Amazon Apocalypse: Chapter 15 (Patreon)

I’d been keeping myself nearly full of mana  and avoided going all-out, so I was ready to join Ben and the others at a  moment’s notice. But the signal had never come. So where was he? Surely  Craig was as weakened as we were going to get him. I’d gone from  hearing a gunshot every minute from his side of the building to one  every half an hour. He was probably conserving his last bullets.

Overhead,  the sky went from blue to orange, and the waves of monsters grew  denser. I looked at the quest message on my system screen.

Quest time remaining: Two hours.

Just  when I was worrying that the lack of light would start hurting our  people’s aim, the lights came on in the office, and a floodlight shone  down from overhead into our kill zone. The light blinded the monsters  heading our way and made them easy targets.

“Hell yeah! Looks like  the guys in the rear got that generator working!” Marcus yelled. Sure  enough, I heard the drone of a motor on the third floor.

“Can you  guys handle the last of these squirrels on your own? I’ve heard a few  too many shouts on the right flank,” I said. “I’m going to see if they  need reinforcements.”

“We’ve got these guys, Carter!” Bridget replied. Marcus gave a nod, as did Sakura and Caleb.

With  my companions willing to cover my absence and our people healthy enough  to deal with all incoming enemies for the moment, I headed off to check  on the other flanks and look for Ben. The lack of news about Craig was  starting to worry me.

First, I checked on the right-hand side of  the office building, opposite Craig’s front. I’d heard some screaming  from there earlier and figured Ben might be busy reinforcing them.

When  I arrived, I saw no sign of Ben, but I was glad I’d shown up when I  did. They were on the verge of being completely overrun. If I’d been a  minute later, we probably would have had monsters showing up behind our  barricades as whoever was left here fled and abandoned their posts. Why  hadn’t Ben sent these people reinforcements from the reserve forces?

“I’m  hit! Aghhh!” A man screamed when a fireball launched from the mouth of a  fire squirrel struck him. His clothes burst into flame, and he dropped  his gun while running and screaming on fire.

“Roll!” I shouted. “Drop to the ground, cover your face and roll!”

The  man was too panicked to hear me, so I pushed him to the ground and  rolled him with my boot on his back. That finally put the fire out.

The  man was hyperventilating with blistered skin and burnt hair, but he  would live. People with vitality below eight or so couldn’t shrug off  the fireballs like higher-level people could.

The man was  hyperventilating and shivering in terror. I gestured to two riflemen  hiding behind their positions as wave after wave of fireball washed over  the defenses. They didn’t dare stick their heads up to return fire.

“You two! Drag this man back to the office for treatment. And while you’re there, get them to send our reserve forces out here!”

The two I shouted orders at were almost as terrified as the man who’d nearly burned alive.

The two men glanced at my armband. Their shell-shocked minds took a moment to register my minds as orders.

“Come on, hop to it!” I shouted, ducking to the side as a fireball soared past where I’d been standing a moment before.

The  front was badly understaffed, with one man wounded and two more pulling  him to safety. Nearby, I saw two burned and unrecognizable bodies.  Until those reinforcements arrived, it would just be me, two riflemen,  and a couple of frightened civilian assistants.

Worse, those  assistants on this flank hadn’t used the earlier waves to get a few  levels, so they were still level one. Their vitality was low enough that  one fireball would be enough to take them down, just like the bodies  nearby.

At first glance, the position this group was defending was  far easier than the one my group was watching over. The center of their  flank was protected by a giant brick wall, which meant they only needed  to watch two locations, both large and with a wide open kill zone that  was perfect for gunning down enemies.

But at some point, they’d  slipped up. They weren’t killing fire squirrels as fast as they were  accumulating, and that let them reach a critical threshold where they  could continuously shoot fireballs at the defenders to the point where  none of them dared stick their heads up over the barricades to shoot  back. That meant more fire squirrels accumulated, and suddenly it was  all they could do to fight the cockroaches sneaking past the barricades.  Things were looking grim, and in another minute or two, they would have  been completely overwhelmed.

