CHAPTER 10 - Encounter I
Post-apocalyptic history - Extract 34: Humanity worst setbacks
The start of the apocalypse was a dreadful time for all mankind. Billions died, lots of them not even knowing what was what killed them. One of those examples were the ones now remembered as the vanished, human victims of the spawn. These were fated with a painless death that in turn became the end of the victims companions.
The spawns were abominations of flesh and bone or chitin, they were monsters that had a parasitic method of reproduction that was super effective in the early stages of the invasion of the Earth. These monsters were known as one of the best when it came to adaptability, taking advantage of their reproduction method to take the most efficient form to grow into. Only thing they all had in common was their racial skill to mimetize with the environment coupled with the erosion of the mind.
At first they had problems due to the complexity of the human mind, but with only a few days they made it possible to erode the human mind just as with any other living being they had encountered before. As we are now aware of, the adults were known to mimetize and stalk their prey to slowly erode the target mind. They would then leave one of their offspring in the head of the targets where they would later on be able to connect to the victim and take over their body, using them as sustenance for their new body and as a source of information to take advantage of. Being this last racial trait what made them deadly.
These new enemies of the human race started off with their body of choice, which in Earth's case became something similar to a giant spider monster. These beings were already amazing predators that coupled with their ability to mimetize with the environment became even better. However, the worst part was that while their brain wasn’t able to comprehend most of the information they got from their first victims, they were able to learn how to develop a stealthy method to get rid of humans before we could even take notice of the threat.
By the time humans took notice and started spreading information about them to counterattack they had already taken a huge chunk of the population of humans, being the prime suspect of our species worst setback ever in the post-apocalypse history . Which in turn made our later resistance so useless against the incoming threat.
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I am finally roaming the streets again. I know it’s already too late to go look for my two companions, but something in me still tells me to go see just in case the place where we parted. I may not be more than an acquaintance with them, but as I thought before, I need to keep my word so I will go take a look just in case before retreating to a safe zone and planning something else.
When I get to the place where we parted ways all I find is some proof that people were there, nothing useful to find them like a lead, so I leave it to fate if we are to meet again and start going back to the outskirts of the city. I am going to take a different approach now. First I am going to practice my new skills while fighting the monsters I find on my way and try to improve them. I am sure they have a lot of room to grow for now. Then I will try to get into contact with any survivor camp I camp to get information about the things I need to know.
I start walking back to my house where I intend to set up some kind of base. The road up ahead to get there is dangerous so I take precautions. I only fight the smaller groups of the weak monsters that I am able to slay before they make too much sound and attract more enemies. I deal like that with a few groups of rats whose numbers don’t surpass eight or nine. I test the sword in the process and I find it heavy yet super useful to have an actual weapon at last. The weapon is durable too, any of the rats that try to defend with their own weapons find themselves getting killed for trusting in unreliable makeshift weapons to go against the one I wield.
I find a couple of the giant moles, but I decide to let them be in case they might flee to go call for reinforcements. It is not until I dodge a few more groups of armored panthers that I find a good target to try out my newfound powers on without holding back. As I peek over a corner I find a couple of those ‘mini-orcs’ that I am now so friendly with. I really want to punch them in the face for all the trouble they made me go through. However, this is a good opportunity, I can take care of them easily if they are only two. I am in peak condition, have a good quality weapon and have a new trump card.
I ponder over trying to one-shot kill one of them with the energy to test it’s might, but I decide to fight face to face to see how I can manage in a somewhat controlled environment as they are alone.
“Hey you pigs, time for the slaughter!” I taunt them a little bit, not knowing if they are capable or not of understanding me, but it doesn’t matter. I know it is gonna be a hard fight this way while I 1vs2 them, but I need to improve.
*Grunt* *Grwww*
They both grunt and growl at me as I make myself known to them, longsword in hand. This time however, both monsters take their weapons out from the start. One of them wields a giant ax and the other one a sword similar to mine. I decide to take the initiative and dash at the one on the left, swinging my sword at its waist. The guy blocks it with the handle of the ax and I quickly invert the direction of the swing, making a shallow cut in its back as I move. I am about to follow with a piercing motion, but I can’t help but retreat as the companion covers for the attack with a vertical swing.
