Apocalypse Tamer 109: Man vs Moooooon (Patreon)

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For a normal society, a successful cyberattack was usually damaging, but never fatal.

For an automated nightmare like the Unity, it was a disaster.

The scent of ozone saturated the air as Basil’s team pursued Steve through the ruins of metal corridors, trampled workshops, and broken cylinders. Rosemarine herself shattered more walls as she passed through due to her colossal size. Vegetal growth overtook the mechanical complex faster than the Bohens could run. Magical dungeon particles traveled through the air to repair the damage, though too slowly to make a difference.

Hordes of disabled Gearsmen loitered in the facility, while others collapsed under their own weight or thrashed around as if suffering from an aneurysm. Magical particles carrying Walter Tye’s spell infested them like mold. It spread from one victim to the next faster than the Coronavirus ever did.

Unfortunately for the Unity’s leadership, neither lockdowns nor social distancing were an option today. Steve easily smashed through blast doors trying to keep them penned in, and the Unity’s reliance on keeping their mechanical soldiers gathered in large numbers meant the magic swiftly caught up to runaways.

“Tier XII,” Vasi whispered in amazement. “It’s a Tier XII spell. First time I’ve seen one.”

“That’s the highest tier of spellcasting, correct?” Basil remembered.

“In my world, you can count the number of mages who can use this Tier on one hand.” His girlfriend smiled ear to ear. She reminded Basil of a child amazed at taking a plane for the first time. “I still have a long way to go.”

The Bohens caught up to Steve in what appeared to be a security deck. A colossal vault stretched before them, its ceiling and doors clearly designed for dragons rather than men. Draconic banners fluttered below large monitors, while some kind of monorail led deeper into the complex. Basil supposed the place served as a station to transport troops around. A group of ten Gearsmen once protected the area, but they were now disabled like the rest.

Basil approached the nearest control console and activated his Fuel Technology Perk. The screen lit up to reveal a map of the complex. “We’re two stations away from their control center,” he informed his team. “I’m calling the monora–”

An earthquake nearly made him stumble. Strident alarms echoed all over the room and its lights turned red.

“Bugsy, what’s happening?” Vasi asked her friend. “Did they deploy titans?”

“I sense quakes all over the moon.” Bugsy choked in alarm. “I think it’s the cannon!”

Basil grit his teeth before checking his Logs. Benjamin Leroy opened a video call almost immediately. “Basil,” he said, fireballs exploding in the background. “They activated their weapon.”

Basil cursed his rotten luck. “I thought we wouldn’t be over Bulgaria for at least three hours!”

“That’s still the case,” Benjamin replied. “They aren’t firing at us.”

Huh? But who then?

A voice made itself known through the room’s loudspeakers. “This is Lieutenant Ashenheart… speaking from the control deck…” The speaker coughed as if injured. “General Blackcinders has gone insane… she has activated the Lunar Cannon and set it to incinerate all life on the surface…”

“Is this a joke?” Plato asked, unable to comprehend the sheer scale of the situation. “He’s joking, right?”

Basil glanced at Benjamin, who had gone pale as a corpse on the other end of the video call. Shit.

“She has sabotaged the central computer… I can’t stop the ignition…” The speaker coughed again. “To all Unity forces, if you have any sympathy for our brothers and sisters on Earth… then cut off the power at once… destroy all power stations…”

A countdown appeared on the control console, one less than half an hour long.

“That shortsighted…” Benjamin cursed. “Even if Kalki survives, the blast will destroy too many Neurotowers for the Trimurti System to sustain itself. The entire dimension, Earth and moon included, will collapse on itself.”

“Can’t you, I don’t know, hack it?” Shellgirl asked as earthquakes grew in intensity. “You’re the programmer here!”

“I’m trying, but I have a billion firewalls to bypass!” Benjamin replied with a hiss. “Let me think!”

“There’s a power station next stop,” Vasi pointed out after checking the area’s map, before chewing her lip. “And a hundred others…”

“No, wait, I have a better idea.” Benjamin let out a heavy breath to release stress. “We’ll need your dragon.”

“Me, Mister Bat?” Rosemarine asked.

“Her God-Field exceeds mine in power and passively damages the base,” Benjamin explained. “If she can keep it up, vegetation will eventually choke the cannon’s power reactors. The closer she gets to the cannon, the better our chances of damaging it beyond repair.”

“Okay, that’s a plan.” Basil called the monorail. “Everyone abroad.”

“Boss,” Bugsy warned him. “I sense something above us.”

A System notification flashed before Basil’s eyes.

Blackcinders changed the Weather to [Meteor Shower]! Falling meteorites will inflict heavy [Physical/Earth] damage on impact!

“Meteor?” Basil reacted quickly. “Everybody to the ground!”

