Book 5: Chapter 49
The blood layered around her felt like very tight armor or that latex outfit she’d tried one time to Eleniah as she soared through the drenching rain at the falling blue core. The coating of black goo that surrounded the glowing blue orb twisted around it, making itself into a new shape. It was a twisted monstrosity just like the rest what these nanomachine things had made, and Eleniah understood why Kay’s people had feared the idea of these things enough to create horror stories about them. The falling chunk looked like an egg covered in spikes and feelers with the core in the middle as it impacted into the swirling flow of nanomachines below it.
Everywhere Eleniah could see the black mass looked disjointed, where just seconds ago the tide of destruction had been a single coordinated body moving as one now there were bits of it getting in the way of each other and she spotted pieces that were pulling away and becoming separate shapes that seemed to stumble as they moved away from the protection of their fellows. Kay and Alahna took immediate advantage of that and erased any that fell away from the main body. The egg wriggled, settling itself in to its new place, and a wave of unified direction spread from where the core now sat. Eleniah grinned at the evidence that it wasn’t only the source of the nanomachines growth, but a means of directing the incessant tide to work together.
She continued grinning as she slammed into the coating surrounding the core like a red meteor. She burst through the first few layers and started rapidly punching her way through the rest of them, the force of her blows empowered by mana and the System creating shock waves that pushed back the sludge and dug her a tunnel deeper toward her objective. Whatever this thing or these things were, they could obviously feel surprise and for a moment there was no response to her attack, which gave her enough time to get her first good look at her target.
The core was some kind of machine, made of twisted and flowing metal that glittered like shining scales but with a sinister tint. It was wide at the top and bottom and narrowed toward the middle, where two oblong glass portals were located, giving a view into the internals and letting out the blue glow. The light was so much brighter this close to its source and Eleniah couldn’t quite make out anything inside except that there was movement. Both the movement and the light were nauseating to look at, but somehow enthralling, and she had to tear her gaze away from it. The top and bottom of the device were stretched out rectangles covered in bumps with hoses extruding from them. The hoses undulated as an endless stream of nanomachines spilled out of them like oil, streaming up into the rest of the mass.
Spinning, spine covered growths burst from every surface and tried to mill Eleniah into pulp. The first few that hit her broke against the armor Kay had given her and began to melt, but there was another one behind that, and another, and another, and another. Eleniah actively fought back, blowing apart anything that came near her as she tried to push forward. She managed to take one step closer under the constant barrage, but the monstrosity was fighting hard to keep her away from the device at its center. Broken, dented pieces that didn’t reform or heal after Eleniah hit them were pushed aside to get more weapons, more dangers and threats forward to end Eleniah Selthoran.
The “ground” beneath her feet rose up to paw at her, sizzling as it made contact with the blood coating her. She started to sprint just so she could stay in one place as her footing started dragging her backward, the nanomachines under her acting as a giant treadmill. She threw punches and kicks in all directions as she ran, destroying attacks aimed her way, ripping barriers thrown up in front of her, and above all doing her best to get to the core and end this. A legion of weapons and throngs of limbs grew around her and struck as one and Eleniah had to use a Class Skill.
“[Unstoppable Fist].” The burst of destruction that came from her simple punch wiped out feet of nanomachines in all directions and gave her a clean shot to the core. She landed and rolled, already running toward the device and drawing back her fist to punch again. Her ability to destroy it had just been shown, and the eldritch nanomachines had no choice but to break out their trump card to stop her. The blue glow that flowed through the mass of nanomachines raced back toward the core and the shining light intensified tenfold. It was blindingly bright, but it wasn’t enough to slow down the Indomitable Fist of Avalon. Her elbow bent
The glow pulsed in the core and blew outward through the nanomachines, causing them to start glowing with the same energy. The previously black and glittery sludge was now filled with bright blue light, and they all moved so fast. One of the flows that came from the machine diverted before Eleniah could blink and slammed into her chest, pushing her back against the outer wall of the layers surrounding the core and pinning her there. Tendrils and cords tipped by razor sharp blades extruded from the continuous blast and started digging at her armor. They chipped and broke against it, melting all the while, but they didn’t stop. They made it through in places and started digging into her skin as she struggled and tried to free her hands. She could feel the corruption digging into her and the pain of it was immense. Pieces of her were literally ripped away by tiny saws and claws that started eating her flesh and turning it into more of the tide.
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