A Lewd Cultivator in Brockton Bay 66 (Patreon)

Over the course of last week and this week so far, I have been getting into Project Zomboid. 26+ hours spent, and all I’ve got to show for it are five failed runs with the longest-lasting run only lasting 11 in-game days.

-VB-

A Lewd Cultivator in Brockton Bay

Chapter 66

-VB-

I jumped on top of the tree canopies, doing my best to avoid the area that I last saw the rest of the Slaughterhouse Nine. I intended to go all the way around so the Nine wouldn’t even see me leave the area.

And then I heard something.

A scream.

I nearly screamed when my phone exploded in my pocket.

I completely forgot about Shatterbird! I didn’t realized that her power extended to things small like smartphones. Fuck! I quickly stopped at one of the trees and hardened my skin before reaching into my pocket and pulling out the shattered remnants of my phone. The glass shards didn’t cut into my skin thanks to the Rock Flesh Art’s skin hardening, but my pants was going to need some repair.

Creeekkk.

I paused and slowly looked around.

And then I looked down.

Standing at the base of the tree with two hands resting on the tree … was Mannequin.

It’s been barely more than a minute since I killed Manton. How the fuck was Mannequin here already?! Did … the Nine know about Manton and

“... Sup,” I greeted the tinker. “Come around often?” He merely tilted his head slightly before he began to blitz his way up the tree trunk. “Ah, fuck no, I’m out of here!” I shouted and jumped away. My feet carried me away from the top of the tree as I jumped away, and Mannequin lashed out just as he got in arm’s reach of me. He missed and spun around the tree trunk from the force of the missed grab. I smirked at him as he stopped his spin around the tree trunk just yard or two below the top of the tree and look at me like a hunter who lost its prey.

Then he did something … and leaped at me like a goddamn frog! One of his hands shot out toward me like fucking Blitzcrank and grabbed onto my shin. He pulled his hand back, and I abruptly did a 180 in the air as my momentum reversed. His hand was doing something to my shin but it didn’t hurt, so I instead reeled my fist back and punched his head case.

Mannequin’s head reeled as my fist slammed into his shell, but to my surprise, there wasn’t even a dent on it!

We began to fall, and Manneuqin wrapped himself around me.

“Fuckin- FINE!” I hissed before drawing out my Ki. I winced as my face broke through leaves and branches before the both of us slammed into the ground, scattering dry and broken barks, leaves, and branches everywhere.

With but a Ki-infused swing, I tore myself free from Mannequin’s grip and the insane tinker tried to crawl back and out of my reach. I saw quickly how my Ki-infused body slam into the ground had damaged his left arm and right leg; he was no longer at his optimal movement and combat capability.

I wasn’t going to let him get away so easily.

I burst forward, jumping off the ground, and punched my hand forward with another Rock Flesh art. Crossing what had to be a dozen yards in under a second, my fist slammed into Mannequin’s main body this time, and unlike my first non-Ki-infused punch, this attack caved his shell in. I didn’t let up. The moment he was about to fly away, I grabbed his undamaged arm, making him lurch back but stay roughly in the same position.

And then I punched again.

And again.

Each strike rang out in the forest like a giant bell toll. The forest quivered from my assault… and by the end of my eleventh strike, Mannequin’s tinker body remained shattered and bloodied with none of his encased organs remaining whole.

I’d just killed another member of the Nine.

Clap clap clap clap.

I looked up and snarled.

Standing just out of my immediate reach - even by jumping - was none other than Jack Slash and the rest of his merry band of murderhobos.

Before he opened his mouth, I spoke up first.

“Jack Slash has a Master component to his power,” I snarled, making the other members of the Nine pause and Jack freeze. “It manipulates not you but your power to work alongside Jack. You are all Master victims at least in part and you don’t even know it.” I needed to give myself even a little bit of discourse among them so that I can run away. “How else would a man whose only ability is to slice and dice get away from King, the original founder of the Slaughterhouse Nine? Someone whose power prevents damage to himself at the expense of those whom he touched in the last 24 hours? Who always made sure to touch his pet parahumans like Jack right there and Harbinger?”

Jack glared at me as he pulled out his razor blade.

“Face it, Jack! You’re not as clever as you think you are! You’re just a puppet to your own delusions and power just like everyone around you!” I laughed at me.

Get mad, bitch! Attack me! Prove to your teammates that I’m right! Give me any kind of distraction to work with!

Jack glared at me… and then he smirked. “Nice try. Well done, truly,” he said as he let go of his razor blade.

Good enough for me.

I burst forward, catching Jack off guard and slammed my knee… into Crawler.

“Good. You can fight!” Crawler laughed before he grabbed me and threw me.

My back struck a tree, broke the tree, slammed into another tree, broke through that, too, and then finally bounced off the third tree trunk and crashed into the ground. I bounced off from where I crashed and rolled away like a ragdoll before coming to a stop against another tree trunk.

My arms pushed down against the ground, and I got up silently with a glare. Though I was now roughened up, my senses hadn’t left me and most of it was cosmetic damage; I didn’t have a single inch of skin that bled.

Crawler saw me get back up and grinned with his monstrous lips and numerous eyes.

“Good. You can get up. Then you can fight!” he roared before he rushed at me.

This time, I held my ground instead of jumping at him.

Path of Rock Flesh…

Just as Crawler came close to striking me, I made my move.

Bulkhead.

He slammed into me and bounced off, almost sliding off of me like how a cat might slide off of a boulder it accidentally jumped toward.

Crawler whirled around and I turned to face him, but that’s when I felt a tingle of something striking the back of my lower back at the hip. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Jack Slash with his razor blade out, already having swung at me once from at least a hundred yards away.

He whistled.

“Definitely a Brute. Brutal, too.”

“Yes, thanks for pointing that out, Captain Obvious,” I drawled before looking back to Crawler. “Stay there while I deal with your pet.”

I took a step toward Crawler, and the earth rumbled under the weight of my Ki-reinforced body. It wasn’t exactly a Two-Ton Tunic, but I was pretty heavy now.

Out of the entire cast of the Nine, there was only one member that I feared right now, and that was Bonesaw. I needed to stay out of her way and reach while I tried to get away from the rest of them.

But how was I going to do that when Crawler very much intended to keep me pinned here?