AN: I've been wrangling with this long-ass chapter all day long. If anything seems incredibly off, please let me know. :)

I think I'll write two more chapters next week for this, and then let it hit it's probably one month hiatus. I don't see it being gone longer than that, since that's about normal for one of my stories reaching end of volume now.

So, we have more to come! Iz officials.

Chapter 23: Team Badass, Go!

There was a short space of time where Scott chose to wait for the brother-sister duo to do their shopping. During that time he spent a few minutes chatting with Harley, and re-checked his current items and equipment. His ring was the only real noteworthy item of interest. He noticed the color change before, but it seemed that the innate skill changed as well. There was a lightning element in it now.

Once Pete finished, he and Sally went to check Regal Green. Scott returned to the kiosk to do a little more shopping of his own. At present he possessed only a little over seven thousand daemons. He ear-marked five thousand of that for upgrading his people, but that did not mean that he could not use some of it to help buy a piece of equipment if necessary. As soon as he got the chance, night hunting would begin. That would easily recoup some of his expenditure.

Scott rubbed his chin slowly. The prices for armor varied wildly. Greatswords were one of the most expensive types of weapon around, but individual armor pieces would cost as much, if not more. Second-tier armor of the type he would enjoy ranged in price from twenty-two hundred for the least expensive leg guards, to nine thousand for the best heavy torso armor.

Something else occurred to him after looking the armor over, however. The heaviest armor selections would drastically reduce his speed, movement, and counter ability. The evasion penalties were stiff as well. “Damn…” muttered Scott. His strength and vitality were not high enough to wear a full-suit of the best level eleven second-tier heavy armor without penalties.

He downgraded from the best to the second best, a lighter set of heavy plate. It would still be better than his previous gear. “Still a few penalties, but smaller…” Scott did not want any penalties.

Training his stats at his current attribute numbers would take months, and he would literally have to do nothing but strength and vitality training. When he had only one or two points in a stat, it took a few days to earn a couple of points and even one point took hours of mind-numbing repetitive training with only short rest breaks.

Each point was harder to acquire than the last. It became quite obvious from his perspective that upgrade points from quests, or as a monthly purchase, would become the new training. Hunt enough to earn twenty thousand daemons, and then buy an upgrade item from the VIP section to upgrade a stat up to four points. If luck favored the one who rolled the dice, months of extreme training could be avoided to reach the same result.

Hunting and questing for daemons did sound better to Scott than doing push-ups eighteen hours a day for a month, just to get one or two points.

In a perfect world, he would be able to spend years training his stats for free. He would be able to hone his mind and body before beginning the road to the great level-up. Unfortunately, the world he lived in would not allow for it. The threat level around him increased daily. If he tried to spend a year doing nothing but training his stats, he probably would not live to see the end of that year.

Scott mumbled, “But is there a way to gain a lot of daemons without leveling up?” If there was such a method, it would be perfect. Buy upgrade points and go crazy. Of course, it seemed the creators of the system knew that. Gaining additional primary stat points was difficult, and rightly so.

In the end, he knew that there was no real choice in the matter. He needed to rely on gaining levels and upgrading equipment when he had extra coinage. Besides that, his stats would reset if he reached the next tier anyway. Unless his main stats were higher than the minimum boost provided by the class-up, all of the extra stat training would be useless until he reached the highest tier.

Scott finished making justifications and decisions. His stats were not high enough to wear a complete set of the best and second best equipment without penalty. For now, he would need to rely on lesser equipment, and potential item drops. He chose a medium-grade heavy armor set list from his class shop. While his intent was to keep five thousand daemons in reserve for the people back at the house, he did need equipment. Fifty-nine hundred daemons were spent purchasing leg guards and vambraces.

Stylish Blue Dragon Leg Guards

A stylish leg protection item that boosts not only the defensive rating, but proves the keen fashion sense of the wearer.

Defense: 32

Special Option: Charisma +1

Value: 3100

[Strength 12][Vitality 18]

Stylish Blue Dragon Vambraces

A stylish arm protection item that boosts not only the defensive rating, but proves the keen fashion sense of the wearer.

Defense: 28

Special Option: Charisma +1

Value: 2800

[Strength 12][Vitality 18]

Scott equipped his new items while considering his next move. Anything less than level eleven seemed like pure garbage to him in comparison, but second-tier items were obscenely expensive in comparison. Even at level eleven they were both much stronger and far more costly.

