Chapter 104: In the Meantime

  Jaime looked out through his binoculars at the oversized Chimera sitting in the middle of a couple of redwood trees as it ripped apart the people at its feet. They were already dead. But that was a small relief to Jaime as he spied the literal pile of bones surrounding the monsters. The thing was a monster. Honestly, Jaime had initially mistaken the creature for the Gorgonopsid from primeval until he saw the thing cook its food with lightning.

  "How bad is it?" Blitz asked.

  Jaime turned to find two people; the first was Blitz, a half-orc in heavy armour with a large axe slung over his shoulder, standing at six feet tall. He had the [Berserker] and [Flame Enhancer] Classes. While the second was Sebastion, a [Wizard]. Sebastion was a male Kitsune. Internal Jaime knew that Sebastian was like nineteen, but right now, he looked like a silver fox. Not that he could talk. He had gone from being a lanky black kid from Africa adopted by wealthy parents to looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger dipped in chocolate. Only he had a scorpion tail coming out of his ass and chitin armour flecked with gold covering his body. And he didn't use guns, oh no; instead, he had a vicious spear in his right hand and a shield on his back to fit with his [Spartan] class.

  "I'm not sure yet. Blitz, you got [Identify] as one of your system rewards, yeah?" Jaime asked.

  "Yes, Blitz will take a look," Blitz said, taking the binoculars from Jaime and looking at the monster. A moment later, the big guy tossed the information over to them through Jaime's [Party leader] skill.

  DING!!!

  "How does that thing have the head of a hippo? It has four tusks?!" Sebastion asked.

  Blitz shrugged. "Have you ever seen a hippo skull?"

  "No …" Sebastion admitted why.

  Blitz pulled up the image on his phone, which showed a reconstruction of a hippo skull. The reconstruction did not have any fat, making the chubby hippo look more like a dinosaur.

  "Well, I'm going to be having nightmares about this shit for a week, thanks," Sebastion groaned.

  "Well, I think we can safely say this isn't a safe option to get to Hopkins," Jaime cut into the conversation.

  "Blitz could just kill the thing." Biltz offered as he examined his battle axe for scratches.

  Blitz preferred the direct approach.

  "Yeah, Blitz, let's fight a boss monster ten levels above us. What could go wrong?" Jaime asked sarcastically.

  "What about Nila's family? With her bloodline, she and her family could fly us over. It's not like that thing can fly." Sebastion offered.

  "You're forgetting about the wyvern." Blitz counted. "We take the Atune into the air, and we risk becoming a Wyvern's snack. Besides, we only have seven people with an Atune bloodline. We're going to have to make a couple of trips if the monster notices and follows us back to a camp. What then? Better to just kill it and be done with it."

  "Or we could go around." Jaime offered

  "Ugh." Blitz rolled his eyes. He clearly preferred fighting to extending their trip.

  Turning, they started trekking back to their temporary camp. Blitz led the way himself, using what little fire magic he had to melt the snow in their way as they moved back to camp.

  The camp itself was a mess; five thousand people shuffled together within Aldergrove. Jaime could smell them a mile out before he even got to town. Worse the locals looked ready to run them out of town at any moment. Plenty of people had joined them, thinking they were going on some epic quest. Even more of them joined them in order to escape the roaming monsters.

  Two giant sea turtles swam overhead, with a group of people sitting on their backs, holding rifles and spells, as they watched their surroundings.

  Blitz, Jaime, and Sebastion moved over to their other guild mates. Nila, a half-gnome; Botut, an elephant man; Godic, the wood elf; Maple, another Kitsune; Clover, a half-fey; and Titus, the half-giant, sat around a small table. Titus's dog sat with him. The massive husky was black and speckled with white, almost like the night sky.

  They had split into three groups to scout the fastest path to Hopkins. Jaime had gone with Blitz and Sebastion to the Redwood Park, Godric Titus and Titus's dog had tried to go through Langley, and Nila had flown Maple and Clover up towards the walnut grove. Botut had remained with the refugees, using his necromancy to guard the caravan with a couple of undead monsters.

  Jaime informed the group of the chimera in the way. Unfortunately, that wasn't the only roadblock.

  "You're telling me that Langely is entirely covered in undead?" Jaime asked.

  "It's bad. It was like an episode right out of The Walking Dead." Godric groaned. "We also found out that the frost wyvern we've been seeing is also somewhere in the city using the undead as a food source."

  "What about further north by Walnut Grove?" Jaime asked, looking at Nila.

  Nila shook her head.

  "Sorry, but the area is crawling with people. They shot at us when we flew overhead. We tried to talk to them, but they just started shouting slurs at us. Said they would kill any non-human freaks."

