Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 46: New Beginnings

“Alright, I’m ready, summoning in one minute, over.” Isaac said into the radio, which immediately crackled out a response.

“Understood, we’ll stand by to intervene if you call it in or run, over and out.”

That out of the way, Isaac walked over to a tree at the edge of the large forest clearing and hung it on one of the lower branches. While he had absolutely no problem surviving the microscopic rips and tears that phasing through a powerful enemy would inflict, the same could not be said of the delicate electronics within the radio.

Looking over into the sky above the clearing, he could see several drones hovering above it, ready to film the approaching fight. This would be one for the history books, after all. The first Tier 5 monster summoned in an official capacity. It had been one hell of a fight to get here, but with Bailey’s help, he’d managed to convince people.

Between the fact that he’d made a very good case for why this monster would be a good matchup for him, a not insignificant increase in Level, his excellent track record and the fact that there would be an opportunity to set up countermeasures and emergency protocols.

The rest of the team was out there as well, but they’d only engage if he called them. After all, his fighting style, lovingly referred to as ‘the way of the demented pinball’, tended to play merry hell with clean sightlines and could easily lead to friendly fire incidents. And friendly fire wasn’t, well, friendly.

With sufficient coordination and practice, this issue could easily be laid to rest, but they were yet to actually train any of that. After all, they were a research team, not a combat team. And while he trusted them a lot, said trust did not extend to their fighting prowess.

Isaac took a deep breath, smelling the grassy scent of wilderness, gun oil, and deer. They’d ended up doing this on the base of the military training grounds Grafenwöhr. It was a several hundred square kilometer area with no civilians allowed, ensuring that even in the event of a utter disaster, there would be time to do something before things actually got dangerous. Also, there were about a dozen pieces of artillery aimed at his position, ready to blow the entire clearing to kingdom come.

After all, he could phase through the storm of fire and steel they’d drop on both his and the monster’s heads, the entirely corporeal monster could not.

Isaac planted the Zweihänder in the grass so he could grab it when he needed it later, fully confident that he’d be better off with his soulbound combat knife, Old Reliable, and the Kriegsmesser in the beginning, then carefully schooled his expression into one of caution and alertness.

His mana continued to tick upwards, hitting the maximum a moment later.

A split second after that, he triggered the charged circle in front of him. And. It. Was. On.

The Crusher erupted from the intricate circle painted on the grass with a spray can, a four meter tall golem forged from iron and titanium in a roughly humanoid form with two overly long arms and legs, but no head.

“Its Fortitude is through the roof, the same goes for the Strength. Perception is mediocre, Agility is incredibly low, magical stats are practically nonexistent. Primary means of attack are almost certainly physical, punches and kicks, general strategy is going to be kiting that thing ‘til it drops dead, using [Sundering Strike] to corrode defenses, [Power Strike] to increase the impact, [Piercing Strike] to get past those defenses in the first place, [Manifold Strike] to combine them all. The plan as laid out ahead of time.” Isaac explained, knowing that the others would hear him via the drone.

The real difficulty here wouldn’t be the actual fight, it would be making it look good. If it looked too easy, then it could lead to a whole host of results, none of them good.

Maybe people figured out that Isaac was too powerful and skilled for how long he’d been fighting, far more so than could be explained by simple [Skills]. Or maybe people began to underestimate the monster and got themselves killed. Or something else he couldn’t think of yet. Point was, it wouldn’t be good.

And if he made it look too hard, well, that would likely be the end of playing around with high Tier monsters in an official capacity.

‘Dangerous but doable’ was an entirely different look than ‘he barely survived that’, after all. If this looked too much like a fluke win, then this whole program would get shut down after just a single fight and that would seriously slow down future research. They were being given enough rope to hang themselves with here, now it was his job to make sure to not accidentally make a noose and slip his head in.

The Crusher began to march forward, every step sinking a few centimeters into the ground and sending clods of dirt flying, building up momentum and becoming a nigh unstoppable juggernaut that could walk through a main battle tank and barely even notice.

