The apocalypse is a side.., p.43
The Apocalypse is a Side Quest: Book Three, page 43
A shifting noise. A dwarf was approaching. Nathan went deathly still. Anand breathed out slowly and waited.
The dwarf stepped inside and caught sight of them. Moving faster than Nathan had ever seen him move, Anand quickly pulled the man inside the tent and locked him in a chokehold. He covered his mouth in a smooth motion, and the dwarf squirmed around, muffled yells coming from him. After several long, painful seconds, Nathan watched as Anand dropped the dwarf to the ground.
Anand poked his head through the tent cover. “I don’t see anyone inside. Let’s get going.”
The two hopped from tent to tent, using brush and fabric as their cover. For the most part, they tried to stay out of sight of any potential enemies. When there was no other choice, Anand would quickly and effectively incapacitate the foe.
Before long, they were just within reach of the railgun.
Up close, it was even more ridiculous. Sleek lines flowed along the outside of it, the whole thing looking as if it had been machined from a single block of metal. Random lights and dials were scattered along the side and back.
Seeing a team of dwarves with huge beards and medieval plate armor managing it was possibly one of the most ridiculous things Nathan had ever seen.
Anand scowled. “We’re not gonna be able to take them out one by one. They’re working together. We’ll have to get them in one go.”
Nathan nodded. “I can take the two on the right; you take the two at the control panel.”
“All right. Move fast.”
For the first time, Nathan was struck by the fact that this was all incredibly stupid and there was absolutely no way that this would work.
He advanced forward, watching the guards carefully.
One reached up and scratched his forehead. In that moment, Nathan struck. He jumped forward and landed a clean hook across one’s face. The second one turned and almost dropped his spear in surprise. Before he could open his mouth to yell, Nathan jumped forward and slammed him into the dirt, instantly knocking him out. He heard a few quick grunts and attacks, and two more thuds echoed from behind him. He turned around to see that Anand had successfully gotten through his share of the people.
Nathan walked over and looked at the control panel. Somehow, it was even worse than before. There were just a ton of random dials, buttons, switches—indicators going up and down at random times. There was absolutely no rhyme or reason to them that Nathan could discern.
“Any ideas for how to disable this thing?” Nathan said.
“Yes. Percussive maintenance.”
Anand reared his fist back and slammed it forward into the control panel. There was a quick sizzle of electricity and a loud buzz. The dials and indicators started going crazy, and a low whine rang out from the interior of the railgun. There was a fizz, and then smoke poured out through the hole that Anand had made.
“That’ll take them some time to fix.” Anand brushed off his hands. “Now, let’s get out of here.”
As they exited, Nathan felt something twist in his gut. Things had felt too easy. Where was the shoe—
“Halt.”
A voice to their left made Nathan suddenly freeze. He groaned inside his head as he recognized the Russian accent from anywhere.
He turned to his left to see that Grigor was staring at them both with a tight frown.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?”
Chapter Sixty-One
Nathan stood there, completely still. His eyes flickered toward Anand, who shrugged back. Nathan stared and tried to communicate his desire for the man to say something, anything.
At the moment, they were currently facing Grigor inside the soulbound town of Emi’s. The gravel ground crunched against Nathan’s feet as he shifted from side to side, awaiting Anand’s answer.
Anand’s face lit up, and he nodded.
“Elven special forces,” Anand said. “Hands in the air.”
Nathan slapped his face into his palm.
Grigor didn’t make any kind of face. Instead, his arms tensed, and his grip on his shield seemed to tighten.
“Saboteurs. What did you do?” Grigor said.
Anand laughed and put his hand on his hip. “We made sure that your little railgun thing is as good as useless.”
“Fliel moves fast. I was unaware that the elf regent had access to such resources.”
Wait, that wasn’t the impression they wanted to give.
“You’re completely wrong!” Nathan shouted.
Both Anand and Grigor stared at him.
