Amazon Apocalypse 2: Chapter 80 (Patreon)

Later the following day, I received news that our trap had been sprung. Rick's group was the lucky band to catch Lisette heading home after a long day of skulking about and sewing trouble. I wasn't sure how we hadn't caught her out in the streets with so many people on patrol, but here she was.

This was our chance.

"We need to get there quickly!" I told Sakura and Bridget.

The two of them had been waiting with me. They'd taken it upon themselves to make sure I was as immune to Lisette's abilities as much as possible. My hips ached a bit and I may have walked a little funny, but there was no way she'd be doing to me what she'd done to Terrance. I hadn’t drained them at all, but they’d certainly drained me.

Rick finding her was a bit of bad luck on our part. He was a man, as was the rest of his team.

I'd strategically placed Kerrie and her subordinates around the nicest and easiest apartment to get into, figuring that would be the place we’d be most likely to catch her. Maybe we'd spooked her just enough that she decided to downsize for the night, since the place Rick was guarding was a tiny and drafty place on the edge of town.

Only a single, creepy guy lived there amid what could generously be called piles of trash. Apparently, he'd lived there since before the integration and hadn't changed his lifestyle in the slightest following it. Lisette couldn't be looking forward to staying under his roof.

But she was going there anyway, which meant Rick had radioed it in. His orders were to watch and prevent her escape, not to spring the trap. Clearly, though, something had gone wrong.

As Bridget, Sakura, and I approached, we heard the sound of fighting. We were first on the scene. That was just as planned, and the whole reason I'd kept Bridget and Sakura in reserve. They were my answer to the unexpected—and it looked like the unexpected happened.

Lisette hadn't come alone. Rick's forces were outnumbered by a large group of civilians. They vastly outleveled the civilians they were fighting, but the civilians weren't pulling their punches. Rick's people were.

Sakura had just the solution. "If any of you can think straight, lie face down on the ground unless you want your arms and legs broken!" she shouted.

Lisette's minions glanced at one another. A few of them were thinking about doing just that, but Sakura didn’t wait for them to get over their indecision. One quick sweep of her club behind the knee shattered femurs and knocked people on their backs in the same motion. Her follow-up blow broke elbows and wrists.

With Lisette's minions so ruthlessly and efficiently dealt with, the three of us headed inside the building. Lisette herself had to be somewhere nearby. The small apartment was every bit as dirty and cramped as promised. I carefully nudged open a full trash bag. Loads of particularly sticky tissue paper spilled out, and the air smelled salty.

"Uh... Carter?" Bridget nudged me. She didn't sound happy with whatever she had found and was pointing at.

I feared the worst.

We turned the corner and found Rick lying on the ground. His pants had been ripped wide open at the crotch, like he'd been mauled by a ferocious beast. His rear was in the air and his face was planted on the wooden planks beneath him. It was a particularly ignoble way to be defeated for such a proud and fearless warrior.

"God dammit!" I cursed to the sky. "We were too slow again. Rick, I'm so sorry."

Rick let out a weak groan. Apparently there was enough of him left in there to hear his name, but not enough for him to climb back to his feet. We were lucky that we got to him before Lisette did anything more than this. Any longer and he could have easily ended up obeying her orders, like Kyle and Marcus.

Lisette was gone. We’d missed by mere seconds, yet again.

Hearing footsteps outside, I opened the door to see who it was. Meanwhile, Bridget and Sakura checked the other room in the faint hope that Lisette had decided to hide, rather than run. Kerrie was at the door, along with her all-women squad, who had been guarding what we'd thought would be the most likely location for Lisette to hide in.

"Rick..." Kerrie shook her head as she saw the latest casualty in our one-woman war.

"First Kyle and Marcus… then Terrance… and now Rick?" I hung my head.

Who was left among my male allies and friends? Only Frank, and perhaps Doctor Roswell, though the doctor was unlikely to take on any administrative roles in the city. He greatly preferred his clinic and the medical experimentation he could get away with now that he didn't have a license to maintain.

