Earthdom: A Post-Apocalyptic LitRPG (Ether Collapse Book 3)

by Ryan DeBruyn

  Sela grabbed him tightly and shouted, “You. Idiot. Hold on!”

  Azoth folded his wings, and Rocky instantly regretted his request. His cheeks flapped as the wind and G-force threatened to rip him from the saddle. He fought the buffeting blast with his core, pulling his upper body closer to Azoth's back and maintaining his white-knuckled death grip on the rope lashing.

  Sela, whose chest was pressed to his back, placed a drag on Rocky's action. Perhaps even Zippo was added to the Herculean pull. It certainly felt like a tug of war with a concrete pillar.

  He inched forward, and once the equilibrium broke, their speed increased, until he and Sela were as tight as they could be. He hoped Zippo was gripping Sela like she was him.

  I can't hear him screaming, which I think is a good sign—my stupid big mouth.

  Azoth unfurled his wings and the forces reversed, pushing Rocky painfully into the Chimera's back. He didn't feel the touchdown—thankfully—and he righted himself to a spinning world. Azoth landed near the front of the combat, just behind the backs of the golems that were grappling with the wolves.

  He untied himself and dropped from the saddle, bruising his hip and shoulder in the process. The impact knocked the breath from his lungs, but he held back his vomit. A silver lining. The wolves towered over the golems, trying to withstand the assault. Two of the golems were barely restraining one single, ugly creature. Projectiles volleyed over and over at each leather-skinned wolf. But the monsters barely registered the strikes.

  Rocky rolled over and groaned. The bat-bird approached from behind, coming into striking range of the unarmed human survivors.

  He levered himself to his knees as the now-familiar chafe storm followed Azoth’s takeoff. His pet would handle the bat-bird. That left the wolves to him.

  Rocky shoved his palms into the dirt and managed to get to all fours. The world spun for a moment, and he had to pause. On his debuff bar, a stick figure with a circle of stars caught his attention, and he focused on it.

  Vertigo

  ● The equilibrium of your inner ear has been significantly upset. Usually caused by a severe blow to the head, a sudden change in pressure, or just wax buildup.

  Extreme dizziness, reducing Agility and Dexterity to 10% of the current value

  Inhibited thought processes, reducing Intelligence and Wisdom to 50% of the current value.

  Time remaining: 43 seconds.

  He clenched his jaw and surveyed the battlefield as best he could. As he had hoped, Azoth was distracting the final visible Batwing Bird. The Chimera was either leading him high into the sky—or straight into the ground? Tough to say, with the world revolving so quickly.

  One of the more ferocious-looking wolves clamped its jaw and two layers of teeth around a golem's arm. The teeth screeched and grated over the concrete, and Rocky covered hunkered his ears toward his shoulders.

  He stared in horror as the wolf’s lower jaw shifted backwards and forwards, like a... reciprocating saw? The golem’s limb fell to the ground with a reverberating boom.

  Another golem was—floating? Somersaulting? Cartwheeling?—away from a second wolf.

  Rocky dug his fingers further into the damp earth pushing under his fingernails. The world continued to spin, and he couldn’t tell if he was hanging from the soil or not, but he wasn’t going to risk letting go. The ground shook as the debuff timer ticked down to zero, simultaneously the sound of a boulder cascading down a mountainside assaulted his ears. He slumped back to the ground as the sky became the ground. Or was it the ground becoming the sky? The acidic taste of bile rose in his throat, and he swallowed it back down. He finally got to his feet, and Sela and Zippo followed suit.

  Blue above, and green below. That feels better.

  “Pick a target; those golems are getting torn apart—literally,” Rocky said, sprinting in the direction of the fight. He targeted the wolf who had launched one of its containment golems into the air. It was half fighting, half dragging its other golem restraint toward the line of ranged human attackers. Checking his line of attack, Rocky found no human between himself and the beast—just the golem. He charged Dark Blade as he used Analyze.

  Rat-Wolf

  Master-Shredder

  Level 22

  Health Points: 4300 / 7000

  The ranged attackers had done more damage than he had initially thought. Blood ran from numerous small wounds on the creature's rat-like hide.

