CHAPTER 29_HEX - A Zombie Survival LITRPG

Ray

The night, thankfully, passed without incident. There were no hordes, no monsters, no creatures rising from the depths. Granted, they still kept watch out, but nothing came gunning for them out of the darkness. And it was a welcome reprieve.

Most everyone got a decent amount of rest, and even the goblins seemed a bit subdued going into the evening. Not even they could maintain their high levels of energy when having been faced with such an intense day.

It seemed like only moments, but Ray nodded off just after sundown only to be nudged awake just before dawn by Josephine. “We are preparing,” she said in that straight forward quiet manner of hers.

Ray stood up and stretched the kinks out of his back. He really needed to invest in proper expeditionary gear for the group at some point. While this probably wouldn’t be the last reactionary impromptu invasion of a place they needed to get to he could at least plan a bit better. When time permitted that was.

Grok and two other Orkin opened the large steel doors that had been upgraded when they claimed the building. The remainder of the group poured into the clearing, enjoying the cool and crisp morning light. His big Orkin friend spun quickly to stare at the corner of a building, but eventually shrugged and hefted his battle axe up and across his shoulders into its accustomed place.

“Alright everyone,” Ray started, stepping to the front of the group. “We have no idea what we are going to face in the center of Fort Jay, so just be alert and aware. Call out anything you see that’s strange, unusual, or just doesn’t look right.”

Immediately one of the Goblins raised his hand. Curious, Ray pointed to him. The resulting chitter-clack interspersed with grunting and a couple of rude gestures left him speechless.

“Anyone uh, know what the fuck he just said?” Ray asked

Grok laughed, “She sayz no worries boss. Just be listenen for da screamz.”

Shaking his head he started moving towards the fort. It was not that far away, regardless of what the map they had may say. It was when they stepped out from the other side of the building that everyone froze, unsure of how to progress.

Staring at the blacked and cracked ground, the environment past this point seemed more like an alien wasteland than anything that would be found on Earth. Occasional spurts of vibrant green, vapor-like gasses leaked up from the shattered ground, quickly dispersing into the air.

Everything on the northern part of the island, except for the fort itself, had been razed to the ground. The black skeletal remains of the buildings just above the hill, casting dark shadows across what used to be a well-manicured lawn and parade ground.

“That’s … what is that Gale? That’s not normal,” Ray said, unsure of how to absorb or fully understand what he was looking at.

Cursing, the Drakling said, “Tis Miasma. Thy island has been infested with Miasma. Thou should hope there is a cause or curse that we may undo or remove. If not, thy plan to claim this place is moot.”

“Miasma?” Ray questioned.

Gale nodded, “Indeed. Miasma is a corrupting infestation that may spread rapidly or slowly, depending upon thine investment into it. This … seems slow. Mine suspicions are a possible undead of middling power resides within thy fortress.”

“What are we talking here? Like another Nemesis?” he asked again. “I think we can take another one of those as long as it's alone.”

But the Advisor shook her head. “No Ray. Thou art willing enough, but this situation differs greatly from your expectations. Thy Nemesis is … somewhere. Not dead, but not living. If it was, thou wouldst have been attacked many times over. Many times. No, something else resides here. Something far fouler and corrupting than an average undead. Mine suspicions are a Lesser Lich has taken residence here.”

“What is a Lesser Lich? And can we kill it?” asked Derrick from the back of the group.

“Possibly,” Gale said, not shoring up anyone’s confidence in the matter.

The skeleton next to Grok shrugged, “I saw we leave it alone!” it clacked. “it's probably not hurting anyone!”

Grok nodded, “Yea boss, if we just gonna leavez it alone, maybe itz not gonna bug us?”

Everyone stared at the giant green man. “What?” he asked. Then he turned to the skeleton. They stared at one another, then Grok turned back to Ray. “Uh, boss? Dats an undead.”

Ray nodded slowly. “Thank you … Grok. You are extremely observant. I appreciate you. Now, step back so we can smash it.”

“Woah, easy there!” the skeleton said, raising its bony hands. “Can't we all just … get along?” Gale cut it in half at the waist, its legs shattering into shards of bone. “Violence is not the answer! Geneva has all sorts of-“ it was cut off as the Drakling crushed its skull with her boot.

“Tis not an undead we face. Tis a necromancer,” she declared. “We shall face many minions within the confines of the fort, but it is fortuitous that the disgusting thing is weak. Mine thoughts are it cannot summon much more than a horde of skeletons at this point. Killing the foul thing shall also result in dispelling the Miasma.”

Ray nodded, “Well, it knows we're here now. Let's get in there and kill it.”

