Tower Ascendant: A LitRPG Adventure (Realm Grinder Book 3), page 14
[Condition: Muddled. Duration: 90]
[Condition: Poisoned. Duration: 120]
[Condition……………..
John’s head swam, and he felt himself being pulled back down to the ground once again. His jaw set, and he balled his hands into fists.
“Ultimate Muscle.”
With that, he erupted to his ultimate size, feeling the asphalt crack underneath him. As he staggered to his feet, he felt dozens of the monsters being crushed underfoot. He blinked a few times, and inhaled deeply of the wonderful, clean air.
[Ultimate Muscle is reducing Condition: Muddled]
[Ultimate Muscle is resisting Condition: Poison]
John took another deep breath as the plants surged around him, then lifted a foot and brought it crashing down. The shockwave alone flattened hundreds of the plants close by him, and he turned to Farida’s bus. She was still unleashing fiery attacks against the assaulting plants, and looked up as John rumbled closer. With a nod of her head, she leapt up into the air and flew away on burning wings, and John grabbed hold of the bus.
With all his might, he lifted it up into the air, then brought it crashing back down. He started pushing it along the road, flattening and crushing the rest of the herd of plants into a great, slimy mass that, all things considered, looked rather like the largest pile of pickle relish he had ever seen. It smelled far worse, that was for sure, but the looks were similar.
As he came to the end of the herd, he stopped, then turned around. A lone coneflower staggered along back near the beginning, and John set his jaw. He grabbed the bus with his right hand, then lobbed it as high into the sky as he could manage. There was a long pause… and the vehicle came crashing down on that last monster. His aim had been perfect, and he turned around and started walking down the road once more. In the distance, he could see large, metal walls built across the road, and he slowly shrank back down to normal size. Enora landed next to him, as did Farida.
They didn’t have any further troubles the rest of the way there. As they came up to the enormous gates, they crossed their arms and stood there as the metal plates rumbled open. A large mech came stomping out, rumbling and grumbling powerfully. Smoke belched upward from rusty exhaust pipes, and guns hung below the cabin. A smile spread across John’s face, and Farida groaned.
“No. No, no, no!”
“Come on.” John gestured at the mech. “That is cool.”
Enora glanced over at Farida. “You do have to admit that it’s a little epic.”
“No, I don’t. You should have seen him on the racecar floor.”
At that, Enora laughed. “I have, here and there! He’s just like a kid.”
John just rolled his eyes and strode forward, into the settlement. It was going to be a difficult floor to get through, of that there could be no doubt, but he was confident that he would be able to pull out a victory. And, if mechs were involved, so much the better!
CHAPTER 18
[Now Entering: The Hangar]
[Floor 59: Static Radio]
[Power: SSS+++]
[Will: SSS+++]
[Skill: SSS+++]
[Level: 100]
A dusty, hot air blew through the open door of the hangar, bringing with it a torrent of sand. John braced himself against the blast, but looked up as the enormous, six-legged mech came stomping inside. As it rumbled to a halt, and the smell of diesel and motor oil filled the air, Enora came running over from one side.
“The General is ready to meet with us.”
“About time.” John muttered, but he turned and followed Enora as she led the way through a small, cracked door and into an old conference room. Everything was dusty, but such was the way of life in the apocalypse. Farida was already there, sitting in a chair with her feet up in the table, and John crossed his arms. A few military leaders stood around the table, chatting amongst themselves, while at the far end, a man in a tattered general’s uniform had his arms crossed behind his back.
“Gentlemen.” He turned around. A mustache clung to his upper lip, giving him an air of authority. “Ladies. You have come from far and wide, from across our broken land, with the intention of reclaiming our society. I’m here to tell you that I believe, after studying your data, that it can indeed be done.”