A thought occurred to him after a moment. He glanced over to see that Pete and Sally were checking out the Regal Green store, and Harley stood resolutely. She watched and observed, but did so while looking at her master.

“I need to buy stuff for the others, but also need more equipment to replace what I lost…” Scott made his decision. He left the VIP area and headed downstairs.

Sixteen more people loitered around the area in small groups. Each of them seemed wary of the others, but no one was openly hostile at the moment.

Scott walked over to the kiosks that were useful for things like arms and armor. If he purchased a bunch of common mid-level items that he could wear now to further bolster his defenses by a small degree, he could replace them with better stuff after hunting and the left overs could go to the people at the house.

“Damn, chest armor, waist armor, and a helmet only brought my defense up by nine,” said Scott.

Compared to second-tier items, or even level ten first-tier items, his purchases were weak. Though, it was not long ago that such items were glorious to him. Left with only eighty-three daemons, Scott decided to buy a backpack to hold things, and gave it to Harley to wear for now.

After buying a few bottles of water to turn into healing drinks, it was time to hunt.

Just as they were walking out of the front doors, an older man called out to them. “Hey, it’s dangerous out there!”

Scott turned to look at the man. White hair, ruddy complexion, but a reasonably kind face. He wore simple leather armor and wielded a shotgun.

“I know, but it’s the best time for me to be out and about hunting,” said Scott.

“Ah, one of those,” said the man. “Don’t worry. I won’t try to stop you, but you’re on your own if you go,” said the man.

“Works for me. Stay safe,” said Scott before waving his hand.

The older man nodded and waved back. “Good luck,” he said, while he watched as they left the shopping arcade. He watched Harley closest, however.

“Taking a little girl out into that hell… This world really has gone down the drain,” said the man before turning away.

Once outside, Scott and Harley noticed the spectacular lack of people fighting in the area. It was as though the individuals within the safety of the shopping arcade refused to fight night-time monsters.

“Ah well, more for us,” said Scott. He really could not blame them, to be honest. Ghouls and other monsters were often much stronger at night. Given the equipment that he’d seen on some of the people in the shopping arcade, he suspected that they hunted and secured supplies during the day. Night-time was for resting in a safe place.

The moment he stepped out of the safe zone, the battle began. A ghoul screamed and leapt toward Scott from a rooftop high overhead. How it got up there in the first place was anyone’s guess. It missed its intended lunch by several feet and slammed heavily onto the ground below. A few seconds later, however, it shimmered and stood up. It was now perfectly fine.

It had been a while since he’d seen monsters regenerate in such a way. Once it became possible to kill them; that was what usually happened.

The customary blue field of energy flared outward from the center of the area, and the battlefield was set. It was time to get the party started.

“Lord Badass versus The Night Horde,” cried the announcer excitedly. “Fight-o!”

“Night horde? Just how many ghouls are around here?” asked Scott in surprise.

From all around the area ghouls that were hidden by garbage cans or abandoned cars began to rise up. A sewer cover was tossed up with a casual flip and a slime coated ghoul crawled up out of the darkness below. Dozens of ghouls began to converge on his location from outside the battlefield, their movements varying from a flat-out run to a shambling stagger.

Scott got his head back in the fight after a brief few seconds passed. Part of his turn was lost due to the mild surprise of the moment. However, he still had plenty of speed and movement left to work with. He rushed through the few steps that separated him from his night ghoul friend.

The creature hissed menacingly at him, but it was nowhere near the level of power and ability that it needed to be to deal with something like Scott at this point. The dragon warrior whipped his sword around in a brutal arc while he continued to move forward.

The beast was sent flying back with a single swing of Scott’s new weapon. As the viscous black blood flew from its terrible wound it stopped mid-air then dissolved into dark red light. The light flowed into his blade, even as he continued forward to press the attack.

-87

Scott leapt into the air and drove his blade downward with great force, but did not stop to congratulate himself. He felt the movement, the subtle interplay of his muscles mixed with the music. Before his upgrade he would just swing the weapon, but now it felt like he understood it like it was a part of himself. The moment his blade pierced the beast’s chest, he spun to the side while pulling it free from the chest cavity, and then slammed it down once more.

