Archimedes

Even though Archimedes had used Leap Rush countless times, this was his first time using its Hang Time upgrade with two people in his arms. Previously, when the Hang Time upgrade kicked in, he felt completely weightless as he soared through the sky using the green wings created by the skill. The air felt like a second home. But this time was different. This time, he felt like he was trying to glide through a wind storm with a thousand pounds strapped to his back. The two women he was carrying felt like heavy sandbags pulling him toward the ground. His wings caught a draft, adding a little extra lift against the decline, but Archimedes’s heart was still sinking as he watched his legs approaching the rapidly moving river.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Don’t fucking fall! I do not want to die to Hermit the Crab!” Lucy yelled as Archimedes got closer and closer to both the water and the shore.

“Just step on them like they’re turtles and you’re trying to cross a chasm on Mario,” Nguyen suggested as Archimedes continued to drop.

That’s . . . That’s actually doable, he thought to himself, glancing at the swarm of conch-shell hermit crab monsters below him, their propeller-like blades glinting underneath the light of the full moon. He knew the barbs on their shells could shred him to pieces if he wasn’t careful, but he also noticed patches where his footing would be safe. He squinted and soon made out what looked like a safe spot for landing. Taking a deep breath and tightening his grip on Nguyen and Lucy’s arms, he dived into the night.

The water below him sprayed upward as he neared the creatures, making it nearly impossible to aim his descent. He gritted his teeth and prayed for his foot to land on the smooth part he had spotted earlier. With one quick Leap-Rush off the monster’s shell, he was back in the air again, watching as the creature sunk into the water below.

This time he had no problem making it to shore, landing cleanly and setting the girls down.

“There we go. Made it,” Archimedes said, feeling rather proud of himself. “Now I just need to find out where Chedderfield landed. He was tearing across that water rather quickly, so maybe he’s north of us? Might have done a better job at making a straight line?”

“Yeah, that makes sense. That could be the case, or . . .” Nguyen pointed out in the distance.

Before Archimedes could even see what Nguyen was pointing at, he was already drawn to the sound of shouts down the river. Even with the light of the full moon, he couldn’t see anything other than the glowing macuahuitl and red laser beams that cut through the sky. He immediately leapt into the air the moment he recognized the weapons, feeling a little relief to be able to fly again without the burden of other people. He turned his gliding wings toward the lights and quickly found his three friends clinging to a wide rock protruding from the river as they fought for their lives. There was just enough of a flat surface on one side of the rock that Emma had been able to climb onto it. Chedderfield and Danielle were treading water, holding onto the rock while fending off the hermit-crab monsters that circled them like a school of hungry sharks. The creature’s shells peaked through the river’s surface, making it look like his three friends were part of some rotating fan-art exhibit. Chedderifield slashed at anything that got close, cutting off reaching claws and kicking away the shelled creatures. Emma stabbed downwards with her bone spear while Danielle aimed and fired her laser rifle as best she could one-handed, but the beams of energy did little more than distract the monsters.

As Archimedes circled above the three, he equipped his spear and charged it. Then he deactivated his gliding ability and dove through the air straight at a particularly aggressive crab that was sneaking up behind his friends over the rock. His spear punched through the creature's shell as he landed on it, his body weight pushing the weapon clean through to the other side. The monster gave a high pitched screech and tried to whip its claws backward toward Archimedes, but the appendages were never meant to reach in that direction and they flailed helplessly as the monster died, its ichor painting the rock. A moment later, a card appeared above its body, and Archimedes snatched it without examining it.

“Arc!” Emma squealed excitedly.

“Shell yeah! It’s great to see you guys have surf-vived,” Archimedes said. “Need a lift?”

“Yes,” Emma quickly answered.

“No time for bad dad puns, hermano. These things are going to eat us like we’re freshly cut meat dropped in a piranha pool.”

“Actually, piranhas don’t swarm like they do in the movies—”

“Danielle, these are some bullshit apocalypse monsters. They’re going to eat us like a fat kid eats cake. Does that comparison work better?” Chedderfield said, exhaustion having set him on edge. He swung his weapon at one of the “bullshit apocalypse monsters” that was trying to eat him. “You know what? I’m sorry. Can you just get Emma out of here and come back for Danielle? I’ll hold them off for the moment.”

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“I’ll be back,” Archimedes said, grabbing Emma and Leap Rushing off the rock in a single motion before rushing to the shoreline nearest the nuclear power plant. His feet had barely hit the ground when he released Emma, who went tumbling to the muddy shoreline with an indignant grunt. He ignored her complaints as he turned and leapt back into the air to save his friends.

