Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 166: Bossy Problems

It was finally done. A sword. The sword. A full eight meters long, twenty centimeters across at its widest point, completely lacking anything resembling a handle or grip. Just a massive blade forged from the densest metal available for another fifty Levels or so, with an edge so fine that referring to it as “razor sharp” was an insult. There was just one small problem with it …

“How exactly are you going to wield that?” Stagmer asked, sounding extremely confused “I mean, it was fun to make, but it doesn’t seem like it would be useful in a fight.”

“I’m not, damn thing weighs more than I do.” Isaac said as he manifested Balmung and touched the tip of his sword to the gigantic weapon lying before him, which shimmered briefly and disappeared “If I try to sling that around, I’ll end up on my ass before I can blink. It’s also too heavy for [Blade Control] to be used for long periods. But I’ve got two good friends backing me up, gravity and momentum.”

“Wait how … oh. Drop a giant sword out of the sky, use your telekinesis to slightly adjust the trajectory if necessary, and watch the other guy turn into a giant shish-kebab. Interesting.” The smith surmised, thoughtfully rubbing at his chin “Do you have any other tricks like that you’d be willing to share? Designs to exploit the unique opportunities granted by enchanted weapons?”

“Maybe.” Isaac said “But each of these weapons has its own special little quirk, and that will require a different approach every time. Old Reliable can transform between forms very quickly, so a weapon like the giant sword can be summoned above someone’s head at a moment’s notice. Other people bind a single blade and can summon additional blades that mirror the movements of the original at a distance, but that would still require the blade to be wieldable. That sword I asked you to make … isn’t.”

“Fair enough.” Stagmer said.

“I’ll be sure to tell you how well it works. We’re going to be fighting a big monster in a few hours.” Isaac said “Oh, and someone came up with an interesting new alloy that you might be interested in.”

He pulled a few bars out of the metal out of his storage space.

“Thank you.” Stagmer said, practically salivating over his new toy. By the time Isaac bade him goodbye, the smith was utterly unaware of what was going on around him, a massive grin on his face.

As Isaac left, a similar expression graced his own face. It was nice to be able to bring some joy to people once in a while, rather that constantly being a harbinger of doom or the prophet warning people of the end of the world.

He entered one of the team’s summoning rooms and stepped straight through the portal there after grabbing a couple of crates. There was too much here for their storage spaces and burning cores just to avoid having to carry a few crates maybe fifty meters was a waste, so they hadn’t done that.

On the other side the of the portal, the smell of salt water, fish, and fresh concrete hit him like a solid wall and he pushed his sense of smell down as far as it would go, regular human levels. Blech, this place stank. But it was new, hopefully, it would change in time as it grew and aged.

The artificial island had been given the name “Etzel”, after the fictional version of Attila the Hun present in the Song of the Nibelungs. He’d trapped the warriors of Burgundy in his hall and attempted to murder them to avenge Siegfried. And that was basically what they’d be doing here. Summon beings from strange places, then brutally end their lives.

It was meant to be used for summoning [Raid Bosses] later on, but right now, it was being stress tested with [Field Bosses]. This place was meant to contain the land-based monsters as massive boss monsters would have real trouble swimming.

An aquatic equivalent was also being built in the middle of Germany, meant to be used for monsters whose primary method of locomotion was swimming. They’d be stuck there and that should have been the end of it, but there was a small problem. Those monsters could easily have had some kind of toxic substances that would seep into the surrounding soil and poison the ecosystem. Sure, hidden toxins as a trap weren’t a thing, but a venomous sea serpent very much was.

… so they’d had to waterproof every inch of the titanic artificial lake to an absurd degree, and they were still doing so.

This would actually be the first [Field Bosses] summoned to be fought, the only other ones to ever grace the face of the Earth had been left alone long enough for the United States Army to get a good look, then been blown to smithereens when the ten kiloton nuclear warhead under the summoning circle had detonated.

As far as [Raid Bosses] went, not a single additional one had been summoned. The governments of the world coming together and saying “Do this and we’ll nuke you” had a way of ensuring that people didn’t do anything stupid.

