Lucian ran along the deck, avoiding the cannon fire. He climbed up to the gun deck, where a blinking arrow told him to press the [X] button.
He did so, and his avatar jumped just in time to catch onto the mainsail which was flying through the air, Danira also performing the same action. From there he swung to the pirate ship and landed on the deck, where enemies ran at him with swords drawn.
“Bring it, motherfuckers,” Lucian whispered as he spun in the air with his scythe, cutting them down, occasionally lighting one on fire.
It took them a moment, but they eventually reached the stern of the boat, where they encountered the pirate boss. He stood behind a harpoon gun, a witch on either side of him.
The witches disappeared into the ship and came up next to Danira and Lucian. They attacked them, spinning quickly and reappearing on the other side before Lucian could take one of them down.
His health bar flashed, letting him know he was getting low on juice.
He pressed [L1] and immediately chugged the elixir, also pressing [L2] to regenerate his MP through another potion. Back in the fight, Lucian charged toward the captain and his harpoon gun, figuring it would be best to go for the head of the snake.
The captain fired his weapon and Lucian pressed the joystick down just in time, able to slip to the side of it and keep running.
He met the captain head-on with his scythe, occasionally peppering his attack with a fireball.
One of the witches appeared behind Lucian and tried to cut him down. Lucian triggered [L1] again to consume a healing potion.
He noticed that he was running out of steam, so he quickly cycled to the menu and went for the permanent stamina potion he had looted earlier, which would not only increase his stats, but also refill his stamina bar.
He selected it and pressed [X], back to the fight in a matter of moments.
Lucian thought the captain of the ship was about to die, but rather than give in, the two witches turned into a fine mist, spiraling into the captain, not unlike the way that Soul Points came into Lucian.
The captain grew in size, now four times larger than he had been just moments ago, his hands charged with energy. Lucian tried to chop him down, but the captain swiftly knocked him to the side.
He charged the man again, hacking like crazy as Danira blasted the pirate boss with purple energy.
Lucian’s avatar chugged another healing potion and continued his attacks, the captain eventually coming down to one knee.
“Got you,” Lucian said as he tried to light the big man on fire.
Unfortunately, the captain wasn’t done yet, and his mouth opened, a ray of energy firing from his lips. He torched the deck of the ship, nearly putting Lucian and Danira down for the count.
After pressing the [L1] button again, Lucian tapped both joysticks down at the same time, conjuring his special attack.
An incredible force beamed down to Lucian from the sky, charging him to the point that electricity was licking off his body.
He ran forward, able to perform combo after combo on the pirate captain, lightning crackling in the distance, all of his hits connecting, the captain’s damage points flashing in the air.
Danira struck the pirate captain with another blast of purple energy, and the boss battle was suddenly over as the man fell forward, shrinking in size, everything returning to normal, Lucian awarded a shit-ton of XP.
“That’s how you do it,” he told the crow that was still looking at him. “That’s how you take down the captain of a pirate ship.”
Chapter Twenty-Four: New Hampshire Casino
Lucian awoke just as the sun was coming up on the horizon. Pink and purple tones reflected across the body of water in front of his new workshop, instantly calming him. He yawned and brought his feet to the ground, a cup of coffee appearing in his hand.
He looked over to see his crows, both bundled up together as if they were sleeping. Ezra was awake and licking his tail.
“I know you two are awake,” he told his crows. One of them slowly started to turn its beak to him as he took another sip from his coffee. He stepped outside his workshop, recalling that Yoshimi had used some of her power to make food taste better.
He focused on his coffee, and saw it start to boil. His first crow came over to him, hovering over Lucian’s shoulder and looking down at it.
“I’m trying to make it taste better,” Lucian told his spherical creation.
He took a sip of it, nodded, and then wondered if it truly tasted any different than it had before. Before, there had been no flavor, just hot liquid. Now there was definitely a taste to it, a hint of cinnamon even.
But it still wasn’t as robust as he would like.
Lucian focused on the liquid again. His crow moved closer to the coffee cup, tilting its beak toward it and watching the liquid boil.
“I don’t think you would like coffee, little guy,” Lucian said as he placed his free hand on the head of his creation.
The crow vibrated. Lucian looked to it and grinned. “You like that?” he said as he patted it.
His crow vibrated in response.
“All right, let’s give it a shot,” he said as he lifted the coffee cup to his lips and took another sip.
It was markedly better now, and as he drank his first cup Lucian saw that he’d used almost two SP in improving the flavor of his coffee.
“Definitely worth it,” he said as he made his way to the waterline.
He could actually feel the sand. Lucian curled his toes in it and enjoyed the view and the earthy smell of the water.
His clothing disappeared and he sat down along the shoreline, the water coming up to his waist as he continued to sip from his cup of coffee.
His other crow floated over to him, both of them now to Lucian’s left, Ezra slowly approaching and dropping down next to him.
One of his crows started to speed away, the other chasing it, the two looping around each other.
As he drank yet another cup of coffee, Lucian watched his two creations, laughing as they playfully dipped in and out of the water.
