Chedderfield
“Feels good fighting together again,” Archimedes said wistfully as he and Chedderfield took a momentary breather inside the Ring of Purity while they waited for the turret to materialize. Even if two of the hulk monsters with tail mutations were hovering just out of reach of Chedderfield’s whip, the rest of the zombies were blindly charging at the duo, their skin igniting and their bodies exploding before they could reach the pair.
“Wouldn’t have it any other way, hermano,” Chedderfield replied cheerfully.
The moment the personal turret was fully summoned, Archimedes picked up what looked like metal trays from a cafeteria and fed them to the construct. The runes on the weapon lit up as it came to life and immediately started firing, shooting through the dying zombies straight into the mutated hulk monsters with tails. The heavy-caliber bullets tore through the zombies’ chests, their guts exploding out their backs and splattering against the wall. A couple of bullets found their mark with the closest hulk monster, leaving large open wounds across its body. But it was not enough to stop it as it grabbed a nearby zombie for protection. Another bullet, however, struck true and split the monster’s jaw open, blasting away the lower part of its skull. It dropped lifelessly to the ground seconds later, leaving behind a silver card.
“I love this combination, bro,” Archimedes said as he watched the creature die from within the safety of the white ring. The second hulk’s death followed close behind as the remainder of the hell-cursed zombies charged to their demise as well.
“Yeah, you’re telling me,” Chedderfield agreed with a laugh. “Even if I only have a ten-minute duration on Ring of Purity, unless something bad happens, we can just stay right here, safe and sound inside the ring, while—”
“YOU CAN’T JINX US LIKE THAT!” Archimedes exclaimed.
The moment the words had left Chedderfield’s mouth, he had realized he had screwed up monumentally by invoking the most cursed and evil of all nature’s laws: Murphy’s Law.
Beginning upgrade of [Regenerative Coral Wall]. Estimated time to completion: 42 minutes, 55 seconds.
All opposing factions within 100 feet of the base have been notified of the new construction. Please be advised: The construction may be halted at any moment if the creatures reach the contested zone. The contested zone will be marked in yellow. If enemy faction members can occupy the yellow zone for 30 seconds, all construction will be terminated, and resources will not be refunded. Please enjoy struggling for our entertainment.
“SEE?! SEE?! Damnit! This is bad. What the heck did those otters do!?” Archimedes yelled out in frustration as he looked back and saw a thirty-foot section of the coral wall glow blue and become semi-transparent.
“And why the hell is the range of notifications increased from one hundred feet to two fifty? That seems unfair if we’re just upgrading something that already exists!”
“Be real with me. Do you know what happens when two of those timers are stacked on top of each other? Did you guys do it at the old base? How bad is it?” Archimedes asked, his face slightly white as he held his spear tightly.
“Nothing good,” Chedderfield answered glumly as he recalled how badly they’d been overwhelmed at the mall.
“Massive insect wave is now approaching the west side,” Nguyen shouted. “The lizardmen and others are heading there. Can you two handle the south side?”
“Yeah, we can handle this for the moment. Just make sure Lucy is covered,” Archimedes called back as he opened up his system screen.
“What are you doing?” Chedderfield asked as he watched Archimedes moving his hand through the air like he was touching an invisible screen and moving something around.
“I’m getting rid of Leap Rush for the new Fire Breath skill,” he replied. “With you here, with the turret here, and with Lucy and them fighting over there, we can’t give up a single inch here, brother.”
A deep, rumbling roar filled the air, and Chedderfield spun round to see a massive horde of hell-cursed creatures sweeping down the street from the alleyways and nearby hotel. A hundred feet pounded the asphalt, and he could make out their decayed features, empty eyes, and broken skin that hung off the bone. Archimedes' turret opened fire with a loud bark, its large caliber rounds cutting through the mass of undead and taking out a chunk of the building behind them.
With a deep breath, Chedderfield unleashed his Acid Breath in a powerful cone of bile that washed over the six leading zombie runners, burning their faces and upper bodies as well as tripping up the monsters behind them.
