The Enchanter (Project Stellar Book 2): LitRPG Series

by Roman Prokofiev

  For a few brief seconds, I was plummeting through the tangle of branches and leaves scratching painfully at my face. Finally, a sharp surge of adrenaline was followed by a powerful impact, accompanied by the sound of crunching bones. Not my own, luckily. Surprisingly for myself, I was quite alive and even conscious: the tree crown had broken my fall, and the rattus had very conveniently cushioned my arrival.

  I pulled Fang out of the convulsing beast. Plus 200 Azure on my counter.

  “Watch out, Incarnator! To your right, to your left! Retreat! Launch the Flash!”

  The ground below was absolutely teeming with rattuses. I was immediately surrounded by their gray shadows which came for me from every direction. I couldn’t follow Miko’s directions even if I wanted to.

  I tried to leap up to my feet. A sharp pain pierced my right leg; I staggered and dropped to one knee. Immediately the rattuses sank their teeth and claws in me and forced me to the ground, ripping me apart. The only thing I could still do was activate the Flash which had saved my bacon quite a few times in the past.

  A blast of blinding fire illuminated the whole forest. I managed to make out dozens of hunched-up gray shadows flitting amid the trees. Their bared fangs, glowing red eyes and sharp claws were coming at me from all sides. The Flash had predictably hurt the closest ones who were now squirming on the ground in death throes, burning alive. Quite a few others had been fully or partially blinded – but more of them kept emerging from the thick undergrowth and leaping off the trees, fearlessly attacking me.

  A tangled ball of growling, fighting bodies crashed through the tree’s crown and dropped to the ground next to me: Alice, already in her feline form, battling several rats which hung on to her for dear life. Jumping to her feet, she scattered them with several well-aimed blows of her powerful paws, and dashed toward me as I tried to climb out from under the heaped-up bodies. I’d only been fighting for half a minute maybe, but already I’d suffered several injuries including my leg and countless bites and scratches. The A-morphed rats were dangerous opponents any way you looked at it: they were strong, vicious and very bloodthirsty.

  Snatching me with her teeth like a kitten, Alice flung me onto her back and darted off into the darkness in long leaps, scattering the grey silhouettes which tried to block her path.

  What a crazy chase through the night! Rats seemed to be waiting for us under every bush. The forest was swarming with them. They rushed out to stop us, trying to hang on to Alice and hinder her escape. They didn’t need to try: Alice was so fast and powerful that for a few minutes, I thought we might actually break through the rats’ tightening circle.

  The illusion was gone when the powerful beams of searchlights blinded us, slicing through the night’s gloom and unmistakingly singling us out from the surrounding darkness.

  The air exploded with bursts of gunfire, its blossoming volleys illuminating the woods. The enemy spared no ammo. The very first volley threw me off Alice’s back. The weregirl hissed, rolling on the ground, her body rapidly covering in bleeding wounds.

  Activation No 16...

  Repairing the damage to your host’s internal systems...

  Current Azure count: 10864/16500

  “Miko? What the hell was that?”

  “What do you think it was? They killed us, didn’t they? Up you get!”

  I had no time to ponder over it. I had no time at all, period. Despite Alice’s incredible regeneration, she did feel the pain – and those bastards were using her as target practice!

  Firing non-stop, human figures moved toward us, their outlines black in the blinding floodlights, the humpbacked silhouettes of cyberwargs trailing after them. The Rogues.

  Before I even climbed to my feet, I sent a Flash of Light in their direction, and immediately another one, aiming it at the rats emerging from the undergrowth. They didn’t seem to care, rushing right into the path of the Rogues’ fire just to get to our sweet bodies.

  The two Flashes went off almost simultaneously, bringing a bit of confusion to their ranks. The Rogues ceased fire. Some of them dropped to the ground; but still I could see in the uneven glow of the searchlights that most of them had equipped themselves with strange looking black protective goggles. They must have been some sort of protective filters because the Flash had only stunned them momentarily without dealing them any serious damage.

  Still, that allowed me to get to Alice and bring her round. Gravely burned and wounded, she still managed to escape their searchlights, which began rushing desperately trying to find us again. The Rogues’ shooting became confused and unfocused.

  But that was crazy! They seemed to have a gunman under every twig! Alice thrashed about, trying to find a gap in their ranks. The forest had thinned out considerably; pebbles crunched under Alice’s paws as our escape path had taken us to a precipitous cliff overgrown with pine trees.

  We simply had no other way. Unhesitantly Alice jumped down, under the cover of the rocky ledges. I knew what she was up to: the narrow gaps between rocks made it easier to fight a numerically superior enemy while allowing us to take a dive off the cliff if things came to a sticky end. That would kill us both, sure, but we could reincarnate below which was more than I could say about our pursuers.

  At the moment, it felt like the best option. Covered in blood, Alice bounded heavily along a narrow trail snaking amid the rocks. The enemy had momentarily lost us, unable to sight-shoot. In just a minute, we reached the clifftop.

  The sky was getting lighter.

