Apocalypse: Regression

Nick stared at the monsters ahead. Like the knights, his team could no longer escape since the SUV had been overturned. Nick took a deep breath as he calmed his thoughts and tried to put together a plan.

“What do we do?” Mr. Walters asked as he ripped the head off the bear he had just killed, the loud crunching of the bones drawing even more enemy attention to them.

Nick, doing his best to assess the situation, just stated his immediate goal: “We need to get to the Black Witch's forces. They're outnumbered and caught off guard.”

“I hate to tell you this, boy,” Mr. Walters began with a chortle, “but we’re outnumbered too.”

“How can you say that? There might be more of them, but do they even lift?” Nick joked, his words more confident than he was.

“That’s right. Do they even lift, bro?” Reggie jumped in as he finished casting an armoring spell, the orange glow enveloping the group.

“If you’re going to brag about lifting, could one of you lift the vehicle, bro?” Will asked from within the toppled SUV.

“That’s a good idea. Arnold, you take the vehicle. Flip it over carefully,” Nick ordered, taking advantage of the brief respite before the enemy reached them. “In the meantime—”

“Over there!” Adele shouted over Nick, pointing towards a group of knights cut off from their peers. While he had been with the others, he hadn’t noticed that she wasn’t among the group encircling the turned over vehicle. Rather, she had gotten pulled out of place, likely by harpies, and was making her way to a group of beleaguered knights.

“Reggie, Christina, go help Adele support the separated soldiers,” Nick directed, trying to bring order back to the chaos. “Mr. Walters, keep the vehicle safe. Arnold, Elizabeth, Lou, get the vehicle turned and operational. Seo-ah, you’re with me and Topaz. Let’s keep our favorite gym buddies safe.”

“Your favorite? Aww, shucks,” Arnold replied, chuckling. He then planted his feet like he was going for a deadlift, gripping the SUV’s roof, which was now on the ground. “I guess I can’t let you down then.”

As Nick did his best to fight off the stray dire wolves and juvenile vulpes that rushed them, managing to keep them off the vehicle, Reggie and Christina worked to reach the knights. Nick noticed that it was easier than he thought it would be for them to make their way through the enemy force. He had expected the swordsmen to be attacked while Reggie and Christina were en route, but instead, they were able to quickly reach the soldiers.

However, the moment they got there, the knights began to twist, transforming into snarling juvenile vulpes, and leapt at the trio, their razor-sharp claws glinting in the firelight. Adele gasped in surprise, but Reggie and Christina’s weapons were already out and swinging at the enemy, as if they had anticipated the trickery.

“I knew something was off!” Christina yelled before immediately following up the line with more Starcraft 2 references. “These damn sentries, casting hallucination! You won’t get me to Idra rage quit! I was already on to you little trickster mutts!”

Reggie’s zweihänder ignited as he parried the sharp claws of one vulpe while Christina smoothly dodged the claws of another and stabbed it through its neck with her rapier before turning and kicking away the third.

"We've got this!" Reggie yelled, as he pushed the claws away and launched himself at the fox-like creature, overpowering the ambush with sheer tenacity as the orange shielding spell covered him, Adele, Christina, and even Nick, Mr. Walters, Topaz, and Seo-ah with its range, showing just how high a level the spell had reached.

While Reggie, Christina, and Adele were fighting off the vulpes, a group of dire wolves joining the foxes, but then the Walters managed to finally flip the vehicle.

“Thanks!!” Will exclaimed, hopping out of the SUV the moment it was right side up. He quickly climbed to the top and investigated the damage for a bit, fixing and retooling the ViVi mount Allen had installed.

“Alright, let’s go kill some beasts,” Nick said, feeling a little bit safer about their position now that their escape plan was back on four wheels and ready to go, and Will was not only safe but hard at work getting things ready for the worst case scenario.

As soon as the words left his mouth, Mr. Walters and most of his children, except Elizabeth, wasted no time charging into battle, rushing at the nearest line of beasts, their fists and weapons glowing with aura.

From beside Nick, Topaz fired two support canisters, which released a gray gas that covered the field as the two groups clashed.

"We should help take them down quickly,” Nick muttered, torn between his desire to save the knights and his loyalty to his mentor and his friends.

Seo-ah placed a hand on his shoulder. "They’ve got this, Nick. We have other people to protect. If the Black Witch’s people die, the way into the castle to help her might die with them."

Nick nodded as he saw Mr. Walters leap ten feet into the air—his aura-covered arms extended out to his sides—and clothesline two of the larger ursine creatures, slamming them into the ground. Lou and Arnold took on the three slightly smaller ursine warriors, each beast snarling with icy breath.

"Lou! Watch your left!" Arnold shouted, his voice sharp with urgency.

