Chapter 9: Stereotypical (2)

Yellow eyes without pupils, tainted with sinister intent.

Rows upon rows of fetid rotting teeth lining its smiling mouth, moist with salivation.

And a strong grip that held the dagger stabbed in Jain’s thigh.

Jain didn’t even get a chance to scream as the goblin snaked its wiry limbs around him.  One hand still on the dagger, it hooked its legs around Jain’s waist and the other around his neck.  Then in a surprising display of intelligence it brought its mouth to Jain’s, suffocating the scream that was rising to the surface.  Its mouth puckered up, sealing Jain’s own shut.

The monster continued with its momentum, riding Jain down to the ground.

It had taken less than a second.

In that moment of panic, Jain’s life didn’t flash before his eyes.  He didn’t experience supernatural calm, reserved for those destined to be heroes.

All he could think of was a sushi store he went to, how the fish squirmed and squirmed and squirmed as the knife was brought closer. His fear stricken limbs tried to flop helplessly as the Goblin brought the dagger to his neck.

Then suddenly, the goblin went limp.

Jain flopped around some more until the weight was lifted off of him.  He sat up, grabbed the goblin’s head and tore it off of him.  The thing’s mouth was shaped like a lamprey's, a funnel-shaped mouth designed to suck.  Bits of Jain’s lips were still stuck on it.

As an afterthought, Jain realized that he was holding just the head.

“Freak!”

All the goblins that had briefly flashed in Jain’s vision came crawling out.  They had been hiding behind display cases and pillars, in the dark spots between corners and some of them had even opted to crawl on the floor like army rangers.

Without any conscious effort, Jain flicked off [Identify], seeing the world without the system input.

Contrary to pop culture’s portrayal of goblins as being uniformly green, these goblins ranged from purple to yellow and everything in between.  Jain watched, fascinated as they began sneaking out.  It was like the storm of emotions had dampened his head somehow.  Jain knew he was in danger, but he continued to just sit there and watch.  

In a sickening combination of animalistic instinct and human-level intelligence,  the creature nearest Jain lifted its nose to the air and sniffed.  Its nostrils flared supernaturally large; Jain imagined he could actually see the wind being sucked in.

Slowly, it’s gaze turned to Jain.

“F-Food.”  The goblin muttered.  It repeated the word, gibbering while bouncing up and down on its short legs.  “FOOD! FOOD!”

A single word that incited the goblin hive into a frenzy.

“Food?”

“Food!”

“Tribe?”

“FOOD!”

Whereas the Tsutsugamushi had been somewhat alien, the goblins brought a sense of familiarity.  The way they salivated and lunged forward, gripping a mish-mash of weapons in their hands –it was a mixture of pack-animal instinct and predatory mammalian behavior.  It was precisely this familiarity that snapped Jain back into reality, allowing him to watch what happened next.

Irina had never stopped moving.  Belatedly, Jain realized that she had been the one to decapitate his attacker.  She stepped forward, the elegance of her movements in direct contrast with the almost clumsy path of her sword.  But it was none the less effective for it, with a single cleave she beheaded two goblins at once.  She brought the sword back in a return swing, this time at hip length and cleaved a third, its stomach pouring out black contents.

“Templar! Move!”  She yelled, continuing her assault.  “They surround us!”

In a moment, Jain saw what she meant.  Whereas Irina could take on any of the goblins, maybe two or half a dozen at the rate she was going; there were dozens of them.  They continued to spawn from dark corners, climbing over each other and chanting in a mixture of english and otherworldly language.

“Templar!”  Irina cut into another swathe of goblins, but there were simply too many.

Jain finally got to his feet, realizing he was still holding onto the goblin head.  “S-Shit!”  He threw the head out of reflex.

It rolled on the floor like a soccer ball, gently landing besides one of the smaller goblins on the outskirts.

The goblin, five feet tall at the most, turned to Jain.

Then it opened its sucker-shaped mouth, yelling in a sickening tone resembling a young girl, “HELP! HELP! HELP ME!”

