“What about the spiders’ health bars?” I asked.
“It is the same with the local creatures’ so-called health points,” Echo replied. “All the local creatures have been scanned and given levels as well as health points, also known as hit points. They are not one-hundred-percent accurate, though. The purpose of a creature’s health bar is to give you a general idea of how many times you need to shoot it to kill it. Other people cannot see the creatures’ health bars, of course, because they do not have nanotrites coursing through their veins.”
“See?” Vlad said, turning his head to look at me. “It’s another proof that we are inside a video game.”
“It doesn’t prove shit,” I muttered.
A sly smile formed on Vlad’s lips as if he had not expected to hear another answer from me.
“Sure, everything around us looks very real,” the Russian said. “However, the more time we spend in this place, the more evidence we find that it’s nothing more than a video game. Everything works like in a video game here. At some point, you’ll have to admit that it’s not real life, Davey.”
I did not even bother to reply.
We continued on, traversing deeper into the forest and killing overgrown spiders. At some point, we began to encounter way too many of them. They most likely were attracted by the gunfire. Or they somehow could feel our presence in the forest.
We no longer talked to one another. Engaging the creatures absorbed all our attention. We got experience points for every overgrown spider we killed. Soon, all of us leveled up, but we did not have time to allocate our skill points.
Seeing that we were quickly running out of ammo while more and more oversized arachnids showed up, Vlad used his Active Ability to deploy his battle drone. It materialized out of thin air above our heads and immediately engaged the creatures scurrying toward us from every direction.
His battle drone could exist for sixty seconds, so a minute later, the flying robot disappeared. After cooldown, Vlad re-deployed it, and it began attacking the swarm of overgrown spiders again.
I wondered about his battle drone, too. What was this thing exactly? How come the Russian could deploy it whenever he wanted? Where did it come from? Was it teleported from the space station when Vlad employed his Active Ability and then teleported back after the sixty-second period of time? Was it even possible? Echo had once told me that teleportation was relatively new technology and that one could be teleported only through teleportation chambers. However, I was not sure whether he had been talking about human teleportation or teleportation in general. If the former was the case, and unanimated things could be teleported without teleportation chambers, then I wondered how far they could be teleported through space. Our space station must have been very far away from this planet.
I also wondered where the drone’s ammo came from. When Vlad re-deployed his drone, its machine gun had been fully loaded again. Had it been loaded on the space station?
Also, I knew that if Vlad’s battle drone got destroyed, he would be able to re-deploy it after cooldown. It probably meant that a brand-new drone was deployed. If that was the case, how many there were drones stored on the space station? Or were they manufactured there by machines?
I had so many questions about how Vlad’s Active Ability worked. However, it was not the right time to ask any questions to Echo. But I made a mental note to ask the question about Vlad’s battle drone to the AI after we return to the space station.
Nate employed his Active Ability. A rectangular bluish, translucent energy shield materialized in front of him. Wherever he turned, it always remained before him.
We continued to kill one spider after another, but the swarm of overgrown arachnids did not seem to decrease at all. It was quite the opposite, in fact. Every killed spider seemed to spawn two more.
I heard a strange voice in my head.
You’re in danger. Be careful.
It was my Passive Ability in action. I quickly glanced around but did not notice any spiders that were about to attack me. I then wheeled around and immediately saw a spider warrior that was dangerously close to me and about to charge at me. I killed him with two shots before it could launch itself at me.
We continued to fight the overgrown insects, doing our best to keep them at bay.
There were plenty of spiders around us, but my Passive Ability warned me only when I was not aware of the danger that was about to happen to me. For instance, when a creature was about to jump at me from behind. It was a good thing. Otherwise, the mysterious voice would constantly have been whispering into my ears, and it would sure as heck have been very distracting.
Most of the spiders were warriors, so they did not spit gobs of webbing at us. Instead, they just ran toward our small group, trying to get within biting distance.
Since the spiders approached us from every direction, there was not really much use of Nate’s rectangular shield right now.
The same could be said about my own Active Ability. Wherever I looked, I saw oversized arachnids scurrying toward us from every direction. For as far as the deep foliage allowed me to see, there were overgrown spiders. Using my Active Ability would be suicide. Whenever I would blink, I would find myself surrounded by the large aggressive creatures.
So there was no use of my Active Ability either. There was no way I could use it without ending up in the middle of spiders.
We could not even move. We just stood next to each other, facing different directions and firing our pistols at the creatures.
It was probably our own fault that we had let ourselves get surrounded and pinned to the spot. We should have been way more careful.
At some point, when he was reloading his pistol, Vlad glanced at me quickly and yelled, “Don’t just stand there, Dave!”
“What do you want me to do then?” I shot back.
“You’re a flanker, after all,” he retorted. “So flank them. Use your Active Ability and blink, goddammit.”
“Oh really?” I said. “Do you see where I can blink? There are too many of them. There’s no such place where I could blink without finding myself in the middle of them.”
“Guys, quit wasting your breath,” Nate shouted to us. “They’re getting closer!”
