Event Horizon 2: A LitRPG Apocalypse, page 19
“It probably won’t take long to recover,” Tombo said, jogging to the front seat. “We need to hurry. I don’t like the idea of being in the cab with it for longer than we need to.”
Getting in as Aguilar took the driver’s seat and McKee piled into the back with the two wounded Marines, Tombo looked down at Trojan. He was still in the crate with the door unlatched so he could have gotten out had he wanted to.
“I am relieved you found a solution,” Trojan said in his mind, sounding unsteady. “I did not wish to go in the water again.”
“You and me both, buddy,” Tombo said, strapping in as Aguilar pushed the Humvee like a NASCAR driver.
“I believe the doctor will be pleased with this, yes?” Trojan asked.
“Jourmari?” Tombo asked. “Yeah, I think he will be. Better be, because I have better things to be doing than playing Phenomenon wrangler for him.”
He could feel Ku-Aya’s wariness of the scientist, but she didn’t say anything. He wondered if she was actually on to something or if Jourmari was just someone who ultimately struck her wrong but wasn’t actually all that bad.
“Regardless,” she said after a few seconds, “this should hopefully appease him enough to allow us to focus on what is actually important.”
“Getting out of the government’s grasp?” Tombo said.
“Finding Ohsheit,” she corrected. “Which we, apparently, have to get out of the government’s grasp to do. How do you propose to do so?”
He sighed lightly. “No idea, Ku-Aya. Absolutely no idea.”
CHAPTER 25
HERMAN
“Does your Ohsheit buddy have any ideas?” Uncle Ray asked, slowly backing away and toward the front of the diner.
Herman didn’t reply, his brain shorting out as he stared at the largest horde of Phenomenon they’d encountered yet. Four Drones, two Eilgar, three Vespers, and a handful of smaller beasts that he guessed were foxes or coyotes or something like that. In addition, there were several snakes in the mix that Herman wasn’t sure if they’d survived the initial minutes of the fight or had come from elsewhere.
“The ‘Ohsheit buddy,’ as you put it Warrior Ray, does in fact have an idea,” Ohsheit said. “Attack.”
Uncle Ray didn’t need to be told twice. He launched the second to last grenade at the mass of Phenomenon. It went hissing through the air, leaving a trail of smoke behind it.
Herman watched as several of the Phenomenon dodged it, leaping forward and charging.
Then the grenade exploded, leaving Herman with a strong sense of déjà vu from when this fight first started. The road blasted apart in a hail of debris with Phenomenon parts flying in all directions.
Congratulations! Someone in your party has killed one Phenomenon Drone, one Phenomenon Vesper, and seven assorted lesser Phenomenon monsters.
You have earned 2 stat points.
You have 17 stat points to spend.
Herman didn’t have a chance to celebrate that, because it was far too few Phenomenon killed in one blast. More than that, the Phenomenon who hadn’t been caught in the blast went stumbling about from the force and would recover quickly.
Except for the Vesper at the front of the pack. It charged on sure feet straight for them. Closing the distance at a dizzying speed, it leapt, flying through the air at Uncle Ray.
Uncle Ray backed up, crouching down and shifting his grenade launcher to use it as if it were a staff instead of a weapon of mass destruction.
“No!” Herman charged, his body throbbing and yelling at him in complaint for the abuse he was putting it through. He pushed the pain aside and lunged just as the Vesper slashed at Uncle Ray.
He slammed into its side, sending them both tumbling to the ground. He stabbed and hacked at the monster, blades tearing and ripping through its flesh. There was no finesse in the attacks, hardly any of the skills Ohsheit had been teaching him coming to bear. His only thought was to destroy the monster as fast as possible before the other Phenomenon recovered and slaughtered them.
Congratulations! You have killed one Phenomenon Vesper.
You have earned 1 stat point.
You have 18 stat points to spend.
Knife Fighting +1
Dual Wielding +1
He shoved himself off the carcass of the Phenomenon, whirling around to face the rest of the horde.
