Travis's Journey Through the Apocalypse

Chapter 22

The Master?

The man said all this with a winning smile plastered across his face. I stood there for a second, shocked at the bluntness of this man. Join or die. No, not even that. Join, and only some die or don’t join, and everyone dies. Not really an appealing option either way. I finally found my voice through the shock and couldn’t help it. I started laughing.

“Okay, wow, wasn’t expecting that, if I’m being totally honest, and The Master? You gotta be shitting me? You couldn’t have been more unoriginal if you tried. I think you better go ahead and fuck right off. We’re good, and if this “master,” Goddam really the fucking Master, gives me a break, wants to come to get his or her ass kicked, then tell him to stop by, and I’ll gladly kick the shit out of them. You know, thanks for stopping by. You’re a pleasant fellow, and I got a good laugh out of your visit. Your gonna half to fuck right off with that bullshit, though.” I said to the man. I couldn’t help but let out a few more chuckles and whipped my eyes.

However, that did not seem like the answer the man was looking for because the smile plastered onto his face for most of the conversation had begun to fall. I mean, I did literally just tell the dude to fuck off. When I was done talking, he was one hundred percent giving me a dirty look, and when he spoke, he had lost the jovial tone of his voice. However, the smile was only off his face for a few moments, and the next second, it was plastered back across his face. Then he said,

“How sad. Another is to be added to the culling. Truly I thank you for your choice. With your deaths, The Master’s power will grow. So I will not fault you for your choice, but thank you for donating to the cause.”

The man then bowed at the waist, smiling the whole time. Then he turned and started walking back down the road from where he came. What the fuck was that? The Master? Like, what the fuck? Honestly, this doesn’t sound great. It sounds like this, “The Master” coming for use.

Even if I killed that guy, it seems like he was just the messenger, and “The master” already knows about us. So it probably would have been pointless, but maybe I should have just killed the guy to be safe. Fuck it either way, “The Master” was coming. One thing that had been bothering me this whole time was that this Basic bitch, The Master was a master of what? Of all? Of being a basic bitch fuck that was annoying. The whole thing was interaction was pissing me off the more I thought about it. Fuck should have just killed that guy. Maybe It would have made me feel better, at least.

I asked the guards to open the gate and to let me back in. Once back behind the walls, I walked over to Beth’s room and knocked on the door. Devin opened it in his boxers, and I was a little shocked to see him in Beth’s room so early and with such little clothing on. Then I put two and two together and realized that Devin and Beth were sleeping together.

I had seen them together walking around the village, and they were spending a lot of time with one another. I thought that was just for council stuff, shit. I guess I missed that one.

“Hey, Devin, is Beth in there?” I asked him.

“Yeah, I’ll let her know you’re looking for her. Why don’t you wait in the living room? Devin disappeared back into the master bedroom, and a couple of minutes later, Beth walked out. She was still putting her hair into a bun as we started talking. She led off by asking me what was happening and why I had woken her up before seven am. I was about to start telling her about the man I had just met. Then, I thought bout it and decided it might be good to get Devin’s input if he was here already.

Beth said he had gone back to sleep and we should just let him sleep. Beth said that he had a full day of dungeon runs ahead of him today. That was fine with me, so I told her about the weird experience I had just had and about this mysterious The Master character the guy had talked about.

At first, Beth was quiet, and I could tell she was thinking. We sat in silence for about three or four minutes while Beth thought, then Beth spoke and fucking startled me when she did. Beth laughed and then apologized for scaring me. I said it was fine, and then Beth shared what she had been thinking.

“Well, first off, the man was extremely confident, so either this “Master” is very strong or has some kind of mental sway or mind control over those who follow him. Maybe The Master is responsible for what happened to Rose’s people? But I’m getting on topic. Like, this guy shows up, and he’s just okay with letting us all die? That’s not a reaction I feel most humans would have. Especially not after so many of us died during the integration. I feel like most humans have an innate aversion to ending a life, and this man was just willing to let us all die.

