Chapter 64
Ryker
As my ship closed the distance and was about to make contact with the side of the Pyramid, I reached out and grabbed Tetra’s hand, squeezing my eyes shut in preparation for a collision. Through my closed eyelids, I could see a blinding light. Expecting pain and death, I kept my eyes shut, but it never came. Slowly, I opened them and found myself sitting in my jump seat, floating in a white expanse. Unbuckling myself, I attempted to stand but found nothing to support me. Looking around, I couldn't spot anything or anyone. Searching inward, I found my glowing heart but couldn't sense Silvar's presence. I thought to myself, “Silvar? Ruby? Can you guys hear me?”
I sat there in silence, contemplating if this was the afterlife when a blue notification popped into existence.
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*Notification*
Welcome to the Pyramid of Power. Shop access activated. Orientation protocol activated. Standby . . . Standby . . .
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As soon as I finished reading the notification, it disappeared, and a small flame flickered to life two feet from my face. Before I could gather my thoughts, the flame morphed into the figure of a woman with four arms and a halo of brilliant fire hovering above her head. She was a foot tall and politely gave me a curtsy, then said, “I greet you, Ryker. I am the spirit of the Pyramid, manifested to guide all those who find themselves in my depths. The road ahead will be treacherous, full of danger and opportunity. While inside the Pyramid, I will closely follow your actions and reward you with points for every successful kill. The stronger the foe, the more points you will earn. These points can be spent anytime by thinking the word 'shop,' where you'll find a variety of consumables, equipment, and abilities. Be advised, you can only earn 100,000 points in the first level of the Pyramid, including points spent. Now, is the time I would have you choose a weapon, but upon inspection, I found not one but two different beings living within you, both providing you with advantages unlike other delvers. I have decided to allow them access, but you will not be permitted to browse the armory and will be penalized the first 10,000 points you earn. This will not impact your point cap. With that addressed, your orientation is complete. Fight your way to the center of this level and defeat my champion to ascend or die trying. You will be teleported to a starting location at random. Standby.”
I raised my hand to speak, but the flaming figure extinguished herself, and a new notification greeted me.
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*Notification*
Teleporting Ryker, Ruby, and Silvar to starting zone 6. Prepare for battle.
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A timer appeared, counting down from sixty seconds. Suddenly, I felt the comforting presence of Silvar and Ruby rush back in. Silvar was the first to speak, “Ryker, ready yourself. The weaker inhabitants of the Pyramid always congregate around the starting zones, looking for easy prey. Do not underestimate them. What they lack in raw strength, they make up for with numbers.”
Nodding at his words, I drew hard on the ambient vital energy to comfort myself. I was shocked when a torrent of energy slammed into me, momentarily overwhelming my senses. Silvar forcefully shut down my cultivation, and I slumped forward in my seat, gasping for air. A golden light radiated off me as I stammered, “What in the hell was that?”
Silvar’s voice rang out through my head, angry and confused, “DO NOT DO THAT AGAIN! You just drew vital energy straight from the Pyramid itself. If I hadn't been here to direct the flow, you would have destroyed your cultivation at best.”
*Notification*
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
The flaming figure reappeared in front of me with her head cocked to the side. She looked deep into my eyes and gave me a predatory smile then said, “Ok Ryker, you have my attention, lets see if you can put that power to good use.” She began to laugh then faded into nothing. Her ominous laugh lingering on the air.
Silvar materialized, staring daggers at me and said, “I hope you're happy you may have just doomed us all.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Not fully understanding what had just happened I chose to address it later when I had the time. Changing the subject, I asked, “Ruby, are you ready?” Ruby, doing her best not to be distracting, responded to my question by populating my view with a window.
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*Notification*
Artificial Intelligence Battle Assist Protocol Activated
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As the timer counted down to five seconds, I gritted my teeth and flexed my muscles in concert with the fibers of my suit. Then, in the blink of an eye, I found myself standing in the middle of a flat grassy plain surrounded by millions of other humans holding medieval-looking weapons. Over the next couple of minutes, millions more were teleported across the expanse. When the people stopped arriving, I jogged atop the closest hill and surveyed our surroundings. At first, I thought we had been placed here at random, but upon further investigation, I could see we were standing in a massive line as far as the eyes could see. Ruby helpfully announced, “Incoming attack, your 9 o'clock.”
