Carnival - A LitRPG Apocalypse

“If you can port us, that's… going to change a lot of things,” said Kev as he looked at Ryn. The girl was dishevelled and sweat stained from the earlier fighting but her eyes were bright with possibilities.

“How do we test it safely?” she asked excitedly.

“That’s not a Ryn thing to say!” laughed Bad.

“Yeah, safety first is not your motto!” added Sally.

“Ryn is a thoughtful and careful person,” argued Armand. “How can you think such things?”

“You know she basically planned our essing up? She wasn’t too worried about health and safety then!” Kev answered. “But to be fair Bad and Sally are being mean, Ryn was almost as focussed on our survival as she was on dodging Bob and her Dad.”

“From what you have said the latter part… she was not so successful?” asked Armand.

“Not my fault the grown ups cheated. My Dads not an easy man to evade,” grumbled Ryn. “So who wants to go first? Pretty sure we can’t accidentally hurt stuff with our powers so I think a test run should be ok.”

“I’m the toughest,” said Bad confidently. “It should be me.”

No one was going to argue the point so Ryn walked over and rested a hand on Bad’s arm before vanishing.

“Did it work?” asked Bad, looking around from the same place.

“No it didn’t work, idiot!” laughed Sally as Bolf put a paw over his eyes. “She moved, you didn’t. So it only works on dead stuff? At least I’ll get a proper burial when something inevitably goes wrong,” she finished with bleak humour.

Ryn walked back down from the lip of the ridge they were camping behind and shrugged at Bad. “Sorry mate. Looks like only dead stuff.”

“No.” Kev’s voice was firm. “Not only dead things. You carried your spear through with you so equipment and gear is on the list. Shame they don’t let us have grenades on these exercises.” He tossed his shotgun to Ryn. “You should use this. I’ve got brain burster now but a highly mobile shotgunner could be the difference between life and death.”

Ryn looked down at the snub nosed blaster in her hands then met Kev’s eyes. He nodded and she reluctantly returned the gesture. She spun her spear and clipped it to the magnetic rail on her spine, the blade poking up above the top of her head. She checked the gun over quickly and found Kev had reloaded it. She slipped the sling over her shoulder and let it hang by her right hand side.

They ate a surprisingly tasty meal of rat steaks and reluctantly had to agree with Bolf that eating meat you killed yourself did make it taste better.

“Who knew? People would have been keeping their own livestock for years if this was common knowledge!” said Claire as she devoured her fourth fist sized lump of dead rodent.

“You know eating rats used to be frowned upon?” asked Armand. “People only ate rats in sieges or in times of starvation. Pass the ketchup, please?”

“Ketchup makes everything tasty. That’s like the first law of outdoor cooking. Always pack more ketchup than you think you’ll need,” mumbled Sally.

“Pah. Humans and condiments. Only having thumbs redeems you for the atrocity of condiments. I will enjoy my meat as nature intended,” replied Bolf as he threw his head back and snapped the steak he’d thrown out of the air with a clomp sound.

After some good natured bickering they began packing up their temporary camp. Most of the skins went into Armand’s storage space, those that weren’t too mangled by their removal, as did some cuts of meat.

“I feel dirty. I have dead things in my storage space,” Armand grumbled.

“They won't rot in there, right?” asked Claire.

“Bof, I do not know. I’ll check them later and dispose of anything that turns.”

“Should we bury the mess?” asked Ryn, pointing to the entrails and bones they hadn’t considered worth the effort of keeping.

“Screw it. We need to go get some more Essence and find somewhere to bed down for the night,” said Bad. “Who reckons we can all get to level ten before the end of the day?”

“We’ve got another five hours of light. I don’t think we should be hunting at night,” offered Kev.

“Why not? I don’t need to sleep anymore, dude!” Bad replied.

“But we do. Nocturnal monsters are suited to hunting at night, we aren’t. Unless you got night vision and can share it with the rest of us?” Bad shook his head. “Didn’t think so. We’ll need a solid place to camp overnight as well. We’ll take watches but only having one entrance to defend would be good.” Kev finished in the resigned tone of a boy who was already missing his mattress.

They moved off, Bolf scouting ahead and reporting back regularly via teamchat. They zig zagged towards the west as had been recommended at the base camp but they didn’t find any monsters. Kev would occasionally twitch in a particular direction as his psychic senses caught a hint of something but no matter how they searched it was always a ghost.

“Are you sure your brain is working right?” asked Sally.

“Yes my brain works right,” snapped Kev. “Whatever is out there is real. We must be more than it thinks it can handle so it runs away.”

“A bunch of teenagers and a dog are too scary for it? Are you sure this isn’t like that time you thought the second floor loo at school was haunted?” asked Bad.

