DIE TRYING [A Roguelite Extraction LitRPG]

They spotted him at the same time that he spotted them.

A grim fate for all: 2/23

"OI, BAMPOT WITH THE WEE LIGHT!" A girl's voice called down the tunnel, where the other light was moving around. "YOU STILL AMONG THE LIVING OR WHAT? SAY FECK IF YER STILL ALIVE!"

Sounded… scottish? Wade didn't know, but he did know the skeletons were absolutely going to be charging this way with her yelling this loud. He turned, and sprinted down in her direction, unable to make any details from this far away without his glasses.

"Get away!" He yelled out, "They're right behind me!"

"Whit ye on about ya daft- OH SHITE! LEG IT EVERYONE! BACK TO THE LADDER, GO-GO-GO!" The light turned back and started sprinting away from Wade.

He saw the outlines of two others with the girl, taller than her. Survivors. Worst time to find people, but least he'd have company when he got his eyes eaten.

Speaking of, he turned his head to check on the horror show: They were coming straight out of the little mining hole, sprinting after him.

Nope nope nope. Wade pushed himself harder, gritting against the pain, forcing his leg to run properly. It was steadily getting worse, agitated and soon going to be back in the limping stage. He could dump more points into vitality right now, give himself a fighting chance.

But he only needed to make it to the ladder ahead. He could see the light illuminating it. And the girl was already climbing up.

The clatter of bones grew louder. The walkway ladder was close now, maybe thirty feet away. That thought was wiped out of his mind a moment later for one good reason:

A skeletal hand scraped against the back of his shirt. Holy shit they were closer to him than he thought.

He jumped, twirled in the air and threw his lantern right at the skeleton behind him, specifically the feet. Something in his right arm throbbed.

Instead of simply being tossed into the skeleton's path to trip over, the lantern outright punched straight through the rib and into the hips, striking the ground behind and shattering into a hundred small glimmering fragments.

The health bar on the skeleton went from 100% to 64%, along with the skyviper archer debuff - the most damage he'd ever done to these assholes yet. Last he saw of the skeleton that had nearly caught him, was it falling flat into the ground, one leg broken off, while the hip and torso were in pieces.

He couldn't tell what else had happened, because his twist was bringing him back face to face with the approaching ladder. Nine terrifying seconds of running later, he got the strangest notification on the side.

Press gang ganged: 1/62

Wait, what? Did one of the skeletons get destroyed? How di- the skyviper archer hit. The lantern counted as a ranged weapon hit, so it must have triggered the debuff. But that did enough damage to kill the skeleton by itself?

Did the corrosive damage scale on initial damage? Or were these lower level skeletons less resistant? Or was the lantern somehow augmenting it?

His questions came to an end as he got closer to the ladder and the group in the darkness. Two were climbing up the ladder, led by the girl with a light. He could see more details, looked to be a smaller version of his lantern.

The third ran right past him, and he got a split second view as they crossed paths. His first impression was a shield and spear.

Wade turned his head back for a moment to see what was going on.

Carnage.

The figure was an armored knight in blue and silver. No helmet, blond hair in a ponytail with blue streaks that didn't look quite right. And she did have a shield and spear.

That weapon slashed through the nearest skeleton, cutting off its head, before the giant kite-shield bodychecked into the rest of the body, ripping it apart.

Press gang ganged: 2/62

Blue power emanated from the shield, and the knight leapt backwards, almost gliding away over the air. She took out a second skeleton trying to pass by in the same movement. It used a pickaxe to block the slash, but the knight was already moving past, repositioning. A harsh guttural command came from her and the dead skeleton she'd just eliminated shuddered on the ground. A soul-like image rose from it, looking more like a wraith of some kind. It lunged out and yanked at a passing skeleton, dragging it down into the ground.

Wade stared at the knight.

Identify.

Level 25 Moonwing Elf - 100%

That's one high level... Elf? There were elves in this world? Of course there were elves in this world. And not the tiny santa claus elves, no - the full Tolkien variation, with longer ears that reached closer to the top of her head.

Now that he got a better look at her, he could see them clearly. Although he swore he saw brown tuffs of feathers growing from the sides of her cheek and face. And the streaks of blue on her blond hair were... longer feathers poking out of her hair. Like a crest mixed into the ponytail, a few too short to get wrapped in the hair tie.

The elf went on to cut down two more skeletons, using that strange magic to force their souls back to the world, where they became a living barrier to the rest of the army shuffling behind.

Press gang ganged: 4/62

"Alhaleno nadra! NADRA!" She yelled out, absolutely frustrated, staring daggers at him. It hadn't been english.

He blinked.

"Stop GAWKING human! Goddess, move you idiot! Ladder, now! Cursed, stupid, slow-thinking mouthbreathers. LADDER."

