There was an explosion nearby. Ruth hefted her hammer and ran towards the sound. It wasn't Josh, she knew that, but it was at least in the right direction.
She ran into a clearing around an Old World building. A quick glance at the sign out front told her it was a refurbished bank. She guessed that the locals had been interested in the vault. She didn't know if there would actually be anything valuable in there, but the vault itself was probably worth using.
Right now, Mary was standing in front of the doors, shooting at monsters with two guns while next to her a few Archers shot burning arrows into the enemy horde.
Ruth ran up to the sandbags that they were hiding behind. The Archers gave her a look, but didn't argue, and Mary just gave her a curt nod before turning her attention back to the advancing horde.
The ground was already littered with monster corpses. Ruth was nauseated to also see a number of human corpses. She couldn't even tell how they had held out this long, but it seemed like the horde was making one last push.
There were dozens of monsters, maybe even hundreds. The majority were lower-level Formics, basically just giant ants. Thankfully she didn't see any of the more evolved ant-centaurs or mages. The ants were going down in one hit each, but there were just so many of them, the defenders didn't seem to be making much of a dent.
Mixed in with the ants, though, were other types of monsters. Ruth spotted a Porcine Bloodbreaker, a massive pig walking around on its hind legs with almost human-like arms and hands. She saw a Feline Juggernaut, a cat the size of a truck with blood covering its face, staying in the back and ready to charge when it saw an opportunity. She even identified an Ursine Moonkin in the mass of bodies, clearly prepared to do something dangerous.
Well. She was here to do something dangerous too.
She pulled one of the steam grenades off her belt and threw it into the horde with a heavy overhand pitch. She didn't prime it before throwing it, instead focusing on her new [Activate Rune] spell when it was already in the air.
The grenades were very simple constructs. They only had a single rune, a fire rune that would heat the water inside the bottle until it exploded. Normally, she had to be touching the rune to put mana into it. That was dangerous, and Ruth had always been terrified that someone was going to blow their hand off. Josh's jokes that he'd make sure to use his injured hand didn't help.
Now, she didn't have to worry about that. The grenade activated nice and far away from her, deep in the heart of the horde. There was a dull whumph, and ant pieces went flying everywhere as a few of them were unceremoniously shredded by the shrapnel built into the housing of the device.
Unfortunately, there were just so many of them. The small gap in the horde was filled in before she could blink. They were getting closer, and Ruth didn't think this had slowed them down at all.
Still, Mary nodded in approval. Ruth wasn't sure she had noticed the new spell, and just assumed she had activated it manually. “How many more?”
Ruth checked her belt. “Three more grenades!”
Mary grunted. “That's just our luck, innit? Got any miracles ready?”
Ruth grimaced. “Not a miracle, but...” She fished out half a dozen bullets inscribed with a specific rune. “Here!”
Mary dropped one gun unceremoniously and started loading the other. “What are they?”
“Dark runes!”
Mary gave her an incredulous look. “You mucking with my head? What good are these going to do?”
“Nothing!” Ruth admitted. Well, she didn't think they'd do anything. Dark runes appeared to only affect actual light. They could have their uses, but this wasn't really the place for them. “They're the last spell you need!”
Mary's eyes brightened, and she nodded. If she learned eight Gunner spells, she could advance to Mage Gunner. Ruth suspected that she had already reached level 32, and was holding off her advancement. “Got it!” She turned and started firing into the horde, more carefully this time. She was focusing on each shot, trying to learn the spell.
Ruth, for her part, focused on her own new trick. A trick that, just moments ago, she had already decided was too dangerous to try without proper testing.
[Overcharge Rune] warned right in the description that it could have unexpected effects. She didn't want to think about what would happen if she overcharged one rune in even one of her simple rune-chains. But if the magic item only had a single rune already, and she overcharged that...
She hefted another of her grenades. She thought for a moment, then touched on her [Overcharge Rune] spell just briefly. She immediately realized that it only affected the runes she was touching, as expected. However, when she also reached for [Activate Rune] at the same time, then she was able to use it at range.
She threw the grenade and used both spells on it at once. The rune flared bright enough to shine in the night even as the grenade arced over the horde. It didn't even have a chance to land in their midst, instead bursting just above their heads.
Ruth's dad loved military history. Most of the Old World's internet and media had been recovered, even after the end of all things, and he would pore over old battles like they were sporting events. He would gleefully show Ruth how tactics and strategies had evolved, and how eventually, once humanity recovered their technological advantage, they'd be able to use these lessons to fight back the Jungle's monsters once and for all.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
So Ruth knew how much more destructive an air-burst explosive could be, if timed right.
The crude shrapnel of the steam grenade scythed out and cut down dozens of Formic monsters in a wave. Even the Porcine Bloodbreaker howled in pain and fury as tiny shards of burning metal and splinters of wood embedded in its flesh. It turned eyes full of burning hate towards her and snarled around its tusks.
