“YAAAAA!” “MOVE OUTTA THE WAY!!” “HEY, WHO TOUCHED MY ASS?!?”
Man, it looks like the whole school went bonkers! This modern war-beat of sneakers and screams was really working for him!
And then, a random kid shoulder-checks me and turns for a sec. “GET THE FUCK OFF THE HALL, IDIOT!!” But then, he got spooked and squinted. “Ey bro, uh— your hair…”
“It’s ugly, innit?”
“Uh, yeah, unless you want to go bald before you’re 20…” He said, in a meekish manner.
“…”
“Looks like one of those Monsters got you real good…”
“Yeah, she sure did…” I say as I eye the guilty hoe.
Aaaand just like that, the war calls and banners and whatever the fuck ALL melt away, as I’m left with myself, Milo and Sarah, who keep eyeing the floor, that fucking unhinged bitch that I DO NOT want to see right and who’s probably SMIRKING!! And what’s-his-face, who started following the awkward suit.
…
“Well, what the fuck are we waiting for?!” I scream. “Let’s fuck the motherfucker!!” I PUMP my fist in the air!
…No one seems as as pumped as I am…
“So, what I’m trying to say is… no hard feelings, Vampirella!” I guess that wasn’t enough, because this CRAZY bitch tried to lunge at me again!! How fragile can her ego be?!
Anyway, we sprint through the hallways towards the roof access stairwell. But it’s not just us anymore; nay, it’s literally the entire school. Dozens upon dozens of students from various classes and grades are converging, drawn in by the sweet release of this Dungeon and that JUICY Level-Up! Like moths to a flame, except the flame has cymbals and lasers, if the other Mobs are a template for it.
*BANG*
What greets us beyond those doors can only be described in two words.
Terminator. Monkey.
It’s just standing in the center of the roof… MENACINGLY!!
It’s at the very fucking least 8 feet tall, with its monkey-like torso and tarnished brass and rusted iron! Its limbs are unnaturally elongated, with far too many jointed places, and each hand holds a giant-ass cymbal the size of a trash can lid.
And would you look at that friendly face, with its jagged and exposed smiley teeth covering, like… 70% of its face…
“Jesus Christ on a pogo stick…” I whisper.
“So… what’s the plan…?” Asked Sarah, as she hung back behind Milo and Ray, who also don’t look all that psyched.
“Um, kill it?” I offer weakly, suddenly feeling less confident than I did two minutes ago…
A bunch of jocks are already charging forward. One of them, looking like a Berserker with his raging red aura, swings a broken-off piece of stair railing.
“EAT THIS, YOU METAL FREAK!”
*CLANG*
[-11]
The metal monkey doesn’t even budge…
The Cymbalist’s eyes glow brighter, and it brings its cymbals together in a slow, deliberate motion. “In front of me, I hear a hundred 'GET BACKs,' but just then—
*CLANG!*
The world FREEZES and TURNS GRAY!! I SHIT my pants as every student within 20 meters of the thing freezes mid-motion.
Then time lurches back, and—
*CRRRRUNCH!*
[-30] [-30] [-30] [-30] [-30] [-30] [-30]
The sound of bones breaking is nothing like in the movies…! It’s somehow wetter AND drier, and all-around mortifying!! five students who were closest went flying, their bodies twisted at impossible angles. One girl lands near me and her arm’s bent backwards at the elbow, and I’m pretty sure I see a bone. She’s not screaming. I’m not sure she understood what the fuck just happened…
The Boss Monster doesn’t stop there. Its chest cavity splits further and reveals what can only be described as an actual FUCKING laser cannon!!
“TAKE COVER!!”
*PEWWWWWWWWWW*
The beam sweeps across the road in a blazing blue-white energy. The concrete sizzles and melts whatever comes in its way. Three Students aren’t fast enough and the beam catches them, and they…
[Critical Hit — (-24)] [Critical Hit — (-24)] [Critical Hit — (-24)]
[Critical Hit — (-24)] [Critical Hit — (-24)] [Critical Hit — (-24)]
[Critical Hit — (-24)] [Critical Hit — (-24)] [Critical Hit — (-24)]
…Oh Merciful Mary…
They’re just… gone. From the waist up… . The lower halves of their bodies topple over and spill steaming innards onto the rooftop.
