Something (Full Murderhobo Book 1)

by Dakota Krout

  Taylor didn’t answer, she was trying to deal with the influx of data suddenly streaming from her Sigil. Her eyes were watering in seconds, and it felt like she was about to overload her brain. She shut that function off, and looked at Luke while blinking away tears. “How do you… function like this?”

  Luke continued scanning the area, his eyes resting on certain spots regularly. “It turned on about six years before I was forced to return here, and it took me five years to figure out how to shut it off. By then, I was pretty used to it. Works pretty well in the dark when there is no light. Follow the moving numbers to find what is coming at you. Different colors of dark. Dark doesn’t move by itself. Great for fighting ambush predators.”

  Taylor looked at Zed with a grimace. “Yup. He’s even more insane than we thought he was. In a useful way, though.”

  “I’m fully sane.” Luke had finally had enough of the talking down. “I don’t need to conform to your weak social norms. You need to get stronger. I’ve tasted insanity before… it needed a little bit of tartar sauce.”

  “Everyone stop.” Taylor knelt and started drawing on the ground. “Once we crest this ridge, we are going to run into the first wave of defenders. I’m sure you could all feel the hostility increasing as we got closer; well… we are just about to the point of no return. Whatever intelligence that Scar has or doesn’t have, it most certainly has self-preservation. This is not a battle to destroy it, or even fight at all. This is us attempting to determine the likelihood of an attack on the Hollow Kingdom. We make an assessment, we run. Understood?”

  The others nodded, and they took extra care from then on to go unnoticed. Upon arriving at the crest of the pass, they peeked over and felt their hearts tremble. It was clear that this pass had once contained a forest, but it had been stripped to the bedrock to provide fires and… defenses? Andre tried not to get too mad about the loss of yet another old-growth forested area in his Kingdom; at least he hadn’t bonded to this area yet.

  There was an utterly massive monster hoard in the area. Thousands upon thousands of Scuttlers filled the pass, but most concerning were all the humanoids that were patrolling the area on foot or horseback. ‘Humanoid’ typically meant sentient, and if the monsters weren’t attacking them… then it must be because they were being controlled by the humanoids. The term of ‘Humanoid’ didn’t mean human, only that they could pass as human from a casual glance. In fact, all of the ones walking around wore thick cloaks, shielding their faces and leaving their true identities a mystery.

  All of this paled into nigh-insignificance at the sight of the Scar. The pulsing reddish-purple opening between dimensions drew the eye and the mind, inflicting an instinctive fear. Taylor lightly paled, then spoke softly to the others, “It’s bigger than it was yesterday.”

  “That’s what she said,” Zed whispered back. Luke nodded, though he wasn’t sure why Zed had said that. It was clear that Taylor had just spoken, there was no need to explain this to him.

  “I can close that by punching it.” Luke informed the others, certain that his skill would be able to manage that.

  Taylor ignored their commentary and continued, “It has to be at least one hundred and thirty feet tall, and forty wide. Yesterday it was one fifteen, and thirty-four.”

  “What does that mean?” Andre was the only one to engage properly.

  “There’s only two reasons that a Scar would keep growing: allowing a more powerful creature through, or to begin terraforming the surrounding area. This is either going to become an incredibly potent enemy, or a country-scale invasion at the minimum.” Taylor took a deep breath. “At the rate it’s growing, there’s no way an army could get here soon enough to make a difference. We need to shut this thing down.”

  “Didn’t you just tell us about how closing a Scar is a suicide mission? That there’s no guarantee that it will stay closed?” Andre spoke up indignantly.

  “It is. But I’ll gladly do the right thing so that I can save countless people that are counting on us to protect them. This thing…” Taylor waved at the Scar, “is death. Not just for us. Not even just for the Hollow Kingdom. It might release enough forces to swallow the whole continent. Listen, I’d never sacrifice someone else, or make you sacrifice yourselves, but I’ll happily be the one to close it. I just need you all to keep me safe while I figure out how to do it.”

  “I can punch it closed,” Luke again told them, only to be ignored once more.

