The Systemic Lands

Chapter 199: Day 432 (5) – Run Or Die

Chapter 199: Day 432 (5) – Run Or Die

I saw the city wall of Neo Brasilia in the distance. We had made this trip enough during our grinding sessions, we both instinctively angled for the East tunnel entrance into the city through the wall. I spotted it.

Naran and I both timed our movements so that as we got closer, we landed right at the entrance and did a midair turn around as we went through the tunnel. I could hear the golems impacting the wall with massive bangs that vibrated the very air. The tunnel probably made the impacts sound louder.

“Minor Tremor. Minor Tremor,” Naran called out twice breathlessly. He kept moving through the tunnel. While I skidded to a stop at the far end. The golems were outside but didn’t enter. I waited, ten second. Twenty seconds. Half a minute. They just waited on the far end of the tunnel, not entering the city.

Naran came over towards me and looked at the horde of golems on the other side. He was still carrying Fethee, but I didn’t dare spare him a glance. “Why aren’t they entering?” Naran asked.

“I don’t know,” I replied.

“The energy levels are lower in the city and based on the zones. We know lower level monsters will kill themselves when forced into a city,” Naran said.

“Could be energy levels, behavior. I have no idea. Death entered though,” I replied. A minute had gone by, and the golems were still waiting outside and not jumping anymore either I noticed.

“Fethee, needs crystals,” Naran said.

“Let’s head to the plaza, and then South. Go out that gate, circle and around and see if they are still there,” I replied.

“Alright,” Naran said. I didn’t want to stay next to the wall in case the golems followed us from that short of a distance outside of the city. I kept an eye on the tunnel until it was out of sight. We quickly moved through the city at a slower pace than before but still fast.

“How much for a restoration do you think?” Naran asked me.

“At least 10,000,” I replied. He let out a long sigh.

“Need to kill level 2 monsters, at least we can get restorations and restock ourselves,” he said. I nodded at that.

VROOM!

A huge sound came from behind. I quickly turned and saw portions of the wall above the buildings begin to collapse. Chunks of super stone that the city was built with were breaking apart like a demolition video.

The chunks of stone were flying inwards. Massive pieces, some larger than the buildings themselves crashed down. Like a waterfall, but only something that would have been impenetrable. I had always envisioned the walls like some sort of super structure, unbreakable.

They were thick tall and completely massive. I could imagine a level 10 or something smashing them or going over them. Even Death made sense, since it came in through the entrance. But to shatter the entire wall was completely out of any expectation I had.

Naran and I both stood there in shock as we processed what happened. A giant ‘V’ slit where the gate was had been made. And through that gap, came six golems. One was missing. Either it had done a suicide attack or was recovering from some form of super attack it had just done.

“Run!” I quickly called out and we started running again. Thanks to all the grinding trips we had done, we knew the route to the plaza.

“Michael, what was that?!” Naran shouted back at me as we ran.

“A super attack or something, I need to focus,” I replied. Naran was no more use, and he knew it. But I didn’t have time for his feelings. I needed to think.

There were three more gates, so I could get the number of golems down to three if I weaved in and out of the city and forced them to repeat that move three more times. That was only if the golem suicided and wasn’t just recovering. If it was recovering, we needed to loop back around.

Unfortunately, the golems were targeting Naran, since he had less stats, so I couldn’t lead them on a chase. Naran couldn’t do high speed maneuvers easily while carrying Fethee and keeping any hope of him remaining alive.

“Fethee-“ I began to say but Naran quickly cut me off.

“No. I won’t let a teammate die. Not like last time,” Naran said. I wanted to yell at his stupidity. But I couldn’t. It was that stupidity that had saved my life before. I needed to think. It was hard, since I had to keep midair spinning and maneuvering through the streets. The golems just sailed overhead and crashed on top of buildings or onto the street.

I had to hope they would be distracted by the cannibals at the plaza. If that happened and there was an opening, I needed to take down as many golems as I could in that timeframe. It was critical that I used every chance I had. At least I had recovered all my energy by now.

I also noted that the golems weren’t breaking through the roofs of the buildings. While it might sound like a useful strategy to run into a building, that was a death trap. While a building could survive one or two impacts, if all seven golems jumped on it, there was a good chance the walls and roof would break, maybe.

I had no idea how to rate the toughness of the city structures anymore. I knew purchased city buildings were more durable that regular buildings or the streets. But I had thought the wall was super durable and thick.