“I-i-i-i-inspect…!!!” FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK…!!!
“Uhhhh…” A fuck-ton of HP and some padding, as well? What the fuck are they supposed to do…?
“DAVID!! FOCUS!” Mercurio’s voice manages to snap me back. He’s already glowing with his Aspect, his muscles bulging as he swings a massive air conditioning unit at the bastard.
[-34] [Critical Hit — (-68)]
Raymond blurs beside him, trying her best to chip some damage away.
[-1] [-1] [-1] [-1] [-1] [-1] [-1] [-1] [-1] [-1]
“W-we need to coordinate!!” Yelled Sarah, as she waved her arms to gather scattered students into the groups. “Water Mages! Now is your time to shine! Also, anyone that can use lighting and acid, take its head off!!” I dunno if she realized it, but no one’s really paying attention to her. Oh wait…
Ok, this is FINE! This is fine… Just a video game boss, amiright!?
Except… the bodies don’t disappear. They just… lie there.
The surviving students adapt real quick! Seven kids with what I assume to be the Alchemist Class look like they’re mixing LOTS of toxic-looking stuff through their beakers!
Hell, looks like a girl with lightning crackling between her fingers sends a bolt into the Cymbalist’s face!
[Critical Hit — (-54)]
THAT looked like it took its breath!
Milo saw those numbers and practically said, ‘FUCK it, here's another," then he tossed the AC unit at it!
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
[-32]
“It’s working!” Said somebody else, her voice raspy with excitement.
Raymond dashed forward like a blur and slashed at the thing’s leg joint with what looked like broken glass.
[-2] [-2] [-2] [-2]
“Veinstep!” She shouted, and then she popped out of existence and was suddenly behind it! A thin line of dark fluid begins to seep from those joints she stabbed and right above the boss I make out:
[Bleeding (weak)]
Apparently, you CAN make a giant monkey animatronic bleed oil, but the line gets muddy about raising Marchers as Zombies, inconceivable!
I’ve been sitting WAY too long on the sideline. I spot a metal pipe that broke off from somewhere and grab it. I sprint forward, zigzagging my way between groups of students who are now organizing into an attack pattern!
“David, WAIT—!” Sarah calls out, but FUCK ME, I’m already committed to it!!
I swing the pipe at its knees, following Hit-Girl’s example, but the Cymbalist predicts that shit! It raises one cymbal and I realize too late what’s about to happen.
[Cymbalic Crush]
The cymbal descends with TERRIFYING and UNNATURAL speed! I dive to the side, feeling the air displacement as it misses me by nano-FUCKING-meters and smashes into the concrete, sending cracks spiderwebbing across the roof!
“FIREBALL!” Someone shouts, and a BLAZING sphere of orange arcs over my head, striking the Cymbalist RIGHT in its messed-up smile!
[Critical Hit — (-44)]
The flames lick ineffectually at its metal surface, but the force of the impact knocks its head back! Hooooh, my GAWD!! Does everyone but him have auto-aim?!
More and more people started joining in! A kid with what looks like a taser in the Mad-Maxian universe jams it into the Cymbalist’s leg, making that bitch boogie-woogie!
[-11] [-11] [-11] [-11]
Also, the batch of acid that the wiz-kids managed to fly for a few seconds before—
*Crash* *SSSSZZZZZZZzzzz….*
—it connects with its chest plate and eats through the metal.
[-27]
Holy FUCK!! We’re ACTUALLY pulling it off! Keep GOING, teammates!
But then the Cymbalist’s beam that erupts is nothing like the one that shot us earlier…
[-4]
“Nngh…!” Shiiiiiit! That was really unpleasant, but—
“…Huh?”
Three students just pop, and others just get pushed off the roofs. I hear their screams fade as they crash down.
The Cymbalist still wasn’t done…! It clapped its giant fucking instruments over some girl, who seemed to be in the same boat as me.
