Arthur pulled the side door shut on his “hot-wired” car. Then slammed his foot against the accelerator sending him launching forward. He barely avoided crashing the car but thanks to his many years of chauffeuring for his various masters, he had picked up a thing or two about high-speed driving. As he tried navigating himself to the location of his next nearest child, he could feel his breathing become laboured, and his face quickly became drenched in his overflowing tears. The more he tried holding them back, the more powerful the force that pushed them out seemed to be.
He had finally regained his memories, his strength, his freedom, and yet now the world was taking away everything that was precious to him before he could even resist. The cool numbness he’d held back for nearly half a decade seemed on the verge of once again enveloping his rejuvenated mind. A bitter joke surfaced at the forefront of his thoughts. He guessed the system really had turned back the clock for Arthur. Yet, despite all the physical benefits the system seemed to provide, the price of his rejuvenation seemed to be the complete annihilation of his family, his civilisation, and his species.
He noticed a number of odd sights as he drove at incredible speed through the city’s streets. First of all, there seemed to be very few people out and about. He had imagined people would be running for their lives, fleeing whatever god-forsaken monsters the system had brought with it to destroy humanity. Yet, there was an eery silence and nothingness that pervaded the whole city – it was haunting the rational part of his mind. First, the explosions had disappeared, and now too had the city’s population disappeared. There was evidence of people, in the dead bodies that littered the ground, and there was evidence of explosions, in the craters that spotted the Earth, but no active instances of either. Just what was going on?
A few minutes of driving later, he arrived at the entrance to a large, gated community. It was where his eldest son Jeromy lived with his entrepreneur wife Penelope. Arthur now remembered that he’d been told a few months ago that Penelope had just gotten pregnant with the two’s first child, so Arthur could only pray that she, his son, and the baby survived. He used his strength to climb over the gate, before checking his system prompts as he ran in a straight line down the road towards his son’s home.
COMBAT LOG:
You have killed [Vermin] Goblin Infantryman (Lvl:8) x 29
Reward: 6148 EXP
You have killed [Vermin] Goblin Infantryman (Lvl:9) x 35
Reward: 9,380 EXP
You have killed [Vermin] Goblin Infantryman (Lvl:10) x 19
Reward: 6,308 EXP
You have killed [Vermin] Goblin Shaman (Lvl:15) x 12
Reward: 8,544 EXP
You have levelled up! X4
Stat Point(s) awarded: 12.
Your skill: [Basic] Small-Bladed Weaponry, has levelled up! (x2)
You have REACHED the FIRST Level Milestone [Lvl:5]!
Reward: +5 Stat Points
BONUS: For being the THIRD ever PERSON from EARTH to reach LVL 5 you have received the trait: Lucky (Lvl:1) | Rarity: [Epic] | Effects: Your likelihood of receiving bonus rewards from system prompts is increased by 1%.
Arthur nearly stopped in his tracks from astonishment upon having fully read through his system prompts. He hadn’t even realized he’d levelled so much from killing all the goblins. They had been so weak. Or, maybe, his new perk was just that incredible. He didn’t know which was true but guessed it had to be a bit of both – especially as he had only just received the system. He shook his head as it started thinking of ways he would spend his enormous 17-stat point stockpile, he had to focus on ensuring his children’s survival.
Upon arriving at a building that looked like the quintessential suburban home, he sighed in relief as he saw that the door was locked. However, his relief turned to horror as he saw the window next to the door was covered in blood. With his new strength, he tried kicking down the door that blocked him – but the door was well made, and it held. After seeing that kicking it down wouldn’t work, Arthur ran to the nearest large window.
He smashed the window in and edged his way inside the house. Once he was through the window, he found himself standing in the living room of the home. Laying lifeless on the floor was the dead body of Penelope. Arthur steeled his mind once again, as he kept looking around the home for any sign of Jeromy. Though, his parental instinct told him that his son was dead. No man would be so cowardly as to abandon their pregnant wife to be killed by monsters as they escaped. And, just as he had dreaded, he found the body of his son laid out on the kitchen floor, covered in horrific gashes – surrounded by the dead bodies of at least half a dozen zombie-looking creatures.
