Earth Tactics Advance: Volume 1

by Scottie Futch

  “Let’s go hunting tomorrow. OK?” asked Scott, uncertain of what else to say. He liked her willingness to go out and face monsters directly. Besides, she seemed like the sort of person who wouldn’t stab him in the back, or drown him in the river. Strong people like that were good to have around.

  Rosa blinked then reached up and grabbed a strand of her hair. “I would like that.”

  Scott nodded. “Want Harley to drive you home?”

  “No. It’s not far,” she said, while trying to sound brave. Until earlier that afternoon, she had been terrified of even leaving her home.

  “Alright.” Scott called to his robo-loli. She transformed into bike form and rolled over to him. He hopped atop the mini-bike, then nodded to Rosa while trying to hold the handlebars in a solid grip. As usual his knees jutting up and slightly to the side made it difficult.

  “You look ridiculous. You do know that?” asked Rosa with a grin.

  Scott’s knees were almost up to his shoulders due to how he had to hunch over. He laughed a little. “Harley’s a growing girl.” He patted the pink mini-bike on the handlebars and her headlights dimmed a little. Her front wheel turned slightly to one side, and her engine made a strange little noise.

  There was a moment of awkward silence that followed. Scott ended it by saying, “Well, we better get going. Do you remember what to do if those yahoos back at the house act weird?"

  "Yes," she said with a nod.

  Scott nodded to her in kind then revved Harley's engine. "Be safe, alright?”

  “Right. You too,” said Rosa.

  Scott and Harley rode off with a loud buzzing sound. The image of him on the little bike was reminiscent of a giant grasshopper trying to ride a hot pink weed eater. Rosa watched the ludicrous sight for a moment then turned away. “See you tomorrow, Scott.”

  She began her two mile journey back to her home, her thoughts full of concern for someone she had just met that day. She was not foolish enough to think it was more than that, but he had helped her a great deal. Now he rode off to face who knew what manner of dangers.

  The road that Scott and Harley rode down was filled with abandoned cars, and the occasional ghoul. For the most part the monsters were ignored, but the wreckage took more of their time to navigate than Scott would have liked.

  He suspected that it would take at least a half hour to get to his house, but that half hour had turned into a little over an hour. A large wreck forced a detour, and they had run afoul of a thick pack of ghouls. They were all ridiculously weak compared to the monsters that they fought recently, but there were been dozens of them.

  They rode up on his house just before the sun finally set on the longest day that Scott had ever faced in the entirety of his life. He sighed loudly and asked Harley to check for signs of life. There were living humans in the house and no monsters within her range. Finally, he could take a break!

  Scott hopped off of his pet mini-bike and she transformed into her humanoid form. Together they walked up to the front door and he confidently knocked on it.

  He could hear surprised voices from inside followed by overly loud shuffling. A cry of, “He’s back!” could be heard through the door just before it was flung open.

  “Hey,” said Scott in a casual manner, like he was just coming over for a nice chat, or perhaps to use a friend's toilet.

  The small family, plus one, crowded around the door. Several questions were fired off in rapid-succession. Scott raised his hand and said, “Let’s go in and I’ll fill you all in on what’s happened.”

  Once they were inside, and the door was locked and barred, everyone gathered round by lantern light. Scott introduced Harley, and she greeted everyone. The others introduced themselves to her and she nodded politely in return.

  “So, what happened?” asked Tammi. “Did- Did you find…?”

  Scott sighed. “Well, yeah I did find him.”

  “You found dad!” exclaimed Anna.

  “Daddy’s OK?” asked Daisy.

  “Where is he? Why didn’t you bring him?” asked Wayne.

  “He’s still in the city. The closest bridge between here and there is completely overrun by ghouls, and the river is dangerous to cross otherwise.” Scott began to explain the situation to them fully. He told them about the shopping arcade, the crazy mermaid, and the boss battles. He told them everything important except for the fact that their father was full of himself and a bit of a dick. He figured they either knew that already, or it would not help to find out.