[Critical Hit — (-60)] [Critical Hit — (-60) [Critical Hit — (-60)]
I can’t look away as a girl I recognize from the movie club is crushed like an empty beer can and turned into a red mist that coats everyone nearby!
I’m going to die. “I’m gonna die…!” I don’t want to die! I don’t want my friends to die!
W-we were so close to fucking beating it. WHAT THE FUCK, why did it have to fucking DO THAT!! All that pain and death… Milo’s raggedy ass, with the flickering Aspect, makes me crawl on the FUCKING WALLS!!
Even the purple Teletubby was moving more sluggishly, and it looks like there was some blood trickling down her ear!
At least I’m not the only one paralyzed with fear. Sarah, who’s been hanging back and doing whatnot, has blood splattered across her face— not her own, but from a kid who confettied next to her… Must be nice, letting other people do the work for you…
But…
What’s your excuse, loser? Got the golden ticket and you’re doing fuck all, outta all these people.
But what the hell am I supposed to do…? I can’t just… fuck with the environment nor make some friendly fire between these guys…
I’m useless. No, fucking worse than that.
My self-roasting monologue gets cut short as the Cymbalist raises both hands high above its head and I know what’s coming next.
“Everybody, GET THE FUCK OUTTA THE WAY!!”
*CRRRRRRRRUNCH*
[Critical Hit — (-60)] [Critical Hit — (-60)] [Critical Hit — (-60)] [Critical Hit — (-60)] [Critical Hit — (-60)] [Critical Hit — (-60)]
…
“We’re well and fucked…” Each and every one of us! Either me, or Milo, or Sarah, or even Michael could litter a rooftop or the streets, JUST like my classmates do!!
My friends… THEY’RE GOING TO DIE!!
Mah…
My parents…!
I need to get HOME!! I need to find MY MOM AND DAD!!! I NEED TO GET OUT OF HEEEERE!!!
“David, mooooove!!” I hear my second only friend calling to me.
*PEWWWWWWW*
He manages to tackle me to the side as another laser beam carves through the space where I was standing. The heat of it singes my eyebrows.
[-12] [-12] [-12]
Across the roof, a girl—one of the Alchemists—gets caught in the laser and gets split in two… Her ribcage collapses to the floor with a wet crunch.
NO more pussyfooting; time to fucking CRANK IT UP!! As I raise my hands in the air, reach within myself and grasp for the pool of mana I’ve never touched until now…
“BULK RAISE!!”
Oh boy, here goaaAAAHH—!!
The web of veins in my hands turns black beneath my skin. More than half my MP is drained all at once… It was like I was falling mixed with my brain getting dried up…It’s a terrible, yet rushing, sensation that makes my knees buckle. Something hot and bitter—
“*BLLleaargh!!*”
…Like a fucking toddler, I manage to get all that barf all over me… Let’s just hope that this is a one-time thing…
But the Spell looks to be working.
It looks like I released a shockwave made of purple-glowing snow or dust that, when it came in contact with the corpse of a freshman whose name I’ll never know, made him twitch.
His broken bones straighten out out with sickening *POPS*, like he’s a goddamn POPCORN BAG!!
As what I assume is the Necrotic Mana forces its way toward its freshly dead tissue, his eyes open, but… they’re not eyes anymore—they’re fucking glowing orbs that look like eyes, but they’re popping out of their heads! AND THEY’RE PURPLE!!
“Hnnnnnnghhhh…” Yeah, as if we needed MORE clues to realize he ain’t human anymore…
But he’s not the only one. Nine more bodies began to rise— a girl with a crushed ribcage, a guy who’s missing his arm, and even that Chemist who got split in half, who’ll just drag herself for the end of time.
More like for the rest of this fight, when I learn how to Unsummon…
I’m sure that several others are resting from their beauty naps, but I am so baked, I don’t even know how I’m still here! From what I make out, it looks like they’ve been sitting in their houses with no sunlight and they got a really serious case of the cramps…
“WHAT THE FUCK?!” Troy’s voice cuts through the shitstorm, and even if I can’t see him, I can sense his undies getting soiled and muddied…
“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my GOD!!” Ah, that would be Sarah watching in utter horror as some of her friends turned into unholy abominations.
