EPILOGUE II: YOU CAN CALL ME PAPI

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13:54 LOCAL TIME 13TH JULY 1ME

UNCOMMON PERIOD

MORTAL REALM

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LONG BEACH

ALEJANDRA

Alejandra or Alex as she liked to be called, hated babysitting. She really hated it when she was babysitting fucking adults. They were the worst. Her skill set was more suited to breaking things, and she really needed to hurt something right now. But she had to be professional through and through. But these people were genuinely trying her patience.

“Are we there yet?” Clemy the crossbow-wielding twin asked for the millionth time.

“Clementine can you please not?” Lisa admonished for the millionth time.

Alex rolled her eyes. It was better when Otis was around, at least he had some command presence that kept Clementine in check. The girl was a monster at killing things, absolutely terrifying. They had been attacked multiple times by more than a few exotic creatures, and every time Clemy’s area of effect attacks were vital in killing packs of dire wolves, and Dire panther pride, She even slew a sleuth of shadow bears, which Otis had identified with Lulu; the long bow wielding twin sister.

She didn’t complain because the EXP was phenomenal. It seemed like the animals were waiting for the humans to come out of hiding because they came at them in droves, they had all leveled twice, and Alex was almost thirty-eight. None of them had an identify power so they were gauging the relative strength of their targets by how easily Lulu could snipe them. And speaking of terrifying, Lulu was lethal at long range, Alex didn’t know what her main class was, but she knew it was some kind of sniper specialization, one that wasn’t meant to instant kill, instead her arrows added debuffs to the targets slowing them down and bleeding so that her brother could easily hold aggro.

The medic they brought was pretty much worthless. He was a professional who could identify humanoid beings, but they hadn’t seen any since going around the Syndicate’s forces that had surrounded the Los Angeles Stronghold a little over a week ago. That part of the trip took up the bulk of their journey. They had to head west down the old 110 freeway to the ocean towards Venice Beach, then south down the 405 interstate just to get around the army at their walls. They had rested every other night having high enough stats endure for forty or so hours of traveling. The beasts were their biggest impediment. They had to go around a ton of ones that felt like very powerful creatures with huge Presences that made them all sweat. Once they were ambushed by a lone Shadow bear and if it wasn’t for Lisa and the medic Alex would be dead. It was dangerous and the people she was traveling with were not quiet at all even after all the danger.

Alex had gotten the message that the One Blood Gang had joined the Stronghold making the Stronghold upgrade because of it, she didn’t know what that meant, but it was the last good news she had gotten, it was also the last message she had gotten. They were now out of range of the Stronghold chat. She wasn’t sure if the Syndicate or the Westside Guild knew, but it was irrelevant, war was coming to LA, and nothing was going to stop that now.

Control of land, Dungeons, and people made a Stronghold well, stronger. The Los Angeles Stronghold had the most people, controlled the most secured land, and because of that, had the most Dungeons.

But it was a balance, the more people you have, the more you have to spread out your resources. Clearing the new areas, and new Dungeons took time. So sometimes it is easier to force others to do the work while only a select few leveled up. The Westside Guild and Syndicate were slaver Strongholds, they had powerhouse Classers from hoarding Dungeon time, but they had learned that without higher quality food and potions, surviving at the higher levels got increasingly difficult. Part of it was Potion sickness, every tier differs, but a player could only take a limited amount of potions of a certain type at their tier per day, and they couldn’t take lower-tier potions without a penalty.

She had warned the leadership early on that letting those groups grow stronger would only make them a problem later. No one ever listened when they thought they knew better. But Alex hated living in the past. She had seen a lot in the last decade fighting for her country and then policing her city. It was a hard job, but utterly fulfilling. Looking back at it now, she wasn’t very productive until the world changed, she was just coasting along enjoying being a cog in the system. Yes, she was exceptional, but that was easy for her, the job had fit her like a glove, and she never questioned it, but she never pushed the envelope, so she never felt whole.

