A technomancer's journey in an apocalyptic world

A figure wearing thin combative clothing placed a table on the ground, the table was placed in the middle of a dilapidated square, as he waved his hand on top of the table a gramophone appeared, the person then cranked the handle before placing a record to play, and soon after he had placed the needle in its proper place a melodious voice singing an opera came from the sound horn.

But, the person was not done he took out a packet full of blood which he threw high up in the air which then proceeded to hit with his gun turning the contents of the packet into the mist that dispersed shortly after.

And sooner had he finished doing so, the various cacophony of sounds came to his ears, as he found himself being surrounded by a large group of undead.

'Twenty of them, good after I have dealt with them I will be able to get that skill.'

A sword that looked like a double-edged nodachi appeared in his hand, the figure held the tsuka with his right hand just beneath the tsuba while the shinogi-ji was on his shoulder, he would prefer to rest the nodachi with its mune on his shoulder but unfortunately, it was a double-edged, and pointing a sharp edge towards himself was foolishness.

He gave a smirk towards the undead as he spoke in an arrogant manner,  "Come and eat steal maybe it could care of your bad smell.", his words seemed to be like a trigger as the group pounced on him trying to tear him apart.

'They are in the level of 18s and 19 and a couple in their 20s, too easy.'

To the onlookers, it seemed as if he was dancing with his sword drawn, no more like he was figure skating on the hard ground that was covered with mud and snow.

The figure thrust his sword forward before piercing one of the undead's heads, before pulling it out and slashing the one to his right before swinging it in a wide arc as he beheaded a couple with that move.

A few hundred meters away from the person, who was fighting the group of undead, was a church that stood heavily leaning towards its right side, and on top of it were two familiar figures, one of them being Michalina and the other being Xuelong.

Michalina places a cigarette in her mouth while offering another to Xuelong who immediately declined with a frown on her face, "No thank you Michalina, I do not like the smell."

Michalina sighed as she returned the cigarette back inside the packet as Xuelong spoke, "Why do you smoke that thing?"

Michalina shrugged as she spoke, "What can I say I am kind of addicted to it."

"Ryan does not like it."

"I know but I cannot help it."

Michalina's grip on his cigarette packet tightened suddenly before she let a sigh as she spoke, "Damn him, always trying to give me a heart attack.", she then turned towards Xuelong as she spoke, "Is there no other way for him to gain that skill."

Xuelong shook her head as she spoke, "No, if he wants the skill of that level he needs to earn it through blood sweat and tears, after all its alternative is a gimmick mostly, unlike the skill that Ryan is trying to gain the alternative works with undead which are lower level than you, the lower they are the better it is."

Michalina sighed as she spoke, "Yes, I remember that, I also remember he has to cast healing spells, while trying to fight against the undead in melee and kill them since his healing spells are antithesis of undead, but this is his 6th attempt to gain that skill did you not say that there is over an eighty percent chance to gain the skill."

Xuelong chuckled as she spoke, "Yes there is but your brother seems a bit unlucky in this matter, in fact I have never heard anyone go over four times, your brother is a bit special."

A couple of minutes later Xuelong leaned forward as she spoke barely above a whisper, "Here it comes."

After killing the entire group of twenty undead, a large guttural roar came to Ryan's ears, he turned to face his newest enemy only for him to quickly cover his mouth and nose while he tried hard not to vomit.

'What is this hideous smell? Oh my God it is pure torture, I will die from it.'

Ryan did the most sensible thing that came to his mind and that was to turn tail as he began to run away from it.

Meanwhile, both Xuelong and Michalina looked confused for a moment before they both let loose a pearl of laughter before Xuelong took out her handheld ballista which she fired towards Ryan stopping him in his path, while Michalina shouted out at him, "Shame Ryan, shame on you, as this is your sixth attempt at doing something that has eighty percent success rate, shame on you."

Ryan looked towards the duo as he growled before turning back facing the enemy with his sword, but he knew that he suffers greatly if he stayed in this place for too long as such he propping the tactical mask he had which provided cut off the smell somewhat, he dashed towards the creature.

'Damn them and this thrice damned creature, I will have to kill it fast.' with that he dashed towards the creature he used two of the new boosting spells he had learned.

'Strength Boost (Minor)'

'Agility Boost (Minor)'

He intoned them out barely above a whisper, Ryan knew that these skills were quite a low level barely providing a two per cent boost and not worth the mana cost but by grinding them he would have access to much better skills.

The creature was easily around eight feet in height looked like a miniature obese abomination, with pus dripping from its body, which was also the source of its horrendous smell, it had large beady eyes on its rather small head, with multiple mouths of various sizes on its body with long tongues protruding out it, not to mention the long thin arms of it with extremely sharp nails that were as big as a dagger.

Ryan's with his sword imbued with healing magic circled around his prey trying to find an opening when all of a sudden he made his move, with speed many times faster than his previous he struck against the creature.