  He loaded three charges of his skill during his approach, and released it with a vertical slash. A quick thought triggered Dark Cloak, and he raced to the edge of his released Dark Blade. The triple-charged ability tore through the dirt and sped toward the back of the golem holding the Shredder, leaving three straight ditches in its wake.

  Rocky flew over the ground, moving faster than any car he had ever driven. He hadn’t realized how fast he was going—this would take some getting used to. He adjusted his speed, attempting not to overshoot his next target, just as the Dark Blades collided with the golem. The dismemberment of the golem that he had forgotten to Analyze took mere seconds.

  His ability, which the enemy hadn’t seen coming, inched the Rat-Wolf back along its previous path. Rocky expected the slow retreat, and he continued his sprint, triggering Stealth on the run.

  His Dark Blade opened cuts into the rat hide, but a quick Analyze told him the damage wouldn't be enough. He charged another Dark Blade, this time choosing to use it as a melee weapon. In the past, the melee option caused much more damage than the current iteration of the skill, at least on stronger opponents. Relying on his past experiences as a guide, he stayed on the ground and attacked the back leg of the towering creature.

  He was right below the creature and strained his neck to look up, immediately averting his gaze when he saw the thing's manhood above him. He swung horizontally, keeping his wrists firm but springy. The blade bit into the wolf’s skin and through its ligaments with ease before connecting with bone.

  He felt the change in pressure through his hands and hinged his wrist while contracting his obliques. The torque of his body added power, and he drew his elbows toward his body to drag the blade through the limb. The resistance of bone relented as his technique won out.

  His sword tore out the other side of the back leg, just below the hock. He noticed the weight of the wolf hinge the appendage on the skin and ligament that his sword hadn't managed to sever. If the amount of blood was any indication, his Dark aura had cauterized the wound. The blackness spread as the partially severed limb-stump fell off the foot and onto the grass below. He looked back up and caught an eyeful of the creature's package again.

  The severed limb jerked up from the ground and the wolf howled in pain.

  Rocky turned toward its head in time to see the balance between his initial skill and the wolf shift. The wolf's head and chest, no longer braced by its back foot, began to collapse—directly on top of him.

  He cursed and sprinted around its back end. Liquid splattered on him, and he spat as some flew into his mouth. No, no, no. That couldn’t be what he tasted. No matter how much he tried to deny it, his taste buds did not lie.

  Oh, come on! I definitely didn't need a golden shower.

  He clenched his mouth shut. He never wanted to taste that again. His original Dark Blade tore through the creature, finishing it off. The wolf’s rear end went limp, and Rocky dove forward. Even with his incredible speed, the falling bulk clipped him.

  The prickly rat skin of the soft stomach landed onto his legs, buttocks, and lower back. Blessedly, his upper body was free, and he dug his fingers into the earth to pull himself out.

  He grunted in frustration as he checked his Health and Ether bars. The falling beast had halved his Health. His Ether was currently at ninety points but ticked to ninety-one as he watched. Unfortunately, his two active skills would significantly slow the regeneration, so he reluctantly released Stealth and Dark Cloak once his feet popped free.

  He stood up, jogged away from the corpse on sh
aky legs, and assessed the battle. Sela and Zippo were engaged with a single rat-wolf to his left. He scanned his right, preparing to charge in that direction, as he downed a Health and Ether potion.

  Epsilon, Omega, and Delta fought a rat-wolf, each one aided by the golems who had previously held the creatures back. He pumped his fist; the cavalry had arrived.

  The other golems must be under the command of the Knights.

  Two of the wolf creatures had only smaller golems for opponents, and Rocky charged one of them. He activated his two skills and the ranged assault on his target shifted to the other wolf being contained by smaller golems. The reaction speed of the ranged attackers told him someone here was in skillful command.

  He used Analyze on one of the golems grappling that wolf.

