Too Stubborn to Die

Mana potions were passed around as tired defenders tried to recover. They were preparing themselves for what they had felt.

As if the C-grade mummy worm tirelessly bashing itself against their fluttering barrier wasn’t bad enough, they had sensed another powerful aura rushing toward them.

It seemed hopeless. The entire world was crashing down around them, and they were doing everything they could to just barely hang on. Even now, they weren’t preparing to try and win. They were just trying to restore enough mana to support the barrier.

But what would they do after that?

“It’s hopeless,” a man groaned as he chugged down the last bit of potion. “We’re all dead anyway. Why bother?”

“Yeah, I hear you, man. But we have to at least try. At least for the kids. If it were just me, I’d rather down a fifth of bourbon and accept my fate with a smile.”

“I hear that.”

The two men downed their potions and sighed as Emmy strolled past. They weren’t alone in their thoughts. A melancholy acceptance of what was to come had swept across most of the defenders.

Emmy, on the other hand, just shook her head. Maybe their situation was impossible, but she certainly wasn’t ready to accept that.

“These idiots are getting me down. You’d think they’d never experienced a near-death situation. What a bunch of nerds.”

“Not everyone can be as upbeat as you, Emmy,” Lance replied. “All they see is a C-grade monster out there. An impossible challenge to overcome.”

The two of them walked through the main courtyard and up to a crude parapet of twisted steel and plank walkways. From up there, they could see it, the giant mummy worm slamming itself against the barrier.

“Oww, annoying. I guess we’re going to have to deal with that big ugly thing, aren’t we? Otherwise I’ll have to listen to all this hopeless moaning.”

“Yeah, how do you suggest we do that?” Lance asked. “We barely scratched it back at the obelisk.”

“You think I don’t know that, dumbass? Use that big brain of yours to think. Hmm, let’s see. It’s too big for my bubbles. I could slicken the surfaces, and my debuff bubbles should weaken it quite a bit. You’d have to do all the damage, though. You think you’re up for that, Lance?”

“Of course I am. But that won’t be enough. Not if it’s as strong as I think it is. We need to identify its weak points. Its skin is harder than anything I've come across in a while. Back at the obelisk, my barrage did nothing. Your debuffs would help, but even so, without exposing its weaknesses, I fear such an attack would be destined to fail.”

“So, what do you suggest?”

“Look over there,” Lance pointed at the worm. “You see the edges through the bandages? It’s hard to tell, but it looks like the worm has scales. I have a feeling that if we attacked between them, we could expose the fault lines and do some actual damage. We just have to aim carefully, and be precise—what?? Is that a meteor?”

The earth shook around them, and something flashed down from the sky, slamming into the worm with a powerful blast that leveled several buildings and sent a shockwave hammering into their barrier.

“That’s not a meteor!” Emmy gasped as the shockwave pummeled the barrier.

It wasn’t even hit directly, but the barrier was flickering violently against the damage, and several people who had been powering it fainted due to mana exhaustion.

“WE CAN’T HOLD IT!” A man shouted, ordering more people down to help fuel the barrier.

“More mana! Get your asses over here! We need everyone we can get!”

“You heard him! Everyone, to the barrier!”

Aaron

“Damn, that is a thick hide,” Aaron said, stretching as he climbed out of the rubble.

The worm straightened and screeched, recovering from his blow. Then, it whipped down against the ground. Its massive body crushed the ground beneath it, crumbling concrete and gravel, and tearing a deep wound through the ruined city.

“Wait, is that it?” Aaron said. “How are you supposed to hit anything if you’re that slow? I know you’re big and tough, but seriously.”

The undead worm screeched again and lashed out at him. But Aaron didn’t even need to try and dodge the thing. The speed difference set them worlds apart, and several more sluggish attempts at hitting him, Aaron went on the offense.

He had to admit, though, it was damn hardy. Strike after strike slammed into its body, doing very little. He could have removed his parasite ring for some extra power, but it was good training. Like a giant mummified punching bag.

As he zapped around the giant monstrosity, he went to his happy place. Focusing on every little detail as he worked on the basics and parsed it all through his mana advances.

