Breakfast

Walking arm in arm with Alara early in the morning really let me know bliss. She was interested in everything and wanted to look at everything. We came to a street that appeared to sport several restaurants of various types. I let Alara’s nose do the rest of the work. A few moments later we were inside a nice diner with several homely looking people drinking coffee and eating breakfast.

A waitress came up to us after we sat down. It was almost sad how much of a stereotype cutout she was, but that’s just how this worked I guess. She pulled a pen out of her bun and a pad out of her apron.

“What can I get you two love birds this morning?”

“Pancakes, eggs, bacon, and a side of toast please,” I said glancing at the menu. I looked over to Alara.

“Same.”

“Alright! Give us a minute and we’ll have it right out,” the waitress said then went to get coffee for another customer.

I turned back to Alara. “So. What should we do today?”

“Don’t. I know you want to play with your new toy,” Alara said poking me in the side.

“That doesn’t mean I can’t spend time with you,” I said with a smirk at being caught.

“Which we can do anywhere. Here, back at the warehouse, Murgin. I don’t care what we do.”

The waitress dropped off our drinks, coffee for me and apple juice for Alara. Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t eaten in... nearly two years. I had a human body here but didn’t appear to need to eat. I took a sip of the coffee and was nearly floored by the flavor. A few minutes later the waitress arrived with the food. I cut a piece off with my fork and then almost in slow motion took the bite.

“Amazing, no, I don’t think amazing is a good enough word for this,” I mumbled around the bite of pancake.

Needless to say, the next ten minutes were one of the most enjoyable moments I’d had since I could remember. I set my fork down and leaned back almost at a loss for words. I suddenly heard laughing from next to me. Glancing to the seat next to me, Alara was covering her mouth trying to hold in her laughter.

“Been a while since you last ate?” She asked as she pulled my head down to her and licked the side of my mouth before giving me a kiss. It was a few seconds before she broke it. “You missed a spot.”

“Thanks, Love. Yeah. You forget what it's like to have taste when your mouth is just a giant floating crystal a thousand meters underground.”

“I love your metal body but maybe a flesh one now and then isn’t too bad,” she said stroking my cheek.

“Maybe,” I said smiling at her.

We paid then made our way outside. It was still early morning and we had the whole day ahead of us. We decided to wander around a little before heading back home. I needed to give the new henchmen time to get some work done. I paused mid-step when I remembered that I forgot to tell them about the elevator. I’m sure they’ll be fine, I thought.

We were walking down a random street when the crowd around us started pushing us back. I wrapped Alara in a hug to keep her from being crushed, then looked up over the heads of the crowd. A strange looking limo was cruising slowly down the road. Motorcycles were escorting it. I felt Alara’s grip on my hand tighten enough that I feared she was going to break it.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Necromancer!” She growled. I narrowed my eyes as I reexamined the scene in front of me. Sure enough, the men on the motorcycles were clearly zombies.

“Smith give me any information you can on who that is,” I said making sure everything was clear to him.

“Affirmative. Accessing local network.”

“Access granted.”

“Searching.”

“Found.”

“Autumn’s Reach Mayor. Lord Scythe. NPC. Power – Necromancy. Current Standing with Autumn’s Reach: Hated.”

“Level: 57”

“No more information available on local network. Would you like me to run a global search? This will require a large amount of time and could yield no results.”

“No. Thank you. I have all the information I need,” I said.

“Affirmative.”

Alara’s grip loosened once the precession passed. She looked at the marks she had left and frowned. “Sorry. Love,” she said pressing her cheek against my hand. The crowd let up and we got more space to ourselves. I leaned down and peeked her on the cheek.

“Don’t worry about it. I know how you feel about that particular branch of magic,” I said rubbing my thumb across her cheek. I would never get over the feeling of being about to touch her. I knew it made me possessive at times though.

“I’m ok now, let's get back to the tour,” Alara said forcing a smile.

We kept along the street but the mood of everyone was dampened by the passing of the mayor. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and pulled a random person aside.

“Hey, I need to ask some questions,” I said to the man that was handling being pulled aside by a random stranger quite well.

