Apocalypse Cultivation, ch 24

Jake panted as he hid behind a looted Taco Bell.  He grimly tightened the bandages he’d place above and on his wound.  Even spinning his cultivation base and using every trick he had to avoid acknowledging pain, it hurt like hell.

He’d kill a few more raiders while escaping.  The reality was the he’d gotten luck.  Bartok had gone down in a really good area for Jake to avoid being completely exposed.  Flash stepping was great and all, but Jake was slowing down and he was hurt now.  Whoever had hit him in the air had been good.  Jake had to be cautious now.

These dickheads could have more awakened, too.  Even as he thought it, he saw a ball of green fire rise into the sky from the road.

There were way too many raiders here for this to be natural.  This group definitely hadn’t formed organically, especially not at this point after Purple Rain.  It was only as Jake tightened another bandage he remembered how

He groaned.  “Not that asshole again,” he whispered.  Actually, hadn’t the minotaur mentioned a different god?  Jake could remember the name if he really needed to, but at the moment he was hurting, pissed off, and irritated with himself.

His panting was annoying him, too.  All these years as a shadow ghoul and he still didn’t entirely understand how his body worked.

The only upside to the situation was how many of the raiders he’d killed.  Dozens, at least.  He judged they were at less than half strength, now.

Jake extended his senses, making sure there weren’t any enemies right nearby.  Then he channeled power into his one good leg, enough to lighting jump to the roof of the restaurant.  He immediately crouched, got low, and peered over the edge to assess the situation.

The first thing he realized was that the raiders were having a meltdown.  Now that he was on the ground, Jake could see better how much damage he’d actually done.  He grinned.

It turned out that a lot of the enemies he’d fired explosive attacks at from the air had either been near defensive structures or even maybe hiding behind them.  Either way, Jake had absolutely blown the hell out of the raiders’ barricades on the road.  There were bodies everywhere.

The raiders themselves were slowly moving back toward the Walmart.  Their lights danced around the night, searching for Jake.  There was so much shouting, Jake could track the different groups even without seeing them as they retreated back to their stronghold.

They were leaving the road open.  That meant it was possible that the Paladins and school defenders might even come here and be able to win a fight, should one begin.  That was out of his control, so Jake chose not to worry about it either way.

However, if the locals did decide to come here and clean these bastards out, Jake wanted to help keep the friendly casualties to a minimum.  And he’d just thought of a plan.

Limp or no limp, Jake could still hide in the shadows.  He went back to the rear of the building and hopped down, remembering to take all of the weight on his good leg.  Then  with the ease of long practice, he entered the shadows.

Jake still stuck to the shadows and moved as stealthily as he could as he approached the road.  He’d learned his lesson about hubris.  It was highly unlikely that any of these people could see Jake when he was hidden this way, but he wasn’t taking any chances.

From the air, none of Jake’s guns would have been very effective.  But down here on the ground was a different story.  For combat and for misdirection.

Jake hid behind a store close to the road, then focused, flash stepping twice as fast as he could to the right.  He barely made it behind another building.  Then he rattled off a few rounds into the air from his AK pistol.

The 7.72x38mm rounds were incredibly loud out of such a short barrel.

Jake immediately flash-stepped back where he came from, barely making it there in time before a half dozen searchlights lit up the building he’d just been behind and the surrounding area.  Shouting filled the night as multiple groups tried to communicate all at once.

While all the raiders were distracted, Jake went left and as quietly and stealthily as he could, he crossed the street.  This would have been incredibly risky before, since he was wounded, slow, and in an open space where hiding in shadows was less effective.

He got to the other side of the road and hid behind another building before doing a fist pump.  Jake had never thought he’d be grateful for playing a Metal Gear Solid game in the past.  He thought, Misdirection, motherfuckers.

Now he had to enact the next step of his plan.  Ambush was the name of this game.

Just like he’d hoped, a bunch of the remaining bad guys had gone toward where Jake had just rattled off a handful of cheap, lacquered steel casing rounds.

Jake crept toward the Walmart as best he could.  There was no way he could continue waging a one monster army against everyone, not anymore, but one more good assault and these q-tips would be broken.

He moved north, cycling the meager remains of his cultivation base and thanking the stars that his affinity for shadows was only partially connected to–and therefore not as reliant on–his cultivation.

