Chapter 104: [Chef] vs Mafia

Lus stood in his small shuttle, digging through the bag of food he'd brought with him from the Argo. First he removed a [Power Burger] and downed it as quickly as he could.

[+10 Strength]

[+ 5 Stamina]

Next he took out the [Beginner's Luck Soup] and chugged it as well, finding his stomach stuffed to the brim already. 

[+10 Luck]

Groaning, he looked at the last two items on the menu and resisted the urge to barf.

"Why isn't there a [Skill] that lets me eat an unlimited amount of food? How am I supposed to get all the benefit of these [Recipes] if I can't stomach everything in a time of crisis?" he said to himself.

That's when he remembered the other three available [Skills]. All he'd bought so far was [Unarmed Strike], but there were still [Unfailing Feet], [Bottomless Pit], and [Boosted Metabolism].

"[Bottomless Pit]..." he murmured. Could that be exactly what he needed? It was a risk, but there was only one way to find out.

Lusac pulled up the [Skill Shop] and selected [Bottomless Pit], spending the last [1000 XP] he had.

As he read the description, he knew he'd made the correct choice.

[Bottomless Pit:]

[Allows user to eat unlimited food for 15 minutes without physical side effects.]

Activate [Bottomless Pit], Lusac thought to himself.

[Activating: Bottomless Pit]

His stomach stopped gurgling, and the idea of eating no longer made him want to throw up. In fact, those [Maxed Meatballs] looked extra tasty now. He ripped open the package and tore through the food as fast as he could, gaining the extra boost to his stats. It was supposed to raise his five highest stats, and it worked based on the base level, not the boosted version it seemed.

[+5 Luck]

[+5 Intelligence]

[+5 Health]

[+5 Speed]

[+5 Charm]

Finally, Lus took out the [Fiery Fired Kechin] and ate it. There was no notification with it, but he felt a strange tingling along his body. He trusted that when the time came, he'd know how to use those promised fire powers.

Lusac left the shuttle and the remnants of his mega meal, jogging through the hallways of the Sliaryt space station. Nobody really seemed to be paying attention to him despite the fact he was supposed to be on his way. Maybe it was that boosted [Charm] which kept them from bothering him about it.

He kept his pace quick as he made his way towards the medical center, praying he wasn't already too late. Sure, he'd taken some time to eat some food, but he couldn't single-handedly take on a group of Nemarian mobsters without some kind of advantage. [Dash] alone could only do so much, especially with the five minutes cooldown. Luckily, [Unarmed Strike's] cooldown was only ten seconds, so that one could be used repeatedly in the fight.

If only he had a blaster, but he hadn't been allowed to bring any weapons to the space station. Unfortunately, he figured it would take a miracle for the Nemarian's to have followed that same protocol.

Lus reached the medical bay which was remarkably peaceful. That was good. It meant the mafia hadn't made their move yet, and he still had a chance to save Varyna.

He glanced around and noticed the Nemarians lingering near one of the isolation rooms. That must be where Varyna was. He walked over to be near them without being too obvious, straining his ears for any hint of conversation that alluded to their purpose.

Technically, he didn't know for a fact that these guys were mobsters after Varyna, which meant he couldn't strike until they made their move and proved his guess correct. Hopefully it wouldn't take too long so he would still have his boosted stats to assist him.

Lusac studied the wall in front of him, using a screen as a mirror to watch the movements of the Nemarians behind him. They were hunched up, whispering far too quietly for him to hear anything, but their actions were definitely suspicious. He was sure they were criminals–the real kind that murdered for fun, not a Runner who happened to conduct occasionally less-than-legal business like himself.

The Human doctor from before exited the room. "She's finally awake now if you wish to see her. I'll warn you she's quiet out of it. Who should I tell her is visiting?"

One of the Nemarian's smiled sadistically. "Just some old friends she met at the AquaDome.She should be expecting us."

The doctor nodded and then poked his head into the room to pass along the message. He then stepped to the side and allowed the Nemarians to enter.

"No. That idiot," Lus muttered to himself as he walked to follow suit.

The doctor grabbed his arm before he could pass through the door, leaving Varyna alone with the people sent to kill her.

"Shouldn't you be long gone? I heard Dlt order you away immediately upon your arrival," he said.

"Those people are here to kill Varyna," Lusac shouted, tearing away from the grip and dashing into the room. The doctor didn't stand a chance of stopping him with that boosted [Strength].

Inside was a hospital bed which held Varyna who was still hooked up to a variety of medical equipment while the Nemarians surrounded her. Lus saw enough of her face to see that one of the Nemarians had a scaled hand over her mouth, gagging her cries as the rest cracked their knuckles. They clearly wanted to make this as painful as possible for her, but Lus wouldn't let them hurt his new friend.

"Get away from her." Lus squared his shoulders and held his fists out.

The lead Nemarian looked at him and laughed. "And what's a skinny Human going to do about it?"

"This!" Lusac jumped forward, putting all his focus on activating a single [Skill].

[Activating: Unarmed Strike]

His fist slammed into the Nemarian's throat, and his enemy collapsed with a silent gasp. The other Nemarians prepared to pounce on him, but Lus was already activating his next [Skill].

[Activating Dash for 50 seconds]

The world slowed as Nemarian hands–some armed with knives–reached out for him, but Lus easily ducked around them and wrapped his arms around Varyna's terrified form. He knew he should probably be more conscious of all the medical stuff, but there wasn't time to worry about that now. He pulled her from the bed, ripping away the cords as he ran out of the room. There wasn't enough room in the tiny hospital suite for him to properly dispose of these Nemarians without risking injury to Varyna so he had to get her out of the way.

