Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 205: Undead Horde

People sucked. Well, no, that wasn’t fair, there were plenty of good people around.

It was selfish people who were the problem. Selfish, greedy, reckless bastards who’d bitten of more than they could chew in the name of profit and left someone else holding the bag.

Politics, fucking politics. Those also sucked. A lot. If Isaac had tried to put into words how much he detested this, the resulting essay would have been longer than the entirety of the Brockhaus encyclopedia by an order of magnitude.

But now, that was over and done with.

Today was the 23rd of December, the day before Christmas, all his preparations were done, and he had some time available to cool off … by going on a rampage and slaughtering a bunch of creatures in cold blood.

Yeah, he wouldn’t phrase it like that in front of someone else, ever.

But it was true. The beautiful simplicity of combat was his retreat from the world, his safe space, his sanctum sanctorum. A place to, paradoxical as it was, destress.

Isaac had a couple of Aspect sets to complete, namely, the twin Aspects of the Ghoul.

“Undead” was one of the broadest categories of summons there was, covering everything from bog-standard zombies and ghouls to disgusting abominations comprised of countless bodies, ghouls and other “advanced” walking corpses, as well as a wide variety of “higher” undead. Vampires, Liches, Draugr, and more.

Isaac would be focusing on the ones needed to upgrade his Aspects, though.

Oh, first, he had another thing to do though, he’d just remembered he’d finally gotten his hands on certain materials. He’d had access to them through the university and his company before, but now he had enough available for private use.

Elemental Phoenixes, here I come! Time to feed the [Divine Fire].

Elemental Phoenixes were incredible monsters. Where the original monster could regenerate by settling on a bed of aromatic twigs and lighting it on fire, the elemental variant could needed to use their associated elements to recover.

In other words, these things held flames that could break down any given physical substance, as long as there wasn’t magic interfering, but that was only the start of what they could do. Of course, nowadays, there was magic infusing literally everything, which vastly reduced the offensive capability of flames that could target specific parts of the periodic table, but that didn’t make them useless.

These fires had an incredible destructive ability, sure, but there were other tricks he could pull with them.

For starters, they were still Phoenix flames, which could convert physical substances into regenerative energies. The conversion ratio was terrible, sure, but it was still useful. Especially when one used the flames belonging to various radioactive phoenixes to burn away nuclear fallout and converting the horribly damaging mess into something that could heal the land.

Coming up with that idea had taken Isaac a lot longer than he was willing to admit to come up with that idea, but now that he’d had it, he needed to get his hands on that capability ASAP … or rather, as soon as he could get his hands on sufficient amounts of restricted materials. And the situation wasn’t urgent enough to go outside the law for that.

He’d already absorbed various elemental Phoenix flames, though.

Titanium Phoenix fire that had physical form, capable of directly blocking strikes, not just scaring off people from punching through it via the sheer heat.

The sheer heat of the Magnesium Phoenix, flames glowing so brightly that staring at it was difficult even with Isaac’s 400 points in Perception.

And more besides.

Now, it was time to complete the set.

… but first, safety precautions. It wouldn’t do for anyone to pick up the radiation and call in … someone. Anyone. It would be annoying, it would be messy, and Isaac didn’t want to deal with it.

Some simple blood runes were all Isaac needed to take care of that. These monsters were so weak that he could afford the injuries.

The Tier 5 Uranium Phoenix erupted from the summoning circle, neon-green flames washing off it in waves and bathing the entire summoning area in a light that just looked utterly toxic. Unfortunately, while this fire could remove radiation, it could also emit it.

An ostrich-sized flaming bird stared at the human standing in front of it, perfectly fine, and cocked its head to the side in confusion.

Isaac just grinned. He’d absorbed so many different kinds of phoenix flames that he was 99% immune to the fire that was currently bathing him, with the final percent being due to the fact that he was not yet familiar with this specific element.

And even that issue was removed after less than a single second as [Divine Fire] assimilated the Phoenix’s power.

A single wave of Isaac’s hands took control of the flames that filled this space, before they could even get going, the Tier 5 monster barely able to stop him, and empowered them burn away all the radiation that had filled the area since the summon had appeared, then collapse around the monster and burn all the radiation from its flesh.

It took a couple of seconds, but soon enough, there was nothing left but a blackened, shriveled mass that turned to dust on the wind.