  “We also need to get close enough to get into that thing,” Zed pointed out bleakly.

  “All I hear is that there’s killing to be done.” Luke stood up and cracked his knuckles. His team gaped at him with white faces as he stood silhouetted against the skyline for their enemy to see. “I could go for some killing. Plus… the quest says that the reward will be proportional to the risk. I feel like stopping a world-scale invasion is pretty risky.”

  The others could only scramble to their feet and run after him as Luke activated Bum Rush and turned a Scuttler into paste a hundred feet away.

  Potentia gained!

  “Paste? Aw... I miss Cookie.”

  Chapter Forty-Five

  “Abyssal Murderhobo!” Taylor shouted in a fury, then forced herself to a calm state. “Andre, we need a wall at our backs. We need thorns for the fleshy foes, and thickets to force the armored enemies to come at us how we want them to come at us. Zed, sit.”

  “Sit?”

  “Sit.” Zed reluctantly sat, and a column of stone lifted him into the air. He shouted once, then went quiet as the stone surrounded him and left him with small viewing holes. Now Zed could get a bird’s-eye view of the area, without too much fear of the fairly inaccurate bolts that they had been attacked with earlier. “Keep us up to date.”

  “Please make sure to let me down if you think you are going to die,” Zed’s voice sounded in her ear. “How high up am I?”

  “About forty feet; stop whining.” Taylor glanced over to see Luke already engaged in combat with dozens of enemies. She took a deep breath and stomped her foot, vanishing from her position and appearing next to Luke just in time to slash out with an unreleased Scatter Shot. Using the spell like a sword, she began hacking through the tough shells of the Scuttlers. She alternated between releasing the power as a full spell and containing it, making her an excellent mid-range fighter that could support her teammate.

  Luke - unlike Taylor - was having an excellent time. This constant swarm of enemies felt nostalgic, and brought him back to the fun parts of killing the goats in Murder World. “I wonder if I can turn this area into a blood slide…? The pass does slant downward here.”

  “Head in the fight, Luke!” Taylor demanded as she released a Flame Lance into a tight cluster of Scuttlers. The spell detonated, tossing charred monsters into the air and filling the area with the scent of baked lobster. “Ugh… I’m never going to enjoy seafood again.”

  “Never had it before.” Luke slammed his right fist into a Scuttler. He had cancelled his shoulder and leg armor, freeing a total of fifty percent mana that he had been able to devote to his attacks. That resulted in a total of a forty-five percent damage increase when it was diverted to his Battering Ram Knuckles, which meant he could potentially hit for five hundred and ninety-two blunt damage if he landed a perfect attack.

  It wasn’t going to happen. Not with the wild flailing and dodging that he needed to also focus on. Maximum power meant that you needed to focus and bring your entire body into alignment for an attack, and that usually only happened under controlled circumstances. Still, a glancing blow could deal over a hundred and fifteen points of blunt damage, plenty for these basic creatures. Luke punched one in the face, and the stone covering turned into shrapnel that drove deep into its head.

  Potentia gained!

  “Celestial abyss, shut up.” Luke snarled at his constantly chiming Sigil. “Devote all Potentia into Walking Arsenal until I say otherwise. Turn off Potentia gain notifications!”

  *Ding!*

/>   Please confirm-

  “Yes!”

  *Ding!*

  This is your confirmation that all Potentia-

  “Ahh!” Luke screamed and ignored the Sigil, shifting his mana to empower both hands evenly and slamming them into the next target over and over. The nice thing about his ability was that he could fight like a brawler. Luke had been worried that equipping a sword would mean that he would need to hold it like a sword, and he had been glad to find out that he wouldn’t need to do so. A punch, and a meter-long blade appeared over his fist and stabbed things. Perfect for what he needed.

  Over the next twenty minutes, Luke and Taylor had been able to move forward a net total of five feet. They had constantly needed to abandon their positions in order to maintain firm footing, even though both of them had powers that granted balance and sure-footedness. All of the blood and carcasses made footwork treacherous.

  Walking Arsenal has reached level three! 0/500 to level 4!

