Apocalypse: Generic System by Macronomicon (shoe dog free ebook TXT) 📕

instant the portals began manifesting, the pyramid shot itself underneath the nearest one in an explosion of movement, then drove a beam of void energy up through the sphincter to hollow out the contents, I.E. the treasure chest.

Then Jeb’s construction grabbed everyone nearby and reeled them in at car-crash speeds.

Naturally, this included Jeb.

Jeb didn’t even have time to grunt as a wave of force smacked him hard, tossing him up into the air above the pyramid, the maddened copper insect man still attached to him like an angry spider monkey.

Once all seven of them were crushed together by a tube of telekinetic force ensuring they were in the right position, limbs be damned, the shrink lens blinked on, creating extra space inside the tube as it contracted, small enough to fit.

Then they got shot out of a cannon, straight up into the magical anus.

They weren’t quite small enough to fit through the hole in the wooden box, but Casey tucked herself around her baby, and everyone else tucked themselves around her, sheltering them from the wooden shrapnel sharing a lane with them.

As a family unit, the eight of them slammed up against a stone ceiling with enough force to crush a normal man’s bones.

Jeb felt like he’d been attacked by a giant sandwich press, but on the bright side, the presence of a ceiling meant the plan was a success:

They weren’t in the death wilds anymore.

“Oh gods!”

“What in the Roil?”

Jeb hit the concrete ground, still wrestling with the tribal warrior desperately trying to stab him with his broken spear.

“What’s going on!?”

“Who are these people?”

Jeb injected the creature’s chest with Myst, its resistance not nearly enough to stop him.

The copper-skinned warleader noticed it instantly, locking its sharp talons around Jeb’s arm and neck. The look in its beady eyes screamed ‘shove me off, and I’ll take these with me’.

Jeb redirected his attention to the hand on his neck, grabbing the creature’s fingers from the outside and prying them away from his jugular.

“Get off!” Jess shouted, a heavy iron boot manifesting on her foot as she kicked the creature’s midsection.

The fingers on his neck were sufficiently pried off, but the ones on his arm dragged through the flesh as the warleader was kicked away, putting several gouges through Jeb’s upper arm.

The copper skinned humanoid crashed into two stock boys gawking at them from beside a treasure chest they’d been hauling up to a circular platform.

The insect-man slammed them backwards with a spray of blood. Together, the three of them hit some kind of big red button below a code displayed in glowing runes.

“Get away!” one of the men said, shoving the insect man off, while his buddy clutched a bleeding hand, moaning in pain.

Jeb got a glimpse of a severed finger before the platform turned into a tube, allowing the treasure box and the finger to fall through.

That…already happened.

Jeb didn’t have more time to think about it as the copper skinned creature launched itself to its feet, eyeing Jeb with unmistakable focus.

“Jeez, Jeb, what did you do to piss this guy off?” Smartass asked from her nest in Jeb’s hair.

“Killed his whole village,” Jeb muttered, putting pressure on his bleeding arm.

“Yeah, that’d do it,” Smartass said, resting her elbows on Jeb’s scalp and kicking her tiny feet. “You do seem to leave a trail of destruction in your wake. You might be cursed.”

“Find a control room or a way out while I deal with this guy,” Jeb said to the rest of his team. “We don’t have time to screw around-“

The harsh sound of a klaxon filled the air, and the whole warehouse of treasure boxes was bathed in a harsh yellow and red light.

Taking the opportunity, the copper-skinned creature flung itself forward, aiming for Jeb.

Jeb splayed his fingers wide, and the shield trigger popped in front of him, catching the warrior in midair.

Jeb jumped over the shield, aiming over it with his finger.

“Juggernaut!”

Over the next four seconds, a hundred Mystic triggers sent out their payload, packed tiny fractions of a second apart from each other.

The warleader tried to dodge, but the sheer volume of telekinetic mind-bullets pinned him down and tore him to shreds.

Jeb watched as the eyes that bored into his slowly lost their life.

“I thought you said we didn’t have time for this!” Jess shouted in his ear, dragging him away from the dead guy trying to avenge his family.

“Right,” Jeb said, shaking it off.

I’ll wallow later.

The stock boys looked like your typical car mechanic. They wore overalls, had grease stains on their hands, and a weather worn look about them.

Where they differed was the fact that they were pale, skeletal, seven feet tall, and had no lips, giving them a horrific visage.

They seemed like nice folk, though. The stock boy was helping his friend keep the pressure on his bandage.

Despite their imposing looks, they cowered as Jeb and company approached them.

“WHERE ARE WE?” Jeb shouted over the klaxon.

“IMPOSSIBLE TREASURE SHIPPING ROOM!” The skeletal laborer shouted back. His words hit Jeb’s ears as harsh consonants and snakelike hissing, but by the time it made it to his brain, it felt like English.

“Is there a control room for the Impossible Tutorial we could access from here!?” Jeb asked.

The skeletal fellow pointed to a nearby door.

“Take a right!” he shouted, pointing a shaking hand.

“Much obliged!” Jeb responded, nodding toward the large double doors.

Brett kicked the doors open, leading the group into the tight hallway.

Moments later they heard shouting and the stomping of boots coming from down the hall.

Rounding the corner were a dozen of the pale lipless men, dressed in solid steel plate, sporting standardized swords and a single crest on the front of their steel plate.

“Humans!