by Ryan DeBruyn
What the hell is that? Are those two-headed dogs?The fact that I can make them out at this height…
Resolving to try to clear some of the more dangerous groups if he had time, Rocky continued until Azoth’s wing beats were no longer increasing their altitude. While the beast beat his wings furiously, the best he could do was fight gravity to keep the height they already had, which was pretty damn high.
Mentally, Rocky said, “That’s good, buddy! You did great! I am going to hold onto your fur as I lean over to drop this thing. Sorry!” As he said it, he had already leaned out and dropped the safe, and his last words were an apology as he felt Azoth’s skin ripple in agitation from him pulling on his hair.
Together, they watched the safe tumble towards the ground, and Rocky smiled with childish glee as the safe crashed, eliciting a boom that echoed in all directions. The force that was just placed on that metal was more than anything he could have managed with an army.
Physics is still the unbeatable force in the universe it seems.
This time around, Rocky didn’t specify an exact spot to land, having learned the last time that Azoth would take that a bit too literally. Instead, he just directed him to coast over to the area of the crash. This awarded him with a soft landing but a bit of extended canter afterward.
Rocky’s smile widened as he approached and saw crystals spilling out of the side of the now deformed vault. The quantity, while unknown currently, was more of the blue stone then he had ever seen in one place, and that was only what had fallen out of the side.
Thank you, Corsair. You sick, psychotic bastard!
Luckily, his bag of holding did the counting for him, and he was able to gather all the crystals relatively quickly. The grand total was three thousand three hundred forty-one crystals, forty-five gems, eighteen marks, and one hundred forty-five chips. The number, at first, made Rocky jubilant until he realized that he was holding blood money.
Digging around the remaining wreckage, he found a few notebooks, one of which was a till that listed the Ottawa groups. Each one was listed by school or area they occupied and how many crystals they were contributing per day. The book kept a running tally and also listed out expenditures in the shop.
The ledger did have some costly purchases, but he couldn’t find any listing of the Sentinel units. With the level of detail whoever kept this journal had used, he was forced to frown. Each personalized gun and soldier were listed, and those robots had to be stupidly expensive; they were Master class after all. Even the safe and safe room were listed in the ledger, and they were two of the priciest items on the list.
Placing the ledger in his bag of holding, he resolved to check it for more details later. Perhaps Rocky had missed the entry. He then pulled the next black book out of the debris and flipped through it. This listed the names and ranks of Corsair’s goonies. It also listed which survivor groups had left and what day, including the squad who had been sent out to deal with them. This helped greatly in calming his faltering resolve on his actions of the previous day.
Finally, he picked up the last book in the wreckage and upon flipping it open, Rocky’s eyes narrowed and he cursed extravagantly. Running to Azoth, Rocky mounted up and told his pet they needed to get back to camp now. His level of panic must have carried over because they took off at a speed that made Rocky’s blood freeze in his veins and heart ride up into his throat.
In a matter of moments, they made it back to the group. Rocky didn’t think he would be asking Azoth to ever travel at full speed again. Upon landing, he had coated the ground liberally in his recent breakfast. Azoth chuffed, and the others looked worriedly at him as he fought with his vertigo.
Rocky wanted to speak but was finding that every time he opened his mouth, only dry heaving followed. After a time, he finally managed, “Those weren’t robots!” Everyone stared at him in confusion and worry as he swallowed down vomit.
Sighing, Rocky waited for his stomach to fully settle and forced himself to sit and take deep, relaxing breaths. Surprisingly, this allowed him to enter into Meditation, and he smiled immediately, feeling better. Then in a relaxed voice, since he had detached himself from his vertigo, he told them his findings while passing the book to Sela to see if she came to the same conclusion.
“Last night, I fought some robots that I assumed were purchased guards from the shop. They were, by the looks of things, the first experiments of Corsair. According to that book, he used a device on five individuals to try to create a robot-human hybrid.
As far as I can tell, it was a gift from some sponsor he met in the shop. In exchange, Corsair promised to buy and build an array that will send out a beacon. The transformation device had never been used on humans before, and the result wasn’t what Corsair was hoping for. Instead of taking the level one individuals and turning them into half machines, it turned them into full machines.”
Rocky paused for a moment to take a sip of water and continued, “Since then they have worked on remedying the situation with mixed success. According to that book, they have had numerous deaths after hybrid transformation but eight successful experiments. The only issue that was holding Corsair back from undergoing it himself seemed to be the success rate.”
Sela, who had finished with the book, nodded along and added with scorn in her voice, “They also sent the first five creatures they created to attack the golems in the center of Ottawa. Only two returned, it seems, which were probably the ones you fought last night.”
Taking a deep breath which did nothing for Sela’s anger, she continued, “Greedy imbeciles, there is no shortcut through ranks or specialization. Whatever was offered was bound to be flawed. While the robots were stronger, certainly they were broken Master classes. Otherwise, I am sorry to say, Rocky, you would not have been able to exit that hospital.”
“Broken Master classes?”
