Carnival - A LitRPG Apocalypse

Kev had scratched out a loose map of the area around the portal in the soil. Seven bunkers were marked by crosses and opposite each of them was a circle showing the enemy positions. As he marked each one down he briefly described the strengths and powers of the people in each position.

“This is where your uncle is hiding,” Kev pointed at the furthest bunker back. “I think it’s where whatever is messing with our comms and system interface is as well. I can’t really get a read on the people there but I can sense your uncle. Maybe he isn’t in the team so isn’t protected by whoever's power is screwing with us.”

“I must deal with him,” the boy said darkly. No one felt the need to contradict him but Kev sensed his friend's determination that Armand wouldn’t fight alone.

“I’ll deal with the rovers,” said one of the B-3000s. “I can take them out as I run messages. I’m going to send one chassis back to Wayfaire to organise some support and get the word out.” A drone broke off and disappeared through the blue light of the portal. “I’ll bring through some collars and some more drones to hold the portal while we move out.”

“Thanks Bob,” said Kev. “For us, it’s normal movement formation. I’ll bring us in on the rovers between us and the nearest defences then we wipe out the attackers there. Collar or kill-”

“What did I miss?” called Jane as blasting out a cloud of dust as she landed next to them. Kev looked down at his now smoothed out map and sighed.

“What the fuck did you think you were doing Jane?” he snarled, rising to tower over her. The glow she emitted dimmed slightly before flaring up again.

“I was-” she began angrily.

“I don’t give a shit what you thought you were doing! It was rhetorical! You should have stayed with the team! There are level thirty fives running around that could swat you like a fly!” Kev interrupted. “If you want to be part of the team you need to understand it’s a team. We stick together and don’t just go swanning off to play pyromaniac!”

The girl glowered and her body dropped down through the spectrum to pulse with a crimson light. Kev could see the cloud representing her emotions and he knew what he’d said had hit home. She was angry, for sure, but also ashamed and there was a hint of something he would probably define as determination not cock up again running through her mind.

“I’ll leave breadcrumbs as we go. Traps too but they won’t trigger for bots. That way the drones can come back here and follow us when they need to update or rejoin the main group,” offered Simon as he picked up a pile of dirt and began swirling grey mist around his hands.

“What kind of breadcrumbs?” asked a B-3000.

Simon shrugged. “What would you prefer? Micro transmitters keyed to a specific frequency? Nah, the blocker will negate that… How about an ultrasonic sound or some kind of IR or UV light? Humans won’t notice but it would be clear as day to you?”

“Go for both. Kev, I’m going to reinforce the rest of the bunkers. If they're under control I’ll double back and follow after you lot. Wait here for some gear and reinforcements,” The B-3000s took off in the indicated directions.

“And people think I’m hard to deal with!” said Jane as the other drones turned into columns of dust shooting off in various directions.

“You are!” said Sally happily, earning a scowl in reply.

“I can help. I’ve got Ryn’s power copied at the moment. It’s not as strong but I should still be able to punch up against higher levelled people,” Andrea said quietly.

“Works.” Kev was all business now. “Once we get whatever Bob is going to send through we stick to the normal formation. Bad and Sally out front, the rest of us following with Bolf out scouting. Ryn, Andrea and Jane, stay low. Armand, the first rover is half a click that way. Send some illusions to start messing with them and we can hit them while they’re distracted. Be careful guys. This isn’t training and there won’t be a deus ex machina rescue if we fuck up.”

Ryn wondered if that was true. The drone who had run back through the portal would no doubt link up with her dad and that might pull the Carnival off of their self appointed “don’t let Africa be turned into grey goo” role.

After a few minutes of pacing back and forth, with some low grade bickering between Kev and Jane thrown in for fun, a spider drone emerged through the portal dragging a pallet train.

“Collars and additional ammunition,” it said, waving one of its limbs at the crates. “Christ this is weird. Being cut off from the collective is like losing half your brain. More than half. Load up, kids. Try to take hostages- er prisoners if you can. No need to kill if we don’t have to. Zeeg is still truffle hunting for Doom Eggs but that won’t have been the only one. This is one of a bunch of fires we’re dealing with. The Carnival will come and support if needed. I’ll stay here to carry messages through the portal. If shit hits the fan, get back here and the Carnival will come running.”