“Well, that is to say—” Nathan grabbed for the words. “You’re actually right. Because Fliel doesn’t have those resources.”
“Then who does?”
“That would be the queen herself, Emi!”
“I thought she was a puppet.”
“Well, you’re wrong! She has resources that you don’t even have the slightest idea of. Powers beyond your mortal comprehension. She has eyes everywhere. Resources everywhere. You were doomed as soon as you stepped in here. In fact, we knew about your attack long before you knew about her attack!”
Holy crap, there’s no way he buys that.
Grigor stared at Nathan, his shield dipping slightly. He furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head. “I see.”
Nathan let out a few long breaths. Anand nodded at him approvingly.
“I would advise you to turn around,” Nathan said. “There’s no chance that you can pierce our defenses.”
Grigor didn’t immediately respond.
Nathan sweated bullets. He knew that this wouldn’t work! Why did he ever listen to Anand? Then again, it wasn’t like there were a lot of other good options—
“Very well, then. We’ll be leaving.”
Nathan blinked. “Did you say you’re going?”
“Yes. It’s clear that we’re outmatched and outgunned here.”
Grigor opened his system window and typed a few messages. Immediately, the army that had been marching forward toward the wall stopped. They started to slowly reverse, like a soccer mom backing into a grocery store parking lot.
Nathan pinched himself to see if he was dreaming.
“That’s right,” Anand coughed into his hand. “Also, make sure that everyone knows that it was Emi who did this. And it’s also Emi that you should negotiate with for the ceasefire.”
Grigor nodded again. Nathan was starting to think that he’d consumed weird mushrooms. Maybe he’d actually smoked that weird plant that made him see things again?
The dream didn’t disappear, nor was it revealed to be a hallucination. Instead, Grigor went back out the way he came, and it was as if nothing had happened.
For several long seconds, both Nathan and Anand simply stared at the area where the portal had been.
“I’m starting to think that we don’t actually live in the real world and that this is all some sort of elaborate simulation,” Nathan said.
To Nathan’s left, Grigor was standing there with a completely stoic expression. To his right, Emi was attempting to make a similar expression, but it was clear, based on her eyes, that she was just as flabbergasted as Nathan was.
It had taken a herculean effort for Nathan not to burst out laughing or crying when he received a message from Grigor asking him to mediate between him and the elves.
They had ended up agreeing to neutral territory—a.k.a., Nathan’s town. So now, here they were in Nathan’s meeting hall.
“Just to make this clear, no lives were lost?” Nathan asked.
“One of my men tripped and twisted an ankle, and a few have bruises on their heads, but other than that, we’re fine,” Grigor said.
“Fliel’s pride has been hurt… for no reason whatsoever, but nobody else was injured,” Emi confirmed.
Nathan resisted the urge to fist-pump.
“That seems like a pretty clean peace treaty to me, right?”
“We will need some kind of gift as an apology,” Emi said. “Nothing extensive, but as you were the aggressor…”
“That can be arranged. We have a number of valuable ores.”
“That would be perfect.” Emi paused. “We can also give you a reciprocal gift to ease the loss.”
As they wrapped up the final negotiations, Nathan caught Grigor’s eye and smirked at him. The challenge was clear—and you said that peace was impossible here. Grigor frowned before the look was replaced by a more thoughtful expression.
Anand reported that Fliel’s reputation had taken an utter nosedive. His supporters were shocked that Emi had apparently gained access to an elite group of fighters that were completely under Fliel’s nose. Among his detractors, it was yet more evidence that Fliel was the wrong man for the job.
In a strange way, the invasion had also helped to soften relations between elves and humans. From the elves’ point of view, it demonstrated their superiority and put them back on top of the hierarchy. And that was good, because it meant that they didn’t view humans as much of a threat as they used to view them.
Still, time was ticking down. Nathan leaned back in his office chair and took note of the timer at the top left of his vision.
