Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG
Chapter 255

My win condition was simple: kill Corvin. He was the one keeping everyone knocked out, and the one responsible for the barrier blocking the outside world. His death would grant me freedom, as well as complete the Request sent by the eidolons.

I was all alone out here. I tried waking a few Crusaders to no success. Hell, I even managed to find Ligh and Hope sleeping peacefully inside a downed flyer. The lucky bastards were completely unharmed somehow. Unfortunately, whatever magic Corvin used kept everyone down and out.

Fortunately, there was plenty of equipment to rearm myself. The unconscious cultists, of which I killed as many as I could find, wouldn’t need their weapons anymore. The issue was that none of them were strong enough to punch through Corvin’s feathers. He'd gotten into the tree completely unharmed even through all the fighting. And after absorbing the accumulated power of She Who Grows? I had little hope in even the heavy weapons getting through.

I had a trick up my sleeve though. The only trick that had even a chance of working. Plan A. I came up with it while scavenging the battlefield. It was a rework of an old plan from prepower-up Corvin. I gave it a fifty percent chance of succeeding, all hinging on one moment.

Plan B… well, plan B was quite frankly awful. One percent chance. Plan C was even worse. Really, if Plan A didn’t work, I was well and truly screwed. And even then, Plan A’s high percentage of working relied on a correct psychological analysis of Corvin from what little I’d seen of the big bird. His pride- his cocky demeanor and desire to prove himself better than Crow? It was half the foundation Plan A was built on.

The setup for Plan A was the longest part, though it gave me time to flush out even more of my strategy as I worked right under the nose of the distracted bird. I moved between the various faction's APCs, tanks, mechs, and downed flyers, gathering supplies and rewiring internals to fit my plan.

I fixed the main canons of all the flyers I could, stripping vehicles for parts as I went. Slowly but steadily, I built up an armada of big guns, rail-cannons, and even some missiles all over the battlefield. The rail-cannons in particular had been fun to work on and fix- or at least would've been if my entire body didn't radiate a constant sick feeling.

Technical Expertise scanned each and every piece of tech I could get my hands on. Every bit I could find was imprinted into my mind by Eidetic Schematic, growing my catalogue by the hundreds. Everything from small devices to massive weapons. From stuff built by Knight Security, to backstreet merc gear, to Sentinel exo-skeletons, to even a vast array of downed drones sent by KairoTech Global.

If I got out of this, I had a lot to think about. A lot I could build. The keyword there was if, though. I could very well die here, stripped to pieces by carrion birds and left to rot. If I even had a complete body once Corvin got through me.

My coding skills were bad. Really bad. Net was only three even after all this time. I was scraping the bottom of the barrel to link all the weapons and devices across the battlefield to my wrist-tablet. I didn’t even try to break through the corporate code, instead directly creating hardwired access to everything I needed.

If there was one thing to my benefit? This space seemed to be completely separated from the outside world. I didn't have to fight corporate Netrunners as I jury-rigged their tech.

It was a test of endurance, lasting hours. With each passing moment, Corvin grew stronger and stronger, and yet I couldn’t move much faster. My body felt stilted and weak from whatever Mother did to me. My movements weren’t near as clean as they used to be, and I half stumbled around the sleeping battlefield in an attempt to get everything ready.

There were a few uncomfortable moments here and there. The stench of gore and bloodshed was omnipresent, as were the mangled corpses. I tried not to look too much. The biggest issue was the robots though. The autonomous ones were still active, though there were very few of them. Thankfully, they were on the Crusade’s side, but they made for some nerve-wracking moments.

As the sun fully set, my work finally ended. I stood on top of a flyer, staring up at the big bird at the top of the tree as I took a deep breath. I checked everything one last time. Looking out over the section I chose for the final battle, I made one last check to make sure only circle cultists would get caught in the fight. That casualties would be minimized.

Everything looked… maybe not good, but okay? There was a solid chance my jury rigging wouldn’t work at all. Over half the stuff I hardwired would probably fail, but if even just a fraction of them went off and got Corvin’s attention…

I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment before nodding. It would work. It had to. I flicked up on my wrist pad, pressing the command to fire-

Boom!

All around the battlefield, machinery roared to life as cacophonous booms poured out across the space. Artillery, cannons, machine guns, missiles and anything else I could get my hands on fired one after another.

Most of them smacked harmlessly into the trees, some even hitting each other and creating a field of explosions midair. A few got through the rapidly revitalizing tree’s branches and directly hit the bird. Smoke and light blinded me to its effects as the whole world seemed to shake.

”Caw!” A furious cry went up as dark green clad feathers launched out from the smoke, swiftly followed by the massive unharmed form of Corvin. The malevolent bird scanned the battlefield, beginning to cast large scale magic-

“Caw?” He froze, staring around in confusion for a moment before his two eyes landed on me, standing on top of a flyer. None of my Perks were active, leaving me in full view.

