Chedderfield
Chedderfield joined Archimedes and Nguyen up on the wall while the sirrušu and Lucy led the soldiers clearing the creatures inside the base.
Nguyen sagged against the wall as she explained breathlessly, “Hundreds of monsters came out of the boulders en masse outside the walls, a wild frenzy. Then, as if they were puppets, and their strings were pulled, they turned nearly as one and ran over the coral wall and crashed into the power plant wall. We fired from above and tore into them, but they did not seem to care, only focusing on one section of the wall.”
Chedderfield peered over the wall and watched the mass of bodies that looked as lifeless as the ones on the inside. They’d been killed, but they’d done their job, creating a crack in the wall of the main base. Then, just as he thought about what it would take to repair the breach, the mass of undead hell flesh moved as more monsters ripped through the downed pack and started to attack the thick concrete walls protecting the soldiers, their powerful claws and teeth tearing at it in a wild frenzy. The heavy gunfire from the soldiers above only fueled the monsters' rage as they continued to press forward relentlessly. Crystal brutes leapt into the breach, and a loud crack rang out over the noise of battle as one managed to break through part of the wall, sending chunks of concrete raining down around them. Desperate attempts were made to slow the onslaught, but it seemed futile. The breach in the wall was growing wider every second.
Without thinking, Chedderfield leapt from the wall, swinging his macuahuitl with every ounce of strength he could muster as he activated its vibration ability. The full force of the fall was behind the blade he brought down on the crystal brute. The vibrating weapon cut through the crystal skull of the monster and continued all the way down as Chedderfield landed on the ground with a thud. The monster tried to turn to see what had hit it, but the moment it moved, its body split apart and spilled all its insides.
Chedderfield hardly had time to appreciate the kill. There were more crystal brutes. He ducked under the swing of one and spun around another. He dodged and dipped as he avoided the creatures until he reached the gap in the wall, now a four-foot-wide hole that a brute would have to crawl to get through. Chedderfield sent his macuahuitl to his inventory and slapped his glowing hands on the area right in front of the hole. Within a moment, the white glow on his hand began expanding outward in a circle as his Ring of Purity skill activated and created a burning ring across the mound of bodies that he stood upon. The mound instantly ignited in white flame, a large bright pyre that looked like a hundred magnesium strips ignited at the same time in a blindingly bright blaze that forced Chedderfield to squint and turn his back. He faced the incoming horde instead as he prepared to battle within the purifying domain of fire he had created in front of the hole in the thirty-foot-tall wall.
The first brute charged forward, aiming to punch the wall and break through. The creature glowed bright white as it ran, and before it even reached the wall, it burst into flame. The crystal brute's torch-like figure flickered wildly as the flames grew higher and brighter. A blurred figure fell atop the creature, and a spear pierced through it, ending its undead life.
“You didn’t think I’d let you fight alone, did you, brother?” Archimedes asked as he pulled his spear from the fallen brute.
“I knew you’d be right behind me,” Chedderfield answered with a nod, but then, seeing something flying through the air, he shouted, “On your right!”
Archimedes and Chedderfield were sent tumbling to the ground by the impact of the hell boulder smashing into the wall. Bits of rubble flew in all directions as a giant skeletal hand burst through the boulder's shell. The duo didn't wait for whatever creature had been inside to fully emerge. Instead, they quickly cast their elemental skills. Fire and acid mixed in a powerful blast, and in the wake of the explosion, nothing remained of the creature.
But more hell boulders were dropping from the sky, each one splitting open and discharging a new wave of monsters: tailwhip brutes, four-armed archers, crystal brutes, and hellhounds. Lasers and bullets flew in all directions as Archimedes and Chedderfield fought back against the onslaught. Archimedes was a blur of motion as his spear cleaved through opponents while Chedderfield's macuahuitl cleaved foes and spewed acid in wide arcs in a fierce effort to guard the hole in the wall. Yet, the enemy kept coming, relentlessly pressing forward in an undaunted attempt to reach the wall.
Chedderfield felt the brutal bite of a tailwhip brute lashing around his leg, and with a powerful wrench, he was yanked off balance even as he hacked the tail in two. Then a blast of searing heat engulfed him, and he would have been charred alive if not for his armor. He could still feel the tremendous heat radiating off his body as he Meat-Slammed out of the flames and into the back of a brutish creature, smashing it against the wall. Even though it had caught fire from the purifying flame, it punched the wall, opening it up even wider as another chunk of concrete shattered off the side. But then Chedderfield's blade tore through its back, severing muscle and tendon in one swift motion. He hopped back as the creature spun to attack.
