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

<Alex, Real - Secure, High School Gym>

Alex and the others quickly went back through the locker room. Kaylee had just been escorting Alex's group out, so she bid them goodbye and stayed to have a talk with other couples of teens of various make-ups and states of… disarray who had found their way into the locker rooms again.

They really aren't thinking if they're using this place to 'get away.' He sighed. Don't they understand that the danger is this way? Teens weren't really known for good decision making, but this just seemed stereotypical… which is probably exactly what it was.

Horror movie tropes, how I've misjudged you… or is this built to play into those tropes? He really needed to remember that this was all controlled by the System and maybe by Watchers, too? Well, definitely both, but it seemed like the System handled most things… probably? Yeah, he really had no idea.

Regardless, he needed to use a mix of real-world and video game logic to figure things out.

…And once they'd cleared the school, he needed to take advantage of one of the locker room showers… even with James' cleansing spell, he felt gross.

But that was for later. In the moment, he and Lenka alternated casting Detect Unlife just as before, while they returned to their previous location at the T-junction.

Lenka's traps were still in place to the right, untriggered, and Detect Unlife confirmed that there was a grouping of undeath near where Alex had dealt with the plague witch but not in the hall as she had been. They were in the science labs.

Their group members were all a bit more on edge because of the reports James had given. As he had been watching the surroundings, he had noticed a couple of things.

First, the streets were filling more and more with zombies of various kinds.

Second, they would often fight among themselves when no other target was within sight, the winner coming out stronger and sometimes seeming to distort, taking on a more specialized or powerful type name. This wasn't new per se, as James had been keeping them apprised, but it was happening more and more often.

Third, the undead largely seemed to ignore the school, despite seemingly pouring through all other buildings nearby. They theorized that the school's defenses were also keeping the zombie's attention away, or hiding the presence of the living, or something like that.

Regardless, as soon as the school defenses went down, things were going to get… complicated.

That explained why Lenka was laying down lots of traps as they moved, though she seemed to be doing something to keep them inactive for the time being.

They seemed to be a mix of mechanical, chemical, and pseudo-magical. Alex felt Lenka put mana into them, but after that, there was no feel of magic to them at all. That might have been because the magic was disguised, but he wasn't sure.

It's going to be interesting to see those triggered…

The teachers had been woken up and consulted. The result was that while the party of Initiates was clearing the school, the teachers would be looking through their documentation to see if there was any way to extend the duration of the school's defenses.

But that was on Kaylee's plate and not for Alex to worry about for the moment. That was one of the reasons that she had stayed behind.

The clearing group made their way back upstairs and used their various detecting magics again.

The science labs still held large sources of undeath, and a few rooms down the hall held similar—if much weaker—sources.

They had also gotten glimpses outside on the opposite side from the street, and it looked like the schoolyard had become a congregation point for undead from within the school, both those that had spawned and the majority of those students unlucky enough to be turned.

They would have to deal with that when the time came.

Thankfully, Alex didn't see any heavy concentrations of undeath indicating flesh golems or plague witches, but he couldn't see all parts of the open space. So, he didn't get too set on the idea of an 'easy' finish, especially because the concentrations within the science lab indicated powerful variations.

They had talked quietly even as they made their way up the stairs, but as the seconds ticked by with all of them at the very top, they seemed to realize that they were stalling.

Natasha shook her head and chuckled ruefully before she signaled Alex. "You go in first, call out if we're clear to enter, and we'll mop up whatever's in there."

He nodded, called his dadao to his hand, then he put his other palm on the classroom door… it was locked.

He almost laughed.

He considered kicking in the door, but that would be needlessly noisy.

Instead, he sent a small pulse of Basic Life Transfusion through the locking mechanism.

It took barely three health and only two mana to rust the entire thing, allowing the door to silently open.

He heard a small chuckle from John, but that was it.

Alex moved to enter the room, opening the door as little as possible and ducking as he began to slip inside.

His caution was rather worthless.

All the science labs seemed to have movable walls to change the size of the individual spaces for various classes, and they were all wide open.

The heavy tables had all been ripped up and pushed against the wall with the door he was using. In fact, from the look of things, the door he'd opened was the only door that was still accessible.

The air was foul, smelling of blood and flesh and something that was almost like rotten eggs, but that was mostly lost among the more pungent odors.

The room was silent save for a slight hissing and the dripping of blood.

As to why his caution was worthless?

From the center of the room forty pairs of eyes tried to meet his gaze.

There were ten brood guards—these were somehow bigger and more vicious looking than those he'd already faced—all surrounding a fleshy doorway-looking thing.

Analyze gave an unpleasant result.

Doorway of Undead (Rare)
A connection between two points controlled by the Undead.

Only undeath can pass.

Through the doorway, he saw the Zombie Horde Lord once again, regarding him from more than a hundred yards away. Through the portal, on either side of that straight-shot view, Alex could see massive, fleshy pods that were just translucent enough to give hints at the grotesque horrors that were gestating within.

