Zavier watched from a distance. He hadn't wanted to spook the herd so he'd stayed far enough away for them not to pick up his scent. He was proud of his family - of course he was! But he'd never felt as useless as he'd felt today, which was saying something considering how utterly useless he'd been lately. He was supposed to be the one who hacked the system. He was the one who had gotten a supreme advantage. And yet he had been a dead weight for them. They'd had to protect him when they were with him, and leave him when they couldn't. The fight with the Ironhide Boar had been the same - many times they'd needed to slow themselves down so he could keep up.
Sure, it seemed like he'd get his access back eventually, but that was a lot of levels away. At the rate they were going it might be months before it returned - anything could happen in that time. The gear they were getting was good, it might keep him alive or give him enough of a boost to catch up, but he didn't want to rely on that. What he'd seen in The System, before it went dark, was that you built the skills you were going to get later based on the actions you took. He may not get levels the normal way, but he suspected he might still get access to skills that he fully qualified for, like what had happened with the twins and their Empathic Melee skill. If that was the case he didn't want to base his whole build off of using found weapons. He loved his skill of being able to be a weapons master with new weapons and he wanted to continue to develop that, but the Catch 22 of it was that the more he practiced with it the less available weapons he had to use when it was really needed. He needed to save that skill for the critical moments.
Relying solely on weapons and a skill that made weapons less useful the more you used them meant that relying on them was a battle of attrition every time. It was a losing game, with him only able to advance as he got worse.
Jesus Christ, how did I fuck this up so badly? He thought to himself. I need to find something new. I need to contribute somehow. An idea started forming in his head. One that was a little scary and might actually make him crazy, but hadn't he been saying that the rules of the old world didn't apply anymore?
His thoughts were interrupted by a whistle from Tess, her and the kids waving him over with excitement. Cass jogged to him before he could reach the rest of them. He held up a pair of boots that actually had hooves on the bottom. "How in the hell are you going to wear those?" he asked before identifying them.
Item Name: Fleetfoot Hooves
Type: Footwear
Description: These hooves are imbued with the antelope's natural agility and speed, designed to enhance the wearer's ability to evade and outmaneuver threats with remarkable dexterity.
Active Abilities: These effects are triggered by the wearer. High Jump: Enhances the wearer's jumping ability, allowing them to leap to greater heights or distances, useful for evading ground-based attacks or obstacles. Passive Abilities: These effects occur automatically. Speed Boost: When equipped, grants the wearer a 15% increase in movement speed. Escape Velocity: Doubles the wearer's speed when running away from something that is chasing them, providing rapid, unpredictable movements that make them difficult to catch. Instant Reflexes: Allows the wearer to instantly react to an oncoming attack, springing away in the blink of an eye, significantly reducing the likelihood of being hit.
"Should one of us put them on?" Cass asked and they all looked at Zavier. "Here, dad," he said and handed them over.
Fucking hell. Even they think I'm helpless if they're giving me a panic button. He put them on without voicing his thoughts, the odd shape of the boots molding to fit perfectly over his feet. Once they were on they felt like the most comfortable running shoes he'd ever worn. He bounced up and down experimentally and jumped almost 15 feet in the air off the test hops, windmilling his arms to keep himself upright as he fell back to earth. When he landed he had an instinctive feeling on how to bend his knees to let the boots take all of the force.
"Okay, this is pretty cool," he said with a grin.
"And now you can keep up with us when we run!" Luna cheered.
Tess noticed the pained look on his face and stepped up to wrap her arms around him. "Nothing wrong with a little male enhancement," she said in a dusky voice and bit him on the ear teasingly.
They walked through various terrains on high alert, occasionally fighting off attacks from a wide array of creatures. Cass was becoming an expert in planting the rod just as Tess and Luna dished out killing blows, and they were filling up nicely. Madison was going to get some that were a muddled mix of creatures, but she'd have to make do. There just weren't enough groups of creatures that were both easy to find and easy to defeat.
They'd fended off attacks from a flock of Toucans that shimmered and glowed in riotous colors that beggared definition, but that fired off magical prismatic attacks that had a different effect for each color they launched. Beams of solid fire, cold incarnate, void purple, yellows that felt like they attacked the soul directly, and many more that couldn't even be identified as they sprinted away from them. Zavier would have loved to get some of that loot but nothing they did even came close to touching the swift birds.
Then they'd lost a rod when they'd spotted a car-sized mound with fire ants crawling all over it. Literal fire ants. Their deep red bodies were only a few inches long but their abdomens were swollen with swirling pools of fiery orange that invoked immediate fear. Zavier had had Cass plant a rod near the mound and they all backed away, hoping that they would be able to kill enough from a distance to fill up the rod.
