Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 85: The only monster of the Deep

The water surrounded him, seemingly stretching infinitely in all directions, as he hung there, 40 or so meters underwater.

A pair of fins were strapped to his feet, which, combined with his massively improved stats, let him shoot through the water like a torpedo. Other than the fins, the only article of clothing he was wearing was a very tight pair of swimwear. It was hardly his usual style, but he really wanted to reduce drag, something the last thing on his person didn’t do the best job at.

It was a small bag strapped to his upper right arm, containing both a pair of inscribed Lesser Space Elemental cores to access his storage space in case of emergency, and several trackers he was meant to tag the bodies with, meant to be attacked to normal sharks to track their movements.

The first Systemer arrested had sang like a canary on most topics, but categorically refused to tell people how many sharks he’d stuck in the lake, as if that was somehow some great secret.

But Sturm had insisted that however many more sharks were going to die here and now, it would likely be enough to seriously fuck with the ecology of the lake, so they’d need to be retrieved later.

Meanwhile, his [Aura] was fully extended, scouring the surrounding area for any sign of the sharks.

The conversation with Habicht was still somewhat on his mind, but distant, as if it had happened weeks ago. Right here and now, it was just him and the monsters out there, man vs nature, just the way he liked it. No politics, no lying, just good old fighting.

He grinned a smile that Isaac knew had to look more than a little feral, but right now, he didn’t care about that either.

A dark shadow approached, cutting through the water like a knife, immense jaws opening to create a gate straight to oblivion, two meters across and able to swallow him whole without him even touching the teeth. It really wasn’t a contest.

Isaac kicked his feet and flung himself straight into the jaws of hell itself.

As the twin rows of ivory passed him, revealing countless more behind them, invisible from the outside, he flung out both his arms, hurling both his Kabar and Kriegsmesser into the the gills from the inside.

See, one the way sharks, or at least the ram-ventilators among them, breathed was by swimming through the water, periodically opening their mouths to let it stream into them thanks to their forward motion and then push it back out over their gills. In other words, you could strike at the gills from the inside, especially with an [Aura] that could tell him precisely where the biggest blood vessels within were located.

A mere thought later, the hurled blades duplicated twice for a grand total of three tearing into the gills on each side, telekinetically guided for maximum effect with [Blade Control].

Lastly, Isaac phased everything except for a single one of the trackers, which remained corporeal and inside the shark as it swept past Isaac, trailing blood from both sides of its neck like a damaged airplane leaking smoke.

A few moments later, it slackened and began to sink. Apparently, sharks didn’t go belly up like other fish because they lacked a swim bladder.

Megalodon (Lv. 23) has been slain. 280 XP gained

Isaac swept his [Aura] across the body to check for an Aspect but came back empty. Unfortunate. If he didn’t get an Aspect now, he’d likely end up having to wait for the artificial lake on his property to be dug, and that would take a while. But right now, this was another thing that was relatively average in terms of danger level and power but had inflicted so much damage and killed so many people that summoning it would look truly awful. It would have to be summoned somewhere absolutely no one ever used for other purposes, or not at all. At least until the general populus forgot about this entire mess.

In the distance, another shadow approached, the next shark having noticed his presence. It had taken a little while for these two to realize he was here, but once the blood from the dead one had had time to spread, he’d be up to his neck in them, at least if there were enough of the damn things in the lake.

He spun, winding up a [Far Strike] and slashing across its snout. He could feel the sheer pressure of the water pushing against the attack, threatening to break it, but the projection held. Barely. As the attack got longer it would grow increasingly unstable, and slashing through something as dense as water instead of air was reducing the effective range even further.

The shark veered off, going deeper before coming at him with its ‘explode from the depths’ trick. That … went about as poorly as one might expect. Isaac teleported out of the way at the last second and laid open its gills with a single attack. It spun around, diving right at him, crimson clouds spiling from the massive wound. He evaded and it charged at him once again, and once more after that, until it too began to sink, dead.

Isaac took a moment to dive down next to it and slap a tracker on it, and that that was that.

The third and fourth sharks attacked almost simultaneously, and this time, Isaac shifted into [Form of Horror]. Not because he needed to, but because he wanted too.