Ten minutes.
Two more boss fights, and then they would be separated on the next circle. Nathan needed to lock down these alliances, build his network before then. Given the rate of time, that only meant he had…
Twenty-four hours.
He had a good head start with Grigor. He was fairly confident that Dr. Ada would agree. He already had Tamsin, Arika…
But he had to deliver the finishing blow to Fliel, and then there was…
Leviathan.
Nathan still didn’t have a good scope on the man’s personality. He had discovered more about him. He’d even bonded with the man a little bit. However, that didn’t change the fact that Nathan was no closer to getting him on his side.
Nathan resolved that after the next boss fight, he would speak to Leviathan and try to gauge the opportunity for an alliance. Nathan had seen firsthand Leviathan’s strength. He was fast, strong, and highly versatile. Those kinds of skills were exactly what Nathan needed in order to reach the bottom.
However, Leviathan didn’t seem that interested.
Nathan was hoping that he’d somehow manage to appeal to the man’s inner goodness, as cheesy as that sounded.
The timer continued ticking away.
Nathan shut his eyes and got ready for the next fight. It was down to Leviathan’s counter and some unknown final boss.
Still, there was no time to think about that. Right now—
The timer clicked down to zero.
It was time.
Nathan fell to the arena ground unceremoniously. Around him, he heard the familiar sounds of air whooshing as a half dozen other people were teleported in.
Emi and Fliel were standing quite a distance from each other. Fliel seemed to be doing his best to pretend that Emi didn’t exist, whereas Emi couldn’t help but shoot Fliel a quick smirk every few seconds.
Grigor, meanwhile, seemed no worse for wear from their recent meeting. Dr. Ada shot Nathan a nod. Arika and Tamsin looked ready to go.
One final plop.
Leviathan fell to the ground. He cracked his neck. “Let’s get the show on the road.”
Nathan heard something rumble from beneath the arena. The ground rocked back and forth like a swing. Nathan barely managed to keep his balance and looked around for the source of the disturbance. But there was none. Nothing was there.
Something roared. The ground cracked open, and water came streaming out of the sandy floor.
A figure emerged from the spray of water. It looked humanoid, it was even humanoid-sized, but the limbs were all disjointed, too long. Its eyes held a deep, unsettling red.
Then Nathan caught sight of what it was holding in its hands, and he froze.
The humanoid was holding a fishing rod?
Nathan inspected it.
[Sea King] - Lv. 75
A facsimile, the impossible barrier, the eternal rival. The one challenge that seems impassable. Of course, this isn’t as strong as the real deal. But if you can beat this, perhaps you have a shot.
Nathan found it extremely difficult to believe that the boss designed to defeat him would be exactly like him. And not only that, but the system description clearly referred to someone trying to overtake him. The only one who really matched that description was…
Leviathan stood there, a carefully blank expression on his face.
Nathan felt his heart sink.
“…anything you want to tell the rest of the class?”
“No, not really,” Leviathan hummed. “I don’t suppose you have any major weaknesses you’d like to tell us about?”
Nathan smiled dryly. “No, not really.”
The Sea King stepped forward, and Nathan’s attention snapped back in its direction. Leviathan flinched, while Chad’s grip tightened around his weapon.
Obviously he wasn’t going to give his entire stat sheet to Leviathan. Nathan was internally going over how he would beat himself—since apparently this thing was some kind of twisted imitation of him.
But try as he might, Nathan wasn’t exactly able to come up with anything obvious. Which felt extremely flattering but also extremely concerning, considering they were about to face down himself.
Before he could do anything, the Sea King reared back its fishing rod in that familiar manner Nathan often did. Nathan watched the thing’s grip. It was tilted a half-degree to the right—toward Mara!
“Mara, dodge!” Nathan yelled.
Mara’s eyes shot open, and she threw herself to the side. A split second later, the Sea King’s wrist snapped, and the fishing rod flew forward with all the force of a ballistic missile. The hook shot through the air and crashed into the sand, kicking up a massive cloud of dust.