  "I still find it funny none of us are human." Maple chuckled as Nila fluffed her two tails.

  "Why? We're all min-maxers. We pick our races based on stats and skills," Blitz argued. "Blitz is still curious how you and your brother have both a restricted race and a bloodline."

  Sebastion sighed. "I told you I wanted to be a kitsune, and my sister wanted a bloodline. Since we are siblings, the system retroactively applied the upgrade to both of us."

  "That just sounds broken, " Blitz grumbled as he sat down next to Godric, who was half-asleep on the table.

  "That's because it is," Maple said, sticking out her tongue at him. "You should have seen our parent's reaction when mom woke up as a kitsune."

  "I should also point out that Clover somehow got a forgotten rarity bloodline. That is way more bullshit than what we did." Sebastion added.

  Clover shrugged before speaking in a flat tone. "I used my token to upgrade my legendary bloodline I rolled in character creation. It's no big deal."

  As a half-fey, she looked mostly human, with short ginger hair, small pointed ears, and ridges on her nose. Honestly, Jaime was sure she was cosplaying as a fantasy version of Major Kira from DS9, though Clover never admitted to anything.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Nila, the Indian woman who was now half gnome, rolled her eyes. "It's total bullshit, Clover. Your bloodline lets you alter the seasons in a local area. It's pretty broken."

  Clover frowned.

  "Your bloodline lets you turn into a giant flying space turtle, and because our bloodlines were assigned retroactively, your dad and your six brothers can all turn into giant space turtles, too. How is that not broken?" Clover countered flatly.

  "Can we get back on track?" Botut said in his calm Indian voice as he grabbed himself some beef jerky with his trunk. "I swear. Tom is the only person who can keep you guys on track. We need to get to this Hopkins before we run out of food."

  "Or we get killed by the undead. The Wyvern. the blood moon. The giant chimera in the road. Or maybe monsters will just kill us." Nila added.

  "Yeah or that," Botut muttered.

  "We can't fly over using Nila's family without the wyvern potentially noticing. It would take too many trips, and if they get caught in the air, they're dead. Botut, could you move us through the undead?" Jaime asked.

  "I don't think so. My [Dead Friend] skill doesn't have enough range for five thousand people." Botut admitted. "I could easily move smaller groups through Langley."

  "Then we're just back where we started. We'll be fine so long as the wyvern doesn't decide we look tasty." Blitz added.

  "These plans also split us all up and make it harder to deal with any problems that do show up," Titus added as he petted his dog.

  "And there's no point in attacking the wyvern because fighting the chimera or the humans would be easier," Clover added.

  "We can't attack the humans." Botut vetoed that plan immediately.

  "We can't sneak past them. If we get caught, we'll lose the refugees." Nila pointed out.

  "We could go around, but we don't have cars for everyone. I have no idea why the monsters want to slash every tire they come across, but we don't have enough cars, so it would take us at least another week to get around them." Jaime added.

  "Assuming something else doesn't go wrong. I mean, first, it was the cars, then the pride of lions, those eight settlements with slimes and Cannibiles. It's been like ten days. Why are there already cannibals?" Godric groaned.

  "Don't remind me." Maple shivered.

  "It might actually be safer to just kill the chimera, devil you know and all that." Titus, who had been silent until this moment, spoke up.

  They all paused as they considered the idea. Of the variables, this plan had the best chance of success. Unfortunately, it still had some issues.

  "That monster is ten levels above us. It won't be easy," Jaime pointed out.

  "We could try and create an undead strong enough to soften it up." Botut offered.

  "Are you at a high enough level to do that?" Sebastion asked.

  "Not on my own. But Maple, Clover and Nila all have [Taijitu] skill. With Sebastian's help that would give me five people. With a ritual circle, I think we can create a decent [Death Knight] and have him soften the chimera up before we go in.

  "And Blitz could learn its move set," Blitz said, grinning.

  "Godric and I will gather the undead for Botut's [Death knight]," Titus offered.

  "We still need to map out the route we take after it dies, and we'll need to be quick. I'll organize the convoy. We can load up the weak and slow onto Nila's siblings. But we're going to be moving slowly no matter what we do."

  Jaime shrugged. "It's a plan. We can work with it. Let's break up and get this started."

  The convoy broke away from Aldergrove, much to the mayor's relief and started making its way south along sixteen avenue. Jaime could not help but notice their convoy had grown again. Not that he would stop anyone from following him.

  When they got close to the redwood, Godirc and Titus returned with six undead zombies hog-tied together. It was very gross.

