Chapter 52

Chapter 52

Robert made it to town without issue, and due to his deliberately slow walking speed, he was spotted and quickly intercepted by a security patrol. Drew and the rescue team had just made it to the very edge of civilization and were following Robert and his captors as closely as possible without giving themselves away. As a rule of thumb, large groups took longer to move than smaller groups, and it was also more difficult to keep a stealthy approach when travelling with a large group, however Drew's team hadn't run into any problems yet. A large part of that was due to the crows acting as scouts. He knew where the enemies were, what they were doing, and when they moved, which made the disadvantages of moving as a larger group moot.

The other major deciding factor in his group's continued avoidance of the enemy, was due to the lack of forces the town had available. It was nearly impossible for the town to have security watching every direction when they only had twenty or so people working for them, especially with the geographical size of the town. Not to mention, Drew had captured one of their few hunting parties, so the town was down one team. To put it simply, the town just didn't have enough people. Between the beasts and monsters, and the council either jailing or killing their people, the town just didn't have enough people.

When he thought about it objectively, he wasn't sure how the town was even managing to survive. They had no farms, they didn't have anyone actively building new infrastructure, they didn't have anything really. They were likely surviving off of non-perishable goods scavenged from the homes, small businesses, and school, but those weren't renewable. He was sure they were supplementing the lack of food with beast meat when the hunting parties managed to find them, but even in his own community, the number of beasts were starting to dwindle. Maybe they had migrated, or maybe they had stopped spawning and mutating? Drew wasn't sure. He found it unlikely that it would continue to be an issue in the long-term however, not with the way The System had clearly told everyone that they had forty-five days of 'relative' safety.

That wasn't the point however. The point was, the town was likely doomed without intervention. Twenty people just wasn't enough to fight back against future waves and hordes, not to mention it wasn't enough to secure food long-term while also patrolling and keeping the area safe. Luckily, Drew didn't have that issue with his community. His community consisted of a much smaller area, had far more people, and best of all, Drew was able to rely on his undead minions as security and manual labor which freed up people to pursue other goals. Without his minions, the community and everyone in it would have been dead several times over by now.

Every major fight they had as a community relied on his minions, they took the hits so the living didn't have to, they acted as meat shields against the hordes and waves. There was no way the community as a whole would have survived without them. Maybe Drew, Amber, and his mom could have made it, but the numerical superiority of the waves would eventually overwhelm everyone. It was a scary thought. If he hadn't chosen a minion type skill in the tutorial, if he hadn't been chosen as a progenitor, all of them would be dead now. Come to think of it, the town would have been destroyed by now too. His community and his minions had acted as a bulwark against the local major threats, and his hunting parties had hunted down the goblins and other threats nearby as well.

Without his community, or any of the choices he had made, everyone would have been dead. The town was likely on its last legs even now, and that was with his community around. One wave or horde that targeted the town directly, and there would be nothing left.

His crows alerted him. Robert was being led into the town hall building. Drew quickly checked the locations of the other security forces. One team was on the east side of town patrolling, another was down south, and there was one hunting party out and about. Along with the team that led Robert into the town hall, that left four people unaccounted for. Well, not unaccounted, they were asleep according to his birds. It was bad news bears that the team escorting Robert brought him inside the building though.

If a fight broke out inside a building, things would get messy fast. With people having superhuman strength and magic powers, Drew wasn't confident that the building would hold together. He'd probably survive a building collapse, but the others with him would likely be killed or at least heavily injured, and Drew could definitely see that fighting in an enclosed space would be highly disadvantageous for his large rescue team. Drew turned his head to the others following nearby.

"Plan B, folks. Robert was taken inside. You know what to do." Drew said.

Several nods responded from the crowd, while other people whispered to their neighbors to refresh their memory.

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"Ma'am, we found him wandering into town." His captor said.

Robert looked at the woman who had been addressed by his escort. It was the city clerk. Marissa, yes, that was her name. She was one of the people responsible for preventing him from opening the community center that he'd spent his retirement money on.