Since the last time he’d used this ability in combat, he’d gained several new Aspects and it had changed significantly. The basic form of a lanky humanoid was still the same, but that was all. Countless additional bone plates covered his skin like armor, but beneath each and every one of them lay an extendible blade, allowing him to turn into a bladed porcupine at a moment’s notice.

In addition, he’d gained an extra pair of arms that connected to his torso at the exact same point his old ones were, moving through each other as if one pair were intangible, which neither was. That was because the new ones weren’t real, they were wholly illusionary, making him able to pull off feints with casual ease.

Meanwhile, controlling the new limbs could be as easy or tricky as he wanted, depending on the ‘setting’. They could move completely autonomously, attacking depending on his current intentions, or they could be directly controlled for maximum efficacy, but the latter option was incredibly tricky. The human brain could be wired to control all sorts of things, but the human mind took longer to adapt. And this wasn’t something that Isaac was particularly good at, sadly.

Still, there were sharks, fancy tricks shouldn’t be needed.

Isaac kicked his feet to get above the first shark, driving his claws into its snout and letting the water resistance pull himself along its back, tearing at it like a cat did to a cat tree, but doing a hell of a lot more damage in the process. As he reached the tail fin, he covered his claws with a [Sundering Strike] in its enduring version, leaving behind a vicious green glow in the wound, continuously eating at the base of the fish’s spine … until the tail fin fell off.

And that shark was dead. Ram-ventilator sharks needed to keep moving forward if they wanted to keep breathing, but this one was dead in the water, metaphorically speaking. And soon enough, literally as well.

The second one rushed past, catching a claw to the face but coming away relatively intact. Over and over, it charged, coming away with a new set of scratches while the occasional headbutt or tail swipe managed to knock Isaac away, but they couldn’t actually hurt him, that would require biting him, and it wouldn’t be able to manage that.

A few seconds after the transformation ran out, Isaac managed to solidly dig the claws on his left hand into the top of the shark’s skull and then drove his right arm into the beast’s gills, where it disappeared well past the elbow. He swiped around in there for a couple of seconds, a wash of red blinding him and forcing him to depend on his [Aura] to see.

Megalodon (Lv. 23) has been slain. 280 XP gained

But the cherry on top was the fact that the first of the pair he’d killed had dropped an Aspect.

Isaac kicked his feet, blurring through the water straight towards the body, Kabar swiping back and forth until the body fell apart in two halves before him, Aspect coming free. It was a beautiful aquamarine gemstone looking orb, only marred by a single streak of ivory.

Aspect of the Megalodon:

This is the distilled essence of what makes a Megalodon a Megalodon. Gain a form perfect for underwater combat, launch yourself forward into a devastating charge, regrow your teeth and other natural weapons ad infitum or gain the ability to sense electricity.

Requirements for Activation:

2,000 XP

Open Aspect Slot

Grants:

+10 Agility

One of the following Skills:

Shark’s Body

Wave Charge

Revolver Dentition

Electrosense

It offered several cool [Skills], as well as the single most useless [Skill] Isaac had ever seen, the ability to grow additional rows of teeth inside his mouth to replace any he lost nigh instantaneously. Sure, regrowing teeth was incredibly useful, but devoting an entire Aspect [Skill] to that? Bollocks to that!

The Aspect vanished a moment later, [Gills] upgrading to [Shark’s Body], with [Wave Charge] being his new [Skill].

Shark’s Body (epic)

There are plenty of Skills to let one breathe underwater, but for most of them, that’s all they do.

This one is a little different, in addition to gaining the ability to survive the lack of gaseous oxygen and the crushing weight of the ocean overhead, it gives the user an additional form, said form being a shark-human hybrid, complete with sharkskin, as well as webbed hands and feet, electromagnetic senses, and an improved sense of smell.

Clothing worn in the human form will vanish with the human form, though some articles of clothing may be kept on.

(The passive effect of the Gills Skill will continue to work even if this Skill is not active.)

