Steel Trim
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Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune Ch. 13
🕑 Added 2025-01-12 18:43:47 +0000 UTCYuki bowled the creature over like a raging bull, smashing it into a nearby tree hard enough to splinter bark and wood alike. It was knocked onto its back, underside sizzling lightly in the sunlight filtering through the canopy, and the kitsune pounced on it as it was trying to right itself.
He didn't have a clear shot. "Yuki!" he called, stumbling over his words momentarily as he tried to remember the native tongue, "Heat!" She ignored his call, but he swore he saw an ear flick.
A bladed arm tried to come down on her shoulder like an axe, but she held up a forearm at a shallow angle. It skittered off like it hit plate armour, sparks flying. Yuki grabbed the other arm with a hand and pulled as it rose to strike. The creature screamed once more, this time in a woman's voice, but she didn't let up, entirely unflinching with little more than a frown on her face as she drew her free hand back. The claws upon her fingers started to burn with the hard light of morning, and she snapped out with a spear-like strike!
Nameless were never the most resilient creatures. Whatever buffer of magical energy that protected them was always thin; John suspected it was due to them being inherently disposable by nature, so when Yuki's hand impacted the base of the limb, he wasn't too terribly surprised when the limb only held up for a moment before a sound like cracking glass rang out. The appendage flew off in a spray of shadowy black ichor.
A rictus snarl came across Yuki's face, grabbing and twisting the other blade arm as it swung towards her side, and the creature just wouldn't stop screaming as she took it off in a manner that disturbingly felt like someone pulling apart the limbs of a crab on a dinner plate. She crouched, breathing heavily upon her twitching throne, and her gaze suddenly went wild.
The kitsune's eyes went to slits as she locked onto something and lunged muzzle first, biting into the creature's vulnerable underside, spidery legs trying to stop her as it wailed all the louder. She just ignored them as she started tearing with her hands too, scooping out great chunks at a time and tossing them aside, like she was trying to dig right through it. John felt sickness and terror flood him in equal measures, hot bile threatening to rise up his throat.
The abdomen twitched up, about to try and entangle her, but before he could shout a warning, she had already stomped down on it with a paw, flattening it to the ground and spraying webbing against a nearby tree as she continued tearing through flesh like paper.
Suddenly, the beast shuddered before stilling, and the shadows seemed to dissipate as it solidified in a manner John had never seen before. The kitsune reared back, pulling her viscera-covered muzzle from the veritable crater, lips still pulled back and in her jaws… what was that?
It was a black orb somewhere around the size of a golf ball, pulsing with the same unnatural anti-light of its host, and it should not exist. John had cut down Nameless before. Rended their bodies into parts. Performed autopsies on what was left. Yet… whatever that was, he had never found that once. It was like it materialized in her jaws, drawn forth by her will.
Whatever it was, Yuki tilted her head back and swallowed it, licking black blood from her lips. She sighed in relief, and the previous madness abruptly left her eyes as she looked back at him. Where there was once ravenous lunacy was… just Yuki, like someone flipped a light switch.
Cold dread worked through him as he looked her up and down, trying to reconcile the sweet, almost motherly persona she had displayed back at the fort and… whatever that was. Was it raw instinct, ready to burble its way up to the surface at any time, guiding her to dismantle anything or anyone that looked particularly tasty? Was it a conscious choice to change, choosing immense, visceral violence? She had mentioned eating the hearts of those soldiers back when they showed up at the fort—was this what she meant? Most of them seemed to take her deadly seriously, and John couldn't blame them.
She stood back up and stepped toward him, and he took a shaking step back. Concern flashed over her muzzle before realization took its place. Frowning, she wiped her muzzle clean, but the fresh stains remained. Suddenly, John caught movement in the background. His eyes darted off, settling on one of the torn-off blade limbs… which was laying well in reach of the sentinels, and the closest was stirring. Shit, if the sound didn't already alert them, that sure did!
"Yuki!" he whisper-shouted, pointing behind her and to the side. She hissed a curse he was unfamiliar with and burst into motion, sprinting in his direction at an alarming pace and causing his heart to pound. She was… probably OK and just retreating like he should be. They just had to get to the water, and they'd be fine.
