Chapter 96

It was a crude staircase, which in practice was only slightly better than a rope ladder. There would not be any retreat anyway. If this assault failed, there would be no running. Whatever was up there would come and get them. If they failed, then some—if not most of them—would be dead and then the monster would have nothing that could stand in its way. Now with the stairwell completed, they were committed. Eventually, it would find them.

He flashed off Animal Sense and nodded his head. It had only been for a fraction of an instant, but the beast was up on the penthouse floor along with the people and some dogs.

He did not need to look out of the room where he had created the vine ladder to know everyone who could fight was waiting in the corridor; they were being quiet, but so many whispered conversations meant they ended up making a lot of noise. The usual suspects were with him standing guard: Ivey, Dave, Tamara, and Priscilla.

“Let’s go.”

“Game plan?” Ivey asked immediately even as he led them up the stairs.

“First, get entrenched, then scout. Hopefully, find a large, open space to fight it.”

“We need to bounce; it is getting dark,” Tamara told him, and she was not joking. The light coming through the window had dropped severely, and the sun was setting over the bay with its bottom edge already touching the horizon.

Priscilla? Daniel asked mentally. There is nothing dangerous but the baddy. One look, but be careful.

She thought about it, considered chips, and then agreed before asking for a bribe. Apparently, she understood how serious this situation was.

Abruptly, she zipped away and went straight up the very open stairs that linked the levels. These top five floors were more extravagant than the ones below. Despite the aging, the quality was superior. Even the design was more opulent. Light wells near the lifts and wooden stairwells linking the floors. It was where they wanted to fight, as it would let them bring their numbers to bear.

“Why are you just standing there?”

He startled slightly before looking at Ivey, who had asked the question. “I was encouraging Priscilla to scout.”

“Glad to see the mouse being useful.”

His first instinct was to defend Priscilla. After all, a lot of their success to date had been because of the intelligence around the enemy that she brought. In fact, their one failure had been the set of floors that Priscilla could not inspect. He bit down on the snide remark before it came out. There was no need to get bogged down in this argument. They owed the mouse their lives even if Ivey did not realise that, and frankly, given how she reacted to the very presence of the mouse, Ivey would never be impartial.

He walked to the front and then stood club hand waiting. The other melee fighters moved up beside him.

“So, is this the boss fight?” Luke asked.

Daniel shook his head. “Nope, all the bosses are outside. This”—he waved at the group behind him—“is what sensible people do. You know, bring multiple automatic shotguns to a knife fight.”

Luke laughed.

“God, I would love a shotgun about now,” Daniel told him. “I have some beauties on the farm.”

“Permits?”

“Easy enough to get for pest control. I tell you, they would make killing zombies so much easier.”

Luke looked sideways at him. “You know shotguns don’t work.”

Daniel hoped he hid his shock. That was bad news. How the hell were normal humans going to fight back without weapons? It would be a bloodbath. Sure, he and Alisha had got this group both armed and armoured, but not all groups would have people with appropriate classes, and he already knew he was a freak.

“Not at all?” he asked finally.

“You are not much of a reader, are you?”

It was not meant as an attack, but with the way Ivey had looked down at him for his profession, the words cut.

“I have sort of been busy.”

“That you have,” Luke agreed easily. “And you have done an amazing job. According to the main blurb, guns and other modern technology are kaput. Gone!”

“Why?”

Luke’s eyes went unfocused, and not for the first time, Daniel wished he had a working interface. Everyone else seemed to have so much useful knowledge on tap while he wandered around permanently blind and looked like a dumb-arse.

“The physics have changed,” Luke said finally. “Apparently, the endothermic reactions don’t occur like they used to. Oh, and no more nukes either.”

“I don’t know if that last one is good or bad. Bad boom versus dead monsters.”

Luke laughed uproariously, and Dave joined in his own funny manner. He had not realised Dave had been listening in as well. “I wish I had a couple of fuckin’ nukes,” Luke said darkly under his breath.

“At least we have our clubs,” Daniel said with a theatrical sigh. “They are totally equivalent.”

Dave doubled over with his laugh that sounded like he was dying.

Images flashed from Priscilla. Broken doors, holes in the floors, dividing walls torn down. Whatever the monster was, it clearly had no issues making its own path to get to where it wanted to go. It had gone through floors when there were stairs available, just because. Daniel knew how difficult it was to blast through them. Small cuts were easy enough, even expanding them into man-sized gaps, but once he pushed it beyond that, Daniel ran into problems. The reinforced metal got in the way. The fact this creature had created so many of such size was terrifying. Its strength must have been astronomical.

However, it proved one point. Coming up to fight it now was the right choice. Once it got hungry, it would have come for them. Win or lose, being here, fighting now instead of later, was the only option.

