Katalin’s impact with the ground knocked the breath out of her and sent a fresh wave of agony searing across her back with a red-bordered message box flashing in front of her eyes.
Health 1/5
She wheezed and tried to summon the willpower to keep moving. The panthyruxi’s jaw dropped in a grin. Its eerie, purring growl filled the air.
Panthyruxi uses Creeping Corruption
Creeping Corruption resisted!
Skill increased: Corruption Resistance 2%
Skill increased: Dodge 8%
Skill failed: Acrobatics
“Fuck you!”
Skill increased: Dodge 9%
Fighting pain, nausea and dizziness, Katalin lurched into the generator tent barely ahead of the monsters chasing her.
Skill increased: Dodge 10%
Skill Specialisation available…
Katalin ignored the messages and dashed for the lighting board. Her eyes wouldn’t focus properly. She tripped on ropes of trailing cable and barely kept her feet. She bounced off a rack of equipment, swearing loudly. In his folding chair, the generator guy, Tiny, gaped fishlike at her. The doorway tore away on the claws of a panthyruxi as Katalin found the floodlight controls and drenched the circus ground in brilliant light.
Skill increased: Improvised Weapons 2%
Supporting Skill: Monster Behaviourist. Effect: Panthyruxi is Afraid
Panthyruxi Health ??/??
Skill increased: Improvised Weapons 3%
Supporting Skill: Monster Behaviourist. Effect: Panthyruxi resists Fear
Panthyruxi Health ??/??
Skill increased: Improvised Weapons 4%
Supporting Skill: Monster Behaviourist. Effect: Panthyruxi resists Fear
Panthyruxi Health ??/??
Skill failed: Improvised Weapons
Skill increased: Improvised Weapons 5%
Supporting Skill: Monster Behaviourist. Effect: Panthyruxi is Afraid
Panthyruxi Health ?/??
Skill increased: Improvised Weapons 6%
Supporting Skill: Monster Behaviourist. Effect: Panthyruxi resists Fear
Panthyruxi Health ?/??
Skill failed: Improvised Weapons
Skill succeeded: Improvised Weapons
Supporting Skill: Monster Behaviourist. Effect: Panthyruxi is Afraid
Panthyruxi Health ?/??
Skill increased: Improvised Weapons 7%
Supporting Skill: Monster Behaviourist. Effect: Panthyruxi resists Fear
Panthyruxi Health ?/??
Skill succeeded: Improvised Weapons
Panthyruxi Health ?/??
Skill increased: Improvised Weapons 8%
Supporting Skill: Monster Behaviourist. Effect: Panthyruxi resists Fear
Panthyruxi Health ?/??
Skill failed: Improvised Weapons
Skill failed: Improvised Weapons
Skill increased: Improvised Weapons 9%
Supporting Skill: Monster Behaviourist. Effect: Panthyruxi resists Fear
Panthyruxi Health ?/??
“There’s these… things,” Katalin told Tiny as the man unfolded from his chair. The nickname was a joke. Tiny was the tallest guy Katalin had ever seen. Skinny, though, like someone made a normal person out of modeling clay then stretched him. Tiny wasn’t looking at her. He was staring past her in horror. The panthyruxi was padding over the torn length of canvas, claws pricking holes in the heavy fabric. Its yellow eyes fixed on the two humans. Saliva dripped from its half-open mouth, and a growling purr issued from deep in its chest. Katalin snatched the first thing that came to hand, a car battery from the rickety metal rack beside her, and threw it. It caught the monster on its foot, and all its attention was suddenly on her…
♩♪♫♩♬♪
In the main auditorium of the Salcester International Centre, the sudden darkness was pierced only by the lights of a few thousand glowsticks. The speakers cut out. The song of the crowd stuttered into confusion and complaint. Chezzo’s anger flared back to the fore. “What the fuck? What the fucking fuck?”
Alfie felt for the bass stand with his foot, carefully put Jack’s bass guitar down, then followed the angry swearing. “Gimme the Strat, okay, mate? Before it gets broken.”
Chezzo cooled down enough to see the sense in that, and handed Alfie back his own guitar. “What the fuck?”
Alfie cradled his guitar like a baby and peered out into the glowstick starscape beyond the stage. “Ye…eah,” he said, slowly. There were other shapes out there, shapes that moved and caught the light in strange ways. Screams were returning, this time a sound of terror. “What are those?”
