Amazon Apocalypse 2: Chapter 73

With the help of our trusty stone column, we reduced one of the walls to the prison to rubble. It was nice to know that if I was ever locked up, all I needed to break free was a couple friends and few thousand pounds of steel reinforced concrete pillar. We smashed straight through several cells.

Much to my surprise, the cells were still in use. I would have thought the escaped prisoners would free everyone else locked up, but apparently not.

"Ahhh!" a man screamed as we shattered his wall.

His eyes were bloodshot, and his hair stuck out in every direction. There was a bloody smear on the wall which matched the bloody smear on his face and his broken nose. It looked like he'd been bashing his head against the wall for a good long while.

"Hey there. What are you in here for? This may or may not be a rescue," I said as I shouted to him over the sound of the crumbling debris.

"Ahhh! Angry titties! Scary titties! The titties will not break me!" the man screamed.

"Uh... that was not the answer I was expecting. Do you want to be saved or not?" I asked.

The man bashed his face against one of the still-standing walls.

"Guys?" I turned to my companions.

Kerrie was the first to approach, a look of concern on her face. "Hey there... I'm Kerrie. What's the—" Kerrie began to ask, but never finished.

The man took one look at Kerrie's chest and started screaming at the top of his lungs. He sounded like he was trying to rip his own vocal cords out without using any words. If people hadn't heard our grand entrance with our improvised battering ram, they knew we were here now.

I held my hands over my ears, and Kerrie was doing the same. Our high Perception stats weren't doing either of us any good right now. Before any of us could do anything, the man reached for his own face. Fingers curled into claws, he poked at his own eyes and gouged them out. Far from done, he started tearing at his own face until he was little more than a mutilated, bloody husk.

"Good fucking god!" Kyle jumped back, face horrified.

I shared his sentiment. Pulling a hand from off my ear, I jabbed a finger at the crazed man and fired a Mana Bolt right through his empty eye socket and into his brain. The man flopped down like a pile of limp meat, fingers and legs still twitching, but otherwise dead.

"Hmf. He didn't have to be so rude." Kerrie adjusted the armor over her chest.

"Okay, note to everyone. Don't bother trying to rescue the prisoners still locked in a cell. They're even crazier than the rest," I warned my companions.

Breaking through the cell door on the other side of the room only took one solid swing with our trusty stone column. After that, my forces fanned out inside the heart of the prison complex. Behind us was a row of cells filled with other prisoners, although none of them seemed all there. Those who were speaking muttered to themselves incoherently.

"I didn't think this was an insane asylum..." I muttered.

"It wasn't," Rick replied when he overheard me. "Most of the prisoners here were supposed to be fairly cooperative. Whatever has gotten into these guys… it's fairly recent."

"Recent enough that it might have something to do with why the people we fought up front were so crazy?" I wondered.

Rick just nodded.

Looking left and right and seeing no real answers, I realized the only thing was to carry on. "Alright, I have no idea how to get around in this complex… and frankly, I don't care. Guys, grab the pillar. We're making a few more holes until we either find Knuckles or bring this whole place crashing down on top of our heads."

Pillar over our shoulders once more, we plowed through several more walls, burrowing deeper into the facility. We knew there were more people here—Knuckles, especially. What could they all be doing?

I wished they’d just come out and make themselves known. Actually, that was a question worth considering. Why weren't they coming out so we could finish them off and end this once and for all?

Had the psychos we'd slaughtered at the front gates really been it? There was something more going on, and I didn't like it. Not having a clue what it might be made me nervous.

Who was planning something? And what were they planning?

The scenario grew all the stranger after we smashed our way through several more walls. Eventually, we found ourselves in what might once have been the guards’ break room. It was roomier and better outfitted than the rest of the prison, with comfy wooden floors and proper walls instead of cold concrete.

It was also decorated like a teenage girl's bedroom. Plush purple tapestries covered every wall. They blocked out the noise from the rest of the prison and gave the entire room a cozy appearance.

"You think this is Knuckles’ room?" Kyle asked.

"Or maybe Caesar's old room." Marcus shrugged.

