I activated Spike Fault as the front wave of swarmlings scrambled toward us in a wall of giggling legs and smiling, cherubic faces. Spears of earth erupted upward through the oddly spongey surface of the floor, skewering several of the arachnid toddlers and creating a terrain hazard in the process. I swiveled left and right, activating the skill twice more in quick succession, partially blockading two more of the connecting hallways and impaling even more toddlers.
Even though the swarmlings were relatively high level, they weren’t nearly as physically resilient as their grown-up evolutions. The spikes dealt devastating damage, halving each impaled toddler’s health bar. My arsenal of tools rocketed forward, my oversized, mana-fueled hammer caving in oddly soft heads while my demolition screwdriver gutted arachnoid bellies with ease. Balloon Animal Spell Cards spun into densely populated pockets of toddler bodies and exploded on impact, ripping off multi-segmented legs from the sheer concussive force of the blast.
Still, more Swarmlings came. They crawled over the corpses of their dead brothers and sisters and scuttled along the walls and ceilings, unperturbed by the horrific casualties they were currently taking.
I unleashed Hydro Blast with my free hand, zigzagging the beam back and forth in a futile attempt to knock the tots down and keep them from entering into the lobby proper. Each hit with my Hydro Blast carved away substantial HP—but it didn’t do enough damage to one-shot the tots and I couldn’t afford to leave the beam in place long enough to finish the job. There were just too many of the damned things and keeping them at bay was the real goal. The hallways served as funnels, chokepoints, and without them we’d already be overwhelmed and dead.
I glanced left and right, realizing I wasn’t the only one with that idea.
Jakob was using his sofa bazooka to great effect, launching futons and loveseats to create obstructions that the spiderlings had a more difficult time maneuvering around. On my right, Ed had conjured some sort of ethereal barricade that resembled a semi-transparent concrete construction barrier. I was pretty sure the barrier was a reinforced, hard-light illusion—just like the baby doll a few hallways back. While the swarmling toddlers scuttled over the barrier, the Delver fired his Colt with unwavering precision.
Each shot found a head, splattering gore in a cloud and dropping the target on the spot.
“Fire! Fire!” Woodstock caterwauled while circling through the air on outstretched wings before swooping down and spewing thick sheets of flame from her beak. In that moment, she looked less like a common house parrot and more like a miniature, fire-breathing dragon. “Burn it down! Burn it all down!” she shrieked between fiery breaths.
Synthia didn’t have any sort of ranged ability which complicated things. Even with the conjured earthen spikes partially obstructing her hallway, swarmlings were flooding in and spreading out. I couldn’t let that stand. Once our defense failed in one area, it would quickly fail in others. I needed to stop the metaphorical bleeding, and I needed to do it now.
“Shifting minions!” I yelled.
Drumbo and Synthia broke ranks, leaving the relative safety of the circle to help plug the gaps with their bodies. Synthia’s chainsaw growled and Drumbo’s angle grinder hand attachment screamed as both sheered through limbs or cut the tiny tots down. As the spiders fell, notifications and Level Up prompts scrolled across my vision, one after another. Although these Dwellers only had an eighth the total HP of the Sunnysider adults, at level 18 they were a treasure trove of experience points.
Realizing they couldn’t easily breach our defenses to overwhelm us, the swarmlings switched tactics—vomiting globs of putrid black acid and flinging thick balls of silvery webbing. The balls of webbing exploded on contact, sending out hair-thin strands of gossamer silk that clung to everything and made it incredibly difficult to move. They wrapped around my feet and ankles, miring me to the floor.
As for the black acid, I was a little too slow and one of the globs landed on my exposed forearm.
The goop burned like flaming napalm and quickly chewed through the top layer of skin and into the muscle and tendons below. My HP dropped by fifteen points, but even worse, the damage temporarily cost me the use of my good hand. I cried out in pain as my fingers went numb and my arm dropped uselessly against my side.
