What the fuck.
Blue light flashed rapidly, illuminating the wall and space between Jay and the approaching creatures.
What the actual fuck?
Ground exploded as bolt after bolt impacted the dirt, missing the springing creatures by inches.
This can’t be real.
Jay adjusted his aim, nailing one of the monstrosities in the back. It fell to the ground, twitching before being flattened by a tidal wave of its brethren.
This isn’t real.
The wave reached the wall and surged upward. Jay jumped back and fired his weapon repeatedly as three forms breached the ramparts. Dozens of red, glowing eyes met his own as the creatures rose onto two legs. They stood only six feet tall and were covered from head to toe in metal plating and wire, with only small parts of what looked like skin exposed to the world. Mechanical eyes covered the majority of their heads, twitching as they searched the surrounding area. Metallic mandibles like a fire ant clicked as one creature approached, and two sets of bladed limbs unfolded from its body. They stood for a moment, just twitching as their eyes moved in every direction, before, with a sudden movement, every pulp turned toward Jay. They let out a screaming noise that sounded more like a lawnmower starting than something that should have come out of a living being's mouth. They rushed towards Jay, using every limb to propel themselves forward.
Oh, fuck!
He dove to the side, pulling the trigger of his weapon over and over again, nailing the first creature in the chest three times. It let out a horrible screeching noise and fell to the ground as sparks and smoke erupted from its form. The other two creatures didn’t even stop eviscerating the fallen creature with their sharpened limbs and lunging toward Jay.
He ducked one claw swing, then another, keeping his Empowerment skill on full blast. A bolt of blue flew from nearby, slamming into one of the creatures and causing it to fall over, convulsing. The scent of burning hair hit Jay’s nose as he dodged another claw swipe, but he ignored it. He slid the knife he had taken out of its sheath. It crackled with blue energy. The creature took one last swing missing by inches as he back stepped and drove the crackling knife into ?a gap in its armor and into the flesh below. It let out a scream and fell back. Jay panted as the horrible scent hit his nose once more, and this time he had nothing to distract him. He vomited.
Wiping his mouth, he picked up the crackling weapon next to him just as four more of the creatures hopped over the wall. Screams erupted ?nearby as others soon found themselves in the same situation. Jay tuned them out.
They aren’t real. I can’t save them. I need to focus.
He knew deep down that he was right, but the haunting sound of someone screaming for help, abruptly getting cut off, wasn’t something he would ever forget. Hours passed, and bodies started piling on the edge of the wall. The creatures now not only scale the stone encampment, but also the corpses of their brethren to continue their assault. They did so without even sparing a thought for the corpses. Not a look back or a mournful cry, only a deep mechanical whirring and the clicking of metallic pincers.
Another hour passed, and Jay wasn’t sure how he was still going. He had to deactivate his Empowerment skill, only using it at the last second to make sure his dagger punched through armor. His reserves were getting far too low for anything more than that. Lan had thought quickly when the battle kept dragging on and taught him a way to slightly speed up his Spirit production. By using his Breathing and Blood Flow to their maximum whenever he had a slight break in the action. He was able to gain a good amount of energy back. It was probably the only reason he was still going. Parts of his armor had shattered, and cuts had begun accumulating across his body, but they were all minor.
He pulled the knife from another one of the creatures spinning around and delivered a slash that sparked, sending another reeling back.
Spirit: 132/1400
Will: 16/348
He was surrounded. Even if it came down to using Defiance, his will still hadn’t recovered enough to give him more than 16 seconds with the skill active. Well, it would last that long if he kept his Spirit usage to under 8 a second.
Spirit: 116/1400
This wasn’t good. There were too many of them, and he needed far more energy than 8 to put one of those things down. The circle closed in tighter as Jay kicked another creature back, smoke pouring from a wound in its chest.
Spirit: 93/1400
Jay’s heart raced, and he wasn’t able to keep his breathing under control as he just barely avoided claw swipe after claw swipe. He cried out in pain as a slash came from behind, passing through a space where his armor had broken and tearing into his calf. He fell to the ground, spinning around just in time to parry another strike from one of the creatures.
Spirit: 87/1400
This wasn’t going to work. He needed to use Defiance if he wanted any chance to survive this. White energy began radiating off of him as he pushed out every last point of Spirit he had and prepared to activate the skill for a last-ditch attack. A loud noise that sounded like a short circuit scaled up several times louder echoed out, causing Jay to clamp his hands over his ears. The creatures paused mid-swing, waiting for a few moments before turning and running back toward the pyramid. Jay sat stunned and panting as he looked around, and he found similar scenes repeating all over the side of the wall.
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What the fuck just happened?
“It ran out of energy,” Lan said.
It? Alright, pause for a second. What the actual fuck did I just fight?
