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Familiar Face 24-11

    Maybe I shouldn’t have revealed my true identity to Fahsteth. But I was counting on it throwing him off for a moment, which was what I needed. Even as everyone around me reacted to the sudden attack, I pivoted and hurled my staff forward while creating a couple small portals for it. As it left my hand, my finger brushed across the piece of wood stuck in it, and I used my tree-walking power to possess that. I was inside the staff as it flew into one portal and out the other, over by the doors that led out to where the rest of the troops were. Just as the staff was about to collide with the wall there, I emerged, caught it, and slapped my hand down against those doors. But my hand wasn’t empty. It had a small coin tucked in against the palm. A coin inscribed with the spell to seal those doors so we wouldn’t be interrupted so easily. It probably wouldn’t hold them out forever, not considering they could use their own magic. But for the moment I wouldn’t have to deal with a hell of a lot more guns and very angry pirates being pointed at me.


    Fahsteth was still pushing himself up as I spat my hard resin at the feet of two of the six troops already in here, who were still reacting to their guns being broken while I had basically teleported behind them with my little staff portal trick. An instant later, I flung myself that way, using my two acceleration rings along with my Seosten-gained boost to speed my launch so that I was a blur of motion. Even before I landed just ahead of the mercenary pirate troops, the blade of my staff passed right through the neck of one of those that I hadn’t stuck to the floor. At the same time, I launched my grapple into the chest of another. It caught his armor, not really doing any damage. But it did hold on, yanking him close enough for me to pivot and drive the blade of my silver knife into his throat as hard as I could.


    That second kill came even before the effects of the first could come over me. Now they both struck, the pleasure not really enough to send me reeling or anything. But it was a bit of a distraction. Fortunately, I had planned ahead for that. There were four guards left in here. Two of them had managed to pivot around to face me, only to run right into a cloud of sand that I’d left there, making both stumble. Meanwhile, the other two were–well, still stuck to the floor by that hardened resin. It was already cracking under the effort they put into pulling free, but it bought me a precious second to recover from the pleasure wave. I was really missing Tabbris’s ability to suppress that at the moment. But now wasn’t the time to focus on the people I was missing. I had to get out of this situation.


    Even as that thought passed my mind, I focused on heating up the sand that was already shoving itself up inside the armor and under the helmets those two guys were wearing. They were both very different sizes, and one had about six limbs compared to the humanoid two the other had. But neither of them liked having sand shoving its way up against their skin (or fur, or scales, or whatever it was they had). And they definitely didn’t like it when that sand turned scalding hot and began burning everything it touched. They jerked and screamed, which was when I sent all that burning sand into their open mouths. In the same moment, I took the death energy from the two soldiers I had already killed, and used it to boost my ‘heat up objects’ power. Their Necromancy sensors went wild of course, but it was really a moot point by then. My sand suddenly wasn’t just hot, it literally melted its way through their insides and completely destroyed them from within. Fortunately (sort of) for those two, they didn’t last long under that, dying almost immediately.


    That, of course, sent another wave of distracting pleasure through me, short as it was. But the troops who had been trapped by the resin had broken themselves free by then, and started to launch themselves at my back. I, however, had done one important thing in that instant before the pleasure hit me. I had used my Necromancy once more to grab the ghosts of those two who had literally just died, and forcibly sent them past me to grab their companions. Yes, I didn’t like to enslave ghosts. I wasn’t Fossor, and I wasn’t going to force them to serve me the way he did. But I made an exception for emergencies in the heat of combat. And it wasn’t like I would be keeping them. I would give them the ability to leave the moment this was over.


    But, for that moment, they caught hold of their two companions and halted their lunges. That gave me time to recover and pivot back around. In that motion, my fist lashed out in what looked like a bit of airboxing, given I was still too far away from the two to hit either of them. In mid-swing, I blurted, “Shark punch!” And yeah, Princess Cuddles emerged in one of those forcefield bubbles that kept her safely in water. Her enormous body came into view, mouth opening wide just long enough to catch one of those pirates, swallowing him whole. At the same time, her tail fin lashed out to slam into the other just as the ghost holding him let go. He was sent crashing into a nearby console, and before he could recover, the blade of my staff went through his chest.


    Just a few seconds earlier, there had been six guards here. Now they were all dead, killed in the time it took Fahsteth and his pet raptor to pick themselves up off the floor.