Chuck and Michael were still around too, but they were more acquaintances than friends. I still didn't fully trust Michael, and Chuck was a low-level grunt. I couldn't promote either of them.

No, thanks to Lisette, our leadership had been gutted. And I wasn't naive enough to think it was accidental. She was targeting men in positions of power in Crownhill. She knew she wouldn't have enough time to turn them into her minions, but she would have enough time to mess them up beyond any hope of leading the search for her. It was all part of a ploy to destabilize the city and take resources out of my hands.

Lisette was every bit as clever as she was pretty. She was dangerous. Very dangerous. And not in the way I was used to.

"So what are we going to do now?" Kerrie asked.

"The only thing we can do. We have to get more aggressive." I shrugged. "It's clear that Lisette is trying to erode our systems of governance and bring about some sort of collapse. We're lucky we have Margaret, otherwise she might have a chance at succeeding.”

I turned to my former boss. “Sakura, you'll have to quit combat duty and help Margaret with administration. Bridget, you stick with me. I'll take over Rick's duties and manage his subordinates myself, then pass them off to you when you're ready. It'll be good for you to have more hands-on leadership experience. Besides, this mission needs more women in command who are immune to Lisette's tricks.”

"What about Frank?" Bridget asked as she shot another glance at Rick. "If the pattern you've identified holds true, then he'll be the next target."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah. He probably is. Which is why I'm taking a little hunting trip with him tomorrow. While you girls search the city for Lisette, the guys and I are going on a hunting trip. Maybe if we bag an elemental, I can make a little something that will take Lisette by surprise..."

It was time to finally craft that talisman.

***

We grouped up and formed a small army, organized after the fashion I'd observed on Themyscira with the Amazonians. I had my main party, populated with the party leaders of their own, smaller parties. I figured I'd be doing the bulk of the damage, so those I wanted getting most of the experience points would be in my immediate party.

That meant Bridget, Chuck, Margaret, and Frank. Bridget had Rick's team under her command, while Margaret and Frank each had their own subordinates. I was watching Chuck to see if he was worth giving a leadership role—eventually.

Margaret was the one who needed the experience points the most, though. She was essential to Crownhill, and with all her administrative duties, she wasn't leveling fast enough. She'd never quite caught up to the top of the power curve, where she'd been shortly after Ben's death. I wanted to give her a boost.

She needed to remain at a respectable level of power. I couldn't imagine running Crownhill without her—even if she had to take an extended leave of absence in the future to level. That was another thing my time on Themyscira taught me. Anyone in a position of authority in the Arcadia Multiverse was expected to have a higher level than your average civilian.

Our objective was to kill the Lava Elemental that had eaten Sakura's car and harvest its core. It was a shame she wouldn't get to fight the thing herself like she’d wanted, but she was needed back in town. With Margaret beside me, I didn't think it wise to leave the town completely without leadership, even for just a few hours. Someone needed to be in charge in case Lisette tried to pull something.

Chuck had the bright idea to bring one of the station's fire trucks. Armed with a water cannon, it seemed like the perfect tool for taking on a Lava Elemental. There was also more than enough room for all of us to ride it to the chasm in the road where the Lava Elemental lived.

When we got there, I was the one to peer over the edge. The Lava Elemental lay dormant. Perhaps it was hiding, now that it no longer had as much of a level advantage over us. I wondered what level it was these days.

"Maybe it hasn't detected us?” someone asked.

“Maybe it's playing dead?” Frank offered.

“Whatever is happening,” I replied, “it is giving us time to prepare our attack. Everyone, use this time well."

Looking around, I saw everyone was bracing themselves for a tough fight. I already had a modest Mana Barrage floating above my head, but now I made more. I channeled dozens of Mana Bolts until the sky over my head resembled a swirling cosmos.

