Amazon Apocalypse 2: Chapter 21 (Patreon)

After a very welcome return home, I realized there was little time to waste and much work to be done. I set up the teleportation pad that Cyra had given me in one corner of the house out of the weather, following the instructions that were included in the small box. It wasn't that dissimilar to a modern furniture kit. I switched the nails out for screws to hold the whole thing together, though, and added a few bolts underneath to ensure it stayed in place.

What I read from the instructions told me it was essential that it not move at all during activation. And after my experience with the previous teleportation, I wanted to make things as safe as possible. I used the heaviest bolts I had.

Bridget was done with breakfast just as I finished up, and Sakura milled around outside our home patrolling for monsters. With my return, my Death Curse was bringing critters out of the woods to harass us, and she was busy squishing them before they could make it to the front door.

"I need to grab some salvage. I really need more copper wire. You two ladies wouldn't happen to have seen any in the abandoned houses you looted our new furniture from?" I asked.

"We can take you," Sakura agreed. "We took off early last time because of a few monsters, but we've earned a few levels since then. And with you there, we might as well clear them out."

"Done," I replied.

The two of them had done a good job picking up a few more levels while I’d been gone. They weren't quite back to where they had been when I’d drained the two of them to prepare for my final battle with the Alpha Wolfman, but they would get there with just a day or two of diligent training. And they'd do so with far higher proficiency levels with most of their abilities, meaning they'd be a notch stronger than others at their level.

We packed our things as soon as we were finished eating. Sakura hopped in the passenger side seat of my truck and I fired it up. The driver’s seat was pushed forward, so I could tell Sakura and Bridget had used it to pick up the new furniture in the house.

"Bridget, make sure the siphon is in back. We'll need to top off the truck, and I'd rather take whatever's in the tanks of the abandoned cars along the road than raid our jerry cans."

Bridget flashed me a thumbs up, and soon we were off.

The drive was uneventful. There were a few monsters, but nothing that even had me stop the truck. I killed most of them with a finger gun and a mana bolt. There was one enormous squirrel that I drove by, but Sakura leaned her head out the window and smashed it to paste using her baseball bat like a golf club.

"Hole in one!" Sakura proclaimed as the remains of the squirrel monster landed in a pit.

"You weren't aiming for that," I snorted.

"You can't prove a thing!" Sakura tilted her chin up in pride and crossed her arms under her breasts.

Eventually, we came to an abandoned neighborhood. There were clear signs of a struggle. The integration had happened in the middle of the workday, so most people had been in town. But apparently enough folks had been home that there had still been a sizable population of humans around—for a while, at least.

There were enough bodies and smashed open doors that I was pretty sure none of the homeowners were still around.

"Did you figure out who did this?" I asked, eyeing the body of an older retiree lying face down in the street.

He was surrounded by a large, dried bloodstain. Not all of it was his own either—he had a bent and bloody crowbar in his limp grasp. The locals hadn't gone down without a fight.

"We knocked on all the doors, but only found one woman and her baby. She said raiders came through here. Mostly ex-convicts from the prison back near the city. It sounds like they killed most of the people who could fight while scavenging for guns,” Bridget replied. “Then the monsters came. We found her hiding in a hidden compartment under her stairs as we were digging through her stuff. I only barely managed to hear her. We ended up driving her to Crownhill for shelter."

"And in return, she gave us her finest chair! It's even better than the one I broke," Sakura added.

"Raiders, huh?" I grimaced.

I would have preferred fighting monsters. Though there was one advantage to hunting my fellow humans. Unlike monsters, my curse was perfectly happy to let me get experience points from them.

"I imagine they're long gone." Bridget shrugged.

"Still, you two should stick close… and let me know if you see any signs of the idiots. Until then, let's see if we can't salvage some goodies." I handed Sakura a sledgehammer to replace her trusty baseball bat.

With her doing the smashing, we made short work of a few power boxes. We soon found a whole drawer full of charger cables for cellphones and tablets as well. We took all of those, too.

"How many more Mana Bombs do you plan on making?" Bridget asked.

"Lots," I promised. "As many as I can, really." After all, I had found the perfect market for them.

Carrying everything back to the truck would have been terribly tedious, but I let Bridget and Sakura do it twice before showing off my new item.

"Oh, Bridget,” I said as I stopped her from picking up a large bundle of wires, “ I've got that." I scooped it up in one hand and shoved the messy bundle of wires she'd been about to pick up into my bag of holding—one handful at a time.

"Woah! Is that what I think it is?" Bridget's eyes widened.

Sakura dropped the refrigerator she'd been carrying over her shoulder. "Wait! You can just shove stuff in a magic bag instead of hauling it around? No fair! Also, why don't I have one of those?"

I chuckled. "Myrina helped me get it as a quest reward. When I'm able to bring the two of you over to her world, I'm sure she'll help you two get one of your own—assuming you're both nice to her."

Bridget nodded.

Sakura looked torn. "But I've already come up with so many witty jibes to use against her..."

