Chapter 04

“WHAT DID YOU DO?!” Vesta yelled at Spark as they ran down the street. They desired to put as much space between them and the Nano-Work Zombies before the fight broke out as they possibly could.

“ME?!” He yelled back pointing at his own chest.

“Here’s good.” Vesta said skidding to a stop and rolling behind a shell of a car. She turned back towards the incoming horde and watched as they streamed closer to them. When the group moved to pass between a couple of cars that were on the sides of the roads, she threw her arm out and used her plasma bolt skill.

Energy charged at the end of her hand and rocketed towards the left car. She hoped that the reactors were still powered enough to cause a chain reaction. She got lucky. When the ball of almost liquid like energy impacted, it exploded and was immediately followed by a second massive explosion. As the blast tore across the pavement and enveloped the other car it too exploded sending a renewed wave of energy back towards the zombies.

Both Vesta and Spark were knocked down onto their respective butts. She put her fingers into her ears trying to get the ringing to stop. Spark was on all fours shaking his head doing the same in his own fashion.

Vesta took a quick moment to check the kill counter for the mission. With that last move she had taken out thirty of the zombies that were after them. She moved back to look at the incoming horde from behind her protective shell of a car.

The group moved around the impact site to avoid the fire that was spreading through the street. The Zombies weren’t very powerful and as they found in a one on one fight it was over quick, but with these kinds of numbers it would be easy to become overwhelmed.

Spark was on his feet. Some of the horde had made it to him. He threw a punch stopping the first in his tracks, but the numbers were growing fast. Jumping up off of the ground he clenched his fist and brought it down onto the pavement. A wave of electrical energy radiated out from him as the epicenter and knocked several of the zombies back. Some fell to the ground, still some renewed their attack.

Vesta’s time to pay attention to him was over. It was her turn to tango with the relentless monsters. She reached down to her hip where she pulled out a sword that was sheathed in another dimension. The blade burst into flames as she brandished the weapon.

A zombie lunged at her from the left. She swiped the sword up and through its midsection. The blade spun over her head and she brought it down in a chopping motion. The sword, or rather swords, were mission rewards that Vesta had farmed for months to get. The one that she had out was about three feet long curved like a katana and was a bright white, ceramic color. The other was the same shape, but it was onyx. She pulled the second sword free of its hilt and held them crossed in front of her.

“I love the swords! They make you so beautiful!” Spark said. He had always been fond of how Vesta looked and was especially infatuated with her ass, perfect handful ass, but he loved how aggravated that she gone when he spoke to her in that way.

“I hate you!” She said with a sing song tone, “I just want you to know that I will be thinking of you when I destroy these monsters!”

“I love you too babe!” Spark yelled pulling out his own weaponry. The pair of batons that he used were specially modified to efficiently conduct electrical energy.

In a flurry of lightning fast razor accurate movements, Vesta went to work on the incoming Zombies. In a flash she decapitated two that were too close for comfort. She spun around with the swords held at the perfect angle to cut the legs of no less than four zombies in a single swipe. The fire on her blade as hot as it was spread rapidly among the monsters that attacked her.

Spark jumped into the air and bashed in the skull of the closest zombie. An arch of electricity rocketed from the impact site and jumped through five nearby enemies. Their brains turned to mush then ran out of their ears as the power surged. With a back-hand spin, he smashed the baton into the face of a zombie that was attempting to bite him from the back.

Vesta leapt into the air over another wave of the surprising fast living dead beings. She brought the blades down into the tops of the head of two of the zombies and rode the resistance down to land on her feet. She pulled the blades forward out through the flesh/nanotech hybrid. She slashed both blades forward and cut two in half in front of her.

“How’s it going love?” Spark yelled from the chaotic fray of slashes and crunches from his side of the battle.

“Shut up you dick hole!” Vesta yelled picturing his face over the closest zombie. Her blade literally sliced the face off of the zombie before she spun the blade around and stabbed it through the chest.

Vesta breathed in deep breaths through her nose. Despite the undead nature of the monsters around her there was no smell of rotting flesh or decay. She had felled dozens of zombies and there was no more streaming towards her.

Spark issued loud grunts as he beat down the last few zombies that had attacked him. Vesta watched as bolts of energy sizzled from the impacts and slammed into the surrounding monsters. With a particular loud yelled and swing his baton smashed into the face of the last standing Zombie sending it to the ground with a thud. His arms fell to his sides as he breathed in deep breaths trying to catch his breath.

Vesta looked at the mission counter for the zombie kills. It finally said one hundred out of one hundred Zombies slain.

-You’ve made it through a wave!