-110

-96

The night ghoul was defeated, but more entered the fray. Scott’s turn was not yet over, so he moved to a position that would be favorable.

Harley’s turn came around. She wasted no time in picking out the weakest targets and taking them down. There was no reason to waste turns on stronger foes when her master was best at dealing with them at the moment. She would provide fire support and kill off the nuisance beasts so that Scott would be free to attack the dangerous ones.

Large numbers of ghouls moved into the area. During the first round, at least thirty of them were already inside the battle arena.

The second round began after a few minutes of shuffling or short sprints occurred. The situation would have been dire just a few days ago, but at the moment Scott’s eyes were aflame with joy. “More loot and experience has arrived!”

His turn came and he raced toward the closest ghoul. Though they held strong resistances to physical attacks, his physical attack power was high enough that it did not matter. His sword blasted through the side of one ghoul, and he whirled to the side and cut a diagonal swipe down the center mass of another beast. With reckless abandon he leapt over the head of a ghoul caught in mid-run when its turn ended and then cleaved a hard bloody path of ruin down its exposed back.

They barely moved when he attacked. His baseline statistics made it seem like they really were standing still, even when they tried to counter. Only the strongest of the night ghouls that arrived even managed an attempt at a proper dodge or counter.

Limbs and heads flew through the air as Scott cleaved them from their rotting bodies. By the time his turn ended, eight ghouls were badly injured and another three were destroyed.

Two of the ghouls were brought low on Harley’s next turn as they were weakened to the extent that a few shots from her Lootmaster were enough to finish them off.

The ghouls tried to overwhelm Scott with sheer numbers and brute strength tactics, but they were slow, even the runners. It seemed that the situation was hopeless for them after the next few rounds passed by with Scott and Harley slaughtering them wholesale, but something happened that rapidly changed the situation.

“Master! A powerful lifeform approaches. Level two,” called out Harley.

Scott began to ask for more information, but there was no need. From out the darkness came a blood red ghoul. It ran toward the battlefield at incredible speed while screaming a hellish cry.

Scott was out of movement after dodging or countering so many attacks, so he could not get a good look at the beast. However, the moment that it entered the battlefield something horrible happened.

Warning

Ghoul racial ability [Horde Mind] now active. All ghouls within the combat area are now five percent stronger per ghoul participating in the battle.

Ghoul racial ability [Fear of Death] now active. All non-ghouls within the combat area are now one percent weaker per ghoul participating in the battle.

“Fuck!” snapped Scott. That particular racial ability did not activate that often when he was fighting ghouls recently, and even then the numbers tended to be small enough that it did not matter. However, now that the Night Horde continued to send several ghouls per round into the battle, it was a serious problem.

There were a little over thirty ghouls still in the fight. Their abilities would more than double, while his would reduce by at least one-third.

His turn came to an end after finishing off another ghoul, and Harley’s began. She fired on the closest red ghoul experimentally, but did not show any sign of surprise when the shot did not damage. Her next shots were aimed at the ghouls that stood between it and Scott.

“Harley,” called out Scott. “If these red bastards come for you, head back to the shopping arcade.”

He did not hear her reply as he was suddenly forced into a situation of defense. A dozen ghouls that were nothing but loot and experience a moment ago, were within striking range. While their attacks would still do little to no damage at this point, they would force him to waste precious movement and stamina due to their increased capacity to counter and dodge. Now he was frozen between attack attempts and could not move to defend other than last second movements.

His counters and movement were used up quickly in a bid to avoid getting put into the very situation that happened next. A ghoul snuck up behind him and leapt for glory.

“Ghoul Racial Unity Attack! Horde Devouring!” cried the announcer.

Suddenly, one of the night ghouls threw its head back and unleashed a loud howl. A wave of light raced outward from its position and encompassed both Scott and a large number of the monsters of the field. Each of the ghouls within the light turned toward Scott as one then ran toward him. They were intimately involved in the unity attack.

Several ghouls leapt toward him in order to tackle him to the ground. Their mission was to swarm him en masse. One of them slipped past him narrowly as it flew through the air. His last second dodge was perfectly timed. However, his lack of other quick defensive movements were problematic. Though he avoided the first leaping ghoul, he was tackled to the ground by another. A third monster piled on, and then another. Soon he was five ghouls deep under a rotting pile of hungry death with more on the way.

