LucyKitsune

  I figured it was a good idea to attempt to maximize my time in the air. I had no proof that this was the best strategy, but I figured it would buy me time and allow me to have more options when dodging.

  The tter being a good thing was a given. I doubted I would be able to approach the alien on the ground.

  The former, I decided, was also a good thing, because it allowed me to get a better grasp on the situation and work out what to do to get rid of it.

  I watched my adversary load up another projectile and fire it. As I watched the spiky ball of death hurl upwards, I couldn’t help but wonder.

  ‘Isn’t this shot a bit too low to hit me?’

  I was unable to tell for sure due to perspective, but as I observed it move in slow-mo, It did not seem to gain nearly as much height as it would need to intercept my arc.

  That alien grasshopper from hell was adapting to me dodging!

  I supposed that was fair, but it wasn’t going to be effective. I just kept gliding along.

  “Lyona, do I have anything that can hurt that thing?”

  I didn’t want to just try throwing stuff at it, until something worked.

  Your monofiment cws should prove very effective at shredding it, if you can manage to engage it in melee. You do not have ranged options that can take it out reliably, but you can purchase some, if you wish to.

  “Let’s hold off on that for now. I’ll try getting as close as possible before nding and then I’ll just have to cover the rest of the way on foot.”

  If I could dodge one or two shots on the ground, I should be good. It seemed very doable, especially now that I had muscles that could actually keep up with my boosted reaction-speed.

  I angled myself towards the artillery and prepared to dodge - or not dodge - the next projectile.

  And of course, just as I was starting to formute a pn, that pn was disrupted by a group of model 3s fnking the 15. This could be trouble.

  While the dogs themselves couldn’t harm me anymore, they could, and probably would, put themselves between me and my target, which would slow me down and buy time for another shot.

  “Lyona, can I get another one of these javelins?”

  Of course! Just grab the air in front of you and it will be there. I am choosing to not deliver it in a box for reasons of practicality.

  I did just that, accepting the loss in height that would come from this, and upon holding the explosive device in my hand, I waited for the Threes to more or less group up, before trying my best to aim it into the middle of them.

  And then an extremely sharp pain, radiating out from my right arm hit me. I panicked.

  Had I gotten hit?

  No it didn’t even fire anything yet.

  Then why did I feel so much pain?

  I turned to look at the painful limb, and thanked whatever higher power was out there, that I wasn’t prone to throwing up upon seeing something gross.

  No wonder my arm hurt! It had a third joint between my shoulder and elbow, that definitely wasn’t supposed to be there.

  Don’t panic, you were not hit by anything. This is a side-effect of your new muscles. They are too powerful for your bones, so you can accidentally break your own bones like you just did. I do recommend you purchase some local anesthetic as well as specialized bone-setting and healing nanites for now and upgrade your bones as soon as possible to avoid a repeat of this.

  The immediate treatment I would recommend comes from your Medical Utilities Catalogue and would cost you 15 points in total. Should I take the points out of your medical emergency fund? It is to treat a medical emergency.

  I grit my teeth.

  “No, I’d rather save that for life or death situations. Just take it from my regur points. And make it quick, I’d rather not smash into the pavement!”

  Understood. First have the local anesthetic. It usually doesn’t look like this, but seeing the situation, I have decided to adjust it so you can more easily apply it. Just hold it to your right shoulder and the auto-injector will do the rest.

  Do note that you will lose function of your right arm until it wears off in an hour or you take a cleanse, as it effectively blocks any nerve signals from travelling up or down your shoulder.

  I took the weird, almost syringe looking contraption in my left hand and pressed it against my shoulder as instructed. I felt a sting and then nothing.

  Okay the bone-setter is next, simply cmp it around your arm and put it in approximately the right position. The nanites will do the rest. I will supply them once you did that in the form of a pill you need to swallow.

  Relieved that I no longer felt the pain from my arm, I grabbed the splint, that like everything else appeared out of thin air, when I reached for it, spped it on my arm just underneath my elbow and adjusted the remaining half of my arm accordingly.