He either sees no way of escape due to this “master’s” strength or sees resistance as futile. That guy might be suffering from some kind of Stockholm syndrome. That’s my best guess, at least. Either way, there probably is this “Master,” and it looks like this “Master” has set its sights on Tree House Village.” Beth finished. I had to think about what Beth had said. Beth made a lot of sense, and I had to admit that I was a little worried about this Master dude.

That afternoon, we had a council meeting, and we agreed that sending out some advance scouts would definitely be beneficial. If this “master” dude was actually coming for us. It would be best to have as much advanced warning as possible, and we didn’t have to wait long. It was only about two weeks later that a scout missed a check-in. They waited an hour and then sent someone to check on him. When the scout came running into view thirty minutes later, we knew we had a problem headed our way.

When the scout finally returned to the walls, Janet, Beth, Brianna, and I had already been notified and were waiting for him. We had to let the man catch his breath before he could explain what he had been running from. “Hundreds. Hundreds of them all headed this way. Creatures of all kinds and so many. I’ve never seen so many together. They’re all swarming this way. You should be able to see them soon. The scout then turned to watch the horizon. It didn’t look like the scout would continue talking, so we all turned, watched, and waited.

The members of Tree House Village had been rising in level. The majority of the residents of the village were at level seven now. Brianna, Rich, Devin, Tess, and Frank had all reached level ten and had taken their classes. Brianna was a Scrapper and had abilities similar to Janet’s. Rick and Devin had a class called Worrier, which gave pretty standard abilities that let them take more damage or control a crowd.

Frank had picked a sum what controversial class, corpsman. Now, you would think the class would have something to do with necromancy, right? Wrong, totally wrong. It was a medical class. One of his two starting abilities had something to do with not being noticed during combat. So he could pull injured soldiers from the battlefield more easily. The other ability was a minor healing spell. The spell would not heal the person directly but would assist their body’s natural regeneration rate to allow their own body to heal itself more efficiently.

Tess also took a magic-based class as well. She had taken a class called Hedge Mage. Tess got two abilities with her class, just like everyone else, but they were all magical. She had an attack spell and a defensive spell. It turned out that Tess’s class choice differed slightly from the rest of ours. First, when she had finally decided to go with the Hedge Mage class, she had chosen the class but was then prompted to select an element to specialize in.

Tess had chosen the element of water, and I didn’t know why at first. I would have gone with fire, personally. Who didn’t want to throw fireballs around? When I asked Tess about it, she just told me that she had always loved the water. That she had always felt free and unburdened when she was on the sea. I didn’t totally get it. I mean, I hated the water. Boats and I never really got along, but if it worked for her, that’s all that mattered, right?

Tess had an attack spell called Water Jet. Water Jet allowed Tess to summon a small amount of water and shoot said water at a target with enough power to cut through a thin piece of metal. I know because we tried it. When testing her abilities. Tess’s defense ability was called Torrent Shield. This ability would summon a quickly spinning disc of water about five feet in diameter right in front of Tess. It would last as long as she had the Mana to sustain it, which was handy. The ability was pretty Mana intensive, but her shield could stop even a blow from my Teremnocal, leaving my weapon stuck fast halfway through the disc.

Both Frank’s and Tess’s classes seemed like great choices, but Franks’s ability to pull people out of battle unnoticed was only effective if he did not get involved with the fighting. As soon as Frank attacked someone, he would be revealed, and with his lack of offensive ability. In a serious fight, Frank would basically become a sitting duck.

All told, I thought we had the makings of a reasonable fighting force. If we had another six months, we would have a genuinely deadly fighting force on our hands. As I watched the united group of monsters crest the horizon, I felt the breath catch in my throat. I was suddenly hit with a feeling of dread. Could we do this, or did I sign our death warrant? The wall of monster bodies stopped its approach about one hundred feet from our walls, and after a moment, I saw a familiar figure step forward, a winning smile on his face.

It was that dam, smelling, fucking asshole. As I watched the man, he began to stroll towards our walls. That smile on his face was looking increasingly smug the closer he got. When he was in speaking range, he stopped and looked up at us at the wall.

“Hello, I’m afraid the day has come, and it is now time for a decision to be made. You see what is before you, and you must now make a choice. This may be presumptuous of me, but you see the insurmountable force gathered before you. May I welcome you to the fold or…?” The man let his last word hang as if waiting for an answer.