Even Milo, who is basically me, sounds sick and drained of all the remaining jolly he had left in ‘im. “David…”
I’m sorry… I didn’t know what else to do… Hey, I’m thinking it so why aren’t I saying it? Am I THAT much of a vegetable…? After one measly Skill? That just so happened to drain a little more than half my Mana Reserves…? Bulshalahen…
Hold on… is my brain being cut apart…? Why do I feel it spreading in 10 pieces? But then I sense them. I think that’s TOO much pressure for a beginner like myself, so let’s just… make only one strand.
“Urrghhh…” “Mmmmhhhrrr…” “Graaaaah…”
The moans from the chorus outta hell increase in mindlessness and ferocity. I raise a trembling finger toward the one that caused all of this.
ATTACK!! GIT THA’ MUTHAFUCKA!!
The lack of vision or motion doesn’t really affect my ability to… ‘see’ the Undead fighting. It’s literally like I’m right next to them…
The Monster brings its cymbals together and turns free of the zombies into one giant pancake, but seven more are still coming in hot.
[Your Zombie has died]
[Your Zombie has died]
[Your Zombie has died]
*PEWWWWWWW*
[-24]
The Tin Monkey managed to slice a zombie in half, but that wasn’t enough this time around. The severed parts kept crawling forward, possibly driven by my will? I can’t tell from my semi-comatose state.
The half-and-half Chemist girl drags herself by the fingernails and—
“*hargh* *haARGH!*… *HAAAAARGH!!*
…she fucking barfed a purple sack that looked REALLY nasty, with the slurry inside looking black-green and mean. She tossed the gastric balloon in the air and it connected with the ape’s chest…
*SSSSZRAAAAP—*
[-19] [-7] [-7] [-7] [-7]
With the last seconds of its beams, it targets the abomination and atomizes her on the spot.
[Your Zombie has died]
The one-armed jock-zeb bull-rushes the knee piston and clamps on. Something is literally telling me that he was part of the wrestling club.
Now, he’s a tourniquet with teeth…
[-2] [-2] [-2] [-2]
The Cymbalist finally notices him and stomps his ass and drags his monkey foot/paw, like he’s a piece of shit…
[Critical Hit — (-18)] [Critical Hit — (-18)] [Critical Hit — (-18)]
[Your Zombie has died]
*CHZZZT— KRAK!!”
[Critical Hit — (-62)
Looks like that lightning girl from earlier also bit the dust. She lifted her broken arm and shot a shot of purple energy…
“They’re distracting it!” Shouted Raymond from 100 miles away. It may have been the shock or maybe a boulder fell on her head in the meantime while I was on the floor, but they were NOT just fucking distracting it!!
But just to fucking move this along, she was… right… The zombies were doing what the living couldn’t— absorbing the Cymbalist’s most devastating attacks without fear or the need of dodging.
The perfect meat tanks and damage dealers…
Milo seems to shake off his revulsion and it looks like an aurora glow seems to envelop me.
[+4 Endurance] [+4 Energy] [+2 Strength]
“EVERYOAH!! ATTAH!!” Ohhhh, so that’s how he recovered…
The remaining students rally behind M and shower the monkey with dozens of colors and lights and more warm bodies.
[-43] [-54] [-22] [-22] [-35] [-67] [Critical Hit —(-126) [Critical Hit — (-80)] [Critical Hit — (-54)]
I manage to crawl forward on my hands and knees, still seeing what my Undead are up to. I grab the one railing left on the roof and sway REALLY dangerously close to the edge of the roof.
"EEEeeveryone!!” I call out. “We need to BLOW this fucker away!!”
My bro gets that shit RIGHT in his brain! “Holy SHIT!! The fall damage might be enough!!” Might want to get one on it BEFORE it gets to do a Jojo reference!!
The remaining students position themselves behind the Cymbalist, which was still struggling with some Zombies clinging to its legs and arms.
[Your Zombie has died]
[Your Zombie has died]
”NOW!”
