Amazon Apocalyspe 4: Chapter 26

“It could be a monster,” one of Kyle’s subordinates whispered to him. “I don’t see a name.”

“Maybe it’s a scout from that golem shard...” another suggested.

Kyle braced himself for battle, and I realized that if I didn’t come up with a good explanation, I’d be in a fight with my own people. So I held up a hand.

“I’m no enemy to you. Don’t worry.” My voice was unrecognizable through my helmet.

Kyle lowered his spear a little but didn’t put it away.

“Forgive me for being cautious, but I still want to know your allegiance.”

“I’m just a survivor, like you. I bought a farmhouse in the countryside years before the apocalypse. That’s how I built this armor. It’s taken me through several perilous battles.”

The farmhouse stuff was true. My mind went back to the big spider and running face-first into a couple of trees. Those counted as perilous battles, right?

“How do you feel about us adding this shard to Crownhill?” Kyle asked.

I shrugged. “As long as nobody tries to take my stuff or hurt me and mine, it’s none of my business who declares themselves king of these lands.”

Kyle finally set his spear aside. “Good. You’ll like being part of our territory, then. We’re no band of gangsters. Lord Carter honors the old traditions of law and order. You’ll have to register your land claim with the new government, but as long as everything checks out and nobody steps forward to contest your claim, your land will be yours to keep.”

“Interesting...” I hadn’t even realized we had an office for managing property ownership. It must have been one of the things the council cooked up while I was away. I would have to check and ensure my farm was registered under my name.

“And what do you think of this Carter fellow? Is he a good leader?”

“The very best!” Kyle said adamantly.

I looked to the others. “Is that true for all of you?”

“Lord Carter is the greatest! I wasn’t so sure about having a king, but I don’t think anybody else could have done it better. And the council he made is democratically elected, so it’s not like he’s installed himself as a dictator. He’s one branch of government, and as the most powerful person on our shard, he makes sure nobody overthrows and takes the place over themselves,” a young woman behind Kyle explained.

“Any decisions you find problematic? Does he surround himself with good people? Do you think he would look better if he grew a beard?” I asked.

The young woman scowled up at me. “Lord Carter is perfect the way he is! And Myrina, Sakura, and Bridget are an inspiration to all of us.”

There were other nods all around. I chalked it up as four votes against growing a beard.

“Thank you all for indulging my curiosity. Now, I’m off to look for a fight or two.” I turned to leave, but Kyle stopped me.

“Wait! What’s your name? I’d like to have it for our report. Part of the quest we’re on involves meeting survivors,” Kyle said.

I frowned. I hadn’t thought this far ahead, and after asking so many probing questions about the lord of Crownhill, I couldn’t exactly introduce myself as Carter.

Let me think... I was acting like a fighter, so I needed a fighter's name.

“People call me Doomblade,” I answered.

“Doomblade, huh?” Kyle glanced at my oversized sword. “Yeah, I can see it. Don’t worry, there are a lot of people who changed their names to something edgy, so Doomblade won’t look that weird on the records.”

“Edgy? Doomblade is a cool name!”

“Sure... anyway, we’re patrolling for monsters. Why don’t you come with us? If you can keep up with us, Crownhill’s always looking for fresh recruits. I always tell people who can fight that the fastest way to make a name for themselves in Crownhill is to go on a few monster hunts. Lord Carter always has dozens of quests out.”

New Quest Available!

Patroling new territory.

Lord Carter is offering a hefty reward for all who patrol the new territory surrounding the ruins of San Antonio. Search for monsters, survivors, and resources. You will receive contribution points proportional to your accomplishments during this quest.

Note: Contribution points accrued by this quest will be credited to an account under your chosen pseudonym ‘Doomblade.’

I accepted the quest. I hadn’t realized creating a pseudonym under the System was so easy. It recognized my intention of having a false persona and had obliged.

Pretty soon, I was tromping through the wilderness with Kyle’s band of warriors. Someone had gotten enough gaming systems together to make a new gaming cafe downtown. Nothing live service worked, but other games ran just fine.

“Wait, let me get this straight. The five of you have a group server in an apocalyptic survival game?” I asked.

“Yep. You build a base and fight other survivors. It’s a lot of fun! I can add you to our server if you want,” Kyle said.

I gestured to the world around us. “Can’t you just... go outside?”

Kyle scowled. “Now you sound like my dad.”

Here we had a perfectly good apocalypse and some kids would still rather stay home and play video games. I shook my head.

During our patrol, we encountered several groups of monsters, all of the monstrous variety spawned from the System. I’d long ago learned from Myrina that many monsters were, more accurately, beasts, which were local wildlife that leveled up through years of fighting on their own. But this early in the integration, few such beasts survived, especially near human settlements.

It seemed to me like most of what we were fighting were monsters spawned directly by the System, but one particularly ferocious feline could have been somebody’s pet cat once upon a time.