The entire island was still bustling with activity as the final touches were being added, but soon enough, only a handful of people would remain, the fighters, with navy frigates nearby to provide fire support in case things went sideways.

“Hey Isaac, can you come here for a second?” Amy asked, waving at him from another portal.

“Sure.” He said and joined her, gazing out across what looked a lot like a fjord “What’s going on?”

“We’re hunting King Crabs. Raul squared both the travel and fishing license with the local authorities and this island just so happens to be close enough to reach here with only one portal. So while things are getting squared away on Etzel, we’re getting as many crabs as we can get before the time on the portal runs out for lunch.”

“Er, what’s the maximum?” Isaac asked “For me, as many as I can get would be every single one in the bay. I don’ think the locals would be too happy with us if I did that.”

“And that’s the best part.” Amy beamed “They’re invasive, so feel free to cut loose.”

Even as they talked, another dozen or so crabs rocketed out of the surf, were wrapped in ropes and joined the growing pile next to her.

Meanwhile, in the distance, Isaac could see Raul erupt from the ocean like a porpoise with his pet dragon beside him, both of them clutching several of the offending crustaceans.

“Is there anything I have to watch out for? Some organ I’m not supposed to puncture because it will ruin the taste? If I remember that right, you’re not supposed to kill shellfish because they start rotting very quickly. Also …”

The rest of his questions was cut off by Amy bursting out laughing.

“Really?”

“Really.” She responded with a grin “You’re always so confident, know everything, and now, you ask a million …”

She just burst out laughing once more.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m an ignoramus on this topic, so I’m looking to correct that.” Isaac sighed “So, anything I need to watch out for?”

“We only need the legs, and we’re using them very quickly, so hack away.” She said, smugly grinning. Isaac couldn’t even blame her for that.

One blade appeared, hovering above his right hand. One turned into two, two turned into three, until a full twenty blades were hovering there, every weapon at his disposal except the new giant sword.

Finally, they shot into the water and tore clean through the crabs, [Absolute Blade Control] ensuring that once the crabs were fully impaled, their shells stopped being cut, leaving the soon-to-be-lunch properly stuck on the blades. The Kabars came flying back out with only a single impaled King Crab on their ends, but the other weapons took longer. The Zweihänders took the longest to return, yet when they did, there were a dozen impaled crustaceans on them, each. And every sword went right back out, constantly returning with ever more weapons. In the end, it turned out that Isaac’s suggestion that he might be able to clear out the bay turned out to not be nearly as arrogant as it had seemed.

When they returned to Etzel a few minutes later, mere seconds before the portal would have snapped shut on its own, they had a massive pile of crabs several times the size of a main battle tank. Enough that it would have spoiled before they could have been eaten if Amy hadn’t draped a food preservation spell over the lot of them.

That would be awesome, later on. And until then, it’d just serve as something for them to drool over.

But even with that little distraction done, it still took almost an hour for things to truly get finished. Not on their side, Bailey and Isaac had prepped everything in advance and even with Isaac being late, it had all been done very quickly. In fact, by the time Isaac had shown up, there’d been nothing left for him to do but go crab hunting.

The military, meanwhile were still working on putting the finishing touches to their part of the affair … and kicking off the reporters. Given that everyone knew these things they would soon be dealing with was almost certainly not as strong as a [Raid Boss], this was likely going to go well. But that was based on the [System] guidebook stating that [Field Bosses] was weaker, not information they’d gathered themselves.

And as such, even though part of the point of doing this was a PR windfall, any reporter left on the island had had to sign a liability waiver longer than most novels. That should have been the end of it, but now many were suddenly deciding that they need to stay without signing or wanted to sign well after the “final offer” had been rescinded. Ugh.

But eventually, the last reporter had been sent off to one of the nearby vessels so they could still view the action, if only through binoculars.

From that point on, things went smoothly and easily, almost as if someone had actually put some thought into how this was meant to go.

An area in the center of the island had a small, one centimeter deep pit for mud, silt and sand to be added into, so they could draw the circles within. It was easy to work with, easy to reset by smoothing it over, etc.

