Apocalypse Tamer 2: A LitRPG Adventure, page 3
part #2 of Apocalypse Tamer Series
“Kui scared,” Kuikui admitted upon seeing the visage.
“I feel eyes watching us,” Orcine said. She tried to look cool, but Basil could tell it was a front from the worry in her eyes. The stained glass’ design spooked her.
Maybe they were indeed being watched. Basil had clashed with a mermaid trying to set up an Apocalypse Force altar near the river shrine. The description said that it allowed the Maleking to watch through it. The stained glass was covered in similar symbols.
“Enemies incoming,” Bugsy warned, head raised at the stairway. “Here.”
Two men walked down from the upper floor, under the glass window’s stained sunlight.
“I warned Eric we should have kept the famine worm at least.” The first was a gaunt Caucasian young man no older than twenty, with well-groomed short hair and an elegant face twisted into a frown of worry. His refined dark jacket, fleur-de-lys brooch, gloves, and elegant boots reminded Basil of a noble stereotype. He carried a black violin with a sinister skull motif. “We don’t have the numbers to push them back.”
“Who needs numbers when we’ve got levels.” His compatriot was a tall, medieval knight in heavy plate armor. Light reflected on the shining, lustrous surface of his triangular shield and his sharp longsword’s blade. The visor was up, revealing the mustached face of a middle-aged man underneath. “That fool’s build is all over the place. We can take him.”
Basil focused on these two, the System quickly confirming his suspicions. What he read from the screens made him want to puke.
Paul-Octave Malherbe
Level 25 [Humanoid] (Mercenary 20/Knight 5)
Faction: Apocalypse Force (Empire Lalande).
Dominique Grard
Level 25 [Humanoid] (Bard 16/Gambler 9)
Faction: Apocalypse Force (Empire Lalande).
They were humans.
“Shit.” Orcine’s eyes widened in dread upon seeing the knight climbing down the stairs. “A capped Mercenary!”
“You’re human,” Basil whispered in astonishment. He couldn’t believe his eyes. He had long wondered what kind of monsters supplied Apollyon with white phosphorus bombs, but now he realized that he might be facing them. “You’re players.”
“So are you,” the knight shot back, his voice deep and heavy with contempt. He put on his visor and his black eyes glared at Basil through the slits. “Beat me.”
“You’re humans fighting for the Apocalypse Force!” Basil snarled, stretching the last two words. The dungeon’s walls quaked from the explosions outside. “Don’t you know? They want to kill us all!”
“You know what they say,” the knight replied, his sword and shield raised for battle. “If you can’t beat them, join them.”
“What my friend means to say is that when asked to throw our lives away for nothing, we chose to take the higher road, the better road.” The bard smiled ear to ear. “The road of friendship and collaboration.”
Basil almost choked at the man’s blatant cynicism. His pulse quickened with anger and his uneasiness at the thought of fighting fellow humans immediately vanished.
“You betrayed mankind to bugs?” He snarled at them.
“I resent that wording, Boss,” Bugsy muttered under his breath.
“‘Betrayed’ is such a dirty word.” The musician stopped in the middle of the stairs and tugged a string of his violin with a black bow. “We prefer the term ‘switching to the winning side.’”
“Veni, Vidi, Vichy, huh?!” Basil taunted them before pulling his gun’s trigger. He aimed for the bard’s head, but the knight managed to intercept the ice bullet with his shield. “Give them no quarter!”
“Vichy this, sassy bitch!” The violinist started a fast-paced melody as his teammate rushed down the stairs. “Bardic Song II!”
“Bodyguard: Dominique,” the knight shouted, a blue glow shrouding his armor. “Vitality Up!”
Dominique’s [Bardic Song II] buffed his allies’ physical stats!
Allies? Basil noted, much to his confusion. Plural?
“Kill the bard first!” Basil ordered as he ran across the hall. It would be easier to defeat the knight once his buffer was defeated. “I’ll take the other!”
“No, big man, we must finish the Mercenary off first!” Orcine shouted back as she and Bugsy rushed after him. “If the class works like it does in my world, then he has a busted Perk!”
