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

by Tao Wong

  Space warps, twisting like a heat mirage. My knives slide into the mirage and never come out. I can only hope the recall spells brings them back. A follow-up Blade Strike disappears just as cleanly, leaving our reality without a ripple. My feet hit the ground, flexing and taking in the fall before I kick off, dodging rockets. I channel Mana once more, triggering my Blink Step Skill, and watch as my Mana and will battle against Evanline’s Dimensional Lock. The Skill falters, but not without result—the Space Lord’s Dimensional Lock disappears too. Specialized Master Mage or not, her Mana reserves have a limit. I reach out again through the dimensions and find the edge of her Skill, find where it interacts with my Mana and soul, where it works with and against the System, and I push, feeling Mana flee my body.

  An ear-shaking boom erupts, reminding me of the other fight. Hondo has taken a full-on blow, shattering armor and his chest as he flies backward and through the curve of a hill. Hondo keeps going until he pancakes upon hitting the next hill, coughing out blood. Even as Hondo squirms out of the hole, railgun pellets slam into his body, tearing off a leg. The Weaponmaster throws up a hand and casts Mana Shield, forming a temporary wall of protection. The Skill is a life-saver but trades Mana for shield integrity on a direct basis, and Hondo’s already low on the precious resource.

  “Thousand Hells.”

  I take the momentary gap when the Dimensional Lock isn’t active to Blink Step. I can’t reach Hondo himself, but there’s nothing stopping me from putting myself in the way of the pellets. I appear between Hondo and the Wolves and throw out a hand and a portable shield generator, watching the entire thing appear in mid-air and form its force shield. The pellets are stopped for the second, the Machine Lord’s shoulder-mounted railgun continuing its attacks and wearing down the defense. As I ready myself, the Space Lord recasts the Dimension Lock, forcing me to stay where I am. As the Titan jumps, landing a short distance from me, I realize I’m now facing all three Master Classers.

  It’s not all going their way though. As I throw up another Soul Shield, the howling fire from the gunship dies. Ignored for a short time, Mikito managed to climb on top of the gunship. The Samurai is no longer glowing and has only a small thread of Mana left, but she’s still in play. With Hitoshi in hand, Mikito doesn’t need much Mana to do damage. Her polearm cuts right through the armor, hits a stabilizer, and sends the gunship spinning through the air. Defying all logic, Mikito manages to straddle the spiraling, falling gunship as she continues her attack.

  I turn back to my opponents, my lips curling upward as blades form around me, a precursor to my final attack. The sword in my hand swings down, followed by dozens of conjured blades. Army of One cuts through the air, light hurting my eyes as the Skill homes in on the Machine Lord. Powerful as his machines might be, they aren’t up to taking my Skill head-on. My lips pull apart in a savage grin—then fall as the Titan interposes himself between the Skill and the Machine Lord.

  Blood flies, dirt kicks into the air, and the world shakes. I don’t stop moving after using my Skill, narrowly dodging the first of the spatial shards Evanline throws at me. I don’t manage to dodge them all though. A particularly hard-to-see shard catches me high on the body and tears away my Soul Shield. I scream as my muscles, tendons, and molecules are rearranged by the Skill. Just a little, but enough that the pain from the wounds makes me stumble and fall.

  As I stagger upward and the dust settles from my attack, a cold dread grips my stomach. The Titan strolls out of the damaged earth, wounded flesh closing before my eyes. There’s a wide grin on Hurquji’s face, his eyes darting between Hondo and me. Behind the Titan, the Machine Lord walks out, the myriad weapons on his armor pointing at me.

  I’m down to less than a quarter of my Mana, my Soul Shield gone. I have the contingency shield from my ring and some Mana left, but that’s it. Even as I desperately refill from the Mana Battery, I know it’s not enough. Not by far. Not against three Master Classes.

  “Pitiful,” Hurquji says. “Did you think you, a single Master Classer, could beat us? You should have kept hiding. Run. Get your last Levels.”

  “You weren’t going to let us,” I say, forcing myself to my feet. Two-thirds of my life left. Less than a quarter of my Mana. I could go for a Mana potion, but I doubt they’d let me. Three Master Classers, most at nearly full health with Mana ranging from close-to-empty to two-thirds. And the Uttu, somewhere close, ready to fire again.