"I know your face, but alas, I cannot place it. Be a dear and tell me, who are you and what are you doing here?" She asked.

"My name is Robert. I've heard disturbing rumors regarding the mistreatment and execution of the town's people and came to speak with you." He answered politely.

The key to talking things out was to always show the other party respect.

"Is that right? Oh... I remember you now. You're that Methodist that went around stirring up trouble before judgement day."

"Uh...what?" He replied.

Judgement day? Is that what she thought happened? He could see where she was coming from, in a certain light. It was practically hell on Earth, society crumbled, and monsters roamed the world. Did she think she was left behind by God?

"Fetch Cash will ya darling?" She asked one of the men.

The man disappeared into the back of the building through a door.

"About the people..." Robert began.

"Shush, hellspawn, I will not be tempted by Satan."

Satan? What was she talking about? He wasn't hellspawn, if anything, Beefcake was, and they'd definitely know if they'd met him. He opened his mouth to speak again when a man joined the one who had disappeared and they both came into the room.

"Another wanderer huh? It's been a few weeks, I was beginning to think they'd all been eaten by now. Oh, and he's level sixteen!" The new man said joyously.

Robert was very confused. Were there other people who came into town? Did they need help? The man, Cash, circled him as the men that had been escorting him kicked the back of his knees and he fell forward. What was the meaning of this? Why was he being treated like this? He tried to get up, only to feel hands holding him down. He turned his head to try to talk to the man, but found that he couldn't speak. Robert felt a warm wetness on his chest and looked down to see blood. His hand went to the blood on instinct. Was he bleeding? When did that happen... why did that happen? He saw Cash standing over him, a large knife in hand that was covered in blood. Robert's blood.

He felt a sharp pain in his back. Then another, and another. He opened his mouth to speak but no sound would escape his lips. His hand went to his throat, only to find that it had been cut open. Another pain, and he tilted his head back to see the man stab him again, and again. He couldn't feel it though. He couldn't feel anything. Why was this happening to him? He only wished to discuss...

Blackness took his vision and his head felt like he was swimming or going down in an elevator far too fast. Drew had been...

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"Okay, they're all in position. We all know the drill, let them do the heavy lifting. Ranged folks take shots as they become available, everyone else keep your heads down unless shit gets out of control. We want to draw them out, not make them feel trapped." Drew addressed the group.

They were currently hiding near the old, rundown church that hadn't seen use in many years. Some people were in the bushes, others were on the side of the building or behind trees, some of the magic users were using the nearby playground as cover. Slowly surrounding the townhall were small numbers of his lower leveled minions. They were staying away from the windows, and about to spring the trap that would hopefully draw the people in the building outside. The whole idea hinged on the people inside seeing low leveled monsters and coming out to get some easy experience points.

But the bait had to be convincing. It couldn't be too threatening, or they'd hole up inside the building with Robert inside. Thus, the minions were all lower leveled, and few in number. The big boys were behind the townhall near the backdoor. He was hoping Robert would take the opportunity to escape out the backdoor, but if not, he'd use the higher leveled minions to break in and get Robert out once the security forces were outside fighting his skeletons.

Drew sent the command to begin.

The skeletons swarmed the building's windows and began to beat on them weakly in an 'attempt' to get in. His boars began charging the steel-framed front door, hitting it with thudding sounds. He watched as the door bowed inward slightly from the charges, and he sent a modified command to the undead hogs to take it a bit easier.

Like a kicked anthill, they came bursting out in a cacophony. The door flew open and a large man carrying... a car wheel... and an axe ran straight into his minions. A car wheel? Really? Aluminum would not make a good shield. The man bellowed, running straight towards a charging boar. The man smashed the undead hog off to the side with his wheel, and brought his axe down on another nearby as he yelled. Three more men joined the first. One with a sledge hammer, one with two crowbars, and the last with an old rifle. Gunshots rang out as the one man tried to aim at the skeletons, and the others went straight into the melee.

