CHAPTER 5 – MY MY GRANDMA, WHAT BIG...


    The Endless Dungeon


    ***


    As soon as they exited Jeb made sure to not only have a good hold of Bose’s collar but that he would stay quiet as no more then seventy, eighty yards away was a very much alive Vor who was a good portion bigger than the two earlier ones. The strangest to the image was one of the corpses was untouched while the one Jeb had killed was shreded of most of its flesh and the new Vor was lounging next to the untouched one periodically nudging it with their snout and keening.


    He didn’t know anatomy and couldn’t see the undercarriage but he would guess the new Vor was a female and the mother of the corpse that was untouched. Bogie was staying low to the ground. He might be a ghost and couldn’t be touched but he was manifested and could be seen. The little Gremlin made hand motions to stay still and stay low and quiet. It was unneeded. Fucking with a grieving Momma who was even stronger than the earlier behemoths that had gone at it was not high on his list. He tossed an [Identify] on it.


    ADULT VOR (ELITE)


    Bronze (5)


    Beast – Reptilian


    Bogie had earlier said the one beast he’d killed was Bronze (3) and the System had named it a Young Vor. He pushed the thought aside as he had the gist of what Bogie was going for based on the Momma’s choice of lounging and obviously having just eaten. He was hoping it would take an after lunch nap. Knowing they were just going to sit there and in a few more minutes have the option if needed to pop back into the Safe Zone he decided to at least take a peep at what had changed within him and Bose and if there were any tools beyond that enhance physicality and the new devil eyes that would help them. Speaking of devil eyes he noticed he could see perfectly in the dim lighting which was a boon.


    He tossed his Status up again and focused on what was new, his eyes zeroing in on the entry below his Body Slot. Inherent Gift – Infernal heritage. He focused on those words, Infernal Heritage.


    Infernal Heritage -- +0.2 to Constitution, +0.1 to Strength, +0.1 to Will, +0.1 Aura Per Level. Racial Change – Infernal Touched Human – 15% Fire, Unholy(Necrotic), Poison Resistance. 60% Hellfire Resistance. Weak against Holy (Radiant) +10% Damage against User. 8% Physical Resistance – Stacks with Armor.  Night Vision.


    That certainly explained some of the boost he saw in his Attributes and his vision. And Hell’s biggest focus seemed to be Constitution, so his Health, Vitality? And with how tough his body actually was with the 8% Physical Resistance? Also good to know he could take hits from Fire, Poison and he had no clue what constituted Unholy, necrotic and Hellfire but any defense he’d take. Still a shit ton to figure out.


    Whatever the System was seemed to be insanely complex and he felt everything he’d seen so far was just a drop in a dump bucket that would keep going and going. Like how many of these Core Gems were there? Off the top of his head and thinking of things that had been mentioned, he assumed thousands upon thousands, like basic elements, air, fire, earth and water then esoteric shit like Hell, Holy, Unholy etc etc.


    His eyes scanned down his Status and stopped under the Brute Slot. He focused and pulled up Brutal Savagery.


    Brutal Savagery (Infernal) -- +0.1 to Strength Per Level. When Health is within the Red Zone for the first time in combat, Health Regen is increased by 500% while all Body Attributes are Increased by 20% in addition to all Resistances from Infernal Heritage doubled for fifteen seconds. All healing received from outside sources is boosted by 40% for the same span of time. Cool-Down – 30 Minutes. Cool-down does not begin until Combat ends.


    Well that kicks ass. When he was fucked up he’d get stronger and his healing would blow up though he had zero clues how much 500% boosted healing actually meant but it sounded like a lot. The boost per level to his Strength was cool but overall a lot less than his Hell Gem and only in one Attribute. Again though he wondered whether it was because of the difference in rarity or Hell being his Main Core or a combination.


    He took his eyes out of the System for a moment to take a gander at the Momma Vor who looked as if she was bedding down though not asleep yet. He trusted that Bose would tense laying next to him and leaning into his leg if anything changed. He wondered how strong he actually was now? Bogie had said the average Attributes for a human was 0.6 so at 3.0 did that mean he was now five times stronger than the average human?


    At a guess that would put him at about the level of an Olympic weightlifter. They seemed like they would be about five times stronger than the average Joe if not honestly a bit more depending on what they thought of as the average human and if they were throwing women into the whole thing which no offense to the ladies, would knock the average down heavily though probably smack some other Attribute up.


    It also flashed into his head that Bogie had mentioned an Ork averaging like 1.8 in Strength out the gate. One last thing he wanted to look at before attempting to slide past the Vor and hoping the beast didn’t have ultra powered senses. He pulled up the part of the Status that was Bose.