John rolled his eyes. After reaching the first settlement, John had spent a few hours studying the map, and after listening to a radio station that had been set up to broadcast across the floor, he had pegged a small military hangar in the desert as a likely candidate for the final portion of the quests. They had traveled there as quickly as possible, carving their way through more than a few hordes of the monsters, until they came to the small refuge. Of course, since they weren’t supposed to have gotten there without defending half a dozen cities from attack, everyone acted as if their actions had become known far and wide. Poor programming, in John’s opinion.
“As you all know, we chose this old military base as our headquarters because so few of the plants can make it out here alive,” the general continued. “Well, unfortunately, we’re going to have to head back into the hot zones if we’re going to pull out a win. We’ve identified an old laboratory at the foot of Mountain A-22, which we believe to be the source of the contagion. If we get inside, we can put an end to all of this. Is everyone here ready?”
“Yes.” John nodded.
“Sure.” Farida sighed and stood up. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Good! Then report to your mechs. Commanders, get your pilots prepped. This is the battle for the soul of our world, and I don’t intend to lose!”
With that, the meeting broke, and all the commanders ran out of the room. The general walked past John, utterly ignoring him, and John let out a long breath.
“Shall we get moving?”
“Probably.” Farida snorted. “You’re enjoying this way too much.”
John shrugged. “If you don’t find things to enjoy, you’ll go crazy in here.”
“Fair enough.” Farida sighed and began bouncing a fireball in the palm of her hand. The trio slowly made their way out and into the hangar bay, where the general stood, watching. He clapped John on the back, then turned and smiled.
“Why don’t you choose which mech you’d like to ride? I’d say it’s a privilege you’ve earned.”
“That one.” John pointed at the massive six-legged one. “Please?”
“It’s all yours!”
John quickly raced over to the ladder that hung down from the side of the thing and scrambled up. Farida and Enora followed, rolling their eyes quite generously at his antics. He didn’t really mind, though he didn’t understand why they weren’t as in awe as he was. The mech was even taller than his ultimate form! That much raw power wasn’t something to sniff at.
A few moments passed while the final preparations were complete. Then, finally, the enormous hangar doors rumbled open, and they started forward. John, in the pilot’s seat, felt the mech rumble and shift with each footfall, and watched eagerly as they pushed out and into the wilderness.
The hangar was surrounded by a wide tarmac, which the mech thumped across without issues. All around it, smaller mechs came along as well. There were two-legged mechs equipped with machine guns, three-legged rabbit-like mechs that could throw bombs, four-legged mechs equipped with cannons, and, of course, the six-legged one, which held more ordinance than John could fathom. There were also some smaller ball-like mechs that rolled around rather like hamster balls, but those were a little less “cool,” in John’s opinion.
As the gates of the compound were opened and they rumbled out into the desert itself, a large number of nearby cacti pulled up their roots and began to charge the procession. Enormous saguaro cacti charged the mechs, beating their iron-hard thorns against the steel of the machines. The cacti lost roundly, as the mechs either stomped them flat, or deigned to fire a few bullets into their rotten bodies. It was a joy to watch, that was for certain.
Onward they went, marching out across the desert, as they turned toward the mountain. It wasn’t far away, and John held his breath as they began their final approach. The laboratory lay at the back of a small valley, which swept out to meet the desert like a seashore. At first, only sparse blades of grass peeked up, but as you moved back toward the lab, larger and larger bushes, even fields of flowers, appeared, all the way until a small forest grew up around a three-story building that could be seen at quite a distance. There were no roads leading to it, only a helipad on the roof.
“We are entering the valley,” the pilot of the mech announced. “Engaging hostiles… Now.”
Down below, shrubs and bushes began charging at the mechs, but a hail of bullets put a stop to their treachery. Soon, the fields of flowers came charging forward as well, and all the mechs started to unload. The rabbit-mechs launched their bombs high into the sky, where they came sailing down to detonate in small mushroom clouds that cleared out entire areas. Cannons booms, knocking down the trees as the forest itself surged forward, and the six-legged mech unleashed a blistering attack of tracer rounds that set the plants on fire.
