System Finale: An Apocalyptic Space Opera LitRPG (The System Apocalypse Book 12) Read online

  “You also said he was a Heroic. I was being gentle for a Heroic.” The voice is annoyed and defensive, female too. Surprisingly, my brain translates her accent as Parisian French, which is weird since they’re speaking Galactic.

  “He also couldn’t use his Skills!” Exasperation.

  Something in that sentence… I crack my eyes open—literally since dried blood has a tendency to glue eyes shut—and try to move. Surprisingly, no pain, then I remember the System would have fixed that. Well, all but my arms, which have something embedded in them. No collar, no bracers. Something pulled those off which is good.

  Except that’s not painful either.

  “Aaargh!” Harry—that’s another familiar voice—screams as I lurch upright.

  He’s still in the process of jumping a good ten feet away from me, his body in the air. The rest of the surroundings I take in quickly, everything from Bolo arguing with a svelte young woman with big curling horns like his to Mikito standing guard at the door and a Yerrick a short distance away, arms crossed and looking tired.

  Also, I take in the dark grey, granite walls, the bioluminescent moss, the hard stone floor, and the impact points where dragon claws hit the earth and walked in, digging in. Interestingly enough, the claw marks disappear on the way in, the front claws and streak of blood dissipating first, then the back claws eventually. The streak of blood on the ground leads all the way to me, which doesn’t surprise me.

  What I don’t see is the dragon.

  Or, as my brain catches up, I do.

  “Finally. What took you so long to wake?” the Yerrick asks, glaring at me as he pushes off the wall. It’s a little weird to see the minotaur with his horns broken off, but even more so, the bare patches about his hairy body.

  I casually scan him, blinking in surprise when I read his Status.

  Xaxas Stormfist, Planet Breaker, Genocidal, Tidebreaker, Slayer of Truinnar, Movana, Hakarta, Yerrick, Grimsar, Naiads, Pooskeen, Jaracks, … (more) ; Level 41 Storm Warden (H)

  HP: N/A

  MP: N/A

  Conditions: N/A

  My eyes narrow a little, the Library finding his name and a few details. Most prominently, his disappearance decades ago.

  Among my many Skills, the Eye of Insight cuts through most Skills lower leveled than it, which isn’t hard to beat if you’re a Heroic, but still… That he has something blocking me from reading his information at this point, when we’ve been stripped of our usual weapons and enchantments, is rather amazing. Probably a bought Skill, but still annoying.

  “I said…”

  I tune out whatever else the Yerrick has to say. It’s not as though whatever he wants to talk about is that important. Instead, with my Skills and abilities back, I cast, dropping some of my usual buffs on me. Soul Shield for obvious reasons, but immediately after, I make sure the various purchased Skills I’ve got are active, everything from Harden to Elastic Skin to Peasant’s Fury. I also cast Haste and activate Thousand Steps, Vanguard of the Apocalypse, Immovable Object, and lastly, Domain.

  Just in time for the hairy behemoth to smash into me. A fraction of a second before he hits me, I hunch down, dropping my weight so that when I fall backward, leg sprawling behind me and then lift upward, I’m under the Yerrick. A hand between and beneath his legs, jutting out, helps complete the impromptu throw, putting him over my shoulder.

  Of course, someone called the Planet Breaker isn’t going down easily. In mid-air, he punches me hard enough that it breaks my Soul Shield, overrides Immovable Object and my own control of the earth via my Strength attribute, and sends me careening through space into the nearby cavern wall.

  The rock wall, surprisingly, doesn’t do much more than crack. Considering the amount of force he put into the attack, I would have expected to have made a much bigger impact. On the other hand, it was more of a love tap than a serious attack. He didn’t even put any of his major Skills into it.

  Not that he’s letting me off easy either. By the time I bounce off the wall, land on the ground, and start rising, he’s in front of me. Standing at nearly eight feet tall, he’s small for a Yerrick, but still a heck of a lot bigger than me. Each blow he throws with his sledgehammer-sized fist hits like I’m a scrawny Chinese kid up against Mike Tyson. He rattles my teeth, hurts my arms, and cracks my ribs.

