Then
The gremlin alpha’s mind was a mire of malice and hunger. It threatened to pull Cal in. He felt as if he was the source of such vileness. The monster saw every living thing other than itself and others of its kind as blights on the face of existence. Fit only for sport and meat.
This was the price of the telepathic connection. This was why Cal’s exploration of that portion of his powers had lagged behind the rest. He couldn’t stop the bleed through. Either he wasn’t strong enough or he lacked the proper technique.
Cal tried to imagine a wall in between his mind and that of gremlin alpha. Brick by painful brick he built it up until he felt the monster’s presence slowly recede.
The gremlin alpha roared and clutched its head. It seemed that it too didn’t appreciate the sharing of psyches.
The telepathic wall helped mitigate the bleed through, but Cal felt the gremlin alpha’s thoughts scratching away at the imaginary bricks. He needed to work quickly.
Through the lens of his telepathy, Cal created an imaginary sphere the size of a marble. He started it as small as possible so that he could maintain the image in his mind’s eye. It took a herculean effort of concentration to start adding sharp spikes all over the surface of tiny sphere, while maintaining the telepathic brick wall.
The act was more than just imagining the object in his mind. He had to sincerely believe that the telepathic objects existed even if there was no external and measurable indicators. To know that these objects existed took more than just belief. Perhaps this ability was intrinsically built into someone with telepathic powers. Unfortunately, Cal didn’t know any other telepaths to compare notes.
The spiky sphere wavered as Cal’s concentration slipped. He grit his teeth and coaxed the sphere back into solid existence. He ignored everything else around him. He was ready.
He guided the sphere along the tenuous connection from his thoughts into the gremlin alpha’s. It slipped in with surprising ease. Once he judged it settled deep in the center of the monster’s psyche he pictured it expanding. It quickly grew larger. The spikes were longer and pierced deep.
The gremlin alpha suddenly stiffened. Its dark, beady eyes rolled back in their sockets. Drool began to flow from its suddenly slack jaw. The monster wavered in place for the briefest moment. Then it toppled to the ground with a loud thud like a giant tree cut down.
Cal approached the fallen monster with his ax ready. The thing was still alive. He could hear its heavy breathing. The thing’s lungs must’ve been enormous. He could almost feel the vibrations like a deep bass from powerful speakers.
He wasn’t sure what he had actually accomplished with his spiky ball telepathic brain attack. He was definitely going to come up with a better name later. Whether he had temporarily stunned the gremlin alpha or gave it permanent brain damage, he didn’t know, nor did he care. He needed to get back and help Nila and the raid team.
Cal took careful aim with his ax and chopped down. Even with super strength it took two chops to get through the gremlin alpha’s thick neck.
One down, one to go.
Cal winced as the pain from the gashes across his face was starting to throb. If the adrenaline was starting to wear off this early, he was going to be in trouble with the secret boss fight.
He spared a glance at Eron and Remy. They were still battling their gremlins, but they didn’t look like they were having trouble. He turned back to the raid team. He bit back a curse. Things weren’t going well for them.
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Eron plowed right into the gremlin alpha. He caught the thing off guard. He punched it twice in the gut with short uppercuts. He was taking lessons from Cal. It was an amateur teaching a complete newbie, but it was definitely better than wild flailing.
The monster doubled over and Eron brought both fists down on the back of its neck, Donkey Kong style. The thing was driven several inches into the ground with a boom.
Eron blitzed the gremlin alpha. The entire exchange took a few seconds. The five other gremlins finally attacked.
“Trash mobs,” Eron said.
They weren’t worth his time. Each one he touched broke and died.
Eron’s strength had grown exponentially since that terrible first night of the spires’ apocalypse. Six months ago he was slightly weaker than a super strong asshole that had his head bitten off by a gremlin alpha, functionally identical to the one that he had just pounded into the ground. He was clearly stronger now.
It was awesome, but also sometimes annoying. The more sun he got the stronger he got. Each new day he was stronger than the previous. It was a constant struggle to keep his strength under control. He had to move like everything around him was made out of fine china. His nieces had dubbed him The Doom of Door Knobs for all of the door knobs he had broken. Fortunately, he could replace them from the endless supply available at the local Ace Hardware store.
