The bav’varst lunged at us, and with a swift move, I deflected the first one with my metal arm, sending it crashing against the stone wall with a loud thud. My arm blade cutting a deep gouge in its side. There was a quick display of my rewards for the kill: another five stats plus three hundred and ten shards.
A second creature clawed at me, but I twisted my body and used my other metal arm to parry its attack. The claws scraped against the metal, sending sparks flying and a shiver down my spine.
Igzad threw out his arms towards me, a cold mist rolling off them. The mist enveloped the bav’varst closest to me. A sudden, intense cold gripped the creature, turning its fur into ice. The creature let out a chilling screech before turning into an icy stature and shattering into fine dust as another bav’varst trampled over it.
Shadara fired a pair of arrows simultaneously. Each arrow stuck out of the third bav’varst’s eyes as it slumped down the side. Just as I was about to take on the next wave of attackers, a massive wall of fire erupted before us. Dozens of the smaller bav’varst were engulfed in the inferno, their agonized screeches filling the air. Igzad’s hand was engulfed in the same fire.
“That’ll slow them down, only just.” He panted as he flicked his wrist, extinguishing the flame.
Shadara scowled at him. “I think you’re trying to hoard all the kills for yourself.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’ve stopped getting anything from the smaller ones, so I’m not hoarding as much as you think.” That puts him at least ten levels higher than me.
I took the momentary respite to refill my gun and finish off the first mana potion. Just as I lowered the bottle from my lips, a pair of the larger ones, their fur smoldering, sprinted through the wall of fire.
Shadara continued to fire her arrows at them. She brought the one down with a couple of more fire bolts from Igzad. I fired at the second one and killed it, earning more stats and four hundred and seventy-five shards.
I barely saw the third bav’varst sprinting from the side in time. Its claws reached out for the panther woman. I pushed her out of the way. A claw grazed my arm, shoulder, and back. I winced in pain, but I lashed out by slashing my arm blade across the creature’s leg, leaving a deep gash.
Igzad unleashed a beam of cold at the creature’s face, causing it to reel back in agony, leaving its throat exposed. I seized the opportunity and drove my arm blade into the creature’s neck. I earned stats and shards for the kill, but there was no time to dwell on it. The corpse threatened to pull me down and out of the window with it.
I quickly fought against the weight of the creature’s corpse as it threatened to drag me out of the window. With a twist of my arm, I managed to free myself and scramble back to safety. Ignoring the pain from my wounds that were quickly healing up, I turned my attention to the panther woman, who had a big smile on her face.
She nodded. “Thanks for the save. See, I told you having you around would be beneficial for my health.” She dropped two of her empty quivers and adjusted the other three.
“You’re welcome, I guess.” Why did I save her?
I didn’t have any more time to contemplate my actions as I heard screaming to my right. The wall of fire died down, and I could see that the bav’varst were avoiding the area around where the wall of fire was. A heavy sigh of relief escaped my lips as I saw that there was indeed an end to the onslaught.
Igzad pulled us away from where I heard the screams. “Sounds like we’ve got a breach.”
He raised his hand at the window as more of the creatures resumed their charge towards our window. Instead of a wall of fire that I expected, a large black spot covered it. A bav’varst charged in between the three of us. But once it hit the ground, it shattered into a pile of frozen fur and gore.
I looked back at the black barrier, switched my vision to infrared, and saw that it was the coldest thing I’ve seen yet with my infrared. Instead of a dark blue, it was also black. I switched to terahertz and blinked several times. The black spot was covered in static, constantly shifting and undulating static.
I shook my head and returned my vision to normal. Both Igzad and Shadara stared at me. Igzad narrowed his eyes, while Shadara shakily raised her hand to point to my eyes.
“Wha… what are you?” Shadara asked first.
I bit my lip. “Complicated.”
Igzad snorted. “Somehow, I believe that doesn’t even cover the half of it.”
