Amazon Apocalypse 2: Chapter 49 (Patreon)

“Everybody! Shoot him!” the Raider Brute I’d just spared shouted, pointing back at me.

A row of his people raised their guns.

“Bridget… Sakura… get behind me!” I yelled.

I’d been killed by a hail of gunfire before. I had no plans of doing so again. Fortunately, these days bullets weren’t enough to put me down. Plus I had a few tricks now that I didn’t have back then.

About half of the bullets missed me, while most of the other half got caught up in Deflect. A few bullets got through after my Deflect spell discharged, but I’d shielded my head with my arms to keep any from hitting my head or those of my companions. A gut or a leg shot here or there was nothing to worry about for me—at least since I reached the D-Grade.

My wounds immediately started healing, with little chunks of lead popping out of my flesh. While they did, I activated Mana Barrage and charged three Mana Bolts before sending all three hurtling toward the Raider Brute who’d hunched over as he ran to rejoin the enemy lines.

I used Exploit Weakness and homed in on his legs. All three Mana Bolts struck home with dull thuds.

“Aaargh!” the Raider Brute cried out as he fell.

“Sharky!” I ordered, though I needn’t have bothered.

Sharky was on top of him a moment after he fell. “NOM NOM NOM,” Sharky said as I channeled more Earth mana into him. Sharky tore the Brute apart while his comrades watched.

They wasted their bullets on his partially ghostly form, completely unable to deal any damage to him at all. In moments, there was little left of the Brute but a pile of ruined flesh. Blood covering his ghostly muzzle, Sharky advanced on the rest of my enemies.

Your Class, Scholar of Forbidden Knowledge, has gained a level!

Your Neutral Mana proficiency has gained a level to Level 20!

Good.

Meanwhile, I prepared myself to deal with whoever Sharky didn’t eat. Most of them were only levels 10 to 14, which meant they were little more than food for Sharky. I kept looking for this Cromwell character. Where was he?

I spotted three potential candidates, as those were the only people I could see over level 25. Hopefully he was one of them. I had no interest in going easy on my foes, so I activated Mania to the first level, achieving Dissonance.

The sensation was as familiar to me as putting on an old coat.

Since I’d first summoned him, Sharky had grown larger. He went from the relatively thin, man-length shark I’d first summoned to something about the size of a modest sedan. But when that happened, he’d still been fundamentally a shark. In all my earlier tests with Sharky, however, I’d ignored the key feature of my class—I neglected to test how much Mania enhanced all his abilities.

This time. Sharky shifted from a ghost shark to ghost… something. Tentacles sprouted from the sides of his face, and his jaw opened wider than should have been possible. His form solidified, no longer drawn like a chalk outline but rather looked solid, as if he’d been painted into this world with a brush.

He was large, imposing, and completely unnatural. Sharky was now an otherworldly abomination that sought to destroy everything in his path. “NOOOM NOOOM.” Sharky’s voice echoed now, sounding significantly more sinister than it had before.

The tentacles surrounding his toothy maw reached out, grabbing an unfortunate bandit by his waist.

“Oh god, it’s got me!” he screamed as the tentacle dragged him toward Sharky’s waiting maw.

Moments later, row after row of supernatural teeth closed down on the bandit, shredding him to bits. Unlike before, chunks of pulverized meat didn’t fall to the ground. Instead, they disappeared… never to be seen again.

“Uh, Sharky?” I glanced back at Bridget and Sakura, who both seemed just as shocked as I was at this new development.

By now, Sharky had drawn the full attention of all the Bandits. They’d turned their guns and swords on him and were firing with reckless abandon. They were shooting at Sharky so recklessly, that they didn’t seem to realize that their bullets passed straight through him without accomplishing anything at all.

I was perfectly happy with this development, though, as it meant I could pick off everyone at D-Grade while Sharky provided a better distraction than I’d initially expected.

“Oh God! It’s almost level 50! It’s going to eat us all! Run! Run for your lives!” a bandit woman screamed.

Both those things were true. Sakura and Bridget had since noted that Sharky shared my level when examined. As my summoned familiar, his power was tied to mine—so his level registered as the same as my Scholar of Forbidden Knowledge class.

A moment later, Sharky grabbed the bandit woman with a tentacle and pulled her into his hungry maw.

“Let’s go take out those D-Rankers,” I said with a glance over my shoulder at Sakura and Bridget.

One of the D-rankers had a faint glow enveloping his sword. I wasn’t sure if it was an attack that could deal magical damage—but if it was, then he might be able to hurt Sharky. The other had a bow and was firing off a few arrows. They exploded against Sharky’s side and looked to be were doing a bit of damage, so I’d have the girls target him first. The third had a gun and was firing bullet after useless bullet at Sharky, so I could safely ignore him.

“You two take the archer while I take out the swordsman. I’ll come help you when I’m done,” I ordered.

“On it!” Sakura dashed forward, with Bridget close behind her.

I used Warp Step to appear just behind the Swordsman bandit. In the few seconds it took to assess the battlefield and give the girls my orders, I’d conjured a small swarm of Mana Bolts—all of which orbited over my head. I flung them forward with a wave of my hand and the whole lot of them slammed into the back of the swordsman I’d targeted.

He staggered forward, caught by surprise by the sudden, unexpected attack from behind. “What the…” he turned, righting himself in a fluid motion that showed he had a lot of experience in a fight.

He raised his sword in a protective stance, then turned his stumble into a lunge. I was impressed. Doing all that in a fraction of a second after taking multiple Mana Bolts to the back of his head was impressive.