By the time her words registered, Basil had crossed the hall and the knight reached the stairway’s bottom. Basil’s halberd clashed against his enemy’s shield but failed to cut through it.
“Strong,” the knight commented before pushing him back with a thrust of his shield. He raised his sword to counterattack, but Basil didn’t give him the chance. Exploiting his longer reach, he struck the shield again and again with the top spike, forcing the knight on the defensive.
Orcine assisted her teammate by flanking their enemy. The knight’s sword parried her mace as his shield did the same with Basil’s halberd. Although outnumbered two-to-one, the man held his ground. Not a single blow went through his defense, and he blocked the stairs with his body.
This left his teammate exposed to long-distance attacks, however. Kuikui and Bugsy attacked the violinist from afar, the former with a lightning bolt and the other with a fiery breath.
The knight noticed the attack and suddenly vanished. Basil’s halberd cut through the air as his foe teleported away in a flash. The knight suddenly reappeared in front of his violinist teammate, blocking the thunderbolt and fiery breath with his shield. His ally kept playing undisturbed.
It suddenly occurred to Basil that they weren’t fighting monsters but a player party. What they lacked in power, these two made up in class synergy.
“You ain’t getting past me, punks,” the knight declared as he lowered his shield.
“Watch me!” Orcine snarled as she climbed the stairs after him. Kuikui howled again, reapplying his buff to his allies.
Basil almost followed Orcine up the stairway when he heard Bugsy shout a warning. “Boss, enemy to your left!”
Basil turned his head in the right direction, but saw nothing. He heard a crackling sound and suddenly noticed slight inflections in the carpet.
Invisibility.
Panicking, Basil swung his halberd vertically and hit something. The blow dispelled the illusory veil, revealing a hidden opponent.
Much like her teammates, the newcomer was a human; a lovely young woman with long red hair, cruel blue eyes, and a black cloak covering her shoulders. She wielded a longsword in one hand and a shorter dagger in the other. Both crossed under the shaft of Basil’s halberd, preventing his blade from cracking her skull open.
Lucine Lalande
Level 25 [Humanoid] (Outlaw 12/Poisoner 13)
Faction: Apocalypse Force (Empire Lalande).
The woman grinned, her teeth white as snow. “Shocking, isn’t it?”
Electricity coursed through her sword and traveled through the halberd. The feathers of Basil’s mantle absorbed the lightning harmlessly, much to his joy.
[Curse] ailment negated your [Lightning Rod] SP recovery!
Basil savored the incredulous look on his would-be assassin’s face before pushing her back with a thrust of his weapon. The woman leaped back, only for Bugsy to breathe fire at her from the side. Flames consumed her cloak and threatened to spread to her flesh.
“I thought he was weak to Lightning?” the assassin snarled angrily. She threw her burning cloak away before it could consume her, revealing a black leotard underneath. An array of knives and potions were attached to her belt. “Fucking fake news!”
“You don’t need it anyway, darling!” Her bard ally shouted over his own music. Basil suddenly realized who the carved initials outside stood for. “I believe in you!”
Unwilling to fight an assassin in close combat, especially one with a Poisoner class, Basil opened fire at the woman with his handgun. Empowered by the bard’s song, the woman dodged the bullets. She rushed at Bugsy, grazing his exoskeleton with her blade and nearly beheading Kuikui with another swing.
“Forget the monsters, Lucine!” the knight shouted, his sword clashing against Orcine’s shield. Being higher on the stairway, he held the ground advantage over the orc and pushed her down. “Crit the Tamer to death and they’ll all perish with him!”
“Don’t give me orders, jackass!” The assassin ignored her teammate’s suggestion and slashed at Bugsy’s exoskeleton with her lightning sword. The blow drew blood, but the centimagma remained undeterred. “That freak burned my cloak!”
“You stupid bitch, do as I tell you!”
“Don’t you dare insult my girlfriend, you asshole!” his bard teammate shouted back.
