Chapter 527

Jake slammed his smashfist against the power barrier that surrounded the Grafter. To his surprise, his fierce attack hardly dealt any damage to his opponent’s energy shield. Ripples radiated from the point of impact, and the entire shield lit up with a bright blue flash for a heartbeat before fading back to its usual translucent glow.

The impact reverberated through his arm, but the barrier itself didn’t so much as crack. Undeterred, Jake unleashed a flurry of powerful swings at his foe’s shield. Blow after blow hammered into the shimmering barrier. Each impact sent bright blue ripples racing across its curved surface, overlapping and colliding before vanishing without leaving so much as a mark.

The Grafter remained perfectly safe behind its protective cocoon. As far as Jake could tell, his attacks accomplished absolutely nothing. Apparently, the brute force of his blows wasn’t enough to shatter the shield or even weaken it. There had to be another way to make it disappear.

Jake was about to punch the shield one last time before trying something else when he suddenly felt an invisible force clamp down on his entire body. His smashfist stopped midway to his opponent’s energy barrier, frozen in place no matter how hard he strained to push it forward. Jake knew what it meant. The Grafter clearly possessed telekinetic abilities, and it had just used them on him.

In the next second, he felt as though he’d been hit by a freight train and was hurled across the bridge. The world became a blur as he shot through the air before slamming into the wall. The organic, rubbery surface absorbed some of the impact, flexing beneath the force of the collision before springing back into shape, but it still stunned him for a heartbeat.

Jake dropped to the ground, landing on one knee, but immediately leaped back to his feet. Without wasting a moment, he charged back toward his opponent.

But he never made it all the way to the Grafter. Halfway there, he once again felt the invisible force close around him, instantly arresting his movement. His body jerked to a stop so abruptly that it felt as though he’d run headfirst into an invisible wall. No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn’t move so much as an inch.

In the next instant, he was lifted off the floor as though he weighed nothing. Halfway between the ground and the ceiling, the movement stopped. For a second or two, the huge larva-like creature simply kept him suspended there, its beady eyes fixed on him. Jake strained against the invisible grip with all his strength, but it was no use.

Then the Grafter hurled him across the bridge once more, slamming him against another wall with even greater force than before. The organic wall buckled beneath the impact before springing back. Unlike the previous time, the invisible force didn’t release him after the initial collision. Still holding him fast, the Grafter smashed him against the wall over and over again.

The attack went on for almost a full minute before the telekinetic grip finally let go. Jake crumpled to the floor in a heap. He didn’t immediately get up. His head was spinning, and his vision swam for a moment. It took him several seconds to gather his bearings.

When he finally rose to his feet, he didn’t charge his opponent this time. Instead, he remained where he was as he stared at the Grafter. The beady, glossy eyes of the obnoxious larva-like creature stared back at him without blinking. They were cold, unreadable, and utterly devoid of emotion.

Jake wondered whether its telekinetic ability was natural or granted by some sort of device. He reached out with his senses and probed the Grafter’s mind. Almost immediately, he felt the unmistakable presence of some kind of bio-chip implanted in the creature’s head. Or, more accurately, in the general area of its body that could be considered a head. It wasn’t a perfect fit anatomically, but it was close enough.

So its ability wasn’t natural. It came from the brain chip. And since that was the case, Jake could hack into it.

His mind immediately went to work, probing the device for weaknesses and searching for a way inside. His body, however, was already moving back toward his opponent at full speed. He charged straight at the Grafter, all the while devoting most of his concentration to the invisible battle taking place inside its head.

Jake didn’t know whether the Grafter could sense him trying to hack its brain chip the same way he himself could sense when it tried to mind-control him. If it could detect him meddling inside its head, there was a good chance it would throw up some sort of mental defense before he could break through. That meant he needed to keep it distracted, to give it something more immediate to focus on than the silent intrusion unfolding inside its own brain.

