Amazon Apocalypse 2: Chapter 82 (Patreon)

If Lisette had waited just another day... I cursed. There was no point in crying over spilled milk. Or in this case, ruined plans. I'd just have to adapt.

First, we had to get to the clinic. Nobody in town could hope to keep so many of Crownhill's elites down. If we didn't deal with them swiftly, who knew what Lisette might do with the rest of us occupied?

The three of us quickly threw on some clothes and rushed out into the hall. We jumped down the stairs all the way to the bottom and swiftly made our way to the door. Hectic noises greeted us the moment we emerged, growing louder with each passing moment.

I smelled smoke in the air, and instantly realized what had happened. We'd spared a few minutes of concentration to translate and respond to Galbatorix's message, and in that short period of inattention, Lisette had lit several fires across the city.

The fires had to be a distraction, meant to pull resources away from whatever she was doing at the clinic. Knowing something and being able to act on that knowledge was two different things. What was worse, it was working.

Two men bickered while a growing and increasingly confused crowd gathered.

"Fire! Fire! We need help putting out the fire on North Street!" one man said.

"There's a fire on South Street, too! Half of everybody needs to come this way," another spat back.

"My fire's bigger. This way!" The first man grabbed the second by the collar and gave him a shove.

This wouldn't have been nearly as big of a problem if Lisette hadn't already gutted the city's leadership. The people here didn't know who to listen to, and organizing them would take precious time we didn't have. They needed a familiar face to start issuing orders and get people moving in the right direction.

I turned to Sakura, and she gave me a nod. "I'll get them taken care of, while you go to the clinic. I’ll catch up with you in a few minutes." Sakura waved as she grabbed both men by their shirts and tossed them out of the way before taking command of the situation herself.

Bridget and I ran at top speed to the clinic. The two of us were quite familiar with the route from all the times I'd gone to visit her while she healed up, and from all the times she'd gone to visit the wolf pup she was connected to.

I'd never learned what Bridget had finally decided to do with the pup, but judging from the increasingly wolf-like tufts of blonde hair sticking up from the corners of her head, I suspected she had chosen to absorb its soul, after all.

Margaret and Michael were trying to contain the damage at the clinic. Margaret worked frantically to hold a door closed, while others piled up debris against it to hold it shut. Michael had a few scrapes on him and was moving slowly, like he'd been hit in the head and wasn't all there.

A woman at his side kept shaking his shoulder to get his attention.

"What happened here?" I asked as I skidded to a stop.

"We're trying to keep them inside the clinic!" Margaret shouted as she gritted her teeth to hold the door shut.

I joined her in holding it shut, while Bridget started piling up chunks of concrete at our feet to barricade the entrance.

"And Michael?" I asked as someone thumped against the door from the other side.

I flared Eldritch Augmentation and shoved the door shut before any hands or fingers could slip through the small crack. "What happened to him?"

Margaret jerked her chin toward the dazed and confused man. "Lisette blew a kiss at him. He didn't take it well… better than the others, but not well."

"What about Frank and Kerrie?” I asked. “Where are they?"

Margaret shook her head. "We don't know. Lisette might have gotten to Frank, if she drove Kerrie off. If they were around, they'd be here."

That didn't sound right. Frank had the talisman and Kerrie was a woman and should be immune to Lisette's tricks. The two of them had to be somewhere. But where?

I only hoped they revealed themselves when we needed it most.

"Stop that, you idiots!" Lisette's normally sensual voice lost some of its lusty overtones as she barked orders. "They've barricaded the door. Just smash open the window!"

There was a brief moment of confusion as Lisette's brainwashed puppets on the other side of the door switched from one task to another. I backed away from the door just as the window to the clinic shattered and Chuck's helmeted head came through like a battering ram.

His helmet had a crease running down the center in the shape of Sakura's club, bending it around his skull to the point that it had probably been impossible to remove. Chuck landed on the ground at my feet and I kicked him aside. Rick had been the one to throw him, and he jumped through the broken window next. He was soon followed by Marcus and Kyle, with Terrance behind them.

"Surprised to see me again?" Lisette asked, standing with a hand on her cocked hip and a coy smile on her face.

"I know you missed me,” she purred. “You should have taken my first offer of partnership, Carter. I'll still make good use of you, but there might not be quite as much left in your head when I’m done as I would have liked."