Sure, the same thing could have been achieved by cutting rock with a blade, but the ground had been ludicrously reinforced so the island could survive for longer than a couple of fights, so that was out of the question.

With the circle drawn into the dirt and the materials piled on, five people stepped up and charged it, then retreated back as rapidly as they could. Sure, the circle wasn’t going to blow up in their faces, but that didn’t mean that standing over a charged boss-summoning circle was a good feeling.

Three groups of people surrounded the glowing runic formation, ready to jump on the monster the moment it appeared.

The first was a division of GSG-13, officers with incredibly durable riot shields in the front, others with rifles and melee weapons sheltered behind them.

The second one was from the Bundeswehr, a standard fireteam spread out and ready to riddle the monster with bullets, only a single person was set up for defense with another riot shield. It was strong enough to deflect plenty of attacks, but its wielder didn’t really seem comfortable with the tool as it wasn’t very familiar with it, not being a commonly used piece of equipment in the Bundeswehr.

And the third group was Bailey’s team. Isaac stood in the front, ready to block a monster’s charge, Raul’s dragon holding position in the air above him. Patrick and Amy stood behind him and off to the side, giving them an open field of fire, with Bailey in the back for healing.

Meanwhile, Raul and Karl were even further away, well clear of where the monster might be. Their job was area control, not combat, which they could do from afar. Also, having fewer people directly behind him meant there was less space that he needed to guard.

“Ready?” Isaac asked, getting affirmative answers from everyone.

“Alright, summoning now.” He announced.

The circle blazed even brighter, a column of light shooting into the sky. The Lesser Lindwyrm followed suit a moment later, erupting from the circle like a shark breaching the surface of the ocean.

Thick serpentine coils, fifteen meters long and almost two meters thick jutted upwards like a tree, supporting the draconic head at its end for a brief moment before it toppled over, letting itself fall while fully outstretched, hammering into the ground with enough force to make footing precarious. All the while as it fell, its venomous green eyes were locked onto the GSG-13 group as its breath howled out of its gullet, blowing over the pair of large vampire-like fangs and picking up the liquid collecting there.

The ray of acidic mist splashed off the shield wall, [Skills] even ensuring it didn’t slip through the gaps, but the shields themselves were already melting. No matter what [Skills] were behind them, if mass-produced things weren’t soulbound, they weren’t up to snuff against [Field Boss].

To make things worse, the mist wasn’t just acidic, it was also toxic. It would melt flesh upon contact, leak into the bloodstream, and then slowly destroy internal organs not just through sheer corrosiveness, but by actively preventing vital functions from working by disabling entire enzymes with a single molecule each. Magic based venoms were scary.

However, even as the monster lunged forward, clearly intending to crush the shield formation with its bulk, a barrage of attacks hammered into it. Lage caliber bullets smashed its eyeball on one side, an incandescent ray of light from Amy obliterated the other one.

Empowered shots from the front punched small holes into the armored scales, drawing small puffs of bloody mist, but those were barely doing anything. What was having an effect where the skillfully fired shots that ended with the bullets rattling around the monster’s nostrils.

As the Lindwyrm inhaled for another blast of acid, it looked comically puzzled for a moment, then sneezed loudly, head jerking from side to side in a vain attempt to remove the irritants. A massive block of ice blocked where it was swinging its head, courtesy of Raul, which Karl reshaped a moment later. When the crest of spines and spikes at the base of the monster’s head struck the blockade, it got stuck at a rather unfortunate angle, leaving its throat exposed for GSG-13 to fire at.

Sure, that thing was a [Field Boss] and still relatively mobile despite having been blinded and all the other injuries inflicted later, but it lacked the unholy durability of a [Raid Boss].

It was hampered enough to be less mobile than it would have been while healthy, and stuck. Time to finish this!

Through the party menu, Isaac declared his next actions, showing where he’d be in a second while using the same menu to figure out where people were aiming their guns.

The heaviest gun [Skills] tore massive chunks out of the Lindwyrm’s body, some of the police officers charged out of their formation with mastercrafted batons out, [Epic Strike] massively amplifying the amount of force they could put behind their attacks. It shouldn’t take too long to overcome that thing’s insane constitution.

