Origin ARS 5 (20 page)

Scott checked the area once more then nodded.
He could not be perfectly safe, but he made a plan of attack then
called out his spell. None of his other abilities were defined
enough to be of any real use in this fight, but he knew that
starlight flare would kill these things if he could keep them from
killing him first.

He ran toward the gathered monsters and
snatched up a chunk of stonework that he saw on the ground in
passing. With a snarky cry of, "Hey, ugly." he threw the bit of
shattered building at the closest monster. It smacked into the side
of the beasts helm and all six of the monstrosities ceased
movement.

The background music shifted from the somber,
depressing, score that had been playing. It had been the background
soundtrack of a city in ruin. A violin played in the background as
woodwind instruments carried a melancholy tune. Now, the music had
shifted to a deep drumming sound. It was a pounding tune
reminiscent of barbarians about to make war in any number of sword
and sorcery films.

Slowly, they turned their helms toward the
blue-haired sorcerer. Eldritch light flared through their eye holes
and the monsters began to stomp toward him. The background music
picked up woodwind instruments and the beginning stirring of a
guitar.

They were faster than they looked, but still
slower than a hellion. Scott easily made it to the first spot that
he had picked. He leapt atop an overturned car, a dark grey
contraption that looked a bit like a jeep with no wheels. It was a
strange thing to see in a parking lot full of vehicles that
actually did have wheels, but that was not important at the moment.
What was important, was that the beasts were upon him.

His little pulsating light of celestial
retribution burned the beasts even as they stomped toward him. The
closest among them whipped his axe down in a killing stroke, but
Scott had already begun to move. Compared to the hellions, these
things were just as dangerous in a close battle but far more
predictable.

Scott launched himself backward just enough
to avoid being cleaved in half. His light remained on the other
side of the vehicle and burned the monsters with its purifying
force. The axe-wielding beast yanked its weapon free of the
wreckage before it and two of its brethren joined it in chopping
down what remained. It was rather disheartening to see how little
time it took them to tear through so much solid metal.

However, every few seconds that passed the
monsters were burned by the light. Scott hopped back to avoid
another powerful cleaving motion then repeated that process a few
more times. He needed to keep the monsters busy, but he also had to
stay outside the range of their fear effect.

Soon he had hopped back far enough to begin
the next phase of his plan. Scott leapt atop a bright orange
vehicle that looked like a muscle car from earth. When the first
monster swung at him, he performed an expert backflip that allowed
him to almost lazily arc through the air to land atop the next
vehicle behind him. By the time the monster freed its blade, the
pulsating light had taken the life of one of its compatriots.

Scott nodded. He had not performed these
backflips and hopping motions to look cool. He needed to kill these
murderous bastards and move on. Fighting them head on was suicidal
for him at this point, so he had been forced to use the terrain and
focus on his magical attacks throughout this horrible night.

The monsters tore into that poor car for all
they were worth, and soon broke it down to the point that they
began to step up onto the wreckage. Another monster fell to the
side, its armor charred by the light.

Starlight flare could last for only a scant
few minutes at his skill-level, but that was more than enough time
to wreck these things. They relied heavily on their brute power and
physical defense.

A repeat performance of his backflip and wait
plan occurred, and soon the remainder of the beasts fell to the
side. The power animating them had been destroyed by the gentle
celestial light.

No time was wasted in checking the fallen
monsters for loot. He could not carry the charred armor plates for
lack of space, but he did find a few coins and the occasional
gemstone when he defeated one of these things.

Surprisingly, he also found something new. "A
letter?"

Scott opened it, expecting to see some sort
of mission orders even though the monsters probably did not even
read.

[Mission Briefing]

A Desperate Mother's Plea

Oh Origin, patron of love and reincarnation; please
hear my prayer. My son Jimothy has run off in search of his father.
I fear the worst! Please, hear the prayer of a desperate mother and
bring my sweet boy home to me. Barring that, bring what remains of
him so that we might return him to this world.

Mission Requirements:
You have located the
remains of a young boy slain by the Eldritch Armor Knights of the
Storm Tyrant. Bring his remains to his mother before three dawns
have passed.

Reminder:
If you have a crysta-com you can
scan the code at the bottom to generate a city map and location for
the quest.

Success:
Bring the remains of Jimothy to his
mother.

Failure:
Fail to bring the remains of Jimothy
to his mother before three dawns have passed.

Reward(s):
Increased Event Contribution
Acknowledgments, improved relations with the church of Origin, a
mother's thanks.

[—]

Scott's eyes narrowed. "I see. The letter
thing really is how quests pop up sometimes. That's an odd way to
give out quests, but I'll do my best." He fiddled with his
crysta-com for a moment until he recalled how to scan things. After
scanning the bottom of the letter, a map application appeared on
his mobile device. It showed his current location, and his next
destination, which was Jimothy's body. There was even a little
distance marker that showed how far he was from his objective.

He ran over to the body of the boy and then
wished that he hadn't. What he saw was something that no one should
have to see, much less the boy's mother. The body was in too many
pieces to lift and carry. He was forced to tear down the awning of
a nearby building and use it to pile the pieces inside. He wanted
to be as gentle and respectful as possible, but it was not
easy.

His crysta-com vibrated in his pocket and he
checked it. He had received a destination update. "Distance eight
thousand six hundred forty-seven." How far was that? It sounded
like a large amount of ground to cover.

Scott took a few experimental steps toward
his destination and the distance dropped by twenty-two."Oh! I get
it, it's that many normal steps." He thought about it for a moment,
it sounded like the destination and distance markers worked on full
paces. Those were about a yard, which was similar to a meter.
"Eight kilometers then...?"