"You tricked us,” I snapped at her. “You made us think that you didn't have enough time to finish doing whatever it is you do to take control of a man. In actuality, you did—you just didn’t leave any orders for them."

Lisette laughed girlishly. "Smart and handsome. I was going to make Kyle my new Caesar, but you would be a better catch."

Bridget jumped in front of me. "Stay behind me, Carter. I'll guard you from any magic kisses."

"Go on, my dears,” the courtesan chortled, “grab him for me." Lisette pointed one pink, polished fingernail in my direction.

Terrance, Rick, Kyle, Marcus, and even Chuck who I'd kicked aside all turned to stare at me. As one, they rushed forward.

My instincts were to lash out. With Arcane Blade, I could keep my foes at bay. And with a few spells, I could continuously fall back while bombarding them with attacks. Sharky was outside the city, and I knew I could call him back—he’d make short work of this fight.

After all, I still had a good twenty levels on most of them. It wouldn't even be that hard. But I couldn't do that. These were my friends and allies.

Worse, I couldn't even threaten to do that because none of them were in their right mind. If I held my Arcane Blade to force them to keep their distance, they would just rush forward and be impaled.

If I hit them with Soulchain Nexus, I would need to kill one of them to make the marks spread. The same was true for detonating my Corrupting Marks. Even my Mana Bolts and Eldritch Blasts were meant to deal serious damage.

I didn't have much in my arsenal in the way of non-lethal abilities. That was bad when I was fighting enemies I couldn't kill—especially since they would sacrifice anything and everything to follow the order Lisette gave them.

I was in a bind, and from the look of triumph on Lisette's face, she knew it. The sultry bitch was quite smug about having put me in a pickle. My fingers curled, nails digging into my palms as I grit my teeth in frustration.

This kind of maneuvering wasn't something that had come up when I was fighting the goblins, trolls, ogres, or even the Wolfmen. All of them were violent and direct and could be overcome through the sheer force of superior levels, higher stats, and overwhelming damage. But such a strategy was counterproductive for this challenge.

Lisette was too crafty by half; she knew my stats alone would not grant me victory here.

"Just surrender to me," Lisette called out in a sing-song tone. "Many strong men have. There's no shame in giving up. In fact, losing to me will be the best thing that ever happened to you."

She placed her fingers over her lips and started to blow me a kiss. I didn't see the end of it though, because Bridget spun me around as she jumped in front of me.

"You wouldn't even know how to handle Carter!" Bridget shot back at Lisette.

"Honey," Lisette barked a laugh, "I was your age once. First boyfriends always seem special, but once you get to know enough, you'll learn that all men are the same. None of them are special."

Her eyes flicked back to me as she took a step to the side and locked gazes with me again. "So… what's it going to be? Are you going to surrender to me and be one of my good little darlings? Or are you going to be a naughty little pet, one I have to leave with an empty head when I'm done with you?"

She probably expected me to curse at her. Instead, I smiled because I'd just realized something. The sudden grin threw her off, which only made me smile wider.

"What are you smiling about?" Lisette demanded.

"I won't kill my friends, but don't think for a moment that you are safe!" I leveled the wand that Myrina had given me, pointing it right at Lisette's face, and then shot off a fireball.

Lisette's face went pale at the incoming attack. "D-defend me!"

Marcus jumped in front of the fireball. It struck him in the chest and burned clean through his shirt. He was hurt, but he'd live. Behind him, Lisette was already running.

But I was in close pursuit.

Marcus took off after me, as did Kyle, Chuck, and Terrance.

"Oh no you don't!" Bridget said as she jumped forward, dropping to all fours.

With one swift jab she slammed one of her daggers straight through one of Chuck's feet, pinning him to the pavement. Then, she tackled Terrance from behind.

I spent the next minute chasing Lisette around the area. She was perhaps the highest-level human I'd fought on Earth, and if she actually turned to face me, I had the feeling that she would likely be a match for Elder Thalassa's people—especially with some minions supporting her. But she knew as well as I did that her class wasn’t meant for direct combat.