As we fought, I felt a growing sense of respect from Kyle and his companions. They hadn’t expected me to be a formidable fighter. While I was no swordsman, I was pretty good with a sword and had a high proficiency to prove it. In short, I was a pretty good swordsman for a C-Grade. Even though my techniques didn’t quite transfer through my suit and to my oversized sword, pretty good for a C-Grade translated to outstanding for a D-Grade. I even taught Kyle and his friends a few tricks Cyra once showed me.

Pretty soon, it was less me tagging along with Kyle and his friends than it was Kyle and his friends tagging along with me.

“Is it usually this quiet on a patrol?” I asked him after we took care of our third E-Grade monster.

“Quiet?” Kyle blinked in surprise. “This is actually pretty busy. Monsters have been attacking our patrol left and right for some reason. Normally we might only encounter one or two per trip, and usually we have to track them down. They don’t rush us like this.”

“Ah, I see.” The monsters were attacking because of my curse. My perspective of what a trip into the wilderness entailed was also skewed because of that. Every time I went anywhere, I encountered monster after monster. The only places I went without monster encounters were lands like Glacia and Themyscira that had been hunted completely clean.

“Yeah, we’ll all have a decent chunk of points when we get back. Maybe a level or two as well, if the way back is just as busy.” But as Kyle spoke, the walkie-talkie on his hip beeped, and a message began playing from another group nearby.

“We need reinforcements! There’s a group of survivors here, and they’re extremely hostile and heavily armed. We’re pinned and need help getting out of here!” said a voice over the radio.

Everyone turned to Kyle.

“That sounded like Ted’s group,” said one of Kyle’s subordinates.

“I think you’re right. Let’s lend him a hand.” Kyle spoke into the radio and soon got Ted’s location. They were about five miles north of our position, and we started running. I slowed my pace down so the others could keep up, but we still covered the distance in about ten minutes. By the time we made it there, Ted’s group had been joined by two more, and the area had turned into something of a battlefield.

Bullets flew from a battle-scarred building. Symbols spray painted the building in a mix of English and Spanish. Both were warnings to keep out. As if the people impaled on street signs nearby weren’t proof enough. Whoever these guys were, the end of the world had turned them into big fans of Vlad the Impaler.

“Listen up! Throw down your weapons. You can’t win.” Kyle stepped up onto the battlefield, heedless of the bullets flying his way. He held his forearm in front of his eyes to protect his face, but only grimaced at the bullets poking holes through his clothes. Each shot drew little flecks of blood, but he wasn’t full of holes like he would have before the integration.

I realized what he was trying to do. He wanted to intimidate these guys by showing them he couldn’t be hurt by their weapons. I’d done something very similar to a couple of policemen who thought I was a werewolf. But unlike with those policemen, I sensed a gnawing in my, but that told me this was about to go very wrong.

“Get back!” I shouted as I jumped in front of Kyle. The moment I did so, something massive and carrying an enormous amount of force behind it slammed into my waiting palms.

Even in my power armor, I staggered back. The defensive enchantments flared all over me. Ordinary steel would have been shot straight through, but against my armor all it did was leave a big dent in the middle of my chestplate.

“Holy crap! What was that? A missile?” Kyle ducked behind cover with the rest of his men. In my armor, I was too big to follow.

“Recoilless rifle.” I examined the melted and deformed hand-sized chunk of lead a moment before tossing it aside. “These guys aren’t any old gang. My guess is these are the cartel guys the Lich King was fighting.”

“Damn. You would have thought with an army of the undead, he would have taken care of these guys already!” Kyle grimaced. “So what’s the plan? Headlong charge into their base? As long as we move too quick to get hit by the big guns, we should make it.”

I was going to shake my head and come up with a better plan, but I didn’t have access to my spells right now. I was Doomblade the warrior. How would a warrior deal with a threat like this? My mind went to Myrina and Cyra, putting them in my situation. In the end, I shrugged.

“Yeah. Let’s charge them. Stick behind me. I can take a few of those rounds.” I pulled my oversized sword out of the ground. I heaved it high overhead before running screaming in the direction of the building. My blood pumped hot, and my heart thudded in my ears.

As the bullets whizzed by and flattened against my armor, I realized there truly was something appealing about charging the enemy headlong without the slightest regard for safety. Even in my bulky armor, I probably could have dodged most of the incoming fire, but Kyle and the others were running close behind me for cover, so I ignored the impulse and let the bullets break upon my armor.

The door was barricaded, leaving just enough room for a rifle to poke out. I hoisted my oversized sword and brought it down on the barricade, slicing clean through the building in one big swing. Blood pooled on the ground from the pair of gangsters I sliced in half.

From there, I carved a path through the building. I barreled through walls, doors, people, and anything else in my way. I was a one-man wrecking crew as I stormed through the building. My armor was big enough that my head poked through the ceiling in most rooms, so I would have had to bring the place crashing anyway if I wanted to make my way through it.

A few guys burst out of the woodwork, one swinging nunchucks and the other carrying a samurai sword.

“You came to the wrong neighborhood, tin man!” said the one with a katana.