It was all for show, but it was still magnificent as the mechs came rumbling up to the laboratory. As they came to a halt, John rose to his feet.
“We are landing ground forces. Repeat, we are launching ground forces.”
John turned and walked away from the pilot’s seat, climbed up to the top of the mech, and looked out. Soldiers were already streaming across the ground toward the laboratory, and he winced.
“They’re all about to get eaten, aren’t they?”
“Mostly.” Farida pulled a gas mask out of her inventory and slipped it over her head. “You ready?”
Enora did the same, and John followed suit. “Let’s do this!”
With that, they all rushed forward, leaping off the front of the mech as the first soldiers reached the front doors of the laboratory and kicked it inward.
Almost instantly, just as John had assumed, vines erupted outward and snagged the first several soldiers, pulling them inside. Gunfire went off wildly, and several of the soldiers threw grenades inside. The resulting explosions shook the ground, and John charged past the soldiers and into the fray.
Inside, plants covered nearly every surface imaginable. A rather stringy sort of plant lashed out and wrapped itself around John’s body, trying to knock him down, but he simply braced himself and tore it apart. More plants came forward to fill the void, and he ripped up corn, soybeans, and even a few stalks of sorghum.
“What is this?” he called out, his voice muffled through the mask. “They’re all crops!”
“I’m aware of that fact!” Farida snarled and unleashed a blast of fire that burned through half a dozen sunflowers, desperately trying to get at them. She charged forward and created a fiery sword in her hand, then threw a fire bomb with the other. It sailed into the next room, and there was a resounding blast. “Probably an agricultural experiment gone wrong, then, I’d say!”
Enora spun like a top, carving through an assortment of plants that were latching down around her. John set his spear on fire and burned away the rest, and she nodded gratefully. “Thanks. Come on, this way!”
She led the charge forward to the rear of the room, which was a rather nicely decorated welcome area, and slid aside the next door. There, a number of massive Venus flytraps stared out at them, one of which lunged forward and snapped its jaws around Enora. John snarled and rushed forward, throwing his spear into the midst. He missed the stalk that held Enora (though he did strike down a large pitcher-plant), and grabbed hold of the rotten stem with his hands. He flexed his muscles and tore it apart, dropping the jaws back to the ground, and Enora slid out, covered in gunk, but very alive.
“Gross,” she muttered as she climbed back to her feet, slipping a bit on the tile floor. “So gross.”
John turned to the rest of the room, which was filled with more carnivorous species. Another flytrap lunged forward and snapped its jaws down around John, and for a moment, he was plunged into darkness and gunk. He lashed out with his fist, punching the thing in the gullet, and was pleased when it reeled backward, spitting him out. Enora cut off the head a moment later, and John teleported his spear back into his hand.
“Light Lance!”
A burst of light flared off the spear, and he swung the weapon, cutting down the rest of the monsters in the room. As they came falling down with rotten squelches, part of the wall crumbled. A moment later, a massive acorn exploded through the thin barrier, where it landed in the middle of the room. Farida stepped into the gap a moment later, fire in her eyes.
“What are you guys doing?” She waved at them. “Come here!”
John nodded and ran forward, jumping through the hole in the wall. Behind him, soldiers streamed into the room, looking back and forth for targets. They seemed pleased enough not to find any, and utterly amazed at the abilities of the warriors. That was good by John’s standards. He followed Farida through a room on the exterior of the building, which seemed to have been infested with plants from outside when a window broke, and into an elevator. The elevator somehow still had power, which Farida quickly activated as she pressed the button for the basement.
“What are you doing?” John frowned.
“We’re looking for the way out, right?” Farida held up her hands. “In a laboratory, at least in a fictional one, the coolest stuff is going to be either on the top floor or down in the basement. Given that there’s a helipad on the roof, we can assume that most of the offices and things are up there, which means that this is where we find the cool stuff.”
