“Run, run, run!” Ray yelled as Josephine was picked up by a tall white undead and hurled through the plate glass window as it screamed in their direction. He winced; the plate glass was thick. That had to hurt.
The Myrmidon’s apprentices were being forced back by another half dozen of the insanely strong creatures, while an eighth was running around shrieking with Nyx gnawing on its head. It was pure pandemonium, and they hadn’t even gotten past the lobby yet.
Raising his pistol and leveling the sights on a pale white skull that came around the corner into the lobby, Ray pulled the trigger twice. The creature’s head popped like a watermelon, spraying purple ichor all over the group and the remaining creatures. It went down in a pool of its own oddly colored blood, but the remaining monsters didn’t slow down. They, in fact, did the opposite and went completely berserk.
With a scream of rage, Josephine came back through the window, performed a beautiful spin, and decapitated another creature. This left seven of the nine monstrosities standing. Josephine peeled two of the pale adversaries away from the apprentices while Ray looked for opportunities to engage from a distance. Nyx dragged her victim to the ground and, with a savagely powerful shape of her head, ripped the head away from the spine.
Six left.
Seeing an opportunity as one of the girls kicked her opponent away, Ray unloaded the remaining rounds of the magazine into the thing’s body. It dropped to the floor and spasmed before going still. Josephine dispatched another creature as Nyx eyeballed her next skull to nom on.
Four to go.
With a screech, three of the things lined up while the fourth sprinted into the interior of the building. Ray wasn’t sure what it was running to, but it couldn’t be a good thing. Monsters didn’t usually show any level of tactical thinking, so it certainly didn’t bode well when they suddenly got smart about things. He reloaded quickly using his Power and fired several charged rounds, the bullets exploding around the creature as the shrapnel tore into it. Unfortunately, he couldn’t drop the damn thing and it vanished in the labyrinthine hallways he was sure filled the inside of the structure.
A loud grunt caused him to turn, weapon raised, only to realize Rivea had dispatched the final opponents. Violently. With a sigh, he lowered his weapon and took stock of the lobby. It was tastefully decorated, covered in the blood of his enemies, and vacant of any additional targets. Something he was very thankful for.
“What in the ever living fuck was that?” he huffed, catching his breath as his adrenaline drained from the ambush and ensuing fight. “There wasn’t anything here when we walked in. Then suddenly they were everywhere!”
Josephine shook her head as her ladies took up guard positions around them. “My Lord, these creatures strike me as smarter than the average undead monsters. Perhaps they have skills that allow them to hide from us.”
He couldn’t argue with that logic, and normally he wouldn’t. But his {CLAIM} ability said otherwise. It had deemed the building vacant, and those things had appeared in front of them. Quite literally in front of them. Ray had watched them phase into existence, confused and befuddled, only to notice him and his group and attack.
“Whatever they are is irrelevant. I strongly suspect that there are many, many more within this building,” Nyx chimed in with an annoyed chuff. “Perhaps Nadia was incorrect with the level of information that they received on these sites.”
Josephine nodded, “That or things changed once we stepped inside. This would be far from the first time that we encountered a situation that was sprung on us,” she said spitefully. Glancing at Ray she continued, “My Lord, it is possible this may be another Lich Arena situation. Perhaps even a Death Slug event.”
Ray nodded, even as Nyx, Rivea, and the apprentices listened in and were utterly confused. “Yeah. Probably. Maybe. I don’t know to be honest. Those were… scripted. Planned by someone trying to kill us. This feels more spontaneous. Maybe it’s related to the event?”
“Perhaps. Regardless of the origin, we should focus on clearing the building and claiming the resources here. Even if it is harder than we initially thought that only means the rewards will be greater. Should be greater,” Rivea claimed, narrowing her eyes at the hallway the creature had vanished into. “I call dibs on the one that got away.”
Moving the group forward with the powerful Drake as a point woman, Ray directed them toward the far side of the lobby. True to form another half dozen of the creatures jumped them the second that they turned the corner, but this time they were more prepared. Not to mention Rivea had apparently had enough of being ambushed and quickly tore the six to pieces with little assistance from anyone else.
The fight was short, and brutal, and left Ray wondering why they had such problems with the initial attack to begin with. Something here was tickling his instincts, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
Until for once, he did.