It was power, precision, and efficiency. Unfortunately, its value as a sparring partner was limited. He enjoyed getting a feel for his strikes, and how to naturally improve power output without just blasting more energy. But it couldn’t push him as Yendal could.

“It’s been fun. But I think we’ll end it here.”

Aaron increased his speed and power, cycling his core, and went on a rampage, landing hundreds of strikes per second as he tenderized the worm.

Emmy

People were rushing to charge the barrier, every clash between Aaron and the worm sending out new shockwaves that slammed against it. But Emmy and Lance just stood in shock. Their eyes locked on the worm as another powerful blast rippled out, slamming into it.

The barrier was struck again, and the walls crumbled as it turned off for a second or two.

But the pounding didn’t stop. Explosions rippled out once, twice, and kaboom!

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Corrupted energy flooded out from the worm like a torrent of necrotic energy, and the huge monstrosity was torn apart before their very eyes, pieces of burned C-grade undead falling like rain around them.

“H-h-how…” Emmy muttered. “I mean, I knew he was strong, b-but this? Does he ever get tired?”

Beside her, Lance gulped. “My goodness… He fought that thing for hours and never slowed for a moment. I’m just glad he didn’t return fire back in the dungeon.”

“Yeah, right,” Emmy nodded.

The barrier had been completely destroyed, and sections of wall turned to rubble. Everyone else was in a panic, not yet aware of what had happened. They were rushing about, trying to form squads to fill the new gaps in the walls and take on the undead horde they expected to charge through.

But none came.

A few captains led their squads to the ruined walls, hesitantly gripping their weapons. And what they saw made their jaws drop.

Silver light was flashing back and forth across the surrounding streets, and undead were seemingly falling dead where they stood, some blasting into pieces.

Their eyes could barely follow. All they could see was undead dying all over the place.

But that only held their gaze for a moment as they looked up to the giant worm corpse. Sitting casually atop it was a man in short shorts and a furry hoodie, stuffing his mouth atop the giant worm corpse.

And when they inspected him, they gasped in unison.

“What the f…”

“That’s really him!”

“It sure is.”

“And to think, I was beginning to think he wasn’t real.”

“Emmy?” Lance said.

“Yeah. I’m on it.” Emmy nodded and stepped off the parapet as a bubble formed under her feet, and she floated over to him.

“Oh, hey there, Emmy!” Aaron waved. “How have you been? It’s a pity we didn’t get to catch up at the end of the dungeon. Is this your settlement?”

“Oh, hi. Um, yes, it is. What are you doing here, Aaron?

“Me? I’m just clearing these obelisks and the undead. Well, actually Zero is doing most of the undead clearing.”

They looked down as Zero finished up, several corpses still falling over as he dusted his hands.

“I see that.”

“Yeah, well, anyway, it's dealt with now. Though I do still need to cleanse this aether, and the rest of the obelisks nearby.”

“You mean the corruption?”

“Yep, that’s it.”

“You’re able to cleanse it? Really?”

“Sure can, mate. Shouldn’t take too long, either. If you don't mind, I’ll be right back.”

Emmy could only bring herself to nod, and Aaron was off. And he was true to his word, back in minutes.

“There we go. That should fix your corrupted aether problem around here. It will take a while for the last of the corruption to dissipate. But as long as the undead don’t reclaim the obelisks, you should be fine.”

“Oi, Emmy, introduce us!”

She looked down and realized hundreds had crowded into the streets and were looking up at them.

“You don’t need to ask,” Aaron said. “Look, I’m not huge on all this,” he gestured at the crowd. “But I’ll make an exception and say hello.”

More people were funneling out as they went down to the crowd. It wasn’t just her people. It seemed Aaron had already made quite a commotion, and other groups that were held out across the expansive city were coming to celebrate and say their thanks.

“I’m surprised so many people live around here,” Aaron said, looking around.

She understood what he was getting at. The endless ruined city wasn’t the most stunning place. But a lot of people had found themselves in it when they were transported from the Tutorial. And there were plenty of places to hold out, which for many was better than taking their chances on the road.

Besides, it wasn’t all bad. There were resources amongst the ruins, beasts and monsters, too. And there were several minor dungeon entrances scattered across basements. In all in all, it was quite a valuable piece of real estate when everything was taken into account.

