“Fuck!” he shouted, finally disengaging the belt and falling right on top of Wolfy, causing the hellhound to yelp in surprise before blinking out of the truck altogether.
Coop fell on top of Pete, claws pricking his shoulder as she landed.
“FUCK!” he roared.
“Sorry,” Coop said, jumping down and standing on the roof a little way off.
The gunfire had ceased thankfully, but it now seemed like the Noob Riders were circling the truck, engines roaring, the disturbing sound of human horns blaring—which essentially amounted to the poor players screaming in agony as the vehicles circled.
“You okay?” Pete asked as Sam twisted herself into a sitting position.
“Fine,” she said, bleary-eyed.
She had a cut on her forehead, and her trucker’s cap was missing, allowing locks of surprisingly curly blonde hair to flow down the sides of her face.
“We need to get the hell out of here!” she said, moving towards the shattered driver-side window and peeking out at the circling riders.
Wolfy was sitting a few feet in front of her, panting happily, his swirling demonic eyes staring right at the trio.
“We need a distraction,” Pete offered, grimacing as he twisted and turned to face the opposite window. “Coop, I’m sending all my cash your way. Get out there and cause some trouble; I’ll try to take a few of them out while I’m in stealth."
Before she could respond, he deposited all of his current funds into her wallet and started crawling out of the car.
>> DEBUFF WARNING: YOU ARE NOW INSOLVENT!
To her credit, Coop didn’t balk at the challenge. She darted from the inside of the truck, moving at speed towards the closest Noob Rider and triggering her Financial Retribution ability as a swirling blue light surrounded her. The Rider fired the mounted gun as Coop flew towards him, but the coin projectiles were deflected, and Coop’s trajectory carried her right onto the goblin’s face, which she set about ripping to shreds with savage claw strikes.
Feeling his muscles complain, Pete pulled out his bow and arrow, drawing one of the new drill arrows he’d been given by the Burrowers and aiming at an oncoming Rider. He could hear Wolfy behind him attacking one of the other goblins as Sam pulled herself out of the wrecked truck, cursing and muttering to herself.
Using the stealth to his advantage and waiting until the Rider was close enough that there was no way he was going to miss, Pete fired the drill arrow right at the head of the oncoming goblin. The arrow spun as it flew through the air, leaving behind a spiral of crimson sparks like fireworks as it shot toward its target.
A moment before it hit, a wall of what looked like improvised see-through shielding shot up, like the protective barriers sometimes used in banks to prevent robberies. The drill arrow struck the barrier but burrowed right through, still throwing sparks as it bit its way past the Perspex shield and right into the skull of the goblin Rider.
>> KILL REWARD: 5 Belch Bucks
Pete immediately shifted the reward to Coop as the Noob vehicle lost control and tumbled forward, slamming the hapless human’s face into the ground as its Rider went flying. The goblin was already dead as it was propelled through the air like a leather-clad rag doll to bounce three times before lying still on the road a short distance away.
Suddenly, the area was filled with searing hot pieces of coin as all of the other Noob Riders seemed to fire their mounted guns at once. Even though they were driving in a large circle around the wrecked pickup truck, the Riders were able to swivel the mounted weapons so that they faced inward.
Even hidden as he was, Pete was forced to summon his Pauper’s Ward to protect against the hail of coin shot. The shield burst almost immediately as a Belch Buck that had been heading directly for his head was deflected. A second and third shot ripped through his right arm just above the elbow and his left side, respectively, as he ducked down and ran for the nearest cover.
Blood sprayed from his wounds as more of the coins ricocheted off the ground, bouncing in every direction, some even hitting fellow Noob Riders as the goblins continued to pepper the area. Pete grimaced, running back to the battered truck and hunching beside it as Coop came running over, screaming at the top of her lungs.
A stream of coins burst from her body as several projectiles hit the little ferret. Her Midas Exchange ability transmuted the damage she would have taken into a spray of coins as golden light surrounded her. Even so, it wasn’t enough to completely deflect all of the damage, and huddled against the side of the truck, Pete was only protected against one side of the attackers.
Coop leaped towards him, and he drew her close, arching his back protectively around her as several of the coin projectiles cut into his flesh.
>> PAIN TOLERANCE PROFICIENCY +1
>> LEADERSHIP PROFICIENCY +1
Pete cursed himself. He should have run outside of the circle instead of heading for cover in the middle of the tumult. If he had been outside, he could have taken out a few more of the goblins and disrupted their attack, but as it was, he was stuck in place, his back being torn to shreds while Coop cowered between his body and the ruined truck.
