Apocalypse Tamer 106: Man vs Retaliations (Patreon)

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Once upon a time, the fairy lords of the Fomors waged war on the gods of Outremonde and their servants.

They lost it, of course. Even powerful mortal creatures are no match for deities. But though both sides eventually made peace, mighty weapons were developed over the course of the conflict. Of the countless cruelties the Fomors invented to challenge the gods’ chosen, none was more dreaded than Darkest Fear.

This spell could only affect those blessed by the gods. Vasi hadn’t understood why Krampus could use it against her until she had met her grandfather. If a drop of divine essence was enough to become a target for the spell… how would it affect someone made of it?

When dark energies swirled around Ashok and drew a scream of pain from him, Vasi got her answer.

Her dark fairy magic coiled around the false god’s essence like a serpent. Fangs of magic bit into his very soul and sapped his strength. The mighty Ashok collapsed to his knees in utter defeat, his face twisted in pain and agony.

Zeus-Ashok’s HP and SP have been reduced to 1! [Terror] and [Permadeath] Ailments negated by [Divine Vessel]!

Not only did Darkest Fear bring the gods’ chosen to the brink of death, but it also made sure they would never come back from it. Ever. It saddened Vasi that Ashok’s special immunities protected him from the spell’s secondary effects, but she would roll with it. The anti-resurrection feature was just insurance. Good to have, but not indispensable.

Dead was dead, after all.

Ashok gritted his teeth, his eyes alight with fear. “Tele–”

“Muspelflame!” Vasi snapped her fingers and triggered a fireball.

“–port!”

It came down to a single second. Vasi’s projectile surged across the room at the speed of sound, but Ashok completed his sentence first. His instantaneous teleportation effect let him disappear in a flash of red light, and Vasi’s fireball only hit the stone ground.

“Did he…” Plato coughed after respawning along the same wall he had been splattered on not too long ago. “Did he run away?”

“Not yet,” Vasi replied after checking the Field. “His God-Field is still on, so he remains inside the dungeon.”

Zeus-Ashok used [Mega-Elixir] Item to restore his party’s HP and SP!

Your [Born of Magic] Perk has activated! You will recover 1/16th of your SP each minute! This stacks with [SP Regen]!

How nice of the System to inform them.

“He’s coming back for round two,” Vasi warned her allies. She summoned a healing potion from the Guild Inventory and tossed it at Plato. “King of Cats, heal up and stay on the move. With your crap vitality and the New Year effect, any of his attacks will kill you in one blow. Bugsy, he’s going to teleport among us again sometime soon. Prepare the area for your Red Volcano Perk and warn us.”

“On it, Vasi.” Bugsy immediately generated puddles of lava around the room with his Magma Bomb.

Bugsy’s [Red Volcano] activated! He will regain HP and SP while exposed to lava!

As for Plato, he used his illusion magic to create three mirage clones of himself. None of them complained about Vasi taking the lead.

Her own words surprised the witch. Her metamorphosis had increased Vasi’s confidence as much as it changed her physically. Though her skin remained a light shade of purple, her hair had turned white as snow and her ram horns the color of blood. Moth wings with a macabre eye motif had grown out of her back. Her feet now ended in hooves.

Yet she could feel none of these changes mattered; her body had become nothing less than a humanoid-shaped shell for her power. She could reshape her flesh like clay into any form she wished.

She had become magic incarnate.

Zeus-Ashok used [Hydra Steroid] Item to give himself [Regen] and [SP Regen] for five minutes!

Battle items. Of all the Bohens’ enemies, why was the lightning-powered god-wannabe the only one smart enough to use battle items?

“Vasi, behind you!” Bugsy warned.

She sensed a massive shape materialize behind her, ready to strike her down.

Thanks to Bugsy’s advance warning, Vasi quickly turned around and snapped her fingers. “Darkest Fear!”

A giant roared in agony.

Hecatoncheires’ HP and SP have been reduced to 1! [Terror] and [Permadeath] Ailments! If an individual is slain while under the [Permadeath] ailment, they cannot be revived in any way, not even as an [Undead]!

Vasi blinked in surprise. The creature in front of her was no metal god, but a grotesque giant with over fifty bald heads and twice as many hands. The maddened monster fearfully thrashed around with the hundred swords it wielded, forcing Vasi to take a step back. Another monster had materialized next to the one she had targeted, but this one immediately dashed at her with surprising speed. It trampled the corpses left from Kalki’s previous battle and swung its swords with a mighty roar.

“Volcanic Breath!” Bugsy unleashed a mighty stream of flames and ashes at the unharmed giant. The buffed fire melted the Hecatoncheires’ flesh from his bones and burned his many eyes.

Hecatoncheires has been [Blinded]!

