Orville hated life. Although hated was not technically true. Perhaps it was safer to say that he was altogether annoyed, terrified, and exhilarated. Although, deep down, he was mostly terrified. The System gave him some amazing powers and had turned his once obese body into a superhero’s wet dream, but the cost was that his mother was dead, and everything wanted to kill him. Man, I feel sorry for Australians right now. Everything over there was already deadly, now it must be horror movie levels of frightening. Orville shook those thoughts clear and focused on his current task. His original goal of quickly getting across town to the Reed house had been dashed rather swiftly. After leaving the porch where he recovered from his run-in with the Rot-weiler, he encountered several more house pets turned monster.
His newly acquired Burning Blade spell accompanied by his Arcane Shield was just barely enough for him to survive. His special ability Ever Vigilant was hands down the MVP of his newfound powers. Having a “Spidey-Sense” was the only thing that kept him from getting ambushed and turned into monster food. He did run into other survivors, but every single one of them was in full-on panic mode and running around without the faintest idea of how to deal with the new world order. Much to his dismay, over the course of several hours of moving slowly from cover to cover, he watched as dozens of people, neighbors he had never met, died in gruesome ways.
There seemed no rhyme or reason to the levels of monsters nor the types, although mutated pets were the most prevalent. He saw creatures ripped straight out of fantasy casually moving through the urban streets, chasing down people or even fighting each other for territory or food or whatever. Orville wasn’t sure he could ascribe human motives to the monsters. On the plus side, he had gained another level which gave him a new spell, Bastion of Surety as well as a new skill, Grim Fortitude.
Spell: Bastion of Surety
At the cost of 10 MP, you can summon a protective field of arcane power around an ally. The field has a defense rating of +2 per level. This bonus does not stack with the Shield skill and is encountered by incoming damage before any other barrier such as shield or armor. The initial spell casting lasts for two minutes and can be prolonged by 1 minute per 5 MP spent. This spell has a cool down of 10 minutes. This cool down duration drops by 1 minute per level to a minimum of 30 seconds.
Skill – Grim Fortitude:
You gain a 5% resistance to the status effects of Stunned, Paralyzed, Incapacitated, Petrified, Prone or Exhausted. Every Skill point invested in this skill grants an additional +5% resistance.
Guess I’m the party tank. Whenever I get a party together. He had spent his remaining four free skill points from level two and level three on improving his Sword, Shield, Athletics and Grim Fortitude. Part of him wanted to save some skill points in case he got a new skill later that he could dump points into for a quick boost, but honestly, he did not think he would survive that long. So, he spent his points now in favor of even a smidgen of extra survivability. No gaming this System. At least not yet. Maybe when I have two minutes to breath I can dig into the rules.
The new level also brought an increase in stats. Sticking with the tank theme, he pumped up his Endurance and Vitality. At this point, his clothing became a joke. He had lost every bit of fat he had ever accumulated and everything he wore had to be re-belted and tightened. He realized that he really did need new clothing as his current set would soon hinder him in fighting. Especially since everything he was wearing was soaked from the relentless rain. Currently, Orville was moving between a hedgerow and an apartment building, making his way towards a streetcorner to better gauge his next mad dash to some kind of relative safety. He had stopped at the corner and peered through the leaves of the thick bush, hoping to see an empty street, when he heard a scream.
Seconds later a girl came running full tilt down the middle of the street, followed closely by a handful of what Orville could only think of as brain plants. The bodies of the monsters were the size of a microwave and looked like a brain made from a cactus. They each had long writhing tendrils of thorn vines that acted like legs and carried them in a scuttling motion. They were quick. Enough to keep pace with an adrenaline-fueled teenager at least. As the girl came closer, Orville recognized her, Lacy Washburn, one of the high school cheerleaders and a friend of Brynn DeBray’s. Also, one of the girls that constantly picked on and belittled Orville when they were in grade school. His face reddened as he realized that his first thought was to stay where he was because she had been mean to him, but something in him just couldn’t leave this girl to get eaten by these monsters.
Bramble Brain – Level 3
HP: 30
Vulnerable: Fire, Cold
Oh, hell yes! Orville read the information he could glean from the creatures and immediately felt better about his chances of helping Lacy. He stood from his cover and stepped onto the sidewalk, “Lacy!” he called out, “Over here!”
Hearing her name and seeing a man with weapons beckoning her over was enough to override her stranger danger training and she veered off towards him. As she approached, Orville cast his new spell [Bastion of Surety] on Lacy and a translucent swirl of tiny shields began circling around her. He motioned for her to get behind him as he cast both [Arcane Shield] and [Burning Blade]. The magical shield sprang to life on his arm and his bat-winged sword ignited in a blaze of fire. He hoped he looked badass.
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Lacy slid to a stop behind him, panting, crying and more than a little hysterical. She kept thanking him profusely, however he couldn’t really address her as the small creatures got closer. There were five of them and they fanned out in a semi-circle in front of him, several tendrils from each began waving in the air. A faint glow surrounded the brain parts and the cactus-like needles covering them lit up like little candles. Instantly something slammed into Orville’s mind. It was the oddest sensation as he had never encountered a mental attack. The feeling was close to what he felt when he was extremely tired and about to fall asleep, but he blinked, and it went away. He noticed a small message pop up in his peripheral vision.
