[The Primeval Apocalypse] - Chapter Three (collaboration with u/hydrael)

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The Primeval Apocalypse by Robert Keene and Alex Raizman

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There were three ways that I could try to survive an encounter with the alpha. The least attractive was to throw down my weapons and hope for some mercy. That would never work with the queen. She wanted me dead for all the headaches I’d caused her. But the alpha might not feel the same way, and I didn’t think she could force him to yield to her wishes.

Obviously that wasn’t a reasonable option. At best, surrendering might give me a few hours as a prisoner before execution. But the alpha was giving me no sign that mercy was forthcoming. What was far more likely was that I was going to be torn limb from limb right here for giving up the fight.

The next option was to go full defensive. Stepping up to fight the alpha directly might make the others stand down and watch. If the alpha’s pride could keep them from interfering, the fight might keep the guards here instead of returning to their post. And the longer my friends had to work unimpeded, the more food would be added to the town’s storage when we returned. Even now, they probably had the 50 lbs we needed, but every handful they could grab extra would stave off our next brush with starvation that much longer.

But how was I going to join them to enjoy the bounty? Even if they let me have my honorable one-on-one fight, I still needed to escape before I was killed.

I didn’t anticipate being able to beat the alpha, and even if I did, his people weren’t likely to just let me go.

That left only one choice.

Offense.

As soon as the shock left my legs, I lunged at the alpha. I lashed out on instinct with both hand axes, bringing them across in a pair of scissoring horizontal chops. The alpha easily evaded them, his dodge skill letting him stop his advance at just the right distance and lean back barely enough that my blades didn’t connect, though I saw the fur on his chest ruffled by the passing of the weapons.

The Alpha’s counterattack was terrifying.

He didn’t shriek and swing a weapon at me like the queen—and the other guards—usually did. He just ominously reached out with one hand, seeking to grab me.

Even without a lot of education about primates, I knew that a beast that size could probably rip my arm out of its socket if he grabbed me by the forearm.

I flinched back, tearing that arm away from his grasping hand before bringing my other arm across to hack at his wrist with my other ax.

To my surprise, my hasty counterattack connected. Even more surprising, though, was that the blade just bounced off the alpha’s leathery hide.

Obviously, hitting him directly on the wrist with no effect didn’t bode well for my plan of going on the offensive.

In the split-second of realization, I tried to figure out my next move. There was a guy back at the settlement who was always striking up conversation about his experiments with the system’s damage formulae.

I now wished that I had talked to him more.

It was possible that the alpha’s defense stat was high enough to render my damage stat inconsequential. It was also possible that his CON was too high for my STR to overcome. Either way, I didn’t know if there was anything I could do to affect it. I could use Enrage, but applying multipliers to a zero-damage attack would still result in me dealing zero damage, right?

My instincts screamed at me to move. So I did.

I smashed my ax into the side of the alpha’s chest, angled on a line with his ribs. There was a rippling burst of a shockwave as I used Maul, applying the bleed debuff. The weapon seemed to bounce off his hide again, but the ability pushed through, at least, leaving behind a thin cut that instantly started to bleed down his side.

There were shrieks of pain and rage from all around, reminding me that the alpha and I were not alone. Three or four of the Mandrill guards trying to clamber onto the roof were within the radius of my Maul ability, and now bore bleeding wounds.

It was a vital reminder.

At the same moment that I was about to jump back from the alpha to avoid his next attack, my instincts screamed that there was another attacker behind me. I whirled around and my Parry skill took over, raising both of my axes in an X-guard, catching the queen’s crude blade between them.

She shrieked directly into my face, shaking with rage so furiously that her necklace of fangs was rattling even while she stood still. Her strength eclipsed my own by an order of magnitude, and as she pushed down against my guard, I found myself forced down to my knees. Even with that extra leverage, she kept pushing down, her blade inching closer to my face with every second.

I’d been in tough scrapes with her before. My usual method for getting out of this sort of situation was to grin at her. Whatever the expression meant in their culture was enough to piss her off so bad she would drop her weapon and try to bite my face off with her enormous terrifying canine teeth. This time, however, a higher power intervened.

There was an impact. The alpha’s hand grasped my neck from behind. His hand was almost big enough to close around my throat, but his ice-cold fingers were just slightly too short. They were more than large enough to establish a firm grip, and he yanked me out from under the queen’s assault, holding me up and away from her.

And in that moment of stunned surprise on her face, he grinned at her, just like I usually would.

She went—and I cannot stress this enough—absolutely apeshit.

The queen shrieked at the alpha, throwing down her weapon and baring her teeth at him in a much less friendly-looking expression. While he was showing her his teeth by parting his lips a little bit, her lips peeled back from her mouth to show him teeth and gums together. She slapped at her flanks and bounced in place angrily, employing the gesture-focused element of their language even when it meant striking herself where I’d drawn blood on her earlier. It seemed to give what she said some sort of emphasis, as her further gestures with that hand flung blood at the alpha’s face.

The alpha made a hooting noise back at her, gesturing with his free hand. He struggled for a moment—clearly needing both hands to convey some specific meaning—and then tried to gesture by swinging me around like a cat being gripped by the scruff.

That was a mistake on his part.

As much as I was a fan of not being dismembered, I didn’t like being ignored. I had made it a point to normally use the Skull Bash ability by headbutting my foes. It just seemed right. But I had tested it, and I could actually use any non-weapon attack to activate it, including punches, elbows, knees, and even kicks.

So when he flailed me around in front of him instead of to the side, I kicked him in the crotch.

It was really funny to watch his beady little eyes bug out.

The Stun status didn’t mean that he had to drop me, but he immediately did so that he could put both his hands to his groin to try and comfort the sensitive parts I’d just punted. He slumped over so low that his bright blue scarf started to slip off of his shoulders. A weak combination of a squeak and a wheeze started to come from deep in his throat.

“Sorry, man,” I blurted out immediately. As a man, I couldn’t help it. There are some things that I can’t help but feel sympathetic about, even when the guy in question was probably about to shred me like a boiled pork roast.

I leaped from the building’s roof as fast as I could. I hoped to avoid the queen’s inevitable attempt to snatch at me to stop my escape, but there was a shriek of mirthful laughter behind me instead. Apparently I found something that could mollify the queen’s hatred of me for a second.

The interaction seemed to generate as much confusion in the guards as it did in myself. The Mandrills around me didn’t try to grab me when I hit the ground in a roll. It was possible that my strike and the subsequent laughter had opened some political wound between the queen and the alpha that would need an immediate response. It was also possible that the other guards weren’t sure if they could get away with cackling at the alpha’s misfortune as well.

I didn’t have time to try and decode what was happening. Counting on the lull of confusion to linger would get me killed.

Instead of sticking around, I bolted like a rabbit. My Intuit North skill told me which way was east and I took off at the highest speed I could manage in that direction. I felt a pang of jealousy at the people who had picked classes that had better movement options than Marauder, but at least Athletics was a class skill, turning me from a doughy nerd into an Olympic athlete after just a few months of training.

It was only a few seconds before I heard the shrieking, hooting sounds of alarm behind me, warning me that they had taken up the chase again. But at that point, the spectacle of whatever had transpired between the alpha and the queen had bought me enough of a lead.

I was gone.

Out of there.

I’d left the proverbial building.

And I just prayed that I’d bought my friends enough time.

All that remained was the end of my fantastic escape. I needed to get fully clear, cover my tracks, and meet back up with my friends to see how we did.