Wasteland Warlords: Chapter 14 - Brute Force

There was a sudden jerk as the pressure around Clay loosened just a hair. He cracked his eyes and saw, much to his surprise, Chonk clinging to Katotes’ arm, gnawing at his gargantuan wrist with jagged teeth.

From elsewhere, a chainsaw screamed and lightning crackled.

A spray of gore blasted Clay in the face, the smell of fetid blood making him gag. Just what in the hell is happening? Two of Katotes’ three heads jabbered and howled like lunatics. Clay caught a glimpse of the left head bleeding on the floor.

“No! I won’t be killed like this! I am Katotes the Mighty. Fear me!” the middle head thundered. The Ettin backpedaled as he screamed, ramming himself into a wall, slamming its head backward as if it were trying to crush a pest on its back.

The chainsaw roared again, and this time Clay was aware enough to see Alex, perched on the giant’s bloody shoulder, the kusarigama chain hooked around one elbow for balance while the chainsaw chewed through Katotes’s middle neck.

That head tumbled down the Ettin’s chest and gut with a series of wet thwaps, then thumped to the floor.

The final head bellowed.

Since the creature no longer had its axe, it swung Clay instead—using his body as a blunt weapon—trying to knock Alex off. Clay pulled his legs and head in the best he could. He shouldn’t have worried. Alex was a tiny target. If he was a mosquito to the Ettin, then she was a flea. The giant couldn’t have hit her with all three sets of eyes aiming.

A feral chittering filled the room. Chonk had abandoned the Ettin’s arm and was racing up its shoulders, going for the dungeon lord’s last two beady eyes.

“No!” the right head screamed. It flailed Clay again, but missed the tiny mechacoon.

Alex didn’t waste Chonk’s distraction. She dropped to one knee and jammed the chainsaw into the corner of Katotes’s final neck. Here and there, the saw nicked the kusarigama chain and threw up sparks along with the sprays of gore. After one last moment of bloody resistance, the last head dropped to the floor.

The Dungeon Lord’s hand went limp. Clay and Katotes slapped to the ground at the same time, the Marriott’s top floor rumbling from the impact.

Son of a bitch. They had killed the giant. Clay would’ve laughed if everything didn’t hurt so damned much.

With a groan, he kicked the Ettin’s heavy fingers off his legs and crab-crawled backward out of their loose hold. A pair of human-sized hands grabbed him under the armpits and hauled him up.

Joe.

“Where’s Alex?” Clay demanded, wobbling uncertainly on his feet. “Did she get clear when it fell?”

“Easy, bro, easy.” Joe turned him around. “Look.”

Alex stood, gore-splattered and triumphant, on the small hill of the Ettin’s shoulder like some sort of pint-sized, post-apocalyptic avenging angel.

A strange booming noise echoed through the room. Clay looked around for the source, then realized it was getting louder, bleeding from the air itself. It sounded like music from a soundtrack of tribal war drums.

As they watched, an invisible force lifted Alex off her feet. Golden light shined from her skin, glowing brighter and brighter. Her short hair swam around her face like a halo. The blood and guts burned away under its intensity, and her scrapes and bruises from the fight disappeared in a flash.

Little by little, the light and drumming faded and Alex gently drifted back to the floor.

Ignoring the pain in his ribs and chest, Clay climbed up the Ettin and pulled his wife into a kiss. She was safe, and maybe more. Something had definitely happened. He wanted to know whether it had worked, but for the moment, he couldn’t stop kissing her.

“All right,” Joe cheered, clapping them both on the back. “Free kisses for everybody!”

Alex snorted. “Don’t even think about it.”

“Not you, short stack. Ew. I’m talking about this guy. Bring it in, you big sexy jarhead.”

Clay laughed and shoved Joe back. “Go check on Griff, will you? Get him patched up,” he said, then pulled his wife back into a hug. Refusing to let her go. He just held her for a while, lost in their victory, not daring to believe they’d really done it.

It was Griff’s voice that finally broke the tenuous spell.

“Can’t believe my eye, but you did it.” The old weed and Joe stood in the stairwell doorway. Both looked worse for the wear, but they were upright and had all their pieces. The ones they’d started the fight with, anyway, in Griff’s case. That was a hell of an accomplishment considering that Clay had almost lost his leg on two separate occasions today.

“You damn fool pups killed Katotes.” Griff grinned and shook his head as he trotted over. “A bunch of tumbleweeds. Who coulda guessed?”

Clay gave Alex one more squeeze then, stuck out his hand and shook with the old man. “Thanks for getting us here so we could.”

“Keep your thanks, son. I didn’t do much more’n get knocked out before the fight even got rollin’.” Griff eyed Clay and Joe. “Based on the state of you boys and the fresh-clean look of your gal, I’m gonna say she struck the killin’ blow. Congratulations, lass.” He pinched Alex’s cheek like a proud grandfather.

