The Arks: Over Heaven (by Ben)

Chapter 72: The Horde

Original Post Date: Jun 20, 2024

Note: Story starts in Wyvern, Aerial ABC backwards filter and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Troodon, next chapter in Titanosaur.

~

Loki and Chloe were preparing themselves to head out to the cave in the southern regions of the tundra, the one with a plethora of dangerous beasts. Chloe was preparing Crusher’s saddle, who was patiently waiting at the front gate, and Loki was silently rubbing his implant.

“Still thinking about Jerry?” Chloe asked. Loki nodded.

“Yeah. It’s still on my mind. What if he fails to kill those Knowers?” Loki asked, looking up at the snowy skies, “Then what would happen? Will they attack our camp?”

“I wouldn’t worry if I were you,” Chloe reassured him, “He’s a violent fighter who always keeps his word. I’m not sure anyone would be able to defeat him, especially with that implant attribute of his.”

Loki closed his eyes,

“Still. I don’t like to worry, but our lives are on the line. And the people here can’t defend themselves, even with weapons. Their attributes are so niche that they may as well not have any to begin with.”

Chloe put a hand on Loki’s shoulder.

“If it makes you feel better, we won’t take long at all at that cave. We’ll be there and back in a jiffy.”

Soft footsteps crunched through the snow, and Loki and Chloe turned to see Dr. Aston walking toward them. He looked like he had been losing sleep again. After Jerry left to go kill the Knowers, Dr. Aston had been hard at work developing something in his lab. Sometimes, he could hear the sound of fire blazing and teeth snapping. It was very odd.

Like many of the others, Dr. Aston had a very niche ability. He could stay awake for as long as he wished with his attribute without any mental exhaustion, but his body would still suffer the consequences. Combined with the power of coffee and alarm clocks, Dr. Aston was awake 24/7.

“Hey! You two are heading out to the cave?”

“Yeah, we are, wanna come with us?” Chloe asked him. Dr. Aston smiled.

“As much as I’d love to come, I think I’d just slow you down. Besides, I need to watch over these people. Make sure they don’t blow anything up while you two are away.”

Dr. Aston looked around, and he suddenly became very confused.

“Say. It’s just you two going? Nobody else?”

Chloe laughed.

“Doctor, I highly doubt some measly creatures will stop us. Just the two of us will be fine.”

“You never know. Even a horde of Dilophosaurus could overpower one person. Just bring a few more along just in case.”

Chloe sighed.

“Fine. I do have two candidates in mind…”

Chloe ran off to get them, and Dr. Aston saluted Loki.

“Good luck on your expedition sir.”

Loki smiled, and saluted back.

“Thank you, Doctor. That’s well appreciated.”

Dr. Aston walked off back to the compound, and soon after Chloe came back with two people running behind her. One was a woman with magenta hair and fur clothes, and the other was Brad. Loki sneered at him.

“Hey! I’m Chloe’s friend, and she asked me to come along to help find something called an artifact? It’s gonna be important apparently,” the magenta woman said.

Brad met Loki’s glare, and he quickly turned away.

“Yeah, basically. There’s gotta be a lot of dangerous creatures. That’s why I’m assuming Chloe brought you two. For backup.”

“Huh, I didn’t think I’d be picked. Anyway, I’m Sophie. Nice to meet you, Loki,” Sophie raised her hand out and shook Loki’s. She explained what her implant attribute was, “Well my implant attribute allows me to summon wolves. Mystical wolves that can’t die. However they can only remain active if I’m conscious and bleeding.”

“Hmm, not bad,” Loki said. Loki didn’t bother asking what Brad’s attribute was. Loki hopped up on Crusher’s back, and ushered the others to get on.

“It won’t take long to get there. Let’s go.”

Loki used his telekinesis to lift the three off the ground and onto Crusher. He tugged on the reins, and Crusher ran off into the horizon.