  I ride out the flurry of attacks, sucking up the pain and ignoring how my health keeps dropping. The System does its best to patch me together, but there’s only so much it can do, and if I don’t make a move soon, I won’t be able to. Which is when he starts flagging.

  Big guy, high level of Stamina, it’s not a physical thing. It’s a rhythm thing, where your brain does a little stutter because no one really trains to just keep hitting and hitting and hitting without stop, without a break. You can’t. Most fights, you have multiple enemy combatants, other monsters on the way. You stop, check your surroundings, just for a fraction of a second maybe, but it’s a gap.

  Enough of one that I can act.

  Rather than kick or attempt to get away, I step in. Big minotaur means he’s got a big reach, but deep inside his own guard, he’s got a bit more of a problem reaching. I hunker down, make myself smaller as I launch a series of punches. Not hooks like he threw into me, that rock me from side to side, but straight punches. Chain punches, with that little flick of the wrist upward just after impact to add a little twisting momentum to put the energy of my attack deeper.

  The attack comes in on the center line, slamming into the Yerrick and pushing his broad, hairy chest backward. I hit him a dozen times in a second, each punch landing with enough momentum and force to reset his brain, to keep him reeling. Even as he steps away to give himself space to reset, I follow and follow and follow.

  Until, of course, I run out of momentum myself and Xaxas headbutts me. Lacking horns, it’s not as dangerous as it could be, but the long lacerations from the broken-off horns leave me bleeding freely and staggering back.

  I thrust out a hand, in case he comes after me, but instead, he’s stepped backward. Frowning as I wipe away the blood, the reason for his hesitation is quite clear and pointed.

  “What are you two doing?” Mikito sounds unhappy. Very, very unhappy.

  “Getting to know one another.” I eye Hitoshi, the Legacy weapon, the Soul Drinker, that she holds. One of the rarest kinds of weapon around because of how powerful it can grow over time. Now, it’s between the two of us, its tiny Japanese wielder glaring at us both.

  “By fighting one another?” Mikito says, exasperated. “Fine. You’re a baka. I get that. Why didn’t you stop them?” Now, she’s glaring at Bolo.

  The Dragon Lord doesn’t exactly shrink from her regard, but the slight hunching of his nine-foot-tall frame is still noticeable to those of us tinier than him. He’s dressed in his emerald scalemail as usual, his curling ram horns gleaming and pristine the way only a Cleanse spell can do. No hammer, but I’m assuming it’s tucked away in his inventory for now.

  “They were fighting by the rules. I do not understand why you are angry?” Bolo says.

  “What rules? They were just fighting!” Mikito says.

  “There were rules,” I protest.

  The Storm Warden nods in agreement, making Mikito frown.

  “What rules?” She looks between the men, who all offer her nods, before turning to the last female of the group, who looks askance at Mikito.

  “For the establishment of rank, of course,” the dragon woman says. “They are quite well understood by all true warriors.”

  That makes Mikito freeze, her eyes growing cold.

  Recognizing the signs, I cough. “It’s actually ummm… roughhousing rules. Modified. You know, barroom brawls, chest bumping…”

  “No.” Mikito takes the out kindly enough and turns to me, dismissing the dragon lady who doesn’t seem to pick up on the fact that she has been dismissed. She just looks satisfied still. “I don’t. I don’t do barroom brawls.”

  “Right, right.” I rub the
back of my neck, then feeling the stickiness, I cast a Cleanse on myself. Weird that Ali… “Shit.”

  The single word makes everyone tense and focus on me.

  “What?” Bolo snaps.

  “Ali.” I’m already recalling him, pulling Mana from the System and throwing it at the rift that needs opening. Seconds later, it opens, and a glowing dot appears, tumbling out of it.

  The dot spins round and round before slowly stabilizing, glowing so bright I have to squint to look at it. After a few seconds, it begins to contract, portions of a familiar form appearing. Thankfully, he chooses to appear fully clothed in his usual orange jumpsuit—which, even if entirely unflattering, is at least clothed. He’s done nude Ali before to make me uncomfortable but seems to prefer this form for some reason.