“Yes, broken. It is a term we used for people who were rushed to the next tiers. Think about it this way—you are currently gaining levels, which come with stats and skills. They skip all that and just power you up to a new rank. Each class ranks up uniquely, but it is safe to assume that they missed out on a large portion of possible stats and all their class specific skills. Then consider that they haven’t gained any levels in Class-Combat, Common, and Trade skills.”
Over the next hour, she explained briefly how the class ranking system worked.
Apprentice combat classes were awarded two assigned stats and one and two fifths free stat points per level if you included the five stat points from every tenth level. Also, they were granted one skill point to spend on their apprentice skill tree. At some point, depending on the class, they had the opportunity to increase breakthrough to Journeyman.
According to Sela, when you increase your rank, you often would lose consciousness for a few days as your body was changed directly by the system. The Ether that had accumulated within your body, which accounted for stats and knowledge gains, would be used to improve you. Often, you would come out the other side of the transformation weaker, initially. In essence, you would lose a certain amount of the gains you had made while you were an Apprentice.
The trade-off was that you now had a Journeyman class and a high number of powerful changes that would make up for some of the loss were now accessible. Sela couldn’t be specific because each class was different but assured them it was worth the trade-off. Most importantly, you kept all of your skill ranks, which had huge impacts on combat.
All this explanation was to explain to them why jumping class ranks was a horrible idea, as you missed out on skill points, stat points, class quests, and sometimes specializations that could never be received again. That is why there was a name for people stupid enough to try it—Broken.
That’s when Sela dropped a bombshell on the group. The monsters they were facing currently would somewhat fall into the “broken” category as well, at least currently. Monsters, unlike sapients, could gain the stats and skills they had been missing from earlier ranks
in time. Currently, the higher level monsters were something she termed “newborns”, and even though they were strong already, very soon, they would be terrifying. Sela estimated it would be approximately half a year before their class skills, stats, and non-class skills caught up to their current levels. The exception to this would be any creatures that Gaia had ported in, like Skandranon who gave birth to Azoth or the dragon they had seen.
That ended the discussion with the group in silent contemplation of the perversion Corsair had created. It also left the group trying to figure out where the eight hybrid creations were last night. Sela had passed back the book to Rocky who had queried, “Do you think he was saving the crystals for building the beacon array or?”
Sela, who had done most of the talking over the last hour, just nodded as she had a mouthful of a second breakfast. In fact, the entire group chose to have more, and so Jason cooked another round of meat. The group continued to consider their next actions. Rocky figured he only had a few things left to do in the area before heading back to Algonquin Valley.
The militiamen needed to be informed of the twisted actions of some of its members, and then he figured he would extend an invitation to groups in all the schools. That invitation would be through the militia and was going to depend on the answer he received. It would simply take too long for him to individually extend an offer to the numerous survivor groups.
His earlier thoughts of cleansing dangerous mobs in the area were forgotten, and Rocky spoke his prayers aloud, “I hope that the actions of last night have held the militia at home base, which in turn, will hold the survivors from going out and hunting today. Or it will deter them from it at least without military back up.”
Looking around the group, his hopes were dashed as each person gave him a sympathetic look you give to someone you know is wrong, but you don’t have the heart to tell them. It would appear that the survivors were most likely going to still go out and hunt. The bad news was he had probably just deprived them of the back-up they would have gotten from a militia escort.
The group quickly got ready, and for the first time, they made their way into the city during daylight hours. For the three boys, it was the first time they had returned since the tragedy. Hard clenched jaws, pale faces, and slight tremors in their hands spoke of the roller coaster of emotions for each one.
As they exited the forest and began moving towards the city, the sound of war broke them all out of their internal musings. Screams sounded out, followed by rapidly decreasing weapon fire.
Chapter Thirty-Three
On the run, Rocky realized that the boys were going to be put into danger. The conflict sounded like it was at St. Monika. The weapon fire had died down drastically; instead, large booms could be heard, followed by crumbling brick and sometimes punctuated by a sole explosion.
While still running, Rocky mentally commanded Azoth into the sky. He told him to report back but then had a quick argument with the birdbrain about why he couldn’t attack right away.
Maybe he should let the monster truck drop in and cuck up someone’s day, but without knowing what was transpiring, Rocky was hesitant to risk friends. On the same wavelength, he yelled, “Sela, go into Stealth and make a circle behind whoever the aggressor is. Priority is saving survivors, got it?” Sela screamed an assent over the rushing wind as Azoth took wing.
“Boys, get to the cover of the school! Try to find a back entrance and get people out, or assist in the defenses if they have an organized resistance inside!” With that finished, Rocky deliberated on his best approach to the situation and figured it was going to have to be a decision made in the moment.
Two of his group members winked out of sight a moment later, and Rocky followed suit, increasing his sprint, no longer being held back by Jason who was pitifully slow. Coming into view took about another half minute, and he slowed down, trying to make sense of what his wide eyes were seeing. In front of the school stood one man. Well one half man half machine.