  “We aren't making any progress!” Taylor stated coldly as yet another blast of ice shattered Scuttlers in a line. “We should fall back and regroup-”

  “What are you talking about?” Luke laughed at her stricken expression. “We’ve only been fighting for twenty minutes! We already moved forward! At this pace we will only need another… thirty hours! We’ll be to the Scar in no time!”

  “Thirty hours of constant fighting?” Taylor spun up a Flame Lance, letting it blow away a squad of reinforcements.

  “Way less than I thought we would need!” Luke’s bright smile brought Taylor right back to her childhood, but she got ahold of herself and shook off the strangeness of seeing her one time friend still in the body of a mid-seventeen-year-old. This was the first time Luke had seemed actually happy since coming out of the portal - the first time he had seemed like himself - but she was already practically out of mana.

  “We need to fall back so I can recover my mana, Luke!” She hated to interrupt his happiness, but she wouldn’t die so that he could get a few chuckles.

  “Go ahead; I’ll keep at it! Come back when you have a full arsenal ready again!” Luke activated Bum Rush and slammed into the line of attackers, creating an opening that Taylor used to zip back to the… forest?

  “Welcome back, Taylor!” Andre called out as she entered the oddly silent copse. “I set up a meditation area there. Should boost mana regen, especially with the mana density in the area!”

  “Meditation area…? Andre, this place needs to be defensible!” Taylor forced herself to sit and focus on calming her mind. She felt her mana regen kick into high gear, pleased with the result even though she was still lightly fuming over the seeming lack of protections.

  “Don’t worry.” Andre’s voice turned hard. “Nothing under tier six could walk into this core area without having to destroy every plant in the way.”

  “I don’t… how can you be sure?”

  “I can’t move from this spot, but everything in thirty meters that grows is actually considered the same plant. This whole place shares the same health, which means they would need to be able to destroy this area in a single hit if they want to get in.” Andre let his eyes flutter closed as he returned to making a cycle. Mana and Potentia flowed into him, out to the plants, and back to him, since they were a part of him.

  With every second that passed, more plants sprang out of the ground. Andre had also been spreading grass seed along the path as they had traveled, and he was hoping that there would soon be a verdant path that connected him to the rest of the area in the Kingdom which he had bound to himself. Then this small area would be really hard to crack. “Abyssal Murderhobo. If he had just given me a few days to get all of this ready…!”

  “Speaking of ol’ Lukey,” Zed’s voice spoke to the two on the ground, “any idea why he is doing more damage over time than he was doing before? It isn’t a lot, but while you were out there, his damage average increased a few times, and really suddenly.”

  “He’s devoting all the Potentia he’s getting directly to his abilities.” Taylor stood and prepared to return to the fight. “It’ll peter off; there are so many of the same type that he’s gonna stop getting much Potentia soon.”

  “Shoot! Andre, Taylor! There’s a calvary charge coming!” Zed’s words made Taylor speed off, and Andre closed his eyes. “People on horseback, holding lances!”

  “I’m sure of it now. These Scuttlers are nothing more than beasts. I’ll take care of them, you focus on the cavalry!” A wave of mana exploded out from Andre, forcing the growth of thorny vines all around his defensive copse. Andre began to pant as his mana slowly refilled, but his mind was focused on binding the vines with a singular purpose: anything that came into the area needed to be beat to death or torn open. Scuttlers started dying in droves along the thicket’s boundary as the plant life pulled them apart or suffocated them. The Potentia they released was sucked up by the plants, making them stronger, hardier, and finally… more numerous.

  As more appeared, Zed began to notice a strange message appearing over and over. He traced it to Andre, and blanched.

  Damage taken - health regained - damage taken - health regained…

  A glance at Andre revealed that there were small vines that had latched onto his arms and legs. They were thorny, and Andre was clearly bleeding heavily. Zed swallowed as he watched the fighting, only now truly realizing exactly how invested his team was in growing more powerful.

  “One sacrificed his mind. Two offers her life to protect others. Three is eaten by his creations to bring life and death. What is four… what am I willing to do for the power to change the world?”