Before the captain of the bio-ship could use its telekinetic grip on him again, Jake cast Cloud of Darkness, a spell he had learned in the Maze of Torment long ago. The familiar surge of magical energy flowed through him, and moments later, thick, pitch-black clouds erupted into existence all around him. They spread rapidly in every direction, rolling across the bridge like living smoke. Within seconds, the unnatural darkness swallowed the walls, the ceiling, the pulsating organic machinery, and everything else.

Jake could feel the Grafter’s confusion as its hover-chair pivoted back and forth in the air. The larva-like creature had clearly never encountered anything like this before. It even momentarily forgot about Jake altogether, which was exactly what he needed.

Before long, the entire bridge was engulfed in the supernatural darkness. Then the Grafter finally remembered its foe. It lashed out with its telekinetic ability, attempting to seize him once more, but the invisible grip found nothing. Deprived of its sight, the creature had no idea where Jake was anymore.

The Grafter was confused. It couldn’t see through the supernatural darkness and no longer had any idea where its foe was. Its hover-chair slowly rotated back and forth as it searched the bridge, while its telepathic senses reached out in vain, trying to locate him. Every few seconds, it lashed out with its telekinetic ability at where it thought Jake might be, only to grasp empty air.

As for Jake, he could see through the darkness he’d created just fine. The Grafter, glowing faintly behind its shimmering power shield, stood out against the endless blackness like a beacon. This time, Jake didn’t get up close and personal with his opponent. Instead, he made use of his ranged abilities, attacking the larva-like creature from a distance.

Globs of sizzling acid splashed harmlessly against the power barrier, hissing as they slid off its glowing surface. Spinning rotary saw blades shrieked through the air and slammed into the shield, sending bright blue ripples racing across it before ricocheting away. The Grafter attempted to grab him once again, but the attempt failed. By the time its invisible grip reached the spot where he’d been standing, Jake had already sprinted somewhere else.

For the next few minutes, he continuously circled the captain of the bio-ship, never remaining in one place for more than a heartbeat. As he ran, he unleashed a relentless barrage of acid globs and rotary saw blades from every direction, forcing the Grafter to constantly turn its hover-chair toward sounds that always came too late.

Apparently, the creature needed to see, or at least know exactly where Jake was, to be able to telekinetically grab him. However, it couldn’t see through the supernatural darkness he had created, and his constant movement around the bridge made it impossible for it to pinpoint his exact location. As a result, every attempt to seize him ended in failure. The Grafter was absolutely helpless.

Unfortunately, Jake’s own attacks failed to so much as scratch the creature’s power shield. Every glob of acid, every spinning blade was stopped by the shimmering barrier surrounding it. Not that it mattered. He had never expected those attacks to penetrate the shield. Their real purpose was to keep the Grafter distracted while the true battle took place inside its head. And from the look of things, the tactic was working.

The Grafter still hadn’t launched any defensive measures against his hacking attempt. Its entire attention remained focused on the futile effort to locate and capture him. That meant his tactic seemed to be paying off. Or maybe his opponent simply couldn’t detect the intrusion into its brain chip at all. Whatever the case, Jake was fine with it. He kept attacking while his mind continued probing deeper and deeper into the device, searching for a way to seize control.

A few minutes passed before the supernatural darkness finally began to thin. Unfortunately, Jake still hadn’t been able to take control of the Grafter’s brain chip. He had managed to push deeper into the device’s defenses, but every layer he bypassed seemed to reveal another one beneath it. Hacking into it was definitely far more difficult than hacking Owen’s wrist-mounted device had been.

The moment the captain of the bio-ship could see him again, it seized him with its telekinetic grip. Jake had barely taken another step before the invisible force clamped down on him from every direction. Once again, he found himself unable to move a muscle. No matter how hard he strained, his body refused to obey him. A moment later, he was lifted two feet off the ground and left suspended in midair.

But this time, the Grafter didn’t immediately try to slam him against a wall. Instead, it simply hovered there, staring at him with its glossy, unblinking eyes. Jake stared back.

