Surviving the Apocalypse with a System.

Beyond Death ( Part 3 )

With the renewed stamina , Jack punched aside a Wailing hound that was in his way before leaping forth and grabbing his fallen sword.

The mage and the reaper tried to attack him at this point , but each got a mouthful of Constricted Surface that sent them reeling back.

The mage easily fell flat on his face , the strain from the relentless attacks over burdening his body.

Jack seized the moment that the reaper was left undefended and moved to run his sword through its chest. He wanted to stab its heart , hoping that that would put it down. Of course it didn’t.

It felt the pain of course, but no critical damage was sustained. Jack had to swiftly yank out his sword and leap out of harm’s way before he got diced in half by the incoming scythe.

“That weapon is now becoming a burdensome nag,” he grunted.

Two hounds , the last of the pack it seemed , tried jumping Jack from behind.

They were either a pair of very lucky canines to have walked through Constricted Furnace unscathed , or the talent’s effectiveness was dropping as its expiration time drew nearer. Whatever the case was , Jack moved to end them before they became a further nuisance.

He jammed the sword through the neck of the first one , already picking out the other one with a vicious kick.

“That’s odd ,” he wondered why the System had failed to award points for the impaled hound’s death. The zombified state had after all not stopped the rewards before.

The luxury to linger around the thought was , however ,not available with the second hound now jumping over the hound he had just killed, baring its gaping maw at Jack’s face.

Dodging it was effortless , and he swiftly struck it down.

[

System Warning

Constricted Surface remaining uptime - 00:00:60:00

]

The second hound too had not dropped anything. As the mage and the reaper stood beside each other , seemingly wary of making any further moves lest they run into another wall of fire , Jack pondered over the strange phenomenon.

Perception kicked in.

“ So this is why no one knows how to kill your kind , isn’t it? You hide your soul in the bodies of one of the zombies you create, don't you ? No wonder I’m getting no rewards here , there was nothing killed , just your soul fleeing from one body to the next !” Jack’s eyes lit up with a mad rush of ecstasy.

“And now it only has one last place to put its soul ,” he smiled at the idle mage.

It was impossible to tell what the reaper was thinking when it lacked a face and all that was visible was the vast expanse of darkness cloaked under its cape’s hood ,but Jack knew he had it figured out.

And even as Constricted Surface died out , he was no longer afraid. All he had to do was kill the already weakened mage , the last remaining zombie, and the reaper would fall.

Sensing that Constricted Surface was gone , the reaper launched a rapid offensive , desperate to end Jack before he could kill the mage. The mage also attacked , but the reaper was making sure Jack wasn’t getting any clear openings to land critical strikes.

Every time he tried to go for the neck , head or chest , the scythe would immediately come tearing away at everything.

He parried one of the reaper’s attacks , matching it in strength at this point.

The rundown tunnel gave away and started coming down in massive blocks of concrete. The mage came tearing through the raining rocks , his axe poised for Jack.

Jack leaned backwards , feeling the sizzling heat from its blade burn at his face as the axe flew past.

The mage was now seriously weakened , unable to properly wield his heavy weapon anymore. The axe slipped from grasp , spinning through the air till it got lost in the downpour of rubble and falling debris.

The reaper tried to bring itself between Jack and the mage again , a vain attempt to protect him.

Jack interpreted this desperate move as an indication that the reaper was incapable of storing its soul in its own body. If it had , then it would have taken it back and fled this losing battle.

He rolled on his knees and slid under the scythe , a move pattern he had already gotten used to, then sent his sword through the back of the mage’s left ankle.

As a blast of grey dust escaped from the injury and the mage was brought down to one knee , Jack turned back and put his sight on its exposed neck. The mage was widely exposed , kneeling between Jack on one side and its master the soul Reaper on the opposite side.

An uneasy stand off occurred as the last of the debris finished pouring down. The reaper blasted forward , its scythe in hand, aiming to get to the mage before Jack could.

Jack had two options as he too went for the mage , putting himself in a collision course with the reaper’s scythe.

One ,forget the mage and instead block the scythe with his sword.

Two , move faster and cut off the mage’s neck before the reaper’s attack ever landed on him.

With his stamina dangerously below 30 % , he went for the second option , choosing to burn away through all the energy he had left with this last decisive blow.

His speed , pushed to the maximum for its current level , was just enough to bring his sword through the mage’s throat before the attacking scythe went across his own body.

