I spun around standing in front of the now dead Mayor’s body and brought my AK up to engage the first few men who charged out of the City Hall. I hadn’t seen any of the Red Bands carrying projectile weapons so wrongly assumed I held the edge here. A tall skinny black man summoned a roaring ball of fire and launched it to strike squarely in my chest. I was thrown backwards hard through the front window of the coffee shop and smashed through the counter to stop painfully against the back wall. A terrified barista stared up at me as I scrambled to my feet and quickly checked myself over.
Fortunately the mage’s attack failed to catch fire. It still had quite the kinetic impact and it was my turn to be slightly humbled. Of course, as the man whooped and bragged at his assumed success I decided it was time to humble him in return.
“You see that fucker fly!? One shot one kill, baby!” Before the dust could settle I flicked my AK to fully automatic, activated Steady Shots and Controlled Bursts, and held the trigger down. The weapon barked with extremely accurate automatic fire that rained brass casings over the terrified Barista next to me. She clamped her hands over her ears and sobbed. The mage that successfully attacked me fell over in a spray of blood and gore as his body was perforated by my assault. His homies charged forward with weapons drawn and I cut them down just before the chamber rang empty.
A knife flashed across my vision from the right and I flinched, spun, let my AK swing from my hand and drew my plasma pistol on the man that was readying another knife to be launched at my neck. “Vital Aim!” I muttered as I pulled the trigger and caught the man right between the eyes with a plasma bolt. His head dissolved under the intense heat as his hand released the knife at considerable speed, already committed to a throw.. The knife whipped past my nose and buried itself in the eye of another man that had snuck up on my other side.
“AH! FUCK!” The man screamed while aborting an attack that would have caught me in the neck. He dropped his weapon and grabbed the knife embedded in his eye socket with both hands. “Cheap Shot!” I shouted and kicked him between the legs. I heard a gasp before he rocketed into the brick building behind him and collapsed the wall where he struck it. Another man saw his compatriots fall and halted his advance, now looking around frantically for an escape route. I aimed at the man, who then pissed his pants, and I pulled the trigger.The plasma bolt caught him squarely in the chest and burned through his heart.
Reaper’s Wrath has advanced to level 188!
I smiled inwardly at the notification, I think that skill is going to be getting a workout today. I looked out across the street where my first group of attackers appeared and saw a familiar face sneering at me as he turned to head into City Hall. “It’s that fucking cop from the prison. Keep him out while I go claim the Core.” He directed the half dozen more men gathered across the street. I took a moment to remember where I had seen him, then emptied the magazine on the plasma pistol in his direction and growled in anger when a barrier sprung up to block the hissing plasma bolts.
I considered waiting for Junipher and Kaia, who should be moving to my position, now that the festivities had kicked off. Fuck it, they can catch up! I grinned inwardly and produced a trio of plasma grenades from my inventory, armed and tossed them casually in front of the gathering of former inmates intent on preventing me from getting to that Core first. Green-white light exploded in front of my opponents and left a trio of small craters across the front quad of the City Hall building, as well as collapsing a large portion of the South entrance where their leader was entering as the explosions went off.
To my surprise the magic barrier held through the explosions, though at least one of their number was too far outside the range of the spell and was now lying face down, smoking and charred. The inmates also seemed to be stunned as the barrier fell. I drew my hand cannon and the rail pistol Audron Ef’i had gifted me, and emptied the magazines. Two inmates with large shields braced for the attack then looked around bewildered as none of the rounds struck them. Behind them the City Hall practically exploded with the combined kinetic assault. Why chase that fucker when I can just bring down the entire building. I snickered when I saw the man in question digging himself out of a wall that had collapsed on him. Then my focus was on the quartet of minions standing between us.
With less than 20 meters between us I dismissed the AK and reloaded my pistols as the two tank type fighters closed ranks in front of their remaining mage and healer. The mage was charging up some kind of electric attack and I decided to say fuck that and began firing the hand cannon in his direction. He flinched and dropped the attack he was building short of my position as his defenders ate the rounds on their shields. Lightning struck the ground in front of me and singed the hair on my arms. The heavy 20mm slugs rang like gong strikes everytime they were deflected by the shieldbearers. They stumbled with each hit and grimaced in pain as no amount of padding and steel could halt the kinetic energy entirely. I was certain bones were starting to fracture under the assault. If not for the healer they would have likely crumpled after the first few rounds rang off their shields.
