Countdown (Reality Benders Book #1) LitRPG Series

by Michael Atamanov

  Chapter Twenty-Two. Grandfather and Granddaughter

  THE SITUATION had come together very badly. The third vehicle of our column was already on fire and spewing black smoke. The surviving three or four soldiers were scattered among the nearby bushes. The high-speed cannon from the second Peresvet was still hacking away at the bushes our soldiers were hidden in. After that, the tower turned, and the cannon started filling our head vehicle with lead, trying to turn it over on the steep slope. I had to help my allies now before it rolled down on top of us. And the best I could think to do was take down the wizard!

  I do not know if the ghastly mage had the Danger Sense skill or not, but I tried to abstract myself from the situation and not think about hurting him. I figured that might help. I was reminded of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games. One of their most striking monsters, the Controller, took control of its enemies’ minds and killed them methodically. The most effective method against those monsters was two, or better three fragmentation grenades...

  Totally on autopilot, without a thought in my head, I tossed a grenade onto the rocky outcropping. Bingo! It landed just right, right underneath the old man!! And it went off with a bang!!! The ghastly mage dropped his staff and made like Icarus, waving his hands like wings and flying down from the cliffs. I do not know how many hitpoints the Psionic Mage had at level one hundred eight, but one RGD-5 grenade and a forty-foot fall was not enough to do him in. But my second and third grenade landed just in time, and the flickering red silhouette of the mage went dim. Hell yeah! I got him!!!

  You have reached level seventeen!

  You have received three skill points!

  You have reached level eighteen!

  You have received three skill points! (total points accumulated: six)

  With the death of the ghastly mage, the battle sharply broke in our favor. Apparently, not all the soldiers had left the burning third Peresvet. They must have been inside fighting the flames this whole time. They quickly extinguished the blaze. The gunman on the second armored vehicle stopped shooting at our guys as well. And now, all our soldiers had taken cover and were lighting up the road and distant forest with gunfire. I couldn’t see the people my allies were firing on through the bushes and hilltops, but the harpies circling above showed where they were.

  I then stood up to full height and hurried over to the outcropping where Leng Thumor-Anhu La-Fin had been standing. I had seen the psionic drop his staff there, and I was hoping I might find it. The stones and earth there were blown to smithereens and soaked in blood. But I did find the twisted staff of a dark practically black color topped with a human skull.

  Wrath. Large mage staff (???)

  Attention! Your character has insufficient Intelligence to determine the properties of this object. Minimum Intelligence: 22.

  Attention! This weapon was named Wrath by its first owner. Name cannot be deleted or changed.

  Statistic requirements: Intelligence 25, Constitution 16

  Attention! Your character’s Intelligence and Constitution are insufficient to use this weapon.

  Attention! Due to limits of the Prospector class, you cannot use this weapon.

  I transferred the valuable object to my inventory, and the game system found room for it in my backpack, despite its nearly six feet of length. It did occupy three whole slots, though. From the cliff, I had a great view. I could see everything. The enemy was taking heavy losses and retreating in panic. I saw fifteen dead bodies on the road and hillside as well as six or seven far-off figures flailing to repel dive-bombing harpies.

  Successful Perception check.

  Eagle Eye skill increased to level twenty-eight!

  You have reached level nineteen!

  You have received three skill points! (total points accumulated: nine)

  I had totally forgotten about the sniper that had shot our soldier at the beginning of the battle. And meanwhile, they must have been hiding in the bushes where I couldn’t see them before. I had a great view from my new position above them, though. There was a group of three soldiers lying in the thick bushes just watching their allies lose. What was more, I recognized them — the cartographer girl Minn-O La-Fin and her two companions. Old friends! Now they were hidden and clearly trying not to give themselves up.

  It was quite a ways to their positions, something like one hundred and fifty feet, so I doubted I could chuck my last grenade all the way there. But they were below me, so it was worth a shot. Plus, I mainly wanted to draw the attention of our gunmen to them, and what could do that better than a bright and noisy explosion?

  I pulled out the safety ring, and swung with all my might, flinging the grenade as far as possible. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it. The grenade landed fifteen feet from their bushes and rolled down hill. But that drew my allies’ attention. All three of the Peresvet towers turned sharply toward the blast. A second later, both the cartographer’s companions were dead.