Holding a small stone-axe in one hand, it jumped straight up towards Jain.

Jain wasn’t an athlete.  Far from it.  Even if he was, not all athletes go through the training necessary to keep their eyes open when something’s about to hit their face.  It’s a type of instinct that humans need special training to overcome.

So Jain closed his eyes.

DRR-DRR-DRR-DRR-DRR-DRR-DRRCK

Lightning crackled, thundering through the museum hallway in controlled bursts.  The former psychic fell back as something plowed into his legs, bowling him over.

Jain had seen enough movies to recognize that sound.

The unmistakable sound of gunfire.

Jain opened his eyes.

The goblin in front of him was face-down on the floor.  But he didn’t care about that right now.

On the other side of the hallway, a door opened up and brilliant light spilled out of it.  The goblins went mad as fluorescent light shone straight into their eyes.  Shielding themselves, the onslaught stopped momentarily.

Standing in the doorway was a blonde woman wearing a sundress.  She held an uzi in both hands.  The muzzles were fashioned into a demon’s face, locked in an eternal scream.

“Irina,”  She said in perfect english.  “There you were.”

“...Natalia?”  Irina said incredulously.

Natalia smiled then fired off a few more shots.  She didn’t even brace herself, the uzis seemingly not affected her balance at all.  “I’m glad to see you’re alive, dear sister.”

Another row of goblins fell.

But the ambush had run its course.  They were scurrying back into the light, squinting just enough to stave off the effects.  One of them worked up the guts to run toward Natalia, brandishing a wooden club.

A man appeared in the doorway slightly to the left and behind Natalia.  He was tall, way over six feet.  His hair, the same shade of blonde as the two Kristoff sisters, shone with otherworldly light.  But he had no weapon that Jain could see.

Instead, he held a plain looking leather-bound book in one hand.

‘That must be Lev.’

“Rise.” Lev muttered.  As he did so, he made a particular summoning motion with his free hand.

The goblin corpse nearest Natalia began to decay at a rapid rate.  First, the skin melted off.  Then, the tissue and organs dissolved until nothing but a thick purplish gas clouded over the now freed skeleton.  Right as the goblin passed by, the skeleton jerked up like a puppet whose strings were being pulled and tossed itself over the goblin.  The lingering miasma formed sharp claws on the goblin skeleton’s hands, lacerating with multiple slashes.

With every slash came out another cry from the goblin.

Until it went silent at last.

But that was just one among many.  The temporary reprieve was over and Jain was starting to realize just how unrelenting this goblin horde really was.

“Natalia.”  Lev warned.  “Hurry.”

“Irina,” Natalia called over nonchalantly, continuing to fill the air with gunfire.  “Be a dear and hurry.”  She said it in the same tone as telling someone to pass the salt.

Irina growled something out in her native tongue and cut down another goblin who recovered enough to try its luck.  She began running towards the doorway.

With a clear goal in mind, Jain managed to get to his feet.  He ran as fast as his legs would allow, not caring that he was close enough to some of the goblins to touch.

Then he stopped.

Inside the display case lay the P38.

It might have been Jain’s imagination, but it was like the gun was alive.  It gleamed with a hateful reddish glow, roiling with reddish shadows that reached out like tentacles.  Jain shook his head, blinking, sure that his eyes were playing tricks on him.  When he opened them, the strange shadows were gone.

“Jain Templar!”  Irina called.

Jain looked back to see Irina holding the door open.  He realized he’d been in some kind of trance.  In those precious few seconds, the goblins had regained their confidence and began rushing the doorway with sheer numbers.  Natalia’s uzis continued to scream again and again, mowing down the goblins one after another.

Casting one last look at the gun, Jain quickly ran towards the Kristoff siblings, noting the quiet chime that rang in the back of his skull.

Quest Complete!

***

As soon as Jain was through the door, Irina closed the door while Lev and Natalia worked together to barricade it with furniture.  Jain quickly joined in, helping Natalia drag a dresser over.

“Spasibo,”  Natalia said with a smile.