“Yeah? What is it?”

“Why is everyone so...” I said trying to think of the correct word to use.

“Depressed?” the man suggested.

“I guess that works. Yeah, why so depressed?”

“Lord Scythe just passed through. That means another girl was taken from the city,” the man said spitting on the ground.

“Why does no one stand against him? Surely, there is a hero that could beat him,” I said trying to make sense of the situation.

“There was one. He was dealing with Lord Scythe’s forces. From what I know he was close to being able to beat him soon. He just had to build up his power some more. You know, one of those Bridger types. Anyway, no one has seen him in almost three days. All his buildings have reverted to the city’s ownership.”

“You’re surprisingly well informed,” I said taking a closer look at the man. He looked like he worked for a firm or government department.

“Why wouldn’t I be? I work in the damn city hall, well used to.” He punched the wall as he frowned.

“Interesting. So, you would say that Lord Scythe is evil?” I asked. I knew this WAS a game. Before these people were just ones and zeros that were meant to be terminated based of a complicated formula, but now they weren’t that different from Alara and me.

“Evil. Definitely evil. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to take enough baths to wash away the scenes I’ve seen while working in that hellhole.”

“Thank you, sir. Something to help you get back on your feet,” I said then handed him a needle with a thousand thread on it.

“What are you planning? You have your evil grin,” Alara said poking me in the side.

“How do you feel about being a Queen?” I asked.

“As long as you’re my King,” she said with a smile. Unable to hold back, I pulled her into a deep kiss right in the middle of the street. I heard snickers from around me but ignored it all. I wasn’t sure how long I held her, but when we broke apart, she was beat red with a smile plastered on her face. “That’s not fair.”

Battle of City Hall

We took off in the direction the limo was headed in. It wasn’t that hard to find, we just had to follow the wave of depressed people through the city. We ended up on Capital street. The City Hall was at the end. The entire street was deserted of living people. I say living because there were plenty of zombies.

The street leading up to the City Hall looked like it was straight out of a post-apocalyptic movie. Where the street we stood on was clean and well maintained, Capital street was full of potholes, dried puddles of blood, rusted signs, burned out cars and several other cliché things. Zombies wandered aimlessly around the street but there were enough of them that they were the prefect guards.

“I count a hundred and forty-nine,” I said as we stood at the edge of the street. There was a clear boundary marked with police tape separating the safe area from the zombie infested area.

“The correct count would be one hundred and forty-seven. After tracking your eye movement, I have determined that you counted these two twice,” Smith reported highlighting two zombies.

“I count a hundred and forty-seven,” I said without pausing. Alara just looked at me and I smiled. “Smith. Please give me an average level and the top level in the mix.”

“Affirmative. Processing. Average level is ten. Highest Level is twenty-nine.”

“Excellent. Major weaknesses?” I asked more as a joke.

“Zombie type has been confirmed to be weak to head damage. Advisement. Shoot the head.”

I laughed at the statement. “Now, how do we play this?” I mused.

“Machine gun?”

“I don’t have the...” I started to say when I noticed she was pointing at something just inside the horde zone. A partially burned out Humvee sat a few meters just pass the line. A machine gun sat on top that looked to still be in working order. I grinned to Alara. “Prefect.”

I pulled my various weapons out and checked my ammunition. I didn’t know if the zombies would all rush us as soon as we crossed the line, or if it would be a gradual thing once the fighting started. Alara walked over to a nearby tree and placed her hand on it. She slowly pulled her hand away and a sword formed as she did so.

I had a few clips for each of my weapons. I only had a single matter block left over from the morning. I planned to use it with the machine gun if it was broken, or for something else if it cost too much to repair. Once I was ready, I looked to Alara who nodded.

Luck was with us as we crossed the police tape. None of the zombies reacted to our presence. We carefully made our way over to the Humvee. There was a burned corpse inside that was only a skeleton. I wondered when this Scythe had taken the city, and for what reason. This was more a tech-based city. One would think a tech super would have taken the city.