  One glance at the place made me realize two things. Firstly, we couldn’t escape by jumping to our deaths: the treacherous trail ended in a dead end, a flat platform walled off by a tall barrier of cliffs.

  And secondly, they’d been driving us up here on purpose. The gap in our pursuers’ ranks had been made deliberately. One of them had been smart enough to calculate all eventualities, realizing that this was the route we were most likely to take, walking right into their trap.

  We’d been expected.

  Alice dug all her four heels in, hissing furiously as she shrugged me off her back. As I rolled over the sharp stones, I made out the skinny hunched outline of a huge snow-white rat standing in the failing morning light surrounded by an entourage of its bodyguards.

  Rat King. He was there waiting for us. We couldn’t retreat: the Rogues were pressing at us from behind. We were well and truly surrounded. There was only one option available: to fight to our deaths.

  A bad premonition sunk into me. My future was to be decided here and now. I would either die or continue on my way. Whatever the outcome, my life was hanging on the finest of threads.

  Alice and I hadn’t gotten the chance to become a well-knit team. But in this situation, we didn’t need words to understand each other. There were two of us here: two Incarnators, built for the sole purpose of cleansing our planet from monsters exactly like this one.

  Let’s show them what a Warrior and an Enchanter could do together!

  The King’s entourage was made of huge humanlike rats clad in some semblance of armor pieced together from parts of human gear and sheets of rusty metal. In their clawed paws they clenched spiky maces and jagged strips of sharpened steel, lending these travesties of humankind a comical and spooky air.

  The King himself was gaunt and scrawny, and also considerably taller than the others. His hair was gray with age. His unnaturally twisted predatory silhouette towered over the group; his eyes glowed blood-red – a blood-curdling sight reminding you of the demonic entity lurking within.

  Seeing us approach, the bodyguards jumped into action. Squeaking, they darted toward us. The King raised his bone staff topped with a yellow crystal.

  We had a few seconds at the most. We couldn’t allow him use his paranormal abilities. There was no point me going easy on Azure anymore. I had well over 8,000 – plenty to douse this whole cliff with solar flames!

  “Flash!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, trying to warn Alice.

  She understood and
ducked behind a large boulder just as I sent two Specks of Ra toward the approaching rats.

  The explosion consumed the cliff, irradiating it with liberated surges of scorching sunlight. They ripped through the air, turning the rocky platform into a blinding flare of energy. I’d purposefully activated the two Specks at an interval of a few seconds, hoping to cover as much surface as possible – and preferably, reach the King too.

  It worked! I peered through the iridescent circles crowding my field of vision. The King’s retinue had been scattered; the King himself lay sprawled on the cliff, consumed by clouds of smoke.

  Growling, Alice leapt out from behind the boulder and went for the attackers. I clicked on a new clip and followed in her wake while activating a third Speck of Ra.

  Under its cover, Alice effortlessly finished off the bodyguard rats, blinded and disoriented.

  This was the first time I saw a proper Warrior in action. The sight was mind-boggling. She moved so fast that all I could see was her blurred outline. She stormed at the rats scattering them all around the place, then promptly shapeshifted back into her human form, picked up a heavy jagged sword almost as big as herself and dispensed of the survivors in a few powerful swings. Blood, severed body parts and pieces of armor flew everywhere as she battled her way toward the King. The explosions had sent him flying toward the platform’s rocky wall.

  I followed, emptying the Crusher’s clip into his gaunt ancient silhouette sprawled over the rocks. I hadn’t missed once – and still I couldn’t tell whether my hits had had any effect on him.

  The King raised himself on an elbow and shook his head. His faded gray hair was smoldering – but the scarlet embers of his eyes burned with a vicious flame. He emitted a creepy ear-shattering squeak, so alien and otherworldly that no living creature would have been able to reproduce it. My hits left small bleeding holes in his body which the monster ignored entirely.

  Alice went for him fearlessly, swinging her trophy sword as she leapt. She’d just been so successful chopping up the King’s enormous bodyguards that for a moment, I thought she might simply cleave him in two.

  As if! The sword’s serrated blade exploded into pieces, meeting the King’s thin translucent staff. A thin pale-blue charge of energy flashed through the whole length of the staff, enveloping the yellow crystal on top in a glowing halo of A-energy.

  The impact threw Alice back. A spark flew off the staff, hitting the girl with a crackling sound. She collapsed to the ground, screaming with pain. This must have been some kind of energy attack: her convulsing body squirmed on the ground, pierced by more blue discharges of energy.

  I dashed forward, gaining speed. The new Speck of Ra was ready to explode, but the previous Flashes didn’t seem to have done much damage to the King. I had to activate it real close, preferably inside the King himself, like I’d done fighting Evyl.

  The King turned round, finally deigning to notice the new attacker.

  His piercing squeak was almost soundless, bordering on ultrasound: a sonic impact so powerful that it stunned you, shell-shocking and disorienting. I was verging on losing conscience, my head exploding with pain, circles of iridescent light filling my vision. The world was spinning around me. Trying to overcome it was like trying to walk against a windstorm. I struggled to take a few more steps toward the enemy’s blurred silhouette, then collapsed to the ground, clenching my temples.

