Knights Apocalyptica

Chapter 169: Precipice

Their tour of the city was one blood bath followed by another. The Pendragons learned soon into the trip to keep a strict trigger discipline. That was always the best option if an encounter could be solved without bullets. So, each battle became a careful balance of considering whether or not the Pendragons with Lazrifles and Knights could handle the nest they’d chosen to take on. Because if they did fire those guns, any Lizard that heard the bang would rush towards their location in a mad dash to kill.

They always came with an admirable glee. And, in response, they died with just as much enthusiasm, coasting their precious city in red.

Garin proved a massive help in strategically making their way through the city. With his talent, he recruited birds to signal out the different nests of nearby lizards and the hot spots. Thanks to that, they could circle around particularly dense locations of nests that threatened to be too overwhelming of a fight. Avoiding all the lizards, though, was impossible. They were far too thickly infested in the city to get around them.

Muerte Del Lagarto was named by a pack fifty years ago. Half of their numbers were wiped out when they wandered in and found it in this state. Those who survived pulled together the best they could but marked this city as a place to avoid without preparation. And that was the key of this place. None of the lizards were individually that strong. Still, with the overwhelming numbers, it could get dangerous, particularly without Armor like the Knights and with the constant risk of running low on ammunition to shoot the bastards.

Lucky for them, the vault wasn’t all that deep into the city. Progress was slow, with all the killing and avoiding hot spots, but it was worthwhile.

In the middle of such chaotic battles, anyone could be caught by a stray blow.

From what Rochester said, the Lizards were worse now than when they’d last been in the city. These things didn’t venture out of the city, and between now and their last trip, they’d managed to push out all of the competing monsters that’d called it home. Erec was still unsure of what they ate, other than humans, and the critical details of their survival.

After the first couple of nests, a few running themes became common. Each one of these ‘homes’ would contain a decorated shrine. Within which was some form of old-world art thrown in the middle, with bits of whatever copper the lizards could find thrown around in piles. After Colin spotted an odd natural magic to them, Boldwick warned them not to disturb these oddities.

Deeper, they went into Muerte, slaughtering the cold-blooded monsters by the trove. It didn’t take long for Erec to lose track of how many fight’s they’d seen. Injuries added up on the Pendragons from the odd lucky blow. Still, because of the Knights, they could retain a large surplus of ammunition, which was comforting, considering the deeper they got into the city, the scale of individual nests only grew. At one point, they went to great lengths to go around an entire neighborhood filled with the monsters. More than enough for Erec to get his fill of blood.

For that, he was grateful. Not to mention, in each of those fights, Enide stuck to his side. She complimented his fighting, using the wake of chaos he created on the battlefield to weave in and out and deal critical blows with her knives and Lasrifle. If he was the sun overlooking the bloody fields of war, she was the shadows left behind. It was a thing of beauty to see her dart in and out, keeping pace with his killing with a speed he could never hope to match. As confident as he was with his axe, having an ally at his back to rely on was a comfort. It allowed him to push harder in each and every battle, letting him test out just how much damage he could do.

That suited him more than fine. None of the other Initiates followed him where he went on the field, and the higher-level Knights were strategic with their placement, providing cover to their allies.

Enide turned it into a game, timing them every so often to measure lizard kills in a minute or the longest combo of kills with each slash or thrust—how many holes they could put in a creature before it stopped moving.

It was morbid but fun as hell.

And the efforts of constant pushing didn’t go to waste, even if the monsters weren’t particularly strong.

Agility: Rank E - Tier 7 → Rank E - Tier 8

Cognition: Rank E - Tier 4 → Rank E - Tier 5

Agility and cognition were good. They complimented him on adapting to a battlefield. With so many variables and the ghosts outlined by the Q.A.P., Erec found it challenging to pick out the best line to kill, and both of these were welcome to help solve that problem.

Foot by bloody foot, they closed in towards the vault. Once they reached a half-mile away, Rochester pulled them into a small house. The place had boarded-up windows that offered cover to recharge. Once they did, they’d have to make that last push.

The last half-mile to the vault was littered with lizards, and since it was directly in front of their goal, it was an unavoidable obstacle.

