Amazon Apocalypse 2: Chapter 70 (Patreon)

Less than an hour later, we were ready for battle. Crownhill's elite were gathered awaiting their leader. The uniforms were still mismatched, and their rows weren't quite even, but the difference from the last time I'd led them was night and day. Before, they'd been a mob of desperate survivors fighting out of desperation. Now they were conquerors who would secure peace for their families by any means necessary.

And I would be the one to lead them.

I recognized a few of them, especially those over level 25. Rick, Chuck, Kerrie, and a few others had all broken through to D-Rank. This might not be a host as mighty as the one the Samhain Clan gathered under its banners, but at the rate we were growing it wouldn’t be long before we had something comparable. I was more certain than ever that Elder Thalassa would live to eat her words.

While scanning the gathered crowd, I noticed that the women over level 25 all looked considerably brawnier than I remembered. The shift wasn't due to increased stats, since even archers like Kerrie were taller and more muscular than before. No, I knew the cause.

Back when I'd picked human racial evolutions, I hadn't realized there was a second tab for women—so all my modifications had passed over exactly as I'd selected them for myself. As a result, all women over level 25 were looking distinctly Amazonian these days. Hopefully nobody would notice.

Considering the company I kept, people might suspect I'd done it intentionally. Thankfully, nobody had put the pieces together yet, and everyone who'd broken through to D-Grade was just happy for the physical improvements—regardless of the exact nature of those improvements.

With everyone gathered together, a little speech seemed only appropriate.

"It's time to deal with the criminals! We will take care of the scum plaguing our streets. You've seen the bodies. You remember how we bled and died against the Wolfmen. Meanwhile, they were sitting comfy in our homes, looting and plundering the city we fought so hard to protect."

"Boo! Down with the backstabbing traitors!" someone cupped their hands and shouted.

"They think the days of law, order, and civilized society are dead and gone! That the thief and the murderer rule the streets, now and forever more!" I raised my arms high overhead.

More jeering. More shouting. "We'll teach them a lesson!"

"We'll show them how wrong they are. Yes, the System came for us and destroyed the world we knew… But we survived! What was broken can be repaired. We will make a world for our children even better than the one we lost, that I promise you!"

"Carter! Carter! Carter!" they cheered. It felt good.

All together, and with fire flowing through our veins, I turned the small army on the thugs in the prison. I led us, and everyone followed behind me at a steady jog. Those gathered at my back had been empowered by levels and stats beyond those of an ordinary person, so the swift pace was no trouble—even for us former office workers.

Few, if any of us, could be out of shape after these past two months. It was hard to believe the integration was already that far behind us. It seemed like just last week.

We’d wiped out Cromwell's assets in the city already, so there was little to trouble us on our journey north across broken roads. Monsters scattered at our approach, and any bandit or thief who dared stick their heads out of the shadows quickly got the sense that we were predators, and not prey.

"Watch out," Kerrie said, "a pair of scavengers got gutted here while picking over rubble for copper wire."

I grimaced. The treaty we'd signed with the remaining members of the Three Kings had hardly been worth the paper it had been written on. Kings or not, the remaining leaders of Crownhill County Prison had no authority over the people here.

Eventually though, I sensed a group that didn't retreat. I suspected they were up to something, so I held up a hand to stop my army.

"Halt! Wits about you everyone. You've all heard the stories about what's been happening here. At any moment we could—"

I cut myself off when I saw a flash of movement forward and to the right. There was someone standing atop a nearby building. A sharp glint of light had given away the motion. It had been like sunlight glancing off glass. Specifically, the glass of a rifle's scope. Someone was taking aim, and I suspected I was their first target.

I'd already summoned a cluster of Mana Bolts while we’d run here; they swirled over my head now. With a wave of my hand, I threw my spells. The high caliber of the sniper's bullet felt like a punch, but my Deflect spell bounced most of the kinetic energy away from me. My retaliatory spells hit him a moment later and he fell over a railing to splatter head-first on the ground three stories below. The sound of a snapping neck echoed through the war-torn rubble of the city's northern reaches.

"Ambush!" Frank yelled.

Our enemies were suddenly on top of us. Perhaps the people here weren't quite as law abiding as I’d thought. Or the Three Kings had more pull than I'd initially assumed. I suspected they weren't too good at preventing their men from looting and murdering during a treaty, but had an easier time pointing the finger for that looting and murdering in the direction they wanted. And right now, that direction was us.

"Take out those snipers on the roofs!" I shouted.

A half dozen of my spells joined Kerrie's rain of arrows. Then, I got a reminder that I hadn’t partied up with anyone.

Your One Versus Many proficiency has increased to Level 19!

Oops. I paused and pulled up the description for my One Versus Many proficiency.

One Versus Many: This proficiency increases the experience you gain from fights in which you are outnumbered by more than five to one. For each proficiency level, the experience gained from such fights increases by 2%.

I debated whether or not my Leadership proficiency made it worth forming a party, or if I should keep all the experience I’d get for putting these thugs down for myself. I elected to stay solo—I needed the experience so I could level up more than ever if I was going to deal with Elder Thalassa and her ilk.

Unaware of my decision, everyone with a ranged ability joined in. Chuck and Frank each pulled out handguns, waving machetes in their off hands—looking as much like pirates as our foes who poured out of their hiding places to surprise us did.

Bandit Thug (level 12)

Bandit Executioner (Level 14)

Bandit Assassin (Level 15)

I spotted around thirty people, all of whom were over level 10—though none were over level 25. These bandits should have stayed in hiding. They were completely outmatched.