Jay pushed himself back to his feet, panting and wincing as he put weight on the leg that had been cut. He channeled a handful of Spirit down to the leg and cycled just enough to form a scab over the deep wound. Only now that the fighting had finally ended did he notice that the world was still pitch-black. They had been fighting for what felt like hours. Surely, the sun should have come up by now.
Lan sighed. “What you just faced are Solinoids that are still connected to their hive.”
Does whatever planet this took place on not have a sun?
“Kind of its complacated.”
What do you mean its complacated? Also, what were those things before... you know?
“Elves.”
Fuck.
“Don’t think about it. They are nothing but mindless ants performing whatever dance the AI and its nodes give to them.”
Nodes?
“Solinoids that lived long enough to reach a level where the control of the hive begins to break down, giving them their own minds. That pyramid probably contains one of them, and that actually is a perfect segue into the complicated part. This planet does have a sun, and you have been looking at it.”
Uhh, what?
“The pyramid, Jay. They ripped the sun out of the sky when they arrived, strapped it into that machine, and are slowly draining the poor star for enough power to connect the core AI. You're lucky that it's most likely a new node assigned to this planet. Most of the more experienced ones would have continued their assault even when they needed to let the star rest.”
That’s fucking terrifying. Are those things coming to earth?
“Yeah, but it's not going to be like this. Nodes only start to appear around Level 50, and that's extremely rare. You will only have to face a few of those things around Level 24, and they’ll be going berserk because they are cut off from the hive. The things normally cause enough of a ruckus that they get whipped out in the first week. They really are not a threat without a mind behind them.”
Huh. That’s good, at least.
“If you're wounded, please gather down here!” a woman yelled from the large open space in the center of the fort.
How long do you think I have until the next wave?
“Check your quest.”
Can I do that?
“Yeah? I thought you knew; you seemed more willing to use Spirit when the timer was getting close to zero. Even burned through about 60 in the last minute.”
God damn it!
Jay made his way off the wall and down to where the woman was indicating. A few moments later, after finding out he had eight hours until the next wave, and complaining that he didn’t find out about that sooner. He found one of the lightning weapons and picked it up, unsure of whether it was his or not.
Jay sighed. Even if it's not, they don’t need it anymore.
The woman waved him into a tent and took his rifle. The flap closed behind him, and he half-expected a healer. Instead, the room was just occupied by a single cot, and a screen popped up.
**
This is a dungeon rest zone. Would you like to heal all injuries?
Cost: 100 Points
Y/N
**
Uhh, Lan, what is this?
“Something you should say no to. Just use this space to rest for a while.”
He glanced down at his calf, where a large scab had formed. What about my leg?
“The healing isn’t any better than what you can do. Just get some rest and save the points.”
Jay shrugged, walked toward the cot, and lay down. A sigh escaped his mouth as he did. Even if it wasn’t the most comfortable, the relief from finally being off his feet was more than enough to carry him off to sleep. A dream from back before everything happened played out in his mind. One where he went to work that day and everything went fine. One where he was absolutely miserable.
He was awoken around 5 hours later as Lan mentally prodded him. He groaned. “What is it?”
“Three hours left before the next assault, and you still need to go through your notifications and get your weapons.”
“You sure I can’t get, like, thirty more minutes?”
“No. Your Spirit is full, so stop being a baby and get up.”
“Fine.”
Jay reluctantly pushed his way off the cot and nearly stumbled. Ugh, I need to stop getting hit in the fucking leg.
Forcing his way through the pain, he stood and opened up his notifications.
**Skill level increased: Endurance 4 - 8**
**Skill level increased: Firearm Mastery 2 - 4**
**Skill level increased: Multitasking 5 - 6**
**Skill level increased: Basic Spirit Control 10 - 14**
**Skill level increased: Basic Spirit Empowerment 12 - 14**
**Skill level increased: Basic Spirit Armor 12 - 14**
**Skill level increased: Misdirection 5 - 8**
**Skill level increased: Regeneration Boost 4 - 6**
**Skill level increased: Will Sight 1 - 2**
**Skill level increased: Basic Blade Combat 6 - 14**
**Skill level increased: Basic Weapon Knowledge 1 - 3**
**Skill level increased: Basic Weapon Knowledge - Firearms 7 - 10**
**Proficiency Threshold Reached: Class Upgrade Available**
**Experience threshold reached: Level 14 - 15**
Holy shit, he thought.
He knew fighting for that long was bound to get him a good amount of levels, but he had never expected this. He had still been around twenty levels away from tiering up. He could barely believe he had gotten that much from one siege, even if it had lasted hours.
So, uh, I need to do more dungeons.
“Uh-huh. First, you're gonna want to upgrade your class, then survive this one, but yes. You should definitely do as many of these as you can.”
Oh, right. He focused on the message saying that he had a class upgrade available, and a new screen appeared, containing several unique options.
Huh. Well, that’s interesting.
