Weapons of Mass Destruction

Chapter 438: SDAT

Chapter 438: SDAT

POV Kim Min-Jae

“That idiot! We still need more testing!” Sophie shouts, and together we rush to the railing to watch what happens next.

I've seen it before, the other passengers ground to nothing by the same white sand. I still remember the screams and the image of their flesh being torn apart. But that doesn’t happen to Nat.

Before hitting the sand, he slows down and gently lands on it. He then stands there, butt naked, and watches as the wind blows a large cloud of white sand towards him, washing over the surface of the dunes like waves.

I could swear I saw him smile for a moment there.

Lily screams and covers her eyes as the sand smashes against Nat’s body, and I just can’t look away even though he could be dead the next second. A part of me can’t even imagine him dying. Not him. Not like this.

And just like that, he still stands there when the wave of sand is gone. There are wounds on his body, blood flowing down his skin. More than a failure, they seem like a small mistake and lack of efficiency in his efforts.

Nat spits bits of sand from his mouth and then charges towards the two blue figures. He moves in that weird twitchy movement of his and uses boosts of kinetic energy to get him over larger distances, quickly catching up to the two thylarin.

“I don’t think Nat cares about your testing,” I note.

“You might not realize it, Kim, but a single fucking mistake would have killed him there. If his body contained even the smallest whiff of the mana you spend to keep one of your orbs floating in the air, that sand would have killed him.”

“He wouldn’t fail like that,” I shake my head. I just can’t imagine it.

“But why’d he ditch his clothes?” Aaron asks.

“We couldn’t come up with a way to reliably expunge mana from external materials. It's easier to rely on your own body.”

“Is it just me, or does Nat have a nice ass?” Maya interrupts her words causing people to stare, and Tess giggles, breaking her stern mask.

“I can’t judge that as a man, but Lily might be able to answer,” Dennis blurts, ever eager to seize the opportunity. "She might send Izzy for the smartphone so she can snag a few pics."

“Shhh, she’s too busy staring,” Aaron adds.

“I’m not! I... just shut up, both of you!”

“It’s fine, Lily! I even saw Sophie and Tess sneaking a peek.” Maya chuckles, throwing her arm around the petite girl's shoulders.

Sometimes Maya manages to read the mood just well enough to lighten the tension, and I’m not even sure if she’s doing it on purpose or if that’s just how she is.

Everyone’s anxious. Even I can see that. Just a single mistake will mean Nat’s death. But at this point, it almost feels like It’s the only way we can expect him to behave.

That worries me a bit.

What would happen if Nat fails to live up to our high expectations? What would I do if the man I admire most fails and breaks?

I then watch as Nat reaches the two four armed thylarin. They seem to be as shocked by his apparent nudity as the fact that he followed them and survived.

Nat moves in a short burst of immense speed, white sand exploding under his feet, and the three of them rapidly settle into a melee combat.

POV Nathaniel

I expected it to be an easy fight, but they turned out to be stronger than I expected. The two of them work well together, and they wouldn’t be able to do so without a lot of experience.

So why the hell are you so good at melee combat? You can teleport, mess with my anchors, and have decent control over your mana, so don’t go learning melee tactics like some brute. Not to mention that the extra arms might just be slightly unfair.

I dodge another punch and boost my body to the side. I can’t even absorb anymore right now, that would require mana. And it's a good thing I turned off my unique passive too. With the way I’m getting pummeled right now, it would generate enough mana that the sand would kill all three of us.

Even so, I don’t need any of this. I’m already getting used to the way they fight.

“Any good news?” I ask the guide.

“Heryd here can help you with the core. He has some experience with...”

“I see. There’s no need for that. Anything else?”

The guide looks between me and the scaly legged shorty and then back at me, “I still can’t stop the SDAT and...”

“What’s an SDAT?” I ask, interrupting him.

“Are you... SDAT means Sand-Defensive Air Transport.”

“Got it, please continue.”

“I still have no idea where we’re heading but we should find out soon. Though there shouldn’t be anything in the Mana Desert so I don't know how much help it will be or why we’re heading there. There is no sense in trying to run away even if we could change course; the storm will catch up anyway.”

“What if we bury ourselves in the sand?” the short vyssari asks, turning away from the core.

“That would either force us to keep the field running to ward it off or to turn off the field. In that case, any sand that got into the SDAT would be the end of us. And we don’t have enough mana to hold the field against that much sand.”

“Any rest stops around here? ” the vyssari continues.

“None, there is nothing here as far as we know. Not a single place free of sand.”

I listen to the rest of the conversation with one ear and turn back to the mana pillar. Just in case, I check the inscriptions and preparations I made, and it seems like no one’s messed with them. So I continue to work on them, I even manage to connect a few more of its functions and even though it still feels half-baked, it’s better than nothing.

When the conversation between the guide and the vyssari starts to drag on too long, I interrupt them. “You,” I shout, pointing at the guide, “shouldn’t you be controlling the ship?”

“It’s an SDAT, not a ship. It should be fine to leave it for a while. Our course is already set, and Kallus is taking care of the defenses. With how little mana we have, we don’t even have to focus on controlling how it’s being used.”

“Good, go back to the deck. Find the tall blonde, she can tell you what to do. They might already have more information on what happened.”

I watch him hesitate for a moment, but he does stand up eventually and head towards the deck without another word. As he said before, he was just a rookie following orders.

As I work, I can feel Heryd’s eyes on me, the vyssari, who was supposed to be helping me is one of the only three passengers with a level higher than mine. Much like the two thylarin I just brought back.

“You can fly; you could run away,” he says out of nowhere.

As I turn to him, I can see how carefully he’s observing me.

“Sure,” I respond, returning to my work, placing an anchor inside the core which I use to feed it power from my crown.

There is no way I would just put my mana inside to let just anyone use. No, I’d rather just feed the ship more as needed. While doing so, I also think about his question.

Could I really just fly away if I felt like it?

I think I could. Sure, there could be some specks of sand that high up, and if I had any mana inside my body, I would take significant damage, but I think I could push through. The trip that took this rusty old thing days would take me hours if I used enough kinetic energy.

It would be simple, but back when I was considering my options for survival, it never once crossed my mind. And I can think of two reasons for that.

The first is that I’m so confident in my ability to survive, even this, that the thought of running away never entered my mind.

The second is that I didn’t want to leave this silly group of mine. Angry Kittens, group 4, Biscuit and Co., whatever the name of the day turns out to be.

I’ve always liked watching others, and now here I am examining myself and taking stock of my feelings, asking questions. And the one that eventually sticks at the front of my mind is: Would I be willing to risk my life for them, and could I walk away if I truly had to?

The swirl of emotions I feel even asking that question absolutely fascinates me.