He stopped his magic, gliding down to me as a guttural chuckle came from his throat. “The little lap dog is still barking, huh? Did you really think that would work-”

“Shut up.” I fired my grenade launcher, a pyro grenade slamming directly into his opened beak. Fire immediately lit the inside of his mouth, though was snuffed out by his tongue

A glare froze me in place. “I am immortal! I have the power of a god! You think your little fire can harm me?! Go ahead. I’ll give you another shot! Try your best.”

I stared at him for a moment before flicking on the touchpad again. This time, only an eighth of the stuff I hardwired fired. Most of them missed entirely, though a few shots harmlessly plinked off his feathers.

He laughed once more, sending a single dark green feather at me. I barely dodged it thanks to Insight and tried once more. This time, nothing fired. My jury rigged stuff was well and truly done…. All according to plan, though. His attention was fully and solely on me.

”You bastard! How dare you betray Crow!” I called out as I fired another harmless grenade at him. If I could just rile him up a bit more-

”Crow? Crow?! I am the new Crow! That pretender- how dare he? How dare he? Scum of the Aether!” Corvin launched himself at me, hitting me squarely with a burst of wind from his wings. No magic though.

I staggered, barely keeping upright as I threw a dagger at his eye. Unlike when he let missiles and tank shells hit him, a barrier popped up, blocking the knife. "You bitch!"

I threw myself to the side with Burst Step as he rammed into the ground, barely dodging with the combined might of Insight and Dexterity. Vile saliva dripped from his beak, staining the war-torn ground.

I felt the hope that’d been suppressed start to bloom once more. The barrier all but confirmed my suspicions. Although his feathers were strong, the rest of the bird wasn’t. A wave of relief passed over me, though I kept a perfect expression of despair as I looked up at the big bird.

He sent a feather whistling past my face. “You petty lap dog. Your death is inevitable! I am a god!”

I shot at him, unloading a full-auto mag into his feathered body. It all plinked off harmlessly. Almost- he was almost there. ”You’re just like him! Hiding in a tree, scared to face the world! You even have eight wings! You shameless copy-cat!”

”How dare you!” He roared, his expression twisting into pure rage and disdain as all eight wings threw themselves forward. “I am superior! I deserve to sit upon his throne! Not that- that unjust traitor!”

A traitor calling traitor? I struggled to dodge another hail of feathers-

Even with Insight's warning, I moved too slow. He snatched me mid-dodge in a bone-crushing grasp. His talons cut deep as he slammed me into the ground and caged me in with his massive foot. “L-let me go!”

He put more pressure into his leg, the sharp talons pressing into my arms and legs. Blood poured from me like a river. “Ha! Their Scion! Their chosen vassal! So weak. So easily crushed! Are you watching Crow? How shall I kill her? Tear her limb from limb? Or maybe even keep her alive, forcing you to watch as she slowly dies over centuries! I'll break her in mind and in body!”

“Y-you sick bastard! Let me go!” I ‘struggled’ lightly in his grasp, eyeing his foot as I put on an expression of terror. While the bird ranted, I slowly started to move.

Hidden Hands and Hidden Weapon, some of the first two Perks I ever chose. Both activated, my hands blurring slightly as Corvin confidently continued to talk about all the obscene things he’d do to me. He didn't notice a thing, assured completely in his victory. "Watch! Watch as I break her!"

The talons severed deeper into my body, crushing my bones just as they cut my skin. I flicked on Cold-Blooded to sharpen my focus, doing my best to ignore the injuries. I reached into my pocket, pulling out a small jade dagger. He didn’t notice. It would one of the last mistakes he ever made. I wiggled my hand, stabbing the dagger deep into his foot.

This was the moment that everything hinged on. And the one that worried me the most when I was planning everything. Would it even work on him?

”Ha! And all the while you’ll be completely incapable of-“ The bird immediately stopped talking, freezing up as his talons tightened slightly. The injury was so small he didn’t even notice it. “Y-you! What have you done?!”

His talons went still, stopping just short of crushing me to death. I let out a ragged breath as the paralysis spread up his leg. The four pairs of wings flapped erratically as if to get away, but it was already too late.

It spread throughout his body, slowly making him limp as the dagger's effect kicked in. I pushed on the paralyzed talons, loosening them enough for me to slip out of his grasp.

I plucked my dagger from his foot, weakly caressing the blade as I looked at the wicked bird. No idea how long it’d last. I usually had an hour, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he recovered quicker. I had no time to waste. I held my side, feeling a crumpled rib pang in agony.

I limped to his face as his eyes watched me in horror. I could see the struggle in his eyes. The unwillingness. His body continued to twitch as if in defiance. I gently caressed his beak. “Heh… you know, I really must thank you.”

