I gained 90 levels at once, mostly from killing Alarunes; which are apparently big sacks of XP if you get past their defenses and resist their mental control.
Every part of me feels new, my skin feels tougher than ever before, my muscles feel dense and I’m almost certain I could out do some world class weight lifters, my vision is almost uncannily perfect, my hearing is precise, and my mind is sharper than its ever been; my only issue is that I can’t fathom how to control any of it.
It’s like playing a game with the mouse sensitivity turned up too high, I have to be very precise with my movements because the moment I try to put any force into a step I’m nearly catapulted forward.
Normally, I think I’d sit down and slowly work into my new capabilities, but the conversation I’m overhearing between Adelaide and that deer thing kind of tells me that I don’t have the luxury of time.
My quest rewards have been automatically equipped, thankfully. A tight fitting but not revealing green armor covers me from the neck down like a second skin, a silvery battleaxe with a boar motif and a clean leather grip sits holstered at my hip, and on the stump of my right wrist is a dagger with some variety of spring mechanism ready to be summoned with a twitch.
I’m feeling dangerous.
Its not enough though, every enemy sensing ability that I have paints a dreadful picture of the events outside and from what I can hear, the negotiations aren’t going well.
The remains of my old equipment are stacked on a table near the back of the study and about all I can think of doing is gathering what I can and being ready to throw down; so that's what I do. Getting control of my body’s increased speed and strength is the greatest challenge as I scramble around collecting anything that seems remotely useful for a fight.
Its not easy, my hand closes like a vice if I’m not careful and I shatter a few potions trying to pick them up, but eventually I manage.
By the time I’m done collecting my makeshift boar skull helmet, bandoleer, and a bag full of my favorite nasty alchemical goodies and few other bits, I can tell negotiations have broken down completely.
“What you sensed was likely one of my experiments, but I will have to consult within my hive to be certain. It is possible that we have a human guest, though such things are beneath my notice; it is likely that she has already left if she was here.”
“I see… though Adelaide, [Wise Queen], there is one small issue with your claim; I never mentioned the human’s gender.”
Something twists in the air, some strange near imperceptible wave of power that I almost don’t notice, something like the tingling on the back of your neck in a thunderstorm. My vision lights up with a warning from combat premonition, a red line that I know instinctively means death; not injury, not pain, not disability… death. The streak of red seems to bisect the room but more concerning it slices right through where Adelaide is standing.
“Addie get down!”
Time slows to a crawl but I rush forward regardless, through the curtain and onto the balcony, every second creeping by like an hour until I just barely manage to tackle her down out of the center of the attack.
From between the stag’s shimmering crystal antlers, a beam of power screams through the air; even closing my eyes the sheer brightness is enough to sting my retinas as it grazes past my head, searing away my right ear and leaving behind the scent of scorched flesh and smoldering hair.
The attack trails down following that red line in carving a quarter of the hive away, sending it tumbling down to the ground below where it lands with a thunderous crash; silence reigns for a moment after as the sound of crackling timber echoes back from where that furious assault sliced a score of trees down behind it’s initial target.
I’m not sure how to react, Addie… didn’t get out of the attack unscathed; thin pale yellow ichor spills from the stumps where two of her arms used to be and the edge of her abdomen has been sliced away with laser precision revealing twitching innards.
“Addie? Addie! Addie stay with me!”
Pain streaks through me; not from my wounds but just… just seeing her like this.
The first friendly face I’ve met… she probably could’ve sold me up the river if she wanted but… she didn’t and now she’s… calm down Amber…
I manage to avoid hyperventilating and scramble to pour one of her potions over her exposed organs; thankfully it works quickly and I can see flesh and chitin begin to grow in place, sealing her abdomen shut.
“A-amber… wh-why haven’t you run yet?”
A question that I pause to ask myself... why haven't I run?
“Addie, get to the safest place you can in the hive and focus on defense. I’ll try and kite him.”
Probably because I'd feel like a horse's ass if I did. One good turn deserves another and I don't like the idea of cutting and running when the chips are down.
“Addie, he’s here for me isn’t he? Look… I don’t know if I can actually do anything to that asshole but I’m not about to let you die just because you helped me.”
At first, it looks like she wants to argue, but she crawls away into the hive flanked by some of her drones.