    BOSE


    Bonded Animal-Companion


    Race – Infernal Touched Canine (Beast)


    Core – Copper (6)


    Beast Traits – ???


    Age – 2


    Core Causality – B


    Alright so his Status was nowhere near as complex or as detailed as his own but his boy did Match his Level and B Causality. You go boy! The Beast Traits section with the question marks had him intrigued meaning there was something there but they would have to figure it out?


    He felt said pooch flex against him so snapped his eyes forward. Bogie was motioning towards him and pointing to slide around the edge of the cavern. The Vor looked to be out, eyes closed, her massive chest bellowing up and down. He made a choice looking at his axe. If he was forced to have to brawl the creature doing so in melee didn’t sound like a smart choice. He knew he’d said he’d never want his weapons out of hand but his axe was too long to carry around if it wasn’t his choice to engage. He focused and after a breath it disappeared, going into his inventory.


    He pulled Vlad from its scabbard. If he had to go at it with the creature and didn’t just run his ass off to get away from it, it would be doing it at range and using mobility. The only thing that really worried him if that scenario happened would be Bose.


    He looked down, his hand still on his boy’s collar. Bose would want to attack anything going after his Pops and against something that size it would lead to dead doggo on the quick. He couldn’t for the life of him though figure out anything in his head to prevent it from happening if it kicked off.


    Unfortunately he had never trained up Bose like that. They had a casual relationship as he’d felt no need to train him up sitting out in the boondocks in the Ozarks. He knew simple commands like come, kinda but that was from an easy going standpoint. When he raised his voice and barked in his Master Sergeant bass Bose certainly hopped to. It would be what it would be.


    Some of this mind scrambling theory humping was also attempting to not think about Vlad being in his hand once again with violent intent. He hadn’t even let his eyes drop to it since he’d pulled it. When did take a look-see his eyes widened. What the fuck? Vlad had changed once more, a slight dark red hue mixed into the steel and black matte and along the top of the barrel there was now a few spikes? Small certainly but a few ridges along the top now cut out. He had no chance to investigate because Bogie dropped a few inches from his face motioning like some jacked up toddler on a sugar binge.


    Well the fucker wasn’t wrong plus the less he had to think about Vlad in his hand the better as he had already began to feel the creeping of memories inching their way into his head, much less so than in the past which maybe had something to do with his Will getting higher? He still didn’t trust at all that he was free from those chains, especially since it still showed up on his Status.


    He kept his eyes on the beast with one hand holding Vlad and the other to Bose’s collar leaning down and throwing the slightest whisper in his Boy’s ear. “Quiet Bose.’


    He begin to lead him as they inched their way along the walls of the cavern, crawling their way to the right side tunnel which was where Bogie seemed to want them to go. The Ghost Gremlin was the one that knew where the entrance to the City they were closest to was though the name ‘Blood’ wasn’t particularly inspiring that he was moving to a better place.


    There was so much information he was lacking and back in his army days he wouldn’t have stood for it, hindering any kind of tactical options he could come up with when he literally knew fuck all about anything. He understood the reasoning as they had been on a push your ass time limit since the word ‘go.’ and he didn’t see it changing anytime soon.


    Jeb considered they could have popped in and out over and over into the Safe Zone playing the five minute freeze out but he didn’t know enough about the environment nor the Vor to know if he played that hump game he wouldn’t end up being cornered by two or three of the fuckers camp sitting on the Safe Zone.


    He skipped along the wall and was more than halfway to the tunnel when the massive body of the lizard shifted, rolling itself over. Jeb froze but within a moment realized the Big Momma Lizard was just doing a normal conked sleepy time shift.


    He let a breath go but the stress level rising had other ramifications, the darkness soft stepping into his head, the hand on both Vlad and Bose, trembling. And then shit went face first into the spinning fan. Bose feeling him succumbing to his PTSD his Boy twisted towards that which was causing it and threw out several hammer barks mixed in with heavy chest deep growls.


    Bogie stuffed a tirade of cussing and Jeb wanted to join him but he was too busy pulling hard on Bose’s collar trying to get him to turn from his aggressive face off to take tail and run their asses off as the Momma Vor snapped her head up to the sounds of a Cane Corso throwing slap barks in her direction.


    Oh shit!!!! Bose was not cooperating whatsoever, his hackles raised in squirrel hunting mode except this was no fucking squirrel. The massive lizard faster than one would think something so big could be popped to her four legs and took four steps in their direction before letting loose with a roar that literally pummeled them both, Bose letting out a whelp as he and his Pops both tumbled across the ground slamming hard into the stone wall of the cavern.


