Now, Las Vegas
The show was about the fall of Atlantis. There was animatronics of a king, a prince and a princess. The latter two were fighting over rulership or something. There was a lot of colored lights and water fountains shooting. Sound effects and music.
Cal only had vague memories of it from the time he had seen it years ago. He was pretty sure he had been drunk at the time.
“There was a dragon? I didn’t see one earlier when I passed it. I hope there isn’t a dragon.”
The animatronics were no longer animatronics.
Their surfaces cracked and flaked off to reveal the same white skin as the monstrous gladiators. Except in spots where it appeared that their skin had stuck to the outer covering. Bloody muscle was revealed.
The prince held a flaming sword high as he leapt at Cal.
The princess trust a green wizard’s staff and the fountain water shot at him.
The king sat on his thrown, leering with a sharp-toothed smile.
Cal blocked both water and sword with his telekinetic shield.
He felt the heat from the sword wash over him with each strike the prince landed.
He sent the prince flying into a pillar with a wave of his hand.
A gesture with the other sent flying blades to harass the princess and the king. No point in waiting to see what the latter could do. He’d rather destroy them all as quickly as possible. He still had to deal with the true boss to claim the place.
While the two on their platforms were busy with the knives and ninja stars, Cal focused on the prince.
He turned a leaping sword slash into an opening by dropping his shield and simply holding the prince in mid-air. He took his axe and hacked at the sword wrist until he cleaved through it.
The axe handle broke at the same time as the bone sword’s flame extinguished when it hit the floor. He had forgotten to moderate his strength. Years of using the Threnosh-made axe had spoiled him.
“Damn it,” he said flatly.
He took the sword and stabbed it into the prince’s chest, twisting before withdrawing. “Not fair, I know,” he said to the prince.
The prince didn’t hear him.
He tossed the body at the princess.
The distraction allowed him to grab her head in telekinetic hands. He twisted and pulled. It was less disgusting when his actual hands remained free of blood.
The king snarled and thrust the bone scepter toward him.
Waves of heat and sound washed over him.
A wince crossed his face.
That last one had actually managed to hurt him.
Cal pointed a finger.
A telekinetic buzzsaw bisected the king.
He waited for that dragon.
The loud chime followed a few seconds later.
Cal read and listened to the spires’ words with relief.
He was a lot of Universal Points richer and one more step closer to owning his second hotel casino.
“Yeah, I want to fight the true boss monster.”
Acknowledgment was followed by an earthquake.
The entire place shook violently.
Glass store fronts shattered. Merchandise went flying.
What appeared to be a monstrous version of Apollo came charging on his flying chariot from the other end of the long, wide corridor. He pulled debris in his wake.
“I remember…”
There were several statues representing several gods of Olympus elsewhere in the resort casino.
Monstrous Apollo hurled fireballs from his hands.
The explosions against Cal’s shield was deafening in the enclosed space.
A helmet with auditory protections would’ve been nice.
He sent his dwindling supply of flying death to distract the fake god, while setting the wires up.
Monstrous Apollo was moving too fast to react.
The wires sliced right through his neck.
The chariot crashed into a jewelry store behind Cal.
A quick telepathic scan confirmed the kill.
He hurried to where he thought monstrous Apollo had come from. The statues had been close together. A Neptune, Bacchus and Artemis if he had it right.
Sometimes it sucked to be always right.
A bone arrow boomed from the other end of the long corridor. The last few unbroken store windows shattered like the arrow did on Cal’s shield.
He spied the three monstrous gods.
Like the Apollo one, they loosely resembled the statues they had been hiding inside.
It was the faces, he decided.
They had been normal human once. Now they were ugly monsters. Sharp teeth in mouths that were too wide.
Oh… and the patches of missing white skin that revealed bloody red muscles.
Monstrous Artemis nocked another supersonic arrow on her bow of bone and sinew.
It exploded against his shield.
“Sorry, monsters. You’d have been something terrifying to other people, but I’ve been up against it lately. You just don’t compare to my brother.”
He dashed forward, blocking arrow after arrow.
Monstrous Bacchus lumbered forward and threw an enormous wine jug.