Cost: 7 mana to transform, 1 mana per minute to maintain transformation

Essentially, [Shark’s Body] was the bootleg version of [Form of Horror], but incredibly focused on underwater combat. Isaac activated it the instant he got it, feet suddenly doubling in size, something that when combined with the webbed skin between his toes effectively gave him a natural pair of fins.

The same happened with his hands, allowing him to plow through the water at speeds equal to these damn sharks, the altered skin allowing him to cut through it like a knife.

Meanwhile, the lake lit up with an entirely new kind of sight as the electromagnetic detection ability of his altered form kicked in. The effect wasn’t quite as strong as the dedicated [Electrosense] [Skill] the Aspect had offered, but it was cool enough.

By comparison, [Wave Charge] was almost stupidly simple.

Wave Charge (epic)

There is a charge, and then there is a charge, something that isn’t merely the act of rushing forward at an enemy.

Activating this Skill will fling the user forward, running at a chosen target, without needing a solid surface to jump off of. In addition, it ignores all kinds of non-solid resistance.

Cost: 15 mana

He could charge at something, and unlike a [Warrior’s] [Charge], he didn’t need ground to run on. Also, it let him ignore both water and air resistance while it was active, but that was really weirdly phrased. It was one of those things that made the ‘the [System] was created in a given language and perfect translations don’t always exist’ hypothesis seem more and more likely. Sure, some [Class] and [Skill] names had obviously been created in a given language, but generally, the names seemed to not point to any given language or region of origin.

And here was another shark, helpfully volunteering to play the target for when he tried out his new [Skills].

He spun through the water, running rings around the larger shark, ripping open the gills on one side, then appearing on the other less than a second later, and ripped open those as well.

Megalodon (Lv. 24) has been slain. 280 XP gained

Two minutes later, another shark arrived, jaws open and ready to chow down.

Isaac’s slight smile turned into his full feral grin as he activated [Wave Charge], blasting into the gaping mouth and erupting out a the side, passing through the gills in the process. Sure, teleportation was the best movement ability barring things that could interfere with it, but sometimes, you just needed a little personal momentum.

As it turned out, that was the last of the bunch. Five sharks, more than had been summoned either of the previous times. That … that was more than a little stupid. You either finished someone off with the opening attack and made damn sure to send enough to finish the job, or you left them well enough alone. A failed attack let the target know there was a threat and let them start preparing a countermeasure.

Then again, the Systemers were some of the least problematic foes he’d be facing, they were just too impulsive. When he posted that list of potentially trouble-making factions, for most of them, it would be early enough for them to be stopped before they grew big.

The Systemers, on the other hand, were godsdamned crusaders, gathering up followers with inspirational speeches and zeal, but quite frankly, they were simply too lacking in the intelligence department to reach the endgame.

Still, they should cease to be a threat in a matter of months, if not weeks. And with the idea that the [System] might have prompted a psychosis that would create similar movements, any other even remotely similar group would get erased like a cockroach in a cleanroom.

Grasping the nearest shark by the tail, he began to kick his feet to drag it too shore, but he couldn’t. He was easily strong enough to carry a dead shark, especially with the water carrying part of the weight, but that didn’t change how buoyancy worked.

Now, he could drag it along the bottom of the lake, climb up the sharp incline to the shore and move the bodies that way, but did he really want to do that when there were alternatives available? Yeah, that was a solid nopefrom him.

Isaac sped off towards his port of origin, casting his [Aura] forward just before emerging from the water to check what was awaiting him. His team, part of GSG-13, and the reporters that were asking them question after question.

The press had been sniffing around them for a while, but while in the police precinct or the hotel, the team had managed to doge them decently well. After all, they hadn’t had much to tell yet.

He dove deep for a moment, then burst upwards and out of the water like a porpoise, shifting back to human mid-flight while pulling a bathrobe out of his spatial storage. He landed lightly and walked up next to Bailey as if he’d just walked out of the other room.

The bathrobe wasn’t the only ‘in case of emergency, cover up with this’ article of clothing he had in there, but most of them were dark trench coats as no matter how messy or injured he’d gotten, or how trashed his outfit was, those covered anything not on his face or feet.

