Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 18: Aftermath

It screamed, waving its hands in panic as it ran in circles, the high proof alcohol that Isaac had dosed it in for entirely different reasons having lit on fire.

Even as the Swamp Knight spun in place, burning and screaming, the guy responsible for its state was roaring with glee.

Can of hairspray raised to the sky, he sent a burst of flammable liquid through the flame of a lighter, roaring in glee.

“Take that!”

Yet another plume of fire shot off into the sky, unleashed by a clearly very intoxicated man. Isaac just hurried over, clutching his injured left arm in his right.

“Give me that!” he snapped, injured arm screaming at him to stop as he released it to snatch the lighter out of the drunk idiot’s hand.

“Doy ou want me yo gireball yoy?” came the slurred shout of indignation , followed by the man holding the can of hairspray in Isaac’s face as if he still had the lighter, seemingly not having realized that it was now in Isaac’s pocket.

“Can you?” Isaac snarked, ignoring the pain from his arm and ribs, channeling every drop of his slowly recovering mana into [Hydra’s Regeneration]. It wasn’t much, but he was focusing on his ribs to the exclusion of everything else, the entirety of the [Skill’s] healing power flowing into the broken bones in his chest.

For a brief second, the liquid began to spray towards his eyes, but he shut them, gently lowered his broken arm to his side and grabbed the offending object with his intact one, then stepped backwards.

Meanwhile, the Swamp Knight had collapsed to the ground, dead. Had it been the breath stolen from its lungs, the shock of its entire nervous system exploding with pain, or maybe the damage its internal organs had accumulated had been too much?

Isaac didn’t know, or care. It was dead, he could infer that much from the [System] window hanging in front of him.

Swamp Knight (Lv. 10) has been slain. 70 XP gained (100 XP base distributed across three people as per their contributions)

And just like that, that fucking thing was down, never to hurt anyone ever again.

Name: Isaac Thoma

Class: Rogue

Species: Human

Level: 2

XP: 87/300

Health Status: Broken Arm, Cracked Ribs, Internal Bleeding (see list)

Mana: 0 /120

Stats

Fortitude

17

Perception

16

Strength

12

Agility

16

Magic Power

12

Magic Regeneration

17

Free Points: 0 Stat, 3 Skill

Skills

Hundred Faces III

Stealth III

Power Strike IX

Piercing Strike IX

Sundering Strike VI

Knives X

Sneak VIII

Sweeping Strike I

Far Strike I

Aspects

Aspect Skills

Specter

Spectral Shift

Hydra

Hydra’s Regeneration

A quick glance at his status revealed even more information. He’d taken one hell of a beating, especially so given that he was only seeing the damage inflicted by the final attack.

But he’d also gained innumerable [Skill] Levels, namely one each in [Knives] and [Piercing Strike], as well as a whopping three in [Power Strike] and [Sneak]. Speaking of [Knives], another new window popped up in front of him.

Knives (common, Level X)

Grants user basic knowledge of using knives, including throwing and non-combat applications.

In addition, the user may repair any bladed weapons in their possession through the application of mana. Any such weapons are also more durable in the user’s hands and if they are not a traditional knife, they will slowly adjust their form to suit such a tool.

The [Skill] had finally reached Level 10 and been upgraded, gaining a new power. Perfect.

Though he could have really used the ability to turn anything sharp into a proper weapon a few minutes ago.

Then again, any kind of advantage could have turned that mess back there into something a little less of an utter clusterfuck. A proper weapon, another Level or two, anything.

Wincing, he sat down on a random rock in the garden and just waited.

He’d been hearing sirens in the background for a while, but they were finally close enough that even the average human, drunk people here could notice them.

First, a perfectly normal cop car roared into the lot, the men inside jumping out and drawing their guns the instant the car came to a stop.

They spread out, guns still pointed at the ground until they spotted the monster, lying on the ground, only drawing them up by the time there was no one in the line of fire. Very professional, Isaac nodded in approval. No one here, except maybe him, could easily handle a bullet, and the cops kept up the level of professionalism one needed to expect from them even in the face of this monster.

“Hey, where’s the monster?” one of them, a younger woman around his age, shouted.

“Tught ere.” the guy who’d barbecued the Swamp Knight slurred as he stumbled towards the pair.

“So that’s it?” the second cop, an older man who wouldn’t have looked out of place as the grizzled veteran cop in a noir movie.

“Yep. Monster got summoned, covered in alcohol and lit on fire. Now its dead.” someone else told him, sounding surprisingly sober.

Grabbing a long stick, the older cop instructed his partner to keep her gun trained on the monster’s head and then poked it, repeatedly. When it didn’t move, he dropped the stick, but drew his gun once again and pointed it at the monster. Clearly, they were taking no chances.

