Carnival - A LitRPG Apocalypse

“We should-” Ryn started, only to be cut off by the boom of Kev firing his blaster. There was no smoke but the roar of light and noise as it launched razor sharp pellets towards the hole left the others reeling, especially Bolf who leapt away with a short howl.

A blade flashed forward and slashed through where the dog had been a moment before, leaving a long gash down his flank instead of decapitating him. What had begun as an annoyed howl became a whine of pain. A snarl came back to them from the entrance to the nest where a splatter of deep red blood had been thrown across the grass.

The teens gathered around the wounded dog and formed a ring, facing outwards. Claire spun and put a hand on Bolf and the injury quickly began to close.

“Where is it? What the hell is it?” demanded Sally as her eyes roved wildly over the apparently empty area.

Armand raised a hand and a dark mist spread out, gradually occupying the space between the kids and the nest.

“It’s over there!” said Kev as he pointed the blaster again and pulled the trigger. This time there was no blood spray from the pellets, just puffs of dust as they slammed into the ground. The monster didn’t make any noise but Kev locked eyes on a patch of nothing and fired again.

“Can you even sense the bloody thing?” snapped Bad as he held his knife in a close guard across his chest with his left hand stretched out in front of him.

“Yes!” snapped Kev. “The little bastard is feeling smug and confident. Whenever I move it reacts too fast for me to hit the bloody thing!”

The mist Armand had created began to flow with more purpose, based on where he saw Kev staring. He began to condense it and harden the illusory droplets into something similar to treacle. Black and thick the liquid fell and settled towards the ground. As it did so a metre long, foot wide shape appeared.

It was more reptilian than rodent from what they could see. The limbs grew out from the torso to the sides rather than underneath the main body and a long tail, nearly two metres in length, flicked back and forth soundlessly as it was coated by the sludge Armand had conjured.

The blaster rang out again but the thing dodged and began a furious attack. Bad rushed forward and landed a solid jab with his left hand on the monster's snout but Sally barged him out of the way of a descending tail, taking a light gash on her arm in exchange for saving her friend's life, before Bad could bring his blade to bear.

Bolf was suddenly back in the fray, leaping to snatch the tail out of the air in his teeth. As he landed he grew half a foot in size and began to shake his head to try and snap the tailbones or bite through and sever it. Ryn appeared behind the monster that had curled around itself to snap with its jaws at Bolf and drove her spear into the joint at the top of the monster's left leg. As the blade slid in she wrenched the blade back and forth, releasing a flood of vital fluids, then immediately teleported away.

Sally had pulled her rifle free and unleashed a torrent of burning beams into the things right rear leg at point blank range. The smell of burning fur and meat began to fill the air but the scent just seemed to enrage the monster and as it lunged Bolf released his grip and jumped clear.

Ryn appeared next to the monster again and stabbed out but its scale-like, semi armoured fur turned the blade this time and she did no damage. Sally had dropped her rifle and pulled her knife. She and Bad rushed forward and began hacking at the base of the monster's tail. Now free to pivot back to the threat behind it the giant rat spun but stumbled as its left leg gave way under its own weight.

Bad and Sally both redoubled their efforts as they dodged to the rear of the beast. Another dog appeared and began attacking the monster's head, keeping it occupied and allowing the team's bruisers to disable the tail properly.

“Thanks Armand!” called Bad as he and Sally stepped back to pin the end of the tail and sever the now limp blade that tipped it. Between them Bad and Sally severed the blade, tossing it away from the beast. Then they backed away and caught their breath. Bolf joined them and the three fighters stood panting.

The team kept their distance as the thing thrashed and heaved itself to its feet, carefully not putting weight on its wounded back leg. It shook itself fiercely and some of the tar-like substance Armand had coated it with was thrown off, leaving a Mandelbrot pattern on the ground around the giant rat.

Ryn teleported in and stabbed down with her spear, successfully piercing through the fur and wounding its rear right leg. The monster sagged as she blipped back out and snarled as it drew itself painfully back to all fours.

“Let’s finish it!” yelled Bad as he charged forward with his knife raised over his head. Another boom from Kev’s blaster drew him up short. The second and third booms left the monster's head a gory ruin of blood and brains and finally put the thing down.

“No point risking getting up close, Bad. Sally, Bolf, can you check the perimeter? We might have made enough noise to draw more monsters,” said Kev as he began reloading his shotgun from his belt pouch.

“What the hell Kev! I had that!” snarled Bad.

“Enough Bad. Kev’s right.” Ryn’s voice was quiet but cut through Bad’s anger like a knife. “That thing was much higher level than it should have been.”

Team Report:

1 Juvenile Assassin Rat killed (level 6): 8 Essence gained per kill

Essence gained per team member: 8

“Level six? I’m bloody level two!” gasped Bad as he sat down on the grass.

“On your feet mate. We need to clear this area before we rest,” said Kev as he walked over and offered Bad a hand up. Bad pulled himself up with Kev’s help and they moved over to join Sally and Bolf. Bolf ran over and grabbed the Assassin Rat’s corpse, running along with it in his jaws like an overgrown terrier with an equally overgrown rat.

Once they got a mile or so away from the site of the fight they stopped in a sheltered depression that Kev said was clear as far as he could sense. Bolf dropped the body and did an orbit of their location, spiralling out to make sure they were clear for half a mile.

“Let’s eat!” said the dog as he returned. “Humans are really useful when it comes to cooking! Who is the chef today?” his tail wagged as he nudged Ryn towards the carcass.