When he judged he’d found a good spot, Jake hunkered down and silently pulled out a few more firearms.  Next to the AK pistol, he placed an AR-15 pistol, this one chambered in .300 Blackout.  It actually had a silencer on it that Jake removed and threw back into his storage.  When the fireworks kicked off, he wanted to make it as loud as possible.

He searched through his inventory and finally decided on one of his standard AR-15 rifles for the third gun he placed at his feet.  It had a holographic red dot sight the would work great at night with Jake’s supernatural nightvision.  He wanted the more stable firing platform just in case the person with the big rifle showed up.  Jake’s leg was still slowly weeky dark, evil-looking blood.

Last, Jake pulled a 10mm Kriss pistol out of storage.  The actual model name escaped him, but it was a pistol version of the Kriss Vector rifle.  He had quite a few magazines full of 10mm in his storage, and he decided to load on of his biggest before he slung the entire weapon.  10mm should provide a decent amount of punch, especially if everything went sideways.

As plans went, this one was pretty simple.  Since he was running out of power and hurt, it made sense to lean into his abilities that wouldn’t tap his cultivation base much, and conventional weapons.

Jake looked at his pile of guns and considered for a moment before taking a pistol out of his storage.  It was just a 9mm Glock 19, nothing fancy, but a type of gun he was probably more familiar with than any other.  There was a reason Jake had carried a Glock back in his Kangaroo Mice days.  He put the pistol in his clothing, tucked into his waistline in a holster.

Then he waited.  He could still hear the louder homicidal whackos out there, but they all must have realized that something weird was going on.  In general, they’d all gotten quieter as they moved back toward relative safety, toward the Walmart.  Jake risked a peak around the corner and ducked back.

All of the raiders were moving single file, which was actually pretty smart.  They knew that Jake had exploding attacks and staying clumping up would make a tempting target.  By walking single file, they also made it less likely that Jake could pick them off one at a time without any of them noticing.

Jake stayed covered with the Midnight Cloak in the hidden area he’d found himself, breaking up his outline.  He also didn’t look directly at his enemies, just in case they could catch a glimpse of his eyes.  He didn’t need to look directly at them to keep track of where they were now.  His other senses and supernatural senses made it easy.

When it was the right time, Jake reached forward slowly, took hold of his AK pistol, and got into a good firing position.

Large caliber pistols like this one were like the rifle version, but mission the stock and sporting a shorter barrel.  In his past life, Jake had found them incredibly awkward and useless for a long time before realizing how much firepower they offered in a smaller package.  This had become more compelling to him after spending so much time in convoys, struggling to get out of a vehicle while it was being attacked with all his gear snagging on everything.

It’d taken him some time, but he’d practiced with pistols like this and had eventually gotten pretty good.  Pistols in general were really his preferred weapon back in the Grasshopper Mice.  Well, pistols and sabers.

Now he’d added claws and teeth to the mix, but he still had a soft spot for pistols.

Jake fired, training his fire on the rearmost members of the single file line.  He’d been hoping that the bad guys at the front of the line wouldn’t know what was going on for a while, that they’d be confused and make easier targets, but he’d forgotten about his muzzle flash.

Almost the moment he opened up, the entire line pivoted to face him.

Jake decided that with his cover blown, he’d just go all in.  He’d never get a better opportunity than now with all the raiders in the open like this.  Even as he started running through the bullets in his magazine, trying to make his shots count, some of his enemies had the presence of mind to run to cover or drop to the prone.

In seconds, the fight stopped being one sided.  Jake mentally instructed the Midnight cloak to cover everything but his eyes.  He wasn’t sure if the sniper was out there or if their big ass bullets could penetrate the Midnight Cloak.  Jake doubted it, but he wasn’t going to take any chances.  The big, aching hole in his leg had cured him of that arrogance.

He only had one more magazine for the AK pistol so he threw it back into his storage.  There hadn’t been any sign of the sniper yet, so next he used the full sized AR-15.  The high speed rounds whined into the night when they ricocheted off of asphalt or concrete.  A few shots found their marks, and screams peppered the firefight with profanity.

Bullets continued to slam into the area around Jake, chipping chunks out of walls and shattering windows behind him.  So far, the Midnight Cloak and Jake’s faltering cultivation base had held out.

When he ran out of rounds in his AR’s magazine, Jake stowed it, slung the Kriss, and grabbed the AR pistol in .300.  There was still no sniper that he could tell, so he decided it was time to close the distance.  The moment he made th decision, a ball of magical fire sped at his position from one of the defenders, underlining what a great idea it as.

