The Lesser One Arc 2 Version 2 Chapter 8: Robot

 These episodes are out of order. To see them all, click the "The Lesser One Arc 2 Try 2" label at the bottom of this post. 

Robot

I do something I haven’t tried before. Reaching into my own body, I form a bone-matter synthesis in the exact spot where my bones broke. The support structure extends its tendrils through the shattered tissue. Then I conjure a health potion and pop it with one hand. I gulp it down, and my body’s healing factor accelerates.

Neo whips his chains through the air. “You’re stalling. Come at me!”

I grab the riot shield I conjured previously. In my newly fixed hand, I conjure the first machinegun that comes to mind. It forms in my hand as a mixture of several guns, an eldritch abomination of a weapon.

Neo swings his chains around his back. Both chains shoot towards me like hypersonic snakes. I hold up the riot shield. The chains slap it, sending me back several feet. The shield cracks and shatters. Pieces of hardened bulletproof plastic fly everywhere.

Neo begins to position his chains for another strike. I start shooting with the gun. The sound rips through the room. Neo blocks the bullets, breaking out of his action. While he’s occupied, I rush behind a couch and conjure three grenades.

“Watch out!” I toss them over the couch. A chain rips through the felt and fabric an inch above my head. Three gigantic explosions ripple through the air. Fluff floats down around me. The room vibrates.

I brace myself for another attack. It doesn’t come.

“Boy.” I hear Neo’s voice. “You’ve done enough. I’ll accept you.”

I stand up. “Really?”

“Really. Not many people can withstand my chain arts as long as you did.”

“Wait, were you really trying to kill me?”

Neo makes a face.

I sigh. “I’m glad it’s over, then.” I look around the room. It is devastated. All of the beautiful furniture that Blake had probably worked so hard on was destroyed. Blake himself is kneeling on the ground, moaning.

Neo seems to realize the destruction for the first time. “Oops.” He turns to Blake. “I’m sorry.”

Blake sniffs, and stands up. “This is probably a message. My spirit wants me to reform my modus operandi and change my artistic habits.”

“Uh, yeah.” Neo scratches his neck. “Again, I’m sorry.”

Mandrake chuckles. “While I don’t appreciate the destruction you guys wrought with your duel, I do think we learned a good lesson here. Markus, you aren’t a pushover.”

“I’ve been training with Sebastian. He’s a drill sergeant when he teaches.”

Sebastian bows. “My pleasure.”

“Ohoho.” Ari waves her fan. “Well then, shall we start cleaning up?”

A skinny woman with blonde hair bursts into the room. “Muffins are ready!” She looks around at the devastated furniture. “What happened here?”

“You really do go into a zone when you cook. Didn’t you at least hear the gunshots and grenades?”

“Ah, uh …” The woman looks confused. “Um, no.”

Mandrake sighs. “Okay. Markus, this is Robin, the last Bright Silverbone. Now you’ve met all of us.”

“Pleasure to meet you.” Robin bows. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Nice to meet you too.” I do my best to smile. My arm still hurts a bit, even though I managed to fix it. I rub my elbow.

“Well, now that you’ve met all of us, do you want to eat some muffins?” Robin pulls a tray of muffins out of nowhere.

They do look good. I take one and eat it. It is good.

Blake walks around the room while eating, examining the broken furniture. His face shows that he is deep in thought.

“If I understand the Fung Shui, then I should put this here …”

I turn to Mandrake. “It’s okay, right? That we broke all the furniture?”

Mandrake shakes his head. “Blake is a hardy individual. He’ll bounce back from it in no time.”

Blake is muttering to himself.

I finish my muffin. “Is there anything else that we need to talk about?”

“Robin.” Mandrake turns to her. “You said that you wanted to test Markus.”

Robin smiles. “I need a certain ingredient.” She places the tray of muffins on the only intact table in the room. “A fire grain lily. Only, there’s one problem.”

“Yeah?” I’ve never heard of a fire grain lily before.

Robin rubs her hands together. “You’re going to have to go somewhere special. A certain portal that opened up, say, on a former US state that is also an island.”

“Okay.” I take out my phone. “I need another two weeks to finish my contract with Esmex. Summer Vacation ends a week after that.”

Robin raises an eyebrow. “So you’re going to do it?”

“I mean, yeah. I know Hawaii is under the control of an S-class portal, but then again, I’m also in control of one. I should be able to do something.”

Robin grins. “I knew you were the strong, adventurous type.”

“Yeah.” I stand up. “Two weeks. July twenty-fifth. That’s when my contract with Esmex ends.”

Sebastian taps me on the shoulder. “Markus. We have information regarding the location of Crayton.”

I blink a few times. “Are we done here?”

Mandrake looks around the room. “Indeed. I’ll be sticking with you for a while. Is that still okay?”

“Sure. We might need your fighting ability.” I turn to Sebastian. “Okay. Let’s go. You can fill us in while we drive.”

We leave the mansion through the delipidated garden and climb into the limo. Sebastian starts the vehicle and pulls us out onto the road.

“Crayton is being held hostage by a Dark.” Sebastian keeps his eyes on the road. “Specifically, one named Gall Noo.”

“I haven’t heard of him before.”

Mandrake’s expression sours. “Gall is what you would call a kingpin. He runs drugs in and out of various countries. His operation is bigger than the entirety of Mexico’s cartels combined.”