Soon after, the banging on the door stopped.  Either the goblins weren’t strong enough to break the door down or they simply weren’t interested.  Jain didn’t care which.

He watched as Natalia and Irina exchanged hugs, whispering to each other in russian.  She hugged Lev right after.

Jain saw the resemblance then.  The blonde hair, the greyish-blue eyes, the supermodel looks.  All three of them had them. But that was where the resemblance ended.  Whereas Irina looked like a model for a biker magazine, Natalia definitely belonged on the cover of a swimsuit or underwear magazine.  Lev, their brother, was the definition of tall, dark and handsome.  For god’s sake, he was holding a book and made that look good.

In fact, the three of them standing there together made Jain feel like the whole apocalypse thing might be part of a movie set.  That he was just an extra on the sidelines, watching this heartfelt reunion of the three main cast.

“Irina, be a dear and introduce your friend.”  Natalia said.

Irina nodded, “Jain.  Natalia and Lev.  My older sister and younger brother.  Natalia, Lev, meet Jain.”

Natalia took a moment to fix her sundress and one of those oversized sun hats that were supposed to be fashionable.  She reached over and put on a jean jacket, much to his disappointment.  “Pleasure.  I’m Natalia Kristoff, oldest of the Kristoff siblings.”

“Jain Templar.  Nice to meet you too.”  Jain managed not to stumble over his words, shaking her hand.

Lev was next.  “Lev.”  He said simply, closing the worn leather-bound book.

“Jain.”  Jain noted that Lev’s book had the symbol of an angry demon on the cover.

Lev quickly hid the book somewhere in his coat.  He did it way too fast to be just casual.

Did he notice Jain staring at it?

The youngest Kristoff promptly walked over to Irina.  “We need to talk.”

Irina had taken a seat, leaning her back against the wall.  She had found a cloth somewhere and was wiping the blade clean.  “Talk.”

It could’ve been Jain’s paranoia, but he could’ve sworn Lev shot Jain a look.  

“In private.”

Irina raised an eyebrow, looked at Jain, then frowned and said something in russian that Jain didn’t understand.  Lev said something back and then Irina shrugged.

“Be back.”  Irina said in her usual terse English and quickly followed Lev to a corner.

Taking that moment, Jain took a look around.  They were in some sort of storage room.  Heavy furniture mixed in with no longer used replicas.  Cheap ones, no doubt.  Too many things were covered with tarp for Jain to make out what they were.  Normally, he’d walk over to try to figure out what they were but at the moment, the effort to do so was beyond him.

He practically fell down, his leg unable to support the weight any longer.  Looking at the wound, it wasn’t too deep.  No deeper than Irina’s had been.

“So how did you and Irina meet?”  Natalia settled down next to him.

“We fought a pack of flesh eating bugs together.”  Jain joked, motioning down at his pants, or lack thereof.  “Unfortunately, I had to sacrifice my pants.”

“Ah, flesh eating bugs.”  Natalia smiled.  “A day ago, I would have laughed at the joke.  A pity laugh since it wasn’t funny, but now…”  She trailed off, her gaze stopping at the barricaded door.  “Who knew this would happen.”

“You and Lev seemed to handle yourself pretty well.”

“We managed.  My brother is very well informed.”  Natalia took a seat next to him, her legs folded to the side.  She took off the hat, putting it over her lap.  “Father always berated him for reading those useless books.  I imagine it’ll be the opposite now.”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what Natalia meant.  Anyone with knowledge about what was going on would be extremely valuable.  Even if it was just basic video game knowledge, Jain was willing to bet that their survival rate would skyrocket.  Being able to figure out that killing monsters to grow stronger was pivotal.

Then again, even if someone knew what to do, if they were stuck with skills like his…

‘I’m lucky to have made it this far.’  Jain closed his eyes, resting his head on the wall.

“Something bothering you?”

“Wondering how to get out of here.”  Jain lied.  “I haven’t the smallest inkling of how.”

“I am unfamiliar with this word, inkling.”  Natalia reminded Jane of Irina just then.