I couldn’t look at them anymore. Yeah, it doesn’t. Being called a freak would be an oversimplification of the things I’ve done to myself. And it doesn’t even begin to dream of what I will be doing to myself.
“Either way, it doesn’t matter at the moment.” Igzad pulled at Shadara and me. “If there’s one breach, there will be more.”
I pointed in the direction of the screaming. “What’s in that direction?”
“That’s the path to the water reservoirs,” Shadara answered. There was a look of unmistakable horror on her face. She pulled Igzad towards the screaming. “We have to stop them. We can’t let them get close.”
Igzad muttered something under his breath before he and Shadara headed down the hall towards the reservoirs. He turned and waved to me. “You might as well follow us. We could use your help.”
I turned to the wall of blackness to witness another bav’varst tumble through as an icy statue, shattering against the ground. Well, I’ve got no other ideas. As I caught up to them, which was surprisingly easy, The two of them still looked worried.
“What’s so big about the bav’varst reaching the water?” I took the lead since I had my regeneration and plenty of energy to spare. “Will they contaminate it somehow?”
Shadara almost stumbled. “What? You don’t know? How long have you been here?”
Igzad, the slowest of us three, somehow managed to still speak. “If you submerge one of them, they start multiplying. Even exposing them to enough water will add additional creatures to your fight.”
“What? Why? How?” Something like that should be impossible. No, remember, this place is full of impossible things, like me. “But then, how come they don’t multiply when exposed to ice? It’s still just water.”
Igzad was falling further behind. “I don’t know. It just works.”
“Maybe you can perform some experiments and study them later,” Shadara added. “But for right now, we have bigger problems. The how and why can wait.”
Down the hall, I could hear the sounds of wet crunches and scratching beyond the turn. As I turned, I saw the window they were entering from. Several bav’varst were munching on shredded corpses and or fighting between each other for another bite. More of them climbed through the window, adding to the problem. Then some turned and regarded us.
A shrill cry went out, and all of them turned towards us. Oh boy. Shadara opened fire and killed the closest one. As her second arrow went out, I fired at one too. The creatures then stampeded towards us. I didn’t get a kill as the one I shot was swallowed up under the others.
As the bav’varst stampeded towards us, Shadara kept firing and backpedaling. I tried to thin their ranks with our ranged attacks. Shadara dropped another one. My second shot exploded one’s head.
“Get down!” Igzad rounded the corner, his mouth glowing.
Shadara kicked me in the side, knocking me to the wall. A line of flames shot out from Igzad’s mouth, scorching the bav’varsts charging us.
He pointed to a side passage. “That way. We need an escape route.”
Shadara grabbed me and pushed me towards the opening. A couple of small bav’varsts attempted to head me off. I shot the one and stabbed the other with my arm blade. It didn’t die right away and still kept reaching for me.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Igzad threw a small, glowing white sphere at the other creatures headed towards me. As the closest bav’varst’s nose touched the light, a small explosion of ice shards shredded the creatures. A few of the ice shards stopped just before me. But the creature was still writhing on my arm blade. I twisted it and slammed it into the wall, killing it as the blade cut through its lungs.
Shadara fired off another arrow before running behind me into the hall. Igzad followed right after her. I kept backpedaling as I watched even more of the creatures climb through the window, some even stopping to devour their dead.
One of the bav’varst turned the corner and lunged at me, its teeth bared in a snarl. It was the largest one I’d seen yet, standing almost as tall as me. Instinctively, I raised my metal arm, and its jaws clamped down on the metal. I could feel the pressure, and I watched as the metal deformed with the bite. Its teeth didn’t puncture my metal skin, but it was crushing the bones in my arm nonetheless, forcing me to drop my gun. It then started pulling me back the way it came.
I stabbed its eye with my arm blade. The creature reared back and released my arm, and I could see where its teeth were leaving marks. I ducked and scooped up my gun as it swiped a claw at me. A bolt of flame hit it in the face, leaving a rather nasty burn on its neck. Three struck it shortly after, one in its nose, one just above its still-good eye, and the last one in its cheek.