  But before my grenade even made it half way, Minn-O La-Fin had darted away, abruptly dashing up the hill and taking cover behind a scattering of rocks and thick vegetation. And that saved her. By the time the gunmen saw the explosion and turned the cannons, she was already hidden. That Danger Sense skill was impressive!

  However, I could still see Minn-O La-Fin. I drew Angel Dust and opened fire on the fleeing enemy. Miss! Miss! Miss! It was as if she had a spell on her, dodging nimbly from side to side. Miss! Miss! Another few seconds and she was behind some thick bushes. Miss! Miss!

  And then I hit! I clearly saw the lead bullet go through the girl’s leg somewhere around knee level. Minn-O La-Fin stumbled and fell but gathered her strength and quickly got up. She was limping and dragging one leg, but still walking away. Another miss! With the tenth and final bullet of my clip, I hit her in the right shoulder. She could no longer stay on her feet and fell again, even dropping her pistol. But a few seconds later, she was back on her feet and behind another bush.

  Sharpshooter skill increased to level eight!

  No! Minn-O La-Fin was too valuable as a prisoner and could answer many important questions both for our whole faction and me personally. Above all, she might know the identity of the traitor in our ranks. And so, I ran after her at full speed, switching out Angel Dust for the double-barrel hunting shotgun as I went and reloading it with trembling hands.

  There were no more than one hundred yards between us. Considering her wounded leg, I was expecting to catch Minn-O La-Fin in short order. But she wasn’t behind the bushes where I saw her hide. How? She can’t have gone far! I stopped in confusion and looked around. I was surrounded by almost fifty feet of thick thorny shrubbery. She might have been hiding just three steps from me, I wouldn’t have been able to see her. The IR-lens didn’t help one bit and scanning gave no results either. Had I really let such a valuable prisoner slip away?!

  I started examining the ground inch by inch for drops of blood, shoe prints or matted grass. But I didn’t find anything of the sort. Five minutes of fruitless searching later, I was about to admit my defeat as a gumshoe and return to my group, when I saw a huge winged shadow dive down from the sky. A huge strong harpy landed just forty steps from me almost immediately followed by a woman’s cry.

  Getting a better grip on the double-barrel, I walked toward the sounds of struggle and shouts of pain. Damn these thorny bushes! It took me three whole minutes getting through them. Finally, I emerged onto a small field and stopped abruptly in shock.

  Vali-all Kalli. Harpy. Antiquity Faction. Level-68 Instructor.

  The huge male harpy looked to weigh around four hundred fifty pounds. He was balancing his gigantic twenty-foot wings and pressing Minn-o’s good left arm firmly to the earth with a clawed talon. The second foot of the enormous beast, covered in red feathers, was on Minn-O La-Fin’s waist. She was lying face-down, crushed by the weight. The monster’s clawed hands were brutishly ripping off the helpless girl’s clothes– her invisibility cloak was already on the ground, as was the empty holster, knives and so
me buttoned cases. And now, the beast was cutting the black scaled thermoregulating suit off Minn-O La-Fin’s back with his razor-sharp claws, not giving a single thought to whether he was ripping into living flesh as he did.

  I was reminded of what Ivan Lozovsky had said earlier, how the harpies love to humiliate the weak and wounded. Apparently, that was exactly what I was seeing now. What was more, based on the winged beast’s throbbing crooked penis, the helpless victim’s troubles had just begun... The flying sadist was so caught up in the process, that he didn’t even notice me.

  “Hey, get out of here you overgrown horny rooster!” I shouted, firing a warning shot from one barrel of my shotgun.

  The male harpy jumped in surprise and flew a hundred feet up with just a few flaps of his huge wings. However, the high-level monster was in no rush to flee, and was just hovering there, watching me carefully. I understood that perfectly. I was a fairly weak human, but I was holding a dangerous weapon.