“An idea.”

“Oh.”

Oh, they were definitely siblings.

In actuality, Jain already had an ‘inkling’ of what to do to get out of this place.  But he wasn’t ready to share it yet.  One, it wasn’t a sure thing and two, he wasn’t sure they could pull it off.  Him being right and making it possible were two completely different things.

“Perhaps with Irina and you, we could.”  Natalia replied, “There were simply too many for just Lev and I.  But with you two…”

Jain laughed.  “You’re going to have to count me out.  Irina’s the muscle.”

“I was going to ask her about the new sword.”  Natalia’s attention shifted back to Jain.  “You don’t have… a big sword of your own?”

Jain must’ve been hallucinating.  First the gun, then Lev’s strange actions and now, he could’ve sworn Natalia’s eyes gave him the once over, lingering over his boxers.  Either he was crazy or she was flirting with him.

“Left mine at home.”  He croaked and immediately hated how his voice sounded.

Natalia gave him a small laugh.  “Do you always use humor in tense situations?”

“Well, I don’t know if the apocalypse counts as tense, but generally, yeah.”

She laughed, her eyes twinkling.  “I see why Irina keeps you around.”

“Maybe I’m the one keeping her around.”  Jain quipped.  “Did I mention I saved her from man eating bugs?”

Right then, Irina and Lev rejoined them.

“...You didn’t hear that, right?”  Jain asked, looking at Irina, much to Natalia’s delight.

The russian didn’t even notice.  She had her arms crossed, glaring at Lev.  Lev sighed, looking back at her.  Irina barked at him in russian and he replied by putting his hands up in surrender.  He replied in english.

“Alright, fine.”  Lev said, resigned.

“What’s this about?”  Jain asked, looking between the two.

“Nothing.  Lev was being rude.”  Irina scowled.  Then she turned to Natalia.  “Did you know?”

Natalia’s smile deepened.  “An inkling.”  She gave Jain a wicked wink.

Irina scowled even more.  “Templar! Stop smiling like dumb donkey.  And stay away from my sister.  It’s for your own good.”

“Huh?”  Jain said dumbassedly.

She rolled her eyes in response.  “Lev, be quick.”

“Da,”  Lev replied, then sat so that he was eye-level with Jain.  “How much do you know about videogames?  litRPGs?”

“I’ve played that one game.  With Zurg, Prutoss and Terren.”

“...Nevermind.”  Lev shook his head.  “I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what’s happening here.”  He gestured all around us.  “The world is ending.”

“The apocalypse.”

“Yes.  But with the world ending, we’ve been given powers.  I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.”

“Levels.  Skills,”  said Jain.

“Yes, and that is our only chance to survive.”  Lev’s spoke gravely.

Jain looked at Irina, Natalia and Lev.  Really looked at them.

The sunken cheeks.  The hollowed eyes and the ripped up clothing.  All three of them had been through their own share of suffering.  Yet, from what Jain had seen, they had things under control.  They had managed to get an understanding of their newfound abilities, as well as the new rules that were in place.  It might have been less than twenty-four hours since this whole thing happened, but they’d survived.

They’d survived because of things Lev had told them.

“Whatever this apocalypse is, there are rules.”  Lev said, repeating what Jain already knew.  “And it’s through those rules that we gain power.  When you get the chance, I recommend looking in the Player’s Handbook.  It was included with the system.  But there’s two important milestones ahead of us.”

“One, level five.”  Lev told him.  “At level five, you can choose your first class and your first stat point.”

Jain nodded, “Ok, what’s at level ten?”

Lev scrunched up his face, hesitating.

“Hurry up, Lev.”

“...Only level five is really important.  There’s no guarantee that-”

“Tell him.”  Irina repeated.

Lev sighed.  “At level ten… you can upgrade your [Race].”

“Upgrade your Race?  What… you turn Super Russian?”

“No.”  Lev’s eyes shone with a light that Jain didn’t know human eyes shone with.  A strange dark purple glow that pulsed with eerie life.  

“Beyond human.”