Overseer's Rise: A LitRPG Apocalypse, page 11
“We’ll keep an eye out,” Dez said, trying to sound reassuring using his deep voice. “They won’t be able to spring any more surprises.”
Trish crossed her arms, a fierce look on her face. “And they wouldn’t dare. Not if we take a couple of them hostage.”
Rory stared at her. “Hostage?”
“Yeah. Didn’t you say there were some of them who wanted to go rescue their buddies? Let’s take those two and make sure the rest know that if there are any unexpected surprises, we’ll gut them then and there.”
Rory’s eye twitched. He had always known her to be vicious against monsters. Maybe that had made her ruthless against people too. “We probably don’t need to go that far, but I approve of them keeping them close. In case something does happen… we’ll have insurance.”
They nodded and headed back to the others. Some of the Homeworlders were looking at them curiously, though most were enthralled by the monstrous spirits roaming the courtyard and keeping guard and watch.
“Are we ready to go?” Ray asked. “How are we going to proceed?”
“We’re going with our vehicles,” Rory said. “We’ll take both the pickup truck and the jeep, so we have more options.”
They decided to pile into the vehicles in two groups. Rory took the pickup with Trish, April, and Xander. Dez, Ray, and Evelyn took the other one. They had made sure to load themselves up with firearms, though not many of them had much practice with them. April and Dez would go up front, with Xander, who had some practice via hunting, providing support.
The rest of them would need to use whatever else was available to them. Sue would lead the charge against the monsters, going so far as to stay ahead of the cars on the outside too. Her suit could move incredibly fast.
Rory’s Weaving or any of the Sigils in his staff wasn’t likely to work on the monsters directly. But he was hopeful he could Weave away things that would make the situation inconvenient for the monsters. He could use his Weaving on the foundations of a building, collapsing it atop them to crush them.
There were many possibilities once he thought about it. He couldn’t wait to test the large range his Sigil of Weaving was now capable of.
“Where was the last place you encountered the monsters?” Rory asked Xander.
“Near Rainfall Street,” he replied. “Do you know the place?”
Trish cleared her throat. “I do. Had an aunt who lived there I used to visit.”
They let her take the lead. Xander confided he didn’t know the area as well. He had only seen the name on a signboard when they had been trying to escape the monsters. Rainfall Street wasn’t that far from the palace, truth be told. They would reach it all too soon.
“Keep an eye out,” Rory said, loudly so that Sue could hear it outside. “They might be close by.”
They had to twist and turn the car every which way as they came across several roads that were blocked off thanks to debris or broken roads. But they made slow but sure forward progress. Sue was able to scout ahead and find out streets that were good enough.
Every time she disappeared to find a path for them though, Rory’s heart would start beating harder than normal. His masochistic mind conjured images of the monsters ambushing her so that she was caught. He didn’t like imagining the scenario. Sue never went far enough to not be within earshot, according to her at least.
Unfortunately, that was exactly how they met their first monster.
A sudden shriek warped into Rory’s ears when Sue had disappeared to scout ahead again. He wasted no time yelling at the others to get to her.
But Sue wasn’t in as much trouble as Rory had imagined. In fact, by the time he had exited the pickup behind April and Xander, she was charging back towards them. It wasn’t the expression on her face that stopped Rory could, however.
It was the monsters chasing hot on her heels.
The creatures were birdlike, just as Xander and Ray had reported. They resembled giant raptor dinosaurs, covered in white feathers with a crested head and large wings in place of front paws. They ran behind Sue like ostriches, clambering over the uneven ground at incredible speed. Their toothy beaks snapped at her heels. Without her mech suit, Rory doubted she’d have made it out alive.
His Sigil of Knowledge was informing him that they were called Misericords. A strange name for the monsters like that, but then, Rory had never learned who or what it was that decided what the creatures were going to be called.
“That’s them,” Ray shouted as though it wasn’t obvious already.
“Not good,” Evelyn muttered from behind.
Rory’s adrenaline kicked in, his heart stuttering into a thunderous beat. “Here we go! Sue, give us some space.”
She heard his shout. April and Dez walked ahead of the others, aiming their guns at the onrushing monsters. Sue noticed their aim, and without warning, jumped straight up.
The monsters charged past her, eyes widening and wings flapping viciously as they tried to halt their runaway momentum. But it was nowhere near enough. April and Dez opened fire, blasting the monsters with a staccato salvo from their assault rifles.
Rory swallowed as the bullets tore into the creatures. He hadn’t expected them to work so well against the monsters like that. The Misericords cried out with warbling screams as they were perforated by several bloody holes all over their body. They tried to cower and hide behind some nearby debris, but the storm of bullets gave them no chance to escape.
When it became obvious they were not going to get away, the nearer Misericord tried to cover its partner in crime with its body. This gave the one behind it the space to turn and make a run for it.
“Hey,” Xander shouted. “It’s trying to escape! Don’t let it. It’ll warn the rest.”
Rory didn’t get the chance to ask how he knew. Evelyn chucked a glob of magma from her Sigil of Pyroclastic Hellfire over the nearer Misericord. Her aim was excellent, and the burning ball of lava struck true. Except, it disappeared as soon as it was about to hit the monster’s feathery hide. The Misericord was perfectly fine.
