Chapter 189: 179. Red Death Redemption

“Listen,” Rick said, ignoring the red lust for blood, sex, and mayhem pulsating constantly through his body. “It’s all rain and jungle noises. And big chunky Yoroachians going moo.”

“But no nukes,” Emily added.

“That’s the thing with bullies. They don’t like it when you hit back. And if you hit them hard enough, they don’t recover easily.”

“Talking from experience?”

“Oh, you know it.” Rick chuckled.

“Funny, I was a bully.” Emily smiled softly. “I also wanted to be a person who put away people like you. A gangster prince would have a lot of blood on his hands, I imagine?”

“Enough to paint a wall or two, perhaps.” Rick chuckled.

Emily narrowed her eyes at him playfully.

Rick leered at her.

Emily was hot. All the Allens were. Brit was the hottest mortal girl now, making Rick want to kick himself for not holding on to her. But, their separation was for the best. Rick wasn’t stable for long-term stuff. And Brit found something more stable with Jay, even if it meant she had to play second to YoAnna.

Regardless of all that, the Champion girls were hot. Lilith wasn’t hot physically, but Rick liked her personality. That was hot. Lucky, Mike.

So, yeah, Emily was hot. Tall. Willowy. Her perky black-painted lips looked soft and inviting. She had some cheekbones on her, but that added to the supermodel grace she had going on. He couldn’t believe Tim had failed to get with her. Hailey was still a nice catch, but still… Tim had been around Emily a lot during their vigilante days before the Chair positions became a thing.

Rick looked away to keep his Red Affinity from pulsating too loudly. He was practicing celibacy now. He promised he wouldn’t fail again. He wanted to save himself and keep from getting tied down with a marriage or his own kid. The archives had text detailing how Rank 3 bodies and up could control reproduction. But Rick figured he would probably forget in the heat of the moment. And the ladies at the special hotels in Protectorate City knew Rick had real power. They could get tricky if he wasn’t careful.

At least Lilith proved to be a fair supplier of her special night time draughts. Rick didn’t know how much he owed her since they didn’t have a real Multiverse currency system going just yet. The Champions had a couple Multiverse coins for fun, but it stayed within the Champions. The stuff they’d given to Protectorate City to use as coinage wasn’t the real deal.

Rick was probably deep in the debt hole with Lilith. And Lilith had a calculative and scary way of thinking when it came to collecting her debt.

So, yeah, he needed to cut back on the nighttime hanky panky for his financial sake. And for Multiverse possibilities. It was a bad idea to look at Emily for too long with his goals in mind. But the red madness inside of Rick egged him on.

He looked again.

Their eyes met.

Emily looked amused. She knew he was attracted. Everyone knew he was a horndog. She was going to play with him, wasn’t she? Rick prayed on YoAnna’s wicked scar he could stay strong. The special ladies at the late night hotels would not see him ever again.

“Any thoughts, Richard?” Emily asked.

“Don’t call me, Richard, Ems. And you weren’t that much of a bully,” Rick said.

“Ugh, I hate Ems. But touché.” Emily shook her head. “And I am a bully. I made boys cry when they thought they could get past me to ask out YoAnna.”

“They were wimps.”

“Okay, whatever. I just find it interesting how the two of us work together and we’re opposites.”

Rick nodded thoughtfully. The red madness calmed just a tad. “If we’d continued our lives uninterrupted, you would’ve been the type of copper I’d have to chop up and feed to my dogs. Would be a shame to do that to a good woman, but you wouldn’t take a bribe, would you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I would’ve.”

Rick looked doubtful at her. They’d worked a lot together as the Crime and Justice Chairs, setting the rules that kept Protectorate City orderly in the dark and light. Every time he had to stand up for the underworld because Emily’s regulations were a little too tight and would lead to more unpredictable crime, Emily made him fight tooth and nail to change what she’d written.

No, she wouldn’t be the type of girl to take a bribe. Not from Rick. It would have to come from the shining stars above them. The true leadership. The Luckruns.

Rick found that funny to consider. He still remembered how he’d put a beating on Jay for the mishandling of YoAnna’s blood that might’ve led to this entire mess. But Rick was more upset with himself for losing his cool with the mafia Uptowners, which eventually led to his dad’s death. Thinking about that, and how he wasn’t there for the Zion Soldiers when they needed the O’Kellys made Rick feel impotent. Lifting a shit-ton of weight and becoming super buff couldn’t hide the inner pain forever.

