Stars Awoken: A LitRPG Apocalypse (The System Apocalypse Book 7)

by Tao Wong

  No more second-guessing. No more questions. Time.

  I open the Portal and we step through. Time to end this.

  Rolling hills. A forest to the right of us. A lake and the river that feeds and leads from it to the left. Behind and ahead of us, more gentle, charming land. The city ahead of us in the distance—the far distance.

  This is technically public land. Land yet to be fully claimed but thinned out of monsters regularly. There’s nothing here above Level 20. And nothing comes near us, not with my Aura unfurled, its pressure beating upon unseen wings.

  “Think they’ll come?” Ali says, spinning slowly.

  “Yes,” Harry says. “Especially since you haven’t set up any traps.”

  I shrug. A neutral fighting ground is the best we can hope for. If we keep waiting for them to attack us, they’ll find a time and place that works for them.

  “We could have called the authorities,” Harry says suggestively.

  “Then they wouldn’t show up,” I say, shaking my head. “No. Leave it be.”

  “Relax,” Mikito says, nodding toward the city. “Eat a little. What will be, will be.”

  “Que sera sera?” Harry snorts.

  Hondo looks at us flatly, disdaining to show confusion. But if the Weaponmaster is worried, he does not deign to show it to us lesser mortals.

  “Wish they’d let us Level up though,” Ali says, looking at Mikito and Hondo.

  Both are so close, sitting at Level 49. There’s a lot of ground to cover in a single Level at this stage, but we’re so damn close. But that’s the other reason we need to act now. Otherwise they will. There’s no way they’re going to let us Level in peace.

  “No more innocent lives,” I say softly. “This ends. Today.”

  And after that, there’s nothing more to say.

  Chapter 17

  Time creeps by slowly. I’m on my fourth chocolate bar and even Hondo has unwound enough to test out a bar when Ali stops his spinning abruptly. The orange-clad Spirit stares at a new notification screen and holds his awkward, legs akimbo, partially inverted position before he grins savagely.

  “Got you!” Ali says.

  I swallow my last mouthful as I tense. “They’re here?”

  “Space Lock is in place. I just lost all connection to the outside world,” Ali confirms. “The Uttu is probably on her way to a good position to snipe, if not there already.”

  “Titan,” Mikito says, drawing our attention to what is in front of us.

  A single figure saunters forward, metallic bands that act as knuckle dusters gleaming in the sunlight. I twist and turn my head, searching visually for the Machine Lord but finding nothing. Rather disturbing how I can see the Titan but I get nothing on my minimap. From his mini-bunker on a nearby hill, Harry waves and gives us a thumbs-up before he shuts the door, hiding from the ensuing battle.

  “A bit brave, no?” I say.

  “He is a brawler,” Hondo says, cracking his neck. “Mine or yours.”

  “Hey!” Mikito protests.

  “You’re on sniper duty,” I say.

  “Not me?” Ali says, playing hurt.

  “Fill in when you can, but I want you near me. We might need to do a fastball special if the Machine Lord goes swarm.”

  “Not his style,” Hondo contradicts me.

  “Exactly.” I shrug, loosening up my shoulders before I jerk my head toward the Titan. “Yours.”

  “Guess I’ve got the Space Lord,” Ali says, frowning slightly.

  I understand his hesitation. This is insane. We’re out-numbered, out-Classed, and I’m sure they’ve only come because they think they can win. The only uncertainty is the same one any fighter faces during a battle—a bad roll of the dice, a lousy call. There are few guaranteed wins in fights, even in a System-adjusted world. Just chaos and blood. For now, all we can do is roll with the punches.

  Something pings on my minimap as my Greater Detection picks up new figures. I frown, curious how they only now made an appearance. The inquiry sent to Ali gets a quick answer.

  “Whoever was hiding them has dropped the upkeep. Looks like they were a little slow. Or might be on a cycled timer.”

  I grunt, using a small exertion of will to send the notifications to the team. Four more figures, all Advanced Classers. Two with large Mana pools, with Classes that blend out and get replaced with Healer, Healer-Support, Ranger, and Whipmaster. That last one involves a buxom flame-haired lady clad in the usual Adventurer one-piece armored skinsuit. Of concern is the fact that all these newcomers are Advanced Classers in their high 30s. By themselves, they would be of little concern. But with the rest of the Wolves in play, this team could lock down one of us.