He rubbed his chin. The metric system was not
exactly a native thing for him. His time in the army had taught him
that a twenty kilometer ruck march was about twelve miles. Given
the fact that the destination thing seemed to measure movement in
paces, it would probably be better to consider the distance in
yards or normal steps instead of meters in the future. "It's a good
four or five miles through this hell to get you home, kid."

The colorfully clad sorcerer reached down and
carefully lifted the wrapped body of the small boy. Before his
change into a fantasy world hero in the making the burden of
carrying so much weight would have been problematic. Scott barely
noticed the weight, however. Such was the carrying capacity of a
man when they had five times the strength of the strongest man who
had ever lived on Earth. Though, there was a much more solemn
weight to this small burden in his arms that no stat could
lighten.

In the distance he could hear the tell-tale
sounds of gunfire. The city guard was fighting against another wave
of monsters. Lightning crashed in the background. The invasion of
the city continued unabated. The background music had already
shifted and returned to its somber score and its crying violin as
well.

"Let's get you home." said Scott softly. The
sorcerer set out across the city once more. This time he did not
stop to fight monsters. He avoided both them and the patrols of the
city guard. They would try to usher him into one of the underground
safety areas or shoot him since he might look like a looter, or
worse.

A few minutes later he was forced to stop and
wait as a roving guard patrol passed near his location. He truly
did not want to stop and explain his current situation to a city
guard. What would he say if he had to explain? Scott snorted then
shook his head. One hand rose into the air palm up. "Pardon me good
sir, may I be on my way? I have collected various bits of a small
boy in this sack and I don't want him to spoil."

For a moment he thought that he should feel
bad about his morbid joke, but the moment passed and he chuckled
softly in the darkness. As disturbing as the situation was, the
ability to laugh at it helped him to relieve quite a bit of built
up stress.

He continued on his way, his heart a bit
lighter despite his terrible burden. After a time he came to a
rather significant impasse. What looked to be an entire sky-scraper
had fallen over sideways. It was the sort of hellish damage that a
modern city would normally see if a giant monster invaded.

Scott scrambled over the top, or rather what
had once been the side, of the fallen megastructure using the
debris as a means of reaching its high surface. Roughly half the
way to the top he was forced to break his way into the building
through the surprisingly damage-resistant glass that constituted
its outer wall. He was certain that it had been weakened in the
collapse, but he was surprised that it had not already broken
during the fall.

The war was ridiculous. If the city survived,
would it ever be whole again? Once inside the building he called
out his starlight flare spell to allow him to see what he was
doing, and to add a little protection in case of axe-wielding
monsters.

The sideways structure proved to be rather
maze-like at first as it defied his sense of logical physical
dimensions. He had to crawl through doorways, and ended up
reversing his course several times before he managed to climb up
into a corner officer through interior rooms.

It took more time and effort than he would
have liked, but he managed to pile enough debris up in the corner
of that corner office to reach the glass wall above. It was not
exactly the smartest move, but if he wanted to continue forward
from here he would have to break through the glass. He sat the sack
of Jimothy to the side then covered his eyes with one hand while he
punched up into the glass with the other.

Without clear sight of his target it took a
while to break through, but he managed it somehow. He had received
a few minor cuts from the thick glass shards in the process, but he
was tough enough physically for such a thing to only be a minor
irritation. His knuckles did feel a bit raw, however.

Scott tossed the Jimmy sack up through the
hole, respectfully of course, then leapt up and out of the madness
that was a sideways building. Once free of the place he looked
around and saw that the way beyond was surprisingly clear. "Well,
that's something."

He walked to the edge of the building and
looked down. There was no clear way down nearby. The glass only
appeared at the halfway point on the side of the building, and the
place where it had fractured and toppled in a manner that probably
completely defied the laws of physics was filled with loose,
shifting, debris that he could not trust as a means to escape the
place. One wrong move would leave both him and his passenger
buried. Frustration welled up within him for a moment. He thought
he might have to go back inside and seek out a middle room.

It was not until he spied something on the
street below that he had an idea. It would be risky, but wasn't
everything risky at this point?

Scott carefully walked to his chosen
destination and looked across the divide. The building that he
stood on was huge and even fallen on its side, it was still a long
way down to the street below. However, there was a street light
with an extended arm that he might use.

He sighed then checked the ties on the
makeshift sack he had made to carry Jimothy. Afterward, he spoke to
the boy. "I'm sorry about this, but it's the only way unless I want
to backtrack a lot." Left unsaid was the fact that backtracking
through the mess that the city had become could lead him into an
even worse situation.

Scott respectfully tossed the Jimothy sack
off the side of the building before looking at the street lamp once
more. He took a deep breath, steeled his resolve and then made a
running leap toward his goal. Unfortunately, his aim was a little
off as he was not used to making such grandiose leaps. Scott's
hands just barely gripped the lamp's arm, but that was not nearly
enough to stop his descent. A great deal of the momentum of his
fall was mitigated but the force was still enough to rip his
fingers free of their loose purchase. He fell hard to the earth
below and landed with a loud, pained, cry. Thankfully, enough of
his fall had been broken that his legs had not been.

Once he recovered from the surprising end to
the current leg of his journey, he collected little Jimothy and
went about his business. Along the way he would occasionally check
his crysta-com to see where he needed to go. The monsters and guard
patrols thinned considerably once he left the city-center, and
became practically non-existent as he entered the outskirts of the
city where Jimothy's family lived. At the moment the invading army
seemed content to do as much damage to the heart of the city as
possible.