-0

-0

-0

At first the ghouls that bit and scratched at him did no damage, but soon incremental damage began to accrue. If he did not get free of them, he would be gnawed to death.

-1

-1

The ghouls made their moves. More of those who were close by joined the swarm. The number of rotting corpses atop Scott doubled, and then tripled. They were eager for their meal.

Eventually, the slow agony of being gnawed on by a horde of ghouls came to an end. Scott lost over twenty of his hit points to the beasts during that exchange, but now it was his turn.

He tried his best to wriggle free, but it was slow going. The sheer weight above him was nearly too much to handle even for his strength and agility. Nearly half his turn passed before desperation and hope formed a bridge of absolute necessity. It was time to try out a crazy idea.

A small arc of electrical current spasmed weakly from his hand. It tickled the ghoul closest to him. Nothing happened beyond that. Despair began to creep up within him once more, but he fought it back. He refused to die like this! There was no way that he would allow it.

The lightning arced again, stronger this time. He breathed in the foul air, gritted his teeth and then forced himself to move. Electricity began to arc all around him. Tiny damage numbers floated upward from over a dozen different ghouls, but the effectiveness was increasing. Ghouls were strong against physical powers, but did not have much natural magical resistance at tier one.

Scott growled loudly then screamed out in rage. The bodies muffled his scream, but not the effect. He put everything he had into the attack. Though weak, and spread thin among over a dozen different bodies, the divinely boosted electrical current did its job.

Soon ghouls began to spasm and move away as they lost hit points in greater amounts with each second that passed. One or two points at first, and then two or three per second. Ghouls screamed in unholy agony as divine judgment arced through their bodies. By the time that most of his turn was over the damage had risen to the double digits per second.

The ghouls did their best to wriggle away during their last second dodges whenever the lightning would arc. Their motions lessened the weight bearing down on their potential meal.

Not long before his turn ended, Scott rose up from the mass of the undead and shouted in triumph. “Get off of me you rotten fucks!” Lightning arced from his body like a spidery legs of violent neon hatred.

Free of the murderous swarm, he spent the rest of his turn getting past the pile of hungry corpses. He gulped in slightly fresher air just as Harley began her turn. She fired into the mass of monsters squirming on the ground, and took down three of them before her turn ended.

Now it was time for the blood red ghoul to make its move. Scott did not know what it was called. At the moment it did not matter. It raced in with a howl and covered a large amount of distance with little effort.

He guessed that they could move at least twenty full-steps per turn. That was incredibly disconcerting. The most movement that even a night ghoul normally showed was around a dozen steps per turn if he remembered correctly.

The regular ghouls came for him after that. He killed off two of them with counters before the remainder of his movement ran out. More came, however, and then came even more. The handful of ghouls that both he and Harley finished off in that round were rapidly replaced by several new arrivals. It was indeed a horde.

“Shit. Who did I piss off to make this happen?” mumbled Scott as he turn came around again.

It would take a lot of his movement to reach the red ghoul. Instead, he chose to wait for it to come to him while he worked feverishly to undermine its position.

Scott gripped his sword tight in his hands and channeled the power from his ring, the power that took the place of his previous burning soul ability. “Raging Soul!”

Time seemed to slow down briefly as a brilliant burst of electrical energy flared outward from the center of his blade. Lightning flared all around it for a moment before it settled into a constant arc of crackling power that danced along the blade. It vibrated, hummed, in his hand as the power of the storm made its presence known.

It worked just like his previous power, save for the fact that it held a lightning element instead of fire, and it required more mana to activate. Scott leapt high into the air and crashed down with a powerful strike that tore through the nearest ghoul.

-127

The beast was weakened enough previously that the attack was able to finish it off despite its massively upgraded ability. Scott did not waste any time. He performed a quickly spin to the side and cleaved through the torso of another ghoul.

His movements brought him into the thick of a small concentration of the beasts. Though they tried to dodge or counter, he was still faster. Sometimes they succeeded, but did little damage when their counters hit. However, Scott’s weapon took them down in one to three hits. Near the end of his turn he’d slain eight of the beasts and weakened enough of the others that Harley’s next turn was quite damaging as well. All told, when the bullets stopped flying a dozen of them were dead.

