Rule 14

Buy Supplies & Raiders Have Explosives

Statement: Mini-orcs wore children’s clothes and swung pieces of broken furniture. Their leaders wielded shotguns like angry pint-sized rednecks. Vending machines gave out healing potions in exchange for fictional money. The ‘boss’ resembled a store employee. Tougher bosses apparently included their management. All of these details were half mundane, and half fantasyland.

I’ve asked myself a thousand times while trying to stay sane; why do the monsters in this new world resemble creatures from our own? Was there a connection? What sort of power was required to take people out of normal reality or alter the old world to such a degree? The more radical considerations were outright dangerous—was I imagining this as a solo adventure, or had humanity been looking at reality all wrong?

The cashier outright ignored Callisto’s sword swings. Her blades moved unevenly and sometimes clinked twice in one motion. I found myself watching the spinning blades while Leon lifted his shield to deflect a meaty fist.

“Pay the bill!” it yelled in a high-pitched whiny voice.

Allegra knelt with a fresh sketch. There were five figures on it in tiny markings. All four of us, and the boss monster, were depicted. She ran a finger across the lead and mumbled in low tones I couldn’t hear over the battle.

“Daze!” Callisto yelled followed by a “Crap.”

Callisto’s body traveled with an intense blur of motion that left her sweating. She stopped ten feet away and the monster’s large hands slammed empty ground.

“Ogre variant! We need firah or lightning,” Allegra said.

“We don’t have fire,” Leon said.

I threw another tennis ball. The cashier flinched and glanced my way. Leon stepped in with his hammer swinging wide. It smashed into the monster’s face knocking out two teeth. Callisto took three quick breaths and ran back in. The monster recovered and backhanded her away.

One of her swords clattered against the ground. She ignored any pain and recovered the sword before the boss monster reached her. Callisto was tough, a blow like that would have cracked a dozen ribs and she acted like being beat was simply standard.

They exchanged a few more rounds of blows. I tossed around the tennis balls but the monster kept glancing my direction. It hadn’t forgotten me like the other creatures.

Each of them was simplistic in their moves. Leon mesmerized the boss. It lasted longer on the tube snakes. Leon’s yellow aura hardened into solid light to help block the monster’s blows.

Callisto moved with bursts of speed that left behind smeared after images.

As for our enemy, he seemed to be mostly physical, until he ran for a stack of large plastic bags. He ripped them off a metal rack and tossed them at Callisto. The second one caught her blades and tightened.

I intercepted a third with one of my tennis balls.

“Thorn, you got another bomb?” Allegra asked. She directed us from outside the battle. Her eyes focused on the large sheet of paper.

It took me a moment realize Thorn referred to me. I glanced around. Casting in the middle of a fight caused me to lose focus. When prepared ahead of time, like the jar, they worked better, or as opening barrages.

“Daze!” I called for it. Leon automatically lifted his hammer. The giant cashier lumbered over.

The boss smashed huge ham-sized fists onto Leon’s shield. “We don’t have change for a fifty!”

Leon’s yellow flickered. He grunted and was forced down to a knee. The attempt at stunning had failed. Our “tank” had moved on to being pummeled by an empty plastic bag rack. Callisto couldn’t pull attention away from the collision. An explosive rune would hit them all.

“Leave before I call the cops!” He turned, exposing a back riddled with slashes from Callisto’s swords. Green blood oozed from the wounds. That was our opportunity.

Dizziness struck me as I curled fingers into another spell. “Back!”

Leon whimpered but managed to kick away. Callisto turned and ran in a blur. The sucking sensation made me go blank with a snapshot of her form in my head. Callisto’s body froze at the height of one motion and collapsed into a new location, dozens of feet away. I shuddered before throwing the latest bomb.

The boss had reached a wall and had it partially lifted to his face. My bomb blew up the phone and part of the cash register. Coins and torn up bucks—dollar bills, complete with a grinning madman on the front, fluttered wildly through the air. Leon gasped and shuddered behind his shield. His eyes were still visible through the helmet’s visor and one side of his white skin had been darkened by liquid.

