Enter System, page 35
part #1 of Natural Laws Apocalypse Series
It took Marc a moment to realize that Allan meant they'd either be helping and no longer layabouts, or dead and no longer layabouts. When he did realize what the Farmer meant, he was torn between feeling bad about it and agreeing with the man.
Me and my group have been risking life and limb, even taken a lot of injuries, to help these people survive. If they aren't willing to help with their own survival, then maybe they don't deserve to have a spot here, he thought.
He felt bad about how he'd phrased it to himself, but he wasn't enough of a fool to try to deny that that's how he felt deep down. His surface feelings were the ones that objected to the potential treatment he'd have to give the Sternns, and those were only from the things he'd been taught, not his own deep-down feelings.
The things I was taught in a much kinder and gentler world, he thought. I think those are going to need to fall by the wayside though, at least if we want to survive. We can give them a chance at survival. If they don't take that chance and run with it? Well, the end results aren't our fault, they aren't my fault. We told them what was required before we brought them here. It's like breaking a contract, there are penalties.
As much as he tried to convince himself of his argument, he still felt a niggling trace of guilt, but he determined that he was going to stand by his decision, even if he felt guilty about it.
Because it isn't right to the people who are running with their chance, who are helping out in order for all of us to survive, if I don't stand by that decision.
Finally having resolved the inner dilemma that had been bothering him, he gave Allan a firm nod.
“One way or the other,” he said. “Regardless of how that makes me feel.”
Allan gave him a grin.
“Good to know the man in charge has a rational grip on the situation, but still feels things,” he said. “I'll get back to work. If you have a chance we can use more of these fields. Once they get the class, assuming they do, it'll take one Farmer or two Field Hands per field.”
“Can Gardeners help?” Marc asked.
Allan shook his head.
“Nah, they're specialized in smaller patches of crops, or maybe herb gardens and the like. They'd probably work well in the greenhouses too. These fields take a different form of treatment, but they're also more limited in the crops they can grow.”
Marc nodded. It kind of made sense to him. Gardeners probably dealt with more delicate crops or things that took more individual effort while Farmers, and apparently Field Hands, dealt with bulk crops.
Although I didn't even know Field Hand was a class. I wonder if someone got it or he learned that from his Farmer class?
He didn't stop to ask now though.
“Sorry, I have to go. We received some information on where there might be another pocket of survivors so we want to go see if there's anyone there or not.”
“On your way then, more people will be better. Specially with your new building there,” Allan said, gesturing towards the apartment building.
“Yeah, I need to find someone to work as an administrator or something so we can get people settled into the lodgings we have. People have just been settling in wherever they can.”
Marc waved as he continued down the road, the whole conversation taking less than a couple of minutes.
Conner stood on the wall above the gates, looking out towards the town.
“Conner, recycling crews taking time off?” Marc called.
The Guardian looked down.
“No, the adventuring parties decided that they were going to rotate the guard duty on the recyclers among them. The last couple of attacks on the recycling parties were close things, too many for a single guard to handle almost. This way I can actually stand guard on the Safe Zone proper and they'll have enough people for guard duty. I did already pick up a couple of levels from guarding the recyclers and that might've had something to do with their decision, though. Experience that comes to you instead of having to hunt it? Slower, but some people apparently prefer that.”
“Good then, good to know that we've got a person standing guard along with the gargoyle,” Marc said.
“Speaking of that, you upgraded again? I was told there's a slot for a second Guardian for the Safe Zone now and the wall is much farther out. You mind if I do some recruiting?”
“Feel free, just try not to poach the adventurers, okay?”
“Done Marc, I'll check those who aren't classed yet first. I think my Grandfather's favorite good bye is appropriate here, though, since it looks like you're headed out into town,” Conner said. “Safe journey to you.”
Marc waved as they passed through the gates. Now that they were in the city he had to focus. Ella took the lead, going around the south side of the settlement and starting out down a road. Marc recognized that they'd come to Cherry street in about a quarter mile, then they'd have to turn and take a two mile plus walk.
* * *
About a mile or a bit more down Cherry street, Marc stopped for a second. Something looked off, although he couldn't tell what. So far they'd done the same as before. They'd travel a few blocks, call out for survivors, post signs telling people there was a Safe Zone at the high school saying that if people were willing to help support it, they could live there.
They'd just finished one of those stops a block back, although Marc had been pretty sure there weren't any survivors in that area. There'd been holes in the buildings, holes that looked like giant bullet holes, and he had no idea what had caused those. Now, he was sure something was off.
He called a halt for the rest of them also and kept scanning.
“What's the problem?” Jeff asked.
Marc shook his head.
“I'm looking. It's a gut feeling sort of thing. Something's different here, but I can't tell exactly what.”
“That,” Felicia said, pointing.
Marc followed her finger, staring at the concrete building she was pointing at. He had no idea what it had been, but it was ugly now. It was probably uglier before it was destroyed even. Right now the roof was caved in along with one of the walls, the center of the concrete wall's thickness a much lighter color than the outer edges.
