Chedderfield
Standing on the roof of the quaint brick café, his booted foot on the lip of the building, Chedderfield watched as the runes on the turret glowed, and the construct spun to life. The gray fog surrounding the zoo roiled, spun, and moved almost like it was a living thing seeking intruders. More than that, Chedderfield could make out shapes moving within the fog, and exactly what they were was unknown, but the fog didn’t affect the turret’s ability to target enemies. The automated gun boomed with each fired round, and the high-caliber bullets cut through the thick haze that surrounded the zoo, leaving little tunnels in the fog that closed up a moment later but let Chedderfield track the bullets. He tried to see what the turret was targeting, but only saw shadowy figures moving within the mist.
“Neat,” Chedderfield said. “I guess since its targeting system or whatever it uses for that doesn’t have eyes, it doesn’t have an issue with the fog . . . Wait, how does it target stuff?”
“Efficiently,” Archimedes replied, giving his one-word answer with a shrug. “Best not to question the system stuff at this point. Just trust that it’ll do what the card says.”
“True.” Chedderfield nodded. He was going to say something else, but he lost his train of thought when he heard a loud growling roar sounding out of the fog. Before he could comment on it, hundreds of zombies walked out of the haze like it was a portal in a sci-fi movie.
Chedderfield's eyes widened as the horde of zombies surged towards them, an endless sea of rotting corpses. He could see the turret spitting out deadly bullets at once, shredding three creatures in an instant and sending bits of rotten flesh into the air. Without missing a beat he fired his laser pistol, a beam of red energy slicing through the air and burning a female undead in the chest. Chedderfield kept shooting without pause, barely aiming his weapon as the monsters clumped together, providing an easy target.
Chedderfield's heart dropped into his stomach as he made out something much more menacing: A towering crystal-skinned feline with spots as black as a jaguar. It moved through the horde like they were toys. Its heavily muscled back stood just as tall as most of the undead monsters, and it likely weighed in at close to four hundred pounds. Chedderfield's right hand tightened on the grip of his pistol as he angled the weapon for a shot, but the beast seemed to sense his presence, and its intelligent yellow eyes met his in a sinister stare.
“There’s three of them,” Archimedes growled as he pointed toward the crowd. “Three cats. I can’t get the turret to target them, so you’re going to have to be careful.”
“I know, I know,” Chedderfield said as he fired his laser pistol as quickly as he was able, determined to kill as many of the undead as he could before they got to them.
Archimedes stood behind his turret, feeding spoons and other bits of metal from a dwindling supply. “We need more metal, Queso!” he shouted as Chedderfield fired his pistol with abandon. “We don’t have much time!”
"I got you, Arc," Chedderfield answered, then turned and sprinted to the rooftop building access, kicked open the door and ran down to the third floor, hoping to grab something like one or two trays of metal utensils from the café to feed the turret for bullets. However, when he reached the third floor, he found a surprise. Zombies wearing the Kopi Luwak Café uniform were awaiting him. In the center of the group was a zombie hulk with a uniform barely hanging off its mutated body. As Chedderfield descended, their heads snapped to attention, their eyes glowing as if activated for the first time since the world ended.
Screw it, Chedderfield thought as he saw the zombies immediately start rushing toward him. He unleashed a large Acid Breath on the group of hell-cursed. The acid even hit a zombified employee Chedderfield hadn’t noticed who wore a stained shirt that read, “The Count of Macchiato,” melting the java addict from the waist up. The acidic attack burned the four of the closest creatures, taking them out of the fight, but the hulk and five others were just out of reach of the cone-shaped attack. They closed the distance with surprising alacrity, the brute’s fist hit him in the chest and tossed him against the stairs that lead back up to the roof. The unthinking creatures would have swarmed over the stunned man if it had not been for the narrow door that the brute’s body blocked as it tried to reach and grab Chedderfield.
