Travis Gardin
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Chapter 8: Reptile House
🕑 Added 2024-09-19 02:00:02 +0000 UTC6/21
Washington D.C.
2:50 PM
We do indeed get through the first 5 floors without getting our boots wet. The locals here patrol inside the dungeon itself, and have set up trails and paths. Short, makeshift bridges dot the massive, dense swamp. Overhead is pure fog, though which pale shafts of fake moonlight occasionally pierce through. The locals have electric lanterns hung from trees along their trails, so you can get around without stumbling over the roots of the tupelo trees. There are even several camps set up to help people get rest, reload and recover. It's all together astonishing what humans can do when they actually organize.
Our escorts, Officer Smalls and Private Arch, lead us to the cave entrance that signifies the 6th floor.
“From here on we don't patrol,” says Smalls. He's actually of average height.
“Because the reptile house is a real shit show,” says Arch.
The briefing told us that the next five floors are all variations on caves.
Smalls says, “6th floor is narrow tunnels with little room to maneuver.”
Private Arch says, “so probably skip the sniper rifles.”
“And,” says Officer Smalls, “watch your explosions. The tunnels are tougher than steel, so they'll funnel blasts further than you think they will.”
I wonder how long these two have been down here if they're finishing each other's sentences... Probably too long.
I take point, since I've got the defensive abilities to take hits. Right behind me is Cappy. With her compact FN P90 submachine gun and small stature, I trust her to be able to move alongside me without us bumping into each other.
We enter the cave tunnel and I briefly get a flashback to entering R-32 the first time. This is different. Everything about this is different. You're not going to get this team killed. I take a deep breath and I step inside.
The cave is narrow and short. The taller of us are having to duck down. There's bioluminescent moss on the ceiling and sometimes the walls, so the tunnels glow softly blue. The stone surrounding us is dark Grey and cool to the touch. I advise that we switch to night vision optics just to make sure we're not ambushed. Apparently the reptoids are crafty.
We proceed for about 15 minutes before we make contact. I hear some scrabbling up ahead and raise my fist up, signaling those behind me to hold up. I slowly creep around the corner and see Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy crouched down and ready to leap out at whoever enters their small chamber. The reptoids are being very presidential, I guess. I sigh (mentally) then stride out and as they rise to meet me I pop both with Storm Shots.
Storm Shot
Exotic
Fire a bullet of electo-charged wind at a foe.
Range: 200 feet
Cost: 5 Arcana Points
Proficiency: 82%
The Atmos powers I've got my minds currently attuned to use my hands, rather than weapons. I can fire Storm Shots from my fingertips and can punch with lightning. The two shots launch from my index finger and strike both former presidents in the head, splattering their brains across the cave wall. Something about killing two assassinated presidents feels so very, very wrong.
After a quick sweep I take Madeline's advice and have the lowest leveled people up front, followed by our higher tiers. Cappy, Rutger, Scarlett, Kailani and Parker all take turns being on point and we sweep through the 6th floor without me doing any more fighting. For our troubles we collect some good old Sacagaweas as loot. The reptoids carry replica props appropriate to whatever person they're mimicking, so I now own reptoid Lincoln's hat and Parker has a guitar pick from reptoid Kurt Cobain. The reps for whatever reason decided to all be dead celebrities for our party.
Again, dungeons are weird. How the crap are reptoids living in caves supposed to know about Nirvana or the Gettysburg address? It's just more poorly designed Dracosys bullshit. Bullshit I say!
As the newer and lower leveled Pathbreakers clear the way, Quins comes over and asks me, “sooo boss, want me to shoot your brotha for ya?”
“What. What? No!” I turn to look at the brit, who's got one of his trolling faces on. Oh. Of course he's trolling.
“Aw, come on, just like a little arrowing between friends, no big thing. Won't even be an exploding arrow. Probably.” He's decided to break the tension by talking about the thing I'm tense about. I do appreciate his directness.
“First, I'm the only one who is going to tackle my brother.” I hold up a finger so they know I mean business. “Second, I think he'd regenerate an arrow wound in seconds, so it wouldn't matter.” I hold up a second finger, then pop up my ring finger. “And third...” I trail off because I really hadn't thought this far. Quick! Sub-minds! Think of a third thing! “And third, he's probably going to be taken out by some government agency, quietly and without us even knowing about it.” Damn, sub-minds, that got dark.
“Nah,” says Jose. “He's still moving around too much.”
Jose already told me how his tracker on my brother works. He can tell direction but not distance. He's currently somewhere around or between Seattle or Vancouver. Unless he's coming straight towards us, in which case his tracker would say the same direction, but not say whether he's in Canada or Ohio. Mental shrug.
