Then
The crossbow-wielding man turned and tried to run, but the gremlin alpha grabbed him and bit his head off. It tossed the body over the rear side of the barricade platform.
Two crossbows twanged. One bolt missed, while the other lodged into the monster’s upper arm. It ignored the bolt. It reached out for the crossbow-wielding woman. She screamed and tried to scramble back, but in the process slipped on the other man’s blood and pitched backward down to the road below. There was a sickening thud and crack. A pool of blood spread out around her head in an obscene halo.
The second woman was just as unfortunate as the gremlin alpha’s claws ended her life.
“Fire Spray!”
Flames splashed across the monster’s broad back.
It spun with unbelievable quickness for something so big.
The unfortunate man didn’t know what happened. One second his spell struck home and the next he fell backwards off the rope ladder. Dimly, he realized that the red ropes trailing after him were his guts. Hitting the ground a split-second later was a small mercy.
A loud blast peppered the gremlin alpha’s face with a dozen tiny metal balls. It growled in annoyance.
“I’m out. You kids get down the ladder and run. I’ll hold it off.” The man’s voice shook.
“No, dad! I’ve got two more shells—”
“Just listen, Mads!”
“C’mon!” Gene grabbed the girl by the arm and tugged. The rest of his team was already down the ladder.
Mads resisted. Her father pushed, while Gene pulled. The gremlin alpha didn’t wait for the drama to play out. It roared.
The monster came forward slowly, as if it was savoring the fear that emanated from the humans.
Despite the crippling terror, Mads’ father charged and swung his shotgun like a club. He was brave for his daughter, he sacrificed for his daughter. It didn’t matter.
The gremlin alpha let the blow land across its face. The wooden stock splintered. The monster contemptuously swatted him off the platform.
Miraculously, he landed on his feet. Unfortunately, his bones couldn’t handle the impact. There was a loud crack as the man screamed. His right leg had snapped in two. Jagged edges of blood-stained white pierced through the fabric of his pants.
“Shit! Magic Missile!”
Gene’s shrill voice drew the gremlin alpha’s attention. As did the tiny, glowing purple orb that formed out of nothing in his hand. It zoomed in an arc across the space and burned into the monster’s eye.
It roared once again. This time in genuine pain.
“Magic Missile!”
This time the gremlin alpha shielded its face with an arm. The orb sizzled against its skin and left a charred divot the size of a golf ball. One eye wept blood and goo, while the other searched the platform for more of the soft, fleshy ones to sate its hunger for blood and death.
The platform was empty. It looked around in confusion until it spotted the ladder. Its eye followed it down to the street. There they were. The soft ones fled, but they were too slow.
The gremlin alpha’s long, powerful legs tensed and it leapt up into the night sky. The asphalt cracked around its clawed feet when it landed in front of its terrified prey. Tiny, tasty, these were smaller and smelled fresher. The monster was going to savor them for as long as it could control its lusts.
Mads and Team F.C.W.R. skidded to a halt a dozen feet in front of the gremlin alpha.
“Shitfuck!” Gene placed himself in front of Mads. “Guys, I’m out of spells!”
“I’ve got two shells left.” Mads’ voice was scarcely a whisper.
Gene half-turned his head to whisper back. “Can you get its other eye?”
Mads nodded. “I think so.”
“Olo, draw aggro,” Johnny whispered, “I’ll backstab it.”
“Fuck you, no! That thing’ll cut me in half.”
“Bastien can heal you.”
“He can heal paper cuts!” Olo snapped.
A loud bang interrupted the argument and made them jump.
The gremlin alpha’s head reeled back. When it fixed its eye back on the teens there where a dozen tiny holes around its one good eye that leaked thin trails of blood.
“Crapsack!” Gene drew his machete. “Mads, run back to the barricade, we’ll hold it off.” He had intended his voice to sound strong, confident, properly heroic. Instead it came out like a squeak.
“No. I’ve got one more shot.” Mads fixed the monster with a baleful glare as she took aim.
“Fine, wait for it to be distracted.”
The gremlin alpha advanced slowly.
Bastien edge back toward the barricade. “Distract it by feeding ourselves to it, you mean.”
“Oh my god! We’re going to die!” Olo’s shield and metal bat clattered against each other as his hands shook
“Bro! I can backstab it.” There was a hysterical edge to Johnny’s voice. “Get aggro. Then I’ll sneak around.”
“How bout we get to the barricade,” Gene said. “Slowly.”
The group carefully backed away from the gremlin alpha. They were surprised that the monster didn’t just rush at them. It seemed to match their pace. One big step for several of theirs.