The playing field was starting to level out a little in that moment. The ghouls’ bonus dropped by sixty percent total, and Team Badass regained twelve percent of their lost power. The ghouls were still twice as strong as before, though, and Scott found out the hard way just what that would mean.

A screech announced the beginning of the blood red ghoul’s attack phase. It came running in like hell itself was after it. Scott knew better. That thing was hell itself.

The moment the beast came within a few feet of Scott its mouth split apart into four separate sections and revealed a mouth filled with shark-like teeth. Its swollen black tongue wiggled at him in a way that seemed like an invitation to come inside.

He attempted to dodge at the last moment, but it was nearly impossible. The red ghoul corrected its attack the instant Scott dodged by shifting the momentum of its attempted bear hug to the side. It launched a rapid lunging punch that slammed into his chest with brutal power.

Scott’s chest armor shattered in the center. A spider web of cracks radiated around it, and several chunks of metal fell to the ground. The force of the blow sent him flying back several feet to land in a confused and thoroughly surprised heap. He was left frozen with his ass in the air, and his ankles behind his head.

-43

“Counter-Reversal!” cried the announcer.

The night ghoul made a strange hissing noise then said, “Shyour assh isss mine, now…” in a high-pitched voice. It laughed hideously before rushing toward Scott’s unprotected underworld.

As luck would have it, though, the red ghoul’s movement ran out three full-steps from Scott’s location. He was stuck in place while weaker ghouls gathered round. None were close enough to attack. However, after they finished moving, the scene became even more ridiculous. A semi-circle of the hungry dead formed around Scott, while his ass pointed skyward.

The next round came. Scott leapt to his feet, a bit shaken but only a little worse for wear. He was tempted to attack the red ghoul, but he knew that would be a bad idea for now. The racial enhancement provided by the small army of the undead was simply too much. He pulled out his healing tonic then chugged down a dose. The effect began immediately, but he could not wait for its full effects to kick in.

Luckily, Scott took no status afflictions when the overpowered bastard attacked him. His chest protection paid the price, and would provide little defense for the remainder of the battle.

Not yet time to strike the strongest beast, Scott worked at culling the herd. Killing the red ghoul might end the bonus for all of the ghouls, but until that bonus was reduced substantially it would be hard to fight it.

He moved into the thick of the semi-circle. Other than a handful of the ghouls scattered around the area, almost all of them were nearby. Scott wished desperately for a wide-area attack ability, but at the moment he would settle for cutting down on the damned ghoul racial bonus five percent at a time.

Scott tore into the closest of the ghouls. The reduction of their bonus due to his previous fight left them weaker than ever. While a few ghouls did wander in during the turn, there were not enough to offset the reduction. Scott tore through them with precision and dedication. He killed off eleven of them and left three of them weak enough that Harley was able to finish them off during the next round.

So far, the ghouls did not go for her at which. It was a strange situation. Normally ghouls attacked whoever was closest, but these things homed in on him like they held a personal grudge. It made little sense.

The few ghouls that wandered in during Team Badass’ portion of the battle barely counted as a bonus. Roughly eleven ghouls, including big red, were left in the immediate battle. The bonus was a mere fifty-five percent. Dangerous, but survivable, the battle with the red ghoul began in earnest.

The red night ghoul ran toward Scott. There was not a lot of space between them this time. It would be a real fight.

A slash of a feral claw was narrowly deflected by Scott’s blade. The beast followed up with a second clawing attack that rose upward in a bid to tear his opponent’s face off. The vampiric flambard whirled to the side and deflected that attack as well. Unfortunately, for Scott, the beast recovered too quickly for a proper counter.

A whirlwind of claw and sword was born in that moment. The speed and ferocity of the monster’s attacks continued unabated. Move after move was used in a seamless stream of attacks, deflections, and last second dodges. Scott’s defense was not perfect.

Three attacks made it through, and each of them was strong enough to shake him. It was not the overwhelming power from the previous attack, but the damage ended up being slightly higher. On the other hand, the red night ghoul had taken little to no damage due to a lack of proper counters on Scott’s end. It was still too strong.