“I was seven for god’s sake, Bad. No this isn’t like that. Bolf, any scents?” Kev asked, looking to move the conversation forward from his childhood fears.

“Nothing Kev. Well, nothing I can confirm. There is a hint in the air of something but it’s nothing I’ve ever smelled before. It could be native.”

“It’s not native. Terrestrial creatures don’t feel like this,” muttered Kev.

“How does it feel? Like that time you were singing that song with Mr Brister standing behind you and he listened to you repeat the chorus before scaring the pants off you?” asked Ryn with a smile at the memory. Kev had damn near cringled himself when the teacher's voice had boomed out to interrupt his improvised song about the teacher in question.

“No. It feels… cold. It’s not scared of us, it’s just cautious or something. It’s really hard to explain. The emotions are all colours and smells but I don’t see or smell them, they’re just there in my mind. It’s more feelings than facts. I can’t just go ‘oh that’s anger, oh that’s fear’.”

“Have you considered rerolling?” asked Claire. “You can get some great powers if you’re willing to give up your current one for the greater good of humanity. In The Long March, Blessed Felicity explained how it’s all about the motive. If you’re willing to sacrifice power-”

“Thanks Claire but no. I’m not rerolling. Unless I end up facing proscription,” said Kev glumly.

“It won’t work so well if your motives aren’t pure,” said Claire quietly. “My brother wanted to join the Orions and he rerolled. Because he wanted glory he got a crafting power instead.”

The group had crested yet another hill and were walking down towards the stream that ran between this grassy peak and yet another one.

“This landscape sucks. It’s all grass and heather and rocks. Boring!” Sally complained.

“On the plus side there’s no cover for us to be ambushed from. Let’s try and keep focussed eh? I’m not explaining to Traveller or Thunderfist how we let their kids die,” said Kev cheerfully, earning scowls from Ryn and Bad.

“Oh right, like it would be any better for us to tell your parents you bought the farm?” asked Ryn.

“Enough!” snapped Armand. “Sacre bleu! Focus on the task in front of us!” The others regretted their gallows humour as they were reminded of Armand’s recent loss. They fell into silence as they began properly focussing on their sections.

As they approached the stream Bolf came bounding back over the crest of the ever accursed next hill and ran down to speak as they bent to refill their canteens from the fresh water. He slid to a stop but stumbled into the metre wide stream and threw a spray of ice cold water over his comrades. He leapt back out and shook himself vigorously adding insult to icy injury.

“Sorry!” he said, noticing the scowls aimed his way. “I’ve found a good campsite but we’ll need to claim it. A good cave that looks easy to defend.”

“What’s there?” asked Kev as he pushed his now damp hair back from his face.

“Didn’t see but it smelled bad. Definitely a monster,” said Bolf with what passed among canines for a shrug.

“So we approach carefully then Bolf goes intangible and scouts while we wait to ambush it outside?” asked Ryn.

The rest nodded although Bolf didn’t look happy.

“Mother told me many stories like this. ‘Send the dog first!’ It strikes me as speciesist,” complained Bolf.

“Zeeg never got hurt in any of those fights. When you can phase out of reality it just makes sense,” said Claire. “I’ve studied the Prophets' accounts of the Saint’s life. Zeeg was ever a steadfast companion.”

“She wasn’t always happy about it. Fine, I agree. I will brave the underworld to bait our target out to you,” said Bolf. “It’s this way.”

The dog led them over several more hills before he pulled up and pointed with his snout to a crack in the landscape that seemed like a portal into space. It oozed a sense of darkness that went beyond a mere lack of light.

“Bad and Sally should wait to either side of the cave, a few metres back. Claire, Armand and I should wait above the entrance with Ryn. When Bolf brings it out the bruisers cut it off from retreat and the casters have good line of sight to assist in the fight. Sounds good?” Kev was clearly channelling what he thought a combat leader should sound like but none of the teens were willing to backchat him at the moment. The Assassin Rat’s appearance at the last hole they investigated had left them more than willing to be cautious.

Are you ready?” asked Bolf nervously as the others got into position. With a round of nods as his only reply he took a deep breath and began to pad quietly into the cave.

The teens stood, tense and with baited breath. Every ambient noise made at least one of them twitch or swivel to glare in the direction of the offending bird or insect. As the time dragged on the teens became more and more tense.

Teamchat:

Bolf: On my way back. I’m not going to bite this thing!

Kathryn: What is it?

Bolf: Ugly and big? It’s level ten.

Sally: This area should be cleared of major threats! Where’s Zeeg?

Bahadur: She’ll intercede if we need her. Focus!

Bolf emerged from the cave like a ball from a cannon. He skidded to a stop some twenty metres away from the entrance and spun, dropping into a snarling crouch as he bared his teeth at whatever was following him.

