Earth Tactics Advance: Volume 1

by Scottie Futch

  “Not that far from here, hell I even know where that barn is…” Scott stared at the map. The barn shown was less than a mile away, the car was just up the street as well. Normally he would easily be able to make it there in far less than half an hour, but should he make the attempt?

  “Things are getting weirder by the day,” he said.

  Scott sighed, grabbed up a few items, and put them in his pillow case before he headed toward the door. He did not consider himself to be some sort of hero, but at least it was something to do. Besides that, he was curious about the so called fabulous rewards. The attribute upgrade point had caught his eye most of all. If the name meant what he thought it meant, then doing this mission would increase one of his main attributes. That would save him a lot of time and effort when it came to developing them.

  He avoided the street and tried to work his way toward his destination without being seen. Time was critical in this situation. He was forced to fight off ghouls twice, but thankfully he had already killed off a lot of them in the area. Thanks to his neighborhood level extinction event killing spree earlier, it was not particularly difficult to reach Coulter Road.

  Scott checked the map and turned to the right. The car should be up ahead. He reached a crossroad and heard a panicked scream. Six lesser ghouls inside a blue battle field were pounding on the side of a beat up old Acura. It was the car mentioned in the mission letter.

  Inside the car was what appeared to be a teenage girl. It was now obvious why he had to come here first if he wanted to succeed in the side-quest. Daisy was not the young girl who would be grateful.

  Scott ran forward into the blue field then muttered, “Flame on,” before he activated his Flame Strike ability. "Scott Keen has entered the battle!"

  The ghouls were not far from his current position, so he trotted forward a few steps and stopped. His opponents were too busy beating on the side of the car to notice and continued to attack it after his turn ended.

  Once he was a single step from his opponent he activated Burning Soul before stepping forward into combat range. He slashed his weapon viciously toward the closest of the monsters. Surprisingly, his weapon did not scythe through his opponent like it was made of butter. The ghoul was sent staggering forward while flames washed over its back. A massive gaping wound was torn across its back, producing one hundred thirty points of damage in the process, but it was still standing.

  That move garnered the attention of several of the others, and they turned their heads toward him in unison while two of them still continued beating at the car. However, it was still not their turn. Somehow they moved their heads while they were supposed to be frozen in place. There were many mysteries about this weird game-like existence yet to be explored.

  Scott could make one more attack, and he intended to do so. His Flame Strike had been used, but he still had his other skill activated and there was also good old Power Cleave.

  Scott leapt forward and activated his weapon based attack in a powerful overhand strike that rocketed down with incredible force. A trail of flames was left behind in the air as he unleashed the fury of his attack. The blade bit deep and left a second wound down the center of the ghoul's back. It lost another hundred and four hit points in a flash.

  The ghoul's were now able to move properly now. Scott had expended all of his movement in the reasonable expectation that two severe special attacks would kill his opponent. He had been wrong.

  Cut and torn, flames licking along its blackened wounds, the injured ghoul turned its head slowly toward Scott. It hissed at him from between cracked and bloodied shark teeth. "Meat..."

  The other three ghouls that had stopped beating on the car moved first. They surrounded Scott quickly and boxed him in to an extent. It was then that the evil bastard in front of him shared a feral shark-toothed smile. It raised up one grey hand then slid its thumb across its neck in a cutting motion. "Dead Meat."

  Surprise turned to terror as rotting grey arms suddenly wrapped around Scott from behind. The ghoul that had moved behind him now held him in a tight bear hug. Scott was briefly allowed to move and tried to break free, but it was impossible. The ghoul was physically stronger than he was to an obvious degree. The only saving grace was the fact that the ghoul holding him in that powerful embrace took a small amount of hit point damage each second while the embrace lasted, not that it showed any sign of concern. They felt little to no pain for the most part, even when the flames of Scott's burning soul scorched their flesh.

  The ghouls on either side were frozen in place, but the one in front lunged forward with a series of brutal clawing strikes to Scott's abdomen. The formerly cocky arcane slayer screamed in pain as he felt those wretched claws tear through his already embattled coat to score deep cuts in his flesh. Though, it also took minor damage from the flaming aura of Burning Soul with each strike.

  It was by nothing more than the quirks of the system that Scott survived the hellish assault after the creature tore away thirty-eight of his hit points. The ghoul had continued to attack like it had infinite speed and stamina, but after that third strike it screamed in agony then fell limply to the ground. The burning aura that surrounded Scott had managed to take the last of its hit points away.

  Bleeding heavily, Scott had to wait for the ghouls' turns to all end before he was able to move again. Once he did, he vainly struggled with the ghoul for a moment then decided to try something desperate. He went completely limp. The sudden shift in weight caused the ghoul to lean forward rapidly. Scott used that to his advantaged to roll forward and send the ghoul crashing to the ground. It lost his grip on him in the process.

  Desperate, the badly injured man righted himself then launched a [Power Cleave] in a heavy downward strike. The blade hit with all the strength Scott would generate and neatly tore into the rotten bastard's rib cage with enough force to continue down through its diseased organs then clank against the asphalt of the road below. Black blood and gore splattered outward with tremendous force that the actual damage number, minus sixty-nine, did not justify.