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Luke was yanked to the ground as two people on horses ran past him while dragging a net. He started skidding as they dragged him, but he was released in an instant as the horses slammed into a razor-sharp stone spike each. They collapsed forward, and Luke was sent flying as if he had been in a slingshot instead of a net. He flipped in the air, Innate Balance coming to the rescue and allowing him to prepare for the new threat.

  The people didn’t get off the horses after they were impaled, and that was when Luke realized that they were not separate creatures. “What in the-”

  “Down!” The order came, but Luke didn’t duck. That wasn't in his nature. Instead, he struck out at the threat, using his left hand to cleave another of the horse-creatures in half. The body split around his mana-made sword, the momentum of the beast soaking Luke in viscera.

  “Luke, these are called ‘Centaurs’.” Zed’s cheerful voice appeared in Luke’s ear as he tackled another man-horse to the ground and punched it wildly. “It appears we found the theme of the invading world. They are all chimeras!”

  “No idea what that means, Zed. Tell me.” Luke threw the horse half of his opponent at another charging group. The loss of morale was visible, but he could see them steel themselves for their attack.

  “Sure thing, sugar-booger!” Zed stopped playing around when he heard the dark threats Luke began muttering in reply to his gentle teasing. “Chimeras are creatures that are essentially hybrids. They have pieces of at least two things grafted together. Centaurs are pretty well-known, obviously horse and man. The Scuttlers make sense as well now, I’m thinking crab and man at the minimum.”

  “How does this help us?” Luke demanded as he took a blow across the head.

  Simple Metal Helmet. Armor: 4/17.5

  “Well, it lets us know that they will have both the strengths and the weaknesses of the types of creature they are made of. Horse and man? Likely afraid of snakes? Got any snakes with you?” Zed trailed off as he tried to think of anything actually helpful. “Well… the less ‘creature’ there is, typically the more intelligence there is. Centaurs are smart enough to work in groups and use tools, but they are too much horse to be able to create a real civilization as we know it.”

  “The point, Bard!” Luke Bum Rushed at another small herd, taking two to the ground upon impact. The Centaurs whinnied at
a frequency that would have caused damage in a weaker person, so Luke punched them in the face to cut off their noise. Noses and facial bones shattered; the remaining sounds were garbled and wet.

  “The point is that their commanders, the intelligent threats, will be mostly Humanoid. The more person-like they are, the more effort you should put into killing them as fast as possible.”

  Luke liked that explanation. “Good. That was actually useful. Tell me more things like that.”

  Zed’s next words were also informative, though in a different way. “There are two herds closing in on you from either side! They have lances, you need to move away from there!”

  “I’m not afraid of a horse with a silly stick.” Luke coldly cut off the incoming warnings. “Tell me more about things I should be on the lookout for.”

  “The lances, look out for those!” Zed’s fear caused Luke to slap a Scuttler out of the way so he could judge with his own eyes how dangerous this opponent was. He felt more than heard the thundering hooves, and his eyes widened fractionally when he saw that the lances glowed enough to indicate enchantment. While the Centaurs were still a long way away from him, dozens of lances discharged a figurative river of lightning at him.

  “Abyss.”

  Armor break! Simple Metal Helm, Simple Metal Pauldron, Metal Gauntlet (Stone Ape), Simple Metal Cuirass, Simple Metal Greaves, and Ornate Leather Boots have reached armor: 0.

  Mana pool expended! 80% mana must be regained in order to reactivate the broken armor!

  Health: 92/250 (Paralyzed, 4 seconds remaining.)

  Luke read all of the messages as he stared at the sky. He slowly fell flat on his back. He couldn’t move, and his clothes were on fire. He had a high enough resistance that the weak flames didn’t really damage his skin, but it was still uncomfortable to feel his clothing carbonize. The thundering hooves drew closer, but another sound drowned them out as Taylor tore open a Fissure in front of the leading herd. Their screams cut off as they fell, but only because the ground slammed together again with a ringing *shriek* of tortured stone.