Bloody Oath: A Post-Apocalyptic LitRPG (The System Apocalypse: Australia Book 3) Read online
Bloody Oath
An Apocalyptic LitRPG
The System Apocalypse:// Australia / Book 3
By
Tao Wong & KT Hanna
License Notes
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite book retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Bloody Oath
Copyright © 2022 Tao Wong and KT Hanna. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2022 Sarah Anderson Cover Designer
Published by Starlit Publishing
PO Box 30035
High Park PO
Toronto, ON
M6P 3K0
Canada
www.starlitpublishing.com
Ebook ISBN: 9781778550362
Paperback ISBN: 9781778550355
Hardcover ISBN: 9781778550379
Books in the System Apocalypse Universe
Main Storyline
Life in the North
Redeemer of the Dead
The Cost of Survival
Cities in Chains
Coast on Fire
World Unbound
Stars Awoken
Rebel Star
Stars Asunder
Broken Council
Forbidden Zone
System Finale
System Apocalypse: Relentless
A Fist Full of Credits
System Apocalypse: Australia
Town Under
Flat Out
Bloody Oath
Anthologies and Short stories
System Apocalypse Short Story Anthology Volume 1
Valentines in an Apocalypse
A New Script
Daily Jobs, Coffee and an Awfully Big Adventure
Adventures in Clothing
Questing for Titles
Blue Screens of Death
My Grandmother’s Tea Club
The Great Black Sea
A Game of Koopash (Newsletter exclusive)
Lana’s story (Newsletter exclusive)
Debts and Dances (Newsletter exclusive)
A Tense Meeting (Newsletter exclusive)
Comic Series
The System Apocalypse Comics (7 Issues)
The System Apocalypse Graphic Novel: Issues 1-7 (limited edition hardcover)
Contents
Previously in Flat Out
Chapter One: Combat Wombat
Chapter Two: New Patrols
Chapter Three: Expansion
Chapter Four: Shop Shenanigans
Chapter Five: Housing
Chapter Six: Upgrades
Chapter Seven: Moving Day
Chapter Eight: Lull
Chapter Nine: Injuries
Chapter Ten: Waves
Chapter Eleven: Trapdoors
Chapter Twelve: Crafty Cartel
Chapter Thirteen: Dungeons and Levels
Chapter Fourteen: Trampled
Chapter Fifteen: 15. Revelation
Chapter Sixteen: Plan of Action
Chapter Seventeen: Moving Out
Chapter Eighteen Mind Control Beasty
Chapter Nineteen: New and Old
Chapter Twenty: Carindale
Chapter Twenty-One: Downpour
Chapter Twenty-Two: Intermittent
Chapter Twenty-Three: Alive
Chapter Twenty-Four: Detour
Chapter Twenty-Five: Soggy
Chapter Twenty-Six: Rescue
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Of Circumstance
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Return
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Planning
Chapter Thirty: Lizard Fodder
Chapter Thirty-One: Repeat
Chapter Thirty-Two: Scented
Chapter Thirty-Three: Discombobulated
Chapter Thirty-Four: Good Bait
Chapter Thirty-Five: Build Up
Chapter Thirty-Six: Show Down
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Aftermath
Authors’ Note
About the Authors
Acknowledgements from KT Hanna
About the Publisher
The System Apocalypse: System Finale
Somnia Online: Initializing
Glossary
Ecological Chain Specialist Skill Tree
Ecological Chain Specialist Skills
Other Class Skills
Equipments
To Lars
For having my back when I panic attack
Thank you
Previously in Flat Out:
Kira learns to manage her Mana Sense ability by enhancing her sight with ocular implants all while juggling Jackson and Wisp’s newfangled educations and helping to run the settlement she owns.
With System placed quests encouraging the growth of their settlement residents, and an Intergalactic Rare Species Hunter’s Alliance (IRSHA) breathing down her neck, Kira and the other leaders battle to keep the constantly spawning mutations from encroaching on their safe zone.
When the Crafting Cartel moves in, and run ins with IRSHA begin to get heated, Kira thinks maybe the worst has come to pass. But another species of mercenaries moves into the area upping the danger factor for the human survivors and in the end Kira and co must decide just which is the greater danger to them.
Chapter One:
Combat Wombat
13 Weeks Post System Onset
11pm
Wombat armor plating hurts like buggery when you slide down it. I knew this well from experience and picked myself up off the ground after yet another tumble from her back. The burning sensation from the cheek abrasion slowly dulled as I look at the massive creature.
Even though the walls behind her stood around fifteen feet tall as they helped secure the perimeter of the settlement, her sheer size made them appear smaller. The expression on her face seemed contrite, like she hadn’t wanted to hurt me. I patted her flank and murmured “It’s okay. The good old System already took the pain away.”