So far, the Arch-Magi had very little to do with the battlefield. He said it was to conserve strength for cracking the vault, and Rochester took that in stride. Given that it was the cornerstone of this wild plan, no one found fault with it. Still, the Pendragons, who had been on the receiving end of injuries, were more than a little terse with the man.

Garin found Erec resting against the wall, sliding beside him and throwing an arm over his shoulder. Their helmets were still on, as Erec didn't have an appetite after abusing Fury so many times in a row. As Boldwick said, they were to remain prepared since they were on a battlefield. The helmet only came off for water and food; even then, it had to be within arm's reach.

“Almost there,” Garin let out a sigh. “Exhausting though, isn’t it? And then, to think, we still have to deal with that vault. Ugh. Who knew it’d be such a gauntlet.”

Erec’s hand shook under the Armor, the adrenaline playing havoc with his body. But he wasn’t at his limit, not yet. And even then, for this, if he needed to, he’d push even further. “Nothing worthwhile is easy.”

“Yeah, but still, I haven’t seen this much fighting since…”

“Since the Stag. But the big difference is the level of danger. The only way to fall to these things is to run out of steam. We have to worry about the Pendragons, but our strongest haven’t pulled out all of their tools yet. So it’s hard. But safe.”

“Do you… What do you think is in the vault?”

“No idea.”

That was a lie. VAL had been sparse with the details, as he lacked specific knowledge of the Eureka site, but it said that this place dealt with more of their cutting-edge ‘Sub-Space’ research. It hadn’t been easy to coax even that information out of him, even with the machine's vow to open up more on ‘confidential business information.’ VAL didn’t want to speculate on research it wasn’t intimately familiar with. It had been open with the fact that whatever was going on in this site was mostly a mystery.

But it remained confident that once they reached the vault, it could interface with the Vortex Industries site and pull more information. Once it did, they’d have a sense of scale for the danger of the research and adjust their plans. Maybe they could predict what Erec’s mother wanted from here.

He glanced at the Arch-Magi. Olfson sat in a corner by himself, quietly drinking from a flask. He sat with crossed legs, without anyone too willing to get near him, content not to interact with the group. Like always, he kept to himself. Erec didn’t trust him. Even though the Arch-Magi claimed they were after the same thing, he hadn’t opened up about what specifically in the vault they were after—only swearing that he knew.

If Erec learned one thing from Vega, it was that the house always won, and the house was never above pulling tricks and deceptions to do so. Boldwick told them to keep an eye on the Arch-Magi, though he hadn’t needed to.

The danger inside the vault might be far less than the danger they brought.

“I think it’s a weapon,” Garin said.

[Ridiculous, subspace research is primarily directed at transportation on all fundamental levels and following Vortex Industries guidelines. Tell your friend he’s drawing the wrong conclusion. Nothing in that site should be directed at weaponization. Our nano-technology has far more direct combat applications. Logistics to supply front lines, perhaps, but not a weapon.]

“What makes you think that?”

“Well, intelligent beings from another world are seeking it. I think it’s an easy assumption they aren’t very fond of us because very few humans wouldn’t fight against them on principle. So, that drives you to the obvious question. If you were an intelligent monster from a different world, what sort of thing would you be most concerned about if you thought humans would try and fight you in the future?” Garin shrugged his shoulders.

“…Hard to argue with that.”

“I might be wrong—“

[He is.]

“But I think it’s very possible. That aside… You’ve come a long way, huh?” Garin let out a low whistle. “Boldwick and the Master Knights are letting you have the run of the battlefield.”

Erec paused, trying to pick up on anything underlying in that comment. He knew Garin had been worried before about… Keeping up. But there didn’t appear to be any of that here; there was a pleasantness to his tone and none of the anxiety he’d have expected.

Briefly, Erec’s attention flickered over to his blessing, calling upon it for more detailed information.

Name: Erec of House Audax

Health: 100% | Mana: 100% | Stamina: 100%

———————————————————————

Virtues:

Strength: [Rank D] | [Tier 8]

Vigor: [Rank E] | [Tier 9]

Agility: [Rank E] | [Tier 8]

Perception: [Rank E] | [Tier 5]

Cognition: [Rank E] | [Tier 4]

Psyche: [Rank E] | [Tier 9]

Mysticism: [Rank F] | [Tier 4]

Soul (Aspect: Fire): [Rank D] | [Tier 2]

———————————————————————

Divine Talents:

Fury

A far cry from a year ago. And all of it was underlined by just what a monster Fury was as a talent. It’d boosted all those capabilities by pushing his body to its limit. But, as a result, his view on these Virtues, which should take long to advance, had become wholly skewered.