The Hecatoncheires damaged by Darkest Fear tried to flee the hall in terror, but Plato and his illusory clones swiftly brought it down with a flurry of wind slashes. The other, though five times taller than Vasi, proved unable to survive a scant minute of pyroclastic flames. Bugsy’s natural buffs, further empowered by Ashok’s Field advantage and the System’s New Year event, raised his damage over the four digits.

But Bugsy was too distracted to shout a warning.

Vasi sensed someone appearing behind her. She turned around to face a third Hecatoncheires and its divine master. Ashok, quicker on the draw, shot Vasi with the same lightning bolt that slew Plato. All of her nerves were set ablaze at once as electricity traveled from her chest to every inch of her body. She had to bite her own tongue not to scream at the sensation of her skin being flayed alive. Such was the power of a god’s lightning.

And yet, Vasilisa Yaga survived.

1348 [Lightning] damage! Zeus-Ashok’s [Turbo: Lightning] bypassed your [Lightning] Resistance, but your [Fomor Lifeforce] halved the damage!

Warning: You have fallen below half-health! [Regen] activated!

Vasi pointed her finger at the false god, only to watch him teleport behind his third giant. “Single target, no area of effect,” Ashok noted with a grunt of displeasure. He had clearly hoped to kill her in one strike. “Line of sight.”

Vasi widened her new wings and took flight.

It felt so strange. Moving around with her new wings came naturally to her. Like a falcon, her metamorphosis had instilled a natural instinct and reflexes in her.

Moving above the Hecatoncheires and dodging its swords, Vasi pointed her finger at Ashok, who swiftly teleported to the other end of the room. Having expected this turn of events, the witch still launched her spell at his remaining minion. “Darkest Fear!”

Hecatoncheires’ HP and SP have been reduced to 1! [Terror] and [Permadeath] Ailments!

The last of Ashok’s thralls collapsed over one of Bugsy’s lava puddles and burst out into flames, his remaining HP extinguished by the fire. The others had been cut down and annihilated.

Ashok gathered his strength for another lightning strike at Vasi, one that would be fatal if accurate. Bugsy and Plato, acting quicker, attacked him with fire and wind. The false god teleported around the hall, which allowed Vasi to stay on the move. Ashok gritted his teeth as he switched targets, launching his lightning bolt at Plato. Though he managed to tell the real feline apart from his doubles–probably thanks to his divine essence–Plato successfully dodged the bolt by bouncing off a wall.

Vasi raised her hand at the enemy. “Darkest–”

“Agoraios.” Ashok’s eyes shone with golden light, as a fourth giant appeared between him and Vasi’s line of sight.

Zeus-Ashok summoned an Hecatoncheires!

Vasi welcomed it the proper way. “–Fear.”

Hecatonchir’s HP and SP have been reduced to 1! [Terror] and [Permadeath] Ailments!

As Vasi guessed, all of Ashok’s soldiers were directly created from his essence. All of them shared his vulnerability.

It didn’t matter how strong they were, or many the false god summoned. With Born of Magic active and her boyfriend’s ring letting her store SP, Vasi could keep casting Darkest Fear until the sun died out in the sky.

“Do you know any other spell?” Plato teased her before slicing the giant in half with a single blow.

“Why change a perfect plan? I have a hammer surrounded by nails.” Vasi glanced at Ashok, who was clenching his fists in frustration. “Come on, summon more soldiers for us to kill. The more EXP you give us, the stronger we will become.”

Her taunt worked. Realizing he couldn’t rely on his minions to distract his enemies, the false god switched tactics. He joined his palms together as if praying. “Aegiduchos.”

Zeus-Ashok gained the [Invincibility] status for one minute! He cannot take damage until then.

“No more spells,” Ashok said as he gathered lightning in the palm of his hand.

“Truly?” Vasi smiled as she snapped her fingers. “Darkest Fear.”

Ashok fell to his knees and his lightning fizzled out.

Zeus-Ashok’s HP and SP have been reduced to 1! [Terror] and [Permadeath] Ailments negated by [Divine Vessel]!

Plato and Bugsy immediately attacked their surprised enemy from two directions: the former with blades of air, the second with a stream of fire. Both bounced off the false god’s body. A magical coat of translucent energy covered his skin, shielding him from damage. His Perk worked as advertised.

Ashok glared at Vasi. “How?”

“Do you take us fairy lords for fools, puny god?” Vasi taunted him. “We rival dragons in pride and power for a damn good reason. You are not taking damage, no. My spell sets your HP and SP values to one. There is no counter to it.”

And since Ashok hadn’t used his invincibility Perk from the start of the battle, then it meant he couldn’t use it too often. With Darkest Fear preventing him from using his combat Perks by depriving him of SP, all the team had to do was wait until his protection ran out.