They all grabbed a handful of collars, clipping them to their armour. Kev glanced around at his friends. Bad and Sally were cocksure, stood with hands on hips like they thought they were already Sigs. In a way they were. They had the Essence needed to pass level twenty five. The aura of emotions swirling around him had turned a brilliant blue, confidence and certainty radiated from his friends.

“Roll out!” he called.

“Did that sound better in your head, Optimus?” said Bad as he and Sally took off in the direction of the first rover.

“It sounded ok outside my head as well,” Kev muttered at the rapidly receding backs of the pair. Jane, Andrea and Ryn all took to the sky, Jane on a lance of fire, the other two by rapid teleportation. Simon slapped him on the back as they passed, throwing out another weird silver block at the same time that dug itself into a wall. Kev gulped a breath and hurried after the rest of the team.

“We’re clear to the target,” said Ryn, appearing in the middle of the formation.

“Armand, send out the fake Bolfs!” Kev called as he sprinted along.

Illusory giant hounds sprang up around them and bolted forwards. Bolf came back from the north flank, towards the centre of the battlefield, and blended in with his clones as they rushed ahead of the main group.

The rover wasn’t a difficult fight. Bad and Sally charged in as he was swatting at incorporeal Bolfs but as he spun to face the new threat Ryn appeared behind him, sliced away the armour at the back of his neck and slapped a collar around his throat. She might have sliced a chunk of skin and bone away from his back in the process but she wasn’t overly worried about the Imperium’s soldiers wellbeing at this point. You can only see so many corpses before you lose sympathy for the aggressors.

The team stood looking down at the man squirming on the ground and desperately clawing at the nightmarish bioconstruct wrapped around his throat. Claire reached down and put a hand on his armour. This counted as enough to let her heal him apparently and he quickly went still.

“Did you just knock him out?” asked Bad.

“I cut off oxygen to his brain. He’ll wake up in a few minutes with a headache. What are we going to do with him?” the girl replied. “We can’t just leave him here powerless.”

“He’s a bad guy. He’s here to kill people and take territory right?” said Jane. “I can cook him, I guess?”

“No! Ryn, blip him back to the spider. Bob can keep an eye on him,” Kev said firmly. Ryn glanced around and most of the team seemed to agree. Jane wasn’t happy, judging from her expression and Armand looked conflicted. She shrugged, blipped up so she could see, then the man was briefly wrapped in her coolest flames and appeared just outside the shield Simon had set up.

“One down. Two to go till we get to the bunker. Are we ready?” asked Kev. Bad and Sally didn’t wait for confirmation, nor did Bolf; the three of them broke into a run and left the others behind. The remaining team members nodded to each other and began sprinting through the broken streets. The next two rovers they hunted down did as well as the first. Quickly subdued and returned to Bob by the portal.

“Now we need to hit a bunker. This won’t be as easy,” said Kev. He stared at the sky for a moment before continuing. “There’s a full team in there. I think around level twenty but right now I don’t know if I can trust my senses. What have we got that can take them out fast?”

“I could call the pack? I’ve been wondering how that modification will work,” said Bolf. “It summons etheric clones of all my mum’s packs. It will certainly distract them and give us a chance to approach without fear of being attacked directly.”

“Ok. Then Ryn and Andrea can blip in with collars. You’ll need five a piece,” said Kev. Collars were redistributed so the two girls each had six on hand.

“I’ll be left with one reserve after using the ability, so I won’t be of any use for a few minutes.”

“Why not let me summon physical illusions instead?” asked Armand.

“I want to see the dog's big hitter! Don’t be a spoilsport!” said Jane.

Bolf howled and around him dogs began appearing. Every breed and size imaginable materialised around him. Hundreds of dogs rushed forwards, flowing around the friendly bunker and crashing against the attackers like a tidal wave of fur and teeth.