She was blessed with a very rare class Diablo Knight fighter squire. She had gained the knight upgrade when she joined the Stronghold early on which made her even stronger. She was pretty sure she could beat anyone one on one, though her crowd control spells were expensive, she wasn’t useless in a big battle.

Alex was proud of her martial prowess. But even more proud of her leadership skills. She was always a great leader in the army, but once she had become a police officer she hadn’t quite gotten used to taking orders from incompetent leadership, without talking back. Apparently, that was frowned upon.

The GREAT GAME made sure most of the incompetent leaders didn’t last long. Unfortunately, that meant that their subordinates also died with them. Alex was lucky, blessed, or just fortunate when she and her girlfriend happened to stumble into the Los Angeles Stronghold where the Governor and Mayor worked together to keep it safe. Tessa her girlfriend, had always been good with people while Alex had been good with fighting people.

Tessa went into administration for the Governor, while Alex was tasked to lead the Dungeon parties. In a few weeks, she had out-leveled most of her contemporaries. Then after a tournament, written test, and countless battles against the Westside gangs, and other smaller gangs. The leadership promoted her to the Head knight of the stronghold Army. It felt right.

She was back to leading troops again, and she had taken more territory for the Stronghold and even secured many more Dungeons than all other teams combined. All of that happened in just three months, until the continuous horde. That put a stop to her expansion plans like India put a stop to Alexander the Great’s army.

She was a student of history, and she knew that consolidating power was the only move in the unknown scenario. She pushed the walls of the Stronghold out to as far as she could then worked on making a second level of walls on the inside, and then a third on the outside with the leadership. She had never had such an efficient group of builders attached to her in her entire military life.

Professionals working together made wonders, which made her think back to all of the ancient wonders of the world. Were they made by magic? She believed the answer was yes. She looked to the east, and she could see a golden pyramid on the horizon. She remembered seeing it rise over the last few months. It started when the endless horde started.

After the first month of consolidating, no Ghouls had gotten inside the Stronghold, still, there had been beasts, and monsters either sneaking in or hiding within. So most of her job for the first two months was making the stronghold safe. But clearing the inner wall which was downtown LA proper, and few other areas, was hard enough. Twenty square miles. The middle wall pushed that to sixty square miles, and the outer wall was going to be over one hundred square miles. Needless to say, every player was personally responsible for identifying threats because, without a surveillance system, eyes, ears, and mostly smells helped, the beasts were often infected with a weaker version of the Scourge’s curse causing them to stink like rotten meat.

Even with a hundred-thousand-strong army under her command, they had way too many weak points, that had to be patrolled constantly. She also had to have dedicated troops to secure the Dungeons inside, and outside of the Stronghold. They were the Stronghold’s second most precious resource, besides the million lives that live there.

Well, that was what Tessa had said, she knew more about the temp job board and resource management than anyone outside of the nobles. She was one of the highest-level Merchant Caste members. Merchant caste players didn’t get Classes, they instead got access to two professions and four profession Trade skills to start. They can also teach Trade skills to NPCs when high enough, which was the only way the Stronghold was able to build the walls as quickly and as strong as they did.

Alex personally believed that Classers were more useful in this new world, but she couldn’t deny the benefits that professionals brought to the table.

She was musing over all of those things when she got a party chat message.

[We got something messed up here head knight. You should definitely see this.] Lulu sent a message in party text. Alex had started the Raid Party when the first began the mission since she had the highest Raid boss mark in the Stronghold.

Alex admonished herself for letting her mind wonder so much. She was on a mission, and that's how you get yourself killed, they were looking for a needle in the haystack of safety pins and she needed to focus. ‘Damnit Alex! Get it together girl.’ She reread the party text trying to interpret her tone. Lulu was competent, and calm so for her to ask for her to see something it had to be crucial.

[Ping map, we will come to you.] She replied. Ranger classes all get some type of map or mapping Ability at the second specialization. Lulu’s had a pinging option.