One of the ghouls that was lying on the ground, after the previous round, revealed the fact that it was not yet dead. It stood up and launched a jumping spinning crescent kick that impacted Scott’s head with a seemingly powerful blow. Scott was rocked slightly by the surprisingly agile movement, but the damage was negligible.

“We got ninja ghouls now?” asked Scott in an incredulous tone.

The strangely agile beast tried to press the assault, but it was not the same tier as the red ghoul. Without the extreme boost from earlier, it was only marginally better than its normal self. It launched a hard claw strike toward Scott’s abdomen, but struck only the empty air. Scott’s counter attack was as brutal as it was elegant. He slipped to the side then whirled his blade down in a powerful arc that sheared through the beast’s arm. It cried in agony and clutched at the ruined stump even as the number sixty-seven floated up from his body.

Unfortunately, Scott could perform no more counters after that. His movement was largely used up during the red ghoul battle segment. He was once again forced into last second dodge territory.

Two more ghouls entered the fray by the time the round ended. It did not matter, however. Scott called out, “Harley! Clean up the rest!” before he worked out his frustrations by tearing about the remaining night ghouls in his immediate area.

Scott chugged down the rest of the healing tonic in his bottle then tilted his head from side to side. “As good as it gets, huh?”

He walked behind the red ghoul then took a deep breath in preparation. His attacks would count for more now that he was not just countering. Still, he had to be clever about this. He struck out at the beast with a short jabbing attack. It whirled around to face him with frightening speed, but proved to be easy enough to manipulate.

The back attack was merely a feint. Had he struck it with full force, the attack would have been deflected. However, he did not. Now Scott was in position to perform his real attack. He slipped to the monster’s exposed side and launched a powerful cleaving strike to its ribcage.

With a cry of rage, the beast tried to recover, but it used most of its movement during its attack phase. After its attempt to deflect a back attack, it was left with only last second counters. It was fast, but without the excessive boost it was not quite fast enough. Scott’s blade tore a light gouge in its side and then curved upward to shear into its exposed arm. The very fact that it tried to deflect the strike played into Scott’s favor as the single attack managed two hits. Only one damage number was generated, however.

-80

Scott’s eyes narrowed. Only eighty damage for the strike, that wasn’t good. It meant that the beast’s defense was as high as its attack strength. Between its natural resistance to physical damage, and the current racial boost it was ridiculously strong against normal swords.

It did not take long for Scott to realize what was happening. The only major damage that it received was from the Raging Soul ability activated on his sword. When his turn ended, he would have to reapply it to have any chance of beating this thing.

His hit points began to trickle upwards, even as the red ghoul’s hit points declined. The vampiric blade lived up to its name. With each successful strike a little more of his damage was repaired. Damage numbers ranging from fifty to ninety floated above the monster’s head each time Scott managed to lure it into a successful trap. He used up most of his speed and movement just hitting it five times, but the damage continued to pile up. By the time Scott was done, a combination of the healing tonic and his weapon’s vampiric power brought him back to full health.

Harley picked off ghouls from a distance. Only two of them were slain in the process, but only two entered the battle field before the turn ended. So, things evened out.

During the ghoul phase of the battle, the red ghoul proved to be a quick study. Its brain was perhaps, not as rotten as the rest of the monsters on the battlefield. It clawed at Scott’s face with its right hand. Scott went in to deflect the strike, but the beast reversed course immediately and used another bit of movement to slam its left claw toward the original destination of its right claw. Scott took a hard claw strike to the face that sent him reeling.

The red ghoul leapt on top of him and clawed furiously at his body. Scott’s sword dropped from his hands and he fended the beast off as best he could with his vambraces acting as shields. Block, deflect, snap his head to the side to avoid punch that broke the asphalt; that was how he survived the final portion of the red ghoul’s attack phase.

Ghouls staggered or jogged toward him during their turn, but were nowhere near close enough to join the real battle. From outside the battle, another ghoul walked in to join the fight.

When Scott’s turn came around again, the first thing he did was punch upward at the beast to get its attention. As it moved to slap his hand aside, Scott’s other hand shot up and tagged it in the lower rib. It would have been a useless attack if not for one thing. Electricity surged through his palm and arced into the beast.

-5

The red ghoul screamed in agony as divine lightning coursed through its body. The damage was ridiculously low, especially with its abilities increased due to the racial empowerment. However, the effect could not be denied.