Normally, the gun guy wouldn't stand a chance. The gun might be powerful against the lower leveled minions, they were already dead... so unless he had extremely precise aim to take out the joints... needless to say, he wasn't doing much damage. On the bright side, he was wasting a lot of ammo, which was good news if Drew needed to get the rescue team involved. The sledgehammer guy was actually doing fairly well. It was a weapon that worked extremely well against his minions. The axe guy wasn't doing much damage as his weapon kept getting stuck in the ribs and he was too inaccurate to hit the legs, even if he did barely have the reach.

Crowbar guy seemed to think this was a video game, and he was the ninja action hero. Reality said something very different as Drew watched the man flail his improvised weapons around and make strange sounds while doing it. It was a bit like watching a dumpster fire, he knew he had other things to do, but for some reason he couldn't turn away from the smoking garbage. Notifications came in from him losing a couple of the minions, and Drew could make out more yelling coming from the group. They were saying something about easy XP, and how the skeletons weren't a threat.

Another man came racing outside from the building, a dagger of some kind in hand. He was fast. Very fast. Not as fast as Mark or Drew, but still very quick. Drew didn't recognize him, but from the way he was moving, he was either high-leveled, or dumped all his attribute points into agility. Drew guessed it must have been one of the town council members. He watched as the man appeared behind his minions and stabbed at their spines'. He watched as his notification icon flashed as more minions bit the dust. Knife guy was doing a good job dodging and attacking, but his damage output was abysmal with a weapon like a large bloody knife.

Wait...why was the knife bloody? None of his minions had any blood... Drew's eyes scanned the other people, a couple of them had cuts and minor damage, but nothing was too bad. So, where did the blood come from...

"Shit." He cursed to himself.

Drew sent the command to the backdoor minions.

"Everyone get ready, I've got a bad feeling about this. Have the ranged folks target the knife guy, melee folks rush in if the knife guy gets close. Protect our people, but focus efforts on him." Drew said.

The command was passed down the ranks. Arrows and spells were let loose, all flying towards the enemies. Stevie, his giant oversized undead hog burst through the backdoor, creating an opening for his other minions. Level fifteen and sixteen skeletons armed with swords and wooden shields swarmed the back entrance and ran into the building. Drew turned his head just in time to see a manabolt slam into the back of the knife guy, knocking him off his feet. Several more landed shortly after, and a scream could be heard crying out. Bullseye! The arrows missed their mark, but they got the guy's attention. His head twisted in time to see one land near him. Drew could see the man scramble to get up as he looked for the point of origin from the arrow.

His skeletons inside townhall found the next door and like before, Stevie made an entrance. Steel frame door or not, Stevie was the size of a small car, a door wasn't going to stop that pig. He needed to be careful not to let the oversized minion run too rampant inside the building, structural damage being a major concern and all. The minions rushed through the new hole and found a woman sitting at a desk looking shocked as she faced the skeletons. There was a body...

"Take them all out! NOW!" Drew yelled.

He got up, pulling his sword from his inventory and rushed forward. The others joined him, Beefcake and Mark keeping pace as he raced forward.

But he'd lost track of the knife man, he'd been so focused on his minions and townhall and he'd let his vision slip off the guy and now he was... fuck, he was standing over a mage at the playground, knife slick with blood and the mage laying face first in the dirt. An arrow grazed the man's shoulder as he dipped slightly out of its path. He dashed forward, and stabbed the man in the kidneys before slitting his neck. The archer fell forward just like the mage. Play time was over, his people were in danger. He cast [Corrupting Contagion] followed by [Agony] at the man. He may have been fast, but the guy wasn't fast enough to dodge an insta-cast and super short cast spell like those two.

Knife guy didn't know what hit him. Literally. Neither spell had any visual cues, and took a bit to ramp up. Drew continued rushing towards the man before he could hurt anyone else.

His skeletons inside the building were under attack. That woman at the desk was a mage of some kind, and was blowing them apart as she tried to run away.

"You're not getting away, bitch." Drew said through gritted teeth.

