Chapter 241: Undead definition (Patreon)

Mason obviously didn't trust the little half-dead goblin for a second. Still, the thing posed no obvious threat and he did trust in Blake's ridiculous luck to find just what he needed.

"Alright," he said with a sigh. "How can you help us kill the 'big bosses'?"

"This way, humans," the goblin grinned a nightmarish grin, then splashed back into the mist and acid.

"Wait," Mason called, not moving an inch. "How far is it? We don't like the floor or the mist."

"Not far, human," the goblin almost whined. "We leave acid. Mist thins. Not far, I promise. Yes, promise."

Mason frowned and glanced at Blake. "You know what...can you just...control its mind?"

The goblin blinked and looked between them like it didn't comprehend what it heard. Blake raised a brow as if shocked.

"And here I thought I wasn't to use my mind powers willy nilly. That to employ such drastic, offensive tactics was both terrifying and immoral. That the sacred, inviolable free will of living creatures was so precious, so..."

"Can you do it or not?"

Blake shrugged. "Nope. I tried right away. Apparently it’s not exactly…living. And the semi-dead require...a different kind of magic."

"The semi-dead," Mason repeated, feeling something cold crawl up his spine as he stared at the creature. "You mean undead. Like in the movies. Yeah I'm pretty sure I'm just going to kill it."

The goblin dropped to its knees again. "No! Not enemies. Must trust. Name is...name is Pil…no…Pliny! Engineer. Inventor. Much brain. Before…change. Many inventions. Rival of big masters. You see? Betrayed. Put in...machine. But survived..." the thing gestured at itself as if to say 'like this'. "Hate. Hate all of them." Its beady red eyes glowed. "Want revenge. Only revenge. Understand? Nothing left. Nothing."

"I know liars, and if he's one then he is very, very good," Blake said quietly. "I say we trust him, at least for awhile."

"You only think you know liars. You trust everyone because you think it’ll all work out," Mason said with a sigh. "But fine," he said a little louder. "Lead us on…Pliny. We'll follow. For now."

The goblin nodded or bowed again and again, then turned and led them into the mist.

  *

It hadn't lied about the distance, at least. Less than a minute of trying to pick their way around the acidic pools, the floor got drier and the mists receded. The hall narrowed into a corridor, then expanded again into a circular room filled with what looked like old furniture, broken down devices, and all manner of nameless garbage.

"Dumping ground, see?" said their guide. "Fools think waste. But I know better. So many parts. So many inventions."

The smell here was maybe even worse than the acid pits, and it soon became clear why. Mason saw goblin corpses held in all manner of devices. Some were ripped open and operated on. Others had severed limbs replaced by bits and pieces of technology. It looked like a torture chamber mixed with a morgue.

Annie was making little humming noises and hugging herself. Blake and Becky covered their faces. Streak started looking for bones to chew.

"OK, y'all, it's official, this is the worst thing I've ever seen."

The goblin turned and smiled as they inspected as if he was proud. "Through here, humans. To secret lift. And secret tunnels, with many good things. And then..."

The creature paused as a very audible groan sounded from a nearby 'corpse'. It looked as confused as the players as the dead goblin twitched and pulled at its manacles. Then as corpse after corpse twitched and shuddered and started to move their legs.

"What? No, no, no," muttered Pliny. "No move! Why they move?" It looked at Mason with wide, desperate eyes, as more and more of the corpses were rising up from a nearby pile, some more struggling to get down from what looked like meat hooks on the other side.

Mason wasn't sure it was betrayal. But he was sure it was a problem.

"I don't think the other undead like the living as much as you do," Mason said as he summoned his Claws.

Blake's constructs stepped around him in a circle, and Annie's humming was getting louder and louder as the creature's moans rose in volume. Even Streak was making little whimpering sounds, and Mason tried not to consider that maybe roboGod watched too many bad zombie flicks.

Would he regenerate if he was bitten? Or would he start to 'turn'?

"What are we doing here, Mason?" Blake said, his voice surprisingly calm.

Mason let out a breath and started walking towards the nearest pack.

"Blake, start putting them all down. Becky, if they get close, distract them. Annie, stay back unless you're needed. Streak...could you try avoiding damage for once? For me? Please? Oh, and don't get bit."

