The 45 lb weight lifting plates in my hand felt light in my grasp. I lay the other to the side carefully to not make a sound. I lay the bar next to it. I marveled at the explosive growth I’d experienced over the past few days. I would have struggled to lift one of these plates one-handed before I evolved. Now it might as well be a regular frisbee.
Frisbee was an apt simile as I threw the metal disc like one. The air hummed as the disc flew straight into the side of one of the Dire Wolves. I saw the weight crush into the wolf’s ribs, blood and bone spattered out as the momentum carried the animal into the side of a rusted-out car with a bang. The beast yelped as blood poured from its mouth, and it struggled to get up. The other one spun its head toward me and let out a howl as it charged. I picked up the weight bar. Fifty pounds of straight chrome steel, seven feet long and balanced at the ends. Olympic lifters used plates like the one I had thrown on bars like this to exercise and display their might.
I felt my Unconventional Weapons skill kick in as I prepared to take down the charging Dire Wolf. It dashed and leaped for me snarling. I felt the skill guide my hands as I struck with one end of the bar and then used the rebound to spin the other around while pivoting out of the way of the claws. The bar thumped into the snout of the wolf with the first hit. I felt claws pass me as I spun, and the second hit slammed into the hairless skull. Bone and brain crushed under the blow.
*ting*
[You have slain Mutant Wolf, Irradiated - Experience gained
Survivor Class bonus experience earned]
Whoah, yeah. That’s awesome. Using a weight bar was far better than some soft bits of rebar. I could put my full power into the swing, and it wasn’t even bent. A few things settled into place in my head just then. When the Skylords ascended, they had been given technology to match their elevated ranks. That must include material tech, like strengthened alloys and the like. Skylord ships fell from the sky on occasion. It was rare, but it did happen. No one scavenged those metals because we lower rank species couldn’t use the stuff. It was far too tough to cut, bend or melt.
I dashed across the space to the whimpering and dying Dire Wolf with crushed ribs and smashed its head in.
*ting*
[You have slain Mutant Wolf, Irradiated - Experience gained
Survivor Class bonus experience earned]
I scooped up the bloody 45lbs plate and dropped it again after I saw it was bent. There were more inside the gym. I hurried back into the building and waited. I could hear more howls in the distance, and they were getting closer. Maybe I could get a couple more with this same ambush: six down, seven adults, and three pups to go. Yes, I was going to kill the pups. No, they were not cute little babies but juvenile delinquent man-eating monsters.
I waited behind a wrecked desk and felt my heart drop, four of the remaining seven arrived all at once—time to kill on the move. I stood and spun, flinging my remaining plate at one of the four Dire Wolves gathering outside to investigate the dead. Wham! I caught it in the hindquarters and saw the back end of the thing drop. No kill prompt. The other three turned and charged at me. I ran.
Up the stairs and around a corner into a hallway. They wouldn’t be able to come at me more than one at a time. I wouldn’t be able to swing the bar around as much, but Vibrating Strike could compensate for that. I spun around and got ready. The first wolf skittered past the hallway, but the second made the turn. It crashed into the wall and broke the plaster. It dashed toward me, and I stabbed forward with the weighted bar like a spear.
The Vibrating Strike hit the beast in the shoulder as it tried to avoid the lunge. Blood and bone sprayed out, splattering the walls, and the beast howled in pain. It snapped at me, but I fell back, smacking the teeth away with the bar. The thing struggled to stand on a ruined shoulder, and I took the opportunity to lunge again, relying on the reach the bar afforded me. It snapped at the bar, and the Vibrating Strike exploded the monster’s head.
*ting*
[You have slain Mutant Wolf, Irradiated - Experience gained
Survivor Class bonus experience earned]
Six left, I thought as another Dire Wolf leaped over its dead brethren and charged at me. I scrambled back, fending it off with the remains of the weighted bar. The denser steel could take more hits from Vibrating Strike too. I had one weighted end wholly destroyed now, but I swung the other one to fight with.
I staggered back as the thing tried to bite and bear me down. I backed into a wall in a corner. This was not quite going to plan. I had another wolf come around the corner to my left, fuck. I jumped back, phasing through the wall behind me. I heard the Dire Wolf slam into the wall with a crash, and the plaster on this side of the wall cracked, and dust fell around me.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
I suddenly felt a little sick.
*Ting*
[Radiation Exposure - Extreme] [Not resisted, Condition: Radiation Sickness acquired]
I saw my health bar start to tick down slowly. Fu-ucking Hell. I knew better, but I had to deal with monsters trying to eat my face first. I felt weaker too and saw that all of my stats suddenly had a [-10%] next to them. Oh, shit. One bad thing at a time. The Dire Wolf slammed into the wall again, and the snapping bald face burst through the plaster in front of me.