Something slammed into Chedderfield’s back, and he was sent flying into the wall. Head spinning, Chedderfield got to his feet in time to witness Archimedes' spear spinning and stabbing in all directions, tearing through four crystal brutes that had appeared from nowhere. Each suffered the brutalizing force of the explosions from Archimedes' weapon as he punched through their stony skin.
Chedderfield got to his feet, and though he felt a terrible weariness from successive activation of his skills, he used Meat Slam to bowl over a monster that tried to hit his friend. The two men fought side by side, unwaveringly trying to defend the hole in the wall behind them as each new wave of monsters attacked.
Nevertheless, the wall continued to crumble under the endless tide of monsters, the hole growing larger by the minute even as the soldiers above them on the wall used every skill they could to push the enemy back. Chedderfield couldn’t help but feel dread set in as he saw the endless tide of hell-cursed beasts pushing into the shrinking defending army, the soldiers and gunners on the wall unable to stem the tide of foes.
“Don’t make that face, bro,” he heard Archimedes say next to him, his comrade's weapon easily killing another zombie in front of them before the zombie’s body was pushed aside to reveal two more behind it. “We’ll win this fucking thing. I promise you.”
“You mean ‘or die trying’?” Chedderfield asked as he bisected a hell-cursed brute.
“Ha! Speak for yourself! I can’t die or Lucy will drag me out of hell to murder me again,” Archimedes said with a chuckle.
Laughter quickly dissolved into shock as another boulder detonated against the wall beside them, and four ferocious hellhounds charged out of the shattered capsule. Without even a moment of hesitation, they both leapt into action, bracing themselves against the incoming onslaught, readying their weapons and skills to tear through the monstrosities before the next wave could reach them.
The wave was short lived, however, as a series of rockets pierced through the hole in the wall and completely decimated the hounds in one cataclysmic discharge of power. Chedderfield didn't bother pausing to take in the situation. He immediately saw a massive crystal golem charging him, its body already turning to embers. As he prepared to sacrifice his life force to activate his macuahuitl's vibrating blade, a large black circular object rolled in front of him and took the brunt of the attack, exploding on contact and spewing an acid that engulfed the golem in seconds.
As if that weren't enough to put them on edge, two massive rocket-firing mechs flew through the air, unleashing an unyielding barrage of rockets that finished off any remaining zombies. The mechs landed with an earth-shaking amount of force, the racoons inside shouting, “Your mothers drink plain tap water, and your fathers prefer their soda flat and diet!“ before sending countless circular black rolling machines swarming out from behind them. Behind the mechs were a half dozen robotic bears and the knife-wielding soda mascots that had almost killed Archimedes and Nguyen inside the gerbil cage above the soda factory.
“HELL-CURSED! YOUS TREMBLE BEFORE THE MIGHT OF THE HOLY SODA EMPIRE!” the self-proclaimed Soda-Pop Pope shouted as he led his troops. “WE BROUGHT THE GUNS! ROCKETS! AND SODA!!!”
For a brief moment, Chedderfield watched in awe as barrages of heavy-payload rockets wrecked the defensive formations he and Archimedes had worked so hard to protect. Suddenly, a massive crocodile with twenty otters riding atop its back thundered out of the wall’s gaping hole and came to an abrupt halt before the enemy forces. The crocodile opened its enormous jaws, unleashing an inferno that would make any movie dragon envious.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“I’ve never been so happy to see a fucking croc,” Chedderfield said in wonderment as he observed the incoming enemy force decimated by the otters perched on the massive mutated beast’s back. The twenty ice-wizard otters comfortably sat on a gigantic handmade-leather saddle while they shot out their spells, annihilating their enemies.
“While they seal the breach, Robin, Clark, you guys follow me to the walls,” a familiar voice came right after the raccoons and crocodile riders made their entrance. “Madison, Emily, you all are faster on your feet. Help the ground team keep the courtyard clear. Carly, you stay here and split the group up. Once we have enough troops here to secure the courtyard, have the rest of them head up to the walls with us. We’ll need every ranged fighter we can get raining hell on those bastards before they get to that breach!”
