Carnival - A LitRPG Apocalypse

“I’ll send you all home now if that’s ok?” John asked politely.

Kev and Sally’s respective parents looked like they were in need of a stiff drink and a very angry talk with their kids. John paused for a moment then spoke gently.

“No one here is in any trouble. The kids did a good job of planning and executing essing-up. I’m proud of Kat and your kids all performed excellently. We all know once they get Essence things change for them. They don’t understand how yet… but they’re about to find out!” Ryn hid her grimace at her Dad calling her Kat. She was and always would be Ryn.

John moved down the line and briefly shook hands with the other parent before blipping them and their kids back to their homes. Amit clasped John’s shoulder and the men shared toothy smiles before he sent his friend back home.

“You messed up Ryn. You shouldn’t have checked on Kev and Sally then. There was nothing to suggest they were in trouble,” said Vic in an acid tone.

“I know mum,” Ryn replied quietly. “I was worried about them though.”

“You have to trust your teammates. The number of times your dad and I would have died if we hadn’t been focussed on our jobs… if we stopped to check what the rest of the team were up to in a fight… remember this lesson, sweetheart. It might save your life,” Vic’s voice became more emotional as she continued and at the end she rushed in and pulled Ryn into a tight hug.

“We honestly thought you’d have done this last year,” chuckled John, closing to ruffle his daughter's black hair as she pulled back gently from the fierce protectiveness of her mother.

“It’s Ryn, Dad. You know I hate Kat,” she snapped, taking a gamble.

John smiled. The scars on his face twisting didn’t bother her like they did most people. That was just what her dad had always looked like for her.

“I know. You'll need to learn to not let people push your buttons as well,” he replied calmly.

“These bots are going to get back on patrol. See you guys on Unity tomorrow?” said one of the drones.

“Sure Bob. Thanks mate,” John replied without breaking eye contact with his errant daughter.

“Thanks Bob. Are you coming over at the weekend? I mean with a Bio-Bob! Evie is back from the Wall and Sam is coming back from Mars for a few days. They’ve got the domes up now so her constructs aren’t needed for a while. We’re barbecuing and there will be some decent pre system whiskey floating around,”

“Wouldn’t miss it! You be good Ryn!” The drones turned and waved behind them as they faded out of sight.

“So what now?” asked Ryn cautiously.

“Well, now we’re going to have a modest celebratory tea. Then Jintak and I are going to start training you properly,” John’s smile was slightly more evil than usual.

“So I’m really not in trouble?” she asked in wonder.

“Nope. It’s become a bit of a game for the kids and parents. As long as you aren’t going to get yourself killed and you come up with a decent plan the parents tend to just accept it. If your plan had been crimble and you were at real risk of injury or death we’d have stopped it. But it wasn’t so we didn’t,” Vic replied, mimicking Ryn’s aversion for profanity. Vic did wonder where the girl had picked up that oddity. Her big sister swore like a drunken sailor and Ryn had known “Uncle Reg” since she was born. John wasn’t shy about curse words either.

“But… loads of kids die by effing-up?” Ryn asked.

“Well… The numbers might not be entirely accurate. Bob does control the Bob-net after all. Let’s put it this way: despite our best efforts sometimes kids eff-up. Mostly in the more remote settlements to be honest. If they aren’t hooked up to the portal networks they tend not to have a decent set of automated defences or good options for finding a relatively safe place to hunt a monster. When was the last time someone from the Academy effed-up?” John winked at Ryn.

“Uh… There’s loads of stories but… I can’t think of anyone I knew not making it?” Ryn said thoughtfully.

“Bob controls the Bob-net, Sweetie. Most of those stories are… perhaps cautionary untruths is the nicest way to put it?” said Vic.

“Yep. It’s all bullshit!” John said happily. Ryn scowled at the bad language and made a note to demand Essence for the swear jar. “The kids need to know it’s dangerous, they need to believe it. The fact we only stop them if it looks like they’re going to die isn’t publicised. You cannot share this information, Ryn. This is part of preparing us for the invasion.”

“Lying to your kids helps with the ever illusive threat of the Void?” she asked suspiciously.

“Kind of. How much effort did you put into pulling this off?” Taken aback by her dad’s question Ryn paused for a moment to think through her answer before she spoke. A habit John and Vic very much approved of.

“Months of work. Developing ways to dodge the dead and Bob took a lot of time. Finding ways to set up those lines of communication without getting caught -which we apparently failed at- took weeks.”

“You didn’t fail sweetheart!” said Vic with a gentle smile.

“Then how did you know?” the girl demanded.

“You left your Bphone in your locker. You never do that. All kids at your age want to ess-up. Any suspicious change in routine always triggers a server Bob. Especially for the kids of heroes.” The blank tone betrayed how John felt about that word. The signatories of the Accords were called heroes and she knew he hated it.