  “So, what now?” asked Tammi.

  “It’s too dangerous to travel at night and it will take hours to get to the house on foot. We’ll leave early tomorrow and take the supplies with us,” said Scott.

  “What about dad?” asked Anna.

  He looked to her then scratched his cheek a little. Obvious exhaustion in his tone, he said, “If he hasn’t brought everyone else there yet, I’ll go let him know you’re all there the day after that. It would be a terrible idea to try to take you all through the city to where he is, cuz the place is a warzone.”

  “So, we have to travel tomorrow?” asked Tammi.

  “Yeah, as early as possible. We absolutely cannot go out till dawn, though. Harley will keep watch tonight. She can sense monsters and doesn’t need to sleep. She’s a major help,” said Scott.

  “Thank you for praising Harley, Master,” said the machine girl.

  It was one thing to be told that she was a robot, but it was another to hear a little girl call a grown man master. Tammi grunted slightly at the implication due to the societal conditioning that she'd experienced all of her life. Little girls simply did not have masters. It was not proper.

  “Anyway, I know you’ve all been stuck here in the dark for a while. Just hold out one more night. Alright?” asked Scott.

  Tammi nodded. “We can do that.”

  “Well, I’m tired. I’m going to get something to eat and pass out,” said Scott before he fought down a yawn. The nap that he took earlier worked wonders, but the battle afterward did not help the situation at all.

  The night passed slowly for the people who had been trapped for roughly two days, but it went by quite quickly for Scott. He slept dreamlessly until Harley woke him just before dawn.

  He hissed a little at the stiffness in his body. He regenerated faster than the average person, but he had also taken a beating many times worse than his body should have to endure. The fact that he had taken similar beatings several times over the course of the last few days was also quite telling. What he really needed was the equivalent of a doctor in this bold new shithole of a world.

  Scott helped the others get everything ready to move, and used a bloodstone gem to make a bottle of restorative just in case anyone might need it. If they made it back without incident he planned to take a drink as soon as he stepped inside the gate.

  Chapter 15

  The gaggle of gawkers were gathered in a group. Scott took a moment to make certain that everyone understood what was about to happen. “Alright, remember the plan. Harley and I will go out and kill everything in range of her sensors. We'll then make a quick safe-house for you to hide in before coming back to collect you.”

  “Right, and we move from one house to the other till we get out of the suburbs,” said Tammi.

  "Yes, exactly. We will probably be at it for most of the day, but it's a lot safer to do it this way," said Scott. He looked the others in the eyes one at a time. "No matter what happens, do not try to get involved in the fighting."

  The group nodded to him almost in unison. With the exception of Wayne, none of the others seemed to mind the fact that they would not be fighting on this little road trip through hell.

  Scott nodded to her then looked to Harley. “Ready?”

  “Affirmative,” she said, before shifting into bike mode.

  There were several gasps. They had seen her do it the night before, but it was still a surprising thing to witness.

  Man and bike left the house
and went out in search of death to deal. The battles were short and brutal. The ghouls on their side of the river were not in the same league as the others. Most of the stronger ones were dealt with early on when Scott tried to depopulate his neighborhood. The remainder were freshly made, stragglers, or possibly respawns if that was something the entire area experienced.

  The morning wore on as the ridiculous duo cut their way through several small packs of ghouls. The little family of NPCs were moved from one safe house to another with little issue. Ample rest breaks were taken along the way to ensure maximum speed and safety. Despite the tenseness of the situation, however, there was never a time that they came to be in actual danger.

  Surprisingly, the trip went well until they left the suburbs. Once they reached the main highway, they were forced to cross a two mile section of open road with little cover. Ghouls popped up here and there, but there was not much in the way of a safe house to deposit the followers. For the first time since their rescue the small family as a whole was forced to bear witness to the realities of bloody combat.

