Fun fact about Lenoir Hall: its first floor was built on two separate tiers. When you entered the building through the front entrance, you would start at a lower elevation than the rest of the first floor, and you would have to walk up some stairs to access the rest of the building. I would recommend that you go see it for yourself, but that would be a bit tough these days.
I smashed through the stone wall, though I barely felt it when the stone cracked and shattered upon my back. To my MDC body, it was as if the rest of the SDC world was made of cardboard.
For a moment, the Bull of Heaven and I were on the first floor of Lenoir Hall. Within seconds, however, the Bull hit the stairs leading to the upper tier, and we both crashed through the stairs. Suddenly, I felt my body enter freefall as the Bull and I fell into the basement beneath Lenoir Hall.
The Bull was just as confused as I when we began to fall. It thrashed in confusion, causing its horn to become dislodged from my chest. We slammed into the floor of the basement, and the momentum of the Bull’s charge caused us both to roll on the linoleum floor for about thirty feet.
When my senses returned to me, I was lying on my back about twenty feet away from the Bull. It began to stand up, causing its back to make contact with the ceiling above. Small wood splinters and foam insulation began to fall from the ceiling as the Bull turned toward me and began to rear up on its hind legs.
This was just the opening I was looking for, and I would be damned if I let this opportunity pass me by. My next action might cause me to be buried beneath several hundred tons of stone and wood, but I had no choice.
I aimed my Esotech pistol at the Bull of Heaven and pulled the trigger. A bright beam of light struck the Bull, and I was pushed backward on the linoleum floor until my body crashed into the wall behind me. The Bull roared in pain, and another terrible burn appeared on its shoulder.
The stone structures surrounding the Bull took an indirect hit from my Esotech pistol, but they suffered much more damage. Due to the upward angle of my shot, half of Lenoir Hall was immediately destroyed, and the building next door, Greenlaw Hall, was rendered into a burning mess of blackened slag and molten rock.
The upper floors of Lenoir Hall above the Bull collapsed into the basement. The Bull was buried under the colossal weight of the collapsed building, and its roaring ceased.
Carefully, I rose to my feet and put a third bullet into my Esotech pistol. That weapon seemed to be the only thing we had that could actually hurt the Bull, and it would be of utmost importance for me to keep the weapon ready.
I aimed the Esotech pistol at the Bull and waited for it to come charging out of the rubble. Seconds ticked by, and nothing happened. As I slowly lowered my gun, I recalled that neither Carlos nor I were physically much stronger than we were before. I figured that the weight could have been too much for the Bull to move, and it was trapped inside the rubble.
Perhaps it would suffocate to death in that pile. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Footsteps echoed through the shell that once was Lenoir Hall, and Carlos appeared on the lip of the crater I stood within. His worried look turned into a relieved smile when he saw me standing there, relatively unharmed.
“Did you get it?”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“I dropped a building on the Bull, but it’s not dead yet. It’s just stuck.” As I spoke, I used the rubble as a makeshift staircase to climb up to Carlos.
“Talk about a difficulty spike,” Carlos said as he returned his longsword to his sheath. He gingerly pressed a hand against the bloody wound on his chest. “The Uruks and Diluvians were way weaker than this guy.”
I opened my [Menu] and quickly checked my character sheet.
MDC: 23/40
Just one hit from the Bull was enough for me to lose half of my MDC. If not for my shield, I would have been close to death already.
[YOU CAN ADD 2 TO ONE OF YOUR STATS]
I was reminded by the [Menu] that I had not yet fully upgraded to level 5. Some of my advancements were still pending. Considering the pain in my chest and the lingering threat of the trapped Bull, I decided to apply this bonus to my [Fortitude] score.
Name: Vinzadir
Class: Eldritch Alchemist
Level: 5
MDC: 28/45
Body: 13
Fortitude: 16
Power: 13
Speed: 12
Mind: 17
Reason: 18
Perception: 15
Memory: 18
Name Vinzadir Class Eldritch Alchemist Level 5 MDC 28/45 Body 13 Mind 17
A warm sensation suffused my body, and I suddenly felt marginally better. The wound in my chest remained unchanged, but the pain lessened. Before I looked away from the [Menu] and back toward Carlos, one more notification appeared.
[YOUR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL LIMIT HAVE INCREASED TO 50]
YOUR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL LIMIT HAVE INCREASED TO 50
That was good to know. [Draconic Integration] must have increased the limit for my stats from 20 to 50. If I wanted to, I could increase my [Reason] and [Memory] to 48. All I had to do was figure out how to heal my permanent brain injury, and I would be well on my way to superhuman stats.
When I looked up from my [Menu], Carlos and I were back in the open air of the Pit. The once-familiar area surrounding me had transformed into a scene of carnage. Most of the buildings surrounding the Pit had been reduced to rubble, and destroyed corpses still littered the ground.
Off to the right, my heavily-damaged car had pulled up a few dozen feet away, and Liz was standing by the driver’s side door. I wondered for a moment how they had managed to pull a car into the quad, but then I saw that the dividers preventing cars from reaching the Pit had been destroyed with magic.
I picked my laser pistol up from where it had fallen, and the two of us began walking toward the car. Liz waved at us, and we returned the wave with exhaustion slowing our movements.
“Get in the car before that thing comes back!” Liz shouted in our direction.
“Good idea,” I said. “Let’s go.”
Carlos and I were halfway to the car when a familiar sound filled the air. I turned, drawing both of my pistols, and Carlos swiftly drew his sword.
The rubble of Lenoir Hall flew into the sky as a cone of destructive force fired upward. Before the rubble even had enough time to crash to the ground, the Bull of Heaven came charging toward us.