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    His eyes caught the green bar with H next to it dropping into Yellow but he didn’t need to have a bar to tell him that shit hurt. He lay crumbled against the wall, his knee and back sending spikes of pain through his frame. Vlad lay a couple paces away just out of arm’s reach. He pushed through the pain even as the darkness invaded his mind and both hands began shaking. He had to get up. He pushed with his arms to pull his old ass up, ignoring the spikes punching into knee and back but then collapsed to the stone on his hands.


    His consciousness slid for a moment as half decomposed smiles with no teeth creasing the faces of children danced a macabre stage play through his mind as his hands went from shaking to twitching like someone rolling through an epileptic shake down. Even with his mind baking in history he could feel Bose stand, shifting his body past his Pops with increasingly loud anvil barks and growls as the whole floor shook from a several ton animal charging towards them.


    Bogie screamed in his ear.


    “Leave your beast and run, run for all your worth Soldier!!!!!”


    Jeb added his own growls to that of his Boy. The fucking Gremlin didn’t understand him at all no matter what dossier he’d read. If he had, he’d know, Jebediah Stone would never abandon his men ever so there was zero fucking chance he’d leave his boy, not in any lifetime ever. His life wasn’t enough to sacrifice who he was and would always be.


    He pushed everything he had into his Will, and by sheer violent stubbornness, pushed back on the darkness caging his mind and body. More thunderous steps pivoted towards them as Bose’s growling and hammer barks reached a new crescendo, then an excruciating yowl that fully snapped Jeb free to watch his boy flying through the air to skid across the stone down the tunnel they’d been heading for, broken and still.


    Vlad leapt and rolled coming up with Vlad in one motion to his shoulder to catch the damn Lizard Bitch not even paying attention to him, her entire beady eyed focus on the creature that had irritated her and woken her up. She wanted to finish what she started if she hadn’t already. Bose still lay unmoving.


    Jeb growled, anger pipe smoking his lungs as he took another look at his Boy’s dead looking body. He took aim. The greatest thing about Vlad and Benelli M4’s were they were semi-auto, no slow ass pump action and his finger on the trigger guard was like coming home as if no time at all had passed.


    The Vor had begun the locomotive process of churning it’s massive legs to propel her towards Bose. It would not stand. His finger went to work as he laid a steady line of shots up it’s neck, the last landing on the side of her head. The chug pound sounds of Vlad letting loose was music to his ears, a song and dance he’d spent a lifetime moving to. Unfortunately, even with the accurate line of shots, they’d barely penetrated the stone like hide, just enough to draw a small trickle of blood out of each hit, no more than an irritant to such a massive creature.


    He had accomplished one thing which he was thankful for. The Vor had come to a stop and pulled all it’s attention away from his Boy and directly onto him. As he contemplated how the hell to use his Stamina to reload Vlad he prepared to dodge the beast and stupidly forgot one important thing. It had a tail.


    It whipped it’s body with an insane amount of torque as Jeb felt the impact, his left arm immediately shattered along with several utterly destroyed ribs as he rag dolled through the air landing once fifty feet away then bouncing at least three times and smacking against stone. His bar next to the H was in the deep Red.


    He’d barely hung onto consciousness by whisper threads and somehow kept a grip on Vlad which he still felt in the grip of his somewhat still good arm. The pain was excruciating, not a part of his body left unbruised, though his left arm and ribs on that side felt like splintered pulp but it was in that exact moment the System decided to have a say.


    Brutal Savagery (Infernal) Activated.


    He felt multiple things at once, the first, a river of warmth pulsing up his fucked up side, ribs and cremated arm in no way fully healing but bones rolling from splinters back together to just heavily fractured but once more connected marrow. The deep Red in his vision flickered to a low Yellow/Red. Simultaneously he felt a dark flame dance across his flesh, his hands taking on a scaled reddish hue, two things pushing from his forehead, a red haze across his vision, stronger, faster. He was still a broken mess but not enough to keep him down when his Boy might still hold to life though he knew that hope was probably as broken as his bones.


    He jacked his eyes open and pushed past the fucked up arm and ribs holding hard to Vlad. He’d gone thirty yards past his boy down into the tunnel. Bose still hadn’t shifted or moved. Jeb’s anger and fury had climbed it’s way through his flesh as he stomped back towards the slowly stepping lizard. The fucking Lizard for some reason thought this was over, thought it had already won in the slow arrogant stomp it was chomping in as it slid closer.


    Bogie once more floated in front of Jeb.


