Sponsored Apocalypse 2: A LitRPG Adventure, page 26
Tom sighed, tapped at his axes, and said, “No time like the present.”
Then the two of us left the bookstore. Almost immediately, we were set upon by monsters. Some of the weird raptor things we’d seen earlier with the heads of babies rounded a corner and immediately attacked us. Their mouths might not have been very dangerous, at least to somebody still alive, but they jumped up, whipping around their huge, wickedly sharp killing claws like ninja. I barely attached my bayonet to my spear in time.
Then I leveled the weapon and activated the [Colt Family Foundation Flagpole] shield. A protective cone formed in front of me, and the raptor monster looked like it bounced off a wall. It hit the concrete hard, rolling over as another one of its fellows jumped over. This one slammed into my shield the same as the first and couldn’t get through. It fell back a little more gracefully.
I marveled at how much more powerful my shield seemed now, and it took me a second to realize what was happening. Amazing. I felt intuitively that I had somehow either supercharged or laced the shield with my [Spirits of the Past] ability. My combat log verified it for me.
This was the first time that I’d used this core skill consciously. Of course, I probably still wasn’t. As best I could tell, [Dark Contractor Combat] had kicked in. But now that I knew it was possible, I felt I could do it on purpose now, too.
A third raptor ran at me, actually going around Tom as he was finishing killing one and fending off another. I smoothly moved back, my spear leveled downward, and before the raptor could jump, suddenly my homicidal, tough little goblin summon popped into existence right next to it and hit it with a running tackle.
The goblin was smaller than the raptor, but they were both moving at high speed, and the raptor actually fell and rolled. Using the opportunity, I lunged forward and stabbed the thing through the chest. The head would have been a better target, but despite the fact that it was a monster, something about attacking a baby face just seemed wrong. While the blade was inside the creature’s body, I triggered [Private Malone’s Last Stand], and the magical blade pierced the creature all the way through its chest cavity at an angle.
I spun, my blade flashing, and managed to cut one of the monster’s throats. Then I followed it up with a superhumanly powerful kick as the thing was off-kilter, and it rolled over in a heap, tried to regain its feet, but sighed as it died instead.
Behind me, my summon had already gotten up, and the bloodthirsty, somewhat translucent, undead goblin was on top of the third raptor, fighting and clawing for all it was worth. My summon hadn’t even had a chance to pick up a weapon yet.
I moved over, my spear weaving like a snake, and the monster tried to bat my point away with its wickedly carved claws, but it didn’t work. I jerked my weapon back at the last second before thrusting it home into the monster’s center of mass. Then, like I had with the first, I ripped the blade out and cleared it of blood in a flourish.
“So, [Dark Contractor Combat] is pretty awesome,” I whispered to myself. My stolen goblin summon ambled over to me with its strange chimpanzee-like bow-legged walk, and I said, “Good job, you nameless little psychopath.”
Despite having turned off seeing all my system windows, one suddenly popped up in my vision, scaring me half to death.
Would you like to name your summon, [Nameless]?
There was an option to change the name.
I blinked and almost just dismissed the window. But on a whim, I pushed the button for yes and got rid of the notification window that way. Suddenly, to my eyes, my goblin had a new name floating above his head:
Nameless.
The disturbing creature didn’t seem to understand or notice what had happened, and if it did, it wasn’t showing much reaction. With a flex of my will, the psycho summon faded away.
I turned to see Tom killing the last of his three raptor-like monsters. As soon as he was done, he wiped blood off his face, turned, and regarded the three creatures I had put down with a flat look.
“That was super fast. How do you keep getting so much stronger, and I feel like I’m staying the same?” he said.
After putting the butt of my spear on the ground, I shrugged in response. I didn’t really have much I could say. Then the two of us turned at the same time to see three huge trolls barreling around the corner.
Without needing to say a word, we turned and ran the other way, sprinting at full tilt from the get-go. Our superhuman endurance allowed us to keep up the pace for a while. Despite the fact I was so much stronger, the troll-like monsters we’d just encountered were still very dangerous and scared the hell out of me. Three of them together was worse. After all, just like a charging grizzly bear, what was just as important as whether I could kill a monster was whether I could do it without dying myself. And the trolls were big enough and had enough momentum that killing them cleanly could be difficult, even with my current level of power.
“Where do we go?!” shouted Tom.
I was about to answer when I noticed another couple of trolls, the same as the ones chasing us, running out of another side street toward us.
“Oh crap,” I muttered.
Directly ahead of us was a destroyed building blocking the street. There was only a left turn and a right turn. But if we went left, we would actually be coming closer to the two new trolls, and we might get caught by all of them.
I jerked my head to the right and followed suit by turning that direction. Tom followed. It wasn’t until I heard the timbre of the constant gunshots change that I realized we were charging directly toward the farm’s defenders that were attacking the town. Sure enough, when I glanced over, the river was right along the right side of the road we were currently on. I soon caught sight of the farm defenders, and as I was waving my arms over my head with my spear held in one hand at the base to get as much height as possible, they finally saw us.