From the way he held his sword, I could see that he had some idea of how to use it. That would have been a scary thing before my training with Myrina and Cyra. Despite his apparent skill, I knew in an instant that I was the better swordsman.

When he rushed me, I stepped into his charge and sidestepped his blade. His lunge passed through empty space where I had just been. I shoved his arm wide with my elbow, only unsheathing my sword when I was nearly pressed up against him. I drew, cut, and cast Arcane Blade all at once.

The moment I finished my strike I stood, sheathed my sword, and turned to deal with the gunman. Behind me, the swordsman I’d just killed struggled to turn to face me. He’d managed to twist his neck around when gravity finally caught up to him. The bandit slid apart in two pieces, cut evenly straight through the torso in my attack. He was dead before he hit the ground.

I dealt with the gunman fairly easily. He was so preoccupied with shooting at Sharky, that he didn’t notice me charging up half-a-dozen Mana Bolts. When I judged I had enough of them, I unleashed them all at once.

The man fell to his knees, not taking his terrified eyes off Sharky for even a moment. Pulling a throwing knife from my bag of holding. I cast Arcane Blade on it, cocked my arm back, and threw the blade all in one smooth motion. It landed with a wet thudblade-first in the back of the bandit gunman’s neck.

Sharky appreciated the assistance. The now-paralyzed gunman was helpless to flee from Sharky’s hungry tendrils.

Your Neutral Mana proficiency has gained a level to Level 21!

Your race, Homo Acceleratus, has gained a level!

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

I turned to help Bridget and Sakura only to find that they had their fight well under control. Bridget had the archer’s bow in her hands, while the archer was on the ground under Sakura’s boot. I finished my fight just in time to see Sakura finish off their opponent with a loud crunch as her club smashed in the side of the archer’s head.

I turned my attention to the remainder of the bandits and raiders. Most of them were busy trying to fight or flee from Sharky. I targeted all the ones who seemed to be doing some actual damage. I was impressed by the array of mundane and magical weapons Cromwell's forces had brought to the fight.

It was odd to realize that the forces of Earth already wielded a more diverse array of abilities than the warriors of Themyscira. Perhaps we'd gotten lucky because the System had rained down all sorts of skills on us, instead of just the ones that we sought out or favored.

Whatever the reason, Cromwell's lackies were better suited to dealing with Sharky than the Samhain Clan had been at dealing with the Shadefall Clan's summoned spirits. But just because they might eventually be able to bring Sharky down didn't mean he didn’t terrify them as he gobbled them up and ate them, one after another.

I conjured a host of Mana Bolts and sent them flying at everyone who even had a chance of putting Sharky down. That sudden barrage killed three of the bandits outright and heavily wounded a half dozen more. Sharky rushed forward to devour the wounded and distracted bandits.

Your One Against Many proficiency has increased by one to Level 16!

Your race, Homo Acceleratus, has gained a level!

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

I grabbed one of the bandits and pulled him aside before he became Sharky’s latest victim. "Where's Cromwell!" I demanded.

"F-fuck you!" the bandit spat at me, struggling to be brave in the face of terror.

I wiped my cheek, then with a glare tossed the bandit into Sharky's waiting jaws. I repeated my demand with the next bandit. "You! Where's Cromwell?"

"In your m-mother's bed!" he choked out.

I sighed and tossed him to Sharky, as well.

Even fear of a giant tentacled-shark-ghost-monster couldn't cure stupid. Or maybe this Cromwell character scared them even more than Sharky? It wasn't that hard to believe. There were plenty of stories about what the cartel did to traitors.

None of those stories ended happily. Maybe some of these guys thought being devoured by a ferocious shark monster was a better fate. Judging by their incessant shrieks of terror, they couldn't have considered it that much better.

It seemed I wouldn't be learning anything about Cromwell from these idiots. I wasn't worried, though, since I was certain my allies had gathered some intelligence of their own.

Sharky was quick to deal with everybody else still alive, so I waved to the gates while he, Sakura, and Bridget cleaned up.

Your Neutral Mana proficiency has gained a level to Level 22!

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

“Hey guys… it’s Carter. I’m back!” I yelled.

“Sir! Is that you?” a familiar voice yelled from behind the wall.

When he poked his head up, I saw Kyle—the kid who’d so eagerly joined the militia all the way back to when I’d first formed it before the Wolfman attack.

“It’s me! Don’t worry, I took care of the bandits,” I yelled back in reply.

“A-and the giant tentacled-shark-monster?” Kyle asked hopefully.

“Oh don’t worry… Sharky’s with me.”

“NOOM NOOM,” Sharky growled. His voice was only barely audible over the screams of his victims and the crunch of shattered bones.

“O-oh. Are… are you sure?” Kyle asked uncertainly, ducking back behind the wall.

“Positive. Now, do you know which one of these was this Cromwell fella who’s been giving us trouble?”

He peeked up to respond, “He wasn’t here in person, but he sent his right-hand man to negotiate our surrender.” Then he ducked down until his eyes barely crested the top of the wall.

I nodded. “And what did this right-hand man look like?”

“He had a magic sword,” Kyle replied, finally keeping his head above the wall.

I glanced back at the man in two pieces behind me. “Well, looks like I took care of him early on. Sharky will clean up the mess. You can tell everyone the bandits are taken care of. They can stand down.”

I heard a ragged cheer from behind the wall when Kyle repeated what I’d said to the other militia inside the wall.

“In a minute or two, after Sharky eats the bodies, you can open the gates back up and we can resume normal operations. Please tell the council I want to meet with them to talk about our little Cromwell situation.”

“A-alright…” Kyle said. He darted back behind the wall the moment he caught sight of Sharky.