    “Run you stupid asshole. Your dog is dead and so will you be if you don’t get the fuck away. It will stop a moment to eat it’s prey, it will give you a chance to make it, to live!!!!”


    Jeb growled. He spits the words out in a low tone thrum that matched the anger boiling in his bones.


    “You don’t know shit about Army or loyalty Gremlin, now get the fuck out of my eyes, I got a lizard to put down.”


    His anger was so deep and burning so hard he didn’t feel a moment of shadows encroaching, no tremble in his hands, nothing, only one target, one intent, one gravestone that needed to be filled. He pushed his Will into Vlad and mentally ordered Stamina into it. His eyes opened a bit as he felt something deeper, another option, a bigger price tag but more power. He paid it and Vlad vibrated in his hand as it took on a more devilish cast and the tip of the barrel spun black and red flames into the air as he felt the internal chamber fill.


    The Lizard stopped, eyeing him, predator to prey. Jeb felt something he hadn’t felt in over a decade, home. This was his zone, the place he was born, the place where he thrived, in the pit of war, violence dancing along his feet and teeth.


    He brought up Vlad and laced half it’s payload, four shells dancing out, planting their expression right into the big square noggin of the pompous piece of shit, this time eliciting a lot more reaction as each shell penetrated deeper, not by much but as each shell hit hide and flesh a small burst of black and red flames lit the beast.


    Jeb tossed a death head grin on his lips as he walked the beast down laying the last three shells into it’s broad chest, more pitch night and blood red flames dancing and oh how the creature howled, back stepping, forgetting who was prey and who was predator. Jeb’s feral teeth showed even more. He ignored the screaming out of the Ghost trailing his six. This thing had killed his boy, killed Bose. It would not live.


    “You hurt my boy, killed him. You will see why they called me the Harbinger.”


    More Stamina lit from his body, flashing red in his vision, he didn’t care. Vlad filled once more with a full load of Hell. His finger slid to trigger, another four shells pelting its already burning head, bone beginning to show through, the hide eaten away.


    No more roars came from its massive jaws, only shrieks of agony as the black and red heat chewed through it. The Beast stopped back pedaling as if realizing if it didn’t kill the old man walking it down it wouldn’t hold to life. It put its head down and charged just as the fierce energy that had helped heal him, make him stronger and faster, faded. His ribs and arm had healed more but not enough as he needed to roll out of the way of the charging beast, not quick enough as his ribs protested from the move, clipped by a thundering leg that was almost larger than he was.


    He was spun out of the roll by the clip becoming a spinning jack crashing through the water of the cavern. It was nowhere near the hit from the tail but it was not nothing when he was still fucked up. He felt his shin bone crack and his back flared again as he tumbled through muddy water. This time Vlad skidded from his hand though only a few feet from where he ended up against the back wall, his legs immersed in the water. His H in his vision was once again in the deep Red.


    Without the boost from [Brutal Savagery] the wracking pain was tough to get his mind past but the mission wasn’t done and there wasn’t anything gonna keep his ass on the ground. His mind was a bit spun from the tumble but after a painful breath his eyes focused. The Vor was slowly limping its way towards him snail pace, small bits of black and red flame still eating away at it, half it’s chest and head and one of its front legs charred down to bone.


    There had to be something about hellfire that the creature was susceptible to as it was night and day from the first time Vlad played on its hide to the hellfire shells which he hadn’t known it could do.


    It was a race of two fucked up enemies seeing who would break first as Jeb crawled his way to Vladimere. It still had three shells in the chamber and he was hoping all to Hell it would be enough to end the fucking creature as his Stamina was in heavy Red, matching his Health, which wouldn’t be enough to load it up with more hellfire shells. The pain of losing his Boy was still fresh and a blade in his chest but he had no time to let it break him, not while Bose’s killer still breathed.


    His hand landed on Vlad which made the Vor flinch its corpse looking head as he brought it up and laid the last three shells on it’s approaching chest, dead center. Another screech came while more blood and night flames lit it up but it wasn’t stopping.


    It became even slower in its approach, the hide and flesh on its chest dropping as ash, the already fucked up leg a chew toy to the flames as it crumpled beneath its weight. It landed hard enough to send a shock-wave through the stone under neath him but he was spent, his Stamina bar now not just red but a flashing Red whatever that meant but he could take a guess as weakness flashed through his entire body.


    He fell back to where he’d originally landed, his back against the back wall. The teeth filled jaws inched closer as the Vor dragged itself through the water and over the stone, no more then a dozen yards out. Bogie flashed before it waving his arms and screaming at the creature but once it crashed its jaws through the Ghostly figure and found no substance, it crawled right through him.


