Amazon Apocalypse 2: Chapter 26 (Patreon)

Chuck's team guarded our rear, waiting to reinforce us. I carried on ahead with Bridget and Sakura at my sides with the other two militia behind us. The woman, Kerrie, held a bow, and the man, Rick, an axe. Their anxiety was evidenced by how their fingers gripped their weapons with white knuckles. They weren't exactly being silent, but I was reasonably sure these ogres didn't have perception-based builds.

If they did, the only one who was getting close to their camp would be Bridget. In contrast to the rest of us, she was graceful and silent as she slid over the uneven terrain. Perhaps she'd gained some instinctual understanding of stealth, thanks to the wolf soul she was connected to? I still didn't know what she'd decided to do with the pup after her meeting with Doctor Roswell. Had she taken its soul for herself or severed the connection completely?

She looked no different from before, but every now and again I sensed a certain predatory glint in her eyes.

Sakura gripped her club tightly. Leaning low as she was, with her horn jutting forward, she reminded me of a rhinoceros attempting an ambush. It just wasn't something that should work. As one might expect, with every misstep leaves crunched and twigs snapped under her feet.

I was better than Sakura, but not by much. The proper way for a spell caster such as myself to take on a spying or espionage roll would be through some sort of disguise spell. Unfortunately, I had no such ability in my arsenal, so was restricted to simply using Warp Step to jump from one clear patch of ground to another.

My clothes weren't exactly built for stealth either, though I was wearing Sakura's cloak to help me remain unobserved. Beneath it I had the blue robes I'd won in the dungeon with Myrina and Cyra, along with the amulet, wand, and bracelet I'd gotten there.

Each of those items gave a small but appreciable bonus to my mana pool or spell accuracy. Thanks to them, I was better outfitted than anybody else on this mission. I had my survival sword in my hand as well. It was roughly the same length as the baby's first weapon blade Myrina had loaned me, but I found I preferred the short length.

With my fighting style, closing with an enemy was easy. With my ranged spells, I always did so on my own terms. Besides, now that I had my Arcane Blade spell, I could lengthen the weapon whenever I pleased. Plus, my tests told me this was about as long as my weapon could be and still qualify for my knife throwing proficiency bonus.

I heard voices ahead.

Bridget cocked her head to one side, and that wolf-like tuft of hair on the top of her head moved like the wolf ear it resembled. A few steps closer and I heard it as well. There were voices ahead—each was low and gravelly. They sounded like rocks grinding together.

At first, it sounded like nothing but odd noises, much like the goblin voices had when I'd first seen them. Then my Forerunner title kicked in. It granted me the ability to understand all humanoid languages, and ogres counted.

I waited, listening in the hopes of learning what our enemies were up to by eavesdropping on this conversation. I held up a hand to halt our advance and then Warp Stepped up into a tree branch to get a better view. From my hiding spot, I observed the three ogres around their campfire.

The first one, with speckled green spots covering his thick, grayish skin, picked at a bone, grunting discontentedly. "Me no like last few humans. Too skinny."

The second ogre, noticeably taller than the other two with a mane of wild, matted hair, threw another log onto the fire. "Yeah, too much run. Need fat ones. Fat ones tasty. Houses have fat ones. Soft and tasty fat ones."

The third, with a broad, flat nose and tusks jutting out from his lower lip, nodded in agreement. "Skinny ones tough. Me like chew, but they too much chew."

The speckled one's small eyes gleamed with a hint of reminiscence. "Last time, me find house with tiny humans. Good munch!"

The tall one's belly rumbled loudly, drawing chuckles from the other two. "I see houses while walking today to find new club,” he said. “These houses big, Probably full of many fat ones. We go tomorrow?"

The tusked one, looking excited, smacked his lips together. "After moon hides, we go eat more!"

It seemed like things had progressed even faster than I'd feared. If these ogres had already set their sights on the suburbs surrounding Crownhill, it was only a matter of time before they started eating people en masse. From the sound of things, they'd already snatched a few survivors for their meal.