“I still regret what happened here,” Emily said.

“Same,” Rick said.

“When will we move on?”

“When we finally get to leave Earth, maybe.” Rick took a deep breath. The red madness pulsated. It was as loud as a heavy war drum. The tension raised inside of him. Then it lowered when he exhaled. “I’m gonna be the first to get with a bunch of alien babes. And YoAnna doesn’t count.”

“I’m at a place where I feel better on my own,” Emily said. “Just me, my powers, and no one else.”

“Boring. Get with an alien dude. Maybe a muscle elf dude. One who is nicer than Beren.”

“I’m pretty sure that was Dennis’s thing.”

“Getting with muscle elf dudes?”

Emily laughed. “No, getting with elves.”

“He’s not that into it anymore. He’s all about being a righteous hero and all that virgin jazz. So take up the mantle of getting muscle elf dudes as your husbands, Emily. Someone needs to do it!”

“Rick, you’re ridiculous.”

“But am I wrong?” Rick asked.

“Three minutes until contact!” The magitek dolphin warned from the air.

Tim’s wolves spread out around the covering. They would remain mobile to avoid getting hit. Rick would probably need to absorb them first as the fighting got harder.

He could hear the enemy rushing across the southern quarters of former Junkside. The angels weren’t trying to conceal themselves and sneak in. It was a full-on attack.

Their rushing bodies cut through the trees as they killed whatever got in their path. Rick could hear Yoroachian Landscapers and protected monsters cry out in pain and death as they got caught in the way of the attackers, which made Rick feel upset for Lilith’s sake.

The Red Affinity roared with anger, pulsating through his veins, making his heart jackhammer hard. His rooster spirit wanted out of its cage of flesh. It kept clawing and clawing with its spurs, ready to rip Rick apart to start another cockfight.

Rick kept the rooster spirit bound, letting the pressure cook up further. He held his massive gold and red axe with a grip that would crush rock into fine grains. The Superior Quality weapon had been redesigned by Team Magic R&D to give major stat bonuses to Resilience, Strength, and Conviction. And it had a little more added to it.

“There,” Emily said, having finished applying some spellcraft rituals lickety split. Nothing above 3rd Circle, Rick imagined, but they looked like supportive stuff. Emily turned to him. “I’m going to play this differently since we’re both needed for defense. I will still provide plenty of support for you, though.”

“Go for it,” Rick grunted through his clenched jaw, grinning with bloodlust and rage.

Emily chanted for an incantation that ended with Vessel of the Death Metal Angel and started transforming. A stream of black and red mist poured out from between her fangs. The timing was perfect as the first of the enemy revealed themselves, loping out of the thick and wet jungle line to enter the clear, muddy space. The Red Death Pair stood on the other side, blocking the enemy’s goal– the main entrance to the Yoroachian Lair.

Rick grinned even harder as he stared the enemy down.

The cherubs were more bestial than human for sure. They were shaped oddly like someone took a human and tried to make them into a four-limbed praying mantis. Their legs were snapped backwards with an extra joint where their thighs should be. Their arms were stretched out longer than an orangutan, way longer. Each finger ended with hooked claws, too. The angelic monsters had big glassy eyes bugging out of their faces and a mouth stretched open with a shining light beaming from inside their throat. The light reminded Rick of Brit’s holy power.

Bloody feathers had sprouted out from their scalp in between the tufts of hair that remained. Four wings fluttered like misshapen appendages from their backs. The wings looked more odd and bent out of shape than useful. Rick used his 100 Intellect to imagine that the Level 80 Cherub Saboteurs were born from vessels that had no idea they’d been planted with angel stuff. Maybe the transformation of noncompliant vessels made them monstrous.

No matter, Rick stood his ground and let the first cherub run up. His Red Affinity and rooster spirit raged and pulsated and throbbed, fighting for release. Rick held it in and took the first hit across his chest. The claws ripped him open with a gory wound that would kill a Rank 2 or a weak Rank 3 instantly.

