The Original Beefcake

Marcus watched as Carlos and Rita carried a large, secured container out of the hot zone and into the provisional storage. He moved out of the way to make space for the large object and Rita giggled. "You know Marcus, you look like you would be best suited for this work, but in truth you are by far the weakest here," Rita said, and Carlos joined into the laughter. "Rub it in," Marcus grunted, and rolled his eyes.

"I am weaker than him," Candis said with a smile, and started to heal both of the hard working raid members. "Isn't this nice, Marcus. You are stronger than our Priestess," Rita heckled, and Marcus wondered how they had ended up on a schoolyard. He sighed, but Carlos patted his back, "Don't take it seriously. We know you work harder than any of us."

It was true, Marcus had been working overtime carrying containers and objects out of the hot zone over the last two days. The level of radiation was no real danger to him, even without Reconstruction. His (by now) 80 vitality took the damage in stride. But the reason they had been able to get so much done was nothing good. "How is it looking, Janette?" Marcus asked over the com line for the nth time this day. "Still dead as a graveyard. No monster in sight," she answered, and Marcus' mood soured further. For two days now, not a single Groper had shown up. It would be nice to believe this was because they had given up, but nobody was that stupid. The Big Bad was plotting something, and they could do nothing but wait.

On the plus side, they had gathered up a large amount of tasty, tasty loot. Machines, art pieces, hand held weapons (a big box of direct energy rifles!), mountains of data slates, in fact it was so much they had to start making choices what to take and what to leave behind. "I will take a break and visit the grumpy, cold lady," Marcus said, and took one of the rifles out of the box in the corner. He made his way out of the wreck and up to the snowfield. The heavy snowfall hadn't stopped over the last days, and moving around had become even more a pain in the ass than before. Marcus used Burst to quickly reach the trucks and vanished into the closest one. He took some hot tea from the ever so helpful Alistair and put it into a thermos flask.

Armed with gifts Marcus walked out into the cold again, and climbed up the truck Janette was standing on. "Hot tea my lady?" He presented the gift and Janette opened her helmet. "Milk and extra sugar?" She asked, and he nodded. Janette took a short sip and a smile moved onto her face. Marcus waited and let her enjoy the warmth of the tea for a moment. In time, her eyes fell on the weapon in his hand, and he offered it to her. "I thought you might want to take a look. Cool new scifi rifle. If we can get the energy source figured out you might have a new toy to play around with," Marcus said, but to his surprise a strange melancholic smile moved on Janette's face.

"Those blasted four years…," she mumbled, and Marcus realized he had missed something, again. "This kind of weapon does nothing for me. They don't work well with my abilities," Janette explained. Her eyes got cloudy and she continued to talk, "A year or so after you were gone… on pure coincidence we finally figured out how my base ability actually works. It isn't just good sight or aiming. I literally force my attacks to hit their target. At the time I was throwing paper balls into my trash bin and Kou tried to mess with my aim, using his telekinetic ability. Turned out he needed a hell of a lot of power to divert my puny paper balls. I make stuff hit." Marcus listened and was amazed.

Janette looked around for a moment and pulled her heavy pistol out of the holster. "See the ice crystal hanging from the side of that truck?" Janette asked, and Marcus nodded. She raised her pistol and she was at least off by twenty or thirty degrees, even Marcus could see that. Janette pulled the trigger and the ice exploded into small pieces. His jaw dropped. Of course he knew she basically always hit, but he had thought this was because she could aim well thanks to her special vision. "Are we under attack?" Grace asked over com, and Janette denied it. "Just a small test shot, all is quiet."

"This little trick doesn't work with lasers and stuff like that. This is also the main reason why I don't like the railgun. Because the projectiles are so fast I can only guide them so much. It really restricted me in the wyrm fight. The thing moved around too much for me to get a solid hit in. Sure the firepower of the railgun is amazing, but I honestly prefer the flexibility and accuracy of my generic firearms. Now that you are back in the team I will swap to them for the most part, unless something really nasty comes along," Janette said. That explained a lot, Marcus thought and nodded as a sign of understanding. "Thank you for the tea," Janette whispered and he smiled.