It wasn't outright swearing but it was all said in an incredibly crass intonation and Wade just… understood the implication of that. Half the insult was all in the ears wagging violently up and down as if trying to scratch an itch, paired with feathers puffing around her face.

He stopped thinking through how he understood her language, and decided he should follow her command instead - because the skeletons were filtering past her and about to dive bomb the ladder in the next two seconds. There was time to think about this more, but it certainly wasn't right now.

He turned and raced up. A hand grabbed his ankle two seconds later and he could feel the lack of skin on it.

Sheer panic shot through him right as he pulled himself with his right hand. The arm undulated under the fabric, then his pull outright threw him a few rungs upwards, near to the very top, ripping the skeleton's grip off his ankle.

The power caught him by surprise, causing him to fail getting a grip on the next handle.

He started falling backwards, hands fumbling for the out of reach rungs. "Fuuu-"

A massive bear-sized hand shot out from over the top of the lip, grabbed his shirt, and yanked him up. "Careful friend. Skipping ladder steps good gamble, but dangerous."

Russian. Very much heavy Russian accent. The bear man further lifted him up, and then dropped him back on the ground, a hand patting off dust from Wade's shoulder, as if telling him everything was going to be okay.

"AND NEXT TIME TRY MOVING YOUR ARSE INSTEAD OF ADMIRING HERS!" That came from the girl. The one with the light.

Wade looked down and saw her. Short, grey pajamas, and matching sweatpants, along with a whole lot of metal hilts stuck by the beltline, and more stuffed inside an old dusty leather triangular backpack of sorts. Beady black sleep deprived eyes, with similar black unkempt hair and a glare that could kill. She wasn't happy with him. And she had a sledgehammer in her hands.

Identify. Wade thought almost instinctively. It worked too.

Level 4 Player - 94%

Higher level than he was, but it was to be expected of anyone who continued to survive a location straight up listed as lethal difficulty.

The man who'd pulled him up from the ladder tousled her hair with one bear-sized hand, while she passed him that sledgehammer. It took her two hands to hold, but he made it look like a woodcrafting hammer.

For the Russian, Wade would bet his wallet that this man used small dumpsters for gym weights. No pajamas at all except for brown shorts, leaving his chest exposed. Brown eyes, broken nose, messy short brown hair. Standing next to him, the Scottish girl looked downright tiny. Hell, even Wade felt small, and he was already taller than most people he'd met.

Identify.

Level 3 Player - 91%

The nameplate and health bar hovered right above the man's face. Lower level than the girl?

"Glad you make it alive out of city, friend." That giant mitt of a hand patted Wade's head next as the Russian made his way to the ladder.

"Oi!" The girl barked, "Introductions after we're done with night of the living dead, y'ken?"

He chuckled in apology to Wade, "Is okey, smol devushka always angry. You getting used to it fast." He leaned slightly down, and held one hand to his mouth as if whispering a secret. "She Scottish, poor thing. Maybe terminal."

The Scottish girl rolled her eyes and turned to Wade. "Here's the plan: The big oaf guards the ladder, and we make it rain until knife-ears scrambles her way up here safely. Got it?"

"Uh, bless you?" Wade had no idea what she'd said, the Scottish accent was so thick it sounded more like an incantation.

A rock was slapped down into his palm. "Chuck this down at 'em, and keep throwing. Anything helps."

"And the elf?" She hadn't climbed up the ladder. Worse, he realized she'd stayed behind to hold off the majority of the horde. Leaving her trapped behind enemy lines felt like both a moral and tactical mistake.

"Trust her, if there's no breaking through to the ladder with normal means, she'll use magic to get up here." The Scot waved a hand and a dagger of pure metal appeared in it, then threw it into the melee with pinpoint precision. Impressively good precision. "All we got to do is keep this area skeleton free for when she makes it."

Her knife sunk into a skeleton's legbone, breaking it off, hobbling the target. Three bullseye circles flashed inwardly on the skeleton for a short second as it collapsed onto its knee, off balance. A flash of blue magic shot from the elf's spear, jabbed directly at the downed skeleton in between a duck and shield block.

The magical hit ripped through the skeleton and finished it off.

The Scot didn't focus fire, instead she was aiming to cripple as many as she could get to. If the elf had a clear line of sight on a marked target, she'd take the shot before the mark vanished.

Wade joined the firing line, throwing rocks down at his targets. It didn't seem to do any damage, and his debuff was tickling them again. Fuck. The knives were doing far more damage wise. What was the rules for this thing?

"That your ability?" He asked, looking for alternate info to pick up. "Summon daggers and mark something hit? What's the mark do?"

"What's it to you, git?"

"If we're going to make it out of here alive, better let me know what we're working with early, right? Maybe we could figure something out together."

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Feck off." She said, hurling another knife down into the skeleton mob.