To his left, he heard a loud belch and felt a wave of heat hit him as he saw a blast of fire coming from Archimedes. The flames engulfed another five monsters even as the summoned turret fired another round. Then the rushing monsters were upon him, and Chedderfield was forced to focus on the enemy. His whip disappeared, replaced by his spiked bone knuckles. He grabbed the closest zombie and threw it into the purifying ring, where it burst into white flames.
He’d fought more zombies than this before but never with so few defenders. With only Archimedes and himself to deal with the hundred creatures charging toward him, Chedderfield found himself relying on the power of the cleansing ring to deal with the majority of the monsters. He charged into the throng, swinging his fists, kicking with his feet, and spewing acid to grab a group of monsters’ attention and draw them into the circle, where they quickly died from the white flames or from a powerful shot from the turret. His approach felt more like herding than fighting as he used Meat Slam to knock over four zombies that had tried to get past him to attack the still semi-transparent and non-functional wall behind them. Then he quickly used the skill again to retreat to the ring as the monsters turned their attention to him.
Another loud belch and a meaty explosion made him turn for a second to see Archimedes facing a similar problem as he pushed the crowding monsters back with Fire Breath and a powerful series of spear thrusts. Between the two of them, they’d already dealt with more than half the mob, killing the zombies or forcing them into the devastating ring and turret combo.
The thought crossed Chedderfield’s mind that, at this rate, they’d be able to help out on the west side of the building soon.
Suddenly, an earsplitting bellow echoed through the air. A ten-foot-tall figure, shining like a falling star, dropped from the rooftop across the street with such force that it caused the ground to tremble. Bits of asphalt flew through the air like shrapnel and zombies nearby were struck down by the bombardment of debris. When the dust settled, they saw a crystalline creature looming over them, its form made of refracting triangular prisms that created an iridescent effect.
“See if you can survive this!” the monster taunted in a deep baritone voice as it leapt into the air, spinning like a top. The creature seemed to absorb the light from the sun as it spun, creating a brilliant energy that pulsed brighter and brighter each moment until the monster landed on the ground and held out his hand toward Archimedes. A foot-thick beam of energy shot out, and Archimedes leapt away from the turret and out of the ring, narrowly avoiding being hit. The turret barrel lowered as Archimedes left its activation radius—one of the few drawbacks to the weapon—and he quickly ran back toward it. The energy beam slowly followed the man like a terrible James Bond villain weapon, superheating and boiling the asphalt as it traveled, and for a moment, it looked like the turret would be destroyed, but it cut off inches from the stationary object.
“We need air support!!” Archimedes yelled as he stood up and readied his spear. His turret shot the zombies around the giant crystal hulk but didn’t hit the behemoth itself.
“You don’t have enough kills for that ability!” Nguyen called back, but even as she did, Archimedes could see a laser shot following up a second later, the long red beam of destruction hitting a zombie and burning a clean hole through its head before it dropped to the ground.
The light inside the prism creature dimmed as the energy it had stored was spent, and the sharp edges of its shoulders sagged for a moment. Chedderfield could see a dim light growing in the creature and knew that he could not let the thing build up more energy for another shot. He used Meat Slam to charge through the zombies that were still trying to reach the deadly turret. He felt rotting undead hands grasp at him, fists punch him, and jagged teeth try to bite him, but none got through his samurai armor before he broke through the zombie ranks.
The crystal prism creature stood tall, the momentary fatigue gone as it tilted its faceless head to look down at Chedderfield. It stretched out a hand, palm up, and beckoned. Chedderfield took the invitation. He activated Meat Slam again and felt himself speed through the air toward the creature. His shoulder hit the monster's legs with the power of a professional linebacker, but the monster did not budge an inch. Instead, Chedderfield felt like he had tried to tackle a building and the semi-transparent protective layer created by his skill flared as it absorbed the kinetic force and he bounced off.
“Pathetic,” the creature mocked in its deep voice as the monster’s crystal knee snapped forward, catching Chedderfield in the chest with enough force to knock him backward.