They just kept coming. More and more dogs were summoned as Bolf maintained his howl. Finally three massive wolfhounds appeared and rushed forward followed by a simulacra of Zeeg herself.

“How many dogs has Zeeg got in her packs now?” asked Sally quietly.

“Every dog ever?” said Simon in reply. They hadn’t expected that many dogs. Nor had the opposition. As the howl began the defenders had flinched and spun to see what fresh horror was attacking them from the rear. A few fired off powers at the ghost dogs streaming past them but once it was obvious the beasts weren’t attacking them, and were unaffected by their blasts of power, they stopped.

The other side wasn’t so fortunate. Frenzied attacks washed out at the furry wall rushing at them, none of which did anything to the dogs. The hounds surrounded and infiltrated the bunker, barking and snapping at anything that moved. Their attacks weren’t terribly effective but they clearly still hurt the people now trapped in what had been a forward base.

Ryn and Andrea appeared by the fighting slits and got a quick look inside. The people were hurting each other and damaging the building more than anything else. The girls shared a quick look and vanished, appearing inside behind two of the fighters. A quick sheer and the slap of a collar was followed by them moving to the next pair of enemies and repeating the process. As soon as someone was collared the dogs focussed on the others and as Andrea slapped a collar around the last neck, looking green in the face as she took in the blood and in some cases body parts scattered around the interior of the bunker, the dogs fled out the door and took off into the battlefield proper.

Ryn glanced down at her armour. It was now soaked in red. She blipped out to Claire, wrapped her in fire and blipped her inside.

“Can you help any of them?” she asked.

Claire blanched as she took in the abattoir in a quick glance before she knelt and began resting a hand on one of the dog’s victims arm.

“I should be able to. This is going to take me a while though.”

Ryn blipped back over to the group who were now involved in an argument with the people who had been defending this area.

“What the fuck! Not that I don’t appreciate the help but you scared the shit out of us!” snapped an old man who leant on a walking stick.

“Francois, we are here to help,” said Armand, stepping forward and retracting his mask.

“Comte! You shouldn’t be here! Pierre will kill you on sight!” gasped one of the old man's friends.

“Nah. His goose is cooked!” laughed Jane.

“Are you trying to make cook or cooked your catchphrase or something?” asked Simon. Jane went very quiet and glared at the boy.

“We’ll deal with him. Starfall and Sunstrike are here as well,” Kev said quickly.

“Fat lot of good they did before!” cursed a man with a missing arm.

“We’ve got a healer who can reattach limbs with us,” Kev began.

“Merde. We have healers of our own,” snapped the man.

“Can you move back to the portal? We can’t protect you and press on,” said Ryn.

“Who the fuck are you girl? This is our land!” barked the old man who had spoken first.

“I’m Ryn Borrows. Once Claire is done healing that lot over there she’ll help any of you that need it and then it might be best if you head back to the portal.”

“You’re healing those bastards? Just kill them! Bloody soft children! Why aren’t there soldiers here?” barked the man missing a limb.

“We’ll do what we can for anyone who’s injured,” said Kev. A weight seemed to press down around everyone as he focused his presence. “Identify isn’t working but I don’t think any of you are over level twenty. We’re all above that. We aren’t the children here. Now get your shit together and move back to the portal. There’s a drone there that can arrange for any help you need. Move!” he yelled the last word, causing the adults to flinch.

“Take this!” Simon tossed the old man a device. “It’ll lead you back to the portal. It’s tuned to follow the repeaters I left behind us.”

With a lot of grumbling in French the troopers began moving out. The woman who had warned Armand before rested a hand on his shoulder as she moved past.

When Claire emerged from the bunker her face was pinched and pale.

“We lost three of them. Those dogs aren’t messing around. Ryn, can you port the rest back to the portal? Might be best to get them there before our allies based on what I overheard a minute ago.” Ryn blipped back over and began the process of teleporting the defeated back to the drone on guard at the portal.

“How long do those dogs last, Bolf?” she called as she walked back across what had been no man's land a few minutes ago.

Bolf looked around and shrugged his furry shoulders.

“Probably not too long?” he guessed.