trying to purposely feel that internal energy like he had with the blessing and the snake venom before. He knew it was there and only had to find it now.

Mind starting to calm, Matt had the slightest sense of vertigo. Almost like having the spins after drinking. While the sensation was not pleasant, he could almost feel something at the edge of his consciousness. He stayed relaxed as he willed his mind to follow the sensation, closing in on the directionless energy.

What seemed like hours went by as Matt focused the feeling, pulling it toward him all the while. There was what looked like a blue haze that was starting to condense. It was faint at first but seemed to be growing thicker, more defined. He pulled more, trying to keep the momentum he had gained.

“Matt?” Tobias voice and a shake on his shoulder brought him back to his surroundings.

“Huh?” As eloquent as ever, Matt looked up at Tobias who was standing over him looking very concerned. “What’s up?”

“You were kinda out of it for a while, I assumed you had fallen asleep but then you started, um something.” Tobias looked up at Van, the mech stared back with its eye lenses faintly glowing blue. “There was this sort of pressure, kinda like an aura but I couldn’t feel an intent or emotion like before. It felt, I don’t know, just like you? Like your normal presence. Then your eyes started glowing behind your eyelids. I was going to let you do your thing but then I could taste ozone and thought maybe it wasn’t intentional.”

“I was detecting a surge of power.” Van said. Thankfully he elaborated without them having to ask. “Your power Matt. I remember the resonance of your soul when we first met. It was like that but less concentrated.”

Matt had to just take that in and digest it for a minute before he could order his thoughts. “I think it was part of what I was doing. I tried to meditate and work on my aura, my control over it. I was hoping to sense it now that magic and all that is real.” He explained what had happened with the snake bite and when he got his blessing. His recounting was a little flawed, but Tobias and Van seemed to get the impression.

“Well, I’m not sure if you should not do that around people or if you need supervision but it was pretty wild.” Tobias had backed away and was speaking from his seat on the log. “Maybe try it when you venture out on your own but have Van around in case something happens?”

Matt agreed, he wasn’t about to do something disruptive in a city if he could help it. He was however going to be exploring it in much more detail later. Nothing left to while away his time, he worked out the guard rotation with Tobias and went to sleep. He hoped he city would be nearby and they could move on from this never ending road trip.