  I spent some time staring the harpy down, but the winged beast was just biding his time. Not letting the flying enemy out of my sight, I carefully walked over to the wounded Dark Faction girl. Minn-O La-Fin had already managed to sit upright and, not taking her eyes off me, felt with her left hand where she previously had a belt with holster and knives. Unlike her ghastly father, her eyes did not glow but had a rich emerald color that harmonized perfectly with her ashen-gray skin. Finally, it reached her that her belt was gone and she was unarmed.

  “Ti livo yen mi! Un tivi ron mekhsh!” Minn-O La-Fin said distinctly. The girl's voice contained some pleading or even begging.

  But I didn’t understand and was not moving, so the green-eyed beauty repeated the strange phrase, but this time pointed with her left hand first at my shotgun, then at her heart.

  Astrolinguistics skill increased to level twelve!

  Even an idiot would have understood that. Minn-O La-Fin was begging me to shoot her so she would respawn somewhere safe. But I was in no rush. After all, she was not just any terrified wounded girl. She was an enemy — clever, implacable and very dangerous. What was more, she possessed a huge amount of highly valuable information, which could help my faction and all of my world’s humanity. And so, I was more inclined to think that I should keep her alive, use her belt to tie her hands and drag my valuable prisoner back to the Peresvets.

  But then Minn-O La-Fin began to cry... Before that, the girl hadn’t let slip a single tear even when the ghastly harpy had painfully twisted her arms and ripped into her back with his sharp claws. As it turned out, she was much more afraid of being taken prisoner than the beast with barbarous appetites. So I gave in.

  “Alright, have it your way. But if my allies find out I let you go, I’ll be drawn and quartered...” with these words, I lowered my weapon to the girl's chest and shot her point blank in the heart.

  Rifles skill increased to level twenty-three!

  Sharpshooter skill increased to level nine!

  Minn-O La-Fin, with a huge smoking hole in her chest, spent another second or two sitting and even looking consciously at me with her pupils wide in pain. But then she fell on her side, and her emerald eyes closed.

  Fame increased to 9.

  It took me a while to come back to my senses. It isn’t every day you have to execute a pretty girl. But just five steps away, that huge harpy male landed heavily. Well damn, I’d totally forgotten about him! And unfortunately, my double-barrel was now unloaded. Nevertheless, I didn’t let myself show any fear or lack of confidence. Instead, I turned the shotgun toward him and said with a dismayed and rude tone:

  “What’d you land here for? Can't you see? I'm in no mood to talk with you! And if you take even one step in my direction, I’ll shoot through both your wings and you’ll have to walk out of here!”

  He clearly understood me, because he immediately folded his wings behind his back. Then I aimed a bit lower, this time right at his flaccid masculine dignity. The huge male got even more scared and hurriedly covered his manhood with both hands.

  “No shoot. Trading!” the monster hissed out and showed me the laser pistol awkwardly squeezed in his hand, clearly picked up during the recent struggle.

  Trade? And why not? Without turning my weapon off the harpy, I opened my inventory and took out a briquette of dried rations.

  “Tasty food! Very tasty!” I demonstrated him my goods.

  “Not enough,” the harpy turned his clawed talon and showed me four fingers.

  “Four? You’ve lost your mind!!! Did you fall off a cliff when you were a baby?!” I exclaimed, acting falsely indignant. “Four briquettes of this tasty food could buy your whole flock! Three!”

  Fame increased to 10.

  The huge monster spent a few seconds in fevered thought then nodded in agreement. I placed three dried rations on the ground and walked back, letting the dangerous creature leave the laser pistol and pick up my food. After that, I gathered all the things from the clearing and hurried back to my people. There were many harpies circling up above, but I was sure they wouldn’t touch me. Those creatures really did despise the weak. But at that, they recognized confidence and strength, and I managed to demonstrate those qualities.

  Chapter Twenty-Three. Geckho Base

  FROZEN STOCK STILL at the first Peresvet, my allies were not happy to see me. Apparently, Ivan Lozovsky figured I got cold feet and turned tail. And now, he had told the other soldiers that. They wouldn’t even listen at first, but when I told them I’d killed the ghastly psionic, I their reaction turned indignant:

  “It wasn’t you that killed him. Gerd Tarasov sniped the enemy mage when he jumped off the cliffs and came down to melee us!” one of the First Legion soldiers pointed at his vaunted commander.

