Enter System, page 6
part #1 of Natural Laws Apocalypse Series
“Let's go then, the duration is ticking down on my armor spell,” Marc said.
He gritted his teeth as he hefted his shield and pulled open the auditorium doors.
* * *
They rushed forward until three of them could spin and look up towards the back. As they did, they saw another four hobgoblins up along the back wall of the auditorium. Unlike the majority of the hobgoblins they'd seen so far these had makeshift spears instead of makeshift clubs.
“No missiles on this side,” Felicia said, “but there might be a caster or two. I see feathers.”
“Rob, you and I need to rush the top. Shields out in case they throw their spears,” Marc said.
He matched action to word, starting to run up the stairs, shield covering his torso as his eyes roved over the potential opponents. He had his pilum clutched in the hand holding the shield, so he had to be careful not to snag it on the seats, but he needed his other hand free.
As they ran, Marc started to cast Mana Dart, aiming it at the hobgoblin closest to the top of the stairs he was on. A single shimmering dart flashed out and struck the hobgoblin. He didn't drop, but he did stagger back a step, leaving the top of the stairs clear.
Rob and Marc made it to the top of the stairs and Rob spun to face the two hobgoblins coming at them along the top aisle. Marc immediately followed up his Mana Dart attack with a thrust of his pilum.
Now that he had an actual skill in it, the pilum was much easier to use. He also knew that the blade was made of a medium grade, lightweight but strong, metal. He was no longer worried about bending it when attacking so he thrust forward hard and fast. The hobgoblin tried to parry with his makeshift spear, but it was too long for easy combat in their current area.
As Marc sank his pilum into the hobgoblin, he caught sight of motion to his side. The last of the hobgoblins was over there and he'd wound up and hurled his spear. The hob was running along behind the spear as it flew and Marc had no time to spin and interpose his shield between himself and the flying spear. He was wresting his pilum back out of the hobgoblin he'd stabbed when the spear came close. His eyes closed and he winced, anticipating the rush of pain that was about to occur.
There was a dull thump, then a clatter, and he opened his eyes again to see the spear still bouncing on the floor.
Hah! Arcane Armor for the win, Marc thought. I'd completely forgotten about it already.
The hobgoblin he'd stabbed was down now, the damage from his spell and his stab combining to drop it. He spun and faced the one who'd hurled his spear. With a swift kick, he made sure that the spear was unable to be recovered easily, sending it clattering farther down the auditorium where it lodged in the seats, pointing upwards.
He heard a clatter behind him and knew that Rob had engaged the enemies on his side, then Felicia yelled.
“Rob, step right so I can join you.”
As his Hobgoblin shied back from a thrust, Marc spared a glance to his own side, not seeing Jeff there, or anywhere in the aisle below.
Damn rogues, always disappearing when you could use the help. At least he'll thin the bigger crowd down below, I hope.
His attention back on his own fight, Marc thrust again, barely slicing the hobgoblin's side. It was trying to come in close enough to use its claws to attack him, so he used a move that he wouldn't have even tried before learning the Short Spear skill.
He choked up his grip on the pilum so he was holding it closer to the bottom of the shaft, leaving about a foot of the base of the shaft protruding out of his grip, then spun it and used the short section of the shaft beyond his grip as an impromptu club, hitting the goblin and driving it back several steps.
A flick of his eyes showed the hobgoblins from the bottom of the auditorium were just past the halfway point of the stairs.
I could probably drop this one with another Mana Dart, but there are lots more of them coming up from down bottom so I probably ought to save that, he thought.
With another spin, he slid his grip back to the middle, driving the blade down towards the hobgoblin at speed. There was only a little slicing edge on the side of the blade, so he had to be careful to gauge the distance correctly. He did, and the two inch section of sharpened blade ran down the hobgoblin's chest, opening a heavy wound.