It wasn’t all fun and games though. He was cognizant enough to be aware that with his strength even simply accidentally walking into a normal person might result in serious injuries for them. Running into him didn’t have much difference from running into a steel wall.
Fortunately, his senses had grown as well. He was getting to the point that he could hear people’s hearts beating in their chests if he focused hard enough or listen in on conversations at enormous distances and through thick walls. He made it a point to be mindful of his surroundings in order to avoid accidentally steamrolling anyone. This served double duty as it was good practice for spatial awareness in combat situations, which had become a part of his daily life.
The gremlin alpha pushed itself up from the depression in the ground. It shook its head groggily. As its head cleared its rage grew at the tiny brown thing that dared to hurt it. It was an impossible thing and what passed for sentient thought in its mind was in disbelief at the impossibility of it. A deep growl emanated from the bottom of its throat. It was going to enjoying killing and feasting on the thing and the rest of its weak kind.
Eron kicked the gremlin alpha in the face. Teeth and blood flew. He stomped on the back of its head over and over again until it stomped moving.
“Huh? That was easier than the last time.” Eron took stock of his area. All of his gremlins were dead. He looked over at Remy some forty to fifty yards away near another corner of the high school’s massive inner courtyard. “He’s fine.”
He looked back across the courtyard to Cal and the raid team.
“Well… shit.”
----------------------------------------
Remy saw Eron plow into the group of gremlins he was fighting. His brother looked like he had it under control, so Remy focused on the gremlin alpha and five human-sized gremlins that were arrayed around the much larger monster.
There were hundreds of small nails, screws, ball bearings, nuts, bolts and other such metal objects swirling around him in a high speed cloud. He had pretty much emptied out the contents of his many pouches and containers.
The magnetic field Remy generated was instinctive to him. He focused on the objects orbiting around him and that is exactly what they did. Sure the science of it didn’t really make sense, but that could have been a product of human knowledge being a bit behind the curve or it was spire bullshit.
None of that mattered to Remy in the moment. The only thing that did was keeping his family, his wife and kids safe. To do that he needed to kill the damn monsters.
And they were being unsurprisingly uncooperative.
The gremlins were actually inching away from Remy as he moved toward them. It was a completely different from their usual mindless aggression.
As Remy moved closer the gremlins started to circle around him. He could see their black, beady eyes darting past him. Perhaps the monsters were looking for easier targets. That wouldn’t do at all.
Remy changed the magnetic field around him. The metal in front of him shot forward at speeds approaching a bullet’s. It was like the world’s most powerful sawed-off shotgun blast. A wall of metal death sprayed the entire group of monsters.
The human-sized gremlins were shredded. The gremlin alpha reacted quicker. It covered its face with it arms. The small bits of metal peppered its body, but it stood strong. The dozens of bleeding wounds that appeared were merely superficial.
The gremlin alpha roared its rage at the affront.
Remy focused the rest of his orbiting metal bits into a smaller ball in front of him. He sent the ball flying at tremendous speed toward the gremlin alpha.
The monster moved with surprising quickness. It dodged to one side. Instead of taking the metal projectiles in its stomach it got clipped at its left elbow.
Remy’s attack sheared the monster’s arm off. It was a devastating blow, but not a kill shot, which was unfortunate because now he had used up all of his ammunition.
The gremlin alpha charged.
Remy reached a hand out toward the corpses of the human-sized gremlins. More specifically the dozens of bits of metal embedded deep in their bodies. He created multiple magnetic fields that pulled or pushed. He flung the bodies at the gremlin alpha. He tried to trip it or at least slow it down.
The giant monster was barely affected. It barreled through the bodies as if they were cardboard cutouts.
“Oh crap…”
The gremlin alpha loomed larger and larger as it drew closer to Remy and he was out of tricks. Except for the tough, heavy chains wrapped around his arms. He had used his magnetic power to turn the last link in each chain into something resembling a crude spearhead. He could’ve stabbed the monster with them. Except because of the chains’ weight and the closing distance between him and the monster he wasn’t going to be able to generate enough speed to get deep enough past its tough hide. Even then he probably wasn’t going to be able to do enough damage to put it down before it got its claws and teeth on him.
The sharp teeth that filled its wide-open, slavering mouth. No doubt eager to taste his flesh.