With that he charged towards several of the creatures aimed in his direction. They had as many metallic limbs as flesh and bone, but they were so slow Mason didn't expect much of a challenge. He hacked a few into bits and pieces, spraying coagulated blood and rotten parts with gory, reeking violence.

But the stench was bad. Real bad. His vision swam and he pulled away when he nearly threw up. Then one of the zombies demonstrated enough dexterity to actually throw something, which Mason easily deflected, then stared at, with a horrible realization.

It was a grenade.

He kicked it without hesitation, and it exploded a few feet from his foot. The force knocked him a few steps back and sent his ears to a rock concert, but he kept his feet and growled. More zombies were lifting metallic limbs and aiming them like guns, though the vast majority didn't appear to work.

A few sprayed smoke, and bullet-like projectiles zipped and pinged as they bounced off walls, some exploding as they struck walls or garbage. Mason decided it was time to change tactics.

He heard Blake's constructs making a mess behind and didn't much worry about his brother or Becky with their shields. But he really didn't want Streak or Annie getting bit, and ran towards the middle of the room to get attention.

He banished his shorter Claw and started picking up random pieces of trash, infusing one with an exploding Trap before aiming at the zombie-gunners.

It blew apart like he'd tossed a claymore. Bits of flesh and metal fell like the nastiest rain in the world, and Mason slashed down a few corpses before falling back and throwing another.

It was all going swimmingly. Until a piece of garbage bit Mason's foot.

He stopped and growled, slashing and cutting apart what appeared to be a head and shoulders with one arm. Somehow the creature had crawled close enough, though its rotten teeth didn't do much more than break a little skin.

Mason kicked the remaining half across the damn cavern, then spun and used both Claws to slash anything even remotely movement-capable as he cleared the room.

Apex Predator flared a warning, asking Mason if he wished to change his affinity or to try and resist the ‘potentially lethal effect’ on his own. It was rather strange since usually it just changed him without a second thought. But he was fighting and didn’t have time to read a bunch of text, so he agreed to change his affinity.

And practically collapsed.

[Congratulations! You have discovered a hidden player affinity: Undead.]

[Title gained: Doing it my way. Gain a non-standard affinity. +2 to a random statistic.]

Mason wasn’t sure what the definition of ‘undead’ was, but he definitely felt like he was dying. Some cold hand had reached into his chest, gripped his heart, and squeezed. He didn’t remember feeling particularly different when Apex Predator shifted him to ‘elemental’ affinity or anything else. So he didn’t have a clue what was happening.

Transformation was ticking away, dealing with the bite and some kind of poisonous rot that seemed to be trying to work its way up his leg. Meanwhile, there were still zombies trying to kill him.

But there weren’t many left, and these weren’t strapped with goblin explosive devices. Fighting through the heart palpitations, Mason (and Blake's constructs) more or less made the remaining undead just plain dead with a few minutes work.

Streak looked pretty happy to sit it out, apparently not even interested in chewing any of the bones. Annie had buried her face into Becky's chest, which was inappropriately eye catching. The cowgirl just stroked the other girl's hair and gave Mason a glare like she knew what he was thinking.

Which was sort of true, but also not really, since he still mostly felt like he was having a heart attack. Apex Predator finally flared again and the awfulness stopped as quick as it came.

Mason growled and stared at the goblin.

"Didn't know! Forgiveness!" The wretched little engineer dropped at Mason's feet with his arms raised. "Not its purpose. Terrible mistake. Changes nothing. Let Pliny help. Please?"

Mason fought the urge to slash the thing’s head from its shoulders and sighed, putting away his Claws. Blake was right—the genuine surprise he'd seen at the attack, and the general misery of the creature was enough to make him believe it wasn't lying.

“I'm beginning to see why they tried to kill you, Pliny. But I believe you.” Then, to the others as well: “Wait here. I'm going back for Calypsa. Then we go kill these 'big bosses'. Understand?"

"Oh yes," the goblin looked at him with something uncomfortably close to adoration. "Understand. Will help. Will help very much. Till death. I promise, human. I promise."