  “Will you stand down or continue this senseless struggle?” S’Baxu’s voice is loud, though his words are punctuated by the secondary explosion of his gunship in the distance.

  I wince, seeing Mikito’s health take another dive. S’Baxu looks in her direction and a portion of his armor detaches, the rocket launcher and beam pistol drone flying off in her direction.

  “Senseless,” I say, closing my eyes. Exhaustion slides over me as I taste the word. “Maybe it is senseless. Hondo?”

  “I will not give up,” Hondo grates out.

  I sense his presence and turn. The Weaponmaster slowly makes his way over to me, using a new halberd as a support for his missing leg. A quick perusal reveals the hastily applied plastiskin bandage that has molded itself to the remnant limb, stemming his bleeding.

  “Better to die than fail again,” he says.

  “Well, that’s his answer.” I push against the weariness that grips my soul and body. It refuses to yield, so I let my anger burn it away. My lips twist into a half smile, one that they can’t see behind my helmet. “You guys don’t want to pull back, do you?”

  Laughter from S’Baxu. Evanline and Hurquji do not laugh, their eyes narrowing as they realize I’m less afraid than I should be. Tired perhaps, but not afraid.

  “You have a trick.” Evanline’s voice cuts through the air, reaching all of us as if she’s standing right next to us. Neat trick.

  “Always,” I say. “Last chance.”

  “He’s bluffing,” S’Baxu says.

  “Do your worse,” Hurquji replies, smirking.

  The Titan kicks off, speeding toward us even as S’Baxu opens fire, beam weapons and rail pellets tearing up the earth and lighting the sky in flashes of white and purple. I twist and jump, my Elemental Affinity tingling as space twists and warps. The Space Lord’s hidden attack misses by millimeters.

  We can’t win this. Not with Hondo out of Mana. Not with Mikito injured.

  No way to win.

  Not alone.

  Chapter 18

  Chaos. All fights are chaos. Even more so when one side is attempting to make it even more chaotic. I gesture with one hand, opening up my Altered Storage. From it, hundreds of tiny drones emerge. They spin through the air, zooming directly toward the Space Lord. As they fly, they explode with a million watts of lights in all the colors of the rainbow, miniature suns in daylight.

  Hondo shifts sideways, darting farther away from me as best he can on one foot, a beam pistol firing from his hip at the Machine Lord. Huquji kicks off, charging us as S’Baxu keeps ups his attacks, the beam pistol doing little to his armor while his own beam weapons and rail cannons churn the earth and burn the air. S’Baxu targets both of us at the same time, throwing firepower with indiscriminate care, like a Mardi Gras floater discarding beads in New Orleans. I twist and jump, my Elemental Affinity tingling as space twists and warps, a new Spatial Prison almost catching me. Perhaps the blinding lights slowed her down, or perhaps just luck. I trigger my Haste and Thousand Steps spell, speeding up to avoid being targeted again.

  Hondo has discarded the beam pistol as he comes to a stop. In his hand is a belt-fed grenade launcher. The deep thump of the rocket-propelled grenades beats through the air, punctuated by the crack of rail pellets breaking the sound barrier. Many of the grenades are intercepted, their payload exploding too soon.

  Chaotic energies swirl, some of it creating tantalizing, narcotic-laden smells. Other energies twist time and space in ways that hurt the brain to look at. A rent in reality opens, sucking up air and smoke grenades, the
n snaps shut a second later. From open air, a squirming whale-like creature is deposited on the ground, its form still crackling with the chaotic energy that brought it to our dimension. Sixty feet long, the blue creature flops, mouth opening and closing in a silent scream. Bullets and beams smash into it, its sudden appearance blocking the Machine Lord’s view for a second. The next moment, the blue-whale creature warps, twisting and shrinking as it is caught in the vortex of probability.