As much as I’d like to run and just leave this as a battle of the titans, I don’t think I could live with myself if I did she’s been nothing but kind to me.
|
New Quest: Battle of The Buzz A ravenous army stands at the gates of your savior; ready to rend walls, flesh, and bone with your head as their aim. You could run, it would probably be smarter to do so, but in doing so you would leave those who gave you aid in your hour of need to fend for themselves. That's never been you though, has it? Better get to work. Main Objective Reward: Random Pull Sub Objectives Kill 50 [Devourer Hornets] Bonus Objectives Kill over 50% of fielded [Devourer Hornets] ►Accept◄ |
The light of the afternoon sun is dimmed by thousands of bodies taking wing, blotting the sky; the buzzing of the swarm is deafening, Hornets and Apideans clash in the sky above as that asshole deer casually waltzes forward to watch the fight, intermittently firing off fucking magic lasers into the swarm of bees.
“Pity, I had hoped to end this quickly; Hornets, you may feast as you desire but leave the human’s head intact.”
Hang on… lets go down the list conceited attitude, check, devastating attack, check, mindless army, check; holy shit, this guy is just a straight up anime villain. For some reason this plan is feeling dumber and dumber.
Taking a peek at my stats tells me all I need to know
| Status (Truncated) | |
|
[Bio] [Name] - Amber Primary Class: [Guerrilla Fighter] Lvl 35 [13553/27510] Subclass 1: [Wildheart Berserker] Lvl 24 [1508/8896] Secondary Class: [Combat Alchemist] Lvl 29 [10666/15667] Subclass 1: [Mad Bomber] Lvl 23 [5794/7833] Health - 1343/1743 +406/Day (6317/6717 +1507/day) Phys Def: 149 (387) |
[Status Effects] [Lesser Blessing of Ikenia]
Constitution: 46 (185) Agility: 112 (449) |
Whoa, Now that's a buff, I didn’t even know it went that high... I’m probably going to regret this. I slip my boar skull helmet on and go in for the only play I can think of.
“HEY ASSHAT! YEAH YOU WITH THE SHINY HEADGEAR! TOO SCARED TO TAKE ME ON YOURSE-”
Combat premonition gives me just enough time to avoid another of those fucking laser beams he can apparently shoot, but I’m left with another problem. The floor beneath me rumbles as another slice of the hive makes its rapid downward descent.
I can’t really do anything but brace for impact, but just at the last moment a familiar apidean swoops in to catch me in midair; I’m not sure how I know, but its the one that guided me through the hive.
“This one is curious, what exactly was your strategy?”
“Well, I figured I’d piss him off to keep his attention off all of you!”
“It would appear you’ve succeeded, hold on tight human.”
The deer charges up another shot and I barely have a moment to give warning.
“Dodge left!”
Suddenly we jolt forward into a barrel roll dodging short bursts from that fucking laser deer and only just barely avoid the shots, I swear some of my hair gets singed off by one of the shots, but I’m too dizzy to confirm.
“Hey bee dude, is there a way to make this mana communication thing faster? Like you’re getting commands from the queen right?”
“Yes, though this one is not aware of any way to allow you to connect in the same way. Such things are reserved for the hive.”
Fuck that. Okay… this is an RPG kind of world… I gotta use it’s own screwy logic against it. I do my best to offer directions on how to avoid the anti-air attacks as we spin upwards towards the brawl with the wasps, wracking my brain before a solution comes to me.
Its stupidly simple, but it might work.
[Error: Invalid Target]
[Error: Invalid Tar-]
“Come on, we’ve already been through this...”
[Err-]
“Don’t fucking back sass me you jumped up calculator!”
|
►Y/N |
“YES!"
|
System Alert! Completed Bonus Objective: Do Something Impossible Reward Increased Accordingly ►Accept◄ |
All of a sudden my skull is throbbing with chatter, it’s like my brain has been plugged into a network; I do my best to focus my attention but it’s a straight up headache, still I think its gonna do what I was hoping. I’m projecting the results of combat premonition and Identify physical weakness into whatever channel of communication I’ve tapped into.
[Status Effect - [Bond of The Hive] is now active]
“Amber? How did y-”
“Worry about that later Addie! can you see what I see?”
“Yes?”