The seconds felt like hours. Their hearts threatened to burst out of their chests. Their hands gripped their weapons with white knuckles. Their sweat drenched their clothes.
When they were within ten yards of the barricade a wide, many-toothed grin split the gremlin alpha’s mouth.
“Oh no,” Bastien said.
Gene felt like he couldn’t breathe. “Olo.” He pleaded in a small voice.
Olo’s shoulders slumped as he sighed.
“Dude, just grab its attention. Once I hit it, you’ll be clear of its aggro,” Johnny said.
“But then you won’t be,” Olo said.
“I’ll sneak and run away.” Whether Johnny was truly as confident as he sounded only he knew.
Olo’s hands shook, but he held tight to his shield and bat. He took a deep breath then bellowed out. “On me!”
The taunt skill’s effect was instantaneous. The gremlin alpha’s attention was suddenly fixed on Olo. It growled and tensed.
“Backstab!”
The rest hadn’t noticed Johnny moving, but he suddenly appeared behind the gremlin alpha. He sank his machete into the monster’s back.
It spun and the teen was forced to let go of his weapon. It fixed him with a baleful glare and took a step toward him.
Johnny sucked in a deep breath.
The gremlin alpha stopped in mid stride. It spun around in confusion as if it had lost sight of Johnny, even though the teen was quietly, carefully edging away from it.
Johnny moved around the gremlin alpha to get back with the rest of his friends. Only then did he gasp out for breath.
“Okay, that worked… now what?”
“That was supposed to be it!” Bastien practically spat at Johnny.
“I went for where I figured it’s heart was.”
“Well, you missed,” Gene said flatly. “Now it’s wounded and angrier.”
The gremlin alpha finally noticed where Johnny was. It roared at them and charged. It was done taking its time. The fleshy ones had drawn enough of its blood.
Brave Olo stepped in its way. “Power Strike!” His voice was shrill, but that didn’t matter to the skill. He struck across the monster’s huge head with a mighty downward blow. The bat bent at nearly a ninety degree angle, but several sharp, jagged teeth went scattering into the air. Brave boy. Foolish boy.
The gremlin alpha backhanded Olo. He blocked the impact with his riot shield, but he still went flying back a dozen feet. He tumbled across the asphalt and came to a rest near the barricade. He wasn’t moving.
Gene stepped up. “Bastien! Check on Olo! Johnny, Mads, get out of here!” He held his machete in a two-handed grip. It was all he could do to stop the shaking.
The gremlin alpha barreled down on him. The only thing Gene could think to do was somehow stab it in its working eye. He felt a sudden warmth spreading down his pant legs. He was surprised to feel no shame at that.
Bigger than an NFL lineman, taller than an NBA Center. Pale, whitish skin. Knife-like claws. A grotesquely wide mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth that could bite a man’s head off in one go. The gremlin alpha bore down on him. A nightmare given physical form.
The last thought that Gene had was that this wasn’t at all like the rpg’s he loved.
The gremlin alpha opened its mouth.
Gene grit his teeth. He heard a loud, desperate battle cry, which was odd because he was too scared to breath let alone shout.
A shadow flew over the boy, cast by the bright bulbs of the light tower.
Nila’s leap from the top of the barricade carried her ten yards out. She descended on the gremlin alpha like an avenging angel. In an impossible display of athleticism and coordination she struck the monster with her bat as she landed.
More teeth went flying.
The gremlin alpha snarled.
Nila screamed right back. She struck it again.
It took the blow on its arm. Then lashed out with it’s free hand.
Claws sparked against Nila’s thick shield. The force of the blow drove her back several steps. She winced. Her shield-arm stung and her entire body was rattled.
Keep your mouth closed, but loose. Don’t clench your jaw. Cal’s words echoed in her head. A mouth guard is probably better to have. Although maybe you don’t really need one. Unless you’re up against someone or something equal to or stronger than you.
Should’ve just told me to get one, Nila thought.
She rushed forward swinging her bat, but keeping her shield up.
Stolen novel; please report.
The gremlin alpha stayed just out of her reach as it backpedaled away.
Nila forgot most of what she had been trying to remember the entire night. Sheer terror left one thing in her mind. Attack. Her footwork was a mess. She was off-balance. She was lucky that her better than human physical attributes compensated. Doubly lucky that her speed equaled that of the gremlin alpha.
The monster struck out with a clawed hand. Nila saw it coming and deflected it with a sweep of her shield. She followed it up by smashing her bat into the monster’s shoulder.
The two battled back and forth for what seemed like an eternity. Claw strikes were blocked. Bat swings parried away.
The gremlin alpha was mostly on the retreat as they weaved back and forth in the area near the barricade. Until it wasn’t.