Marcus had expected that the big attack would come at a time when Janette was sleeping, but he was wrong. In the afternoon of the next day, in the middle of a heavy snow storm, Janette gave the alarm for the large-scale attack. Thanks to her advanced warning the whole raid was able to gear up (even Marcus put his damaged armor on) and take position about a hundred meters away from the trucks.

The enemy advanced only slowly from one direction, but in formation and large numbers. The dense falling snow covered the monsters, only Janette reduced some of their numbers from the distance thanks to her aura vision. "300 to 400 Gropers and… four evolved ones. I can't see the Big Bad, he might be hiding behind the large ones," Janette let everybody know.

"This weather is fucking us hard, the auto cannons are basically useless. Melees in the front, the rest behind. Spread out and cover the flanks. If they tear the trucks apart we are in big trouble. Marcus, reserve your endurance, your only target are the evolved forms. Leave the rest to us," Grace gave orders and the raid spread out over fifty meters.

They waited with baited breaths and then the horde emerged. First the roaring and stomping of hundreds of heavy bodies reached the raid. Then outlines of the leading monsters became visible and seconds later the stampede crashed into the first line of the defenders. It was a bloodbath.

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Monster bodies got torn apart as quickly as they reached the raid. Carlos, Hammond and Rita covered the left flank while Marcus, Grace and Janette covered the right. Alistair stood in the middle and started to gather an ocean of blood to build a gigantic blood circle. Marcus dispatched several Gropers without much effort, and let Grace and Janette do most of the work. In the meantime, his eyes were searching for the silhouettes of the evolved monsters. The battle was getting more and more chaotic, and Marcus quickly lost track of what was going on. In contrast to him, Grace stayed calm and gave orders, even though she was cutting down beasts in the dozens.

Marcus hammered down two Gropers, but three more rushed against him. The snow had turned into an ugly sludge of blood and monster viscera in the matter of minutes. He nearly lost his footing as one of the Gropers smashed into his side and tried to drag him down to the ground. Bullets whizzed past him and Janette eliminated several foes in a blink of an eye. Her heavy machine gun worked with the precision of a scalpel.

As he freed himself from the bodies of the monsters, he felt a familiar heat running up his legs and invigorating him. The giant blood circle was complete. With increased speed and vigor, the raid pushed back the monsters until the looming shadows of four giants reached the battlefield. "Stay alert for the Big Bad, it might be hiding between the evolved ones. Marcus go! I will be right behind you," Grace delivered new orders and Marcus started to move.

20% Impulse Wave, more wasn't possible, if he wanted to take down all four giants. Marcus prepared the red disk that would soon enhance his Impulse Hammer and started running straight towards the closest evolved Groper. Janette gave them support fire and Marcus reached his target in no time. He forced his way through a last wave of Gropers and delivered divine punishment to the first giant. The impact of the blast made Marcus fly into the ranks of the beasts. He had to work his way out of a forest of deadly tusks to get back up to his feet again. While punching and kicking, he got enough space to see Grace eliminate the first target. In the meantime, the wall of monsters had pushed back the defenders through sheer numbers.

With clenched teeth Marcus used a long Burst jump to get into a good position to fire his next blast. Grace showed up next to Marcus seconds later and her silver blade carved a way to the evolved Groper. With his arm healed and another bullet in the chamber, Marcus made his final approach to target number two. The second blast echoed through the air and the giant beast fell, but only barely.

This was nearly not enough Marcus. Calm down and concentrate on your abilities.

Marcus cursed as he got back up to his feet, but he found himself encircled by enraged Gropers. A flurry of metal surrounded Marcus for a moment and left torn monster bodies behind. Marcus turned and saw Rita not far away. He waved to her in thanks and got going again. "We are losing ground to the left. Carlos, move out of the center and plug the hole," Grace's calm voice continued to manage the raid.