With my bag of holding, the process went a lot faster and we soon stripped the house of anything of value. Unfortunately the bag's contents weren't infinite, so we had to put the refrigerator Sakura wanted in the back of the truck. We were just finishing up strapping it down, when trouble came calling.

"Did you two hear something?" Bridget asked suddenly.

I stopped what I was doing. I heard the sound of an engine running in the distance, and it was getting closer.

"Seems like we have visitors," I said.

Sakura reached through the open window of my truck for her baseball bat. She hefted it over her shoulder while I prepared my spells and Bridget's fingernails lengthened. They'd always been a little too sharp to be strictly human, but the faint glow of mana at their tips made me think they were more like knives now.

To me, that seemed like a power that should come more from cats than from wolves. But then again, the Wolfmen weren't exactly from Earth. Perhaps whatever wolf they'd been before their transformation had claws as sharp as any cat’s.

The sound of engines in the distance grew louder, and with it, loud whooping and yelling.

"I don't think these are survivors looking for their lost belongings," I muttered to my companions.

"Good!" Sakura hefted her bat over her shoulder. "Because I want this fridge. I've already got a place picked out for it and everything."

A minute later, we saw them as they streamed down the street. There were six cars in total. The state of them made it look like the apocalypse had happened a decade ago instead of just a few days. The windows on them had been smashed and a dozen men in slapdash armor rode with guns and machetes on full display.

I took the opportunity to use examine on them.

Raider Scavenger -- Level 10

Raider Thug -- Level 12

Raider Swashbuckler -- Level 14

Raider Gunner -- Level 15

I made sure I had Deflect up and running. Thanks to my training with Myrina and Cyra, I now had substantial bonuses to it through my proficiencies that I’d lacked before. It hadn't been all that useful against their swords and spears, but I found I was almost eager to test it against guns once more.

My days of practice had decreased its cooldown to the point that it would be useful for more than just at the start of a fight.

"Well well well... look who we have here? More survivors, I take it?" asked the Raider Gunner.

He had the sleazy voice of someone confident they were in complete control of the situation. Which they weren't. I waited for the familiar tingle to run up my spine and change their attitudes.

Their levels may have looked impressive back in Crownhill, but not by much. Bridget and Sakura could both match them, thanks to all the leveling they'd been doing while I was gone. And I was more than twice the level of their strongest member.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get the satisfaction of seeing that realization dawn on their brutish faces. t looked like word hadn't spread to them about the value of the Examine skill. Nobody in their band had it, so they didn't even realize how badly outmatched they were.

"Lookie here, boys, we've got two cuties! What are the pair of you doing out here all alone? I know, how about the two of you climb in back with us. We'll protect you. Meanwhile, you can... entertain us."

Bridget growled. The sound didn't seem quite human. Sakura's reaction, on the other hand, was quite human. She showed the raiders her middle finger.

"I take it you fellows are here to scavenge for supplies as well?" I raised an eyebrow.

A spell tickled the tips of my fingers. They had about ten seconds to change my opinion of them. Otherwise they were about to turn into experience points. I planned on rebuilding Crownhill and surviving the apocalypse. The System had even entrusted me with lordship over the city and its people by granting me ownership of the settlement. And assholes like these didn’t deserve a place in my settlement.

While I was an advocate for my fellow humans and those who could work alongside us like the goblins Chief Wubwub had abandoned to my care, I had no intention of allowing wild criminal elements to run rampant through the countryside. When we finally met other races on the level of Myrina's people, I swore their first impression of the humans of Crownhill would be of an organized and stable society—not mad hooligans raiding and pillaging as they pleased.

"Hey! Wipe that smirk off your face! Don't get all cocky on us," the Raider Gunner sneered at me.

For a brief moment, I even thought he might call me a nerd and threaten to give me a wedgie. "Are you finished?" I asked.

"Nope!" The Raider Gunner grinned at me, showing off a surprising number of teeth, considering his profession. "So, punk, it just so happens we have some friends who could use some fresh meat. And I mean that literally. If you beg us to let you join our crew, maybe we'll let you live. If not, then you're going into the stew pot! You've got ten seconds to--"

My patience ran out midway through his speech and I sent a Mana Bolt through his skill.

"Boss!"

"He killed Gunner!"

"Get him!"

Sweaty leather-bound men piled out of the nearby cars. My senses locked on each of them, processing them and their threat levels and preparing for battle in ways I hadn't even known I should before my training with Cyra.

I ducked behind the rear wheel well my truck, shielding myself from half their number while I channeled Mana Bolt and Eldritch Blast. I kicked Mania up to the first level—Dissonance. Any squeamishness I might have still had left on taking a life vanished the moment I activated my class's otherworldly power.

"Good riddance," I muttered as I fired an Eldritch Blast with one hand.

Instead of just knocking the man back and singing his skin, though, the level difference between the two of us was such that my spell blew a whole straight through his stomach. It dealt even more damage than the Mana Bolt I'd just killed the other asshole with.

My spells hadn't changed as I'd gained levels, but the proficiency levels associated with them had. Those had undergone a fundamental change, and now my abilities took less mana to cast, had shorter cool downs, and did more damage than ever before. Even though they were the same basic combat spells, they felt like they’d been completely transformed. I hadn't thought they'd reach this point until I upgraded them.

