Choose Your Apocalypse (A LitRPG Apocalypse, Progression, System Fantasy) [CYA]

<Alex, Real - Prepare, High School Entry Hall>

Alex had been spared the same type of awkward conversation as he'd had with Mr. Miller—he just couldn't bring himself to call a teacher by their first name—by Mr. Miller himself coming back from the gym once his students were settled, which had taken less than a couple of minutes.

Mr. Miller streamlined the process of getting the teachers and students to come out, and he got each of the remaining classrooms to deactivate their defenses and move their people to the gym in surprisingly short order.

On the surface, doing so made absolutely no sense.

The teachers and students were perfectly safe within their shielded classrooms—and would be for hours yet—but there were so many unknowns with regard to how long that would last—and if the path out of the classrooms would be safe when the magical shielding did come down—that it wasn't worth the risk.

It didn't help that this was but one hallway, in one building.

They would have to sweep the entire school soon, and Alex didn't know how long it would take to be sure there wasn't some undead thing hiding in a broom-closet somewhere, waiting to jump out and infect them all…

Yeah, that's not a pleasant thought. His Detect Unlife should make that impossible, but he couldn't rule out the fact that if a spell existed, there were probably counters to it… that's just how such things worked.

Thankfully, the entire school was only about three times as large as this one hallway. So, it was a surmountable task.

Regardless, with all five other classrooms, they'd gotten nearly a full two hundred students, give or take, along with the five teachers and two teaching assistants.

With the people they already had, that was nearly three hundred people in the gym-complex.

I am so glad that we secured the whole thing…

As he ushered the last student ahead of himself into the locker room, he smiled at Lenka, who was the last Initiate left back with him. "How is the seal going?"

She shrugged. "I'll be able to keep this closed against anything we've seen so far."

The others in the rescue group were already in the gym, checking on the exterior doors—even those believed to be fully locked down—to prevent any mistakes or last minute surprises.

Alex took a moment to check their quest timer.

Group Quest [Prepare]:
Create a base of operations from which you can survive the end of the world.

The outbreak has begun.
Survive:
00:31 hrs

They'd made good time.

Lenka twitched slightly, her head turning to look down the hallway as her eyes widened and color drained from her face.

Her change of focus and expression came at the same time as Alex's Danger Sense flaring back to life.

"Um… I don't think it will keep that from breaking through."

Alex turned to look, not wanting to know but knowing that he needed to.

Something filled a good chunk of the far end of the hallway, a bit outside of most of the light cast by his light-ropes.

Alex stared at the thing in confusion, trying to get his mind to understand what he was seeing.

It was vaguely humanoid in appearance—two arms, two legs, a torso, and head—but the proportions were wrong.

The arms were too long and too thick, matching the legs in size.

The head was too small, and now that Alex was looking at it, he could see that it seemed to be stuck on… wrong.

Instead of being on an upright neck, looking his way, the neck seemed to stick horizontally, straight out toward him, and the face was held almost at a right angle to what was expected.

That 'almost' seemed to add a lot of creepiness to what was already a creepy thing. That sense was magnified by the less-than-ideal lighting.

The beast seemed to be entirely formed from different human parts stitched together.

It was like Frankenstein's demented little brother's monster.

Alex Analyzed it.

Flesh Golem of the Plague Guard
Level ?

Four words to its name? That's… lovely. Not that I know such a thing matters… He cracked his neck, realizing that for one of the sideways bends his face lined up with the still stationary abomination. That harmony of position made him feel sick, even if he couldn't explain why.

Alex didn't know how, but he knew that it would charge after them if he tried to leave the hallway. Something in the particular twist of its spark screamed undead predator.

"Lenka, wait here. If I fail, seal the entrance and get to the others."

She hesitated, then nodded, pulling out her crossbow. "I'll help if I can."

"Experience thief." He said it with a forced smile.

"Oh, you know it. I'll kill-steal too, if I can." She smiled in return, though there was still fear and tension in her eyes.

"It's fine. I've—" He almost said 'I've got this' which would be such a large death flag that no self-respecting System would have let him survive the ensuing fight. So, instead, he changed it. "I've gotta try, right?"

Without another glance, he took a step toward the flesh golem.

It responded in kind, surging forward into an immediate, thundering run. Its too small mouth opened far too wide to scream a challenge. It filled the hallway with bulk near that of a small bus, ripping down the banners with its head as it passed.

The scream—just like the mouth—was made up of horrifying extremes. It was too high-pitched to be expected from such a beast and too loud and resonant for all its high-pitch.

