Chapter 9: Chapter 8 – Hero

Erick released the trigger from his still smoking minigun watching its barel slowly stop spinning, ahead of him lay a sea of dead horned rats, his ears were still ringing from the noise but he couldn’t help smiling at the power of his weapon, with mana cursing through his enhanced body he could actually shoot the thing from the hip, it gave him an incredible sense of power.

He had initially thought using the 2 miniguns to be a little too much for the simple creatures but they went by the the principle of better safe than sorry, now he was glad they did.

The majority of the horned rats had been the usual level 1 or 2, useless against them but the elite and the boss were something else, hiding among their lesser brethren they cast powerful magicks through their horns, their thunder strikes were powerful enough to overcome even their armor’s powerful defenses actually eletricuting Beta 7, the team’s medic had to restart his hearth.

“Team 2 and 3 clean those bodies away and burn them, team 1 help with the wounded!” While Beta 1 started to set a defense perimeter Eric released his heavy gun, letting his mana disperse from his muscles he felt his sense of strength vanishing to be replaced with exhaustion, walking towards the floating black orb he put his hand over it, a minute latter it turned completely blue

[Congratulations Siegfried from the US army guild has claimed this node + 100 XP to all guild members in the node’s range]

[Congratulations you have reached level 3, as a human you gain 1 free attribute point]

Distributing his new point on speed getting it to 9 points then went to help with the bodies, deciding to save mana he did it the usual way, with a natural 10 strength it was not that hard, soon 3 huge fires were lighted.

Beta 1 once again barked in an angry voice “Team 2 and 3 will guard the node while team 1 advance to the city core, Loki should be meeting us there” putting his minigun back into a supply box with the second one and their ammunition he concentrated and release a small amount of power from his core letting it run through his veins feeding his muscles with pure mana and empowering them slightly, only about 40%, a situation he could easily maintain for quite some time he lifted the huge crate on his back and started following team 1.

They were only 5 blocks away from the rat node when he caught some movement from the corner of his eyes, focusing on the slightly open manhole he say a small blonde head peek through quickly and hide again, his mood was ruined at the sight of the small child alone in such terrible place.

“Siegfried you okay?” “Yeah, sure” moving on before team 1 left him behind He tried to ignore the child, they would have time to save her later, when their mission was complete, He managed to walk a full 5 steps before his legs wouldn’t move anymore “Fuck it!” releasing his crate he ran back to the manhole and squatted looking down.

A young and dirty girl of around 8 years old was curled into a ball on a corner of the wall quietly crying and trying to hide “Hey beautiful” the girl gave a little scream and tried to hide harder “Shhhh, it’s okay cutie we are here to help” “Don’t… don’t call me cute… momy said only bad people say it like that!”

Behind his back Erick could hear his teammates snickering and Beta 1 grumbling “Just what we need, another burden before we complete the mission” “oh come on captain, it’s just a kid”, ignoring the other four Erick continued “It’s okay I am not a bad guy, what’s your name?” peaking through her bangs she replied “Lily” “Well Lily don’t you want to leave this hole? It’s okay we can keep you safe” finally lifting her blonde head she looked at him with her big green eyes “Will you help me look for mommy?” “I can try” her small face was filled with indecision so Erick took off his helmet and smiled “Come here” getting up she came closer and lifter her arms, picking her up he put her into his shoulders while she mumbled “I want to go home”.

Picking his crate back up he got an angry look from Beta 1 but, whatever, he was from Ragnarok he didn’t answer to the Einherjar, soon they started back towards the prefecture as the sun started to go down “Are we there yet?” asked the little girl waving her small feet over his shoulders “almost Lily, just 40 more minutes” “That’s too long!” smiling at the girl’s voice he offered “Why don’t you sing a little then?” “YES!” “Siegfried we can’t have a child singing in the middle of a mission!” “Relax a little Captain, we should have conquered all nodes, the most dangerous creatures should be dealt with, anything her singing may attract will only be more XP for us”

As they advanced with the setting sun Lily started singing lightly while Erick whistled a tune, they made a strange vision, a group of 5 heavily armed people, one of them carrying a nearly two meters tall crate with a little girl on top advancing accompanied by a song. “Hey!” screamed a man from a third story window “Hey! Help!”

A private channel opened as Beta 1 spoke “Siegfried we can’t save everyone” “I agree Beta 1 but our mission is nearly complete, what’s the problem with letting some of them follow us on their own?” Beta 1 shook her head and closed the private channel so he screamed at the man “Look man, if you can get down and follow us we are going to the prefecture, if not we can send some people latter to help you out!”

As their noise attracted attention a horned rat that had been away from the boss jumped over the cars towards him but Beta 3 turned around and released a burst of 3 bullets exploding it’s head and they moved on.

