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"Power is steady, Commander. The battery is charging well; we are now officially a self-sufficient economic outpost," Elena said, checking the two terminals and giving a status report.
"I guess this is it, huh?" Adam looked around with a big smile on his face. "We made home base, ladies and gents."
"HOORAH!"
His declaration ignited the excitement of the squad as they cheered their success, passing around a beverage that Biscuits had a knack for brewing.
As they all took a break from work, Adam and Kave sat down together in the shadow of the silent Rig, reminiscing about the world of old: their friends who used to gather at Kave's house, and how things would have ended up for them.
"We need to do more, build more," Adam said, looking at the place that was once Kave's neighborhood.
"It's alright," Kave said, letting out a long sigh. "We can start dismantling all the houses, even this one."
"I wasn't even going to bring that up," Adam said, shaking his head. "Your house is in a rough shape, but we can still fix it."
"I don't want to."
Kave appeared rather adamant about the house; he seemed not to want it in place anymore.
"You sure about that?" Adam asked.
"Yes. It's just… I need to stop getting attached, that is. Honestly, we're surviving only because of them. If not for that power you have, I'd still be underground until I ran out of food and died."
"You're right…" Adam said, looking at the nine Men-at-Arms he had. He then looked around and didn't see his first summon, Captain Creed. "I guess you are much like the Captain, all stoic and unattached now. He seemed to have packed up and left for good this time."
"The fact that a Paladin stuck around all that time means that he at least thought we'd be of use," Kave replied.
"Well, I, for one, am thankful, and I urge you not to forgo your attachments," Adam said, standing up and turning to Kave. "How about you and I turn this place around for good?"
"The house?" Kave asked.
"Yeah. Instead of paying rent, my minions and I will fix the place if you let us stay rent-free. We will turn it into a command center; there's no need to build something from the ground up when we have a place with a good foundation and some plywood walls."
"Heh!" Kave chuckled, standing up. "You think Elena will let me sit on my ass when the minions do all the work? I am the minion of a minion, you know."
"Ah! I'll talk to her. Take the rest of the day off, and we'll make something out of that house really quickly." Adam patted Kave's shoulder and went off to gather the Trench Dogs for one more construction job.
This time, the Command Center.
✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧
During the first hours of the fall of civilization, many people were attacked by monsters. The lucky ones were killed before they even knew it; some were pulled by monsters, screaming as they were being chewed on; others were disemboweled as the green man-eaters danced around them while they crawled to escape; and others were used as sport by the larger green ones, lined up before being beheaded with a single axe slash.
It was a brutal day, the first day, and nothing stopped the monsters.
At first, the military managed to hold the line despite the losses, but they soon started to run out of bullets. According to an officer, all supply lines were hit; all ammunition factories were either torched by dragons, hit by frost giants, or swarmed by monsters.
It was an invasion, simple and effective. Megan realized it before most people because she was raised in a military family. From a young age, her father instilled in her a strong sense of discipline and strategy, which ultimately saved her life, but now she had hit her limit.
Her group, formed of ten survivors, including her, was supposed to perform a regular supply run as usual. By now, they were proficient enough in these sorts of runs, but things went haywire when Gobzkins started relentlessly targeting them four nights ago.
The green-skinned savages were nothing like they were before. In her regular runs, Megan had applied an isolation and elimination tactic: keeping the Gobzkins spread, hitting them from different directions, and killing the fast ones first. Hobgobs couldn't defend from multiple directions, so with precision shooting, they could be hunted easily. If something larger than a Hobgob appeared, the strategy was to hide and retreat.
Usually, the ones larger than Hobgobs were Brutes, and those were bad news. But during the first day of the supply run, the group encountered what the system identified as a Gobzkin Skulker; in an RPG sense, it was the assassin type.
Almost as tall as the Brutes, reaching eight feet in height, it was slender and scarred with very large curved tusks and sharp nails. Fighting the Skulker was like nothing else, and no matter what they tried, it chipped away at their force one by one until they were down to half their number.
Things looked desperate, and the group managed to take a truck and escape through the city away from their hideout.
But then something started to change about the Gobzkins. At a certain point after Megan's group passed a hypermarket known to be a Gobzkin stronghold, they heard the sounds of engines revving, and as they passed by, three vans started following them as if driven by drunkards.
"Holy shit! Are those Gobzkins behind the wheels?"
As soon as someone said that, a child ran at Megan, leaving the passenger seat beside the driver with her rifle in hand, and moved to the pickup truck's bed.
"Steady the wheel!"
She said that, confirming it with her own scope. Gobzkins were indeed driving cars, and they were recklessly speeding up.
"Those bastards! I was afraid they'd come at us with guns one day, but they learned cars first… this is senseless!"
Megan wasn't in the best mood as she loaded a round into the chamber and started evaluating her options.
Unlike the rest of her group, she had experience with guns far greater than any of them. She grew up shooting all manner of calibers, and her father began teaching her since she was eight. So, what she had under her belt was seventeen years of experience she didn't ask for, but sure as hell appreciated in this apocalypse.
But the most important thing she got…
——————————
Name — Megan Dorset
Role — Survivor
Class — Thief
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Statistics (EXP: 2)
Might — 3
Trick — 5
Spirit — 4
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Skills
— Artifice (VI)
— Athletics (III)
— Charisma (IV)
— Firearms (VIII)
— Handling (IV)
— Sanity (I)
— Stealth (V)
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Powers
— Cunning Footwork: (Class: Thief) You are better at dodging, hiding, and escaping. You are hard to pin down or corner, as your movement is your strength.