Rick shrugged it off. He was about to swing his axe in return when the same saboteur that gave him a love tap to his chest fired a holy laser from its mouth. Half of Rick’s face melted. The damage was increased a lot because of the Chance Modifier differential. He could feel his Chance was down, and the cherub had way more. That last attack had more magic to it, too, and could get around his high Resilience. The pain should’ve been horrid enough to stop him in his tracks.

Rick cleaved the monster in half with one horizontal swing of his giant axe, hacking through Chance with pure unadulterated madness. Cherub blood sprayed everywhere. The upper half of the monster’s body flipped through the air, the creature screeching with pain and shock. As soon as its torso hit the ground, Rick planted his axe down on its body and made the monster burst like a ripe red fruit.

Rick’s powers flared with his bloody red aura. His Skills [Aura of the Fervent Savage] and [Hit Me And See What Happens] was like an irresistible flame that drew all the moths that saw it. His [Bloody Poise] Talent intensified from the magic damage suffered. It helped a lot as Rick soaked in a bunch of holy laser beams. His flesh didn’t melt as quickly. But the pain remained. The pain wouldn’t ever go away as he took on a barrage of blasts before more saboteurs ran at him with a feverish and wrathful need to destroy him. The more that gave into their mindless anger and hurt Rick with pure bloodlust, the stronger he felt as the Red Affinity unleashed itself fully.

“Let’s have ourselves a proper mosh, you twisted fucks!” Rick shouted with a laugh, punching a saboteur in the face.

A rooster spirit spur grew from the end of his fist and thrust through the saboteur’s skull. He used its body as a shield before slamming it into the next saboteur. The next monster tossed aside the corpse of its brethren, slid out of the way of Rick’s giant axe chop because of Chance, and lunged into Rick’s face. Rick’s rooster spirit lashed out even faster with a hard peck that took out the saboteur’s eye.

Then a single [Burning Blood Chain] wrapped around the monster’s neck while linking it to Rick’s arm. Rick swung the creature around and hammered it into a group of its own brethren, before launching into the air and coming down with a huge and explosive aura axe chop. He exploded three of them into flaming blood before striking the earth and exploding the ground from under other saboteurs.

More [Burning Blood Chains] flew out from Rick’s body from all the opened wounds he’d suffered. They ensnared limbs if possible. Or they’d distract the saboteurs as they mobbed up on him with a relentless rush. He could barely slow them down thanks to their high Chance as they attacked from all angles, clawing, biting, blasting him down with holy lasers, and avoiding some of his surefire hits because of their damn System cheats.

And Rick roared with laughter while in the middle of the chaos. Even as he felt his Health drop closer and closer to death, he kept on laughing. He felt like a maddened drunk swinging his flaming red chains while wielding an enormous axe of gold and red. The axe hummed with zealously profane energy. The blood Rick splashed on it faded on its surface rather than drip off, as if the axe was drinking the blood. So each time Rick got a hit in, the blade seemed nearly clean of blood.

Rick hit that sweet spot where he suffered so much damage, the rest could barely do more than a teensy bit of harm. He was a mangled shape of a person at that point. His body was more of a puppet that needed [Aura of the Fervent Savage] to move him properly when most of his muscles were torn or melted off the bone. He barely had any organs left. The cherubs tried to bash down on his bones, but he was so incredibly hardened, his bones resisted, the frame that propped him up wouldn’t get damaged easily. And every attempt risked their Chance failing them because Rick was at his strongest now. Each swing of his giant axe struck like bloody bombs plus more, way more.

“Big Bloody Boom Parade,” Rick cast, triggering the runes in his giant axe.

The bloody explosive hits intensified and sent out dozens of crimson crescent waves at the nearest enemies. From an outsider’s perspective, Rick would look like a chewed up and misshapen human corpse with a ghostly rooster and a dozen burning chains striking out at random. This was all while Rick ran through the muddy, corpse-riddled field with a giant axe. And each successful chop against the cherubs ended with literal explosions of blood and force that sent out ranged blood magic waves that hacked apart monsters left and right.

Body parts rained constantly as Rick’s maddened insanity overcame the Chance of the saboteurs, and the way he laughed as he went would probably make the System gods shudder. But Rick had his limits. The powers keeping him alive and effective required more than just lowered Health. His Stamina and Mana were lowering fast. Rick could barely pay enough attention to that stuff until he heard Emily speak out with a voice that sounded like two metal bats fucking with wanton glee.