    Seeing the situation, the mercenary snarled a bit. “Okay, can’t say I was expecting that.” He looked me up and down, while his armored raptor moved up next to him, baring its teeth at me. “You’ve gotten stronger since I saw you last, kid.”


    “Yeah, that tends to happen when you’re involved in this sort of thing,” I replied, watching both of them carefully. Princess Cuddles was still ‘swimming’ in the air beside me. “That or you just die, and I haven’t died yet.”


    “Maybe we can take care of that,” Fahsteth idly replied. He didn’t seem that worried about the deaths of his underlings. “Or we could just go with the deal I offered before. Still stands, you know. You think you’re strong now? Imagine how much you could do with the stuff from that tower. Could save an awful lot of bunnies and puppies with that sort of boost. Or, you know, get even better at stopping the Fomorians.”


    Was that a wild guess? Did he just figure that I would want to use any power I had to stop Fomorians? Or did he somehow know about the whole idea that strong enough Necromancy could put a stop to them? I had no idea, but he was right about the fact that having the stuff from that tower could be useful.


    On the other hand, I absolutely could not trust him. Not at all. “Yeah,” I murmured thoughtfully. “But the thing is, the only reason I’d want anything from that tower is to make sure innocent people don’t die. And letting you go, or even worse, helping you get what you want, would definitely get innocent people killed. So you see my dilemma.”


    Making a disappointing noise under his breath, Fahsteth offered a shrug. “Well, in that case, I suppose it’s back to Plan A. I’ll just have to use the Necromancer I’ve already got. She’s not terrible, you know. Good enough to pull this off, at least. And hey, maybe she can pull something useful out of your body once she gets some time to examine it.” He followed that up by showing his impressive array of teeth. “I’ll try to keep it as intact as I can. And hey, if you want, I’ll tell your girlfriend that you did your best. Anything else you want me to say to them when I get back to the future?”


    My head shook slowly. “You know, I think I’ll just stick with telling them stuff myself. I don’t really trust you to pass along an accurate message. You don’t seem like the type to really care about your work.”


    He chuckled darkly. “Oh, that’s where you’re wrong. I definitely care about my work. It’s just that my work happens to be a little nastier than most would prefer to think about.” While saying that, he took a few steps to one side, reaching behind his back to grab what looked like the handle of a sword. A moment later, an energy blade emerged. It was sort of like the Seosten luxensis, only this one looked like a massive broadsword of anime-like proportions.  It was much longer and wider than the laser swords I’d seen before. And it was humming dangerously, giving off enough heat that I could almost feel it from where I was standing.


    “Nasty like trying to kill an innocent child just because the Seosten didn’t want that anti-possession spell to get out?” I shot back, spinning my staff around between my fingers while taking a few steps in the opposite direction. Princess Cuddles moved that way too, her gaze locked on that raptor. The two of them had been glaring at one another this entire time, making their dislike of each other very apparent.


    “Eh,” Fahsteth waved that massive sword back and forth dismissively, making the energy blade hum even louder. “You know that wasn’t personal. I was just doing the job I was hired for. And, unless you forget, she did cut me in half after we had already made a deal. That wasn’t very nice of her.”


    “Too bad she didn’t finish the job,” I retorted. “How many people have you killed since then who didn’t deserve it?”


    His dangerous smirk returned while he took another few steps sideways, clearly watching for the best opening. “Is that really a question you want to ask me, considering I think everyone who isn’t me deserves it? Not that I’m eager to wipe out the universe or anything stupid like that. Don’t even want to rule a planet. Not much for leadership roles. Hell, even this whole gig here is a bit too much. I guess you could say I’m not much of a people person. I just don’t particularly care who survives as long as I do.”


    “Well,” I murmured just loud enough for him to hear, “you’re gonna be disappointed on that front.”


    We were watching each other closely, looking for an opening or weakness. Either he saw one first, or he simply got tired of waiting, because without any warning at all, he came straight at me. He was unnaturally fast, boosted by his cybernetic enhancements, I knew from lessons with Gaia, Dare, and others. He had upgraded himself far beyond what a normal member of his species was capable of. The mercenary was stronger, quicker, tougher, and had a number of hidden weapons spread throughout his body. Even if you seemingly disarmed him, he would produce something else to stab or shoot you with the second you gave him an opening.


