~~~Caffeine~~~
Caffeine was having the best time eating all the chicken with both Dearest Humans. They played chase! And rubbed his belly just right! And gave him so much chicken!
Then it all went away... it was dark... and cold. He remembered now. Dearest Humans had been hurt so bad. They almost left him alone... But he helped them! Helped them very hard! It hurt... but that was okay, because they didn't leave.
He could smell Dearest Human next to him... he smelled like hurt and tired. There was another smell, too. Smelled like... food! He sent his tongue out, and it found the meat. Very good meat! The kind made by Big Food Human. He was a Good Not Dearest Human!
Caffeine wanted more, but he was tired. A nap first.
Dearest Humans played with him some more in the sleep place. It was nice... but he wanted to play with them in the not sleep place, too. And he was hungry... he smelled more meat! His tongue grabbed it... and he smelled something else. Bad Not Human! Bad not for eating meat!
Then he heard his Not Dearest Human Friend scream. Hurt! Danger! ATTACK!
Caffeine forced his tired eyes open and bit the Bad Not Human as hard as he could. It tasted very bad... he was trying to shake the bad taste away when another one jumped inside. Caffeine bit that one, too. Yuck!
"Caffeine! Oh, thank you! Thank you... I'm so happy you're okay! You're a good boy!" Not Dearest Human Friend sounded happy, but she smelled like hurt. Like blood. Caffeine licked her arm where it smelled the worst. Licking always made him feel better when something hurt.
She scratched his head and ears just right while he licked. She was a Nice Friend. The other Friends were outside. They were making the Stinky Not Humans go away. That was good... but he was still very tired.
Caffeine crawled onto Dearest Human. It was the best place for naps. He would nap while Dearest Human rested.
He sniffed Dearest Human's food, but didn't take it. Dearest Human might be hungry, too, when he woke up.
~~~Stanley~~~
Stanley didn't want to leave the dark. Only pain waited beyond.
But he couldn't stay... he didn't deserve to rest. He didn't deserve peace. Weakness deserved no peace. No joy. Weakness deserved only death. And Lee was the one who would pay the price for his uselessness.
So Stanley clawed his way from the peaceful dark. Dragged himself back into the nightmare that was life. It hurt. As it should.
Caffeine greeted him as enthusiastically as ever when Stanley forced his eyes open, and he allowed himself to enjoy the attention. Even though he could feel the pug's fatigue. No, especially because he could feel it.
This was his fault. Caffeine had to suffer because he was too weak to protect him... so Stanley comforted the pug while vowing never to let it happen again. As he had before... useless, weak promises...
Then he ate what he had too and gave the rest to Caffeine. There were no buffs from the food, which meant they'd been here long enough for them to expire. Stanley had a general sense of time passing while he was unconscious, but was hazy on just how much time he'd lost.
Samantha was slumped against the wall across from him in this... closet. She was bloody, and she opened bleary eyes while he was eating. Probably woken by Caffeine's happy noises. "S... Stanley?"
Corpses littered the floor outside, and he could feel Arthur and Jerry, one near the stairs and the other at the window, killing zombies with long spears. They must have carried him inside and given the corpses he could feel piled up... everywhere... had they fought all night? Samantha certainly looked exhausted.
Stanley crushed every zombie his mind could reach, grimacing at the spike of pain the action sent through his head. "Thanks..." His own voice came out hoarse. "For protecting Caffeine."
Samantha smiled, her eyelids fluttering. "Of... course..." She tilted sideways along the wall as she spoke and ended up laid out on the floor. Unconscious. That was fine. She'd earned the rest.
Jerry and Arthur appeared in the doorway moments later. The relief was plainly visible on their faces when they saw him, and Jerry immediately collapsed next to Samantha. "Do you mind if... I..." Then he passed out.
Arthur sat more deliberately, watching Stanley. "W... what happened to you?"
Stanley eyed him. Did they need to know about Lee? What difference did it make? They couldn't do anything to help. But... they'd earned an explanation by their actions here. So he told Arthur the truth. "I am too fucking weak! I fucked up by even being in this cursed city, and it nearly cost me everything..."