The hobgoblin tried to rush forward again and Marc just dropped to the ground anchoring the base of the shaft under his foot. The hobgoblin had tried to push the pilum out of the way, but with the additional anchor point Marc managed to snap it back in front of the rushing hobgoblin, only for it to impale itself.
He angled the base of the pilum up so the unmoving hobgoblin slid back off the weapon, then spun to face the others that were rushing up the stairs. Two steps took him to where he could guard the stairs up. Felicia and Rob were now ganging up on a single hobgoblin on their side, the corpse of another lying in front of Rob.
Two of the hobgoblins had stopped just past the area where Marc had seen them before and one was gesticulating while the other simply pointed their staff towards Felicia and Rob's opponent.
“Casters!” Marc yelled. “Target the healer first.”
He had a few seconds until the hobgoblins reached him so he took his own advice, launching another Mana Dart, this time at the hobgoblin pointing its staff. Just before he finished his casting a shimmer of green energy raced across the intervening space between the hobgoblin healer and the hobgoblin currently fighting Rob.
Marc shook his head, he'd hoped to interrupt that casting, but his Mana Dart was too late. It went racing out and struck his target, but they'd already finished their cast. As soon as it struck the caster a line of text ran across the bottom of his vision, fading quickly.
Your spell, Mana Dart, has increased in skill level (1->2).
Then he had to pay attention to the hobgoblins still on their way up the stairs. They were almost on him now so he crouched a little, bringing his shield down to the stairs so they wouldn't have an easy way to attack his feet and ankles. He brought his other arm up over his head, his pilum ready to thrust downwards towards his opponents' heads and faces.
Just as they were about to reach him a strangled scream came from farther down the stairs. Marc didn't hold his thrust, but the hobgoblin in the front of the charge had glanced backwards as the pilum drove towards its face. Marc adjusted at the last moment, moving the thrust down and to the side so it took the hobgoblin in its unprotected neck while it was turned to look behind itself.
Another line of text flashed across his vision.
Critical strike. Damage X3.
Although it faded quickly, he made a mental note to check his notification settings after the fight, assuming he could find them. He needed to turn those off or reposition them if he could to avoid the distraction.
He pulled his pilum back into striking position, the hobgoblin having already slid off it due to the angle. Now he had five angry hobgoblins on the stairs beneath him, although several were just recovering from looking back towards the scream.
Marc risked a momentary glance himself. The healer was down and Jeff was down there going sword to claw with the other caster. He had to blink as a triple bolt of energy raced from the other caster, striking Jeff. Then he tore his attention back to the fight he had in front of him when the hobgoblins continued advancing up the stairs.
“Pick a side, Marc,” Rob called.
Marc shifted to his left and Rob slid into the space that was created with his movement.
Rob glanced over at Marc and shifted his own grip to the one Marc was using.
“Oh, that's nice. Easier to strike down like that, isn't it?” he said.
“Yeah, so let's do this,” Marc replied.
He struck forward again, but this time the hobgoblin he targeted was on guard and deflected the strike. Rob's pilum flashed out as well and a hobgoblin let out a yelp as he scored a scratch on the top of its head.
Taking several strikes on his shield from the hobgoblin's claws, Marc altered the angle of his pilum, choked up towards the blade, and then struck almost straight down, driving the blade of the pilum right into the hobgoblin's shoulder.
Rob jostled him then, his shield was rounded on the bottom so he couldn't ground it on the stairs and had to move and dodge. His latest dodge had him bumping Marc, which pulled the edge of his shield up. A hobgoblin claw slipped into the gap and drew across his shin. This time the attack wasn't blocked by his Arcane Armor, although he thought it might've been slowed by it.
The pain hit, and it was worse than the Mana Darts that had struck him earlier. The claws left a series of three open slashes across the front of his shin. His instincts had him slam the shield back down and there was a grisly sounding crack as it connected with the forearm of the hobgoblin.
“Ow! Shit!” Marc screamed, then thrust downwards with his pilum again.
