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ArabicArknights: How Did I Actually Become the Doctor? — Chapter 9
Chapter 9: Escaped?
At this moment, you hadn’t quite considered just how catastrophic of a shock your little message would bring to Kal’tsit. Then again, you weren’t the original Doctor. Your behavioral algorithms, your habits, your entire operational logic—they were all bound to be completely different. Applying a few preemptive ‘patches’ to your persona was just basic common sense.
As for how much Kal’tsit would mentally short-circuit after discovering you had deleted everything you shouldn’t have and carefully kept everything you should have deleted regarding Theresa? That was strictly outside your scope of concern. Let the green feline seethe; you had a boss fight to manage.
Your immediate problem was figuring out how to quickly neutralize the Black Snake.
If you didn’t care about saving Talulah, you could have just cornered her right here and now. With the surrounding Originium Storms acting like a max-Risk Crisis Contract hazard dealing constant true damage, you could easily stall her out until she was reduced to absolute nothingness. But capturing a boss alive?
In game terms, the difficulty curve had just snapped off the chart.
Inside the operators’ headsets, the Doctor’s voice echoed, sounding as relaxed and detached as ever. “Operators, this stage tests your short-cycle burst and survival capabilities. Remember our slogan?”
A brief pause hung in the comms.
“Face the fear, create the future? No, not that one. It’s the more practical one—” The voice dropped an octave, turning chillingly absolute. “Discard yourself, execute the order.”
The Shadow Sentinels dropped from the high ground. The battle—a brutal meat-grinder where both sides fully intended to claim the other’s head—shattered the tense silence!
Inky black shadow demons surged upward, tightly entangling Talulah’s blazing longsword, while Scout’s sniper rifle cracked rhythmically in the distance, picking off the Reunion Wanderers guarding her flanks one by one. Amidst the chaos, it was Amiya who broke formation, rushing forward and weaving spells to block Talulah head-on.
“Stop, Black Snake!” In just a few rapid exchanges, the little Cautus had already read the tactical flow through her sheer tacit understanding with you. Her eyes burned with a raging, righteous fire. “I fight for those who cannot speak!”
Good job, Amiya! You clenched your fist behind your cover, practically vibrating with excitement. Not only were the voice lines hot-blooded and perfectly timed, but she had actually charged the boss! Did she suddenly class-change into a Guard? Can she take the melee tile?!
“Get lost, Cautus!” The Black Snake sneered, her patience entirely spent. With a casual, sweeping wave of her hand, a terrifying heatwave erupted outward, forcing Amiya back dozens of steps in a shower of sparks. Fortunately, ACE’s massive frame slammed into the earth just in time, his heavy shield taking over the vanguard position to absorb the brunt of the flames.
“Amiya, deal with the Casters first!” A voice that remained perfectly rational, even bone-chillingly cold, cut through the headset. “You can’t handle the front lines yet. Fall back.”
Amiya’s eyes dimmed slightly. She bit her lip, obediently following the order and redirecting her spellcasting toward the enemy backline.
‘I am still… too weak,’ she thought bitterly.
Heaven knows, the frantic command you had actually screamed into your collar mic was: ‘Holy crap, Amiya, retreat! Why is your skill set still a Caster’s?! I thought you’d undergone Promotion early! Don’t tank the boss!’
Case closed. The PRTS Tactical Translator’s auto-filtering function was the true source of your legendary prestige.
Down in the burning ruins, the Black Snake was growing anxious—more anxious than she had ever been in her life.
This Rhodes Island commander was as slippery as an unkillable loach. He barely gave her a single window to land a second strike on any operator, perfectly rotating their aggro and always forcing her to stop, raise her blade, and defend against an interrupt. If this kiting continued, she would literally be worn down to death by chip damage!
Especially that Sarkaz mercenary, Ines. You weren’t this strong back in the Reunion Movement!
By the third time Talulah’s body was pierced and forcibly rooted to the ground by a Shadow Sentinel, she was grinding her dragon teeth hard enough to crack them.
Just as she gathered enough ambient heat to summon a wave of flames to wash the ground, she was abruptly stunned in place by two vicious backstabs from the newly defected Reunion cadre, Crownslayer. The Rhodes Island squad seemed absolutely determined not to let her cast a single Red Dragon art. Even the stray sparks she managed to emit were instantly diverted by Stormeye’s precise Originium Arts, ensuring she gained zero terrain advantage.
