Armageddon

The Armageddon was piloting M.R. Tentacles when the message about the Strange came in. He abandoned his sneaky attack on a giant creature and started flying to the tracking beacon location.

As the starfighter circled above, its tentacles waved creepily. The Strange looked up with an annoyed expression. He waved his fingers, and POOF! M.R. Tentacles was teleported to the bottom of a magma chamber deep in the planet somewhere. The teleport somehow disrupted the quantum entanglement of the remote control system, effetely stranding the starfighter. Since the dense metallic magma disrupted electromagnetic signals, no other means of communication was available. The absurdly expensive machine was now lost, with no means of a quick recovery. The Strange went back to licking meat off his figures and thought about how he might like to take a shit.

The Armageddon fumed and devoted all his processes on how to capture the Strange. He couldn't believe he had lost. Unfortunately, his starfighters didn't have cloaking. Perhaps he could get to the Strange another way. He thought about how the thing was eating a chunk of meat.

Brian

The sound of the ground trembling was becoming louder. A large cloud of dust could now be seen further up the canyon. People were starting to panic. Several people had begun a flat-out run to try and get away; others had remained calmer and tried to position themselves behind the wagons-hugging the rock walls.

My stomach was rumbling. I needed to get some good meat. I wondered if the creatures up ahead would be tasty. My hydraulic SG66 blades emerged from my arms.

I licked my lips and began to sprint towards the oncoming stampede. The adrenaline rushed into me as I caught sight of the lead creature. It looked similar to a rhinoceros but had thick armor plating instead of skin. It lowered its head when it saw me. The large horns were glistening with evil intent!

As the tip of the horn approached my stomach, I jumped using the power of my upgrade. I arched in a flip over the creature, both my blades stabbing down at its spine and barely left a mark. WHAT THE FUCK!

As I landed, the next beast impaled me on its horn, and I was carried like some mounted trophy as the thing continued to stampede. I tried to fight through the pain and think of what to do. I wouldn't die, but the upgrade didn't stop the pain. Suddenly I remembered what the guard was saying about how lots of the monsters were protected by manna.

I pulled back my arm so that I could reach the blade with my other hand. I nicked my left finger with the edge and then drew a straight manna rune in blood on the side of the weapon. When I felt the manna rush down my arm, I plunged the blade into the beast's eye.

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The beast dropped like a rock as the manna-infused blade slid into its brain. I was still impaled on the horn and was carried down as it fell. The monster left a massive groove in the dirt as it skidded to a stop.

I pulled myself off the horn, blood and guts spilling everywhere. The metallic grey of my SG66 ribs showed through the gaping hole in my stomach. As I sprinted toward the next beast, I imbued my left arm blade with manna. Each imbuing would probably last me two uses by the feel of it.

I dove under the belly of the next monster and slid both blades up. The edges ripped through the unarmed stomach with no resistance. That left me with one charge in my left arm. However, the beasts were only about 300 yards from the wagons.

Fuck! I was going to have to waste good meat. I toggled my HUD, selected "laser AOE," and targeted the orbital strike on myself. Everything went white as the beam not only obliterated everything within 200 yards but instantly destroyed my biological body as it continued to bore a hole into the planet.

I woke up a day later, finding myself at the bottom of a vast pit. The imperial upgrade package had finally finished rebuilding my flesh. The power of the laser strike had killed the beasts, but their tough manna imbued skeletons, and armor plating remained. I struggled out of the pile of smoking bones and looked up.

System notifications blocked out my HUD. –Alert- Manna Use +1 new skill learned:

Agility

Skill level

Description

Effect

Level 1

You are very fast

You can dodge some attacks

I wiped away the notifications and finally got a look at the top of the crater. A guard was climbing up a rope ladder with some manna imbued bones tied around his back. I yelled, "Hey! I'm still alive! Don't leave!" The guard almost fell off the ropes due to surprise. When I finished climbing up, he eyed me suspiciously. "How did you get down there, son?"

"Well, sir, I was looking for some meat! Was the cook able to find any among the other animals?" The guard relaxed a bit. "Well, we guards get the manna bones. We can get them made into better weapons. The cook is over there by some of the slain beasts that didn't get obliterated by whatever that was".

I started helping the cook cut the meat from the beasts, which it turned out were called Rox due to their thick armor. The meat tasted terrific after being thinly cut and prepared. Its natural manna density gave it a heavenly flavor and the fantastic effect of replenishing my manna. When we got to the next city, I helped the cook package most of what we recovered to sell to high society and the adventure guild. Apparently, the price per pound could feed a small family for a month.

As soon as I was done helping the cook, I ran off to check on Brea. She was eating her share of the delicious meat by a campfire. "Hey, there, pretty lady. How do you like my meat today?" "Mhmm. It's firm but, at the same time, juicy and flavorful. I really like when it drips like this," She replied and then stuffed the rest into her mouth. "Yeah, I have been working on getting the hardness right. The cook has been giving me lessons. I think I'll do even better soon!" Brea eyed me with a smirk. "You may know your meats, but I am good at something too! I am studying herbalism. One of the ways I have been getting my skill up is harvesting the flowers on the road. Want to see them? I got a nice-looking rose back at my wagon I can give you…