“Stephanie . . .” Archimedes said in a tone that Chedderfield was glad Lucy didn’t hear. Stephanie directed her team, her bright blonde hair cascading down her back. Her alabaster plate-mail armor glimmered as the light bounced off of it, highlighting her long lean legs and narrow frame. She moved with an agility and grace that was unexpected for someone wearing such a heavy set of armor.
“Yeah, looks like we got the whole crew,” Chedderfield said, noting the dozens of eighteen-to-twenty-something kids pouring out of the portal building and immediately rushing to the wall, their weapons and gear looking a lot better than it did the last time he saw them. “We might just be able to push these bastards back yet at this rate.”
“Don’t jinx us,” Archimedes warned, but with the dearth of new foes pressing toward them, Chedderfield couldn’t help but hold a little hope.
“Nothing to jinx here,” Chedderfield remarked as he watched Archimedes Leap Rush out beyond the breach and into the enemies.
“Damnit! Hermano!” Chedderfield grumbled, yelling after his suicidal friend that had quite literally jumped into a fight with rockets exploding on all sides. Archimedes thrust out his spear attack into one of the incoming hulks. Even though the initial thrust was so powerful that it carved out a hole in the skull of the hell-cursed brute, it left Archimedes vulnerable to the two additional brutes flanking him on each side.
Chedderfield was determined not to be outdone or leave his friend behind. He gathered all his strength and used Meat Slam to launch himself across the battlefield like a missile. His body grew a hardened, blue rock-like exterior just before he collided with the closest hulk. The force of the impact sent the brute tumbling backward in a jumble of chaotic pieces. Seizing the opportunity, Chedderfield unsheathed his macuahuitl and with one powerful blow, he cleaved the monster in two, slicing through it like a hot knife through butter before it could attempt to stand up.
As Chedderfield and Archimedes were killing off the brutes, another salvo of rockets emerged from the raccoon rocket mechs, creating a wave of fire and concussive force that tore the low-level zombies and hellhounds to shreds, sending bits and pieces of bodies in all directions. What wasn’t being killed by the rockets was now being shredded by dozens and dozens of arrows as mascot machines continued to roll into the fray, covering the defenders’ flanks completely while Chedderfield and Archimedes pushed the enemies even farther back into the coral wall.
With the speed they were killing the hell-cursed, the corpse ramp over the coral wall turned quickly into a meat grinder of flesh and bones as one brute, zombie, or hellhound after another was destroyed, and the grinder never stopped. There weren’t any breaks or pauses for Chedderfield and Archimedes to catch their breath, and the closer they got, the more the intensity of the situation ramped up until finally the rocket support halted.
“Aye! The ammo! We’re outta da ammo here!”
“Fuck!” Chedderfield cursed as he used his elbow to shove off a hell-cursed zombie that was pressing into him, getting it far enough back for his macuahuitl to finish it off.
“We gotta stop them somehow,” Archimedes stated the obvious, turning around for a moment as he was looking for something. “Chip! Chip! Where the hell are you?!”
While Archimedes had turned around to bark out orders to the wall, Chedderfield, seeing how vulnerable his friend was, quickly switched to the warden class, swapping his macuahuitl for bone knuckles as he equipped the shield he had taken off Nguyen as well. The swap happened just in time for him to be able to designate Archimedes as his ward and intercept the blow meant for his friend, blocking it with his shield.
“Pay attention to the fight!” Chedderfield shouted at his friend even as he used all of his strength at once to push at the hell-cursed zombie pressing in toward them. Even though the zombie itself wasn’t strong, the bodies pushing against it were so many that it took every ounce of Chedderfield’s strength to hold the line in place and not be pushed back before cover fire from the wall could kill the horde off and give him and Archimedes some breathing room.
“Sorry,” Archimedes said even as he turned back to look for Chip again.
Chedderfield caught sight of the fluffy mammal as Chip came crashing toward them with a rope tied around him as if someone had heard Archimedes’s call and thrown the alien translator over the wall.
“Get those otters to start icing this ramp. We need to cut it off as soon as possible or open the gate up so we can clear it. I don’t care which one, but if that ramp stays up, we’re dead,” Archimedes explained to the chipmunk.