"That doesn't..." Arthur sighed and shook his head as his eyes closed. "If you are too weak, then we're doomed."
"I can get stronger," Stanley whispered as he pet the once again sleeping Caffeine. "I will get stronger!"
He could feel more monsters entering his mental touch from every direction, but they were slow, mostly. One came in hot and Stanley bashed its head to pulp with a rock. Then he checked his status to find out why his head hurt so much.
Status
Name: Stanley Cascade
Race: [Psychomancer](F-Grade Human)
Titles: [Titan Slayer]
Traits: [Adaptable](67%) [Energetic Resilience] [Psycho]
Class: Psionic (Rare) - Level 28 (Intermediate)
Class Skills: Psychokinesis (Uncommon) - Level 35 (Intermediate) | Premonition (Epic) - Level 12 (Basic) | Accelerated Thought (Rare) - Level 4 (Novice)
Attributes:
Strength: 70(-10%)63
Vitality: 71(-9%)64
Dexterity 70(-1%)70
Wisdom 70(+179%)195
Intelligence 70(+178%)194
Willpower 85(+683%)665
Twin-Soul ???
Non-Class Skills 1/3: Knife Work (Rare) - Level 9 (Novice)
Buff:
Debuff: [Rage Overload] [Cerebral Fatigue] [Starving]
That shit again. Not unexpected, but annoying all the same. Just another sign that he was too weak. At least he'd earned a full ten willpower along with the debuff. It all felt rather anti-climatic. You almost died, so here's some willpower and a debuff or two. Just another day. Carry on. Though technically, it hadn't been him that was dying. It was Lee. His brother just so happened to drag him along for the trip.
Stanley watched the others sleep. Blissfully unaware. Believing they were safe. Fools all of them.
Lucky fools...
He gathered them up, along with their stuff, and carried everyone outside into the sunlight. Judging by how high the sun was above the horizon, Stanley guessed at least a couple of hours since dawn. That meant they'd protected him for somewhere like eighteen hours? Twenty? That would explain their fatigue... but not the ridiculous number of zombies that had swarmed the building.
Hundreds of dead faces followed their progress as Stanley flew up and away from the building. Faces from every manner of strange beast to even zombie humans. The swarm of death all turned as one in a futile attempt to reach him. Then the tide stalled as he climbed higher.
Watching that left Stanley wondering why they'd charged in all night if it was so easy to throw them off. Maybe it wasn't a line-of-sight issue, but more likely a range thing. Unless they could communicate...
Of course, plenty of the zombies didn't even have enough muscles to walk, and they did it anyway. Magic. Bullshit as always. What was a little more to help them swarm?
Stanley flew to the restaurant, only half expecting it to be still standing.
It stood. He saw fire blooming from the open doors and sweeping over a similar swarm of undead as he approached.
He waited for the flames to clear before flying down and found himself face to face with Tony.
The fire caster shouted, fire flaring in his cupped hands. Then recognition dawned and hatred warred with fear in his eyes.
Stanley stared him down as he flew right up to the doors. You earned everything I gave you.
If this little shit wanted to start something now, he would snatch the life out of him, debuff or not. Zombie horde or not.
Tony looked away first, his gaze landing on the unconscious people floating behind Stanley. Then he threw his spell into the zombies and turned back inside. Two men flanked him, maybe his groupies from last time, or... who the fuck cared? Stanley followed with his burdens and asked about something he'd never considered before today. "Are there any healers here?"
"How did they get hurt with you..." Tony stopped talking at whatever he saw in Stanley's glare. He pointed across the dining room, now filled with beds instead of tables. "Healer."
A lone woman strode wearily among a crowd of prone and wounded people, so Stanley went to her. "You the healer?"
She only glanced briefly at his companions before turning away. "Can't help the girl, and the other two are low priority."
Stanley frowned at her. "Can't help her with what?"