Its wide-open mouth?
Remy’s eyes widened.
He decided what to do in a split-second.
The chain around his left arm unwound as it shot forward, spearhead link first. Right into the gremlin alpha’s mouth.
The monster had a momentary look of complete surprise on its terrifying face. It was almost comical. It turned to pain as Remy directed the chain down its throat. Once he had judged it far enough he placed a magnetic field right in front of the monster’s chest. It was one of attraction and it was the strongest one he could manage.
He grunted under the strain. The veins on his forehead bulged and he broke out into a sudden sweat in the cool night air. It felt similar to lifting a very heavy weight, something he had gotten familiar with thanks to the mandatory exercise program Cal had inflicted on them.
The blunt end of the chain hanging out of the gremlin alpha’s mouth was pulled down by the field. Inside of the monster the sharp end of the chain was also drawn to it.
The gremlin alpha’s durability didn’t appear to extend to its innards. The spearhead link burst out of its stomach and was pulled up into the field.
The monster gagged from the chain down its throat. It couldn’t even roar from the pain it must’ve been feeling.
Remy tightened the chain more and more until the loop was closed.
It was the most disgusting thing he had seen to date, which was saying a lot considering he spent a good chunk of his days killing gremlins and mutant animals.
“Ugh,” Remy dry heaved. “Maybe I shouldn’t do that again.”
It took him a moment to compose himself before he looked back at Cal and the rest of the raid team. Grimly, he created a magnetic field to pull all of the metal bits embedded in the dead monsters. He was going to need them.
----------------------------------------
Cal was too late. He could only watch as Nila, tired from the gremlin alpha’s powerful blows that were denting her thick metal shield, tripped over her feet and fell to the ground.
The monster pounced on her in an instant. It clawed at her shield and tried to pull it away as it tried to bite her face.
Nila still had some fight in her left. She jammed her bat into the monster’s mouth and pushed hard. It instinctively pulled back, which gave her the space to scramble back.
Unfortunately, in her haste to get away from the slavering monster, she relaxed her grip on her shield. It was only a split-second lapse of concentration, but in battle every moment counted.
The gremlin alpha ripped the heavy shield from Nila’s hand. It threw it back at her.
She barely dived out of the way with reflexes at the peak of what was humanly possible. It saved her life. The Nila from before the apocalypse would’ve been much too slow and uncoordinated.
The man at the back line firing with his bolt-action hunting rifle wasn’t as fortunate. The shield was like a small table. Seventy pounds of solid metal. It was like being hit by a car.
Cal felt a pang of guilt. He didn’t know the guy’s name.
Demi shouted.
Gun shots rang out.
Small glowing orbs arced across the space.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
The gremlin alpha was hit by bullets that sent tiny sprays of its blood into the air. They might as well have been BB pellets with how ineffective they were.
The Magic Missile spell proved more useful as the monster reacted with pain to the orbs that burned into its tough skin.
Nila, brave Nila, so unlike the one that blindly flailed her bat around as mutant frogs nipped at her legs during those first few days many months ago, took advantage of the gremlin alpha’s momentary distraction.
She covered the distance between them in a blink of an eye. The hunk of metal she called a bat in a two-handed grip. She ferociously laid into the much stronger gremlin alpha. Her practice had paid off. It showed in her control. She struck the monster at its knee, at its lower side and across its jaw. Razor sharp teeth flew.
Demi was shouting something, but Nila didn’t have time to listen. She had to keep up the assault. She couldn’t let up and give the monster a chance to go on the offensive. If it did then she was dead. They were dead. Her only hope was the same as when the fight started. Keep it busy until Cal or one of his brothers could take care of it.
That hope died.
The gremlin alpha caught Nila’s bat mid swing.
From a relatively short distance away, yet too far, Cal’s heart stopped in his chest. He could only watch it unfold. It happened to fast.
The gremlin alpha yanked the bat and Nila toward itself. At the same time it swiped its free hand at her.
“Nnnooooo!” Cal roared.
Nila didn’t let go. Somehow, while keeping her hold on her bat, she twisted her body so that the monster’s claws only cut through the back of her flapping motorcycle jacket. At the same time she swung her leg around to land a hard kick on its face. It was like kicking a cement pillar.
