After the brawl with the giant Crow-man, and the subsequent hammer throwing through the arm of Matron Mother Kilurden, I have been able to use an extremely powerful teleport spell, as well as a gravitational manipulation technique, as well as an Aetheric Mind control spell, two of which Kilurden used while in my presence, the other must have come from one of the Drow Warriors I killed at Stanford. I’m guessing I have some sort of ability to mimic or steal spells from others after I see them used. I’m going to practice the teleport spell once we get to Talos. Maybe Adam will have some answers, he seems to know more about me than I do. Julie gained a few levels from the Crowganaught kill, and her Katanas also grew in strength. Hillary was just happy to be back on the road headed to a semblance of safety.
We made it through the north bay, up to Sonoma and through Napa up to the 5 and everywhere we passed was either on fire or looked like it exploded, and the fire had already burnt out. No buildings were left unscathed. In these less populated areas, we started to see fewer and fewer survivors, the drive through lake county to I-5 was even less eventful. The Aether bikes were amazing, they didn’t require fuel but once every 4500 miles, and it was just two liters of water. They went fast and handled like a dream. The only downside was that you were exposed to the elements. Luckily the outer gear that we got from Flex was completely waterproof and kept our bodies at a pretty constant and comfortable temperature. The helmets we all got help to keep the rain out of our eyes and also provided a map that aided us in our journey. We met the 5 at a town called Williams, we continued north to Talos.
Upon arriving in Weed, we drove to our cabin, where we were all excited to see that the place wasn’t totally destroyed. The entire shop behind the main house looked to be unharmed, there wasn’t a gas line, and it was far enough from the main house it didn’t catch on fire.
We opened the large entry doors and made our way inside, looking around carefully, doing our best to make sure we were in fact, alone. After searching for any intruders, we all went and found places to sleep, Julie decided we were all going to sleep upstairs in my office/loft as it was the safest place, and we would hear / see anyone coming before they got to where we were.
I decided to take first watch, Julie and Hillary went to sleep around 9 and I would wake up Julie at 1am to switch with me so I could try to sleep for a few hours before we went up the mountain and tried to get Talos back online. I was honestly surprised that Adam hadn’t shown up yet with one of his blue portals, and just as I was thinking that.
A purple portal opened into existence just 50 yards from the shop, and three large spiders with the torso, upper arms, and head of a humanoid, in tales told around the campfire here on Terra we called the mythical creatures, Driders. In the tales of old they were the servants of Lolth, the Spider Queen, Queen of the Drow. Sooo, I kind of started to shit my pants a little, I fucking hate spiders, why spiders, anything else!!!
“Wake up ladies, we have company, it looks like Kilurden is up to something. I saw three Driders come out of a purple portal at the end of the driveway, about 50 yards out.” I whispered to my girls.
“Dad, get your Barret and set it up in the attic window. Mom and I will head down to the ground level and put pressure on them so we can work as a team to send them back to Kilurden in a plastic bag. I am so fucking sick of this stupid lady already.” Hillary added.
“Okay, you two go down and come out the back and around each side and flank them, you both have your firearms and Jules you have the Bandolier and Shuriken, make use of them to cause some chaos if possible. I will rain down hot lead and then switch to my amazing hammer and come down to assist in the cleanup.” I finished.
“Sounds like the plan we will go with, unfortunately most plans end up useless once we are actually in the shit, so stay calm and remember we are all we have, and we have to depend on each other from now on. Just like it was when we had one little farm and camped on the property in an old RV. Be aggressive but be careful, I love you both very much. Now, please don’t get killed!!” Julie shrugged and went out the door.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
I got back over to the window as my wife and daughter went down to the back door to execute the plan we came up with. I set up my favorite sniper rifle and noticed it seemed the Driders were waiting for something. So, I took advantage of their hesitation and put one directly in between the eyes of the largest of the three, and then immediately put one in the back of the head of the Drider standing directly to its right and ripped one off at the third which only glanced the right arm but took it clean off.