He was right. When Vlad and I yelled at each other, we had not fired at the creatures, so they had taken the opportunity to get closer to us. They were almost on top of our small group now.
“Fucking Dave,” Vlad yelled over the crack of his pistol as he fired at the nasty long-legged creatures.
We were doing our best to keep the creatures at bay. However, we were quickly running low on ammo. The spiders were getting closer and closer. It was just a matter of time before they would get within biting distance and rip us to pieces. We would die very soon unless we came up with some sort of a plan.
Vlad failed to notice one of the spiders that had gotten too close to him. The creature closed its mandibles around his right leg. He yelled in pain as they sliced through his flesh. There was a sickening crunching sound as the arachnid bit through both the Russian’s tibia and fibula bones.
Unable to stand, Vlad collapsed to the ground. His leg was in a very bad condition. It was bleeding badly and was almost severed in half.
“Oh fuck,” Vlad yelled in pain. “It hurts. It hurts so much. It’s just a fucking video game, goddammit! Why do I feel pain then?”
I glanced at Alyson. She stared at the blood pouring from the Russian’s badly wounded leg. The girl did not move at all. She was petrified with terror.
“Alyson,” I cried out to her, “heal him.”
She finally snapped out of it. The girl looked at me and nodded. She then stretched her left arm toward Vlad. Half a second later, a bluish beam of light shot out of her palm toward our wounded teammate.
When it touched him, the bleeding decreased, then stopped altogether, and the wound in his leg began to heal. His screams abated somewhat.
“David,” Nate shouted
to me, “they’re getting closer.”
I turned away from Alyson healing Vlad and opened fire on the oversized insects. A few seconds later, the Russian got to his feet. There was a tear in his pants leg and his pants were soaked in blood, but his leg seemed to be completely healed over.
Without thanking Alyson, Vlad began to fire at the creatures surrounding us.
“Fucking monsters,” he yelled in rage. “I’ll kill you all.”
Nate pulled out the machine pistol Jennifer had given him.
“Listen to me, guys,” he cried out to us over the crack of gunshots and screams of dying arachnids. “I’m gonna use my Ultimate Ability.” He looked at Vlad and held the machine pistol out for the Russian to take. “Take it and while my shield is active, put your skill point into the skill you told us about earlier. The skill that turns your bullets into mini-grenades.”
“You got it,” Vlad said as he took the machine pistol and the extra magazines from the British guy.
Nate then glanced at me, then at Alyson and said, “You too, guys. When I activate my Ultimate Ability, put your skill points into some skills. But be very quick, guys. My ult only lasts for ten seconds.”
After we nodded our agreement, Nate employed his Ultimate Ability, and a dome-like energy shield formed around us. The creatures approached it but could not get through the bluish bubble of the energy shield. We were safe for now.
I brought up my Class Menu and tapped the Active Ability tab. When the skill tree appeared on the holographic screen, I quickly looked over the three skills on the First Branch that were available for learning.
Name: Ready for Action
Description: You gain improved recharge delay for the Active Ability.
Recharge delay: -10 seconds (Current: 50 seconds)
Status: 1/3
Name: Unstoppable 1
Description: You gain an additional Blink charge. While the Active Ability can be used several times before going on Cooldown, after you use the Active Ability, you will have to wait some time before you can Blink again.
Recharge delay: 3 seconds
Status: 0/2
Name: Reacher
Description: Increases the distance of the Active Ability.
Blink Distance: +5 meters (Current: 15 meters)
Status: 0/3
Since there was no use of my Active Ability in our current situation, I was not sure if I should put my skill point into any of these skills. However, there was no time to think about it, so I put my skill point into the Ready for Action skill nevertheless and closed the Class Menu.
The energy dome shield Nate had created was still active, but it was painfully obvious that it would not be long before it would disappear. My teammates had already used their skill points and were now shooting at the arachnids crowding on the other side of the dome shield.
Vlad kept firing his machine pistol at the creatures on the other side of the shield. His bullets were now charged with dark energy, so they exploded upon drilling into the arachnids’ bodies. The Russian swept his machine pistol left and right, dealing enormous amounts of damage to the swarm of insects.
Yet despite him killing one creature after another, it was obvious that he would not be able to deal with all of the spiders. There were simply too many of them. They completely surrounded the dome of the energy shield, swinging at it with their legs and trying to bite at it with their mandibles.
Vlad’s bullets drilled into their bodies, causing them to burst apart when the dark-energy-infused rounds exploded inside of them. His battle drone hovering above our heads kept firing its machine gun at the creatures as well. Still, it was impossible for us to deal with all of the arachnids. As soon as Nate’s dome shield disappeared, they would run toward us. How long we would live after that was anybody’s guess.
An idea came to my mind.
“Guys,” I yelled, “I’m gonna use my Ultimate Ability to create a teleportation tunnel.”
“Do it, David,” Nate said. “Get us out of here.”