  The blood and guts strewn about the road mixed with the scent of decay to create the perfect opportunity for Tammi to bend over and vomit. The moment that she did so, the others began to follow suit. It was like a dam that held back a disgusting lake chose that moment to burst. A roaring tidal wave of puke washed over an unsuspecting roadside.

  Scott and Harley were largely immune to the effect. Mr. Badass spent the better part of the last few days buried in corpses. Harley was technically a machine.

  Once the precious little family group was able to move without puking their collective guts out, the road trip continued.

  “Master, there are twelve lizard men on the bridge up ahead. Average level is three,” said Harley.

  Scott nodded. He had been afraid of that. The bridge was a respawn point, probably. Like the shopping arcade, monsters in similar number and level would respawn at dawn.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Tammi fearfully.

  “I’m going to have to go clear the bridge again. Harley is going to stay with you and help you out if anything tries to hurt you. Alright?” said Scott.

  They nodded at him. Harley said, “Understood, Master.”

  Scott rubbed her handle bars lightly and her headlights dimmed. “Thank you.”

  “Of course, Master,” she said in a slightly cheerful tone.

  He turned toward the direction of the bridge and rotated his Kaiser blade lightly in his hand. “Right.”

  He ran off toward the upcoming battle. The small family was left exposed in the road, but Harley would know if anything came their way. Scott simply needed to finish the battle as quickly as possible.

  The arcane slayer rushed forward, blade at the ready. He intended to get as close to the fight as possible before the battle field kicked in and he was forced to pay more attention to his movements. "You didn't learn your lesson?" cried Scott in a menacing voice. Who knew? They might run away. He had not seen that happen at all so far, but it was worth a try.

  “Meat!” snarled a lizard man. Unlike the norm, this one had red scales for some reason. The rest were still green.

  Three green lizard men raced toward him, while the red one hung back a little. As was the custom, the overly enthusiastic announcer cried out, "Mr. Badass Mid-Boss versus The Leaping Lizards of North Bridge! Fight-O!"

  Scott's eyes widened when he noted the color of the battlefield. Instead of the normal red, blue, or yellow, the field surrounding the fight was black. He was in an inescapable field!

  "Is it a boss fight?" asked Scott, surprised. Usually, a named monster would be mentioned.

  The monsters in the field were nowhere near his level, as far as he could tell. Scott was able to go first. He quickly ran forward and began to hack and slash at his closest opponents. He split his attacks between the two closest lizardmen. When one collapsed to the ground, close to dying, the red lizard moved outside of what should have been his turn.

  "Salamander Soldier Special Counter: Scorching Blaze Breath!" exclaimed the announcer.

  Scott froze in place while the red lizardman took a deep breath and blew out a hot flame attack that covered a large section of the battlefield. He realized as the attack rolled out that he could not dodge or avoid the attack in any way. The wide area attack ability would cover all possible avenues of escape. He could neither jump high enough nor move away quickly enough. The moment that he could move again, all he could do was brace himself for the assault.

  The moderately well-known badass cried out in agony as his flesh began to burn. It was not until the brunt of the attack passed over him that he found relief. The back-end of the attack did not cover all areas completely. He hurled himself to the ground and rolled forward under the remainder of the attack. Scott made a concerted effort to rush the red lizardman, but his turn ended several steps short.

  The salamander soldier hopped back to get some distance, and then screamed, "Please help me!" in a high-pitched tone of voice that held a strangely feminine quality.

  "Salamander Soldier has called for help! Six lizard men have appeared," cried the announcer. Several loud splashes echoed through the air. Green lizard men leapt up out of the water on either side of the bridge.

  “Shit!” snarled Scott. He abandoned all pre-text of fighting any other monsters. He would have to chase after the red one exclusively. The other lizard men were hardly an issue. They did not hit that hard due to his armor. The red one could call others and breathe fire. That bastard needed to die.

