The creature was a dozen feet tall and had long and heavily muscled arms that ended in scythe-like bone weapons. It was covered in chitinous armor and didn’t have a single tuft of hair on its pale white body. As terrifying as it was, the creature was utterly silent. Its mouth opened like a flower, peeling back to reveal oscillating teeth that descended into a throat covered in… more teeth.
Ray would be having nightmares about this thing for weeks.
ALBINO REAPER
{RARE}
“Shit, it’s a rare!” Ray called out just as Nyx unleashed a massive bark. The attack peeled up the asphalt as the wave of compressed sound and energy struck the Reaper in the chest… and did absolutely nothing. The plates of armor covering its body must have been significantly thicker than they had thought.
“That’s not good,” the canine chuffed out before turning and bounding away. “Your turn!”
“Damn dog!” Ray chided, drawing his pistol.
The creature opened its mouth to the sky in a completely silent roar, spraying the area with saliva. Then it bounded forward with speed that took them all by surprise. In less than a second it crossed the street, ripped through another car, and nearly caught one of the Aelvin {RANGER}s. He managed to dodge out of the way at the very last second but took a nasty cut to the back doing so as the Reaper adjusted at the last second.
Yelling to get its attention, Ray empowered his handgun and unleashed a large fireball from the barrel. It struck the armored monstrosity in the back and caused it to stumble. The {RANGER}s weren’t idle either, as various elemental arrows struck it in the arms, sides, and face. One particularly daring {RANGER} flung herself over the top of the Reaper, unleashing a lightning-infused arrow directly into its eye. She landed nimbly on the far side and dashed away to safety.
That attack got a response they could hear.
The Albino Reaper unleashed a roar that shattered windows and flung debris around the street. Two {RANGER}s were taken off their feet entirely, being closer to the abomination than anyone else. They were flung through the air, impacting the side of a building and a ruined car nearby.
The creature thrashed and spasmed and it both tried to get the arrow out of its eye and suffered the after affects of the electrical shock. It wasn’t close to enough damage to killing the thing, but it did distract it long enough for Verrick to attack.
The Aelvin {RANGER} had an arrow drawn in his bow and had been gathering Power in it using some ability that he had. The arrow had been gathering a blue aura around it to the point that it was glowing like a star. With a grunt, he tracked the thrashing creature and then released the arrow. It whipped through the air so fast it left an electric blue line behind it.
Sensing danger, the creature attempted to dodge or deflect the attack. Ray wasn’t sure which, but it only partially succeeded and to devastating results.
The Reaper brought around its bladed arm and struck the arrow in the side, successfully pushing it away from the center of its chest. However, the arrow didn’t miss it entirely as it took off its other arm at the elbow, vaporizing the limb entirely. The arrow continued down the street for several blocks, piercing everything that it encountered. Each thing it struck caused it to lose some of the blue glow around it until eventually it was no longer visible.
“Holy shit Verrick, what the fuck was that?” Ray asked, eyes wide.
The {RANGER} shook his head and was panting hard, “Not something that I can do again My Lord.”
Having watched the attack and the damage it did, Ray had a few ideas on how to take the thing down. The Goblins had remained by his side during the fight as they had lacked ranged options. Their oversized spears were a bit comical, but he knew better as the little green men were versed in their use.
“I need one of those,” Ray said, pointing to the spears and holstering his gun. He took the freely offered spear and immediately altered it to his thoughts. He quickly reviewed it once he was done:
{LIGHTNING SPEAR +2}
GRADE – UNCOMMON
{EFFECTS}
COMMON LIGHTNING
{ABILITY}
COMPLETE DISCHARGE
VAPORIZE THE WEAPON TO DEAL IMMENSE DAMAGE TO A SINGLE TARGET
Verrick stared at him in astonishment as Ray whooped. “Fuck yeah, this is what I’m talking about!” he said with a feral grin as he held the now pulsating weapon.
Lightning crackled up and down the shaft of the weapon, discharging off the top every so often. IT had been expensive, but if he could get this into the Reaper's body it was game over. Or at least they hoped it would be.
“Verrick, I need a distraction,” Ray began, but the Goblins were having none of that. One of the Green pricks belted him in the stomach while the other grabbed the spear. As the air left his lungs and he doubled over, he watched in anger as the two green men ran toward the Reaper.