Chedderfield got to his feet as he saw the struggling group and thanked his lucky stars the brutes weren’t thinner.
“Hey, starting to run low up here! How’s that ammo coming?” Archimedes called out from above.
Chedderfield faced the army of monsters already on their way, and he sprayed another round of Acid Breath at the monsters while firing the laser pistol in his hands. The close range meant that every shot hit, and it was only a matter of seconds until all of the lesser zombies were melted, the wooden floor of the café pitted and warped from the repeated use of Acid Breath. The brute was dispatched as Chedderfield quickly swapped out his laser pistol for his macuahuitl and swung it out in a wide, arcing slice to kill the large foe.
With the creatures put down, Chedderfield collected the cards that appeared above what was left of their bodies, snatched up three trays of metal utensils from behind the coffee counter, and brought them back to the roof, where Archimedes was quick to convert them into ammunition for his turret.
The building shook as the zombie horde reached it, and there was the sound of glass shattering as the monsters broke through the windows of the first floor. The stairs. They’re going to come up the stairs. Chedderfield thought, trying to put together a solution. The Acid Breath had weakened the floor boards on the third floor and stairs where they had hit, but they hadn’t done enough damage to stop someone from still using them. Wait . . . Chedderfield paused for a second as he listened to the stampeding mob of zombies clamor through the first floor toward the bottom of the staircase, an idea coming to him. Just inside the doorway that led to the café, the stairwell to the roof at his back, he threw out one more Acid Breath before switching the card out for Bisect. Then, sending the whip back to his inventory, he gripped the handle of the macuahuitl with both hands and swung the weapon with as much might as he could muster. The sharp teeth that lined the paddle-shaped weapon bit through the weakened wood floor and stairs as he activated the Bisect skill mid-swing.
He was a little nervous about what would happen, but as he saw the effect trigger and the stairs split directly down the middle, he knew his hunch had paid off. Much like Meat Slam, the Bisect ability didn’t differentiate between animate and inanimate targets.
The floor of the café collapsed inward like it was a secret trap door, sending dust and debris flying through the air. But through it, Chedderfield could already see the zombies that had managed to reach the second floor. He heard them snarl as he looked down on them struggling to clear the rubble that had come crashing down on them. Then the stairs Chedderfield was standing on groaned ominously, and he scrambled back up to the roof, the sounds of grunts and shouts greeting him as he reached it.
He turned and saw Archimedes swinging his spear in a wide circle to fend off four undead chimpanzees. The creatures’ skin was too loose on their frames, their dead eyes a milky white, and their gums visibly black. They snarled and pounded their fists, each blow breaking the brick that lined the roof and cracking through the dark-black asphalt-like substance that made up the walkable portion of the roof.
“Come on and try it, you damn dirty apes!” Archimedes yelled, his grin belying the danger.
“I bet you’ve always wanted a chance to use that line,” Chedderfield yelled as he activated Meat Slam and targeted the nearest chimpanzee. The thin layer of semi-translucent rock appeared over his skin as he charged and shoulder-checked the undead monster, sending it tumbling backward off the roof.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
Chedderfield's hands moved quickly as he equipped his bone whip. He pivoted on his right foot and lunged forward, swinging the whip toward another chimp. The chimp yelped as the whip encircled its waist, but it quickly recovered and charged toward him with fists raised and teeth bared. Chedderfield barely had time to take a step back until the undead primate crashed into him, its fists coming down on his shoulders with enough force to break the translucent stone barrier.
Chedderfield’s whip disappeared, and his bone knuckles appeared on his hands as he reached up and grabbed the fur of the monster, yanked it down, and threw it. The chimp rolled with the throw and was back on its feet in an instant and leaping forward once more. Chedderfield managed to dodge and delivered a flurry of punches—left jab, left jab, right cross—each one coming faster than the last. Finally, he threw out a left hook which caught the monster in the side of its head, the inch-long bone spikes on the knuckle dusters punching through the skull and ripping bone and flesh from the monster. The creature staggered as it landed on the roof and then collapsed, three bronze cards appearing above its body.