"Her arm," the healer said while bending over a one armed man in a bed. "Corruption's got her. Don't know what it is. Don't know what it'll do. All I know is I can't remove it, so don't even bother threatening me."
Stanley shut his mouth. He hadn't been about to threaten her... He looked at Samantha again, and at the ugly bite wound on her arm. It was bloody, and maybe darker than it should be, but he'd assumed she would heal like before. Finding a healer was just to speed it up... but now, corruption?
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
"We aren't kicking them out yet," the healer said behind him. "The corrupted. But they have to be watched. Especially if they're dying."
"They're not... she's not dying." Was she?
"We are assuming they will become zombies... but then everyone who dies does that now. So we don't know. Yet."
Samantha would become a zombie? Stanley hovered in place and tried to get his aching head to decide what it was feeling. He didn't care about them... did he? Not that much... but they'd fought all night protecting him. Or protecting themselves while hoping I would save them. Or Caffeine would save them. Was that all it had been? Or had they actually fought to protect him?
That swarm of undead... had it been after him and Caffeine? Could they have run away and left him to die? But that would mean they... cared. That they weren't just using him...
The pug still slept in his lap, and Stanley suspected he'd helped in the night. That was the only explanation. Otherwise, it meant that Caffeine had taken a truly massive hit yesterday. To be knocked out for almost an entire twenty-four hours... What did you do, Caff? How much did I hurt you this time?
He laid the humans out on a few unoccupied beds and went into the kitchen. Caffeine didn't stir.
Bill looked up from staring at a lump of charred meat on the floor, blinked a few times, and said, "Stanley. I'm sorry. Food's gone."
Stanley felt Caffeine finally stir at the man's voice, his eyes cracking open briefly before closing again. "What's that then?" He pointed at the blackened meat, which was suspicious. Didn't the guy have magic cooking power? How did he burn something?
"That was a failed attempt to make this blasted shite edible!"
"Are you trying to eat the zombies?" That sounded like a terrible idea.
"Everything becomes a zombie when it dies... so I guess I was."
Right... hadn't Samantha said something about the debuff lingering now? But didn't it also go away in a lair? This was a lair...
Stanley flew back outside.
Debuff Resisted: [Miasma]
It was indeed still blocking the miasma. So he went looking for a monster lair.
It didn't take long. Then he kept going when the first was full of bugs. He found something hairy and quadruped in the next. Good enough. His knife killed the first one inside the door, and he threw the body outside. Then he waited while a few of the lair monsters stuck their noses out, but none emerged past the door. It wasn't unheard of for some monsters to hold back, but that was usually after he'd slaughtered enough of them. Did they know what was happening out here?
The dead monster twitched and lunged for its own core. Stanley snatched it first. Then he watched to see what happened.
Unsurprisingly, it ran right back into the lair. Well, more like shambled back in. They did not welcome it home in the least. Every one of its brethren went to town on their prodigal son... or daughter, ripping it apart in seconds. Then they even pushed the corpse back out the door...
That last bit was disturbingly... intelligent? Stanley still went on a killing spree with his knife. Not the whole building, just the front room and the few who ran into it after the slaughter. Either they gave up on fighting him, or they didn't have magic communication like zombies seemed to.
Stanley waited outside. Then waited some more. None of the corpses stood back up. So he dragged one outside. He didn't have to wait long before it rose again. So the lairs were still safe, but he couldn't carry meat outside... That was a problem.
He flew inside and carved open a non reviving corpse. Then he offered pieces of bloody meat to Caffeine while throwing chunks directly into his own stomach. He could do the same for the pug... but Caffeine really loved eating, and it just seemed rude...
Poor guy must have been hungry because he woke up and didn't hesitate to chow down. Or he noticed Stanley eating it and assumed it must be good... It was great to see him eat, regardless.
Zombies tried to enter twice during his meal, and Stanley did the lair a favor by tossing them back out. After putting some holes through their heads, of course.
Debuff Removed: [Hungry]
The meal didn't help with the headache, but at least he wasn't hungry anymore... Then it was time to suffer.
