Mistrunner 4: A Cyberpunk LitRPG by Nicholas Searcy

Author:Nicholas Searcy [Searcy, Nicholas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Published: 2024-12-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty

A Rigid Defense

There is so much more to this universe than I can ever understand. Rings within rings, plots inside plots, and all of it built out of people lying to one another. Nobody has the whole picture. Anyone who says they do is lying.

—Alistaris Kargat

are you okay?” I asked, my hand resting on the arm of Patrick’s mech suit. It was warm to the touch, which was evidence of just how hard he’d been pushing.

“I’m alright,” he said, his voice strained. “Just a little low on Mist is all. That guy was tough.”

“That’s understating it,” I said in agreement. The mystics had far outstripped my expectations. From a physical standpoint, I was fairly sure that I was stronger and faster than them. However, with the way they could use Mist, it didn’t really matter. It was like they had access to every skill, all at once. Meanwhile, I was stuck using the only tools I had available—which were good tools but, against the mystics, seemed inadequate.

Still, there was hope. We had put them down, albeit with Freddie’s help. Yet, if I’d have been able to focus on just one of them, I felt certain I could have eventually won. Of course, that was assuming that they didn’t have other abilities up their sleeves, which was quite the assumption, given what I had seen. Even so, I’d learned quite a lot from the encounter, and my chief takeaway was that the woman seemed far stronger than the man.

I took a few minutes to reload all my weapons, during which time Freddie simply stood facing the direction where the ship had crashed. His posture suggested that he didn’t have a care in the world, but his bloody wounds said otherwise. He’d been pushed to his limits, as well, though he didn’t seem the least bit troubled by that fact.

I could also see that his wounds were healing at a visible rate. It wasn’t quite on the same level of the female mystic’s regeneration, but it was faster than I could manage without using the healing associated with [Mist-Infused Body].

“How strong are you?” I asked, still reloading the HIRC’s massive magazine. It was a process of minutes, but it felt like it was taking forever.

“Strong enough,” Freddie said without looking back.

“Were you stronger than the woman?” I persisted.

“No,” he admitted. “That was their coryphaeus. She was the most powerful combatant in this cohort. The male was her second, though a powerful one. There will be more, but they will be much weaker. They will make up for it in numbers.”

“How many?” I asked, finishing with the HIRC and starting in on the Stinger.

“After what we have already killed?” he sighed, looking back at me. “At least ten more mystics. More than a thousand Adjudicators. Perhaps twice that in crew. Do not think to give them mercy. The presence of the Adjudicators and mystics suggests that the ship belonged to the Arbiters of Orion, a mercenary group known for their effectiveness and dedication.

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