The monster suddenly stopped in the middle of another retreat and plowed forward.
Nila was caught off guard.
The monster slammed its considerable bulk into Nila’s shield and knocked her to the ground. Like a tiger it pounced on its downed prey.
Nila screamed as she pushed up with her shield and stuck her bat in the monster’s mouth as it went in to bite her head off. Her arms shook with the effort to keep the monster off. It was nothing at all like the bench press. Not even remotely similar.
The gremlin alpha suddenly reared back and raised an arm.
Nila put her shield up in time just enough to deflect the descending blow.
Instead of a full-force blow, the claws merely cut across the front of her motorcycle helmet. They cut into the impact-resistant plastic surface and the clear visor, but missed her face by inches.
“Hey! Dick!” Gene appeared. “Take this!” He stabbed his machete into the gremlin alpha’s other eye.
The monster reared back as the blade penetrated.
Gene stumbled back as the machete was ripped from his hand.
He was so close, but it didn’t go in far enough to reach the monster’s brain for a fatal hit.
The gremlin alpha pulled the blade from its eye and tilted its head from side to side. It was a nocturnal creature. Whatever magic or super science that had created it had given it attributes adapted for the darkness. Whether it used its hearing, smell or some other unquantified sense it could do well enough without eyesight.
The gremlin alpha rushed at Gene with a roar.
Nila plowed into it with her shield from the side.
It grabbed her shield, pivoted and sent it flying along with her.
Nila crashed into the light tower. She groaned as she tried to stand. She didn’t feel much pain thanks to the adrenaline, but her head swam and she felt the gorge rising up her throat.
In desperation, she pulled her helmet off just in time and promptly vomited.
The world spun and bright spots dotted her vision.
The gremlin alpha turned its attention away from Nila. It sensed easier prey. Its head swiveled from one side to the next as it advanced on the cluster of terrified people.
Things were grim. Gene was out of spells, Johnny had used his skill and both were weaponless. Bastien was praying over Olo’s unmoving body. A soft glow seemed to be emanating from the former’s hands. Mads stood protectively in front of her father, who was insensate from the pain of his shattered leg. She had one shell left in her shotgun.
The gremlin alpha ran its grotesquely long tongue across the top of its lipless mouth. It slavered. The pain it had been subjected to had only increased its hunger. It wasn’t going to let anything stop it now.
“Now what?”
Gene pointed to his right, toward the remains of a deconstructed house. “I’m going to run that way. It’ll chase me. You all run that way.” He pointed toward Nila, who was struggling to stand. “Maybe she’ll recover by the time it’s finished eating my ass.”
“Shit, no way man,” Johnny said. “It’s still got my machete in its back. When it goes after you maybe I can get to it. Push it in all the way. Might hit the heart.”
Both were terrible ideas born of a desperation that robbed people of rational thought.
The gremlin alpha moved ever closer.
They saw their deaths at its claws or in its jaws. It robbed them of any further thoughts of resistance from them. Their knees shook. Their legs refused to move. They clutched each other tightly. There was no more fight left, nor was there flight. They had been brave this night, but they weren’t warriors and this wasn’t a game. It was real and they broke.
The gremlin alpha roared one last time as it lunged for the two teen boys.
They closed their eyes and waited for the death that reached for them.
It didn’t come.
There was one person that still had some fight.
They opened their eyes.
Nila had closed the gap impossibly fast. She was on the gremlin alpha’s back, pinning it to the ground. The chain from the light tower was in her hands. Somehow she had looped it around the monster’s gaping mouth. She held on to it like a horse’s bridle and reins.
The monster struggled, but somehow Nila kept it on the ground. Her knee was jammed into its back, while she pulled hard on the chain. The muscles in her entire body were given over to the struggle. Even then she knew that she couldn’t hold on for much longer.
“Shoot it!” Nila cried out. “SHOOT IT!” She implored.
Mads rushed over and took aim at the gremlin alpha’s face. Her finger touched the trigger, but stopped.
“Do it!” Gene and Johnny stared at Mads with wide eyes.
The girl had something else in mind.
Veins bulged in Nila’s face and neck as the gremlin alpha started to push up to its feet. She let out a guttural cry, but she was losing the struggled. Her peak human strength just wasn’t enough against the monster’s.
Mads shoved her shotgun into the gremlin alpha’s mouth. She angled it up and squeezed the trigger.
The gremlin alpha twitched and went still.
A collective howl went up from the gremlins on the other side of the barricade, where Demi and Keisha fought, if they still lived.
Mads dropped her shotgun and went to her father’s side.