Verrick had caught on immediately and began yelling orders out in a language Ray didn’t understand. He assumed it was Aelvin as the other {RANGER}s that were still standing darted back and forth, peppering the Reaper with various abilities centered around whatever element they had chosen. They were conserving their remaining arrows at the cost of Power as he saw lightning, ice shards, fire bolts, and more raining down on the creature.
It roared in fury and swatted at the annoying {RANGER}s, completely missing the Goblins. The two small green guys had grabbed the long Lightning Spear and were sprinting towards the monster. It was so preoccupied with the {RANGER}s that it didn’t see them at all… not until it was far too late. Ray almost wanted to look away, but in the middle of a fight like this that could be life-ending. So he refocused and watched as the Goblins buried the spear right into the left buttock of the Reaper. Apparently, it didn’t have armor there as the spear sunk right in.
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With a high-pitched screech, it spun and knocked one of the Goblins away. The other, however, hung on and somehow remained unnoticed. With a violent twist, the green man activated the spear's ability as it rode the momentum of the spinning Reaper and allowed itself to be flung away. A huge flash and rumble of thunder was unleased from the spear as it glowed cherry red and discharged an immense amount of energy in the pale abomination.
The large monster spasmed and shook as smoke poured out of its eyes and mouth as ropes of yellow and blue electricity arced over its skin, blackening anything it touched. The spear exploded with a pop, causing Ray to jump, as it finally spent its ability. The remains of the weapon jutted out of the Reaper's backside as it stood and continued to spasm, the jerks and twitches growing less and less visible.
After several minutes of watching the ability work its way through the monster, its effects no longer visible to the naked eye. But the thing was still standing, huffing smoke out of its mouth. It turned slowly toward where Ray and Verrick were standing and took a tentative step forward toward them.
“Holy fuck, what does it take to kill this thing,” Ray muttered.
With a barking growl, Nyx ran from under the car she had been hiding in. Weaving in between the {RANGER}s attacks, she flung herself at the Reaper's back with abandon. She landed on the thing and latched onto the back of its neck. With a muffled howl the canine unleased another bark, only this one was point blank and compressed. The sonic attack shattered the much thinner plates on the back of its neck and tore the side of the neck, shoulder, and jaw off spraying the gore forward towards Ray.
The attack had the side effect of pushing Nyx back violently off the Reaper and onto the ground. She landed with a yipping yelp of pain but quickly got to her feet. Even missing an arm and most of the left side of its face and neck, the Albino Reaper was still standing. Its pale red remaining eye was blazing with hatred and fury that gave Ray shivers. This thing just would not go down.
The {RANGER}s had not been idle, however, and had been peppering the thing with abilities during the exchange. Now, however, they focused on the gaping hole that was in the thing's neck, piling on the damage in that critical area. It was only another minute before the Reaper stumbled and fell to the ground with a thundering impact.
“That… was not fun,” Ray ground out. “Fuck that thing. If that’s a single Rare grade creature I don’t want to meet anything above that until I have a goddamn nuke.”
Verrick was quick to agree. “Indeed, My Lord, that was most unpleasant. However, I believe we have injuries to see to. I would also like to inquire as to how you change the nature of that spear. That would be most useful for future engagements.”
As they tended to the minor and moderate injuries the group had sustained, Ray explained how he was able to use Power to essentially alter anything that he saw fit. He couldn’t do huge changes, like giving a Goblin wings, but creating anything from raw resources to altering weapons were well within his capabilities.
After hearing the explanation Verrick couldn’t help but ask, “My Lord, can you upgrade our weapons? Having bows that are reinforced or even contain abilities… that would increase our combat capabilities significantly.”
“Well, to be honest, I didn’t know that I could give abilities to weapons,” Ray admitted. “I’m not even sure how I did that. Probably something to do with my intent… anyway, yeah I can do that. I can’t do it today though, I’m tapped out.”
The Aelvin nodded, “Indeed. Having a low power reserve makes it difficult to accomplish much right now. I am curious, My Lord, what your power reserve is?”
Ray opened his stats to check, it had been some time since he had last looked.