The barricade become visible 4 blocks away from the city core, corpses of horned rats, humans, minotaurs and many other creatures could be seen on the street clean of cars in a sort of kill zone, putting Lily down on the ground Erick patted her blonde head and squatted down “Stay here sweetie you are almost safe” “Okay” getting back up he turned to a blonde woman with a short sword at her side and a haunted look in her eyes “Take care of her” the woman nodded and he left.

All five of them dressed in armor approached the barricade and soon there were about 15 man with all kinds of guns aimed at then, only 3 of them were policemen, Beta 1 spoke first “We are the US army don’t shoot!” a man in the center of the barricade looked at her, he held a shotgun and had a cruel air, his hair was still messy with blood “Yeah? And how do we know that?” taking out some official looking papers from her back Beta 1 handed it to the man and took a few steps back.

After reading the papers the man started to get nervous, two other men came closer and started whispering among themselves but, with their helmet’s help they all could hear them “I thought the government had fallen man” “What if it’s true?” “No it’s the mayors town now they can’t just take over” “Yeah, and who knows they could be one of those Changelongs or whatever was their name, just changing their appearance to trick us, they certainly look strange enough”.

Deciding to end their speculations early Beta 1 took off her helmet letting her brunet long hair fall to her back “Look we are human, we just need to get inside, we have around 200 people with us and need a safe place to leave them”.

Looking at Beta 1’s face the four man exchanged a few more words then the shotgun wielding one answered “Ok, you can come in but you have to leave your weapons with us” “I am sorry but I can’t do that” smiling to take the bite out of her words Beta 1 gestured at the city “We are just not allowed to go without weapons in the world right now” lowering his head the man said “It’s a pity” Beta 1 tried to reason further “Looks it’s just an army thing, we really have to get inside” Erick snickered, who knew they taught soldiers to use female willies “you understand right?” “I see… then die!”

Lifting his shotgun before any of them could react he shoot Beta 1 in the face, the back of her head exploded in blood, bones and brain matter that splashed over Erick’s helmet and chest armor, the other 3 team members scattered jumping for cover as all 15 men opened fire their way but Erick just stood there, his armor blocking the bullets and his enhanced body strong enough to withstand the already half dispersed impact.

Erick Lennon was not a killer and, despite the many dead corpses around the city, he had never seen a person die in front of him, since he was 10 years old and discovered his power he had been trained to kill monsters and save humans, when he was 16 he had to face a tiger in hand to hand combat, at 17 he had to spend a month alone in a desert but all those times the danger was to himself or animals never other humans.

He had always been a simple man, a little dumb even, so he had to read, get classes and learn from the best teachers in the world turning what he himself recognized to be a gentle musclehead into an intelligent man that the system itself attributed a 6 on intellect and wisdom, slightly above average.

In his mind he knew people would take this new reality as a license to kill and oppress each other but he still hoped that, with a common enemy, mankind would unite and help each other, it seems he was wrong.

Standing there as they shoot at him Erick was angry at himself and those bastards, slowly drawing his giant sword from his back he circulated the maximum amount of mana through his veins making himself 200% stronger, darting towards the barricade he swung his sword sideway bashing away the 4 man in command before picking up a wooden pole used in the barricade, a 3 meters long 50 cm wide pole he flung to his right smashing most of the shooters there, the only two that managed to jump aside were shoot by the Einherjar of team 1.

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Turning to his left where the last 6 men stood, their mouths hanging open he punched the first one on the face before grabbing the second by the throat and throwing him at the others hitting 3 of them, finally kicking the last one on the stomach.

Ignoring the pain filled cries he stepped into one’s arm as he moved inside the perimeter dead set on finding whoever commanded those men and giving him a piece of his mind.

As he looked at the buildings around the prefecture he saw many tired faces without hope, at the side of the street there was a drunk man fallen, walking some more he saw a young man dart from a building and point a pistol with trembling hands, slapping the gun away Erick grabbed the boy’s throat and lifted him into eye level “Where is the leader of this place?” his deadly calm voice freaked the boy even more he peed his pants and pointed at the prefecture, good it saves time to be in the same place as the city core.

There were two guards at the door of the building the boy pointed out, two shots rang out from Beta 2 dropping both men before they could even turn around to warn someone else inside and Erick stormed the place.

The door exploded inward with a kick as he entered the wide corridor that ended into a reception desk, stopping to think for a second he hear some muffed sound from his right and turned, opening every door with violence he saw that most were completely empty of people but had improvised weapons, stocked food and luxurious items, as the doors banged on the walls a naked fat man opened another one further inside “What the hell is going on here!” his helmet’s facial recognition software told him the fat man was the chief of police.

The sound of flesh hitting flesh coming out of the room were the last straw for him, putting all his power on his right leg he pushed against the ground leaving a footprint on the marble floor, grabbing the fat man by the arm Erick threw him on the opposite wall before storming into the room, already knowing what he would find.