At that point, it wouldn’t matter if  my people and I held our flank without issues. The office would be  overrun, the non-combatants slain, and the quest lost.

I was once  again worried about Ben and the plan. He should have seen these people’s  dire situation and deployed the reserve forces. Where was he?

But  I put that thought out of my mind for the moment. Right now, I needed  to turn the tide, which would probably take everything I had. Including  those new skills, I had just picked up.

“You! By the barricades.  Pull back and tighten the ring of desks.” I said to the few shivering  survivors. I picked up a dropped pistol. Blood was on the handle and a  couple of cockroaches licking at it. It had been near the burning man I  had saved, so I figured he wouldn’t need it. I scooped it up since my  rifle was a two-handed weapon and I wanted something I could use while  casting Mana Bolt.

The remaining gunmen scrambled to safety, and  the civilians supporting them with clubs and improvised weapons moved to  tighten the barricades and put out the burning ones.

“Where are you going?” One of the people asked as I placed one foot on an upturned desk that served as part of the barricade.

“I’m  going to draw fire from those squirrels. Do your best not to shoot me  in the back.” And with that, I pushed myself off the side of the desk  and leaped over it in one bound. Power jump would have been a lot of fun  when I was a teenager, and my standing jump took me twice my own height  in the air and four times that in distance. It felt much like what I  imagined it would be like to jump on the moon.

I landed in the  open, surrounded by fire squirrels. Their reaction was surprise,  followed by a hail of fireballs. But by then, I was already moving.

The  fireballs were moving just about on the edge of what was possible for a  normal human to dodge. It was possible to duck out of the way if you  saw it coming early enough. But at level 9, I could hardly be considered  a normal human anymore. With the enhancements to my perception and  agility, the fireballs seemed to come at me at half speed, like they  were traveling through water instead of air.

Three of them washed  harmlessly by me, while the fourth triggered my Deflection spell to swat  it aside. That left me vulnerable, but I’d gotten used to fighting  these things and knew I had a few moments before the next wave of  fireballs came. And a few moments was all I needed.

I fired the  pistol with one hand and activated Mana Bolt with the other. I twisted  in place, becoming a whirlwind of death and destruction as I rained  bullets and magic down on the enemies encircling me.

With them so  close, I couldn’t miss. I blasted holes in three of them, leaving mortal  wounds in all three. Then I used Power Jump to leap over their heads  and land behind those that remained to unleash another barrage of  attacks.

The squirrels whirled on me, and fireballs scorched my  arm and chest. My skin sizzled, but I could weather the damage with my  vitality so long as I dodged most of them. Iron Will helped me fight  through the pain, especially since I knew I could it away at any moment.

And  that moment came shortly after that when I used Mind over Flesh to  convert some of my mana into health points. I felt my wounds begin to  heal with supernatural speed. I fired another barrage of bullets and  mana bolts just as the first batch of fire squirrels were breathing  their last gasps.

You have slain [Fire Squirrel - Level 5] x 6

You have gained the Pistol proficiency.

You have gained the Regeneration proficiency.

The  remaining beasts came at me with teeth and claws once they realized I  was shrugging off their fireballs, but much like me, these creatures had  thrown their stats into magic rather than physical attacks. I kicked  one aside before using Power Jump to put some distance between the  snarling squirrels and me.

I took a moment to recast Deflect and  regain the protection that the defensive spell gave me, then I unloaded  the rest of the bullets in the pistol into the nearest fire squirrel. It  hissed, spluttered, and died. That was one less enemy, but now when I  pulled the trigger to my pistol, all I got were a few empty clicks. I  was out of bullets.

I suppose that was part of the problem with  guns, at least for me. A true gun nut would have counted his shots as he  pulled the trigger, but someone like me would have been caught with  their metaphorical pants down when their gun suddenly stopped working in  the middle of combat.