Gene and Johnny let go of each other and plopped down to the ground.
Oblivious to it all, Bastien continued to pray over Olo. The glow around his hands seemed to intensify.
Nila staggered to her feet and found her shield. With a tired shout she raised it over her head and brought it down hard on the back of the gremlin alpha’s neck. There was a crunch.
Nila sat down on the ground, then lay down on her back. She closed her eyes.
Even under the bright lights of the tower there was only black.
----------------------------------------
Now
Cal floated just below the forest canopy. He didn’t want his passage detected, which would’ve been guaranteed by his armored boots loudly crunching through the ground. He was addressing an issue that he had constantly kept pushing back even though it had occupied a fair amount of real estate in his mind.
This mission was the culmination of several disparate parts working separately, but in conjunction over the past week. First were the drone operators who scouted the wilderness around the base for potential targets. Second, was Riverport, without whom crucial equipment would’ve been absent. Last, but not least, Caretaker, who graciously took Cal’s place in running the second team through their final preparations to challenged the mantisor boss.
All was now ready, it was left to Cal to get it done.
He reached out with his telepathy. It didn’t take long to locate several targets. Their thoughts were uncomplicated. The imperative to find food and fill their bellies was what dominated at the moment.
Propelled by his telekinesis Cal slowly floated toward the group. While he did that, he used his telepathy to conceal his presence from the targets’ senses. It was something that he had been practicing recently. The idea was to prevent the targets from paying attention to what their physical senses were telling them in relation to him. In effect even if they heard or smelled Cal, they wouldn’t act on it.
Success! Cal floated above the targets, some thirty feet up. They didn’t react to his presence at all. They were focused on their search for food. Unfortunately for one of them Cal had the same thing in mind.
He grabbed the fattest looking one in a telekinetic grip and quickly twisted its neck. The rest scattered, but they were safe for now. Cal wasn’t a greedy predator. One was more than enough.
“Yes!” Cal pumped his fist. Then immediately felt guilty. The poor little animal didn’t stand a chance.
He descended to the forest floor.
The deercow, as he’d called it, resembled a mix between a deer and a cow, hence the name. It had horns and an udder, so Cal was satisfied with that classification. It was a lot smaller than both, closer to a small to medium-sized dog. It had a thin layer of fur and was a dappled brown in color.
“Okay, now for the worst part.”
He needed to butcher the animal, which meant gutting, skinning and probably some other gross stuff. Fortunately he had telekinesis and he had watched plenty of survival videos in the past to have a general idea of what to do and what to avoid.
A handful of small, sharp blades flew out of the compartment at his belt. They traced thin lines into the deercow’s skin.
At the same time an invisible hand dug into the dirt next to the carcass, while a dozen feet away another hand dug out a narrow trench about six inches deep, ten inches wide and two feet long.
This was all practice for Cal. To strengthen his telekinetic control and increase his mental stamina. The pressure in his brain was slight, despite controlling many objects and doing several different things simultaneously. He likened it to conducting an orchestra, which he didn’t have any idea how to do, but it seemed an apt enough comparison.
Once he was finished with his blades he levitated the deercow carcass off the forest floor and pulled the sectioned fur and skin off.
Next Cal took a blade and ran it across the stomach. He carefully kept the cut shallow so as to not accidentally nick the guts. He vaguely remembered that was a bad thing to do.
The contents of the deercow splashed out with a squelching sound.
“Gross.” Cal was glad that the helmet and armor he was wearing had a built in circulation system. He didn’t smell anything.
Cal grimaced as he finished the task of opening up the carcass to get rid of the rest of its organs. He realized that they were mostly edible, but hell no, not for him. He pushed them all, along with the bloody pieces of skin and fur into the deep hole and refilled it back with dirt. He’d leave it for other animals to come did it up once he was gone.
The deercow’s head stared at him accusingly.
Cal sighed.
He telekinetically used his ax to sever the head. Then sent it flying out into the forest. More meat for scavengers.
Finally done with the worst of it, Cal cut up the meat into smaller pieces. While they hovered in mid air he gathered sticks and branches to make a small rack on which to wash them with the water he had brought along. He did all of this without moving from where he was standing.
While the meat waited on the rack, Cal went about getting the fire going.
He needed fuel. He moved around in a wide circle and ripped twigs and branches from the trees with the power of his mind. Once he had a sufficiently large pile. He started the fire in the small trench that he had dug.
On top of this he placed the small grill that Riverport had made according to his directions. It was a simple enough thing that the fabricator didn’t have any problems.