Name: Doom Egg

Level: 10

Ryn ran through her memory and briefly accessed some files she had stored on her implant to get some information on the rolling putrescence that had emerged from the cave. She came up blank.

It was egg shaped and moved by rocking back and forth rapidly while spinning so the higher end of its rounded bottom came down in front. It made Ryn nauseous just watching it move. It settled a few metres outside the cave and came to a rest but the queasy feeling of looking at it didn’t reduce. If anything it increased as Ryn somehow felt the things attention settle on her, despite its lack of discernible features.

As the dull grey egg, nearly two metres from top to bottom sat there it exuded a sense of menace that unsettled the teens as they gripped their weapons and prepared to attack.

Kev broke free of the stupor first and began barking orders at Bad and Sally while he raised a hand and his face took on a look Ryn associated with extreme constipation. The feeling of helplessness faded slightly and Ryn brought her shotgun to bear but held her fire as the bruisers closed in.

Bad led the way by hurling a summoned kukri that left a shallow gash on the eggs flank, prompting it to spin and face him. Sally ducked to the right at the same time as the spectral blade disappeared, only to suddenly be clutched back in Bad’s hand as he crossed the final distance. Sally unleashed a torrent of laser fire that seemed to have little effect beyond distracting the thing but in that moment Bad arrived and brought his summoned knife down in an overhead chop.

“Hey, Omelette! Why don’t you pick on someone your-” Sally’s voice faded away as the thing focussed its malevolent attention on her. She fell to her knees and her eyes went blank.

Bad’s blade skittered across the shell of the monster and the thing rocked to slam the boy away with its upper half. As Bad sprawled on the ground Ryn appeared standing over him and unloaded her shotgun in rapid fire. The torrent of hardened pellets was the first of their attacks to seem to do serious damage, blasting chunks of shell and inky black ichor across the soil.

Spectral rabbits appeared and began hopping into the thing, causing it to flinch and spin at the illusory threats. Bad scrambled to his feet behind Ryn and dodged round her to once again charge in just as Bolf flew past the girl, his eyes and tail ablaze as he fully embraced his combat mode.

“It’s a psychic!” called Kev who was crouched down and sweating profusely. “I can’t hold it off much longer! You need to kill it!”

“Sacre bleu!” Armand snarled. “No shit, roast beef!” The slight boy leapt down from where he was standing and brought his spear down to ring against the monster's shell. He leapt away as it spun and stumbled as it focused on him for a moment, only to recover as Bad and Bolf distracted it from the other side. Sally had come back to herself and rushed in to launch a series of lightning fast knife slashes that sparked off the monster's armoured exterior.

“It’s just a blob of armour? How the frunge do we kill it?” called Ryn as she frantically slid more shells into her gun. As soon as the last one slid into place she ported in close, pressed the barrel against the area she had injured before and repeated her rapid fire attack. She blipped away a moment after she was showered with yet more black gore, coughing and spitting the foul tasting substance out.

The close combat fighters were all dancing around, landing heavy attacks and seeming to fall into a kind of waking dream as the thing focussed on them that lasted until the next attack forced the monster to lift its attention and focus on someone else. Armand had tears streaming down his cheeks, Bad had gone unnaturally pale and Sally kept sniffling. The only creature seemingly unaffected by the beast was Bolf but his teeth and claws, even in his enlarged and somewhat fiery form did little against the monster.

Ryn thought frantically. Perhaps she couldn’t teleport friends but there was a reason their powers had guidelines instead of rules. Guidelines could be broken. She coated herself in flame and leapt forwards. She didn’t know how many reserves her mad plan might require so she wouldn’t waste them in trying to put herself in a position to execute it. This would be a two teleport job. Bad stumbled back and fell to his knees, the fight seemed to have gone out of him and he stared around with blank eyes.

Ryn arrived and slapped a hand on the monster letting her fire flow over the thing. It emitted a sound like a lobster going into the pot, a hissing scream that sent shivers down her spine. As soon as the thing was engulfed she used her teleport, not only taking herself and her flames, but everything engulfed in her flames, a kilometre above the surface.

For a moment Ryn hung in the sky looking down on the ant-like forms of her friends who seemed to snap to attention and scuttle together, all eyes focussed upwards. She glanced almost lazily to the left where a burning egg was just starting to fall away from her, still emitting that same angry tea kettle noise. She blipped herself back down to her friends and doused her flame as she collapsed to the ground. She was emotionally and physically spent as a result of the short fight.

Claire extended a hand and Ryn used it to pull herself wearily back to her feet, smiling faintly in gratitude, before all of the team turned to watch a tiny, egg shaped meteor of fire fall from the sky.