The gremlin alpha roared. The pesky thing was weak, yet it actually managed to hurt it. It was done with it. There was much softer prey nearby. Their fear was palpable on its long tongue.
The monster flung the metal bat away. Nila held on.
She went crashing through the window of a nearby classroom.
While Nila scattered the desks and slammed into the far wall, Cal slammed into the gremlin alpha.
Cal’s rage was all his own. There was no bleed-through from the gremlin alpha. It came from someplace deep inside him that he didn’t know existed.
He struck with his ax.
The gremlin alpha wrenched it out of his hand and sent it flying into the darkness.
Undaunted, his fists were a blur as he hammered the monster.
The sounds that came from his mouth sounded more like a rabid animal’s than anything resembling coherent words.
He had super strength, but it wasn’t on the level of the gremlin alpha’s. Neither Cal’s rage, nor his adrenaline could account for the way the monster’s face was being broken and deformed. Somehow the force of his punches were being magnified to a degree that rivaled what Eron, the physically strongest of them all, was capable of.
It was over surprisingly fast. The gremlin alpha had no answers for Cal’s sudden onslaught. He was the greater monster for that moment.
“Cal!”
The world around him suddenly came back into focus. He suddenly knew where he was and what was going on. Nila’s voice had pulled him back.
“Are you okay?”
“That’s my line,” Nila said with a tired smile.
“I saw you… and…”
Nila shook her head. “I tucked and rolled, like the Tessa and Veronica showed me. I’m actually feeling good, aside from my foot,” she winced, “should’ve aimed for a softer part.”
Cal felt his shoulders deflate. Relief flooded his body. Pushing the adrenaline out. He felt heavy and weak. The cuts on his face stung and his left hand throbbed badly.
“You look like crap.” The smile from Nila’s face dropped as she noticed his hands. “That’s swelling.”
Cal tried to wiggle his fingers. “They look straight and they’re mostly moving like I want them, so probably broken, but not too badly.”
Nila embraced him.
“Ow. Everything hurts,” Cal said as he leaned down into her and buried his bleeding face in her neck. He could’ve stayed like that for hours.
“Eww… you’re bleeding all over me,” Nila said.
“Good job guys!” Eron’s voice. “Oh… crap…” His voice fell when he noticed the dead body of the man killed by gremlin alpha.
Another man, Ron, ran over to drape his police jacket over the dead man’s face.
“I’ll move him… over there…” Eron’s voice was subdued.
Cal reluctantly let go and looked around to take stock of the raid team. It hurt to think, but he did it anyways.
While he was beating the gremlin alpha to death the rest of the raid team was able to focus their attention to the human-sized gremlins. They did an admirable job at killing them all without suffering any further deaths. There were plenty of injuries, but nothing life-threatening.
“Jesus Christ, Cal!” Remy ran up to him. “Your face… who’s got a first aid kit?” He looked to the raid team.
“It’s fine, I’ve got some stuff,” Cal waved the rest of them off. The raid team members had their own injuries to look after and they didn’t have the benefit of superhuman powers. He grabbed the waist pack at the small of his back and pulled out a travel-sized bottle of hydrogen peroxide. He closed his eyes and splashed it liberally on the cuts on his face. When the stinging subsided he opened his eyes. “Help them out, I’ll be okay.”
Remy nodded hesitantly. He was clearly dubious of his older brother’s assessment.
“I think you might need stitches.” Nila made a face as she examined Cal’s wounds. “Or super glue.”
Cal weakly waved her concern away. “Later.”
“We killed the bosses.” Demi approached. “What now?”
A sudden chime in their ears. That strange voice accompanied by the wall of text floating in their vision. As if the spires decided to answer the police officer’s question.
Congratulations!
You have completed a Quest.
Defeat the Bosses: Gremlin Alpha x4.
Success Parameters: Defeat all monsters.
Reward: 50000 Universal Points.
Congratulations!
You have the option to fight the True Boss.
Success Parameters: Defeat the Boss.
Failure Parameters: Die or Flee.
Rewards: Control of Martin Luther King Jr. High School Encounter Challenge, varied.
Failure: Will remain a Spawn Point.
Will you accept?
“Uh, do we say yes like before?” Gene had sidled his way next to Cal.