Stanley dragged one monster out of the lair. Alive and kicking. His debuffed head thoroughly hated the experience, but he hauled the squirming thing back into the restaurant. He got a strange look from Tony at the door again, but the guy didn't interfere.
It was Bill who made the most stink when Stanley brought the bear-sized beast into the kitchen. "What are you doing bringing that in here?!"
"It's not a zombie," Stanley said. "Can't you cook it?"
Bill shook his head vehemently, but then froze. "I can't... but maybe... don't kill it yet!"
He grabbed the snapping snout and held it shut with one hand as he started poking and prodding the creature. "It should purge itself in... there!" He cut its throat and practically dragged it from Stanley's hold as he strung it up above a sink. Then he went to work.
"Half of that goes to my people," Stanley said. "You get the rest for yourself."
"Of course. Can you bring more? This one won't..."
"No."
"...last. Wait, why not? We need..."
"Because it fucking hurts!" Stanley yelled and then clutched his head. That was a mistake...
The whole trip back with the living monster added twenty minutes to the debuff. He wasn't doing that again until it was gone... and then he'd have better things to do with his time than feed a bunch of weaklings.
"Just send your own damn people," Stanley groaned and flew away.
"But we..." Bill's voice faded behind the swinging kitchen doors, and Stanley claimed his own bed. Though cot was a more accurate description.
Lying down didn't help with the pain. Stanley tossed and turned, begging his mind to just sleep it off.
It wasn't happening... so he got back up and went outside.
Stanley wanted nothing more than to go on a massive killing spree to make up for lost time, but that would prolong the debuff. A debuff that made him weaker than he already was, and being weak was what got him into this shitshow in the first place!
Luckily, throwing his knife around was minor compared to dragging a living monster through the air. Minor enough that it didn't extend the debuff and killing stuff helped mitigate the extra ache that came with throwing it. Nothing like a little cathartic murder to make one feel better.
Tony and his friends kept their distance while Stanley sat on the porch and slaughtered every zombie in sight, one by one. Until the bright morning sun became too much. Then he just closed his eyes and stayed where he was. Caffeine would appreciate some sun for his nap...
He had to feel the monsters to kill them now, but that was just good practice.
"Red eye!" someone shouted, and he flinched at the volume.
Stanley would have glared at them, but he didn't want to open his eyes. Was shouting really necessary? And what was a red eye?
There was a fast zombie running in...
He reluctantly opened his eyes, but saw nothing special about it. Other than the fact it was sprinting rather than shambling. A knife through its head ended the sprint, and the hubbub of Tony and his goons died with it.
One of them approached a bit later. "You want that core?"
Stanley sighed and opened his eyes again. "What core?"
The man flinched under his gaze and said, "The... the red eye."
Was that why they got excited? Stanley flew out toward where he'd killed it and found a core, as predicted. Interesting. Was this what happened if they ate enough cores themselves? Or... he stared down at the former human, now a dead zombie. Was this what happened to the corrupted?
Like Samantha.
Stanley went back to his sunny spot and closed his eyes. "Are they from the corrupted? The red eyes?" He wasn't sure if he wanted to know. Was Samantha doomed now? At least more than they all already were. Because she'd protected him... No, she was just protecting herself. She's just like all the others.
Still, she'd earned some goodwill for her efforts... or were they even now?
"We don't know," one goon said. Tony was still keeping his distance. Good. Smart man. "None of ours have died yet..."
Great... Stanley saved the core for Caffeine. The pug was still behind by his calculations, though not far now.
"Did you run into the beast lord?"
It was such an odd question that it took Stanley a moment to register what he'd heard. "What?"
"We heard it here... everyone got the notification."
Stanley remembered the notification, though at the time he hadn't really seen it, only felt it.
You have heard the Howl of the Beast Lord.
+50 All Base Attributes to All Friends
"What did it say?" Caffeine couldn't have buffed everyone... could he? It was a strong buff... and Caffeine had a new skill on his status... called Howl of the Beast Lord. Stanley had been well and truly angry. Combining that with Caffeine's boost, it should have put him well over a thousand effective willpower.