“Counter!” cried the announcer jubilantly.

The beast tried to knock Scott’s hand away, but moving left it open to a counter-strike, this time to the chest. Another small burst of lightning arced into it. The decaying muscles lost a bit of control, and the beast flailed its arms around, while the announcer called out another counter.

During the next few movements, Scott managed to break free of the beast and rose to his feet. He now had the best possible position. After snatching up his sword, he rained hard strikes down atop the thing. It managed to deflect several of them, but hundreds of hit points floated away.

Near the end, Scott backed away a little while panting. “How many fucking hit points do you have!” he snarled. A quick moment of calculation revealed that the thing had to have taken over at least eight hundred points of damage in the last two rounds. It was hardier than boss monsters that he’d faced till now!

Was this the true power of a second-tier monster? Scott originally thought that the named monsters were second tier. It made perfect sense, after all. They were stronger than normal members of their race and were considered bosses. This thing though, it was something else entirely. If this was a common second-tier night ghoul, it was no wonder that the weapons and armor in the store went up drastically in power after level ten!

Harley took out a few ghouls to keep the situation in check, and then the monster came for Scott once more. It rose to its feet, black blood dripping from over a dozen wounds. Its face split open and it hissed at him.

Surprisingly, it did not attack him. Instead, it raced off toward one of the ordinary night ghouls that shambled around the area. It tackled its undead brother in arms then clamped its face around the poor bastard’s skull. Scott was forced to watch in both disgust and annoyance as the beast ate the rotting brain of one of its own people.

“Shit…” he muttered. Frozen in place, he could do nothing to stop the beast from regaining hit points by devouring its former comrades. Three ghouls later, the beast ran out of movement, and regained over three hundred of its lost hit points. Its turn did not end before it looked to the other ghouls and howled, however.

The other ghouls took their turn now. Though, their decisions were circumspect. The poor shambling fools staggered toward the red ghoul.

“God dammit, they’re just going to die to heal that thing aren’t they?” Scott snarled at the scene. Soon all of his hard work would be for nothing.

Time passed, the newcomers to the battle were few and far between now. That was one thing in his favor.

Scott’s turn came up and he rushed toward the red ghoul. He re-activated his raging soul skill, and attack. Sadly, he only had enough movement and speed to manage three hits. Two of those hits were deflected, but the third took the beast square in the face.

-140

One and a half of those poor rotting bastards died for nothing, as nearly half of the hit points the creature regained were lost once more. Harley took out the two ghouls closest to the rotten red freak, forcing it to spend precious movement in an attempt to reach the next closest. Two more of the poor dead bastards had their brains eaten out. The ghouls moved in closer to their impending death when it was their turn, despite the loss of their brothers.

“Six left…” said Scott. For the beast, the upside to eating the brains of its friends was immediate health regain. The downside to the brain eating plan for the beast was that it lowered the racial boost that allowed it to be so overwhelming.

His turn came once more and he put his next move into action. Scott ran toward the red ghoul, but then continued past it a few steps. The hapless ghouls that would be its brain food soon found themselves torn apart with ridiculous ease. The bonus was all but gone now. Scott’s attacks were nearly enough to one shot them. The three ghouls closest to the beast were torn completely apart in short order. Four ghouls left, three of them too far away for the red ghoul to reach in the next turn.

“Your move ugly,” said Scott casually. He took up as prepared stance, sword at the ready and allowed his turn to end. He would be able to fight reasonably well with counters as well as dodges in the next turn, if the ghoul came for him.

Harley took out two more of the three remaining ghouls. One more ghoul staggered into the area, but the rest of the ghouls in the crowd beyond were still too far away to enter for the next few minutes. Night ghouls were typically much faster, most of the strong local talent must have already expired. Now that only the second stringers were on the move, the battle rapidly was coming to its conclusion.

The red night ghoul looked around the area briefly then hissed. It eyed Scott for a tense moment then snarled and ran off a good distance before spinning around to face him. It made a strange noise similar to someone about to spit then stopped all movement and waited for the end of its turn.

The other two ghouls moved forward as best they could, but ran out of movement quickly. Scott rushed toward the red night ghoul, determined to finish things. He moved behind the beast and launched an attack. The critter turned around quickly and launched a surprising type of counter, it spat a viscous green fluid toward Scott.