That could be a problem. “Um, a little help here?” Ruth called to no one in particular. Mary had the distant look of someone who was searching through their screens—really, she decided to do that now?—so she turned to the Archers. “Any chance either of you has anything that can get a grenade down the throat of a wereboar thing?”
One of the Archers pulled back an arrow on his string, sighted, and released. The arrow caught fire as it flew, and one of the larger ants screamed as it cooked inside its own carapace. “Nope, sorry. I doubt we can tie it to one of our arrows, either.”
The other Archer was firing a bit faster than the first. “I have a weak telekinesis spell.”
Ruth blinked at her. “You do?”
The first Archer stopped to stare at her. “Wait, you do?”
She nodded. “It's not worth much, but it lets me move arrows midflight. Good for correcting a miss and hitting the target.”
“I knew you cheated!”
Ruth pushed forward eagerly, ignoring the indignant man. “Yes, that sounds perfect! I need you to guide my throw down the pig's mouth. Can you do that?”
“I... I think so?” She didn't sound sure.
In the end, it was so easy that Ruth almost cried. She threw her grenade towards the Porcine monster. She could see that she got it close enough to cause damage, but not close enough to have any chance of getting in its mouth. Then the monster roared, and the little grenade suddenly changed directions in mid air and zipped down its throat. Ruth barely had time to overcharge its rune before she lost sight of it.
The explosion took out more of the horde than she would have expected. Apparently bone made for good shrapnel. Not only were half the ants cut down, but the giant cat was blinded and fled. Even the bear was damaged, leaving it easy prey for a flurry of arrows and Mary's bullets.
“I suspect that the magical fire reacted with the monster's blood somehow,” a familiar voice mused. Ruth wheeled around to see Darius stepping out of the building, a curious expression on his face. “Such things have been reported before. I'm sure you have heard of the First Mage's famous experiment, where he tested an ice spell used on a pond and then on a monster. The spell had a drastically increased effect once the monster's innate resistance was overcome—”
“Deedee!” Ruth cried. She threw open her arms and hugged him. “You're okay!”
He struggled futilely in her grip. “Of course I am okay. I'm one of the only people on this battlefield with a shroud focus, I am more resistant to damage than the fortress.” He struggled some more. “And stop calling me that!”
Ruth let him go and grinned. “How many of those shrouds did you pass around?”
Darius scowled. “Barely any.”
Behind him, both of the Archers held up their wrists, just briefly, to show her their shiny new shrouds. Even though Darius still hadn't figured out how to make anything better than the most basic blueprints, these basic shrouds could still save lives.
Darius was muttering about how it had all been a waste, and he hadn't even gotten any good experience because no one had gotten hit and needed his shrouds. Ruth was only half listening, but she got the point that he hadn't reached level 32 yet. Once he did, surely he'd get something interesting out of it.
She looked out across the field to the horde again. Well, it wasn't really a horde any more. Now, it was more like a scattering of giant ants and ant-centaurs. Mary and the Archers could finish them off without her help.
Which meant this was the perfect time for some practice.
She was liking her [Activate Rune] and [Overcharge Rune] spells so far, and the synergy between them. Grenades and bombs weren't what this class was really designed for, though. It was a melee class, designed around using a rune-inscribed weapon to maximum effect and beyond. She hefted her hammer, still light as a feather, and charged into the fray.
By this point, the shots from Mary and the Archers were sporadic, careful precision attacks instead of a wild rain. She didn't have to worry about accidentally getting hit, they just avoided her. She ran up to the closest ant-centaur and swung her hammer down at full strength, deactivating the gravity rune at just the right moment. She squashed the Formic in a single blow, leaving behind a pile of foul-smelling carapace. It was like a broken juice box that had been left out in the sun for too long.
She was a bit surprised by what happened next, though.
NEW TECHNIQUE LEARNED: Smash (rank 1). A technique for hammers and other blunt weapons. Swing your weapon with downward force. Increases damage, area of effect, and chance to crack armor. Damage is influenced by Strength, speed is influenced by Dexterity, recovery is influenced by Constitution, and accuracy is influenced by Perception. Cost: 20 stamina (variable by equipment, item). Requires: Blunt weapon (variable).
Ruth had never earned a combat technique. Not once. Mender was a magic-type class, making it difficult to learn any techniques at all. And of course it was a [Healer] class, making it difficult to learn any damaging spells, either. She had learned [Pain Touch], [Reverse Healing], and a few similar spells over the years, but her father didn't give her many opportunities to practice them. They were “just for emergencies,” he said.
People had died while he made her wait for “emergencies.”
Ruth tightened her grip on her hammer and grinned.
“Okay,” she said. “We've got monsters to smash and a friend to save. Who's with me?”
Mary grinned as well, spinning her guns theatrically. “I'm with you all the way. Show these muck-heads who's boss, yeah?”
Darius heaved a heavy sigh. “I suppose you'll need me to keep you idiots alive.”
Ruth laughed, and then, finally, waded into the battle.