A second later an icon popped up on Alex’s mapping ability, she looked at it, they were about three hundred meters ahead of them in the direction of the convention center. This was around where they thought the Dungeon entrance should be, the scout that had found it had gone with the Governor. In their journey they had seen many Hamlet and Village size Strongholds who had survived the continuous horde with sturdy walls and sheer grit, they weren’t as powerful as her current party but the average level outside of their Stronghold seemed to be higher than inside of it. She frowned at that, they needed to get back to leveling ASAP.

Downtown Long Beach did not look the same at all. Trees, grass, and vines had taken over the streets and walls. The buildings were all falling apart as the mana winds broke them down faster than any natural wind should, it looked like the winds were going to finish them off in a few more weeks as they hung on for dear life.

The tall grass was everywhere, hiding gods knows what. The beasts and monsters were much smarter and used pack mentality to hunt and kill unsuspecting parties. It was a nightmare, but Alex felt at home.

Alex, Lisa, Clemy, and the useless Medic made their way to Lulu and Otis’ position. Alex rubbed her arm where the day before she was bitten by a fire hose size California king snake, she was healed but had phantom pain from it.

She walked up to the two and didn’t have to be told what the ‘messed up’ thing she was looking for was, it was pretty much everything. The entire area was an abattoir. Loot globes were everywhere which was an indication that players and Beasts fought here. Monsters fighting each other don’t leave loot globes behind.

Of course, it could also mean players fighting other players, but there was little chance the winners would leave this many loot globes behind. The only scenario that fits was players fought beasts or monsters, and the monsters won. Monsters and Beast have no need for loot, so they would have eaten the bodies before they were absorbed and left the area.

The only problem was loot globes in that scenario disappeared after a few hours unless other players were still around. So either this battle just happened, or someone had eyes on this location. Neither option made Alex feel secure, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, as she looked at the churned-up ground where magical attacks had left massive gouges, she frowned. Trees were torn up, and blood-red big and small water puddles littered the battlefield.

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Also, that wasn’t the biggest issue, the convention center was unlike the other buildings they had passed along the way, it had collapsed, but the massive structure wasn’t done in by the mana winds, it was done in by a huge tentacle that was hanging off the side. Whatever the monster that thing was attached to must have been enormous, and whatever killed it wasn’t the people whose loot globes they were looking at. If so, they would have leveled, and would still be alive. Of course, they could have poisoned it, or some type of damage over time debuff, but it was unlikely since one, those powers were very rare, and two the head of the creature was mostly missing she was pretty sure massive head trauma was what killed it, it didn’t help that the loot globe above it was dark pink, really close to red.

“A Diamond loot globe?” The medic broke the silence causing everyone in the party to flinch. Alex was pretty sure Clemy almost shot the man on principle alone.

Clemy covered his mouth moving faster than the medic could fathom, ranger classes were built for speed, and as their tier rose, they often became the hardest the tie down. To the medic, she must have covered the distance in a blink.

[USE PARTY CHAT FOOL!] She text.

He had the grace to look remorseful.

[Sorry, I had never seen one.]

[None of us have its supposed to be incredibly rare, beyond rare really. Especially this early in the game.] Lulu texted looking at the loot globe.

Alex was scanning ignoring her party members, the medic was really loud, and she knew in a quiet area like a recently empty battlefield sound could travel fast. Plus the fact that the loot globes didn’t start to combine meant combat was still ongoing. The breeze blows to her and she smells something new. They had been traveling for weeks so she had gotten accustomed to her party's smell, this new smell was cleaner. She turned just as she heard a voice.

“Well, well, well.” A deep calm male voice said from behind them.

Everyone else spun around to see ten men dressed in full plate armor, about half with their swords drawn wall out of the woods.

“What do we have here?” The same voice said, with their helmets on the party couldn’t tell the difference between them. The speaker looked past the team. “Identify them.”

Alex sighed and turned around, and saw another ten armored knights with five archers supporting them, but what made her sick was what looked like five casters who were putting away a stealth field generator into a carrying case. They were standing in front of them the whole time.