The liquid sizzled on the invisible shield. A noxious odor filled Cal’s nose.
“Shit…” he had to stop his advance to concentrate on creating a second telekinetic shield closer to his body. This one to filter out just the poison from the oxygen. Identifying the composition of the stuff down to the molecular level was the most difficult thing he had to do throughout this whole operation. The stuff was close to chlorine gas with a few added elements that he didn’t recognize from his more recent studies. “Probably magical molecules… if that’s a thing… it’s a thing,” he decided.
Monstrous Neptune had patches of white skin that resembled fish scales. A scale-armored arm thrust the bone trident toward Cal. Bacchus’s liquid began to move.
“Shield goes all the way around,” Cal snorted as the liquid spread above and behind him.
It was like looking through a fogged up windshield.
He wiped the front with a thought.
Only to see another jug break and obscure it.
Monstrous Neptune spun the trident. Water from a nearby fountain flowed to him and swirled in many distinct streams around his statuesque form.
The mist from Bacchus’ liquid followed suit and in the process filled the space between Cal and the three monstrous gods with the poison mist.
“Combination attacks… how much sapience do you things have? Can you communicate? I’d try scanning your thoughts, but I learned long ago that would be a very unpleasant experience.” Cal wondered if he should just bite the bullet and try. He might be able to learn something new and save himself a lot of Universal Points from purchasing a bestiary guide from the spires. Memories of what he went through when connected to Mother Madrigal immediately shut that line down. “Like, would you mind answering a few questions? Where’d you come from? What’s it like in here when there aren’t any people? Do you just hibernate in your statue forms while waiting for people to fight? Shit, do you make the monster gladiators fight for your entertainment? It must be boring waiting years for someone to kill.”
There were no words from the monstrous gods, just malice in their intelligent eyes.
“I feel like I’m not properly exploring the nature of these things. I’ll add it to the list… though it feels like I keep telling myself that.”
A bone arrow shattered in front of him, while a hard impact struck behind him.
He glanced back.
An enormous serpent of water undulated menacingly.
He tracked it back to a fountain 20 yards away.
“This place is all fountains and statues,” he muttered. “We’ve got an open space, what should we put in there? A fountain or a statue? Why not both?” he mocked.
Three bone arrows struck simultaneously.
He sent a flurry of flying blades to cut Artemis’ bow string and found it to be stronger than steel.
He tried stabbing the gods, but they too, were tougher.
He should’ve expected it. They were the true bosses.
He brought the wires forward and wrapped them around each monstrous god’s neck. “I can see and hear you breathing.” He wound the wires tighter. They dropped their weapons and clawed at their necks in vain. “I guess supertough skin is both a bonus and a drawback in this case. No matter how tight I squeeze it won’t cut you. Then again, if it wasn’t tough I’d just cut your heads off. Never mind.” He touched the grip of his handcannon. Thought about trying a few shots. Decided against it. He only had so much of the custom ammo. Why waste them when victory was assured?
Minutes passed as the monstrous gods slowly died.
Cal didn’t let up until the chime sounded in his ears.
“No, I don’t want to revert this place to an encounter challenge. Yes, I want to claim it.”
He now owned Caesar’s Palace.
The next day he led Nila and the baby through the front doors.
“It’s creepy… the echo,” Nila said.
Cal took in the clean lobby. “It was much worse.” He described the piles of monster corpses he had left. The broken pillars and furniture. The smells of voided monster bowels.
“That’s never made any sense to me. Why did monsters have crap? From the outside we know this place hasn’t had any people come through it in a long time. What were they eating?”
“There could be a stasis effect thing. Or they ate each other and other monsters.”
“Or they ate the food in this place. Tons of restaurants and the buffet.”
“I can’t see them cooking.”
“I didn’t say anything about them cooking.”
“Aaannnnddd you just killed my appetite.” He could picture the white-skinned monsters now… eating piles of raw meat and seafood off the tables.
“Mine’s fine. Let’s pick out a suite so we can get cooking,” Nila smiled.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
They picked a suite in the central hotel tower so they could be at the center of everything. It’d save time for the non-fliers when it came to walking to the front. The buffet was also close, which truthfully, was the most important consideration for Nila.