Lusac easily carried Varyna from the room, hardly breaking sweat as he ran even with the extra weight. That [+10 Strength] helped a lot, it turned out. Maybe he should take Nippy up on that offer to train in [Strength] again.

The medical staff outside the room were in the midst of just reacting to the chaos coming from the room, all still slowed by his active [Dash]. He ran past them and set Varyna on an exam table near the back wall, then he turned back and approached the room as his [Skill] ran out.

[Deactivating: Dash]

[Cooldown: 5 Minutes]

The world resumed its normal pace as bewildered nurses looked at Lusac who basically appeared out of nowhere. A few had enough presence of mind to go to Varyna and check on their patient, but Lus didn't think more about it as he turned his attention to the angry Nemarians spilling out of Varyna's hospital room.

The front one–who happened to also be the biggest Nemarian Lus had ever seen–roared as he sprinted towards him. Lus recognized that all the [Power Burgers] in the Cinder Rock Galaxy couldn't prepare him to take on an opponent of this size while unarmed, but luckily Lus had another trick up his sleeve.

He pointed his hand out and concentrated really hard on the [Fiery Fried Kechin] he ate earlier. Those fire powers couldn't be too hard to activate, right? If there were, Lus was already dead.

To his relief, a stream of fire shot out of his palm, directly at the large Nemarian. Due to his size and the unexpected impediment, he wasn't able to dodge well, and the flames caught on his clothes. The mobster screamed and turned in a different way to run around, attempting to pat out the flames, but failing.

Lus smiled, but he didn't have long to appreciate his success as two more Nemarians descended upon him, one female and one male.

He threw a punch out and flames jumped from his fist towards the female, but she was nimble and easily ducked to the side. He barely had time to spin away from the punch the male Nemarian threw at him before sending more flames towards her which she still managed to avoid.

This isn't working quite as well as I thought, Lus thought to himself as another Nemarian joined the fray, putting him against three of the mobsters.

Two more failed attempts at catching the Nemarians on fire later, a new idea spawned in his mind. First, he used [Unarmed Strike] to disorient the female, and then he put the flames at her feet, where she would least expect it.

The trick worked, and she collapsed to the ground with a scream as the fire scorched her legs. Unfortunately, there were still two other enemies, and Lus had been so distracted with taking out the one, they had the opportunity to grapple him and force his hands behind his back.

From there one held him while the other tossed punches into his abdomen like a punching bag. Lus also had a great view of the head Nemarians making his way towards where Varyna waited, easily throwing to the side any medical personnel who stood in his way.

Lus recognized he'd been stupid to think he could do this alone, but as chance would have it, he didn't have to finish this alone.

With a thought, a new notification appeared.

[Activating: Summon Avil]

The cyclops cat plopped on the floor next to his feet, screeching in displeasure.

"Avil, protect that woman over there," Lus quickly commanded his companion. He shifted his hands enough to get his palms against the wrists of the Nemarian holding him and activated his fire powers.

The Nemarian released him with a howl, and Lus used his [Unarmed Strike] to lash out at the Nemarian who'd been punching him. A glance to the side showed a full cyclops taking on the head Nemarian, or rather easily tossing the boss to the ground in what was never going to be a fair fight.

Lusac shot more flames out to distract the Nemarians who were still determined to fight him, but he could see that their courage was waning with the addition of the cyclops to the mix.

"This guy's got some kind of crazy powerful system," someone shouted from behind.

Lus looked back to the door to see that security had finally arrived. They had blasters, an advantage over the Nemarians, and he trusted they could finish the job. In order to not hurt any innocents, Lus stopped using his fire power and simply stepped to the side as the security officers rushed into the room and began making arrests.

To his dismay, two of the officers approached him with handcuffs.

"Sir, if you could just lower your hands," one of them said.

If they arrested him, they would find the artifact piece which he'd stupidly left in his pants pocket in his haste to come save Varyna. Besides, he couldn't afford for them to go digging into his background and discover who he really was.

He shook his head. "Sorry. Thanks for the help. I trust you can finish taking care of this."

Lusac bolted towards the door, and when the officers reached out to grab him, he turned again to his [Skills]. He really hoped that fight had lasted at least five minutes or else this might be game over.

He was in luck, or rather [Luck].

[Activating Dash for 50 seconds]

The arms of the guards slowed, and Lus blew past them into the hallway. He wasted no time making his way to the hangar where his shuttle waited. Just as he got inside and sat down at the controls, his [Skill] ran out.

[Deactivating: Dash]

[Cooldown: 5 Minutes]

A second later, a red warning light flashed alongside an ominous beep as the bay doors began to close.

"No, no, no. Come on. I've got to get out of here," Lusac cried as he started up the ship's engine. It hummed to life, but the autopilot refused to engage since the doors were closing and it was deemed "too dangerous."

"Good thing I got lessons from Oaty," he said.

Lus took control of the shuttle and lifted off by himself with zero help from the computer's automatic systems. He accelerated towards the closing doors, praying for just one more miracle. He had to turn to the ship sideways, but somehow he fit through the doors before they could slide all the way closed.

The military ships outside the station didn't seem to have been alerted to his escape yet, and Lus reached down on the console to activate the secret ability of the shuttle which had been added by the Suppliers.

A cloaking device.

Now that it was on, he was safe from detection and free to fly back to the Astral Highway.

"One last thing to do," he said to himself.

[Activating: Summon Avil]

His cat plopped in his lap with a small grunt before he began purring.

"Good job, Avil. You saved the day again," Lus told him as he used one hand to scratch behind his ears. "Now let's go home."