Thinking quickly, the dragon warrior’s head snapped sideways. As the wad of fluid sailed past tiny drops of the green lougie from hell splattered onto his shoulder and immediately began to melt the material there. The main glob slapped down disgustingly onto the pavement and spread out in an asphalt searing mess that ate at the road. Tendrils of smoke wafted upward and a chemical stench filled the area.

“Oh, you nasty ass mo—” began Scott, his eyelid twitching. But he cut himself short. He was wasting time. The sword whipped around in a rapid series of slashes and hard stabs that the monster could not block nearly as well as it could before. The massive downgrade in ability, after the loss of most of the racial bonus, put it back within Scott’s proper combat tolerance level.

The beast lost hundreds of points of health in a flash, but it did not drop. It was not until Scott leapt high into the air to avoid its attempt to use a tackle as counter that the end came. He twisted mid-jump and came flying down with a hard downward strike that skewered the beast through the spine and pinned it to the pavement. Its mouth flared open while it gave off a hellish cry of pain. Electrical energy pumped through its body without cessation, until the beast finally gasped its last fetid breath.

Scott’s turn ended when he attempted to pull his sword free. The action left him standing with one foot resting atop the beast’s back, his hands wrapped around the hilt of his blade.

His position was not lost on those who noticed the battle. From the entrance to the shopping arcade several slacked jawed onlookers stared at the result of a battle that none of them thought would end in a human victory.

“A red one…” said an older woman wearing a frumpy dress and a sunhat. Across her chest ran crisscrossing bands of ammunition.

“He actually killed one…” said an older man with thinning hair. His eyes were wet with unexpressed emotion.

“No way,” said a younger man. He wore a hodgepodge of armor and thick clothing, but held a shiny axe in his hands.

Similar sentiments were said by several others. The sight of one man and a steely eyed little girl taking down dozens of ghouls, and one of the red beasts as well, it was something no one expected to ever see.

The battle field was cleared after Harley’s turn came and went. The rest of the Night Horde was too far away to arrive in time for the first battle. The field went down, and sweet treasure became available.

Scott and Harley collected their winnings, a surprising amount of items and money even with the number of enemies involved. While doing so, light shimmered across Scott’s chest armor and the damaged portions were restored to full effectiveness. As long as a piece of armor was not destroyed beyond recognition, it would be repaired after a battle. They barely had time to collect their loot before the rest of the group came into range.

“Master. Twenty-seven lifeforms approaching. Average level seven,” said Harley without missing a beat.

The field went up. The announcer called the fight to start, and the music began to play.

Scott merely stood in place. There was no need to waste his energy. The loot and experience would come to him. Lesser night ghouls jogged speedily toward him, but without the menacing shrieks that their obviously second-tier brother used. Harley managed to gun down two of them, and the monsters began their march again one by one.

Several turns would pass before the beasts came within range of Scott due to Harley’s accuracy. His sword sang sweetly as he whirled among the undead. Heads flew, limbs were torn off, and chest cavities were cleaved asunder. All the while, his sword drank in the essence of their failing lives and restored its owner’s health.

The process repeated itself for hours. Hundreds of ghouls fell to blade or bullet, and the mountain of corpses grew ever higher. Only one more red ghoul appeared that night, but it did so at a time when there were only a five ghouls in the battle area. It provided nowhere near the difficulty that the first one did.

Eventually, the influx of ghouls trickled to a crawl. Scott and Harley collected all of the exceptionally fat loot for the night then headed back to the shopping arcade. The horde was broken. The area would be just a little safer at night for a short time, and Scott’s wallet was that much fatter because of it.

As they approached the entrance, the crowd parted. No one spoke to them as they entered, though it was obvious that there were many questions that begged to be asked.

It was not until the dynamic duo was inside the arcade that the older women with the sunhat finally found the nerve to ask the one question everyone wanted answered. “Who are you?”

Scott stopped, and Harley stopped the moment she noted his cessation of movement. He asked, “Who are we?” in a calm and measured tone.

“Yes…” said the inquisitive individual with a slight bit of trepidation.

Scott smiled to himself as he realized the only proper answer. He looked back at the people gathered at the door, and Harley followed suit. “We’re Team Badass.”