He thought about pulling out his bow and attempting to fire off a few shots, but the gunfire was relentless, and turning around had become too risky. He looked through the ruined interior of the truck, wondering where Sam and her death wolf had gotten to, catching sight of her just a moment before she went strolling out into the throng of circling vehicles, a strange swirling mass of dark, spectral figures surrounding her.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Pete saw the name of her spell appear on his HUD as she walked confidently out into the oncoming Riders. Infernal Bastion gave her protection for five seconds, and she used that time extremely effectively, disrupting the traffic as confused Noob Riders swerved to avoid hitting her.
One of the Riders got too close, and a spectral spirit that was swirling around Sam’s body reached out with a dark claw and tore through the face of the goblin, sending its human hybrid vehicle veering sharply to one side, where it crashed into another Rider and sent them both to the road in a tangle of twisted metal and broken flesh.
Using the disruption to his advantage, Pete pulled a medkit from his inventory and used it to heal the damage he’d taken before drawing his machete and running at full speed toward the cluster of confused bikers. Coop charged after him, her primary shield cooldown already done as she scampered forward.
As soon as he came within range, Pete realized the machete wouldn’t be a good option unless he didn’t mind cutting his way through tortured humans to get to the goblins. The hybrid vehicles were designed in such a way that it was difficult to reach the Riders. Some of them even had large metal spikes jutting from the chests of their human chassis, and then there were the mounted guns on their heads.
Still invisible to the enemy, Pete swapped to his bow and ran between the still-circling Riders so that he was outside and no longer caught in the crossfire. Coop charged at the first Rider she came across, slamming into the Rider and bursting her shield with enough force to send it skidding sideways as the goblin managed to cling to one handlebar. This sent the Rider into the path of another vehicle and caused a pileup, which Pete was quick to exploit.
He used one of the Coin Biter arrows and aimed it at an incoming goblin that was attempting to veer out of the path of the cluster of crashed vehicles. The arrow flew with deadly precision, boring through the goblin’s body and out of the seat it was sitting on, then still holding enough kinetic energy to hit one of the human vehicles behind it in the torso, causing the wide-eyed noob to scream in agony, which came out like a cross between a mechanized horn blast and the screech from a human mouth.
>> ARCHERY PROFICIENCY +1
>> KILL REWARD: 5 Belch Bucks
Pete winced as he saw the arrow continue to bite its way into the flesh of the human hybrid. All around, there were fellow humans dying as the bikes they had been fused with continued to roar with power, wheels spinning, goblin riders triggering mounted guns despite the fact that most of their gunfire hit their own kind.
He chose his next few goblins, pushing the money he’d earned to Coop out of habit and picking off three more of the creatures one by one. They were easier to hit from outside of the circle because he could aim for their backs or hit them side-on. It was also possible to line them up, waiting until they came within close range before firing.
>> ARCHERY PROFICIENCY +2
>> KILL REWARD: 15 Belch Bucks
He looked over to see Sam standing by the wreckage of the pickup truck. She was surrounded by a swirling mass of shadows that seemed to protect her from damage while Wolfy ripped, bit, and tore at the enemy, treating the goblin riders like a chew toy as he moved from one to the other, blinking in front of them and seemingly impervious to harm.
[Sam] Shit! Something’s coming. Something big.
[Pete] The storm?
[Sam] No, it’s another band of riders, but there’s something much bigger coming with them. Some kind of boss. Damned thing is huge.
Pete shot another arrow, narrowly missing one of the Noob Riders as it sped off, heading back the way it had come. The others that hadn’t been killed or badly wounded followed, heading towards a large cloud of dust growing larger as a heavy rumbling sound rose.
The damaged remnants of the human hybrid vehicles were scattered around on the road, bleeding a mixture of crimson blood and dark oil as they spluttered and moaned. Without their goblin riders, they were helpless to stand on their own, and all they could do was simply lie there, broken and bloodied, crying out with mechanized voices as they slowly died.
It was a miserable sight, which would have filled Pete with rage if his attention weren’t dominated by the troubling figure coming towards them, surrounded by more Noob Riders. The sound of the approaching vehicles was so loud it drowned out the rumbling of the storm behind them as well as the moaning, dying human hybrids surrounding Pete and Sam.