The group moved forward quickly, entering the Miasma-laden ground. It took exactly eight steps before dozens of arms sprouted from the dry earth as skeletons pulled themselves free. “Death to the living!” they cried as they ran forward, wielding pieces of themselves and their allies as weapons.

They smashed through the wall of weak undead with hardly a thought. Each skeleton was as weak as it was verbally aggressive. And they were very verbally aggressive. Hurling insults that even made some of the Goblins blanch in rage. Every skeleton cut down meant two had the time to pop up. As weak as they were, there was value in extreme numbers, and they were beginning to slow down.

It took them far more effort to clear the last hundred feet to the first outer wall than it did initially, and they were all a bit tired by then. However they couldn’t stop, and Ray was the first one up and over the walls themselves. With Josephine right behind him. The moment he hit the dirt a notification popped up. Then another. But he was too invested in not dying. He immediately minimized them without reading anything off the screens, saving them for a safer time and place.

He slammed into the dirt and came up in a roll. Up until now, Ray had seen undead. He had seen monsters and creatures. Hell, they had just killed a brood of giant rats and their queen. But this is the first time he could honestly say he had seen a zombie.

The dead woman turned towards him, a vacant look in her eyes. Raising her arms to a forty-five-degree angel, she shuffled towards him with a long drawn-out, “Brains,” escaping from her lips.

“Come on man, this is fucking stupid,” he said as he cut the zombie's head from her shoulders. “Did you do nothing but watch a bunch of cheap, B-rated horror movies before everyone died?”

He engaged the next zombie, even as one near him huffed in displeasure. “I will have you know that Earth’s media in the horror genre was amazing.”

Ray killed that one too. How dare it talk back to him, particularly when he was making a point.

The rest of his group spilled over the lip and into the trench between the two walls. Just as with the skeletons before them, once the group was assembled they made short work of the zombies. Even though their cheesy, half-muttered lines caused confusion within the group. Ray was quick to call out that they were still undead and to just treat them as such. Simple instructions carry a lot of weight with fighters that don’t have much intelligence.

Smash the bad guy. Simply enough.

Ray noticed, however, that the skeletons didn’t follow them. He wasn’t sure why, but it seemed like it would be a good idea to sandwich an invading army between two defensive forces. But that didn’t seem to be the goal here. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he wasn’t sure he liked it. Always go for the kill, it ensures your safety.

After another hour of fighting through the trenches, and hundreds of cheesy lines, they got to the main thoroughfare leading into the fort itself. The group moved in quickly, grabbing the rusty gates and slamming them shut behind them. Retreat was no longer an option.

Both sides of the entry tunnel had been bricked shut. This left walking out into the huge, open courtyard in the center of Fort Jay itself. As they cautiously crept forward, a loud, booking voice sounded out over them.

“Welcome! Welcome to my little kingdom,” cried a voice.

Searching the walls, Ray was startled to find that the entire second floor had been removed and Roman-style seating, complete with a Caesar palanquin, had replaced it. Sitting on a massive throne, draped with the skins of what he could only guess were prior victims, sat a skeleton with a crown. A crown, purple sash, and white toga.

“And just what the fuck are you supposed to be?” he challenged.

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The skeleton just laughed. With a click of his boney fingers, thick metal grates dropped across every entrance, effectively sealing their group into the courtyard.

No, not a courtyard. Looking around at the bones, decaying bodies, and blood splatters, Ray was quickly coming to realize this was an arena. Like the arenas that archaic Earth had used for blood sports.

“It's so nice of you to … drop in,” cackled the skeleton.

Gale pointed her huge blade at the creature and a bolt of lightning shot out, only to bounce off a grey and green dome of energy that sprung up to protect it. “Die Lich!” she screeched.

Sitting up and leaning forward it called out, “That wasn’t very nice. Or sporting. You bore me. Now, fight for my entertainment!”

One of the gates on the far side opened up, and a double line of skeletons marched out. Unlike the previous ones, these were grey-boned, clad in armor, and wielding short blades. “Fight for your Emperor!” screeched the Lich. Then the skeleton troops charged.

With a clash of weapons, the two sides met. And the skeletons were smashed to pieces with little to no fanfare.

Ray grinned, “Is that it? Seriously, why don’t you come down and fight us yourself? Some big bad Emperor Lich!” he spat.

Yelling in rage the Lich rose, toga and crown swapping out for a cloak as dark as night and a staff with a green and black mottled gem floating above the top of it. “Meh, I didn’t think those guys would do much anyway. You certainly seem a bit more put together than the last few groups that came through. Although it has been a while,” it mused, throwing Ray off kilter with the change in attitude and mentality.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have any resources to do this here with you. I could kill you all, but that would … cost me. Dearly so,” it said calmly.