“I’m going to use my knife to test that thing a little first to see how my [Skills] affect it before using weapons without a self-repair function.” Isaac said, sheathing the Kriegsmesser. Part of making things look good was explaining what he was doing, to make it look less like he was pulling his tactics out of his ass.

Isaac took a couple of steps to the side, fully aware of the fact that the golem couldn’t follow that movement. It was a matter of simple physics. Its Agility might be sufficient to redirect its trajectory, but it was simply too heavy. Anything it tried to push itself off of to change course would crumple in moments, and that went doubly for the soft dirt they were fighting on.

Nevertheless, it reached out and tried to smash his skull with a fist that was simply a gigantic block of square metal. Deadly if it hit, but Isaac simply leaned back, leaving it to swish past overhead. As that happened, he phased his left hand and reached up to let it pass through the limb. A slight ache appeared as its mana density inflicted a small amount of damage, but the damage healed a moment later.

“I can phase through it with very little issue.” Isaac announced, coming to a stop behind the golem. It too had stopped, sending up a fountain of dirt as it jammed its feet into the ground to stop itself.

Before it could start moving again, however, Isaac charged, driving a glowing yellow blade enhanced with [Piercing Strike] into its leg, just below where it joined the body, leaving behind a cut maybe ten centimeters deep. Under normal circumstances, before the [System], a human inflicting that kind of damage against solid metal with a simple knife would have been ludicrous. With the [System], on the other hand … it was a little pathetic.

Isaac sidestepped the gigantic fist that hammered into the earth with enough force to make the ground shake, then hammered his knife into the golem a centimeter below the cut he’d already made, the glow becoming orange as he added [Power Strike].

The knife sank in half again as deep, a significant impact, but nothing that would bother a monster with only one organ that mattered. Isaac knew where to find it, but going right at it would look suspicious, so he’d just rip this thing apart piece by piece until he found it. Besides, this thing was too tough for a coup de grace.

The Crusher spun, twisting its entire torso as its left hand swung around like a pendulum … and flashed clean through Isaac as he phased again, then lashed out with a single, all-encompassing attack. Every [-Strike] type [Skill] was infused into a single devastating slash, [Sweeping Strike] splitting it into six separate, jet black lines of destruction that raked along the limb. It was the strongest [Manifold Strike] he could use, or as he called this trick in his head, the [Fuck-Off Strike].

At the end of the day though, most of the attack simple served the goal of sending the energy from [Sundering Strike] as deep into the body as possible. It was split apart and weakened on each individual beam, but the center area saw multiple effects overlap and utterly melt the metallic flesh of the monster.

It stumbled, the already half severed limb crumpling under its own weight, so it fell onto all fours … and began to lope forward like any regular quadruped, four legs blurring as it ran.

“Damn.” Isaac muttered. It was a rather mild curse as far as things went, but he didn’t want to sound panicked while acknowledging that this was an annoying twist.

The Crusher stampeded forwards, drove its fully intact forelimbs into the dirt and suddenly flipped, bringing down the limbs that had previously been its legs like a pair of meteors, revealing that it was perfectly capable of fighting upside down, in fact, it was actually identical to its original stance, the limbs able to swivel around the corners of the monster’s square body to put them either beneath the body as legs or on the side as arms so they were closer to the foe to crush it.

A devastating attack that should destroy anything it was used on … except it needed to actually hit. Isaac just walked straight through the Golem, the infinitesimal amount of damage healing in seconds, then spun around to inflict another fully empowered [Manifold Strike] onto another leg. The Crusher shifted again, placing its full weight on its intact legs and lunged. Isaac dodged … and vanished.

The full attack cost a lot of mana, almost completely draining it, but there was a simple trick of regaining it. [Stealth] completely hid him from view as he ran towards the treeline, shifting over into [Sneak]. It hid him a lot less well, but it was a stealth [Skill] that kept the summoner tracking power from kicking in. And given how poor a golem’s senses were, that was enough.