Even with my staff offsetting mana costs, maintaining all the Mana Bolts I had hovering overhead started dipping into my mana reserves. I made still more Mana Bolts—enough that I wouldn't be able to sustain them for more than half an hour without draining myself dry.

That was alright, though. I wouldn't need to hold on to them for that long.

"It was only level 47 the first time Sakura and you saw it, right?" Bridget asked. "If that's still true, you should be more than a match for it on your own."

I shook my head. "I've been keeping an eye on it. I don’t know what level it is now, but it's been getting bigger. The question is, how much bigger?"

Humans, wolves, trolls, and monsters had all been leveling up as the integration went on. This thing had to be leveling up, too. The only question was whether we'd been leveling faster than it had.

I pushed myself to the second level of Mania. Sharky probably felt the effect all the way back in Crownhill. I would have liked to have him here with me, but I didn't think Lava Elementals were a good match for him. Besides, I wanted him with Sakura—in case she needed backup.

I highly doubted Lisette could do anything to seduce Sharky. Perhaps she could convince him she'd be a tasty snack? But that wasn't the sort of thing she could offer more than once.

"Stand back. I'll be the one to get its attention," I called out.

I waved everyone behind me. If we were particularly lucky, I'd be able to end this fight before it even began. Then I waited until Bridget gave me the nod. Everyone was clear.

I activated Exploit Weakness, drew my wand for a bit of additional damage and accuracy, and then scanned the lava for anything that was part of the Lava Elemental. The little patches of molten rock that made up a part of its body would have been impossible to spot without my unique ability.

There was a great gurgling sound as my spells struck home, one after another.

Something squirmed beneath the molten lava. There was no scream, but a bubble the size of a car rose from the molten stone and released a burst of sulphur-smelling gas that filled the entire area.

Nearby, Bridget pinched her nose. "Was that it? Did you kill it already?"

I shook my head without taking my focus from the pool of lava. "I would have gotten a notification. And you would have gotten experience points. It's probably just—"

Before I could finish my sentence, the elemental revealed itself. It rose from the crevice like a great heaping mound, roughly in the shape of a man. It was a blob, with two more shapeless lumps on either side dangling from something approximating shoulders.

It seemed smaller than I remembered. The Lava Elemental that had nearly killed Sakura and I had effortlessly swallowed her car in one big gulp. This one was only roughly the size of a minivan. Perhaps it had decided to get a little smaller? Or perhaps the intense fear of the moment had made it seem larger than life last time.

It roared, and molten magma poured from its mouth. The cooler bits of rock roughly outlining its body dribbled more molten lava, festering like open wounds. Perhaps those were the places my spell had dealt serious damage to the monster.

Lava Elemental — Level 52

From the looks of things, the elemental had hardly leveled up at all.

That was strange. But so long as it was high enough level to craft my talisman, I didn’t care. Perhaps I really could have taken this thing out on my own. Since we were all here, I wasn't going to put the opportunity to waste.

"Look alive!" I yelled to everyone. "Fire those range attacks!"

Everyone with a gun, spell, or some sort of range attack opened fire. I was amused to note Frank had brought a water gun instead of his usual pistol—against this particular monster, a water gun was probably more effective. He was also a remarkably good shot as he put out both the glowing orange spots that were what passed for the Lava Elemental’s eyes.

That didn't seem to bother the monster, though. I suspected the two glowing spots were purely cosmetic. At least putting out the monster’s eyes didn't appear to hinder it—not in the slightest. It did, however, succeed in annoying it.

Both Frank and I had to dodge its next attack. It whipped its long, molten arms around, forcing me to jump over one of them before using Warp Step to put some range between it and me.

"Chuck, you're up!” I shouted. “Let's see that fire hose!"

Chuck jumped off the rear of the firetruck, hose ready. Margaret pulled a lever and soon a burst of water as thick around as my arm shot out, striking the Lava Elemental. Frank's squirt gun may have annoyed it, but this pressurized stream of water did some real damage.