I raised my gun, aimed for the top of its head, and fired. It ducked, but the bullet still struck its spine. A shower of bone, fur, blood, and muscles bathed the smaller bav’varst, climbing its back. An arrow buried itself in the creature’s throat. It slid down as it looked like the bigger one had finally died. A quick look in the corner of my HUD showed that I received ten stat points and five less than two thousand shards.
I turned to find Shadara panting heavily, holding herself up by her bow. She took out a bottle of water from a bag on her belt and downed it. Igzad wiped his face with an ice-covered hand. I turned and looked to see that most of the hall was blocked by the large bav’varst’s corpse.
Igzad let out a sigh. “Let’s go before they push through. We should get a large enough head start with this.”
I reached into the bag of holding and pulled out my own bottle of water. “Why? We should be able to hold up here, and keep them bottlenecked.” I then chugged the bottle of water, feeling my body cool down, only then realize how warm I really was.
Shadara shook her head as she adjusted the quivers on her back. “There’s more than one entrance to the reservoirs. We’ll have to hold them all. Hopefully, another group will join us.”
“Fine, lead the way.” I pointed down the hall.
We dashed down the hall, Shadara leading the way. It sounded like they didn’t take long to get past the corpse blockade we left for them. Snarls and scratches sounded behind us, and while I could’ve run faster, I didn’t know where I was going. I used my spit to refill the empty chambers of my revolver as we ran. We reached a four-way intersection, and in one of the halls, a small pack of bav’varsts were heading our way.
Igzad launched a bolt of lightning, leaving three of the eight smoldering and twitching. Shadara shot three of them while I fired off another two rounds. All eight of the creatures lie dying in surprisingly short order. We all exchanged confused looks with each other.
We each picked different targets without saying anything. It looked like we planned that and everything. Talk about lucky.
We then continued on our way to the town’s water reservoirs after just accepting our good fortunes. The sounds of more bav’varst following picked up again. There was a closed metal door at the end of the hall, and Shadara opened it without breaking stride.
Igzad and I made it in, and Shadara slammed it shut. We took a moment to catch our breath, and I surveyed the room. The room was dimly lit, with three entrances. There was a large stone bowl with metal pipes coming out of the ceiling, dripping water. The earthen bowl was almost full of water.
“It looks like we made it.” I turned to look at the other closed doors. “But nobody else is here.”
Igzad was about to say something as one of the other doors we didn’t enter flung open and two people stumbled through. Three bav’varsts followed in after them.
The first one had a sinuous, serpentine body covered in dark brown scales. They had dark red eyes. They had broad shoulders and slender arms that ended in clawed, webbed fingers, and their mouth opened, revealing rows of sharp teeth. They didn’t wear much beyond a harness with several pouches.
The second newcomer was more humanoid, but very much not human. Their skin appeared to be made of green living vines, twisting and intertwining. They had a lithe build with loose-fitting clothes that held several tears. Their eyes were deep pools of swirling energy, and their hair was a jumble of leaves.
The serpent-like person twisted their torso around while still slithering away from the creatures. They snapped out with a whip that not only cracked like thunder; it sparked with lightning. The attack sent one of the creatures back, tumbling into a smoking heap.
The plant-looking one swung their staff down on another creature’s head as it pounced for their partner. Once the bav’varst’s head was caved in, the third one jumped and bit down on the vine person’s arm. They reached around with their other arm, and the hand shifted until each finger looked more like a constricting vine, grabbing at each of the creature’s limbs. They yanked it off their arm, and then the bav’varst seemed to be folded in on itself, but backwards. Several sickening sounds of bones snapping and the creature’s whimpering cries echoed in the room as it died.
Shadara ran up and slammed the door shut. She turned to me and pointed at the two newcomers. “See, others.”
I groaned as I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Five of us against how many of them?”
“Far too many, and it looks like they are headed this direction,” the plant guy said in a breathy voice. There was a slight rattling of his leaf-like hair as he spoke. “But I have bad news. Something big is headed this direction.”