“Rick needs Stamina and Mana,” she screeched from somewhere beyond Rick’s vision. That pulled Rick out of his tunnel vision to look beyond the onslaught for the first time. There were fewer enemies that needed killing around him.

He hadn’t realized how dark it had gotten. And cold. Way cold. The jungle canopy above him writhed with black and red mist flowing like a pit of coiling snakes. That was Emily’s aura and junk. As a few survey dogs and Mana beams struck Rick on the back, resupplying him with Stamina and Mana, Rick ignored the Cherubs in his face and searched for Emily. Because of the death mist surrounding the place, Emily was hidden from sight, and she could distort Perception with her affinity.

But Rick did catch sight of metal-encased wraiths ambushing lone cherubs. The wraiths were ten feet tall from armored helm to their ghostly hips. When they lunged out of the mist and ambushed their prey from unpredictable directions, the wraiths sometimes missed because of Chance, but they didn’t stay for long. The wraiths disappeared back into the surrounding mist, keeping the cherubs confused and wary if they weren’t caught up with Rick’s red madness. Still, that didn’t explain where Emily had gone off too when Rick had a funny feeling that made him want to look up.

Emily came crashing down pronto, her entrance as a twenty-foot metal bat angel of death gave Chance a kick in the mouth while crushing cherub scum under her metal boots. Three sets of wings fluttered from her back. A feathery pair, a leathery pair, and a spiritual pair. In her hand was an improved version of an old incantation, the Supreme Scythe of Reaping. The red crescent blade was even larger and more outrageous than before, and its pole curved like a gnarled branch from wicked woods. This one took the souls of humans and monsters that had earned the Death [Medium’s] ire. And she looked the part, like she belonged on a gothic metal cover while dressed in armor with a metal skirt that dangled with the skull of a death-based immortal serving as a talisman.

Emily picked the perfect time to join because Rick was a little too close to death, so he had to absorb his aura and fix himself up, losing his offensive advantages. That was the perfect time for Rick to take a step back and let Emily strode around the battlefield and scythe through the Cherubs. Since she was a [Medium], it was harder for the enemy to mess with her Chance. It wouldn’t be as high, Rick figured, but she struck more often than not. And placing [We Bleed Together] on her helped absorb some of the hits she suffered as she strode around or flew in the air as a giant death angel batgirl.

Her spellcraft rituals were all lit up on her body, covering her in black and red runes. And she had more incantations to unleash, especially Cold Harvest, which Rick saw freeze the Cherubs, draw out their stamina, and buff Emily’s giant armored body even further. The only weakness Emily had was Mana, but the magitek dolphin from Macy kept supplying that.

“Out of Mana! Out of Mana!” the magitek dolphin said. “I can only keep you informed now.”

“Whelp, there goes that,” Emily sighed, her voice still grating for most people to hear. Rick didn’t mind much as he kept trying to not imagine a hot night out with death angel Emily.

She burst into a cold black and red mist, returning to her more mundane batgirl form of a non-giant size. She landed next to Rick while holding her Supreme Scythe of Reaping.

“I can’t hold that form without extra Mana,” Emily explained. “And that was only the first wave, right?”

“Correct!” the magitek dolphin answered.

Rick looked across the field. It was covered in saboteur corpses. They weren’t that tough. But the Chance Modifier difference was annoying to deal with. Rick missed more often than he’d prefer, wasting his energy. It was more of a battle of attrition when fighting angels. The Champions had grown enough to fight against Chance, but it burnt up resources and left Rick frustrated. But…

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Rick checked his last notifications from the System. Rick blinked. “Oh, new levels.”

Emily smiled wickedly. “They’re not that strong. But Jay said this was a good time to power level. Fighting against all that Chance adds to the Experience gains.”

“More Cherub Saboteurs on their way!” the magitek dolphin informed.

Emily drained a Mana Potion.

Rick looked her up and down. “Don’t you dare tempt me, Emily.”

“And why would I do that to you?” Emily licked her lips. “I would hate to hold you down when you have such admirable goals.”

“Yeah, well, you’re hot. And all that Death Affinity awesomeness with your giant form, that was hot, too. And I can’t think straight when most of my brains are between my legs.”

