Spaceships and Magic, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Chapter 21: Lara

The bridge that the Null Space invader was crawling its way across was directly above the raging maelstrom of the ocean below. I called up my energy beams and fired a volley of high powered manna in front and behind the invader.

The manna sliced through the floor like butter and took the floor out from right underneath the creature.

"Well, that was easier than I'd expected," I snorted, oh so proud of myself for taking out the invader so quickly.

"Yeah, I wouldn't count on it," Lara shot back.

She was right, of course.

A black, armoured, three-clawed hand had managed to grab onto our side of the now-destroyed bridge and was slowly attempting to drag itself back up onto the remaining bridge section. If it did, there wouldn't be anywhere that we could run.

I fired another energy beam, this time intent on cutting the area that it had grabbed onto away, but another three-clawed hand lashed out and deflected my attack like it was nothing.

"Ideas would be good," I said, my heart starting to race. If that thing managed to pull itself back up we were dead meat for sure.

"Just keep it busy, I have a plan," She said in an attempt to sound reassuring. Suffice it to say, I wasn't reassured.

"Oh sure, keep it busy, That won't be a problem at all," I said, just as the creature finished pulling itself up.

"Fooooooooooood," the invader sighed, its voice was ethereal and warbled at the edges, so different from the gruff laughing from earlier.

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I didn't like how it had looked directly at me as it said the word.

I drew my sword out from its place on my back sheath. I wouldn't be able to use much manna in this fight, I'd already seen earlier how easily it absorbed the arcane energy. Instead, I'd have to rely on my newfound swordplay and, if things got really desperate, my ability to wield a knife.

My only hope was that things went a little bit differently than in my spar with Yr'Arl. I couldn't let the Null Space Invader take the upper hand, not even for a second. If it did it would kill me without a second thought.

I turned on the speed and blasted forward with the full strength of my propulsion. As a result, my cognition sped up to match. All of a sudden I was thinking at a hundred times my usual rate. The spray of the ocean below was moving at a snail's pace, and I could see the heaving breaths of the invader as it sucked air in and out.

If I weren't in the middle of a fight, I would have said it was beautiful. I was going to give this my all.

Every movement was assisted by propulsion, speeding me up faster and faster to a level that would have been comparable to Lara's own enhanced mobility.

I wasn't well versed in swordplay, as my own abilities stated I was only able to use my blade at a basic level. But against an opponent that was so slow in comparison, I didn't need to be a master. I only needed to be able to land my strikes.

I raked my sword across the invader's chest and gouged a line in its carapace. I hadn't hit flesh, but I'd dealt the first bit of damage I'd actually seen the thing take.

The creature didn't seem the slightest bit deterred. It lashed its own arms out toward me, seemingly with the intent to wrap me up in a bears hug. Its arms were moving at a surprising speed, and if I hadn't had the ability to cancel my own field of gravity to propel myself backward in a flash, I was sure that its attempt would have been successful.

In what seemed to me like slow motion, though I had to admit slightly faster than before, it tilted its head up and stared me straight in the eyes. I couldn't see any hint of a soul behind those shining green orbs, all I could see was hunger.

With both hands wrapped around the handle of my sword, I dashed forward again. My blade plunged forward into its face, it was going to be a direct hit. I might have even been able to kill the thing.

Its arm moved in a flash, fast for even my enhanced cognition, and knocked my blade aside. Its right arm struck forward and hit me in the stomach.

My vision blurred as my corona shield was popped like a bubble and the invader's fist hammered home straight into my stomach. I shot backward like a bullet out of a gun and slammed into the wall before crumpling down to the ground. That had hurt, a lot.

My corona shield shimmered back into existence and I used my sword to prop myself back up onto my feet.

"You nearly done?" I wheezed, "Not sure how much longer I can hold this thing."

"Just a little longer," Lara grunted.

I took a moment to glance away from the invader as it stood ominously at the end of the hall. A steadily glowing light was beginning to grow around Lara, clearly she was building up some kind of super attack that would overwhelm the invader's ability to ingest manna and wipe it out completely. Everything had an upper limit on what it could handle, and Lara was banking on her power being enough to surpass the limit of the invader.

If she needed just a little longer, that was exactly what I would give her.

"Fooooooooooooooood!" The invader howled. It had sensed Lara's energy build up at last. Well, it wasn't going to have it, not yet.

I shook off the pain, and launched myself back into my highest speed. Time once again slowed to a crawl. I brought my blade before me and ran straight into the lumbering creature's arms. I plunged my blade deep into the crack that I had made before, it slid in with ease.

The creature shuddered, and for a brief moment I thought I'd managed to kill the beast. But no, it was just hurting. With my superior speed I withdrew my sword from its body and propelled myself out of its retaliatory strike.

It kept coming, enraged by the damage that my sword had managed to do it, and it was all I could do to just about dodge every attack.

"Get out of the way Jacob!" I heard Lara cry out from behind me, her voice shaky from the strain of channeling so much Manna.

I propelled myself backward at record speeds and dove out of the way.

Lara ran past me, the light she had been growing around her almost blinding. But she wasn't launching it at the Null Space Invader. She was running right at it.

"Don't give up!" She called out as she tackled the extra-dimensional creature with her full speed.

There was a massive explosion of light, so bright I had to shield my eyes. But I had just about managed to see it, the two of them tumbling off the broken bridge and down into the abyss.

The Null Space Invader had been defeated, but Lara had sacrificed herself to do it.