Frank leveled his weapon and fired twice in quick succession. Both bullets were headshots. His bullets cracked skulls and sent the bandits staggering, though they were not defeated quite so easily. Chuck followed up Frank, emptying his revolver while shooting from the hip. He shouldn't have been able to hit the broad side of a barn door aiming like that, but the bullets unerringly struck vulnerable eyes and throats anyway.

Bandits dropped one after another, especially when Kyle and Marcus jumped in front of Kerrie and the ranged attackers, sword and spear bared. Chuck and Frank rushed forward after emptying their guns and scaled the building the snipers had been hiding on, climbing the building, arm over arm. The Bandit Assassins panicked and pointed their guns down at the new threat, forcing Frank to swing for cover.

Chuck was a lot more direct in his approach. He was shot three times in a row. And though the rounds knocked him back, he didn't lose his grip on the brick. His wounds closed in moments, and the Bandit Assassins weren't able to stop him before he grabbed them by the hem of their shirts and yanked them bodily over the balcony railing.

"Snipers on the other side too!" Kerrie shouted.

I turned and saw Rick charging the opposite building, his axe held high overhead.

"I’ve got this!" he grunted as he brought his axe down, smacking the flat of it against one of the metal columns holding the front of the building up. He took it out with one swing, then sliced clean through the other with his follow up attack. The whole facade of that building came tumbling down, dumping the Bandit Assassins taking cover on top of it out into the street. There, lower-leveled members of my impromptu army dealt with them.

I threw a few spells here and there, as I was able, but all in all I was impressed with the quality of Crownhill's militia. We'd certainly come a long way from back when we'd struggled to battle cockroaches and fire breathing squirrels. Given how outclassed the bandits were, this soon turned from a battle to a slaughter. It only came to a halt when the few remaining bandits began surrendering.

"Stop! Stop! We give up!" a dirty man cried.

"I don't think any of your victims had the chance to surrender before you turned them into levels!" Kerrie spat.

My blood boiled as hot as Kerrie's, and something primal in me demanded I finish them all off. I was in a grim mood—especially after what Elder Thalassa had put me through.

"It's your call, Carter..." Terrance said. He glanced at me, waiting.

I sighed. "Do we have room in your prison complex? And time for a few more trials?"

"Yeah. I made sure we had enough room to process as many people as we need." Terrance glared at the terrified prisoners. "Odds are we have more criminals now than we did before the integration. Lots of those guys were desperate fools clinging to anything they could find resembling a leader. Too bad for them, just like this group, they chose poorly.”

He scratched at the stubble along his jaw. “Maybe some can be redeemed… likely that some can't. But we won't find out if we slaughter them in the streets."

"Fine… then make your arrests," I raised my voice loud enough for everyone to hear, "but if any of them give you any trouble at all, put them out of their misery."

Disarming, handcuffing and rounding up the prisoners for Terrance took more time than the battle did. There were a few troublemakers who suddenly changed their minds when the cuffs came out. I dealt with those idiots myself—swiftly and decisively.

I knew the attitude in the prison. They all thought the civilians in the shelters were soft and easy to trick. But I was in no mood for games. Anyone who continued to believe that after today would either be dead, or hunted.

Chuck revealed a surprising new trick while treating the wounded. He took out a cheese grater from his back pocket, along with one of those blue troll orbs. He shaved some fine slices off the blue orb with the cheese grater and sprinkled them on the wounded. The downed militia he healed were on their feet a lot quicker than those relying on their vitality stat alone.

"Huh. That really works?" I asked.

"Sure does! Not sure where I picked that trick up, but my hands just started moving at one point and..." Chuck shrugged.

I reached into my bag of holding and tossed him a few more blue troll orbs. I had plenty, after all. I'd been planning on crafting a regeneration potion or making some kind of restorative with them, but this worked just as well.

I would have to check in with Martin and his band of crazed thugs after the Three Kings were dealt with. He and his group would be the last remnants of Crownhill County Prison by the time I was done. Every civilization needed a place for its less savory elements to gather.

Martin could be the leader of those elements—and maybe even cultivate more of these blue orbs for me. Either that, or he'd die. There would be no place for rampant chaos in the new world we were building.

With our wounds healed, prisoners dealt with, and determination burning brighter than ever, we regrouped and carried on. This time, however, with a bit more caution.

"I need people with high perception on all sides," I called out.

I wished I had Bridget at my side. She would have been good at this. I waved to Kerrie and a few of the other archer types. My volunteer scouts took up position toward the sides of our forces, eyes scanning the area as they kept pace with the rest of us.

It soon proved a very good idea, because there was another ambush just a few blocks ahead of our present location. Kerrie was the one to spot it.

"Carter! I see about forty people! They're hiding over that way," Kerrie hissed in a hushed whisper.

The people near me heard her, and a few of them started drawing their weapons.

"Stop that!" I growled. "You want them to spring their ambush early? Because making it obvious that we've spotted their ambush will do just that. No, we want to ambush the ambushers."

After receiving a few nods of understanding, I sent out a few hushed orders that broke us into groups to encircle the enemy. Last time, I'd noticed a few had slipped away. But every foe we dealt with permanently here was one less that we wouldn't have to face again later.

"How will we know when to attack?" asked Frank.

I shot a grim glance toward our enemies. "The battle cry to follow is… Nom Nom."