Apocalypse: Regression

Over the roaring battlecries of the soldiers behind him, Nick heard Mr. Walters yell, “This is it! This is what we’ve been training for, Nick! Let’s teach these bastard monsters the metal of man and show them the glory of those who worship at the altar of steel!”

As much as Nick wanted to share in the collective furor, to pump himself up before the battle, all he could think about was the fact that every time he hit the comm and tried to communicate with Allen to arrange an extraction, nothing happened. He didn’t even have any signal. All he got when he tried was feedback that came in waves like it was a signal of its own.

“Still answer from the base?” Seo-ah asked, their eyes very keenly aware of the snow harpies that were now circling nearby, the loud shrill shrieks reminding Nick and his crew that there was no escaping the battle ahead.

“I wish it were that, but it’s worse: no signal. I can’t even leave a message,” Nick grumbled as he jammed the button to activate the communication system a few more times. “How the hell did these techless bastards block our signals?! This is so frustrating!”

“It could be a catch-all spell, a magic that seals in everything here . . . or it could just be that the concentration of so much mana and power in this one area from the thousands and thousands of incredibly powerful monsters is itself acting as a signal blocker,” Topaz speculated, offering a few reasonable explanations.

“Where the hell is the glasses kid when you need him?” Reggie huffed.

“Glasses kid? If you mean Spencer, Nick phased him out of the main rotation after he almost got everyone killed, remember? He was too eager to attack and couldn’t wait for orders,” Elizabeth explained.

Main rotation? Phased him out? What are they talking about? Nick blinked, a little surprised at how others saw the situation. In truth, he’d just taken the people that were available at the time, and Spencer had been busy, but it made sense to him how they saw it that way.

“Yup, and now we’re a mage down,” Maria complained, “And about to fight against an endless horde of monsters. Yay.”

“We need Cloak of Madness,” Topaz said. “My nerves are killing me.”

“Same,” Christina admitted. “But hey, it’s a good day to die.”

“Agreed on the cloak,” Mr. Walters stated. “I’m not scared, but I could definitely use the power up if I’m going to punch those things to death.”

“Got it,” Nick replied, steeling his own nerves as he prepared to rush into the largest battle of his life, against an army the likes of which he hadn’t seen since the Apocalypse, and he couldn’t reach anyone to tell them he needed backup.

“I’m using the Cloak of Madness!” he announced to the others as he charged down toward the enemies, double-checking his new skill, Faith of the Fervent, which he’d gotten by copying Father Kirill’s ability. It had a short duration, lasting only his charisma count in seconds, and ate 5% of his mana on use, so he had been careful not to activate it too early, but now was the moment.

It was exactly like Pep Talk in that it boosted those around him—so long as they believed in him—but unlike pep talk, Faith of the Fervent boosted the stats, not the skills, of those that were affected, increasing their magic, strength, aura, or agility stats by 16.4%, the same amount that his Cloak of Madness added.

Yet, even with that boon; the 114.8% skill boost from Pep Talk, which became 229.6% because of Cloak of Madness; the 200% maximum potential damage buff of the Standard of Greatness; and Topaz’s agility tonics, which they were all about to chug, he still looked out at the enemy ahead of them and knew there were too many to be certain of the outcome.

Nick, summoning his courage and reminding himself of why he was there in the first place, raised the Standard of Greatness into the air, its magic pulsing through him and the knights around him, as he yelled, “For victory! FOR HUMANITY!!” before hurling the standard as hard as he could like a javelin toward the center of the bridge.

The throw had more force and strength behind it than any he’d made before, and as the standard struck the bridge, point first, digging into the center, a wave of magical energy exploded out of it, erupting outward in all directions, forming an enormous sphere.

“Woah!” Seo-ah exclaimed as she charged beside Nick, noting the new effect of the standard, which seemed to have responded to Nick’s desperation to succeed, to come out of the battle without having to bury a friend.

“Seo-ah! I want you to know that, whatever happens”—he looked over at her, knowing this could potentially be their last minute together—“I love you, and we’re going to face it together!”

Seo-ah gave him a small smile as she ran beside him. “I love you, but don’t raise flags like that. We’re going to win!”

As they reached the center of the bridge, the moment became anticlimactic. Not a single monster attacked them. The dire wolves, the gulo gulo, and the other monsters were instead just staring at them from several hundred feet away as the snow harpies began to circle around them from above, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Nick stood there, anxious, even more so than if the fight had already begun, as he watched the monstrous forms pacing back and forth in front of him. He pushed away the feeling and started calling out orders to take advantage of the scenario as he felt the power from his title Hundred Fold Victor surging through him. "Everyone, form up! Mages to the center, knights on the perimeter!"

As they were forming up, a loud explosion sounded out behind him, and Nick turned to see a massive spear of ice sticking through one of the soldiers they’d come with.

Behind them, dozens of juvenile arctic vulpes sealed off their exit as they crawled over the sides of the bridge like a horde of large six-legged fox-shaped spiders.

“Ambush!” the knight next to the one that had been struck yelled as beams of ice magic and hundreds of sharp icicles shot their way.

Reggie quickly activated his armoring ability to block the next strike.

An orange shield appeared around everyone a moment before a large icicle hit Nick’s chest, shattering it into a mist of ice as Reggie’s armoring ability blocked the incoming projectile, leaving Nick’s heart pounding at a thousand miles an hour, chaos exploding around him.

But it only took him a moment to come back to his senses, and he saw that while Reggie’s talent had saved him, it hadn’t saved one of the knights behind him. The soldier had been pummeled by so many attacks that, even after the orange shield blocked the first one, the second, third, and fourth all smashed into the unfortunate knight, crushing and piercing him to death.

