by Wolfe Locke
“Looks like trouble," I responded. With a bit more effort than I’m willing to admit, I pulled myself to a sitting position. "You guys got this right?"
I wasn’t scared or anything, I just needed the Crusaders to show they were worth the hassle of keeping around. If they weren’t, all this exercise felt rather pointless.
"What’s that?” Eric said, looking panicked. His hand shook as he pointed toward whatever was causing all the ruckus. “What’s that?”
Edgar took a deep breath and just glared at us, or rather at me and Eric, as he sprinted over, holding a Morningstar ready to fight.
"What are you doing?" he shouted at our little group while running. The Morningstart clinked and clanked as he pumped his arms, not breaking a single stride as he called out, "Don't just stand there with your dick beaters in your pocket, we're under attack! Get your weapons, get up, and get to it.”
Bjorn and Ashley sprang into action. Bjorn had gotten hold of a massive broadsword... somehow.
What…? Where…? I have no idea where he got that thing from.
Ashley had a bag of jacks that turned into throwing stars. They both looked ready to take on the world, quickly following behind Edgar. I looked over at Eric, thinking we could be a buddy pair.
"Yeah, not so fast. I don't have anything to fight with," he replied knowingly. He shrugged nonchalantly, seemingly over the fact that something was trying to destroy our fortifications so that it could kill us all. "What do you think I should do?"
I looked at him, and my jaw practically dropped to the ground. “How did you survive the arena?”
I was completely amazed that somebody other than me was hugely under qualified to be here.
Eric shrugged. “I mostly just stayed out of the way and got lucky. I took other people’s stuff when I could and tried to last hit whenever I got the chance. But most of that gear all vanished when they died.”
How was this guy also a recruit? Were the Crusaders just taking anyone? The recruiter made it seem like this was a prestigious order.
Although... his “stealing weapons” shtick was actually a pretty good one. I should remember that. Monsters can be disarmed.
“Oh!” he said, grinning. “This may, or may not, be useful, but I have magic. I can do some basic fireballs and... stuff.”
I shrugged. “Probably going to be your best bet. Just, for the love of all that’s holy, don’t light me on fire. Or anyone, for that matter.”
The wall crunched and started to break inwardly, looking like it was about to give way any second now. The higher-level Crusaders I recognized had all gathered around the weak spot, weapons at the ready.
“Well, whatever you’ve got,” I said, pushing myself to my feet and pointing at the collapsing defenses, “it seems like it’s time to use it.”
A shrieking skull appeared on top of the wall along with an massive oversized skeletal hand. It was trying to climb the barricade.
“Lirai,” I muttered. “What the hell is that?
Notification – Query – “What the hell is that?”
Details: Undead Skeletal Mage. They’re often known to travel in packs. Undead Mages have the ability to hurl magic attacks. They will stop at nothing until they are destroyed or until their opponent is dead.
“Okay, that’s not great,” I groan, massaging out the pain and soreness from my limbs. “What’s the best way to beat them?”
Notification – Query – “Best Course of Action.”
Details: Participants should seize whatever weapon is available and attack before the Undead Mages have the chance to strike. In this player’s case, Steel Core Bat is the only efficient option.
“Okay, fine,” I said, getting the other’s attention. “I’m going in.” They looked at me weird, and I cleared my throat. “Uh, to the house, that is. I need to go and get my baseball bat, so I’ll be right back.”
The steel core bat and I were in for another round of stupidity. At this point, it felt like we were old pals. I had the blackened Katana, but against the undead, the blade wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. I needed the right tool for this job.
You’d think I would have been used to general weirdness after the past few days, but the skeletal mages were a whole new level of creepy. They were pouring over the wall now, shrieking out wordless battle cries. It didn’t make sense that they were able to walk without any muscles, but I guess nothing I’d seen so far had really made sense. Let’s chalk it up to magic and all the weird, cheat-like things it can do.