“You two really need names,” Lucian said. He had never been that great at naming things. His family had a dog when he was younger named Sparky, but it didn’t seem to fit either of the crows.
His creations returned to him, obediently waiting for him to give them a command.
“Just have fun,” he told them. “And it’s going to be a while before I can figure out the names for both of you.”
He thought about searching for good pet names on his smartphone, but realized that now wasn’t the time to work toward something so frivolous.
He still needed to ‘level up,’ as it would be considered in video game parlance.
And Lucian wasn’t planning to visit the psychiatric ward today, not if he could help it. He wanted to try something else, and he had a pretty good idea of where he could get started.
Lucian finished his cup of coffee and stood, his skin instantly drying and his clothes reforming. His cape burst out of the door that led downstairs, settling on his shoulders.
His crows returned to him as well, one hovering over each shoulder.
“Are you two ready?” he asked, pressing his pinky and thumb together.
Lucian’s form took shape in front of the River Casino in Nashua, New Hampshire.
The casino wasn’t fancy like the ones they had in Connecticut and Upstate New York. The parking lot was a patchwork of various gravels, the building itself a mismatch of brick and curved awnings with banners welcoming people to the establishment, some of them faded by the sun, yellowed with time.
A couple of older gamblers stood out front smoking cigarettes. Lucian instantly checked their death dates.
Name: Ned Jahn
Date of Birth: 05/30/1948
Date of Death: 01/26/2032
Name: Mark Linville
Date of Birth: 06/29/1951
Date of Death: 11/13/2026
They looked like many of the people
he had seen in New Hampshire, a fierce yet insolated independence to their eyes from the lifetime pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.
Lucian floated past them right into the casino, where he was met by a barrage of noises from the slot machines, blinking lights, and people moving around with buckets of coins.
It struck him at that moment that this wasn’t much different than the pachinko place in Kyoto, only the people looked different and there was a wider variety of games. Other than that it was the same, people hunched in front of machines and pulling levers, hoping to win big.
And while Lucian could say that this was a generational thing, there were a few younger people in the crowd too, and it wasn’t like people his age didn’t gamble online or head to Vegas when the opportunity presented itself.
There really was no difference in the end, and while everyone didn’t have one of the parasites Lucian was looking for, a few of them did.
The greed parasite was black and shriveled, something tar-like about it.
Lucian did a quick count and saw that there were eighteen in total, as well as three regular parasites, “leeches” as Yoshimi would have called them.
The peach-colored parasites had already noticed Lucian was there, eyeballs rising off their forms as they locked onto him.
Lucian’s scythe appeared in his hand.
He handed it off to his cape, which spun as it went to meet the first parasite, Lucian’s two crows following it.
To test if he was strong enough now, Lucian equipped his Glock, firing three shots into a black parasite to his left.
The creature squealed in agony, black ink exploding from its form lifting like wings into the air and wrapping around Lucian.
He was flung into the ceiling, where the ink tried to dive into his eyes and nose, Lucian tearing it away with his claws.
More of the black parasites responded as Lucian ran along the ceiling, his injurecrows taking shape behind him.
Still with the Glock in his hand, he went for his spiked whip, which he used to yank one of the slot machines into a series of black parasites that had started to grow in size, inky limbs forming on their bodies and spinning razor-sharp appendages in the air.
He fired more shots from his weapon, emptying the magazine before switching out to his carbine.
Lucian swung from the ceiling, holding onto his whip and firing his weapon as he kicked into one of the regular parasites, its arms and tentacles flaring around him.
He hit the ground and rolled, tossing his whip aside as his cape flashed past him, tearing through some of the black ink with his scythe.
He gave the command, and several of the injurecrows blasted off toward two of the parasites in the corner of the room, exploding them. A light came into Lucian.
“That was easy,” he started to say, perhaps too soon as a wave of black ink slammed into him, and spun him back into the ceiling, cracking Lucian’s head against the tiling, piledriving him to the ground below.
The ink continued to spill on top of him, pulling at his flesh and moving into his mouth, his eye sockets, his nostrils, and his ears. Lucian tried to heal himself and fire his carbine at the same time, eventually finishing his magazine and going for his plasma blowtorch.
He used this as an opportunity to get away from some of the parasites, blasting backward and killing one of them in the process, more light flowing into him.
Ready to test out some of his new skills, Lucian conjured electric daggers, which he sent across the room, his crows moving out of the way just in time for the sharp bolts to strike one of the peach parasites that had ballooned in size.
The electricity caused the parasite to tremble and shake, its form collapsing and then re-lifting. A few of the black parasites oozed toward it, forming a thick, molasses-like armor over the fallen parasite.
A tentacle struck Lucian from behind, sending him straight into a slot machine. His body screamed in pain as he was continually slammed into the machine, shattering it, its knobs and glass poking and stabbing at Lucian’s flesh.
He dug both claws into the tentacle, a freezing energy blasting out of the palms of his hands.