The hobgoblin had stopped for a moment after it got its arm unstuck, cradling the wounded arm with its unwounded one. Marc took advantage of that brief moment and drove his pilum straight down into its chest. Then he pushed with his shield, sending the body sliding off his pilum and back into the hobgoblin behind it that had started trying to move into the aisle between the seats.
There was an opening in front of Marc, so he went down two steps with a hop, swinging his pilum towards the other side of the aisle and catching Rob's opponent in the upper arm with a painful sounding crack. As he pulled his pilum back, he made sure that it wasn't the shaft of the weapon that had cracked. It wasn't, and he watched as Rob drove down with his pilum again, dropping the hobgoblin.
Marc quickly moved back up the two steps he'd gone down so he and Rob were side by side again.
“Three more,” he said.
Rob gestured with his pilum.
“That one won't be much of a problem.”
Marc looked over and saw the hobgoblin he'd driven the corpse into. It was sprawled out, one leg bent at an unnatural angle where it had caught in a seat while the rest of its body had tried to continue its movement.
“Still two then.”
“One on one we can take,” Rob said.
The hobgoblins had backed off a bit when Marc sent one of them flying, now they were coming back up the stairs. Marc spared a glance down to where Jeff was fighting, only to see him flash with green light and seem to regain some of his wind.
He launched his last Mana Dart at the caster Jeff was facing, then dropped his shield to the floor again.
“Heal?” he called out.
A moment later a green light flashed over him and his shin stopped throbbing. He glared at the hobgoblins advancing up the stairs, now much more cautiously than they had before.
“Bring it,” he growled.
The hobgoblins paused for a moment at that, then started moving up the stairs again.
“Rob? Advance?”
“Sure, one step at a time?”
“On three. Then one step per second after that. One... two... three.”
The two of them started advancing down the steps at a slow place. The hobgoblins in front of them hesitated for a moment, then turned to run, only to find Jeff partway up the stairs.
“Now,” Marc cried as he jumped three steps down and thrust his pilum forward. Rob was right with him and the two managed to lodge their pilums in the backs of both hobgoblins.
“Hey, I got a crit,” Rob called out as his hobgoblin slumped and slid off his pilum.
Marc hadn't gotten a critical hit, so he pulled his pilum back then thrust forward again. Rob thrust towards it at the same time and the hobgoblin squealed as it threw itself down to avoid the attacks. That was its last move as Jeff came sprinting up the steps and administered the coup de grace with his gladius.
Marc looked around the auditorium, but didn't see anything still moving other than his party.
“That sucked,” he said.
“I second that,” Jeff added. “Whose bright idea was it for me to attack the casters?”
“Uh, Jeff, I think you volunteered for that,” Rob said.
“Yeah, well, maybe I'd better rethink my life then,” Jeff said, “Cause that hurt, bad!”
He moved away from the hobgoblin corpse before sagging into a sitting position on the stairs. Marc saw the multiple holes in the jacket Jeff was using for armor and realized that Felicia had probably had to heal him more than once.
“I swear, your health going up and down like you're on a see-saw sucks big time,” Jeff said. “Thanks, Felicia.”
“You're welcome,” she said, having come up behind the rest of them.
“I'm just sitting here for a few minutes before I do anything else,” Jeff said.
“Okay, we'll take care of looting, then join you. I bet Felicia needs to regain mana and I know that I do,” Marc said.
Marc bent over and looted the hobgoblin at his feet, Rob and Felicia following suit. Jeff pulled himself back to his feet with a melodramatic groan.
“Alright, maybe I've a little more energy,” he said. “I'll help with the looting, then rest.”
Felicia caught Marc's gaze, then rolled her eyes towards Jeff and Marc barely managed to stifle a laugh.
* * *
Chapter Five
“So, what do we have left to clear?” Rob asked, bending over to loot another hobgoblin. “I know you said the gym will probably have more of these guys in it, is that it?”