The worst part was the feeling of violation as they swarmed the Republic of Dan. I’d cleared the subdivision of monsters, dammit. It was a designated safe zone, and I couldn’t– no. I wouldn’t let these skeletal clowns change that. They won’t get that far, not if I had anything to say about it.
I sprinted back into my room to grab my bat. Napoleon growled affectionately at me when he saw me. Good boy.
“Keep the place safe, buddy,” I said, giving him a mock salute. “I’ll be back.”
When I got back outside, the other recruits were still in the same place I’d left them. Bjorn’s arms were shaking a little from the weight of the broadsword. He was holding it up high, still in a fighting stance.
“Are you going to attack them?” I asked, frowning. “Or will you just stand there all day?”
“Uh,” Eric muttered, crossing his arms and looking away uncomfortably.
“Come on!” I said, beckoning them forward. “We need to drive these monsters out, once and for all. Keep the Republic of Dan safe from invaders!”
“The Republic of Dan?” Ashley asked, raising a brow. “I heard we were assigned to Outpost 18.’
“Well, you heard wrong,” I corrected, promising to have a talk with somebody later about getting that fixed. “Now, let’s go.”
I clutched my bat and ran toward the enemy, the other recruits following behind me. The skeletons had floating health bars above their heads. Currently, they were all fully green, although a group of Crusaders were about to engage one of them in battle.
I set my sights on the closest one and faced off with it, raising Lil’ Batty high. The skeleton shrieked, its jaw clacking open limply.
“Yeah, yeah, tough guy. Really scary,” I mutter, rolling my eyes.
An Ice Lance formed between its bony hands, and it hurled it at my head, still screaming.
“Okay, that wasn’t cool,” I responded after dodging the attack, deciding I needed to lead the way. “My turn!”
I sprinted at the skeleton kamikaze style and brought Lil’ Batty down, hard. A blow to the side of the head from Lil’ Batty was nothing to write home about, or so the skeleton might’ve thought. Frost spread through its vacant eyes as it dropped to its knees. I watched its health bar drop into the red zone.
Critical hit!
It was time to put it out of its misery… well, if skeletons could feel pain. I bashed its skull over and over again until it cracked open and the monster stopped moving. It wasn’t a clean job, but with the help of Lil’ Batty, I made sure the thing was dead. And that was good enough for me.
Edgar looked over and nodded approvingly. “Nice work, recruit. Welcome to the battle.”
It sounds lame, but honestly, it felt really good to get that recognition. Call me shallow if you want, but it was nice to get a little respect.
“See, guys,” I said, looking back at the other recruits, “this is fun! Eric, you give it a try next.”
He stepped forward, trying to look tough. I made an attempt to look encouraging, thumbs up while nodding enthusiastically, but it’s hard. I have a naturally sarcastic expression. Don’t blame me, blame my dad.
Eric squatted down like he was about to do a deadlift and started gathering his power. I could feel the air crackling with magic.
Shit. This guy might actually be a pretty good mage.
Face red, he stood up straight and launched a giant fireball at the nearest of the three skeletons. They barely had the chance to look up be
fore being blown into powder. Their health bars went immediately from full to zero before vanishing.
“Alright!” he whooped, leaping into the air and pumping his fist in a victory jig. Show off!
“I want to try!” Ashley said, her ponytail bouncing as she ran forward.
All four of us faced off against the skeletons as the Undead stormed the cul de sac. We’d taken out four so far, but there were many more coming. Us new recruits were the second line of defense, stationed behind the more experienced Crusaders. We were on cleanup duty, mopping up the skeletons who made it past the front line. Still, there was plenty for us to do. The air was thick with Ice Lances and Bone Spears.
I high-fived Ashley as she took out the Undead Mage she was fighting, a well-aimed throwing spear pinning it to the ground and shattering open its chest cavity. After all, even though I’m grumpy without coffee and when made to do exercise, I like to keep things positive.