Some of the tension leaked out of Mumma’s body. I didn’t lie; my own pain was already receding, and I knew in ten minutes the injury would be but a memory.
Still . . . if I wasn’t careful, there was a distinct possibility that I could fall and break my neck next time, and if I severed my spinal cord—well, there was no coming back from that sort of injury. System or no System.
Damn it. Maybe riding her into battle was just a pipe dream.
Congratulations! You have completed the quest:
A Habitable Safe Zone
Part Three: Staying Power
You need to make it three months into System Onset as a Township.
Goals:
1 - Gather 3,000 total inhabitants. This may include visiting species. Current population 3,272/3,000
2 - Build up your defenses and successfully survive and remain in your growing township for three months from System Onset. Current staying power 13 weeks/13 weeks
Reward: 45,000 Credits for your city Treasury, Expansion Perimeters increased, Defense Bolster amended
to Level 1A
Time Limit Remaining: 0 days 0 hours and 00 minutes
Well Done! You jumped through yet another hoop. Don’t spend it all at once!
Fantastic. I played with the fur on Mumma Wombutt’s flank as I waited for the next popup I knew was coming.
Congratulations! You have been granted a follow up quest.
A Habitable Safe Zone
Part Four: Humans, Aliens, and Survivors, Oh My!
3 months is nothing. How about we try for 12 months? But wait, there’s more than one thing you need to do for this specific quest.
Goals:
1 - Gather 10,000 total inhabitants. This may include visiting species. Current population 3,272/10,000
2 - Build up your defenses and expand your settlement to a Level-2 township at the minimum
3 - Expand the Crafting Cartel’s reach to intergalactic (the explanation for which can be found in the Shop)
4 - Become self-sufficient as far as food, water, and education goes 42/100% achieved.
5 - Survive until the first year has passed.
Reward: 250,000 Credits for your city Treasury, [unknown] reward.
Time Limit Remaining: 39 Weeks.
Good luck with that.
Congratulations! You have been granted a follow-up bonus quest!
A Habitable Safe Zone
Part Four B: Just a few more!
To tide you over while you desperately attempt to survive, here is a midway quest you can work on.
Keep up the good work
Goals:
1 - Gather 5,000 total inhabitants. This may include visiting species. Current population 3,272/5,000
2 - Expand your Township to the first extension point
3 - Utilize the Town’s quest-giving system more efficiently. Or. Use it at all!
4 - Survive 6 months as a township.
Reward: 25,000 Credits for your city Treasury.
That’s it. Nothing else. It is just a bonus quest.
I pushed my black hair out of my eyes and glanced up at Mumma, who regarded me with one massive and solemn brown eye as the gate loomed up behind her. Maybe she could see the damned quests too. I didn’t have the head space for this right now.
“Yeah, girl. I know. It’s late.”
She gently puffed out a breath at me, making it cloud up in the cool night air. Crickets chirped somewhere close enough for us to hear, and for a moment I wondered how big they were now. If I hadn’t been standing next to a giant mutated wombat trying to train her to be my combat partner, it might have been a regular night pre-apocalypse.
“Kira?” Evelyn’s voice surprised me. Had I just not been paying enough attention, or was she using one of her stealth abilities?
Still, she made me smile and I petted my wombutt Mumma once more before heading inside the center. Just this side of midnight and my body was starting to feel bone weary. System or not, I definitely felt my age right now.
Looping arms with the Ranger, I squeezed in a feeble imitation of a hug. “Everything sorted?”
She raised an eyebrow, even if she wasn’t looking directly at me. “Sort of. Alliances are all well and good, but this one is causing me more of a headache than I think it’s worth. You could cut the tension with a damned . . .”
“Arrow?” I inserted, glad when it made her lips quirk up in a smile.
“Yeah. We’ll say it was arrow.”
I chuckled, the ache in my body exacerbated by the cool night air. She was right about the tension. Even from here, being able to see the camps set up in the parking lot that belonged to our tentative allies IRSHA, the Hakarta, and the Zarrie, I could feel this wave of taut Mana, as if it was just waiting to burst free and devour everything in its path.
Not like the Mana that suffused everything around us, no, this particular blue wave of power was all of our allies, and I truly use that term loosely. Allies waiting on tenterhooks to see who was going to be the first to break the uneasy truce. You know, either that, or the evolving mutations to overrun us all and eat us. Whichever came first.
I sighed and Evelyn squeezed my arm this time. “Maybe they’ll take their aggression out on the rampant mutations instead—you know, the whole reason for the alliance.”
This time I laughed. It still seemed a surreal bloody oath for them to have taken. “Yeah. We can hope, right?”
“Wisp is asleep, but I have to tell you.” She paused and looked at me. “We need a house or something larger than that tiny shop because the damned baby wombat isn’t so baby sized anymore.”