  Jaime watched as Botut, Sebastion, Maple, Nila, and Clover finished the preparations for the ritual. All six undead were placed together inside the ritual circle to create the higher-level undead they needed. Without the Wiki, Botut and Sebastion had to use their memory skills to recreate the ritual.

  "Are you sure this will work?" Blitz asked Jaime as they began the ritual.

  "No idea," Jaime admitted.

  "If it doesn't work, Blitz will just kill it." Blitz boasted.

  "Would you mind? We are working," Clover said as she activated her skill. "[Domain of Seasons: Autumn]"

  DING!!!

  DING!!!

  Botut looked over to other members of the ritual. "Alright, so My Death magic mastery is at 174%. What are the rest of you at?"

  "My mastery is 80%." Nila shrugged. While she used plenty of summoning magic, she primarily played the role of a mobile vehicle.

  "I've got 118%," Maple stated.

  "76%," Sebastion added sheepishly. "I'm a generalist."

  "210%," Clover dropped.

  Everyone stared at her for a moment.

  "I'm the bloody [Necromancer], why am I second best?" Botut complained

  "Clover, I love you like the sister I never had, but your bloodline is broken," Nila added.

  Clover just smirked at them. "If you have it, flaunt it."

  "Alright, ignoring Clover's broken-ass bloodline. Let's get in position." Botut cut in.

  All five of them moved to one of the five prongs around the ritual as they raised their hands to begin the ritual. Jaime watched as death magic began to become visible, wrapping around the six undead like a miasma.

  The zombies began to deform and warp as they melted into each other. Their flesh melted like candle wax as the six monsters were transformed into a single abomination. Its legs fused into massive tree trunks armoured in bone, and its arms fused together like play dough. Instead of twelve arms, it had six creepily long arms with too many joints, each capped with ten fingers. Its head was a nightmare made manifest, with mouths, eyes, and ears placed randomly over it with no rhyme or reason.

  Its waxy flesh bulged outwards in odd ways as organs and bones threatened to burst through the skin.

  All three girls took a massive step back.

  "Well, this is just horrifying," Clover said flatly. Their new servant rose to its feet.

  "It will do," Botut stated.

  DING!!!

  "What the fuck happened?!" Maple almost screamed as an abomination rose to its feet.

  "We clearly did something wrong," Clover said dryly.

  "You think?!" Maple asked. "How the fuck is that supposed to be a [Death Knight]?"

  "It's good enough," Botut said. "The sooner we fight the chimera, the sooner we can be rid of the abomination."

  "It's so gross," Nila complained.

  Blitz glanced back toward the abomination. The grotesque creature loomed ominously in the fading light.

  “What are the odds this thing turns into another problem,” Blitz muttered, watching as the abomination twitched unnaturally.

  “It shouldn’t,” Sebastion said, though his tone wasn’t particularly convincing. “The ritual parameters—”

  “Were a mess,” Maple interrupted, stepping up beside them. Her arms were crossed, and her expression was as unimpressed as ever. “Let’s just admit we’re lucky it hasn’t tried to eat one of us yet.”

  Jaime moved over to Botut.

  "So, what's the plan for actually fighting the monster?" Jaime asked.

  Botut stroked his trunk in the same way someone would stroke a beard. "I have a few ideas. Titus already said he wont let his dog come with us for this fight. And we'll need to talk to Nila about a few of them as they involve her siblings. We should also consider talking to some of the refugees. I've tried to help them with their builds where I can, and a few of them are showing some real promise."

  They ended up talking for two more hours about plans and strategies to get past the chimera.

  Mini-Character List

  Jaime the Scorpion King: A scorpion man, a former lanky black kid adopted from Africa.

  Blitz: A half-orc Wields a large axe, stands six feet tall, and favours direct combat.

  Sebastion Sato: A male Kitsune with the [Wizard] class. Nineteen years old but appears older due to his transformation.

  Maple Sato: Another Kitsune, Sebastion’s twin sister. Playful and sarcastic, she possesses a restricted race and bloodline.

  Nila Dhruv: An Indian woman turned half-gnome, capable of turning into a giant sea turtle that can travel in space.

  Botut the Tombmaker: An elephant man with expertise in necromancy and strategy.

  Godric Kimble: A wood elf who scouted Langley and found it overrun with undead. Describes the situation like a scene from The Walking Dead.

  Titus Deadeye: A half-giant with a massive husky, known for his quiet strength and loyalty.

  Clover Lux: A half-fey with a forgotten rarity bloodline that allows her to alter the seasons in a local area. Pragmatic and somewhat detached.

  AN:

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