I turned my head to the left and felt all of the blood drain out of me. There, charging our lines, was a wave of what I could only describe as monsters. I looked around me and could tell only a few people had noticed the incoming wave of death, and I yelled and pointed, but there were just too many people clamoring to be heard, yelling, crying, and screaming at the top of their lungs. I could read the writing on the wall. It was going to be a bloodbath. Looking inward, I said, “Ruby, take control, get me to the front as fast as you can with minimal injuries to the humans.”
Over the many months of fighting, we had learned how to work better as a team. I knew Ruby couldn't use the suit to move my body faster than I could, but she could use her computing power to plot a route through the mass of humanity and get us there faster than I was able. With no more than a green flash of light in my vision as confirmation, I felt the suit tighten, and I immediately stopped resisting her control. She took off in a run and weaved expertly through the crowd. With a level of precision that I could never achieve, she acrobatically flipped, dove, spun, and even crawled her way to the front. The maneuver only took a few minutes, but by the time we got there, the horde had gotten close enough that the people in the front had started to notice the beastly characteristics of our attackers and began to panic.
It was a surreal experience that will stick for the rest of my days. I watched in horror as one by one the front line turned and ran into the people behind them. It was like watching a zombie movie, one person shoving another into another until everyone was screaming in fear and pain. I watched thousands upon thousands of people being pushed to the ground then trampled into nothing more than a bloody paste. As the wave of humanity continued its rearward march, a field of corpses could be found in its wake. I could see and hear the multitude of struggling injured strewn about and I had to force down my anger and disgust at the cowardice of the many.
As I turned away from the gore, I was shocked by the sight of millions of similarly angry-looking people bearing arms and shouting curses towards the monsters. Looking to my left and right, I could see Ruby had placed us near the middle of the line, and I yelled down both sides for everyone to gather up. Everyone who heard my call turned to the person next to them, passed on the command, then ran in my direction. As we closed the gaps in our lines, I was able to see more people pushing through the retreating majority to join the fight.
The closer the horde got, the more details I could make out. I discovered most of their number were bipedal beast-men with animalistic traits. They did not appear to have any organization, but they moved incredibly fast. With the loss of the bulk of our forces, we were now at a numerical disadvantage, and I braced for the inevitable clash.
As the beast-men got within a football field's distance from us, I decided it was time to throw caution to the wind, and I charged while letting out a savage battle cry. Letting the rage take the wheel, I charged the line of beast-men. As I caught the attention of my foes directly in front of me, my vision lit up with red outlines of rocks and sharp pieces of metal being flung in my direction. I effortlessly followed Ruby’s projection as it expertly dodged any projectile that had a chance of hitting us. Just before I slammed into their line, a scattered barrage of energy attacks landed in front of me, killing thousands of enemies. I glanced behind me and saw men and women charging a variety of abilities of differing elemental types and unleashing them on the advancing army.
I took advantage of the confusion created by my allies' attack and put on a burst of speed, surprising a black-scaled warrior carrying a hand axe. It wildly swung at my head, but Ruby and I had spent thousands of hours training against a master of hand-to-hand combat. I was moving perfectly in sync with the projection as we dodged the swing by the closest of margins, not wasting any movement in the process. As the axe head came down, I grabbed the wrist holding the weapon and pulled, causing the reptile to overbalance and tumble to the ground. As it fell, I pulled the axe from its grip and sheathed the blade in the beast's neck.
As I pulled the axe out, it made a sick sucking sound as the flesh settled back into place. At that moment, I felt the haptics of my suit nudge me to my left, and I blindly followed the instruction. I was rewarded by the sound of a blade clanging into the ground directly where I had been standing. Pivoting towards my attacker, I swung the axe and caught an orange-furred cat-kin in the stomach and let go of the axe. Pulling the halberd from the hands of the wounded cat, I plunged it into the face of the next growling face I saw.
I was retrieving the polearm from the skull of my victim when I felt two sets of arms wrap around me in a vain attempt to tackle me to the ground. I released my grip on the weapon and let Ruby control the legs of the suit to manage our balance as I gripped one of the combatants by the neck and activated sacrificial might. As the surge of strength hit me, I pushed down with one hand on his shoulder while pulling up with all my might, ripping the head from its perch. Throwing the decapitated head to the side, I pulled the lifeless body above me and threw it into a crowd of advancing enemies and roared. Covered in blood and radiating a menacing red glow, the flood of beast-men began flowing around me like water around a rock. None that saw my display of strength dared face me one on one. So, I bent my knees and leapt through the air, landing amongst a fresh batch of victims.