  Minion Golem

  Journeyman-Fortifier

  Level 35

  Health Points: 1200 / 4500

  Minion Golem? That was a very cool ability that he didn't know the Knights possessed. He fervently hoped it would speed up their current endeavors as he closed in with his target and distractedly used his Dark Blade with a triple charge. His mind was already playing through the rest of his day, rescuing more survivors.

  His target leaped backward, out of the path of his strike. The Minion Golems strained in the same direction against the wolf and fell on their faces. The rat-wolf deked left and charged Rocky, its jaw opening wide. The two layers of the wolf’s bottom teeth began to reciprocate. Rocky felt his sphincter clench and his muscles tighten.

  He summoned his Shadow Clone nearly on top of himself and then released his Dark Cloak. The cloak hovered in the air, and Rocky sprinted away from his clone. As he left, a hand exited the shroud and pointed in his direction, middle finger extended.

  Yeah, that's fair. I deserve that one.

  The charging wolf didn't take long to close the distance. Once in range, it lunged, rotating its head and surrounding his clone with its teeth.

  Rocky released another triple-charged Dark Blade at the creature's side. The skill connected with its body and toppled the beast. Rocky still felt his clone and mentally checked on it.

  He caught a glimpse of his other self sinking both daggers into the roof of the rat-wolf's mouth.

  Definitely thought I was sacrificing the Clone. Way to go—me?

  The hollow echo of a body hitting the earth reverberated up Rocky's legs as his skill careened over the prone creature and into the distance. The two golems, charging back into the fray, were met by a wall of phantasmal blades. He winced and murmured, “Oops” as they were torn into chunks of rubble.

  The released Dark Blade hadn't passed by the wolf without dealing damage. The near-evisceration was evidence of that, but a quick Analyze told Rocky there was still work to do.

  Rat-Wolf

  Master-Shredder

  Level 27

  Health Points: 1300 / 7700

  He was out of Ether and hesitated to use another Ether potion if he didn't have to. Closing the distance between himself and the creature, he lunged forward, punching his sword through its ribs trying to find the heart for a critical strike. The beast recoiled like a snake as his sword cut through, twisting its heavily damaged body to bring its back legs up to kick Rocky.

  Both legs pistoned toward him, and he hugged himself close to the wolf’s ribs, narrowly avoiding the first strike.

  The wolf launched its body off the ground and away from Rocky. His sword squelched free of the wound. Before he could react, its hind legs retracted and punched forward. He fell to the ground, flattening himself into the grass as the wolf’s hind leg clipped his shoulder and back. He screamed as a line of fire scorched him and a Bleeding debuff floated into his user interface.

  Swallowing his scream, he shoved the pain aside, rolling through the grass. Mid-roll, the wolf’s hind leg connected with his calf. The limb creaked and cracked as another debuff of a Broken Bone popped up on his interface bar. He swallowed back a scream, forcing himself to keep rolling to avoid the next blows. Each strike whistled past him and the disturbed air sped his rolling escape.

  He checked his Ether bar—it was low—and he chose the Health Potion option as he sat up. Pain shot through his leg, and he bit down on his lip to avoid screaming as his stomach constricted. He tried to avoid looking at his foot, but he was pretty sure it should be facing forward.

  Rocky palpated his calf and was glad to see that the bone hadn’t broken through. Rocky clenched his teeth. Before drinking the Health Potion, he needed to correct his foot’s position or it wouldn’t heal right. He grabbed a nearby stick and put it between his teeth, then grabbed the leg and wrenched it, holding the bone and muscles in place. He bit down on the stick as he bellowed a soul-shaking scream. Dark spots clouded his vision, and he vomited.

  Cold sweat broke out over his scorching skin, and he downed the Healing Potion, praying it would stay down. A cool wave of relief washed over him, and then his stomach bucked. Rocky swallowed the liquid that rose in his throat, the taste no longer pleasant—he couldn’t afford to waste the potion.

  Nauseous and dizzy, he forced himself to stand on one leg.

  The wolf lay still, collapsed on its side, as a barrage of ranged attacks peppered the dying beast.