And that was when the gun was working  correctly. I had to pull a few of the riflemen on my side out of a  sticky situation when their guns jammed. It made me feel a bit like a  medieval knight scorning the invention of the musket, but I just  couldn’t see myself investing too heavily in mastering firearms. Not  when the alternative was being able to shoot bolts of magic out of my  hand.

So I tossed the pistol at the nearest squirrel, bonking it  on the head. That did little, but the Mana Bolt I followed it up with  looked like it hurt. I reached for my belt and grabbed the knife I’d  looted from the gun store earlier that day. It was a lot bigger than the  thing I’d made my makeshift spear from, and when I drew it, the weapon  just felt right in my hand. The weight in my palm was even more  comforting than the discarded gun.

The short sword and Mana Bolt  felt like a more comfortable combination for me. I didn’t have to work  so hard to keep my distance with a weapon in my hand. The teeth and  claws of these giant squirrels were nothing compared to a knife as long  as my forearm, and any that dared close the distance between them and me  got a heavy slash across their fuzzy maws for their bravery.

Eventually,  the squirrels fought me mage to mage and pitted their fireballs against  my Mana Bolts. I dodged, weaved, and deflected fireballs while the fire  squirrels took hit after hit. Before long, they collapsed to the  ground, battered and bloody as though they’d been pelted with rocks the  size of my head. At my current Caster proficiency, that was probably  what getting hit by my Mana Bolts felt like.

You have slain [Fire Squirrel - Level 5] x 16

You have slain [Cockroach Scavenger - Level 2] x 25

The  cockroaches were barely worth mentioning since they died to either a  Mana Bolt or a good stomp. I would have preferred to use a Mana Bolt,  but I ended up playing it safe with my mana reserves and giving them a  good stomp more often than I would have liked.

During the battle, I  entered an odd state. It was reminiscent of meditation, except far  better than any meditation session I’d ever tried to take part in. There  was something oddly zen about throwing all of my concentration into a  life-and-death battle where I had to fight with everything I had.

But  the fight was over before I knew it. When I looked for my next foe,  there were none to be found. So I stood bloody, battered, burned, and  covered in the blood of my enemies. Walking back to the barricade, I  found the reinforcements I’d called there standing in reserve. They  weren’t firing, though. Instead, they stood slack-jawed with awe and  fright on their faces as they stared back at me. I supposed it was like  watching professional athletes at work. With my stats, I could do things  that weren’t possible before the System. Still, they shouldn’t stare  that much. It was just a few low-level monsters.

“Do any of you  guys have a towel?” I asked as I gestured to the blood in my hair and on  my face. “I want to get some of this off me before this dries.”

“Y-yes, sir!” a man said, tearing his shirt free and offering it to me. I shrugged and used it to wipe the blood and goo off me.

“I  take it you can take it from here, right? Don’t let those squirrels  gang up on you again. Thin them out before they become a problem.”

“U-understood, sir!” the man stuttered.

“Good. I’m going to go look for Ben.”

Behind me, I heard one of them whisper. I wouldn’t have heard it without my enhanced Perception stats.

“Are we sure he’s really a human? Maybe he’s one monster in human form?”

The man who’d given me his shirt shushed the other. “Just be glad he’s on our side.”

After  asking if any of them had seen Ben, I ended up going to the front  flank. They were doing much better than the one I’d just helped, but  they still looked like they needed a hand.

I had hoped that the  reason why Ben hadn’t reinforced the people I’d just helped was because  he was busy helping the defenders guarding the front, but that didn’t  look like it was the case. There was no sign of Ben. Nor any of Stacy,  Brett, and Michael, the three high-leveled individuals outside of my  little group of survivors.

I did spot Margaret toward the front.  Ben had placed her in charge here. In truth, I thought she’d be little  more than a figurehead, but she must have gone down to the shooting  range with Ben more often than I’d given her credit for. She was picking  off Fire Squirrels one at a time before promptly ducking back under  cover. Those fireballs were a lot scarier for lower leveled people since  they couldn’t just shrug the attacks off and keep fighting like I  could. They also didn’t have my Deflect spell, so they had a smaller  margin of error for dodging these things.