“Stop!” he said quickly, bringing the group to a halt. “This whole fucking building is a trap. The entire building.”
Rivea swore and Josephine looked confused. Nyx, however, slowly began backing up towards the door. “So no further words Ray. Let’s retreat, slowly and calmly.”
The Myrmidon and her apprentices slowly backed up through the lobby, with Ray leading the way and Rivea at the rear, opposite how they entered. Nyx slipped out the door quietly, followed by the rest of their group. Once they were all outside safely Ray pushed them further into the street.
“Care to explain, My Lord?” Josephine asked, curious.
Instead of using his words, Ray conjured a ball of fire. Pumping Power into it the small ball turned red. From there the colors changed into orange, then yellow before he finally stopped when they were tinged with blue. He looked up at the others and grinned as it became apparent they had backed away from the extreme heat.
“Watch this,” he said, striking a pitcher’s stance before hurling the ball of fire into the building. Or at least what everyone had assumed was a building. The moment the fireball of destruction entered the entire structure quivered and let out a high-pitched scream.
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That was when Ray’s party pack of fire detonated.
Flames roared out the front before they spread upwards, engulfing each floor in yellow flames tinged with blue. The hailstorm he unleashed cut off the screaming from the building as it sagged before slowly dissolving into a puddle of liquid.
{BUILDING MIMIC DEFEATED}
The charred and melted beams of steel that rose to the sky from the melted corpse of the {BUILDING MIMIC} stretched into the sky. The thing had been gigantic, towering fifteen stories above the street and having completely subsumed the towering office building in its entirety.
“That, my dear homicidal friend, was a {BUILDING MIMIC}. We encountered one as we ran away from Brett’s Bandits. It spewed some undead out at us before we realized the structure was alive,” Ray explained to the others. “I bet if we had gotten too much further in the mimic would have collapsed and pulped us. Not a pleasant way to go.”
Josephine shook her head, her face pale. “No, My Lord, not a pleasant way to go at all. I am glad you recognized it for what it was.”
“Yeah, me too,” Rivea agreed while the apprentices and Nyx chimed in their thanks as well.
Walking up to the building, Ray painted the structure with his {CLAIM II} ability. Once he was done, and the building was his, he deconstructed it. To his surprise, the resources didn’t fall into an unorganized pile but instead formed a large box labeled {MEDIUM BASIC RESOURCE PACKAGE}. Next to it were four smaller packages.
{TINY RARE RESOURCES PACKAGE}
{TINY UNCOMMON RESOURCES PACKAGE}
{SMALL ITEMS PACKAGE}
{SMALL FURNITURE PACKAGE}
“Uh, that’s new,” he muttered as he shoved everything into his storage.
“Not really. Derrick was doing this with materials at home as well,” Nyx said, enlightening her partner. “You have not had much of a chance to scavenge yet, and I was not sure it would work this way outside of our territory, so I was hesitant to say anything.”
“Ok, I stand corrected. That’s new to me,” Ray replied, glaring at his companion as she chuffed her amusement. He turned to look at where the building once was. There was little left except for the pipe fittings that fed into the ground and off to who knew what. He wasn’t about to touch those, something told him that if he tried to take the kitchen sink as well something bad would happen.
“Alrighty then, off to the second site,” he said warily, turning to head down the street.
The group moved quietly, not encountering any level of resistance during their travels. In fact, they never even saw an undead or creature. Usually, they could be spotted in alleyways in the ones and twos, but this section of the city appeared completely bereft of any kind of opposition or aggressive opponent of any kind.
“It should be just beyond the corner of the building over there,” Rivea said, pointing as they walked. Ray nodded and turned the corner. He quickly backpedaled and pushed the others back as well before they were noticed.
He had just found out why there were no enemies around.
Cautiously poking his head around the edge of the building, he could see at least two dozen bandits hanging out in front of a small two-story building. It looked like some kind of convenience store, but he wouldn’t be sure. What he was sure of was that they controlled it and it wasn’t mimic of any kind. The glass panes showed even more people inside, doing who knew what.
“Couple dozen Bandits outside some kind of small convenience store just up the street,” Ray said quietly, relaying the information to the group. “There's more inside, I can't tell how many though. Could be as many as another dozen.”