“Stupid, freaking mutts, trolling us like that!” Seo-ah yelled in anger as she channeled her righteous holy fire at one of them.

At the same time, two of the mages in the back-most line, who had positioned themselves behind the initial shield wall, manifested large balls of crackling purple energy that exploded outward from their chests straight into a pair of vulpes, incinerating them on the spot.

Meanwhile, Maria abandoned rank to charge the enemy, her sword flaring with Holy Flame. She swiftly cut down a vulpe as it was about to launch a massive ice spike. She then spun, her sword chopping through the neck of another before she kicked its body at a third to keep the creatures at bay, but even as she succeeded, Nick was mentally panicking.

“Don’t break the line!” Nick shouted at the rebellious hero, unable to divorce her success against the vulpes with the gaping hole in the shield wall they had just formed.

He had expected that the monsters would be clever, but he hadn’t expected this. They had not only predicted his every move but laid out the trap perfectly for them, baiting them onto the bridge and encircling them just like they had encircled the Black Witch’s castle. Now that the trap was sprung, there really was no turning back, no retreat.

“For the glory of Our Lady!” one of the knights yelled as she slammed her sword into the ice bridge before pulling out a javelin and throwing it. Several of the other knights did the same, their shields held close to their chests as they threw javelins at their foes.

However, even as they weakened the ranks behind them, it was too late. The monsters that had been keeping their distance, waiting, drooling for battle, charged the moment the chaos broke out, rushing toward the front line. Nick made a tough call and split the forces down the middle.

“I’m backing up with Seo-ah! We can maintain the front! Mr. Walters, clean up the back! Take out the vulpes as fast as you can, and Elizabeth, Arnold, Christina—you work with him! Maria! Get back in formation! Topaz, give us a snare on the front, and Reggie, thanks for the save!”

No sooner had the orders been issued, the group split, and new lines formed than the snow-harpies descended upon Nick and the others. One of them dove like a falcon, latching onto the Weight of Dedication with both talons. Its wings beat furiously as it started to ascend, and Nick felt himself momentarily airborne.

Nick quickly increased the weight of the weapon, dropping the harpy and himself to the ground, the small ice spikes on the bottom of his boots digging into the ice bridge as he landed. Another harpy dove and grabbed the other side of the spear, and Nick’s boots scraped against the ice bridge as he was dragged forwards, fighting against the harpies to free his weapon, raising the weight more and more.

As he struggled, Nick saw one of the gulo gulo charging at him. He wanted to raise his feet to defend with the only two limbs that were free, but he knew the moment he pulled his feet off the ground and gave up the little traction he had in the tug of war against the snow harpies, he’d be airborne. It’d be a death sentence.

Instead, he had to trust in Reggie’s armor as the gulo gulo slashed at him. Pain erupted from his abdomen, and even without piercing the armor, the powerful attack made him feel like he’d been hit by a dozen bullets.

“I got you!” Seo-ah yelled out from beside him, stabbing up into the air at the harpies rather than at the gulo gulo attacking him. Her spear thrust out, small petals blooming as it exploded with aura, ripping through the snow harpies and freeing up Nick’s weapon.

Nick quickly seized the opportunity, stabbing down with as much force as he could, the weight of his weapon already increased exponentially in his efforts to stop the harpies. The hundreds of pounds of steel rammed down into the gulo gulo’s head, shattering its skull and killing it on the spot.

But before Nick could take a breath, the dire wolves charged in. “Shield!” Nick yelled in panic as he saw the wolves, which were nearly as big as mid-sized sedans and capable of completely wrecking Nick and his team’s battle lines.

A second later, someone kicked the shield of the knight that had died in the opening salvo toward Nick. He bent over, grabbed it off the ground, and raised it in front of him.

The next moment, several hundred pounds of fur and fang hit. Even with his strength boosted from his titles and skills—even bracing for the impact—he felt himself nearly thrown backwards from the sheer physical momentum of the creatures slamming into him.

Then Nick felt a set of hands bracing him, and he turned just enough to see a shieldless knight, face bloodied, pushing his back, giving him the support to overcome the wolves.

“Strike!” Nick shouted as he ignited his spear with Holy Flame and stabbed into the creature in front of him, slicing through thick fur and then wrenching the spear free to open the monster’s belly.

All along the line, swords struck over and between the shields, stabbing into the dire wolves’ maws and exposed underbellies, turning the snarls of the creatures into pained whimpers. The wolves twisted and turned away from the knights, giving the line of soldiers a moment to breathe.

Yet, even though they’d butchered the first line of monsters, Nick could see what still awaited them: the endless tide of horrors behind the beasts they had just slain, numbering in the thousands as they threatened to wash over the small force.

It was at that moment that a trumpet sounded, and a light descended from the heavens onto the battlefield. The sound of a dozen more horns filled the battlefield, and Nick heard a thunderous crack—the castle gate opening half a mile away. Then, a voice he’d only heard in his mind covered the battlefield, wrapping even him in a hazy cloud of battle fervor, power filling his muscles as he felt his body filled with newfound strength.

“LET THE LIGHT OF THE HEAVENS RAIN DOWN UPON THESE BEASTS AND PURGE THIS DARKNESS FROM THE LAND!” the saintess echoed throughout the world around him despite the fact she was a hundred thousand monsters away from him. Her voice sounded just like it had in the vision she had shown him, the one where the monsters had overrun the fortress and killed every human.