  “About damn time, boy-o,” Ali grumbles, arms crossed, legs in lotus position as he floats over to me. Even as I stare at him, I notice how portions of him fritz out, becoming pure energy before snapping back into place.

  “You okay?”

  “I’ll live. Because, you know, Spirit. Can’t actually die,” Ali says. “On the other hand, it wasn’t entirely comfortable where I was right now.”

  Ali’s appearance doesn’t do much to my team. They’re all used to him. Even dragon lady doesn’t seem bothered by the appearance of the Spirit. She was probably informed of him long ago. To my surprise, it’s the Storm Warden who reacts the most, his jaw dropping and an almost reverential look appearing in his eyes as he stares at Ali.

  “Oh.” I flick a gaze over to the Storm Warden, and decide to leave it. Not something I care to pursue. Not now, possibly not ever. “Exactly what—”

  “Not talking about it,” Ali says. “Also, not the time.”

  Now, I tense too. Moments later, the rest of the team snaps their heads toward the north. I’m sure they’re picking up what I’m seeing on my minimap. A bunch of little hostile red dots.

  “Guys, we’re missing someone…” I look about for the robot. I hope they grabbed it. I hope they didn’t just leave it behind. Then again, perhaps Ezz is better off without me.

  “I have him.” Mikito waves.

  “Where?”

  “Inventory.”

  I open my mouth to protest, point out it’s not Inventory—but then again, it wasn’t sapient, was it? So dropping Ezz into Inventory should be viable. It does raise questions, some of which I’m not sure I want answers to.

  “Oy! Boy-o. Time to move,” Ali says, snapping me out of my thoughts.

  I nod, flashing a last glance at the minimap and wincing.

  Looks like trouble has arrived.

  ***

  Ali does so much for me, from cleaning up my interface to translating strange concepts and populating things like my minimap and adjusting System time to local time that I don’t even think about it. He doesn’t either, in many ways. A lot of the things he offers me are just part of the Linked bond.

  Some things aren’t though. “You going to get dressed, boy-o?”

  “In what? They stripped my inventory and Altered Storage,” I say.

  Annoying that there are Classes that can go into other people’s normally secure Inventory and steal things from it. There are a variety of Skills, some of which randomly pull things from Inventories, others with a more focused theft ability. It all depends on the Skill level and how much time the thief has.

  In my captors’ case, a lot of time. They just let loose an Adventurer’s Bane on me, who picked at my Inventory until it was all gone, pulling out any random bit. Lots of chocolate obviously, but a bunch of toys I’ve picked up, including things I no longer use, like my Toothy Returning Blades and my Anklet of Dispersed Damage.

  “You do remember how we dropped the Spitzrocket back into its own dimension?” Ali says. I nod, and he continues. “Well, it’s still there.”

  “They didn’t steal it?” I’m surprised, I’ll admit.

  “Nah, Spitzrocket keeps everything in a highly guarded location with the Grimsar Clans. They might consider him a bit of a loon, but the Grimsar won’t let anyone steal a Grandmaster work from their guarded dimensional spaces,” Ali says. “Bad for their reputations, you know?”

  I grunt my agreement even as I reach out sideways, tapping into the dimensional layer where the Spitzrocket’s mainframe manufacturing facility is located. It comes to me faster than expected, appearing around my body and slamming shut within a breath.

  It’s comforting to be armed and armored again, even as I conjure up my sword. There are many reasons why people like Soulbound weapons, and never being entirely unarmed features highly among them.

  “We staying to fight or going?” I ask.

  The Yerrick is cracking his neck, rotating his shoulders, and grinning a little in anticipation, while Bolo has strode over to Harry and is slapping armor onto the man. It’s a weird sight, since they’re solid pieces of armor up until the last second, when they open up enough to let limbs or torso enter before shutting themselves once more. Liquid metal armor of some form. Highly flexible, very expensive, and generally, less durable than the rigid kind.

  Mikito, standing by the entrance to the cave, is staring outward. Not that we can see the enemy just yet. Then again, if we could see them, it’d be too late to run. “We go.”

  “No fighting?” Xaxas sounds disappointed.