As Archimedes was talking to Chip, a long, heavy bone tail descended on them, glowing red. It threatened to cut Archimedes in half before he would have been able to even back up or block.
Chedderfield took a determined stance, his feet planted firmly in the dirt and his arms at the ready. The massive beast before him lunged forward, its razor-sharp tail poised to strike. Chedderfield reacted quickly, channeling the energy surging through him into a glowing orange shield as he thrust his body forward and upward. The force of his shield bash struck the tip of the tail, barely fazing the creature but providing a vital opening for Archimedes to lunge up and drive his spear deep into the creature’s neck.
A moment later, the otters did exactly as they were told, using the bodies of the hell-cursed against them. Chip had managed to make Archimedes’s slightly nonsensical orders more coherent, getting the ice mages to start targeting their freezing skills on the enemies just as they were about to pile over the coral wall.
While it took a minute for their work to fully take shape, the impact of the strategy was immediately noticeable. Each frozen body at the top of the coral wall began to act like an extension of the wall, blocking hell-cursed from just smoothly flowing over the coral wall. Soon one frozen body became two and then ten, twenty, and thirty until finally the zombies were unable to just press past the coral wall and into the base at all, the big, frozen hell-cursed barricade stopping them altogether, leaving Chedderfield and Archimedes with only the clean up left as they slaughtered the leftovers.
Congratulations! Through continuous combat against both the Human Faction as well as the Demonic Faction, you have gained enough EXP to advance to level 8!
You have unlocked a bonus skill and equipment slot.
Congratulations! You have advanced Strength and Constitution to 20 or beyond. You have unlocked an additional equipment slot.
“There we go,” Chedderfield said, reading the notifications. He couldn’t believe the bonuses that he’d gotten at level 8. Being able to equip six items meant that he’d be able to fully armor himself up and still have space for multiple weapons. The extra skill slot meant he wouldn’t have to choose between his favorite skills or switch them on the fly in a fight and immediately popped in Biscet. He had a feeling he’d be needing it with all the enemies they had.
Skills:
[Meat Slam – Rock Hard (gold)]
[Acid Breath (bronze)]
[Undead Delight – Flesh of My Flesh (silver)]
[Bisect – Greater Divide (silver)]
Equipment:
[Japanese Dō (silver)]
[Bone Bracers (bronze)]
[Bone Shield (bronze)]
[Laser Pistol (bronze)]
[Bone Macuahuitl (gold)]
[Empty]
Chedderifeld realized he’d never gotten around to upgrading Acid Breath from bronze tier and immediately spent the cards he’d collected to bring it to silver.
Acid Breath
Current Classification: Silver
Current Level: 01
Ability: The user can release the contents of their stomach as a breath attack in front of them. The range of the attack is determined by the user’s agility, the damage is determined by the user’s constitution, and the amount of acid generated is determined by the type and amount of food currently still in their stomach.
Silver-Tier Options:
Bonus Belch – Immediately following Acid Breath, a gaseous belch occurs that has a chance based on constitution difference to disorient foes temporarily.
Projectile Vomit – The range of Acid Breath is increased by 25%.
Corrosive Content – Amplifies the damage all parties take from Acid Breath by 50%.
Glass Innards –- reduces the damage the user takes from continuous use.
Under other circumstances, Chedderfield thought he’d choose a different upgrade, but with tens of thousands of enemies out there beyond the walls, there was only one good choice and he selected Corrosive Content as the silver-tier upgrade. It meant more damage to more enemies.
He breathed a hearty sigh of relief as he checked his loadout and felt better prepared. He looked around at what seemed like more bodies than he’d be able to count in days. “Now we just need to get the cards and—”
Just as he said it, he saw Archimedes use Auto Loot, yanking all the cards from the battle to himself in a second.
“Alright. We keep what we loot, right?” Archimedes said.
“You better be splitting those with the group,” Chedderfield replied, shaking his head as he watched his friend start jogging back to the breach.
“Sure, sure, everyone will have a right to loot as many cards as they can,” Archimedes replied. “It’s clearly stated in the mission: whatever you can loot is yours. I looted those.”
Chedderfield faked a laugh. “If you even try to hoard a single card, I’m telling Lucy all about the way Stephanie took your breath away when you first saw her and about that face you were making and—”
“Et tu, hermano?” Archimedes said, raising both hands in defeat. “Fine. Fine. I’ll pay up.”