But the Lindwyrm next acid breath was far more weak, causing the caustic liquid to drip out and begin to attack the ice. Raul and Karl had been growing the restraint ever larger, but the monster’s head didn’t manage to slip out, but rather, the acid had eaten away at the concrete beneath the ice.

The snake straightened, its head hovering two meters above the ground with a gigantic block of ice attached to the side, causing it to list over from the weight.

Acid, blood, and disgusting, viscous fluids sprayed the area as it shook its head in anger, causing several of the closest people to leap backwards to avoid getting struck.

Isaac sprinted forwards, knowing just what was going to happen next, but he was just a little too slow.

The serpent straightened further, shooting up into the sky in a movement eerily reminiscent of its summoning. The acid had already started jetting skywards to rain down around it by the time Isaac slammed into the side of its head, driving Balmung straight through the bone and into the acid gland underneath, popping it like a soap bubble. The deadly liquid stopped spraying out on one side, instead running down the inside of its throat. As the first drops began to return to the ground, Isaac kicked himself backwards while shifting the blade into its newest, largest form.

The block of ice exploded on the other side of the head as the sword pierced all the way through, likewise destroying the other acid gland.

With a pained, furious roar, the Lindwyrm tried to shake the weapon out but failed, instead overbalancing and falling over with a tremendous crash. Leaping skywards, spraying out acid and finishing it by falling on the nearest human was how that was supposed to have gone.

This … was a good deal less graceful than that. The absurdly sharp and durable blade piercing through the monster’s head struck the ground, cut straight through, and grew stuck. Again. More acid poured out, and began to eat away at the concrete trapping the blade, but it didn’t do so anywhere near quickly enough to keep it alive under the renewed barrage of attacks.

Your Party has slain Lesser Lindwyrm (Lv. 45). 300 XP (5 % XP share) awarded

As a [Field Boss], that thing had been designed for a group of five people, so the XP had been pretty much crap. If they hadn’t been as concerned about equipment damage, that thing would have died within seconds. People could have just charged in, torn it apart and had Bailey heal everyone up a moment later. End of story.

Well, that, and the higher degree of caution exercised with an unknown kind of monster.

“Does someone have a [Skill] to check if that thing is edible?” Isaac asked “There are several stories about how eating a Lindwyrm gives supernatural abilities.”

“It’s edible.” Raul called over “But I wouldn’t eat that, have you seen the state it’s in?”

The radio at Isaac’s belt crackled “Is the idea that eating the monster will give new abilities credible? Do you believe that killing one more cleanly will be possible?”

“Mythologically speaking, it’s sound.” Isaac said “In addition, the one [Boss] we have information on gives not just the usual Aspects, flesh and bones, but also an additional … let’s call it a boon in the form of blood that can be refined into a potent fuel. What if other [Bosses] also give such boons?”

“What proof do you have?” the voice asked. Isaac thought it was one of the military officers.

“What we have is a hypothesis and a way to check it.” Bailey said “So, we’d like to summon another one and kill it in a way that doesn’t leave it so utterly ruined. Can we deviate from the submitted plan?”

“Permission granted.”

The next Lindwyrm appeared a few minutes later and was instantly decapitated as Isaac tore through it using [I Am The Sword] with the Zweihänder outstretched to increase his length as he was too short to fully do the job just using his body.

“Is it always this easy?” One of the soldiers asked.

“It is when we have all the information we need.” Isaac said as he lightly landed next to the body.

“But isn’t decapitation always fatal? Why is that something you need to check?”

This time, it was Patrick who responded “Because we needed to know if anything short of decapitation would work or if we always had to resort to it. Or maybe we’d have had to tear it apart as if it had gotten caught in a meatgrinder. I don’t suppose you’ve seen any pictures of the Demon Lord from Korea?”

“Wait, it might have been that tough?” someone else exclaimed.

“It could have been anything.” Isaac pointed out “But now we know better. Because we checked. So, who wants to eat some dragon?”

While Raul and Amy figured out how to cook the Lindwyrm, Isaac, Bailey and Patrick got started on the report.