His team ducked the best they could as the ceiling exploded into a shower of steel and concrete. Steve and Rosemarine, accounting for their size, could only cover their heads with their arms. A massive rock the size of a house crashed into the monorail and crushed Gearsmen under its weight. Plato barely managed to leap out of the way to avoid being crushed.

The explosion blew a colossal hole in the roof. The darkness of space stretched as far as the eye could see, with only the lone distant sun and sparkling meteors for light. A jet-black dragon’s shadow loomed over them, her vicious eyes a crimson shade of red and her wings solar sails. Basil’s heart pounded in his chest when he recognized her.

Blackcinders’ [Oppressive Aura] was negated by [Death’s Banner II].

Steve and Rosemarine immediately gathered power and opened fire; the former with the Gehenna Cannon, the latter with her Eden Guns. Their lasers vaporized what was left of the ceiling and most of the walls in a bright flash of light, yet failed to hit their target. Blackcinders deftly flew out of the way, her circuit-like veins igniting with a red glow.

Blackcinders’ [Overgear] buffed all her states and granted her the [Hasten] status!

“Here she is.” Basil’s heart was burning with vengeance. He closed the Logs conversation with Benjamin, rose to his feet, and activated Monster Insight. “At long last.”

Blackcinders, Star Tyrant

Level 78 Elite [Dragon]

Faction: Unity (High Command).

HP: 28880/28880.

Immune: Darkness, Frost, Critical Hits, All Ailments, Insta-death, Fields & Weather negative effects.

Resist: Physical, Corrosion, Metal, Fire, Earth, Lightning, Light, Mythic.

Weak: Dragonslayer, Wood, Wind, Water.

The Unity’s highest-ranked general and most powerful dragon behind the Grandmaster herself. A cold-hearted psychopath, she kills as easily as she breathes with powerful gravity attacks. While deadly and relentless, she lacks the means of healing herself and would rather die than run from a primate. You’ll get her hoard if you kill her.

“She has less HP than Apollyon and unlike him, I can bypass her damage reductions,” Basil warned his team as he stretched his legs and prepared to jump. “But she hits just as hard, and we have no nuke this time.”

“Big deal, we’ve beaten bigger than her,” Plato replied as he cast a spell on his best friend. “Mirage!”

[Mirage] status! Your chances of dodging Physical attacks are doubled for three minutes! [All for One] spread the buff to your allies!

“Looks like she resists most of my spells,” Vasi noted as her boyfriend forwarded the gathered information to his team. “But I do hit very hard.”

Since Rosemarine’s Field empowered Water effects, Basil chose to imbue Runestorm with this element. A layer of liquid covered his halberd’s edge and spread to his allies’ weapons thanks to All for One.

“Rosemarine, focus on healing us, debuff and attack only when we’re at full health,” Basil gave out orders. “Vasi, shield us from the meteors. Plato, debuff Blackcinders with Catnapping. The rest of you spread out and snipe from the ground. The farther apart we are, the harder it’ll be for her to hit us.”

“After you, Mister!” Rosemarine said before expanding her wings.

Basil jumped out of the hall with a fearsome war cry. Rosemarine and Vasi flew after him, while Steve and the others broke out of the facility on foot.

As his team predicted earlier, Rosemarine’s God-Field and the Unity’s meddling had granted the moon its own atmosphere. Basil found it strange to breathe pure air in space. The world outside the facility’s walls was a strange one; a mix of desolate lunar craters slowly overrun by vegetation and the steampunk factories Basil had come to associate with the Unity. The latter was partly buried underground for protection against orbital bombardments, though fires and columns of smoke rose from a few as battles raged within them.

A massive crater of steel far larger than any earthly rock formation rose from the earth a few kilometers away from the team’s location; the barrel of the Lunar Cannon. Pulses of energy traveled to it through black serpentine cables, with light already gathering in its center.

They didn’t have much time left.

Using all his speed and strength, Basil double-jumped across the lunar landscape. Deadly meteors materialized in the black sky above to crash upon the surface. He danced around them and hunted after Blackcinders. The dragon welcomed his challenge by flying straight at him.

“Why did you come to me, Bohen?” Blackcinders asked as they circled each other like two sharks in the water. Though the dragon was even larger than Rosemarine, she and Basil were evenly matched in terms of speed. “It is a long way from Earth.”

“You killed my mother,” Basil said as he looked for an opening. Rosemarine was trying to flank Blackcinders while Vasi blasted meteors that could threaten her with magical explosions.

“Good,” the dragon replied coldly. Then she opened her mouth and unleashed a stream of golden light that burned the sky.

There was no need for words between them. Each party knew who the other was, and how this encounter would end: with one of them dead.