Only to have Ohsheit scurry past his feet.
“Run!” Ohsheit yelled.
Herman looked up, eyes widening at the sight of the entire horde charging at them. He’d thought the mass of monsters that had chased them in Shadowfax had been terrifying, lit up red by the car’s taillights like they were bathed in blood. But this, all the dripping, lumbering, slithering, charging mass of the Phenomenon in broad daylight, somehow managed to be worse.
“Holy fuck,” he said, turning and sprinting after Ohsheit. Uncle Ray was beside the lizard, grenade launcher still in hand. He had blood on his shirt and pants, but he seemed steady enough.
“Where are we going?” Uncle Ray yelled. “I only have one grenade left and those beasts aren’t exactly going to line up politely and wait for you to take them on in single combat.”
Herman desperately searched for any idea. There had to be some way to finish this fight. One that didn’t involve them dying.
“Ohsheit,” Herman gasped as he and Uncle Ray sprinted down the street. He could hear the faster Phenomenon catching up with them. “Ideas?”
“Use your stat points,” Ohsheit said. “All of them into Intelligence.”
Herman didn’t need to be told twice. He poured eight points into the stat and brought it up to a full twenty. While he was at it, he spread the remaining points across Constitution, Strength and Dexterity.
Generalist Novice Level
Strength: 18
Dexterity: 18
Constitution: 19
Intelligence: 20
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 3
He gasped as his brain felt like a shot of electricity hit it. His body tensed too, feeling tougher and more durable.
“Holy shit,” he muttered. Everything around him felt like it was a puzzle waiting to be solved, everything a challenge to his mind that if he only thought long enough about he could conquer it. “That’s a rush.”
“Think!” Ohsheit said. “There is a way out of this, you must find it though.”
“What? You have an idea and you’re not telling us?” Herman yelled. Uncle Ray grabbed his arm and yanked him down a side road, sending them stumbling for a few seconds as they tried to regain their feet.
“Of course I have an idea for a way out of this,” Ohsheit said, sounding offended. “I was not a Queen level Knight Errant only because of my skill with a sword. Besides, you must grow as a warrior, and you will never grow if you always rely on me to fix your problems.”
“You alien bastard,” Uncle Ray spat. “Tell us now or so help me this last grenade has your name on it.”
Herman was about to tell Uncle Ray how bad of an idea that was when his brain lit up with an idea.
“Oh, oh!” He laughed. “We’re such idiots! Uncle Ray, we need to go back to the gas station!”
“Back with those murderous monsters? Are you insane?”
Herman grabbed his arm and dragged him around another corner onto a different street. He risked a glance behind him and jerked his face back as a tar spear went flying in front of his eyes.
“I’m positive,” he said, heart pounding afresh in his chest. “One hundred percent, absolutely, entirely sure.”
Uncle Ray grabbed him and hauled him down the new street. He turned down another street again, looping them around so they would get back to the gas station. “You sound very confident,” he said, voice dripping with sarcasm.
Herman didn’t reply. His mind was working overtime, showing him the numerous ways this could go wrong as well as all the ways that it could go fairly well but still end up a mess.
They turned around another corner, a tar spear crashing into the corner of a building as they went. Splinters tore through the space all around them, and Herman didn’t want to think about the mess that it would be to get them all out of his skin before he rode in the car back to Uncle Ray’s place again.
Rounding back into the main street of Glasset, Herman grinned as the gas station came back into view. He fixed his eyes on it, feet pounding on the street even as he avoided debris and pot holes.
“Run, Uncle Ray!” he said. “Faster!” They needed enough room between them and the gas station for his plan to work.
Uncle Ray put on a burst of speed, but he breathed raggedly. “Been sprinting this whole time, Herman. Don’t know how much more you expect an old geezer like me to be able to do.” He let out a wheeze. “And I still don’t know what yer thinkin’ we can do here.”