“Margaret, where’s Ben?” I asked as I crouched behind an upturned desk with her.

Margaret  didn’t respond. Her eyes were focused on her gun, which had jammed a  moment ago. She was pulling the clip from it with frantic haste and  tapping it against her palm.

“Margaret?” I asked.

“Monsters...  there’s so many...” Her eyes were wide and bloodshot, knuckles white as  she clutched her weapon. A stuck shell finally fell out of the gun, and  she hopped over the barrier again to keep shooting.

I realized then that if I wanted a response out of her, I’d need to clear the battlefield just like I had before.

So  I jumped up from the barricade, immediately drawing fireballs. But by  now, dodging them had become as easy as breathing. I didn’t even end up  using my Deflect spell.

You have slain [Fire Squirrel - Level 5]! x 5

I  used Power Jump to close the distance with the last of them and slashed  its side wide open with my sword before finishing it off with a Mana  Bolt to the face. I thought that would be the end, but something small,  black, and far faster than any of the squirrels rushed me with its wide  open maw.

I dodged out of the way with Power Jump, flinging a Mana  Bolt at it as it missed me. It tumbled through the air and lay sprawled  on its side, its vulnerable underbelly turning upward. I wasn’t about  to let that opening slip by, so I jumped on top of it and plunged my  sword deep into its guts. I didn’t even realize what it was until it was  dying.

Giant Rat - Level 6.

It seemed like a new wave of  monsters was trickling in. In fact, this rat looked just like the rat  matriarch when I fought her last. But now, instead of just one of them,  there were dozens of creatures, all at her old level. Worse, with more  fire squirrels still trickling in, these rats could charge the defenses  under cover of fireballs. That would keep our riflemen from gunning them  down with impunity.

It was an unfortunate combination that would  make things exponentially more difficult for the defenders. I just hoped  everyone had gained enough levels to make it through this. The civilian  fighters, especially, would need to step up if some of those rats made  it all the way to the barricade. I hoped they’d been putting points into  strength and vitality.

The number of times I used Mana Bolt was  finally dipping into my reserves, so I snatched a discarded pistol off  the ground and took a few shots with it instead. My aim wasn’t  particularly good compared to the others, but I could stand up in front  of the barriers without worrying about the fireballs, unlike the others  who had to hop up and shoot quickly for fear of returning fire.

With  my help, the field was gradually cleared. I even grabbed a few of the  civilians, thrust a couple of sticks in their hands, and told them to  bash any cockroaches coming through. Most of the ones arriving now were  of the Scavenger Cockroach variant, so those at level one would be at a  disadvantage. That was the price they paid for not being willing to  fight earlier, though, when we were only up against level-one  cockroaches.

Eventually, we got the situation near the front under control.

“Margaret,  I need your help. Where’s Benjamin?” I asked when our enemies had  thinned enough that she could catch her breath. I had to pull her from  the front lines before she would take a break.

“I... I don’t know  where Ben is. He should be in the office still. He said it was time to  see Craig. He took everyone with the highest levels from here and the  flank to our side. He said we’d waited as long as he dared, and we’d  gained as many levels as we could before risking Craig reaching level  10. I thought he was going to visit you next, but you’re here.”

I frowned. “How long ago was this?”

It was possible I’d missed him and that he’d gone to check on me at the same time I’d gone to look for him.

“I... I don’t know. It felt like hours ago.”

“Do you remember how much time was left on the quest timer?”

Margaret shrugged. “I don’t know...”

“Come with me. We need to find him.”

“Right...  Right...” Margaret grew steadier as I tugged her along behind me toward  the office doors. By the time we actually made it there, she was the  one dragging me behind her instead. We arrived at the front door, and  she rapped on it three times with the butt of her rifle. “Hello? We’re  coming it! Just confirming that we’re humans and not monsters.”

We  waited outside the door for a few moments in silence. Even covered by  the barricades, Margaret didn’t like standing up in the open like this.

“Was someone supposed to reply?”