As Chedderfield swiped the cards, a thwip sound reached his ears, and he felt a burning pain as something slammed into him. “Damnit!” Chedderfield cursed as he looked down and saw a glowing arrow protruding from the armor that covered his stomach. He took a step back as he yanked on the arrow, and two more glowing arrows thudded themselves into the roof where he had been standing. “Arc, careful there’s—” Chedderfield yelled out to warn his friend, but he could see that Archimedes had already been struck in the shoulder of his thick fireman’s coat by one of the arrows, and the bone shafts had managed to not only hit Archimedes but the two of the hell-cursed monkey things around him.
“I got it. I’m fine,” Archimedes replied as he grabbed one of the hell-cursed simians and ripped a giant piece of its flesh off with his teeth before tossing its corpse off the roof in one quick motion.
Chedderfield didn’t have time to respond before something heavy struck him in the back, and suddenly he was a victim of force, knocked to the ground with a loud thud and held there mercilessly by sharp, cold blades piercing his armor. His mind raced as he twisted his head to the right, and he realized what had hit him: an enamel-covered jaguar paw belonging to one of the mutated crystalline felines. His entire body froze in fear as he opened his mouth to call for help before the jaguar could bite into the back of his neck and murdered him. But before he finished his words, he heard Danielle's voice from a nearby rooftop.
“We got a few good shots clean on it! Just roll!”
Not one to ignore his woman, he did just as she said. Activating his strength-enhancing skill, Surge of Power, he pushed with all his might and rolled over to the right, sending the feline to the ground as it fell off his back. From Chedderfield’s new position, the large laser wounds across the feline’s body were evident, and cards started to hover in the air atop its corpse.
He looked north to see Lucy, Danielle, and Emma on the top of a slanted residential housing roof two doors down, a turret set up next to Emma rapidly firing at everything that was trying to climb up at them while Lucy and Danielle were shooting their laser pistol and sniper rifle at the large monsters trying to kill Chedderfield and Archimedes.
“Guys! You better start running! That building is going to go!” Nguyen’s voice called from a different roof, drawing Chedderfield’s eyes toward where Nguyen was, posted up on top of a one-story building, where she was taking shots at something on the first or second floor of the cafe they were in.
Her words didn't give Chedderfield much time to react. The brick building groaned and shuddered like a chair too long sat in by a My 600-lb Life character. There was a terrible crack as something below their feet gave way, and the roof beneath Chedderfield collapsed downward several feet. Chedderfield followed the roof, his feet hitting it with a thud that sent him tumbling. He got to his feet as the building swayed and groaned again. Then he just ran to the edge of the roof and activated Meat Slam just before he leapt off. He felt the translucent protection of his ability cover him as he launched off the roof right toward Danielle, who stood staring at him with wide eyes on the roof of the two-story building. At first, he thought he would make it as his speed picked up way faster than normal, but then, rather than turning that speed into a proper leap, he felt himself dropping, the land-based skill unable to maintain momentum through the air. He crashed through the second floor of the building Danielle was in, his shoulder smashing first through the vinyl siding, insulation, and framing of the wall and shredding it like paper as he burst through it.
“It’s the Kool-Aid man! Oh YEAH!” Lucy mockingly cried out from above as he dusted himself off and got to his feet. Lucy’s voice was drowned out a moment later by the loudest boom Chedderfield had ever heard as the brick building he’d just been standing on collapsed, the tons of wood, steel, and brick coming down with a mighty crash. The rubble crushed the zombies, primates, and potentially even a jaguar still inside of it as the whole thing flattened.