His brain then recognized the hissing sound that continued to fill his ears in conjunction with what else he'd perceived, and his eyes widened.

Real-world logic? They were screwed.

Videogame logic? They might have a chance.

He slowly stepped back, not making any sudden movements, remembering that the brood guard tended to be slow movers until engaged.

He spoke softly, head tilted to the side to try to throw his voice backward, "Ten brood guards and a doorway to elsewhere in the city that we can't use. We don't want this fight, but… I have an insane idea. Are we game to try it?"

There was a moment of silence, then Natasha asked. "Chances of success?"

"I think high?"

She only hesitated for an instant. "Do it."

"Everyone move to the stairwell, Natasha get ready to protect us with a force shield, anchor us in place if you can. Pilar, when we're ready, send a small amount of fire into that room." After a moment, he added, "And think very clearly that you're trying to kill undead and their doorway, not destroy any part of the school."

One broodguard took a step toward them, clearly not willing to simply wait any more. That seemed to be a signal to the others, as they began to move as well.

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"Now!" He jumped backward, joining the others where they'd already retreated while listening to him.

Natasha put up her force shield in front of Alex even as he landed on the stairs from his impromptu leep. He had done his best to be between his group and the incoming threat as well.

At the same time, Pilar sent a small flame into the room just as the first brood guard reached the still open door.

It pulled back with a jerk to avoid the lick of fire, which meant it was in the room when the fire encountered the gas.

For the sound that Alex had heard—and the smell of rotten eggs—was, indeed, the hiss of leaking natural gas.

Those massive tables had been piped with a flammable gas for good old science, and the flow was still ongoing.

Whomp-BOOM!

<James, Real - Secure, High School Gym Roof>

James fell as the whole building bucked beneath him.

Magics flared throughout the school, stabilizing the structure against whatever had just happened.

He scrambled back to his feet, running to the far side of the roof to look to where smoke was pouring out of the windows on the interior side of the second floor, over near where the group had been working to clear out the remaining undead inside.

Down in the school yard, the undead that he could see were all staring straight at the smoke.

What did they do?

As he continued to watch, the first zombie took a stumbling step forward, and that started the tide.

Well… that's not good. He pulled out his phone and texted the group. There were probably close to three hundred undead funneling back inside, heading toward the commotion.

Worse still, now that they were moving, he could see larger shapes that had been lying down and obscured before.

<Alex, Real - Secure, High School Second Floor Hallway>

Alex shook his head, attempting to clear it of the dizziness even as spots swam in his vision.

Natasha's Force Shield was gone, whether she'd dropped it or it had broken, he wasn't sure.

All the doors into the science-lab section were gone, blown out to reveal scorching holes and a blackened classroom.

The schools' magics, along with the System itself, seemed to have maintained the structure of the building, and the fire suppression systems—little 's' on those systems—had already put out most of the flames.

The sprinklers in the hallway hadn't even gone off.

He shook his head again, only to catch motion in the hallway, undead boiling out of the classrooms they had been in and orienting on their group.

The worst were those that flowed and clambered over each other across the ceiling.

"Incoming!"

He yelled, only to notice that he couldn't hear his own voice.

Wounds:
Dazed x 1
[10 HP x 1 required to heal]

Perforated Eardrum x 2
[5 HP x 2 required to heal]

Hey, that looks familiar. He didn't have time to wait for the wounds to heal.

Around him, his group were all in similar states, and he started shaking them and pointing at the oncoming threats.

He barely had time to tap each of them in the head and dump twenty points of health points into each, specifically willing for it to focus on their wounds. It should heal that first anyways, but he wanted to be sure… assuming his specific intention meant anything.

I really need to test more…

The bursts of healing got their attention even as he knew he was out of time.

His own dazed condition faded as he spun and lunged out toward the oncoming undead.

He called his dadao to his hand from his Inventory and set to work.

His hearing returned just more than five seconds later, just in time for him to experience the pain of John's pistols barking out their shots in rapid succession.

Alex groaned, but the pressure on him lessened. He even had an instant's confusion as he realized that the dizziness should have healed second, given it had a higher healing requirement, but instead, his eardrums had, and they'd healed at the same time.

He preferred it that way, but it wasn't what he'd expected. Maybe my preferences are taken into account, otherwise it's just lowest to highest?

He'd have to give it more consideration later.

A moment later, Grant and Natasha were beside him, hammer and spear lashing out.

Crossbow bolts ripped through the air to weaken or take out zombies as well, and finally fire flickered forth to cull the few that they didn't have well in hand.

A moment after that, Lenka's voice cracked out, "Traps downstairs are getting triggered. We have incoming. At the rate, the different layers are being triggered, it's a lot of incoming."

Natasha nodded, looking around, "Infection check?"

A series of 'clear's came back, one from each member of their group.

"Good."

There was a momentary pause as they finished cleaning up the last of the undead on the upper floor, and Alex and Lenka both cast Detect Unlife at the same time.

