Chapter 9: Raid Leader

General Brandon Stone was a dying man. Quite literally.

He sat at his desk and faced the papers that lay in front of him. You’d think there would be less paperwork in an apocalypse, he thought, but unfortunately it wasn’t the case. Sure it was writing by hand as electricity had stopped working, but when it came to sending orders or getting projects done it was best to write it down. Hence, paperwork. He tried to concentrate, but his mind was occupied by the chill slowly moving though his left hand. He was trying to suppress it, fighting it with his internal mana, but while there was enough to stop it now it seemed there was never enough to make it truly disappear. And it was growing. He could feel the death it radiated, fighting against the vitality that practically burst out of the rest of his body. Thank God, quite literally it seems.

His mind was now totally occupied on the events of the past, only a couple of days ago but feeling like far longer, with all thoughts of finishing the paperwork now laying forgotten.

It had all began with the skeletons, he reminisced, and that damned necromancer.

It was paradoxically not a dark and stormy night, but the bright sunny day that had come with the apocalypse. Brandon was sitting much like he was now, procrastinating over a similar stack of paperwork at a level only experienced college students and web-novel writers could achieve, but without the threat of death looming over him as it currently did.

He had not noticed the pop up at first, thinking it was just more text blurring in his vision as it always seemed to do after hours of staring at paperwork, although it’s not typically this bad, he had thought. But he did notice the screams that followed. He was out of his chair before he was even fully aware of the noise and drew the M9 Beretta that he always kept by his side, a relic of his tours many years ago. Before he could properly assess the situation, he was thrown off his feet by the earthquakes that came after. Staying low to the ground, he had staggered out of the door to his office. When he finally made his way out of the building, he was wholly unprepared for the sight that faced him. Looking back on it, he felt that he had responded reasonably for a man in his circumstances, but there was always more he could have done to save the 20 soldiers that had died.

A group of skeletons were what greeted him. Despite only numbering about 30, the 200 military soldiers that surrounded the military base they were in were unable to even cause one to fall. A flood of bullets would rain down on them, shattering the bones of the creatures until they had collapsed into rubble, only for them to repair themselves moments later and continue their charge. Standing behind the wall of soldiers, even he felt fear grip him at the sight, and he was not surprised to see their lines quickly breaking as many fled.

But there was one advantage General Brandon Stone had over the many battle-hardened soldiers that surrounded him. One thing that kept him apart from these veterans and made him understand the situation with a far greater clarity than those around him. And that was one of his greatest secrets.

His two-year World of Warcraft Subscription.

An army of skeletons, but they were only the cannon fodder, and with a glance he could see the root of the problem. Lurking in the shadows far behind the pack stood a robed figure that glowed with a blue flame, what could only be a necromancer. As a true alliance player who had even led a raid or two in his time, he knew the necromancer had to fall for the skeletons to be defeated.

His saving grace was that there were only 30 of the monsters digging into his force of 200. And while they were terrifying, once a sufficient number of bullets were put into them their bones would begin to break and they would fall. This meant the monsters were not particularly hard to avoid, and against the soldiers who were fleeing, quite capably too with their military experience, the number of undead was not yet growing. They were scared, sure, but their years of drills and training were keeping them in line.

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Although he had already decided his course of action, Brandon Stone did not want to reveal his goal too early. He had had enough players flee from his Level 120 Human Warrior to know that if he engaged the opponent while unprepared, before he had it in his clutches, it would be able to escape. And then there would be a long quest line where someone close to him dies just to get rid of it. No, he wanted it done quickly and efficiently from the start.

He began to call out to his troops, pulling them out of their fear one by one until the others began to notice their calm and join the ranks. With some organization, he sent men into the building he had come from to collect more ammo and begin a stronger assault against the monsters. Now the troops were letting out fire in bursts, and keeping the small pack of skeletons down without wasting too much ammo. It was around 10 minutes later when he had the full force of 200 fully under his control once more, and another 2 minutes when the RPG-7 arrived. A shoulder launched anti-tank missile that he had felt might be enough to turn the tide.

But then the chaos arrived. A new challenger had approached, although not mounted as General stone had expected, what was undoubtedly a death knight ran into the scene to support the undead that had been thoroughly suppressed by the military. A giant man, maybe 7 foot tall and clad in full black plate mail, rushed at the compound but the hail of gunfire as around half the soldiers turned towards the new enemy was enough to stop it in its tracks. The wall of lead caused its armour to dent and its bones to splinter as it attempted to block the bullets with its blade but was unable to prevent them all. However, with the necromancer healing it from behind and ammunition beginning to run low, the battle was not moving in the favour of the living.

It was time to turn the tide. With the General discreetly aiming the missile himself, and with an order that was quickly passed through the ranks of soldiers, right after Brandon fired his RPG all 200 men turned to rain lead down upon one poor figure that was just trying to discreetly heal its mates from the background. The explosion of the missile followed by hundreds of bullets shattered the necromancer while it was distracted, and well before it could register that they had switched targets. No shield or teleport, no flashy escape, no rain of hellfire that General Stone had both expected and feared would occur, no sudden change that could send all the soldiers to their death. Instead, taken by surprise, the necromancer fell and promptly died.

But it did get the last laugh, I suppose. Throughout the battle a variety of text had appeared in front of his eyes, but in his bid for survival he was not able to concentrate on them enough to fully read what they said. However, when this one appeared, his instincts pulled him towards it and his attention was immediately caught.

You have been cursed by the Level 20 Necromancer Zeddicus Bonechild. As the spell is far above your level, it has critically hit. Your Vitality is too low to resist the curse.

You have been inflicted with the [Curse of Decay], that will cause your body to decay until your death, where you will become a mindless undead.

He could feel the cold enter his body, starting at his left hand, but he could only ignore it as he dealt with the immediate threat in front of him. With the focus having been completely pulled away from the death knight and all of the other skeletons onto the necromancer, and from seeing the destruction of its companion, the remaining undead seemed to go into a berserk state. As no soldiers were stopping them, the death knight and its companions had managed to rush up and kill eight of the humans, who then themselves turned on the group beside them. However, as the target moved back from the necromancer and onto the creatures, and upon realizing that its healing had disappeared, the battle was now in their favour. With the hundreds of bullets now having a far greater impact on its bones, the death knight decided to flee. Distracted by the eight new skeletons and 30 remaining ones that had launched themselves at his force, he could only allow it to run.

By the time all the undead had been destroyed, with the few remaining bones lying unmoving on the ground, the death knight was nowhere to be seen. Of the 200 soldiers stationed at this base, around 180 had survived. Thankfully, as the compound was fairly large with the soldiers staying in tents, there was only one supply building where General Brandon Stone had come from that suffered damage from the earthquake, with no actual damage done to his forces by the vibrations.

You have levelled up.

You have levelled up.

You have levelled up.

He could feel himself dying. He looked down at his left hand and could see it already starting to turn grey, with the veins in his arm standing out a deep blue in stark contrast to his skin. In a bid to survive, he had quickly read the text that had come before and after the battle, and within it he had found the one thing he needed to survive. One of the first messages to come up that had gone unnoticed until now.

You are Earth’s closest descendant of the Archangel Michael, who wishes to gift you a portion of his power. Would you like to accept his gift?

Yes.