The first and second were DOA the third on the other hand came straight for my position and as it was clamoring up the side of the shop Matron Mother Kilurden stepped out of the same portal the Driders came from along with two more of the disgusting spidermen things. I put two rounds from my Desert Eagle .50 into the face of the Drider who had come up to say hello, I then tested out my new Aetheric teleport, the technique cost me 130 Aether from my pool but was a solid technique, I made it down to the ground level off in the shadows where I wasn’t immediately noticed by the new arrivals.
The Driders were chittering to each other and started walking towards the shop. Matron Kilurden pulled a large soft chaise out of her ring and lie down to watch the action. How did they always know where we were? We were going to need to figure that out before moving on to Talos.
I saw Julie coming around the corner and positioning herself in the shadows and I lost her. I figured I would get things started, I pulled out my Desert Eagle .50, aimed at the Closest Drider and squeezed off two quick rounds, both found a home, the first hit the Drider in the right side of the thorax and spun it around so it was facing me, and the second explosive round hit it straight in the middle of its chest and left a 45cm hole where its vital organs once were.
As I was shooting at Drider number one , Julie had taken my que and threw a few shuriken and blinded the second Drider as my beautiful daughter came up from the opposite side and unloaded her Magnum Research Desert Eagle 911 G45 into the ugly monstrosity, and that was the end of the five Driders.
“Seven minutes and forty-three seconds! Five level 25-28 Driders, from the mother world! In seven minutes and forty-three seconds.” Matron Mother Kilurden said while laughing to herself.
“Tell me, Julie Rinn, or should I call you by your proper name? Julazzen Killer Rionnag!! Weather you know it or not, that is, who you are, a sweet, little, petulant child!” Kilurden screamed.
“Now back to the matter at hand. You now not only owe me for the lives of my men you so coldly dispatched in Palo Alto, but also for my pet you murdered in San Francisco. Not to mention the fact that your unclean man beast soiled my being by touching me not once but twice. Which makes his life mine to do with it as I please.” Kilurden continued with a smile.
“You are now in the debt of Lolth herself, as those Driders were here personal disciples, and she will have what she is due!! I suggest you come with me now, as this will be your last chance to return to the Drow of your own free will, or tonight you will be leaving this place in chains. As will your daughter, my newest apprentice. By the time I am through with her training she will be unrecognizable, cold, and calculated, a Matron Mother to be. You will beg for my mercy and find that there is none, only a lifetime of subjugation. Watching me mate with your husband before torturing him to the point of death, only to heal him so we can do it all again the next day. All the while you will be forced to witness, every stroke of him entering me, and then once I possess his most valuable asset, his seed. You will then witness cold Drow adamantium entering him, in each and every one of his orifices, over and over until the end of time.” The Matron Mother sneered.
“Julie, want to see something cool?” I asked in a whisper. “No, I don’t want to see your dick honey! That’s not even funny right now!!” Julie replied. “No, not that, just watch!!” I finished.
I went into my ring and grabbed my hammer, I imbued it with as much Aether as I could which was about 250 units from my Aether pool, as I filled it to my current level’s capacity, I charged the celestial side specifically and let it rip.
She fucking caught it with her bare hands! And it took her flying with it back into her seat. I had never seen a more amazing site. And then Julie appeared from the shadows behind the Matron Mothers chais and came down hard with both Katanas in an X across the back of Kilurden, Julie was instantly sprayed with thick dark red Drow blood from head to toe. The Matron Mother stumbled and turned around to face Julie.
“You little, fucking, nothing, you fucking, you….” She then fell back through her own purple portal and just like that, she was gone again. Honestly, I think we got really lucky….again.
We all went out to clean up the Drider corpses but when we went out to do so, they were gone.
“Dad, don’t you think it’s kind of weird that the bodies just, disappeared?” Hillary asked. “Yeah, I do, a whole bunch of things I thought were impossible are happening all around us now, so, yeah, I’m just going to chalk most things up to the Aether in the air. After tomorrow the Tribulation will start and I think that confrontations of this nature are going to become much more frequent, it’s best we stay on top of our Attributes and Skills so we can always be our best selves when these type of things happen. But for now, we need to try to get some sleep.” I finished.