Stun Resisted! Your skill Grim Fortitude has resisted the attack, Blank Mind, from the Bramble Brain collective.
The notice made him raise an eyebrow. Well, shit! Glad I took that instead of Skirmisher. With a confidence that he only partially felt, he lashed out with his sword at the gathered collection of spikey brain monsters. Because there were five of them, he had assumed that they would be hard to fight, but they did not try to dodge, instead opting to try and block his sword strikes with their thorny tendrils. It was almost comically easy for him to slay them all and he only took a few points of damage and that was only because one had managed to wrap one of its tendrils around his arm. The thorns had dug in but did not really cause much issue. He quickly looted them and turned to Lacy as their bodies evaporated into motes of light then disappeared.
The brunette was soaked to the skin. She had on tight blue jeans, and a thin short-sleeved cotton blouse. Her long hair hung in limp waterlogged strands and Orville noticed that she was barefoot and shivering. “Oh God!! Thank you! Thank you!” Her makeup had run down her face, making it seem like she had been crying blood. Even though she was disheveled, Orville still thought she was pretty. She clutched at Orville like he was a life preserver and then hugged him tightly.
Orville stood stock still. He had never in his life been hugged by a woman other than his mother. In fact, other than being teased by the girls in school, he had never been this close to one. He had dismissed his shield and awkwardly hugged her with one arm as he made sure his no longer flaming sword was pointing out and away from her. Finally, he found his voice, “Hey. It’s okay. I got you. You’re safe now.” He awkwardly patted her back and moved to hold her at arm’s length so he could look her up and down checking for injuries. She was still breathing heavily and babbling a bit, so he spoke a bit more firmly, “Lacy, are you hurt?” He tried to catch her eyes with his to get her to focus.
The rain continued to pour on them both and Orville really did not want to stand out in the open, so he led her back to the edge of the apartment complex to take advantage of the cover of the bushes. This seemed to get her attention, “No.” She finally said, “I’m not hurt.” Then she stopped. With his hand on her arm guiding her towards the questionable safety of the bushes she asked, “How do you know my name?” She tugged her arm from his grasp and took a step back, a small trickle of fear beginning to seep into her gaze.
Confused, Orville answered, “Uh, cause we’ve gone to the same school for like, six years?”
“What?” Lacy stopped backing up and a puzzled expression crossed her face. “Really? I mean, no offense, but I think I would remember someone like you.”
“Someone like me?” Had he been so unremarkable that she did not remember years of teasing and bullying? Orville’s ego deflated like a popped balloon.
“Well, yeah.” She coyly smiled. Was she blushing? Orville was thoroughly confused at this point. She brushed her wet hair out of her face, “Like, well, you look like you should’ve been on the football team, but I know all the players.” A spark of possible recognition lit her eyes, “Oh, do you know Brom DeBray?”
Orville raised an eyebrow and tentatively answered, “Yeah?”
“Okay, so maybe we met through him at some point?”
“No.” He gave her a shrewd look, “We met in fifth grade.” He took a breath. “I’m Orville.” At the lack of recognition in her eyes he added, “Orville Grossman?”
Then the light came on. “What? No way. You’re lying.”
Orville shook his head, “Nope. Really me.”
“But..” She stammered, “You’re….”
“Not fat?” Her expression indicated that she still didn’t believe him, but his comment made her flinch. Glancing around quickly he said, “We really need to get moving. Is your house close by? Do you know if it’s safe there?”
His words brought Lacy fully back to the reality of her situation. She pointed at the place he had killed the Bramble Brains, “Those things chased me out of the house. I was on Insta, and the power went out and I must have passed out or something because when I woke up, this weird screen showed up and after it went away, I was home alone for a long time and there were screams and noises from outside, I was so scared, and then I heard a noise in my brother’s room and those things came out and I climbed out my window and ran as fast as I could…”
Orville was impressed, she said all of it in a single breath. “Were there more than the five? Was your brother home? Your parents?” He grabbed her hand to begin walking in the direction she had come from. He noticed that she grasped his hand back in a firm hold. He immediately turned his head away so she would not see his face flush. He also angled his body in such a way that she wouldn’t notice something else happening with his body. If she noticed the slight hitch in his step as he adjusted part of his anatomy, she didn’t show it. Thank goodness for small miracles.
“I think that was all of them, but I don’t know. My brother is at a friend’s house and my parents are out shopping. I was home alone. But it’s been hours.” She began to match his pace and pointed the way back to her house only a block away.
Orville moved with a purpose. The light was visibly dimming as the clouds and driving rain still obscured the sun. He did not want to get caught outside, in the dark. Fortunately, Lacy’s house was not far, and the street was deserted except for several large lumps in a nearby yard that Orville was pretty sure were bodies. Lacy led them to her front door and was about to open it when Orville grabbed her hand. “Wait.” He admonished. “Let me go first. Just in case.”
Understanding dawned on her face and she looked worried and hopeful all at once. She looked, really looked, at Orville and he realized that it was a look of trust. She trusted him to protect her. He fumbled with the doorknob as the realization hit him that he was the only thing keeping her alive. A millisecond was all it took, and Orville made an internal vow that he would protect her no matter what. He gave her one more look, turned the handle and opened the door. He swung the door wide and cast his shield spell. With sword and shield at the ready, he entered the dark house.