Rick shook his head. Maybe that was why he couldn’t do things right. He was a simple lad. He liked to drink and smoke. He liked to fight and fuck. He loved being enraged, and the Red Affinity suited him, and so did his animal spirit.

But sometimes Rick felt bad that he couldn’t overcome being such a simpleton. Sometimes Rick felt jealous that Tim was more level-headed and better at everything. Dad always liked Tim more even though Rick had done his best to work the family business more.

Emily tapped him on the shoulder.

Rick looked into her dark eyes.

“See me tonight,” Emily shot out. “I want nothing long term if that’s okay with you. But that doesn’t mean we can’t help each other out until we find our nice muscle elves, dude or dudette.”

Rick shook off his emotional funk and smiled. Maybe it wasn’t all bad being himself. Some people reciprocated. Now Rick had an extra perk to his step as the next wave of cherub bastards came running out.

The second wave didn’t seem as eager as the first wave when they looked down at all the corpses on the floor. Better yet for the Red Death pair, they worked alongside each other this time. Emily’s wraiths corralled on the edges while Rick took the center of attention.

Emily stayed behind him with a big hand cannon raised, taking the best shots she could with her [Grave Eye] Skill. If the critical shot killed, she could possess the slain cherub and send those out. Sometimes she stepped in to scythe through a cherub when one side of the field got a little too heavy for Rick to keep up with.

They both traded their supportive Skills, Emily’s [Echo of Karma] and Rick’s [We Bleed Together], to lessen the damage on each other and repay the cherubs for their attacks. They weren’t the strongest of Champions, and Rick was pretty sure Brit could do this job all by herself now, but the Red Death pair held the line.

Fighting off this wave was more measured for Rick and Emily. The process was smoother, too, especially with the Red Death pair having Titles such as [Young Virtuosos of Violent Ballads] and [Prodigies of Monster Slaying]. Those Titles along with the other powers in their profiles helped unite them together for a bloody and deadly dance they’d drilled in training and perfected while out in the field.

The second wave fell. The corpse floor grew taller. There were mounds now. Rivers of blood flowed between the piles of angelic monster bodies that had once been Floridians minding their own business.

Rick and Emily chugged down more Stamina and Mana Potions. They were going to start building up immunities soon. Things were going to get harder. The magitek dolphin swapped with another that could ease the burden with a fresh supply of Mana recovery lasers. The third wave struck before Emily could transform into a death angel batgirl again. This wave was bigger and more ferocious than the first two combined.

“Initiating Magitek Extreme Defense Protocol!” squawked the dolphin.

“I thought we were saving those for later!” Emily shouted as she stood on top of an angel corpse pile, shooting hand cannon after hand cannon with both arms.

She had wraiths swapping out empty guns for loaded ones at a cyclic rate. More wraiths helped Rick hold the line, engorging on the heavy death to keep fueling them. Many bat spirits scratched at the cherubs’ faces while rooster spirits attacked their legs. Emily could help boost the effectiveness of the animal spirits, but this was a last resort for her since it lowered her Chance and made their defense overall weaker against the Chance superior monster wave.

Rick could barely hold his own as he swung his axe tiredly, feeling tempted to chug another Stamina Potion despite the immunity buildup. He was missing too many times. And the monsters kept battering him to slow his attacks rather than try to kill him. All of this was an effort to push him back since he was the center. Emily was positioned behind him. The cherubs could shove him into Emily and overrun their position fully from there. They were doing a damn good job at pushing Rick back, too.

“The order was sent by the Pantheon Commander,” the magitek dolphin explained. “Three Valkyries are enroute!”

“Rick, let’s use the GSO now!” Emily shouted.

“Fuck it!” Rick triggered one of the best Talents the Champions had, [Great Status Overflow: Stamina]. He found a tiny window to chug down another Stamina Potion, ignoring the immunity to get himself closer to tiptop shape. He needed it to work his aura Skill to the fullest as he lashed out with more gusto.

Giant axe chop!

Giant axe chop!

Chop, chop, chop!

Rick ignored the misses. He laughed with every hit he suffered. He pushed against the relentless monsters and cleaved into their bodies with pure devil-may-cry madness. He pushed as hard as he could until Emily finished chanting Vessel of the Death Metal Angel and transformed once more.