Staying in one place for too long would be bad, even for Jake.  Sniper or no sniper.

He flash stepped out of his sheltered position and immediately to one side as fast he could.  Then with one last effort of will, he flash stepped himself right into the thick of the remaining defenders.

Being wounded, running low on energy, and point blank range didn’t help his bullet resistance.  The impacts were still being stopped, but anything that wasn’t hitting the Midnight Cloak hurt like hell.  Jake snarled and moved as fast as he could, putting fat .300 Blackout rounds into heads, knees, elbows, and through the chest if the raiders were unarmored.  A surprising number of them had tactical gear on, though.  In fact, some of them had very obviously been Protectors back in Macon, or at least affiliated with them.

Now that he was close, Jake could actually smell death on some of them.  Blood and worse.  These people were definitely not innocent.  He thought he remembered one of the Paladins mentioning cannibalism, but he couldn’t completely remember.  That should be impossible.  His memory was much better than it ever had been before being a cultivator.

It’d been a long night, though.

Jake was out of ammo now for his AR pistol.  He put that back in his inventory and grabbed his Kriss.  A big, hulking bastard dressed in armor that looked right out of Road Warrior charged him with a huge axe.  Jake popped his head like a watermelon.

Bullets hit Jake like rain on a sidewalk but the Midnight Cloak was holding out.  He darted forward, using his good leg for most of his movement, and managed to place himself right between two raiders that were lying prone.  Jake dropped the barrel of his Kriss right to the back of one’s head.

“Oh shit,” said the man.  He never said anything else again.

The other one actually rolled away in time to avoid immediately dying.  Jake thought better of going after him just yet.  His leg’s bleeding was slowing down, and moving too fast might make him more exposed under the Midnight Cloak.  The situation was still looking better, though.  He was sure there were more of these goons at the Walmart, but Jake had killed a lot.  There were dead and dying, black-clad, would be blockading raiders all over the road.

Suddenly, Jake was hist right between the shoulder blades by what felt like a baseball bat wielded by a freight train.  He hissed and turned, dropping low.  One hand went to his back, but the Midnight Cloak was still whole.  Smoking, but whole.

The fucking sniper!  Jake didn’t know where they were.  He’d known this might happen so he didn’t hesitate.  With two more flash steps, he was hiding behind a building again.  None of his enemies followed.  They weren’t trying to stealthy anymore as they yelled to each other and coordinated, getting back to the Walmart.

That was a smart move.  Out in the open like this, without the fucking sniper, Jake could have pciked them apart until none were left.

His next move was going to be tricky.  With the sniper out there and his wounded leg making him slower, as well as his diminished power and focus, it’d be risky to move out of cover too far without finding new shelter.  Finding and killing the sniper was going to be his priority.  If his enemies had more than one big weapon and another person or two skilled to use them, well, that would be bad.

For the first time since he’d been back to Earth, Jake was sincerely hoping for backup.  Prior to this, there wasn’t much a few unawakened with conventional weapons could do.  But right now, a few good ol’ boys armed with hunting rifles could make a world of difference.

Thinking about awakened reminded him of the fireball that had just blown up his earlier firing position.  He hoped he’d killed the mage, but couldn’t tell for sure in all the chaos.  It was possible that there were other Awakened out there, too.  Some could even be bulletproof.

Shit, he thought.  He was getting sloppy.  If only that big, minotaur bastard hadn’t shown up!

Suddenly, as if summoned, the worst possible thing happened.  A rent in the air widened to become a gateway, and Canophta stepped through.  With a chuckle, the enemy champion said, “Well met again. I–”

Jake was already flash stepping away.  Even though it’d been a short hop, he had been unprepared and his body was beat to shit.  When he stopped, his wounded leg almost crumbled beneath him. Like a nightmare, Canophta was there a heartbeat later, before Jake could escape.  Canophta slapped the Kriss out of Jakes’s hand, grabbed his shoulder and punched him in the face with his other hand.  Jake saw stars.  He’d just been hit with enough force to turn brick to dust and at the moment it was all he could do to stay conscious.

Then the giant, armored bull man threw Jake like a sack of potatoes toward his gate hanging in the air.  Jake’s head began the clear a little right before he hit the portal, but by then it was too late.  All he could do was cycle what was left of his power and try to provide himself some sort of general protection.

Everything went white, and Jake felt himself being pulled…elsewhere.