The world spun around Chedderfield as he hurtled through the air until he landed on his back with a thud. He tucked his head forward as he landed, avoiding a concussion due to the force of the landing, but the wind was knocked out of him. As he fought to regain his breath, he stared up at the creature he had, for some crazy reason, decided to tackle one on one. It stomped towards him, emitting a resonating laugh. He was sure his time on this earth was done, but then two laser beams hit the creature, turning its attention toward the shots. The lasers did no damage. They bounced around the inside of the monster like pinballs until they hit some weird angle and shot right back out. One went straight into the air, and the other zipped right past Chedderfield’s face and burned a hole in the asphalt behind him.
There was another vibrating laugh from the monster as it saw that the attacks hadn’t done any damage, and it turned back to Chedderfield. But the distraction had given him enough time to recover his breath, and he had rolled back onto his feet. The creature was powerful but not fast. As it lumbered toward him, he darted in, fist raised to strike. The monster saw him and kicked out with his left foot, and Chedderfield dove to the right, activating Acid Breath. The creature’s leg took a close-up shot of foul fluid, and the monster roared as part of the limb started to pit and melt.
The repeated use of the breath ability had started to take a toll on Chedderfield as he coughed and saw specks of blood on his hand. But between damaging his lungs a little and not being able to hurt the monster at all, he knew the choice he had to make. He dashed in again.
The creature, however, did not attack, instead leaping into the air again and spinning.
“Shit!” Chedderfield yelled, worried about being hit with one of the deadly beams of energy.
But there was a loud thud, and something struck the spinning monster midair, sending it flying backward to crash through the front of the hotel. Chedderfield turned to see Archimedes holding up three burning zombies on his raised spear like a gruesome shishkabob and his summoned turret’s barrel smoking from its most recent shot.
Automated Turret construction complete.
Congratulations! You have managed to defend your base against a concerted attack from the Demonic Faction and created an automatic weapon that will destroy your enemies for you in the event that you are too lazy to do it yourself. Though death is inevitable, struggle on for the sake of glorious battle!
Chedderfield read the notification quickly, and then a crash of bricks brought his attention back to the enemy, who was rising from the dust and rubble of the building it had crashed into. The creature had a large crack in its left shoulder.
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The monster turned toward the sound of Chedderfield’s voice and held out his right arm. The energy it had gathered shot out of its hand as a beam of energy. Chedderfield flailed his arms and twisted as he tried to dodge but was too close to the creature. He felt a burning sensation that traveled up his unarmored right arm even as he twisted to the right and spun out of control and fell again. He gave the burnt and blistered skin of his right forearm a quick glance, but immediately returned his attention to the monster and saw it sag as what little energy it had been able to gather was spent.
“Focus on shattering it!” Chedderfield yelled out, knowing that their best weapon was Archimedes' turret.
His preconception was ruined a moment later when a ballista-bolt-sized spear of ice came arcing through the air and slammed into the prism monster. The spear burst as it hit, coating the creature and two feet around it in frost, freezing the thing in place in an instant.
Another shot from Archimedes’ turret hit the monster, and the fracture in its body spread with a sharp crack, the top half of the creature tumbling off the bottom and landing with a thunk. A floating silver card appeared above the remains of the monster, and Chedderfield knew they’d finally won their fight.
Chedderfield gave a ragged chuckle as he got to his feet and approached the destroyed monster, touching the floating silver card before kicking a frozen chunk of crystal angrily.
Laser Refraction
Current Classification: Silver
Current Level: 01
Ability: Allow the user to refract one laser shot every 10 minutes without taking damage.
He turned back toward the aquarium, his arm stinging with every movement. He cradled his injured limb to his chest as he jogged to Archimedes.
“I think we lived, but they might not have. Let’s get going. I’ll help you carry this,” Chedderfield said, taking a deep breath as the two of them stood in the middle of the field of dead zombies and prepared to charge toward the western flank of the aquarium to give support to Lucy, the lizardmen, and whoever else was fighting for them there. However, just as he was about to lift the heavy turret with his left arm, Archimedes stopped him, handing him a card.
