Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 224: Stepping Up Your Game

There were advantages and disadvantages to having a pair of 8-year-olds around.

On one hand, they certainly livened up the place.

On the other, they tended to require a lot of attention even when they weren’t the human reincarnation of a pair of tornadoes. And not the kind that blew through the American Midwest by the hundreds every year, mind you. No, the kind that obliterated towns and ended up on the nightly news.

Tanya and Viktoria Thoma were … a lot. Blond, adorable little bundles of energy that would have probably gotten themselves badly injured a dozen times over doing reckless stuff if they hadn’t had a literal kindergarten teacher for a mother.

Just last night, they’d begged Isaac to throw them into the lake he used for aquatic summoning as hard as he could.

… That would have landed the pair in the ER under the best of circumstances, so he’d not done so.

Still, when their parents had asked whether he could look after them for a week while they went on a couple’s trip, he’d gladly agreed. As useful as his home out in the boonies was, it got lonely.

“Come on Isaac, let’s use the portal!” Tanya begged as she ran alongside him “Just this once?”

“Should we really waste it on school?” Viktoria asked from his other side “We can go to London for dinner again.”

In hindsight, using [Continent Strider’s] portal to have dinner in far-off locations might have been a mistake.

Sure, the portal’s cost scaled with how long it would have taken him to travel there without it, which meant that a mere thirty-kilometer hop to their school was all but free, but there was an issue with that.

Namely, every time he opened another portal on the same day, the cost doubled, and he still needed his long-range jumps to get to work.

In the end, they reached a good compromise. One of his sisters sat on each shoulder, he made sure to hold them there tightly and flew to the school, balancing on Old Reliable in its largest form.

They’d asked him to do that before, but that had been during the early days of the [System], it would have been very attention-drawing then.

Now though, it was merely out of the ordinary.

He landed lightly a few meters away from the traffic jam that was the school’s entrance, dropped the twins off, and was about to go to work, when he spotted their homeroom teacher.

Or at least that was what she was pretending to be. In reality, she was some manner of government operative, officially tasked with protecting the twins as the close relatives of an S-Ranker.

On one hand, that was a good thing as Isaac could not protect his family twenty-four-seven, no matter how many precautions he took.

On the other hand, having a spy hanging around the most vulnerable members of his family could be taken as a threat, couldn’t it?

Which was why he’d made it abundantly clear what would happen if he caught even the slightest inkling of a problem.

He was a good ally, at the moment, but he’d be a terrible enemy. And considering how famous he was, any issues would be loud, public, and horribly exposing for the government.

The teacher flinched when he poked her with his [Aura] and gave a jaunty wave. Clearly, she hadn’t forgotten how he’d casually seen through her cover without even trying.

But that small reminder was all he was going to do. Up until now, the whole thing had been played straight.

[Continent Strider] activated and dropped him off a fair distance to the north of his position, something that would have taken him half an hour to walk.

It was a testament to how normal long-range teleportation to this place was that the soldiers manning the teleportation port didn’t even jump when he suddenly popped out of thin air.

Isaac pulled out his ID and passed it to the pair.

“Have you read and fully comprehended the list written on the wall to the left of the booth?” one of them asked.

Isaac looked at it, the long, long series of statements that basically boiled down to “I’m not a scammer, I’m not pretending to be anyone else, I don’t have bad intentions, this is my real ID” hadn’t changed since yesterday.

“Yes.” He said.

“Can you truthfully make every statement written on it?”

“Yes.”

“Welcome, Dr. Thoma.” The guard said and returned the ID “Good luck today.”

The teleportation port was a concrete room the size of your average house with a [Skill] on it that attracted all incoming teleports within ten kilometers. Anyone trying to invade Germany’s [Raid Boss]-murdering arena that way would be in for a rough surprise.

As he left it, he headed down an armored corridor which took the concept of “killing ground” to absurd heights. Even among S-Rankers, there were few who could fight their way in through this corridor.

And after two hybrid [Classes] that weren’t fully focussed on combat, that lofty designation was one Isaac had barely been holding onto.

For one, the advantage of his future knowledge allowed him to still fight at a point beyond what the numbers on his status sheet would suggest.

In addition, while his hybrid [Classes] had fewer overall combat [Skills], but they’d still given him quite a few good ones, among them several powerful passives, which he could use freely, without paying mana. Chief among them, [The Meaning of the Name], granting him the almost cheat-tier ability of combat-scale precognition.

