Forged By The Apocalypse - A LitRPG With Draconic Potential

Fuck. My thoughts were racing as I awoke and tried to take in the scene before me. Everything was blindingly bright due to the chrome appearance of everything. The walls, the floor, the ceilings, even the visible ground through windows outside showed blades of razor sharp grass. My eyes were focused more on the others in the room with me. Five people in tight metal cages. My panic calmed slightly as I saw them all alive. Derringer, Francine, Garland, Paul and Samson. My squad. Thanking whatever god might be listening that they weren’t dead, I almost slipped. Unlike the others, I was not caged. I found myself on a small platform just large enough for my feet.

I struggled to think clearly. “How did we-” Before I could say or think anything else, a cord of metal slithered up from the podium. The thin but powerful thread, moving at impossible speeds, wrapped around my neck while two more grabbed my wrists and pulled. I contained the gasp of pain as each of them cut into my skin slightly.

“Good, you’re awake. You can go into one of the cages if you like,” a terrible metal voice said, “but then someone will take your spot.” Rising from the ground, headfirst was the creature that had captured us as we left Ascentown.

The body which formed was mostly human. There was a liquidity to the metal which it was made of that meant the limbs morphed as it moved and interacted with the world. Pulling itself from the metal of the ground theatrically, the monster turned to face me. Its two muscular-looking arms crossed and the flat plane of its face opened into an approximation of eyes and a mouth.

I tried to sense its level or name, but there was a veil in the way. Pain joined the frustration which had been building for weeks and I found myself unable to be as scared as I should be. Instead, I was furious. “You said you wanted to talk, didn’t you? So, what is this?” I screamed my words as much as I could while being garotted. I could take this.

My reward for saving Newtown from its trial wave was showing its value here. The effects of my newest Aspect were definitely making me stubborn, but it also allowed me to keep my squad from danger. The Aspect of Enduring had bound, thankfully, to my Fortitude. It allowed my spells to hit harder, as the mana existed for longer and with more force. More importantly, right now, it meant I could spend mana to stop my muscles from fatiguing. If I fell right now…

“This is insurance, so that you will not attack me. I would be forced to kill you, rather than simply risk it by keeping you contained.” The voice was melodious in the way a funeral dirge had rhythm. Each lilted oscillation of air escaping its twisted human form warbled brutally against my ears.

“What are you?” Okay, I spoke to myself while reaching for time and information, suspended in the middle of a small room. Below me, a bed of knives rose from the floor, all aimed towards me. I looked from the blades to the creature and it shrugged. This fucker is just showing off how in control it is. All my thoughts bent towards survival, if not for me then for the others.

“A natural occurrence? A deviation from the plan? Hard to say. The System is just one big game really, but what the game master decides is so unknowable there’s no reason to guess.” I couldn’t help but be surprised by its tone. While its voice was like rusty nails against steel, its words were casual, almost playful. “You may call me Steel Sovereign.” I resisted the urge to spit instead. Looking at the monster, I felt the air shift as it removed a barrier, showing me its name and level. Or, part of it.

Steel Sovereign - Level ???

Does three question marks mean… I found my throat constricting from that idea, more than the piano wire. Level one hundred? Over? Any thoughts of fighting vanished, the monster’s intention no doubt. As though taunting me, a section of the wall opened and someone walked into the room. If I hadn’t just seen how futile the effort would be, I would have gathered my mana and prayed I could end things before my head was removed from my body.

“What did you do to him?!” Luke had walked into the room, but his movements were janky. Robotic. His eyes were terrified and terrifying, the pain and fear clear upon them chilling any remaining embers of rebellion within. “This one didn’t get an offer, I wasn’t as refined when we met. Maybe you can change that. I wouldn’t need to hold onto his nervous system so tightly if you worked with me.”

“Fucking monster.” Clearly intent on rubbing in just how much power it commanded, Steel Sovereign had Luke performing dangerous movements while surrounded by sharp objects. If he flinched an inch, the axes that sprang from the walls would bisect him. The pressure this thing gave off was intense, stronger than Grant’s, though it was hard to even think such a thing.

Completely sociopathic, the creature nodded at my words. “Monstrous world we’ve got here now. I find myself on a collision course with the most dangerous monster around. I don’t want to die. While I’m quietly confident if we had to fight, I’m not sure I would walk away unscathed. Better to make an ally, if possible.” By this point, Steel Sovereign had created itself a throne to sit on as we spoke. The others in the cages were waking up and panicking. I didn’t blame them, but I also couldn’t look away from the danger below.

“An ally? You?”