Priscilla was creeping.

He pumped out Animal Sense. Priscilla linked into it, riding the wave of information.

The monster was still two levels above Priscilla, but she looked up through one of the many holes right to where it was going to be. There was another damaged section on the floor above that, as she had worked out would give her a glimpse with as much material between her and the danger as possible. She might be smart, but she was still a mouse and assumed everything was dangerous till proven otherwise. Then, once she knew her opponents, she got zombies to hit each other. He smiled.

The monster was coming.

Priscilla went into that intense stillness that he knew was her preparing to run. His heart beat faster.

It shifted into the gap, and he got his first view. A giant octopus was the thought that went through his head, massive but sick. Not sick, dangerous. It had fluorescent bands of orange and green set into a body that shone slime-algae green. It reminded him of a poisonous frog.

Bright in nature usually meant bad. This brightly coloured monstrosity had depopulated four floors and was working on a fifth. It was terrifying.

Priscilla went to work with her identification magic.

It took a second, and Daniel wondered what the core would give him.

Unexpected fear jolted through Priscilla and not the “this is creature is powerful” kind, but instead it was visceral. “My life is in imminent danger” type fear. She turned and bolted away.

From four floors below, he heard splinters.

What?

Daniel’s heart jumped.

Priscilla!

Blood roared in his ears.

No! Daniel was standing, taking a step towards the monster, then stopped himself.

She was fine. Then he realised he could still feel her rushing down the stairs. She was still alive.

Animal Sense.

The monster was not pursuing.

The wild panic coming through the bond faded. It is okay, he thought. We are here to kill it, and if we fail, don’t wait. Just run. Get out of the building as fast as possible.

Lots of agreement came his way at that.

Heart still beating rapidly, he focused on extracting the information that had made Priscilla run. It had telekinesis that made the Professor look weak. Daniel calmed down. That skill, the fear of being trapped in a cage where she was helpless was Priscilla’s phobia. No wonder she had fled that with . . . oh god. The monster had a Life Sense ability. Priscilla had got lucky. Even his tiny mouse would have been visible to it. There was a reason for everything, including the tiny, usually invisible insects on the floor being dead. The abomination could sense life and then use its power to pluck it and bring it to its mouth.

Priscilla, for all of her vaunted speed, would have been helpless.

She had escaped; Daniel reminded himself of that.

He continued examining the information his precious girl had risked her life to get. The creature was a true monster with an insatiable appetite, self-regeneration, fast healing, and it had a body that was flexible and could contort into different shapes. The only good news was a weakness to ice. Not just a vulnerability—it was almost allergic to it. That fact probably explained how the humans had stayed alive. If a couple of them were ice mages, that could really hurt it and hold it at bay.

Breathe, he told himself. Priscilla ran up and hugged into his neck. She was violently shivering. He patted the mouse absently while thinking the fight through. They had two choices. Attack now and hope the people trapped above would join in or wait and organise something formal with Morse code relayed via other buildings.

Priscilla tried to burrow into his armour, but when that failed, scrambled into his hair. He could feel her little paws clutching his hair desperately.

He was not sure waiting to coordinate would be possible. Now that he had seen some of its abilities, it would definitely be active at night. It did not rely on eyesight to navigate. If he waited, there was a good chance it would eliminate the humans above them and then come down to eat them. Potentially both. Delaying was too dangerous.

“It is vulnerable to ice,” he called out. “Who has ice ability?”

Dave raised a paw, along with the ice mage, Tamara, and two more people that they must have rescued today.

“All ranged.”

“I am melee,” the thin girl said.

“Do you want a wooden weapon?” he asked.

“Umm.” She held up two kitchen knives.

“I could make them longer?”

“Yeah, technically I use twin rapiers.”

Using a nearby door and a flood of power, the handle of the knife fell away. With intense focus, he commanded the wood to grow to incorporate the metal blade, creating a sort of spear sword hybrid. The knife blades stuck out at the end of the wood. Daniel winced as he moved the blades around. The balance because of the metal was off. At least it would give her the extra reach. “What do you think?” He asked passing them to her.

She flicked the weapons around with a pained expression. “Better,” she confirmed without sounding convinced.

“One last thing.” Eric grabbed the weapons back and incorporated three cores in each of them before placing his maker’s mark on both. He then handed them to her.

She swished them through the air once more. “They are a bit unbalanced and heavy.”

“I am sort of limited to using wood.”

She repeated the slashes and then shrugged. “They are not perfect, but better than the knives.”

“Everyone,” he yelled. “Our job is to keep these five alive and active. Take a hit if you must, but protect them up. Healers.” He looked at the five who were there. Carly had come up from below. “Focus on the ice users. Screw me, your friends, everyone, because this thing is not going down without those five killing it.”

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