“Your buddy Brian gave me one of the litRPGs to read,” says Madeline, who has one eye on the fight ahead. Sporadic gunfire lights up the tunnel with splashes of amber, followed by the sounds of reptoid bodies being blasted apart. “Defiance Fall, something like that. In that one there's basically just one big damn hero. But that's not the case for us.”
“That's right, heroes are popping up across this planet to fight back against this terrorist crisis.” Henry's deep voice booms in the tunnel, and I give the hand sign to stifle it. “Sorry,” he says in a whisper.
It's true though. Unlike those stories, we're not the only ones who can save the world. At any moment, a team might take down Desmond Pierce of the Ambrose Society in an ambush. People across the world are taking on dungeons. Someone could kill or capture my brother without me. And to be honest, that stings a bit.
When you're at war, you know you're part of the machine. You know your role is limited. But now, now that I have super powers, it's odd to think that I might not be needed. Me and my powers can be replaced, or some other person might be “the special” who saves the world or some such thing.
I can't think like this. I have a job to do. And I can do it well.
“7th floor!” I hear Cappy yell back at us.
I tilt my head towards the front and say to my friends, “time to pay attention, I guess.”
The 7th floor is a forest of stalagmites and stalactites. Massive pillars that look like melted white candles dot a wide, deep room 50 feet tall. The area seems to be lit with flood lights set into the ceiling and floor to cast dramatic shadows from the stone monoliths. The stalagmites and stalactites themselves each seem to be 1 foot, 5 feet or 10 feet wide, as if the 7th floor design team only had the budget for 3 versions.
Using my heat vision optical lens, I can tell there's chameleonians out there in the dozens, maybe hundreds. All invisible to the naked eye.
From a distance of about 150 feet I scan one. I can scan it while looking at it through the lens but not my regular vision. Which sort of makes sense?
Chameleonian Warrior. Tier 4. These bipedal reptiles have optical camouflage. How are you even reading this? Anyways, so they're faster and stronger and tougher than the ones you fought in the Get! store.
Possible loot: scale armor, stealth skin, teeth and claws.
“Alright,” I start. “We're letting them come to us. Jose and Quins will open fire while Scarlett, you use Jeff the magic falcon to lure them to us. Mercy and Rutger, you charge up big spells for the first and second waves of them, respectively. The rest of us will be behind some void walls I'll pop up.” Unfortunately I can't use my flame shields if we're using heat vision to fight. I can't be blinding my own team, now can I?
“Void mind!” Vortexes of purple energy swirl around my fists before condensing into my hands. I immediately get to work and set up five Void Rifts in a semi circle around us. Each Void Rift is a 10-foot-long line on the ground that looks like someone painted that section black. When someone (anyone except for me) approaches, dozens of thin purple spikes of void pop up and attempt to stab the intruder. So it's more of a trap than a wall, but it'll work just fine against the melee-oriented chameleonians. Plus, they linger as long as I have the Arcana Points to preserve them, and I've got AP to burn.
In my most commanderly voice I ask, “everyone ready?” I get a flurry of yeses, one ready mate and one I guess so. Which is good enough, I suppose. I give the signal and Jose and Quins open fire, and if they're not counting their kills to compare later I'd be shocked.
The chameleonians let out cries that sound like strangled geese, which must mean “get those mother fuckers.”
I check my radar and it's empty aside from our side. I look with my right eye and see nothing. I look with my left eye, through my heat vision optical lens and see hundreds of monsters. Hundreds. Shit.
-----
Jun’s Atmos (wind/electric/water) Spells
Storm Shot
Exotic
Fire a bullet of electro-charged wind at a foe.
Range: 200 ft
Cost: 5 Arcana Points
Proficiency: 82%
Typhoon Blow
Exotic
The answer is punch. It doesn’t matter what the question was. Has a 33% chance to stun foes.
Cost: 2.5 Arcana Points
Proficiency: 333%
Storm Stream
Exotic
Fire a beam of Atmos energy that branches off when it hits a foe. The longer you sustain the attack, the more targets can be hit.
Range: 100 ft
Cost: 2 Arcana Points/second
Proficiency: 47%
Tempest Buster Rifle
Exotic
Charge up and fire a powerful, large beam of Atmos energy, demolishing anything in its path.
Range: 500 ft
Cost: 50 Arcana Points
Proficiency: 2%
Storm Cell
Exotic
Conjure a cage of Atmos energy around a foe, trapping and slamming them with repeated minor attacks.
Range: 30 ft
Duration: 5 seconds
Cost: 15 Arcana Points
Proficiency: 1%
Atmospheric Control
Exotic
Control wind, water and electricity to cause minor effects, similar to basic spell effects.
Range: 50 ft
Cost: 1 Arcana Point/1 minute
Proficiency: 44%
Squall Steps
Exotic
Walk, run and fly in the air.
Cost: 5 Arcana Points/1 minute
Proficiency: 99%