“The gym,” Marc replied, “plus the office and the basement. We've gotten all the classrooms and the other spots I can think of.”
Felicia shuddered in distaste.
“I hate the basement. The few times I've been down there I always felt like I was on the set of a creepy movie.”
“It's not that bad down there,” Jeff said. “Really, lots of great hiding places.”
“That's the problem, Jeff,” she replied. “Even more great hiding places when you think of the size of the things we're fighting.”
“Yeah, the goblins would have lots of spots to hide, but the hobgoblins would probably need the ones that are big enough for us and I know where most of those are.”
“Jeff, did you go to any of your classes?” Marc asked.
“Hey, I went to classes when I had tests at least. The rest of the time they were a bore, you know?”
“Mine weren't exactly sparkling examples of interesting either, Jeff, but at least I went to them, even if I normally did other things during them,” Marc said.
“So, you blew off your classes mentally, I just blew mine off physically,” Jeff said. “What's the difference?”
“Um, maybe the fact that I got good grades and you barely graduated?”
“Didn't matter in the least, I still got into college. I told them the truth, that my classes bored me. They gave me a couple of tests and then were happy to have me go to their college.”
Marc shook his head.
“Well, at least you got some good info we can use out of it. Not that anyone would've ever thought it would be useful info.”
“Yeah, it's great, isn't it?” Jeff said. “It's like pulling that perfect bit of trivia out of your ass that no-one thought anybody would know.”
Alright, Jeff is definitely still Jeff, Marc thought. And he'll keep going on and on if we let him.
“Well, enough of that. We've got to head out again, try to make this place a Safe Zone before dark,” Marc said. “Everybody check their notifications and then we'll go.”
He pulled up his own now that they were done looting.
You have gained a level (2->3)
You have two ability points to distribute.
Your Intelligence has increased (9->10)
Your Constitution has increased (6->7)
You have one new skill point to distribute.
You have learned the spell: Phantom Shield (1)
“Cool, I picked up another level,” Marc said. “Give me a minute to assign some stat points.”
Okay, if it's anything like what I'm used to, he thought, Agility will help me hit more, so I'll put a point there. Aptitude is a new one, but if it controls skills and spells, both number and efficiency, then I'm going to need to increase that also.
He quickly placed a point in Agility and the second one in Aptitude, then checked his stats after using his skill point to get the Shield Bash skill he'd been considering earlier on.
Marcus Aurelius Cavanaugh
Class: Arcane Bulwark
Level: 3
Experience: 7/1000
Health: 132
Mana: 138 (+2)
Stamina: 141 (+3)
Endurance: 18
Body: 6.0 (Strength:5, Constitution: 7, Agility: 6)
Mind: 7.6 (Intelligence: 10, Willpower: 6, Aptitude: 7)
Social: 5.0 (Charisma: 5, Personality: 5, Allure: 5)
Skills:
Short Spear (melee weapon)(1)
Shield Bash (1)
Spells:
Mana Dart (2)
Arcane Armor (1)
Phantom Shield (1)
“Did anyone else level in that last fight?” Marc asked.
“Nope, I'm just shy of a hundred points to go for level three,” Felicia said.
Rob and Jeff were shaking their heads also.
“Me neither,” Jeff said, “although I'm only about twenty experience away, not a hundred.”
“Another fight like this would put me over,” Rob added.
“I guess discovering information about the System was what pushed me over, I've only got seven experience towards level four,” Marc said. “Anyhow, everyone ready?”
He was greeted by a bunch of nods and they headed out into the hallways.
“Which first?” Marc asked. “The gym will probably be another fight, but we don't know about the office or the basement.”
“Office?” Felicia said. “I'm kind of equating the office to another classroom, so maybe some of the goblins, but nothing big.”
“Sure, we can do that,” Marc added.
He turned and headed for the office, the other three in tow.
* * *