Pushed to her absolute limit, Talulah finally steeled herself. She tanked a devastating hammer blow from Nearl, ignoring the sickening crunch of her own ribs, and tilted her head back to breathe out an endless, roaring torrent of apocalyptic fire.
“Everyone, fall back!” The Doctor’s voice cracked, slightly hoarse from the high-intensity micro-management.
Boundless flames swept across the shattered sector of Chernobog. The Red Dragon’s over-driven Originium Arts burned so intensely that the pillar of fire briefly pierced straight through the oppressive, swirling clouds of the Catastrophe above.
Once the blinding rain of fire finally passed and the Doctor cautiously poked his head out from behind a slab of concrete, the scorched crater where Talulah had been standing was completely empty.
“I’m sorry, Doctor. I failed to keep an eye on her and let her escape.” A heavy hint of self-reproach shadowed Nearl’s dust-covered face as she approached. “I couldn’t catch up to her.”
“Me neither…” Scout’s voice was raspy, his sniper rifle lowered. “My bullets couldn’t hold her back.”
A suffocating sense of powerlessness washed over the Sarkaz sniper. For a fleeting moment, he seemed to have been dragged back to the Babel period—back to that bloody assassination that had changed the fate of all Sarkaz. He had been exactly like this back then, too. Standing in the ash, watching people drift away, entirely powerless to stop it.
Has anyone ever complained that Terra’s little animal people are far too easy to read? You looked at Nearl’s visibly drooping horse ears and Scout’s uneasily twitching demon tail, biting the inside of your cheek to hold back a laugh.
“Then come over here and take your punishment,” you said, beckoning them with a hooked finger.
Watching the two elite operators approach with stiff, nervous steps, your mastermind facade finally cracked. “Hahahahahaha…”
The two apprehensive operators suddenly found themselves enveloped in a warm hug that smelled faintly of ozone and Originium dust.
Nearl’s towering height meant you could only reach her waist, but the Radiant Knight instinctively bent her knees, dropping down to ensure you could hug her more comfortably. Behind her, her soft, golden horse tail began swishing back and forth in absolute shock.
Scout, on the other hand, froze entirely in place. He stood as rigid as a statue, terrified that his sharp horns or spiked tail might accidentally scratch your coat.
“It was my fault for not considering the limits of your abilities when I gave the orders,” the voice under the hood murmured, carrying a genuine, warm lilt of laughter. “Low-tier micro-management led to insufficient DPS, didn’t it?”
It was indeed a pity not to have caught Talulah, but you knew you would meet her again sooner or later. For now, it was far more worth celebrating that you had manipulated the timeline perfectly to save Scout.
“By that logic, everyone has to be punished.” You released them, looking at the surrounding operators who were slowly perking up. You walked over to the rest of the squad, one by one.
“Amiya, your positioning was too far forward. It was a bit dangerous.” You pulled her in. The little bunny immediately buried her face into your chest, rubbing her head against your coat affectionately.
“Sharp, you didn’t provide enough pressure. You didn’t fill the gap immediately when Nearl was pushed back.” The stoic Elite Operator shifted his posture uneasily, but he still quietly accepted the brief embrace.
“Dobermann, when the fire rain came, you didn’t have time to give Amiya the Instructor’s buff.” You wrapped your arms around the Perro. Dobermann kept her face strictly professional and accepted the hug with military stiffness, but the base of her tail—which had been mostly docked—simply couldn’t stop wagging like a hyperactive propeller.
“Yes. I will go back and intensify my training,” she replied seriously.
“Crownslayer, your harassment wasn’t strong enough. Be bolder and trust your teammates.” Crownslayer clearly hadn’t expected to be included in the Rhodes Island group therapy session. She looked utterly scandalized, standing there blankly and accepting the hug as if she were being publicly executed, her Lupo ears twitching wildly in pure confusion.
Finally, you stopped in front of ACE. Looking at the veteran operator, who was as sturdy and unmovable as a mountain, you hesitated for a long time. For the sake of your own dignity, you opted to just tap his heavy shield with your knuckles.
“ACE… you have absolutely no damage output,” you sighed dramatically. “If I just had Wis’adel right now, would I really have to work this hard?”
“In any case,” you clapped your hands together, the sharp sound cutting through the lingering smoke. All the operators turned back at once, their eyes bright and locked onto you with unwavering trust. “Operators, fix your formation and gather the refugees. It’s time for us to start our escape.”