It immediately made Alex's head ring and his vision blur. Even his toes felt like they were buzzing.

<Kaylee, Real - Prepare, High School Gym>

Kaylee was deep in the logistics of settling all the people that Alex had found for them… Yes. That is how she chose to see it.

He hadn't foisted a ton of work on her for no reason.

He had found people for them to utilize and protect.

It was a good thing.

Her phone buzzed, and she looked to find a message from Lenka. Before she could even look at it, the very ground shook.

What the—?

<Alex, Real - Prepare, High School Entry Hall>

Alex stumbled slightly as the nails-on-the-chalkboard-above-his-grave sound stole his balance. Okay, that's painful. He really should get more Physical Fortitude…

He had five unused points.

He tried to put them into Physical Fortitude.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

Apology Tutorial Notice:
Stat points cannot be distributed when outside of a safe area.

He sighed internally, looking up at the flesh golem that was still a few dozen yards from him. "You know, I purposely didn't choose these as an opponent in the selection process. I'd lodge a formal complaint but…"

Admin Notice:
Initiates are restricted to one Formal Complaint per day within the Apology Tutorial.

Yeah, that.

Still, he did not want to just stand there. So, he charged forward himself, trying to picture how the clash would go.

<Alex, Imagining - The Hoped for Victory>

Alex jumped at the last moment, extending his left hand even as the massive zombie punched at him.

His Life's Active Defense triggered, and he knew his internal energies moved to reduce and absorb the blow.

But more importantly, he was touching the creature.

He was basically out of stamina, but he had health and magic aplenty.

Basic Life Transfusion exploded out of him, slamming through the creature and turning it to dust.

He landed within the cloud, his passage creating little vortices as the dust settled in quite the heroic manner.

It was dead, and he had killed it.

<Alex, Real - Prepare, High School Entry Hall>

Alex smiled, coming back to the moment.

It was a perfect plan.

It might take much—if not most—of his health and mana to kill this beastie, but he'd simply retreat as soon as it was dead. In the worst case, Lenka could get him out.

He leapt forward, left hand out.

The golem met his challenge, fist striking forth just as Alex had planned.

His Life's Active Defense triggered, and he felt the life and stamina pulled in looping, defensive patterns, taking in the hit and dispersing the violent energy in intricate—but increasingly discernable—patterns.

Alex's plan had worked perfectly so far.

Then, the first wrinkle appeared.

His skill stopped the monster cold, its entire movement seemingly counting as an attack, so all of it was negated.

Next, he took more than a hundred and fifty damage directly to both his health and stamina. That meant that the attack should have done more than one and a half thousand damage. Even at full health he'd be nothing more than lifeless paste if he'd actually taken that hit directly.

The flesh golem was a wrecking ball. Alex wouldn't be surprised if most of its stats were in Physical Power. Heaven's knew that it hadn't been very fast, all things considered.

Regardless, Alex was still in contact with the creature's fist as he hung there in the air for an almost frozen moment.

Basic Life Transfusion rushed through Alex and… failed to enter the zombie at all, the mana that was trying to facilitate the transfer splashing against something like a water balloon against a brick wall.

Thankfully, the failure to trigger properly meant that he didn't spend the HP that he had intended to use in his assault upon the enemy.

Apology Tutorial Notice:
Flesh Golems are naturally resistant to magics of most types, those of the Plague Guard have had this natural proclivity enhanced to a truly monstrous degree.

Woe to the unperfected Mage who finds himself alone before an unfeeling Flesh Golem of the Plague Guard.

You couldn't have told me that, five seconds ago?

Regardless, he had to act.

He slashed forward with his dadao in his right hand, cutting off the massive creature's left fist. He was so low on stamina that he didn't dare use Multi-Strike in this first, probing attack.

This is where he learned many of the disturbing features of these flesh golems.

First, when he cut the hand free, he found that the creature was made up of skin on the outside, a conglomeration of bones in the center… and eyes in between.

No, that didn't make sense. That didn't make sense at all.

Regardless of how little sense it made, Alex found himself staring at uncounted eyes flowing out in place of blood.

Second, even as the hand fell free, the beast's other hand snatched it up, seeming to absorb it almost instantly.

Third and final, the hand regrew before Alex fell back to the floor, his shoes squishing way, way too many eyeballs upon landing.

Alex felt indignation rise up within him, and he used a precious moment to yell at the System. "Formal Complaint. It's ICHOR, not EYE-CORE. What is wrong with you?"

Admin Notice:
Initiates are restricted to one Formal Complaint per day within the Apology Tutorial.

