Chapter 2
Goblin
As Leo passed a “dead” runner, it came alive, lashing out at Leo with inhuman speed, trying to bite him with its razor-sharp teeth. Leo's strength and agility allowed him to dodge the attack and crush its head under his boot.
The defenders felt the Demigod level Boss's presence before they saw it.
So soon, Leo thought. The bastard must be starving. There were maybe 100 Demigod level Afflicted left in the world and they tended to stake out large cities where they farmed and ate the human inhabitants like cattle. He'd thought the defenders had a few days at least before one of them showed up.
Tyrone, their leader, raised his right hand, signaling for them to move back up the canyon.
Leo followed the others, activating his Time-Dilation special skill to cross over a hundred yards of rocky terrain in seconds. The other defenders were faster, but then they could fly. Flying through levitation was a more advanced skill gained from their implants. A skill denied Leo by his damaged implant.
Seconds later, a tiny dot appeared in the gray, smog filled sky. It turned into a huge infant shaped, bloated monstrosity in the blink of an eye, coming down on top of them at an insane supersonic speed.
BOOM!
The shock wave from the attack hurled him backward. Rocks and boulders rained down, as the narrow canyon they were defending suddenly became much wider.
This is it, Leo thought. I'm going to die.
Another defender, Archer, pulled Leo out of the way of a boulder crashing down where he'd been an instant before. Leo, to his shame, was the weakest defender. The others looked out for him.
He activated Time Dilation again, this time supercharging it with 100 Demon Tears, magnifying the effects of his special skill and making it last longer.
The implant's angry red mental display flashed as his Time Dilation took effect. It would be days before he could use this skill again, but against a Demigod level Boss, he'd be fortunate to survive the next minute.
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As his skill took effect, everything slowed down. The rocks raining down slowed, tumbling and bouncing off each other as if they were in water, making them easy to dodge.
The Demigod Boss floated above them, looking like a hideous, 20-foot-tall infant with a long distended penis. The Demigod's pre-change name had been Ambrose Cortez. He'd been a well-known billionaire, but now the surviving humans knew him as Asmodeus. Named for the demon he resembled.
Asmodeus attacked. Even with Time Dilation, the Boss was too fast for Leo to see. There was a second blast. Louder than the first.
Leo woke up covered with sand and gravel. The blast had thrown him over 100 feet down the canyon and left him temporarily deaf. He must have been out for only a few seconds because his Time Dilation was still going. Even so, Asmodeus was insanely fast. Tentacles, coming out of its body, lashed out at anyone and anything around him. A tentacle connected with a boulder nearby, turning it to gravel.
Leo was surrounded by dead and dying defenders. His comrades.
He could see Archer screaming, throwing multiple pyrokinetic and electrical attacks at the Demigod. Not appearing to care, it hauled him toward its enormous gaping mouth. Teeth crushed and tore the man apart. Leo watched helplessly as Asmodeus chewed up Archer, then swallowed.
Asmodeus held Tyrone in one of its tentacles. Tyrone seemed calm. He turned and his eyes met Leo's. He had a resigned smile, eyes saying goodbye.
Asmodeus raised Tyrone and tossed him into its mouth, where Tyrone exploded in a huge ball of fire.
Tyrone had been a power wielder, Pyro-Mage. He must have been saving all his power for this moment, realizing it was their only chance of defeating this thing.
Asmodeus screamed so loudly it made the earth vibrate, its infantile head becoming a burned and blasted ruin, neck so damaged the head hung off to the side. Leo couldn't believe it. Demigod Level Afflicted were practically invulnerable. He'd never heard of any one person actually hurting them.
Leo activated his Psychokinetic Wind-Blade, once again supercharging his special skill with Demon Tears, putting everything he had into one long-range strike to the creature's neck. This strike would have cut down a full-grown redwood tree. Normally Asmodeus wouldn't have noticed, but in its weakened state, Leo's strike was all that was needed to sever its head from its neck. Killing it.
The creature's giant body crashed into the canyon.
Leo looked up, and let out a sad hysterical laugh. There were five tiny dots in the sky. Five more Demigod Level monsters on their way. He was the last surviving defender. No matter what he did now, he was dead.
Every instinct he had told him to run for his life, but instead of running away, he somehow found himself running toward the giant body in front of him. He was a few feet away when his Time Dilation failed and everything around him sped up. He pushed forward desperately, somehow reaching the Demigod's body and touching it. “Absorb!” Demon Tears from the Demigod filled and changed his implant. At the same time, a blast of energy hit him from above.
He died.