Apocalypse: Generic System Macronomicon (miss read books TXT) 📖

puncturing their torso, the other eighty were lost into the environment.

There’s a reason they call it spray and pray.

The white tiger went down, a hole in its heart, but the other two looked at him and snarled. The white lamprey-dragon was bleeding a white goop from its side as it lunged up at him, its stubby claws finding purchase on the goddamn air.

Flying? Not fair, Jeb thought hypocritically as he floated backwards, leading the creature away while the raptor chased after him on the ground. Every second he let them bleed themselves out, the better his odds.

Jeb dropped his flight, ducking under the squirmy lamprey-dragon. He used the Myst thread to form a mind-bullet and shoved it through the charging raptor’s face.

That did the trick, now –

Jeb’s thoughts were cut off as a slippery tail smacked into his head, nearly crumpling his spine as it sent him hurtling to the ground.

Jeb hit earth in an explosion of dust and pain, heady groggy and seeing stars.

Keep moving.

He shoved himself up and to the side an instant before the lamprey’s mouth gouged out a trough of dirt where he’d been lying.

Jeb quickly scanned the surroundings.

He didn’t see any more monsters.

I’m gonna risk it.

He released the dome of force around Casey and siphoned two new threads of Myst, sucking the corona of energy around his star until it was empty, jettisoning it out into the world.

Jeb’s ‘threads’ of Myst came out pretty chonkin’ as he sent both of them up to the eel-shaped dragon bearing down on him.

Your flesh looks soft, he thought, seizing the creature’s bones with one thread and everything else with the other. He could feel the creature’s internal Myst fighting against his, but it felt like a baby bird struggling in his cupped hands.

The creature’s bones began to show against its soft skin as he began to pull them apart, causing it to writhe in pain.

In a move he’d learned from Mortal Kombat, Jeb tore out the eel’s flexible spine.

Jeb tossed the two halves of the monster aside and hopped over to Casey. His pegleg had wandered off somewhere, so he finally picked himself up and glided the last dozen feet over to her side.

“And how are we doing?” He asked, giving his most professional, calm tone of voice despite being covered in viscera.

“I think I can see the head!” Smartass cried, trying not to throw up. “So much blood…”

“I can feel something!” Casey groaned, unaware of the faerie keeping an eye on the situation. “I think it’s coming!”

Her eyes widened. “Above you!”

Jeb raised his left hand, fingers splayed as wide as he could get them.

The shield deployed just in time to ward off the crash of talons above him.

“Smartass, I gotta deal with this. You got this under control?”

“She pooped on me!” Smartass shouted, covered from head to toe in…stuff, wiping himself off furiously with one of the wet rags.

“Suck it up, buttercup!” Jeb said, using his Myst threads to fling the snarling creature away from them.

The other Faeries arrived while Jeb was dealing with the monster, carrying rags and several MRE containers full of water.

It became a joint effort, with Casey pushing, fairies pulling, and Jeb making sure they didn’t get killed by the unceasing onslaught of monsters.

You have gained a level!

You are now level 36!

Jeb was busily murdering the endless stream of creatures attracted to the sound of fighting when he heard the crying of an infant.

Yes! Now we can leave, Jeb thought, blasting over to the tree where dozens of faeries were proudly holding the bloody baby above their heads, Smartass standing on top of it like an exultant mountain climber.

“Look,” Smartass said, thumping his chest. “At what I have created! I am the bringer of life! I claim this human as my own and shall call her –”

Casey looked highly confused about the way her baby was seemingly floating in midair, and she scooped it up, not hearing the faerie’s indignant protests. Smartass was accidentally sandwiched between the baby and mother, his wings twitching as he struggled to escape.

“Can’t stay here,” Jeb said, landing beside her and pulling out his knife, cutting the umbilical cord with the confidence of desperation.

Jeb picked her up and wrapped a single thread of Myst around the two of them, picking them up and zooming away.

Behind him, Jeb felt the air vibrate to the powerful beat of a wing.

He glanced behind them and wished he hadn’t.

A toad-looking creature that dwarfed the other monsters swooped over them, its gullet expanding an instant before it dropped a rain of fire above their heads.

In a desperate bid to survive, Jeb made a two-layered bubble of air around the two of them, desperate to insulate them for the extra second or two it would take to get out of the clearing.

It worked.

Jeb and Casey made it out of the clearing zooming through the forest, safe inside their little bubble of protection.

The faeries on the other hand…

Jeb glanced back and his heart sank.

The entire clearing was on fire. The great oak carrying the entire Mossy-oak-in-the-clearing clan was ablaze, burning like it’d been doused with napalm.

Son of a bitch! Jeb gritted his teeth and put on more speed, aiming to lose pursuit in the woods. There was nothing he could do for them now.

He’d known it was dangerous to stay there, but he’d done it anyway. Too dangerous to move a woman in labor. Didn’t want to get ambushed searching for Jessica and co. Those thoughts had gotten people who’d helped him killed.

I should’ve just left and taken her with me.

Jeb took a deep breath, locked those thoughts away, and refocused on the now.

Now, he had to get Casey and baby to the rest