Novice Purgator Challenge I Complete – Kill 25 Hell-Cursed Creatures
Novice Purgator Challenge II Complete – Kill 50 Hell-Cursed Creatures
Novice Purgator Challenge III Complete – Kill 75 Hell-Cursed Creatures
Chedderfield laughed as he read the notification and realized the S.A.N.E. system had given him credit for all the hell-cursed that had been killed in the building collapse. Then he heard the sound of feet running, a door flying open, and Danielle’s voice.
“Are you okay?!” she cried.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Chedderfield replied as he chuckled once more and continued to remove the drywall from his armor. “Did Arc make it off the roof?”
“I don’t know. I saw you running and . . . Well, if he didn’t, I’m sure Lucy would have let us know,” Danielle replied as she joined in on his efforts to dust the drywall off him.
“Hey, loverboy, the fight's not over,” Emma called from the roof above them. “There are still a ton of them out there, and this turret is running out of ammo.”
Chedderfield furrowed his brow. “How the hell did she get a—”
“It’s a copy skill. Grab some metal and help us defend the roof,” Danielle replied, aiming her rifle out the hole Chedderfield had just made with his body and taking a few shots before heading back up to the roof.
“Damnit, Arc! Just leave it!” he heard Nguyen yelling, spurring his curiosity. As he stuck his head out of the hole in the wall, he saw Archimedes, on the street level just outside of the building Nguyen had been on top of, using his spear to clear off a few zombies as he fought his way through zombie stragglers back toward the collapsed building, Nguyen following behind with her spear out as she tried to cut through the remaining undead to reach him.
“Is he suicidal?!” Chedderfield blurted out in frustration as he saw his friend. Chedderfield pulled his laser pistol out and shot several times toward the mass of zombies approaching Archimedes.
“Screw it. They’re just low level mobs. I’m going down to help,” Lucy said as she jumped off the roof, landing with a stumble that she turned into a run, her glowing short sword appearing in her hand as she equipped it and rushed toward the fight.
With Danielle and Emma covering the fight with ranged weapons, and Lucy and Nguyen both jumping into the battle as well, Chedderfield leapt out of the window, not wanting to be left behind. Landing, he unleashed a torrent of Acid Breath that covered the zombies below him during the leap.
“That’s my girl! I knew you were still alive!” he could hear Archimedes shout as the sound of heavy-caliber bullets being shot sounded out from in front of Chedderfield. Flashes came from the concrete in front of Archimedes, a spray of hell-cursed brains exploding from Big Bertha's shots and misting the sky directly around the turret.
“Don’t try to make me jealous of a turret!” Lucy exclaimed as she cast No Brainer, leaving a dozen zombies stunned and in perfect range for Chedderfield to kill.
It only took a few minutes, but between all the damage from the six of them, the remaining hell-cursed monsters were destroyed. To Chedderfield, it felt like it took longer to pick up the cards than it did to finish off the remaining zombies.
“So you two wanna tell me what happened to gathering info, being careful, and assessing the risks?” Danielle asked with the most “you just messed up” look across her face.
Chedderfield replied, “What? We were just trying to get info, and things just, ummm . . .”
His response was interrupted as over a hundred cards flew toward Archimedes from the collapsed building, and Archimedes leapt up and shouted, “Yes! It was sooo worth risking all our lives to equip Turret! Automated Looting class skill!! YES!!!”
“That. That’s why we started the fight,” Chedderfield said, throwing his friend under the bus. “Arc just explained exactly what happened. It wasn’t my idea at all.”
Archimedes looked over at Chedderfield as all the girls looked at him, clear frustration on their faces. Then he shrugged and said, “Yup. All my idea. He even warned me you guys would be mad. Anyway, I got pretty cards for anyone who doesn’t bring it up again for at least a day.” With that, he revealed the skill and item cards in his inventory from the recent looting like a Las Vegas magician as he fanned the cards out in his hand.
“Deal,” Emma said as she reached out and grabbed her share of the cards, the others sighing as they followed suit, their expressions showing that, while they were accepting the “deal,” this wasn’t going to be the last Archimedes heard of this misadventure.