“Flunge!” Vic smirked as Ryn used her hardest totally-not-swearing word. “It was that simple?”

“We knew you would be planning to ess-up. If you know someone has a goal and you know their routine… well it’s easy to spot when they put the plan into action,” said Vic.

“The fact we have you tagged and can track you anywhere in the solar system helped as well,” John deadpanned. Vic slapped him on the arm and he winced theatrically.

“We haven’t chipped you Ryn. Your dad just has a bad sense of humour,” offered Vic with a glare at her husband.

“So what now?” asked Ryn.

“You need to understand that essing-up is the first step a warrior of Earth has to take. Those who wait for their birthdays… They tend to lack the drive to reach a good level. The planning and teamwork we expect before we let you guys ess-up shows you’ve got some stones and that you can be careful in dangerous situations.

“Hold off on playing about with your powers. Let’s go grab some dinner and then we’ll go somewhere secluded for you to get a feel for them. Sounds good?” offered John.

Ryn nodded and they vanished back to Roseberry Topping. After a brief meal during which John and Vic allowed Ryn to have a small glass of wine in celebration, John ported them away from the house.

Ryn looked around curiously. Having the foremost teleporter on Earth as a dad meant she was well travelled but she’d never been here before. The trees were unfamiliar as were the bird calls.

She stooped and ran her hand through unfamiliar grass. You’d think grass was grass wherever you were but Ryn knew better. Some grasses grew better in sandy soil or in waterlogged soil. This grass had long fat blades, unlike anything she was used to in Europe.

“Where are we?” she asked as she stood back up.

“Just across the Line in SA. Nothing here to worry about. We burnt back the ants two days ago and they’re busy breeding up new soldiers,” said Vic.

“South of the Line?” Ryn squeaked. “No one goes there except-”

“Except people who can go wherever they want. And it seems like you just joined me in that club, Kiddo. So how far and how much?” John asked. Ryn looked at him confused.

“How far and how much weight can you teleport?” he clarified.

“I can only teleport myself. Up to 1km. I can summon ‘jets of flame’ up to 5000 degrees. Is that Celsius or Kelvin, do you think?” Vic and John exchanged a brief look.

“Well that’s a blessing at least,” muttered John. He was thinking of his inability to deal with swarms without dropping what amounted to kinetic nukes and killing everything in an area. Ryn would have much more control and retain the advantage of being able to disengage whenever she wanted.

“Lord Borrows, Lady Borrows,” came a voice from behind her. Ryn shrank in on herself. Jintak was an alien who had become stranded on Earth after he was forced to fight a human with a power his people considered holy. His refusal to kill Claire and her family had left him and his adoptive daughter, Grell, stuck on the planet and unable to go home. They had thrown in with the humans and become valuable resources. To Ryn the language was seemingly random barks, growls and squawks but John and Vic both understood him.

“Jintak! How are you?” asked John as he moved past Ryn and shook the hand of the man with the head of a raven.

More incomprehensible noises followed that resulted in friendly jokes from her dad.

Jintak (Grehunk Duelist) has invited you to his team: Super Awesome Dragon Heroes.

Accept Y/N?

Ryn selected yes but before she could even access the team information she was kicked from the team. She’d wanted to see what level the Dragon had gotten up to. She had only met the gargoyles he used as sub-bodies. That brief moment was enough for the system to decide she and the Grehnuk Duelist ought to be able to understand each other and to make it happen.

“You understand me now, child?” said Jintak.

“Yes I do. Nice to speak with you properly Lord Jintak,” she replied with a formal curtsy.

“None of that!” laughed the bird-man. “Your esteemed father has asked for my input on your training. I am also a teleporter of a sort and it would be wise that at least your initial training wasn’t conducted by a family member.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Because you won’t enjoy the process. Being told how badly you fucked up over and over again can strain a kiddo-parent relationship.” That was two Essence her dad owed the swear jar. “Jintak is older than Booah and has spent all of that time training warriors or fighting. You should really pay attention to what he says.”

“Why doesn’t he teach at the Academy? Sorry. Why don’t you teach at the Academy?” Ryn corrected. Being able to understand the alien and not needing a translation would take some getting used to.

“You will not have been able to Identify your physical combat teachers before. Perhaps you would like to Identify me?”

Ryn did as she was asked.

Name: Jintak (Grehnuk Duelist)

Level: 33

Ability: Hidden Blade

“You’ve levelled up a lot!” Ryn said before she could stop herself.

“Yes, The Accordance has been good for me. Pete is the driving force if I am honest but he is another student of mine.” That the Dragon was a student of Jintak’s was well known to her. His real body had become ever more reclusive over the last few years but she had met the gargoyle versions of Uncle Pete many times.

“How did you train Pete?” she asked.

“The same way I’m going to train you. Show me your abilities,” Jintak ordered, going from friendly to stern in a second.