Do not worry too much about your endurance. As long as you are inside the Blood Circle your regeneration should allow you to finish the job.

Xeen was right, Marcus realized as he prepared his next Impulse Wave. In spite of the damage and the general drain from battle he had more endurance left than he had expected.

With increased confidence Marcus prepared a 25% Impulse Wave and went hunting again. Grace was right next to him and together they eliminated target three without much problems. As he got himself out of a new mess after the blast, he felt a sudden shift. The blood circle had stopped working. "Alistair!" Rita shouted, and Marcus turned to find Lord Cromwell. "Don't get distracted Marcus. Others will help him. We need to finish the job." Grace was next to him and pulled him towards the last stomping behemoth. Against his instincts Marcus forced himself to follow Grace.

He had about 40% endurance left and spent another 25% to prepare the next heavy Impulse Wave. The numbers of the monsters had greatly reduced, but so had the fighting power of the raid. Wounds, exhaustion, lack of ammunition, it all came together and the last giant Groper was only thirty meters away from the leading truck. Even Grace had slowed down and it took them longer to reach the last target. More so, because a dense wall of monsters protected the last one.

Marcus could see many bleeding cuts on Grace and pushed himself harder to take more of the burden. A machine gun roared not far away from him and a stream of bullets tore a hole into the wall of monsters, Janette had followed them and opened the path. With a scream on his lips Marcus jumped over the torn defense line and smashed his fist against the front leg of the last evolved Groper. Marcus was blasted away, but the beast roared and fell to the ground. Marcus smiled until he saw Grace was surrounded by monsters and couldn't reach her target.

Under pain Marcus rose again and made his way to free his raid leader, as Carlos moved in to finish the job. His blade wasn't as strong as Grace's, but it moved a heck of a lot faster. Like an industrial saw Carlos carved into the body of the monster and eliminated the last target in a spray of dark blood. Cheering filled the air for a moment but nearly a hundred Gropers were still left. "Keep at it!" Grace shouted, and they rallied once more. Five more minutes of butchering and it was finally over. Exhausted, torn and utterly relieved, the raid slowly gathered up. Alistair was the only one with serious injuries after he had been cornered by a large group of Gropers. Candis was with him and things were quickly improving. Marcus looked around the field of carnage and smiled.

"NO!" Janette screamed. Marcus turned around and saw it. But it was too late. A hideous, gray skinned monster stood upon the closest truck and gazed down on the raid with one giant, red, unblinking eye. Marcus lost all control of his body. His mind tumbled and his thoughts dissolved.

I can not stop it Marcus! It is an AoE, it effects everything!

They were all trapped. With terror Marcus realized that all this time the insidious monster had been waiting to catch them all in the same place!

The deadly thing jumped down from the truck and slowly approached the helpless, bunched up humans. It was larger and heavier than a human and stood on two thick legs. Its tusks were short, nearly fully degraded, while a giant eye covered most of its head. Long, thick, fur covered arms with needle like claws clicked as it moved closer to Janette. A weirdly shaped triangular mouth opened beneath the unblinking eye and rows of sharp teeth appeared. Marcus screamed in his head, but not one muscle wanted to move. His brain was unable to communicate with his body and he was forced to watch how the monster reached out to slay its worst enemy.

Silver shot through the air and pierced right into the giant red eye. Grace, apparently unaffected by the paralyzing power of the monster, had lunged with incredible speed towards the fiend and her silver blade had found its target. In spite of this deadly wound the third stage monster moved instantly, and six needle-like claws punctured through Grace's chest, as if her armor was nothing to that horror. But the monster's hold on the raid was broken, and wrath burned brightly in their souls. They all descended upon the thing and tore it to shreds. In seconds the monster was replaced by a pile of gore, and only Candis' desperate shout for his help made Marcus relent.

Grace needed his vitality and Marcus was more than willing to give her every last drop. He crouched down next to the fallen Paladin, held her hand and watched Candis work. Regardless of her grave injuries Grace smiled, because the day was won.