Gale threw another bolt of lightning at the thing, who simply deflected it. “Would you stop doing that? It's annoying,” the Lich said, clearly annoyed by the interruption. “I see you have Aelvin, a Drakling, and … oh dear, are those Thymians? How’s the reclamation of your home world coming along?”

Remus shrugged, “Not terrible. Not great, but not terrible.”

“So … what’s going on?” Ray said, confused.

Surprisingly it was Remus who turned to him to answer. “That, Master, is a Lich. As in the Race, not a System Monster. I suspect he has been here for a very, very long time.”

“About fifteen hundred years to be precise,” it said aloud, dropping into the arena. “But look, I had fun here. Killed some people, raised some skellies. Good times. But I was more curious about you than I was looking for a fight. I only did the bare minimum. So now I’m out. There is little to no doubt that we will meet again. Please, do entertain me a bit.”

With that, he drew his staff down through the air and ripped open what Ray could only describe as a portal. As the Lich stepped through he waved, “Too-da-loo!” And then he was gone.

“What the fuck was that?” Ray said as the portal snapped shut. He turned to Gale, “The fuck was that?” he repeated, waving his hands in the air towards where the Lich had just been. “Gale. What. The. Fuck.”

The Drakling turned to Ray in a painfully slow manner, all the blood had drained from her face and she was white as a ghost. “ … Undead,” she whispered.

“What? Gale, snap the fuck out of it. I need to know what happened! I can't get the System to say anything!” he yelled, but the Drakling was petrified. Sighing, he finally noticed the alerts that he hadn’t opened when the first got into the fort.

Tabbing them open, he saw that there were three. The first was simple and somewhat expected.

EVENT – HEX CONTESTMENT

FIGHT TO TAKE THE HEX FROM THOSE HOLDING IT

SKELETONS

250

ZOMBIES

500

LICH

A CONTESTMENT ALREADY? THE SYSTEM ISN'T EVEN INTEGRATED YET! YOU KNOW WHAT? FUCK IT. GOOD LUCK.

The message was as expected as it was snarky. Ray didn’t know who was sending these messages to him through the System, but he knew one thing for certain. They were far from Omnipotent. In fact, they sounded like any systems troubleshooter from back in the day when Humanity wasn’t in danger of going extinct.

Pulling up the second message, Ray blanched.

YOU HAVE ENTERED THE TERRITORY OF AN ENTITY YOU CANNOT FATHOM. HEROIC LEVEL UNDEAD DETECTED.*

“Oh,” he said simply, directing a quick look toward Gale. She nodded at him, even as he felt a bit sick to his stomach. “That’s what the fuck happened, isn’t it?” Again she nodded.

Feeling ill, Ray opened the third and last message.

EVENT COMPLETED– HEX CONTESTMENT

EVENT REWARD – 500,000 NEX (REWARD DEFERRED)

EVENT REWARD – REVIVAL TOKEN X5 (REWARD DEFERRED)

EVENT REWARD – HEX CONTROL GRANTED

HOW IN PANTHEONS NAME DID YOU SURVIVE THAT? YOU KNOW WHAT, NEVER MIND. THE MINUTE YOU READ THIS THE SYSTEM IS SET TO TAKE YOU SOMEWHERE. KEVIN IS GOING TO BE PISSED TRY NOT TO DIE.

Ray began to glow as Josephine cried out and immediately reached for him. Gale was completely off guard. Before anyone could do anything, however, Ray vanished in swirls of blue and white light

He found himself sitting in an office, staring at a sandy-haired man sitting behind an old-style monitor. The moment he appeared, the man moved the monitor to the side, steepled his fingers, and stared at Ray through his thick, coke-style spectacles.

“Hey there,” he said, “I am sure you are wondering who I am, why you’re here, and just what in nine hells is going on. Well, let me make this simple for you. My name is Kevin. So you stupid terrestrial monkey, you are going to answer my questions.”

Ray stared at him in total incomprehension.

Kevin sighed and leaned back. “Fine. Let's do this the stupid way,” he mocked. “You dirt ape. Me God. Tell me what the fuck you did to break the System on Earth so badly or I’m just going to hit the delete key and start over from scratch.”

“Uh, what?” Ray said stupidly.

***

RAYMOND ‘RAY’ FINNEGAN

RACE

HUMAN

CLASS

NONE

NEX

CALCULATING

LEVEL

PHYSICAL STATE

VOID LOCK

MENTAL STATE

SHOCK

ATTRIBUTE

BASE

CURRENT

NEX TO INCREASE

STRENGTH

AGILITY

POWER

100

WISDOM

LUCK

400

JOSEPHINE SANCHEZ