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    He produced one of those weapons in that moment, a whip that extended from his left arm while the right held that massive sword. The blade came down in a diagonal arc from the right side, intending to make me dodge left right into the swing of his whip so it could wrap around my throat. A year ago, or even less, I probably would’ve fallen for that. But I had a lot more experience now. Pivoting on one foot, I jerked my upper body backwards and down a bit so the whip could sail over my face. It came within a couple inches, and I could feel the electricity crackling off of it. The instant it was far enough past, I threw my body into a sideways twisting flip while the huge anime sword swung through the space I had just been in. I wouldn’t have gotten out of the way if it wasn’t for a quick shot from my rocket-burst power, boosting me just high enough. The flip combined with the boost from the rocket-power lifted my body just enough that the blade narrowly passed just barely an inch away from my body, almost skimming me a bit. I was sideways in the air while the sword swung from my head all the way past my feet. I could feel the heat from the energy blade, and the clothes I was wearing would have been burned if they had been ordinary Bystander versions instead of special ones meant for taking a beating. Another thing to thank Percy for.


    Coming down from my sideways twisting slip, I brought my staff up even as Fahsteth swung it back my way. He was smirking as I raised my staff, and I knew why. My own weapon wouldn’t stand up for a second against a blow from that laser sword, not without some help. But I wasn’t aiming to block the sword. Instead, I pointed the end right at his hand and triggered a bit of the kinetic blast. It was enough to knock his aim off and leave the man a tiny bit off-balance, allowing me to pivot around the blade, ducking when it came too close before putting myself right next to my much larger opponent. My staff lashed out blindingly quickly. I was aiming to drive the blade into his neck, but he was too quick for that, managing to turn enough that the part of the shaft just in front of the blade collided with the side of his head rather than the throat-stab I was going for.


    I almost made a critical mistake in that second, eager as I was to follow up that attack before he could recover. I wanted to end this, and very nearly missed something important that would’ve left me in bad shape. But at the last possible instant, I noticed the small barrel that had stuck out the side of the man’s shoulder through a hole that wasn’t there before. It simply looked like a small pistol barrel sticking out sideways from his arm. If I had been relying solely on sight, I never would’ve noticed. But my item sense told me it was there, and that it was pointed right at me.


    How many people had he managed to kill in a fight that way, by making them think they had an advantage and getting one of his bits of cybernetic tools to hit them when they weren’t expecting it? He definitely thought he could do that to me in that second, as I barely had time to recognize the threat before it was suddenly sending a blast of–no, a glob of something at me. It wasn’t a laser weapon, it was some sort of goo-projector. A large ball of dark blue glue-stuff went right at my body. Only one thing saved me from whatever it was intended to do. Namely, my acceleration rings. Or rather, deceleration in this case. They were flipped around so the slowing side was pointed toward the incoming glob. The first one slowed the glue blob by half, and the second one made it stop completely for a second. Long enough for me to launch myself sideways out of its path.


    In the background, I could see Princess Cuddles fighting Fahsteth’s raptor. She was bigger, but the raptor had more enhancements. She’d already taken some bites. Nothing I couldn’t help her with when this was over yet, but still. It wasn’t a fair fight, so I had to do something about that. Which I did, by quickly launching another orb of water from my special gloves. That one had my bull shark, Sherman, inside. Sherman immediately provided back-up for Princess Cuddles. The two of them came at the enhanced raptor from either side.


    Sure, no big deal, just an armored Jurassic Park-style raptor fighting two sharks who were floating around in magic water bubbles on the bridge of a spaceship. Totally ordinary day, really.


    Meanwhile, I focused on my own opponent as he twisted toward me with three separate gun barrels emerging from his chest. These ones were lasers, firing incredibly rapidly. I instantly activated my energy absorption, letting the lasers charge me up while throwing myself that way. My staff came up and out toward his face while he was still shooting, but the man simply put his own weapon in its path. He was smirking again, clearly expecting my staff to be cut in half as it impacted his blade. But I had already channeled the energy he was giving me from those laser shots into the staff itself, surrounding it with an aura that allowed the thing to stand up against his sword. The weapons collided, and he had just enough time to realize my staff wasn’t instantly severed before I launched the grapple down into his foot. It was enough to draw a snarled curse as the grapple actually latched on, before I triggered the kinetic blast to send the staff flying upward. My acceleration rings were positioned just right for the staff to pass through the speed-up sides on its way toward the ceiling. Which dragged Fahsteth off his feet and upside down into the air.


    Unfortunately, his whip lashed around my body in that instant. I felt a shock of electricity shoot through me. It would’ve been enough to take me down, possibly for good, if not for that electricity resistance power. As it was, the jolt was still enough to make my body seize up a bit while the whip flung me sidelong into the wall. I collided hard, even as Fahsteth hit the ceiling. Both of us fell back down, and both were just as quick to launch ourselves back up once more.