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I stand my ground for a while fighting them, it is a close fight, but one where I got the edge on. There is one problem though, well maybe it is too much to count it as a problem in itself, but I am using the energy in small quantities while fighting in an unconscious way. It is as if my body takes the reins whenever I fight to the death and handles it for me in its own way. That explains a lot, like how I was able to perform some attacks before. It is improving my reflexes on its own, I feel that my body is faster than it should and I can even say with confidence that it is messing with my senses in some way, making it easy to notice things around me. In normal circumstances I would be pissed off by something foiling my plans yet this time it’s different. Not only can I take advantage of it, but even better, If I am able to recreate the method that my body is using to cycle and handle the energy on its own I will be able to do the same and more!
I can’t even maintain a clear mind when I am being shown all the possibilities of what that implies. I try to keep calm as I ponder how to face this. I take it on myself to decide fast and choose to get rid of one of them fast so that I can take part of my focus apart from the fight and try to learn something from whatever my body is doing for me right now.
To accomplish my goal I wait for one of the monsters to jump at me. The one with the sword is the one that commits to the task first, my next decision being ignoring it at all. I move past that one into the range of attack of the second one whose aim was to follow its companion. My sudden move makes it doubt what to do for a moment and helps me charge myself up with all the power I can reach out for at that moment. I swing my sword at its chest to divert its attention as I swipe my legs at ground level to make it trip. The hit is not strong enough to make it fall, but still enough to bend its knees making it lose balance and letting me aim freely for its neck. I swing my sword again, this time with full intention of beheading it without sparing any efforts. The sword connects and coupled with all my strength behind it’s enough to get the job done.
‘There.’ I prepared to withstand a huge amount of fatigue as I used a lot more while performing that action than before, but it never came. Instead I felt light headed for a while which nearly kills me before the exhaustion started to manifest slowly in the same manner as before. Guess I did get better in some way, I have no idea if it is that I have now a bigger amount of it after my experiments and practices with it or if I somehow developed some kind of resistance to the backslash. Whatever it may be, It helped me as I can still feel some of the energy cursing through my body even after all that, it’s not much, but it is something.
I keep fighting my foe now alone while I try to grasp that feeling that I sense each time my body empowers itself. I notice that each second it passes the strength I get from it diminishes as the amount of it that I have is slowly but surely running out. Knowing that I am running low on it I decide to end the test here. I wouldn't want to see how much of a difference it makes against a guy that can kill me with only a few consecutive attacks.
I take advantage of my knowledge on martial arts to bait an attack and position myself in its weak spot with the help of my foot technique. The move here would be to kick his spine or somewhere else to deliver damage at the same time that you make your enemy lose momentum . However, I know a kick as I am right now won’t make any difference so I use my sword to slash its calves, a thing which actually makes it kneel. I use the opportunity to follow up and use the sharp edge to the sword to deliver more blows all over its body as it defends its vital points.
After a while the guy just dies of blood loss and I can stop attacking. I am happy to know that I became stronger, but if I hadn’t decided to end it right there I would have to flee again, I can’t depend only on that power with the little amount of time I can squeeze out of it. At least my new sword it’s enough to take care of monsters to this level due to its sharpness and durability, but I can’t depend on it all the time, I will try to get better with my own things.
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A few hours pass as I make my way back to my apartment while fighting some of the groups I encounter on my way. I stop fighting them only after I start to get tired. I am sure I wont get to my home in only one day so I start looking for a safe place to rest. I didn’t forget to make a mental note on where that elderly couple lived, I am going to pay them back. I don’t forget the sisters I was traveling with either, I am going to need a base or somewhere where talented people such as blacksmiths and electricians can work and help one another. I am planning to search for a group that is already formed and that has a good outlook and room for growth. I will need a lot of professionals in all kinds of fields to get some kind of opportunity to rebuild. For now though I will sleep and rest, there are some things you can’t rush.
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After waking up I search in the nearby area for something to have as breakfast and it doesn’t take too much time to find something. I am starting to think that instead of problems with the food supply we will be having problems with the population itself, it seems a lot more people than I expected are either dead, hiding while starving or kidnaped. Not even once of those options sounds appealing to me.
I try to focus on the task at hand and keep going straight to my home. I find close to no enemies at all in the way till it launch time. ‘Maybe some sort of monster's timetable?’
I don't like it, there has to be a reason to explain why they are actively hiding in this timeframe and the first thing that comes to mind is that stronger threats are roaming. Whatever it may be, I get to my flat at noon with no problems whatsoever.
Unfortunately I find what I deem to be one of the worst case scenario. The flat, the same way as I left, stays void of life. Meaning that neither my parents manage to get out of their risky situation nor my sister found her way back.
“Damn!”