I was skeptical of either answer. What would a fearsome bandit lord with a reputation to maintain be doing in a room like this? As for Caesar, somehow I couldn’t see that silent and bloodthirsty maniac loving purple. There was no way he'd live in a place like this... though I did see a crude iron spear propped up in one corner.

It looked just like the makeshift weapon wielded by the man I'd killed.

That alone wasn't enough evidence. If others saw him with a steel bar he’d turned into a spear, surely they'd try to make something similar of their own. Or perhaps he'd copied something he saw within the prison, something invented by someone else.

"Shh! Everyone be quiet!" Kerrie hushed us.

We all quieted down. In the silence, I heard it too. There were voices on the other side of the door, and they were getting louder. One voice in particular seemed to be instructing the others. It sounded female, much to my surprise.

This had been a male prison, and while Cromwell and his gang of violent drug dealers and human traffickers had brought plenty of women into the prison, I didn't expect any of them to be in a position to be giving orders to anyone. But here was such a woman.

"—and I want these rooms cleared out. Quickly now. We should be gone from here in the next few minutes. I have no idea how long the townies will be fighting at the entrance or searching the complex," the woman said.

Her voice had a slow and steady rhythm to it, like that of someone who'd carefully trained their voice to be as pleasant to listen to as they could make it. It was smooth and had a certain sensuality to it that made even ordinary conversation carry a hint of innuendo.

The door swung open, and in came two prisoners. They scanned the room, one of them holding an oversized plastic chain. That chain led up to the collar of a very scantily clad woman. In fact, I was almost certain I’d seen that exact costume hanging from a rack at a Halloween store. It was meant to be worn by a certain princess in a space opera, held captive by a giant slug.

She seemed to catch everyone’s eye for just a moment—at least every man’s eye. Kerrie loosed two arrows before the rest of us drew our weapons and finished off the criminals who’d been about to pour into the room moments later.

“Grab her.” I pointed at the woman.

Kyle and Marcus were particularly quick to obey that order. The two of them grabbed the woman by either arm while she still struggled to recover her bearings. They hauled her to our rear line while we advanced.

The hallway was full of criminals, all of them with the same glassy-eyed and crazed look as Caesar and his die-hards. I heard the woman behind us scream, and then as one, the crazed madmen charged forward.

Swords flashed and spells flew. I threw out most of my gathered Mana Bolts and called for reinforcements.

“Sharky! Now!” I yelled.

“Nom Nom…” Sharky replied, flowing up behind us.

He slid through the hole we’d made in the prison walls, circling around to strike at the rear of the group of criminals we were fighting. His flanking maneuver would draw off the crazed killers pouring into the hallway, which would be good for us. Neither of us had chosen this room as our battlefield, but if we could push to the entrance and hold it with two of our strongest melee fighters, our ranged could attack with impunity from behind them.

Rick and Frank took the front, while Kerrie and I stood just behind them. We threw out spells and arrows as fast as we could. In moments, I pushed myself to the second layer of Mania and in the distance, I heard Sharky roar with fury. The next few seconds felt like an eternity as the four of us smashed through the enemy’s line before it could form. Behind us, our allies were still getting their bearings.

Rick sliced a level 20 bandit thug in half with one mighty cleave of his axe. Frank took two strokes to dispatch his opponent, but with the help of an Eldritch Blast from me, the way was cleared. We took the doorway and were prepared to hold it against all foes.

That’s when I realized we weren’t the only ones smart enough to make our own entrance.

A fist as big around as my head shot right through the wall beside me. Wallboard flaked to the ground, revealing the concrete blocks behind it and, eventually, the copper-colored skin of a truly enormous man behind it. His other fist followed the first, making a hole large enough to reveal a dull face full of icy coldness. And, much to my growing nervousness, the same distant and uncaring expression of all the psychos I’d come to hate battling my way through this prison.

“Grrr…” the man practically growled as he tore the concrete wall asunder and muscled his way through it, no concrete pillar needed.

Just looking at the man, I could tell that most of his stats had gone into Strength, possibly followed by Vitality. He had blue painted tribal tattoos down his shoulders and arms to his fists. These flowed in a sunburst pattern around his skin, focusing around his knuckles. That was all the look I got at him before he shouldered his way through the wall and stepped into the room, letting loose a wordless battle cry.