I was holding my own with my bat, though I was no barbarian like Bjorn. He looked pretty cool in a “big sword, big muscles, Hi, I’m Conan” sort of way. With his rippling muscles and his giant sword, I would be a liar if I said that I didn’t feel just a bit of envy. But hey, we can’t all be eight feet tall, giant Norwegians. Some of us have to hold down the fort down and represent the average guy.
Suddenly, I saw something that made furious. Two Undead were running toward my house, and beyond that, my room! They’d breached the Republic of Dan, and now they were trying to penetrate my inner sanctum!
Unacceptable!
I wouldn’t allow it.
“I’ll be right back!” I shouted, taking off after them.
“Okay?” Ashley said, shaking her head mid-combat with a skeleton. I barely caught her muttering, “See you soon?”
I was going as fast as I could, but the two Undead had a pretty long head start. I could see them readying their Ice Lances as they went. They were going to tear my home apart, and without magic, there wasn’t that much I could do to stop them.
With a snarl, Napoleon came tearing out of the house, his little legs moving so fast they were almost a blur. He sank his teeth into the nearest skeleton’s leg, and the monster screamed as he sucked the life out of it. Its bones turned to jelly, and it collapsed to the ground in a quivering mess.
I shuddered. I’d died that way before too.
The other Undead tried to retreat, but Napoleon was too fast for it. He streaked after it as it ran away, screaming in terror, and clamped his mimic-jaw shut around its foot. It, too, was a formless gelatinous blob in mere seconds.
Job done, he looked back at me expectantly.
“Good boy, Napoleon,” I praised as he started to eat. I plugged my nose as the scent reached me, the Undead goop smelling foul as rotten eggs mixed with dirty underwear steeping in sewage. I gave Napoleon a thumbs up with my free hand.“You protected your home.”
Turns out it was good to have a mimic for a pet.
Notification: Experience Gained - +13 experience, next level in 87 experience. +20 Sol.
Current experience: 13/100.
Sol: 8094.
Just some trash
Chapter Four: They’ve Got a Leader
* * *
With the two undead destroyed, I turned back toward the battle, raising my bat high. I’d stop at nothing to defend my monster-free Republic. Whatever the Crusaders wanted to call it, I knew what the subdivision’s real name was, and who it belonged to. Me. This is my home.
As I reached the other recruits though, the ground shook, and we heard the noise of something massive coming toward us. It sounded like the T-Rex in Jurassic Park, and the effect on the Crusaders was the same as if that giant had appeared. They all freaked out at the same time, rushing toward and nook or cranny for cover.
“They’ve got a leader! Looks like an elite!” Edgar shouted at us, motioning for us to get down or behind cover. “Get down!”
We all obeyed, using whatever shelter we could find. I ducked behind a pile of plywood shards— the sad remnants of our shattered barricade. I wondered how the Crusaders could possibly have thought it would hold back the Undead horde.
The booming footsteps were getting closer, and a massive skull came into view over the top of the broken wall. It was a huge skeleton, three times as large as the rest. It screamed at us, and the sound was ear-splitting. The smaller Undead scattered.
“Down!” Edgar shouted, pulling Eric to the ground. He looked at all of us, motioning for us to do the same, repeating his prior command. “Get down!”
The giant skeleton started to disassemble what was left of the wall. It hurled pieces of wood and debris into the air. One chunk of rock flew past my face, and I flinched back from it. It would have taken my head off if it had hit me. Good thing I was a Reincarnator.
I tried using “Holy Purge”— after all, it was the best thing I had. A divine circle appeared under the cul-de-sac, pulsing a steady red as it dealt damage to the massive Undead monster. The monster’s health bar took a massive hit, but it remained alive all the same.
It roared and swiveled its head around, trying to find out who was attacking it. I ducked down low behind the pile of plywood, but it found me anyway. It looked directly at me, eyes burning, and started to push through the wall toward the subdivision.
Hmmm, looks like I’ve become bait.
“Holy Purge” hadn’t seemed to work like I had needed it to, though hoping it slew the thing in one go was a big ask. It was really just making the big skeleton baddie even angrier. Its health bar was still in the green zone, almost full. Worse, the small Undead were coming back. Emboldened by their leader’s attack, they started casting again. The air was full of deadly projectile magic.