"Illy, your elf might need ideas. Be nice." The Russian said, cracking his neck at the ladder edge, lifting the sledgehammer.

The elf was still down there, fighting. The skeletons had isolated the ladder bottom, two already climbing up after, while the rest were fencing her away from getting to it. The captured souls from earlier had been shredded, Wade saw the last of the blue glow fade as another skeleton wrestled out of its grasp.

Despite her level, she hadn't managed to get a clean enough shot to break another marked target. One was exposed and she lunged her spear at him, ripping the joint on his leg apart, but the rest dogpiled after her, forcing her to back away and turtle behind her shield.

Once more the red circles marked out the skeleton the Scot threw at, and vanished after a few seconds. But the elf was too focused on defense to capitalize on the offense. At least the knife throws hobbled their target, breaking through the kneecap, reducing the overload by one.

"Oiii blyyaat." The Russian hissed next to Wade, looking down the ladder. "Okey, they getting in range now. I deal with. Pinch!"

The Scottish girl turned to him, reached a hand out and pinched the side of his stomach.

The giant nodded, lifted his pilfered sledgehammer then swung down past the lip of the ladder, beyond Wade's sight. A skeleton flew off the rungs, the health bar going down by 18%, getting tossed way further than it had any right to.

"Illy, you telling abilities yet?" The giant Russian said, jabbing the sledgehammer down like a spear at the next skeleton trying to climb up.

The girl only growled under her breath, clearly not liking the idea, but also knowing she really should be cooperative. Wade had no idea why they were being so obstinate.

"Is okay, I explain for you. Is hard being Scottish, no one understand you."

"Oh feck off, fine! But the yank starts first." Illy said, reaching to the Russian's stomach and pinching him again. He nodded and continued his work at the ladder, his next hit swung like a golfclub, tossing another skeleton far off.

Wade ran the numbers and decided if this was some kind of PvP game, making allies early on was infinitely more useful than keeping his cards to himself. "If I jump while attacking with a ranged weapon, the hit causes a damage over time. Not a very strong one, but I've made it work."

"How strong are we talking?" She asked.

"Uhh, still working on that. I have weird data on it." It had done pitiful damage to the boss skeleton, but earlier he'd killed a skeleton flat out with one hit. Right now, the debuff wasn't doing anything against this amount of skeletons. Frustrating to be taking guesses in the dark here.

"My boon very simple," The Russian said. "If I take damage, I do more on next hit. Plus knockback."

"Any amount of damage, mind you." Illy the Scottish girl said, once again pinching his side before turning back to the knife throwing. "Even if it's under 1 hit point."

So that's what the pinching was for. "And you?"

"Summon up to twenty daggers, twenty second cooldown. First time they shank any target, next attack that hits deals extra damage. Made for dagger stabbing back to back, but works when thrown too and don't say a lick about the next hit being from the daggers."

"How much extra are we talking about?"

"Dunno, doesn't say. Just 'greatly increased damage' on the fecking description. It's shite for Leon and I since we don't do enough damage, but lets the knife-ears one-shot them with any glancing hit."

Well, there was something he could work with. Wade ran the calculations in his head, tossing down one more rock. He should go for the easy wins first. The Russian's boon might have good synergy. "Any damage he takes right? From any sources?"

"Da. Any outside source of damage. Can't trigger it to myself." The man said, his next hit colliding against the skeleton, forcing it to the side for a moment, before it continued up. The followup swing broke its wrist, and the third hit after knocked it off the ladder.

"And if you had that buff of yours active all the time? Say once a second?"

The Russian laughed, waving down at the ladder. "Would be great, each pinch smoll devushka do is time she not aiming dagger. I call when it bad enough I need pinch, or when she not busy. If things get bad, maybe ask you to be on pinching duty."

"I've got a better idea." Wade said, then picked up a small pebble. "You don't mind if this stings a bit?"

If his debuff was already doing pitiful amounts of damage on a chunky sized rock, then how much insignificant amount of damage would it do on a pebble?

"What are you blabbering about you bampot?" The Scot said, launching another dagger down at a skeleton about to lunge for the elf. It hit through the leg, made it stumble down, and the follow-up spear sliced through a partial point of its skull. It killed the target outright. His quest counter counted up one, now at 7.

"I think… I think my damage over time is based on how much damage my initial hit does." Wade said, coming up with his plan on the spot. "If I hit hard, it does a lot of damage each second after. But if it's a weak hit, weak damage. I can hit you with a pebble, then it does damage to you every second. Might help if we're forced to go down the ladder and clear a path for the elf."

The Russian stayed quiet for only a moment. "Eh, worth try, da? Hit me with pebble."

Wade did exactly that, taking a small pebble off the ground and launching it with a tiny hop at the Russian, aiming for low damage. It hit his chest, dealing basically nothing to the man's health bar.