“You need this first,” he said as Chedderfield grabbed the card. “And then you need this.” Archimedes pushed yet another object at Chedderfield before he could even inspect the card. It was a large chunk of the dead crystalized zombie’s flesh.
“Right now? We’re in the middle of a fight, and we need to—”
“There are enough cards right next to us that your share alone is more than enough to boost it to silver right here, and I’m Not Dead Yet isn’t fast enough for you, and you know it. We need you at a hundred percent. I can’t have you dying on me because it’s a little gross, so don’t waste time arguing. Just take it,” Archimedes insisted, breaking the hunk of monster in half and eating it right in front of him before pushing the remaining chunk of crystalized meat at Chedderfield’s chest. Arc then turned and started to gather his half of the cards around them, also picking up the turret by himself, while Chedderfield just looked down at the gift.
Checking his hit points, he realized Archimedes wasn’t wrong. With the long cooldown of I’m Not Dead Yet, even if he slotted it, it would take well over twenty minutes just to heal the 60 points of damage caused by the laser injury.
“Fine,” Chedderfield grumbled, not wanting to be stuck holding the gross chunk of crystallized zombie flesh longer than necessary. He paused to swap out Ring of Purity, which he wouldn’t be able to use for an hour anyway, for Undead Delight before quickly gathering his cards and upgrading. When it reached silver rank, he remembered Archimedes’ advice and the whole purpose of Archimedes trying to get everyone to use the card, so he took the bonus Flesh of My Flesh.
Having done that, he then looked down at the fist-sized chunks of meat he was holding and realized something: it looked delicious. Biting into it and eating it as quickly as possible, he felt like part of his humanity had been lost somewhere in the process, but he nevertheless finished off the zombified remains of what was likely once a person just like him.
“You coming?” Archimedes shouted from up ahead. He was walking along with an awkwardly wide stance while doing his best to single-handedly carry the large turret.
“Yeah, I got you,” Chedderfield replied, glancing down at the burnt flesh that already seemed to be healing before rushing toward him.
“Thanks, this thing is a pain in the ass,” Archimedes complained as he set it down for a moment. Chedderfield took one end, Archimedes took the other, and the two of them lifted it back up, easily carrying the thing between them.
“Remember when we had to put this damn thing on one of those bellhop cart thingies just to move it, and it took like three or four of us to lift it?” Archimedes asked with a chuckle while the two of them ran as fast as they could with the turret toward the west flank.
As they moved, Chedderfield could see that the upgrade of the coral wall was progressing in sections, and during their fight, over one hundred feet of the wall had been modified, growing five feet taller and three feet thicker and gaining larger clam shells that undoubtedly housed even more powerful tendrils that would defend it. Another section westward was still translucent as it continued its gradual upgrade.
Rounding the corner of the aquarium, Chedderfield and Archimedes were greeted with a chaotic hellscape of a battlefield. There were what looked like fifty or sixty man-height long-legged spiders swarming in all directions from the parking lot. Chip and four of the otters were riding the giant crocodile across the blacktop, the furry alien translator at the front, communicating between them all as the crocodile ran from the spiders, using its tail to swat any of them that got close while the four otters blasted their ice powers in all directions.
Directly in front of the coral wall, Emma lay injured, unmoving out on the ground and bleeding out by the looks of it from the red staining the left side of her shirt. Lucy and two of the lizardmen fought around her, doing their best to keep Emma safe as they slashed and stabbed at half a dozen giant spiders. Laser beams and ice spears came down from above to cover Lucy and the Lizardmen’s gaps in defense, showing what Danielle and Nguyen had been doing while Chedderfield and Archimedes had been handling the Demonic Faction wave.
Chedderfield couldn't see the last two lizardmen, but given how the mob of spiders was moving, it was clear they were fighting in the far distance, fending off an onslaught.