A cold gust blew against his back. Emily’s giant shadow passed over him. She landed with a heavy thud, crushing two cherubs under her metal boots. She was smaller this time around, only fifteen feet tall. But she had a new trick added to this version of the incantation, something that looked inspired by Rick. She had a metal chain wrapped around the shortened pole of her scythe. With a swing of her arm, she lashed out and hacked at the Conviction of the cherubs. They had a bunch of that stuff, but Emily hacked at their greatest source of power to weaken them and lower their Chance and rip away their souls– the monster souls, not the people souls.

Rick had enough Perception to see the spirits of innocent people who had their bodies hijacked by angelic forces. The innocent souls flew up and faded away into the great beyond. They seemed pretty damn thankful of the Red Death pair as Rick lunged in to cover Emily’s flank. They pushed and pushed until the fourth wave caught up with the third wave and forced the Red Death pair backward regardless of Emily’s transformation and Rick’s overflowing Stamina.

Every inch Rick and Emily had fought for disappeared as the monsters shoved them back, ripped apart the death wraiths, and battered Rick and Emily with countless claw strikes and holy lasers the two could barely defend against. Emily’s giant body fell, and the cherubs started clawing over her. Rick was about to give up his position to save Emily, giving the cherubs a straight shot at their goal. That would screw over the entire team, but Rick could not stand back and let Emily get taken out.

Thankfully, the valkyries arrived. And they were playing that song, too. Rick might’ve heard it from a war movie.

Three flying magitek constructs swooped through the jungle canopy. They had boxy bodies and tube-like arms and thrusters for legs. They weren’t anything pretty, which Rick imagined was to Macy’s annoyance. But when the end of their claw-like grippers opened up and started shooting hyper laser beams that hacked through cherubs like they were made of tissue paper, Rick didn’t care that the valkyries wouldn’t have kids clamoring to get their own toy-sized collectible.

The Level 90 [Valkyrie Constructs] had a lot of Miraculous Magic Science stuff done to them to transition from Superior Quality products to Systemized creatures with ranks and levels. Rick didn’t bother to figure out how that worked.

He tackled cherubs off of Emily’s body, bashed their faces in, lost his axe, and went hog wild with his fists alone. His punches didn’t hit that hard compared to striking with his axe, but it was enough to smash aside Emily’s attackers so she could get back to her feet.

Rick wasn’t really trying to be a hero, anyway. Emily would’ve done the same for him or any Champion. Despite all of Rick’s losses, the Champions felt like a place where he belonged. They had a bond that was deeper than blood.

“Your axe,” Emily said with her metal-shrieking voice, handing the giant weapon to Rick.

He grabbed it, grunted out a thanks, and looked up as the valkyries continued shooting laser beams with a seemingly infinite supply of Mana. That was the thing that made them highly valued projects. They could keep firing at max power for a while. It was the same attack. No variety. But Rick looked at the damage it wrought on the cherubs and decided consistent firepower was better than cool tricks.

“The valkyries took a long time to develop because of the blessings we wanted to give them,” Emily explained, striding back into the fight casually. Her metal boot found a cherub missing its legs and splattered it with a stomp. “It was especially hard without Brit, so the Magic R&D department had to rely on me and whoever else had [Medium] powers and would not turn on our eldritch commander. And that is thanks to Macy for staying on top of the project. It’s not to her liking, but their forms are simple because that’s the best shape for them to keep their blessings as of now.”

“What’s the big deal about the blessings?” Rick asked.

“Filthy high luck,” Emily said. “They’re hitting on target because of that. Add in the magitek Mike and Hailey worked on for draining Mana from the environment, and they work as auto-targeting beam shooters with theoretical infinite ammo.”

Rick could see why the Protectorates wanted to hold off on showing these things. And he figured there were weaknesses. That became apparent when one valkyrie exploded suddenly. It wasn’t a big blast. It fell apart in smoldering pieces with little fanfare even though it had taken no damage.

“That’s the problem with the valkyrie program,” Emily explained as she held a cherub by one arm and carved it open like a pig with her scythe. “All that luck delivers a karmic backlash. The issue is trying to delay that as long as possible. Unfortunately, it’s an unpredictable consequence, so we can lose a valkyrie at any moment.”