More cars were arriving, including a second normal cop car, an ambulance and a heavy, armored transporter that disgorged policemen in heavy body armor and were wielding far heavier weaponry, machine pistols, assault rifles, and someone was even staying back and climbing atop the transporter with a sniper rifle on their back.

When the group of people far better equipped to take down a monster like that arrived, the ordinary patrol officers stepped back from the body. If it somehow had still been alive, a sniper rifle round to the head or a spray of bullets from multiple machine pistols and assault rifles would have put it down far more effectively than the peashooters patrol officers had as sidearms.

Isaac coughed wetly, more crimson droplets splattering into his palm. A glance at his Status Screen revealed that he no longer had any damage to his internal organs, but some blood had still found its way into his lungs. Having anything in there was naturally irritating to the body, prompting a bout of coughing to get it out.

Every cough caused his still damaged ribs to shift against each other, blinding pain radiating across his torso. The movement was even enough to jostle his arm, sending a fresh wave of pain stabbing into his brain. If it hadn’t been for the incredibly accurate reports on his health from his Status Screen, he’d probably have thought he was on the verge of death.

As it was, he was going to live, though he definitely felt like shit.

“Sir, can I get your name?” the older policeman who’d been the first on the scene stepped up next to him, sketchpad and pen in his hands.

“Isaac Thoma, T-H-O-M-A.“

“Mr. Thoma, are you alright? Can you tell me what happened?” the man asked.

“I’ll be fine.” Isaac turned his head to look at the man, not a hint of pain evident in his tone or expression.

Catching the first good look at him was clearly shocking, the man unable to fully keep the wince off his face.

“Sir, I think we should continue this talk in the ambulance.” the cop said, voice cautious.

“I’ll be fine.” Isaac made a throwaway motion with his intact hand. If he got examined by anyone with even a passing understanding of anatomy now, he’d be lucky to get away for hours unless he resorted to punching someone.

“And as to what happened, it’s pretty simple. The music suddenly shut off, then someone yelled about something glowing in the room with all the snacks, so I went over there and so did pretty much everyone else. In that room, there was a charged Tier 4 summoning circle on the ground, so I yelled at everyone to not run away because those circles automatically activate when the person who charged them gets too far away. Nothing happened for a bit, but then the monster got summoned.”

Isaac then gestured towards the house.

“It turned in the direction of the wall facing away from the street, so the summoner had to be standing somewhere around there when the circle finally activated. I proceeded to attack it, taking its eyes and inflicting some superficial injuries with a pair of glass shards for lack of a better weapon. Eventually, it began to ignore me and went after the crowd, at which point I broke two bottles of Stroh 80 over its back. It returned to attacking me for a few moments, then charged outside. It was at this point that a highly intoxicated young man used a can of hairspray and a lighter to ignite said liquid, resulting in the monster’s demise.”

Isaac’s report was brief and succinct in a way that spoke of long experience stripping data down the bare minimum.

“Uh-hu. And what happened to your arm?” the officer asked skeptically, clearly unwilling to believe that this kid, who was currently cradling a broken arm, had fought and helped kill that monster lying dead on the grass a few meters away.

“Didn’t manage to dodge everything. It’ll be fine, though.” Isaac said.

“And how do you know that monsters always look at their summoners?” the cop asked, clearly deciding to ignore Isaac’s nonchalance about his injuries, at least for now.

“There was a study published this morning, I work with the team that wrote it.” Isaac told him, nodding “Is that all, and can I leave?”

“Uh-hu. I’ll get back to you on that. But how about we get you to the ambulance now?” the policeman asked.

“No, I’m fine. Regeneration [Skill], all this will be gone in an hour or two.” Isaac waved him off.

“Look, Sir, there is blood on your chin, blood that clearly came from your mouth. Maybe you have internal bleeding, or maybe you just bit your tongue. But you need to get checked out by one of the paramedics.” the officer told him sternly and Isaac had to fight to not visibly roll his eyes.

“I’m fine. Perfectly fine. I don’t want to talk to a paramedic.” Isaac waved him off, causing the officer to grimace, then visibly steel himself.

“I’ve seen this before, way too often. People under the influence, they think they’re fine because they’re overconfident, or because they just can’t feel anything. And then they end up in the hospital too late, with injuries far worse than they’d have otherwise been. Or we find them in the morgue. You’re getting that checkup, buddy.” the man just ignored him, looking Isaac up and down in a way that made him think the cop was trying to decide on the safest spot to grab him.

“I’m not drunk, I’m perfectly sober, and I have a Regeneration [Skill].” Isaac insisted.

“Sure you are.” the cop nodded “But first, you’re going to come with me to one of the paramedics, ok?”