“Cover me!” I yelled at Ed, slipping free a Zima - Greater Healing Elixir—the #1 Bone Healing Juice in the Market. I popped the top with my thumb and chugged the whole damned thing in one long gulp. Although my HP Spell Cards were faster and more efficient, they were also weaker and more limited. Yeah, they restored HP and mended relatively minor injuries on the spot, but a Greater Healing Elixir like this could literally regrow a lung or reattach a lost limb.
The acid burning its way through my arm fizzled and died as the power of Zima went to work and my skin and muscle knit itself back together.
“You fuckers like playing with acid, huh?” I growled while tossing the elixir bottle away. “Well, time for a little chemistry lesson.”
Pissed as hell, I activated StainSlayer Maelstrom and watched as great blue droplets of super bleach burned through a gaggle of spiderlings attempting to bypass the jutting stone spikes. The spell was brutally effective and killed anything already injured, while badly crippling the healthy tots. With a thought, I sent my oversized hammer whirling forward and brought it down like a giant shoe on a trapped spiderling, who was flutily attempting to wriggle between a gap in the spikes.
As the tool’s blunt head crashed down like the wrath of God, I triggered one of the hammer’s special abilities, Gavel of Get Fucked. The swarmling was both literally and figuratively on its last legs, it’s health bar already deep in the red, so I was in no way surprised when Killing Blow procced on impact—an execute ability that instantly ended any creature below 10% total health. The spiderling exploded into a cloud of black mist as Wave of Justice rippled outward, triggering Gavel of Get Fucked once again on any enemy within a twenty-foot radius.
Best I could figure, there were at least fifty swarmlings inside the AoE.
Not even I was ready for the ensuing carnage.
It was like watching compound interest work in real time.
Although most of the swarmlings were above 10% total health, Gavel of Get Fucked still dealt damage equal to 20% of their existing health pool, which was substantial. Thing was, there were also a bunch of swarmlings who were already below 10% total health and knocking on Death’s Door. That triggered another round of Killing Blow, which in turn set off another Wave of Justice, which effected all enemies in a twenty-foot radius.
I’d used this ability plenty of times before, but I’d never seen anything like this.
It was a perfect storm of pure slaughter.
Because there were so many of the damned swarmlings all crammed into such a small space, and because they were rather fragile and had relatively low health pools, the spell basically created one enormous feedback loop. The ability’s primary effect would whittle down the strong, Killing Blow would cull the weak and that, in turn, would start the process all over again.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Swarmlings popped like water balloons and tiny bodies rained down from the floors and ceilings, accumulating in corpse piles as high as my knee while a string of notifications flooded my vision. In less than a handful of minutes, I’d gone up a total of seven levels and earned two new Research Achievements, complete with a pair of new Titles and extra Loot Tokens.
[Level Up! x 7]
Research Achievement Unlocked!
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Domino Rally
Well, well, well, if it isn’t the King of Cause-and-Effect! By using the Backrooms equivalent of a domino rally, you basically set off an IED inside a propane factory, conveniently located on top of a methane deposit, which was coincidentally next to a nursery for at risk youth. You killed more than forty enemy combatants with only a single blow and the gory results speak for themselves. Somewhere, Rube Goldberg is applauding from his grave!
Reward: 3 x Copper Delver Loot Tokens, 1 x Silver Gambler Loot Token, 1 x Gold Trap Smith Loot Token
Title: Domino Rally – Increase the chance of triggering all secondary and tertiary Relic and Artifact Effects by 10%
Research Achievement Unlocked
Toddler Terminator
Do you feel proud of yourself? Huh, do ya? I bet punching your way out of a toddler swarm makes you feel like a big strong man, doesn’t it? I mean, sure, they weren’t exactly “harmless” in the most technical sense of the word, but let’s not pretend this is anything other than what it was: a goddamned baby massacre. First the Cold-Blooded Murderer Title, now this? For shame. If mimic parents had even a rudimentary emotional connection to their disgusting offspring, they’d be really upset right now. For the record, they don’t, but it’s the principle of the thing.