Arthur knew tears had broken through his mental barrier once again as his vision grew blurry. He stood there motionless for a few moments, processing the scene in front of him. With his cheeks wet with tears, he turned and headed back to the car. However, this time, his despair did not take the form of an angry fiery rage, but a cool detachment from not only the world but himself. His heart was breaking. No. It was broken. Now, he had only one stop left to make. His final child, the wayward son, Albert, and his 3 children.
The former butler drove at a precise and fast speed towards his next destination. His last child lived in the very centre of the city, though not in any place reputable or hospitable. Albert had always been a bit of a delinquent as he had always got himself into fights as a child, often beating up the other children who dared get in his way. As the boy got older, he became involved in more and more criminal activity, to the immense disappointment of Arthur. The former butler had tried everything to rein in his son, but nothing seemed to work. The boy was unpersuadable, unchangeable, and unreasonable. Eventually, the father and son stopped speaking as the list of horrific deeds that Arthur knew his boy had done grew too long.
The only time the two could bring themselves to communicate with each other was when Albert would, usually accidentally, sire a child. The 3 children Arthur knew Albert to have all had different mothers, but that didn’t matter much to Arthur. They were his grandchildren, and with Albert as a father, he knew that it was even more imperative that he show them familial affection regardless of whether they had been born of a one-night stand. He had received postcards upon each child’s birth. However, his intention to be a warm and familial presence in their lives was nullified when his body and mind grew too weak to live independently, and he had been committed to a care facility.
As he got closer and closer to the inner city, he realized that he didn’t know precisely where it was that Albert lived. The man was never open about that kind of stuff, especially not with his old man. Arthur slammed his foot on the brakes as he saw a truly horrifying scene in an alleyway to his right. There was a row of what looked to be a group of former thugs trying to fend off a horde of undead. There were skeletons, zombies, and even unfamiliar undead that seemed to have a lower body covered in skin made of dirt. This earthy bottom was melded with an upper body of necrotic flesh and bone. Arthur had no idea what these undead were, they were utterly unfamiliar to him.
He saw that the thugs were about to be overrun and made a split-second decision. He ran towards the horde from its flank, and his Battle State kicked in once more. Zombies were a little like goblins, only easier to kill thanks to their incredible slowness, a fact that Arthur made sure to take full advantage of. Skeletons, however, were far superior in terms of dexterity and agility, being able to jab at their opponents with incredibly sharpened bones. Yet, their big weakness was that they lacked any semblance of intelligence, so their attacks were incredibly easy to read, avoid, and then counter. The final type of undead, that Arthur had yet to learn the name of, was able to tank dozens of attacks before they would eventually crumble to the floor as a pile of dirt and bone. They were the most troublesome to deal with therefore, and as more of them came to dominate the front lines, both Arthur and the thugs were being repulsed and damaged quite severely.
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Yet, in a moment of sheer madness, one of the thugs actually discovered the undead’s fatal weakness. The almost 7ft man had lifted up one of the undead into the sky and thrown him at the wall of the alley, and the monster had instantly dissipated. The thugs had cheered at their success and the mountain of a thug began repeating the action on all the dirt-legged undead. However, he alone could not lift all of the undead so Arthur had to analyze what it was that made the tall muscled thug’s attack so effective. Then he realized.
“The Dirt-legged undead are weakened when they are not touching the ground,” Arthur shouted out at the thugs in his most officious voice.
To demonstrate his theory, Arthur then pulled one of the dirt-legged undead off its feet and delivered a stab to its chest and it dissipated in his hands. With this revelation in mind, both Arthur and the thugs began killing off the horde of undead with growing ease. Arthur especially so thanks to his Battle State mental perk. When all the undead had been slain, he turned to the remaining thugs and asked politely, “Do you think you could share with this old man where I might find an Albert Goodman?”
The 5 or so remaining thugs were startled by the question, and it took a few moments for them to recover cognitive function after the battle’s end. Once they finally had recovered rationality, one of them, a buff man with olive skin replied in a thick American accent, “Whose asking? You a fed or something old man?”
Arthur thought the question utterly stupid but didn’t let that show on his face. Instead, he shook his head and said, “No I am not a federal agent. I highly doubt MI5 or the Police have the capture of any criminals as high on their list of priorities at the moment. They might have more pressing concerns, wouldn’t you say?”