“ Aaaargh ! Get out !” Jack heard Aiko scream inside him as the Soul Reaper tried to transfer its soul into his body.

He would have panicked , but the System was already giving out awards . He had won.

[

System information

Soul Reaper defeated.

Rewards ; Summoning tickets x3 , Points 400 , Soul Reaper crown x1 , Soul Reaper Cloak x 1

Personal Attribute upgrade ;

Durability : Level 2 -> Level 4

Strength : Level 2 -> Level 5

]

“Finally , it is done,” he said, fainting off.

“ Bossman , Bossman ! Bossman !” Aiko jumped out of Jack’s body and caught him just as he was about to fall and hit his head against a protruding spire that had come down with the tunnel’s collapse.

He was a bit heavy for her , but she held on till he was softly placed on the ground.

As she had expected , he had completely run out of stamina when he executed the finishing attack.

The best she could do now was stay and watch over him till he recovered his lost energy. Without stamina in his body , not even she could access the System and perhaps do something to speed up his recovery.

Many hours passed before Jack was up again.

When he did come around , he found himself atop a skyscraper with the morning sun warming away the chill of the night from his face.

Carol had lit a fire on a small tin can which Aiko was seated next to with her hands outstretched against the dying flames. For some reason , he hadn’t expected to see her doing that.

“ Bossman, you're finally awake ! Aiko was worried all night ,” she lit up on seeing him , her gloomy face changing in a flicker.

“ Is it morning already? ,” he looked at the sunrise. Caesar’s deadline was up.

Carol too was delighted to see him awake.

“ You said Hamilton Brook is your co-worker , does that mean that the two of you are close ?” she asked ,walking over to him with a tin of pasteurised military beans. They weren’t much , but it was still better than going hungry.

“ Yes we are. Carol was it ? Do you mind me asking where your other soldiers are ?” Jack noted that she was alone.

“I couldn’t ask them to remain behind. They had families of their own to attend to,”she opened the tin and was about to pass it to Jack when Aiko stopped her.

“Bossman ,Aiko does not trust this woman with an ugly scar on the face ,”

“Aiko ?” Jack was shocked at her blunt rudeness and lack of consideration.

“Aiko is sorry Bossman , but she still thinks she has a point. Aiko will only approve of her food when the soldier eats it herself ,” Aiko’s face swelled with arrogance and stubbornness.

“ Fine , here , watch as I eat it. See ? Nothing bad with the food ,” Carol obeyed , quite impressed with the girl’s paranoia. It was a trait that could come in handy in the current crisis they were facing as a planet.

“Aiko will also have a taste. She is willing to lay down her life if it means protecting Bossman,” she took the can and puffed her mouth with three big spoon fulls.

“ So , has the food been authorised by Aiko ?” Carol almost laughed.

“ Aiko has no more quarrel with the soldier. She will continue to keep her eye on her , but Bossman can eat her food in the meantime .”

“ You should be grateful to have fallen on her good side ,” Jack told Carol , laughing as he took the food.

Carol sat down beside Jack , “ You were able to defeat a first class mage as well as that monster that turned Marcus into a zombie. My superiors should have told me that you were a powerful mage .”

“The Bossman is no lowly mage, he has a System ,” Aiko corrected . Jack gave her a look that said ‘ quit yapping’ .

“There’s no reason to be concerned about me finding out about your secrets. At this point , it wouldn’t make much of a difference since people have started leaving the planet.

You don’t know this but ,the government is already making plans of evacuating people through some of the open portals,”

“ Wait , you aren’t making any sense. Aren’t the monsters coming out of these very portals?Why send the people there?”

“The whole of yesterday was spent doing reconnaissance missions through the portals. A few were found to have no more monsters left coming through .

And they all led to the same world , a bit different from earth but still habitable,”

“That is Praiyas , the world is where all the monsters are coming from. Taking the people there should not even be considered an option ,” Jack stood up.

He was starting to wonder whether the government was even trying to help its citizens.

“Look Jack , even our army headquarters have been destroyed. From what I’m getting , entire nations have been wiped clean off the map and I don’t see us faring any better.

This new world they are taking people to, it's not as bad as we may perceive it.

Some have reported seeing lush grasslands , others vast quiet deserts while others have found themselves in beautiful tropical beaches.

And to top it off , every first and second class mage of our country is being posted by the government at these portals to protect everyone,”

Jack turned to Aiko , “ What do you think about all this?”