Then again, there was a lot I hadn't thought about before my tutorial with Myrina.

One of the men with a machete rushed me. I couldn’t help but note that his grip was wrong—just as mine had been. He let loose a reckless slash, and I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes as he closed with me. At the last moment, I sidestepped his lunge and fired a mana bolt before swapping to Eldritch Augmentation.

I overpowered him with my raw stats, knocked his weapon from his hands and, before I knew it, was drawing his own blade across his throat as I shoved him to the ground. He clutched the bleeding ruin that was his throat with a wide-eyed expression of surprise and incomprehension.

With the machete in hand, I cast Arcane Blade over it. Blue light coated the weapon, creating a longer and slender outline over it. The image Arcane Blade created wasn't of a tool for chopping vegetation, but a weapon of war. Cocking my arm back, I threw it.

It was time to see how much I could stretch that new Knife Throwing proficiency. The sword spun end over end to slam hilt-deep into the chest of a startled raider. He clutched at the handle a few times before falling to his knees and coughing up blood.

Sakura and Bridget hadn't been idle. They took out one foe each. Bridget drew her fingers across a man’s chest. She didn't look like she'd even touched him, yet his heavy leather jacket had four slashes down much of its length in the shape of claws.

She pulled a dagger from her belt with her other hand and then knocked him off his feet. With a snarl, Bridget leaned over the fallen Raider. When she stood, the dagger that had been in her hand was plunged hilt-deep in the man's eye.

Sakura had been far less delicate than either of us in her ruthless brutality. She’d held her club aloft, crimson light coating its length. And when she swung her club, she didn't hold back in the slightest. As she swung it, her club made a cracking noise in the air.

The head she smashed evaporated in a spray of crimson blood, and the rest of his corpse was knocked back with such force that it snapped the spine of the man behind him when that unlucky fellow crashed into their car. He left a human-shaped dent in the side of their vehicle.

"Hyaaaa!" Sakura let out a wordless battle cry, charging forward with her weapon raised once more. The horn jutting out of her forehead glowed the same crimson shade as the bat in her hands.

With six dead in the blink of an eye, some of the raiders realized things weren't going so well for them. The furthest group from us stopped in their tracks and turned their ferocious charge into a retreat, piling back in their van as quickly as they'd piled out of it.

Their driver slammed on the gas with such haste that he plowed right into the curb, popping one of his tires in the process. That didn't stop them, though. The driver and the raiders aboard the van sped off as their popped tire batted against the body of the van, making a racket that would attract every monster within earshot.

I glared at the men that remained. Perhaps after today some of these raiders would reconsider their choice in profession. For most of them, those who had yet to hear of Crownhill, they probably thought what they were doing was the only way to survive the apocalypse. We disabused them of that notion.

The three of us dealt with the remaining raiders too slow to escape in short order. I got several new notifications in the process, though in accordance with Myrina's advice, I'd reorganized my notification priority list to only show critical information during battle. Things like level ups and proficiency upgrades could wait until the fighting was over.

"Die!" Sakura growled from the depths of her oni berserker battle rage.

I realized there was something odd about her opponent—mostly due to the fact that Sakura had smashed his head in once already. That wasn't the sort of thing any human should have been able to survive. And yet this man's head was folding back together fast enough that I could see it happening. He hobbled around on his hands and knees, deaf and blind, but he was healing.

"Wait a mo—" I held up my hand, but I was too slow to stop Sakura's club from coming down a second time.

The man collapsed to the ground, twitching in a heap. But, much to my surprise, he was still alive.

"Die for real this time!" Sakura bellowed again, raising her club to smash what was left of the man to paste.

"Wait!" I held up both hands this time, and Sakura stopped herself from following through with her swing. "Something's off about that guy."

I looked him over. He seemed normal enough—at least as far as apocalypse raiders could be considered normal. He had almond skin, a smooth-shaven head, and wore a shirt made of leather straps that belonged in a fetish shop rather than as apocalyptic survival gear. He’d probably been someone who watched Mad Max one too many times and took it a little too seriously.

He started twitching again, and I used Examine.

Raider Thug -- Level 12.

I frowned, not learning anything new. How was he regenerating?

This would take more thought. And more abilities. With that thought, I tried something new.

Instead of Examine, I switched to using Study—the rare class skill that also contained all the features of the Analyze ability. Normally it was for figuring out what items and raw materials were good for. Now, I looked at the man before me like he was artificer material. That gave me the first clue about what I was looking for.

"Human flesh. Shirt. Pants. Oh... hello? What's this?" Eyeing the man somewhere around his chest, I sensed the presence of something inside of him that wasn't supposed to be there. It was a little blue orb somewhere just beneath the surface of his chest. It was glowing too, which was the only reason I could make it out from beneath his skin.

I stared at it hard until my Study skill revealed its identity to me.

Blessed Second Heart of the Troll (Rare)

"Now how did that get in there?" I muttered as the man's head finished regenerating.