Dark Fate, Chapter 52 (Patreon)

Chapter 52 – Road Hazard

The problem, we found out, was not actually in Kennesaw, itself, but in the nearby memorial for the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, back in the Civil War. Thinking back, I remembered something about a dungeon forming there, but I had never visited it. Why would I, when last time I had only barely gotten past level 15 before the aliens started showing up? Even with the power of the Black Knight, I hadn’t been able to advance as quickly as I had this second time through.

So, I was going into this thing blind.

The drive up to Kennesaw was, on paper, an easy thing. While the Apocalypse hadn’t spontaneously turned any of the roads into lava, or something equally horrific, the number of people driving between cities had basically dropped off a cliff. Part of that was due to people just trying to survive close to home, but the larger part was the risk of stronger monsters spawning in the areas between population centers.

Unfortunately, things weren’t so simple. The quickest way should have been hopping on I-285, and taking it to I-75 before crossing through Marietta, but several areas of that route had been damaged or destroyed outright during the initial hours of the Apocalypse. Oh, it wasn’t because of monsters, not usually, but because people were panicking.

All it took was a couple bad wrecks, at the wrong places, and interchanges were taken out. A MARTA train derailed as a squirrel turned into a steel-furred, Great Dane sized version of itself, UNDERNEATH the train in motion, with the resulting crash sending the bridge it happened on into the roadway. An 18-wheeler carrying concrete barriers suddenly had to deal with its driver turning into a Stone Golem, with their weight driving the cab into the ground with enough speed and suddenness to flip the barriers through the air like a catapult, destroying a section of an interchange. And there were more pileups than people could imagine.

The city was doing its best, but there were only so many tow trucks, and only so much equipment. Especially when everyone was busy worrying about their own survival. The section of I-285 between Cumberland and Sandy Springs was basically impassable, and the rest of the Perimeter wasn’t much better.

Worse, from what I’d heard, the entire highway system was much the same, nationwide. Travel was still possible, but it was much more difficult, which had brought logistics to a standstill. In fact, if it weren’t for some monster drops being edible, or the System Shop including rations as something you could buy, food shortages in the city would have been at a critical point long ago. Some people had started hydroponics outfits augmented by magic and the System, but it would take a while before they were at the point where Atlanta could be even partially self-sufficient when it came to food.

The interstates were in rough shape, nationwide, but US and state highways were in better condition, if only because most of them were basically just streets, which left fewer choke points. The problem with the highways, however, was that they often ran through areas that were infested with monsters, making the trip perilous. This was certainly true of GA-120.

120 curved up by Roswell, before angling back through East Cobb to Marietta. It was the section near East Cobb that was the problem. A tribe of orcs had spawned early on in the Apocalypse, and overwhelmed the local police, and most of the populace that hadn’t been killed either fled or were captured by the orcs. The dead were the lucky ones, if half the stories were true.

At any rate, East Cobb belonged to the orcs, and they were building up a power base. Nothing like the absolute swarm of goblins that had taken out a town north of Miami, or the horde of undead that took over Disney World, but definitely enough to carve out a little section of turf as their own, and they were expanding. One of the ways they expanded was by waylaying anyone traveling through their turf, which led to increased levels and them getting more materials to weaponize.

So, we were on alert as we neared their territory, helpfully marked by big signs painted with crude pictures of orcs holding oversized guns. We were expecting an ambush, which is why I was riding out front, and all the girls were in the van, instead of having at least one with me. I could take anything the orcs threw at me. They couldn’t, and I wouldn’t let the foul things break my property.

That was good, because just inside their territory, I saw a steel cable strung across the road at neck height. Only reason I noticed it was because the black paint it was coated in happened to stick out against the buildings on the side of the road. I just barely managed to power slide under it before I got a thoroughly unneeded education in whether or not that could decapitate me.

I heard the van skidding to a stop behind me as I recovered from the slide, but I didn’t have time to think about that, as I saw green figures moving from positions at the side of the road. Twenty of them. They were all big brutes, wearing patchwork armor that looked as though it had been build from scratch by welding and bolting pieces of scrap metal together. Their weapons were hardly better, being a mix of huge axes, swords, and clubs, but there were also some chunks of metal that were gun-shaped, but shouldn’t work as actual firearms without exploding, but I didn’t doubt that the System would say they were working weapons. And a couple even had what looked like crude flamethrowers!

“Oy! Lookie what we got ‘ere, boyz! Some humies with some fancy toys for us!”

Skullwhackah

Ork   Male

Level 20   Fighter / Boss

Titles:   Da Boss

Highest   Attribute: CON

Market   Value: $5000

The biggest of the lot spoke, and I quickly examined him. I’d upgraded my skills, and [Appraise Value] now showed me more information on my target. Tough guy, huh? Made sense for orks. They valued strength and toughness over everything.

Skullwackah was dressed in armor like the rest. His looked like it was made out of the remains of an old Cadillac, and he was about as large as one. In fact, the ‘tail-wings’ could be seen on his shoulders, painted black. In one hand, he held a big club, and on the other he had a big, three-taloned claw that looked like something you’d see on construction or logging equipment, but razor sharp, to slash and cut as well as squeeze.