~

Just a half hour later or so, the group arrived at a large cave opening. It had stopped snowing, but an intense wind was still upon them. As the four stopped, they could already hear the howls and barks coming from inside.

“So this is it?” Sophie asked. Loki nodded.

“Correct.”

Loki cracked his knuckles, and Chloe took out a mace. Brad nervously reached for his back and pulled out a compound bow, nocking a metal arrow. Sophie slipped on brass knuckles, and Crusher stepped forward, roaring into the opening to warn whatever beasts inside to submit, and surrender.

The howls stopped, and Loki quietly stepped inside the cave. It was a chilly cold, but luckily with their fur armor it was only a little chilly. The four along with Crusher continued to walk inside, and there was seemingly nothing but tunnel. Loki found it odd that the sound of howls echoed from within, yet there seemed to be no presence of creatures.

Just a few minutes later, they reached the end of the tunnel. At the end of the tunnel was a large cavity with a single artifact inside. It was spherical, had spikes jutting out of it, and was glowing a bright blue.

“Is that the artifact?” Sophie asked.

“Yes it is, but it’s weird,” Loki commented, “Mr. Ma- Mr. Mo said there were a lot of creatures here when he investigated it, which is why we didn’t retrieve the artifact from here first. Where are they?”

Right as Loki uttered those words, a huge amount of footsteps began to echo behind them. Everyone turned around to see dozens of creatures pouring out of small openings and crevices in the walls: Direwolves, Purlovias, Polar Bears, and even giant Yetis were bolting toward them. Crusher steadied himself, and let out a fierce roar. None of the creatures were affected by its menace.

“CHARGE!” Chloe screamed. Everyone let out a battle cry and rushed at the horde of beasts. Blade and teeth clashed. Crusher swung his tail, swiping away a multitude of creatures, and picked up a Purlovia within his mouth, chomping down on it hard. All its bones cracked and blood gushed out of its mouth like a hose spurting water.

CRACK!

Yetis wrapped their arms around Crusher, but Chloe quickly retaliated with her poison claws. She shot them at the Yetis, and they let out howls of pain, letting go to extract them. A wolf lunged at Chloe, but she turned around and swung her mace at it, causing its skull to be crushed. Its body flew to the side, ramming into a pack of wolves that were trying to attack Brad. Brad shielded his face. Loki noticed this.

“He doesn’t really know what he’s doing,” Loki thought, “Maybe I can steal the kill from the creatures and get his blinding attribute for myself.”

But Mr. Ma’s words echoed in his mind.

“Don’t let your morals stop you, but don’t let heartlessness rule you either. There must be a balance, Loki. There must be another way.”

A wolf opened its jaws and prepared to bite and gouge Brad’s neck out, but Loki quickly raised his hand out and clenched his fist. His left eye glowed blue, and the wolf stopped in its tracks, causing a blue aura to surround it.

“Now Brad!”

Brad’s implant glowed, and the wolf’s eyes began to swirl with a black void. Loki let go of his telekinesis, and it pawed at its eyes, unsure of what was happening. Brad released the string of his bow, and the arrow pierced the wolf’s skull.

Loki quickly took a look at his surroundings. There were still around three dozen creatures left, and it looked like Chloe and Sophie were getting exhausted. It didn’t help that Crusher’s leg was maimed, and his movements were growing slower.

A yeti plunged his fist into Sophie’s face, and Sophie was sent flying away. Her magenta spirit wolves, which had become active for the majority of the fight, dissipated, and Sophie landed in the snow, tumbling and rolling away. Loki cursed to himself. She was breathing steadily.

“Sophie!” Loki cried out.

She didn’t respond. Loki cursed to himself.

“She’s out. Just three of us…” Loki thought grimly.

The same yeti that had knocked out Sophie made his way toward Loki, but Loki turned around and got down on the ground. He raised his legs, and slammed them as hard as he could into the foul beast. He could feel the yeti’s skull shatter, and blood spewed out onto the snow as he quickly got back up on his feet.

