Revelation 3:2
“Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.”
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The celebrations were light, Joe’s gleeful ‘healing’ was painful and exhausting and most everyone had been kissed by that damned red-hot blade. Someone broke out a few bottles of whiskey and everyone took plugs then someone had produced proper cups and those started getting filled. I sat back and chatted with Lena about nothing much at all.
I nudged her, “Come on now.”
She gave me a skeptical look, “Come on what now?”
I rolled my eyes in response, “You know…”
“Know what?”
“Victory speech!” I raised my glass and announced before switching it and starting a speech-speech-speech chant. I realized just afterwards the average age of the people around me and the fact that my little stunt could have just failed miserably. Oh God, that would have been awful. I blew out my cheeks to release some anxiety from the situation that hadn’t even happened.
She gave it and… it wasn’t half bad. Honestly anything she said would have been fine. Gramps moved over to take a seat next to me and refilled my cup with more whiskey.
“You did alright, boy.”
“Thanks Gramps, was that you with the shot through the zombie’s neck at the end?”
He grunted, “Lotta good that did you, still almost died like a punk.”
“Well thanks, I had thought you went down for an old person nap or something. I wasn’t worried about you being eaten though, too bitter for zombies to want a taste.”
“Brat.” He was smiling and held up a cauterized bite mark on the bottom side of his palm.
Old Joe came by and he taught me some of his old war chants which we loudly proclaimed in the increasing drunkenness. I almost wished I could take both him and Lena with me. I knew I couldn’t. Still, it was a great few drunken hours that were sorely needed after the last week.
With the doors having been recently opened, everyone decided to not sleep in the auditorium with its hastily, and drunkenly, refortified door. Instead, everyone chose closer confines with each other, spread over a few classrooms on the second floor. Lena and I talked for a long while about nearly everything, lives before, plans for the future, and some other stuff before bedding down ourselves.
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I started awake in the middle of the night, almost used to it by now. I looked at my watch, about an hour until dawn if I was guessing right. Damn, I used to sleep so well. I groaned at the thought then realized that it was… quiet. A metal-nail grinding on glass feeling scraped at the back of my neck. I pictured Lena dying a hundred different ways.
The skill, ‘eyes in the back of the lord’s head’, it was kicking in. I looked over to Lena and she looked… fine. I looked again, after pushing the sludgy dark into the back of my eyes to activate Evil Eye. There was a putrid glob that settled on a small scratch on the back of each of her hands. I tried to shake her awake, then Gramps, I didn’t see old Joe but he could have been in the other rooms. Everyone else was out cold.
I geared up, picked up a shield that had been left by the door, then drew my sword and followed the dark thread of writhing slime out of the classroom and down the hall.
It disappeared into the stairwell and I scoped around looking to see if it branched off anywhere. I focused on thickening the greasy oil around my eyes and could make out that it did go into the stairwell. It was dark and I couldn’t see anything down there. I drew my pistol in my shieldhand. I was getting a bad feeling about all of this and I silently chided myself, I should have handled this earlier. I just got caught up in victory.
I crept down, pistol-shield raised and sword held in a loose and ready grip. It went beyond quiet, this was definitely supernatural-system-bullshit. There was a door at the end of the hall and I could see a faint glow of light peeking out from the base of the door. Then I saw something interrupt that line of light for a fraction of a second. Not from inside, outside.
I raised my shield and a burst of light filled the hallway as a *blam* sounded, my shield was pulled to the side and rocked me back. Stalwart kept me on course as I realigned and pulled the trigger on my .38 over and over. A blind gunfight erupted in the hallway as I moved to the side and felt air kick past my face and a bullet graze my right arm.
By my last bullet I saw the body slump. I didn’t spare it another glance as I threw my pistol to the side and kicked the door open in a vicious stomp.
The three women, covered in darkness with twisted features, froze.
They pleaded something about how it wasn’t their fault or that they would kill Lena if I didn’t stop. I didn’t listen as I cut through them one after another.
Quest 3 of 3 Completed. Class Advancement Selection Options Available. Singular Class-Locked Light-Affinity Skill Available.
“Display Available Class Advancement Selection Options. Display List of Purchasable Skills with Feat Points.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Two screens opened up in front of me. I suspected that I had help opening the first screen, I suspected that Gabriel could assist that much, even though he chose not to and let the system revert to the default commands. I reviewed them quickly, as the bloody mess around me finally sank in.
Class Advancement Selection Options: Requirements: Secondary Requirements: Wandering Light Knight Must possess Light Affinity and Light Affinity Skill(s) Must not possess Dark Affinity or Dark Affinity Skills Wandering Dark Knight Must possess Dark Affinity and Dark Affinity Skill(s) Must not possess Light Affinity or Light Affinity Skills
Wait. “Display List of Possessed Qualities.” I found the one I was looking for.