Now that I'd heard them speak, the meat the tall one was holding over the fire like a marshmallow on a stick looked a lot like a human leg. With renewed resolve, I waved the others forward. These three ogres didn't know it, but their deaths would save far more human lives than they'd taken.

This part of the plan was always the most delicate. It was going to take some flexibility. We'd picked these three because they were isolated from the rest of the camp, but not so isolated that they wouldn't be found.

We wanted to pick them off from the group, sewing a little discord in the process. Their deaths shouldn't go unnoticed by the other ogres. It was imperative that we remained unseen.

In the end, I settled with just firing a few spells at them from as far a distance as I could manage—which turned out to be pretty far with the wand Myrina had purchased for me. I channeled Eldritch Blast through the device.

Normally that attack dissipated to nothing within a few yards, but with the wand to direct and focus it, I could get almost as much range with the spell as I could with my Mana Bolts. I needed to catch their attention.

Ogre Bruiser (Level 24)

Ogre Smasher (Level 23)

Ogre Goliath (Level 26)

I pointed my wand, raising myself to the first layer of Mania. I wanted the extra damage, but I needed a clear head for this and couldn't risk the battle-hungry mental state of Blood Frenzy. As I entered Dissonance, the world grew distant and I detached myself from my emotions. It felt like I was looking at the world over my shoulder, almost like third person view in a video game, instead of through my own eyes. It was a cold way of looking at the world.

The idea to leave Mania on at this level all the time had struck me more than once. There was something useful in the distant and indifferent state. Any Scholar of Forbidden Knowledge who embarked on such a path would be a terrifying being of unflinching logic, thinking only of optimizing their personal gains and nothing of the human emotions their actions entailed. It would allow them to be quite cruel and ruthless.

I'd opted against that path, though. Keeping a firm hold on my humanity seemed to be growing harder and harder as the levels piled up, but I was determined to make the most of them without losing it.

My Eldritch Blast struck the tusked ogre, and he flinched. "Ow! Bug bite me!" he said. The others laughed and made no move to see what it had actually been.

I grimaced. These ogres had tougher hides than I thought. A single Eldritch Blast wasn't even enough to get their attention. I tried a mana bolt. The tusked Ogre yelped again and swatted at his back. The other two chortled with laughter.

I tried hitting the green spotted one.

"Bugs be everywhere!" the green spotted ogre stood and whirled left and right.

I hit the tall one, too, and he tossed his spit with a human leg on it to the ground near the fire as his eyes darted to the side of the fire I'd struck him from.

"Bad bugs! Nork eat bad bugs!" the tall ogre—apparently Nork—bellowed to the empty surroundings.

He was the Ogre Goliath. Besides just being taller than the others, he was noticeably stronger. But that was to be expected. Like me, he'd crossed the threshold into the D-Ranks and upgraded his body. He would be much tougher than the other two.

I glanced at the other ogre fire pits further away. We were starting to catch their attention, and that wasn't ideal. We wanted to take out a few ogres, not a small army of them. I needed to deal more damage to lure them away.

I glanced at my sword, then at the tree I was standing in. It was time to put my knife throwing ability to the test. I hacked at the nearby branch, carving several lengths of wood roughly the size of my hand from it. Then, I sheathed my sword, took a breath, and cocked back my arm. I activated Arcane Blade, covering the twig in my hand with a shell of blue light resembling a tiny sword, right before throwing it.

My first attack landed, burying the twig in Nork's back. The light faded as I dispelled Arcane Blade, but the twig remained buried in the wound.

Your Knife Throwing Proficiency has increased to Level 2!

I cast the spell again and followed it up with a second impromptu wooden dagger, layering in the occasional Mana Bolt or Eldritch Blast with my wand in my other hand. I landed a half dozen more hits on each of them. The damage my Corrupting Marks dealt was slowly ticking up over time. With some luck, I'd be able to turn these ogres into walking corpses before we had to engage them.

That would certainly make the coming fight easier.