They’re strong, but they don’t get along, Basil realized. The enemy party exploited their class abilities to cover their mutual weaknesses yet failed to coordinate effectively. If they had focused on Basil as the knight suggested, they might have won by now. They were a gang, not a tight-knit unit. We must pick them one after the other. Their formation will fall apart afterward.
But who should he start with? The knight’s defense was impenetrable, the bard’s music strengthened his allies from a safe distance, and the assassin moved too fast to hit.
And although the knight was clearly better at defending than attacking, he was slowly pushing the lower-level Orcine into a corner. Basil himself, with all of his Berserker power, had failed to get past his guard. Walter Tye had warned him that specialization offered better rewards than versatility, and this fight illustrated it well; the enemy party had Basil’s own beaten in terms of raw power.
But specialization meant an inability to adapt quickly. It could be a strength and a weakness.
Basil remembered what that man, Malherbe, had said earlier. Bodyguard: Dominique. Assuming the first was the Perk allowing the knight to teleport around to shield his teammates from danger, the fact he needed to specify the target meant that it only protected one ally at once.
“Gang up on the rogue, long-range!” Basil shouted, an idea crossing his mind. He dashed behind the assassin with his gun raised. “Orcine, keep the knight occupied!”
Bugsy and Kuikui followed his lead by attacking from multiple directions. Lucine Lalande dodged a stream of flames, avoided a bullet hitting the wall behind her, and saw her luck desert her on the third try. Kuikui’s thunderbolt hit her in the chest.
The lightning sent the assassin tumbling back on the carpet, a shroud of darkness briefly surrounding her body.
I knew it! Basil rejoiced. They suffer from the castle’s curse, too!
That explained the knight’s determination to take hits for his team. His armor and defenses mitigated the danger critical hits posed, allowing him to soak damage for his team. Perhaps he was the only one immune to the castle’s curse.
“This is the end,” Basil said. He pointed his gun’s barrel at the assassin’s head, right as Bugsy activated Agility Up to finish her in melee.
“Lucine!” her violinist boyfriend shouted in alarm. “Paul-Oc, save her!”
“You stupid whore!” the knight snarled in anger upon seeing the tide turn. “Bodyguard: Lucine La—”
Basil turned his gun away at the last second.
“—lande!”
Basil pulled the trigger right as the knight teleported in Bugsy’s way, stopping the centimagma’s charge. His bullet crossed the room and hit the surprised bard in the chest. The violinist dropped his bow, the bullet in his body freezing his blood as it poured out of his wound. A shroud of darkness briefly formed around him.
Critical hit! You [poisoned] Dominique Grard!
The assassin’s eyes widened in panic. “Dommy!”
“Nice shot, Boss!” Bugsy cheered Basil, only to be pushed back by a thrust of the knight’s shield.
“His bullet fucking poisoned me!” the bard complained. He neglected to recover his bow to instead cover his wound with his hand. “I need healing!”
“Don’t you dare run away, you pussy!” His knight teammate showed him no sympathy. He charged at Basil, but slower than before. His allies’ buffs only worked so long as the music carried them. “Power through and keep singing!”
The bard gritted his teeth and moved to pick up his bow…only for Orcine to crush it underfoot as she climbed up the stairs. The man’s eyes widened in horror as he faced the orc without anyone to protect him.
“Nope,” Orcine said casually.
Then she bashed the bard’s skull with her mace.
It was a testament to his level that the blow didn’t kill him instantly. Orcine’s mace shattered his jaw, sent his teeth flying, and hit him hard enough to throw him down the stairs. The bard lay at the bottom and didn’t rise, blood flowing from his mouth.
“Dommy, hold on!” His assassin girlfriend abandoned her knight ally to Kuikui and Bugsy, her expression one of utter panic. She rushed at the bard as soon as she could. “I’m coming!”
She found Basil standing in her way.
“You know what people I hate more than tax collectors?” Having run out of bullets, Basil stored his handgun in his inventory and carried his halberd with both hands. “Traitors. You didn’t just betray your nation, you betrayed the entire human race!”
Filth of their sort deserved no mercy.