Beth had a looked on her face like she had just smelled something foul, and Janet just looked made, like she wanted to rip this guy a new asshole. I turned back to the man still just staring at us atop the walls. I decided I was done playing this game. I pulled a spear from one of my bags of holding, and without any abilities activated, it took only a second to pull my arm back and let it fly. My spear traveled fast, and before the man could move, my spear smacked right into the middle of his face. His face just kind of popped, and blood and brain matter went everywhere as I spear exited the out the back of the man’s head.

“Well, that’ll wipe that fucking smile off his fucking face. Piece of shit.” I spoke. Everyone near me on the wall turned and looked at me, shocked I’d just killed this guy so quickly and without remorse. “What? Fuck him. He was dead already. He just didn’t know it yet. I just sped up the process.” I told them. Janet just smiled and shook her head. Beth just looked at me with a disapproving glare and then said,

“what’s done is done. Looks like we’re gonna be in for a fight. Get our forces ready because here they come.” As she finished speaking, she pointed to the monster who had begun their charge. I looked at Beth and told her that Janet should rally the troops. I was going to give them some time to prepare. At that, I stepped off the wall, landing with barely a knee bend. I pulled my Teremnocal from my bag of holding as I fell, and once my feet touched the ground, I shot out toward the enemy.

I cut into their front lines with my first strike, dropping half a dozen attackers with a single blow. Then I darted back out of range with Step Lightly, then darted back in, activating Quick Strike, dropping another dozen. I then repeated my hit-and-run strategy again and again. I was only one man against hundreds, but I was definitely dealing so serious damage.

While I was retreating from my most recent attack, a creature must have caught my leg, and not only did it rip my leg up from mid-shin to upper thigh, but because I was mid-Quick Step, I was sent flying through the air. The only good part of the whole fucking thing was at least I was flying towards our walls.

As I hit the wall hard, I might add, I was less happy. I dropped to the ground in a heap. That hurt. As I attempted to return to my feet, I could see the monster tide falling upon me. They were only thirty feet away and gaining fast. My leg was killing me, and standing was challenging but manageable. I readied myself for a fight as the hoard pressed towards me, but before I could do anything, a volley of arrows slammed into the front line of our enemy.

Roars of pain ripped through the air. Then, as the creatures were still reeling from the first volley of arrows, a second followed. I stood there as monsters died all around me and just caught my breath for a second. I shoved a Senzuketa Bean in my mouth and took in the battle for a second. After the second volley of arrows, Janet and the rest of the council, excluding Beth, who was leading our troops from the walls, jumped off the wall and joined the fight along with ten of the highest-level members of our fighting force.

When Janet and friends engaged the enemy, they laid into the monster violently. Monsters were dying all around me. As I was standing there in the middle of my hole, taking a second thing. I saw a small group of only about forty more humanoid-like creatures moving slowly through the carnage as discreetly as possible. As the small group made their way through the battlefield, the other creatures would hurry to get out of their way. If an arrow came their way, they would grab the closest creature and use it as a shield, showing little respect for the fodder.

That was not good. These creatures looked like the elites of this force, and these other creatures were just clearing the way for them for the actual attack. I decided I had been out of the battle for long enough, and it was time to get back at it. I had just joined the attack again when a low wine filled the air, and the monsters began to retreat. This was strange because they had been attacking us ruthlessly until that point.

As the force of creatures retreated, we did at Well, grouping up in front of the wall. Everyone could feel that something was off. It felt like being at the beach before a tsunami. I took a second to check on Janet, and she seemed to be doing okay. Janet had minor lacerations on every piece of exposed skin, and her armor looked like it had been thrown in a blender. Janet must have felt me looking at her because she met my gaze, and we nodded at each other.

Janet popped a Senzuketa Bean and was then mirrored by the rest of the fighters with us. We were ready for another wave, and part of me just wanted to charge in and start the fight already, but that would be an excellent way to die if they were about to play their ace.