Tom and I sprinted forward just as the group of trolls following us skidded around the corner, a couple of them almost falling in the river. A second later, a wave of bullets from the farm’s defenders slammed into the monsters like a hailstorm of lead. They bellowed, and as I ran, I charged my hammer with [Angry Arrows]. Then, turning and jumping backward, I threw it at the group of trolls. My hammer throw was just about perfect and landed right in front of the group. The subsequent explosion rocked the street and made the river dance. The blase bowled them over even as the system-enhanced bullets from the defenders peppered them.
Just like that, all the trolls were dead.
Tom and I kept running forward until we near the lines of defenders and relatively safety. At the moment, they formed a line and were basically guarding the entire flank of the city. The fact most of the fighters were oriented toward the city but a handful of them were still guarding their rear was not lost on me. I knew how wise that really was, too, since I wiped out the lesser water kobolds a few days ago. If those things had still been around, they probably could have easily massacred this group of people without the rear guard.
Then suddenly, it was like a switch had been flipped. It felt as if the entire town rumbled. Too late, I realized that the sensation and noise were from running footsteps. With my mouth agape, I looked up to see an absolute flood of monsters running down the streets, through the alleys, and even over the rooftops.
Most of the defenders from the farm were shocked into inaction, too. But a few of them opened fire, and that was enough to snap everybody else out of their stupefaction.
I ran forward to give myself some more room and braced myself as a few bugbears closed in. My heart grew resolute and a touch murderous. I sprang forward, piercing one of them through the chest with my magically enhanced spear. Without consciously thinking about it, I snarled as I attacked. I had [Private Malone’s Last Stand] extended and triggered its extending effect right before stabbing to get the most out of the added reach. It was extremely effective.
The monster couldn’t even reach me with its weak retaliation strike with a machete.
I hadn’t been bad with the spear before, but [Dark Contractor Combat] brought all of my abilities up to another level entirely. With a flourish, I spun, deactivating [Private Malone’s Last Stand] and cutting into a bugbear’s knees. Then I back-kicked it in the chest, continued my spin, activated [Private Malone’s Last Stand], and stabbed another bugbear through the face. At the same time, I summoned Nameless, my freaky, near-indestructible goblin, to jump on another monster. The murderous Goblinator shifted its body to the side so I could savagely stab down into the bugbear it had brought down.
My spear flickered up, and I killed another bugbear before using my enhanced strength to punch one in the side. At the same time, I dodged a clumsy overhand chop. My spear was enchanted with [Angry Arrows], and I threw it like a javelin over the heads of attacking monsters until it reached a distant building and exploded, sending brickwork like shrapnel to blast to all the monsters surrounding the area. As the spear had left my hand, I had already grabbed my cast-iron pan and my hammer in both hands.
I was already somewhat familiar with using two weapons at once prior to the end of the world, but [Dark Contractor Combat] brought it to a new level entirely. In my hands, the two relatively short tools became deadly weapons, especially as I used the rim of the pan to chop into the sides of heads and necks.
My movements snapped out with a surety and power that I hadn’t demonstrated before. Probably for the first time since I’d begun using the system and became superhuman on paper, I actually began moving like one. To an outsider, I was probably moving and fighting similarly to Captain America. The sudden thought almost made me laugh with its randomness and absurdity.
I charged both weapons with [Pulverizing Pebbles] and then threw them simultaneously at a couple of attacking goblins. The monsters looked like they’d been hit by a truck after being demolished by the missiles. I sprang away and then simultaneously used [Lindstrom Recall] for my bayonet and my flagpole. I attached the two together with [Jojo’s Scavenging Chain] just in time to hold my spear back and trigger [Colt Family Foundation Flagpole] prior to a hail of arrows falling from the sky. It was possible that they wouldn’t harm me since I was currently using [Stalwartization] and my armor value was probably around three. I didn’t have time to check my menus, but even if it was that high, there was no use taking chances.
To one side, Tom saw the arrows before they fell and managed to use several monster bodies as shields. He literally picked them up from the ground and slung them over his shoulder and head.
I glanced behind me and could barely see any individual details of the overall battle. Everything was so chaotic. All I really got an impression of was the farm defenders bravely holding the line.
A flash of sincere respect hit me. People who had been working regular jobs and doing their best to pay the bills a week ago were now fighting for their lives against monsters. From what I could see, none were breaking. I was filled with an intense pride for my fellow man.
The feeling was dulled a little bit when one of the smattering of bullets landing in the monsters around me actually glanced off the back of my head. I put a hand to the impact spot, which had rocked my head to one side. It felt like I had been punched by an unseen enemy. I quickly realized what had happened when I felt a small bit of blood on my scalp.
In my combat logs, I saw the last few lines:
[You are bleeding.]
[
[You are in shock.]
[
[You have a concussion.]
[
[You are dazed.]
[
Now I was certain that with a combination of [Stalwartization], my natural durability, and my strong bones through [Bone Strengthening], I could survive a direct hit to the head from a rifle, or at least a glancing blow.