The burst of water cooled the molten stone, and the Lava Elemental's body hissed as steam filled the air. One of its arms cracked as it suddenly turned hard as stone. It broke clean off, shattering into little flakes of obsidian before dropping to the ground.

I shielded my eyes as razor-sharp chunks of stone shot in all directions, then followed up with a few more spells. Chuck kept the powerful stream of water going, with Margaret's help. Between the two of them, they were most of the way toward taking the Lava Elemental's other arm off. It was just a matter of time before we put the thing down for good.

The elemental let out a sharp howl, like gas escaping from deep beneath the Earth. Noxious sulphuric gasses filled the air again. Just when I thought our victory was assured, the unexpected I'd feared finally occurred—I sensed another presence pulling itself up from deep within the crevice.

I realized I'd miscalculated. I'd assumed there was only one Lava Elemental.

No wonder the Lava Elemental had seemed weaker and smaller than I thought it should have been. It wasn't the same Lava Elemental. The second Lava Elemental that rose from the crevice was as tall as a building. Its voice was like chunks of granite grinding together, several times louder than its smaller kin.

The air vibrated with the noise, signifying that most of its scream was beyond the range of even my enhanced human hearing. I felt the sound waves shoot through my body. And just because I couldn’t hear it, didn’t mean it didn’t have an effect—my ears and nose bled from the reverberations.

All around me, my companions were clapping their hands to the sides of their heads.

"Get out of there, Chuck!" I yelled as the big Lava Elemental raised its fists overhead to smash the fire truck that had given its smaller kin so much trouble.

Chuck couldn't hear me over the noise. I Warp Stepped to his side, then switched to Power Jump as soon as I had my arms around him, pulling him clear with all my might. The helmet I'd given him wouldn't save him from a punch like the one that smashed the fire truck a moment later.

Where once had been a truck, now there was only a pile of molten slag.

When I set Chuck down, I took in the larger Lava Elemental.

Lava Elemental (Level 102)

“By my aching nuts!” I cursed.

Moments ago I thought I'd overestimated the Lava Elemental's ability to level. Now I realize how badly I'd underestimated it. The thing was already C-Grade. Just what had it been up to underground?

Now that I had the chance to take it in, it seemed better formed than the weaker and smaller Elemental beside it. That one was a shapeless blob. This one, on the other hand, looked more like a hulking brute of a man, surging from the waist up out of the lava. Where the little one had only a faint impression of eyes and a lump for a head, the big one had a clearly defined neck, shoulders, and jaw. Its arms were too long and thick to be human, but they had definite shape to them.

Perhaps the Lava Elemental had gone through a racial evolution of its own when it reached C-Grade.

Two emotions filled me in that moment. Fear, of course, led the way… but excitement was there, too. I’d feared that I'd have to sacrifice building my Talisman of Protection from Order and Chaos in order to build the Talisman of Protection from Good and Evil. The latter would save Frank when Lisette came for him, but the former would protect me from the Chaos Wolf.

Now, I could do both.

A C-rank core would make my protective talisman that much stronger when the mangy lupine divine being who’d tried to turn me into a puppet came for me again. But, at the same time, my companions were entirely unprepared to take on a C-Grade monster. For something like this, I would need a team of exceptionally skilled D-Grade warriors, at the least.

These weren't them. In all honesty, I wasn't sure I was up to the task, either.

Calling for a retreat would have been the safest move. The fire truck had been our best weapon, and losing it was a heavy blow. But if we did, I'd have to throw the budding plan I'd been forming away. Lisette would come for Frank, and I'd have no way of stopping her, other than placing him under constant all-female guard. And somehow, I doubted that would work.

No. I needed this talisman. C-Grade Elemental or not.

I eyed the weaker Elemental. I didn't need to kill the big one. I just needed to stay out of its reach while I claimed our prize and took what we came here for.

I activated Soulchain Nexus. There weren't enough enemies here to make full use of the effect, but the big elemental would feel the spell and know something strange was going on. I hoped that fear would slow it down—if only just a little.