Reward: 3,200 Experience Points, 1 x Ruby Slayer Loot Token
Title: Toddler Terminator – Deal 10% additional damage to all opponents who are designated by the “Adolescent” or “Juvenile” descriptor.
I read through both achievements feeling a conflicting mixture of emotions. Toddler Terminator was a monstrous achievement for obvious reasons, but Domino Rally had to be one of the best Titles I’d ever received. It was certainly a helluva lot better than my Human Cannon Title, which was just slightly better than dogshit. The extra Loot Tokens were a huge win as well—especially the Ruby Slayer Token. The last time I’d earned a Ruby Loot Token, I’d been rewarded with the Gavel of Get Fucked Sigil Stone which had just murdered all those baby spiders…
The others finished slaughtering the handful of tots who’d survived the deadly purge cycle, and by the time I was done reading through the notifications an eerie silence had settled over the hallway, broken only by the sound of our labored breathing.
“Okay, what kind of government-black-ops-secret-weapon-testing-bullshit was that?” Ed asked, looking at me incredulously. He wasn’t alone. Everyone was staring at me as if I’d just sprouted a dick on my forehead.
“Truly, that was surely the most remarkable display of slaughter and savagery that I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing,” Temperance said, a note of reverence in her voice. Jakob, on the other hand, looked disturbed by the bloodshed—not that it was hard to figure out why. These things may not have been human in the strictest sense of the word, but he still didn’t like needless violence and death and Temp was right, this was violence on a level I hadn’t seen before.
I recalled my hammer and held it up with a weak smile, “Just happened to have the right tool for the right job,” I said.
Ed grunted, seeming to accept my answer for the time being. “Well, don’t go patting yourself on the back just yet. You think all this death doesn’t send up a flare? Hell, it’s like ringing the damn dinner bell for whatever else might be lurking out there. Mark my words, more of these things will come crawling out of the woodwork—”
“Let them come,” Temp said, her eyes huge and wild. “We will butcher them just as easily as we butchered this last lot.”
“It won’t just be the swarmlings,” Ed warned. “They’ll come, sure, but so will Mr. Wiggles.”
“The thousand-legged eldritch worm?” Croc asked.
“One in the same,” Ed confirmed, his gaze darting around, sharp and suspicious, as if the walls might be listening. “And Mr. Wiggles isn’t like the rest of the Sunnysiders. Not really. It’s more like a janitor, y’know? Or some twisted, oversized organic Roomba. Its job is to clean up the messes—corpses, guts, anything that used to be alive.” He glanced down at the battered old watch on his wrist. “Anyway, basement stairwell’s not far. We’ve got a bit of time, but don’t count on it staying that way. If you want to loot these corpses, you better move quick like.”
“Good,” I replied, “because there’s no way in hell I’m leaving all these Relics behind. Not again.” Although racking up experience points was the real goal, there had to be close to three hundred Relics here for the taking—assuming we could get to every corpse. That was highly unlikely, but anything was better than nothing, and I didn’t think my heart could handle the prospect of leaving behind an untapped treasure trove of valuable loot.
“You did the heavy lifting here,” Ed said, glancing around at the towering piles of bodies, “so I’ll keep watch while you work.”
I didn’t need to be told twice and neither did the others. We all knew what was at stake. I rushed over to the nearest swarmling, dropped to one knee, and quickly accessed its spatial core.
Unlike the adult Sunnysiders, these things didn’t have the SporeFeed Amplifier Relics, which made sense given what Ed had told us about the process. Neither the toddlers nor the older kids who roamed the streets and cornfields were enthralled by the radio signal—which meant they probably gained the Amplifier once they evolved into their final, adult form. Dwellers, like Croc, couldn’t add Relics to their spatial cores in the same way that we Delvers could; instead, they organically grew new Relics as they got stronger over time.
Most of the toddlers had two Relics apiece, though there were several different combinations.
