Nexus Runner [EPIC Progression Fantasy litRPG]

"Nigel." That's all I had to say and the fluffy kitten transformed into his mid-sized flying lynx form, then loped ahead of us, quickly disappearing into the ruined city.

"He'll scout ahead and warn us of any monsters."

I led the way north up the cobbled street. Someone had actually taken the time to sweep aside most of the rubble, leaving the street surprisingly flat and clean, a straight shot almost all the way to Port Royale.

"I'll help keep watch," Steve said and jogged around one pile of rubble. A moment later, he returned, then did the same thing on the other side of the road.

"What's he doing?" asked a woman I hadn't met before.

She was blonde and young, in her 20s probably, and looked far more at ease than many of the other stragglers who had lingered by the line to stage 2. All of the others had grouped up around us, clearly planning to make the potentially dangerous trek to Port Royale in our company. Smart. Identify triggered when I focused on the woman.

"Aleksandra Maddison. Baby human level 30. Team Halo. Class: Feral Easter Saboteur. Aleksandra turned her beast tamer class in an interesting direction, creating a deadly combination of force and quick movement."

Huh. That sounded really interesting.

"He's helping scout our flanks," I told her.

She chuckled. "Not going to accomplish much if you check only one pile of ruins." She spoke with a pleasant British accent, but layered with something more eastern, maybe Bulgarian.

Aleksandra flicked out a hand and a pair of large bunnies appeared nearby. A couple more appeared on the opposite side of us. I reached for a weapon, as did all of my team, but Aleksandra said, "Don't!"

"Aren't those kamikaze teleporting death bunnies?" Jane asked, scowling at the cute, furry bunnies. They were large for rabbits, but their cuteness masked deadly danger. One had nearly killed Jane by self-destructing right behind her when we first ran into them on stage 2.

Aleksandra frowned at us. "Most people want to pet my babies, or eat them. You all look like you've run into them in the wild."

"We did."

She smiled. "Ah. I found one and tamed it. They are marvelous. I can summon an almost-unlimited supply of them, given enough mana, and they have proven very helpful."

"Like blowing up?" Ruby asked.

"Yes, among other things. Today, they act as scouts." She made a shooing gesture, and pairs of bunnies blinked away, appearing to the right and left, near piles of rubble, before disappearing again. She started in surprise and glanced at Steve. "Ah, I understand now."

"We really need to talk later," Steve said. "I think we could work well together."

"I think so."

She actually tamed the teleporting, self-destructive exploding bunnies? Whoa. That could be huge. The thought of her army of exploding minions teaming up with Steve's clones made me grin. Now that was a powerful combo.

"Let's go," I called out. "Keep alert. We should get warning of any monsters, but you never know."

Cyrus's voice echoed around us, sounding like Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings. "You now have but one choice. You must face the long, wet slog of Ruin. Be on your guard. There are older and fouler things than bunnies in the wet places of the world. It is a 1-hour journey to Port Royale. Let us hope that your presence may go unnoticed."

Most of the company cowered from the voice. I just laughed, but resisted the urge to comment like I usually would. Cyrus wanted to keep our relationship more distant while in public places. Fine by me. Still, it was a good rendition of that Gandalf Moria quote.

"It'll be fine." I resumed walking.

Ruin remained empty for our entire trek to town. No monsters, not a single red dot even on the fringes of my mini map. Neither Steve nor Aleksandra spotted anything suspicious, which only made me fear something worse must be waiting.

Sure enough, Nigel returned like a furry bullet, leaping along the tops of nearby ruined buildings before launching off one and landing in the street in front of me and sharing his report. I translated for everyone else.

"The town is under attack. They need help."

I broke into a run and soon rounded the last line of rubble blocking the view of the protective dome over the town. In the 2 days since I'd been gone, most of the town had been relocated from Midmount Vale. A tall stone wall ringed the area, just inside the protective glowing dome. I could dimly make out the bulk of the town castle farther in.

More importantly, a horde of clockwork insects was swarming at the walls, both on the left and right sides of the main gate, which was closed. A large, wooden building was built right up against the wall, wider than the gate. How did that make sense? It would block the path into the town.

We could worry about that later. There had to be 50 of the monsters swarming each side of the gate, including Cogroaches, Drillscarabs, and Gearspiders.

Then the ground shook and a gigantic metal monster lumbered into view about a couple hundred yards to the west. The blimp-sized crab walked on six legs as thick as towers. Its enormous body was topped by mountain-like spikes, while 2 giant pincers on massive forelimbs creaked open, big enough to probably shear the central castle in half. How had we not heard it approaching earlier?