Isaac reached up and grabbed the radio to call in before someone decided that it was time to call in the artillery strike.

“I’m fine, not hurt, just recovering mana, hold off on the emergency response, over.”

During the Level ups he’d had to do to qualify for this fight, he’d invested a significant amount of Stat points into Magic Regeneration, so this wouldn’t take too long

The Crusher continued to march around the battlefield, ‘glaring’ at everything in sight. As a creature without eyes, it couldn’t actually do so, but its overall demeanor made it abundantly clear that it was pissed.

“It’s not recovering from [Sundering Strike], the damage is sticking, over and out.”

And with that, Isaac charged back into the fray, snatching the Zweihänder out of the ground, leaping, and bringing it around in an arc and hammering it right into one of the damaged arms, a cold yellow glow wreathing it and shearing through the weakened monster body with a screech of tearing metal.

The golem lashed out with its one remaining arm … and it flew off on its own, too badly weakened by Isaac’s attacks.

This just left it two limbs that could be either arms or legs, but given that it still needed to move, it was effectively stuck having to crush him with its bulk for lack of another offensive option … which it immediately proceeded to try to do.

It might be greatly weakened, but it was still a powerful monster that was not to be underestimated and far too tough for him to kill with his current mana pool. At least if nothing changed.

Isaac put down the sword and. activated [Form of Horror], his body instantly ballooning in size, shooting upwards to almost be as tall as The Crusher. A sinuous body, overly long limbs, covered in white scales and bone plates, claws like steak knives forged from his soulbound weapon and a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. It was something out of a horror movie … and perfect for this fight.

Venomous green light flared across his claws as Isaac activated [Sundering Strike] and began to rake the golem’s chest, the massively heightened stats and increased reach afforded by the transformation making it child’s play to avoid getting hit by the slow kicks or body slams his opponent had been reduced to using due to the damage he’d already inflicted.

As he attacked, the consistence of The Crusher’s chest slowly shifted from solid metal to soft clay, every hit digging large clumps of material until he caught a glimpse of the core, glowing blood red deep within the chest and felt it was time for the final strike.

Isaac disengaged, flinging himself backwards towards where he’d dropped the sword, picking it back up and lunging an instant later, the blade covered with yellow light. It tore through the metal that was practically hanging in tatters, slowing slightly as it reached the parts that had been less affected by the corrosive [Skill], continuing onwards until the golem suddenly froze, core split in half.

The Crusher (Lv. 17) has been slain. 200 XP gained

… and then it began to fall forwards, straight at Isaac. He simply shifted and dodged, only the very heel of his right foot passing through the falling remains, but it had been a good precaution nonetheless.

There was another squeal of tortured metal, followed by a loud breaking sound as the Zweihänder shattering beneath the massive dead golem. Ah hell.

“All clear.” Isaac said, looking up at the drone, finally allowing a grin to show on his face. That had been an exhilarating fight, but people already thought he was a fighting maniac, no need to fuel those rumors by grinning like a loon while facing a powerful monster.

Honestly though, the bureaucratical fight prior to this had been a hell of a lot tougher than the actual battle.

Two weeks ago:

“So, you want to summon a Tier 5 monster? You do realize that one of those things just trashed a city of almost four million people in a single night and required military intervention to put it down?” Polizeidirektor Kaiser looked at them all, sounding both exasperated and outraged.

“Look, I can understand the impulse to want to look at anything and everything, but this is just too dangerous.” Dean Kass, one of the university higher ups agreed.

“Fundamentally, I agree that this is dangerous, but any threat we can analyze, we can develop counters to and then deal with when someone else summons one. We’ve seen the devastation that a monster with no known weaknesses can cause just a few days ago. We’ve also seen the profound impact that a scientific analysis of such a monster can have. Lastly, it was made quite clear that there are people out there who are willing to summon dangerous monsters, no matter how idiotic that would be.” Bailey replied grimly.