She wasn’t wrong.
“Guess that means we need a pretty big house.” I glanced at her. Was it a mistake to just want to keep her with me? Maybe? But I was going to be a bit selfish for once.
“I could get used to this lull,” she said as we walked into the center.
It made me cringe. “Did you have to say that? You know how jinxes work, right?”
“You’re superstitious.” She laughed and the sound echoed through the entryway and down the massive corridor. Most of the time she was as sunny as the freckles across her nose suggested and because of how often we were out patrolling, the sun bleaching in her hair continued right down to the roots.
“I’d rather be superstitious and still here tomorrow than not and dead,” I grumbled. The center itself felt quiet and I wasn’t sure if quiet was a good thing. When she said lull, it was all relative. There hadn’t actually been a lull in patrols, fighting, or our groups trying to level.
What had happened was that, at least for now, we didn’t have any massive mutations trying to break down our town walls.
Approaching midnight meant that most of our communal areas were empty, the bulk of our people in bed. Only night patrols and guard duty were really still on shift. Raybucks was the only one of our little eating or crafting places that pulled an all-nighter. Even now there were about a dozen people milling around and inside it.
As if we hadn’t lost over sixty percent of the population when the world ended.
❖
Pulling my reinforced jacket on as I rushed out of our little apartment, I realized it had a massive hole in one sleeve and that a Shop trip was well on the cards. No time for that right now. Dolores didn’t call and wake me up for trivial things.
Wisp drifted with me, riding on Wombie’s trotting little back. Of course, she could now since he was definitely the size of a Welsh pony. Just a lot plumper. People got out of the way quickly, making it easier to rush and pick up my coffee on the way to the library.
Bonus of your daughter having a mutated wombat as a pet. Not to mention Dog, who was only marginally smaller, bringing up the rear.
Red didn’t even pause as he held out my kipatchya while taking someone else’s order. He flicked the longer side of his red hair out of his face and grinned in my direction briefly. All the acknowledgement I needed.
He’d taken to stocking a hefty load of kipatchya once I’d taken a liking to the beverage our resident Pharyleri, Ginali, had suggested. It made me wonder if maybe he’d waved a magic fantasy gnome-like wand and made me love the stuff. I’d have to have a chat with the crafter at some stage. I swear the stuff was more addictive than coffee, and tasted so, so much better. There had to be something he wasn’t telling me.
Finally, in almost record time, I made it to the library doors.
“Mum. Wait.” Wisp slid off her not-horse and proceeded to throw her arms around my waist. “Love you. Don’t let them push you around.”
And then, just as fast as she got off her mount, she was back on him and halfway back to the commons.
We were going to have to have a talk about that. Closing in on nine and I could barely keep a handle on her.
Six in the morning was not my favorite time of any day.
The library was crowded. We were going to need somewhere bigger for council meetings, but for that we first needed to expand the city and push people into actual housing so that this could be interim housing and administrat
ion, crafting, and the Shop.
That, however, was a discussion for another day.
I’d never in my life imagined that we would be entertaining beings that were nine feet tall in here. But there was Mon’swkinon in all his glory. Hulking, grey stony-skinned humanoid sapient. We’d started out on the wrong foot, and I was damned glad we were sort of allies now. He stood off to the side, and I think he was frowning.
Hirish, my almost-sort-of friend Hakarta commander was, however, death glaring the Zarrie talking to him. Piola, the interim leader of the Finite Zarrie clan, was returning that glare for all she was worth. Ah, that was why Dolores called me out early.
I glanced to the side to see the older woman rocking back slightly in her office chair with her forefinger and thumb pinching the bridge of her nose. Though it was possible she had a headache, I was fairly certain it was all she could do to avoid blowing her temper at them.
Especially at six in the morning. I couldn’t get the time out of my head. It was really ruining my mood.
Neither Kyle nor Mike were here yet; neither was Dale.
Just Dor, myself, and our allies. Did they not sleep or something?
“Morning all,” I said, much cheerier than I felt, adjusting my ocular implants almost involuntarily to seek for trace amount of subtle Mana subterfuge. Our little alliance wasn’t that bad, but it was fresh and new, and I couldn’t be too careful.
“Kira.” Hirish nodded in my direction, crossing his arms. His demeanor only softened ever so slightly as he removed his gaze from Piola. “Does this mean we can get started?”
I blinked at him, trying to wrack my brain for something I’d forgotten. Combat Wombat training attempts—check. Make sure my kids were still alive and kicking and cleaned my teeth—check. Practice my Mana Sensing abilities and see if I could make out more of the messages, I knew were encased in the power but couldn’t crack yet—check.
Nothing in my head had marked a full-on alliance meeting early in the morning.