[Don’t say a fucking word!] She texts, cursing herself for losing focus. She was snuck up on by armor-wearing assholes like this? Unacceptable.

“Oh don’t be like that, speak up, party chatting is so rude when people are talking to you.” He smiled at the faces they all gave him. “Oh, you must have been hiding behind your walls too long, but anyone who has fought other players can always tell when they unfocus to read their chat messages compared to reading over your prompts. You must be from The LA Stronghold.”

“Los Angeles Stronghold members Sir Knight.” One of the casters said.

[Shit, scan the leader quick medic.]

" I got it in one, how lucky are we? Who is the highest rank? And lowest?” The leader said with a chuckle and relaxed demeanor.

[Level 53 True Knight?] The medic text, his knees started to tremble. Alex's mind started to race.

Clemy put her hand on his shoulder to comfort him.

[Calm yourself, if they wanted us dead we would be super dead already.] Alex was surprised she was so calm already.

[Was that supposed to make me feel better?] The medic asked scared. Alex rolled her eyes.

“Those two are both thirty-nine.” The same caster pointed out Alex and Lisa, who hadn't reacted. “The second one is a noble, I can’t see the level of secondary class.”

“Really now?” The leader mused.

“The two men are the lowest level nineteen and Rank forty professional. Both younger women are also nobles and I can't see their secondary Class level.” The caster finished.

“Well, that is unfortunate. I thought we had six slaves. But you can’t collar nobles, at least not yet. A few weeks ago we couldn’t collar Artisans, but we can now.” He rubbed his chin even with his helmet on.

“You are slavers,” Alex stated, it wasn't a question.

“Why yes, yes we are. You got it in one as well.” He smiled at her. “It’s a dirty business, but someone’s got to do it. The Syndicate and the Westside guild will rule Los Angeles soon enough with the power it offers us all. We can use more nobles you should come without any trouble, I can offer you a lot.”

“Have you no humanity left,” Lisa said.

“Why would I? The world is filled with monsters, and monsters are the only things that can kill other monsters. I will be a monster if it means that I can survive. Survival is all that matters now woman. Power is power, however you get it, doesn’t matter.” The leader said. All of the knights nodded behind him.

Otis was beet red with rage by now watching these so-called men talk so casually about slavery. “So you prey on the weak so you can get strong, and then you use that strength to prey on more weak people.”

“Pretty much. Do you think a lion cares whether a baby gazelle is ready to run or not? A lion is going to eat it regardless. Only the weak complain about how people with strength use it.”

“You are a piece of shit. You will never get away with this.” Otis yelled unsheathing his sword. “This world was bad enough when people like you were just internet trolls.” The noble readied himself.

“Words from a level nineteen slave mean nothing to me you moron. What are going to do die from a backhand from me? Have you not heard of tier disparity? I’m level fifty-three, and no one is under thirty-five in my party you have no chance, so just relax, I’ll get to you soon enough.” He said smugly, getting laughs from his cronies.

“I will never be a slave, nor will I ever allow my family members or my friends to become slaves.” He said with conviction.

“Otis stand down,” Alex said seeing the situation getting out of hand. The kid was too righteous, he would get them all killed before she could come up with a plan to escape this shit show, and boy was it a shit show. Why did she think that they would be the highest-level people out here? She was kicking herself for not bringing her own team, especially after Otis didn’t listen to her.

“No!” He yelled indignantly, eyes blazing. “They will die for their crimes against humanity, both past and present, and their leadership will pay as well, but first punishment must be given out immediately.”

'What the actual fuck is he talking about?' Alex thought, She knew they were in trouble but Otis was going to get them killed.

The leader tilted his head to the side. “Is he an idiot, or is he just mentally deficient? Someone, please shoot him, one less slave is fine, he has a problematic attitude anyway. A level nineteen talking all that shit, what the hell man?”