With damage being dealt and health points coming in, I felt more comfortable interspersing the occasional Blood Sacrifice with my other spells. I cast it on Nork, wounding myself, but also wounding him in the process. Unlike him, I was rapidly healing—thanks to my lifesteal ability and, if needed, my Mind Over Flesh turning mana into health.

"Where are you bugs!" Nork bellowed.

The others shouted similarly. In the distance, some of the other ogres started setting their food aside to see what the commotion was about. I was running out of time. I needed to lure them out of sight of the rest of the camp for the ambush.

I needed to be bold. I glanced at the sword in my hand again. It was a lot bigger than the twigs I'd been throwing, and if I was willing to get up close and personal with these Ogres, I could do a lot more than I could throwing knives.

I settled in on a shadowy patch of ground, then cast Warp Step. I vanished into the shadows, reappearing a moment later and slashing the heel of the tusked ogre. His skin was far tougher than leather.

It was like trying to hack through a sheet of copper. It barely had any give at all. I felt it sap away the mana from Arcane Blade when I struck, and my spell fizzled out. Fortunately, there was real steel behind my blade this time—which meant my slice carried real weight beyond just the spell.

I vanished into the shadows before the tusked ogre or any of the others spotted me. I didn't have time to survey the damage I’d done, but I could see the ogre I'd attacked was now hopping on one foot.

"Giant bug! Evil bug!" the tusked ogre yelped, this time more in pain than in anger.

Nork, the tall ogre glanced at the shadows with narrowed eyes. "These no bugs... we under attack!" Nork shouted.

He reached into the fire with his bare hands, tearing free a smoldering tree trunk and raised it high overhead. The burning log illuminated the shadows. In those shadows, he spotted me perched in a tree, shining sword in hand.

"There! Get him!" Nork cocked back his arm and threw the burning log at me.

Fear gripped my heart. I'd been spotted. Was the plan ruined? It would be if we had to flee an entire tribe's worth of angry ogres. On the other hand, this could work even better than what I’d planned—but that would only be true if we worked fast.

I was lucky I was wearing the Moonshade Cloak Sakura made for me. If Nork had been able to tell I was human, then the plan would have been ruined. I lowered my voice, not quite sure how the trolls sounded but doing my best approximation of one.

"Stupid ogres! This troll territory!" Then I turned and darted into the shadows behind me.

"Pesky trolls attack! Hunt and smash!" Nork roared, reaching for where his club leaned against a tree. Behind him, other ogres roared their battle cries.

I darted into the forest and Nork chased after me like a bulldozer. He was slow to get moving, but once he picked up speed, he was remarkably fast. We'd learned that much when ogres had nearly toppled my truck during our initial encounter with them.

I tried to place a few trees between me and him to help me gain some distance, but he barreled right through anything smaller than my leg in diameter. Only the trees too wide to wrap my arms around were thick enough to make the ogre swerve. Behind him, I could hear his two comrades giving chase as well. The tusked one limped along at the rear, the one with green spots following a little closer.

I found the spot where my allies lay in ambush and let Nork run straight through them. Over Nork's bellowing and smashing, I could just barely hear the twang of a bow, followed by a yelp of pain from the tusked ogre. Naturally my allies would target the injured one first.

As soon as I was able to put enough distance between me and Nork to risk a turn, I did so. Spinning around, I activated Mana Bolt and Eldritch Blast, layering on more Corrupting Marks. The spells didn't do much damage, but my health pool was nearly back to full, and I was building the charge for my ultimate.

I kept running, using Warp Step and Power Jump in combination to keep a step ahead of the massive brute. Nork picked up rocks the size of my head and hurled them at me. To him, they were no larger than baseballs, but to me any one of them would have been enough to cave in my skull.

One of them came remarkably close to doing just that. Deflect showed its worth once more. Normally, the spell was mostly without kickback, even when getting shot at. But deflecting one of those enormous stones was enough to nearly knock me off my feet as the momentum absorbed by the spell was distributed across my body. At the last moment, I used the force to direct myself into a jump onto the next tree branch.