I climbed into the Humvee and checked the mounted gun. It looked like part of the mount holding the gun had melted and fused solid, so it couldn’t be moved anymore. The original occupant probably didn’t have reason to want to stay behind to save it considering the vehicle was on fire. I dropped down into the vehicle to see if there was any spare ammunition but didn’t find any.

“Give me a minute to see what I can do,” I said quietly to Alara. She nodded while keeping a vigilance up around us.

I touched the machine gun while activating my power.

-Item

-Name: Damaged Mounted M975 Minigun

-Attack:100 Defense:15/50

-Durability: 35/1000

-Description: Made by the Free Supers Military Supplier. This robust and lethal weapon was built to take a beating and dishing it out in return. Has received quite a bit of damage.

Repair/Upgrade: 2000 Energy

Price: 10,000t

Interesting. It would take almost all my energy that I had currently to fix it completely. I wouldn’t be able to do anything during the fight which was a bad move to make. I stroked my chin for a minute as I considered it.

Ten minutes later, and a lot of playing with the system, I found something that worked. By modifying the latch, I was able to turn it partially into a matter block freeing the weapon. From there I worked to fix the individual components of the weapon, though the rest was in decent condition for where it was. The real boon came when I found a way to modify it to use my energy as ammunition.

When all was said and done, I was left with fifteen hundred energy of my twenty-one hundred. I hoped it would be enough. Plus, I wasn’t afraid to retreat if things went hairy.

“You ready, my Love?” I asked Alara who was lying on the hood of the vehicle.

“Yep,” she said jumping to her feet.

I laid the minigun on the shielding and pulled my rifle out. I wanted to snipe a few if I could. If we got lucky, I might be able to take most out and could save the minigun for the boss fight that would be after this. Spinning the rifle to cock it, I aimed at the closest of the zombies. Smith identified it as a level six. I should be able to kill it in one shot as long as I hit the head.

Taking time to zero in on the zombie’s head, with Smith’s assistance, I pulled the trigger when I was confident of the move. The silenced cracked, sounded out barely traveling further than a few meters. With a thump, the bullet slammed into the zombie’s head. Smith took the liberty to mark it with a red X.

The zombies near the downed zombie turned at the sound but didn’t react any more. Grinning, I fired at the next one. Again, the zombie’s head cracked back from the bullet and fell backward. Other zombies were starting to gather at the downed bodies, so I shifted to a less populated area and fired.

Two minutes later, and thirty zombies, my luck finally ran out. With Smith’s help I was aiming for the lower level zombies I was sure I could one hit. After the twenty ninth, I ran out of those. When I fired on a slightly stronger zombie, the bullet only grazed its skull on the right side. It fell back but wasn’t dead. With a roar it screamed loud enough to make my ears hurt.

Every zombie still on the street turned towards the scream then towards us. With a mixture of roars, screams, groans, and other not quite understandable sounds, they all charged us. I slung my rifle over my back and picked up the minigun.

“Ready Love!?” I called.

“It's time to give them a proper rest!” Alara said spinning her sword as she got into a stance.

When the horde crossed the thirty-meter mark, I pulled the trigger. Even without physical rounds, it kicked hard. I braced myself against the ruined shield on top of the Humvee and forced the gun down. The forerunners of the zombie horde were torn apart. I didn’t kill them all, but I disabled most. I could feel my energy draining at a stupidly fast pace.

With just myself, I wasn’t able to cover the entire street. A few of the swifter ones were able to slip through. Alara made quick work of them. With fast jabs and nimble footwork, her sword would enter and leave a zombie’s head four or five times in the span of a second.

The horde rush lasted three minutes. The bulk of the zombies were torn apart by the minigun while Alara dealt with the rest. I ceased fire when my energy reached six hundred points. Dropping the nearly melted minigun, I drew my pistols and went to work helping Alara deal with the stragglers. A shadow covered me, and I dodged almost on instinct.

The body of a zombie slammed into the ground where I was standing, exploding into chunks and rotted blood. We looked and found a massive zombie making its way towards us with slow strides. It would pick up a zombie if there was one on the ground and throw it at us.

“Looks like the head zombie is ready to play,” I said reloading my guns.