  Gerd Tarasov. Human. H3 Faction. Level-89 Sniper

  The bald, highest-level warrior was very short but had the broad shoulders of a bodybuilder. Wearing a formless ghillie suit and holding a sophisticated sniper rifle in a pair of calloused hands, the leader of the First Legion looked like he was born for this role.

  A Gerd... I took a heavy sigh and counted to three to calm down, gathering my thoughts and forming my sentences just right so I wouldn’t accidentally wound the ego and interests of the high-status player. Clearly, I shouldn’t dispute this statement head-on. Maybe Tarasov had shot the mage, but what happened before that?

  “Jumped down?! He dropped his weapon and fell flat off that elevated outcropping like an unconscious mannequin after I hit him with a grenade. And you say he was coming down to melee you?! I leveled up three times! Do you think that was just from looking at harpies? And I suppose I bought this mage staff at a local market!”

  Although my speech was heated, every word was calculated. I took out the staff from my inventory and showed it off. The First Legion soldiers had clearly seen it before. But still they exchanged unconfident glances, not yet able to accept that a day-two newbie could have killed one of their most dangerous enemies. But I continued my fervent speech:

  “If you still don’t believe me, go up on the cliff and see for yourselves. The rocks are all broken and covered with that mage’s blood! Lots of other people in my position might have been afraid and run away, but I hit him with a grenade! And the sniper that killed our soldier,” I pointed to the corpse of our ally next to the wheel of the first Peresvet, “I tracked her down and took her out as well. It was a nimble cartographer by the name of Minn-O La-Fin. I just barely managed to hit her. Boy can she dodge! I can show you her body if you like. Her whole chest was blasted open by my shotgun! And her two bodyguards, who do you think showed our gunners where they were with another the grenade?! I suppose they were leaving cover up there to melee you as well?! I’ve got one of their laser pistols, too. And a belt and chameleon cloak that fell off Minn-O La-Fin.”

  Ivan Lozovsky motioned toward one of the soldiers to have him check. But Gerd Tarasov stopped him:

  “No need. Friends, I can admit I may have erred. Either I shot an already dead enemy, or my bull
et was not the last. I was actually surprised to see that my progress bar practically didn’t move after the mage died. This explains a lot.”

  The group opinion of me instantly changed. All of their faces mellowed out and gave way to smiles.

  “Great job, Gnat! Congratulations on your first real battle!” Ivan Lozovsky walked up and slapped me approvingly on the shoulder.

  Gerd Tarasov also congratulated me and added:

  “Get your level up to sixty, go through group training then we can talk about you joining the First Legion. After all, from what I’ve heard, the Second Legion will never be an option for you.”

  Everyone around started laughing, as if that was a great joke. I also smiled, but I didn’t understand what they found so funny. I guess everyone already knew about my complicated relationship with Gerd Tamara.

  Fame increased to 12.

  Just then, from the cliffs in the distance, I heard powerful explosion. The earth underfoot even started shaking. Hundreds of harpies took off with frightened cries and a black stream of smoke appeared in the morning sky. Every radio around me started up at the same time. A hoarse voice said with distinct notes of pity:

  “This is Artyomov. We were not able to capture the Dark Faction transport. Looks like we triggered a security system. As soon as we started clearing the branches off the thing, it self-destructed. Fortunately, none of us were harmed, although we are all a bit deaf now. Looks like a thermite device. All that’s left of her now is a puddle of molten slag…”

  “Understood. Artyomov, return to convoy,” Ivan Lozovsky commanded. “It’s time to get moving. We're already behind schedule. Just have the sapper remove the mines. At the end of the day, they’re valuable items and might come in handy. And our engineers will want to study the Dark Faction tech.”

  * * *

  I was worried they might take the valuable items I’d captured from the Dark Faction on the pretext that I didn’t have the skills to use them. But the First Legion had a different set of rules than the Second. Here it was “finders keepers,” so no one even tried to contend for the wand or cloak. And no one tried to get the details of my encounter with Minn-O La-Fin, which was perfectly fine with me. As soon as Artyomov’s four-person group returned, they hopped into the back two Peresvets and we got on our way.