  “Not now,” Mikito says.

  “So how are we doing this?” I say.

  “Portals,” Bolo says.

  “Yeah, I got no waypoints around here,” I say. “Not left my cell, remember?”

  “Not you. Me,” the woman says, striding over.

  Now that Ali’s here, I take the time to really look at her Status information, knowing he’ll populate as much as he can for me.

  Yllis Haleygsson, Kin Breaker, Heretic, Outcast, Level 174

  HP: 17720/17720

  MP: 5110/5110

  Conditions: Dragon Fear, Mana Well, Mana Conjunction, Probably Warp

  I cock my head, surprised by the Titles. Then I look at her and Bolo, how familiar the pair are with one another, the occasional physical touch. Not that there’s anything wrong with dragon and sapient relations—it’s supposedly common. Still… something is going on there.

  For once, I realize that my lack of interest in others might be biting me in the ass. I just don’t know enough about why Bolo was exiled to understand what is going on. And, more importantly, there isn’t time to get into it.

  Yllis waves her hand in a circle, and a short distance away, a Portal appears. It looks exactly like mine, which is rather a surprise. My eyes narrow, and for a moment, I get a flicker of the System notification, which isn’t particularly useful, calling it a “Teleportation Spell v29871.” Sadly, there are so many versions of Teleportation Spells that when the spells are free-formed, the System can only do so much.

  “Well? You going?” Yllis says, staring at me challengingly. “We risked everything to get you out. I’d prefer not to have to repeat that assault. As it is…”

  “As it is, the Galaxy will be dealing with the prisoners who survived for many years to come,” Bolo says, his eyes darkening.

  Ali’s got his head tilted, staring mostly at Harry, whose lips are moving a little while he relates what’s happened in the last few weeks. I kind of want that explanation too, but now’s not the time.

  I stride over to the Portal, glancing one last time at the minimap. Those dots are moving fast. “I thought the point of ejecting us was to make sure we got lost and died in the secondary dimensions.”

  “You survived, didn’t you?” Yllis says sarcastically.

  My foot passes through the Portal, popping me into our new destination, all while I’m mentally admitting the lady has a point. And from what I know of the prison, I’m not even the most powerful prisoner—just the most annoying.

  Somehow, as my body gets torn apart and tossed through time and space into a new location, I know I’m going to get blamed for the escapees too.

 
Chapter 7

  It doesn’t take long for the rest of the team to stream through the Portal. The moment they do, Yllis shuts down the teleportation circle and opens another. I don’t have to ask as I jump through again, even as I watch Bolo pull a Manaswarm Grenade from his inventory.

  Our first stop was on a high cliff face overlooking a calm blue-green sea. Far below, I see a group of monsters snarling and tearing at one another, fighting over the newborn pulling themselves out of the cluster of eggs they are born from.

  The second stop is not where I expect us to be, the cold metal platform and the wisps of cloud a surprise. As is the lack of a railing when I nearly fall off the edge to plummet the thousands of kilometers to the ground. The entire floating blimp platform sits in the clouds, just bobbing along, while behind me, I see dozens of other sapients—mostly native Xy’larghs with a few harpies and other aerial sapients mixed in—crowded around a drinking shack.

  Then the Portal slams shut and another opens and we’re headed for the next stop. Wilderness clearing, where a really annoyed cat-lizard hybrid monster attempts to tear off my face. I skewer it, kick it around a bit, then kill it before looting the body and dumping the corpse in my Altered Storage. It makes me rather happy to have something in there.

  Underwater cave. I hate that one, even if the Spitzrocket keeps me from getting wet. Sonar kicks in, giving me “sight” along with the lights. More monsters, though these flee at the sight of us. I catch a glimpse of something much bigger coming down one of the many openings though, an eel-like thing, just before I step through again.

  Dozens of Portals and new locations, each one charted by Ali and me. The Spirit has his hands full trying to populate my minimap and give me directions. Not that I want to reuse these locations once we’re gone, but it’s good to have some places on my map of the planet. It’s rather scattershot—we even end up in the middle of the air at one point, free-falling until I cast a Fly spell to hover and another Portal opens up beneath me.