From Ashok’s expression, the false god had reached the same conclusion.

“No counter for this ability… that is true,” Ashok grunted in defeat. “Congratulations, Mrs. Yaga. You win this one.”

He teleported out of Vasi’s sight and never came back.

Zeus-Ashok has left the dungeon! Zeus-Ashok’s [God-Field: Titanomachy] has been canceled! The Field has returned to normal!

Ashok had cut his losses and fled.

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As it turned out, a giant robot could suplex an oceanic freighter.

This age-old wrestling question came to a head in a spectacular display of strength. Looking up at the sky to watch a two-hundred thousand-ton ship fall upon its head, the Gearsman Titan hastily raised its hands and grabbed it by the hull. The mighty machine then bent backward in a show of flexibility that astonished even Basil, putting the freighter’s weight on its shoulder and gently guiding it toward the ground.

This left the colossus in a stilted backbend position and exposed its chest cannon to the sky, pointed straight at Basil. Power gathered within its heart for a lethal shot.

But Basil Bohen never settled for anything short of overkill.

“I found that heavy-weight in Germany… and this one in Hungary.” Basil opened his inventory to drop his second secret weapon. “Wizz this!”

Item selected: [Airbus A320].

And so, Basil Bohen dropped an airliner on a giant robot.

A purple and pink plane a hundred meters long materialized at the end of his palm and fell down from the heavens. It impacted the Titan’s chest right as it prepared to unleash its beam.

The crash was nothing short of devastating.

A mighty explosion shook the countryside and blew Basil upward through the clouds. The Gearsman Titan’s torso was torn in half by the shockwave. Gears, bolts, and metal parts flew in all directions like a rain of deadly steel, tearing apart all of the lesser Gearsmen and drones which had followed their larger brethren in battle. Rosemarine and Shellgirl hid behind Steve to avoid the bombardment. The Steamobile bravely weathered the storm of steel, with projectiles bouncing off its thick shell.

As for the freighter, it fell upon the titan’s head and crushed it to pieces. The ship’s metal hull miraculously resisted; the Gearsman’s shielding yielded.

Fatality!

“Made in Earth,” Basil rejoiced. “Accept no substitute.”

108 [Fire] damage!

Basil grit his teeth as he flew through pyroclastic clouds hot enough to damage him through his armor. He adjusted his flight with Double Jump and managed to slow down his upward momentum.

He regained control just in time to watch another fireworks display.

Basil had an excellent view of the moon from above the clouds. Earth’s satellite was sparkling in the sky. The light of dazzling explosions covered its surface. Rainbow lasers danced around mushroom shrouds large enough to be visible from Earth.

Great arrows of light rose from the west, from distant France and Britain and whichever countries still handled the NATO arsenal after the world’s end. They surged from the ground in a great parade that set the sky ablaze.

Would it be enough? Would all the mad genius of mankind be enough to match a dragon’s cruelty?

Basil could only pray.

He descended closer to Earth with Double Jump. When he returned, he found the Titan’s runecore growing brighter with eldritch gray light. The countdown to the petrification self-destruct was engaged.

Thankfully, Steve had climbed over the Titan’s wreckage and reached its chest. Metal tendrils grew out of the Steamobile’s shielding and connected to the runecore. Lesser gearsmen that had survived the explosion attempted to interrupt it, only to face Rosemarine and Shellgirl’s resistance. The former crushed the robots underfoot, while the latter simply shot them dead.

Basil swiftly joined them with a volley of Elemental Orbs attuned to the Water element. Torrents of liquid rusted away weaker drones, giving Steve time enough to finish its work. The Steamobile pulled the runecore into itself and enveloped it in a layer of steel.

Steve released enough fumes through its exhaust ports to cover the entire battlefield. Basil prayed in his heart that the Steamobile would not overheat; if the petrification pulse went off now, then the Bohens would be affected.

It didn’t.

Steve let out a victorious roar and Basil sighed in relief.

Steve Roadwonders successfully assimilated [Gearsman Titan Runecore]! Steve Roadwonders gained the [Mode Change: Robot] Passive Perk and the [Petrification Bomb] Active Perk.

Steve Roadwonders sent you the following Crafting blueprints: [Unity Neurotower].

Basil’s eyes widened in shock. How… How did Steve…

I understand. Basil remembered his first encounter with the Unity in France. Low-level Gearsmen had tried to build a Unity Neurotower in Dax from scraps back then, until the army halted the construction. It’s not that Gearsmen were guided from beyond dimensions to build these devices. Instead, a few of them came to Earth with the blueprints to act on their own.