“CRAP! Go ahead of me! Help Lucy and Emma!” Archimedes yelled, his voice way more panicked than Chedderfield had heard before. Archimedes shifted position and lifted the weight of the turret off Chedderfield.
“I got 'em, hermano. Don’t worry,” Chedderfield replied as he activated Meat Slam and charged forward to the nearest of the long-legged spiders. His right arm was still not fully healed, so he drove a spiked knuckle duster into the fat abdomen of the spider with a left jab, which was enough to send the insect rolling four feet back. The creature flailed its eight legs for a moment and then righted itself and turned its hairy head toward him, who couldn’t deny that there was a little sense of dread welling up in him as the two-foot-long sleek pedipalps moved around in the air in front of the hideous monster’s mouth, hiding the sharp, sleek fangs behind, as eight golf-ball-sized red eyes practically glowed while staring at him.
As the spider adjusted itself, its legs rhythmically clicked atop the concrete, causing two spiders to turn and scurry toward it, ready to join the fight. Chedderfield gulped at the thought of facing not one but three of the giant arachnids when he heard a thud, and one of the scurrying spiders crumpled from the impact of a turret shell, its body becoming a splatter of yellow goo and chitin.
“I thought you said you were going to help them!” Archimedes called out from behind Chedderfield, who turned to see his friend taking a knee on the ground as he did his best to absorb the recoil of the massive turret in his hands.
“I— Meat Slam needs a target! Just give me a moment!” Chedderfield replied before picking a closer target, one of the spiders running away from the maw of the big crocodile. He used Meat Slam to shoulder-check it, sending it flying right into the open snapping jaws of the crocodile. Despite the arachnid being bigger than Chedderfield, the croc ate it in a single bite, chomping one extra time for measure as it ran past Chedderfield.
At this point, Chedderfield had a clear and open route to Lucy and took advantage of it. Since he was close, he activated Acid Breath, vomiting up the contents of his belly, including the Prism Hulk’s flesh, adding sharp shards of digested crystal to the attack as it spewed out like acidic shrapnel in a cone in front of him.
Because of the size of the monsters, even with the range and spray, he was only able to hit two of the spiders, but the acid was damaging enough that it all but killed them on the spot.
“They’re weak against elemental and energy-based attacks!” Nguyen yelled from above, likely intuiting Chedderfield’s confusion. “But don’t get hit by them, that poison knocked Emma out with one bite. I think it might be paralytic!”
Great, they look so easy to dodge, Chedderfield thought sarcastically as he Meat-Slammed into the back of one of the spiders trying to get at Emma, knocking it forward as Sharpfang took advantage of the creature’s imbalance and finished it off with a quick glowing spear thrust through the largest of the creature’s eyes and out the back of its head.
After the spider had been killed off, Chedderfield shoved its corpse to the side as he moved into the squad-like formation, taking his place between Sharpfang and Redeye before quickly turning to face the incoming spiders.
Another spider appeared in front of him, raising its front four legs and feelers as it began to encircle Chedderfield’s field of vision with its limbs while another spider began crawling on the back of the first spider like it was going to leap over the one Chedderfield was fighting and attack the group from above.
“Keeping this damn brat alive is such a pain in the ass,” Lucy yelled from behind.
Chedderfield was going to say something in reply, but his brain had already instinctively activated an ability that used his mouth, and a spew of acidic bile left him through that opening, spraying out in all directions and melting the carapaces of the monsters in front of him with ease, bubbles forming across their surface before openings formed, and the two spiders organs spilled out and onto the ground in front of Chedderfield.
Sensing the gap in the formation, a third spider charged forward, leaping into the air over the two that Chedderfield had just killed with Acid Breath only to be pierced and killed by a giant red beam from the sky.
Chedderfield thought he’d be able to take a breather for a moment as the three now-dead spiders created a wall taller than he was with their bodies, but his assumption was immediately broken as a spider appeared out of nowhere, using what looked like Chedderfield’s own favorite Meat Slam skill to knock the corpse wall away and position itself right in front of him.