“So, your solution to people doing stupid things is to do the exact same thing before anyone else has a chance to?” Kass raised an eyebrow.

“Actually, we’ve put a lot of thought into this.” Isaac said, sliding two sheaths of paper across the table towards the two most important people here. There were other people here, but the Chief of Police and the university’s dean were the ones actually in charge here.

“Among other things, the reason the situation in LA got so bad is that the monster was at the upper edge of Tier 5, costing almost as much as the cheapest Tier 6 creatures. Meanwhile, the monster we want to fight, The Crusher, is on the weakest end of Tier 5. In addition, we’ve determined the upper Level limit of Tier 4 monsters, a limit which I will soon surpass. I’ll be able to fight it on equal footing and take it down. Lastly, we’ve specifically picked a monster that will be vulnerable to my powers and exceedingly bad at pursuit, making disengaging possible.”

“What we’re looking for is permission to conduct this experiment, as well as a place to do so and some help setting up proper precautions.” Bailey jumped back in.

“In the end, that would leave you fighting a single monster, one you yourself stated is on the weaker end of the Tier. What would the benefit be?” Kaiser asked.

“For one, materials gained from monsters work differently, being tougher than they have any right to be. The university’s engineering faculty is very interested in it, we’ve also received cautious requests from both the military and various companies for information on those kinds of materials. The Crusher’s summoning materials are all metals and through extensive research, we’ve discovered that elemental beings are almost exclusively made from the materials required to summon them.” Karl explained “If you want, I can forward you our research or some of the requests.”

“Lastly, this will let us get started on figuring out what kinds of stats monsters at that Tier have. Obviously, a single monster will not be representative of its entire Tier, but it will be a start.” Bailey added.

“I was under the impression it was impossible to know what Stats a monster has outside of rough gestimates?” Kass asked, puzzled.

“Actually, I have a [Skill] that can give me that information. It won’t be an exact number, but it will still be useful.” Isaac said.

“That exists?” Kaiser frowned at him.

“[Skills] exist for everything.” Isaac replied confidently “It’s just that some are extremely hard to get. For example, this one originated as an upgrade to [Inspect] belonging to an epic Evolution of [Rogue].”

“Are there any plans to attempt to summon a monster akin to the Stormheart Gestalt, ever?” one of the officials near the back asked.

“Our mission statement is to study the [System] and all its monsters, which includes the really dangerous ones. However, prior to summoning any new monster, we conduct a thorough review of what we know about any given monster type, including the weaker members of its category and how its special abilities will react to their confinement, often using any spells we have access to that might properly mimic them. Given how many [System Researchers] and [Biological Researchers] we have on the team, we can test a lot of monster powers under controlled circumstances.” Bailey explained.

“In addition, we’ve been testing how an Elemental’s mana cost corresponds to how much damage it can take, and how much mana it takes to disperse using a combination of practical experiments and my ability to scan Stats.” Isaac added “If a Stormheart Gestalt or similar monster ever gets summoned here, we’ll be able to deal with it.”

“That’s interesting, but let’s circle back around to matter at hand. First, we’d need some kind of proof that you’re actually able to do something like that, then a proper and concrete proposal, as well as Mr. Thoma actually reaching the required Level. Then, we can talk more about all of this.” Kass said.

“Even if that satisfies the scientific requirements, there are no circumstances under which I will allow someone to summon a Tier 5 monster in my city!” Kaiser growled, now glaring at every scientist in the room.

“And there are no circumstances under which we would actually be doing it in the city.” Isaac told him “Part of our preparations are properly selecting the battleground and ensuring that there is a significant distance between us and any civilians that might get hurt.”

What followed was an hour-long three-way argument between Dean Kass, Bailey, and the assorted officials until eventually, they managed to settle for asking around if there were any military bases that fit the bill. After all, those were usually isolated and had enough heavy weapons on hand to well and truly ruin any monster’s day.