They picked one with window views of the strip. This one was Cal’s choice. He wanted sight lines on the most likely routes monsters from the other nearby spawn zone resort casinos would use. If he saw one of those mutated white big cats stalking the street he could just send a steel blade into its eye from a distance.
The rest of the details didn’t matter much to either of them.
As for the baby, well, he was happy to explore the new place. The interior of the RV and the motel room had gotten old days ago.
“I’m sorry that took so long, guys,” Cal said as he plopped himself down into the luxurious couch. He eyed the gold accents on the walls. “You think that’s real?”
“Don’t know, why?” Nila said.
“We can take them. New ones will show up tomorrow. Saves time and effort.”
“There are jewelry stores down in the Forum Shops. It’d be easier to grab those instead of trying to pry that off the walls,” Nila snorted.
“Yeah. That makes more sense. Anyways, I didn’t think it’d take me so long. There was just so many of those monster gladiators, like thousands of them. Every room had a few. Plus all the ones everywhere else. Then there was the hundreds of monster Roman Legionnaires. One Caesar—”
“You killed a monster Caesar? Which one?” Nila said.
“Don’t know… hard to tell with the ugly monster face. Julius? Augustus? 9-feet-tall, like a statue.” There was a statue of one or more of the Caesars. He hadn’t bothered to check if the monster version he had killed had come from one of those. “Stabbed him with his own legionnaires’ blades.” He looked at Nila expectantly. “… in the back.”
“What?”
“Too bad it isn’t March,” he said suggestively.
“I know,” Nila said flatly.
“If you had been there,” he sighed.
“Nope. The joke would’ve been lame even if I was,” Nila smiled. “Was he the boss monster? Seems too easy.”
“The bosses were different. They were definitely statues, er, they came from inside.”
“Like they hatched?”
“Yeah. They were encased inside then came out. Even the animatronics. Remember that show we watched when we were last here?”
“Not really. That was such a long time ago.”
“The Fall of Atlantis? I had to fight the king, prince and princess. Thank God there wasn’t a dragon. I think you might’ve been able to solo that fight. I’d say you’re an equal match to the prince in terms of speed and strength. He was more durable, but that’s not counting the Threnosh armor. His flaming sword wouldn’t have been able to get through that. It might’ve taken a lot of hits, but you’d bash him up in the end. Didn’t really get to see what the princess could do. Seemed like a magic-type based on equipment and the way she sent water at me. Couldn’t get through my shield, but it felt like it’d cut your skin pretty easily. The king had a scepter that sent out waves of heat and sound.”
“Armor for the win,” Nila said.
Cal nodded.
“What about the secret boss?”
“Guess… and it was bosses.”
“Well… since this is a casino… Gamblor,” Nila grinned.
“The personification of gambling addiction from the Simpsons,” Cal nodded appreciatively. “Have I said ‘I love you’ yet today?”
“First thing!” Nila beamed.
“Well, I’ll say it again!” he did so. “I thought you were about to say Mammon or something more classical.”
“I like to throw you bones sometime.”
Cal winced.
“Too soon?”
“Way too many bloody bones shot my way yesterday.”
Nila snickered.
“Very mature. Seriously, all the weapons and armor were made out of bones. Like, grown straight out of the body. Slick with blood and other thi—”
“Oh…” Nila's eyes darted to the other side of the large living room, “the baby!”
“Got him.” Cal floated the baby and dumped him on Nila’s lap.
“No, no, no. Electric outlets aren’t for pudgy little fingers,” Nila’s sibilant tones along with a belly tickle elicited laughter from the baby.
“Fake gods… the true bosses were fake versions of Apollo, Neptune, Artemis and Bacchus,” Cal said.
“That last one is ironic, but… fake gods? As opposed to real gods?”
“Why not?” he shrugged. “Why can’t there be a world or worlds with beings that resemble our ancient gods somewhere out there. I mean, if I showed up on a different world and did my thing, wouldn’t the inhabitants think I was a god?”
“Some might. Still doesn’t suggest that our mythological gods were just invaders from another world. The biggest debunker to that is the spires themselves.”
“The creative unconscious of humanity could be the product of some kind of bleed effect through the spires.”