“I can’t cook! Bad? You’re probably the best?” Ryn said as she shoved the dog away. Bad sighed and stood, pulling out his knife as he moved towards the body and began to clean and skin it. Armand produced some camp gear including a light and smoke free stove which he and Bad set up with some good natured bickering.

Level up, thought Ryn once it sank in that she was relatively secure.

You have chosen to spend 18 Essence and advance to level 6.

New Status:

Name: Kathryn Borrows

Level: 6

Ability: Suntouched Teleporter

Constitution: 100%

Reserves: 1500

Suntouched Teleporter: You were destined to inherit your mothers powers but due to feeling the power of the sun while in the womb your body has been changed, incorporating some of your fathers power. You can both teleport yourself and summon jets of solar fire. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled.

Guidelines:

Teleportation distance: 3 km

Maximum Temperature: 5000 degrees

Line of sight required.

Modifications:

Level 2: Wreathed in Flame. Whenever you are covered in flames your reserves costs are halved.

Level 3: Increase Reserves x5

Level 4: Maximum Teleportation Distance x3

Level 5: Increase Reserves x3

Level 6: Melee Adept. Despite your physical frailty you are more competent and do more damage with close combat weapons than ought to be possible.

She spun the spear in her right hand and felt how much more naturally the weight of it shifted. It no longer felt like an external thing, it was almost part of her now, an extension of her arm. She resolved to use her level six modification to convince her parents to let her have sword blades implanted into her forearms as soon as possible.

“Anyone get anything game breaking? We’re all level six now,” she asked.

A translucent silver blade, long and curved, appeared in Bad’s right hand and he grinned as he tossed it up to spin before snatching it from the air in a reversed grip.

“Got my Kukri! Maybe Dad will cut me some slack now!” he grinned. “As well as a bunch of physical enhancement and a way to keep myself going without sleep and rest. Kev?” Bad turned to the lanky youth who was looking thoughtful.

“I can read thoughts properly now and I got something called Brain Burster. I can pop things heads, I think? It sounds like one of Gemma’s early mods,” he said sadly as he remembered his dead mentor. “I’m a step closer to being proscribed.”

“Nah, that’s only for control powers. You didn’t get any control powers did you?” asked Sally. Kev shook his head quickly. “Cool, so no worries then. I got a taunt and a bunch of boosts to my body and mind as well as an overclock skill. What about you, Frenchie?”

“Ta mère est une pute!” snapped Armand before looking shocked and clapping a hand over his mouth. “Je regret! Sally, I’m so sorry!”

“Don’t worry, I think I just triggered my pithy comeback skill by mistake. What did you get?” asked Sally, unperturbed at the calumny against her mother.

“I can fake my death and be ignored. My storage doubled in size and I have… fast hands? Not sure how that will be useful,” he muttered.

“Quick reloads come to mind. Have you thought about throwing knives?” asked Bad as he began turning the slices of meat on the hot plate with his conjured blade, the rat meat was now giving off a very pleasant smell.

“Non. But it might be worth thinking about,” the slight boy replied.

“I only got one level, but I’m almost at level seven now. I got more reserves,” said Claire as she eyed the rapidly browning cuts of meat hungrily. “Something about fighting makes me hungry. How long are those going to be?” she asked.

“A few more minutes. If the storage has doubled we should go back and get the monsters we killed. The skins at least. Might as well make some bonus Essence when we get back home,” said Bad, once more turning the meat.

“It won’t cook properly if you don’t leave it on one side for more than ten seconds!” said Claire. Bad gave her a flat look.

“Do you want to play chef?” Claire shook her head to his question. “Fine, then how about you, Ryn and Armand take the dog for a walk and go skin those rat bastards while these steaks finish? Shouldn’t take you more than an hour if you walk and work fast,” Bad said.

“No way! I’m hungry!” complained Claire. “Bolf, you’re really speedy. How about you run and bring the bodies back?”

“I’ll keep you company. Teleportation is actually a really awesome power!” offered Ryn smugly, realising her Dad had been right about something. “Now I’ve got some more reserves so I can use it more freely.”

Bolf nodded and shot off so fast he almost blurred. Ryn blipped herself up, only fifty metres over the surface this time, and kept pace with a series of short range teleports. They reached the site of the battle in a matter of minutes and Bolf grabbed five of the bodies by the tail, lifting them off the ground.

“You staying here?” he mumbled around his mouthful of deceased rodents.

“Hang on a sec,” Ryn said as she reached down and grabbed the rest of the rats by the tails, ending up with three dangling from one hand and four from another. She blipped ten metres across the ground and was pleasantly surprised to find the rats had come with her through whatever loophole of the laws of time and space she and her dad abused to teleport.

“I’ll race you back?” she said with a smile. Before she even finished speaking Bolf took off at a sprint, kicking up dust and trailing rat bodies like an unkempt moustache as they splayed out from his jaws.

Ryn blipped straight up then to directly above their camp and with a final blip she arrived next to Sally who was arguing with Claire over who got the first steak.

She chucked the bodies down in a pile at the edge of camp just as the dog bounded over the lip of the rise. Bolf stopped suddenly and stalked down the slope to spit his own rat bodies on top of the ones Ryn had dumped.

“You are fast. It is good to know you can carry things with you as you teleport. Can you carry one of us?” asked Bolf.

“Wait, what was that?” said Kev, his head swivelling to the girl and dog currently staring each other down, all interest in the meal forgotten.