As soon as Ace entered the hidden tunnel, the woman, as if sensing sothing, turned and looked directly at him. He was folding shadows and jumping between them, trying to keep pace with her armored elephant. She frowned, seeing Ace persist in his pursuit. Then, she gently tapped the massive forehead of her armored platinum elephant and commanded aloud, "Thunder, sing Storm Soul Trumpet!"
Hearing the command, Ace imdiately paused his chase and strategically hid on the tunnel ceiling near a light fixture, casting large shadows in both directions. This way, he could either advance or retreat based on how the situation unfolded.
To his shock, the elephant suddenly leapt and spun to face him—sothing that should have been physically impossible given its size and the tunnel's narrow dinsions. Yet, the tunnel inexplicably expanded at that exact point to allow the maneuver. It was as if the tunnel had a mind of its own.
'WTF!' Ace cursed internally.
Before he could recover from his surprise, the elephant raised its trunk to a 45-degree angle and let out a thunderous blast—a trumpet call that sounded like a thousand storms breaking loose at once. Amplified and focused by the tunnel, the sound reached supersonic speeds as it shot toward him.
Before Ace could react, his body froze. The sound had struck his mind directly, scrambling his thoughts. It hurt like hell but he couldn't scream, forcing him out of the shadow he was hiding in and slamming him onto the tunnel floor. To his misery, the Storm Soul Trumpet didn't stop. It continued to echo violently through the tunnel, causing repeated ntal damage.
Just as his consciousness began to fade and his brain could endure no more, the echo finally began to die down. When Ace could barely piece his thoughts together, he heard Da Wasp's desperate pleas and imdiately summoned Specarc, following her instructions mindlessly.
Managing to summon Specarc, Ace tried to catch his breath while Specarc, following Da Wasp's instructions relayed through the Status screen, imdiately technomorphed into the exo-armor curse gadget. It upgraded the armor and secured Ace inside it.
Utilizing the advanced dical assistance system built into the upgraded exo-armor, designed to support its pilot in extre situations, Specarc did its best to ease its master's pain and protect him.
To Da Wasp's relief, the lady and her elephant didn't take advantage of Ace's vulnerable state. Instead, they used the opportunity to retreat further into the tunnel.
"Fuck! Is this what a hangover feels like?" Ace joked as he got back on his feet, trying to ease the worry of his toy summons.
'Master, are you alright?' Da Wasp asked ntally, her voice full of concern. Even though she shared his senses in real ti and knew the answer, she couldn't stop herself from asking.
"I'm alright," Ace said aloud, turning to peer deeper into the tunnel before ntally asking, 'Where are we?'
'I have no idea,' Da Wasp admitted. 'This tunnel wasn't part of Base Wulfric's original blueprint…' She hesitated before delivering the bad news. 'Master, I've lost all contact with the outside world. I can't catch any signals down here. It seems these tunnels are blocking all communication—both in and out.'
'Shit,' Ace cursed in his heart, then tried to reassure her, 'Things could've been worse.'
Things could have been worse—much worse—if the woman hadn't fled and instead commanded her elephant to stomp him to death. Sure, his toy summons could have used the Status screen to communicate with the cursed toy box and co to his rescue, but that elephant was insanely fast. Ace hadn't even been able to keep up with it while using his shadow folding ability at full throttle. So, he couldn't say for certain how things might've played out.
Recalling the substitution talismans they had strategically and stealthily placed, Ace tried to sense them. To his dismay, he couldn't feel a single one. He could've sworn that they hadn't chased the elephant more than half a mile into the tunnel, he should still be able to sense at least one of the talismans by the maintenance depot—unless, of course, the tunnel itself had the ability to sever all connections with the outside world. Ace had long suspected the tunnel had a will of its own, but now he was starting to believe it more than ever.
'Should I head back or explore the tunnel?' Ace sought Da Wasp's expertise, wondering whether C.I.B. agents and soldiers were waiting for him at either end of the passage.