The army of creatures finished their retreat and reformed their lines about fifty feet from our walls. We started to hear the sound of pounding feet. What came next took me utterly by surprise. Out from the buildings and streets flowed an army of humans. They flowed around and through the gathered creatures like a tide coming right at us.

My eyes went wide with shock, and I could feel the people next to me, hesitant to attack another human. I believe this was the true purpose of using the humans against us, their hidden weapon. The humans were, I’m sure, supposed to throw us off guard and make us hesitate, which was exactly what we were doing hesitating. I was the first to recover and started to plan my next moves when Beth, our commander of the archers on the wall, yelled fire, and a moment later, a volley of arrows slammed into the front line of oncoming humans.

The arrows were devastating, but it wasn’t hard to see why. First, all the humans were naked. Like, I mean no clothes at all. It seemed like every attacking human only had a weapon and nothing else. They seemed to be in pretty shit condition as well. Bruises, open wounds, and festering sores could all be seen. Some were starting to make it through the rain of arrows and were charging the walls.

Now, it was our turn. I didn’t feel okay with this fight. These people didn’t look like willing participants. They looked like people that “The Master” had taken and used them like slave labor. Maybe some kind of mind control? I didn’t know, but right now, the fastest way to help them would be to end their misery. I darted at the incoming wave of mind fucked humans and cut into them with savage sorrow.

They fell like blades of grass, and I was the scythe reaping. They must have all been below level five because they were so weak. It was making me more and more furious with every sole I took. This Master was going to die. I was going to end its life with my own two hands.

When humans were lying dying all around us, the hoard re-engaged, and I had been slow to notice. Now, there was a creature right next to me, and I was about to take a heavy Paw to the face. I was too late to dodge. When the beast hit me in the face, it kind of hit me in the entire upper half of my body all at once and sent me flying back. I landed about ten feet from where I’d been struck, and my world had just gotten rocked.

If I were a loony toon, there would have been little birds flying around my head. “Fuck, that fucking hurt!” My head was pounding, and I knew I had to get back on my feet soon, or I was gonna get myself killed. I was slowly making my way back to standing. I shook my head and looked at the battle, trying to find the bear thing that had attacked me. When I located the creature, Janet was fighting near it, and it was on the ground, dead and headless.

I was glad I wasn’t in this fight alone. I shook my head several times, then returned to the battle. Before I could decide where I could do the most damage, Janet made a massive leap back and landed next to me.

“Travis okay? Janet worries about Travis. Let know is okay?” Janet said. She must have been using her ability, I’m so strong. Janet was sounding like cavewoman Janet again. I just gave her a thumbs up, and she smiled, then patted me on the back a little too hard. Janet and I were about to jump back into the fight when the elites made their move.

All at once, the battle changed right in front of our eyes. The fodder seemed to have played its part and was now falling back as the elites moved in. The attack was swift and devastating. One second, we had a clear advantage. Even against so many opponents, they were falling dead all over the place.

Then the tables were flipped, and every one of our elite had multiple heavy hitters to deal with simultaneously. The rapid change in pace was not something our elite could handle. This was the first large-scale engagement any of us had been a part of, and it showed in this moment.

We lost seven fighters within the first few seconds. Rich tried to buy some time for the survivors to retreat and lost his life doing so. A creature caught him on the leg, and when he stumbled, he crashed to the ground. The other creature took full advantage and dragged him into their ranks. Brianna and Tess both screamed bloody murder and tried to cut their way to the man, but it was a fruitless effort, and Brianna had to retreat with Tess over her shoulder before they could reach the man’s corpse.

When Brianna and Tess returned to our informal line, Brianna was seething with rage, and Tess looked like she had gone numb. I couldn’t blame them. I was fucking pissed off. Janet passed Tess off to one of our elites, and soon, Tess was safe on the other side of the wall. There was only Janet, Brianna, me, and three survivors of the blitz attack. We needed reinforcements, and the next second, two groups of fighters that had been supporting us with the archers on the wall jumped down and joined the fight.