“This place has got more going for it than appears, dumbass. Besides, there are multiple obelisks throughout it, and many people have already settled across the ruins. It would be a shame to let that go to waste.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right about that,” Aaron said as the crowds mobbed him. “I’m gonna need help with this!”

“Ehh, fine. Give him some space, people!” Emmy snapped, and several other local leaders came to her defense, urging their people back.

“Come on, show some manners, everyone!”

Once order was brought about, people formed a line to thank Aaron. Some even insisted on kissing his boots, or hands.

When they were done, he asked for an audience, and the people were more than happy to oblige, crowding the streets in the hundreds, maybe even thousands, to hear him speak.

“I’m glad I could help you all,” he said. “I would ask for a favor in return. If any of you are looking for a new place to call home, I’d urge you to join us.”

“You need people?” Emmy raised her voice and stormed over, startling many in the audience as she glared Aaron down.

“Um, yeah? As many as we can get, preferably.”

“Well, in that case, you and me have a problem!”

“Oh, no. I don’t know what I did to offend you, but I don’t want to cause problems,” Aaron said.

“Too late!” Emmy huffed. “If you’re going to try and take our people away, we’re going to suffer. Look around. We need every hand we can get to rebuild. We can’t just have you stealing all our followers!”

None others had the confidence to confront Aaron directly, but a few hushed complaints between the other local leaders confirmed that they felt the same way.

Many other smaller groups had been forced out of the obelisks they once controlled, including the other major faction competing for control of the city. Complicating the situation, Aaron had already claimed many of their obelisks for himself. They mightn’t have had the guts to confront such a powerful man, but it was clear they weren’t totally happy about being sidelined.

“Emmy!” Lance said as he rushed over. “I’m sorry, Aaron! We don’t want to come off ungrateful. But she does have a point. You’ve proven your strength, and that will no doubt gain you a lot of attention with the people. Most just want security in times like these. But we do need to rebuild. We can’t just abandon everything. It’s all we’ve got.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry. Really. I didn’t think things through too deeply. And I certainly didn’t mean to put you in a tough situation,” Aaron said. “If that’s how it is, then don’t worry about it. We’ll move on. I’m sorry I caused such a fuss.”

“No!” Emmy said. “You stay right where you are, Mr! That’s simply not good enough.”

“Emmy?” Lance said.

“Shhh! We’re talking.”

“Huh? Well, what do you want, Emmy?” Aaron asked.

“We’re going to join you. All of us,” Emmy said without waiting for the other leaders to respond. “Of course, I’ll be the commander in this region. It only makes sense. And I won’t hear no for an answer! It’s all your fault anyway, Aaron! Now that you’ve offered, they’ll want to join you. This way, the people can join you, gain your security, and still help rebuild.”

“Ah, okay?” Aaron said, a little perplexed.

“And if some people do leave for your other settlement,” she continued. “Then at least we’ll be getting something in return.”

“I see. And you all want this?”

“Don’t ask them! Just hurry up and send the prompt. Offer us vassalage,” Emmy said, tapping her foot irritably.

“Okay. I don’t see why not,” Aaron said.

A moment later, System messages appeared as Aaron offered all of the leaders vassalage to the United Front.

There were a few mutterings amongst some of the leaders, but as more and more accepted the offer, the rest quieted down and followed suit. No one wanted to be the odd one out, and by evening, the entirety of the endless cityscape had joined the United Front, boosting its population by thousands, and greatly expanding its territory.

“This was unexpected, but I guess we got the population we wanted. This should open up new options for Julius in city management as well,” Aaron said.

“Glad I could help,” Emmy said.

“Yeah, I suppose you did. Well, we’d better be off. I’ll see if Julius can secure the roads between here and Dober.”

Emmy waved him goodbye as Aaron shot off into the sky, leaving as fast as he had come.

She hadn’t intended to subjugate herself, but it seemed like it was going to happen sooner or later. And if it was going to happen to anybody, it was probably best Aaron.

After all, she didn’t like bossy people. They were annoying. That was why she liked Aaron. He had a good attitude, once she could stand. Which was not overly common.

Emmy grinned widely. It wasn’t such a bad outcome after all.

He is a weirdo, though. Why use a Title like Death God’s Daddy?

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