I took a breath as I stepped away from my bike. Reaching into my inventory, I pulled out Chimamire. The scythe’s translucent blade glowed red for a moment, before I wreathed it in the [Hellfire Blade] spell. “You don’t want to be doing this, greenskin. I’ve got places to go, and bigger things to deal with than you.”

The ork snarled at me. “You’s speakin’ pretty big for a little humie. Thinkin’ your little stickah is gonna work on me? I’m da Boss ‘round here. You’s gonna learn the hard way dat no one crosses da Boss!”

“Then why don’t you show me how tough you are? Just you and me, no hiding behind your boys. Maybe I’ll rip your arm off, and keep it as a trophy!” Challenge laid, I kicked off the ground with a burst of speed, throwing myself at the ork boss, covering the fifteen feet between us in an instant.

My blade knocked his claw out of the way, scoring the metal with hellfire. The club came swinging down and across, but I reached up and caught it, surprising the orks. Sure, it hurt, because stopping that big a thing wasn’t going to not hurt, but there was a difference between ‘pain’, and ‘damage’. And catching the club, inside the ork’s guard, made it so he couldn’t bring his full force to bear.

“[Hellfire Breath].”

Infusing magic into my breath, I unleashed a spell that I hadn’t bothered with much until now, breathing pure hellfire into Skullthwackah’s face. The ork roared in pain and rage, because, well, there isn’t anyone who enjoyed getting fire in their face, and hellfire was worse. Unfortunately, the next thing I knew, I was flying back, launched in the air by a big, armored boot to my chest.

I rolled on a shoulder, and sprung up into a fighting stance, only to see Skullthwackah roaring as he charged towards me, head still on fire. I rolled to the side, to let him run past, but he just kept charging forward. He didn’t stop until he crashed into (and through!) the telephone pole that their cable had been wrapped around.

“Missed me, dumbass!”

Skullthwackah roared as my scythe slashed across his back. He spun around, swinging blindly with his club, but I ducked under the blow. ‘Blindly’ was the right word for it, too, because my blast of hellfire had burned out his eyes. Sure, he wasn’t dead, but a blind enemy was an enemy that was easier to—

“[Blind-Fightah]!”

Oh, shit! I jumped back, just in time to dodge a swipe of that massive claw as he swiped through where I had just been standing. Blind-Fight was a skill some melee classes got access to, just for situations like this. Basically, they got the ability to sense the location of enemies within a radius of 5 feet every 5 levels. Not perfect, especially since it burned MP, which fighter-types didn’t usually have much of, but it was better than nothing.

That made things more even, but I was still confident. He might be able to sense me, but there was still a bit of lag to his movements. Darting forward, I kept my own movements light and quick, not going for critical hits or instant kills, but rather the death of a thousand cuts. Back and forth we battled, and all the while I focused most of my attention on his claw arm, and the leg on that side, circling around the ork to constantly get on the side I was weakening.

Skullthwackah was tough, though, and a canny enough fighter to know what I was doing. “Enough of this! You not gonna fight like an ork, I ain’t gonna give ya the glory of dying like one. BOYZ! KILL DIS HUMIE!”

There should have been a roar as the orks joined in the attack. After all, they loved a good dust-up, and any chance to join in a fight was good, as far as they were concerned. The fact that I was handling their boss would only make them more interested.

However, there was silence. I risked a glance at the area on either side of the road, where the orks had been stationed. Talia and Hibari were there, finishing off the last of the orks, silent flames surrounding them. Rachel was standing back by the van, and she waved her hand. The next instant, sound returned.

I smiled, instantly understanding what Rachel had done. She had set a silence spell on both the girls. It kept them from talking, but it also silenced their movements, and kept the sounds of combat from alerting anyone. More importantly, it had kept the orks from realizing what was going on, or calling for help when the other girls started slaughtering them.

Judging by how quickly they had died, I guessed that the other orks were probably in the level 10 range. Powerful enough to be a threat to most people, especially just after the Apocalypse, but not a match for my girls, or the training they’d received. It was like letting velociraptors into a kindergarten.

“Hate to tell ya, ‘Boss’, but all your boys are dead. Seems they were so weak that even a couple girls could take out the whole lot of them while I was playing with you.” I laughed, and made sure to put as much disrespect into my tone as I could.

“Frag it all! You may win dis time, humie, but I’ll git ya next time! Dese were my weakest boys, after all. The bigguns will kill you all!”

His claw opened wide, revealing some kind of gun port. The gun fired, revealing it to be more of a grenade launcher, as a big round ball came flying my way. I trusted my [Shadow Armor], but I’d learned not to take my chances. Diving to the side, I tried my best to make myself very small, very quickly.

It was a smoke grenade. I heard the laughing of the green-skinned jackass and the thudding of his metal boots as he turned and ran for it. I could try and chase him down, but we were on his turf right now. Orks were ignorant, but that didn’t mean they were stupid. They knew how to make traps, even if they weren’t exactly high-tech. Not worth the risk.

With a sigh, I walked back to my bike. “Good work, girls. Glad to see that practice has paid off. We should be good for the rest of this trip, but we’ll want to think of something else for the way back. Rachel, figure us out a route back that we can take without needing to deal with these guys. I’m fine with going on surface streets.”

“Understood, Master.”