This would work. I’d decided, more than once, to risk it all for big enough rewards, a boss this tough simply had to have some special ability. The possible gain made me feel better about revealing my explosives.

The monster reeled. I saw a chance to end the battle. We couldn’t afford to goof around fighting back one monster. I had to hope the lethality with bladed weapons was also part of my skills. There hadn’t been enough time to really figure out the link.

My last kitchen knife wouldn’t get far on that person’s hide. Eight inches only worked on normal-sized humans and the ladies. One of Callisto’s surviving swords lay on the ground. I ran for it and fumbled to gather energy for another explosion spell. My body swayed to the side as the spell drew my mind to a nub.

Only the creature’s back existed. I jumped, poorly, and managed to jab the sword’s handle into a wound. It sank straight in to the hilt. The monster roared in a high-pitched wheeze. We spun. I could still barely see what was happening. My chest burned and both arms strained.

Three spells in a row was clearly pushing it. I struggled to retain focus. The monster buckled on one leg and threw objects all around. I felt myself slip further down with each bunching of his over developed shoulder muscles. A long line of green oozed all over the handle making it slippery.

“It’s working!” Allegra shouted.

“Okay.” My throat hurt.

The sword in my hands had terrible leverage. I fought for grip. These shoes refused to stick. The huge monster jerked his body to the side and grabbed bottles of soda from an end cap. It hadn’t been there a moment ago.

They went everywhere. Soda hissed a screwy undertone. The music swelled. My eyes rolled as the latest explosion spell flung off one hand onto my other. There it popped with a muted boom. It made no sense and my palm burned.

I felt each piece of a lattice work pattern dig into my skin. Nails dug and skin welted or caved. The monster pumped his arms, grabbing soda bottles and beating everything. Allegra yelled gibberish.

I hurt. My hand slammed into the creature’s back. The heat went critical. I screamed. The monster screamed. Everything bled together and my head pounded. My stomach lurched as the world grew distant.

There was a moment, a single moment, when I saw the ceiling lights up close. I reached out to touch them but gravity pulled me back. My arc ended with a jerking bounce and flopping onto something soft.

My chest kept lifting. Noises were still coming out of me. I rolled to my knees and clutched my elbow.

The world clicked. I stared at my arm as if it were another person’s limb. The fingers were red but barely hurt. Red, black, and glowing green lanced up to the shoulder.

It didn’t hurt as much anymore. Allegra shook me. I waited for the adrenaline to vanish and my arm’s real pain to register. What had happened would simply be a precursor to real agony that would never end. The spell must have glommed onto my skin, which was an absolutely terrifying fact to know.

The light from above dimmed. I glanced up. Only three of the lights above remained lit, while dozens had gone out completely. I stared at them instead of my arm. Looking at the ruined skin would make me panic. I found myself studying the other.

Our foe lay on the ground wheezing. “All sales… are final.” The cashier’s eyes lost focus as his mouth slackened. Leon’s hammer collided with the monster’s head, popping it like a melon.

“He’s down!” Callisto’s words registered slowly. She threw her head back and gasped for air.

They had said they were carrying me through this place. They had implied they had enough strength to handle it all. They were bluffing. This world was hades.

We all held our breath as the boss monster turned into multiple white orbs. They flew into our various items. They stayed still with weapons at the ready. I looked around, worried that this fight hadn’t ended there.

The store was dead. Behind us were empty isles. Whatever magic distorted the lanes had vanished. I mourned the biggest casualty of this place, my shredded arm. Pieces of bone could be seen and my fingernails were nowhere to be found. It itched and squiggled. My arm kept trying to move fingers but the sickening twitching feeling grossed me out.

Post Note: As impossible as it seems, my body was cutting off pain sensors, or muting them. I would soon learn more about my abilities from an… unlikely source. Needless to say, it surprised me.