Herman didn’t reply still, grabbing Uncle Ray’s arm and dragging him forward. As he did, he caught sight of the two Eilgar shooting away from the front of the pack of Phenomenon. They bounded across the space between them, closing the gap and making Herman’s heart skip a beat at their speed.
“Fuuuck,” he said, pulling Uncle Ray faster. They sped past the gas station and the pumps, then went another two hundred feet before Herman slid to a stop.
“Good enough,” he panted. “I hope, anyway.” He pointed at the pumps. “Light them up.”
Uncle Ray’s face morphed with understanding. He grinned even as he wheezed, bringing the rocket launcher up to his shoulder. “Oh-ho, Herman, you just made my whole week.”
Herman watched as Uncle Ray leveled his grenade launcher, pointing it directly at the closest gas pump’s base. He took one, two, three breaths, letting as many of the Phenomenon get into the blast range as possible. Herman’s breath caught in his throat as the Eilgar got closer and closer, his hands tightening on his knives in preparation for if they weren’t caught in the blast and instead thrown closer to them. Behind them, the pack of Phenomenon growled and bellowed, the teeming mass a revolting mess bent on destruction and murder.
Then Uncle Ray fired.
The hiss of the grenade shooting through the air barely cut through the sounds of the bloodthirsty tarbags. The two Eilgar slowed, heads shifting to follow the flight of the grenade. Herman tensed, sure that something would go wrong and this plan wouldn’t work. That they’d end up shredded to pieces by the Phenomenon.
The grenade hit the base of the pump—
And clattered to the ground.
Herman’s gut sank. Dread spread through him as he stared down the monsters coming for them.
“A gallant effort,” Ohsheit said, his voice grim. “And now for a final charge.”
Herman’s hands tightened on his blades. He had never thought he’d die in a final stand like this, but he supposed there were a lot of things he’d never thought he’d do or experience that he had in the last few days.
Uncle Ray cursed up a storm. “Fucking shitty dud of a—”
The grenade exploded.
The first explosion was the same as the other two that had gone off earlier in the fight. Large enough to make Herman’s ears hurt, enough to shred anything within fifteen feet with a blast of shrapnel.
The second explosion sent a thrill and a shot of adrenaline through Herman.
Going up in a massive blaze of orange flame and black smoke, the explosion of the gas pumps and the storage tanks beneath the concrete pad shook the ground hard enough that it threw Herman and Uncle Ray to their hands and knees. The glass in the surrounding buildings blew out, and the front of the diner itself got blasted apart.
Herman looked up, admiring and in awe of the destruction the grenade caused. He couldn’t distinguish Phenomenon parts from the black smoke in the air, but that hardly mattered. He couldn’t see a single tarbag still standing.
Congratulations! Someone in your party killed two Eilgar, two Vespers, three Drones, and eighteen assorted lesser Phenomenon.
You have earned 5 stat points.
You have 5 stat points to spend.
Herman grinned. Now that was the way to deal with Phenomenon.
CHAPTER 26
HERMAN
His victory was short-lived as he saw debris raining down.
Specifically the mass of something that was plunging straight down at them.
His eyes widened, and he scrambled to his feet.
“Get up!” he yelled, though he couldn’t hear himself over the ringing in his ears. He grabbed Uncle Ray and hauled him up. “Move!”
He shoved his uncle away, springing after him. He couldn’t spot Ohsheit, but he didn’t have time to search before the whatever it was crashed down where they’d just been laying.
His heart pounded in his chest again. Had Ohsheit been under there? He couldn’t have been. The alien was too resilient and too savvy to get crushed and die from something as stupid as being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
But as Herman looked about, he couldn’t spot the lizard.
“Ohsheit!” Herman called, though he still couldn’t hear himself and wouldn’t be able to hear Ohsheit if he replied. “Ohsheit!”
“I’m fine,” came Ohsheit’s voice in his head. He was suddenly startled, having forgotten that he could speak with the alien like that. “I’m behind you.”
Herman turned again, searching for the lizard. He spotted him maneuvering around some debris, flecks of blood spattered across his body.