Rick finished hacking down some more saboteurs that slipped by the valkyrie laser show. Now that the Champions were down to two valkyries that could fail at any moment, more cherubs progressed past the laser volley and made their presence felt against the Red Death pair. Rick gritted his teeth, staying mindful of the limited duration of his [Great Status Overflow: Stamina], and praying for the rest of Team Redemption to finish up.

He felt a tingle through his body and a burst of euphoric pleasure when YoAnna’s presence touched him in response to his prayer. Rick could never stop himself from looking at YoAnna with a lot of lust. He much appreciated her patience with him. He appreciated everyone’s patience with him, his brother especially. Rick could be an asshole, and Tim knew that best.

So Rick had a more pleasant and subdued smile on his face when the rest of Team Redemption appeared. He expected them to jump into the fight to mop up this wave, but Cutie was yelling and waving for them to move. Rick had a cherub screaming in his face before he tightened his [Burning Blood Chains] around its neck and snapped it. Then Rick refocused on Cutie’s words.

“Run, dammit! Get your asses into gear and run!” Cutie shouted.

“What?” Rick asked, dumbfounded.

“They used the other entrances to find us! We just got away!” Fuzzy explained while holding Ms Kowalski’s safety bubble. It was a funny sight since Fuzzy was so small compared to the bubble. But the unfortunate part was how she acted as a big neon sign for the monsters to attack her and reach their true goal– Ms Kowalski and that weird black sphere in her grasp. 

The cherubs rushed with a vengeance. Tim zipped in and blew the nearest cherubs apart with a rapid fire volley of arrows from his legendary bow. Tim couldn’t miss, either. The bow’s divine properties and his [Killer Aim Matrix] made it harder for Chance to screw with Tim. But as Rick, Emily, and their constructs backed off and linked up with the rest of Team Redemption, Rick felt a little worried when he didn’t spot Gatanna.

The giant monstress dashed his worries away when she punched the giant covering free from the hole and climbed up, her scaly dreadlocked head smashing through the jungle canopy, her feet shaking the ground as she squashed living and dead cherubs under foot. The [Super Yogatzilla II] roared thunderously as she unleashed her [Aura of the Kaiju] Skill. Then her next roar came out as a brown and yellow blast that pounded the middle of the cherub wave into paste, knocked down a bunch of jungle trees, and drew a long and wide furrow through the earth where more cherubs came.

Rick bellowed with laughter as he ran alongside Cutie. Emily flew using her multiple wings, remaining as a death angel batgirl. She covered one flank of Gatanna while Tim covered the other as Team Redemption transitioned into a retreating fight. Gatanna followed at the back, lashing out with her tail to smash cherubs trying to chase them down. Rick and Cutie pushed further ahead to lead the way, but they didn’t move too far from Fuzzy who remained the most important piece of this team. Fuzzy multitasked between holding the precious package and providing Stamina and Mana recovery, leaving the healing job to Emily with her [Medium] powers or Tim with his Endless Affinity.

With Cutie at the helm, Rick felt a little lighter. He also felt Cutie’s overall ‘weight’ growing. Rick wished for things to be different with Cutie, but then he shrugged his shoulders and prepared to serve as best he could. The O’Kelly Family and Zion Soldiers may have fallen as organizations, but what remained continued to persist through the survivors. And Rick was ready to sacrifice it all if it meant Cutie and Tim remained as the survivors.

“None of that!” Cutie snapped at him suddenly before covering her fist in green infernal flames and delivering a [Hellbent Strike] to a cherub. “None of that suicidal stuff, Rick! If you’re going to pay me back, you’re going to do that by living, nitwit!”

Rick held down the bloom of happiness he felt inside. He was still a fuckup, but at least he could try to make up for that.

“Aye, team leader,” Rick responded before chucking his axe at a cherub dashing in from the sides. His axe missed. The cherub ran in eagerly when Rick’s [Burning Blood Chain] flew past the cherub, wrapped around his axe handle, and yanked it back. The cherub avoided its head getting cleaved off, but it couldn’t slow its momentum when Rick grabbed the axe and swung for the fences.