Thank you for the easy target. I slammed the weighted end of the bar down onto the skull as hard as I could. Crunch, splatter, yuck. I wiped brain goo and bone fragments from the face shield.
[You have slain Mutant Wolf, Irradiated - Experience gained
Survivor Class bonus experience earned]
I looked around the room as the wolf that had come from my left leaped against the rotten door. The room had been an office of some sort, and now I was trapped in the small space with a bear-sized ravening wolf monster. I heard howling from outside the building.
I went offensive and went in swinging. This caused the Dire Wolf to pause as I swung the bloody bar at its face. I clipped it on the jaw, and it snarls and lunges forward. I spun to the side and catch a claw to the face. The claw takes the hard hat off my head, leaving a small gash on my neck. This one is fast as it snaps sideways and bites into my calf. OUCH FUCK.
*ting*
[Toxic Bite Secondary Damage] - [Resisted]
It tried to drag me to the side, but I am already stabbing with the unweighted end into its side. I activate Vibrating Strike and burrow a fist-sized hole into its side with disruptive force. It howls in pain and releases my leg. Blood is pouring out to its side as it staggers. I stagger too; blood soaks down my leg and pools in my boot. I need to finish this. I slam the weighted end into the beast again and again. Bones break, and the notification comes.
*ting*
[You have slain Mutant Wolf, Irradiated - Experience gained
Survivor Class bonus experience earned]
Four left, and I’m spent and sick. I have to get out of here. There’s more howling and barking outside. I take the remains of the weight bar, less than half of it left. It’s a really heavy bat now. I stumble around the halls for a moment before I find what I’m looking for. I can sense that the ones outside are coming inside. One stays out there. I think that’s the hurt one.
I get back into the locker room. I grab the spare clothes and wipe away the blood leaking from the wounds on my ravaged leg. It’s going to be some time before I can run. I wrap it quickly and take a breath.
Three wolves move around the ground floor of the building, and one sits outside the front door. How am I going to do this? I need to rest and see if I can recuperate some. But where? Up, up is the answer. Dire Wolves don’t climb. I know where the wolves below are. One of them is coming up the stairs. I gotta act fast. I try to move quickly but quietly. That one wolf coming up the stairs is a couple bends behind me and starts snarling and barking at the dead ones. It will find me in a few moments.
I find the emergency stairs at the back of the building and push open the metal door with a squeal of tortured metal. FUUUCK. I quickly slam it shut behind me and almost fall down the broken stairs. I can see open air outside, and most of the steps are missing. This emergency stairway had taken severe damage from the explosion years ago.
Fuck, no easy way down, no way up. Going down the hard way, then. I hang from the edge and drop down onto a single leg, grunting and falling into a roll down the last three cement steps. Ouch, add more bruises, and my health is still slowly ticking down. Three wolves are upstairs now, and I’m outside.
In a limping run, I come around to the front of the building and see the one injured Dire Wolf before it sees me. It is sitting in an odd position. I must have shattered its pelvis with the thrown weight. I charge it and batter its head with a Vibrating Strike as it barks and howls at me.
*ting*
[You have slain Mutant Wolf, Irradiated - Experience gained
Survivor Class bonus experience earned]
I know the ones inside will have heard that. I go back to the side of the building and am thankful for small miracles as I find the roof access ladder. I make a one-legged hop and manage to grab the bottom rung. I have to drop the bar, but that’s fine. I pull myself up and climb to the roof as the three remaining Dire Wolves bark and howl and snarl below me.
I roll onto the flat roof and lay in a puddle of rainwater. I lay there and breathe, willing my heart rate to slow as I watch my health tick down. I get a quick idea and look at my experience.
17602 experience. I spend the 7k raising my Explorer to 8, then to 9, and dump all the free points into toughness.
I get a new string of notifications as my Resistance stat climbs because of that.
*Ting*
[Condition: Radiation Sickness - minor] [Resisted]
I felt the sickness fall away, and the ten percent debuff was removed. I breathe a sigh of relief.
Another notification startled me.
*ting*
[Skill Acquired: Radiation Immunity (F)
User is immune to all effects of passive environmental Nuclear Radiation exposure. Does not include weaponized or directed radiation effects.]
Well, now, that’s pretty cool. I assume the Heightened Resistance skill would eventually do this, but this is something better than passive resistance. This means that all of the radioactive areas are now areas for me to explore. The skill dropped under my Explorer occupation. Cool.
I sat at the wellness center’s top and breathed for a bit. The sun was working its way toward the west. The rain is still coming down, just not as aggressively. I had a few more hours, and maybe I had been wrong earlier about this not being a one-day killing spree. I lay still and felt my stealth skill take effect. I waited for the Dire Wolves to lose interest.