He might not quite have the full versatility of various powerful active attack [Skills], but most of the ones he did have were highly flexible, like [Legendary Blow] and [Divine Fire].

And when it came to applying his knowledge, flexibility was king.

Besides, he was only twenty Levels away from his fifth Evolution, and he couldn’t think of anything that would convince him to not pick a proper combat [Class], firmly cementing himself as an S-Ranker.

And until then, well, could enjoy the advantages of his current set of abilities.

During the R’lyeh-clusterfuck, [Legacy of a True Warrior] had evolved to passively teach the related [Skills] to anyone he fought beside, if they shared his goal.

Which meant that he’d been able to quite handily convince the Bundeswehr to set him up with a group of soldiers that all wanted to, eventually, save the world.

R’lyeh had also been the single purest piece of evidence as to how well he could lead people against a [Raid Boss].

There’d been no military officers above him, no others he’d had to run his plans by, just him throwing a group of random people against a Tier 7 [Raid Boss] and winning.

And now, he was fighting a [Raid Boss] a day for a month straight, without needing to arrange everything for months in advance.

Isaac had finally reached the end of the corridor, walked another fifty meters, and entered the main arena.

What used to be a concrete island with a slightly raised ring on the outside to avoid the gore and viscera from flowing into the ocean had turned into a full arena, a kilometer across, vast metal walls rising almost a hundred meters into the sky, with monofilament net covering the top. The wire was enchanted with a nasty array of cutting magic that would slice and dice anything that touched it while up there, but if it ever tore and fell, or was blasted out and went off-island, the magic would be dispelled to avoid accidents.

It. Was. Perfect.

“What’s on the docket today?” Oberst Gram asked. He’d been transferred here once the facility had been finished since he’d worked together with the researchers so often in the past.

Of course, already knew the answer to his own question, Isaac had submitted his plans ahead of time so proper preparations could be made.

Usually, Isaac had gone for monsters that would later become high-Level gear. He hadn’t been a crafter in the other timeline and hadn’t had access to all the great recipes. But what he did have was the bills. He’d been in charge of logistics and finances, which meant that whenever a high-Level piece of equipment had been ordered, he’d gotten a full breakdown of what the crafter needed.

And now, it was just a matter of gathering all those materials, tossing them at Stagmer, and asking “what would you like to make out of that”.

Today, though, the source of an entire school of enchantments was going to fall beneath his blades.

The Sanguine Monarch.

That name could have meant a lot of different things, been interpreted in a lot of different ways, but almost everyone could agree that this monster would have something to do with blood, and was probably a vampire.

Countless preparations had been made.

Not having the rest of the team here meant that he had less magical firepower, but that’s what technology was for.

Karl wasn’t here to construct a hellcannon, but a single-use, demon-blood-powered, artillery piece controlled by an artillery officer immune to any pieces he used, even when they blew up, could somewhat replace his contribution.

Not having a dragon, Patrick, Amy, or Raul also hurt, but another 4 cannons sort of compensated for their absence. These weapons were beyond expensive to maintain, and building them strong enough to work against [Raid Bosses] made them somewhat unstable. They always burned themselves out when fired, but sometimes, they outright exploded, which was why they were weapons of last resort.

Alchemical desiccant had been spread out across the arena as the monster’s name indicated liquid-based attacks at the very least, if not an outright liquid form, which meant the powder should inflict a fair deal of damage.

A dozen variations on the battleplan against the Sanguine Monarch had been written and distributed, and together, they covered every point they needed to.

Elite soldiers equipped with gear that perfectly complemented their [Skills], including the ones Isaac had taught.

All in all, it should go decently well. Not so great that it looked like he’d known about everything ahead of time, but not so badly that it would cost him this opportunity.

It took another half hour for the final checks to be done, but then, they finally got on with the summoning.

A baleful red light shone from the runic circle, putting everyone on edge. Then, it shut off, leaving everyone looking at each other in confusion for a few seconds, until the vampire himself flashed into view.

Heavy weapons came to life, cannons that normally served as the main gun on destroyers and frigates roared to life, each capable of firing up to a hundred 12 kg shells every minute.

Almost all of them had already fired by the time the first projectile tore off the vampire’s left arm and the whole bloody monster exploded.

A bloody fog spread to cover the ground, fatal to anyone under Level 50, not that anyone was sufficiently stupid to be close enough to get caught in it.

More and more body parts flew through the air, hitting the ground and sprouting, until almost a hundred times the monster’s original volume was spread out across the summoning area.