Basil hastily dodged by jumping higher and higher into the moon’s atmosphere. Blackcinders’ beam set the lunar vegetation ablaze for miles and vaporized a distant factory. A direct hit would be fatal.

Rosemarine flapped her wings. A storm of fiery petals erupted from them and flew straight at Blackcinders. Dodging the attack and running out of breath, the Unity general opened her palm at Rosemarine. “Gravipull.”

Rosemarine was flung towards Blackcinders by an invisible force. Taken by surprise, the Hesperides Dragon failed to react in time as the enemy struck with her free hand. Blackcinders’ claws viciously pierced into Rosemarine’s belly and caused her to scream in pain as golden blood spilled from the wound.

There was no emotion in Blackcinders’ gaze as she cut deeper into Rosemarine’s flesh. Nothing.

Rosemarine took 936 [Physical] damage! Blackcinders’ [Overwhelming Strength] pierced through Resistance!

Rosemarine’s Field granted her a [Regen] effect!

Basil immediately moved to rescue Rosemarine as Blackcinders tried to eviscerate her, but Vasi caught up to them first. “Superflare!”

A magical explosion blasted Blackcinder’s face after Vasi snapped her fingers. Rosemarine used the opportunity to breathe purple mist at the enemy dragon; the very same attack Tamura once used against the Bohens in Bordeaux. Blackcinders’ burning circuits lost their crimson luster on contact.

Rosemarine’s [Bacchanal Mists] canceled Blackcinders’ buffs and [Hasten] effect!!

Reacting without hesitation, Blackcinders viciously kicked Rosemarine back rather than keep engaging her in melee. Upon seeing Basil approach, she attempted to punch him out of the sky. However, having lost her Hasten buff, she couldn’t keep up with his immense speed. Blackcinders’ claws went through a mirage afterimage, while Basil slashed her across the back with his halberd.

His blade cut through scales and flesh alike. He expected to find bolts and gears down there, but he only sliced muscles. Thick black blood spilled from a gash thrice Basil’s size. Yet there was no scream of pain, nor even a grunt.

Either Blackcinders felt no pain, or she just didn’t care.

Supereffective hit! You ignored [Wyrmscale]’s damage reduction! You inflicted 3691 damage and drained half as many SP!

Basil grit his teeth as he read. Though four-digit damage was a high amount by any metric, he would have hoped to stack enough multipliers to kill Blackcinders in one blow. The wound he had left would have caused a lesser dragon to fall from the sky. Yet Blackcinders’ immense vitality let her carry on.

I can finish her off in six hits or so, Basil calculated in his head. Less with help.

“Graviforce!” Blackcinders snarled, her eyes shining with power.

A telekinetic wave of power expanded from her. Basil, Rosemarine, and Vasi were flung backward at high velocity; the Hesperides Dragon landed in a lunar crater while the others flew across the moonscape. Basil ended up bouncing off a falling meteor, his vision briefly going white from the pain.

155 [Physical]! 311 [Earth] damage! Thanks to your strong [Wood] affinity, Rosemarine’s Field empowered you with a [Regen] effect! You will recover 1/16th of your HP each minute!

Basil attempted to correct his course, but Blackcinders’ power kept sending him flying backward. Falling meteors materialized above his head and threatened to crush him. A mighty ray of light shot them out of the sky before they got anywhere close.

The rest of the team had spread out across the landscape and taken position. Steve used the Gehenna Cannon to blow up falling stars, while the others harassed Blackcinders. Shellgirl, whose ice projectiles couldn’t harm the enemy, had summoned a rocket launcher from her inventory and fired at the dragon from the ground up. Bugsy and Plato assisted as well with magma bombs and wind slashes.

Blackcinders absentmindedly deflected the weaker projectiles with her wings and attempted to buff herself again… only for her magic to dissipate almost immediately. On the ground, Plato cackled in delight.

Plato stole Blackcinders’ buffs with [Catnapping]!

Excellent. Plato’s Catnapping Perk only worked when his Luck exceeded that of the target. It hadn’t been enough against the likes of Ashok, but Blackcinders had brought misfortune on herself. If Basil wasn’t mistaken, he noticed a flash of annoyance in her crimson gaze.

Sensing the telekinetic effect weakening, Basil doubled-jumped back toward Blackcinders as fast as he could; he could see Vasi doing the same on the other end of the landscape. The pushback had put over a kilometer between them, but he could cross the distance swiftly.

On the ground, Rosemarine was taking flight again while the rest of the team alternated between blowing out meteors and bombarding Blackcinders. The Unity dragon’s eyes moved from Rosemarine to Plato, a plan formulating in her head. Red particles gathered between her claws.