  In the meantime, I’m throwing Blade Strikes as fast as I can at the Space Lord and flipping my returned throwing knives at the Titan. The enhanced Penetration effects, along with my Skill, are causing the Titan problems, as is the quick-cast Freezing Blade enchantment. The effect hurts the Titan, slowing its mad rush toward me. Strong and resistant to damage the Titan might be, but fast he is not. But I can’t afford to stay ahead of him much longer as my Mana bottoms out.

  I don’t even see the next trap coming. The wall erupts in front of me, forcing me to smash into it. Reinforced via Mana, the spellborn Earthen Wall bounces me backward. Before I can focus and break it, Hurquji shatters my freezing spell and triggers a Charge ability, appearing by my side in a blink of an eye. I barely get my sword in the way before a fey-metal-banded fist slams into me, sending me through the Earthen wall. Only to be pancaked against an even harder Spatial Wall.

  My sword is pressed into my body, cutting into my own flesh from the block. My helmet is shattered, my armor broken. Blood runs down my chest even as my vision fades at the edges. An alert flashes across my eye, a simple notification.

  Critical Damage Dealt! Status Condition Overridden

  You are Stunned! You will not be able to move, use Mana, or react in any way while Stunned.

  I try to move, try to shift my body, and fail. I pull at my Mana and I can feel it, sense it, but a wall blocks my way. It’s a wall that I know instinctively is created by the System as it overrides my body control, overrides my ability to reach for my Mana. I grunt, straining as the Titan jumps, lands beside me, and shatters the earth beneath his feet. I’m pushed out of my hole and fall to the ground facedown. The first punch takes me from behind, pancaking my nose and breaking my teeth. The next blow cracks my skull, adding another debuff, and shatters cheekbones. Pain encompasses my existence as the debuff renews and Hurquji’s attacks override my resistances.

  A meaty hand picks me up and turns me around. Blood dribbles down my face, coating my jumpsuit, the cracked helmet doing nothing to stop the flow of blood. Hurquji stares at me, no pity, no mercy, no regret in his eyes as a hand pulls back.

  I have no access to Mana. No ability to move my body. Just my mind. And something else. Something not given by the System. In the corner of my pain-filled and shocked mind, I feel it. The connection between Hurquji and me. Between every single being, every single atom in the world. The forces that bind. And loosen.

  Just a little prod, a push using something that was given by the System but is not part of it. Not enforced by it. It’s a power that is mine and Ali’s. I feel the System try to stop me, try to block it, but the power is not part of the System itself. Only categorized, only noted.

  I push, and the large, meaty paw that flies toward me misses, flying past my body by inches. I’ve taken away the friction between myself and the Titan’s hand, making me so slippery that I shoot out of his grip like an oiled sardine. As I shoot downward, the Titan’s fingers clap shut in surprise. Along the ground I skip, my Elemental Affinity adjusting the friction between the ground and me as I land, sending me moving like a hockey puck on fresh ice. Soon enough, I come to a stop, because even reduced, friction is still in play.

  The surprised Titan stalks over to me, my body still paralyzed by the System. “Interesting trick. But not good enough. You’re just delaying the inevitable.”

  I grunt, some of my control over my body returning. A hand, a knee. I push myself upward, forcing my body to act, pitting will against the System and winning. A pitiful victory as my health flashes in the low hundreds, as shattered bones, bloody vision, and crushed organs decry.

  “Delay.” I cough, watching as the Titan stops, staring at me. “About. Right.”

  “Do you think there’s someone who is going to save you?”

  “Behind. You.”

  Hurquji pauses, eyes darting upward and sideways to look at his own minimap. They widen and he spins around, seeing what I see. Evanline is gone, a bubble of pink and orange where she was. No sound, no light escapes from the bubble. She’s gone, and with her, the Dimension Lock. On the other hand, what is happening to the Machine Lord is quite, quite visible, if not audible. S’Baqu is no longer fighting just Hondo but another five individuals, one of whom has a yellow stream of energy connecting him and S’Baqu’s armored suit. Even from here, I feel the way power shifts and drains from the suit.

  “Hera’s scorn!” Hurquji says, eyes widening. The Titan hesitates then raises his hand, attempting to active his Skill. Only to pause and look back at me with wonderous surprise. “You’re blocking me?”