“We shouldn’t keep him waiting then,” Alara said flicking her sword to get the rotted blood off it.

-Zombie Bouncer (Lord Scythe)

-Level: 29

-HP: 1,000

-As a zombie, has no need for energy. Don’t let the fight drag on, you’ll lose.

“That was helpful, thank you Smith,” I said.

Alara charged the zombie while I swung my rifle off my back. Aiming for the brute’s head. I unloaded the entire clip as fast as possible. Five of my nine rounds struck him dead in the forehead, but only two managed to penetrate more than a centimeter. I quickly reloaded with the last of the ammunition I had for the rifle and unloaded another nine rounds into its head. After the fourteenth round, I saw that the zombie had noticeably slowed.

Alara ran in low to the ground. When she reached the zombie, she dodged the first blow from its fist and jumped behind it. With lightning fast jabs, she stabbed her sword into the brute’s back nearly a dozen times. With the last strike, she forced her blade to grow hundreds of thorns that ripped through the zombie’s flesh.

The zombie spun around trying to get her with a back hand, but she had already jumped clear of the monster. Pulling both pistols out, I continued aiming for the head. After unloading both pistols into it, its forehead was a mashed mess.

Apparently, some zombies can get the staggered affect as it stumbled back. Alara took advantage of its weakness and ran up its back. With a quick movement, she slammed her sword straight through the zombie’s head. Branches shot out and a twisted looking like a tree soon took shape using the zombie’s corpse as nutrients.

“That wasn’t too hard,” I said reloading.

“A good workout. We must thank this Lord Scythe,” Alara said frowning. She moved to the now ten-meter-tall tree and recreated her sword. A moment later she did it again and had two new swords.

-You’ve completed City Hall Raid Part 1 of 2

-Zombies (Variety)

-Defeated 146x Zombies

-21,024 EXP

-Defeated 1x Zombie Bouncer

-23,506 EXP

-+60 Neutral Points -> +60Villain Points (currently active selection)

-+65 Neutral Tier -> +65 Villain Tier (-65 Until Next Tier) (Current Tier 4)

It was annoying that levels weren’t applied until midnight. If I did my math right, I was sitting around level ten or eleven. Crafting also applied, but those don’t take effect until midnight as well. Dismissing the notification, I looked up at the City Hall.

Part of it looked like it had burned, while the other was overgrown with weeds. Bodies littered the courtyard. I had Smith scan them to make sure they weren’t zombies that were ordered to lay in wait. He reported all clear. I retrieved the minigun before walking back to Alara.

“Here love,” I said handing here an energy stick. A type of food that one could eat to recover lost energy. I’d bought a few during my trip through the market yesterday, more as a novelty than anything. She took it and popped it in her mouth. I did the same. It was like throwing a chunk of sugar in my mouth. I thought my teeth were going to ache from the sweetness.

“More!” Alara said clamping onto my arm.

“I only have two more and I want to save those for an emergency,” I said patting her head.

I checked my energy level and found it was back to a thousand. I didn’t know if that would be enough, but I didn’t want to give Scythe much more time to prepare a defense against us. With all the zombies’ roars, I doubted Scythe hadn’t heard us, so we made our way in through the front.

Blood splatters and broken furniture greeted us in the entry hall. There were no bodies here but there was evidence of something being dragged down the hall. We made our way deeper into the building watching for any signs of an ambush. I doubted a man like Scythe would leave his conquered base defenseless. Of course, the necromancers back on Murgin were a bit... delusional.

Alara brought one of her swords down along the edge of the wall. Almost as if on que, a zombie lurched out from an enclave. Its head went sailing from its body, bouncing a few times as the body crumbled to the ground. Along the twenty-meter hallway, a zombie stepped out of each of the enclaves for a total of ten, if we counted the one that Alara already decapitated.

I brought up my pistols and took aim while Alara charged into their midst. I thought about it and lowered my guns and decided to just watch the show. Alara was like a tornado as she moved through the group of zombies. With a whirlwind of movements, zombie heads and limbs went flying as she cut through them like butter. When she finally reached the other side, all the zombies fell to pieces as they collapsed into puddles of rotted flesh and blood.