"You no troll!" Nork spat accusatorily. "Trolls fast, but not nimble like squirrel."

I laughed. "You're smarter than the others, aren't you, Nork?"

Nork's leathery eyebrows rose. "A human? Much interesting. Your people just snacks. Why can you fight back?"

"Oh, I'll do more than just fight back," I promised.

I let myself slip deeper into Mania. I'd done all I could with a clear head. Now, it was time to fight. I slipped past furor and straight to Blood Frenzy.

The emotions my class had been suppressing came back in full force, but darker and with sadistic undertones. My mouth salivated with the psychological need to tear my enemy limb from limb with the might of my arms and the strength of my magic. I whirled and charged Nork.

After all my running, my charge surprised him. But he was not so surprised that he didn't react in time to sweep his club out in front of him.

I used Warp Step, eying the patch of ground behind him by looking between his legs. I vanished and skidded to a stop. Arcane Blade in hand, I swept my sword through Nork's heel. This time, I'd been expecting how tough the skin there was and had put my full might behind the blow, leaning heavily on Eldritch Augmentation and the third level of Mania.

Between the two of them, I crippled the ogre with my first blow.

I had no issue with enemies that had a lot of health points, so long as I could outmaneuver them. Without the ability to run, it was only a matter of time before I stacked up enough Corrupting Marks to put Nork down.

The ogre stumbled to one knee, turning and sweeping his club at me—sickly green energy coating his weapon.

I was filled with a burning certainty that I didn't want to get hit with whatever ability he was using. Then, much to my surprise, he climbed back to his feet. The wound I'd just made on his heel was cloaked in a mass of dried blood in the shape of a lump as large as my fist. I couldn't tell beneath the enormous scab, but I was pretty sure the wound had already healed.

"Take more than that to put Nork down, snack!" the massive ogre bellowed.

"Looks like we're doing this the painful way, then." With Blood Frenzy raging through my veins, I couldn't help the smile that formed on my face.

He charged at me, his club raised overhead. It would have been a terrifying sight before my training with Myrina and Cyra. Now, though, all I saw was the dozens of openings this presented. He'd left himself wide open.

I pointed at his face with my free hand. Up this close and personal, I didn't need the wand. I blasted him in the face with an Eldritch Blast. He closed his eyes for just a moment as his thick hide turned the spell into nothing more than a brief distraction—but a brief distraction was all I needed.

Thrusting my sword into his side, I yanked it violently across him, slicing his belly open from one side to the other. Blood and intestines spilled from the wound.

"Graaaaagr!" Nork bellowed in rage. He swept his club through the area I'd been a moment ago.

I was already gone.

This ogre was strong, but he was no Alpha Wolfman. He was much too slow to be able to deal with me. And stupid—very stupid. For all his might, all he was to me was a couple more experience points. Thankfully, the system counted ogres and trolls as sapients and not monsters.

From behind him, I cut his arm to the bone with one slash of Arcane Blade. He dropped his club with a howl, sweeping his good hand wide to grab me. I dodged beneath it, putting out one of his eyes with a Mana Bolt.

"I'll eat you!" Nork panted ragged breaths. "Grind your bones between teeth. Turn your flesh to shit!"

"No, you won’t," I hissed.

I gauged Nork's health bar against my Corrupting Marks. A little nudge was all I needed before detonating the marks would be enough to do him in. I was full to the brim with health from Life Steal. Nork's health pool had been prodigious, so there’d been plenty to take.

"Blood Sacrifice." I spat out a mouthful of blood as Nork collapsed to his knees. A moment later, I detonated my marks and the Ogre exploded in a fountain of gore as he collapsed to the ground.

Your class, Scholar of Forbidden Knowledge, has gained a level to Level 29 !

Your race, Homo Acceleratus, has gained a level to Level 36!

Your ultimate, Secrets of the Unseen, is at 100% charge!

Dismissing the prompts, I turned back to where my allies were still fighting. I could hear them now, my senses enhanced by Blood Frenzy. I wiped the blood from my mouth with the back of my fist, eager for the next fight.