Rivea growled, “Let me burn them all! They won’t even see me coming!”
“Not happening, there were more than a few holding those crossbows of theirs,” Ray said, getting an annoyed look from the Drake. “Those things will punch through even your scales, and who knows how they have changed or upgraded them. I can’t be the only one capable of doing that, I am positive they have crafters and builders as well.”
“Perhaps Rivea can distract them, and you can simply… blow them up?” Nyx suggested, causing the group to look at her. “What? Sometimes the simplest plan is the best plan.”
Rivea grinned, “I like that plan. I can transform and make a mess of the far end of the street with fire and smoke, and then you can do that blue fire thing you do. Boom. No more Bandits.”
Ray considered it. They had to get down the street, the building Nadia had marked was only one building up and across the street from where the murderous morons had set up shop. Not pushing them away wasn’t much of an option.
“Fine,” Ray agreed reluctantly, not really seeing another way out of the situation. “But you need to watch for my fireball. The minute you see it you get the fuck out of there. This stuff can seriously hurt you, even with your resistance to fire.”
The Drake rolled her eyes and shrugged. “Yeah, yeah. Your fire is bad. All other fire is good. I get it. Now, be ready.” With several rapid steps backward Rivea began to expand into her Drake form. In just a few seconds where there was once a normal-looking, if violently oriented, human woman there was now a large intimidating Drake. With a wink the crawled up the side of the building they were hiding next to and vanished over the top.
“Shit, I really hope that this works,” he muttered.
Josephine put a hand on his shoulder reassuringly. “Do not worry, My Lord. Rivea is a capable creature with powerful abilities. She will be fine.”
Ray was about to respond when he suddenly had a diabolical idea. Peeking around the corner and down towards the end of the street, he saw Josephine was already in position. She smirked at him but then frowned in confusion as he waved her down. Putting his hands up, he gestured for her to wait.
Ducking back around, and hoping that she had gotten the message, he began to focus on his {SYSTEM VARIABLE} ability. He felt the Power drain from his reserves as he formed his intent, focused on what he wanted, and rammed through the result with an immense amount of mental strength.
In front of him, an orange System screen appeared.
{SYSTEM VARIABLE}
CAUSE – RAYMOND FINNIGAN
CATALYST – POWER
RESULT – ABILITY DEPOSIT
TARGET – KYLE VIPPERS
ACCEPT – Y/N
Blinking slowly as he read the screen through a few times, he grinned in pure malicious contentment. Tapping yes, the screen vanished and he sat back against the wall of the building and listened intensely.
“Ray… was that an orange System prompt?” Nyx asked, but he only held his finger to his lips and shushed her. Curious, she chose not to bite him in the leg and instead sat silent, waiting to see just what he had done.
Around the corner one of the Bandits hooted in excitement. The distant muffled voices became clear as he began speaking loudly to the others.
“Guys! Guys! I got it! A Class upgrade!” the man practically screamed.
Several men and a woman poured out of the building to see what the excitement was, only to have the nearest one slap him on the side of his head.
“Shut the fuck up Kyle, your gonna bring down any nearby undead on top of us. Just because we ain’t seen any doesn’t mean they ain’t waiting to gnaw us down to our bones,” the Bandit said harshly. Then he leaned in and read Kyle’s screen. “But I’ll be damned, you did. Accept it and see what it does fuckhead. But I gotta wonder why the stupid thing is ora-“
He didn’t get a chance as the overly excited Bandit accepted whatever the screen said. The street erupted in blue flames so hot that it outright melted the down Bandits standing close to Kyle. Their clothing immediately disintegrated, their weapons caching fire, and their flesh sloughing off their bones as the bright blue flames expanded outward in a circle nearly twenty feet across. The rest of the Bandits present were standing just close enough to erupt into flames, the sheer heat immolating their bodies. Even those well outside the twenty-foot-wide ground zero of the blast caught fire, running through the streets screaming before dropping to the ground and rolling to try and put out the flames.
It didn’t work.
After only a few minutes of waiting the street was silent except for the cackle of fire, and even that began dying out only a few moments later.
Nyx was shocked into silence, but Josephine turned and grinned at him. “My Lord, did you just… mail that man a bomb through a fake System menu?”
“Why yes Josephine,” Ray said, utterly serious. “Yes, I did.”