MADMAN APOCALYPSE - Chapter -57 (Patreon)

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Chapter -57

It felt like we were supposed to be running for our lives, but I wasn’t having any of that.

            “Gambit… where are you going?” Panda asked suspiciously, as I walked towards the ramp of the garage that led down.

            “Where does it look like I’m going?” I asked him.

            He sighed dramatically, but it seemed I’d crushed his spirit to the point that he no longer felt any desire to complain.

            Bee was following a few paces behind me, her hands raised slightly above her chest as she prepared to shoot the first thing we saw with one of her Bolts.

            I stopped in my tracks and turned to look at her. “You know, if you want, you can wait here.”

            “I’m coming with you,” she said resolutely.

            “Do you think Samantha is in here too?” Panda wondered.

            I shook my head and continued down the ramp. “She’s probably being fast-tracked to the real boss, while we’re in here with some no-doubt-fucked-up monster.”

            “The announcement said it was a Sub-Dungeon,” Bee remarked. “And it’s level 30.”

            “They’re trying pretty hard to kill us, huh?”

            “Why do you sound happy about that?” Panda asked.

            “Gambit, I’m with ya foreva!!”

            “Thanks, Brock.”

            As we went down the ramp to the floor below where we’d landed, the police siren became so loud that it was hard to really focus on my thoughts. This level was pretty much the same as the one before, though it did seem slightly darker. Imperceptibly so.

            “Weird,” Panda remarked, his voice clear through the siren noise.

            “What is?” I half-yelled.

            “The cars are in the same spots. Look at that dark-blue Sedan, it has the same scratch on its hood, and that boxy one over there has the same stain of bird shit on the passenger-side window.”

            “I can’t tell.”

            “I think Panda is right,” Bee also half-yelled.

            There wasn’t anything different here though, so we continued down to the level below. Every step down the concrete ramp made the siren so much louder.

            “I think my ears are bleeding!” Bee yelled.

            “Mine too!” I replied.

            As we came out into the third floor, Panda pointed and yelled, “Look! It’s the same Sedan and box car!”

            “That is weird!” I yelled.

            “What!?” Bee yelled back.

            “Brock is feeling tingly.” Like Panda, his voice cut through the noise with ease, which raised some uncomfortable questions that I quickly shoved away to the dark recesses of my mind where such existential questions ought to reside.

            Once again, it felt like the light was slightly dimmer here, but only by like 3% less than the one above. However, it was still illuminated enough that my Transition Lenses did not activate.

            We continued to the ramp that led down to the floor below, both of us having to cup our ears against the noise. It was at such a volume that every pulse of sound rattled my ribcage and interfered with my breathing, as though the sound waves were punching my lungs.

            As we rounded the concrete barrier and came to the top of the ramp, we both froze as we saw what awaited below.

            Lodged between the ramp floor and the ceiling above was an enormous figure in a crouched position. If I had to guess, it would easily be forty-feet tall if able to stand to its full height. Its body was strangely gaunt, almost skeletally-thin, with its legs and arms comprised of two or three bones per upper-and-lower segment, with cable-like veins snaking around them, and tightly-stretched dark-red skin. Its upper body was relatively small in comparison with its limbs and was comprised of a ribcage and spine, also wrapped in those strange veins and the tight skin. Strangest of all was its neck, which curved out like a hook and was covered in megaphone-shaped speakers, as well as cone-like police sirens that were spinning and flashing red-and-blue light around its body. It had no visible eyes, though, as I looked closer, I saw that there were mouths inside the speakers. Its hands and feet were also much too large for its gangly limbs, and each had seven digits.

            Bee put a hand on my shoulder from behind and shared the appraisal she’d performed with her glasses.

            Despite the intensity of the sound, I quickly leapt at the enormous monster, which was ever so slowly crouch-walking its way towards us, one hand on the floor and one on the ceiling.

            “Punch.harder( )!” I yelled and swung my fist at its head after leaping from the top of the ramp.

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ACTIVATING SCRIPT: Punch.harder( )!

SCRIPT FAILED SUCCESFULLY DUE TO: unCollide.glitchCollision()!

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            “Smack!!”

Brock connected with one of the megaphone-like speakers and though the impact rocked the Siren’s neck-head-thing back briefly, it seemed to not have done that much damage.

            Before I could fall back down to the ground, the hand held against the ceiling swung down, catching me and smacking me into the floor with enough force to crack the cement and send up a cloud of dust.

            A golden shimmer erupted from my skin and a message appeared in the center of my vision.

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SKILL TRIGGER!

The Hero Will Live To Fight Another Day!

gasm.org Deactivated!

Ability Returned: Cheat Death

Original Player: Samantha

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            “Beetle Blast!” I heard Bee yell, before a projectile struck the back of the hand pinning me and exploding parts of its dark-red skin, managing to dismember one of its seven fingers.