“I got nunchuck guy!” Kyle shouted.

Both were in the high D-Grades and an even match for Kyle and my Doomblade persona.

We squared up and fought, but the guy pretending to be a samurai was fast as lighting. My sword was too big to maneuver in a cramped building, and he danced between my legs as he dealt one cut after another. Neither did much damage, but I felt like a lumbering oaf.

Outside the building, I could have forced him back with a few wide swings, but if I did that here the building would come crashing down on our heads.

“Too slow, tinman!” the samurai cackled. He licked the length of his katana, and as he did so sinister red energy enveloped his blade, reminding me a lot of Sakura reinforcing her club for a big hit.

I looked to my left, where Kyle was locked in battle against the nunchuck wielder. His subordinates were busy fighting too. Good. Nobody was looking, and fighting this guy with my oversized sword was going to be a massive pain in the ass.

I pointed a finger at the samurai and conjured a Mana Bolt outside my armor, then overcharged it with enough mana to make it glow white-hot. It show forward, and my opponent barely had time to widen his eyes before there was a bullet-sized hole in his forehead.

I made a mental note to make more countermeasures for fast enemies. But that was exactly the sort of thing I’d come out here to field test.

Dealing with the nunchuck guy took longer since I couldn’t cheat, but with Kyle to help all I had to do was pin his arms with a grappel and Kyle finished him off.

From there, we cleared out the rest of the building in short order. I was lucky I hadn’t brought the whole building crashing down on our heads because there turned out to be fully occupied cages in the basement.

“People?” I asked Kyle. I couldn’t fit downstairs, so he and his people had to go alone.

“No, chickens!” Kyle hoisted a clucking hen.

“Seriously?”

Kyle nodded with a big grin on his face. “And no wonder! The price of eggs is through the roof back in Crownhill. These ladies might as well be laying gold. They even have a rooster down there. We’re going to be rich!”

“If you say so...” I shrugged as Kyle and his buddies looted all the chickens from the basement. I noticed a few of the cages were using wads of hundred-dollar bills as bedding material.

As we cleaned up, more people streamed in, and one party in particular was one that everyone else made way for.

“Point me to the enemy!” Myrina yelled, hair firey and sword drawn.

I found myself walking to greet them before I even remembered I was in disguise. It was too late to turn and hide though. My hulking armor wasn’t exactly subtle. Bridget, in particular, stared at me with a thoughtful look on her face as she examined the enchantments.

“You can put your weapons away, ladies. We’ve already taken care of the enemies.”

“Aww...” Myrina grumbled.

“And who exactly are you?” Bridget cupped her chin in her hands, thinking.

“I’m... uh... a brave and heroic individual who joined up with Kyle and his crew. The name is Doomblade, wandering swordsman.” I flexed my armored limbs, showing off my car-sized greatsword as I did so.

“Doomblade, huh?” a slight smirk formed on Bridget’s lips.

“Well, I’ve never met you before.“ Sakura said, looking considerably more suspicious.

“Kyle knows me. Just wait for him. He’s rescuing some chickens.” I gestured behind me.

“Maybe. Or maybe you killed Kyle and are with these guys. We need to chat a bit and make sure you aren’t working for another faction.” Sakura gestured to me and pointed to the distance.

“My oh my. Three lovely ladies want some alone time with me?” I asked, feigning surprise.

Bridget blushed, but the other two reacted differently from normal. Myrina frowned, and Sakura scowled. Her eyes flashed crimson, and I took an involuntary step back.

“Walk with us,” Sakura said.

I followed as she led me away from the group. This was a rare chance to chat with my companions as others saw them. Looking at the trio as they approached, all of them felt like hardened warrior women rather than the fun-loving girls I knew. Maybe a joke or two would help them relax a bit.

“So, big guy, do you know how to use that sword of yours?” Myrina asked.

“Sure do. And not just the one over my shoulder.” I would have waggled my eyebrows, but I was wearing a helmet.

Normally, my joke would have drawn a giggle or two, but suddenly it fell flat. Maybe they didn’t get the joke without the facial cue.

“You can’t really expect us to believe you’re some traveling fighter who just showed up out of nowhere.” Sakura stood with her weapon slung over her shoulder and one hand on her hip.

“I own a farmhouse out of town. It’s always been a cozy place, though terribly lonely without a woman or three to liven it up.”

Bridget shook her head. Myrina frowned again, and one hand dropped to the hilt of her sword. She glanced at Sakura, whose eyes flashed red again.

“Ah, flirting, is it? I see what your plot is now. You’re here to steal us from our man!” Sakura hefted her club overhead and charged me.

Well, crap.

“Wait, Sakura its--“ before I could explain myself, she slammed her club into my chest, hitting far harder than any of those recoilless rifle rounds ever did. I went flying right off my feet, slamming into the ground a hundred yards away.

“Take this, homewrecker!” Sakura yelled, weapon raised again for a follow-up strike.

<Note>
Now we finally get to see what Sakura feels about somebody trying to steal her from her man!