-Defeated 100 Nano-Work Zombies

-100,000xp (1000xp Each)

-25,000xp (25% Horde Bonus)

-50 Hero Tier Points

-50 Heroic Points

-Notice: Other information has been automatically minimized due to your preferences.

“Get ready, that was just phase one.” Vesta said flicking the remains off of her swords. She walked around the bodies making a mental note that she would need to come back and check for loot if time permitted.

A puddle at the ground near Vesta’s feet shook as a loud noise filled the air. The sound was familiar to her like something massive stomping towards them. Again, the noise filled the air.

“Impact tremor?” Spark asked. His eyes were filled with bright blue/white light. He was drawing in electrical energy from the world around him. This was an ability that allowed him to store the power for use in combat so that his moves required less energy. With the points that Spark had spent in Electro-Kinetics he could use the power in small doses, or he could unleash it all in one attack with the only downfall being the buildup.

“That’s what I’m thinking.” Vesta nodded. She could do the same with her Pyro-kinetic ability, but she needed source of fire. The flames from the explosion that she’d caused between the two cars had already gone out.

The sun was almost down over the horizon as the monster making the noise stomped into view. It was roughly twenty feet tall and humanoid. In its midsection hung the remains of a human body that had been integrated into its frame. The rest of the body was made of random metal components and electrical devices. They could see an almost swarming liquid connecting several of the devices together. The mechanical head roared at them loudly when it came into view of the bodies.

“That is fucking insane!” Spark said flatly pointing at the new combatant who had entered the fight.

“I think that is the first thing you’ve ever said that I didn’t want to immediately argue with.” Vesta said as she readjusted her grip on her swords. She scanned the monster with her visor.

-Boss

-Nano-Work Zombie Overlord

-Level: 94

-HP: 3288

-Energy: N/A

-Nano-Work Zombies have a unique ability that allows them to continually act without the need for energy. They do not quit. They are relentless.

“Do you have a plan?” Spark asked with a little bit of a nervous tone in his voice.

Vesta did not immediately answer. Between the two of them they out leveled it, but he had a crap load of health points. She took a deep breath and resolved to finishing the encounter.

“You hit him high and I’ll hit him low.” Vesta said looking over at her partner. She hated that she couldn’t be doing this encounter with Silence, but Spark was doing exactly what he needed to be doing. She really couldn’t ask for more than that.

Spark didn’t hesitate to use his flight power to shoot off into the air singing the course of an old song repeating ‘hit em high’ over and over again. He got level with the monster’s face and pulled his attention.

Vesta renewed the power of the flame on her swords and took off towards the legs of the huge zombie. She slashed through the calf of his left leg, but her sword only made it half way though his metal flesh before getting stuck. Putting her leg up on the zombie she ripped her weapon free.

She took a few steps back and glanced up to see Spark flying around the monster’s hand only staying an instant away from being grabbed. He used his baton in a back hand to knock the monster’s head. A small charge of electrical energy transferred into the zombie to the sound of a loud roar.

Vesta ran at the zombie jumping up and rebounding off of his knee as she stabbed her sword down into his gut where again it became lodged in the metal flesh. She planted both of her feet onto the zombie and gripped her sword with two hands. Yanking as hard as she could he managed to wrench it free, but she somersaulted through the air landing poorly and twisting her ankle. Nevertheless, she pushed through the pain.

Spark let out a loud yell as he was caught by the zombie midflight. His baton slammed into the ground beside Vesta. She looked up at her partner who was hanging upside down flailing around.

“Hang on dipshit!” She yelled up at him.

Vesta decided to try a skill that she had only recently unlocked. She wasn’t sure exactly how it was going to work, but if her sword kept getting stuck the fight wasn’t going to last much longer. Willing plasma to be her slave she used her Control Plasma skill. The thick semi-liquid super-heated material oozed down her wrist and coated the blade that she was still holding in her right hand.

“Here goes nothing.” She said.

“What?” Spark yelled seeing her mouth move, but unable to hear what she was saying due to the huge monster playing with him like he was some kind of toy. Vesta would have thought the whole situation was funny had their fortune not been so changed.

“Nothing!” She yelled in aggravation.

Jumping into the air she used the creature’s knee to get extra height. She then grabbed ahold of his chest, there were plenty of ledges for her to grab ahold of and threw herself into the air. While in flight she twisted her body sharply and made a slashing motion with her new plasma coated blade towards the zombie’s arm that held Spark. The blade sliced through the metal flesh like butter.