“No!” Several voices spoke at the same time.
Gene held up his hands. “Just asking.”
There was a ten minute countdown in large transparent numbers overlaid over the rest of the text.
Demi raised her voice. “No one say or think the word until I give the go ahead. We rest, patch ourselves up and make sure our equipment is ready for this.” She looked at Cal. “I’m thinking you need this time more than anyone,” she said in a lower voice. “We all know that whatever this True Boss is, you and your brothers are going to be the keys to the fight.”
“Thank you,” Cal said. “How about we run it down to one minute then go?”
Demi nodded curtly and went back to supervise the rest of the raid team.
“Alright, everyone make sure to eat your orange slices.” Eron’s voice echoed across the eerie stillness of the empty high school.
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The raid team set up near the same corner of the courtyard that they entered from. They gathered under the bright light tower. The loud diesel generator was the only thing making a sound. Annoying for some, but a godsend for others. Otherwise the only thing they would’ve heard was their hearts pounding inside their chests. That would’ve pushed their already frayed nerves over the edge.
They faced the center of the courtyard. The theory was simply. The true boss, whatever shape it took, was most likely going to spawn in the middle of the space. Experience with how the other monsters spawned seemed to indicate that the spires probably made sure that there was some distance separating them from any humans in the vicinity. Much like in games. It wouldn’t be fair for them to spawn in the same space that someone was occupying. Not to mention instantly fatal for both person and monster if the latter appeared in existence in the same exact space. The resultant amalgamation of persona and monster was too gruesome to even think about.
Of course, if the true boss spawned elsewhere on the school grounds, then they were going to have some problems. It was decided that they would just hope that wasn’t the most likely probability. Their flagging will to fight was a result of the strain the raid was placing on them. Only a couple of their members had been in violent, life or death situations and even they were having trouble keeping it together. Facing off against criminals or enemy soldiers was one thing. At least they were still human. Fighting monsters from the darkness wasn’t truly comparable.
The formation was pretty straightforward. The key players, naturally, were Cal, Remy and Eron.
Eron was in front. Well ahead of everyone else. He was the strongest and most durable. The ideal tank. His ability to do tremendous physical damage with his super strength was an added bonus.
Remy was behind his younger brother. He had extracted every single one of the metal bits out of the bodies of the gremlins he had killed. It was a disgusting job that had him gagging. The bits where now in a bloody pile on his right. On the ground on his left was the chain that he had used to kill the gremlin alpha. Getting it out of the corpse was even worse. It was dripping with blood and bits of other things better left unsaid. It was coiled like a serpent ready to strike.
Twenty feet behind the middle Cruces brother was the defensive front line of the raid team. Nila was right in the middle. They kept a clear space in between each person to provide a firing lane for the ranged attackers. Most had guns, but they were down to about half their ammunition. It was questionable how much impact they could provide in the fight. In fact their orders were to only take opportune shots if a special vulnerability was discovered in the boss monster or to defend themselves if additional, weaker monsters spawned.
Cal stood as straight as he could manage at the very rear of the formation. He was battlefield control. His job was to keep the less durable members of the raid team, which was basically everyone except Eron, safe. He was also supposed to look for the aforementioned vulnerable spots. If there were adds then he was going to somehow keep those occupied to buy time to come up with a plan to deal with them. Last, but not least, if for some reason the true boss spawned right on top of them or behind them then he was going to shove it away as far as possible.
Cal wasn’t feeling particularly confident that he could do all of those things. The nine minute rest he had was woefully inadequate. The pain in his head was the worse he had felt to date. Needles stabbed his brain incessantly. He was so very tired.
“One minute!” Demi called out. “Everyone start accepting the quest. Raise your hand when you do so. I’ll do it last.”
One by one the raid team raised their hands.
Break time was over. Cal waited till the last to raise his. He grasped every second of delay like a drowning man clutched a rope thrown from the dock.
“Yes,” Demi said without emotion.
They waited for anything that signaled the boss monster’s appearance. A shimmering in the air or movement in the shadows cast by the lantern lights they had scattered around the courtyard.
The diesel generator’s rumbling was the only sound.
The cool night breeze was like a soft caress.
Seconds turned into a minutes.
There was nothing.