The Lindwyrm had had peak Tier 6 Stats across the board, coupled with a lesser version of the durability power that the Demon Lord had wielded to great effect, coupled with a versatile ability that could be used both against single targets and areas.

Soon enough, though, the “food” was done.

“Here you go,” Amy said with a shit-eating grin as she passed him what looked like a dark green steak that smelled … off.

Damn. Isaac shouldn’t have suggested they check what the meat did as he knew only the regular Lindwyrm, the [Raid Boss] version granted preternatural abilities. These basically amounted to a random [Skill] at no cost save the opportunity cost in the form of not being able to get a second try. These [Skills] were never [Class-Skills], and rarely synergized well with one’s build, but they were mostly free and therefore pretty worth it if you could get the meat of a Lindwyrm without anyone dying in the process.

“Down the hatch.” He said grimly and bit down. The meat was tough, hard to chew, and overall pretty gross.

Isaac swallowed and made a face “Yeah, no new ability, and it tastes like crap. Maybe it’s the regular one who gives powers?”

“You’d still be willing to eat it?” Bailey called over “I mean, you can eat anything, but can you eat it more than once?”

“If it’s not going to kill me, I’ll try it.” Isaac called back before disintegrating the remains of the steak between his fingers and wiping them on a handkerchief he’d pulled from a pocket “So, what’s up next?”

***

Lunch had come and gone a while ago, King Crabs devoured by hordes of hungry soldiers, sailors, and researchers, but they were still at it.

Over a dozen kinds of [Field Bosses] had died thus far, none giving more than XP, their bodies and a handful of Aspects, but no “boons”.

Their strength had also been properly confirmed, finally. A maximum of five people could donate mana at the same time, and that was also the proper number of appropriately leveled individuals to fight one.

Things went well for the longest time … until they didn’t.

“That fucking thing flies!”

The Stormbringer Serpent was, in fact, a snake the size of the Lindwyrm but able to float. The moment it appeared, it rocketed skywards and hung there, sparks flashing in its eyes as lighting gathered around it.

“I’ll deal with this,” Isaac announced. Fighting flying monsters out in the open was a pain, and he had a good counter to it. He’d also been the one to pick that monster fully aware of the fact that reporters would be there.

So now, he could demonstrate just why he, and by extension, the rest of the team, commanded the respect they did.

As Isaac launched himself skywards, his body morphed in an instant, taking on an ethereal quality, four surprisingly small wings sprouting from his back while long claws erupted from his fingers and toes.

[Form of Horror: Ruler of the Airspace]

That [Skill] had started out with one form that was an amalgam of every Aspect he’d ever collected. Useful but it grew too extreme, too overdesigned in short order as he slotted more of them, countless physical features becoming unusable as they started clashing.

So when given the chance to change that through [Skill] evolution, he had. One form for the ocean specialized in underwater combat. A second one had become a more streamlined version of the original, sleek and deadly.

And then there was this one, the third one. An ethereal body, practically weightless, one that could be flung around with the tiny wings that were really just hydraskin stretched across wing “bones” that consisted of the wires of a Razor Apparition. Blades for claws on fingers and toes were a simple enough addition, but he’d added coils of wire to their base, allowing him to use them like bladed whips if the need arose. And to top it all off, a haze of fog-shrouded him as he drew upon the powers of the Twilight Weaver. As he moved, illusionary duplicates would appear in the mist, thoroughly messing with anyone trying to fight or intercept him.

A bolt of lightning flashed past, harmlessly crackling through the fog. A tail whipped out, only to be withdrawn slashed to ribbons.

Isaac’s face slowly gained a feral grin as he dodged yet another attack, his near-weightless body able to be easily propelled along even by the tiny wings, with their small size making them very hard to target.

More energy and winds flashed brightly, tearing through the sky around him, but he dodged the former and phased to avoid the latter, constant strikes tearing at vulnerable points.

The eyes long since gone, streams of blood raining out a slashed open jugular-equivalent, the Stormbringer Serpent fell from the sky, the [Mages] down below redirected it using telekinetic [Skills] so it landed on the island.