>> BOSS ENCOUNTER
>> WARNING: An Elite Novice level boss is approaching and will trigger a boss encounter unless you are able to flee the combat area and disengage from the encounter. You are currently significantly under-equipped for such an encounter at this stage, and there is a high likelihood of serious injury and death.
>> Chance of injury: 98%
>> Chance of death: 78%
>> Chance of being completely forgotten and having your memory wiped from the Dominion Ultrimax Codex: 55%
“Fuck!” Pete barked, turning to Sam. “We need to get the hell out of here.”
She looked around, surveying the carnage. “Need new wheels.”
Pete scanned the area, noting that there were cars in the distance but not close enough to reach before the boss reached them.
“Ride uzzzzzzzzzz,” a mechanical voice half-screamed, half-wheeze. “Weeeee heeelp!”
Pete looked down at the battered Noob vehicle lying at his feet. It was one of the least damaged specimens, but there was still blood across its tortured face.
“Ride uzzzzz!” the vehicle repeated, its cry taken up by the other surviving hybrids.
>> WARNING: You will shortly be in range of a boss encounter. Once this occurs, you will be unable to break out of combat without moving past the first phase of battle.
>> TIME TO ENCOUNTER: 30 Seconds
>> BOSS: Coin Lord Grindle and The Fleshcycle
LEVEL: Elite Warlord Encounter
TYPE: Goblin-Mounted Human Hybrid War-Engine — Novice Boss
DESCRIPTION:
Coin Lord Grindle is not simply a rider — he is a tyrant of wheels and flesh. His mount, the Fleshcycle, is a grotesque centipede of fused human torsos, their spines stitched together in an endless chain. Each victim’s limbs churn like pistons, propelling the mass forward in a screeching, grinding sprint. Rusted plates and glowing coin-glyphs hold the monstrosity together, while its hollow-eyed victims scream in chorus with every revolution of its spiked wheels.
From atop his throne of writhing bodies, Grindle commands with gleeful cruelty. Twin rotary coin-guns are bolted to the Fleshcycle’s flanks, spewing molten currency at devastating speeds. Sparks of gold and blood trail behind the beast as it thunders across the battlefield, surrounded by elite riders who harass and corral its prey.
>> TIME TO ENCOUNTER: 20 Seconds
“No choice!” Sam shouted above the steady din of the oncoming enemy. “We need to book it!”
She bent down and picked up the handlebars of one of the Noob vehicles. As she held it upright, the little goblin seat sitting behind the once-human head shifted, gears clicking as it ratcheted down and straightened out. It lowered until it formed a flat, skateboard-like surface as two small wheels materialized at the base of the unit.
Sam stepped onto the machine, and it lunged forward a few paces as she pulled back the throttle. She turned to face Pete, grimacing at the pure oddness of the situation.
He bent down and picked up the vehicle just in front of him, and, in a similar fashion to the hybrid Sam was standing on, it adjusted to suit Pete’s body.
“I’m sorry about this,” he said, feeling more than a little queasy about stepping onto the back of the warped vehicle-thing. “Coop, where are—”
The little ferret crawled up his leg, claws pricking as she climbed onto his shoulder and held on.
“Go!” she snapped, prompting Pete to pull experimentally on the throttle.
The hybrid vehicle responded instantly, darting forward with surprising speed and ease. Seeing that he had his own vehicle, Sam turned her hybrid around, and the hellhound at her side vanished in a puff of black smoke as she shot off down the road, leaving clouds of dark smoke in her wake.
Pete followed after, his stomach twisting as the part-organic, part-machine vibrated underneath him, and he sped off after Sam.
“Weeee ride!” the machine hybrid purred, causing the hair on the back of Pete’s neck to stand on end.
Gamebreaker by Dante's Blade!
Devin Stringer arrived in Teth with nothing but brand-new superpowers and a talking dog to guide him. Alongside his companions, he's fought living trees, crazy spirits, and a bunch of medieval super-villains bent on killing him – or worse, recruiting him to their side.
Devin never asked for any of this. He was perfectly content with his life as a bachelor gamer back on Earth. Now half the people in this new world are trying to kill him, and the other half are looking to him to save them.
And if all that isn’t enough, there’s ‘The Warlock’ - a role Devin took up that is starting to seem as real to him as his own personality.
Most of all, Devin’s been pushed around since he got here, and he’s sick and tired of it. Now someone is going to pay.
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