  The survivors had come to his rescue.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Rocky monitored the clean up of the battle, ready to jump in if the line faltered at all, but it hadn't. Sela and Zippo had finished off their target sometime during Rocky's botched fight with his own opponent, and had then joined the assault from range on the Batwing Bird.

  Sela gave directions to Azoth, who skillfully disabled the creature's flight. At that point, Rocky used a Dark Blade to add his damage to the fray, mostly to ensure it didn't get back into the air. The Golem Knights quickly dispatched the final Rat-Wolves, with their comparable size and levels.

  With the last beast vanquished, the survivors surrounded his group and the Golem Knights.

  “Welcome back, Epsilon. Are these the survivors from Kingston?” Rocky asked, addressing the Golem Leader.

  Epsilon nodded. “Some of the humans present are from other schools along our path, though the majority are from Kingston, yes. More survived there because of their ability to control golems—”

  “That wasn't you guys?” asked Rocky.

  Delta shook his head. “We can attempt to order our non-intelligent brothers around. However, the results haven't been optimal. I believe we are missing a requisite skill.”

  Rocky eyed the three surviving Minion Golems. He turned back to Epsilon, “If not you—then who?”

  A young man stepped forward—unkempt hair that mimicked a bird's nest, dirty skin, and stained clothing. He was teenager skinny, with the accompanying coordination issues, and couldn't have been much older than Zippo.

  This kid can take control of golems.

  He used Analyze.

  Adam Weatherbee

  Apprentice Stone-Summoner

  Level 21

  Health Points: 90 / 90

  The kid spoke up, his voice breaking with the telltale tones of puberty. “I'm Adam. I am the one who can control the golems. They lose levels when I claim them, but it has been less lately.”

  “Did you play video games a lot, Adam?” Zippo asked with interest.

  The boy nodded eagerly, and he stood up straight. “Yeah! I am min-maxing in Intelligence and Wisdom… Wow, you are really strong! Journeyman rank—when did you get to rank up?”

  “Teenagers, right?” said one of the older survivors, smiling at Adam and Zippo, who moved aside to talk excitedly. “My name is Garry. Can we keep traveling and talk as we journey?”

  “Unfortunately, we have some other people to save in nearby villages. We will meet you back in the Territory shortly, though,” Sela said.”Epsilon, think you can get them back safely? We really could use all of your help.” She indicated the Knights, including Tao and Gamma, with the tilt of her chin.

  “We will have this group b
ack shortly.” Epsilon held up a finger, emphasizing his next words. “We need to discuss our next actions with Tao and Gamma. I assume nothing has befallen my brothers?”

  “They are just fine. They helped us defend the Grotto from an assault, and even met a dragon—they will tell you all about it when you arrive, I am sure,” Rocky said, smiling reassuringly.

  Omega hopped up and down, causing small quakes that trembled up Rocky's legs. In his typical surfer drawl, he said, “Dude, they met a dragon! That's, like, totally epic. Did they save a princess as well?”

  Delta shook his head, patting Omega’s shoulder. The body contact put an end to the miniature hops, and Rocky's teeth were thankful. “That's statistically impossible in a world with so few monarchies. My guess is they …”

  Rocky turned away from the conversation and assessed the corpses of the slain creatures. The meat on a single one of the monstrous creatures would be enough to feed the Territory for a few days—or Azoth for one lunch. Considering the state of their reserves, he wanted to get them back to his people. They would probably fit in his Bag of Holding, but he would collapse from the weight of just one of the creatures, even with the 90% weight reduction.

  He shook his head and prepared to loot the bodies when he caught a Minion Golem shifting slightly from the corner of his eye. “Adam, how fast can the Minion Golems run?”

  “Uhhh… well… probably pretty fast. I don't think they get tired.” Adam moved closer and whispered, “I don't think they even breathe.”

  Rocky tilted his head, reconsidering the age of the young man. His heart warred between his growing fondness for the boy—he was so much like Zippo when Rocky had first met him—and his clinical brain shot ice through his veins.

  How can he still seem so innocent? Do I dare risk him?

  Adam looked over his shoulder at his three remaining golems. “After this last fight, I have to go collect more, too. I started this journey with fifteen.”