"Brass Leviathan. Level 75 mini boss. This mobile wrecking unit is the ultimate gate crasher. Armored with a heavy copper carapace, its claws can crush walls, buildings, and silly humans with equal ease. It may be slow, but its steam-powered cannons are not."

As if to punctuate the description, 5 huge barnacle-like growths on the flanks of the clockwork crab's mountainous back opened like flower petals to allow the mouths of brass cannons to extend. They all fired with detonations that shook the city and shockwaves that toppled nearby ruins. Cannon balls shattered the heavy city gates in a single volley, tearing a gaping hole in the defenses.

With the gate gone, I finally understood the large, wooden building behind the wall. It was actually 2 buildings, connected by a sky bridge, making an entrance tunnel of sorts. Except the cannonballs had smashed through parts of the buildings, and the sky bridge collapsed. At least that helped to partially block the gate opening.

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Groups of at least 30 people manned the wall on each side of the gates, and many of them were knocked off their feet by the blasts. Farther to the left, on one of the flat sections of wall that held siege weapons, a catapult weapon fired a flaming ball of napalm.

Perfect hit. The missile sailed across the rain-drenched sky like a meteor and struck the Leviathan in the center of its armored back, splashing liquid fire all over it. The copper armor sheathing the monster glowed red hot, but it showed no sign of actually taking damage from the hit.

"We should retreat," one portly crafter in a leather apron squeaked.

"No. If the town falls, we all die." My mind raced as I scanned the area. Where had that army come from? At least the walls were up, with defenders fighting, but they were already hard-pressed. If that Leviathan reached the walls, it would plow right through town.

Most people might get slaughtered even before it arrived, though. The horde of clockwork insects swarming the walls on both sides of the gate scrambled with frantic hunger. Some could jump, but all seemed able to easily scale the vertical walls. Defenders were struggling to knock them back, but many of them lacked the raw power required to beat through the monsters' armor.

Worse, a large group of flying fish swept in from the rain-filled sky to the west of town. Over 2 dozen Skyreaver sharks and 8 Stormpiercer swordfish swam in disciplined ranks flanking a pair of huge killer whales.

"Whales?" a woman at the back of the group asked, her voice a terrified whisper.

Under more benign circumstance, the sight of literal flying killer whales swooping through the rain-drenched sky toward the town's glowing barrier would be awe-inspiring. Now it just ratcheted up the danger another level.

"Deathwake Behemoth. Level 73 mini boss. These mighty masters of both the deep and the skies above Ruin serve as commanders of sky forces. They lead with crushing power and wield the terrifying Abyssal Requiem."

Not good. We had mini bosses on land and in the air. The monsters were showing a much higher level of coordination than I'd expected.

The defenders on the left flank of the gate were struggling more. The horde of insects was threatening to overwhelm them. Led by 4 giant spiders, they powered through the rain of spells and missiles, pressuring the people hard. The unstoppable horde reminded me of that regrettable movie, Starship Troopers, and the hordes of alien bugs that swarmed their base.

I pointed. "We have to help them first."

One of the whales accelerated, swooping down and opening its huge black and white maw wide. Still 100 feet above the wall, it unleashed what had to be its Abyssal Requiem spell, a pure black beam of destruction.

"They can use magic?" Ruby exclaimed.

"No fair," Jane growled.

"Look out!" I shouted, but we were still over 100 yards away and the defenders, locked in desperate battle, couldn't hear.

The whale's black beam raked through them, disrupting spells and covering everyone with dense black mana. Many people collapsed, screaming as their flesh blackened, and chunks even fell away, like they were fast-rotting.

I turned to my group and pointed at Andy, then waved to all the folks who had grouped up with us to cross the ruins. "You guys are the reinforcements. Get ready to charge. Andy will lead."

"We need to go now," he said, twin swords dropping into his hands.

"Charge that?" the crafter guy asked, shaking his head.

"No. You guys are going to reinforce the right-hand wall in a second."

"Hey," Andy objected.

"They need help too, and you're the best man to lead the charge."

That made him grin, and I turned to my core team. "Steve, we need to break the momentum of that horde on the left. Lightning works best against the insects. Lana, target heads and joints. Tomas—"

"On it." He reached out, took Jane's and Ruby's hands in preparation for teleporting over. Lana grabbed on too.

"Wait," Steve said, and half a dozen clones appeared beside him.