“Climb down from your horse, you filthy immigrant!” The assassin snarled as she lunged at Basil with her sword. “When the dust settles, we’ll be alive, and you shall be dead!”
Basil brought down his halberd. The assassin dodged by rolling to the side, but he didn’t give her any breathing room. He forced back with a flurry of swings, buying back Orcine time to climb down the stairs.
The assassin deflected one thrust with a well-placed strike, only for Basil to quickly follow with a swing. His joy turned to despair as the knight suddenly teleported in his way. Shield and halberd clashed, a crack appearing in the former.
“What did I tell you, Lucine?” The knight attempted to skewer Basil with his sword. “Headshot the Tamer and you kill them all!”
Basil blocked the blow, but this gave the assassin an opportunity to flank him.
“Kui!” Kuikui shrieked a warning. “Kui!”
The assassin threw her dagger at Basil’s skull.
The weapon moved at lightning speed, cutting through the air with a whirring sound. Basil’s eyes widened as a flash of steel crossed his gaze.
The dagger splattered blood all over the carpet.
CHAPTER 3
MAN VS MAN
The dagger pierced straight through Kuikui’s ribs.
Basil wasn’t certain whether the dinosaur had been trying to catch the dagger in midair with his maw or if he had tried to push his master out of the projectile’s way. The result was the same. Kuikui’s timing was wrong, and he took the dagger straight-on. Time slowed down as feathers and blood swirled around Basil.
Lucine Lalande [poisoned] Kuikui!
Kuikui finished his flight course straight into Basil’s face, making him stumble. The assassin lunged in his direction, sword raised for a fatal blow…
And then she leaped past Basil.
“Lucine, what are you doing?” the knight snarled at his teammate. “You had him!”
“Dommy!” The assassin rushed past Basil in a foolish attempt to rescue her boyfriend. Orcine had reached the bard and was busy beating his head into the ground with her mace. “I’m coming, baby!”
Orcine saw the rogue coming and raised her shield at the last second. The assassin’s sword bounced off the steel, but she followed through with a whirlwind of strikes.
“You…you rooster hater, I won’t forgive you!” Bugsy furiously rushed at the assassin from behind, mandibles open. “Agility Up!”
The centimagma wasn’t quick enough to catch the assassin even with a buff, but his swift assault forced her off Orcine’s back.
Basil immediately exploited the brief respite to grab Kuikui with one hand. The poor velociraptor’s wound was severe, with blood pouring out of his ribs. Basil was no expert on dinosaur biology, but the blow seemed to have cut through major arteries.
“Kui…cold…” Kuikui rasped as he struggled to stay conscious. “Kuikui…sick inside…”
“Hold on,” Basil said, gritting his teeth. “Monster Cure!”
Kuikui’s [Curse] ailment negated your Perk!
Damn it! He had to carry Kuikui out of the castle for healing!
“Rah, women!” The knight turned to face Basil, a malevolent glare peering through his helmet’s slits. “Fine, I’ll kill him myself!”
Basil roared and flailed his halberd around with one hand. He attempted to push the knight back, to force himself a path outside. Yet his foe deflected each blow with his sword and shield.
“You’re wasting your time trying to save that bird, boyo,” the knight taunted him as their blades clashed. The greater reach of Basil’s halberd prevented his foe from gaining ground, but he wouldn’t let him escape the castle either. “Lucine’s Poisoner Perks double poison damage and bypasses resistance. Your pet is already dead.”
“Out of my way!” Basil threatened him while desperately searching for an opening. Kuikui’s breathing was growing heavier and slower by the second.
“Leaving before the real fun begins?” the knight chuckled. “I have lost enough HP to trigger my best Perk. Bear witness!”
The knight’s sword shone with a malevolent red aura. Basil sensed an invisible, overwhelming pressure built in the air.
“Revenge!”
Man had developed a peerless fight-or-flight reaction over millions of years of evolution. So, when the knight swung his sword again and all of Basil’s instincts screamed at him to dodge, he didn’t try to parry. He leaped to the side, the blade narrowly missing him.
The knight’s blow hit the floor with enough strength to shatter it.