  Then something that felt like a giant spiky snake lifted me into the air. His tail! His obnoxious pink tail which was covered in bony spikes! It held me so tight I couldn’t move, its sharp spikes piercing through the fabric of my Fox suit with a remarkable ease, sinking into my chest, my arms and legs.

  My character’s 3D model erupted in green dots of Toxic Shock which immediately spread over my blood flow, adding to the existing Stun and Light Shell Shock damage. The monster was stunning, constricting and poisoning me, all at the same time.

  Having secured me in its grip, the monster dragged me closer. I choked on the cloud of unbearable stench that hung around him. Finally I could take a close look at his crocodile jaws, his scarlet pupilless eyes which seemed to be covered by a pale film, and the bone growths on his skull which indeed resembled a crown. The amber-colored crystal topping his staff began to glow like a third eye. Snarling, the monster ran his long black tongue over his dagger-sharp yellow fangs.

  “You ugly bastard,” I croaked, ready to activate a new Flash.

  Before I could do it, a spark of Azure similar to the one that had just knocked out Alice flitted off the crystal.

  Angel shit, that hurt!

  Consumed by an ocean of agony, I couldn’t see or hear; I lost the ability to perceive anything at all. Then a merciful darkness came, ending my throes.

  I was dead.

  Activation No 17

  Current Azure count: 6014/16500

  My interface surged and rippled like a bad transmission. Miko’s icon shut down and disappeared. I could hear her voice reaching me from afar,

  “Incarnator… Our neural connections are being severed… the interface is about to collapse…. He’s killing us! Activate the Flash, quick!”

  I came round, realizing I was still being constricted by the King’s tail. He’d just killed me and was about to do so again. Luckily, his Azuric staff needed some time to reload, so I had a few seconds’ grace.

  I summoned another Speck of Ra but failed to activate it: as soon as the little flickering light had appeared, the monster swatted me dead with a single swing of his clawed paw.

  Activation No 18

  Current Azure count: 5964/16500

  That’s how he was going to do it. He’d keep killing me time after time until he’d squeezed all of my Azure out of me, preventing me from activating another Flash. I had to change my tactic – but how?

  He killed me again. Then he momentarily got distracted, trying to finish off Alice who still showed signs of life. He launched another sonic attack, emitting a new earsplitting squeak which seemed to explode your brain from inside. My head was bursting; my mind would have loved nothing better than to shut down, escaping into the lifesaving darkness of total collapse.

  Forcing myself to keep fighting, I summoned another Speck of Ra and hid it inside my own body. Then I blew it up.

  My skin began to glow, radiating a blinding light as I myself became a source of incinerating solar energy.

  The monster hissed with pain as his quarry’s body became burning hot, scorching his tail and forcing him to relax it somewhat. Squirming, I slid one hand out, grabbed Claw of Helheim and hacked out blindly at the monster’s tail, investing all of my strength into the blow.

  I’d done it! The nauseating pink appendage slid down amputated, releasing me.

  The monster dropped his staff and spun in place, dousing everything in blood — so dark crimson it was almost black — which gushed out of the severed stump. His screaming was so powerful that the sonic wave blew me off my feet, pinning me to the ground.

  Finally, the monster stood up straight. He grabbed me in his clutches, suppressing my attempts to fight myself free, and brought me close to his open jaws, fully intending to bite my head off.

  He shouldn’t have.

  I buried Fang in his neck right under his lower jaw. The Blue Steel which glowed with the energy of Ra struggled to pierce his skin as if his flesh was made of some really tough substance.

  Flash of Light!

  Die, you scumbag!

  Flames erupted from his eyes, ears and mouth. He was burning from inside, just like Evyl had before him – but still he remained standing and even killed me again.

  Which death was it today – the third, the fourth one? Activation. Reincarnation. I rolled out of his reach. By now, he was consumed by flames – and still he was alive! Angel shit! How did you kill him?

  “Finish him off, quick! Use your Azuric weapon!”

  Claw of Helheim entered his flesh right under his ribs, in the exact spot highlighted by Miko. Its curved blade pie
rced him right through. A flash of Throbbing Heart surged down the blade, activating its Azuric damage. And another one! And again!

  The King emitted a soundless scream so powerful that the world around us rippled with interference. Rapidly turning into a charred skeleton with a few scorched bits of flesh, the monster slowly slumped onto the grass and disintegrated into tiny pieces, so small and insignificant compared to his awesome bulk.

  Rat King: mission completed!

  To claim your reward, please visit the nearest Stellar terminal.

  Azure absorbed: 74,000

  Neurosphere complete

  Neurosphere complete

  Neurosphere complete

  Neurosphere complete

  Total Azure count: 5814/20900

  You’ve received Rat King Genome

  “His skull, Incarnator! Take his skull! And his staff too!”