It was a testament to Isaac’s mental and physical exhaustion that when the thought of simply punching the man with his intact hand crossed his mind, he didn’t instantly dismiss it.

“Is there nothing I can do to convince you otherwise?” Isaac glared at the man. Normally, he’d have probably been able to talk his way out this, but he wasn’t in his normal state of mind. He was tired, he was hurting, he was cranky. He was in the worst possible state for this short of actually being drunk.

The cop just tiredly shook his head.

“Fine.” Isaac said. This time, he really did roll his eyes.

When the paramedic saw the state Isaac was in, she immediately motioned him to hurriedly lie down on the stretcher and loaded him into the ambulance.

“One last question, what you said about how summoned monsters always looking at their summoners, are you sure about that?” the cop asked.

“Yes, study by Professor Adam Bailey, conducted right here at the local university, published this morning.” Isaac told him “Catch this asshole, would you?”

The cop just nodded grimly, then the door to the ambulance was shut by one of the paramedics.

The vehicle began to move, clearly, someone other than the paramedic next to him was in the driver’s seat. Isaac supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised, having a patient who could easily panic or simply outright die when left alone stay in the back on their own was a bad idea. Of course there were two people in the ambulance, he should have expected that, it was just that Isaac had very little experience with ambulance rides.

Before the [System] he hadn’t needed one or ridden along with a loved one and while he’d gotten injured plenty of times after, at that point, healing magic had made them quite redundant.

“What’s your name?” the paramedic asked and Isaac introduced himself, then handed over his ID and insurance card, just to get that out of the way.

“So, do you hurt anywhere?” she asked, looking Isaac up and down with a watchful eye, zeroing in on both his arm and the streaks of blood coming from his mouth.

A brief glance at his mana pool showed that a few more points had regenerated, enough to activate [Hydra’s Regeneration] and keep it active for a couple of seconds.

His broken ribs jolted him as they shot back into position, painfully scraping across his passage in their movement and slid together with a faintly audible crunch. His Status now showed them as merely being ‘bruised’.

“What was that?” the paramedic practically jumped, sounding alarmed.

“That would be my ribs knitting themselves back together. Like I told the policeman, I have a Regeneration [Skill]. As far as to what hurts, my arm is ever so slightly broken, so I’d appreciate a splint to keep it still until it heals.” Isaac said, giving her a winning smile. Not appropriate, he knew that, but he was hardly in the best of mental states.

“Alright …” she trailed of, slowly reaching into one of the many cabinets that lined the wall for some kind of plastic and Velcro contraption which she promptly strapped his arm into.

“So, how are things in the hospital? Have they started magically curing everyone and now the only reason to have multiple doctors there is the limitation posed by their mana pool?” Isaac asked her, trying to start up a conversation.

“No, they’re still trying to determine if that stuff is safe.” she told him.

Isaac shifted a little to try and get a little more comfortable, only for her to sternly tell him off.

“I know you think your ribs are fine, but you at least had internal injuries. Stay still!”

“My Status Screen says they’re fine, so I know they’re fine. It hasn’t lied to me yet.” Isaac told her, but given her expression, she clearly didn’t believe him.

He just slumped onto the gurney, resigning himself to not getting believed. It would take quite some time for the magical healing granted by the [System] to actually enter mainstream medicine.

Just like with Bailey’s research group, authorization to start experiments with the [System] as it related to healing had been granted with lightning speed, but they’d also been conducted with the usual thoroughness of any kind of medical research. Of course, thoroughness led to slowness, dragging the work out for a while. Plenty of people would proceed to use their Healing [Skills] without proper authorization, not content to see people die when they held the power to save them in moments, but widespread use would take a while.

A minute later, the ambulance came to a stop and the door was thrown open, two people in scrubs standing outside.

“Twenty year old male, left arm fractured in multiple places, possible internal injuries, no loss of consciousness, alert and responsive the entire time, no medication was administered.” the paramedic reported.

“Also, I have a Regeneration [Skill] that’s been healing me this entire time and the only reason I even got on the ambulance is because a police officer who thought he knew better than me. I’m fine, can I go now?” Isaac asked hopefully and sat up, only getting stony looks back. He slumped back onto the gurney.

“If you do all your tests, do you think I can be out of here by tomorrow?”

“No promises. Just try to lie back, relax, we have the very best of professionals on staff to make sure you recover well.”

Isaac supposed that had been a very reassuring answer ... if reassurance at a good recovery had been what he’d wanted.

Clearly, there was very little chance of him making it out of here anytime soon that didn’t involve physical violence or walking out through the walls. The former was out for obvious reasons and he still needed the mana the latter would have required to heal the rest of his injuries.

“Scheiß Party.”