Of course, it might have been enough to kill me if not for [Built Different]. I was still surrounded by monsters, after all. With that in mind, I began using poison gas with [Toxic Breath of Hellas Portentis] every time I breathed out. [Built Different] protected me from any harmful effects of the gas.
After about another minute of fighting, I used [Better Days Auto Whisk] to push the poison out around me. Almost a dozen monsters keeled over, their hands to their throats, and I took advantage of the situation to mercilessly stab them where they were defenseless. I wasn’t sure if the poison would kill them on its own, but I was not taking any chances.
My arms and legs were stained with filth.
I glanced back at the farm defenders again, just in time to see at least five of them get killed almost instantly, turned into bloody chunks of meat. My heart thumping in my chest and my eyes open like saucers, I tried to figure out what had happened.
There it is!
I spotted the giant scooping up another handful of bricks and concrete from a building, one that it had just casually destroyed. It wound its arm back and let fly again. This time its aim wasn’t as good, but two more defenders died like candles tragically snuffed.
Most of the monsters that had surrounded me were dead now, and Tom was about thirty yards away, chopping into a couple of them with his axes. When I saw him notice the cyclops, with a cry of utter rage and defiance, the big, lead-role-looking man charged directly at the giant, his arms and axes pumping. I ran after him, wondering what the hell he was doing, when I saw what he had seen.
Right in the giant’s path was a group of defenders, and among them was Mr. Gray. The former sheriff was holding a little boy to his side, and the fact that the little boy was here at all, in addition to his horrible unkempt state, suggested that he had been found in the town by the farm defenders. Mr. Gray was running with the child as best he could, but the giant was just too fast, and none of the humans in the little group were massively superhuman.
But Tom was.
He sprang forward at the last minute as the giant’s foot was coming down and pushed Mr. Gray and the little boy out of the way. Luckily, he managed to mostly dodge to the side as the foot came down, but it still caught his own foot. In horrible slow motion, the giant shifted its weight, looked down in annoyance, and kicked Tom with its full strength. Then with horror, I watched as my new friend zipped across the street like a bullet before hitting a concrete wall and falling down in a heap.
Suddenly feeling something that I had felt before, but much more strongly this time, I glared and pulled my hammer into my hand. The enormous, malevolent creature was starting to move directly toward the remaining defenders, but when my hammer, enchanted with [Angry Arrows], impacted it in the side and blew up, it didn’t seem to do any damage but definitely got its attention. The enormous cyclops turned its head to stare directly at me, and I flipped it off.
“Let’s dance, asshole.”
Unsteady, stinky fear rose up in me like a tidal wave, but pushing right back down was a growing rage that I didn’t even know I’d had. This was not about a quest or saving the town or anything like that now. I had history with this thing, and I was going to see it dead.
THIRTY-SIX
As I ran forward, a million things crossed my mind all at once. Ideas for how to kill the giant, many of which I had already rehashed and dismissed in the past. I thought about all the things that could go wrong, and even flashes of my life leading up to this moment.
Strangely, seemingly out of nowhere, I remembered a time in sixth grade when I had been in the lunchroom and a couple of bullies had picked on me. The entire time, an entire table of other kids watched or looked down at their food and pretended not to notice. At the time, and in the years after that, I thought maybe that situation was just a kid thing, but then I grew up and realized that most people seemed to always act like that.
People were quick to say, “Not my problem,” at any age.
However, whether I agreed with all of his opinions or not, Tom was obviously not like that. And I had just seen him get knocked into a wall with the force of a head-on collision. Whether he was dead or not… I was not willing to think about that yet.
Another person who I couldn’t afford to let die in this battle was Mr. Gray. In hindsight, the fact he was here at all was probably crazy, except for the fact that anybody who lived through all this chaos would probably get quite a few advancement points. The current world made it impossible for leaders to sit back and lead from the sidelines anymore unless they were willing to be drastically less powerful than anyone else. They had to kill monsters, too.
The giant got closer as I sprinted forward, and the thing was definitely focused on me now. It grabbed another handful of concrete bricks and other detritus before throwing them at me. I activated [Colt Family Foundation Flagpole], and as the heavy missiles struck my barrier, this time I actually felt my stamina draining. Every other time I’d used power that required stamina as fuel, I’d felt maybe a sip, and it was only after using it a great deal that I got any fatigue at all. However, this time as my shield stopped the attack, my run actually faltered, and I was suddenly out of breath. Even with my Endurance stat as high as it was, using my shield like that again would probably take me out of the fight.
I tapped into my [Dark Contractor Combat] and then rode the set of instincts that came with it.
Nameless was summoned near the cyclops’ foot, and the little psychotic bastard picked up a broken piece of rebar before shoving it under the monster’s toenail. As tough as the giant was, it definitely felt some pain from the attacks and looked down in annoyance before stomping its foot down. Once the foot came up, the undead goblin levered itself to its knees, looking unsteady and damaged, but angry as hell. Then it ran forward to attack the giant’s nail again, but this time when the cyclops tried to stomp down, Nameless rolled to the side, barely avoiding being crushed again. The giant kicked sideways, hitting Nameless and knocking it through a wooden building.