I slipped and spoke my mind. “Are there really cops?”

“No.” Leon’s armor was dented. Blood dripped out from under the helmet and trickled along his chest piece. He had been beat rather soundly. His body had to be insanely durable.

“There’s worse,” Callisto said for him. Her hair was matted. She picked up blades and frowned at them.

Their clothing had been weird for a bunch of fighters. I wondered why Callisto didn’t have a chain mail helmet to go with her chest piece. Then again, I had absolutely no armor but a few jackets. My untested skills had helped me, so far. I would need to invest in armor to go with all the other abilities I didn’t have.

It was this sort of analytical thinking which helped me forget about the terrible damage to my arm. My legs hurt as well. That last blow had caused all sorts of damage, far more than the giant or mini-orcs.

“How much money?” Callisto asked.

“One hundred, for the kill. But we need tah move quickly,” Allegra said. Her robes were drenched in sticky soda that would soon dry. We needed to get her out of those clothes soon.

I gulped. The desperate woman yelling at her giant husband had been, eager, after weeks or months dealing with a changed shape. The impulse of this power would drown me if I didn’t drop it soon.

“Experience?” Callisto’s focus was daunting.

Once again, Allegra answered. “Fifteen for us. Thorn got thirty.”

I tilted my head. They’d mentioned collecting the orbs but it sounded weird to have an actual rating. A jolt of pain jerked my arm and I stopped trying to stand up. The ground hurt far less. Nausea twisted my insides. Staying home would have been wiser. Avoiding these “dungeons” would be part of my future action plans.

There hadn’t been a single hint of any special powers in the dissolving body. I had no idea what fifteen orbs amounted to but it seemed pathetic compared to offing a slew of mini-orcs.

“It’s on the paper. It lets me peek on some stuff. I think, if I get enough orbs I can start really checking out all your secrets.” Allegra smiled at me and winked.

I smiled back and panicked internally. My arm kept sending jolts of agony and each one felt like a precursor to falling on the ground and frothing. I expected to be a mental wreck and weak beyond belief.

To the best of my knowledge, games had all sorts of skills. I remember drowning in numbers, talents, and other gibberish. Football was a far simpler game to play online. But during this fight I’d watched a woman sink her arm into paper and work literal magic. Having a way to measure my stats, whatever they were, didn’t feel beyond reason.

It was extremely uncomfortable. Allegra offered to heal other people but she wasn’t doing anything for me. I stared as they rather orderly cleaned up their gear and picked at the body. Leon recovered a name tag from the dead monster and beamed happily.

Callisto nodded to him. “Okay. We can buy supplies at the machine. One spawned, right?”

“Yeah. It’s there by the exit. The prices are probably terrible though.”

“Any of the status cures?” she said.

Allegra walked over to a vending machine. She pointed at the plastic covering. “One.”

“Buy it. We’ll dilute it and give it to the farmers.” Callisto seemed to enjoy giving orders. She was the only one who kept the process moving forward.

“I know,” Leon said. “It takes sixty dollars for a single potion. It’s not worth it.”

He pulled off his helmet and dug bandages out from under his armor. Each moment was slow, as if the positions hurt. He didn’t show much compared to the blood everywhere. I had no healing skills, that I was aware of, and couldn’t help any of them. My next goal was to find some first aid training guide to translate.

Allegra said, “We need fresh potions to keep the others healthy. Not everyone got buffs or had enough to purchase a reward. And you know most of them spent their money during the first few weeks.”

Callisto shook her head. “Sure they did. Those liars.” She sighed and tore off her shirt. It was utterly rigid. The acid from before had burned holes into it and pieces of the chain mail were melted. I couldn’t moan about my arm after seeing that much damage being done to the others.

“We can’t keep risking our lives in these damn dungeons. What about Thorn?” Callisto lifted the links and poked at pink skin. She hissed with each press but managed not to cry out like I had. Leon pointed at an unseen object. He shook his head.