The Nameless had finally dug itself out of the ground behind her, looked at the pair, and let out an unearthly shriek that crashed through the forest. It shook his brain in his skull in a way that made him feel nauseous, and an inexplicable rush of anxious dread hit him like a brick. Presence, he assumed. It must be an application to make their prey panic and make stupid mistakes, but he pushed it, and most of his other fears, deep, deep down, to be dealt with later. Yuki was an ally. Spiders were chasing them. Act.
The mounds next to the first were starting to stir, and although he couldn't see them through the trees, he had no doubt that the nest was beginning to explode with life, too. He had to do something now!
The Nameless started to charge terrifyingly fast, perhaps as fast as a bear, but Yuki was quicker. John wagered that she would make it to the water with plenty of time to spare, but he… just wouldn't. His legs were regular human length, with no supernatural speed or strength to leverage. He'd be overrun far before then unless he did something.
Stepping to the side to get clear of Yuki, he pointed at the spider and twitched his fingers, firing the heat ray at maximum power in a narrow ray. Invisible heat did not remain as such for long, as the sheer amount dumped out immediately turned the air into a shimmering mess, even with the odd entropic effects. The charging spider flinched, and the ray would take a moment to burrow through the protective field and severely damage the chitin. He, however, did not have to wait for that, and the outer layers that protected the webbing upon its back were comparatively weak.
The detritus caught in the beam immediately flash-burned into ash, and the webbing ignited into a towering inferno as the sour smell of burning webbing filled the clearing before he cut the beam to conserve power. A violet inferno towered off the Nameless, and it shrieked as it spasmed, trying to violently peel the armour-turned tomb off it, but it had already almost jelled and was now flowing down its sides.
He turned to run, heart pounding in his ears as terror filled his veins at the thought of being swarmed with a thousand stabbing legs and fangs… and the idea of Yuki pouncing him, much to his shame. Even now, he could hear her heavy steps pounding into the forest floor, looming ever closer. He picked up the pace, sweat beading on his brow as a retreat turned into a panicked sprint. Wait.
Realization flooded him, and dread filled his veins.
In his panic, he had made a terrible, terrible error. When the spider showed up, it was between them and where the water would be… he was running away from the water. Shit! He had to circle around. Yuki said something behind him, but he couldn't understand and certainly couldn't slow down to check his notes.
He huffed and puffed, stumbling over a rock as he took a hard corner, but he didn't fall. Two strong hands grabbing him from behind made sure of that.
His adrenaline spiked, and he let out a yelp as he was hefted into the air, flailing wildly. John braced for the worst as he was roughly pulled against the kitsune and closed his eyes as he prepared for an attack. It never came.
When he mustered the will to open his eyes and looked around, he found himself in Yuki's arms, carried bridal style as she dashed through the forest at a pace he'd normally expect from an ATV. She wasn't looking down at him; her golden gaze was fixed forward on something. He glanced backward and—holy hell, that was a lot of spiders.
The forest was buried under a tidal wave of blackened limbs as they swarmed over the environment like an unstoppable force. He didn't even know how many there were, they were borderline innumerable, an unorderly mass that was constantly climbing over itself in an attempt to get to them.
One reared up on its hind legs, and his eyes widened. "Dodge!" he shouted, tapping on Yuki's arms. She reacted instantly, a single ear swivelling to him before juking sharply to the side with Gs that made his stomach flip. Just in time, too, as a mass of webbing sailed through the space they once occupied and slammed into a tree like a bag of wet cement while wrapping around it.
He released a shaking breath, pulled his gauntleted arm free and aimed it backwards towards the mass. Sweat ran down his back as he steadied himself, scanning the crowd. There, another one got ahead of the morass and was starting to rear up, pointing its spinnerets towards them. He snapped to it, correcting his aim and widening the beam to account for how intensely he was being jostled and fired. He didn't have the easy pass he did prior, the lack of webbing on their underside not providing him good, easily accessible fuel. It didn't matter.
As he kept the beam on roughly the same spot, the attack burned through the grotesque creature's magical resilience before finally meeting the hard chitin dead on. At first, it just silently smoked, but it didn't burn. No, it briefly glowed red hot before melting, the creature's insides sloughing out and smothering its attack.