Igzad scratched his chin. “How can you tell?”
“I’m Sol, a vyrdant.” The plant guy bowed slightly. “I can feel the vibrations through the ground.”
“You and your manners,” the serpentine voice caught me off guard. They’re female? Her voice was deep for a woman and had a slight scratchiness to it. She glared at me. “Just because we need to work together doesn’t mean I have to like you.”
I pursed my lips. Rude. “What did I do?”
The snake lady coiled her whip and headed to the water reservoir. “I’ve seen the atrocities committed by humans. You are all the same murdering, destructive tyrants who care of nothing else but yourselves.”
“Please keep your prejudices to yourself, Yuholla.” Sol turned and gave me a deep bow. “Apologies. You three made it here with no injuries. That’s impressive.”
That’s not completely true. I’ve just finished healing a while ago.
“Or they ran at the first sign of danger.” Yuholla spat before scooping a handful of water to her lips.
“Speak for yourself,” Shadara growled as her tail flicked behind her.
Sol held out his hands to Shadara and Yuholla. “Ladies, I suggest you save your tempers for the fight to come.”
“Sol is right,” Igzad hummed. “If you bothered to listen, the bav’varst have reached the doors and started digging. We need a plan.”
He was right; there was a lot of scratching at all three of the doors. I guess we’re not getting any more help.
Yuholla wiped her face. “We’re cornered and have no escape. What kind of plan even matters? We fight for as long as we can, hoping the centicrad cleans up the invaders.”
“Why did you even come here if you knew you were going to be cornered?” I asked.
“Because here, we might die. If we don’t defend the water, we will die.” Sol shot Yuholla a glare. The snake lady nodded, but I could feel that she really wished that he was wrong. “I can see one of you is armed for close combat and one is for ranged.” He pointed to Igzad. “Am I right to assume you are a draconian mage?”
Igzad nodded. “Correct. My name is Igzad Anshay Zoddon. I still have some mana left for a wall of fire to defend one of the doors.”
“Wait, you’re not a lizard man?” I interrupted.
A shiver ran down my spine as Igzad glared at me. “I am not a lizard. But you need to focus.”
Sol pointed to the draconian. “I suggest that you, Igzad, hold that far door. If you need help, Yuholla will come help you until you can get it under control.” He then pointed to Shadara and me. “You two hold that door. While Yuholla and I handle this door. You won’t have to worry about me when Yuholla goes to help Igzad. I’ve got something that’ll hold them off for a short while.”
I took a few sips of a mana potion and refilled my gun with water from the reservoir. Everyone eyed me as I walked to the door. I held out my arms. “What?”
Shadara pointed at the gun. “Does that thing really work with water? I saw you putting rocks in it earlier.”
I held the gun up. “Adbeck showed me it does.”
Yuholla’s glare seemed to soften. “Well, at least you’re not defenseless.”
I took a quick look at my energy. Just under two bars. I might as well take this time to eat some more. I grabbed one of my three remaining meal potions and downed it.
Everyone but Igzad’s jaws swung wide open.
“Did you just drink an entire meal potion? All at once?” Shadara’s eyes seemed to shimmer as she leaned forward for my answer.
My eyes darted around. “Yes.”
Igzad snorted. “You should’ve seen her eat ten kilograms of slime. That was impressive.”
Shadara gave me a very wide smile. “Interesting, very interesting.”
Please, not again. I don’t want a repeat of Bark. The scratching grew even louder, and underneath the door closest to me, a small opening revealed a claw digging. I distributed my points as I prepared for the fight.
Name: Rina Lone Level: 20 Augments: Agility: 200 Cellular Regeneration Arcane: 150 Synthetic eyes: lvl. 2 Power: 65 HUD Quickness: 315 Epidermal plating (arms) lvl. 1 Resilience: 125 Epidermal plating (hands) lvl. 1 Toughness: 145 Arm blade (right) Unassigned Points: 0 Shards: 28414