“I’ve done nothing that can’t be forgiven, surely.” With a flourish of its left hand, the restrictions on my limbs lessened. It almost made it harder to stay standing, but I managed. The squeezing metal cages widened, too. “Even without you all, I could arrive and make my case as though I had never performed a single slight. From what I’ve gathered, that could work.” So this thing was spying on us? Not unsurprising given the speed of its ambush.

Still, I couldn’t help being defiant. It felt like the right angle for now. “I haven’t told you anything.”

“Luke,” Steel Soveriegn spoke the name quietly, but Luke whimpered, the first noise he had made since entering the room. Not even grunts of exertion had escaped yet. “What’s your mother’s name?”

A horrible sucking of air rattled for a moment, like his lungs had been parched for hours, before Luke shouted. “SHARON! HER NAME IS SHARON PLEASE LET ME GO-” Steel Sovereign closed its still open left hand and Luke immediately fell silent and slack once more. It was the most horrific thing I had ever seen.

“That’s enough. Complete control over the nervous system is potent, but the cost is somewhat prohibitive to maintain on a powerful body.”

Leaders make hard decisions, including knowing when to admit defeat. “Let them go, and I’ll help you. What do you want from me?” The monster’s face became a wide grin. I suppressed my worries. I had my problems with Grant’s existence, but not with the man himself. His power scared me so much I found myself chasing it, too. Blindly, I sprinted to try and catch up with a man I had no chance to, apparently. Even my Dao, the image of magic which lived inside of me, was shaped by him. Grant was powerful due to magic, therefore my magic was power.

Even then, that power which frightened me down to my ideals and shaped my own strength was enough to make this higher Grade monster pause. Grant would win, no matter what this thing did. As long as it freed its captives, Grant would handle the rest. The cheshire grin on Steel Sovereign remained frozen for an uncomfortable amount of time before it finally spoke.

“I would like you to take me to your leader.”

—————————————————

As the hammer fell and a surge of energy filled Harry’s muscles with power, he couldn’t stop himself from hollering in delight. He would have to thank Grant again when he returned from the mountain, this weapon was perfect. Even if it sort of had a dumb name.

Item - Sorehammer (Rare)

Once wielded by a strongman called Charles, leading to the confusing name Chuck the Hammer. Eventually he did, costing him his life.

Effect: Infusing the Sorehammer with mana increases its effectiveness against inanimate objects.

While Cassadee, one of Harry’s squad, had made the argument that these were technically very animated objects, the System didn’t seem to care and neither did Harry. With each swing, the rock was pulverised like styrofoam whether there was a golem within it or not. For all their griping that he had it easy, the squad were earning just as much experience as if it were an all-out brawl, so who cared?

This mountain was a wonderland. Even the air itself seemed to resonate with Harry’s Dao. The rock gave off the idea of being an immovable object. When Dao was first explained to him, in the vague way that people seemed to think was the only way to talk about it, Harry had thought it was kind of dumb. He was grateful to the System for giving him more strength to defend the ones he cared about from that same System, but that’s all it was to him.

Here, on Cloudslash Peak, he finally got it.

As they rose higher and higher upon the mountain, the entire squad was challenged time and again. Reaching the peak was not going to be easy, even with the warhammer of golem destruction itself at their side. Harry wasn’t an endless fountain of mana like Grant, so he had to pick and choose where to drop a Precise Attack.

Skill - Precise Attack

Experience has taught you many things. Where your enemy will be, how they will attack and finally, how you should attack.

Harry’s first and only learned skill, not counting the one from the Guidance Stone of Thorns. Due specifically to wanting to swat “that stupid fairy,” he had lashed out with his whole being at exactly the moment he had intended. The attack had scored Harry his singular win against Naea in the tag tournament and was a moment of great pride for him. The issue for Harry was that it sucked a lot of his mana away and needed to be used sparingly.

Looking up, all he could see was more mountain. They weren't sure they could beat it all in one go, but the group was going to try. The place wasn’t where Grant had been turned into a monster, but, Harry realised with a start, he was now stronger than Grant had been when they met. The gains were visible in the increasing levels on his character page and the enemies he could now defeat.

Ever since his older brother passed away, he had been aimless except for when directed by Grant. In a lot of ways, the man had saved him from becoming a useless screaming heap. Looking skywards and finding the clouds blocked by the rock above, Harry signed with something close to contentment. Grant had climbed the mountain, bested it and returned with tales of its dangers. In a real sense, this place was a benchmark for that man’s progress. Harry liked that thought.

He continued rising with his fellow Fledglings, hoping he might be able to see his own peak if he found his way to the top of Cloudslash Peak.