She was eager to make her escape rather than fight me. Her movement skill was an odd one, and for all the world it looked like she was casually walking away. Every step carried her much further than it should have; it was similar to Warp Step in that way. But instead of the strange and unnatural cadence of tearing through space, her ability had a simple and quiet elegance that made it practically unnoticeable.

No wonder none of my people had ever caught her. With an ability like this one, she could slip effortlessly through a crowd. The moment she thought she was in danger, she could simply turn and after a few steps she’d disappear without so much as a ripple. It was slower than Warp Step, and would do her little good in the wilderness fighting monsters, but in an urban environment it was perfect.

It was perhaps a little ironic to think that Lisette would have been defeated had I not built a faction large enough for someone like her to rebuild her powerbase. Had Crownhill fallen to the Wolfmen, she and the prisoners would have been left to face them down, and then all the other factions after them.

Between the battles and all the infighting of the Three Kings, I doubted that would have left enough humans on this shard to make a village, let alone a city. Lisette's skills would have been all but useless then, and she'd have held a tiny fraction of her current strength. It seemed my success had fueled the power and ambition of my last and greatest rival.

"My turn to tell you to surrender!" I shouted as I hounded Lisette through the outskirts of town just outside Crownhill’s city limits.

It was difficult to keep track of her. Every time she moved, I had to refocus my vision on her. If not for Iron Will, she probably would have slipped away already. She tried to steer back toward the city where people were frantically battling the fires she'd set as a distraction, but I pushed her deeper into the abandoned portion of the city.

I had to kill or capture her before she could get away from me again.

She had no intention of making the fight easy on me, though. Bridget had slowed Chuck down, but was still struggling with Terrance when Marcus and Kyle finally caught up to me.

"Stab him or something!" Lisette shouted as she waved at the two men and then at me.

Kyle and Marcus were on top of me in an instant. Marcus' abilities seemed the same as usual, but Kyle seemed to have picked up a few new tricks. Mainly, he now wielded a flaming spear—the same chunk of sharpened steel as the previous Caesars I'd fought. His level was also a bit higher than before.

Lisette must have had an ability that allowed her to empower whoever was her favorite pawn at the moment. It explained how she was able to create so many powerful Caesars. If one died, she could ensure his powers carried over to his replacement.

I slipped aside Kyle's charge, placed my palm on his chest, and then switched to Eldritch Augmentation before giving him a big shove. He went flying forward, head over heels, into a nearby building.

Marcus charged at me with sword in hand. When he lunged at me, I dodged. Instead of swinging his blade, he lunged again. Apparently he took Lisette's orders to stab me quite literally and had no intention of doing anything else.

I could use that to my advantage.

I jumped on top of a nearby building and Marcus hauled himself up after me. He lunged, and this time, I ducked below his strike. I grabbed his sword arm and pried his weapon from his grasp. In the same motion, I slipped beneath him and shoved with my feet, flinging him into the air with even greater force than I'd flung Kyle. Marcus went flying off the roof to slam into a nearby tree.

By getting the two of them off my immediate trail, and with Bridget slowing Terrance down, it hopefully took the two of them out of the picture—at least for a minute or more. I hoped that was enough time to deal with Lisette.

"Wait!" Lisette shouted when she realized I'd dealt with her two defenders.

She wasn't looking so pleased with herself anymore. "Time out! Parlay! Parsley!  Parley—or whatever the pirate pause button is… Let's talk this out!"

My response was a hot, fist-sized ball of fire. Lisette yelped as my fireball struck her in the ass. The flames burned away her clothes, revealing charred and blistered skin beneath. But her skin remained blistered and raw for only a moment. She had a healing factor better even than Chuck's, though I wasn't sure how well she could deal with head wounds or missing limbs.

In moments, the blisters were gone and her skin looked cleaner and healthier than was possible for a human before the System. I suspected it was less a factor of her Vitality stat and more something her immense Charisma facilitated. With stats like hers, she simply wasn't allowed to look anything less than her best.

Lisette started running even faster. That fireball must have given her an extra spurt of energy, because she now led me out of the city and we raced past destroyed and desolate buildings. I heard monsters skitter around in the darkness, drawn to me by my Death Curse. I'd called Sharky back to the city center to join the fight there, but now I called him to my side once more.

I needed someone to keep these bugs and rodents off me.