  The red lizard man leapt up onto a wrecked car that had been turned sideways and started to jump away, but its foot pushed through the broken window. It shrieked in surprise, and then howled in pain as its turn ended.

  The newly arrived lizard men could not move this round, and the only normal lizard man left in the fight were either too injured, or too far away to do much. Scott's turn soon came around once more.

  Scott rushed toward his hated foe, and the leapt into the air. His blade slashed down with precisely controlled fury, and opened a large gash down the back of the monster's thigh.

  The red menace took a deep breath, but released it too soon to breathe fire as the blade came down again. This time Scott cut straight to the bone and nearly tore its leg off. Its running days were over.

  He continued to assault the monster with furious strikes, but his turn ended before he could finish the beast. The red lizard crawled away from Scott as best it could, and stopped just short of four of its brethren.

  Another scream for help went out, "Please! He's killing me!"

  "Salamander Soldier has called for help!" exclaimed the announcer. A tense few seconds passed before he quietly said, "... No one came."

  The other lizard men made their moves. None of them were close enough to reach him this turn, but they did block his passage by taking up guard positions around their fallen comrade. Even if they were able to reach him on that turn, Scott would not be concerned. At their level, they were more of a nuisance than anything else. A few days ago they would have each been a deadly threat. Today, they were a distraction.

  It took several strong hits to bring one of them down through physical attacks alone, much like his battles with ghouls on his first day of fighting back. However, their attacks barely did anything to him.

  Once his turn came again, Scott ran into the thickest concentration of lizard men. He decided to speed up the process of slaughtering them by drawing upon his lightning strike ability. As creatures who lived in the water, he reasoned that they should be weak to electrical attacks. His attack power increased and electricity raced along his blade.

  He cleaved into the closest of the beasts, the poor bastard never had a chance to even try and dodge. They were cramped together in a bid to protect their leader. During the battle, Scott used lightning strike several times, but in doing so, he was maneuvered around until his back faced the red beast.

  The announcer cried out about a counter attack, a
nd a gout of flame blasted against Scott's back. He instinctively whipped his blade around and finished tearing the red lizard man’s leg off. It screamed in pain and clutched at the stump.

  Scott's turn ended, and the red lizard immediately screamed, "Please come! This monster will kill us all!" Tears poured from its eyes, even as blood poured from its severed leg.

  The announcer, announced the call for help and several lizard men appeared nearby. The red beast crawled over to them and continued to sob behind the negligible protection of its brothers.

  The battle continued from there, lizard men joined the battle whenever the red bastard cried, and Scott attacked it whenever he got the chance. Any other time he would have loved to bully the thing into crying for help all day long, free experienced and possible loot were nice. However, he needed to get his group back to the house before it got dark.

  A crocodile head went flying as his blade blasted through a scaly neck. Scott reversed his weapon by instinct and slammed the bottom of the handle at a rising diagonal angle to crush the chest of a lizard man that leapt toward him previously, but froze in mid-air due to the oddities of game mechanic paralysis.

  He followed it up by a hard whirling motion that caused him to spin around in one complete rotation. It could have easily been stopped if the lizard men had higher defense, or were at a level where their agility and evasion would overcome his stats. Just a few levels higher, that's all they would have needed to be.

  The red lizard man cried out for help in its terrified and strangely feminine voice once more. However, this time what came was something entirely unexpected.

  The lizard men screamed in panic and ran back a few paces, signaling that something had come that broke the logic of one fighter moving at a time. That could only mean one thing as far as Scott was concerned. A new game event had started.

  A loud feminine voice called out. “What’s all this crying about?”

  Scott looked toward the newcomer since he could move as well at the moment. His eyes widened in surprise. The vision that had risen from the deep was that of a nude, and overly busty, lizard woman. Unlike the others, however, she looked surprisingly human. If not for the tail, claws, and other oddities she might have passed for an undeniably attractive girl.