I felt my skin tingle as I was about to raise the rail pistol and see how well that worked. I activated Reaper’s Fluid Grace and rolled just in time to avoid being fried by another lightning bolt. Before I could aim, one of the warriors lunged forward with a charge skill. I had time to raise my arms in defense before I was sent tumbling down the street a few meters. I was momentarily stunned and the fighter that charged me didn’t hesitate to take advantage. When my vision focused I was staring directly at the heavy end of a ball mace about to drop on my face. I didn’t bother aiming the rail pistol, I just pulled the trigger three times in a quick succession.
His body, still holding his shield, tumbled past me missing his right arm, upper chest and head, which was turned into a light pink mist. The other two rounds missed their target and shattered walls on the second floor of the coffee shop. Fighter two was stunned, however that bastard lightning mage wasn’t and didn’t skip a beat before I felt a lightning bolt dumping volts of energy into my body. My fingers clinched on triggers and a slug left my hand cannon to remove the healer’s leg. He stood on one leg comically for a moment before collapsing sideways screaming in pain and scrambling to heal his own wounds. The errant rail round took the corner of the building next to the coffee shop out and opened it up to the chaos outside.
“OH DAMN! BRO! How fucking high is this assholes Luck!? The mage looked at his healer buddy who was failing to calm down enough to heal himself. I took a breath and sat up and pointed the hand cannon at the mage.
“Three.” Then I pulled the trigger. The momentary shock at seeing me sit up bought me the time to punch a basketball sized hole through his chest.
With most of the sounds of battle suddenly stopping the cute barista stepped out onto the sidewalk and looked at the dead Mayor, the bodies of the Red Bands, and then me. In that exact order. “Who are you?” She barely whispered.
“Eh, Karl, you wouldn’t happen to know anyone nearby that can top up my HP?”
She looked at me dumbfounded for a minute and processed what I asked, “Sure.” She said still stunned and walked up, placed her hand on my shoulder, and released a healing spell into my body. The lingering effects of electricity fled my muscles and I stood smoothly, brushing myself off. Who knew she was a healer, might see if she wants to come along and keep me going. At least until Junipher and Kaia arrive. I looked back over the girl who was still stunned by the turn of events.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Thanks.” I said and started to stalk up the sidewalk to the crumbling City Hall.
“Uh, Karl, w-what are you doing?” The barista asked as she watched me walk away.
“Oh, you see, I told these fucks if I saw them again I’d kill them.” I gestured around at the dead bodies, “I’ve seen ‘em. I’m going to kill them. Violently.”
Movement caught my attention from further down the street. A trio of Red Bands were running full sprint in my direction. Good, the more that come to me, the less I have to hunt them down. “Look, I told those guys the same thing, yet here they come.” I spoke as the Barista looked numbly at the trio of assholes. I aimed the pistol at the man in the lead almost a hundred meters away. “Crack Shot!” I pulled the trigger and the round vaporized his legs and waist. His body tumbled across the road trailing blood and intestines, and liberally splattering his partners. A pothole opened up in the street behind him showering bystanders that had come out to see what the commotion was all about. His homies skid to a halt and ran for cover.
One took cover behind an abandoned Mercedes SUV and the other ducked into an alley. I aimed at the SUV with the rail pistol and pulled the trigger. The sound of plastic, aluminum and steel being opened like a tin can sounded up and down the street. A wide splatter of blood and a notification a moment later indicated the man was dead.
From the time I killed the Mayor to the guy behind the SUV had been less than two minutes. I wanted to go after the familiar asshole but I didn’t want to leave this third man behind me. As I pondered my options for half a second the solution presented itself as another gaggle of Red Bands burst from a side street another quarter mile away. For a moment I thought they were headed my way when a pair of familiar coyotes pounced on the group of men. Junipher rode Kaia and lashed out with her spear and roots, skewering and tripping the men up for the coyotes to finish them.
“What the hell is that?” The Barista asked in barely contained terror.
“Oh, that’s Kaia, my soul bound companion and one of his packmates, riding him is my girlfriend, Junipher. She’s a dryad slash siren hybrid from another world.”
The Barista looked up at me as I explained the whirlwind of grey and green death that stalked the Red Bands wherever they went and smiled widely, “Oh, that’s nice. Umm, I think I should go hide now.”
“Yeah, I’m not quite done going full murder hobo.” I smiled at her from behind my mask and she left. Never got her name, meh. Junipher smiled at me as she got closer to my position and skewered a Red Band that hadn’t figured out she was way out of his league. Hell, she’d probably be stronger than me if I didn’t have all these Life Skills. A moment later she was hopping off a blood soaked Kaia and embracing me hard. She really didn’t like being away from me for very long.
