Arcane Survivalist: Apocalyptic Fantasy LitRPG

by Deck Davis

  Similarly, Chad shot one of the murderers in the knee cap and shattered his bones. Ignoring the screaming, he took out the other kneecap, and the man passed out. The third man on the end, having seen what happened to his friends, begged for mercy and cried for his mother to save him.

  “What did my uncle say when you killed him?” asked Chad. “Bet he didn’t beg like you. The only thing he would have wanted is for you to spare my aunt.”

  “Guys,” said Tony behind them. “It’s getting dark. Let’s finish this now.”

  Ash nodded at Chad. “He’s right.”

  “Okay,” said Chad.

  An Ignis ball and two gunshots ended things quickly. After the last crack of a bullet, the air was silent.

  Ash… said FF, with trepidation in his voice.

  “Yeah, let’s see those stats.”

  **Blood Concentrate level up to level 2**

  -HP regenerates 0.5% per minute when spells not in use

  Finally; this was something he’d been waiting for since Blood Mage day 1; a way to top up his health without life draining something. Half a percent wasn’t the greatest regeneration rate, but it was better than a kick in the balls. With a current HP of 900, he’d regenerate 4.5 HP per minute, which meant it’d take over three hours for his HP to fully top up. This was great, since it meant that every time he went to sleep, he’d wake up with a full HP bar!

  You know what levelling up a spell means, said FF.

  “I do,” said Ash. “Give me a sec.”

  Ash squeezed Chad’s shoulder and then walked away from him a little. The recruit needed a little alone time. When he’d walked twenty feet away, he stopped.

  “I levelled up my blood mage tier, didn’t I?” said Ash. His pulse began to pound. Something about earning new spells and skills always shot a potent dose of adrenaline through him.

  You bet you did. I bet you feel like a kid at Christmas.

  “Let’s see it then.”

  ** Blood Mage Tier 3**

  Blood Sense – You can sense warm blood nearby, alerting you to the presence of enemies

  Defile – You can poison an enemy’s blood, causing them to lose HP as their own body fights against them

  Cell Elemental – Change the nature of your blood to gain resistance against elemental damage

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Defiler

  Ash and Chad dug two graves in the field by his uncle and aunt’s house. It was right by a patch of carrots that Chad said his uncle used to grow for competitions, and Chad told the group how proud he always used to be about them.

  They buried the couple together silently. Chad didn’t want to say any words, he just wanted to commit their bodies to the earth and leave. He’d been forever changed by what had happened; the joking part of his personality had been chipped to pieces, and his youthful immaturity and been completely stripped away.

  From then on, practicality reigned. They took what they could from the house, including provisions of tinned food, the carrots, a couple of torches, and a box of safety matches. Tony found a rifle and a box of bullets, and he was delighted to find that the caliber matched his own.

  They had kept the blades they took from the dead men. Ellie looted the woman and found a dozen shotgun shells to go with her new sawn-off. Chad kept his uncle’s revolver. After running low during their pass through the mountains, it was reassuring for everyone to be tooled up again. As crazy as it sounded, Ash was glad his spells worked from his own lifeforce. It seemed like HP was easier to top up than bullets. With their provisions inside their rucksacks, they left the house.

  As they waked down the gravel path and away from it, Chad made sure not to turn back. Ash could see his face straining and his eyes beginning to water. He knew the solder would hate him to point it out by trying to make him feel better, so he chose to ignore it. Besides, sensitivity wasn’t really his thing, no matter how hard he tried. Ash could have the Dalai Lama whispering beautiful words into his ear but when he repeated them, he’d still end up looking like an ass.

  Verto led them across a stone path that cut a few miles through the country. As she walked she sang to herself, though Ash couldn’t understand the words. There was a rhythm to her voice. Ash would never have described it as beautiful but there was something haunting about it. He wondered if it was a song of grief, one to commemorate Chad’s loss.

  The countryside around them was stained by the spread of Rapto. Looking around, Ash guessed the loss of working cars and other marks of civilization didn’t mean much to the wide-trunked, oak magically-glowing trees or the rolling hills that housed goblin dens.

  Each of them seemed to be lost in their own thoughts as they walked. Chad probably dwelled on his uncle and aunt, Tony about Marg, and Ellie about Jake. Ash didn’t have any close to him except his parents, but somehow, he knew they’d be fine. Dad was a tough old bastard, and Mum was even more so. As soon as this was done he’d call in on them.

  Instead of thinking about family, Ash was preoccupied with his third mage tier. He’d wanted a new offensive spell for a while now, and with Defile, he’d got it. This spell meant he could cast a poison effect on his enemy’s blood, draining HP from them. This was going to come in handy, especially in long battles when he fought something with a high HP level.