Wherever the fog touched the desiccant they’d spread ahead of time, it vanished, and several flesh globs withered and died, but plenty more survived.

The guns, which had fallen silent when the first enemy had apparently self-destructed, came back to life.

Too late. The monster’s constituent parts began to grow. Some of the ones on the outside threw up massive folds of skin that stood up without any obvious support and blocked the artillery.

Crimson apparitions leaped from other bits, blood shaped into deadly monsters sent into the surrounding crowd of monsters, only connected to their sources by a thin string of red. At least they’d absorbed most of the fog.

Yet others glowed with arcane light, empowering all nearby “nodes” and enhancing their growth.

“Go after the enhancing ones first, don’t use offensive cooldown [Skills], barrier-generating nodes are targets of opportunity,” Isaac ordered, then charged.

The moment he crossed the perimeter, the outside world vanished, leaving him alone in a labyrinth of blood and death, walking across a disgustingly fleshy ground.

Of course, the party network let him know what was going on outside, but it was still creepy as fuck.

Hellfire gathered around him and blew across the field, wiping out dozens of nodes, but thousands remained.

More and more flames burst from him, smashing prime targets and reducing the monster’s eventual strength, yet with every hit, all remaining bits grew a little more resistant to what had destroyed the rest.

Flying swords shredded the empowering nodes, gunfire destroyed the weakened barrier nodes, and the naval guns reaped a bloody harvest while a few people focussed on keeping away the apparitions.

They were doing good, but not great.

“Use the Barrage Suits!” Isaac ordered.

The “Barrage Suit” was yet another way that the instant re-equipping [Skill] he taught could be abused.

It was just a set of armor, designed to have the maximum possible number of flat surfaces that runes could be engraved on, forming dozens of single-use spell diagrams. The whole affair would self-destruct in short order if it had been kept in the real world, but protected in the [Skill], it could last basically forever, until you wanted to whip it out as a titanic “fuck you” to everyone around him.

… it had taken less than five minutes for it to receive the nickname “Der Mittelfinger”.

The suits they had here were, of course, designed to not target humans, which allowed them to be used with impunity.

Every human in range looked like they’d exploded into a rainbow of color, shredding hundreds of nodules.

Another thirty seconds later, Isaac called for a retreat as the monster had begun pulling itself back together.

Several soldiers were limping, others looked like they’d spent a week in the desert with barely anything to drink, there were even a few missing limbs, but no one was dead. Good.

The Sanguine Monarch’s third and final form stood ten meters tall, pale grey flesh stretching its skeleton, a pair of wings made up of bloody vapor and bone fragments floating through the air behind it.

It looked scary, sure, but it had adapted to basic firearms, a billion different spells they wouldn’t be able to use again anyway, blades, nothing they needed badly.

With a single beat of its wings, the monster flung itself skywards, stopping just underneath the deadly net, and the next blew them almost completely apart, bone fragments and drops of crystalized blood hammering blasting through the arena.

A shield of flame obliterated anything that came near him, but countless more hit, even taking out several of the guns.

The worst injuries were teleported away as the medics intervened, thankfully, but the damage was still bad.

And then, the monster launched itself at the closest people in a single incredibly quick movement, claws flashing through the air, trailing crimson droplets as they were withdrawn while its wings continued to wrap it and its victim in a storm of deadly projectiles.

Before it could finish the job, Isaac slammed into it, [I Am The Sword] active, a Vitruvian Man pose maximizing the contact area and reducing the impact’s penetrative power. Instead of being cut apart, the monster was flung backward, bodily crashing into the far wall and staying there long enough that the guns finally got a bead on it again.

A few hundred shells had torn holes into the Sanguine Monarch’s body, but it snapped its wings to unleash another blast of bone fragments as it launched itself at Isaac, once again escaping the guns’ sights.

Normally, all the blood on the battlefield would have been swirling around as deadly blades and life-sucking fog … except it was currently reduced to a crusty mess on the floor, bonded with the desiccant they’d spread about the place.

It was met with a barrage of spells and gunfire but bulled its way through, heedless of injuries.

[Phantom Step] teleported him out of the way of a claw slash, a fully empowered [Legendary Blow] to the knee hobbling the monster before he was forced to retreat to avoid yet another wingstorm.

Half a dozen flying daggers backed by [Compounded Impact] took out the other leg and it collapsed to its knees, allowing the guns to unleash a constant stream of fire into its chest.