“Cal!” Remy half turned his head back.
“I’ll try.” Cal reached out with his telepathy. As far as he could, while pushing through the spike in pain. He closed his eyes to try and block out as much of the external stimuli that took away from his ability to focus on his singular goal. Find the boss monster if it had spawned elsewhere on campus.
He stretched out into the large buildings framing the courtyard. There was nothing inside. Just silence. He went further past that. Straining to reach distances that he wasn’t comfortable with. He came up empty again.
The stabby needles in his brain started to twist, yet still he pushed further out from that. Out past the fence into the street in the direction he was physically facing and into the athletic fields to his back.
There. Something that was like a spark. Like a firecracker lit in the darkness. He tried to hold on to it, but a voice pulled him back.
“Damn, bro! You’re leaking blood!”
Cal turned bleary eyes on Johnny. He scowled at the teen, who shrank back.
“Just saying. I mean that’s not good right?”
Cal felt the warm blood running down his upper lip and from his ears. He ignored it. He was close to finding something. Wasn’t he? His thoughts were foggy. It took him a moment to recollect himself. His eyes widened suddenly. He spun around in alarm.
“There was something back th—!”
A loud crash.
Glass broke from above and showered the raid team.
A powerful gust of wind from above.
The thud of something landing hard on the ground in their midst.
People’s shouts of surprise turned into ones of terror and pain as they went flying.
The true boss monster had arrived.
It was a blur of movement.
Cal couldn’t track it even with his better than normal human perceptions. All he could see were the effects of its passing. And it was devastating.
A woman, whose name he didn’t know, was torn in two.
Ron turned and tried to level his glock at the monster. It smashed his riot shield and the arm holding it with one blow. Then grabbed his pistol arm and twisted. The sound the young police officer made turned Cal’s stomach.
The monster stopped for a split-second as it stood over Ron, as if savoring his pain.
A shotgun roared and the monster was gone. Rebekah, soldier, hurried over to stand protectively over her patrol partner. She swung her weapon around wildly, trying in vain to track the monster.
It had already moved on to other prey.
An older man, big and strong, Cal didn’t know his name. All Cal knew was that he was a farmer with some skills that enhanced his stamina and strength. The brave man stood protectively in front of a few of the youngest members of the raid team. Gene, Bastien, Mads and a couple of others Cal didn’t recognize.
The monster moved in a blur, maiming and killing, toward the group.
Cal could feel the waves of terror coming from the raid team. His team. But he was paralyzed. He couldn’t keep track of the monster.
The farmer swung his two-handed splitting ax with one hand. The blow would’ve split a thick log in one go. The monster blurred out of the way. The old man had his riot shield on his other arm tight to his body. The monster’s hand speared right through the tough polycarbonate and right through the man’s chest and out his back.
“Magic Missile!” Gene’s voice was frantic.
The tiny glowing orb zoomed from his hand.
The monster moved, but the magic missile had a limited tracking capability and it was faster. It drilled a sizzling hole in the monster’s side.
The monster hissed in what sounded like pain to Cal’s ears.
It turned and rushed right at the group of teens.
Mads’ shotgun barked and the monster was peppered by hot lead. It stumbled for only a moment.
The moment was enough for someone just below the edge of superhuman.
Nila crashed into the true boss with her giant shield. Nila stumbled, but she kept her feet and pursued the monster as it rolled across the lawn.
Nila struck it with a downward blow of her bat. Then she struck it with an upward swing that knocked it back even further.
They finally got a good look at the monster. It didn’t look much like the gremlins. It was much more terrifying.
The way it slowly stood up was uncomfortably close to human-like. It was loose, relaxed, as if it hadn’t just been smacked around with a twenty pound length of solid metal.
It was a small humanoid form. Bald Head, two arms, two legs. Its five-fingered hands ended in sharp nails. Its feet were the same, five toes with sharp nails. Its hairless skin was stark white, marred only by the copious amounts of red blood all over it. Powerful muscles coiled and tightened with even the slightest shift in position.
Its face was almost childlike, cute button nose and all. The hints of smile teased from the way the corners of its mouth started to curl up.
It didn’t need to open its mouth for Cal to know that there were sharp teeth within. It smiled anyways. Then blurred once more.