“The red spots are where attacks are going to be, the blue spots are weak points! Use it to coordinate your troops and fuck ‘em up!”
“Got it! Amber, I can tell you want to go after Cernunnos, but the hive is wide open after that attack, we need to thin out the hornets before we think about going after him.”
She read me like a book, I was planning on taking the fight to him but it makes sense; this is an all hands on deck situation.”
“Alright, lets do this!”
With that, the tides of battle begin to shift; keeping my eyes open is hard but the more information I can beam into the hive, the better chance they have.
That's not enough though, I’ve got a ton of new abilities available and I’d be remiss if I didn’t put them to use. I should probably start with buffs… it doesn’t take long to figure out how to use the one I have in mind, the anger of the entire hive is rushing through me in addition to my own.
All at once my heart pounds harder, I feel the blood rush to my head as muscles tense all over my body and fear leaves me.
“[Berserker Fury]!”
The air rushes past as we continue taking evasive maneuvers and I can’t help but laugh. For once I feel like I’m in a fight where I can do something; I have allies and tools at my disposal.
“Hey uh… shit what do I call you?”
Odd time to ask, I know, but its sort of important for communication, my Apidean friend answers as we spin out of the way of another beam attack, “This one has no name, this one is war-caste not queen-caste.”
That’s not helpful.
“Fuck that, you’re… Amy. You can pick a different name later if you want but right now I need something to call you. We’re partners.”
“This o- Amy will accept this name.”
“Alright keep us high and use the hornets for cover, but most importantly, fly me closer to those fuckers so I can hit em with my axe!”
Together we speed into the thick of a brawl; the hornets are even larger up close, the fuckers are the size of elephants and they’re moving in tight formation firing off projectiles of their own and making grabs at apideans to try and tear them apart with immense mandibles.
Their stingers flash acid green before firing off globs of some nasty stuff and I don’t need anyone to tell me I don’t want that on my skin.
Lets see if we can’t do something about that.
“[Bestial Howl]!”
From deep within my chest I summon an inhuman howl that breaks their lines with a wave of sound and fury that sews discord through their numbers.
Bobbing and weaving through projectiles from both the air and ground I get a few choice moments to lay into enemies; striking at the perfect moment I manage to slice one of the hornets open from its antennae to its stingers, my axe kicking up sparks as it screams through the black chitin. Seeing the chance, I know exactly which ability to use next.
“[Rallying Cry]!”
“TEAR THEIR FUCKING WINGS OFF! MAKE THEM PAY FOR EVERY INCH!”
My voice rings out and seems to reach even the furthest of the swarm, driving them into a powerful frenzy. Fuck if they don’t make good on my threat, with the enemy lines broken they move as one spitting alchemical acid and fire on the opposing swarm.
Beefed up as I am by Army of One, I feel like my stamina is bottomless and I have so many more toys to play with.
Before I can decide what else to test, someone decides for me; the laser shooting deer has a bead on us and unless we can move unpredictably we’re going down.
As we approach the next hornet I leap off of Amy, pushing her out of the way of the shot; I land with a skull splitting axe blow that shatters chitin and sprays thick black ichor before launching myself towards the next one with a frankly amazing jump.
I’m sent soaring five meters through the air when I kick off and high on adrenaline I plan my landing and gamble on a new ability to carry me through; energy builds up in my feet as I approach the furious hornet, making them glow blue and crackle with supernatural force.
That’s right, I’m using my one ‘spell’ and fuck do hope ‘extreme’ blast resistance is enough to keep the shot from knocking me dead. The words rise unbidden from my mouth as I fly towards my target.
“Power unknowable, power unbound, I command you to rise up and burst! Destroy all that stands in my way!"
"[Arcane Backfire]!”
That pent up energy is released the moment I meet the solid carapace, igniting in a fiery explosion that catapults me once more up into the air leaving that hornet as a smoldering carcass falling to the ground; my gamble paid off, my HP barely budges from the blast! More than that, when I blow the beast out of the sky, my HP goes back up.
[Status Effect - [Bloody Revarie] is now active]
“FUCK YEAH, EXPLOSION KICK!”