“So why hasn’t he been caught yet?”

Mandrake shakes his head. “Like you, he has an army of capable demons working for him.”

Sebastian grips the wheel. “I am a devil. We are devils, not demons. Demons are merely beasts of instinct. They are like ants who follow nothing but brute strength.”

“Sorry, sorry.” Mandrake wipes his forehead. “In any case, his network is much larger than yours or mine.”

“So you’re saying he’s going to be a tough customer.” I reach into the mini fridge and pull out a diet root beer. I turn to Mandrake. “We have whiskey if you want that.”

“I’ll abstain for now. Do you have water?”

I handed Mandrake a bottle of Voss water. It was the richest I’d felt since finding out that my network of devils had made me a millionaire. Which wasn’t so long ago, honestly. I turned to Sebastian. “Do you know where Crayton is being held?”

“No.” Sebastian adjusts the rearview mirror. “Gall has requested a meeting at the Weberway Junkyard.”

“That’s quiet far from here.” Mandrake opens the Voss bottle.

“Indeed. Markus, if you need us to stop for a bathroom break, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Sure, sure.” I wave my hand.

Mandrake finishes his bottle of water and places the empty container in a cupholder. “While we’re driving, do you have any questions you would like to ask? We do have a lot of time on our hands, after all.”

“First.” I fold my hands. “Your portal beings. Dryads. Did you kill a portal boss just like I did?”

“Exactly. It was twenty years ago. Back then the portals were still relatively new and people knew a lot less about them. I was one of the first who became what you would call adventurers today. It happened in the middle of the North Sea. A portal opened on a oil rig and my party was called to clear it. We failed. Most of my companions died that day. Through sheer luck I managed to kill the boss monster. The dryads swore loyalty to me after that.”

“Were the Silverbones already established back then?”

“The first Silverbone was actually a portal being who came along with the Great Happening.”

“Is that what you call it here in Britain?” I sip my soda.

“Indeed.” Mandrake sighs.

“So how did you join the Silverbones? Were you voted in?”

“As always.” Mandrake wipes sweat from his forehead.

Sebastian clears his throat. “We have a tail.”

Mandrake looks behind himself. “Which car?”

“The black unmarked sedan.” Sebastian appears dead calm.

Mandrake turns back to the front. “Can you lose them?” He snaps his fingers and a portal opens on the leather seat. It’s a bit of a squeeze, but a dryad climbs out of it.

Sebastian sighs. “Please refrain from opening portals inside the vehicle.”

“Sorry, sorry.” Mandrake looks at the dryad. “Freyta. The car behind us is probably an enemy. You have permission to engage.”

Freyta bowed. “Of course.”

I turn to Sebastian. “Are they still there?”

“Yes.” Sebastian opens up an invisible panel in the car dash. It’s a console full of military-grade computer equipment. It looks like the dash of a fighter jet. “This limo has a lot of tricks up its sleeve.” He grabs a joystick and presses a big red button. The limo shudders as two gigantic rocket launchers rise from the trunk. They fire in a blaze of heated glory. The limo shakes, and bucks like a horse.

The rockets fly backwards and slam into the sedan, sending it careening ten feet into the air.

“There are more of them.” Mandrake grabs a gun from a concealed pocket. He holds it up. “I won’t stand by this.” He opens the side window and leans out.

I conjure a rifle. It appears as a strange amalgamation of various guns I know from videogames. I slide the bolt back. Sebastian has, of course, been teaching me about how to use guns. I know enough to pull the bolt back and disengage the safety. I lean out the opposite window to Mandrake.

We both open fire. There are at least five black cars following us, as well as a large semi-truck. The semi-truck opens up its container and a gigantic war robot rises from it, Gundam style. The monstrous machine is at least ten meters tall and has a gigantic bolt gun in its two arms. The machine climbs off the back of the semi-truck and starts running towards us. Its footsteps tear up the pavement, and it crushes a car beneath its boots. It’s fast.

“Brace yourselves!” Sebastian pushes a few more buttons and a gigantic chaingun rises from the top of the limo. The gun opens fire with a “bruuuuup” that isn’t so much the sound of a gun firing as it is the sound of god himself taking out his anger on the target. The limousine swerves.

The giant robot tanks the chaingun, bullets pinging off of its armor. Two of the pursuing cars get caught in the line of fire and are shredded. Flames explode out of one of the cars as its gas tank ignites.

“I thought giant robots only existed in anime!” I shout this as I aim my rifle at some of the other cars.

Police cars pull onto the highway from a small rural road. It seems that the commotion hasn’t gone unnoticed. The giant robot points its gigantic gun at the cars and rips them to shreds. Two police cars smash into each other and burst into flames. A civilian sedan, who has nothing to do with this at all, is caught in the collision, flipping over the roadside and tearing into a cottage. The cottage explodes and sends wooden shrapnel everywhere.

Sebastian points the chaingun at the semi-truck. The truck is ripped apart and jackknifes into another police vehicle. Both vehicles explode.

The limo swerves.

Mandrake pulls a small black object from his pocket. “I was hoping I didn’t have to use this, but hell, this isn’t a time to be conservative. Here we go!” He reaches out the window and throws the device. “Cover your ears and open your mouth!”

I clap my hands to my ears and do as he said. I think to myself that, maybe, this time I’ll see something horrific.