Zavier leapt 30 feet to the mound, intentionally landing hard enough to thump the ground, then instantly leaped away. They watched in horror as a carpet of black and red bodies swarmed out of the hive and covered the ground so thickly that nothing could be seen between their bodies, the pool that looked like a living magma flow spreading dangerously close to them almost faster than they could react. They had taken off at a sprint and it wasn't until they were well out of range that Zavier could appreciate being able to keep up with his family without getting winded. Maybe these boots aren't so bad after all, he thought.
Luna was practically vibrating with excitement when they reached the butterfly enclosure. She pressed her face to the glass like a child looking through a toy store window. Inside was a rainbow of fluttering colors that defied all concepts of color and light. Zavier thought that he'd never seen anything quite so beautiful in his life.
With a slow caution Luna opened the door and Zavier held a hand out in front of her. "Wait," he said and thrust his arm through the crack of the door. "Pull me out if it goes bad."
They held their breath as a butterfly alighted on his arm, its iridescent wings glowing with ethereal colors. He winced out of reflex then relaxed. "Actually," he said, his voice going soft, "this actually feels pretty good."
They stepped into the room together. As the butterflies began landing no one noticed the door clicking shut behind them.
Peace. That was the only thing going through Zavier's mind. He was SO tired. He'd been fighting so long, both physically and internally. Why not a break? A respite from everything? Why not take a moment to sit and just let the world move past him? Would it really be so bad if he decided to lay down and take a well-deserved nap? The world would still be out there after, and all of it seemed so far away and unimportant right now. Maybe he could just close his eyes…
Alarm bells went off in his head and he felt a headache start to form. He fought it like a man coming out of a cold medicine-induced sleep, his head foggy. He pushed harder into the headache, some part of him realizing that something was very, very wrong. He tried to push into the data of the experience and the headache doubled, icicles pushing into the deepest parts of his brain.
His eyes shot open and he looked at his butterfly-covered body. Every inch of him was clothed in the things and he looked for his family, seeing only three mounds of fluttering wings pulsing in tandem with a rhythm that now seemed more ominous than beautiful. With a panicked start he checked his screen and saw that his health had dropped to below 70%.
"Fuck!" he yelled and started batting at the butterflies, crushing them by the dozens with each swipe of his hand. Every time he did a puff of glittering powder wafted into the air, making him dizzy and his vision blurry. He steeled his mind and started swatting faster and faster, then kicking his legs. He climbed to his knees and began smashing them with his hands, then reached out for the largest mound and dug around until he found Cass's shields. He used them like large plates to smash and flatten and scatter everything with wings until a circle of crushed bodies faded around him.
After he'd killed hundreds of them a shiny jewel of iridescent color bound in white metal on a leather cord appeared and he snatched it without identifying it. He rushed to the first body and grabbed it, Tess, under the arms and dragged her outside the enclosure. He swatted away as many as he could but panic rose inside him again as he saw the twins' healths both drop to the 50% range. He rushed back inside and pulled them both out as quickly as he could, tearing off his shirt and whipping it over their bodies like he was putting out fires. Tense minutes later and the butterflies were finally gone. He looked at his family closely and hope sprung up in him as their eyes started to flutter. He sat down with a thump, relief flooding through him.
He turned back to the enclosure and a thought occurred to him. This could be what I need, he fumbled through Luna's backpack to find the bread loaf bags that held their lunches. He dumped the sandwiches out in a rush and ran back into the enclosure, swinging the open bags around to capture as many of the butterflies as he could. When they were full of teeming colors he tied them off, brushing off the few that had landed on him, and rushed back out, releasing a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.
He found a trash can near the enclosure and upended the contents before turning it upright again and stuffing the bags inside. He needed them to be protected and the upcoming fights would likely crush them into oblivion.
With that done he went to each of them, popping a healing pill into each of their mouths. Their eyes cleared and they all sat up, rubbing their heads and faces in confusion.
"What was that?" Tess asked.
"Best I can tell, their wings let off a powder that hypnotized us and then they started absorbing our life force while we were under the spell," Zavier posited. "Pretty slick way of surviving when you don't have teeth or claws," he said.
Luna gave an exaggerated sigh of disappointment and looked back at the enclosure. "Still really pretty, though," she said.
"What happened to the sandwiches?" Cass asked, his eyes on the messy pile of bread and meat sitting on the asphalt.
They salvaged what they could, eating the sandwiches with a noticeable lack of enthusiasm while their health ticked back up to full. Zavier looked up to the sky. "We're past noon now," he said, "we probably only have a few hours left before we need to get back. The last thing I want is to be trapped here after dark."
Solemn nods followed that and they stood up, brushing off their pants.
"Wait dad," Cass said, pulling out one of the rods. "Seems like free energy," he nodded towards the butterflies.
Zavier took a breath but realized he was right. "Okay, go in and plant it, kill as many as you can, then rush out. We'll take turns. No one stays in for more than a minute, got it?"
They nodded and the butterfly slaughter began in earnest. In the crush of countless bodies the delicate necklace was unnoticed and forgotten.