Vesta landed on the zombie’s shoulder while Spark and the arm crashed to the ground. Once no longer suspended in the air he pried himself free of the fingers and went after his weapon. Vesta tried to wrap her legs around the zombie’s neck so that she could lift her sword to stab it in the head, but the zombie reached up and threw her off. She flew towards the ground like a brick and smashed into the pavement.

There was no doubt in her mind that something was broken. Vesta moaned in pain as she pushed herself up off of the ground. She had a feat that would allow her to ignore certain pain effects while in the same combat in which they happened. Broken bones were one of those effects.

The Zombie reached down and picked up its severed arm. It lifted it to the stump and the swarming liquid substance that Vesta assumed were nanobots leeched out and brought the appendage back to its original resting place. Once the action had completed the zombie flexed the arm.

“Alright, what now?” Spark asked glancing back to Vesta but did not take his eyes off the zombie for long.

“Can you distract him? Keep him off me for a few minutes?” Vesta asked.

“What are you going to take a nap?” Spark asked in frustration.

“I’m going to use Greater Plasma Beam.” She said. She looked at him with a serious tone on her face.

“Last time that you did that…” He said but was interrupted.

“I know what happened last time. I was there.” She said with a snarl.

“Alight I’ll keep him busy, but you owe me. I want to see boob.” He said pointing at her.

“Not going to happen.” She said flatly.

“Worth a try.” He smiled as he started to fly off towards the zombie.

“Don’t get your dumbass caught this time.” She yelled out after him.

The zombie would need to be within the strike zone when Vesta was ready to deliver the blast, but she had to charge the thing first. She reached her arms out in front of where she stood with her fingers pointing up and her palms out. When the skill activated beams of light began to appear and gather in the center of the space hovering a few inches from her hands.

Spark zoomed around in the sky above the monster. He would swoop in and smash it with the baton and shoot away so that he wouldn’t get caught. His attacks were doing little to no damage to the zombie with each blow. He ducked under the monster’s armpit and clung to his back for a few minutes while the zombie moved around in a circle to try and snatch him.

“I need him moved to the left. It's almost time.” Vesta yelled. A three-foot-wide ball of writhing plasma energy floated in the air in front of her hands. She was starting to struggle to keep it from igniting.

Spark flew up and started to mess with the zombie. He didn’t have time for a witty comeback because the zombie was almost able to catch him each time he flew close. Vesta gritted her teeth when it was too close for comfort. She couldn’t really picture how she was going to beat the monstrosity on her own.

She unleashed the blast of plasma energy. The beam that released was six feet in diameter. It carved the ground away as it traveled in an instant across the street to the zombie. As the beam made contact, he tried to withstand the blast. He reached up and caught ahold of Sparks foot throwing him into a building several meters away.

The beam continued on past the zombie. It tore through buildings leaving a wide hole in its path that got even wider as the beam traveled. When the energy finally got to the lake it vaporized several thousand gallons of water in an instant before melting a hole in the hill on the opposite side of the lake. There was a moment of pause before the vaporized water exploded out in a rush of steam. Vesta wasn’t sure but she thought the lake might have grown a few yards due to the shoreline being torn apart.

Finally, the energy died away. Vesta fell to her knees but caught herself from falling over completely. She watched as the large zombie roared but disintegrated as the damage cause by the beam spread throughout his body. He crumbled to the ground into nothing but dust.

-You’ve made it through a wave!

-Defeated Nano-Work Zombie Overlord

-30,000xp (30,000xp Each)

-50 Hero Tier Points

-50 Heroic Points

-Notice: Other information has been automatically minimized due to your preferences.

“Spark!” Vesta yelled when she minimized the notification that had appeared in her vision.

There was no response from the annoying man. She pushed herself to her feet and took a health serum from her inventory. With a swift motion she stuck it into her thigh and pressed the activation button. Instant relief flooded through her body, but simultaneously it was time for her injuries that her feat allowed her to ignore to issue their pains.

She yelled in agony as the pain of a broken wrist and leg that she had continued to use caught up with her. The health Serum was putting everything back together, but it would not stop the residual pain that she was feeling.

“Damn it. Spark!” She yelled again.

Her attention shot of an echoing moan from the side of a building. Since the combat was over the world had fallen into a deep silence. She limped towards the building and found the body of her partner in a heap of concrete rubble.

Sparks leg was bent weird and his arm was tucked behind his back in the oddest position imaginable. It was amazing it hadn’t been ripped off. She stood at the top of the small crater and looked down at his body.

“That has got to hurt.” She said shaking her head.

The rocks broke apart as she moved down to help her, for a lack of a better word, friend. His face was pocked with small shards of concrete and blood pooled under his head.

“This is going to hurt.” She whispered.