RAYMOND ‘RAY’ FINNEGAN
{RACE}
HUMAN
{CLASS}
SYSTEM LORD
{CLASS GRADE}
UNIQUE
{STAGE}
1
{LEVEL}
4
{STRENGTH}
5
HUMAN BASE: 5
{AGILITY}
5
HUMAN BASE: 5
{POWER}
80 (11)
HUMAN BASE: 0
{WISDOM}
10
HUMAN BASE: 8
{LUCK}
10
HUMAN BASE: 2
{ABILITIES}
CLAIM
CLAIM HEX
OATH OF FEALTY
SOUL COMPANION
MODIFY
“Oh wow, looks like I went up a couple levels,” he said happily. “I have a pool of eighty Power, but I only have eleven left right now. That spear really drained me. I wonder if that fucker gave me two levels?” Ray wondered idly, he turned back to Verrick only to see the Alevin staring at him bug-eyed.
“Eighty My Lord? Are you certain?” he asked incredulously. “That is… an amount several magnitudes larger than even myself. Most of my {RANGER}s have pools from right to twelve. I retain a pool of fifteen.”
Ray shrugged, “Yeah, Derrick had five or something to start out. Must have something to do with my class. I don’t really get stats though, so maybe that’s why.”
“He has no sense of comparison as his class is something else entirely,” Nyx chuffed. “My abilities don’t utilize Power, so I cannot compare. However, Ray, you need to be more aware of just how unique your class and abilities are. Once again I will remind you that you can, most likely, modify yourself.”
“Oh. Yeah. I did completely forget about that. Things haven’t really slowed down you know?” Ray admitted sheepishly. “Can you remind me to take a really good look at that when we get back to our territory?”
“I will do so,” Nyx sighed.
“Right. Anyway. Eighty right now. I think I get ten Power or so per level, at least it hasn’t deviated from ten. I have no idea what happens when I go up a full stage. Hell, I don’t even know how I level up yet,” Ray said, rambling on.
He was going to continue but Verrick held up a hand. “There is someone or something coming down the street,” he said. He then issued instructions to the {RANGER}s who were standing. They quickly dragged their two wounded members and the injured Goblin behind cover and got into cover. They would not be caught by surprise this time.
Watching the street from behind cover, Ray saw around two dozen people walking. More than half their number seemed to be combatants, wearing armor and wielding a wide variety of melee weapons. He spotted a few crossbows as well, although these were not being held by anyone and were instead strapped across their backs. The others in the group seemed to be civilians. Wearing large packs or carrying bags, they wandered into the location of the battle and froze.
“Holy shit, what happened here? Fuckers got ripped to pieces,” said one of the men, kneeling and touching the ground with his eyes closed. “Looks like our patrol got wiped out by that pale fucker. Then it tried to jump those elf bastards that are wandering around and got merc’d. Shit, they had help too.”
One of the more heavily armored men spoke out, “Then we need to get back and tell the General. We lost a lot of manpower here, we may need to promote out.”
The unarmed men and women went pale at that. It was obviously apparent that ‘promoting out’ was neither pleasant nor always survivable.
“What are your orders My Lord?” asked Verrick in a very quiet whisper. “We can certainly take them. However, we may not be able to safely escort those people with our current numbers.”
Ray nodded. “We don’t know the situation. Rescuing them could make the situation worse. Let's let them pass and follow them back to their base.”
The Aelvin nodded in response and the pair watched the bandit group tighten up their ranks. They moved much quicker than they had arrived, heading down the street and turning the corner. Verrick signaled the {RANGER}s to follow behind them slowly. They didn’t want to walk into an ambush or set off any traps, something that had been mentioned during their conversation with Dennis and Erica. Caution was the better part of valor.
The group cautiously made their way down to the street corner where the bandits had turned. Peeking around the corner, Ray blanched at what he saw. It was so far outside his expectations that he wasn’t sure what they were going to do.
The bandit group was several blocks away from them once more, but not more than a half block from their intended destination. A massive, multi-story concrete and brick building loomed over them, taking up the entire block. It had reinforced metal pillars and meshing fused into the walls, with a single entrance that led inside. That entrance was covered in spikes and overseen by a fortified wall, gate, and with a pair of matching guard towers. Massive letters on the wall above it read, ‘Federal Depository’.
“Holy shit, they turned the depository into a goddamned fortress!” Ray whistled.
This was going to be a lot harder than he thought.