Every single radioactive material he had was used, the related phoenix’s flame stolen, rinse and repeat.

And once that was gone and the area was cleaned up and the blood wards dismissed, Isaac switched over to summoning his true targets.

Up first, Draugr. Those things were somewhat weird, in multiple ways. For one, they were among the few things that had identical words for singular beings and multiples, but that was just a linguistic quibble.

The strangest bit was that the term “Draugr” described three different things under the [System].

Firstly, there was the monster he was about to fight, a human corpse with pale skin, armed and armored like an ancient Viking.

Secondly, there was the species that a human could turn into, if they had enough undead Aspects, were fighters, and were willing to give up most of the benefits that came with, well, being alive.

And thirdly, it was even a [Class], which basically amounted to “damn hard to kill” and had a constant, low-level [Moment of Immortality] in effect, but otherwise pretty crappy. Half the [Skills] synergized to grant a single powerful defensive ability, and the other half were pretty standard second Evolution [Skills] befitting a [Warrior] Evolution.

He summoned them a dozen at a time and burnt them to ashes, over and over until he’d gotten his hands on one of their Aspects. At Tier 5, anyone at the fourth Evolution who could be threatened by them was a sorry excuse for a fighter indeed.

Isaac’s current Level of 113 put him within the Level range for Tier 8, on paper, merely three Tiers above his opponents, but the Level range increase for each new Tier was truly insane.

But as boring as fighting these basic undead had been, the next set of monsters were sure to provide a challenge.

The Draugr Aspect got slotted for the plus 15 to Strength, but Isaac didn’t pay much mind to the Skills because he’d be immediately upgrading it with an Aspect from his new foe.

The Tier 9 Death Knight.

Minimum Level 121, heavy armor, either a two-handed melee weapon or a combination of a shield and one-handed weapon, stupid hard to kill overall, and near-immunity crowd control [Skills].

In other words, a nasty piece of work. Utterly perfect for a challenge.

The Death Knight appeared in the summoning circle clad in heavy plate armor with its hands resting on the hilt of a massive, flanged mace that had been planted in the ground, head-first.

It stood there for a moment, looking for all the world like a statue, a monument to an ancient warrior. Yet before Isaac could have struck it even if he’d charged immediately, a cold blue glow manifested behind the monster’s closed visor and it exploded into motion, the mace that had once been resting on the concrete floor suddenly coming down in an overhead motion, about to punch Isaac into the ground like a tent pole.

[Wave Charge], [Legendary Blow: Fivefold Power Strike]

Isaac slid under the attack, thrusting the glowing red blade straight at the gap in the beast’s visor, only to be blocked by an armored arm that the knight had taken off its weapon. Balmung still slammed into the helmet and knocked it askew, but failed to reach the true goal.

Behind his back, the mace hammered into the ground, shattering concrete and sending shards flying everywhere.

Phasing meant that there was no risk from flying debris, but it also meant that Isaac could move through the armored limb restraining him … until the Death Knight flexed its arm, somehow breaking the plates, which were immediately by a glowing mana construct. This was a [Skill] that Isaac would be stealing via the monster’s Aspect, and right in that moment, it nearly killed him as the mana based defenses were now inside his chest as he passed over it.

Another [Wave Charge] opened up the distance while Isaac regenerated. That thing was annoyingly smart. But it was still dead.

Isaac had spawned every Kabar and Kriegsmesser he had straight in its face just before he’d retreated, applied [Compounded Impact] and sent it straight at the beast’s chest.

Sure, killing undead usually meant going for the head, but good luck continuing the fight without your torso, Buckethead!

The Death Knight twisted and swept an arm and its mace through the cloud before it could impact, spreading out the attack and preventing the [Skill] from reaching full charge. At the same time, the low combo count prevented it from becoming too expensive, but it was still annoying to see the attack to so easily thwarted.

Still, the awkward counter had done a fair job of ruining the monster’s stance.

[Phantom Step] wasn’t something Isaac often used, but it was damn useful, especially with the Evolution that let him manifest an illusionary copy after teleporting.

One Isaac appeared in midair in front of the monster’s face, Balmung poised for another thrust through the visor. The fake one.

Real Isaac appeared behind the monster, pressed his free hand against its back, right at the gap between two plates, and fired a flood of flames inside, a nice mixture of Iron Phoenix flames and hellfire.