Lou pivoted, his fists connecting with an ursine's jaw in a bone-crunching impact. "Thanks, bro!" he grunted, following up with a flurry of punches.

Arnold hefted his obsidian Maul of Afterburn, its surface crackling with latent energy.

"Let's turn up the heat on these walking icicles!" he roared, bringing the hammer down on an ursine's shoulder. The beast howled as flames erupted from the point of impact, chunks of rocky fur blasted off.

Nick turned his attention from the Walters fight back to the Black Witch’s forces. His gaze landed on a cluster of twenty knights wearing plate armor and six women wearing gray robes. They were completely surrounded by a hundred of the massive white lynxes, who looked like giant cats towering over armored mice.

The knights were battling the giant feline creatures to the best of their ability but were struggling to land even a single significant blow. Yet, despite their inability to do much damage, they were also holding out quite well against the monsters as their kite shields and armor seemed more than capable of withstanding the creatures’ heavy claws. Even more to their advantage, their formation was so tight that they were able to assist each other, picking up the slack and using their shields to save their comrades whenever a slip up or mistake was made in their maneuvers.

Meanwhile, the mages behind them were firing off bolt after bolt of purple energy bolts in wild desperation at the giant white cats. It was enough that in normal circumstances, it would have decimated an enemy line; however, nothing seemed to hit as the large white felines dodged each incoming projectile and counter-attacked.

Nick, knowing he didn’t have the luxury of hesitating, charged towards them the second he fully understood what was happening, spear held high. Even within the muffled snow, his group was moving so fast that he could hear his friends running beside him from the way the snow was pushed into the air in their wake. In an instant, they reached the outermost edge of the circling monster forces.

Nick’s spear stabbed through the back of the closest feline monster, but instead of the resistance of fur and flesh, the spear passed right through the creature, and Nick found himself stumbling forward. He was confused for only a moment as he turned to see similar confusion coming from Seo-ah, Topaz, Elizabeth, and Maria as they tried to attack other monsters with him.

The representatives of the Black Witch yelled out, “FOR THE SAINTESS!” as their line was pushed back yet again by the lynxes. Through the illusion, Nick could see a girl that looked like she couldn’t have been more than sixteen with a gash on her forehead cast a bolt of purple glowing electricity at a snarly monster and shout, “Help us! In the name of Her Holiness!”

A blast of frigid air whooshed past Nick's ear, barely missing him, but pulling his attention to a new threat before he could even finish listening to the mage’s cries. He spun to see Seo-ah deflecting an ice shard launched by a vulpe. Elizabeth charged the fox, who yipped in pain as her sword punched through it.

"Nick! On your left!" Maria's voice cut through the din.

Nick pivoted, the Weight of Dedication humming in his grip. A giant frost lynx partially materialized, its form flickering in and out of existence. Three more appeared behind it, their eyes glowing.

Is this real or an illusion? Nick's mind raced as he assessed the threat, activating Omni-Trainer’s Insight to try to distinguish the difference, but he found the same notification appearing above each of the creatures.

Greater Snow Lynx

Level: 35

Type: Illusionary Beast

The Greater Snow Lynx is a fearsome predator of the arctic tundra, standing nearly 6 feet at the shoulder with sleek, snow-white fur laced with silver markings, perfect for camouflaging within the icy landscape. Its lean, muscular frame is built for speed and stealth, but it's the lynx's cunning use of illusion magic that makes it a truly deadly opponent. With the ability to conjure multiple illusionary copies of itself, it disorients and confounds its prey, striking when they least expect it.

Insight Note:

Illusions: The Greater Snow Lynx can create up to three illusionary duplicates of itself. At the current level of Omni-Trainer's Insight, it is impossible to distinguish between the illusions and the real lynx. These duplicates move and attack as convincingly as the original, though only the true lynx can cause damage.

"They're trying to confuse us!" Nick yelled to his companions as he read out the warning from the omni-trainers insight. "Focus on their mana signatures!”

As Nick spoke, he also began to channel his Holy Fire ability. White flames licked along the length of his spear, borrowing from the technique of the Blade of a Thousand Failures as he swept a wide arc with his spear, the flames passing through two of the illusions and forcing the third to leap back or take damage.

"Seo-ah, two o'clock!" Nick shouted as he finally managed to successfully identify the real threat.

Seo-ah nodded and started to spin. Half a dozen aura spears from Hwatu Spear Burst formed in front of her, and as she completed her spin, the spears shot out, three finding their mark in a Lynx's shoulder and body. The creature yowled, its illusions flickering for a moment before all the bodies reflected the identical damage. Then the four jumped left and right, mixing their positions like they were playing a game of cups.