I ducked underneath an incoming Ice Lance and glanced over at Eric. He was cowering behind a stack of garden gnomes that the Crusaders had tried to use to shore up the wall.
“Do you think you can cast something?” I asked, internally crossing my fingers. “Magic might be able to take that thing down.”
“I can try!” he responded, nodding his head. I could tell he was nervous, his face sweating profusely under the stress. His next words confirmed his fear, “But that thing’s going to come for me if I do!”
“It’s going to come for you either way! Might as well do some damage to it first!” I replied, trying not to shout back.
He tried casting “Fireball”, but it didn’t seem to do much good either. One of the skeleton’s arms was lightly singed. The bones had burned black, and its health went down a bit more, but the bar was still halfway full. As Eric had predicted, it pushed through the wall and started advancing on him, screeching.
“Get back!” Edgar said, frantically looking between them and the massive skeleton leader. “Recruits, get back!”
I thought about it. I really did. But Eric was in trouble. He was frozen in place, terrified, watching the giant skeleton stomp toward him. His eyes were wide and glassy with fear. I’d seen that look before, and I knew what it meant. He was panicking, frozen in shock. If I didn’t help him out, he was toast.
I sprinted out from behind my pile of plywood, ignoring the pain in my limbs and trying to get to him before the Undead did. I almost made it, too. Turns out all those upgrades had worked, and I was a whole lot faster than I had been. But luck, as usual, was not on my side. I was about ten feet away from Eric’s skeleton pile when a Bone Spear hit me right in the thigh, and I fell flat on my face.
“Augh!” I screamed, grabbing the hit leg. “Dammit!”
It hurt, really hurt, and I’ve watched zombies rip my guts out while I was still alive— so trust me, I know pain. This was bad. My own health went down into the yellow zone, and now I had a giant spear sticking out of my leg.
With a wound like that, I knew I couldn’t remove the weapon. It was big enough that it had probably hit an artery, and if I pulled it out I’d probably bleed out on the pavement immediately. I was stuck with a large bone shard in my thigh for the foreseeable futur
e, unless I forced a respawn. It didn’t seem like I could put any weight on that leg, either. I was stuck here on the ground, a total sitting duck.
Great. Just great.
I looked over at Eric— but he wasn’t there. My approach had jolted him out of his stupor, and he’d fallen back with the other Crusaders. Well, good for him. He and the other recruits were safe for now, at least.
I, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky. With everyone else out of the way and Eric gone, the skeleton had turned its full attention to me. It was gunning for me, and me alone. It seemed like I was in for yet another horrifically painful demise. At least, this one might be quick.
I closed my eyes and waited for the sweet release of death. Suddenly though, the ground shook again behind me. It sounded like another T-Rex— or another massive skeleton.
More of these guys?
I turned and almost whooped out loud as I saw the Crusaders’ giant flesh golem coming toward me. The Undead forgot about me, distracted by a new and more threatening enemy.
The two monsters duked it out like Godzilla versus King Ghidorah, fighting over my helpless body. Honestly, bone spear aside, it was quality entertainment. The flesh golem was a vicious fighter. If it ever wanted to join a giant monster MMA league, I’d put good money on it to win.
“Go golem!” I shouted from my position on the asphalt, pumping my fist and wincing when it rattled the spear in my leg. “You can do it, buddy!”
It roared at me, acknowledging that I was cheering it on. Nice. If there was one thing I’d learned in this battle, it was that it felt good to be appreciated.
The golem wound up and landed a killing blow, knocking the big Undead’s skull right off its shoulders. Its health bar started flashing and drained all the way to zero, and the headless body dropped to the ground, dead.
“Yeah!” I yelled. I could hear the Crusaders cheering behind me as the flesh golem continued to attack, moving on to the smaller Undead. He was a powerful ally— with him on our side, we stood a chance of winning. I felt proud. I helped make that.