“Virtues can only really take you so far. Take your Talent, for example,” Erec said, pausing, “Since Vega, you’ve been looking for more and more ways to use it. And while so far, you haven’t found a way to translate it directly towards combat, what you can achieve by using it has a value that could surpass mine—I’m good for fighting, but how much of life needs to be fighting?”

“Hah. A lot of it, it seems. Thanks, but you don’t need to try cheering me up; I get your point, I do. And thank you for pushing me in Vega; now I get it. But what I’m trying to get at is…” He hesitated, “…About Enide.”

“Yeah?”

“I was worried about keeping pace with you, and you knew that. But she can. And she does it with style, by the Goddess. Comparing how you two fight is impossible, but what isn't is the way you fit together. How she can flow around you with her Talent, I dunno. She has it, what it takes to stick to a monster like you. I admit, I’m a little jealous of that, but I’ve come to think that it’s an incredible thing. I’m just… Nervous. She isn’t from the Kingdom, and I don’t think they would agree well with one another. I know it isn’t, like, maybe the most pressing point for you to think about is your future with her… Erec, I’ve known you a long time, and when you’re with her, you seem to have found a part of you that I didn’t realize was missing.”

Erec had put thoughts into his future with her, but they were mostly daydreams of running off into the wild, as she’d teased. Reality had different demands, and his heart didn’t want to settle on anything specific in case life dragged him away from his hopes and broke his heart.

He liked her. A lot. But a future with her always seemed like it was one where they were free of any of these constraints, and that didn’t always suit how he felt. The war between freedom and responsibility was the very nature of his life, and that war made him scared the more he found himself falling for her.

The fact Garin thought they were a good fit only made it more real to him, more direct. “Boldwick says that the Kingdom is changing, and he intends to make allies of the Pendragons.”

“But what does that look like? Have you even talked to her about the Kingdom?”

“Of course,” in passing. Beneath sheets and in the darkness of the night when they wandered away from a campfire together to wander. She was interested in his home, but he hadn’t poked deeply into her thoughts about it, about him and his place in it. Maybe he was afraid to ask, couldn’t see her ever wanting any part of that lifestyle, which was, in a way, part of himself. If she rejected it, that would be akin to rejecting him.

“And?”

“…I don’t know what you’re looking for, Garin.”

“You’re a Count, Erec. Unless you wish to renounce your title and abandon the Kingdom and your position as a Knight, those details are important if you’re serious about someone. I’m saying this to you as a friend; I think this is someone you could share your life with; she fits you, and you’re right for her. Talk to her and try to figure it out. If there’s no way it can work, then at the very least, it’ll prepare you for the future,” Garin said and then got up. “I’ll let you rest. I want to eat before we make the final push, and you need to recover. You should be Strong and ready, right, Hero?”

Erec snorted and watched his friend waltz off. He found his eyes trailing over the rest of the room: Pendragons and Knights eating and drinking water, keeping their voices down, but the conversation had a raw edge. Anticipation for breaching the vault, dread for what might be within.

He saw Enide perched next to a window; her lazrifle pointed out of the boarded-up hole. She had an eye down the rifle’s sight. If curious Lizards walked up, they’d find a hole through their heads. It was a beautiful weapon and convenient since it made very little noise, and the ammunition was rechargeable. Enide even claimed she’d found a way to rig up additional cells if she got her hands on the right scrap.

She was stunning with that sleek rifle in her hands. Her features complimented by the little bit of lizard blood still on her cheek.

Erec tried to work himself up to go and ask her about the future, her thoughts on the Kingdom, about him, and what they could do together. But found he couldn’t. That Strength wasn’t there. Not at the moment. Try as he might, he couldn’t find the will to put his legs into motion, and even if he did, he was sure he wouldn’t find the courage to make his tongue work and ask those questions Garin suggested.

After. He promised. After the vault. When they were on the road again, then, they could have that talk.