Michalina's eyes widen as she spoke with a gasp, "He is fast, that sword style of his good."

The reason for his exclamation was the fact that Ryan had suddenly vanished from his charging position which happened to be a frontal attack, as he reappeared directly at the back of the creature at an angle from where he could easily cut its neck and behead it he did.

An ear-piercing scream came to Ryan's ears making him wince as he kicked himself away from the creature before he created some distance between them, and he was wise enough to do so as the creature began to vomit out a greenish liquid from its mouth, a liquid that amplified the already atrocious smell while poisoning the ground itself.

"Yes, that sword style given to him by his patron GOD is very good, in fact it can easily rank up to top five amongst all the sword styles that I have ever seen, especially when it comes to attacking but defending well as long as he is quick enough not to get hit."

"In other words a style that has supreme offense and no defense, at the same time it is too tiring."

Xuelong nodded as she spoke, "Yes, if it means fast, precise strike with overwhelming force then that sword style is great but the user is a glass cannon, not to mention it tires the user very fast, though I do not know why but whenever I look at it, the style looks as if it is missing something."

Michalina frowned at her as she spoke, "Missing, I mean yes it is missing any moves to use for defensive purposes but I think it is a bit unbalanced.", she spoke a small smile formed on her face as she spoke, "Ah there he is, already finished with his task now we have to wait and see if he has succeeded or not."

"If not we can try again later, but for now I wish to take some break, though I can see somewhat what you mean by it since he is already on his knees from the strain."

Xuelong simply nodded in agreement as she spoke, "A skill that cannot be used willy-nilly if that is the result if there were more enemies they would capitalize on the moment of weakness.", a small smile blossomed on her face as she continued to speak, "Looks like he succeeded finally."

A similar smile blossomed on Michalina's face as she spoke, "It seems so if his dance of joy is any indication.", before long her smile faded off to a frown as she spoke, "What is he doing?"

The reason for that was Ryan had created what seemed to be javelin, with the pointed end of which he picked up the severed head of the creature before he dashed towards the location where Xuelong and Michalina sat, and upon reaching suitable distance he let it loose.

The duo sitting on top of the church were curious as well as confused about his actions, they knew from the trajectory that the javelin would not reach them so they were not worried but at the same time, they were confused.

'Why is he aiming the javelin towards us?', a thought passed through both their minds and it took a fraction of a time for them to remember the scene of Ryan trying to keep his lunch inside his stomach while trying to run away from the creature.

The duo quickly got up on their feet but it was too late the javelin had reached near their position and a rune made sure to burst the head scattering its remains, the duo went ramrod for a second before they retched violently at the smell, when the sound of laughter accompanied by a familiar voice came to their ears, "Serves you two right."

"Ryan you are so dead.", was the warcry that was let out by Xuelong who jumped down from the top of the church, with Michalina hot on her heels to help her deliver some needed justice on Ryan.

Ryan simply grinned back at them as he shouted out while removing the mask off his head, "Hahaha, you will never catch me alive."

As he ran away from the murderous duo his mind flashed back to the incident that took a couple of months ago just after the siege.

Ryan stood at the corner with his head low unable to think anything, the cause of such was the reports that were being read, during the fight they had lost a total of eleven people, of which three of them did not have an easy death as they were caught by the 'mage killers' and were thrown towards the horde, they were eaten alive, while the others had died on the wall being crushed by the apes or when the dragon had attacked.

Even amongst those that have survived a few of them has sustained life-altering injuries with the glaring example being Nigella who has lost both of her legs while Maralyn was comatose with no way of knowing when she would regain her consciousness.

"I am sorry."

As soon as he mumbled those words all the voices in the stopped as Ylerias spoke with her eyes being shadowed by her bangs as she spoke with a low growl, "Excuse me, what did you say?"

"I am sorry, becau…"

A large slap resounded in the area as Ylerias spoke with intense hatred in her voice, "How dare you insult them.", and as she spoke she grabbed Ryan by his collar making him look into her eyes that seemed to be filled with both sadness and anger, "Do not try to play the role of a tragic hero Boy, they knew what they were signing for, they knew the danger associated with the job, but they did not do so because some snot nosed punk told them, they did so because it was the right thing to do so do not insult them."

With her piece being said Ylerias pushed him away hard, as Michalina chimed in, "That was not cool bro."

While Ciara sent a disappointed look towards Ryan as she spoke, "That was not nice thing to say Ryan, I can forgive you since you are distraught but please remember those who died and those who are injured did not stand by your side because you ordered them to, they stood because they believed in a better tomorrow so please next time thing before you speak."

Ryan sighed tiredly as he recalled that particular incident, the incident that caused Ylerias as well as his mother and sister to get angry at him though the worst according to him was the punch he received from Xuelong.

'That punched almost made me lose all my teeth, and even now thinking about makes my jaw ache.'

Ryan looked up towards the sky as a frown on his formed as he mused out loud, "I am almost out of time."