Many startled naked men were there standing over beat down young girls or beautiful woman, one particular corner there were two kids no older than 11 years old, their tights were still bleeding, their image overlapped in his mind with the one of the little girl Lily outside.

Screaming in rage his eyes turned red but, before he could do anything, a huge muscular man drove into his side carrying him through a wall and riding him into the ground, the men was completely naked but had a metal gauntlet on his left hand which he used to punch the helmet repeatedly “You fucking idiot who do you think you are” after the fourth punch even the metal of his helmet started to get bent “I am a fucking level 4 you bitch I rule here!”

Putting a hand on the side of the man’s head and another on his chest Erick pushed him aside and smashed him on the ground once, twice, three times before getting up and kicking his stomach, the threw up all over the floor but he continued kicking and kicking.

“Siegfried, Siegfried!” looking to the side he saw one of the Einherjar trying to drag him away from the collapsed and bleeding bastard on the ground, breathing deeply he looked around, them up and counted to 10 before he could calm down “Bring them away, bring them all away, the law will decide their fate latter”.

Still breathing hard he turned his face away from the rape room letting the rest of the team deal with the naked men and women while he grabbed a metal chair and ripped it out of the ground, dragging it towards the big floating black orb the size of a basketball he used his power to pierce it’s broken legs into the marble and sit down, putting a hand on the orb and waiting 10 whole minutes.

[Congratulations, the US army guild has conquered the city core + 500 XP]

When he walked out of the node’s room he saw that the Einherjar had already dragged the rapists away and were busy helping the victims while a few dressed men and women were coming into the building, not wanting to see it anymore he left in search of the little girl.

When night came the Einherjar had already managed to separate the criminals and rapists from the few normal people, using the civilians they reformed and strengthened the defense perimeter fully blocking all other entrances but the main street, opening the wooden crate Erick mounted both rotating guns at one side and a massive autocannon on the other, tired both in mind and body Erick found a bed and decided to take a nap.

Lark watched his guards, it was almost midnight and both were already nearly dozing off on their feet as they had been guarding him for just about 4 hours already, Lark was a brutal man having taken only 2 days to reach level 4 he had faced all kinds of monsters and killed many humans, there was no way he was getting killed like a common criminal.

“Hey Cornwell, it is Cornwell right? I remember because your daughter kept calling your name as I penetrated her ass” “Shut up! Shut the fuck up!” the old man holding a 6-shot revolver just said and continued ignoring him “No its true, she cried and called for you, it made her squeeze me harder” finally losing his cool the old man lifted his revolver “That’s it I am gonna kill this fucking bastard!” “Cornwell calm down man” his companion, a skinny man with a beard tried to stop him but Lark continued “You know what’s best mate? By the end of it she enjoyed me, she was moving by herself!”

Knowing he had succeeded Lark stepped away from the window as two bullets hit it, shattering the glass, as the old man came closer actually dragging the other guard so he could have a better shot Lark activated his own ability <burning blood> it was a powerful skill that turned his own blood into a lava like substance, slashing both his arms with his own nails he threw his blood out the window on the old man’s face, getting the other guard in the arm as well, then he turned towards the door and used his blood to melt the lock.

His ability quickly drained his mana but the pain filled screams from the guards and the melting door lock were rewards enough, kicking the door with his 11 strength he quickly escaped the room and broke their necks before their screams attracted someone else, picking up both weapons he threw one to his right-hand man and kept the revolver for himself as he quickly escaped the building and the perimeter.

Laughing happily Lark decided, he needed to get stronger then get himself one of those fancy black armors, this world was different now and it would be his, “I am gonna kill that fucking wannabe hero.”

“Sigh, don’t you always hate how superheroes have to keep fighting the same villain over and over again in comics?” Turning around Lark lifted his revolver searching for the source of the voice among all 39 men that followed him “I mean even when they win the hero always lock them away in a supposedly safe location and you just know the villain is gonna escape sooner or later.”

“Show yourself!” starting to get creeped out Lark screamed and pointed his gun towards the darkness of the alley but only saw shadows “SHOW YOURSELF!” “Then you get that speech about the value of life and how they are heroes, they can’t step as low as the villains, they can’t degenerate or they lose… bullshit.”

“I am gonna fucking kill you, you little creep!” one of his men used magic to illuminate the alley they were in but Lark still couldn’t see the speaker, only his men were there and 15 of them were already missing “But like the man who defeated you heroes are needed, they give inspiration and hope for the people even when there are those who take advantage of their good nature”

Dropping from the top of a building another black armored man stepped in front of Lark, he tried to shoot the guy but found that he couldn’t even move, he and all his men fell down to their knees dragged down by an invisible force, Lark’s own arm started to bend against his will, slowly it brought his gun closer and closer to his own head, the figure crouched down in front of him “Too bad for you I am not a hero.”