Chapter 6: The Limits of Power
"Look out!" He shouted, jumping to the side, fully expecting the lumbering figure of the driver to be too slow and cumbersome to avoid the flight of the deadly insect. He rolled away and turned back, believing he'd see the stinger embedded in the giant, but in shock he saw the arms of the driver straining to hold back the monstrous insect, its stinger dripping inches from his now taut belly. Even more astounding the baying of the wolf-like mechanical lifeforms echoed down the street as it slammed into another insect.
Sensing danger all around, Seth whirled just in time to find the venomous pincers of a giant centipede mere millimeters from his back. Rolling down and to the side, Seth grabbed a piece of broken metal from the ground, and without thinking, slashed at the armored creature. To Seth's dismay, the armor remained undamaged and the centipede advanced.
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"A quest log?! Joshua, what are you trying to do? Turn this into a bloody game! I'm fighting for my fucking life here."
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<<"I'm trying to save your life, you nutter. You and every one I can on this planet.">>
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Seth dodges a swing of the centipedes many legs and tries to slide beneath the body to better have a chance of penetrating the insects interior organs, but gets swiped by another leg and rolls across the ground the centipede comes barreling like twenty ton bullet train and slams into the debris left by a collapse office building, reducing the fragments even further into fine powder. It's mandible miss Seth as he scrambles away and pierce deeply into the remaining asphalt.
"Eeek," it shrieks as it attempts to yank out its incredible sharp weapons.
"Save my life? How?" Seth yelled as he once again attempted to batter and attack the centipede by jumping on its back to somehow slam the shard into the hide of the monstrous insect. Landing on the beast, he placed a hand on its shell for the first time. Information inundated Seth's mind, and overwhelmed, he stumbled and slipped from his precarious perch. The centipede, still flailing in anger at the entrenched pincers, side swiped Seth's fallen form and he once again rolled away.
Seth chambered to his feet as the centipede broke free. The information flowed and organized in Seth's mind of its own volition, and he quickly grasped an inkling at what he had perceived: the very makeup of the centipede. From the hardness of its exoskeleton down to the very composition of its cells and consciousness he could read and understand, but what does that allow him to do? All it is is information, not a tool to be used to pry the weakness out of the centipede… Wait! The centipede is weak to dryness. Can I burn the damn thing? Searching his pockets, he found a lighter he kept for emergencies, considering the bitter cold winters he had experienced as a youth. He ripped his shirt as he continued to dodge and run around the legs and maw of the centipede. As he ran to dodge one more, he got side swiped again, and the information appeared again, except this time he felt he could almost pull on it. Without thinking, he reached out to the information with his mind and tweaks at the nervous system.
"Eeeek!"
The centipede writhed as pain courses throughout its body and fire burns it from the inside out. Seth just stared at it. He had wanted to burn it from the inside out. He didn't know he could do it literally, and with just a tweaking thought.
Could I do more?
He tries to tweak the information again, but it remains solid and unusable.
How did I do that?
He touched his forehead to try to ease the headache beginning behind his eyes, and new information suffused his mind. Not an insects but his own composition laid out before him. Splayed like fresh meat on a platter to devour, he could see every part of himself, what was aged and broken, what was dormant, what could be altered and changed, and above all where pieces if himself were just… missing. The headache grew worse, and he wished he had the capacity to think through the pain. Just like that, something clicked and the pain, though still there, had become a fly buzzing in the back of his mind. His thoughts grew sharper and more condensed, but fatigue slammed into him.
What is wrong?
He staggers and falls to the ground. Rubbing his temples, he realizes what it is as the information blades across his senses: nutrients. He needed food and fast. He looked quickly toward the writhing centipede and wondered if he could somehow harvest the nutrients from it. If worse came to worse, he'd kill it and eat it raw. This was not the time to become weak.
The centipede squealed in pain but stared at the human who started it all and leaped toward the weakened human. Seth didn't bother moving and reached up both hands and caught the pincers of the centipede. The centipede immediately curled around its prey, despite its agony, to trap and prepare to devour its prey, but as it reached out to bury it mandible into the flesh of the soft human, something changed. Something was terribly wrong. The strength of the centipede leaked out of it, and it grew hungry and fatigued quickly, but worst of all, it could not pierce the hide of the human as the humans skin became as tough as its own armor.
Seth was astounded as he discovered that not only could he leech out all the cell energy within the centipede, but he could also steal its own strengths. He didn't understand half of what he was doing, but going off instinct, he was surviving. The cell of the centipede withered and died before his very eyes. It was almost as if