Slumrat Rising

For once, it wasn’t the fault of Truth’s horrible education. He just didn’t think. There was a lot going on. The sulphuric gas, heated to some five hundred degrees, wouldn't combust without oxygen. He knew that but had forgotten it for the moment. So Truth ripped open a base full of fresh, cool air without wondering what would happen if he did.

The boiling hot gas jetted into the base, hit the cold, oxygen rich air, and exploded. Truth didn’t even get a chance to see what was in the room before the blast slammed him back against the wall of the lava tube. His suit started screaming alarms at him as its enchantments exploded in tiny showers of sparks, unable to withstand the damage and the yellow hot molten rock. Even with his body cultivation, he felt the temperature nigh instantly exceed what he could stand.

There was a fire roaring in the base now, and explosions setting off as the gas infiltrated further into the building. He dove in. Still safer than the tunnel.

The cold air of the base fell on his protective suit like a swarm of scissors, shredding and shattering the melting metal-impregnated cloth. He had abused it hard in the run through the tunnels. The last few seconds were just too much for the overwhelmed enchantments and materials.

Truth ripped it off him in stride. Barefoot, in boxers and a tee shirt, waving a two handed sword around. Somehow, it felt right. He looked around swiftly. The door had blown off its hinges, the poison gas starting to roll down the hall. Alarms were screaming, people running around in the halls madly. Truth stowed the Tongue. Joining the panicking crowds.

“Evacuation procedures! Everyone, find your floor captain and evacuate! Follow the signs to your evacuation route!” There were people keeping their heads, directing the crowds. Then the gas got to them, and they started coughing.

“Gas, GAS! Get low! Low! Crawl if you have to, but keep moving!” Sounded like good advice to Truth. He sprinted past the crowd and found the stairs. He was on the first floor. Figured. He jumped straight down the stairwell, slowing his fall with his fingertips.

Fifth floor. The Prototype lab was through here. Long way from the poison gas. Had Obliteration finally burnt out against the wards? How much of a hole did he wind up knocking through the wall? But more than that, had word of the phoenix escaping reached down here? Because according to that ancient, the base would implode in the earthquakes before the lava finished it off.

He paused for a moment at the bottom of the stairs to collect himself. Touched a wall, feeling the cool cement. That wouldn’t last. An odd thought intruded- there was rebar in the concrete. Long, long nets of iron rods making the structure more rigid and more durable. Concrete didn’t transmit heat well, but iron? Was the rebar carrying the sunflower yellow heat of the molten basalt straight into the walls of the base? How far could that really spread? And what would happen if it did? He had no idea.

He shook his head and focused. People were streaming up from the fifth floor, leaving their offices and laboratories. The PMC wouldn’t have shifted an inch without order, though. And what about the Level Eight? He had killed one high level in the cavern, and had felt another pass through the tunnels. Was that all the high levels in the base? Seemed dumb to assume. There were the trolls roaming around too, though he hadn’t seen any yet. And those… eye blob things guarding outside. Golems. Hadn’t seen any big golems around, but they sure were available to Starbrite.

And on that cheery note, he walked against the flow, into the fifth floor.

It was quiet. The lines were orderly, and moving with minimal argument. Truth saw a lot of glassy looking eyes, and some of the workers were holding talismans with active spells running. A calm evacuation, with the calm being magically enforced. They were at the very bottom of the base. Furthest from any escape route. He could understand a need to control panic.

He moved quickly, keeping himself unnoticable, slipping along the wall as people marched past. He could feel attention pinging against him, but far less than he had expected. Everyone was looking straight ahead, trying to get to the stairs and get out. Level Threes, Level Fours… nobody cared. They just wanted to be out. He respected that.

The foyer to the prototype lab looked unchanged. The PMC was still in place, the recording talismans covering the room. Hidden defenses less hidden now. The deathsworn holding their needlers openly. He… didn’t think there would be any slipping past them. And he didn’t have time to wait for events to create an opportunity. Ten minutes, the phoenix had said. And it didn’t sound very confident in that timeline.

Truth touched the concrete. Still cool to the touch. Was it a little warmer? Or was that his imagination? He felt the wall tremble. Just slightly. Not even enough to knock a pen off a table. But it was there. His time was running out, fast. He looked back out at his co-workers. He sighed and tried to ease his way along the wall. Maybe he would get lucky.

No new defenses had popped up in the last few hours. No suddenly deployed alarms. He didn’t know what would happen when the door opened. Sliding along the wall. There was a moment- one of the deathsworn looked straight at him. Eye contact. A young man, his age. Black BDU’s looked natural on him. Clean shaven and ready for whatever the world threw at him. Truth thought he could smell the slums on him. That ground in feeling that whatever came couldn’t be worse than that. Their eyes met… and the merc looked straight through him. Slid off him like he wasn’t even there.

Truth spent a few seconds he probably couldn’t spare getting his heart to restart. He moved around the edges of the room and got to the door. Featherlight fingers tested the door. Locked. Big chunky bastard of a lock too. Clearly only meant to open when a switch was pressed. He looked around for an activation switch. There was one, built into the floor.

He creeped over. Crouched down, and slowly extended his finger. There was a tingle of alarm when he touched the gem. He paused. The floor shook. It was more noticeable this time. One of the cheap chairs for visitors clattered a little on the concrete floor. The guards looked at each other, eyebrows raising.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

“Corporal?”

“You have the same mission I do.”