“Brother no!” Lulu stood in front of him bow raised, an arrow pointing at the knight contingent leader. Alex inwardly groined.

“Brother?” The leader asked unconcerned but confused. “Is he adopted? How come he isn’t a noble like you?” The leader’s eyes widen with realization. “A title bonus that hides your level, smart, scan him with the item.”

'Fuck. and identification item?' Alex knew that items were more accurate when it came to reading the power level of anything in the GREAT GAME.

“But sir knight it only has three more uses.” A man next to the knight leader said hesitantly.

“Did I ask your opinion squire?” He yelled a little flustered.

“forty-nine, and level twenty-nine. No information of either class though.” The mage said surprised. Alex was also surprised the whole time she thought she was up there with all the top powers in the Stronghold. She was wrong, and soon to be dead wrong.

“I say it again. You will pay for your actions this day.” Otis said with more conviction this time, his eyes unfocused for a second and then five silent golden thick lightning bolts hit him as he specialized both his classes, and gained a huge boost in stats and new spells. He toggled on his noble spell group taunt on, and yelled at the top of his lungs.

“Well, shit.” The leader started feeling a slight pull to attack Otis. The Knight’s willpower was way above baseline so shrugging off the effects of the taunt would be easy, but he wanted to kill him anyway so he just leaned in. “That's pretty strong, to strong to risk, but not unbeatable. Kill him, collar the rest, we need the noble women alive to make more nobles anyway. He is useless to us since he doesn’t even know his place.”

“Come!” Otis’s taunt sent out another pulse and the other knights began to move towards the Noble warrior.

“Archers, Fire!” The leader ordered before anyone could be caught up anymore in the group debuff.

The five archers fire arrows at the back of Otis using spells by the glow on all of the projectiles in Alex's Mana Sight. He tried to spin around and bring up his shield, but the speed of the attacks was more than his dexterity could match even with his Tier up, it didn’t help that they were also only a few dozen meters away from his soon-to-be-dead party, Alex could see in his face, knew he was going to take damage from at least three arrows. Worst he couldn’t dodge because his sisters were both behind him. She saw the ‘I fucked up.’ written over his face. She thought he was a little too late. Why he thought he was going to be the cool hero that everything worked out for was beyond her. She was far enough away she could make a move though.

Alex started to put on her Calaveras but paused as a Presence heavier than she had ever felt filled the clearing. The wind stopped blowing, the air tasted like blood and the colors of the world darkened.

“Be at ease Noble Champion.” A voice boomed through the clearing. Just then a grayish-black semi-opaque circular wall wrapped around the noble family, much to everyone's surprise, and the arrows all hit being absorbed by the shield. when the last arrow hit the shield popped out of existence just as fast as it came into it.

The Archers were surprised. But not as surprised as the Otis himself, he had heard that voice before.

The leader was stunned. “What was-” A similar shield, smaller like dinner plate size exploded above the mages, surprising them the most when arrows came out of the explosion with more force than they had prior piercing right through the unsuspecting mages’ shields, and heads, then continuing straight into the ground, killing all five mages instantly leaving behind newly forming loot globes. They didn’t even make a sound as they died so fast.

Three silver arrows cleaved off the heads of three archers who were starting to back up, and a fourth exploded in between the last two who hadn't moved fast enough sending them tumbling through the air like rag dogs. A pale Latino man walked causally out of the shadow of a big tree next to the road holding a long black intricate bow in one hand and a sliver two-foot long blade in his other. He was dressed in an all-black ninja outfit, and had a Yankee fitted hat on that he turned around as he walked up to the stunned group. “Take out the mages, and healers first then the range, then...”

“Void bolt!” "

"AHHHH!" A knight behind the leader screamed.

“Void ball!”

The Leader was thrown forward by an explosion right after the scream.

“Void Sword!”

A gurgling sound comes from Knight with a shiny black sword sticking out of his neck.