Ryn summoned a flame from her right hand that shot ten feet into the air and burned with a white hot intensity that made everyone except Vic step back. Vic just smiled broadly before raising a hand and cutting Ryn’s flame off. It felt like it was wrenched out of her control and then effortlessly snuffed out.

“And the teleport?” Jintak added.

Ryn blinked 99 metres away and appeared behind a tree, thinking she would evade her future master. A finger tapped on her shoulder as she began to peer around the tree to look back at where she had been. She spun to find all three adults standing behind her. Her dad was grinning like a madman for some reason.

Jintak withdrew the hand he had tapped her shoulder with. He couldn’t smile but when he spoke it sounded like he was smiling, which was strange when you took into account the system was messing with her head to make the weird animal noises intelligible.

“At this point, child… trying to hide from us is a wasted effort. Perhaps we should begin with combat stances,” Jintak said thoughtfully.

Ryn sighed. She had had enough of combat stances from the Headmaster and Master Amit. Weight balanced like this on feet positioned like that… It was interminable but she appreciated the advantages it conveyed in a fight.

“I’ve already been taught combat stances by the Academy. I’m one of the best in my year. Only Bad could regularly beat me!” Ryn objected.

“Oh this will be a little different girl. Now place your feet like this. No. Like this! Pay attention child!” a hand swatted her head and she glared at Jintak only to find his eyes twinkling behind his beak. “Better. When you teleport, retain this stance. Once you can master this we will move onto arriving in a different orientation and retaining the stance. In the unlikely event you ever get the hang of that we will move on to actual sparring!”

John and Vic backed away slowly.

“We’ll be back in an hour, sweetheart. That should be enough for you to show Jintak what a good student you can be. Pete was only eight when Jintak started training him so you should do much better being so much more grown up!” Vic laughed at the scowl she received for her comment.

“See you shortly, kid!” John said. Before Ryn could reply they vanished.

“But- we’re in South America! Beyond the cringly Line!” she exclaimed before spinning and putting her back to the tree, eyes flicking about wildly.

“Oh dear. Beyond the Line you say?” came Jintak’s voice from behind the tree at the same time as his hand came round and swatted her on the head again. Ryn spun and backed away.

“Yes! The Line is the last point where the land isn’t totally monster controlled! Who knows what kind of monsters are nearby? Not even Bob can keep tabs on this place!” Ryn hissed fiercely.

“Perhaps you should worry about the monster in front of you.” Jintak teleported behind her and swatted her on the head again. “You didn’t keep your stance when you teleported which is understandable but to fall out of stance when you walk in an area you know to be dangerous… this is unforgivable. Perhaps we will skip straight to sparring and see if that reinforces the lesson? No powers or it’s a failure, now fight me!”

John and Vic watched from a kilometre above Ryn. John kept them both in place via multiple teleports per second.

“She didn’t even use her other Essence to get her second level!” he chuckled.

“Kev might be a problem. He’s right on the edge of proscribed powers. Just bad luck that he’s a psyker,” Vic replied. She had triggered her mask to cover her face and was watching her daughter being chased around and soundly thwacked by an alien whenever he wasn’t happy with her reactions.

“Bad and Sally are fine. I like Kev. He’s always been a nice kid. Should we lean on Anna and Greg a little?” John replied.

“I’m not sure we’ll need to. Kev might end up going into the ’special’ teams eventually but until he gets some levels he’s no threat to Gemma’s internal security.”

“I think the four of them are a good foundation for a team. Get them a proper healer from Ascension and a few more bruisers and casters and they’ll be good to go,” John said thoughtfully.

“We need to keep her away from Ascension, John. Their… adoration of you for dying, of all things, has spread to the rest of us somewhat. A kid from that town would end up giving her a complex.”

“Maybe. But you know damn well that healer would die before anything happened to Ryn.” Vic paused and reluctantly accepted the fact by nodding.

“She’s going to find her own way, love. She’s got some good friends who will keep her on the straight and narrow for now. It’s Evie I’m worried about.”

“Her big sister is going to lead her astray? I know Evie is a bit out there these days but she’d never do anything to hurt Ryn. Evie has accepted the situation better than any of us.”

“The Void is coming!” Vic parodied before grimacing. “I know it is but it’s still fifty odd years away! We already ruin our children's childhoods with training that would make the Spartans of old ashamed. Can’t we just let Ryn have something close to a normal childhood?” Vic sighed but the sound carried over the wind to John.

“She needs to be able to take care of herself. Jintak is part of that. Evie is another part of it. We’re the rest. When the Void come down in their black ships I want my daughters to be unstoppable. Evie… kind of already is. Ryn is just getting started but it will be interesting to see what mods she gets as she levels.” He turned his head and smiled at his wife. “Hey, at least we both get to teach her how to fly now! I was sure she’d just have to float about with her feet on fire like you do!”