Within moments the crowd had descended into chaos. Skeletal, metallic, armoured suits surrounded them, firing metal darts from weapons that looked like the offspring of a sealant gun and a coat hanger. Several fled, only to run into more of the metal figures and fall to their weapons. Many didn’t run. This was Salcester, after all, a city that considered street fights and bar brawls to be a regular Saturday-night hobby. Skeletal suits began to vanish within knots of angry crowd members. Some of the metallic figures crashed to the ground with a crash and a shower of sparks, amid cheers and jeers. The invaders found themselves facing their own dart-guns.
Before the band could react, more of the metal skeleton suits appeared around them. The figures didn’t shoot, though. They merely menaced with their dart guns to keep the band on the stage, as though waiting for something else to deal with them. The three glanced at each other in the multicoloured dimness. The words were unspoken but well enough understood. We could take one or two of them, but this is too many, and What the fuck are these floating boxes?
Skill learned: Identify Monster 1%
Thioron Soldier
Level ?? Participant
Alignment: Not Applicable
Weaknesses: ?
What the Soldiers were waiting for became obvious as yet another figure appeared. This one was much taller. Shinier, if that were possible, with a golden cast to its metallic frame rather than the grayish-silver of the others. It walked steadily forwards across the auditorium floor, ignoring everything around it unless it was directly in the way. It casually shot any obstruction.
Skill increased: Identify Monster 2%
Thioron Commander
Level ?? Participant
Alignment: Not Applicable
Weaknesses: ?
It stopped before the stage, facing Chezzo. Screeches and distorted screams came from its head. A new box appeared in the air.
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Chezzo stared at the golden figure. “Did that thing… What the fuck? You can’t just come here and-”
Alfie gave a disbelieving shake of his head. “It’s an audience, not a-”
Without further warning the Commander’s hand shot out, extending in segments far beyond its original length. Its skeletal fingers clamped onto Chezzo’s hair. The rest of the band reacted instantly and instinctively, Noah ducking behind his drum set and Alfie back-stepping quickly away from the lead singer even though that took him closer to the Thioron Soldiers. As they did so, Chezzo exploded. His face distorted in unholy rage, the howl erupted from him as if straight from the pits of Hell.
“DON’T TOUCH THE HAIR!”
The Commander’s metallic arm contracted a link at a time, inexorably pulling the singer back towards the golden giant. Screaming every invective in his vocabulary, Chezzo smashed at the arm with the microphone stand. When the stand was unrecognisable bent metal he started kicking instead, sparks flying whenever his steel toe-caps made contact. The boots, like their wearer, were the veterans of far too many pub brawls.
Skill learned: Berserker 1%
Skill increased: Berserker 2%
Skill increased: Berserker 3%
Skill learned: Improvised Weapon 1%
Skill increased: Improvised Weapon 2%
…
Skill increased: Berserker 5%
Skill learned: Kick 1%
Skill increased: Kick 2%
Skill increased: Kick 3%
…
Skill increased: Kick 5%
…
Skill increased: Berserker 10%
…
Skill increased: Kick 10%
Specialisation Available!
Your Berserker has reached 10%! As a result of your experiences so far, the following choices are available:
“Get your fucking boxes out of my fucking face!” Chezzo screamed.
Specialisation chosen! Get Out Of My Face selected. Once per opponent, you may make a single attack at +50% Strength and +50% Berserker Skill. If this attack causes damage to the opponent, the attack has a chance to inflict Fear on all opponents observing it.
Specialisation Available!
Your Kick has reached 10%! As a result of your experiences so far, the following choices are available:
“Get your fucking boxes out of my fucking face or I’ll fucking kick you in the fucking nuts so fucking hard you can fucking chew on them!” One of Chezzo’s boots finally did damage. There was no visible dent or break in the metal arm, but the Commander’s hand flew open. Chezzo dropped to the floor only to bound straight up again like some giant, demented wobble-toy, still screaming.
Specialisation chosen: Right In The Vulnerables selected. You are an expert at finding the target locations most likely to cause pain and incapacity in your opponents…
“Fuck! Off!” The shooting seemed to have stopped. There was space around the fight with the Commander. Despite the relative quiet that had fallen, it took Alfie a while to realise what Chezzo was shouting as he dived back into the fight.