  His turn was close to the end so he backed away as much as he could to try and give himself room to fight. He had only ten hit points left. If the other ghouls were as strong as the one that had attacked him, he was sure to die.

  The first of the remaining monsters came within range. Scott braced himself mentally for incoming death. He knew enough about the system to know that he would not be able to move until the last moment.

  Wicked yellow claws whipped toward him furiously. His movement paralysis ended just in time for him to deflect the claw attack, but to his surprise he was able to reverse the motion as he desired and struck out at the beast. It was just like before! His blade whipped upward with a hard strike that tore along the monster's chest then cleaved into its chin with brutal force.

  "Counter!" cried the announcer, as the beast lost thirty-six hit points.

  The ghoul tried his luck again with a leaping lunge, a new tactic compared to earlier ghoul battles. Scott twisted sideways at the last moment when he was freed from his paralysis, narrowly avoiding the takedown move in the process. He was not fast enough to perform a counter attack that time, however.

  After it got back to its feet, it tried one more time to attack its obviously more agile opponent. This time it managed to score a partial hit on Scott's arm with a hard clawing strike. The badly torn coat added one more set of battle scores to its backstory, though the ghoul got little out of the deal on its end. It even took more damage than Scott did due to the fiery effect of Burning Soul.

  Scott was not allowed much time to feel relieved at the weak nature of his opponent's strike as it was now the next ghoul's turn. The monster came screaming over and leapt toward him in a flying tackle. Unfortunately for the beast, it was no stronger than its fallen friend. Scott was narrowly able to avoid the attack by hurling himself a half-step to the side while twisting his body sideways.

  The ghoulish beast performed a quick spin then snarled at h
im before attacking once more. It launched two hard clawing strikes that Scott managed to deflect, though he did not manage to get in another counter. It did launch a kick that caught Scott by surprise, however. The heel of the running shoes that the ghoul was wearing slammed into Scott's gut with enough force to knock the man back a full step. Though, once again the ghoul took more damage than Scott did in the exchange.

  Scott's breath came in labored gasps as half of his remaining hit points had been beaten out of him in the exchange with those two ghouls. Five hit points separated him from life and undeath at the hands of the beasts before him.

  His vision blurred a little for a brief instance. He hoped that he still had five hit points. He had seen no bleeding status effect pop up, but he knew that he was bleeding pretty badly.

  As the other ghouls made their turns, and the girl trapped in the car continued to do nothing but stare at him in shock, Scott made a decision. Go hard or die trying. There was no point in trying to hold anything back when the situation was this tight. He had to kill these fuckers in the next round, or he was dead either way.

  Scott's turn came around and he gripped his bush axe tightly in his hands. This was his third round. Burning Soul would end after this round, and he would not even be able to automatically injure his opponents when they attacked.

  The flame flickering at the edge of his bush axe turned a vibrant blue as Scott activated his Flame Strike. That was not enough, however. When he attacked he was all in this time. He unleashed a mighty Power Cleave as well. The ghoul attempted to move the moment that its paralysis ended, but it was not nearly as agile as Scott, nor did it have his reflexes. It had enough raw speed to attack several times in a given turn, but that thing and this thing were different qualities.

  Scott's ferocious attack ripped through the monster with tremendous force. Just like several times before he cleaved through its body like it was nothing, splitting it down the center in the process. The ghoul gurgled out a weak cry before separating into two nearly symmetrical halves. Its black blood leaked heavily and began to pool up in a sickening display.

  Despite the moment of triumph, Scott could not rest on his laurels. He had to strike out at the downed monster. Once again a flame strike and power cleave combo tore through a ghoul. Despite the monster's superior power compared to the scrubs that he faced near his house, it only took one full-power attack combination to take it down. The first ghoul he had fought in this battle was an extreme outlier compared to the rest.

  Scott shook his head heavily from side to side to clear his blurred vision. It was becoming hard to think, hard to do anything really. His opponents were too far away to reach with his remaining movement capacity. He settled for moving parallel toward them in case one of them came for him.

  The ghouls never noticed him. They were single-minded creatures compared to the others. Their strikes against the car had done surprisingly little damage throughout the battle, which was a good thing as far as Scott was concerned.

  After the ghouls spent their turns beating on the car, Scott slipped a few steps closer to the one on his side of the vehicle. He was now roughly seven steps away from the beast from what he could tell. It was still outside of his movement range, but it was close enough for him to try and bait it next turn.

  He moved in three steps and stopped. The ghoul paid him no heed. Scott waited out his turn while he gazed thoughtfully at the beast. Was it just stupid?

  During his next turn, Scott moved in and unleashed a full-power attack against the monster. It never stood a chance. It took two more turns to reach the other ghoul, but it was no more difficult to dispatch. If he had to guess, neither of them was higher than level two at the most.