Lisette seemed fearless as she headed into the dark outskirts and I wondered what she thought she was doing. Had she grown desperate? Running away from Crown Hill and her minions seemed a reckless move on her part.

I grew increasingly wary. It might be wiser to wait for Bridget and Sakura, in case this was a trap—which I was feeling increasingly certain that is what this was.

"Ha! You're finished!" Lisette declared as she skidded to a stop before an empty and desolate clearing far outside Crownhill. "All of you, get him!"

As I had feared, a group of rag-tag men jumped out at me from the shadows. These were survivors from Crownhill County Prison, all far beyond saving. It looked like I was outnumbered, forty or fifty to one.

The tension in my shoulders eased. If this was all Lisette had to surprise me, she was in for a shock. Unlike my friends, I had no compunctions about killing these guys. And One Versus Many would give me bonus experience for killing them. In fact, Soulchain Nexus would boost my stats with each of their deaths.

That would make dealing with Lisette that much easier. She didn’t understand my powers. Not even to the same extent I’d come to understand hers. Calling her allies had dug her own grave.

I twisted, dodging right as one of the psychos rushed forward with a rusty blade. I placed Soulchain Nexus on him, then cut him down with a karate chop empowered by Arcane Blade.

His arm fell off, but he was still chugging. An Eldrich Blast to the forehead cracked his skull and put him down for good. The others rushed forward, and I put distance between them and me.

“More of you! This way!” Lisette yelled as she called over more forces. They were just more fuel for my stats.

I used Warp Step to maneuver myself clear, then fired off a quick barrage of spells to soften up my targets. I cast more instances of Soulchain Nexus, and when one of them was finally weak I darted in close and skewered him with Arcane Blade. That spread his debuffs to all the others nearby.

From there, my spells snowballed and power flowed through me. My attacks came with greater ferocity as I cut down the last vestiges of Lisette’s forces. My spells came faster and harder. Soon, instead of searing flesh, my Mana Bolts shot straight through them as easily as bullets.

Eldrich Blasts tore off limbs and cracked spines. Arcane Blade tore through flesh and bone alike.

Eventually, my might became so much greater than theirs that for the last few all I had to do was target the weakest one.

“Disassemble.” I pronounced with finality. The man I was pointing at exploded. His Corrupting Marks spread to the three men nearby, bringing them over the threshold enough that another snap of my fingers made them all explode.

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

Your race, Human, has gained a level!

Throughout all this, Lisette had been trying to slip away.

Not this time.

In a flash, I was on top of her.

“Get off me!” Lisette shoved me with surprising strength. It must have been a temporary ability, because even in my heightened state I felt myself get pushed back a bit.

She rolled clear, reaching to her hair bun. She pulled a pin from her hair, and I saw it came to a needle point. She jumped forward and thrust at me, but I reached forward and grabbed her hands.

“Get off me!” Lisette shouted again. She thrust her free hand toward me just as before, and I felt myself get shoved back once again. Definitely an ability.

I rolled back to my feet.

“You can’t win, Lisette,” I said, buying myself a moment to prepare more spells.

“I’ve beaten lots of men like you!” Lisette panted. “You’re just one more asshole in my way!”

“No, I’m the end of the line.” I conjured two more Mana Bolts. She was already afflicted with quite a few Corrupting Marks from killing her minions. Now was my chance to either end her or capture her.

This was our final showdown. Our climactic battle. The one that would decide who would rule this shard.

Lisette smiled at my words, and then she revealed her final card.

“Think you’ve won? Well how about this?” Lisette waved her hand forward, and a blur shot out of the nearby building to land beside Lisette. Dust filled the air from his landing. When it finally cleared, I saw who it was.

There, standing at her side, was Frank, with three more psychos flanking him. The remaining three were all over level 25, but it was clear Frank and his level was the star of the show. He was Lisette’s secret weapon.

Frank (Weapons master – Level 46)

His face was expressionless and his eyes dull. He wore the same vacant expression as all the others, like there was nothing going on in his head except his need to wait for orders from the woman beside him.

I nearly stopped in my tracks. How had she gotten to him? Wasn't he wearing the talisman?

Then, while Lisette wasn't looking, Frank blinked at me... blinked at me with just one eye. It was so quick and subtle that I was hardly certain I'd seen it at all.

But I was pretty sure Frank had just shot me a wink.