Even though only seconds had passed, the situation had turned for the worse by the time he returned to the rock. Danielle struggled to climb to the peak, favoring her left leg as she did so. Chedderfield sat on the narrow shelf Emma had occupied, his weapon covered in ichor, swinging left and right to knock off the monsters that tried to climb up after him or snap at him with dangerous claws. He was bleeding from several places, but his sturdy armor and innate abilities had kept him from taking any critical wounds.

Archimedes had no place on the rock to land this time; Danielle was taking up more space than Emma had, however, he dove anyway. As the press of the crab monsters increased, they were so tightly packed that their shells acted as one giant floating mass. He bobbed on the shells, desperately searching for balance as the razor-sharp spikes on the crab monsters' carapaces threatened to cut him at any moment. He reached up toward Danielle, shouting, “Jump!”

To her credit, she leapt with full faith that Archimedes would catch her, but the shells Archimedes stood upon shifted, and he lost his balance, his legs splaying out. Danielle crashed into him, and he tumbled backward. He felt the barbs on the monster's shell press into his fireman’s jacket, but they cut into the back of his less-protected legs. Archimedes ignored the pain and pushed off as best he could while activating Leap Rush. He felt himself rush through the air at an awkward angle almost parallel to the surface of the water, Danielle clinging to him with the desperation the apocalypse had made only too common. They crashed into the shore, the muddy edge dragging at their legs.

As Archimedes stood up, getting ready to Leap-Rush to the rock again, Danielle must have mistaken his posture for trying to help her stand back up. She shouted, “No, go help Chedderfield! He’s all alone now!”

Archimedes could already feel the lactic acid building up in every muscle in his body from the quick and repeated uses of his movement ability. The burning sensation came with fatigue as if he’d done a multi-hour powerlifting routine, but he gritted his teeth and ignored the pain and exhaustion as he used Leap Rush yet again. As he got close to Chedderfield, he could see that his friend had given up on his sword completely. He stood on the peak of the rock, spewing acid in a wide arc, melting the exterior shells of the monsters that had completely surrounded him and causing them to retreat momentarily away from the burning liquid.

Archimedes went into a power dive, landing next to his friend with a grunt. His hands slipped, and he almost fell into the mass of reaching crab monsters, but his fingers found purchase. He switched out skills and used Fire Breath. A gout of flame burbled from his mouth, encompassing a half dozen of the terrible crustacean creatures. Though the flames themselves did little to burn the aquatic monsters, they combined with the belch of acid from Chedderfield with explosive effect. There was a loud boom as the two skills mixed and rock, water, chitinous shell, and burning gooey flesh flew in all directions.

Archimedes shook his head to clear it of the resulting ringing as he reached for his best friend. He touched his back and saw Chedderfield spin, his spiked fist raised to strike, only to stop and smile when he saw Archimedes.

"Bro," Archimedes said cautiously, one eyebrow raised.

Chedderfield's fist remained raised, but it was clenched tight instead of poised to strike. He took a deep breath and exhaled the tension.

"Bro," he said in a low voice that spoke of exhaustion.

Archimedes nodded, understanding how tense the situation had been, and glanced at the monsters behind them before speaking again.

“Bro.” Archimedes couldn’t help but throw in one more word of encouragement and comradery before quickly switching to the Automator class and activating the ability that swept up all of the cards that had appeared from the killed crabs, then he hugged Chedderfield as tightly as he could before boosting into the air yet again. Having never used the skill so many times in a row, he had no idea how taxing it would be to not only use it yet again, but to use it holding another person at the same time. He felt like he was going to pass out from exhaustion as he glided to the shore.

He almost wanted to stop, to land in the water and just swim the rest of the way rather than trying to use Hang Time’s wings to carry them to shore, but as he looked back, he could already see that the monsters had not only recovered but had started to swarm over the rock they’d just moments ago stood upon, tearing apart their own injured or killed companions and devouring them. He shook his head, expelling any thoughts he had of swimming as he focused on getting to the safety of dry land.

He practically crash landed, his legs giving way the moment they met the ground. Chedderfield flopped to the side, and Archimedes saw that Lucy and Nguyen had found the others. They were tending to Danielle and Emma's wounds with their newly acquired class healing skills.

He could hear them talking and shouting something, but he could also hear other voices. It wasn’t just them. He looked around for a minute and saw the rustling of bushes, which was all the warning they got before a dozen armed men in army camouflage uniforms appeared from nowhere with machine guns raised. The magically glowing muzzles meant these were upgraded S.A.N.E. weapons and not just ordinary firearms. One of the men shouted, “Identify yourselves!”

Whether it was the overuse of his most strenuous skills and attacks or the built-up fatigue from having fought, bled, and healed from multiple fights continuously for well over twelve hours straight, Archimedes' body gave out. He raised one hand, felt the world spin, and then everything went black.