"Nice shot," Elizabeth called out, her sword flashing as she parried a swipe from a lynx that tried to attack Nick from behind. She threw the creature with a swing of her sword, and it flew backwards, tumbled in the air, twisted languidly, and landed on its feet. It seemed to almost smirk at Elizabeth—until Topaz shot it with a sticky grenade and pinned it to the ground. Elizabeth followed up with an overhead chop that decapitated the monster, its illusionary copies disappearing with its death.

Nick's heart pounded as he weakly thrust his spear at another lynx, the holy fire on the tip passing through it like it was a cloud of vapor. The other three monsters turned to strike at his back nearly as one. Nick smiled as he shifted his feet and twisted his body, activating his Spear Sweep ability. The spear in his hands whirled as it swung in a 360-degree arc, passing through two of illusionary monsters and striking the true beast with enough force to send it tumbling back, its fur now burning with holy flame. The scent of ozone filled the air, mingling with the acrid smell of singed hair.

"Nick! Behind you!" Elizabeth shouted.

He whirled, bringing his spear up to block another lynx's attack. Its claws scraped against the shaft, sending sparks flying. Nick's eyes met the creature's as its tooth-filled maw lunged forward to bite at his face.

Elizabeth ducked under the claws of two lynxes, turned and launched a medicine ball towards Nick. The ball hurtled through the air like a cannonball, hitting the creature trying to bite Nick’s face off. There was a snap, and the creature was sent tumbling through the air to land on the ground with a thud, its neck bent at an unnatural angle. The illusionary versions of the creature howled and their forms wavered and then dissipated like mist in sunlight.

As Nick turned to face the next threat, he saw the mage’s eyes widen in triumph as her hands shimmered with magical energy that exploded outward. It passed over everything within a hundred feet, and thirty of the hundred lynxes they were fighting suddenly began glowing. Thin, ethereal tendrils led from them to three other monsters. It only took Nick a moment to realize that the mage had done something to show the mana channels being used by the creatures.

“Strike the real ones now!” Nick shouted, his voice empowered by his Pep Talk and Enhanced Command skills.

The defending knights, mages, and his friends surged forward. Topaz, too close to use her grenade launcher, tossed a vial at a glowing lynx that exploded with binding sticky liquid and then switched to her sword and laid into the monster.

Nick and Seo-ah did their best, back to back, to attack as quickly as possible, with Nick occasionally glancing over to Topaz to make sure she was okay when he wasn’t deflecting a large lynx claw or blocking a bite attack.

Seo-ah rapidly stabbed one lynx four feet to her left, Nick then blocking the attack of another to her right, before Seo-ah spun and skewered the creature Nick pinned down with a deadly strike.

Maria’s sword glowed with aura as she cut through the revealed lynxes two at a time, and the knights took up positions next to her, protecting her flanks as they counterattacked and chopped into the enemy. Elizabeth’s sword, coated in purple aura, split three of the creatures in a single wide slash of her weapon. It was the mages though, now able to identify their enemy, that did the most damage and quickly killed a dozen of the creatures with their black bolts of energy.

Nick saw the last two snow lynxes look at each other and then turn to flee, but Nick’s spear was already in the air, thrown with every bit of power his stats and skill allowed. The spear hummed as it flew and pierced the hind leg of one of the lynxes, making it crash to the ground. Nick used Charge to close the distance, his sword already pulled from his inventory and swinging. The blade sliced through the thick white fur of the creature, ending it, even as it tried to scramble away.

The surviving knights reformed their lines, the mages behind them, and pressed the now-broken left flank of the monster force. With the Walters causing havoc in the predators’ ranks and Reggie, Chrisintina, and Adele for support, the larger body of knights on the right were able to pivot their line, trapping the remaining monsters between the two forces.

The knights acted as an anvil while Nick’s group acted as the hammer. The monsters struggled to react, getting crushed between the two forces over and over again as Nick’s group kept striking the back of the line, crushing them against the knights, retreating and repeating until there were no monsters left.

The surviving knights raised their weapons into the air and shouted, “FOR THE LADY! FOR VICTORY!”

Nick just stared at them. He was still winded from the battle and doing his best to recover his stamina when the notifications began to flood in.

You have gained 40,343 EXP.

You have leveled up! You have 5 unassigned stat points!

You have leveled up! You have 5 unassigned stat points!

Congratulations! Training!! VII has evolved into Training!! VIII.

Congratulations! Get in the Zone! IV has evolved into Get in the Zone! V.

Congratulations! Correcting Bad Form! III has evolved into Correcting Bad Form! IV.

Congratulations! Spear Fighting VII has evolved into Spear Fighting VIII.

“Hundredfold Victor” has evolved into “Hundredfold Victor II.”

Due to reaching the level milestone [40], you have been awarded: +1 inventory slot!

The cooldown for Advanced Training has reset. Please choose a skill to copy.