  On the face of it, Blood Sense seemed like a basic spell. The ability to sense warm blood in the area, so what? The more he thought about it, the more he knew it’d help him. Sensing blood nearby took away some of the element of surprise. Imagine if, back on the mountain, he’d have been able to sense the troll before it leapt down on the roof of Tony’s pick-up?

  Lastly there was Cell Elemental. He was already feeling the effects of this spell; there was an icy wind in the air that seeped down the collar of his coat and spread on his sky like frozen fingers. He cast cell elemental and dedicated a modest amount of HP to the spell, and he felt himself warm up instantly. He deiced he’d keep it going for another ten minutes and then let Blood Concentrate level 2 regenerate his HP.

  After hours of walking, they came to a long, flat grassy plain.

  “Verto sees it!” cried the changeling.

  Ash saw it too; at the end of the football-pitch-long plain, there was a building that could have come from nowhere but the insane world of Rapto.

  It was a vaguely phallic-shaped tower that rose high into the air. In a way, it reminded him of a lighthouse. Spirals of crooked wooden steps twisted around the dark stone on the outside and led all the way up to the roof, which was shaped like a creased wizard hat with wide sides and a pointy top. Birds flapped around the roof, though something told Ash that they weren’t Beele’s birds. He couldn’t say why; it was just a feeling he got.

  Windows were set into the stone. Red, purple and yellow light glowed from them. In front of the tower were four misshapen hunks of rock that stuck out of the ground, and each one had red rune-like letters carved on the surface.

  This, without a doubt, was the most fantastical thing Ash had seen since Dr. Benny Aitken first screwed around with dark matter. Forget goblins, trolls, alchemist shops and brigands – this was pure magic. He couldn’t wait to meet whoever lived inside, but life in the Rapto apocalypse had taught him that they had to be cautious.

  “Verto,” said Ash. “Are we sure the mage is friendly?”

  She nodded. “Friendly. Nice man.”

  Tony stared in awe at the wizard tower. Chad had a faraway look in his eyes, while Ellie put her arm around his shoulder. Birds flapped and gave shrill cries above the wizard tower, and a chimney puffed smoke out into the darkening sky.

  As he watched the birds, his head began to throb. It was like the banging of dozens of tiny drums inside his skull.

  That’s blood sense, said FF. You can feel the blood rushing through them.

  “Can I tune it out? Make it so I only sense hostiles?

  It’s impossible to know whether something, or someone, is hostile before seeing them. Now that you have seen the bir
ds, your blood sense will ignore them.

  Ash took a deep breath. After coming all this way, he hoped the mage would be able to give them something to save Jake.

  “Okay, then. Let’s go see the wizard.”

  As they marched across the plains and toward the tower, Ash began to get the blood sense feeling again. It was like something pulsing inside his head. His skull began to throb, and he smelled blood.

  This wasn’t the birds. It was something bigger.

  Chad stopped walking.

  “What’s wrong?” said Ellie. She looked on edge; Ash guessed that since they were so close to the mage now, she was desperate to get this over with.

  Chad held his hand up. “My Impius sense just activated. Something’s nearby. Something nasty.”

  “I sensed it too. We need to be-”

  Before Ash could finish the sentence, an almighty screeching sound broke across the sky. Over to their right, the leaves of a small grouping of trees began to shake. Slowly at first, then more powerfully. It was as if the trees were shivering.

  “Not more crows,” said Tony.

  And then a shape began to emerge. Large and black. It had long, beetle-black wings and giant dark eyes. Ash watched in horror as a giant crow flapped up into the sky.

  “Oh shit,” said Chad.

  Ash couldn’t have agreed with the sentiment more.

  “Sorry Tony, but it’s crows alright,” he said. “Must be Beele.”

  The giant crow was bigger than Tony’s truck. It was so big that when it flapped its wings, Ash felt a gust of wind from fifty yards away. Its beak was as long as Ash’s forearm, a sharpened weapon colored pure black and that looked like it was made from bone. One peck from would smash through a man’s skull like a dagger through tissue paper.

  “What is it with this guy and crows?”

  He’s a Gonodil. Along with their mind jumping powers, they choose a spirit animal to mesh their mind with when they come of age. It usually corresponds to what kind of person they are. A noble, powerful warrior might get a lion, and so on, said FF.

  “And Beele got a crow. Makes sense.”

  Ash sense more movement over by the trees. He watched with a spreading sensation of dread as something began to walk out of the trees. Men wearing the green khakis of the US military. Pale faces, large, black eyes completely devoid of life.

  “More corrupted,” warned Ash.

  “Is he cloning these things, or what?” asked Chad.

  Ash quickly cast Transfusion level 2 at one of the emerging corrupted. He saw his arcane mist cover the soldier but then evaporate.

  Damn. Still not strong enough to remover the corruption in one go.

  “Kill Beele,” said Ash, eyeing the crow as it hovered midair. “But knee-cap the soldiers. Try and leave them alive, but so they can’t fight. I might be able to save them.”