Margaret nodded.

We waited a few moments more before I got impatient and tried the door knob. It was unlocked. I swung it open.

Margaret  stepped through first. The moment she entered the doorway, she froze. I  had to squeeze past her to get through, but the moment I did, I smelled  the reason she stopped. The air was thick with the metallic scent of  blood.

I gently pushed Margaret aside, heart rate beating faster.  Maybe the smell of blood was just coming from the wounded. This was  where we were taking everyone who went down, after all.

I listened and heard nothing. No moans of pain, no sounds of medics scrambling to care for the dead and dying. Just silence.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

I took a left turn and soon realized why. The moment I opened the door to the law office, I saw a river of blood and bodies.

Humans  lay stacked on top of each other like so much garbage. They splayed  back on themselves, twisted backward in positions that would have been  impossible to maintain if they’d been alive.

Broken arms, legs,  and necks abounded. Most of these people had been beaten to death. Not  by monsters, though. No, monsters would have tried to eat them.

A  few Scavenger Cockroaches were wandering the room, but they hadn’t been  the culprit behind this mess. I could tell by the splintered wood and  the shape of the attacks that they’d come from improvised weapons.  They’d been killed by fellow humans.

Blood sloshed along the floor  in a knuckle-deep puddle that coated the entire room. All the wounded  we’d sent back here for healing were dead, as well as the children and  the elderly we rescued. Not a single one of them was still alive, though  the bodies were still warm to the touch.

I’d hardly felt anything  when putting down those giant cockroaches. Fighting those giant rats  had been exhilarating and Adrenalin-inducing. Even killing those  murderers had been an act of necessity. But now was the first time I  felt true disgust at the carnage around me and sorrow at the loss of  life. Who would do this?

My heart pounded faster, and I was pretty sure I already knew the answer.

I  took another glance at the bodies. The pain and fear were plain on  their faces. I had a strong stomach, but I couldn’t look any longer. To  think, everything all the people outside were fighting for was already  gone. Should we give up on the quest?

“Nooooooo!” Margaret screamed behind me.

She held her hand over her mouth, eyes wide in horror.

I  followed her gaze to the center of the room. Laying atop one of the  largest piles of bodies, Ben sprawled on his back with his eyes wide.  His face was pale, and there was a bullet hole between his eyes.

My eyes darted to her, and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise as one moment onward.

Something  whizzed at me, triggering my deflect and slamming into the ground  nearby. It splashed my pant leg with blood and dug a hole into the  floor. After today, I’d heard that sound enough to recognize it at first  glance. Someone had just tried to shoot me.

“Get down!” I yelled.

Margaret stumbled toward the pile of bodies, falling on top of her dead husband.

I  turned and slid behind the nearest office corner, putting something  between the shooter and me. A moment later, the shooter emerged.

He  was splattered head to toe in red human blood. Each step splattered the  red pool beneath him a little further. I heard his pistol click as he  chambered another round.

Despite the blood, I recognized the man.  His cheap sunglasses and massive frame were impossible to mistake for  anyone else in the office.

“Now that was just bullshit. I know I shot you in the damn head...” Craig chuckled darkly.

+++

<Note>

Carter Smith (Human, Level 9. Rank F)

Strength: 10 [+1 this chapter]

Agility: 8 [+1 this chapter]

Perception: 11

Vitality: 14

Intelligence: 24

Willpower: 10 [+1 this chapter]

Charisma: 10 [+1 this chapter] (+4)

Luck: 3

Proficiency:

Caster: 6

Neutral Mana: 5

Improvised Weapons: 4

Rifle: 3

Pistol: 1

Regeneration: 1

Titles:

Forerunner of Earth, Integration Survivor,  Chivalrous Pervert, Mechanical Master

Temporary Titles:

Blessed of the System, Hero of Sakura Miyamoto,

Skills and Spells:

Mind over Flesh (Uncommon)

Mana Bolt (Common)

Power Jump (Common)

Iron Will (Common)

Fabulous Phallus (Common)