The weapon hadn’t been a war but a slowly decreasing barrage that was targeting the individual who stood wide open and unworried, receiving all projectiles with no damage. While still in Stealth, Rocky realized the half-man, half-machine was screaming something, but at the current distance, Rocky couldn’t make it out.
Instead, while he continued to close, he used Analyze.
Jax
Mechanical Human Hybrid
Journeyman-Mechanoid
Level 23
Moderate Analyze failed to provide additional information.
If what Sela had talked about earlier was correct, Jax was probably a broken Journeyman class. However, the mechanoid was still going to be statistically superior to Rocky. Rocky considered this fact and also began looking at the armor plating in a new light. It was quite possible that it was a type of armor that was also boosting Jax’s stats.
Rocky came to this conclusion as he watched arrows and rocks bounce harmlessly off the protective plating. The strange part was that Jax had no visible weapons, but Rocky had learned from his fight last night that robots could be hiding beam ports anywhere.
Azoth mentally updated Sela and himself, “Just one shiny man, but two others at other shapes. They kill leave corpses where fall. No hunt?” The Chimera could sense the wrongness in the men and was conveying it in a way that would make sense to any predator. Sela and Rocky didn’t fully understand the entire meaning of his final question, but his the tone his question carried made skin crawl, accompanied by a rise in heat throughout their bodies.
This was wrong, and as he approached, he was finally able to make out the words of vitriol the man was shouting, “Come out! We know you are hiding with survivors on this side of the city. Come answer for your crimes against the militia! You attack us in the dark of the night, clearly waiting for our strongest to be away! Disgusting! Come face me, coward!” Each sentence the man spoke was filled with hate and disgust, and Rocky felt his own blood boil in response.
These crazy imbeciles kill unsuspecting survivors who want nothing more than to live, and they have the gall to retaliate against my attack. They sold their humanity for power and call me a coward.
Both Rocky and Jax continued to spit hateful slurs against each other, the difference being that Jax was unaware he had an audience and Rocky kept his monologue internalized. Unable to calm down, he mentally screamed to Azoth, “Go take out one of the two and send Sela to take out the other!” Making a decision, he opened his skill screen and placed a point in Shadow Clone.
Normally, Rocky would have deliberated on this choice a lot more, but unfortunately, he needed to be able to be in multiple places at once. If he could end this cretin’s life quickly, he could back up Sela or Azoth. All of these reasons led him to choose the Shadow Clone skill and he was awarded more information on the skill after purchase.
Shadow Clone
Using this skill will create a duplicate of you with greatly reduced stats. Each skill point added to this skill will increase the stats of the clone by a further 2% of your own. Base stat transfer 25%.
1/5
50 Ether Points + an additional 50 Ether Points per hour maintained.
Statistic transfer to Shadow Clone = 27%
Skill Symbiosis
Meditation – Since you have Meditation, you can use this skill to see through the eyes of your creation. At higher levels of Meditation, you will unlock other symbiotic bonuses.
Stealth – Since you have Stealth, your creation can also use Stealth.
Soul Blade – Your creation will be summoned with two shadow daggers as weapons.
Dark Cloak – Your creation will be summoned with a set of shadow armor.
Learn other skills to find other symbiosis effects.
Momentarily ducking behind the play structure that still stood in the middle of the school’s recess yard, Rocky quickly summoned his Ether and cast Shadow Clone. A moment later, he was staring at a too familiar face. However, there was something off about the creation
, and Rocky couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. It was like staring in a mirror but looking at someone else in the mirror at the same time, and then he realized what was so disturbing about the replication to his brain.
If you look in a mirror, it reverses your image—that is what you see, and your brain gets used to that image of yourself. This is why in photos, videos, and other portraits of yourself, you always feel it hasn’t captured the version of yourself you are used to seeing. Well, it’s this fact and the camera angle or point of view of the picture in question, but that strangeness existed here as well.
He was looking at a perfect copy of his features but in a different configuration than what a mirror would reflect back at him. It was eerie, and when you combined it with eyes that seemed to suck in the light, dark armor, and two midnight black daggers, the effect was magnified. Without his prompting the copy entered Stealth and was suddenly gone, which was frustrating for Rocky because he wanted to share a plan. With himself?
Well, shit, I hope it attacks the bad guy. Does it even have the ability to think, or do I think and it does? Maybe I should do that just in case. Attack the Shredder. He killed Hamato Yoshi!
As Rocky had begun thinking, he had turned the corner of the play structure, and his first sight of the metal man brought to mind the fictional character in question, thus the tangent his mind had walked. Sobering, he continued to recite in his head his desire for his clone to attack the man. Giving a quick prayer to anyone who was listening, he hoped that his two friends would be okay as he prepared to join combat.
The world seemed to pause as multiple things happened at once. A trumpeting roar sounded from the sky, high and to Rocky’s right. Alex exited Stealth and sunk two Mithril daggers into the humanoid’s spine. Lastly, the school behind him exploded.