Through their telepathic connection, he could sense the creature’s thoughts well enough to understand what was going on inside its mind. He could tell it wasn’t sure what to do with him. Smashing him against the organic walls of the bio-ship had clearly accomplished nothing beyond slowing him down for a few moments. The creature had already tried that, and it had failed. Now it was searching for another way to hurt him.

Apparently, the Grafter didn’t possess any weapons or combat abilities of its own beyond its telekinetic powers. It obviously relied on the bridge’s automated turrets and synthetic combat units to do all the fighting for it while it directed the battle from the safety of its shielded hover-chair. Now that the turrets had been destroyed and every synthetic unit on the bridge had been eliminated, it found itself with surprisingly few options. For perhaps the first time in its life, the captain of the bio-ship was being forced to fight its own battle.

At least it still hadn’t realized Jake was trying to hack its brain chip. Its thoughts remained focused entirely on figuring out how to kill him, not on the silent intrusion taking place inside its own head. Unable to do anything else while suspended in the air, Jake poured every ounce of his concentration into the task. He redoubled his mental efforts, probing the bio-chip’s defenses, searching for even the smallest weakness he could exploit before the Grafter finally thought of a way to deal with him.

Suddenly, the nearest wall-mounted console crackled to life. Its organic screen flickered erratically, and a moment later, Mick’s voice echoed across the bridge. It sounded strained, distorted by bursts of static, as though he was fighting to keep the connection alive.

“Jake, I can see that you’re in trouble, and unfortunately, I have even more bad news for you. I can’t help you out, and I’m barely able to hold onto the ship’s systems. The Grafter’s about to lock me out, Jake. It’s already gathered a large group of synths just outside the bridge. As soon as I’m locked out, they’ll pour in. Owen’s among them, of course. Jake, I’m sorry to say this, but I think this is the end for you. But I just want you to know that I’m glad I got to know you. I only wish we’d had more time to… spend together. I really wish I had the chance to study you more.”

Geez. Mick kind of sounded like a crazy scientist at that moment. And he clearly already thought of Jake as a dead man. But Jake definitely wasn’t going to give up just yet. There was still a chance to turn things around. All he had to do was break into that damned brain chip before the Grafter figured out a way to kill him or before Mick lost control of the ship entirely.

Mick’s voice came through the comm again, weaker this time, as though the connection was beginning to break apart.

“Jake, this is really bad, I’m about to be…”

His words were abruptly cut off in the middle of the sentence. The transmission dissolved into a burst of static before the console fell completely silent. Clearly, the Grafter had finally locked Mick out of the bio-ship’s systems.

A heartbeat later, the bridge door spiraled open with a wet pop, revealing the corridor beyond. Dozens of crab-like synthetic monsters immediately poured into the bridge. Within moments, they had spread out in a wide circle around Jake and the Grafter. Then, as one, they stopped moving, remaining perfectly still as they awaited further instructions from their leader.

Owen stood among them, of course. He was off to Jake’s right, just at the edge of his peripheral vision. His counterpart stood as motionless as a statue, his posture perfectly rigid as he watched Jake hovering helplessly in midair. Sure enough, his face showed no emotion whatsoever, and nothing registered in his unblinking, solid-blue eyes.

To Jake’s surprise, the Grafter didn’t sic Owen or the crab-things on him. The synths remained frozen in place, and Owen stood motionless among them like a lifeless statue, as if the entire bridge had been placed on hold. A moment later, Jake realized why. His opponent wanted to deal with him personally.

He could feel it now, a boiling hatred radiating from the larva-like creature. The Grafter’s hover-chair shifted slightly in the air, stabilizing as the larva-like creature focused entirely on him. Then, suddenly, Jake felt his limbs being yanked hard in different directions. His arms and legs were pulled outward with brutal force, his body forced into the shape of an X as if some invisible execution rack had locked onto him.

In the next instant, the pressure increased. His body jerked as though torn by invisible chains, each pull stronger than the last. He could tell the Grafter was committing everything it had to the attack, pouring all its telekinetic might into trying to rip him apart right there in midair. And the worst part was that there was nothing Jake could do to save himself.