The hairless spider with a silky-smooth black carapace hissed aggressively and reared up, lunging with its front legs. Chedderfield grabbed the grasping legs and entered a struggle of strength to see who would push back whom. He strained against the creature, who had the benefit of being able to bring its weight down on him. His legs started to buckle, but then he activated Surge of Power and felt heat spread through his body as his muscles bulged. He pushed the giant arachnid back, an inch at first and then two, the creature’s pedipalps wiggling frantically as it tried to stab Chedderfield with fangs filled with paralytic poison. Then, with a mighty heave, Chedderfield threw the monster onto its back.
Before he could follow up, he heard a hiss from behind him as a lizardman leapt over him to land on the creature's abdomen and stab down into it. Then, with a powerful upward swing, the alien warrior nearly sliced the creature in two.
A loud thud sounded as another of the spiders was hit with an ice spear, freezing it in place. Chedderfield was close enough to see the frozen spider clearly as Archimedes launched himself at the creature, his turret deactivating the moment he left its side, and sliced through the monster's head with a swift swing of his glowing spear. The monster’s head slid from its thorax a moment later and shattered as it hit the ground, and a bronze card appeared above its frozen form. Archimedes skipped back into the activation range of his turret, the weapon roaring back to life just in time to kill another spider.
As the ballista above continued to fire off the massive ice spears, one after another of the spiders was frozen in place only to have Archimedes' turret blast it to pieces a moment later. The ones not killed by the turret were destroyed by the segments of the upgraded wall as its tentacles reached out and crushed them, or they were finished off by the lizardmen’s spears and staves stabbing, slicing, or blasting them.
With their side of the fight finished, Archimedes and Chedderfield ran to join the rest of the group. Archimedes carefully picked up the injured Emma while she healed, and they all followed the semi-transparent section of the wall as it was restructured and upgraded in thirty-foot sections at a time. With the vulnerable segment of the wall not being that large, and Archimedes holding Emma so that Chedderfield and the others no longer had to defend her and the wall as well, it became much easier for everyone to protect the barrier from monsters that continued to spawn for the remaining twenty minutes on the upgrade timer. Their job was made much lighter with everyone working together, and the upgraded wall’s increased height and enhanced clamshell tendrils became fully capable of killing the monsters that tried to breach it. The few monsters that did cause damage to the coral reef found their efforts to be in vain as the wall regenerated faster than they could destroy it and left them vulnerable to the defensive tentacles that tore them apart as they tried to break through.
Regenerative Coral Wall upgrade complete.
Congratulations! You have managed to defend your base against a concerted attack from the Demonic, Insectoid, and independent factions and created a defensive structure that will do the job of defending your base for you. Though death is inevitable, struggle on for the sake of glorious battle!
The message that popped up for all of the group marked the end of the seemingly endless stream of monsters attracted by the base upgrades. Chedderfield felt himself sag as sweat poured off him. He read the notification and noted peripherally that Sharpfang had struck a killing blow to a hulk, the last enemy on the field. Even with his enhanced constitution, he felt drained from the continued fighting and skill usage.
“That’s one way to burn some calories,” Lucy remarked as she sat beside him, her own body perspiring profusely. “Though it’s not my favorite way to exercise.” She finished with a wink at Archimedes, who was walking toward her.
“You might not have heard it all the way down there,” Danielle yelled out in the distance, “but I made an inappropriate sexual innuendo and even added a wink too! I added two winks even! At the same time!”
“Isn’t that just blinking?” Nguyen, who was still next to Danielle on top of the aquarium asked, just loudly enough for Chedderfield to hear her too.
“IT’S NOT A BLINK! IT’S TWO SIMULTANEOUS SEXY WINKS NO MATTER WHO ASKS!” Danielle loudly insisted, but the fact she couldn’t stop giggling while trying to yell it out let Chedderfield know not to take her seriously.
The overall peace of the moment, the silliness of Danielle’s comment, and the goofy back and forth that was going on as Chedderifeld watched his girl looking so pleased with herself over her comment—it all left him smiling ear to ear for the first time since the morning started.