“As much as I’d like to take all the credit, Joe’s the one who climbed up the back of Katotes to get Bertha to me,” she said. “And Chonk saved Clay’s life.”

“That’s true,” Joe said, patting the fury mechacoon. It had scampered back onto his shoulder and was letting its hedge trimmer hang off the side while one little fist twisted in Joe’s hair for balance. “Me and fur-boy here are just glad we could be the heroes. Although Bertha was the real MVP of the day.” He shook his head and Chonk mirrored the motion. “And you guys wanted me to leave her behind.”

Clay ignored his brother’s good-natured gloating and turned back to Alex. “How do you feel? Do you think it worked?”

She said nothing, her eyes distant. Vacant.

Griff cleared his throat, placed a hand on Joe’s shoulder and carefully guided him away, obviously not wanting to intrude on the moment.

“How’s about we go poke around for some loot?” the old timer suggested, raising the eyebrow over his patch. “I bet ol’ Katotes has some goodies stored away round here somewhere.”

Alex watched them go with a vacant expression, but Clay couldn’t take his eyes off his wife. He swallowed, his heart pounding in his ears. In the silence, it sounded louder than the war drums. Dread pooled in the back of Clay’s mind, growing with every second she didn’t say anything.

He fumbled open a drop pouch and dug out the Monocle of True Seeing.

“Here,” he said through a suddenly dry throat.

A tear rolled down her cheek, and she shook her head. She placed her hand against his and pushed the monocle away.

Clay’s stomach sank. They’d come all this way for nothing. Risked their lives, and for what? Another letdown.

“I don’t need it anymore,” she said softly.

“What do you mean you don’t need it anymore?”

“I don’t need it. I can just see it,” she said, a tremor in her voice. “My character screen. I just think about it and it’s there in front of me, clear as my memaw’s good crystalware. It… It worked.”

“What?” He must’ve misheard her.

“It worked!” She laughed as tears tracked down her cheeks. “Clay, we did it!”

With numb fingers he lifted the monocle toward his eye. He wouldn’t believe it until he saw it for himself.

“I knew I felt it!” she crowed. “It wasn’t just curing the diseases, it was rebuilding what they took out during the surgery.” She placed a hand against her belly. “I’m whole again.”

Clay fit the glass to his eye and looked at his wife.

                                                                            ╠═╦╬╧╪

Alexandra Jaeger

Level: 3

Race: Incant

Class: Basic Brute

Alignment: Blood

Exp: 321; Exp to next level: 1,560

Available Characteristic Points: 15

Health: 197/197

H-Regen / 5 Sec: 20.5

Magick: 150/150

Magick-Regen / 5 Sec: 4.25

Stats:

· Strength: 26 (24 + 2 item bonus)

· Constitution: 20 (19 + 1 item bonus)

· Dexterity: 18

· Intelligence: 13

Characteristics:

· Armor Rating: 77

· Melee Attack Damage: 103

· Ranged Attack Damage: 67

· Spell Damage: 85

· Movement Rate: +4.6%

· Critical Hit Chance: 6.8%

· Critical Hit Damage: +59%

Active Effects:

· Darkvision

· Rapid-Regen

· Goliath Physique: Disease, Filth, and Poison Immunity (Permanent)

Basic Brute Skills:

· Battle Instinct

· Goliath Grip

· Uncanny Reach

Player Special Skills:

· Chain Weapons – Oversized (Melee Skill) Lv. 1

                                                                                ╠═╦╬╧╪

Clay was thunderstruck. It felt like he was in a dream.

Her character sheet had changed drastically since the last time he’d looked at it. Her stats hadn’t gone up since taking the potions, but her race had changed to Incant, she’d unlocked the Basic Brute Class, and she’d jumped from level 0 to level 3—earning fifteen characteristic points in the process. A truly staggering amount of power. She also now had an active Regeneration Rate and three new abilities listed in a new section called Basic Brute Skills, plus a weapon skill. His eyes skipped past all of those, however, and landed on the Active Effects.

Instead of Poisoned, Effect Ongoing, the only item she had now was Goliath Physique: Disease, Filth, and Poison Immunity (Permanent).

They’d done it.

For the first time in forever, Clay felt weightless. He threw his head back and laughed, then kissed Alex again.

“Get a room already!” Joe yelled from his seat on the wooden throne. He’d retrieved Bertha and was busy wiping gore from her mechanisms with dirty rags. “Seriously. Go get a head start on making my nephew. You guys can name him Joseph, but we’ll call him Joey, mmkay?”

Clay shot his brother the finger over Alex’s shoulder.