“That's it,” he said. “The hole in that wall? If it was the System's decay it wouldn't be that color along the exposed edge, it would look the same as the parts that are lying on the sidewalk in front of it. That concrete was smashed by something, not decayed by the System.”
“So what smashed it?” Rob asked.
“Now that's the question, isn't it?” Marc said. “Hey Jeff, feel like practicing your Stealth for a few minutes?”
“You got it,” Jeff said.
He started to shimmer as though going into Stealth only for it to fail as Ella grabbed his arm.
“Careful, hon,” she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek before releasing his arm.
Jeff looked mortified for the brief moment before he slipped into Stealth.
Ella knows that, too, Marc thought. That smirk says she knows exactly what she's doing. What is this, an episode of How to Train your Rogue?
As Marc turned to look forward again, he caught sight of Felicia, who looked like she was trying hard not to smile.
No, it's more than not smiling, it's like she's trying hard not to burst out laughing, Marc thought.
It was only a couple of minutes until Jeff was back.
“I got close enough to Analyze this time,” he said. “Ogres, three of them.”
* * *
Chapter Twenty-Six
Marc continued to stare, something still wasn't right and his brain wouldn't let go of the problem until he figured out what it was.
“We going to do something?” Jeff asked softly.
Marc held up a finger and mouthed the words “one minute”.
Then it clicked.
“Hey Jeff, was there a lot of debris inside of that building?”
Jeff cocked his head for a moment.
“Yeah, but not from the building itself, no concrete in there.”
“Then I think that, like in the games, these things are going to be incredibly strong. Look at all the debris outside. They hit it from inside to destroy it and if those things can punch through a wall like that?”
Marc shook his head and the rest of the party took on a thoughtful look.
“Should we maybe just go around them?” Ella asked.
Marc shook his head.
“No. We know that the spawns will breed if left alone long enough. There are only three now, but they might spawn in more even before starting to breed. If we leave them alone, it'll just get worse.”
“So, how can we take them?” Rob asked.
“I'm still trying to put some puzzle pieces together, but you know those holes in the buildings I was commenting on?”
Rob nodded.
“I think that was these guys, since they're the only thing in the area and so strong.”
“So, throwing stuff?”
“That's my guess,” Marc said. “Maybe chunks of concrete from their own building?”
“I have something that might help some with that,” Rob said. “If we can get all our shield users in the front line.”
Marc looked at him curiously.
“I took the Shield Wall skill. With three of us, we'd get thirty percent more armor rating for everyone in the front line and the back line can just stay behind us,” Rob said.
“Did you try it out?” Jeff asked.
Rob nodded.
“Grabbed a couple of other tanks and experimented. It creates this big oval shaped shield, kinda like Marc's Phantom Shield spell, but thicker to the eye.”
Marc quickly pulled up the Shield Wall skill and skimmed it. He'd read it before and thought he had a way to exploit it.
“Hey, we might be able to bump that up to sixty percent more armor,” he said. “The skill description says 'per shield'. If my Phantom Shield spells count as a shield, I can toss a bunch of those out. I already found that I can control it, fasten it to my arm like a shield, so maybe...”
“Okay,” Jeff says. “That definitely gives us better protection. What about damage though? Ella's still low level so she won't be able to output a lot of it.”
Marc pulled out his AR-15 and looked over at Felicia. Seeing what he was doing, she pulled out her shotgun.
“Well, Felicia has the close in damage covered, and I can fire while we're on the way in,” he said.
“With shield in hand?” Jeff asked, doubtfully.
“Maybe not before, but I've got more Strength and Agility now, plus...”
Marc turned his arm, holding his shield horizontal to the ground, then he laid the AR-15 across it and sighted through the scope.
“Yeah, I can do that for a minute or two,” he said.
Rob cleared his throat.
“Um, you won't have a minute or two. Shield Wall is a mana-based Warrior skill. With my mana level I'll only be able to hold it for about fifteen seconds or so.”
“That's enough for us to get close, at least,” Marc said. “Since I think the biggest danger for us here will be them hurling chunks of concrete at us, I think it'll help a lot. A tip though Rob, you'll want to not run your mana down to zero. It makes it a lot harder to fight after since it'll give you a raging headache.”
“Thanks, I'll remember that. This is the only mana-based skill I have so far though, so it shouldn't matter, mostly.”
“So, that's the plan?” Jeff said. “You four go charging at them while I'm in Stealth behind them?”
“Pretty much. We'll try to hold their attention with the guns, I think that'll work okay to give you distracted targets,” Marc said.
Jeff sighed.
“Well, if we're going to do this, we probably ought to just do this,” he said. “I wish we had some of the other groups with us though.”
Then he grinned.
“On the other hand, this'll be a lot more experience for us this way, not having to split it with another group. Hey, loot too, although since it seems to give everyone stuff every time, I don't know if it's that much of a difference.”
He glanced at Ella quickly, took a step to put more distance between them, then faded out into Stealth.
“Give me two minutes,” he said.