“This again,” Nila sighed. “They only showed up ten years ago. I’m not buying the idea that they were there the whole time, just slightly out of phase with our reality. Unless there’s concrete evidence. And I’m not trusting anything out of those spires tutorials.”
“They are a suspect source, aren’t they…” he clapped his hands suddenly and sat up. “Let’s continue this discussion over brunch.”
“Bacchanal,” Nila said. A statement, not a question.
“I wasn’t aware there was another legitimate option.”
“Great! I’ll watch the baby. You cook.”
“What do you want to eat?”
Nila blinked at him for several seconds. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand the question.”
“What do you want me to make?”
“Oh… everything.”
“That’s way too much, even for our stomachs.”
“I’m not going to the greatest buffet and only eating one thing.”
“I’ve only got two hands,” he tried.
Nila scoffed. “I’ve seen you do the work of many people.”
The baby gurgled, looked to him and back to Nila before pointing at him.
“See… he knows too,” Nila said.
“Et tu, Baby?”
“Still not funny,” Nila said as she carried the baby out of the suite.
----------------------------------------
Then, New Mexico
“I count five trucks and about 30 people. This is not me being racist, but I’m pretty sure they’re the same cartel guys from last night,” Dayana said. “Can’t tell if there are any more behind them through all the dust.”
“Just cause you’re black doesn’t mean you can’t be racist,” Jayde said.
“You would be the expert on racism,” Dayana snorted.
“Hayden, you’re like half of us two. Tell her that she’s wrong and I’m right,” Jayde said.
“Now’s not the time to be fucking around, you bitches,” Hayden grinned. “It’s time to be Furies.”
“Fuck yeah!” Jayde echoed.
“I’ve got shots. I can start taking out the drivers,” Dayana said.
“That’ll slow them down,” Hayden nodded. “Let the truck with the most people keep coming, but keep their heads down while Jayde and me get closer.”
“I’ll should probably keep my shots quiet. Don’t want to attract monsters,” Dayana murmured as she acquired her first target through her rifle scope. “Silent Shots.”
The shot sounded like her rifle had a suppressor despite the fact that it didn’t have one attached.
The bullet punched through a truck’s windshield and into the driver, causing the truck to swerve to the left.
Each subsequent shot caused a different truck to lose control, leaving the one as Hayden had instructed. “You guys can go. I’ve got your backs,” Dayana said.
“Shield me,” Hayden turned to Jayde.
“Mage Shield!” Jayde grinned as she slapped Hayden across the face.
The loud thwack echoed across the dusty desert.
“Ow! What was that?” Hayden complained even as a glow outlined her body.
“Uh… I have to hit stuff to use my spells. You know that,” Jayde said.
“Yeah, but why so hard?”
“You did wind up,” Dayana said.
“The stronger the hit, the stronger the spell,” Jayde shrugged. “Mage Shield!” she punched her palm to bring forth the same glow around her own body.
They donned their helmets and took off toward the lone remaining truck.
The gunmen riding in the back tried their luck, but the bumpiness from the lack of paved road sent their shots astray.
“Morons!” Jayde grinned. “They should’ve used the road.”
“They were never going to catch us by surprise anyways,” Hayden agreed.
The truck closed the distance quickly.
It might’ve endangered the two Furies, but the third one did as she promised and made the gunmen duck for cover.
“Do it!” Hayden barked.
Jayde sent a cloud of dust into the air as she skidded to a stop. “Earth Wall,” she punched the ground with her bare fist. The ground rippled for fifty yards toward the truck. A wall of dirt and rocks suddenly surged up in the truck’s path. Three feet in height and width.
The truck slammed right into it. Throwing a few of the men in the back over the roof and down the hood to the ground.
“Was that louder than a gunshot?” Dayana wondered. She thought about deactivating her Skill to save stamina as she put a bullet through the first head that popped up from the truck bed. She decided against it. It didn’t look like she was going to have to get close. There was no need to conserve energy for the rest of her abilities.
Hayden hurtled the barrier to the right of the truck.
The guys inside the cab were still trying to get their shit together. Hitting Jayde’s wall had to scramble the brains good. Her targets were the rest of the men.