Cal pulled out a small unfolding stool from his pack, placed it near the growing fire and sat down. He took his helmet off and breathed the clean air in. This was truly an unspoiled wilderness. The world itself was so much cleaner than his own. The Threnosh energy production means were so clean that there was practically no pollution or environmental impact. At least until the spires appeared. Those bastards were definitely altering the environment.
Cal forcibly dragged his thoughts back to more pleasant things. He couldn’t wait to taste the meat. He had subsisted solely on the Threnosh’s nutrient liquid for close to a year.
While he waited for the fire to heat up, his thoughts conjured all sorts of possibilities. Meat was easy enough to get. Find animal, kill animal, cook animal. Done.
Things like fruits and vegetables were just as easy. Figure out if they were edible, tasty and not poisonous. Then he could simply pick them and eat them, fresh or cooked. There were things that would take effort though. Things like flour or rice he didn’t know how to go about getting a hold of those.
Ice cream was a good example. He needed milk to make cream. The deercow had udders, so that was a possibility. He made a note to draw up some plans for a barn. Sugar and salt were also ingredients. Threnosh didn’t use either. Perhaps he could use the sensors to scan the globe for them. He also need an ice cream making machine. Something with a rotating barrel and a freezing temperature.
Cal shook his head. Problems for another day. Today was the day to enjoy hot meat.
The sizzle of the meat on the grill was like music to his ears.
He spent the rest of day enjoying the grilled deercow, while he listened to the sounds of the forest. He definitely didn’t think of their upcoming second attempt on the mantisor spawn point’s secret boss.
----------------------------------------
The project had officially started almost two months ago. Things were progressing well for the special candidates. The tentatively named Team One had been performing various Tasks throughout Prime Custodian 3’s jurisdiction. They were proving the viability of the wandering adventurer concept. It had a nice, official sounding name, Project: Multi-role Elites, much better than what Cal called it in private, Project: Murder Hobo.
More importantly they were obtaining Universal Points at a significantly higher rate than the rest of the Threnosh. Who knew that getting the Quest, Task, rewards directly from the spires rather than having it trickle down from the Collective was better for them? More points meant more upgrades to their power armor, which were going to be tested shortly against the secret boss.
Cal reviewed the plan for Team Two’s go at the mantisor boss. Though they had one less member than Team One he was confident that they weren’t going to have as hard a time.
Team Two was a month behind, but they had progressed at a slightly faster rate than Team One. Lessons learned from the initial group led to improvements in the efficiency of the subsequent group. Improved training methods, better pathing through the spawn point and greater knowledge of mantisor capabilities and weaknesses all added to this.
The constant farming of the spawn point had kept the mantisor numbers low. Plus the forest hadn’t recovered yet from the fire that had reduced it to a blackened and charred landscape. The mantisor hive was still mostly a ruined mound, at least the portion that was visible at ground level.
Salamander functioned as both damage dealer and tank. Their flame breath was powerful, while their scale-like armor was proportionally stronger than Primal’s much thicker armor plating.
Resplendent Zabriium, Zabri in the field, was able to serve as a fast and mobile platform, a battering ram and as another tank. Their power armor’s odd form combined with the inherent toughness of its metal surface made the contradictions work. They were very unicorn-like in that way. Which, considering they resembled a mix between a unicorn and a centaur, was fitting.
Volkharion provided an element of battlefield control through their many drones. These drones also enabled them to fulfill a variety of roles. A true jack of all trades-type. They were capable of many of the same things as the rest of their team, just not as good.
Lastly, Dralig’s four-armed power armor superficially resembled the baseline infantry type that Caretaker owned. In function however it was quite different. The artificial musculature was significantly superior. It provided enhanced physical strength, while its capacity to withstand damage far surpassed Caretaker’s. Cal would peg it at around the same level as Nila’s strength. Which meant that they were capable of fighting on the front lines or shooting from further back, especially as their marksmanship continued to improve. Furthermore, Dralig had proven quite adept at utilizing all four arms. They had complete mastery over the power armor’s arms, which contrasted with their lack of control over their two vestigial arms. The way those moved of their own accord still weirded Cal out.
There was only one problem. To date no one out of Team Two had emerged as a clear-cut leader. None of the four seemed inclined to seized the role like Caretaker had for Team One. They were content to collaborate on and off the field. A decisive leader was necessary to any strong team, so it would need to be addressed.
Nevertheless, together with Team Two, Cal had come up with a plan to tackle the mantisor boss while preserving enough operational capacity to join in with Team One to fight the secret boss immediately afterward.
This time Cal wasn’t going to let anything interrupt that fight. Even if another kaiju popped up he was damn well going to see to it that the secret boss was defeated. They had a spawn point to clear and turn into a proper farming zone.