A female voice chanted three spells in quick succession from behind the leader as the knights behind him were all hit by magic attacks. The spells only killed one, the knight’s face being burned off with some type of black energy. The others were in no position to fight back even if they weren’t dead, however. The one with the sword the size of a short sword in his neck slowly started to eat away at the flesh and armor, another tried to take off his armor as black fire cooked him inside of it, he screamed the whole time until his vocal cords burned. The other seven were confused by all of what was going on. They tried to get up and organize themselves.

The leader looked at the same small woman Alex was staring at. She was with a black wolf-like creature standing next to her... no sitting next to her, the wolf was just as tall as her sitting, taller even. She was as confused as the leader seemed to be. But her danger sense was going crazy. The air rushed up and the temperature dropped.

“Meteorite strike!”

The first voice she heard said from above her. She looked up to see a black man in sky-blue fatigues that blended in with the sky above. He hovered there with his right arm in the air, three flaming ice-white war hammers forming around the palm. He tossed them at the other group of ten melee knights, and a tiny bird flew off of his right shoulder glowing red.

“Get your shields up!” The leader yelled, the order coming to him now that he was able to see a threat before the actual attack. He raised his own tower shield.

Alex jumped when she noticed the Latino man standing next to her and her dumbfounded party. ‘When did he move?’ But he tattoo glowed on his arm and he threw a device on the ground that ballooned out into a bubble shield around the whole party.

"That was a boss move right?" Then the man casually stepped out of the bubble. looking at the knight's orders registered to his men.

To their credit, they did get their shields up, but to the leader’s horror, it didn’t matter the now motorcycle size war hammers exploded just above them, covering the group with white fire ripping metal, wood, and flesh apart, and sent a shock wave that flowed over the bubble shield, barely ruffling the smiling ninjas fatigues, and knocked the leader and his remaining knights over in a tangle of metal legs, and arms.

Just as the leader looked back at the spot where his men used to be, he heard a crashing sound right behind him. He only saw the loot globes where his other knights members were, but as he turned around he saw that the black man in blue fatigues was punching ‘through’ the down knights with his bare hands. The uncommon and even mid-rare armor they all wore may as well be wet tissue paper.

‘What kind of strength does this monster have?’ Alex thought not able to take her eyes off him.

After the man was done killing the last seven knights in just a few seconds he turned to the leader and Alex got her first good look at him.

His irises were glowing stars of a moonless night sky with two tiny concentric circles around them. They glowed copper and the outer circle periodically became a triangle before converting back to a circle. But the most telling thing about him was a third eye between his brow with no iris, only two dull copper circles with a Roman numeral II in the middle. The eye slowly closed and disappeared as the man walked up to the knight leader with an army cavalry stetson in hand. He blinked and his hard dark brown eyes stared back at the knight leader who felt the full weight of the monster's Presence. He put his stetson on and aviator glasses appear on his face.

“Have no fear we are here. Now that is what I call an ambush.” The Hispanic man said winking at the party in the bubble shield.

“A little brutal don’t you think?” The woman said not particularly concerned.

“I really hate slavers.” The black man said as the Knight leader on his knees from the pressure that was being exerted on him, Alex had felt the pressure of a Tier 5 beast before but this was far beyond that, and she wasn't even the target, and she felt surpressed. “Especially ones who justify their disgusting actions.” The now full battle-dressed officer said flicking blood and brain matter off of his hand.

The LA party members look at them with awe, shock, and a shit load of fear.

Alejandra was the first to get her voice back just as the wide eye Knight had and they asked in unison. “Who the fuck are you people?”

“Who us?” The Puerto Rican man asked innocently pointing at himself. “You can call me Papi.” He said to the Knight as he crossed the fifty-meter distance between them instantly in a flash of black-gray shadows. “That’s because I just made all of y’all my sons!” He said magnanimously standing over the knight, bow drawn back, and black energy building on the arrowhead. “And it seems the Mortal realm needs a spanking now that I am here.” He released the arrow.

BOOM!

TO BE CONTINUED

IN THE MORTAL REALM