“Big Bang!” Blackcinders threw a red sphere at Plato. The cat ran as the projectile hit the lunar surface. The sphere erupted in a massive explosion that sent flames and moondust flying in all directions. Plato, Bugsy, and Shellgirl were all swallowed by a storm of dust and hidden from Basil’s sight.

Most importantly, Catnapping needed the target to move within Plato’s line of sight to work. With Plato temporarily disabled, Blackcinders buffed herself again.

She’s going to pick us off one by one, Basil guessed. The sheer speed at which Blackcinders adapted to their tactics disturbed him. No movement was wasted. She didn’t even stop to patch up the bleeding gash on her back.

Blackcinders only thought of murdering the Bohens, and nothing else.

Rosemarine flew upward and attempted to shoot down the enemy with her Eden Guns. In response, Blackcinders dived down like an eagle. She skillfully dodged Rosemarine’s pollen beams—and a laser from Steve—before positioning herself under the Hesperides Dragon. “Graviforce!”

The same telekinetic attack as before hit Rosemarine from below. The Hesperides Dragon fell upward towards the distant sun. She picked up speed as she went, gaining more and more altitude.

“Mister!” Rosemarine panicked, no more able to change her trajectory than Basil beforehand. “The sun is calling me, Mister!”

Basil immediately tried to summon his friend back to his side. “One for All!”

[One for All] negated by [Anti-Teleportation Defense].

Basil’s heart skipped a beat in panic. He had forgotten that while Benjamin managed to transport them to the moon by hacking into the Unity’s network—using the same method that allowed Faction members to return to their HQ—the anti-teleportation measures still applied to unrelated effects.

“She’s ejecting Rosemarine from the moon to cancel her field!” Basil shouted as loud as his lungs would allow it. “I can’t summon her back!”

“I’m going after her!” Vasi replied before shooting up toward the sky. Basil had no idea what she planned to do, but he had to trust her to carry on.

Basil healed his allies with Monster Cure and jumped after Blackcinders. The cloud raised by her Big Bang attack now covered most of the ground, hiding the Bohens from sight and preventing Steve from firing correctly.

“I think I understand you now,” Basil said as he and Blackcinders faced each other above while meteors danced in the sky. “I couldn’t fathom why someone would murder thousands and try to kill a billion more without remorse. Now I do. You don’t feel anything, do you?”

Basil hadn’t seen any hint of pain or satisfaction in Blackcinders’ body language. Neither being hurt nor defeating an enemy elicited a response. She didn’t care about anyone; not even herself.

“You’re made of flesh and bones, Blackcinders, but you’re more of a machine than your Gearsmen.” The Dragonknight fearlessly flew at his quarry’s throat. “You just live to kill!”

Blackcinders responded with a glare and two simple words. “Heavy G.”

Basil fell to the ground in the blink of an eye. He crash-landed amidst grass and moon rocks, his vision turning white for a second.

178 [Physical] damage!

“What’s…” Basil grunted as he struggled to rise to his feet. A powerful pressure weighed on his entire body. His limbs felt heavier than stone, and even standing up felt like an ordeal. The ground cracked under his feet.

Blackcinders’ [Heavy G] trapped you in a gravity well! [Float] effects are canceled, your Agility is halved, falling objects will inflict more damage, and jumping will be limited!

“Falling objects?” Basil looked up at the sky. While Blackcinders was unaffected by her own gravity well, the meteors summoned by her magic accelerated into shooting stars. One moved straight at him. “Elemental–”

He wasn’t fast enough. The meteor hit the ground a few meters away from Basil and exploded in a burst of fiery stones, with the blast sending him rolling backward.

310 [Physical]! 622 [Earth] damage!

Basil’s resistances and armor let him shoulder the blow, and Rosemarine was still close enough that his wounds healed on their own… but the heavy gravity turned him into a sitting duck all the same. Blackcinders circled above him like a vulture while maintaining a careful distance. Her reptilian eyes looked down on her prey with cold-hearted calculation.

Using all his strength, Basil managed to rise to his knees and threw his halberd at the dragon. His weapon barely flew by two meters before the heavy gravity recalled it to the ground. The earth shook further, though Basil couldn’t tell if it was because of the gravity or the Lunar Cannon picking up power.

“I won’t let you touch me again, Bohen.” Another fiery projectile formed in the palm of Blackcinders hand. “Big Ban–”

Two green rays of energy shot Blackcinders in the back. The surprise attack disrupted her concentration enough to dissipate her spell.

“What?” Blackcinders snarled in frustration.

Basil thought Shellgirl had managed to snipe the enemy from behind, but while his allies reappeared a few hundred meters away from his position… his saviors came from another direction entirely.

“Basil!” Benjamin Leroy shouted as he flew across the lunar landscape, with Simeon hot on his tail. “We’re here!”

The cavalry had come.

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