Another cherub flew in pieces, its torso falling into Cutie’s grasp as she used one of her Skills to burn it up with green flames and repair her damages with the cherub’s ashen remains. Rick smiled. More badass magic fired off all around him as Cutie led them out of the reservation, up the road to uptown, and through the heart of Protectorate City.

They readjusted as they went, but most of the formation remained the same with Gatanna at the back, tanking attacks from the rear. She feasted on cherubs she got her big mitts on, her body adapting and strengthening mid-run. Destruction followed in their wake as she became stronger and more aggressive with her tail swings.

They lost their remaining valkyries. Lots of people died when they couldn’t get out of the way. None of that mattered. Team Redemption pushed forward while the cherubs hounded them constantly.

Tim kept firing like a machine gun while using [Aura of the Wolf] to increase team movement and coordination. Emily pestered with bat spirits, ambushed with wraiths, and flew in like a winged monstress as she scythed through cherub Conviction and fed her new scythe their lives. Rick kept guard next to Fuzzy, his Stamina spent up pretty badly, which required more Stamina recovery once [Great Status Overflow] went on cooldown. He relied more on his [Burning Blood Chains] now, entangling cherubs or slowing them down enough for others to target.

Cutie stayed mostly at the front, her team following the gravity of her leadership. She was unrelenting. Like an unstoppable locomotive. Green flames grew bigger and bigger across her body as her Hellbent Affinity took over. Then she became a green flaming comet when she used her Super Skill [Gates of the Unrelenting Monstress]. That added a hint of green fire to all of Team Redemption’s attacks, delivering more damage while both pumping up Cutie and granting HP recovery to everyone.

Cutie grew a couple more feet and completely ignored the Chances of cherubs caught in her grasp, tearing them apart with her undeterred Strength and eating them alive while on the run. And in the wake of Cutie’s Hellbent rampage, cursed corpses stood to their feet, their eyes burning with green flames because of Cutie’s [Captain of the Wandering Undead] Skill. It would’ve worked better on moving undead, strengthening them as she controlled them. But the Skill could also raise up new undead, even though they would be weaker.

The zombies still gave the cherubs problems as the enemy tried to keep up the persistent chase while forced to deal with Gatanna’s sweeping tail, Tim’s arrows, Emily’s ambushes, and a growing undead army. By the time Cutie led Team Redemption to the front gates of the pantheon estate, they left a trail of burning green flames, smashed infrastructures, and lots and lots of death behind them.

Rick nearly lost himself to insane giddiness. The outright chaos this whole event inspired was hilarious to him. But he clamped down on his red madness and shrugged off all the imprinted moments of nuclear explosions, divine retributions, and monstrous fighting. He focused on the one thing that mattered as Team Redemption reentered the pantheon estate successfully.

“Did we do it?” Rick asked. “Did the bloody egghead there get the goods?”

Ms Kowalski stared outside of her bubble like a lost and traumatized child. She was unresponsive as she clutched her metal orb closely.

“Yeah, we did it,” Cutie answered, back to normal and looking pretty faint for an undead. She didn’t have the added weight anymore. The gravity thing Jay had given her was gone. “We had to go to a place Tim and Emily were familiar with.”

“What place?” Rick asked as Emily returned to her regular form and faced away. He noticed Tim clenching his jaw subtly, something Rick could spot after all the years of being a twin.

“The boss lair of the original Yoroachian Queen,” Cutie answered. “Ms Kowalski had to scan for some stuff there with that doohickey. She finished up just in time before the cherubs found us.”

“And I picked it up, too.” Fuzzy tried to balance Ms Kowalski’s bubble on her head.

“Picked up what?” Rick leaned closer, feeling very curious. Tim seemed very bothered, which sucked in Rick’s attention even more.

“RoAnna’s body. It was still there, perfectly preserved.” Fuzzy turned to look at Rick with her multicolored lens for eyes. The bubble containing Ms Kowalski stayed perfectly balanced on her head. “I’m giving the body to the egg if our [Godling] doesn’t want it.”

“How terribly wonderful,” Rick said. “What more could we put into our baby undead egg before it hatches?” And what would come out after feeding it so much?

Rick had no idea. But at the very least, he gained a bunch of levels. And he had a new place to sleep tonight. All this death and destruction could really make a guy feel spirited. Hopefully, Emily was mindful of canceling the reproduction stuff or Rick would have to owe Lilith more favors.