He sent the rest of his nearby minions commands. The ones engaging the security team were to stop taking it easy on them, the ones chasing the lady who was busy trying to flee were ordered to hunt her down and kill her, and the ones on the outskirts of town were to engage the other security teams. He couldn't risk them hearing all the noise and coming to investigate at this point. They needed to get to Robert and put these people down, and they needed to do it now.

Mark arrived at knife guy before Drew did, his short swords beginning their deadly dance. Mark appeared behind the man and went to decapitate him, but knife guy tilted his head just in time, and Mark managed to slice off the guy's ear. Knife guy turned around, but Mark was already gone, having fled into the shadows and reappearing behind the man again. Knife guy rolled forward just in time to prevent himself from getting cut in half with Mark's swords. Black lesions popped up across the mans face as he screamed in pain.

Drew's spells had kicked in. The man's constitution must have been decently high, or his willpower was, because he was capable of still dodging Mark's follow up attack. Barely. Drew was almost there, his sword shot forward as he channeled [Death Toll] through it, and a skull shot forward, screaming towards its target. Knife guy saw it coming and tried to dodge out of the way, but Mark was already at the man's strong side, which caused all the hesitation that Drew required. The man shot towards his non-dominant side to escape the spell and Mark, but the spell found its mark. The skull's jaw unhinged, and grabbed the man by his leg, ripping it off as it continued screaming into the distance.

Knife guy, now missing one leg, tumbled onto the ground, and the distant skull smashed into the townhall building and exploded near the backdoor, taking out a large portion of the building's corner. Not good! Structural integrity was going to the gutter fast.

The man lay on the ground screaming, clearly incoherent as he'd dropped the knife and was in too much pain to fight past it, despite whatever stats he had. Drew appeared before the man and lifted him off the ground by the neck. The man's eyes were wide with terror as he looked into Drew's helm.

"Did you stab the man in townhall?" Drew asked in a low voice that came out like a rumble from his helm.

The man couldn't, or wouldn't answer however. The pus filled spots were growing to the size of oranges, he was missing a leg, a good chunk of flesh on his back from the spells, and an ear.

"No matter." Drew said grimly.

Drew thrusted the sword forward, and into the man's gut. The man stopped screaming briefly and looked down in misbelief, only for Drew to push the sword downwards as he split the man open from gut to balls. Guts and intestines dropped out and the man's mouth flapped open before Drew dropped him to the ground. The screaming started again as the man tried to scoop up his own slowly blackening entrails and push them back in his body. Enough time had been wasted. Drew stomped down with his boot and crushed the man's head, ending his suffering.

He turned his head to the rescue team coming up behind him.

"I want a medical team in that building. Now. Send protection with them, I'll mop up here." Drew said.

Drew shot forward to the security team. Sledgehammer guy ended up being the savior of that group, the others were barely capable of doing enough damage to whittle down the pathetic number of minions around them. Drew caught him mid-swing. He was busy bringing down his blunted weapon upon a skeleton when Drew's sword erupted from his stomach, coming from his back. His legs dropped out from under him as Drew had severed his spine. Drew stomped his head as he sped past towards the next victim.

He made it to the bow and arrow guy when a car wheel slammed into his armor harmlessly and bounced to the ground. He barely felt it. He brought his sword down across the archer's shoulder and ended at the man's hip as the man fell to the ground in two pieces. Drew turned his head to see Mr. Car Wheel running to charge him with the little axe. Drew dodged the man's poor excuse for a swing by twisting. Using the twist as momentum, Drew swept the sword with his body low, and took out the man's legs. He walked past the man, casually dragging his bone sword up the legless man's body to cut him in half vertically as he went to the final security patrol member.

Mr. Ninja was in his own little world. By this point, the man was out of breath so he could no longer yell random crap or martial arts 'hyahs' out, but he continued to flail his crowbars around without rhyme or reason. The man's situational awareness was piss poor, and Drew was sure that if the skeletons could laugh, they would be. Drew did the world a mercy and beheaded the bastard, forever ending his reign of terror upon the helpless skeletons.