The fact the golems had cracked it open like an egg was incredibly worrying. I also thought about how the wall had shattered, a ‘V’ shape. No. I couldn’t focus on that right now. I needed a plan ‘B’ in case the cannibals in the plaza didn’t distract the golems enough. Even then there would be several left to deal with and I would be low on energy.

We would need to reach the far wall at the West. “Naran, use the plaza as a distraction. Then we carry on running to the far wall, West gate,” I said.

“Got it,” he replied. I knew he was smart enough to work out my plan and he was focused on saving Fethee. I couldn’t worry about him right now. I had to worry about killing the golems and surviving.

The plaza was coming up as I made a few familiar turns and the smell of waste hit me. We ran into the plaza. I did another midair spin to check the golems behind me. I let out a small sigh of relief as they spread out to target other people.

I finally saw the slice attack that had killed Gertrude. A blade of silver golem casing shot out horizontally. Similar to the pole, but it was much slower. Still quite deadly. Probably cost speed for sharpness. It was interesting there was a tradeoff, but I could think about that later. I spotted a golem that was angling for a person sitting near a building near me.

The golem was about to land. Acid Shot. It launched a panel to intercept the attack. But I already knew what it would do. While its behavior was far more complex and included contingencies it stilled followed the same set of rules. Acid Shot x2. That was the bare minimum needed to kill it I judged. The golem was hit by my skills as the person near the building was crushed as they tried to run away. Being turned into red paste.

I was already running away. My skill took time to work, especially since I only used it twice, and didn’t send a deluge at the monster. I looked up in the sky and saw another one angling for a person. I repeated the process. Spending another 60 energy to kill the golem. I noted that Naran had looped behind me and was scooping up the crystals.

I could kill a third, but then I wouldn’t be able to use Air Burst. Still, this might be the only chance I had to kill them one by one. I killed a third golem as another person was crushed and two more people nearby were shredded by a barrage of silver bullets.

That was one way to kill level 4 monsters. Use other human beings as bait. “I am out,” I called out to Naran. As I raced towards the pillars. He waited behind until the third golem I targeted collapsed and turned into dust. He then grabbed the crystal and raced back.

After a bunch of prodding Fethee cashed in the points and got a regeneration. I also grabbed one for myself as I watched the remaining three golems kill the rest of the people in Neo Brasilia. “Back to the East gate, we might catch one there,” I said.

“Got, hang on,” Naran said to Fethee. He couldn’t be left behind since he would be targeted. The last few cries disappeared as the people were killed off. We set off again towards the East and after about a minute, all three golems were back to chasing us.

“Really?” I muttered. Weren’t there people in the city to go chase after. They just had to go for us. Well, that wasn’t exactly fair. I had noted two of the golems head off a distance from the plaza to kill running people, but they were so fast for people without stats and going in a group was no help.

I had noted their attacks had shredded the buildings like they were paper. That was concerning, not as concerning as the wall though. At least we hadn’t gone into a building. The golems would have landed all around and shot up the building and ripped it apart, like mobsters shooting up a car.

At least Fethee, didn’t look like he was on the brink of death anymore. He also wasn’t complaining. He probably knew, if we left him behind, he would be dead. Better to put up with the pain and pray that he would survive. It was a bit impressive to be honest. A lot of other people would have moaned and complained in some way. He just shut his mouth and endured.

We raced back the way we came, and the wall was still broken. We went up the pile of rubble and I got my first look at the outside.

All the nearby trees had been shattered and turned into splinters. A huge explosion had gone off with how blackened the ground was. There was no sign of the missing golem. Probably self-destruction then or a suicide attack. Not that it made much difference. Naran and I quickly began running along the outside edge of the wall as the three golems chased us towards the South gate.

I could hear the golems scraping the wall as they tried to leap after us in a straight line.

“Can you win three on one?” Naran asked. I was thinking about that very question. It wasn’t easy to answer.

“No. I can’t fight two at once. At the next gate, I will make a move and then retreat into the tunnel. Whatever they did there, it clearly take a bit of time to charge up,” I replied. I thought about trying to take them on near the wall, but it was too risky. I needed the tunnel to retreat into. I would wait closer to the front and be able to pick one golem off there and we could retreat.

If they sacrificed one more golem to break the South portion of the wall, that would leave one golem left I could kill. I was more than happy with those odds. One on one, I could win. Any more than that was too big a risk.

Hopefully the monsters didn’t pull anything out as a surprise. That super attack on the wall was insane. I frowned a bit. If this was how much of a headache level 4 monsters were, I wasn’t about to poke a level 4 zone any time soon.