And then, twenty students and six zombies slam into the reject Fnaf animatronic.
*SKRRRRRRR*
Fucking hell, just go to sleep already!!
“RAAAAAGHH!!” Milo channeled every ounce of his awesome powers into one final heave. The monkey teeters on the edge of the roof and then it starts windmilling its arms in hopes of regaining balance.
I have a bad feeling, all of a sudden… Something akin to… déjà vu?
…
Kill yourselves. Take this off the roof, now now NOW NOW!!
The undead respond to my command and wrap their limbs and mauled corpses around the construct. Also, it seemed like two of them managed to get under its feet and with SICKENING *SNAPS* and the sounds of their skin ripping,
And we have liftoff.
Meanwhile, all the remaining Undead just lean on their backs…
For one perfect moment of stillness, it looked like the monkey realized what was happening. Also, I realize we were TIME-STOPPED! AGAIN!!!
After we broke from the time stop, the monkey pulled a Houdini on our asses and it was nowhere.
*KRAAAAAASH!!*
Oh, ok, nevermind!
Me and the rest of the survivors rush to the edge, just in time to see a Zombie trying and failing to eat its brains…
[Critical Hit — (-4)]
[Level Up]
[New Skill aquired]
{Party member (Milo) is Confused}
“Holy SHI-hi-hi-HIT~~!”
SO many stuff is happening all at once. The Notifications that float RIGHT in my face are oddly cheerful, given the meat grinder that we just escaped from. Maybe the System was like… fucking with our brains, reshaping them so that we don’t go bat-fucking-shit.
Or maybe it’s just a Me-thing, that could also be it.
“We… did it.” Someone breathes a sigh of relief.
It would be a giant misunderstanding to call this a smooth ride or an in n’ out, as I thought a lil’ earlier, but… it is something. Something to be proud of.
Good fucking SHIT that ya’ BOY is here to remind people of that!!
“WEEEELP! As they say, teamwork-eth makes the dreamwork-eth!!” I turn around a lil-shaky, and raise my hand up.
…
What the Helly Johnson?
…Why are people giving me ugly looks? Why are they edging away? Why are they forming a barricade…? Even the kids who only moments ago were comfortable using my meat shields now look pissed off.
“You…you used my sister…” Someone whispered.
“You turned my boyfriend into a Walker!”
“Are you a necrophile or something…?”
…
“I’m… really sorry… I didn’t wanna die! Those guys—” I point at the railing. “—tried their best and they-they didn’t manage, alright?”
“So WHAT, you just gave yourself the greenlight to… to what, DEFORM THEM?!”
“What are you saying, that we should’ve bent over and TAKE IT?! Look, I’m sorry that I maimed your family and friends, but I genuinely ask you, from the deepest part the of my heart…
What THE FUCK was I supposed to do otherwise?!”
I look to my party for ANY support, literally anything, but… Sarah’s just looking at the corpses on the ground…
From count-bitchulla herself, I’d expect disgust or some misplaced sense of justice, but her quirkiness or emotion is well-hidden behind a poker face, and she is standing behind Milo and gripping him like a stress toy, if that’s any indication…
And Milo is looking like… he has one too many chromosomes, to put it mildly and briefly…
…
The surviving students turn away and go towards the roof access door. They step carefully around the bodies of the fallen and some take a moment to close the vacant eyes of their loved ones…
Nobody touched, much less approached, the bodies that I raised, nay. Those are given SUCH a berth; it’s a miracle how they manage to stay on the same roof with them…
“Guys, come on… I couldn’t have done jack shit between fuck all!” I give the world’s most forced laugh ever and continue. “C’mon, we won this bitch, why are y’all being such sour grapes about it…?”
But there’s no one left now. Only me, myself and mua… and the people that died…
will go nuts to buts.
BUT!!
To not blue-ball y’all (and to not forget as well…), here is what I came up for the Vampire Class:
HP: 30/30
MP: 40/40
– While you’re within 5 meters of an enemy below 50% HP, gain: +5 Dexterity
– Instantly dash up to 5 meters in a straight line toward a target or point you can see.