  “Uttu or newcomers?” Mikito says, her tone chilly.

  I grimace, considering our options. Blink Step should, theoretically, allow me to get to the Uttu first. But that’s only if they don’t throw up a Dimension Lock. And past experience tells me that they will. All that means is we have to make our way to her position manually when she takes her first shot.

  “Focus on those here first. Healers, then ranged. We’ll stall,” Hondo pipes up, flexing his hand.

  I consider his suggestion then nod. We’ll have to play the Uttu by ear.

  We finish layering our buffs, adding whatever bonuses we can to each other and ourselves. Eye of the Storm is already active, giving everyone a little higher regeneration while I layer on Soul Shield. I’m tempted to add Harden, but the cost is too high. Until the fight actually begins, I don’t dare use that Skill.

  By this point, the Titan and his backups are a few hundred meters away. Distant, but with all our attributes, more than close enough.

  “You finally came.” Surprisingly, the Titan has a high, squeaky voice. His accent reminds me of a blond, cheerleading Valley girl. Entirely at odds with his big, rippling muscles. Though he does have the long blond hair framing his three eyes. Each of those eyes is a different color. Purple, red, and green with the barest hint of yellow on the edges. Handsome, if you’re into that. “Tired of hiding?”

  “Figured you’d hit us at home sooner or later. Once you figured out how to breach the new defenses at our home.” I don’t raise my voice like him, but increased Perception means we all can hear each other perfectly fine.

  Hurquji grins. “We would never think about attacking Tig’s guild residences.”

  “Uh huh.” I don’t believe him, but I can see why he’d say that. “You know, you could just walk away. Earth might decide to kill the program, whatever I decide.”

  “Contract hasn’t been canceled.”

  “Good.” My heart speeds up at those words, pumping more blood into my body. I unconsciously lean forward on the balls of my feet, bending at the waist as I ready myself. Anger, leashed till now, bubbles forward, filling my veins. The losses from before, the hurt over the injustice of this world wraps around me, armoring me in its hate as much as my Soul Shield does.

  Dimension Locked!

  Note that reality has been stabilized in the immediate area. You may not enter another dimension or pass through space while this status is in effect.

  Note: Dimension Lock may be breached using a Master Level (4) Skill

  As if that were the signal, the battle begins. An overpowered beam attack strikes against the layered defensive shields we’ve placed around us. It shatters the first, second, and third shields before splashing against Mikito’s body. My Soul Shield absorbs the remainder damage, leaving the Ghost Armor-clad Samurai untouched.

  Mikito and Hondo take off, blurring as they run and leave me behind. I haven’t triggered Haste, preferring to keep my Mana for now. Hondo pulls ahead of her as his damn passive speedster ability is kicked in full bore, covering the hundreds of meters in seconds. Spikes of obsidian stone erupt from the earth, forcing them to duck and weave through the new impediments while I jog behind, calling upon my own Skills.

  A formation appears above the group, gold and silver glyphs forming as a column of
power slams down. One of the Healer-cum-support players throws up their tentacles, forming a dome of power that stops my Beacon. It’s a powerful defense, but I see her Mana bar shrink as she defends the team, even while the dome cracks under the onslaught. As I raise my hand to throw another Beacon, the world lurches and all noise cuts off.

  I blink, thinking that my eyes are playing tricks on me, but they’re not. There’s suddenly a pane of glass between the world and me, and as I watch, that pane grows denser and denser, the other side fading in clarity. A hand pressed against the glass finds it unyielding.

  “What the hell?”

  Nothing.

  I slam my fist into the wall, achieving only aching knuckles. My sword does little better, bouncing off my prison. There’s not even a scratch on the glass-like substance before me. I stretch out my Mana Sensing ability and see the way Mana interacts with the wall, converting itself into whatever the “wall” is. Without me noticing it happening, I realize I’m in darkness now, no longer even vaguely connected to the world. Only the automatically turned on lights of my helmet provide illumination.

  “So. This is what the Spatial Prison is like,” I say to myself.

