Chapter 11: The Fold of the Horizon
The 'Little Brother' rail-gun tank was a monstrosity of over-engineered Hydra terror. Its barrel was a jagged spire of glowing blue coils, and its tracks groaned under the weight of thick, experimental plating. As it rumbled onto the stone bridge, the very ground seemed to protest its presence.
Arthur didn't wait for the Allied artillery to miss. He was already a ghost in the air.
The Blink Strike
[ SKILL ACTIVE: SPATIAL DISTORTION — BLINK ]
To the Howling Commandos watching from the ridge, Arthur didn't just move—he flickered. One moment he was a silhouette against the moon, the next he was a blur of midnight navy appearing directly atop the tank's turret.
The Hydra gunner barely had time to scream before Arthur's staff slammed into the hatch. The Tesseract shard in the staff flared, sending a ripple of spatial energy through the tank's internal systems.
[ BATTLE LOG ]
Arthur uses [Spatial Distortion]!
Hydra Rail-Gun Tank status: System Glitch — Weaponry Disabled.
Divergence: 18.2% (The 'Fixed Point' of the bridge's destruction is being bypassed).
Defying the Laws of War
"He's standing on it!" Dugan shouted, his binoculars nearly falling from his hands. "The lad is standing on a moving fortress!"
Inside the tank, the crew scrambled. They fired their sidearms through the vision slits, but the bullets didn't hit Arthur. As the rounds exited the tank, they hit the warped space-time surrounding him and dropped to the deck like lead weights, their kinetic energy harvested by his [Mercury Catalyst] blood.
Arthur plunged the end of his staff into the primary energy coil of the rail-gun. "You wanted to use the power of the stars?" Arthur whispered, his eyes glowing with a terrifying, ancient light. "Let me show you how they burn."
The Gravity Well
[ NEW ABILITY TRIGGERED: EVENT HORIZON ]
Instead of an explosion, there was a vacuum. Arthur forced a surge of spatial energy into the tank's power core, creating a localized gravity well. The heavy tank began to groan as its armor plates bent inward, crushed by its own weight.
With a final, violent pop, the rail-gun shattered into scrap metal. Arthur stepped off the collapsing turret, his [Spatial Anchor] allowing him to drift slowly to the bridge floor as the tank became a compressed ball of useless steel.
[ QUEST NOTIFICATION ]
Objective: Neutralize Rail-Gun Tank (COMPLETE)
Bonus Objective: Bridge Intact (COMPLETE)
Reward: +2,500 DP
Reputation Gained: The Howling Commandos (Legendary Status).
The Shadow in the Trees
As the dust settled, the silence of the Ardennes returned, but it was broken by a strange, high-pitched whistling from the sky. Arthur looked up, his [Watcher] skills screaming a warning.
A 'Valkyrie' bomber wasn't just passing over; it was dropping a single, glowing canister—not a bomb, but a containment unit.
"They're not trying to kill us," Arthur realized, his blood running cold. "They're trying to retrieve me."
Current Status:
DP Balance: 3,200.
Archivist Combat Shroud: 80% Complete (Absorbed energy from the rail-gun).
Divergence: 17.9%.