    My staff still had enough charge to catch his massive laser sword, but his strength was unbelievable. Even with my own boosts, he still almost casually knocked me sideways with one blow. My staff could stand up against his weapon for a few more seconds, but he was so much stronger than me.


    His whip came around at me once more, even as I skidded sideways from the force of his sword blow. But I was ready that time, focusing just a bit on the handle of the weapon in his hand as I used the power I’d taken from that huge Fomorian ape-crocodile beast to drastically increase the weapon’s resistance to being moved. As strong as Fahsteth was, he could still push it forward anyway. But it was slowed down enough for me to launch myself over the incoming whip, using another boost from my rocket-burst power, and grab it with one hand on the way past. I felt the electricity shoot through me once more, but again I was ready and used my energy absorption to charge up my staff. At the same time, I jerked as hard as I could on the whip while halting the slow objects power. That was enough for me to yank the weapon out of the man’s grip, flinging it off to the side as I landed on the floor and skidded a bit.


    He, in turn, faced me with those weapon barrels sticking out. Actually, more than those. He had three on his chest, two in his stomach, a couple more in one of his raised hands, and another sticking out of the opposite arm. There was a veritable arsenal of turrets pointed at me.


    Too bad for him I’d been ready for that. As soon as he faced me with his hidden guns extended, I filled the barrels with burning sand and instantly made all of it bigger. The sand melted through and malformed all his gun barrels, making the man stagger with an annoyed grunt. But he recovered just as quickly, suddenly using a rocket boost of his own, this one installed tech, to launch himself at me. His sword swung violently through the air, intending to finally end this by cutting me in half. I could see the victorious grin on his face as his blade came too quickly for me to dodge, cutting right through m– it stopped. The blade rebounded off my body.


    Yeah, Fahsteth was confused. He looked down, only to see my hand sticking through a portal I’d made. The other end was connected to the corpse of one of his troops. Or where it had been anyway. Now there was nothing but dust. I had used the power I’d gained from killing those Revenants to absorb the energy from that corpse and instantly used all of it. I could’ve used it to boost my strength and durability by three times for about ten minutes. But I had used all of it instead. So I was ten times as strong as I had been. And because I had used my Seosten boost right before then, I was ten times as strong as I was while boosting.


    It was just for a few seconds, but that was enough. Even as Fahsteth was reacting to his huge laser sword rebounding off my body, I drove the blade of my staff up through his neck. He was so enhanced that even with my boost, I could barely get it through. Even then, it wouldn’t kill him. But it didn’t need to. I just wanted it to hold him. Twisting aside, I slammed the staff down toward the metal floor, using my ‘stop objects’ power to keep it there as I let go. That was enough to yank the man down into place, the blade of my staff still driven through his neck.


    He was already yanking himself up off it, clearly not nearly as critically wounded as a blade through the throat should have managed. And yet, that didn’t matter either. Before he could fully lift himself up, my hands caught hold of the blade of his own huge laser sword. It would’ve cut my hands off, but I used my energy absorption and instantly expelled it back out into a blast straight at the man’s face. His skin was burned away, revealing some bones and a lot of metal while he screamed. Which made his grip on the sword slacken enough for me to rip it out of his hands.


    I continued my pivot to put myself behind the man while flipping the huge weapon around to grab the handle. Then, with the very last moment of my dramatically-enhanced strength, I brought it down through his body lengthwise. I cut the man in half from his head down to his waist, going all the way through. Then I took my burning sand and filled every crevice of his exposed, vertically-destroyed body I could find, doing even more damage. The sand destroyed everything in its path, utterly annihilating what few actual organs he had left in there. And just to finish things off, I recalled my staff to my hand while deactivating his laser sword to toss it aside. The end of my staff was shoved up into what little remained of his body, bisected and burned as it was. I deposited the most powerful concussive energy mine I could right in the middle of the severed body, then pivoted away and launched myself as far as I could with a boost from my rocket and acceleration rings.


    I landed on the far side of the room, falling behind one of the consoles just as the body exploded, sending a spray of cybernetic and biological parts in every direction.


    Even then, given what I knew about the man, I wasn’t sure he was completely done. Then I got my answer, as the rush of pleasure filled me. It was over. He was gone.


    Fahsteth was dead.
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