— True Aim Rune: (Item: Hunter's Bracelet) Your aim is affixed to a chosen target, subtly influencing your accuracy to ensure projectile strikes or weapon throws find their mark.
——————————
The moment she saw the reflection of her eye in the scope of her rifle, she saw her Status window, assuring herself of her stats and her True Aim rune on the rough bracelet she wore on her left.
"Steady and slow. I'll take a shot."
Megan braced her rifle on the truck's bed, took aim, and relaxed her senses, letting her mind and rune sync together as she peeked through the scope.
The target… a Hobgob, the size of a regular human, in the driver's seat of the first van. The van was packed with Gobzkins, all acting rough and wild, jumping and shaking uncontrollably; and as she focused more on the driver, she could see the path her bullet would take, and…
BANG!
SWOOSH!
SPLAT!
TIIINK!
The bullet found its target with surgical beauty, hitting the Hobgob right in the head and exiting the other side with a splash of green blood and a flying helmet that terrified the hunting party packed inside the van, followed by the crash.
The Hobgob's lifeless body leaned on the steering wheel, and the whole van took a sharp turn, completely falling on its side and making a few barrel rolls. Gobzkins flew everywhere, and with remarkable good fortune, the van hit the other van and totaled it sideways.
"Holy Moly!" Qasim held his head at the sight.
"Megs, you're a goddamn crackshot!" Justin held Megan from behind and started shaking her.
"What did she do back there?" Toby, the one behind the wheel, asked.
"One shot, two vans," Sarah, the fifth survivor of the team, replied.
"Ayo! That's the shit I'm talking about. Go get 'em, Meg!" Toby started hitting the wheel with excitement.
Everything happened so fast, and seeing how masterful her kill was, even the system couldn't help but reward it.
≪ You have gained 4 EXP! ≫
While they were happy, there was still one van left chasing them. Until they got rid of it, they weren't out of the woods yet.
"Alright, you pesky fucks. Mama will send you all to hell."
Megan took aim one more time, and with her glittering index finger, she almost squeezed the trigger before…
"Watch out! Watch OUT! WATCH OU…"
WHAAAAAA!
CRASH!
Megan couldn't tell what was going on since she was focused on her target, but she clearly heard Qasim freaking out, followed by a loud savage cry, before everything turned upside down.
She didn't know what hit them, but as she flew off the truck's bed, she landed hard on the ground and rolled a few times, losing her rifle in the process.
"ARGH!"
The truck her group was in was hit by something big, flew off the street, and crashed into a building like a meteor. In her disoriented state of mind, Megan couldn't even tell how her friends ended up.
"Shit… no…"
Pain was the only thing she felt—a searing agony that consumed her entire being. It was sharp and stabbing, like shards of glass grinding against bone with every breath she took. Still, it was a good thing, as it meant she was alive and not crippled despite her rough landing. However, she needed time to recover before she could move.
The problem here was what followed: the sounds of the Gobzkins' van engine were drawing nearer from a distance, but she could hear something more dangerous approaching, and then a giant shadow covered her.
The moment she turned her head, with blood pouring from her head and scratches all over her arms and face, Megan saw something terrifying.
Among the survivors, there were those who questioned how the military couldn't suppress the Gobzkin horde. While numerous, they were primitive, almost at a Stone Age level. However, in their wake, Gobzkins destroyed tanks, fought against heavy weapons, and sent military helicopters retreating. There was a myth behind all that, and that myth had a name, glaring right into Megan's face.
——————————
[ Gobzkin Gigant ] < Gargantuan Gobzkin >
The largest of the Gobzkin, Gigants tower over 20 feet. They are large, burly, and incredibly dangerous, despite being slow and dimwitted. Their massive size allows them to carry objects of immense weight, which they use for both offense and defense, and they possess an exceptional ability to regenerate.
——————————
The rumors were not exaggerated; in fact, they didn't even come close to the horrifying truth. There, before her eyes, stood the abomination she had only dared to imagine: a giant figure, its head bald and primitive, its face twisted into a grotesque mockery of humanity. Rags, adorned with trophies of rotting limbs and severed human heads, clung to its body. Its savage eyes locked onto hers, promising her a most terrible demise.
In its right hand, it wielded a massive club, a crude weapon fashioned from crushed and twisted lightposts. It raised the menacing club, and Megan knew that this was it; her life was at its end.
But right then, just as she finally stopped believing in miracles, fire erupted from the monster's left eye as a flaming blade passed through its head from behind.
With immense power, the blade was twisted inside the skull, cracking it in a feat almost no tank shell could achieve against the incredibly thick skull of the giant, and then it was pulled back.
"GRAAAGH!"
A deep, guttural roar came from the hideous mouth of the Gigant as it used its free hand to hit the back of its head, trying to shake off whatever stood on its massive neck, but a large armored figure flew from it and landed right in front of Megan.
What she saw in front of her was something she knew too damn well, and it was the last thing she ever thought would come to save her.
"Run!"
With one word, spoken in a cold, mechanical voice, the Star Paladin urged her to drag herself away as he turned to face the colossal foe.
✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧
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