“Crap. Stay on the door!” I told my companions, waving some of the rest of my forces forward to reinforce Frank, Rick, and Kerrie while I peeled off to confront this new foe myself. From the sheer weight of his presence, I could tell this was no ordinary psychotic killer.

Bandit Master Brawler (Level 45)

Given his level, there was only one person he could be.

“Knuckles, I presume?”

“Graaaaaaaar!” the man roared wordlessly.

He charged me, fists glowing with crimson light.

The room we were fighting in was spacious, but not nearly spacious enough for my typical fighting style. I was used to having plenty of room to maneuver, so this was less than ideal—especially when I had to be careful not to accidentally hit my allies. Friendly fire, after all, wasn’t friendly at all.

And neither was this behemoth. With this enormous thug’s level, he’d make short work of any of my companions.

But fighting under poor conditions was just part of being ready for battle. And besides, if this guy had made one hole, maybe he could make a few more for me? This place could do with a renovation… I was more in favor of an open floorplan.

I ran toward the far side of the wall, snapping off the occasional spell to keep his attention. This drew Knuckles to the far wall and away from my friends who were having a hard enough time repelling the crazed psychos who refused to die. Even with Sharky’s help, Rick and company were in for a tough fight.

“This way, big guy!” I waved at him.

Knuckles seemed a bit more vocal than Caesar had been, but he still seemed to be decisively on the crazed killer side of the spectrum.

If I hadn’t already spoken with one of his subordinates, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it—just one more crazed killer in the prison complex. But I had spoken to one of the prisoners, one of this man’s chief subordinates. He’d described Knuckles as the one sane man amongst the Three Kings. The moderate option for small-time crooks.

The person before me didn’t look like he was capable of organizing anything more complicated than a beatdown. Just what had happened to the people in this prison?

Before I could truly consider that thought, Knuckles swung his fist at my head. I ducked at the last moment, dodging the golden light swirling around his knuckles just before they struck the concrete wall behind where I’d been standing with explosive force. The wall evaporated like it had never been there.

Knuckles waited for the dust to settle, staring at his own hand as though wondering if he’d destroyed me so completely, he couldn’t see any traces… which was because I’d warp stepped out of his way at the last moment.

I corrected his mistake by jabbing an Arcane Blade through his kidney from behind.

Knuckles turned, stepping back and sweeping his open palm in my direction. But I crouched low and used Warp Step again to slide between his knees, holding my sword up all the while. It was a trick I’d attempted against the ogres, though I hadn’t ever landed the move.

Now, though, Knuckles required some serious medical attention if he ever planned to have kids. I jumped to my feet in front of him again. When he turned his head, I struck his cheek with an Eldritch Blast that knocked him back like a punch to the jaw.

Looking to my left and right, I was surprised to see the afternoon sky overhead. It looked like I was standing in the middle of a basketball court. I’d seen the basket through the window, which was why I’d chosen this wall. This wide-open battlefield was much more to my taste.

“It’s just you and me, big guy…” I said, preparing my spells.

Once I took care of Knuckles, I’d double back and aid my companions, finishing things off once and for all. This was the last of the Three Kings, and when he was dead I’d be able to—

I froze as a bad feeling crawled up my spine. The Luck stat did that sometimes, so I’d learned to pay attention to it. Not a second later, another wall that made up the courtyard of the basketball court burst open. Through it, a tall and lean man wielding an iron spear appeared. Flames trailed along the ground behind him.

I Examined him.

Bandit Spear Master (Level 42)

“Wait…. What?! Caesar? Again?” I cursed inwardly. This battle had just gotten a whole lot harder.

<Note>
Switching the rest of the book from draft 6 to draft 8 (my current version.)
There might be a few tiny continuity issues like Martin being dead in this version, but at this point we're past most of the stuff I changed so it should be fine. This version is also better proofread, since it is about 1.5 editing passes ahead and is a bit closer to the final novel reading experience.

Also, let me know if any chunks of system text are unbolded. Word dropped some of my bold text at some point for some reason.