But given his current state of near complete undress, wearing a trench coat would make him look like he was about to flash people. That wasn’t a look he ever wanted to wear, let alone in front of a crowd of reporters.

“So, Professor, I took care of the remaining sharks, but I can’t get them out of the lake on my own. I’ve tagged each one, so we won’t lose track of them, but retrieving them will require the rest of the team’s help.” Isaac reported, talking to Bailey as though the reporters weren’t even there.

“Thank you, Mr. Thoma.” Bailey replied “We’ve already gathered the lift bags and other necessary gear, we’ll be ready in five minutes.”

“Uh, Mr. Thoma, was it? Would you mind if I asked you a couple of questions?” the closest reported asked, sensing the chance to interview someone no one else here had interviewed yet.

“Sure.” Isaac shrugged.

“Previous attempts at eradicating the sharks within the Bodensee have been made in groups and from large boats. What makes it safe to go at it alone, this time around?”

“Knowledge.” Isaac shrugged again “We know what these things’ weak points are, we know how to counter their attacks, we know their limits. Couple that with me being in a position to exploit those weak points, this has become considerable easier.”

“Would you say that the ships damaged in the previous attempts were a necessary sacrifice, then?”

“Yes, I would. The first attempt might have been overly cautious, but initially, we didn’t know what the Megalodon type summon is capable off, so we prepared for every eventuality. Those preparations could be fine-tuned after the first encounter, and further refined after the second. And now, cleaning out the sharks is somewhat akin to clearing out cockroaches from the bathroom, the real problem lies in finding them, rather than taking care of them.”

“How can a shark the size of a yacht be that easy to beat?”

“Simple. I have an underwater breathing Aspect [Skill] and a high Agility which lets me freely move underwater and dodge their straight line charge attacks, as well as the reach to strike at vulnerable points such as the gills or the base of the tail.”

At this point, several other reporters had noticed Isaac and were asking questions as well until he used the preparations being finished as an excuse to run off.

***

“Alright, lines are secure. And now, inflate the ballon.” Isaac announced, communicating via [Aura]-pulse-morse-code.

“Yep.” Patrick replied, sticking his right hand under the balloon’s opening, began drawing all the dissolved gasses from the surrounding water and push them inside “Though it’s called a lift bag.”

The balloon, er, lift bag, slowly began to inflate, along with its twin near the front of the shark, where Amy was mirroring Patrick’s actions.

After a couple of minutes, the body began to rise until it was bobbing at the surface of the water. High overhead, Isaac could see it getting lifted out of the water by the rest of the team and hefted onto the ferry Meier had commandeered for this exact purpose. The ferry owner had been pretty mad about it despite the fact that it wouldn’t be used for combat, but ‘commandeered in the name of the Federal Republic of Germany’ with a solid supporting argument was pretty hard to overturn.

***

Four hours after that, they were in the car, driving back to the university. Sturm was staying back, arranging for transport for three of the Megalodon bodies and Karl had decided to join him in case some trucks needed to be reinforced to carry them, but the others had all decided to go straight back home.

“You know, you might want to call your mother before that news segment airs.” Amy teased “Remember what happened the last time she learned of a major life even of yours from the TV?”

“I sent her a text a while back, I’m going to visit her soon anyway, so I figured that should be enough.” Isaac replied laconically.

“Oh, by the way, I think the bosses realized what it meant to have you give lectures on [Aura] techniques in Korea and they want you to hold one here in a week.” Bailey suddenly commented.

“Sure.” Was his only reply.

During the visit to Korea, they were going to make their own impression of how dungeons worked, as well as doing a handful of experiments of their own with the local universities’ cooperation. In exchange, they’d be helping with their hosts’ experiments and Isaac was going to be giving a few lectures on auric techniques, something he was yet to do in the university that actually paid him.

And now the people in charge of said university had finally wised up to the fact that they might miss out on the prestige of the first proper [Aura] control lecture and were trying to avoid that.

Still, it shouldn’t be too bad, he might even make some new contacts. But he hadn’t gone into this with the intention of actually holding lectures and it wasn’t something he had much experience with, so he was pretty nervous, overall.