'We should head back and regroup at one of the safe points I previously marked,' Da Wasp replied, though she couldn't help but ponder why her Master had so impulsively chased after the strange lady on the elephant. It was completely unlike him. 'What was he even hoping to achieve by chasing after her?'
'Alright,' Ace nodded and turned to leave. Stepping into a shadow, he activated the curse clout's ability to race out of the tunnel—only to realize, to his horror, that the exit never ca.
The color drained from his face as Da Wasp reported gravely, 'Master... I think you're running in circles.'
Coming to a halt, Ace didn't question Da Wasp—he had started to feel the sa. He was likely running in circles, unable to find the exit. He could've sworn it was less than half a mile from where he started.
'Shit, we're trapped. No wonder she didn't order her elephant to stomp to death,' Ace thought grimly, realizing the lady with the elephant had planned this all along.
'Screw it, I'm blasting my way out of these tunnels,' Ace announced to Da Wasp, a twinge of claustrophobia creeping in. At this point, he didn't care if he alerted the agents and soldiers waiting outside.
Sensing his ntal command, the upgraded Specarc exo-armor instantly activated all of its weapon systems and aid at the nearest tunnel wall. But before it could fire, a hurried feminine voice warned, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Ace instantly recognized the voice—it was the strange woman with the elephant. He chose to ignore her warning, assuming he must be doing sothing right to make her speak up. Without hesitation, he ordered his Specarc Exo-armor, "Fire!"
To his dismay, the tunnel wall opened up just in ti, revealing another passage that swallowed his attacks. Then, just as mysteriously, another tunnel entry opened behind him, spitting those attacks out. Sohow, the projectiles he had fired traveled in a perfect circle, without hitting any walls or losing montum, and ca back at him from behind.
Fortunately, Specarc Exo-armor's evasion systems kicked in, and the upgraded exo-armor swiftly dodged the returning attacks.
While Ace was still processing what had just happened, he heard the woman's voice again—this ti with genuine surprise,"They upgraded my Mark-1 Exo-armors?"
"No. Despite the unnecessary new aesthetics, it's the sa design as my Mark-1 Exo-armor—but sohow it's more durable and efficient. That's just impossible… unless they found a better material for the fra and a more effective way to extract and regulate curse energy from the curse core into the Exo-armor.
The old assholes I know aren't capable of pulling this off. Unless they hired soone new." The strange lady spoke to herself aloud, forgetting that Ace could hear her. Then, as if a thought struck her, she turned to him and asked, "Kid, who are you? You're not on the personnel list of the army or C.I.B. Are you one of their escaped test subjects? Or one of their experints? Not that I care, but where did you get that Exo-armor?"
"…" Ace didn't know how to respond. The more he learned about this woman, the stranger and weirder she felt. He couldn't believe he had once found her strange actions cute. It was hilarious to see her crash into a stationary truck, fall on her butt, spill a mug of water on herself, and lie in it, unaware of her surroundings.
"Kid, are you dumb or sothing? No, wait—I definitely heard you talking to yourself earlier. Did that little trick I pulled scare you or sothing? Don't bla , I did warn you not to attack…" she rambled on, seemingly forgetting her point mid-sentence.
anwhile, Ace ntally asked Da Wasp, 'Do they really conduct experints on humans down here?'
'No… not on humans. On human clones,' Da Wasp replied, without going into details, knowing her master wasn't ready to hear the whole truth.
'So, did you figure out what her deal is? How did she enter the depot and what was she doing there?' Ace asked Da Wasp, trying to understand his captor and their intentions.
'I think the answer lies in her question,' Da Wasp replied. 'She might be one of the experints who managed to escape and is now hiding down here using this peculiar hidden tunnel system. After all, to the clones born in Base Wulfric, this is their ho and entire world.'
Da Wasp speculated, noting the strong disdain the strange lady had expressed toward the C.I.B. agents and soldiers, paired with the fact that she'd shown no intention of handing Ace over to the authorities.
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