The parasite began to crystallize, and as it did, Lucian shot forth a wind attack that blew back some of the black parasites lunging for him.
The colossal leech parasite with its black ink armor continued to fend off Lucian’s cape, and he knew it wouldn’t be long until he had to address the big bastard.
But if he could take out a few of the smaller ones…
More light coursed through him as he finished the parasite he had frozen. Lucian was surprised that it had worked so quickly.
With this in mind, he charged forward, freezing some of the greed parasites, their forms crystallizing and shattering, light cascading into him.
“Here we go, here we go,” Lucian said as a stinger shot right at his face. Lucian flipped up just in time and landed on the ceiling.
As soon as electricity touched them they began to grow stronger, muscles bulging along their forms, veins popping as they merged together, solidifying into a giant mass of scabby parasite with dozens of pinchers, stingers, and tentacles with sharp teeth on their ends.
“Got it, don’t shoot them with electricity!”
Lucian narrowly avoided another stinger, which blazed by him so quickly that he was surprised it didn’t cut him in two.
He called for his cape, solidifying it and allowing him to ride it like a surfboard as he tried to get some distance between him and the giant black parasite.
There were two huge parasites left: one was made of all black parasites that had joined forces, and the other a peach-colored parasite that the greed parasites had merged with, forming a black armor over its body.
Lucian figured some grenades in the mix would help out, perhaps taking one of the big fuckers down.
His grenade launcher appearing in his hand, he tossed it to his cape, which grabbed onto it, the cylindrical magazine clicking as it started shooting.
Lucian conjured tornadoes of fire, which he flung at the large black parasite, the creature hissing and squealing as each attack hit. He also created more injurecrows, which he sent to the other parasite. His spherical IEDs exploded into the monster, sending bits of tentacle and purple blood into the air, as his regular crows dipped in and out of the fray.
Lucian’s cape finished its magazine of grenades and looked to him. Lucian immediately tossed it his lava sword.
His cape took off, blasting the air and cutting through the blackened, inky tentacles trying to stop it.
More light swirled into Lucian’s body.
Since the parasite with the black armor was smaller, he focused on this one, going for his MX-11 as he bolted toward it, each shot bringing the demon bug closer to annihilation.
Lucian tore into the parasite with ice daggers, ignoring the fact that tentacles had started to wrap around his leg and tear into his thigh.
The partially frozen creature let out a final gasp as it fell, shattering to bits, a huge wave of light moving into Lucian just as his feet were pulled out from beneath him, one of his legs ripped off.
“Dammit,” he whispered as he crawled forward, ignoring that his leg had been taken away from him.
Lucian shifted onto his side. He equipped his plasma blowtorch, his focus now on finishing off the giant black parasite in the center of the room.
His cape flew all around it, injurecrows occasionally exploding into the monstrosity.
He fried the hell out of the big black parasite, wincing as the thermal energy blast pushed him along the ground.
He held strong, his cape continuing to cut at it, his injurecrows sending debris and parasitic flesh into the air.
The creature let out a final garbled lament and fell forward. An incredible wave of light energy blasted out the parasite, tearing a hole in his back, and spiraling into Lucian’s chest.
He pushed himself up, still missing one of his legs.
Rather than deal with the det
ails here, Lucian pressed his pinky and thumb together, appearing on the rooftop, a smile coming to his face.
“Fuck yeah,” he whispered.
Lucian watched as his leg finished healing up. His cape settled on his shoulders as his stats flashed before him.
He remembered there being three normal parasites, the rest greed parasites. If there were three, they were each worth one SP. Since he had gained thirty Soul Points, that meant that the greed parasites he had killed had netted him twenty-seven points.
He recalled counting eighteen of them…
Lucian got out a smartphone and quickly went to the calculator app, dividing twenty-seven by eighteen, and getting one point five. This meant that each greed parasite was worth one and a half SP, so less than the mental health parasites.
“Good to know,” Lucian said as he pocketed his phone.
If he was trying to grow powerful quickly, it would be smarter to go after the parasites in mental health hospitals, rather than the ones in casinos and other places where the greed parasites congregated.
The greed parasites also seemed to be stronger when they joined together, especially when they connected to a different type of parasite, like they’d done in the casino below.
Looking at his Soul Points again, and seeing that he now had one hundred and fifty-seven, Lucian made it a goal to reach two hundred by the time he met Yoshimi.
“Sound doable?” he asked one of his crows, which hovered to his left.
His other crow was a bit ahead of the first one, its beak aimed toward something in the distance.
“What do you see, buddy?” he asked, taking a step forward.
Lucian noticed a flash of gold over a brick building a couple of blocks away, Life making its presence known.
And rather than run this time, he decided to equip a weapon, to see how this would play out.
Lucian went for his carbine, triggering the switch that gave him a zero-point energy field manipulator. He also equipped his scythe, which he quickly handed off to his cape.
The angel flew into the air, sweeping up and over to Lucian. It was a male angel, muscled, with bulky golden shoulder pads and a matching helmet.
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