Alex froze, the smile disappearing from her face. “Um guys, there’s an issue. I just got a new pop-up.”

“What’s it say?” Clay asked, holding the monocle up to his eye again, hoping to see for himself. No such luck. Only her character screen was visible.

“Hold on…” Her eyes flickered left to right—reading then rereading something only she could see. “It’s asking me if I want to claim Dungeon Location: Marriott.”

“What does that mean?” Clay asked.

“One sec. It says, ‘Congratulations!’” she read, “‘You have defeated the current Dungeon Lord of the Bakersfield Marriott, Katotes the Mighty. This Stronghold is now vacant; as a Freehold Incant you may claim it for yourself and assume the role of Dungeon Lord. If you dismiss your rightful claim, the Dungeon will lie fallow. Be advised, however, that any current Floor Overseer will be entitled to lay claim for themselves if you decline. Should another monster claim this Stronghold, you will have to challenge them in a duel and win to reassert your superiority. Would you like to claim Dungeon Location: Bakersfield Marriott at the Convention Center? Yes / No’”

Griff whistled through his teeth. “It’s true then.” He shook his head. “I heard rumors that the Incants were somehow connected to Dungeon Lords, but it was all just whispers in the wind. And they certainly never shared that little tidbit with anyone else.”

“But what’s it mean?” Alex asked.

“I reckon it means what it says,” Griff replied. “If you want to, you could decide to stake out this piece of property for yourself. Become a bonafide dungeon lord. Or dungeon lady, I suppose.”

She glanced at Clay. “What do you think? Should we accept or pass?”

Clay looked around at the gory mead hall, Katotes’ headless corpse on the floor.

“This place is a dumpster fire, and it smells like the inside of a hot Porta John roasting in the Jordanian sun. Hard pass.”

“Aw,” Joe whined, “are you kiddin’ me? We could own our own hotel. What’s not to love about that, huh? This place just needs a little elbow grease and TLC.”

“This place is made out of elbow grease,” Clay replied, “and the only way to fix it is to burn it down to the ground.” He paused, brow furrowed. “Besides, we got we what came for. We killed a Dungeon Lord. Cancer is never going to be able to touch Alex again, and we’ve earned more than enough to get our house back. Plus the dojo and probably most of the construction equipment, too. Mission accomplished.”

“What if I don’t want to go back?” Alex said. “I mean, I agree. This dirt pile”—she waved a hand around—“is not where I want to be. Plus, who knows what would happen if I accepted. Would I become a monster? Would I be stuck here forever? Too many variables. But I like the IZ, Clay.” She tipped her head back so she could look him in the eyes. “We could make a home out here. Be legit homesteaders. We’ve even already got the papers. Now that I’m an Incant, there’s nothing stopping us.”

Clay sighed and drummed his fingers on the buttstock of his rifle.

The IZ was rewarding—any idiot who’d survived ten minutes monster-killing knew that. He’d never gotten such immediate results for his hard work before. But it was still deadly. And it sure as hell wasn’t the kind of place you could raise a family.

Alex frowned. “Crap, I know that look. You’re thinking something responsible.”

“You know, you used to think about the responsible stuff, too,” he muttered. “Nobody wants to, but if we go back to civilization with what we’ve earned here—”

“It’ll suck balls!” Joe hopped off the throne, Warboots clumping as he crossed the room. With a grunt, he scrambled up onto Katotes with them. “You want to go back to mortgages and backbreaking labor for pennies and all the major corporations trying to bend you over for stuff you can get out here yourself with a little sweat equity?” He socked Clay in the shoulder. “Dude, civilization is awful! Also, nobody calls you cool nicknames like Lumberjack Joe back in civilization.”

Clay rolled his eyes. “So that’s one pro for leaving.”

“He’s a moron, but he’s not wrong.” Alex laced her fingers behind his neck. “Back home, even when things were going well, you worked ten hours a day, and I taught class every evening. We barely saw each other. Out here, though? We have everything we ever wanted. We’re happier than we’ve been in years.” She searched his face. “And if you think about it, staying really is the responsible thing. The only responsible thing. We’ll be settling the wasteland. Somebody’s got to or it’ll never be inhabitable again. We actually have the power now to make that happen.”

Clay let out a long breath. Admittedly, it sounded good. So free. Out here, they could build something no one could take away. Be a whole new kind of pioneer.

“Let’s suppose I were to say yes,” Clay said slowly. “Where would we even start?”

“We’d start by getting you two knuckleheads powers,” Alex said with a wry grin. “And then we’d do whatever we damn well please.”

He matched her smirk, surprised at just how happy the idea made him. If they could pull it off once, they could do it again. And then? The possibilities were endless.

“All right. I’m in. Let’s go monster hunting.”