PEW PEW PEW!

Three claws shot out toward him and hit a Purlovia that was about to ambush Loki. Chloe winked at Loki, but sweat was pouring down from her face like a fountain. It also didn’t help that Brad was being backed up against the tunnel walls by a small direwolf. Loki’s attribute would have been really helpful in a 1v1, but against this huge horde he could only do so much with flinging enemies.

“I don’t want any of you to die,” Loki thought as his eyes scattered amongst the four of them. He sighed, closed his eyes, and clasped his hands together into a finger gun. He pointed it in the air and brought it close to his face, closing his eyes and taking a stance. His implant began to glow brightly, and suddenly the whole room began to flash. All the creatures and people suddenly paused in their tracks, turning to face Loki in horror.

“It DOES work, even with my attribute…” Loki realized to himself. He smiled, “It’s a risky play, but I have no other choice. Now I just need to incite the words, use a little imagination, and pray that it’ll work…”

“ATTRIBUTE AMPLIFICATION,” Loki shouted. Waves instantly shot out of his implant, and a strange blue mystical circle was laid out in the area. Loki’s eyes opened, which were shining blue.

“Gravity Collapse.”

Instantly, the circle pulsated, and everyone collapsed to the ground, except for Loki. Loki looked around in wonder to see that everyone seemed to be pulled into the ground. Blue waves shot out of all the creatures and people, and as some tried to get up they ended up getting pulled further and further into the ground. Chloe began to laugh as she saw the sight.

“What is this, Loki?? Some kind of power up?!” Chloe screamed in wonder.

“Sort of,” Loki shouted back. He ran up to the artifact and as he placed his palm on the artifact, it shined white and disintegrated, rushing into his implant. Loki’s implant glowed blue.

“When me and Mr. Ma went to collect our first beacon, it gave us a strange gem that resembled the ones in our implants. When I grabbed it, my implant absorbed it, and I soon came to learn the powers of Attribute Amplification,” Loki explained. He turned around, and wings sprouted from his back (thanks to the first artifact they collected). He dived toward the creatures and began to plow through the creatures like no tomorrow. Entrails and guts flew everywhere as Loki could feel his control over the Amplification slip.

“Depending on the amount of people one kills, that will be how long the Amplification lasts… For me it’s only 30 seconds. However there’s a heavy cost to using such a powerful move. You’ll pass out as soon as the Amplification is over, and for the next 48 hours, you will be unable to use this move at all. Additionally, your attribute will no longer work for that amount of time either. Even once the cooldown is up, the attribute will remain weak until you kill a certain amount of people…”

The final beast, a yeti, had its eyes widened in horror as Loki raised his fists and slammed them straight into it.

SPLAT!

The blue circle disappeared, and the infinite gravity that everyone was experiencing was lifted from them. Chloe got up from the ground, wiping sweat from her forehead, and letting out a sigh of relief. Crusher got up from the ground too and licked his lips, kicking at the cave ground impatiently.

Sophie let out a yawn and got up from the ground too, looking around, dazed.

“Did I seriously pass out? I’m sorry guys,” Sophie apologized. She looked around and scratched her head, confused, “Wait, where did all the creatures go?”

“Yes, luckily Loki here managed to get rid of them all with his Attribute Amplification,” Chloe explained, showing her palm to Loki. Loki smiled softly. Sophie smiled.

“Well thanks for saving our butts, Loki. You’d make a great president.”

“I… Agree,” Brad finally spoke, “I just wanted to say I’m sorry for how I treated you back then. I’m surprised you even saved me. I don’t see how I’m very useful. But, thanks, again. Thank you for saving my life, President Loki!”

Loki flashed a grin at everyone, but he suddenly began to wobble.

“Well thank youuuu~”

Loki collapsed to the ground, passed out. Chloe sighed, walking over to pick him up.

“Let’s head back to camp. We got what we needed.”