  “Above all though, if it’s you or them, blow the bastards’ head off,” added Tony.

  Just as he said that, Beele opened his beak and shrieked. He swooped toward them, rushing through the air with his swings spread so wide that he seemed to cast a shadow over them. Ash felt the rush of air chill his face.

  He shot an Ignis ball, but Beele veered to the side and let it burn harmlessly away. He raised his clawed feet as he got closer. Was he planning on picking one of them up like an eagle stealing a mouse?

  Tony traced a shield in front of them. Beele ploughed onto it. The mana of the shield fizzled, but it held in place. Beele jerked back, shrieked in pain, and then fluttered in the air just twenty feet away from them. His attack had been strong enough to break the shield, but it had stopped him getting close. For now, anyway.

  “How many of those can you make?” Ash asked.

  “Seven or eight,” said Tony. “Make that ten if I don’t mana charge my bullets.”

  “Guys,” said Chad. “Right flank.”

  The corrupted were closer now. These soldiers looked even more ruined than the last ones. Sickly red veins covered their pale skin. Their eyes had started to turn completely black, as if someone had injected ink into them. Ash couldn’t see any trace of life, and the realization was a chilling one. These soldiers were too far gone for him to remove the corruption.

  A rush of air on his face told him that Beele was ready for another swoop. They needed a plan, and quickly.

  Tony cast a shield in front of them in readiness of the attack.

  “When he hit the shield,” said Ash, “He seemed to be stunned for a second. When it happens again, use that time to unload on him. I’ll deal with the corrupted, and then I’ll help you take down Beele.”

  The ground started to shake, and vibration passed up Ash’s legs. At first, he thought it was from Beele’s wings, but then he realized that the ground around them was changing. The grass of the plains was disappearing. Giant holes were tearing up, spraying mud everywhere. They were small at first, but then they began to widen.

  Ash had seen holes like this before.

  “Goblin dens,” he said.

  Sure enough, he saw bony green hands reach out of the ground and pull themselves out of the holes. These weren’t just ordinary goblins though. There was something different about them; a kind of faint aura surrounding their outline.

  “Anything you can tell me?” he asked FF.

  They’re Elite. Better at attacking and harder to kill.

  “Damn. Okay, Chad, I need you to keep the corrupted at bay, and I’ll work on the goblins.”

  His chest tightened. They had Beele hovering and swooping from the sky, squawking in a high-pitch, ear splitting way and then smashing into Tony’s shields. Sooner or later, the old guys mana would run out. Not only that, but the corrupted walked relentlessly on from their right flank, and more and more goblins were streaming out of the holes.

  If they just stood and fought this out, they were screwed. Yet if they tried to run without Tony’s shield, they were easy prey for Beele.

  Just as he had the thought, the giant crow swooped in, claws first. It hit the mana shield with its beak. The blue energy exploded, and for a millisecond, Beele was still.

  Ash unleashed a level 2 Ignis on him, with the Tony and Ellie shot at it. If they did any damage, it didn’t seem apparent.

  “Why won’t this guy just die?” shouted Ellie.

  To their right, Chad blew away two corrupted who’d gotten to close.

  In front of them were thirty or so armed goblins. They grunted at each other, seeming to agree on a strategy.

  “Verto,” said Ash. “Can you change into something fast? A cheetah, something like that?”

  “Cheetah?”

  “Something that can ran fast.”

  “Verto change.”

  The changeling’s skin began to bubble. Her green color faded and become red, yellow and brown. She changed into a beast that resembled a cat in some ways, but with six-legs and diamond-shaped patterns in its fur. Its eyes glinted like emeralds and were the deep crimson color of blood.

  “Run across the plains and go and get the mage,” said Ash. “We need his help.”

  Verto galloped across the grass. When she reached the goblins, some of them jumped back. Evidently, they had seen the type of creature Verto was before, and they didn’t like it.

  To his left, Belle swooped in and collided with the mana shield again.

  “Down to five,” said Tony.

  “No mana potions?”

  “Used the last one on the pass, right before the crows.”

  Beele wasn’t an idiot; Ash knew that he wasn’t blinding smashing into Tony’s shield. He would be aware that Tony had limited mana, and he was forcing him to use every last drop of it.

  First things first; he needed to free up their right flank. With Beele swooping from the left and the goblins running at them from the centre, they were going to be trapped.

  Gunshots boomed in the air, and mixed with the fizzle of mana as Tony created shields, only to have them destroyed. Time was running out.

&n
bsp; Ash gathered a level two Ignis. He focused on the corrupted. Chad raised his rifle and took one out with a bullet through its forehead. Ash looked that the soldiers faces and gave them one last chance to show any trace of life.

  Nothing. Just dead-looking skin crossed with sickly veins. They were too far gone for even his transfusion debuff to work.

  “Shit!” cried Ellie.