Is this what it’s like to fight me?
Nathan could now see why so many of his enemies disliked him so much.
The Sea King snapped its wrist over to the left, and the hook followed, carving a path of destruction through the sand and directly into the line of people. Nathan dodged forward. To his right, he could see that his allies either jumped away or over the hook. Grigor, meanwhile, stood completely still, merely facing his shield in the direction of the attack.
“Jump clear!” Nathan yelled.
Grigor didn’t respond.
The hook slammed into the shield, and a sound like a massive gong rang out. For perhaps a second, Grigor managed to remain embedded in the ground before the force lifted him off his feet, and he went flying through the air. He slammed against the arena wall and then tumbled into the sand below.
He pushed himself to his feet and groaned. “You hit like a brick, Nathan.”
“That’s not me.”
“Fine, your disturbingly similar imitation, then.”
Leviathan sprinted forward past Nathan and toward the Sea King. His twin daggers glinted in the sunlight as he flipped them around into a reverse grip. Nathan pulled out his own fishing rod and swung forward to create a distraction for Leviathan. The Sea King growled and jumped away—only for Nathan to grin and redirect his fishing rod back into the Sea King. The Sea King lurched as its body was hit with all the force of… a small hook. A really heavy, small hook, but still.
Leviathan jumped into the air and aimed his daggers down at the Sea King, who looked up and pulled something out of its inventory.
A harpoon!
Leviathan used a dagger to parry the harpoon, his other weapon still aimed right toward the Sea King’s throat.
This was the advantage of dual-wielding. Both daggers could be used for both offense and defense. It was a highly versatile style of attack perfectly suited for Leviathan’s high-speed hit-and-run style.
Something that Nathan would have to take note of in case things were heading in the direction he thought they were heading.
The Sea King managed to jolt its head to the side, but it wasn’t fast enough. The dagger penetrated through the side of its cheek, carving a long gash across the pale imitation. Leviathan’s flight path forced him to continue forward, and he dropped into a roll. He quickly turned to observe his handiwork.
Strangely, no blood came from the wound. Instead, it looked as if Leviathan had merely scratched some kind of wax figure. The interior revealed by Leviathan’s scratch was the same color as the exterior. It was like a solid chunk of material—no blood, no sinews, no tendons.
Nathan frowned. “That’s not normal.”
Dr. Ada jumped forward and threw one of her metal cubes at the thing. The Sea King’s head snapped in its direction, and it held out its harpoon. The metal cube seized in midair, then erupted into a spiked ball of ice. The imitation cast its hand forward, and the ice followed, heading directly for Dr. Ada like a cannonball.
There was another loud sound like a gong.
Grigor had come in out of nowhere and managed to block the blow. He pushed forward, and the ball of ice went tumbling to the ground. Dr. Ada wiped some sweat off her forehead.
“Thanks for the save,” she said.
“Of course.”
Tamsin’s system window appeared in front of her, and she typed in a few quick commands. Spells appeared to her left and right and pitched up with a high wind.
“Keep it in place, everyone!” she yelled out.
The imitation, perhaps sensing that it was about to have its brains blown out, suddenly ran off to the side. Arika’s eyes flashed, and the creature jolted back as if it had been struck. Her forehead broke out in sweat, and she narrowed her eyes.
“Nathan, your imitation has almost as much mental resistance as me.” A droplet of sweat rolled all the way down her cheek and dripped onto the sand. “How and why?”
“I didn’t know my own mental resistance was particularly high, if that’s what you’re implying.”
“This thing does seem to be modeled after you.” Arika’s face went pale. “It’s like trying to fight a really ticked-off bull.”
The Sea King stumbled backward and whipped its fishing rod around itself in a circle, hitting nothing. Arika fell to her knees. “It’s about to get out—Tamsin!”