“He’s healing,” Allegra said quietly. “On his own.”

Callisto stopped giving orders and stared at me.

“Is it anything he can share?”

I held still and tried not to imagine her with that chain mail on the floor. It was stupid but part of my brain screamed about how easy it was to see her breasts. They were full, heavy, and high on a well-muscled chest. The dyed hair only served as beautiful framework.

A bright light flashed by the doors. It distracted me from hearing any further words and thankfully broke the narrow line of thinking my mind was reduced to.

“Did you see that?” Allegra said.

Leon shook his head and shuddered. He put the helmet back on and muttered quietly. His battered shield lifted slowly.

“We can’t stay here. The boss is dead. Thorn, Mayor Kent wanted us to explain as much as we can. So, it’s important for you to know that places like this sometimes change after a boss is defeated. Monsters from the outside can get in, and the raiders can skip straight to us. There’s no aisles to fight through anymore.”

I hadn’t heard an alarm. There hadn’t been much room in my head to notice after my arm was used in a kamikaze assault. The others gathered near the sliding door but didn’t step outside. They stayed back against the wall. It looked silly to me since Leon’s body kept flickering with yellow light.

“What about Arson? Did he leave already?” Callisto asked.

That was a good question I wish I’d thought of. Callisto’s mind worked disturbingly quick, especially when it came to asking about other people or resources. I wondered if that was one of her abilities or she was a naturally caring person about those in her group.

“He should have left already. He would have noticed their stupid truck pulling up and left while the fumes are still running. They still hide him, for now. He should be able to get with the cloaking.”

“Truck?” I asked while staggering over. My body moved with more fluidity than my brain felt.

“Magic. Enchantments,” Allegra whispered. She was the most helpful person so far.

“Why can’t he stay for us?” It was as though a floodgate had opened. Having a battered hand, even if the shorter woman believed it to be healing, put me on edge.

“We’re moving too slow and need to buy as much as we can.”

Leon and Callisto were near the vending machine. It resembled all the ones from my time in the line. I wasn’t sure if it was possible to use the device as a trap. The thought of casting another explosive rune made my stomach curl.

I stood still and suffered through each fresh tingle of pain. My stomach growled. These clothes were ruined and all my other ones were at home.

I stepped close to the doorway and reviewed the parking lot. A giant truck peeled through the area with a complete disregard for the lines. It had armored sides and thick wheels that were doubled up in the back. There were no engine sounds, only light that overpowered the area.

There were raiders. That felt disturbingly normal for a world gone to hell.

“What’s that?” I asked while pointing at the truck. A man was in the back with a huge barrel over his shoulder.

That struck me as downright strange. I stared at the probable weapon without comprehension. If this had been an action movie I would have called that a rocket launcher. However, technology was busted here.

“Oh no,” Allegra whispered.

Callisto’s head jerked up. “What’s wrong?”

“They brought Toymaker.”

Callisto cursed wildly.

Leon shook his head and deflated. The sight of his armor sagging worried me.

Outside the raiders yelled at each other.

“Get back!” Allegra shouted.

The raiders were coming to an agreement. Four men poured out of the truck’s rear and prepared to come in through the front door. They stood far enough back to avoid me blowing them all up at once.

Then I had another idea, a stupid one. But my life was full of ill planned goals that only felt intelligent at the time. I ran across the doorway and wedged myself between the possibly murderous vending machine and a nearby cash register.

There was a hiss of noise, loud enough to be heard through the closed sliding glass doors. The other three were running for the store’s rear. I put my feet against the vending machine’s side and pushed. Long spikes quickly grew and crept toward my legs.

I pushed harder. The vending machine tipped over, and something crashed into the doors. There was a boom as an explosion sent debris across the room. I blinked once.

The vending machine had moved. I witnessed a single moment where the machine had an angry face behind all the buyable goodies. Then the explosion reached me. For a second time, I learned what it was like to be next to an explosion.

And it hurt. My mind went white.