I pulled open the massive beak, his lax muscles making it quite easy. My voice was shaky as I spoke, “I couldn’t have even dreamed of trying this on Mother. She lacked a physical body… you though?”

The twitching throughout his body died down as the paralysis fully took over. His eyes… they radiated pure terror. It was… delicious. Seeing how far the mighty could fall- it sent a thrill down my spine to see the traitorous bird responsible for all of this with such a look in his eyes.

Normal fire wouldn’t work on him, I’d already tried it. This part right here was the second part I was unsure of when hatching Plan A. How would I kill him once he was down?

I summoned a bracelet. The one gifted to me by Fox oh so long ago. If this didn’t work? Well… I hopefully had an hour to figure something out.

The last charm on the bracelet faded away as the entire bracelet caught fire. A ghastly blue fire spread over my hand, creating a warm ball of raging flames that flicked harmlessly against me. I leaned down, tossing the fire down his paralyzed gullet.

The flame flickered harmlessly for a moment before exploding into a frenzy. The fire rapidly spread through him. The burning stench of flesh emitted into the air. Unlike the porky scent of human flesh though, the appetizing scent made my mouth water like he was a cooked chicken. The helpless bird slowly started to cook from inside out, incapable of resisting the fire.

I staggered away, dropping to the ground and weakly hugged my knees. My head was dizzy and light, the blood loss making everything seem so very faint. My body was covered in blood and sap, pouring from almost every part of me. Several bones were broken, shattered by Corvin’s grasp.

None of it mattered as I watched the bird burn. His terrified eyes slowly lost focus. The ghastly fire raged throughout his body. His struggles, once so fierce, died entirely. The hope and terror in his eyes faded into pure cold resentment. Eventually, they glazed over entirely, the accumulated power he saved all for nothing. Fox’s fire burned everything away.

Well, almost everything. The bones and feathers remained in a pile of ash, all that was left of the bird after the flame burned it all down. I tiredly gathered a few of them, filling my bag up before sitting back against a flyer. Exhaustion beat at my head.

The magic thrumming through the air faded away with Corvin’s death. For the first time in a really long time, Insight went silent. The constant buzz against my mind was gone, leaving me in a weird state of peace. Well, mostly in peace. There was still a ringing, though that was definetely from my injuries and not the Trait.

A burst of energy exploded, frying my wrist pad. The headlights and bots all around the battlefield likewise died like an EMP just went off. Best I could tell? It was the remnant power gathered by Mother and then Corvin, all blasting out in one burst without a container to hold it.

I hesitantly flicked on Aetherial Perception and looked into the Aether. The accumulated energy slowly fed back into the tree at the center of all of this. It rapidly revitalized, growing as the limp branches straightened. The withered bark rejuvenated rapidly. It was coming back.

Only- there was a noticeable lack of malevolence in the Aether. Mother was gone. Her tendrils, her vines, her eyes that seemed omnipresent had vanished. The corruptive ooze that used to drip off of every surface was no more. The Aether flowed through this place like a river, running through the clearing.

I looked down at myself, the only source of corruption in this entire wasteland. I could see it- I could feel it beneath my skin. It churned, the green ooze pressed deeper into my body as if something to hide. It made me feel sick even just looking at myself.

And yet? The tree at the center of everything stood without the malevolent influence that birthed it, practically glowing with the Aether. Its bark radiated vibrant life. I stared at it for a moment before flicking Aetherial Perception off. The bright lights were hurting my stinging eyes.

Wild flowers bloomed across to battlefield. The wash of colors were so, so very pretty. I’d never actually seen real flowers. I found myself entranced by them for several long moments. Fear and wonder passed through me in equal parts in the kaleidoscope of colors.

Further out, I could hear the groans of people starting to wake. Flyers rapidly approached from beyond where the barrier held, their engines humming loudly against the peaceful night sky.

「Request - Slay Twisted Abomination, Corvin - Complete

• Reward: 1x Trait Point, Eidolonic Favor, Crow’s Experimental Trait: Spectral Flock」

「Request - Separated Space - Complete

• Reward: Eidolonic Favor」

The interface popped into my vision as I lay back and stared at the night sky. The moon peeked through the gaps of clouds, radiating down onto me gently. My eyes felt so, so very heavy.

I blinked a few times to read new messages coming across. A yawn tore my jaw apart, forcing my eyes to squeeze shut. I barely managed to wedge them open to read the messages.

「99%」

「100%」

「UPGRADE COMPLETE」

So sleepy. Yeah, sleep. Sleep sounded so good. I deserved a little nap, right? My eyes closed. I faded off into a long, dreamless rest.

— — —

End of this arc! New stuff is on the horizon. Thank you for being with me on this journey through the first major arc of Outrun.