The flying weapons snapped back into place on its back, now that it was forced to use them for mobility.

“Hellcanon B and E, fire at its chest,” Isaac ordered.

Twin streams of fire hammered into the monster’s chest from both the front and back, meeting in the middle as they tore through it.

The Sanguine Monarch froze for a brief moment before it exploded into a frenzy. It was still very badly injured, but also the embodiment of every saying about not cornering a wild animal.

Isaac got ready to charge in again, hoping to take advantage of his precognition to evade the barrage of strikes.

Unfortunately, Gram was faster.

“[MOVE]!”

A [Skill] to clear a crowd to allow emergency personnel through, a [Skill] royally fuck over enemy formations, a [Skill] to fling singular enemies into stuff that could badly injure them. Like the net of slicing and dicing that covered the arena.

… bad idea. Really bad idea.

[Raid Boss] drops had a brief moment of invulnerability after the monster that dropped it died to avoid them getting destroyed before the finishing attack had petered out, but it really was brief.

The Sanguine Monarch’s badly damaged, hell, shredded, body slammed into the net and flew out the top as slabs of meat, then came back down as even smaller cubes as it fell back through. Small issue, the small folder that had formed amidst its remains also hit the net and was reduced to scraps.

“Scheiße noch eins,” Isaac muttered, then directed some soldiers with a logistics background to gather them up. Collecting resources, even when they’d been scattered across hundreds of square meters by, say, a plane crash, should have been right in their wheelhouse.

“Please get in contact with the police CSIs, maybe acquaintances in the intelligence community. Someone has got to have an un-shredding [Skill]. What about …” Isaac began to ask when Gram walked out of one of the bunkers that lined the arena.

“I’ll handle it. You wouldn’t believe what sometimes happens to the paperwork sometimes.”

“I also don’t think I want to know,” Isaac responded flatly.

One minute later, every scrap of paper had been gathered, cleaned of viscera, and restored to its proper form as a spell-booklet.

Isaac thumbed through it, oh-ing and ah-ing at all the right places.

“This is part of an enchantment system, and it says that there’s a full set we can acquire if we kill more of these,” Isaac said.

“Clean up the mess, get you one for your training arena [Skill], and then keep killing them until we’ve got the full set?” Gram asked.

“I have to be home at five,” Isaac reminded him “If we’re not done until then, we’ll have to see if we can get some on tomorrow’s schedule as well.”

“Sure.”

***

Eight hours later, they had a complete book which Isaac was taking with him while a copy remained with Gram. He’d also gained five Aspects of the Sanguine Monarch, which would be handed out to worthy bearers. His deal with the Bundeswehr stated that these people couldn’t be criminals, foreign agents, and the like, but it wasn’t like he wanted to empower those kinds of people anyway.

He reached the portal room and in a single step, crossed the distance to Munich. There, he bought three giant pretzels and several Weißwürste for dinner, then marched to his sisters’ school the old-fashioned way. You know, superspeed and a magic power that exponentially increased his travel speed when he wasn’t engaged in combat.

School was five minutes from letting out when he arrived, so he settled in to wait and looked at his phone when he noticed someone approaching him.

“Good afternoon, Dr. Thoma, could I bother you for a moment of your time?”

“Am I going to like the topic?” Isaac asked snidely. Having someone wait for him at his sisters’ school, even for something non-violent, was not putting him in a charitable mood.

“Well, I represent the Aurum-Sack Conglomerate, and I was curious about your thoughts on companies summoning [Raid Bosses]. It would be an immensely profitable venture, for us as well as your own company, Akashic Industries, yet legislature continues to be written that blocks any attempts to do so.”

“You mean, why would the meanies in power prevent you from summoning a monster that often requires a nuclear response?” Isaac asked “Moral issues aside, why would you want to risk the legal repercussions? You can probably figure out what the Bundeswehr built to fight them, create equal preparations, and maybe, we can talk.”

“But that would cost billions.” The man practically whines.

“And most people would consider human lives to be priceless,” Isaac responded and walked off, muttering under his breath once he’d made sure there was only one person nearby with the Perception to hear him.

“Mrs. Miller, if you’re half the spy you seem to be, you heard that little conversation. I think we both know that someone ambushing me here is a crossed line and the sort of thing you should be dealing with. I’m not asking you or your superiors to use extralegal means, but I do think a little look-see into their closet is in order, don’t you?”

It took a bit, but eventually, the lesson she was teaching finished, and she gave her answer “Sure thing.”