And it still wasn't enough. Though... Lee wasn't dead. They both still lived. So maybe it was enough… this time.
"Just that we heard it. What do you think it means?"
So they didn't get the buff and still didn't know the truth. After all, who would suspect the little pug curled up on his lap? Then they started muttering and whispering among themselves about their own speculations.
"Go away," Stanley said. "You have..." He checked his debuff. "Four hours to rest and then I'm leaving." They looked tired. Had they been fighting all night as well? What happened to the fancy locking door? And wasn't it a waste for them to kill these zombies when they didn't even drop cores?
He decided he didn't care. He just wanted to kill stuff right now. If it helped them get some rest... Well, that was their problem.
They left.
Stanley tried to lose himself in the concentration required to watch over a three hundred and sixty degree area while he waited for his weakness to end.
He was mostly successful.
Debuff Removed: [Cerebral Fatigue]
The others still slept in their beds when he went inside. Bill hadn't robbed him and had Stanley's share of the food prepared and waiting. He took half. "The rest is for when they wake up... I'll bring more when I come back."
He'd probably return. If only for the stat boosting food. Caffeine was still sleeping, so at least he wouldn't complain about leaving the others behind. However, Stanley got him to wake up enough to eat some of Bill's food before they left. Hopefully, he would recover back to full strength soon, but Stanley couldn't wait. He needed to get stronger.
So he flew away in search of monsters to kill. The zombies were a wash for core gathering with only a handful of cores from the so-called red eyes. It just wasn't worth bothering with the slow ones. That left the lairs. Back to the grind.
~~~Somewhere~~~
Steven didn’t know what the significance of a Beast Lord was, but he knew Lord Morgrath’s opinion very well by now.
"I wish to hunt it," Lord Morgrath said to Lord Nefraxis. "But I will require the ritual."
Steven wasn't sure what this ritual stuff was all about, but the beast lord was all the Lord had talked about ever since they all saw the notification. Bragged about, more like. Talking about how powerful and unstoppable he’d be after claiming its flesh for himself. Lord Morgrath loved to talk…
"No. You will not detour from your mission for a mere hunt."
"It is on hold until I find them." Morgrath said it so casually that even the other Lord paused a second before responding.
It wasn’t pretty when it did. "You lost them!?" Lord Nefraxis's voice echoed with unrestrained power that made Steven want to run away… or cower and beg for mercy. "Hundreds of humans and you lost them?"
Morgrath did neither of those things, seemingly unconcerned with his superior’s wrath. "I warned you about their leader. Every infiltration attempt was unsuccessful. Now, when we actually make a move, they are already gone. As if they knew we were coming..."
Steven knew all too well the annoyance of their prey this time. He'd hit smaller groups a few times since gaining his role here, and each one was a delight. Seeing the looks on the human's faces when he ripped apart their strongest… feeding on those who refused to join… turning the dead into his own soldiers… all of it was pure bliss.
Not this group. Steven hadn’t been sent in like some of his fellows, but none that went in ever returned. Which meant they knew only what the few lone captures had revealed, and even those details were sparse.
"Such a large group must have left a trail," Nefraxis demanded. "Why are you not out there running them down?"
"They are in the tunnels somewhere."
Yes, the massive maze of subway tunnels, the hub of which had been that group's base…
Nefraxis eyed Morgrath for long moments, their face as impeccable a mask as ever. "So you haven't lost them?"
"There are many tunnels, and our eyes were eliminated from all of them. Once again, as if they knew we were watching. It matters little. It is only a matter of time until they are hunted down. The Beast Lord is..."
"Leave the Beast Lord and complete your mission. We will not move against it without more information." Lord Nefraxis stared with eyeless sockets for a long moment, then added, "I will set up the ritual." He pointed a single bony finger at Morgrath. "As a precaution only. Bring me those humans, and I will consider your hunt. Fail me again and there will be... consequences."
Lord Morgrath made a show of acquiescing, but Steven knew it was all theater. His master would never give up on finding and claiming the beast.