Skill increased Berserker 11%
“Play!”
Skill increased: Kick 11%
“Battle music!”
Skill increased: Kick 12%
“Boss battle!”
Skill increased Berserker 12%
“I need a fucking soundtrack!”
Skill increased Berserker 13%
“A fucking EPIC soundtrack!”
Skill increased Berserker 14%
Skill increased: Kick 13%
“There’s no power!” Alfie screamed back. The Soldiers swung their weapons towards him. He glared at them.
“Fucking play!”
Alfie looked over at Noah, who shrugged. It made no difference to the drummer. “Play,” he suggested. “Nobody’ll hear anything but it’ll look right.”
“Zombie Lover!” Chezzo demanded, smashing his fist into the Commander’s metal body until his knuckles bled, without producing any noticeable dents in his opponent. “Come on!” Ding! ”You’ve played it smashed.” Thud! “You’ve played it hungover.” The Commander tired of playing with its food and backhanded the singer. Chezzo hurtled over the auditorium floor, ending in a painful heap.
Health -20/5
Skill increased: Berserker 15%
Warning! Berserker Death Rage is Active! Warning! Health below 0! Warning! If you do not receive Healing before the end of your Rage to bring your Health to at least 1, the result will be Death
Numb to pain, the damage only made Chezzo angrier. He charged back in, ducking another swing. Clang! “You’ve played it with fucking appendicitis! PLAY!”
Noah kicked off with the wild, crashing drum intro. Alfie closed his eyes and sensed, rather than saw, the Soldiers taking a step back. There was a buzzing in his fingers, as though some residual electricity stretched between himself and his guitar. Maybe I can play! The Stratocaster howled into life in his hands, blue lightning casting a net around it but leaving him unharmed. Chezzo answered its cry.
“You cut me into pieces,
You left me for dead,
But I’m still standing.
Skill learned: Technomancy 1%
There was no power to the speakers, but Chezzo’s voice echoed from them to fill the whole space, as lightning flickered actinic blue around them.
Skill increased: Technomancy 2%
The crowd started to realise what was happening. Voices joined in from around the auditorium, unity lending them all new strength.
Skill learned:
They say there’s no line,
Between love and hate,
And now I understand it.
The song rocked the lighting beams in the ceiling and echoed from the walls.
Skill increased:
Now I’m your zombie lover,
The dead man who walks,
I’m coming back from the grave.
Got a flower in my hand, yeah,
Like your dagger in my back.
Gonna kill you with my love.
Skill Learned: Ritual Magic 1%
Spell Learned: Marked For Death
Type: Ritual
School: Retribution
Description:
Gonna kill you with my love, yeah!
Thioron Commander is
Gonna kill you with my hate.
Ritual Bonus: Extra Participants 3148%
Ritual Bonus: Synergistic Skill
Gonna kill you with my hate!”
A weird alien skull within a circle appeared above the Commander’s head, the light of the circle going out in segments. The Commander looked up, then around in something that might have been panic. It gave a series of metallic squawks, the boxes in the air helpfully translating them.
The final segment of the circle went dark. Light instead burst from the Commander itself. The Commander’s metallic, skull-like face showed no change of expression as it radiated from every joint and seam, until it was too bright to look at. For a moment the auditorium was lit by its own sun. Then the whole suit and its contents melted into a heap of white-hot slag.
[You have killed Thioron Commander.]
[Experience will be shared among all members of the
[Ritual Excess Detected!]
[Ritual Excess Deflected to Thioron Commander’s Allies]
Brilliant glowing beams shot from the molten metal towards the closest Soldiers, catching them and dissolving them into mounds of smoking clinker. The effect chained outwards, the remaining Soldiers starting to break ranks and flee as their companions fell.
You have killed Thioron Soldier.
Experience will be shared among all members of the
You have killed Thioron Soldier.
Experience will be shared among all members of the
You have killed Thioron Soldier.
Experience will be shared among all members of the
…
Health -20/5
Warning! Berserker Death Rage is Active! Warning! Health below 0! Warning! If you do not receive Healing before the end of your Rage to bring your Health to at least 1, the result will be Death
♩♪♫♩♬♪