Vlad did not bother to reply. He was too busy shooting at the nasty creatures trying to get inside the energy bubble.
“Use it as soon as I tell you it’s ready,” I said.
Without waiting for anybody to reply, I employed my Ultimate Ability. I placed the first portal next to my teammates and wasted no time running through the wall of the energy shield and away from it.
Now that I had entered the void space, my body seemed to have lost its physical state, so the arachnids could not attack me. They swung at me with their front legs and bit me with their mandibles as I ran past them, but their legs and mandibles went through my body as if I were a ghost.
Though they could not do any damage to me, some of the arachnids began chasing me. I kept running as fast as I could. When I was about fifty meters away from my teammates, I placed the second portal. My body automatically exited the void space. Now that I was no longer invincible, I needed to take care not to let the spiders get too close to me.
Since they were still chasing me, I kept running, firing my pistol at him. Despite the fact that my handgun was very light, easy to handle, and had little to no recoil, it was really hard to hit a moving target while running for dear life. Which was why most of my bullets missed their mark completely.
I suddenly realized that I had no idea what I needed to do to text my teammates. But as it turned out, it was very easy to send them a text message. All I needed to do was think of it and give a mental command to send it to my teammates.
David: Guys, the teleportation tunnel is created. Use it but be careful. There are more of the spiders here. They’ve been chasing me and still are.
I continued to run away as fast as I could, with the arachnids hot on my heels.
Nobody texted back to me, so I sent another message to my teammates.
> David: How are you doing, guys? Have you used my portals?
A second later, a message popped up in my field of vision.
> Nate: Yes, we have, David. However, something went wrong. Thanks to your teleportation tunnel, we fled from the main swarm of the spiders. However, we ran into a smaller group of other spiders. We were forced to split up and run for our lives. Alyson is with me, but I don’t know where Vlad is or whether he’s alive.
Almost immediately another message emerged.
> Vlad: I’m still alive. Don’t think you can get rid of me so easily.
> Nate: That’s nice to hear. So since we were forced to split up, I suggest we meet up at the Humvee and return to the colony. We will rest there and come up with a plan of action.
Nobody argued with him. It was obvious to anyone that now that each of us was on our own, we could not do anything to defeat the overgrown spiders. We needed to group up again and then come up with some sort of a plan before launching another attack on the swarm of aggressive creatures again.
> Nate: Be careful, guys. Try not to get yourselves killed.
I continued to run through the trees for a few minutes. Spiders kept chasing me. I fired my pistol on those that got dangerously close to me. Every now and then, I also employed my Active Ability, putting some distance between myself and the creatures.
A wet sound suddenly cut through the forest, and something silvery streaked in my direction. An instant later, a white sticky substance struck me in the chest, knocking me off my feet. I realized that one of the nearby spiders had just blasted me with its webbing.
Before I could get up, several more spiders shot silvery strands of webbing at me, enveloping my body. I tried to free myself, but I was hopelessly trapped and glued to the ground.
The spiders began to pull at the strands of webbing, reeling me toward them like a hooked fish.
I managed to free my right hand, in which I still held my pistol. Putting one of the spiders in my holographic sight, I opened fire. The pistol barked once, twice, and then went dry. However, I could not reload my handgun, because my left arm was fir
mly bound to my left side by the spiders’ webbing.
I was fucked.
Several overgrown spiders loomed above me. They opened their mandibles and were about to begin taking pieces of flesh out of me.
There was a chatter of automatic fire and the spiders looming over me burst apart as bullets drilled into their bulbous bodies and exploded inside of them. I jerked my head to the side and saw Vlad firing his machine pistol at the rest of the nearby arachnids.
Once they were taken care of, he ran toward me. The webbing I was bound with had already dried up, but between Vlad’s and my joint efforts, we managed to rip the webbing to pieces. When I looked Vlad in the eyes to thank him for saving my life, I saw that the Russian’s face was a mask of hatred.
For a second, I thought his rage was directed toward me, but then I realized I was wrong.
“What the fuck, Echo,” he yelled after he helped me to my feet, strands of dried-up webbing hanging off every part of my body.
“Thanks for saving my life,” I said to Vlad.
The Russian did not seem to hear me, however.
“It’s our first mission, so it’s supposed to be an easy job,” Vlad continued to yell at Echo. “But it’s anything but easy. Those freaking spiders are killing us!”
Immediately, a text message from Echo popped up before my eyes. It read, “It is true that it is your first mission. But it was never supposed to be easy. Being a warrior is not an easy job.”
“You should’ve warned us what we were gonna be up against here,” Vlad kept complaining.
Another message from Echo appeared. It read, “Just like you, I did not know what you were going to deal with on this mission.”
“You should at least have given us more ammo for this shit,” Vlad snarled.
“Each of you was given a loaded pistol and several extra magazines,” Echo said. “And I told you that you should not waste too much of your ammunition in the Training Room.”
“Each of us spent only one mag,” Vlad yelled. “Only one!”
The Weaponized: The Complete LitRPG Series Page 15