As they all drew back their bows, I cast Potential Hammer, setting the energy-gathering field to cover the defenders on the wall and the front ranks of the monsters. Half a second later, Steve and his clones unleashed a rain of lightning arrows.

Every single arrow split into multiples from Arcane Barrage, unleashing a lightning storm across the front ranks of the monsters. Then bunnies started appearing in the midst of the horde, detonating in blasts of bloody bone shards that unfortunately did little damage to the armored monsters. Potential Hammer charges started racking up super fast anyway.

"Carthage!" Aleksandra swore. So Cyrus was making all of us swear city names?

"Oh, yeah. Ruby, take these Instant Rust potions. They do what they say."

I touched her shoulder and direct-transferred the potions. Meanwhile, Steve wasn't done yet. He and his clones fired again, this time all aiming for the middle of the horde.

The arrows all struck one of the huge Gearspiders. Instead of unleashing another barrage of lightning, the arrows exploded into ice and fire and water and lightning. All the elements erupted high into the air, then wove together into an elemental tornado that meandered through the close-packed horde, tearing monsters apart and flinging bits and pieces of brass gears in every direction.

Steve pumped his bow into the air. "Yes! Conflux is an even better spell than I thought."

"Our turn," Tomas said. He, Jane, Ruby, and Lana disappeared. With a couple of teleporting hops, they reappeared in the middle of the defenders on the wall. Perfect. Since they were outnumbered by more than 2-to-1 odds, my Visionary Resolve ability would kick in, granting them an additional 30% to Constitution, Strength, and Mental Resistance.

Lana started firing exploding crossbow bolts while Tomas stepped to the outer edge of the wall and extended a hand, unleashing a wave of superheated flame. The fire splashed down over the clockwork monsters still disoriented from Steve's lightning storm and stuck to everything it touched. Brass melted and monsters erupted into frenzied panic as their bodies disintegrated.

He must have used that scroll of molten venom we'd gotten in the Plateau dungeon. Excellent choice. Ruby joined Tomas with her potion launcher and rained Instant Rust potions across the swarm of clockwork insects. I couldn't tell all the ones she targeted, but I did see one giant Gearspider collapse, its legs dissolving into piles of rust.

It only took seconds for her to burn through the potions, Hopefully she held onto 1 to replenish quantity with her class's replicate ability. She turned to tend to the wounded, and Jane took her place, pointing at one monster after another.

With each gesture, monsters careened away, tossed aside by her telekinesis. Then she blew her little silver whistle, the Marilyn Monroe Moment gag gift she got from Cyrus in that loot box he awarded us for helping him look smart.

The effects were spectacular. All the armor along the legs of one of the huge Gearspiders blew up from an invisible wind, all the way to its carapace. Right on time, Lana hit the exposed spider's bottom with an exploding bolt, tearing off 3 legs and sending it toppling down.

I turned to Andy and the rest of our group who numbered about 20. Seeing the success of my team against the left-hand horde seemed to bolster their morale. "Go, help the folks on the right until we can join you."

With a grin, Andy saluted and took off. The others followed, weapons raised, shouting various battle cries. Some of them looked terrified, but still got swept along with the group. Good. With those reinforcements, that section of wall should hold.

Aleksandra ran with them, and already bunnies began teleporting among the monsters swarming at the wall. They detonated in waves of carnage that didn't kill monsters, but helped knock them from the wall, giving the defenders some respite.

Back on the left flank, Jane had hefted the new Wrathspire Crossbow of Conflict she'd gotten from my vault and unleashed a storm of pure mana bolts across the swarm. The bolts exploded with a cascading, varicolored light show. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to do much damage, since the bolts delivered spiritual damage and the insects were constructs.

So she turned her attention to the mech-mantises at the back of the horde. I could catch glimpses of them with Wolf Sight, but the angle was bad for me. Their illusion would cloak them with perfect camouflage from most people.

Not Jane. Maybe her Phoenix class included abilities I didn't know, or her powerful psychic powers let her sense their minds. Either way, she unleashed her rapid-fire crossbow with perfect accuracy against the surprised bosses of the clockwork army.

Bolts tore into them with visible devastation, snuffing out their illusion cloaks and leaving them writhing on the ground in agony. Nigel arrived next and tore the injured Mech-mantises apart, then plunged into the disorganized ranks of insects, smashing through them in full mammoth lion size. He'd fought enough of them already to know their vulnerable spots.

Good. That would ruin the impressive coordination the other monsters had been demonstrating.

"And I get the fun job," I said as battle lust swept through me and I turned to face the giant crab Leviathan.