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Attack

　We got back to training. I was moving much better after the break. Just as I started feeling like maybe I could keep up with Gilda, there was a loud clanking noise, which sounded as if it were coming from the common room where we usually met. Gilda had an intense look on her face and was already in motion towards the source of the sound.

　"What's going on?"

　"We are under attack. This could get bad."

　She was already running out of the room. I followed a few steps behind. A few seconds later, the lights went out and were replaced by dimly glowing emergency lights. Then my stomach lurched as my body suddenly floated weightlessly.

　"Gravity control has been lost. Push off of nearby surfaces to move. Try to keep up, Willie. We will have to fight."

　Gilda had managed to get pretty far down the corridor by bouncing off any surfaces she came in contact with. I could hear intense screeching sounds coming from the common room. I tried to get my bearings and follow her, but it was more difficult than she made it look. She had already disappeared from sight, and I heard a loud crash after the screeching sound stopped. I tried contacting her via our mental link.

<Gilda, are you OK?>

　"...crap."

　I went into full battle mode by enabling the targeting system and prioritizing nanite resources for damage control and acceleration. I lost the connection with the ship's computer when the lights went out. But my onboard AI system was still functional, so I didn't think this was an EMP attack. I finally managed to get to the entrance of the common room as the sounds of battle intensified. When I entered, I saw a human-sized blob of liquid metal with many tentacle-like limbs arcing through the air like whips. Gilda was acrobatically avoiding being hit while she used some type of invisible attack on its tentacles. Several of the whip-like limbs had been severed and were lying on the ground, but the creature seemed to be able to create more easily.

　I activated the target lock, and the system gave me the name of the creature.

　Mithril Slime Golem.

　I didn't have time to waste, so I used my fastest attack, which used magic to propel me forward at the head of a lightning strike. My impact absorption skill shielded me from most of the impact damage as I unleashed a mana empowered punch into the body of the slime. Upon impact, a large chunk of the slime golem blew off, and the remaining mass of the creature retreated.

　Gilda was staying on the attack by using her invisible weapon to sever parts of the creature as well. It seemed this creature wasn't a serious threat.

　Gilda sounded unusually terse. As if she were using all of her mental resources for the fight. It gave me chills. I was missing something if this thing was enough to put that much stress on her. I tried to follow up on my first attack with another, but this time I wasn't able to connect at all. The slime reacted by changing its shape fast enough to keep my fist from making contact. By sucking in the body around my fist, while extending the other parts of its body towards me, it had created a cavity that surrounded most of my upper body. As I tried to retreat, the smooth surface grew hundreds of sharp teeth-like shapes as it slammed its newly created mouth closed on me. I tried to use impact absorption to withstand the bite while triggering a lightning counter-attack as soon as it connected.

　"Willie!"

　Thankfully the impact was absorbed enough to keep the slime's bite from crushing me, but the teeth still managed to penetrate somewhat. My right arm, shoulders, neck, and head were mauled. The lightning counter-attack didn't seem to slow the creature down at all. A part of its body was blown off by a compressed sound attack from Gilda as it opened its mouth to bite down a second time. She quickly grabbed my leg and swung me away from the creature's mouth.

　As I floated across the room, I saw one of the creature's tentacles wrap around Gilda's arm. I tried to respond, but it was too late. She was swung around the room so hard her arm was ripped from its socket. Her body crashed into the wall with intense force and a sickening crunch. Her blood gently floated in the air like a trail of tiny red balloons as the slime moved towards her badly damaged body.

　"Gilda! I'll do something -- just hang on!"

　An alert appeared in my view.

　Pilot near death. Primary systems are down. Vessel 00976 self-destruct effective in 30 seconds.

　Oh shit.

　I don't have any time. Gilda is about to die, and I don't think the same attack will work again. I only had one other option for attacking now, but at this distance, it would use almost all of my mana. If my attack missed, we would both die for sure. I hesitated for a split second before activating a powerful magic skill.

　"Relocate!"

　I felt a massive amount of mana leave my body as I instantly appeared above the slime. Before it had a chance to react, I touched it with my left hand and used my most recently developed magic skill.

　"Drain!"

　My aura looked pitch black, my body emitted no color or light at all, and I could see the mana from the slime being pulled into my hand at an incredible rate. It was trying to counter-attack, so I pushed the drain harder. In my mind's eye, I envisioned myself as a black hole of mana, absorbing all, destroying all. A few tentacles pierced my torso, and I felt the internal pressure as it tried to rip my torso apart from the inside, but it was too late. I completely sucked all the mana from the creature, and it lost its form, turning to a gently floating blob of liquid metal.

　The countdown to self-destruct stopped, accompanied by a new message.

　Threat neutralized. Prioritizing re-initializing of primary systems.

　I was injured pretty badly as well, but all I could think about was getting over to Gilda. Once I was able to reach her, I could see just how terribly she was injured. She was unconscious, the back of her head and spine was caved in, and she was still bleeding from where her arm used to be attached. Even with the nanites working at full capacity, this was probably enough damage to be fatal.

　I was desperately trying to think of what I could do to help her. Gilda's statement about mana being the source code for the universe popped into my head. There had to be something I could do. Time was running out, and I was panicking.

　All I could think of was to augment her nanites with my magic. My Relocate skill was something like teleportation, using mana to rewrite my position in space. The larger the distance I moved, the more mana was required. Maybe I could use something like that skill to reform her body back into its original shape. I didn't have enough mana to deal with her arm, which was across the room, but maybe I could reform her crushed skull and spine, which might be enough to help the nanites save her life.

　I hugged her body as close to mine as I could and let my mana flow into her body. There was no need to synchronize because there was no resistance. Her body was a blank slate as far as mana was concerned. As my mana slowly filled her body, I could understand the internal damage. Somehow I was able to just feel what was the right thing to do, almost as if her body was telling me what it needed. I delicately moved the shattered bone fragments back into position, reinforcing the proper form of her body with mana.

　The amount of focus required was so intense that my normal senses faded away. I was no longer seeing with my eyes or hearing with my ears. Instead, I was sensing in a way I never had before. The flow of mana became my entire existence, and I was only focused on manipulating it to reform her body from the inside. Nothing else existed because nothing else was necessary. That went on for what felt like an eternity.

　As the last drops of the mana I had sucked from the Mithril Slime Golem were depleted, I lost consciousness.