He sighed in relief before Yuki roughly spun to the side and changed direction, but he saw why through blurry vision.
The spiders had gotten in front of them and formed a fucking roadblock, thin strands of webbing trailing between trees, blocking the easy path to the water and forcing them deeper into the woods. Damn it! The air was moist; they must have been almost to the water and safety!
The mass behind them was unceasing, unerring in its grim purpose as it surged forward, now joined by the barricade's creators after it was clear their trap didn't work. The entire time, John kept alert, firing on anything that dared rear up to fire webbing or occasionally on targets of opportunity, when he had a rare moment of calm. The land rose around them on either side, quickly becoming impassable as they were forced to run into a rocky divot, Yuki dashing across the stony ground, and dread wormed him as he realized they were still being herded. John spun to see where Yuki was going and was surprised to see them running directly at a cliff, a rock wall dead end rapidly approaching. They were still in a kill box!
"Uh, Yuki?" he asked, the shouted question half-carried away by the wind. She didn't respond, and the barrier was getting awfully close. "Yuki!" She dug her paws into the hard ground and skidded to a stop in front of it, crouching down and—
They shot up through the air like a rocket, and the sheer Gs caused blackness to creep in at the edges of his vision as he fought down nausea. A rough thump rattled his brain as they landed. "Wait!" he croaked. What the hell type of vertical leap was that? Sixty, eighty feet?
Still, it had given him an idea. Perhaps something had shook free in his brain, but a lopsided grin spilled onto his face.
John couldn't remember the word but remembered the characters, so he drew them with his finger in the fur on her arm, hoping she understood. "The ledge." They had a few seconds, at least. He never understood why the Nameless couldn't climb the fort walls, but they were nominally pretty good at climbing otherwise… just not as fast as Yuki just jumping, apparently.
She put him down, concern written on her face, and grabbed him by the shoulder as he stumbled, shaking off a bit of the wooziness from being subjected to forces the human body was never intended to experience. "I'm fine," he muttered, only realizing he spoke in English afterwards. He walked over to the edge, staring down at the mass as it reached the bottom of the wall, spilling over itself like water hitting a dam before they even began to climb, but climb they did.
Picking out the few at the front, he ignited their web cloaks with a smile on his face, the vanguard of the chittering and screaming tide instinctively reacting and falling as they were suddenly ignited. Even so, he couldn't hold back the tide, and even if he could, his flame-aspected magic reserves would run out far before he made any sizeable dent in their hoard.
A growing pile of flaming webbing and flailing spiders was built on the rocks below. Yuki stood at his side, and although one arm was across his shoulders keeping him steady, he remained tense at the contact. She said nothing but cleared her throat and shook her head as they grew closer, surging up the wall in strides… but at more of a jog than their earlier blistering pace. He was fine where he was.
He reached into a pocket and withdrew a different focus, swapping it into his gauntlet. They were getting close now. He breathed in and breathed out, steadying his aim.
At his side, Yuki's fingers suddenly glowed white, impossibly long hooked claws made of light extending from them in a manner that would make physicists weep, and with a single swipe, she raked them over the front of the mass. They provided resistance, sure; the force was momentarily forestalled against their shells as their magic tried to protect them, but it was never truly stopped, passing through their meat like air and spraying out viscera from the far side as she cored out sternum after sternum with a single, well-placed strike, a proper rain of bodies falling down below.
And, finally, John fired, but not at the spiders. No, the true target of his cold focus was the wall itself. The air was moist, and so was the wall, even if the slick rocks hardly provided a challenge for the Nameless to scale. With a flash of supernatural power, where there were once slippery rocks was now a wall of black ice.
Some legs froze in place for a moment, but the Nameless hardly noticed, breaking the thin sheet of ice… only to take another step and find no purchase. There were too many legs in motion too fast, struggling to find grip even as they surged over one another. Whatever passed for communication amongst them came too late as one of the leads fell, knocking down those below with them as they fell… directly onto the blazing pyre below.