Yeah, yeah… I know.

He fell to the side, using gravity to move himself out of the way of the golem's stomp-kick.

This fight was going to be a mess.

Alex was frustrated and terrified to the point of having to fight down fits of nervous laughter.

He wanted nothing more than to run.

But there were hundreds of innocents in the gym that he was currently defending, and he was the best chance they had to stay alive.

He didn't like this fight.

He didn't want this fight, not anymore.

But he would face this creature if it meant defending those to whom he'd promised safety.

He rolled through his fall, his Advanced Kinethetics coming through and allowing him to get a truly amazing result.

He rolled to the wall, where his feet came down, one on the wall and one on the floor. Thus, without even having to rise first, Alex launched from the corner of the hallway up and past the zombie golem thing.

Of course, he cut it open on the way past.

His dadao passed through the flesh effortlessly, but clanged off the bones within, creating an oddly dissonant sound.

This time, blessedly, there seemed to be muscles and blood inside, though it healed just as quickly as from his first strike.

Notice:
Condition resisted and overcome:
Visions of Horror, Disgust, and Despair

Well, that explained why there weren't eyes everywhere anymore. But that was hardly important at that moment.

With the strike off the bone, Alex felt a resonance that seemed directly counter to that within him.

He also felt like his blood sang to him, telling him that those bones were the source of the being's power, the source of its anti-magic.

Even as he was still in the air—and the flesh was closing up after his cut—he tried to look closely, the lights strung around him giving him great direct lighting for the peek inside.

Sure enough, there were crude symbols that seemed to have been hacked into the bones, at least the parts that his strike had laid bare.

It was also then that he saw a chip out of his dadao near the top.

He groaned, knowing what he had to do. He couldn't just hack away at it and hope to win out over whatever was keeping it whole.

He'd sprung past and behind the beast, opening up its side below the armpit. With his current positioning and insight, he relegated himself to doing something truly disgusting.

It spun around to try to face him, bending low and sweeping its arm at ground level to try to catch his torso, or at least his legs if he tried to jump. It was a laughable easy attack to predict. So, he jumped over the massive arm, using his inhuman strength and body control to land on the golem's low back as it was stooping over to get better range on the swing.

Without allowing himself to hesitate, he hacked downward, opening up the creature's low back, next to its spine, cutting through the skin, muscle, and other soft tissue.

Then, before it could close up, he dropped inside, having to wriggle and squirm to make it through.

<Lenka, Real - Prepare, High School Entry Hall>

Lenka froze in horror as Alex disappeared inside the flesh golem. She even thought he might have done it intentionally, even though the very thought was a bit laughable.

Who would go inside a creature like that…

The massive abomination of flesh had a few bolts in it from her crossbow, but as soon as she'd realized her shots weren't doing anything, she'd stopped wasting the ammunition.

She'd seen its crazy rate of healing, and so she'd been preparing the equivalent of a set of landmines and claymores rolled into one to toss at the thing to buy her and Alex a moment to retreat. That should have let her do something to seal up the locker room enough to hopefully keep themselves and the people they were protecting safe, but nope. Apparently that man had other plans.

The flesh golem was raging, punching itself as an odd internal glow seemed to be working its way around within it.

Still, she couldn't get past one, critical thing.

He's inside… He's INSIDE?! What the—?

<Alex, Real - Prepare, Inside the lower back of a Flesh Golem of the Plague Guard>

Alex had to admit, if he were anyone else, dropping into the body of a flesh golem would have been insanely foolish.

After all, he immediately began to feel something trying to consume him. It wasn't a zombie plague trying to turn him, but his blood fought it back regardless time and time again in sync with the beat of his heart.

One thing he hadn't considered before enacting this reckless plan, however, was that he couldn't breathe in here.

It seemed that flesh golem didn't actually have any internal organs, all of that space being taken up with muscle and connective tissue instead.

The flesh had healed overtop of him and was actually pushing him deeper as it tried to repair the damage he was actively doing.

He still couldn't breathe. He also couldn't really see, even if some light from his rope lights had enough room to bounce around and reach his eyes. That illumination did make the muscle around him glow a reddish hue, and highlighted the myriad bones as they shifted and were rearranged, so that was something.

Alex cut and wriggled and squirmed until he found himself near enough to the middle, close to the spine once again, but this time essentially behind where the beast's navel should be..

He was on the edge of blacking out, his frantic movements consuming much, much more oxygen than he would need normally, and with no new air coming in, he was having trouble.

It was 'now or never' time.

Well, here goes nothing.

He triggered Force Burst.