  That explains why hitting the wall made no difference. Why would hitting “space” injure it? Admittedly, with my Mana Sense, I could tell that the Mana Blade portion of my attacks were doing a little damage, but it was so low that it doesn’t show up under anything but my extended senses. If I had to rely on my blade or Mana Darts to escape, this could take a very long time.

  Good thing I planned for this with my shopping trip weeks ago. A slight focus and I pull my Quantum State Manipulator from my bag. I grin, slapping the QSM on my wrist then activating it.

  Getting the exact details of her Spatial Prison Skill cost me a pretty penny. The Space Lord doesn’t actually trap someone in a different dimension, but instead displaces a specific portion of space into that dimension. Attacking a Spatial Prison like the Space Lord’s is actually dangerous, as the walls are the only barrier between you and the other dimension. Breach the Prison and you suffer the consequences of an explosive and violent introduction to the dimension you’re trapped within. If you’re lucky, you then receive an abrupt and painful return to your own dimension as you are ejected backward. If you’re unlucky, you’re stuck. It’s a nasty, nasty Skill. It’s biggest weakness? It’s a channeled spell that costs a significant amount of Mana.

  Knowing what she could do, I had the QSM adjusted to locate the very thin line that connects the space I’m in to my original dimension. Once the QSM locks on to our home dimension, it’s a simple matter for it to shift my body. In theory.

  The QSM chimes, pinging me that everything is clear and ready. I draw a deep breath, hoping that the work done on the equipment was done right. I had no way to test it beforehand. Even if I’ve paid for the best I could afford, if the Space Lord knew about my intentions and took steps…

  I step forward, passing through the previously immovable barrier, and find myself back on Prax, in nearly the same spot I left. In my brief absence, the terrain has changed significantly, as has the status of the battle. All around me, once-pristine grassland and rolling hills are blasted and torn, the smell of freshly churned earth and charcoal grass breaching my helmet’s filters. The clash of battle resounds through the dimension, and I quickly take in the changes.

  Off in the distance, Ali is tangling with the Space Lord. Her abilities have pulled him into this dimension, but the Spirit doesn’t seem to care, weaving between shards of spatial distortions. His fists are charged up with power, lightning and Mana arcing around them as he occasionally thrusts a hand forward, unleashing his attacks. Only a thin layer of a spatial disturbance seems to stop the attacks from impacting the woman, but each second, her Mana drops. Truth be told, Ali is out-classed, and if she wasn’t keeping up the Spatial Prison, she’d probably have wiped the floor with the Spirit already.

  Hondo has his hands full dealing with the Titan and the Machine Lord. The Machine Lord is clad in what I can only call a full-on mechanized and armored suit. It’s not a mecha, because the thing is only nine feet tall all in, but it’s not just armor slapped on the body either. I can see servos hidden behind segmented armor plates, corded steel muscles propelling the Machine Lord forward as a plasma glaive comes crashing down on Hondo. The Weaponmaster blocks it with a sword, discarding the already melting weapon into the face of the charging Titan even as he makes a chain appear, catching the Titan’s punch and wrapping around the extended arm. Hondo slides beneath the Machine Lord’s legs, dragging the Titan toward his friend and wrapping the chain around the Lord’s legs. He then releases the chain, letting it constrict the Lord and Titan together. While the pair struggle to free themselves, Hondo conjures a large knife and stabs it into the Titan’s free arm.

  Before Hondo can follow up, the Machine Lord’s gunship—which has been hovering ahead—manages to shift position sufficiently to bring its beam cannons to bear and blasts Hondo away. Even as Hondo flies through the air, the Weaponmaster is activating his ultimate kill Skill, gold and silver circles forming as the arsenal appears.

  I turn away, checking on Mikito. The Samurai is glowing, a golden sheen covering her ghostly blue armor. The Samurai’s form blurs as she fights the entire Advanced Class team. As I watch, an overcharged beam cannon shot impacts Mikito’s golden form but breaks apart with no effect.

  Damn. Mikito has triggered her penultimate defensive and offensive Skill—Chugi. It’s similar to my Sanctum, blocking all incoming damage, but it has an extremely high on-going cost. Unlike my purely defensive Skill, Chugi covers only Mikito and allows her to move and fight while boosting her basic attributes at the same time. There’s a cost to this Skill, over and above the Mana cost. Mikito must have been pressed to the extreme to use her Skill so soon.