She used the thin chain in her left hand to whip the man on the hood. She sent a lot of electricity through it with a thought. The stench of burnt hair and flesh filled the air. The man jerked violently for the second that she held on to the charge, then fell still when she cut it.
Cartel bastards meant guilt free killing.
A loud crack jolted her.
She had heard the shot, which meant it wasn’t Dayana’s.
Belatedly, she realized that the magic shield around her had flashed.
She found the shooter on the truck bed staring at her with hate and surprise.
“Fuck!” Intellectually, she knew that helmets were a must on the battlefield. The more of her head and face it covered the better. She just hated how much it obscured her peripheral vision and hearing, not to mention how much harder it was to breath, even if there were small holes in the part that covered her mouth and nose.
The magic shield could only take a handful of shots, so she hit the man with the chain in her right hand.
Chainmail was a good conductor and she doubted that the padded shirt underneath it was insulated.
The man dropped his gun as his muscles seized up.
His heart stopped a moment later and he toppled to the dirt.
She proceeded to flail her electrified whips at the rest of the men in the truck bed. She didn’t need to be exacting when all it took was the slightest touch.
Jayde scrambled up the wall of earth and onto the hood. “Stone Spike!” she punched the windshield. Hard, sharp stone appeared from her fist and speared through the glass and the driver’s chest. The stone crumbled into dust, leaving the fist-sized opening. She punched it again. This time uttering, “Fireball!” The explosion of flame consumed the inside. Windows and windshield shattered, sending Jayde flying.
“Holy shit! Stop doing that!” Hayden barked as she picked herself up off the dirt.
“I’m okay!” Jayde called from the other side of her wall. “Shield took the impacts. Do you need a recast?”
“Nope, it’s still on.” Hayden confirmed that her body was still surrounded by the glow.
“That’s good, cause the other guys are coming,” Jayde pointed at the other trucks.
Four left.
“That was quick,” Hayden said.
They had replaced their drivers and were headed straight for the two of them.
“We can use this truck for cover,” Jayde joined her, “I can put up another wall, make, like, a triangle fort. That way they can’t run us over.”
“We need to hurry and take them all out before everyone else gets involved,” Hayden said.
“You want me to leave this side open to let them think they can run us over, then I wall and boom! Violent collision like the first time?”
They ducked behind the truck to avoid gun fire.
Hayden looked underneath. “One’s circling around, get ready.”
“On it,” Jayde cocked her fist, “Earth Wall!” she roared as the truck whip around and turned toward them.
She punched the ground.
A wall of rock and dirt shot up.
The truck slammed into it.
This time the driver wasn’t wearing a seat belt. He flew through the windshield, over the hood and just skimmed over the two young women.
The way he landed told them that they didn’t need to worry about him.
Hayden scrambled up the wall, hood and roof, diving into the midst of the packed men in the bed. She touched as many of them as she could before letting the electricity coursing through her body loose.
Steel plate and chainmail were great conductors.
Burnt flesh and fabric filled the air.
“You clear!” Jayde called out.
“Yup!”
Jayde scrambled up the hood and punched a stone spike into the last man inside the cab. “Two trucks down!”
One truck veered away and headed back in the direction they had come from.
The other truck was still moving toward them when it suddenly swerved, flipping over violently. Men went flying in every direction.
“Dayana’s getting pretty good at shooting. Too bad she’d rather stab things in the back,” Hayden said.
“So much for quiet,” Jayde winced, “that’ll definitely draw monsters, if the gunshots didn’t already.”
“C’mon, we should probably finish them off,” Hayden said.
“Doubt they survived that. Just leave them for the monsters. Cartel fucks wouldn’t do us the favor,” Jayde said.
“Agreed, which is why we should check. Elliot will want to take prisoners for questioning or whatever,” Hayden said.
“That’s true. He might get mad if we don’t take any.”
“Meh… he’s not our boss.”
“But, he kinda is… technically… I think?”
“We have no boss.”
“I thought we have a contract with the Golden Eagles.”
“Yeah, but we can break it whenever.”
“Right, but that still means we have a boss, like, right at this moment.”
Hayden shrugged before heading off to make sure none of the cartel men had survived the crash.