It made so much sense in retrospect. The Unity couldn’t guarantee it could communicate with its probes while on another world, and Titans appeared reserved for conflict-heavy missions. They should be able to establish a foothold on their own. By absorbing the runecore, Steve had gained access to the knowledge within. The Unity’s secrets were there to plunder.

If they survived.

His Logs opened with a message filled with dread and hope.

NERIA: Basil, the nuclear strike was a limited success.

Basil looked up at the sky. The wind had blown away enough of the smoke to let glimpse at the moon.

The nuclear exchange was over. The moon’s surface was a sea of light one second and clouded in stardust the next. The lights of the Unity’s dungeon network pierced through this radioactive atmosphere, but nowhere as brightly as before Shumen’s destruction.

BASIL: What do you mean by limited success?

NERIA: Ten percent of our nukes managed to bypass the Unity’s orbital defenses and half of those hit their target. The lunar cannon was damaged.

PLUTO: It is currently inoperative, but not destroyed.

They had earned a brief respite then, nothing more.

BASIL: How long until they can use it again?

PLUTO: Days at best, hours at worst.

Then there was no time to waste.

Congratulations, your party earned 21,600,000 EXP (2,560,000 for you). You’ve earned five levels (total 68).

Rosemarine can now undergo her final metamorphosis!

Basil overlooked the battlefield. The explosion and the following clean-up had destroyed all Unity forces in this section of the countryside. While other Gearsmen were still at work in other areas of Shumen, this left an open corridor for the evacuation. The Titan’s demise and the lunar cannon’s damaged state spelled the invasion’s end.

This was a victory, as bitter as it tasted.

Kalki was forcefully removed from your Guild by: Zeus-Ashok.

Or perhaps not.

The message sent shivers down Basil’s spine. He immediately prepared to send a message to the rest of his team, praying they had lived through the night… only for his girlfriend to contact him first. The sight of Vasi’s name soothed Basil’s hardened heart.

VASI: We’re out. Ashok got away with Kalki. Shesha and Garud are both dead; we took their corpses with us for burial.

No. Basil couldn’t call it a bitter victory.

It was a defeat, plain and simple.

Kalki had fallen into the hands of Metal Olympus. In all likelihood, he would be transported to their headquarters in Athens. The thought of a friend lost to the enemy infuriated Basil. The fact two more had perished invited Biblical retribution.

But first, they needed to regroup.

BASIL: Sending you the coordinates of a rendezvous point. Evacuate everyone you can find to this location. The Unity’s orbital cannon is temporarily incapacitated, but not neutralized.

VASI: What do we do next then?

Basil glared at the sky. Was Blackcinders looking down on him from the moon, gloating over ruining thousands of lives and turning a city to cinders? She sounded like the kind who would call today a victory.

No. Blackcinders deployed all these resources to ensure Basil’s death and yet he still lived. That was the very definition of failure. A dragon willing to blow up an entire city to kill one person could only handle failure one way.

By escalating.

She would come back meaner and deadlier than before unless stopped.

And that couldn’t be allowed to go on.

BASIL: Then we kill them all.

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As half her monitors showed a red glowing light, Blackcinders struggled to contain her anger. Gravity increased around her, causing her dragon officers to bow their heads in penance.

“Status report?” she asked while brimming with cold anger.

“The Lunar Cannon has suffered minimal damage, but firing now is unwise,” one of her minion engineers replied. One of the monitors showed a view of metal corridors set ablaze by a missile impact. “The blowback could destroy our HQ.”

Blackcinders’ claws scratched the steel ground hard enough to cut through it. “How?” she rasped angrily, her officers cowering. “How could they hit us from Earth?”

“It…” Her dragon lieutenant gulped, sweat falling from his forehead. “It appears they used a form of nuclear device empowered by Crafters–”

“I don’t care about the method they used,” Blackcinders interrupted him sharply. “Why wasn’t I informed that we risked a counter-strike?”

All intelligence on the manling civilization indicated they had been sent back to city-states and broken states without meaningful industrial capacities. It was why she had ordered her troops to focus on building the Lunar Cannon quicker at the expense of orbital defenses.

“We…” Her lieutenant gulped. “We didn’t know it was possible.”

“The next time any of you come to me as an ignorant child, wyrmlings, you will know death. Your incompetence has cost us greatly today.” Blackcinders had underestimated the apes. It would not happen again. “Repair the Lunar Cannon and prepare to fire again.”

“At what target, General?”

Blackcinders peered through her moonbase’s window. The insignificant ball of mud and water on the other side glowed radiantly under the sun-gaze of the Overgod Brahma as a challenge to the Unity’s power. As an insult. As a threat.

“General?” her lieutenant asked again.

“Bulgaria,” Blackcinders ordered calmly. “Blow it up. All of it.”

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