We now were a force of about twenty supported by the rest of our troops up on the walls. Even though we were having a hell of a time holding back this small army, we actually hadn’t lost too many people. Everyone on the walls had been pretty much unmolested, and our only casualties of the battle had been our seven elites, well and Rich. As we slammed into their elite again, two large glowing purple fractal circles superimposed themselves ten feet over the head of one of the enemy elites in the back of the group.

The next second, hundreds of spears, such a dark purple in color that they almost appeared black, launched from the fractals and into the air, aiming for the archers atop our walls. I watched as the projectiles passed over my head, and I heard Beth yelling for everyone to take cover. When the projectiles hit, I heard too many hits that sounded like flesh, and screams rang out from the walls. I pulled a spear from my bag and threw it as hard as I could, aiming for the caster.

The caster threw itself to the side, but that’s where Janet’s throwing axe was headed, and the creature almost dove right into Janet’s attack. Tess lit the creature up as it hit the ground, and that was the end of that fucker. Their entire force, as well as the elites, now all charged us. It seemed like this was gonna be their big push. If we made it through this, maybe we would survive this battle, but survive was the keyword in that sentence. The battle got intense as we engaged. I lost track of almost everyone from Tree House Village in the carnage.

I was using every last bit of skill and training I had but was still taking too much damage. If I kept going at this pace, there was a high likelihood that I would get myself killed, but if I stopped pushing, I had no idea how long we would last. I finally had no choice but to retreat. My legs were all torn up, my arms were in about the same shape as my legs, and my face wasn’t doing much better.

I was definitely struggling to keep moving. I was popping Senzuketa Beans into my mouth every time, and I felt myself starting to weaken, but the Beans were losing their effectiveness. I could feel them doing less and less with each bean I ate. As I shot back from where I had embedded myself in the enemy forces, I was finally able to get an idea of where we stood and the odds of winning this battle.

It wasn’t the best, but it could have been worse. Most of our people had been forced to retreat if they could manage it. Despite the number of wounds our people accumulated, they were not backing down or going out without a fight. We had dealt a heavy blow to their forces already. There were bodies everywhere, and the ground was soft and squishy from the sheer amount of blood. A good ninety percent of their force had fallen already, and only a few of the elite members of the enemy force were alive anymore. They were slowly but steadily getting overwhelmed.

I threw myself back into the fight, and it was a good thing I did. It was only a few minutes after I had gone back in that I heard Janet let out a scream of pain. I flashed over to her side as fast as I could. I made it in time, kind of. I got to Janet, and with two fast strikes, I took the arm, then the head off the creature that had just taken Janet’s arms off at the elbows. I grabbed Janet, which wasn’t easy as she was all bulked up from I’m so strong, and ran back towards the walls.

Once there, I popped a Senzuketa Bean in her mouth. I then told Janet to stay, “Janet stays. Janet stays here for now, got it?” I got a nod from her in confirmation, and I was gone. It was time to wrap this up. I forced on the elite members of our opponent’s force now. I had to dodge through creatures left and right to get to them. I took most of them down without wasting too much time, but as I got to what looked like the leader of this army, I was met with more resistance than I was expecting.

This creature? Thing? It was good, and I couldn’t get a strike past its guard. This creature had four arms and two legs and looked more insect than anything else. Two of its arms were just long, thin blade-like appendages. It had an exoskeleton, but its face was more like a rat. An elongated nose with hair all over and big teeth was a nightmare fuel for sure.

When I managed to get a hit in, it was never clean. Every time I landed a hit, I would have to sacrifice an opening, and I would take a hit. The crucial, decisive moment of our fight was when I made a decision. If I was going to take a strike to land one, I better make my attack count. So, as I dove in, I fainted to one side, creating an opening on my right, and let the creature stab me in the leg.

Once its blade was fully stuck in my leg, I struck out with the butt of my Teremnocal into the creature’s face. Then, in one fluid movement, I brought my blade around and took the creature’s head off. With all my attention devoted to ending my target’s life, I missed the creature that appeared behind me.

The creature took full advantage of my distracted state and stabbed me in the back. My back arched uncontrollably, and I screamed in pain. The next second, the creature dropped to the ground dead, and Devin was standing there, pulling his blade from the monster’s body. I had the strength to say thanks, but that was it, and I lost consciousness.