    Jeb felt empty. A whisper escaped his lips, an ode.


    “I’m sorry Boy. I brought you to your grave. Your Pops couldn’t save you and couldn’t avenge you. You deserved more, so much more from me.”


    An anger simmered inside him. He didn’t give a shit if he died but fuck this creature living after taking Bose from him, taking his Boy. He dropped Vlad and pulled his sigma. He’d take this fucker with him if it was the last thing he did. He owed Bose that a thousand times over. He reached inside himself to find the energy somewhere, anywhere and dug into the stone and the wall behind him to drag himself to his feet, leaning of his cracked shin onto one leg. He was empty of any kind of anything but when had that ever stopped him. Pure grit would need to be enough as he flipped his sigma into an ice-pick grip.


    He’d need to go for it’s eyes and hope to somehow get to its brain before it chomped him in half. Just as he took a tottering step forward and the creature had crawled within a few feet looking as if coiled itself to lunge at him with all those teeth, the sweetest song Jeb had ever heard laced his ears as multiple hammer barks sounded out behind the overgrown lizard. He felt tears lacing his cheek. Bose!


    Shock laced the Vor’s pain skewered eyes as it turned its massive bulk to look behind it giving an open glimpse for Jeb to lock onto his boy Bose who’d parodied the Vor and had crawled his way to fight beside his Pops. His front left limb was held up against his chest and he looked like his own ribs were caved but a look of pure violence lay in his Boy’s eyes as he peeled his fangs and hammered out three more weighted barks that echoed through the cavern followed by doing something that had Jeb’s mouth left gaping. He now knew what the question marks were hiding.


    Bose opened his jaws and took a deep breath then let out a jet of black and red flames that shoved their hungry heat over the backside of the Vor and part of its upper shoulder which had turned to find the prey it thought dead. The sounds it made as the flames lit up all the hide that hadn’t felt Vlad’s touch caused rocks to drop from the ceiling.


    It spun to it’s back attempting to put the flames out in the water but the water didn’t seem to do shit and Jeb took his shot as he half fell/leapt onto its head ignoring the slight pain in his chest from the remaining hellfire on its head as his stigma lanced down into its eye, again and again as he wrapped his legs around its neck or did his best to, ignoring his ribs, busted arm and fractured shin as he shoved his blade again and again, the new flames joining the old in eating away at its life as Jeb helped it along. A toss of its head in jerking spasms throughout it’s frame sent Jeb once more flying to land in center of the cavern floor and pond.


    He quickly popped his submerged head out of the water pulling himself to a sitting position, the water up to just below his upper chest. He was a few feet away from the half eaten corpse from earlier and the Momma Vor’s kid’s corpse. He wiped the water from his eyes in time to finally see the beast fall into the water, gasping, as the hellfire continued to eat at it and a last heaving chest rise before stilling to an end.


    He didn’t know where his stigma went but didn’t give a shit as he crawled, half stumbled and inched his way through the water, over the stone until he had his collapsed boy in his arms. Bose’s breaths were coming heavy and hard and he felt his pooch’s life slipping through his fingers. Tears carved his cheeks as he rocked his boy in his arms ignoring the pain from ribs and arm and all over his body spiking into him.


    “Don’t die on your Pops Bose. I need you.”


    A couple final rasps came out of his boy’s chest and Jeb knew where it was headed, Bose too fucking hurt. He pressed himself into his Boy whispering he loved him. He wouldn’t leave the world not knowing that. One more straining breath then his chest stilled and tears fell.


    You have killed an (Adult Vor, Elite), a creature almost a full Tier above you. Bonus Experience applied due to Title. Four Levels Gained. You have Reached Copper (10) and are primed for Evolution into Bronze.


    A stream of energy slammed into Jeb and through him, a rope of it lashed out into his Boy. Did that mean?! They stayed like that for several breaths as once again he felt his body refreshed, reformed, and rebuilt, better than before. He was released as he landed on one knee, fully healed. Two hammer barks slammed his ears as he opened his eyes to a bouncing Bose, good as new. He dropped to both knees and pulled the best pooch in the world to him sobbing like a small child.


    “I’d thought I’d lost you Bose.”


    Heavy slap licks crashed against his face and his heart felt like a mountain had been lifted. Bose’s eyes told him their bond was unbreakable and that he’d never leave his Pops. He crushed his Boy to him again and took the non-stop sandpaper tongue smacking his face as a welcome price.


    Bogie watched them with heavy guilt in his eyes and a hunger to know that kind of loyalty and love. He was a Gremlin. No one gave a shit about Gremlins, not even their own.