  Not long after, the music died down and the battle field faded away. Once again, Scott had narrowly avoided his own bad decision. He had allowed himself to become arrogant after dealing with so many weak ghouls. In the end he paid a hefty price, almost the ultimate one, for that hubris.

  He glanced over to the car and saw the girl staring at him, still. After a brief moment she mouthed something that Scott thought to be quite funny despite the difficulties of his situation. It was, Holy Shit.

  Scott made a short waving motion with his hand that beckoned her to exit the car. The girl hiding inside was terrified and it took several such motions to convince her that he was not some sort of axe wielding maniac. Admittedly, her potential savior was covered in blood and gore, not to mention the fact that he looked as though he had walked into a wood chipper chest first.

  He sighed then made a circular motion with his hand and pointed at her window. That much she was willing to do after another moment of deliberation. Scott felt the rush of returning energy while she rolled it down. The entire exchange had taken a full minute to accomplish.

  She rolled her window down just enough to ask, “H-hello?”

  “Don’t worry, I’m not a monster. I came to help,” said Scott.

  The girl stared at him blankly for a moment. Slowly her eye lashes lowered and then the light began to shimmer in her eyes to a surprising degree. Tears started to trickle down as she made a sniffling sound. Finally, whatever had held back the waterworks gave way. She cried out, “Thank you!”

  Of course, she then proceeded to babble her life story in a rapid-fire manner, or so it seemed to Scott. Where she had been reluctant to speak before, she now did not seem to be able to quiet down at all.

  “Look, I’m sure that's all very fascinating, but I have to get going. I originally came for Daisy’s inhaler on my way to try and help the people trapped in a barn,” said Scott. He paid no attention to his wounds now that he felt himself starting to heal.

  Somehow he had managed to avoid any status effect exacerbations, so all he had to do was wait a few minutes and he would be as close to perfectly fine as it would get. Though, whether or not he would help the people at the barn after his health was restored would be based entirely on what he found there.

  He was not going to go charging in again, no matter what happened. So far he had been unable to determine the level of a monster when he was actually fighting it. He only had that chance prior to the battle.

  “Daisy! You know Daisy? Is she, OK?” babbled the girl rapidly.

  “Never met her, but time is short. I’ll explain later, but we need to go in a few minutes. We do not want to be out here too long.” said Scott.

  “Right!” said the girl with a bit more pluck than she had shown before. "Why wait a few minutes, though?" she asked with wide and innocent eyes.

  "Need to get my hit points back up." said Scott lightly. It would be nice to share that sort of humor with someone.

  She stared at him strangely for a moment then blinked. "Oh, you need to rest a minute." A short little laugh erupted in the air. "Hit points. That's funny." Scott's eyebrow rose up, but he said nothing. Her answer seemed a little off to him, but he shrugged it off for the moment.

  Instead of asking her questions directly, he opted to try and see her status for himself. The girl blushed a little and turned her head to the side once she could no longer withstand the intensity of his gaze. "What...What is it?"

  [Anna Rhoades]

  Level: 0

  Species: Human(NPC)

  [--]

  Scott rubbed his eyes then shook his head. She was considered an NPC. What did that mean?

  Once Scott had rested long enough he told her to get ready to go. The girl grabbed a few items, including the inhaler, and joined Scott outside the car. She looked to him and then looked around with wide, frightened, eyes. He had killed so many of the things with so little effort. It was no wonder that she had thought that he might be a monster.

  "What... Who are you?"

  Scott glanced at her then decided to be a little silly since he had not had anyone to talk to in a while. He stretched out his hand and she took in delicately in her own. "Mr. Badass."

  Anna blinked once then laughed a little. Of all the things she had expected to hear, that w
as not one of them. "Well, thank you for saving me, Mr. Badass."

  Scott started to say something, but he was cut off by the sudden ding of a system notification. After reading it, he could not help but laugh a little as well.

  [Update!]

  You have received a title: Mr. Badass

  This title was granted by a local girl who had good reason to believe in your overall badassery.

  Titles do no increase stats or provide extra experience. However, they may cause non-local system generated NPCs to respond to you with greater respect or derision. Certain individuals will take greater notice of your actions as well.

  [--]

  "Well, damn," said Scott. That was certainly unexpected.

  Chapter 5

  The unnatural quiet of the road made Scott's skin crawl as he and his cute new bit of deadweight walked toward the barn where her mother and siblings waited. Scott found that he had to constantly stop and wait for the girl to rest, as her stats were abysmal. She could not even look at them, but it was obvious that she was little different than he had been at the start of the apocalypse.

  A few minutes passed in silence as they moved toward the barn. Anna panted for breath with every few steps, but she persevered. Time was sensitive, but Scott could not just leave the girl behind. Eventually, they arrived on scene and Scott's jaw dropped a little.

  The moment the hell in front of that barn came into view, Scott knew why this mission had been rated as moderate. There were at least two dozen ghouls milling around the area, a bright yellow light had the place surrounded. It was obvious that the rotten bastards suspected that someone was inside, but could not be certain.

  “Can you fight at all?” Scott asked the girl. He doubted that he should waste his breath to ask the question, but it did not hurt to ask.