“Is that the Mayor?” She pointed to the rather deflated body of the former Mayor.
“Yeah, she tried to shoot me with a shotgun. Then she didn’t die when I slammed her into the ground the first time.”
“You can tell me the details later, looks like we got company.” She motioned to the dusty Native man that was pulling himself out of the rubble of City Hall. He looked at me with menace in his eyes as he stepped clear of the wreckage.
“I remember you. Had family in Winslow, right?” I focused my full attention on the man as Kaia and his pack mate took up flanking positions on either side of Junipher and myself.
His scowl darkened further, “Yeah. That’s me.” He said as energy began swirling around him. It had a familiar taste to it. I couldn’t yet place it, but I knew I had seen someone using this type of magic before.
“I told you to head south. I told you I’d kill you if I saw you again.” I spoke as I calmly reloaded my pistols and watched him gather the familiar green energy around himself.
I was slightly shocked when he started floating a few inches off the ground, “This is the land of my ancestors. It is the land of my blood. Why would I leave. This land is my power.” His eyes began glowing green as he spoke. Alright, I’m done with this shit.
I aimed the hand cannon at his chest and pulled the trigger. The round was caught by a powerful barrier that flattened the slug under its own energy. Fuck, shouldn’t have had that little chat.
“Kal, his class is similar to Samantha’s, he will have very high resistances to physical damage.” Junipher supplied as she readied herself.
I fired more rounds that pancaked against his shield, then the green light that was swirling around him exploded outward. We stepped back just as something I had seen before during the Second Siege started happening here. Green ghostly apparitions materialized out of the ground, ancient warriors carrying spear, tomahawk and bow. The asshole inmate that summoned them smiled and pointed in our direction and as one a dozen of the spectral warriors charged us.
I took aim on the closest spectral warrior and pulled the trigger. The round plowed through the thing with no resistance and exploded into the rubble behind the man who’d summoned the ghosts. While the attack didn’t kill it, it did slow it down considerably. I saw the energy where the round had left a hole begin to condense back to normal and I fired two more rounds. This managed to break up whatever was holding the thing together, but another one appeared in its place. Junipher began to sing a woeful song of anger and hate. The ghosts wavered for a moment and Kaia and his mate dove in and snapped their jaws frustratingly at the incorporeal beings.
The former inmate formed them as fast as we killed them and I was starting to get pissed off. “He’s going to wear us down, we need a hard counter to this shit!” I barked at Junipher who had backed up to me and was fighting behind me to keep the ghosts at bay. The coyotes were struggling as well.
“He’s using soul magic, if you were higher level I’m sure you’d have a counter, our only option is to take him out.” I couldn’t take aimed shots while fighting to keep these asshole ghosts from overwhelming us… wait… overwhelming. I flicked through my skills while shooting ghosts and saw what I was looking for. Suppressing Fire - Suppressing fire forces enemy forces to seek cover or take penalties to movement speed, damage resistance, and damage output.
“Let’s see if this works.” I holstered my pistols and summoned my Heavy Plasma Machine Gun and activated the skill.
The ghosts flinched as I started shooting. They looked around in confusion as their movement slowed and now simple attacks were disintegrating their forms. The Red Band leader scowled and continued summoning the spectral warriors that now had the durability and threat of cardboard. I guided the weapon on to the floating summoner and watched him flinch as his shield weakened to the onslaught of plasma. Right as the last rounds left the plasma chamber and the weapon buzzed to let me know it was empty I saw the inmates shield visibly pop.
I didn’t waste a second to let him recover from the backlash of losing his shield. I dropped the machine gun, grabbed my axes and rushed him. When I was within 5 meters I activated Heart Seeking Lunge. I disappeared and reappeared right in front of him swinging my weapons down viciously towards his chest.They connected solidly, though, to my surprise, the attack failed to penetrate his armor for the kill. Instead he was flung back into the wrecked City Hall. His progress through the rubble could be marked by the amount and position of debris being thrown through the air behind his passage.
Junipher and I launched ourselves into the air attempting to close the distance before he recovered but were too late. He shot straight out of the back of the building that still had a few walls and floors standing and glared at us. “You may have defeated my ancestors, but this is still my place of power. You cannot defeat me!” He flexed in the air like any good super villain and energy reverberated out from his core and warped the air around us. This fucker powering up!? Then the real fight began.