The man nodded, though he still was not forthcoming with an answer to Arthur’s question. So, Arthur sighed, before saying, “I am his father. Arthur Goodman. I am here to inquire about his wellbeing. So, I ask again, Where is my son?”
The 5 looked at the old man with some suspicion but eventually, the olive-skinned man spoke, “He lives 2 or three blocks away, in an establishment known as ‘Albert’s Sex Emporium’ but last I heard that area was overrun by fucking goblins.”
Arthur felt his heart drop to even deeper depths at the man’s answer. He had already lost enough family to the green humanoids, so to lose yet more family to damn goblins. It would be too much.
He had to go. Now.
Lucas was huddled in the cupboard hunched over himself crying. It was not an unfamiliar situation for him. He had often been shoved in the cupboard whenever he had made too much noise when important clients of Papa were over, or when he was trying to hide from the bullying dished out readily by his older siblings. However, this time was different from all of those times, not only because he was desperately trying to hold a big knife in his hand.
And instead of fearing his papa storming into the room to beat him senseless, Lucas feared that his papa would end up just like his older siblings. Dead. Killed by the weird green men who had broken into their home only a few hours earlier. The ferocious roars of agony and anger that emanated throughout the whole building told him that his papa was hurt. Yet, unlike every other time Papa had been hurt, Lucas’ heart told him that he wouldn’t be able to make it. The cries of pain were too guttural and primal to be anything other than the death throes of a once mighty lion.
Lucas could not hold back the tears. He wanted everything to go back to how it had been before. When his mama had been around when papa and mama were together. Yet, though he was only 7 years old, he knew that such things as time travel were impossible. Things could only move forward. Or, in Lucas’ case, it would better be put as things could only get worse.
An unfamiliar groan from the other side of the cupboard door caused Lucas to freeze totally still. He tried making himself as small as possible. He tried remembering what his father had taught him about how to hide, but at the moment, everything was too scary to concentrate on remembering every detail of his father’s not-all-too-serious words. This lack of knowledge as to what to do only frustrated Lucas more, and soon he was hyperventilating. If his breathing hadn’t been loud enough, he knew that his constant sniffling and clumsy arm movements trying to wipe away tears were revealing his exact location to whatever it was that was standing beyond the cupboard door.
The unknown groan grew louder. Its source was approaching Lucas’ hiding place. He gripped the knife in his hand harder, and he momentarily held his breath. Only moments later, the door to the cupboard was opened – though not fully, and all Lucas could see was a thick green leg. In total panic, Lucas tried stabbing out at the unfamiliar leg with his knife. However, his shaky grip and his lack of strength made the stab totally ineffective at damaging the leg – with its only effect being confirming with 100% certainty to the goblin that something/someone was in the cupboard.
Lucas withdrew his knife and then made a split-second decision, and tried bolting out of the cupboard towards the door of the bedroom he was in. However, just as with his older siblings, the goblin was far stronger than he was as well as possessing a longer reach and the goblin soon tripped up Lucas – sending him hurtling to the floor. Lucas, however, was being driven by adrenaline, and he managed to crawl quickly enough away to avoid the goblin’s next attack which was a swing with its rusted sword.
When Lucas reached the door to the bedroom, he found it open. He ran out of it, only to encounter another green body, and quickly ran back into the bedroom. He looked ahead of him, then behind him, and saw he was now surrounded by green men who both wielded swords. He felt his heart strain to beat as fear and dread built up within his tiny frame, almost causing him to faint from stress. However, he stayed conscious somehow. Yet, he had no means of escape now – he would need to try and use his experience fighting with his siblings to try and stay alive. However, he had never even come close to winning against them, as he was the youngest, and thus also the weakest.
He ran at the first green man who had discovered him with the knife in his hand raised – aiming for the being’s stomach. The green man almost looked to be smirking as the child ran at him, but the goblin wasn’t smirking for long, as momentum combined with the sharpness of the knife made this attack from the boy quite effective. The knife found purchase in the goblin’s stomach, and with momentum dragging sideways, it opened a deep gash in the goblin’s stomach causing its internal organs to seep out onto the floor. Killing it.