A massive grin on his face, Isaac dodged the furious retaliatory strike that cratered the ground where he’d been standing a split second before. He retreated several more steps as the Death Knight came after him, looking like a demon straight from hell itself, armor- and life-destroying flames burning within its defenses.

Isaac threw two Kabars at it. The first was smashed out of the air by the mace, the second caught in its hand.

The Death Knight tried to crush the dagger, but a split second after it had been caught, it transformed into Isaac’s giant sword. The gauntlet which held it exploded into metal shards as the eight meter sword unfurled and smacked the monster upside the head.

Off balance, on fire, and multiple gaping breaches in its defenses.

[Wave Charge], [Legendary Blow: Fivefold Power Strike], [Crippling Blow]

It might have made sure to shield its head, but that hadn’t been Isaac’s goal. He slid to a stop behind it and spun, Balmung held at the ready as he looked at the results of his attack. A gigantic rent had been cut into the monster’s chest, practically slicing it in half and laying bare its spine, [Crippling Blow] ensuring that the struck organ was functionally impossible to use. In other words, holding a proper combat stance or shifting to meet Isaac’s attacks would be near impossible from now on.

It took three more attacks to kill it. One to take the arm that held the mace, a second to remove the other, and then, Isaac drove Balmung through the Death Knight’s head, damaging its animating force beyond repair. Almost.

The hellfire that raced along the blade and concentrated on the portion that was currently impaling the beast’s skull.

Death Knight (Lv. 125) has been slain. 3,000 XP gained

Breathing heavily but grinning like a loon, Isaac dismissed the flames and looked around the wrecked summoning area. Puddles of molten steel, hellfire scorch marks, giant craters where the mace had struck, and streaks of burnt rubber from Isaac’s shoes where he’d stopped abruptly after a wave charge. Once all this was over, he’d need to bribe Karl to come by and fix this mess and reinforce his summoning area. Again.

But no Aspect had dropped, which meant he got to do it all over again!

Isaac switched his damaged shoes out for another set. Apparently, the first set of experimental combat footwear for people with high Agility was a failure, time to try out the second pair.

Three pairs of shoes and nineteen Death Knights later, he finally got what he was looking for.

Aspect of the Death Knight:

This is the distilled essence of what makes a Death Knight a Death Knight. Heavy Armor manifested from thin air, the ability to wear said heavy armor ad infinitum, having armor constantly be reinforced when it gets damaged, even summon an ancient weapon of power should the need arise.

Requirements for Activation:

5,000 XP

Open Aspect Slot

Grants:

+20 (15 base +5 bonus from Einherjar race) Strength

One of the following Skills:

Knight’s Eternal Blades

Ghostly Armor

Death Knight’s Endurance

Armored Echo

[Knight’s Eternal Blades] was a weapon-summoning [Skill], the poor man’s soulbound weapon, and therefore pretty superfluous for Isaac, but the other three he could get and they were awesome!

… awesome-ish. Really, they were useful [Skills] that would upgrade to become absolute beasts once he completed the Aspect stack.

Death Knight’s Endurance (epic)

Wearing armor day in, day out, is rather exhausting. Doing so when said armor is several centimeters thick and weighs hundreds of kilograms, even more so.

But a Death Knight doesn’t have to worry about that on account of, well, being dead.

That is the power that this Skill brings. Vastly increased stamina as if exhaustion is a concept that does not affect the user in the slightest.

For the first eight hours of any activity that is not extraordinarily strenuous, such as combat, the user will not experience fatigue or a related loss in capability. Once this time is up, exhaustion will set in as if they’d only just started to exert themselves and accumulates more slowly.

In addition, the weight of equipment such as armor contributes vastly less to the wearer’s exhaustion.

This effect can be used once a day.

(Einherjar Bonus: This effect can be activated every 18 hours)

Isaac was at a high enough Level and so used to pulling all-nighters that he didn’t really need the [Skill] and wouldn’t have gotten it otherwise, but the Einherjar bonuses made going after undead Aspects a very useful path to power.

Ghostly Armor (epic)

Armor. It’s useful, sure, but a pain in the ass to put on. Which is why it’s so damn useful to just be able to summon it from thin air.