She spoke first, so he checked his kills, "Top floor's cleared, I was right, and they're almost here on the lower floor."

You killed
Zombie Ravager (Common), level 10 x 10
Zombie Ceiling Crawler (Common), level 8 x 11

Kill Assists:
Undead Brood-Guard (Uncommon), level 15 x 10
Zombie Ravager (Common), level 10 x 30
Zombie Ceiling Crawler (Common), level 8 x 54

Assets Destroyed, Assist:
Doorway of Undead (Rare) x 1

Reward:
Experience to be granted when in a safe location.

It was nice that the enemies had all been of a level, at least for each given type of enemy.

This hadn't been too difficult so far. After all, his greatest use of health had been in dusting the bodies once they were all done. Still, he wasn't going to get complacent. It sounded like a mini-horde was coming their way below.

He rolled his eyes when Natasha came through and gathered up all the zombie dust. Thankfully, he'd been able to do the dusting in batches, otherwise he'd have wasted a ludicrous amount of mana just to reduce cleanup and stench.

"Alright." It was Pilar who had spoken up barely a moment after Lenka's second warning. "Alex, get to the base of the stairs, hold the line. Grant, Natasha, you are to be a few steps above him, keep the pressure off. John and I will be on the landing with Lenka to provide ranged cover. Move!"

As Alex vaulted over the half wall to drop, he heard Pilar continuing to speak. He fell and the rest of the group came down the stairs.

"James said that the school yard is emptying to come at us. This is it, folks. We might have some minor clean up after, but there won't be another big clash before we claim the school."

He landed, his ears picking up on odd pings and whistles, swooshes and ca-chunks.

The hallway was dark, but with the light from the glowing ropes around his body, he saw a teaming mass of bodies, hampered by various, straining cables and other traps.

There were boards with nails hammered all the way through which swung down from the ceiling to take off heads, entire banks of lockers that had been pulled to crash down and pin undead, and even something that seemed to rev up circular saw blades before flinging them forward like a clay pigeon.

When did she set all this up? It was like a serial killer had been left home alone.

Alex would have said something to Lenka, but the first of the zombies was dragging itself across the floor toward him, and he realized that if he didn't deal with it soon, it would become an ankle bitter that would throw him off when the true waves arrived.

That in mind, he strode forward and drove his dadao down into its skull.

Some trap or other had shorn off its legs, but bloodloss seemed to be meaningless to these things. Thankfully, the headshot worked wonderfully.

Movies didn't lie to me on this count at least.

Then, the tide arrived, and it was all he could do to not be pulled under.

He still had the visceral desire to not get bit, but he soldiered forward, allowing undead to take bites of him when it allowed him to thin their numbers in other ways.

It seemed like an eternity before the first of the undead near him fell to bullets and fire, followed a moment later by hammer and spear.

As soon as that help arrived, the pressure lessened tremendously, and he focused on keeping the undead back more than killing each one.

His group wasn't immune as he was, so if he had to take a bite to keep an undead from advancing up the stairs, he did it.

It was… rather horrible, actually, willfully allowing himself to be bit to shelter those behind him.

A silly little mantra started up in his head, and it helped.

If bit am I, I do not die,
If bit be they, I'll have to slay.
Keep friends safe, unbit, clean of bad spit
Though feasted on, I'll soldier on.

It wasn't perfect—it wasn't even that good—but it was hardly the time to try to improve the litany, and it was helping him. So, who was he to nitpick?

Their teamwork was anything but polished. Still, they did fight well together, and Natasha used her Force Shields at strategic moments to take the pressure off and allow them to reset from the difficulties that their mistakes had created.

Still, the weight of numbers was not something they could fully oppose with the weaponry they had at hand.

Thus, Alex built up a Force Burst within himself, holding it from triggering and doing his best to take the magic and fold as much of it toward his front. Hopefully, that would mean that most of the force exerted would go forward. Even so, he knew that some would go backward.

"Grant, Natasha, pull back!"

They obeyed instantly, likely having sensed power building within him.

Even so, he stepped forward just as undead were streaming to either side of him.

Go.

BOOM.

The force burst out, clearing the base of the stairs by splattering every undead to either side against the walls.

One had even been trying to jump over him, and it was embedded into the ceiling where it, unfortunately, didn't seem to quite die.

Behind him, the steps cracked but blessedly didn't break.

The undead that had been in front of him were thrown backward, breaking bones and tangling with those behind them and creating a beautiful pile that John drove bullets into as Pilar hit it with a constant stream of flame.

The scent was deeply unpleasant even if it did herald good things, and Alex was quite uncertain why the schools fire suppression system hadn't kicked in. Perhaps it was somehow able to tell that no part of the school itself was on fire?

After Alex's explosion, there was a brief moment of silence—punctuated by John's continued shots—and in that silence, Alex heard a distinctive groan.

Mexican vodka, they have a flesh golem.