Evil Eye (Dark Affinity) Unsettle others with some bad ocular juju.
“Display Status”
I only saw Light Affinity, still with a line through it. I noted that I had 14 Feat Points but my mind quickly swept over that. Did Gabby screw me over by making me take that skill? I memorized what both options said then shoved it and my feelings, my theories about what was happening, and even the fantasies about torturing an archangel all down into a little box, shoved that in a box, and reviewed the option that remained.
I ignored the name of the class as that was just going to piss me off.
Requirements: Has completed admirable Feats in service to a Lord or The Lord without joining that/The Lord’s service.
Secondary Requirements: Must have possessed that lord/The Lord’s consent to perform deeds in their territory.
I sighed and selected it then dismissed that window to look at the Purchasable Skill List, I focused on the Light Affinity Skills.
Gaze of Heaven Light in the Dark. Never be caught in the dark, empower your eyes to emit Light. Upgradeable. 3 Feat Points Light-Blade Empower your attacks with the force of Light, deals critical damage to beings of the Dark. Increased speed and velocity of attacks empowered by this attribute. 7 Feat Points
I almost selected Light-Blade on a whim, but held myself back. I felt my Fortitude drop a point as it was overtaxed then tick back up, even stronger. Even the ridiculousness of getting a Feat point in Fortitude for resisting that option could barely keep me from selecting it.
Heal Thyself Heal another up to moderate damage, then heal thyself 5 Feat Points Heal Myself Heal yourself for light damage once a day and restore a measure of endurance to your body. 5 Feat Points
The small miracle, which I was feeling a bit sore about, was that I had 14 Feat points and could easily afford anything on the list. Otherwise, the prices were highway fucking robbery.
I’d buy every skill on the list if I had the choice. Even Eyes of Heaven might be nice as a direct contradiction to Evil Eye. In fact, by that logic I almost might take it. Logically though, there were only two options. Heal Thyself and Heal Myself. Thyself had ‘moderate’ compared to ‘light’ damage, but required that I heal someone else before I could heal myself. ‘Myself’ also had an endurance boost which could be helpful, though I didn’t like the once-a-day part. Both had their own advantages and disadvantages.
I heard a groan from outside the door. I smiled as something clicked. Perfect.
I pulled out my flashlight and cranked it before my head rocked back in surprise. It was the old-timer who had screwed me with the trade for my .38 ammo. What the hell?
I slapped him then looked at his body. I had hit him in the left shoulder and in the gut.
“You alive you bastard? Why were you working with them?” I slapped him again for trying to dick me on the trade deal the other day.
He laughed then blood spilled from his mouth, “I’m dyin’ and I ain’t tellin’ you shit about those Hags.”
Fair enough, if you were a bastard, you were a bastard, no reason why the apocalypse and a looming death would change that.
I kicked his weapons away from him then laid a hand on him and willed light into him. Nothing
I snapped my fingers then tried again. Still nothing. My eyes narrowed before I snapped both fingers and willed his damage into me. I got the sense that I had to choose the shoulder or the gut. I chose the shoulder first and we both gasped as his pain hit me and he found himself healed. I double snapped again and applied ‘Thyself’ to his gutshot and he tried to struggle and almost threw me off before I rocked the desk-shield into his nose and snapped his head back into the hard linoleum.
I was about to spend the healing on myself before I got an idea. First though, I touched my stomach and didn’t feel anything wet, then my shoulder. No damage to either my gut or shoulder. So I just got the pain from the person I healed? It lingered but… it wasn’t bad. Well, it was actually pretty painful but it wasn’t debilitating. I felt a bit more tired too, which meant the ‘healing others’ part used Fortitude.
I looked through the List of Purchasable Skills I still had up and spent another 3 Feat Points on Eviler Eye. I pulled the sludge up behind my eyes, snapped my fingers and then grabbed the side of his head so we were looking at each other eye to eye. The sludge… connected to the curses on my shoulder and ankle and moved into my eyes before draining into him as he screamed and yelled. I punched him with my shield and the pommel a few times to dissuade any creative thinking on his end then I stripped him of what he owned that could be a weapon, making sure to recover my coffee beans.
I debated it but settled on punching him with the shield over and over again until I was sure that he had stopped thinking of resisting and threw him into the room with the hags’ bodies. I used the same bit of paracord I had tied my own room shut on my first night and used it to secure the door closed and anchored to the stairway railing.
Expecting noise and accusation, I crept upstairs, but heard nothing. I found the door leading outside and carefully moved the slapshod reinforcements, then turned back to check that no one was…