“Crap, it’s true,” Dez said. “Sigils don’t work on these things.”
That was fine. Rory hadn’t expected it to work. He used his Weaving anyway, targeting the buildings nearby.
The range of his Weaving was an amazing thing to behold as he sent the white lines surging down the street. They struck the buildings on sides, destroying the lower floors so that the higher ones could start toppling onto the road.
It wasn’t fast enough. The Misericord was able to swerve away from the falling debris. Rory shook as the whole street quaked at the falling building’s impact, but his target still managed to claw its way through the rain of rubble. Madness.
Thankfully, they still had Sue to count on. Her jump had taken her all the way to a nearby rooftop, thanks to using the chain and grappling hook she stored in her mech suit. She had rushed across the rooftops as soon as she had seen the monster trying to escape.
When she was in position, she had leaped off the building in a graceful fall, a sharp blade extending out of her metallic, prosthetic forearm.
The monster didn’t survive the subsequent slash through its neck.
“That’s it, right?” Ray said. “They’re dead?”
Xander hesitatingly walked up to the nearby corpse, riddled with smoking bullet holes. “You did it. I can’t believe it. You guys actually killed these things.” He grinned, somewhat madly. “Take that, you giant bird-bugger.”
Rory blinked. Creative cursing wasn’t Xander’s strong suit.
“Everyone alright?” Evelyn asked. Her Sigil’s image glowed on the back of her hand. “I can heal you up if needed.”
Rory turned around to survey the others. They all indicated they were fine.
Sue returned, reporting that she had only been surprised when the monsters had sprung out of nowhere, and had determined that she wouldn’t have been able to stop them on her own. That’s when she’d turned and run towards them as fast as she could.
“Well, now that we know what does work against these things,” Dez said, approaching Xander. “We can move on to finding where the rest of you are. If you know, that is.”
Xander looked a little uncomfortable at that, which Rory took to mean that he had zero clue as to his comrade’s whereabouts.
“We can call them,” he quickly said when he noticed their disappointed looks.
“Call them?” Rory asked.
“Well, it’s a more rudimentary form of communication than your Sigil of Calling, but we can use—”
“Xander,” Ray warned. “We’re not supposed to reveal sensitive info, remember?”
“Oh, right. Sorry.”
If Xander had looked uncomfortable before, now he was utterly mortified at having nearly given away some important Homeworlder secret. Rory could only sigh. Though, that did explain why the Homeworlders hadn’t bothered to ask for his Sigil of Calling in any trades.
“We can begin where we separated,” Ray said. “I’m sure some of them are looking for us too, so it’s just a matter of getting close enough to get in touch.”
“That’s where you had the biggest contact with the monsters too, right?” April asked.
“Correct.”
Rory exchanged quick glances with Dez, Trish, and April. Everything the Homeworlders had reported so far had proven to be true, so that meant any encounter with more Misericords farther ahead would also be true. But then, they couldn’t take anything for granted. For all they knew, there was a trap awaiting them.
If the Homeworlders noticed the looks, they made no mention of it.
They set off and kept looking, but before they got going, there was one thing Rory thought he ought to take care of first. He approached the monstrous corpses of the Misericords and used his Weaving on them. Up close, he could see that the creatures were even larger than he had thought, easily big enough to topple entire buses by themselves.
Strangely, Rory didn’t receive an Evolution Sigil from the monster’s body. Instead, he got an explanation.
New Sigil!
You’ve obtained a Sigil of Ceasefire. It is a dire truth of this world that many Sigils are ultimately most useful as weapons. As such, for moments of truce, a Sigil-specific ceasefire is quite necessary.
[Teal IV] allows enforcing 24 minutes of ceasefire in a 24-meter radius for up to Teal VIII Sigils.
Stats
Type: Concept
Rarity: Exceptional
Tier: Teal IV [0%]
Efficiency: High [72%]
“I think I know why Sigils don’t work on the Misericord.” Rory showed them the Sigil in his hand. “This thing is a Sigil of Ceasefire.”
“That’s the thing that doctor had back at the hospital,” Dez said. He looked past Rory to the distance Misericord corpse taken out by Sue. “So, these monsters have the same properties as that Sigil?”
“Looks like it.”
“Does it matter?” Ray asked. “We should keep moving. I think we can find the others soon, once we find some clues where we separated.”
He wasn’t wrong. Intrigued by the mystery of the Misericords as Rory was, they had found a way to deal with them. Now, they just needed to ensure they all remained safe.
But he exchanged another quick, warning glance with Dez, reminding him to stay vigilant. The big guy nodded back imperceptibly.
“Alright then.” Rory started walking back towards the pickup. “Let’s go.”
Chapter 14
They resumed their journey with cautious optimism. Rory was tense, as were the others, but it had been good that they’d gotten that first encounter in the bag.
Now that they had seen the monsters in action, they knew what they were up against, and what exactly was required of them to come out on top.