“Are you ok?” Herman asked, darting forward and looking over the lizard’s body. He didn’t see anything majorly wrong with him, just small wounds that would heal fine on their own.
“Perfectly,” Ohsheit said. “As I observed before, this lizard’s body is surprisingly durable.”
Letting out a breath of relief, Herman said, “Good. That’s good.” He looked toward Uncle Ray, who was standing up from where Herman had pushed him. He had a small trickle of blood running down the side of his face, small patches of blood on his arms and shirt, and he was covered in dirt, but otherwise he looked alright.
Herman darted over to him. “Are you ok?” he asked.
Uncle Ray looked at him, his mouth moving, but Herman couldn’t hear anything past the ringing in his ears. He sighed and shook his head, pointing toward one of his ears.
Uncle Ray just kept talking, gesturing with his arms and the grenade launcher. Herman got the gist.
He was thrilled with the results of the plan.
Grinning, Herman gave him a double thumbs up. Then he turned and looked at the wreckage.
The diner’s front had been blown to pieces, a huge hole where the wall had stood. Part of the ceiling had been taken off too, and it stood with patches of fire burning lazily all over it. Where the gas pumps had been was now a huge crater, black soot covering the surrounding area.
And amidst it all were dismembered Phenomenon. Well, more on the outskirts. Any beast that had been right next to the pumps Herman was confident had been incinerated, or at the very least burned to a crisp. Farther out the Phenomenon were still recognizable, kind of. Recognizable enough that he figured they could collect cores from some of them.
He grabbed his knives from where he’d dropped them when he’d tackled Uncle Ray out of the way of the falling debris—which he now guessed to be part of one of the gas pumps, though it was twisted and mangled beyond any hope of certain recognition—and strode toward the closest carcass. It looked like it had been a Drone, but maybe it was one of the Eilgar.
“Ohsheit,” he said in his mind. “Can you keep watch while I finish here?”
“I can,” Ohsheit said. “Though I would suggest you hurry. That wasn’t exactly subtle, and any Phenomenon in the immediate area that didn’t just attack us will be drawn here.”
“Got it,” Herman said. He knelt and got to work, keeping an eye out for any other Phenomenon. He wondered why so many had gathered here at Glasset. Though perhaps it wasn’t a lot in comparison to other places.
If that was the case, then they were in big trouble. Because a horde of over twenty Phenomenon—granted, all of them low level, but still—wasn’t exactly a small number.
He went through the Phenomenon quickly, glancing back once in a while to make sure Uncle Ray was still there. He was watching Herman work, but kept looking around for any Phenomenon.
As he finished up, he pulled up his stats again. The mid-fight level up was a boon, and it highlighted how he needed to keep getting stronger. The difference between a six and a twenty in Intelligence had been jarring. Even now he felt like the whole world was less a daunting mess to be navigated and more of a puzzle to be solved. What would a full twenty in Constitution be like? Dexterity?
Shaking his head, he pulled up his stats.
Generalist Novice Level
Strength: 18
Dexterity: 18
Constitution: 19
Intelligence: 20
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 3
You have 4 stat points to spend.
He nodded to himself. This felt like a much easier choice of where to put points. One into Constitution to bring it up to twenty, then split the remaining three between Dexterity and Wisdom.
Generalist Novice Level
Strength: 18
Dexterity: 20
Constitution: 20
Intelligence: 20
Wisdom: 11
Charisma: 3
A breath shot out of him as he felt his body change. He certainly didn’t feel stronger, but he did feel tougher, like he could take getting slammed into the ground like the Drone had done to him and walk away without a concussion.
He rubbed at his head at the thought of a concussion. His body still throbbed, and it was getting worse now that the adrenaline from the fight was leaving his veins. He wished he had some kind of healing spell or could use cultivation like Lara and the others. Being able to heal himself and not rely just on his Constitution score and ability to dodge would be handy. As it was, he was thankful for the high Constitution stat when he’d been acquainted with the ground this time. He wasn’t sure if he’d still be alive otherwise.