            I punched Brock against the palm of the giant hand holding me, creating just enough room for me to get out. As soon as I was clear I beelined it for Bee, who had collapsed to the floor in exhaustion, not even having enough strength to cover her ears.

            Without pausing my stride, I picked her up.

            “Skater Boy!” I said out loud and the longboard appeared in front of me. I hopped on, while carrying Bee over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes, then kicked off and sped towards the ramp that led up.

            The Siren began scrambling up the ramp behind us, clearly furious that I’d gotten away.

            “Fucking hell that thing is scary!”

            “Gambit, you need to hit it harder!”

            “Yeah, no shit!”

            “No, I mean, you have to pull out the Plugin that’s preventing your Punch Harder from going recursive.”

            I knew he was right, but part of me dreaded turning around to face the freaky boss monster. I also had no idea whether it was possible or not, since both my Plugins seemed pretty firmly rooted in there. It was likely that I’d need Bee’s help for it.

            “Different plan!” I said, stopping and spinning around on my back wheels.

            [HOT MOVES!]

            “Ugh, shut up,” I told the pretend-skateboard, then aimed my palm at the corner of the barrier where the Siren would be coming into sight any second now, judging by the sounds from below.

            My hearing cut out for a moment and I had the sensation of something warm trickling down the right side of my neck.

            I blinked and it was already up the ramp and halfway around the corner, using both arms and legs to crawl in a disturbing manner, and it was crazy fast.

            “Giant-Slayer Lance!” I yelled, and the spinning projectile started forming in front of me, but it didn’t seem fast enough to hit before that thing came within reach.

            “Come on, you slow piece of shit!” I yelled at the building ballista bolt.

            The Siren was so loud that it was impossible to focus. I knew that I should run, but I worried that if I moved the spell would end prematurely without firing. It was also possible that the noise itself was interfering with my decision-making.

            Only fifteen yards separated me from the giant creepy boss, with each pull of its large claws against the concrete floor eating up the distance between us rapidly.

            A loud woosh came from the air in front of me as the Lance fired, with plumes of dust shooting to either side of it. The projectile was nearly twice my height in length and as it collided with the boss, it sheared through some of its speakers and police sirens, before coring its way through its relatively-small ribcage and shooting through the bottom of its spine that connected to the thin legs, severing it slightly above the ‘hip’, if you could call it that. The Glitch Collision seemed to have zero effect on it like I’d hoped, but it didn’t matter.

            “Holy shit! I did it!” I exclaimed, jumping for joy atop the board, while Bee swished around, producing uncomfortable grunts.

            “It’s not dead yet!” Panda warned.

            The Siren was briefly stunned, but then the upper body shot into motion again, clawing across the floor at an even greater speed than before.

            With a surprised and disgusted yelp, I spun around and kicked off the ground, doing a simple jump to increase my board’s speed.

            [EXCELLENT!] said the mouth at the front of the longboard, even though it could hardly be considered a trick. Nevertheless, I felt a boost of speed flow through me, and was able to round the corner and shoot up the ramp with only a few pumps of my right foot to help me up.

            The sound of the Siren’s noise had turned discordant and warped, thanks to the destruction of several of its speakers. It almost sounded like a never-ending scream, which was fitting as it continued to barrel along the concrete floor to chase me.

            I didn’t look back, and instead climbed as many floors as I could, putting more-and-more distance between us and the monster with every floor.

            When we got to what was possibly the fifteenth floor and I was severely out of breath and Stamina, I sat Bee down and began trying to remove the Plugin in my collarbone.

            “Bee, use your Litany of System Prayers to get Mana back,” Panda told her, and she sluggishly pulled out the book and began mumbling as she read it.

            “I can’t believe it survived my Giant-Slayer Lance,” I said, while struggling to turn the handle on the Plugin’s top. The sirens still blared from nearby, but I was fairly sure there were three floors separating us still, though I kept my ears piqued.

            “It definitely did a lot of damage, thanks to the huge level difference,” Panda remarked. “But I don’t think they meant for you to be able to kill it.”

            “Oh, I’ll kill it!”

            “You were running away just a moment ago,” he said dryly.

            “It’s huge and creepy, of course I’d run to create some breathing room.”

            Following a quick look of surprise and shock, Panda nodded sagely. “I have taught you well.”

            “Don’t take credit for my character growth!” I told him.

            “Also. You need to spin the handle the other way, you’re only tightening the Plugin more right now.”

            I sighed.

            “Bee, can you help me with this?”

            She stumbled upright, but at least she remained standing this time, albeit unsteadily.

            “I think I overdid my spellcasting,” she commented, then puked all over the boots of my Carapace Suit.

            I looked down at my feet. “…Thanks.”