The other goblin at the door took note of this and charged at the yet-to-recover boy with his sword. Yet before it could bring its blade down on the boy, it was tackled to the ground by the bloodied form of Albert Goodman. On the ground, the goblin and heavily injured Albert grappled with each other before Albert’s experience and strength finally overpowered the goblin and it was unable to resist any attack. Once it was like this, Albert unleashed a barrage of punches to the goblin's face, literally pounding it into the wooden floorboards. Releasing animalistic roars as he did so.
Lucas watched on with horror and he scrambled to try and help his father but a loud cry from the man sent the clear signal to the boy to stay out of it. Lucas almost cried tears of joy as his papa finally stopped punching the goblin, clearly seeing that the green man was very much dead. However, Lucas’ happiness was immediately cut short by the appearance of a green form in the doorway.
He screamed, “PAPA! BEHIND YOU!”
However, he was too late. The goblin had quickly raised its sword and brought it down on the neck of Albert Goodman – decapitating him in front of his very last living child.
Fury and sadness flooded through Lucas, and he ran towards the goblin who had killed his father with his knife, trying to do what he had done with the other goblin. However, this goblin was less arrogant than the first and simply thwacked Lucas in the side with the pummel of its sword – causing the young boy to collapse in pain, gasping for air. Instead of immediately killing the boy, the goblin grabbed the boy by his legs and dragged him out of the room. It was at this point that Lucas’ body finally gave in to the all-consuming fear, and he fainted.
It took Arthur far longer than it should have to find the sign for Albert’s Sex Emporium. It was a ridiculous name, but he guessed his son’s poor virtue could be addressed once it was confirmed that the man was still alive. Upon entering the building, he was met with a brutal scene of death as the bodies of thugs and goblins lay equally scattered along the length and width of the building’s lobby. He couldn’t see the body of Albert, and he also noticed a trail of blood leading up the stairs, he hoped that meant that his son had fought off the goblins and had fled upstairs to recover. He could only hope.
He charged upstairs but was met by a goblin at the top of the stairs– his Battle State perk activated – and he quickly dispatched it with a precise cut to the goblins’ throat. Upon discarding the body to the side, he stormed along the upstairs corridor – checking in all of the rooms for the bodies of either his son or his grandchildren. He wasn’t aware of what they looked like exactly, but he hoped that there were not too many children in the building whose primary purpose was that of an illegal brothel. Otherwise, he might just have to kill his wretch of a son himself.
Upon looking into one room, he found the dead body of his son. The man’s head had been cleanly severed from his body. Arthur didn’t linger long, he had yet the bodies of the children and so it was possible they were still alive. He had to ensure that he didn’t waste time when the lives of his grandchildren were at stake. He wasted no more time, and where doors were closed, he simply kicked them open. He killed every goblin he could see until he eventually came upon the final door in the corridor, and he heard a boyish scream behind it. In an odd way, this gave Arthur hope, and his full strength was reinvigorated.
He kicked open the door and without even thinking, he began slaughtering the goblins he could see. However, one of the goblins, a large goblin who possessed a large sword and a considerable amount more intelligence than the other goblins, managed to resist Arthur’s flurry of knife attacks for more than a few seconds. However, with the remainder of the goblins dead, Arthur was able to use his still superior intelligence and strength to eventually bring down the big goblin without much strain or effort.
With the big goblin dead, his Battle State was deactivated, and he quickly looked to the side of the room. There, chained up, was a young boy with dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, with a distinctly East-Asian complexion. He looked malnourished and worse for wear, but there was no clear sign of external injury to the boy, and he was very much alive. Arthur dared to hope, he looked at the boy and asked shakily, “Fredrick? Is that you?”
The scared boy shook his head. “He… He’s dead.”
Arthur’s heart dropped another layer lower, “Then are you, Lucas?”
The boy nodded. Then he asked, “Who are you? How do you know me and or my brother?”
Arthur’s heart had lifted tremendously when the boy confirmed his identity, then it broke a little more at the question. He had really not been a part of their lives so he shouldn’t be upset that the boy didn’t know who he was, yet it still hurt. Arthur tried his best to form a warm smile, but today’s events had doused much of his warmth so it wouldn’t be too convincing, then he said, “I am your grandpa, Lucas.”
“Grandpa?”