Then there was silence. More silence than was normal anywhere in the town. With the power out, the background hum of the electric lines was gone, and there wasn't anything living in the area that the ogres had claimed. The only noise in the two minutes was when one of the ogres shifted and grunted. Then time was up.
“Okay, let's move forward at a quick march,” Marc said. “Three shields abreast. The Shield Wall spell says that other shields joining in increase its strength for as long as it's in existence. So I'll start with a pair of Phantom Shields on Rob and Felicia. If they do seem to work on it, I'll add in my own next.”
He turned to Ella.
“As soon as we're in combat and you're in range, start casting your Mana Dart and just keep going until you're out of mana. Probably back off at that point since you've got no armor.”
Marc quickly cast his own Arcane Armor, then Phantom Shields on Felicia and Rob.
I hope this works, he thought. Fortunately my max mana is almost four hundred now, so I can cast three shields and my armor and still have enough for eleven Mana Darts with my mana regen by the time I cast that much. Less if I use Fireball, but I might get multiple targets with that spell, so we'll see.
The three with shields lined up together. Marc told the other two to imagine their Phantom Shields on their non-shield arm like normal shields would rest in that position. He could tell that the shields moved as he'd said so the target of the spell was the one that could control it. Something he'd wondered about. Then they started moving forward.
It wasn't a silent movement by any means. The sound of the guns clacking against the shields and Rob's shield and armor rang out in the mostly silent street and a moment later a large head stuck up out of the broken concrete building that was their target. It noticed them and the ogre clambered out onto the sidewalk, bending over and picking up a basketball-sized chunk of concrete. It wound up to throw and when it released, the concrete was moving at the speed of a major league fastball. A shimmer went up in front of them as Rob triggered his skill.
The concrete slammed into the Shield Wall in front of Rob, caroming off to strike a building somewhere. Marc felt the force on his shield as well and he realized the Shield Wall must distribute the force to every shield in it.
“It's working,” Rob called. “I can see how many shields are in the Shield Wall and it reads five.”
Marc quickly cast Phantom Shield on himself, as well, just in time for another chunk of concrete to come rocketing in.
He leveled the rifle across his shield and tried to bend down to look through the scope. That was too difficult to manage while maintaining the quick march though.
Hell, it's a huge target so maybe I don't need the scope? he thought.
Firing without proper aim left his shots striking all over, but they were striking. The ogre was ten feet tall and as wide as two men standing side by side. Marc emptied the magazine as quickly as he could when he noted that a second ogre was coming out to join the first. He figured he hit with twenty or more of the rounds in the thirty round magazine and that was better than he'd expected.
Several more concrete chunks came flying in, slamming into the shield wall and, in one case, breaching it. The one that made it through hit Rob, throwing off his pace, although he managed to keep the Shield Wall up. Felicia stopped for a moment, throwing a heal at Rob leaving Marc in front of them.
“Five seconds left,” Rob called as he started moving again.
Marc was staring right in front of him. The Shield Wall had moved with the shields and was now in an arrowhead shape, focused in front of him. He pushed his Phantom Shield out from his body, narrowing the tip of the wall even more.
“Sprint!” he yelled. “We can use the Shield Wall to attack.”
Marc broke into a run, then a sprint when he saw the others joining him. It took another second for them to reach the first ogre, the one Marc had shot repeatedly. When they did reach it, it was almost like running into a brick wall, the Shield Wall contacting it and transmitting the force of the blow back to all the shields involved.
The ogre was the only one on the other side of the Shield Wall though, so he took the entire force of all their sprinting bodies, focused to a narrow wedge at the front of the Shield Wall. Marc, Rob, and Felicia were slightly stunned by the impact, but the ogre went flying, the front of his body rent in a wide cut from the point of the Shield Wall.
Rob almost recovered too late. He'd dropped the Shield Wall after impact, so it was only the Phantom Shield and his own physical shield that blocked the fist of the second ogre that had come out. This time it was Rob's turn to go flying.
He flickered with a golden-yellow light before impacting the ground as Felicia threw out a heal. A Mana Dart flashed over Marc's head to strike the remaining ogre in front of them, reminding him that Ella was in the fight also.
Not wanting to take the time to change magazines, he started casting. As he did, the roar of Felicia's shotgun caused him to flinch, almost losing control of his spell, but a moment later three Mana Darts, unaspected, went flying into the ogre that was now approaching him after it had sent Rob flying.
In one of those pauses in combat where it's nearly silent, Marc heard the distinctive sound of Felicia racking her shotgun to load another shell. He got another Mana Dart off just as she fired again.
Rob was back up again now, but Marc had been slow to get his second spell off on the ogre since he'd had to dodge several blows from it as well. It was slow, but he was pretty sure it would just have to hit him once to put him down for good. Rob came charging in with his longsword out now. His first strike took the ogre in the leg, slowing it as he carved deep into the muscle.
Marc took a moment to catch his breath, his dodging having consisted as much of him just throwing himself to one side or the other as controlled movement. As he did, the shotgun roared again.