It’s a rough landing as Amy manages to maneuver in to halt my descent and my triumph is soon replaced by panic. That deer has a bead on us that I don’t think we can shake; I don’t have any enemies to jump to and pushing off with enough force to knock Amy out of range would put me in open air.
With nothing to lose I try something stupid.
As the beam of searing light approaches I intercept it with my axe… and watch the beam ricochet off its mirrored surface, piercing the skull of another hornet. My axe is left glowing hot but otherwise no worse for wear; I’m not sure what metal its made of, but my previous guess of steel might be entirely off the mark.
|
System Alert! Learned Skill [Parry] Lvl 1 ►Accept◄ |
"Oh hell yes."
“HEY YOU BIG SHINY DICK, TRY IT AGAIN!”
It’s impossible for me not to grin. I think I’ve got him mad, but he’s smart enough not to fire at me directly. It doesn’t matter though, because I can jump like a fucking superhero; whenever I see him ready to fire off a shot, I leap to parry it and send it bouncing off towards a hornet or off into the blue sky while Amy swoops in to catch me.
|
System Alert! Completed Sub Objective: Kill 50 [Devourer Hornets] Reward Increased Accordingly ►Accept◄ |
We play this game for a while and his shots do more damage to his own forces than ours, but battles are an ever changing thing and Addie is quick to direct us where we’re needed most.
"The left flank is being hit hard, I need both of you to bolster them.”
“Got it Addie!”
“Yes my queen”
Just like that we change directions and move towards a besieged squadron holding the hornets out of the now open topped hive and an idea strikes me.
“Amy, bring me in close to that cluster of hornets!”
"Directive accepted, Amber"
We twirl and spin around another set of projectiles until we’re right up on them; trusting Amy to keep us in the air, I focus on one of the vials of alchemical frost on of my bandoleer and try out a new ability, hoping it works as I imagine.
“[Aerosolize]!”
A fine blue mist sprays from my hand in a cone as we swoop by a few hornets, leaving behind thick layers of frost on their wings that literally freezes them out of the sky.
“Fuck yeah! Alright, bring us around to our troops!”
"Alright, I hope this works..."
I repeat the same trick with one of Addie’s elixirs and mist the injured squadron; the healing effect seems to be split between them but a Rallying Cry and another pass with the healing mist is enough to get them fighting fit again.
Similarly another few passes with alchemical fire and acid mists make quick work of a few more of the hornets; apparently I’m a human chemical thrower now.
|
System Alert! Completed Sub Objective: Kill 100 [Devourer Hornets] Reward Increased Accordingly ►Accept◄ |
This whole experience is heart pounding but I just feel amazing, the blur of action swirls in on itself; I don’t have time for fear or doubt and I really enjoy it despite myself. Eventually I’m just leaping around delivering explosive kicks and blowing monsters out the sky while occasionally bouncing magic laser beams away from the apidean troops; I haven’t been keeping count but the piles of bodies on the ground paint a pretty clear picture of my effectiveness.
|
System Alert! Completed Sub Objective: Kill 150 [Devourer Hornets] Reward Increased Accordingly ►Accept◄ |
Oh, right, The System is keeping count.
“Amber, you’ve done enough work thinning the swarm of [Devourer Hornets], you have my go-ahead to start focusing on Cernunnos.”
“Alright! Amy, lets roll up on him!”
“For Hive and Queen!”
Together we rush forward with the aim of knocking that shiny asshole down a few pegs.
It's awesome how the *first* objective she completes is the odd one out. "Unconventional Thinker" indeed
Thanks for the chapter.
through projectiles from bot the air and ground I get a few
both the
Thanks again for spotting that typo!
yeaaaaaahhh this is it ... for chaos ....
Hey, Roxy. I noticed a discrepancy. You used a different color text for [deflect.] When she obtained you colored it green. But, in the status at the end of the chapter(In your author's note) you colored it white.
Honestly, I can't wait until Amber meets another Human.
Awesome chapter. Even though it hasn't come in to play yet, I really like the retractable dagger she has now.
I thought it'd be a nice quest reward for her.
this is very well written, it's riveting, it's just sad that it had to end there, can't wait for the next chapter
Thanks! I was worried it might've been hard to follow and I've been pouring over it for a while working on the pacing.
Thanks for the chapter~!
Truly, an extreme live combat test for her new capabilities.
There's no fire like live fire.