A [Boss] monster, killed in less than a second by a single man. All caught on camera.

Much of what Isaac had done had been away from the public eye, mere rumors and stories. This was tangible proof that showed his capability in an undeniable way without revealing any tricks.

He returned to the ground in a flash and changed back.

“I think that’s a good endpoint. It’s getting late and we’re getting tired. Let’s continue once we’ve had a chance to rest and recover.” The Leutnant in charge of the Bundeswehr contingent suggested and the suggestion was taken up gladly. The next surprise was better faced properly rested.

Isaac took it as a chance to check out his Status screen and look a the bonus [I Am The Sword] had gained for hitting Level 10.

I Am The Sword (legendary, Level X)

In the right hands, a sword can be a devastating weapon. But sometimes, the hands themselves can be a weapon far more dangerous than any mere hunk of metal.

And with this Skill, both are the case. For 0.1 seconds, increasing by 0.01 seconds per Level, the user’s form will become indestructible, immoveable, and inviolable while their momentum will be maintained for that period, tearing through or pushing aside anything in their path while this Skill is active. In addition, the user’s static body acts as a blade, far more likely to cut through instead of push away the target, and Skills that require a blade can be used upon it.

This Skill can only be activated every 60 min and cost requires 750 mana to use, which it siphons off from the user’s mana regeneration so long as the user’s mana pool is full.

Cost: Major Stamina Drain, 1,000 banked mana

As it had just been Level 10, the bonus was not that extreme, but the ability to be better at cutting through his foes and apply [Skills] like [Sundering Strike] would still come in extremely useful.

Meanwhile, his Status was looking very good.

Name: Isaac Thoma

Class: Hildebrand’s Heir

Species: High Human

Level: 88

XP: 7,190/42,500

Health Status: Healthy

Mana: 1,500/1,500

Stats

Fortitude

185

Perception

320

Strength

185

Agility

330

Magic Power

185

Magic Regeneration

320

Free Points: 0 Stat, 0 Skill

Aura

Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range, combat, blood, regeneration)

Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection)

Central Skills

Form of Horror XXIV

The Chosen Weapon XXVIII

I Am The Sword X

Grave of Swords XVII

Armory of Ancient Times XVII

Legacy of a True Warrior XII

Skills

Hundred Faces XXV

Stealth XXIX

Power Strike XXX

Piercing Strike XXX

Sundering Strike XXX

Blades XXVIII

Sneak XXVII

Sweeping Strike XVI

Far Strike XXVII

Manifold Strike XIX

Hunter’s Gaze XXX

Phantom Step XIX

Unknown Fear XXII

Bestial Regeneration XXVII

Undying Focus XXIII

Tools of Terror XIX

Fleeting Presence XVII

Crippling Blow XV

Absolute Blade Mastery XVII

Compounded Impact XVI

True Cut VIII

Legendary Blow XII

Fully Geared IX

Knightly Leader XII

Analyze Person V

Continent Strider II

General Skills

Gralloch XII

Alchemy XII

Death’s Embrace VII

Bloodline of the Survivor (Empower Relatives)

Advanced Bureaucracy VI

Police Procedure I

Aspects

Aspect Skills

Arcane Poltergeist (3 stack)

Flight of the Poltergeist

Ephemeral Form

Haunting Pursuit

Greater Hydra (3 stack)

Hydra’s Regeneration

Redundant Organs

Ignore Injury

Megalodon (2 stack)

Shark’s Body

Wave Charge

Twilight Weaver (3 stack)

Lesser Illusion

Perception Interdiction

Warp Wave

Razor Apparition (3 stack)

Remote Wielding

Immortal Blades

Razor Trails

Acid Drake

Drake’s Heart

Least Demon Lord (2 Stack)

Moment of Immortality

Grand Hellflame

Two more [Skills] to get from his current [Class] and two more Levels after that, and he’d be at the fourth Evolution. That was a big one. But also a scary reminder of what power individuals could now command, and how much damage they could inflict.

Which was precisely why it was so important that he found the people causing all the trouble as soon as possible.