I made my way through the mess carefully. “You truly are beautiful,” I said reaching out to wipe a smudge of blood from her cheek. She giggled and flicked her swords making two long lines of blood along the walls. “And truly deadly. Just the way I like ‘em.”

We kept going and made it to the assembly hall. A man sat at the back on a throne made of bones. He had a large scythe leaning against his shoulder and didn’t seem to have a care in the world. He looked up at us when we entered the hall. Along with a hundred other heads, as there was a zombie in each seat. They were all dressed in suits that would have been worth a pretty penny when they were new.

“What do we have here?” Scythe said in a laidback tone.

“It's time for a reelection,” I said trying not to cringe at the line.

“When Holy Thunder disappeared from the city, I wondered what I would do with myself. It Is good to see that there will always be fools that try to challenge my power,” Scythe said as he yawned.

I leveled the minigun at Scythe and he only began to chuckle. Pulling the trigger, I sent a stream of rounds flying at him. He proceeded to do something only seen in movies. Spinning his scythe at a ridiculous speed, he deflected all the bullets. I kept it up for a few seconds, but when none managed to get through, I turned it towards the rushing horde that was fighting to climb up the tiered seating.

Spikes of wood were ripping through the upper tier as Alara protected us. Adding the minigun to the mix only served to speed up the destruction of the zombies. When my energy dropped to three hundred, I let go of the gun and let it drop to the ground. Quickly pulling my pistols out and waiting until the zombies were impaled on a spike to end them with a headshot.

I felt a moment of dread and ducked just as the scythe sliced over my head. Scythe’s arm was extended through a black portal of some sort. He pulled his arm back and the portal vanished. “Something I recently learned. I never thought I would be able to have more than one power. I can’t wait to gain more,” Scythe said.

While we dealt with the last few dozen of the zombies, Scythe would try to strike at us from random and odd angles. However, years of battles had hardened Alara and me. Petty sneak attacks wouldn’t be enough to get a drop on us.

“I think it’s time to end this,” I said using my ability on my rifle to give it a blade.

“Spike and Bandit probably need to go for a walk by now. We should hurry home,” Alara said with a nod.

“You’re right. It is time to end this!” Scythe said. He readied his scythe and jumped at us. The ground exploded into splinters from his force. Alara moved in front of me and just as he was about to bring his weapon down, she angled her swords to deflect the blow. I jumped to the side and fired into his side. Unfortunately, his clothes were able to block bullets and they bounced off. The impact still got to him though, as he grunted with each hit.

Thorns and vines grew along Scythe’s weapon, holding him in place as he tried to free the weapon. I kicked the ground and brought my gunblade down aiming for his neck. He must have sensed his doom and released the weapon, jumping back. I aimed for his head and fired quickly, emptying the last clip I had for the rifle. Only one bullet met its mark, taking his eye out. He roared in pain as he fell back, tripping over a seat.

Alara didn’t give him time to rest. She shot into the air after him. There was a moment where she seemed to pause mid-air, then she dropped with both blades leading. One slammed into his head chest, where his heart would be, the other through his other eye. Spikes of wood rippled out, stabbing from Scythe’s body.

-You’ve completed City Hall Raid Part 2 of 2

-Zombies (Variety)

-Defeated 100x Zombies

-30,157 EXP

-Defeated 1x Scythe (Necromancer) (City Lord) (57)

-55,500 EXP

-+100 Neutral Points -> +100 Villain Points (currently active selection)

-+125 Neutral Tier -> +125 Villain Tier (-100 Until Next Tier) (Current Tier 5)

-Please Choose one of the following...

-Lord: Become lord of a city-state. This will require you to provide all the services to the habitants of the city. Death will result in the city losing a third of its resources, unless otherwise specified.

-Mayor: The city remains with the Global government. You will have control over the services offered but can’t not remove them.

-Outsource: The city will be turned over to the Global Government and you will get a cut off all taxes. Current percentage (1%)

Interesting. Each of the choices had their own pros and cons. I looked over to Alara but when I thought it over, I had already asked if she wanted to be Queen. I selected the Lord option.