  “Yes.” I’d smile, but it hurts too much to try. The damn Space Lord is not the only one who can lock down a location.

  Once I answer, the Titan doesn’t hesitate, his fist flashing forward. I finally activate the contingency Shielding ring, and it blocks the attack but sends me flying backward. The Titan isn’t expecting me to survive and delays moving for a fraction of a second. A fraction too long. Too late.

  By the time Hurquji reaches my prone form, he finds another figure before him. The last arrival to the party. The star of the show.

  The Wendigo catches the Titan’s fist in his. Even his block is sufficient to bend and warp the fey-steel knuckle dusters.

  “I’ve been looking for you,” the Wendigo rumbles, his voice low and bestial. There’s a hunger in the voice, a bloodlust I recognize all too well.

  “About time,” I mutter. Not that anyone’s paying attention to me.

  The Wendigo and Titan explode into action. The sheer concussive blasts of their fight strip my contingency shield from my body and then, even more of my precious health. I tumble across the ground as the backlash of their battle kicks my body around. I’m saved only by the fact that the pair move their fight away from me, probably unintentionally. As I lie in a pit of churned and broken earth, my body too broken and shattered to move, a figure appears.

  “Here. Dri… never mind. I’ll get the injector,” Harry says.

  The reporter drops to his knees and stabs me with a health potion It’s a lesser health potion, offering only a few tens of health points, but it’s the best we can do. Too much more and I’ll suffer from the effects of overuse. Instead, Harry channels a healing spell into my body.

  I stare at the man for a second, taking in the double, triplicate forms of him that fade in and out. I want to ask about the fights, about how many more we can expect. About the Uttu. And Mikito. But the part of me that knows this fight is over, that my part is done, pulls the darkness in the corners of my vision close. It wraps me up in comforting numbness and dismisses that harsh mistress consciousness.

  The System is so messed up. In twenty minutes, I wake up again, my body healed, teeth regrown, bones replaced. There’s lingering pain, but it’s all in my mind. I know, soon enough, that even that will go. The resistances, the System-given abilities, will wipe them away. Making me… functional. A series of notifications from the fight wait in the corner of my vision. My share of the experience for the damage I caused, the deaths here. But I can find no motivation to read them. Not yet at least.

  “The fight?” I say as I change out of my torn and blasted clothing.

  “Done,” Ali says, floating beside me.

  I smile slightly, grateful to see the little bastard. Pulling him back earlier outside the edge of her Dimensional Lock meant he could help the others bypass the Space Mage’s Skill. “Harry?”

  “Getting last-minute interviews.”

  “Cutting it a little close, weren’t you?” I say, sliding
on the new skinsuit and hoping that my expensive set fixes itself as advertised. I’m not entirely sure it can, not with the sheer amount of damage it took. Then again, look at me. Fit as a fiddle.

  “Wendigo took a bit to get here. Seems like he wasn’t watching,” Ali says. “Anyway, you guys took too long to take her Mana down.”

  “Yeah,” I say, shaking my head. One of the keys to the fight had been breaking the Space Lord’s Off to the Side Skill without her knowing. That, or making her drop it voluntarily. To do that, we needed to reduce her Mana to a point where she would no longer dedicate Mana to reinforcing it, allowing Ali to breach it when I pulled him back into this world. “Things didn’t go exactly as planned.”

  “When have they ever?” Mikito says, walking over to me with her naginata over her shoulder. She looks calmly around the burnt and blasted wasteland that was our battleground before her gaze fixes on a particular spot. “You nearly died there.”

  “You too.”

  Mikito shrugs. “Did you know? That they’d all be watching for Harry’s next segment?”

  “Know? No. We tried to contact them, leave them hints. But there was no way to really know,” I say. “If they’d watch. If they’d come.”

  “You gambled.”

  My lips twitch. “Revenge is a very universal desire.”

  Mikito stands in silence for a time before she meets my gaze with her brown eyes. She stares at me, searching for something for long seconds. Eventually, she turns away and walks off.

  “Mikito?” I call hesitantly.

  “You lead. I follow.” When she turns around, her gaze lands on me with a weight that takes my breath away. “That’s our deal. Win or lose.”