Except the debuff icon did pop up on the side.

The Russian swung his sledgehammer, knocking another skeleton off the rungs, using up his buff from the initial pebble hit. He lifted the hammer up for a follow-up on the next skeleton, preparing for another three-hit combo to clear that one off. Then he froze in place, eyes widening. "Blyat, it work!"

The sledgehammer swung down on a skeleton. Its health chunked by eleven percent before it was forcefully evicted from the ladder rung with extreme prejudice - from only one hit.

The man started laughing, taking pauses in between swings to breath, now that each hit would evict.

The elf on her part had realized getting to the ladder was functionally impossible at this point, and staying on open ground was a fool's plan. Wade could outright see the change in the elf's planning. She changed her path, rushing to the wallside, then jumped the moment a knife throw crippled a skeleton and cleared a small window of space.

Wade saw wings on her back spread out. Not real wings, astral looking transparent wings in blue that appeared behind her. They rose and flapped down hard once, lifting the elf further up and over the railing, like a long vertical double jump. She landed in a roll right by them, breathing heavily, wings vanishing long before her feet hit the ground.

The skeletons on their end hadn't given up. More were trying to climb up the ladder, but the giant Russian at the frontline kept swatting them off with each swing of the sledgehammer, all smiles now. "We hold ground here!" He said, "Is good chokepoint! Keep debuff on me!"

He did exactly as the Russian asked, tossing a small pebble at him, knowing it would refresh the debuff. "It lasts ten seconds, call out when you need a refresh!" Wade said, turning back to the giant horde under.

He grabbed another rock near his feet, and lobbed it downwards with a small jump, where it clinked off a skeleton's helmet, still dealing negligible damage.

No dice. None of his hits did anything. What was the difference? When he'd chucked the lantern it had destroyed one of these in one hit.

Maybe it really was just that the lantern was heavier or had something about it that did more initial damage? Would Illy's dagger debuff help offset his weak hit, or should he put that floating point he had into strength?

The elf was standing back up, jogging up to the ladder, already taking position with shield and spear in case any of the skeletons managed to make it past the Russian. She looked winded, tired, and was steadily cursing under her breath, most of it in the ear movements that Wade could somehow understand. Although so far, with each swing the Russian was clearing the ladder off. They weren't climbing faster than he could knock them, letting her catch her breath.

The skeletons weren't giving up. More had pooled out of the cavern entrance he'd come from, racing after the others to reach the walls. It was too steep for them to climb by hand. Only way up was by the oversized ladder.

"Selena!" The Scot called out, then launched another knife, this time aiming for a skull. It hit the skeleton, once more the red circles highlighting the target. A moment later, a short burst of blue light flew from the elf's spear, jabbed in that direction. It blew the skeleton's ribcage, knocking its health from one hundred down to thirty.

They continued working together, Wade kept the giant's debuff running on as low damage as he could do, all the while mulling over what he could improve.

The lantern had done huge damage, while the rocks so far hadn't. Was it just the lantern itself? Or… the arm.

His arm, bitten by the blackrot weasel earlier and infected somehow. It had increased his strength twice so far, the ladder and the lantern. Both times when he'd been under huge panic and stress. Could he get it to work on command instead?

He dropped down on his knees, looking around the ground until he found a good enough sized rock, and gripped it hard specifically in his right hand. Begging that the arm would do what it had done prior. Please, just work.

He ran back to the horde beyond. Then focused on that arm. He dug out his anger and fear, trying to funnel his desperation as he jumped. It remained normal. He swung with the rock.

The arm undulated under his shirt as if made of liquid.

Wade spiked the rock like a professional volleyball player and it blasted straight through a rusted mining helmet, crushing it in half, breaking the skull under it, then down into the chest at an angle.

Level 10 Undead Nathir Slave - 66%

The bar rammed downwards one third of the way. The red debuff icon appeared next to it. The skeleton wobbled in the crowd, a second passed.

Its health dropped down again, significantly. And again.

Level 10 Undead Nathir Slave - 42%

Both the Scottish girl, and the Russian turned a look at him.

"Well shite. The wanker's actually doing damage!" She slapped his back, laughing, then readied her next dagger.

Wade didn't wait for results, instead he was already grabbing the next rock laying around, coming back to the ladder a moment later.

He launched another jumping attack with his fist-sized stone, this time aimed right at the skeleton trying to climb up into sledgehammer range. Once more trying to focus on his arm instead of moving on autopilot.

Again the right arm functioned like it was empowered by a demon. This time the rock flew straight through the lead skeleton's ribcage, breaking it apart in one messy explosion of bone. It fell away in smaller chunks.

Press gang ganged: 8/62

...

Okay. Now he was cooking.