“Yeah, but… no updates? Are they even gonna evacuate from there?”

“Let me just check the double secret Corporal-eyes-only info dump from the System… it says ‘Shut the fuck up, mind your business, and do your job.’ I can only guess what it means.”

“Don’t have to be a prick about it.”

“I do when you bitch and ask dumbass questions every two minutes-”

There was another, more violent shake. Everyone looked up at the ceiling.

“I don’t think they are that dumb.”

There was a chime. The gem flashed blue. The corporal shifted over and stepped on it, narrowly missing Truth’s hastily withdrawn hand. The corporal kept his foot on it for two seconds. Truth heard the door unlocking behind him.

A fucking dual verification system. Door has to be unlocked on both sides. God. DAMN. That almost-

He shot to his feet and stood just to the side of the door, ready to dart in as everyone peeled out. The door swung open and a strong voice called out- “Soldiers! Has the new mission been issued?”

“Not yet, Ma’am.”

“Then on my authority, these production employees are allowed to leave their duty posts and evacuate. We shall maintain the guard here.”

“Yes Ma'am.”

“Alright, you know the drill. Line up by sections, follow the evacuation route. Floor captains will guide you along the way.” There was another violent shake. Coming closer together now. Stronger. Ten minutes… was that until total collapse, or until the walls started cracking? And how many minutes had passed already? At least… four?

The crowd started marching out. Slowly. Too damn slowly. He could feel the seconds ticking past. He quite literally didn’t have time for an orderly queue.

There was… no way to do this peacefully, was there? Incisive blared a warning, but… of course he was in danger. What path through here wasn’t dangerous?

Truth moved quickly over to the closest deathsworn and yanked an explosive charm off his harness. Armed it. Tossed it head high between three other mercs. Ripped the needler from his hand. The merc was turning now, trying to figure out what was happening. Slow. Too slow.

Truth had the needler up. Two rounds to the skull. Turned to the other three on the other side of the room. Grenade had a second or two longer before it went off. Tap tap. Tap tap. Tap tap. The needler was quiet. No extra spells layered on it. Didn’t need them. Not at this range, in an ambush.

The first body hadn't hit the floor by the time the grenade went off. Truth had gotten low, peering through the mass of people, trying to spot the high level. Hoping to ambush them before they were ready to react. Both hands on the needler.

The wall of the Prototype lab exploded outward. Cement and rebar scythed through the room. The workers were shredded. Truth felt concrete ripping through his hardened skin. The blast smashed him into the floor, along the floor, up against the far wall.

“I knew I smelled a rat. Stupid little rat, thinking we wouldn’t be ready. Waiting for you.” The old lady stalked over the rubble, eyes glowing electric blue. Hands crackling with electricity.

“We don’t have much time now, but don’t worry. I’ll have that soul out of you in a jiffy. Then we will have LOTS of time to talk.”

Skewers of steel, crackling with lightning, launched up out of the rubble. Truth called the Tongue to hand, barely managing to deflect them as he got to his feet. Hanging on to the needler for dear life.

“Oh I know you. You are that “Hell Prince” that PR came up with. You were actually real? Hilarious. I thought we had just made up a scapegoat. I owe Rebeccah a drink.”

Truth felt the air bending around him. Getting rigid. He planted his feet and charged directly at the woman. She sneered. He felt a huge force coming from his right. Turned, cut. Obliteration split the spell in half, the remainders of whatever it was ripping up the floor on either side of him. Dissolving it.

“Interesting.” The lobby wasn’t that big. He closed the distance fast, but she just drifted back into the lab. Attacks came from every angle- fire, lightning, skewers of metal. Compressing air. Trying to bind him, then dissolve him. Truth strained his body to its limits, dodging, twisting, using Obliteration where he had to. Trying to corner the drifting mage. No luck.

Truth didn’t give her time to come up with anything too effective. He kept the needler in action, pinging shots at her, using Incisive to smash into her personal shields. She could take the heat, but he could see this wasn’t her day job. Every time a needle smashed into the shield in front of her face, she flinched.

The walls shook again. Harder this time. She picked up the pace. Spells were getting through now, searing him. Ripping chunks out of him. He kept moving, moving, moving, but she had four levels on him and wasn’t breaking a sweat yet.

“Look at that. You do bleed after all. A little divination work, and we have your family.”

He dove behind a lab bench, whipping a beaker full of… something… at her head. She didn’t even flick it aside. It just exploded three meters in front of her.

“Pathetic. Let me teach you, junior.”

She ripped up an entire stone topped lab bench with a slight effort of will, raising it up to smash down on him. Truth jumped out from behind cover and flipped her off.

“Fuck you, you crazy bitch! Did you wash your face in cat’s piss or acid? I killed your friend and the best you can do is throw shit? I can clown you by jumping. Can’t touch me once I have the high ground!”

He jumped up onto another bench, then made an astonishing vertical leap for the gantry overhead.

“I’m going to enjoy spending a few centuries watching you scream.” She launched the stone topped bench straight at him, fast as a speeding bus. It took some astonishing gymnastics for him to flip over it in the air.

The bench kept sailing through the air. Down the whole length of the lab. All the way to the pitch black back wall. There was an astonishing CRASH! Then a rain of muffled, heavy, thuds. Incisive screamed NOW! And Truth listened, dumping half the needler’s magazine in the same direction.

Truth met the senior’s eyes, and smiled. “I win.”

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!