This Skill summons a set of spectral plate armor that is perfectly suited to the wearer’s fighting style in terms of both weight and restrictiveness and will last until the user dismisses it.

Damage will be repaired via an additional payment of mana, and the armor can be re-manifested when destroyed over and over, so long as mana is available. Becoming a heavily armored dreadnought of spectral steel doesn’t have to be a one-time thing.

Cost: 200 mana for the initial summoning, 100 mana per hour for upkeep

(Einherjar Bonus: summoned armor is lighter and easier to move in at no cost to toughness)

[Ghostly Armor], on the other hand, was pretty much useless in its current form due to its mana cost, but he hadn’t gotten it for what it could do for him now, but because he knew what its Tier 10 version looked like. It would have a variable cost, including a version that ran entirely off of ambient mana, providing him a free additional layer of protection.

And then there was the [Skill] that had burned the inside of this chest with a sudden mana manifestation.

Armored Echo (epic)

Armor is great, isn’t it? A sheet of leather, an interlocked web of metal rings, a steel plate.

Something to stick between you and the bad guy, to take the beating in your stead.

There’s one small problem with that idea, though. Armor degrades, armor is damaged, armor breaks. And then, what do you have? A hunk of metal with a giant hole in it that still slows you down?

However, with this Skill, whenever your armor is damaged, a weaker, spectral plate will appear in its place to cover the new weakness, at least until that too is destroyed.

Cost: 75 mana per hour

(Einherjar Bonus: cost reduction from 100 mana per hour to 75 mana per hour)

[Ghostly Armor] and [Armored Echo] would combine perfectly at Tier 10 to provide him with a powerful and practically free defensive forcefield.

Isaac was getting to the point where he had far too many mana-hungry [Skills], and he needed [Skills] that could strengthen him without further burdening his poor abused mana pool.

However, while the [Skills] might not have made the biggest impact upon his current build, he’d gotten 35 extra points of Strength and those would come very much in handy.

And he still had a second set of Aspects to complete. Aspect of the Corpse Lord for the second stack, and the Aspect of the Lich for the third one.

Corpse Lords were basic constructs made up of multiple corpses, meant to direct lesser undead. When raised by a [Necromancer] and properly supported, they were a deadly threat.

Summoned alone and facing a fourth Evolution fighter … not so much.

Isaac tore through the boring monsters as if they were tissue paper until he got an Aspect and was about to finally get to the interesting enemy, the Liches, he realized that he’d gotten his hands on enough XP to increase his Level, which he promptly did. After all, he’d just reached Level 114 and gained enough [Skill] points to buy something he’d been chomping at the bit to get ever since he’d gained his fourth Evolution [Class]. Well, after [Divine Fire], at any rate.

Blessing of Innovation (legendary)

A lion has teeth that can shatter bones, claws that rend flesh like tissue paper, and the strength to bring down all but the largest of animals in its habitat.

A human has … what exactly? Sweating that allows for long pursuits and bipedal locomotion that allows them to carry stuff in their hands?

Yet it’s man who hunts lions, not the other way around. In fact, Africa’s lions are so badly traumatized that they are terrified of humans and will run from any they see if they can. So why is that the way of the world? Well, as a kindergartener would put it: “lions are stupid”.

The Blessing of Innovation boosts the recipient’s ability to figure out new things, to create new inventions to benefit the world as a whole, to make their mark on civilization itself. (the recipient can be any willing sapient being withing 10 meters of the user at the moment of activation or the user themselves)

While active, the recipient may temporarily selectively “forget” certain parts of their knowledge base or randomly remove certain preconceived notions to see their work from different eyes. (All memories and the old mental state will be restored at the end of the Skill’s effect. This can also be done at will and the possibility of restoration cannot be forgotten.)

Furthermore, the recipient may choose to divorce their knowledge from its respective sources, leaving them with nothing but objective fact for the duration of the effect.

Lastly, the user may draw on the knowledge of lesser science and research Classes, borrowing up to three Skills at a time, up to a rarity of rare and up to the second Evolution.

The Blessing of Innovation can be used once per day to start with and gains an additional maximum charge every five Levels in this Skill. Charges refresh at midnight and do carry over for up to a week.

Oh, the fun he could have, playing with this [Skill]. The Liches could wait, there were scientific marvels to discover. Hopefully.