The big elemental cocked back its arm and swung. As it did, globs of molten stone sped toward me with frightening accuracy. This would be a tough battle. I'd have to be both fast and cunning. Fortunately, that was exactly the way I preferred fighting.

I pulled more mana from my staff, this time focusing on water, and then on ice. The firetruck had been effective. Maybe I could grab a little extra elemental bonus damage as well?

"Back!" I ordered the others. "Help from a distance if you can, but if not, stay back!"

This would take speed and strength beyond what any of them possessed. Bridget was the only one with the levels to help me, but her fighting style was up close and personal. That might have worked well against most foes—but not so much against an enormous pile of molten stone.

She remained in the rear, making use of her quick reflexes to pull others out of danger whenever they attracted the big Lava Elemental’s attention. That was good, because every moment it spent attacking them was another opportunity for me to target its little brother.

Mana Bolts filled with water mana worked, and ice bolts worked even better. My spells were dealing as much elemental weakness damage as I could manage, but the little elemental had one last trick up its sleeve. With time to itself, it could turn still as a statue and channel fresh lava up from the depths beneath it. That lava slowly started thawing its chilled and hardened body.

Given time, it would remelt itself and then escape into the molten pool beneath it. If that happened, its core would be forever beyond our reach. I needed to kill it fast. The trouble was that the big elemental seemed keen on preventing just that. Perhaps this really was the big elemental’s little brother—or whatever Lava Elementals had that passed for kin. Or perhaps they merely enjoyed a shared hatred for the cold things that walked the surface of the world.

Whatever it was, this thing had picked the wrong fight when it decided to try and eat me, then call the main road into Crownhill its personal domain. One of them would die today—the other would die in the near future.

I searched my bag of holding. Was there anything I had that would help? My hands found Mana Bombs. I had plenty of them, now that they were not in demand on Themyscira. I flung a fistful out and was surprised to see them take the arm off the big Lava Elemental.

It wasn't as good as the fire hose. That could freeze the limb entirely and render it immobile. This merely made the arm fall apart, as though whatever was holding it together had been dispersed. The Lava Elemental's limb, for just a moment, returned to regular lava.

I could work with that.

The monster healed and formed a new arm moments later, but those were moments I was free to attack the smaller Elemental. I threw out another fistful of Mana Bombs. Then another. Anyone from the Samhain Clan would likely weep at the sight of so many of these precious bombs being thrown out, one wave after another, without a care. They'd spent a fortune and a half for every fistful I carelessly chucked at the elementals.

The Lava Elemental roared. Mana surged all around me, and I felt the air grow hotter. The world turned a deeper orange, like it was twilight—despite the fact that we had several hours to go before sunset. It was fire mana.

The large elemental was suppressing the effects of my Mana Bombs by expending ten times the energy it had been before. The mana, previously dispersed as easily as dye in water, was now thick as tar.

I had no other tricks to try, which meant I had to end this now. Instead of distracting the big elemental, I threw my remaining Mana Bombs at the small one. Its body, barely remelted around its core, began to sag and fall apart. Then, I detonated all my Corrupting Marks.

It wouldn't be enough to kill this thing with its enormous health pool, but the explosive energy should be enough to force the lava away from the core. The moment the lava cleared, I spotted something deep orange and glittering in the sun. Holding my arms up over my face, I took a breath, and jumped forward.

I darted in and grabbed it.

It was even hotter than I thought it would be, and I screamed as my hand burned straight down to the bone as I scooped it into my bag of holding. My clothes caught fire as I jumped clear, and I barely managed to dodge the huge glob of molten lava thrown at me by the larger elemental.

Behind me, the smaller one crumbled to dust. Without its core, it was already dead.

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

You are now a level 59 Scholar of Forbidden Knowledge.

"I got it! Everybody back!"

We retreated, prize in hand, as experience points started flooding in. Behind us, the larger elemental howled in rage.