Stick and Cling was a Common, Stamina-based Relic that looked like a half-used tube of super glue. As the name implied, it allowed the user to stick to walls or ceilings like a value brand Spiderman for as long as they had Stamina to burn. String Snare launched a compressed ball of webbing that exploded on impact, entangling anything in a five-foot radius in thick strands of spider silk. A perfect crowd control ability.
There were two variations of a Relic called Venomous Payload.
The first, and more frequent drop, was an Uncommon Stamina-based ability that added a nasty venom debuff to any slashing or piercing attacks when activated. It reminded me of Temp’s Smallpox Blanket—though both the damage and duration were significantly better. The upgraded Rare-grade version, called Venomous Payload Bolt, was a Mana-based ability, which let the user launch a concentrated orb of corrosive swarmling venom that ate through damned near anything.
It was the same spell that had decimated my hand, so I knew exactly how effective it could be.
Although I already had StainSlayer Maelstrom, I planned on hanging on to Venomous Payload Bolt all the same. Unlike Maelstrom, it dealt single-target burst damage and wasn’t strictly limited to organic materials—it could also chew through cloth, plastic, and metal.
I also stumbled across a single Rare-grade passive that had real potential, assuming I could figure out a good way to exploit it.
Swarm Tactics
Rare Relic – Level 1
Range: 50 Meters
Cost: 35 Mana
Duration: 10 minutes
You’ve finally discovered the ancient art of Victory through Volume. Used by emperors, warlords, and dictators since the dawn of time, this is battle-superiority through overwhelming numerical advantage. After all, why fight mono e mono when you can instead fight mono e “oh my god, why are there so many of them?!”
When more than two summoned creatures are within 50 meters of one another, each gains a 5% boost to athleticism, toughness, health regeneration, and Rage. For each additional creature summoned, the Swarm gains an additional 2% bonus and one stack of Rage. The more creatures you summon, the stronger the collective gets, until they’re a nightmarish wave of fangs, claws, and unbridled violence. Just be warned, if the Swarm becomes too Enraged, they will turn on anyone or anything that gets in their way—including you or your allies.
This Relic enables mana usage.
We’d looted almost half the swarmlings when we heard something enormous trundling toward us from a nearby connecting corridor; scraping along the floors and issuing guttural moans that reverberated off the ceilings.
“Wrap it up,” Ed barked, his voice sharp and jittery, “we’ve got something headed our way, and it’s big from the sounds of it. We need to be gone before it shows. Trust me on this.”
I finished pilfering a nearby swarmling—snatching up yet another Venomous Payload and a Stick and Cling—before standing and wiping my hands free on my bathrobe. I used a bit of hand sanitizer for good measure, though it felt like a losing battle. Spider gore decorated my shirt and shorts, and more goop liberally stained my hands and arms a dark grayish color. I had so much blood on me that I’d inadvertently activated my Bloodbath Title, temporarily increasing my Health Regen rate by 5% for the next eight hours.
The boost wasn’t worth it.
Worse than the mess, however, was the smell. Not because it was awful, but because it wasn’t. Instead of reeking like rotten fish or old cheese, the dead toddlers smelled like freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
Staring around at piles of butchered arachnoid creatures while silently craving a glass of cold milk was somehow grosser. It didn’t help that Croc was devouring the looted bodies like Santa working through a plate of Christmas cookies. Unlike the infected adults, it seemed these little monsters were uninfected and thus, fair game.
“Finally, that pile of corpses you promised,” the mimic said between great slurping gulps. “Does anyone want to try a bit?” Croc asked. “There’s plenty to go around—more than I could possibly eat in one sitting.”
“That is very kind of you, but no,” Jakob replied, looking like he was repressing the urge to vomit everywhere.
“Your loss,” Croc said with a shrug, “the meat is fabulously tender and has a great mouth feel, plus there’s just a hint of cinnamon which is unexpected but pleasant.”
I just grimaced and tried to ignore the crunch of bones and the wet slurp of meat slipping down the mimic’s gullet.