“The way out,” John muttered, holding his spear a bit tighter. “That works for me.”
The elevator dropped for a long, long time. It rumbled and jerked, not always moving evenly, and at times, it didn’t really feel like it was moving at all. Finally, though, it came to the bottom, and the doors hissed open to reveal a massive room… filled with more monsters than John could count.
The room, all told, was probably a hundred feet wide and long. The elevator opened onto a small balcony about halfway up a fifty-foot-tall wall, which overlooked a central testing area. John could see old racks of test tubes, shelves of jars, and loads of hydroponics racks. Grow lights in the ceiling kept the place lit. Meanwhile, at the exact center, a large, blue, glass cylinder held a telltale flickering light.
“And there we go!” Farida pointed down at it. “Shall we-”
Her voice was cut off as the thousands of monsters came streaming toward them. A few, such as some rotten crabgrass, came skittering up the walls like spiders. Most of them, though, surged up a stairwell on the opposite side of the room, coming out onto the balcony directly across from the three warriors. John gripped his spear tightly and raced to the left, working his way around the room, and met the charge head-on.
He called upon the cold core of the spear, and unleashed a blistering flurry of frost that froze the first wave utterly solid. As the monsters piled up behind the first ones, he smashed through the frozen ones with his fists and the butt of his spear, ending their threat. It didn’t take much, and it did prevent them from coming too quickly. All told, the bottleneck was quite nice, and made it easier to deal damage to the horde. On the other side, Farida unleashed a crackling wave of fire at the monsters, burning through them as fast as they could come. With that, a smile settled across John’s face. This wasn’t going to be so hard! They’d come through just fine, and then-
With a loud crack, the balcony broke under John’s feet, and he plummeted down into the herd of waiting plants. He landed on a lab table with a loud crash, shattering the legs of the table into splinters and breaking the surface clean in half, but the plants seemed not to care. They simply leapt forward and onto him, and he fought back to his feet.
With the gas mask squarely on his face, he was able to keep his footing even as the plants jumped onto him. He threw himself backward into a wall, crushing several, and then unleashed another blast of frost that froze the ones closest to him. With that, he took a deep breath, then charged forward, lashing out with his spear ahead of him. The action carved a long path through the monsters, though it admittedly also carved through a number of other lab tables. Beakers and test tubes came crashing down, and as multicolored liquids mixed on the floor, smoke and fire belched up in small explosions.
John grinned, then spun and loosed another blast of flame, inundating a handful of the monsters closest to him. A daisy jumped up and began beating its leaves against his shoulders, landing several rather painful slices, and he spun and grabbed hold of the plant before throwing it as hard as possible through several more charging zombies.
“John!” Enora threw her shield across the room, where it slammed into the glass cylinder. The shield broke partly through and lodged, but didn’t shatter the whole thing. “Get there, and let’s go!”
“There are still plants to kill!” John called back. He twirled his spear and blasted another sheet of flame, cooking almost two dozen of the monsters in a single strike.
“Yeah, and they’re spawning in just as fast as you kill them!”
John scowled, looking around to confirm the statement. High above, there was a small crack in the ceiling, through which plants were falling regularly. He sighed, then nodded.
“Alright, fine!”
He turned and forged his way through the hordes of plants to the central casing, pulled Enora’s shield out, and then punched the glass as hard as he could. Long cracks exploded across the surface, and a moment later, it all crumbled, revealing the portal in all its splendor. Enora and Farida strode forward, carving their way through the monsters, and a moment later, they all stood in front of the portal.
John took a single moment to look around, confirming that they had, indeed, gotten everything that they could from the room, and then stepped inside. Killing the plants was just plain fun, but… Enora did have a point. They had a job to do, and couldn’t afford to waste more time. What he had said earlier had been true: You had to find ways of having fun, or you’d go crazy. Well, he’d gotten to ride a mech, and carved his way through a thousand plants. It was back to the daily grind of thing, wherever that happened to lead him.