Vesta had to reset the bones of his arm and leg before she applied a health serum for things to heal properly. She gritted her teeth and grabbed his arm. Sucking in a deep breath she wrenched the arm sharply. Spark gave the most blood curdling scream that Vesta had ever heard.

“Halfway there.” Vesta said moving down to position herself over his leg. She firmly grasped the leg but she couldn’t get a good grip. Vesta climbed on top of Spark wrapping her legs around his midsection to hold him steady. She grabbed ahold of his leg and with a sharp twist she realigned the bones.

Spark’s scream was ear shattering.

“Totally worth it.” He said with just enough energy to look up at Vesta’s butt before turning his head, vomiting, and passing out. Vesta pressed a health serum to his thigh and injected him. His breathing quickly became normal and his body lost its tension.

“Sleep it off asshole.” She said tapping him on the leg.

After sliding the sleeping man away from his pile of vomit she looked at the notification that she received from the mission that they had completed.

-You’ve completed a City Mission

-Cleared Nano-Work Zombie Horde

-50,000xp

-This mission has exposed opportunities in the city please search for these options.

“Opportunities in the city huh?” She asked herself when she closed the mission notification.

The rocks didn’t give away this time when she climbed out of the crater and started to walk towards the city. The hole that she’d created with her plasma beam had caused three buildings to implode on themselves. There was a half dozen others that were on the verge to collapsing.

“Couldn’t have given me a vaguer hint?” Vesta asked the notification that was long gone.

She activated the scan on her visor and began to gaze around the city. Nothing really popped out at her. She started walking towards the tallest of the buildings that were near the shore of the lake to the northwest of the city. The different buildings looked like they were from the art deco era on Earth, but with a modern twist.

When she came to the tallest building, the door began to glow blue in her scanner. She stopped and walked up to the door. The blue glow intensified as she moved closer.

“That’s something.” She said stopping just before she reached the door.

Aside from the blue glow there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary about the door. She deactivated the scanner and looked without the distraction of the glow. There was nothing but a metal door. She reached out and pulled the handle. It was unlocked, and the door swung right open.

Welcome to Summerrest Lake City was plastered on a plaque above the wall in the entrance hall.

When she reactivated the scanner in her visor, the blue glow had dissipated from the door and was now coming from the elevator.

“There is no way this thing works.” She said to herself as she looked over the elevator.

“What thing?” Spark asked from behind her. The sudden noise startled her, and Vesta whipped around punching Spark square in the nose. Blood began to rush down his face.

“Oh my god I am so sorry!” She said covering her mouth and trying as hard as she could not to laugh.

“No, no. It’s my bad” He said holding up his other hand.

“Well yeah, but I’m still sorry.” She said grabbing his face and looking over the extent of the damage. It didn’t seem to be broken.

“What were you talking about?” he said pinching his nose until the bleeding stopped.

“My scanner indicates that I should go up the elevator.” Vesta said shaking her head.

Spark walked across the room and pressed the call button. Surprising the doors opened right up.

“Huh.” Vesta said. She walked up to door and then stepped inside. Spark followed in behind her.

Like the front door the elevator stopped glowing blue and a button on the panel started to glow bright blue, unavoidably blue.

“I’ve never seen a panel that had buttons before.” Vesta said punching the button.

The elevator moved upward rapidly until it was on the highest level on the building. They came to a stop and the doors opened there was even a quiet chime that sounded their arrival. Blue light came in from the room within.

“I think this scanner is the best purchase I’ve ever made.” Vesta said tapping the side of her visor. They exited the elevator and walked into the room.

Down a short hallway they found an office that, through a series of more than a dozen curved windows could see most of the city. They took a few steps into the room. In the center of the windows there was as desk that was the location of the shining blue light.

The partners walked to the window and looked out over the city. It was magnificent in its hay day. Vesta could picture heroes flying through the air and bustling people on the streets. She could picture constant movement.

“Bloody beautiful!” Spark said.

“Took the words out of my mouth.” Vesta said. She turned and walked to the desk. She turned off the scanner. The blue light had been issuing from a computer. An older computer, but she noticed that it was still online.

Vesta dropped down in the chair and took a deep breath. She reached out and placed her hands on the glass screen that was embedded in the desk. She took in a sharp breath of light as a white light filled the room and then covered the entire city.

-Congratulations!

-You have been offered a Queendom of this city-state.

-This city-state has been befallen a horrible tragic event that cost its entire population. It’s has fallen on your shoulders to breath life back into these streets.

-Do you accept this responsibility?

-Yes | No

Vesta took no time accepting the responsibility. She did like to spend time in some city management games, why not try something new in the new world.