Of course, that didn’t help his old head from worrying. For one, those had just been two monsters they’d been able to take by surprise. If there were more—and there likely were going to be a lot more, according to the two Homeworlders—then they’d be hard-pressed to execute the same level of… well, execution.
It also didn’t help that they had to wait. The time it took them to scout out and find a proper way through the debris littering most of Hillhard made their going slow, which only served to raise the tension.
“Still no sign of your friends?” Rory asked.
Xander checked the back of his hand, where the dark image of a Sigil glowed with a circlet of Teal light. “No, not yet. I’m not sure what’s going on with them, but maybe if we got a little closer…”
“You’ve been saying that for a while now,” Trish pointed out.
Xander grimaced, but he had no reply. Rory did his best to be patient. Sue was being more careful about scouting now, and they hadn’t been surprised by any more Misericord attacks yet. Things were fine. Hopefully, it would remain that way.
“I see Illuminous square,” April said from the jeep.
They all tensed at the proclamation. That was the place where the Homeworlders had been forced to break apart into different groups. Rainfall street hadn’t revealed any clues.
Where the Misericords had attacked them in a large army.
Rory poked his head out the near window. “Sue, be careful when you scout out the area. We’re expecting more monsters there.”
“I’ll be careful,” she promised, before speeding off towards the square.
The rest of them had to stop the jeep and the pickup. With the way the street ahead was broken and damaged, as in fact, all of them were, they were going to have to approach on foot. Dangerous, but at least they’d be able to manoeuvre themselves more easily outside of the vehicles.
“Keep your weapons ready,” Dez said, hefting his assault rifle closer to his chest and surging forward with his body bent a little.
April and Evelyn followed not far behind. Rory did his best to keep pace, keeping one eye on the road to navigate the rubble strewn there while watching for ambushes too. His Staff of Deadly Winter was out, though it wasn’t likely that he’d get to use it much. None of the Sigils within it would be effective against the Misericords.
Halfway to the square, Sue started returning towards them. She shook her head as she approached. No sign of any Misericords yet, it seemed.
“What about any of the Homeworlders?” Rory asked when she was within earshot.
“I’ve got a trace!” Xander said before she could reply. He was staring at the Sigil on the back of his hand, where the dark image was fitfully blinking. “They’re not far from here.”
“Which direction?” Dez asked.
“That I can’t say. I know they’re in the general vicinity. We just need to find them.”
“Man, what kind of a weird Sigil you got where all it does is tell you if your friends are close or not?”
“It’s not like that!” Xander protested. “See, the Sigil can be used to contact others, but not in a way your Sigil of Calling does. We can tap into a main ‘chatroom’, where everyone can talk together. But we have to be close enough for that. Farther out, we can only tell that there is a chatroom nearby, so we just need to go find it.”
“And it doesn’t tell you how to find this chatroom?”
“Well… it glows stronger the closer you are to it?”
Dez sighed. It might have been accompanied by some curses under his breath too. Rory simply shook his head and decided to forge on ahead. If the square was monster-less, they shouldn’t have too much trouble finding where the rest of the Homeworlders were. Though the fact they hadn’t come out yet was troubling.
“Keep your guard up,” Rory said as they reached the square. “Could be a trap.”
He exchanged meaningful looks with Trish and Dez. A trap by the Misericords, or a trap by the very Homeworlders they were supposed to rescue. Both possibilities seemed not at all impossible.
Rory didn’t like the sight awaiting him at the square. There was the central statue of an old politician who had founded Hillhard about a century and a half ago, but age had worn down its façade. Dirt smudged much of it, tiny Mana crystals jammed into its nooks and crannies here and there. The most worrying bit was the blood, though.
“They were definitely here, huh,” Evelyn said, staring around.
Rory agreed. Evidence of the Homeworlders’ battle with the Misericords was all over the place.
Several areas of the square bore strange marks that had to have come from Sigils. Large scorch marks, haphazard cracks and potholes, strange growths like the crystal in one corner of the square, and most gruesomely, the splashes of more blood and a few body parts here and there to boot.
Trish stuffed her fingers into her nose. “Stinks.”
“That it does,” Ray said. “Murphy died here, poor sap. Either the others pulled away his body, or the monsters got to him first.”
Grim possibilities, but not difficult to imagine. But it was best they focused, found out what they could, and got out of here.
“Try to find clues about where your friends might have gone,” Rory said. “I don’t think they could have left much of a message in whatever chaos went on here, but there might be some sort of trail we can follow.”
They started rooting around, seeing what they could find. While Rory and the others searched for clues, Sue decided to perch herself atop a rooftop and keep an eye out for any Misericords that might pop up out of nowhere.
Rory tried to pay more attention to his surroundings, but his mind was still mostly on the monsters. He kept expecting an attack at any moment now.
The portents were all around him, after all. Feathers and other occasional monstrous bits were few and far between the remains of people and their attempts at using their Sigils against the monsters.
“I’ve got a signal,” Xander shouted.
Ray was the first one to rush over. As the others gathered around to find out why Xander had seemingly exploded, Rory looked around a little nervously. That shout had to have carried far. He found his eyes landing on Sue, who hadn’t moved from her position on the rooftop of what looked like a jeweller’s.