The flames surged bright with all the fresh fuel falling into the violet bonfire, silk catching easily as hundreds of scrambling legs fought to get free, only to have their coverings catch fire as whatever magic was present ate its way through their protection before igniting them as well. The charge rapidly turned into a disorganized, panicked mob, and he sighed in weary relief.
He looked over to Yuki, opening his mouth to speak, but she looked more… drained than he had ever seen her. Her eyelids drooped, and her shoulders had an uncharacteristic slump he had never seen, even when she was walking mangled up to his doorsteps.
John tapped Yuki's arm. "You okay?" he asked, and she nodded, gesturing to him in return. He gave her a thumbs up, but confusion painted her muzzle as she slightly tilted her head.
"Yes," he clarified, and Yuki smiled before trundling off toward the water. John was close to her side, anxiously scanning all around them with the impromptu scanner freshly retrieved from his pocket, just in case. The trip was tense, albeit less so after they made some distance from the spiders screaming in human-ish voices as they burned.
He had to admit it was more difficult to stand close to Yuki than it was this morning when they headed into town together. It was undeniable the kitsune didn't wish to harm him; being hefted in her arms in a dead sprint away from danger was more than proof of that, yet he couldn't deny the sight of her acting like a feral animal was disturbing. It was everything he feared when he first opened the gates to her, just… directed elsewhere, mercifully. One moment, she was calm and understanding, and the next, she predated on what would give most nightmares and ate what very well might be its very soul with all the implications that brought.
And then, she was back to Yuki.
Was it something she could just choose to do at any time? Was it something instinctual that he could trigger by mistake and doom him as surely as putting his head in a crocodile's mouth? Both were worrying, but what scared him the most was there might be no switch, no friendly Yuki and brutal Yuki. If it was just her, did he ever really have a read on the kitsune in the first place, or was it all an act? Assuming she told the truth about her circumstances, there was a good chance she was imprisoned for a reason, and he was just someone she liked. A shudder ripped through him. He needed answers.
John looked over his companion as she trundled forward and promptly decided it could wait until she rested and bathed. He could probably make some… passable-ish robes for her to wear while he cleaned her kimono, although he hoped it had some magic to repel stains with how much viscera had gotten onto it.
Wordlessly, they walked out from under the sweeping canopy and onto the rocky river bank. Being upstream worked in their favour. John still had no clue how good of a sense of smell the creatures had, but he would take no chances in leaving a scent trail for them to follow. Oh, they doubtlessly knew where he lived, but they had yet to breach the walls and the less chance they had to ambush him on the way back, the better. Perhaps their distaste for his continued existence would overcome their hatred for the sun, and he'd have to live in fear while outside now that they kicked the hornet's nest. A problem for later.
Stepping ahead of Yuki to the shoreline, he blasted the water with sheer cold, creating a giant brick before swapping out the focus. The excavation beam appeared from his finger next, and he carved out the block's interior, careful not to breach through. It was pretty easy; he had practice taking the lazy way down the river, although he made sure the bottom was plenty thick in case that kappa's cousin still took offence.
Climbing into his new boat, he offered his hand to the tired kitsune, and she graciously took it, although he felt she still barely put any weight onto him. The two of them sat down cross legged, and he grabbed the ice-dingy with telekinesis, pushing them out from shore to drift slowly down back toward safety.
Neither of them found the energy to make conversation.
Comments
Maxxx524
I suspect it’s not a subconscious switch, but an embrace of baser instincts that takes experience and self control to steer. So she weaponizes that feralness to her advantage. Just my guess.
TopBat
Thank you! Support and comments like this do legitimately mean a lot to me. I hope to have more for you soon!
Kieran Hosty
Read through up to 12 and instantly went to contribute here. I love this genre mix, I love it so much. So imagine my wonder when I find a story that is not only fantasy Japan, but with believable characters who are more than cardboard cutouts! I'll be reading your chapters with great excitement Auth!
TopBat
Thanks! Note to self: NEVER post on mobile.
Patrick Wheeler
Potential out of order release I have access to ch11 and ch13 but not ch12.
TopBat
I've fixed the spacing on this chapter in patreon's editor four times so far and none of them have taken. Sorry, folks, this teachs me for trying to upload a chapter on the go! I'll keep trying, but it may be broken until I get home.