  But…

  Grinning, I trigger Beacon of the Angels over Mikito’s location. Even before it finishes, I begin a second activation of the Skill.

  “Mikito. Incoming,” I send over the party chat. Wouldn’t want her to drop her Skill at the wrong time.

  Light then fire. The Beacon of the Angels smites the group crowded around the Samurai like the hammer of the System that it is. Of course, as the group splits and moves, I don’t catch everyone with the first Beacon. It doesn’t matter, as I layer the attacks over the area.

  Armor melts, force shields shatter, skin and muscle burn. Screams resound through the hills, informing everyone that I’m back. My grin widens as I take off running. Through Ali’s eyes, I sense the way the Space Lord snaps her head toward me, surprise etched on her face. She pays for her distraction, Ali blasting her full-on with one of his lightning bolts. As the attack lands, her body arcs in pain as muscles clench tight. Leaving the Spirit to slow down the Space Lord, I use Haste and Thousand Steps to carry me closer to the fight. The sudden burst in speed makes the Uttu’s next shot miss me.

  By the time I reach Mikito, she’s put down one Healer while the Healer-Support falls back, hands up as she tries to clear the fight. A glance shows she’s at zero Mana, and that’s probably the only reason any one of us is letting her leave. Even if she manages to get a Mana potion down her chest, zeroing out your Mana is a good way to get a Mana Withdrawal condition, wiping out any possibility of spells. On the other hand, she’s done well considering she’s sucked up two of my Beacons of the Angels.

  That, of course, leaves Uttu, the Whipmaster, and Ranger. The peak-capped Ranger looks the least scorched, having been on the edge of my attacks. As I watch, the repeating-crossbow-wielding, jackal-headed Ranger’s health pool is recovering at a visible rate.

  As for the Whipmaster, her whip spins toward me. My attempt at a dodge fails because the semi-sentient weapon shifts trajectory in mid-air to wrap around my leg. I find my feet pulled out from under me, slamming me into the ground and eliciting a grunt. Vines, dripping with poison and acid, crawl up from the whip, layering over my Soul Shield and chewing through the defense
.

  Fingers dance across my torso as I pull and throw my knives. The weapons dart through the air, only for the first two to be blocked by a hexagonal shield of force. But the first two were a distraction for the third, which cuts the whip apart, sending the vine around my leg thrashing. I rip the freed whip-vine from my body before doing a rolling recovery. As I stand, I watch with horror as the vine end and whip remnants twitch and crawl, reforming themselves.

  “Ewwww,” I exclaim.

  “Above!” Ali sends.

  The warning is a touch too late. Rockets throw me sideways, tearing the vines and my shield apart in flame and concussive blasts. Beam weapons slam into me, heating up armor and burning flesh. I snarl, rolling aside and throwing up a hand to call forth a Mud Wall. It blocks the attack as I move, but the wall won’t last long. Nor will the gunship hold its position. Mikito, now free of the slain Ranger, throws herself at the Whipmaster, leaving me time to deal with the gunship.

  Sideways, blade coming into my hand, I turn, throwing a Blade Strike at the floating gunship and bouncing across the ground and into the air with my hoverboots, screwing with the AIs targeting algorithm. Blades of force shatter against the ship’s force shield, ripping through the fast-regenerating defense. I can tell it’s weakening, that the shield will go down. If I’m given enough time.

  “GOBLIN’S AAARRRRSSSSEEEE!”

  A scream. A searing flash of pain through our mental connection. Then Ali is gone. Banished. One of the real dangers of fighting a Space Lord. Their abilities deal with dimensions, and those not inherent to this reality are particularly susceptible to banishment.

  “Damn it,” I snarl. But no time to waste.

  I eye my Mana bar, noting that over this period, I’ve burnt through nearly half of my entire bar. I grit my teeth, plunging a Mana Regeneration potion into my body to kick up the speed. It’s a short-lived increase, but I get the feeling this fight will be pretty short. A mental command turns off my hoverboots, letting gravity drop me faster than ducking down myself would. Beams blaze over my head, and I toss my knives at the ship underhand, hoping to cut through the gunship’s walls.