  I didn’t know what kind of pain it would cause to do this sort of thing, but I was very gd I couldn’t feel it right now.

  Then when that was properly fastened, it swelled up, presumably to keep whatever swelling my body decided to do at a minimum? It probably cooled the area also, but I had no way to check that.

  Looking increasingly concerned at the rapidly approaching ground - I had finally fallen below the roofs of most buildings around here, I reached for the air a third time and shoved the pill that appeared in my hand into my mouth to swallow it immediately. I hated dry-swallowing pills.

  It was really convenient that the dust kicked up by the explosion blocked the sight of the 15, because I was not sure I would have been able to dodge like this.

  In fact, being down an arm, I would have to figure out something else for nding safely, because the wingsuit was not doing its job with just one arm operational.

  “Lyona? Exactly how much speed can this thing neutralize and how much inertia can it dampen? Because it looks like I might be hitting the ground at terminal velocity…”

  The good news is your new muscles would survive the fall. The bad news is your bones wouldn’t. I would estimate your chances of survival to be about 15% if you nd legs first.

  That was reassuring.

  I had initially pnned to use the wingsuit to transfer most of my momentum into horizontal speed and brake on the ground with my cws, but that wasn’t really an option with close to half of the suit unavaible.

  “Lyona, next time I’m getting any sort of armour or whatever, remind me to include an exo-skeleton.”

  Noted. Also watch out for the window.

  What window?

  Oh.

  That window.

  Thank whatever higher power was out there I decided to wear a helmet.

  As it turned out, window-gss was not significantly more dangerous than basic antithesis. Good to know.

  It took a while of tumbling around on the ground of whichever floor I had just fallen into, but eventually all of my kinetic energy was transferred into heat via friction or bruises.

  Mostly bruises.

  I took a look around what seemed to be a construction-site. This building was still being built, it seemed.

  That was good news because that meant no one was living there yet, and judging by the ck of construction workers screaming in panic at some weird woman falling in through a window on the-

  “Lyona, what floor are we on?”

  We are on the 21st floor.

  Judging by the ck of people panicking at some weird woman falling in through a window on the 21st floor, which was currently under construction, they had either left for the day already or evacuated the site, both of which was good news.

  After not seeing any movement in the room, lit up by the sun through windows and the ck of a roof, I folded up my helmet.

  “Can I get another nano-regen suite? These bruises are painful.”

  Of course. You will be pleased to hear that your armour took the brunt of the damage, which limited any damage dealt to you to some light bruising.

  I suppose my armour doing its one job was indeed a good thing.

  After waiting for my bruises to heal up somewhat, I contempted my options. I peeked my head outside the entry-hole I had made and immediately pulled it back in, as I was greeted by a 15 projectile hurling towards me.

  Thankfully it missed the hole, but the quills flying everywhere around me told me that these things were apparently frag-grenades.

  So that was fun.

  “Lyona, if I drop something on it from really high up, is that going to kill it? Like how much kinetic energy do I realistically need to kill it?”

  Well to guarantee a kill, you would pretty much need to colpse this building on top of it. However based on the penetration of the quills through the concrete here, a wall-segment dropped in the right way should be able to mostly block a shot from it, even if it wouldn’t necessarily damage the model 15.

  I looked outside once more and specifically at the barebones concrete facade of the building I was in.

  “Are you saying I should do a Spiderman and scale down the side of this building?”

  Essentially. It is a move that would make you vulnerable and make you an easy target, hence why the Antithesis would not expect it. It is however worth noting that it would be safer, but considerably slower, to use the staircases. Do expect the entrance of the building to be the direct target of enemy artillery though.

  So either I’d be shot at while scaling down the building or I’d be shot at when trying to exit.

  I decided I had done enough crazy stunts for the day however and went about locating the stairs, which wasn’t hard at all. Yay Austrian emergency exit regutions.

  And of course it took about 5 steps down into the abyss, before something jumped me.