Hardcore OP-ness

Chapter 22: Survival of the Fittest?

As the five of them jumped down from the second floor of the collapsing inn, Sarah yelled "Let me go! Where the fuck do you think you're touching, bastard?!" Michael did as she asked and released her, just in time for her to fall face-first into the relatively-soft dirt; while he was able to land on his feet, to avoid receiving any damage.

He shouted "Get up! Oh God, can you smell that?! Not all the horse, cow, pig and chicken shit, but that rotting... fucking zombies! Damn it, I hate zombies! They're definitely one of the most disgusting monsters in any RPG... ugh, just breathing in the air is already making me sick."

The moment he took a breath of 'fresh' air, he received a 'plagued' debuff. Festering boils began rapidly swelling up on his chest, back, and neck, as his lungs began filling with fluids.

Elina muttered "Goddess of Light, please, bless us with your divine protection..." but she passed out before she could finish casting her spell. Lily began coughing violently, while her Health and Stamina fell at a dramatic pace.

Strangely, both Richard and Sarah managed to avoid catching anything. However, that was completely due to her Darkness-affinity, and his abnormally high Luck.

While the Knight carried a cat-girl under each arm, Michael coughed up copious amounts of blood, before dropping to the ground and dying: for the thirteenth time. As his new body formed, he didn't even bother to collect his corpse or soiled equipment, and just yelled "Run! We need to leave now!"

Sarah screamed "Where?! I don't even know where the hell we are! Actually, who the fuck are you people?!" In that moment that he was dead, the pitch-black wisp was able to get a great view of the whole scenery, and the problem wasn't the eight-hundred zombies and skeletons shambling around the little farming village, or the deadly airborne pathogens.

He used his third-person point of view technique, to gain a pseudo night-vision, and shouted "There's a forest to the east of here! Follow my voice if you can't see anything!" It was so noisy that even when they were yelling at each-other, they could still barely understand what they were saying.

Richard immediately called back "Wait, no, we need to go north! We have to get to Carrabelle City! They have a Paladin Order and even a High-Priestess of Light! If we can make it there-"

However, he was cut-off by Michael shouting "There's no time! Besides, I'm pretty sure that all the swarms of undead dragons, giant cockroaches, mosquitoes, mutated bats, and hordes of hulking monstrosities, along with the legions of zombies and skeletons are headed that way! Follow the annoying high-pitched beeeeep~!"

Fortunately, his 'Immune System Boost' had reached level-three after dying, so his chances of getting sick again had diminished slightly. He didn't bother infusing his voice with mana, because that would have done more harm than good.

In such a situation, even though both the Thief and the Knight had red names toward Michael, they still obediently followed after him. It was the first time that the Human had run, in at least the past five years of his life, and if he didn't have to worry about keeping the other four alive, he probably would have just flew around in his wisp form and spawned a few miles away.

Even though his Stamina was relatively high, he was almost constantly emitting high-pitched beeping noises, so he wasn't able to move very quickly. It didn't matter though, because Richard had to carry two people, and was wearing heavy-armor.

Sarah suddenly screamed "Ah! Shit, get-get the fuck off of me!" as her ankle was suddenly grabbed by a skeletal hand. She easily broke-free, by smacking her relatively thick, slimy and spiky worm-tail against it, but was then impaled through the back by a rusty pitchfork.

Michael immediately saw that, so he stopped beeping and ran to the fallen 'comrade.' However, instead of worrying about her, he pulled a large smooth-stone out of his inventory, and telekinetically fired it at the orc-zombie's head; after it was re-dead, he grabbed the farming-tool and sent it directly into bag-slot fifteen, as a small '+1 Exp' appeared in the corner of his vision.

While she was still screaming in pain, he nonchalantly picked her up with both arms and yelled "Damn it! Hey Rick, hurry the fuck up! There's a shit-ton of skeletal horses and cows charging towards us!"

However, at that moment, Lily's health finally reached zero, and then her race changed to 'Undead Cat-Tribe' as her beautiful skin began rotting away. Richard shouted "No! It's too late for me, please, take my sister and keep going! I know this is a lot to ask of a total stranger, but please, protect her! Arg!?" as he threw the unconscious Priestess at Michael.

Then the reanimated Enchantress cast an 'Enthrall' spell, which caused the Knight to lose his ability to control his own body. Without hesitation, the naked Human grabbed Elina and threw her over his right shoulder: as if she were a sack of flour.

The bleeding and screaming Bloodworm-Goblin was tightly pressed against his chest, using his left arm, and he couldn't help but yell "The difficulty of these Quests is way too fucking high!" as he continued moving at a steady pace. Since he didn't have to keep beeping any longer, he was able to focus on running and carrying the two, incredibly-light girls.

He carefully avoided all the sluggish zombies and skeletons, while jogging through the darkness. Using his wisp-form, Michael was able to see all of the collapsed, undead-infested buildings; even the farm-animals were transformed into rank-G monsters.

A peculiar aspect to Light Affinity humanoids and beasts, was their ability to resist Darkness-type corruption, curses and diseases. The reason why Elina was so dramatically weakened, was because her mana-core was automatically protecting her body and boosting her immune-system.

After a few minutes of running, Michael finally managed to escape from the village and entered the nearby forest. On the outskirts, it was mostly tree-stumps and cleared away foliage, but as he continued to move farther inside, he noticed that there was finally enough light for him to use his eyes to see.

He could still hear the undead dragons roaring in the distance, and feel the ground rumbling from the seemingly endless hordes that were galloping, sprinting, shambling, and crawling across the plains. However, as soon as he entered "Raphael's Jungle," it was as if there was a barrier preventing the smog and death from polluting that beautiful environment.

It wasn't as severe in the outskirts, but at a certain point, the vines, flowers, insects, and even the level-zero, rankless, deer or parrots were all glowing brightly. Michael muttered "Ugh, I'm gonna be really pissed if I escape from zombie hell, only to die of radiation-poisoning... Well, it should be fine, I might gain a bio-luminescence passive though."

Just to be safe, he kept moving until he started seeing rank-G magical-beasts being created. Some of the largest trees were growing bright-green cherries; groups of small, white and grey, lemurs were eating them, and occasionally, they would get lucky and find a mana-core instead of a seed.

When they evolved, their tiny bodies only became slightly larger, and their fur turned completely viridian. Aside from that, they didn't change much on the surface, but they definitely gained a decent amount of Agility and Intelligence.

Rather than heading deeper into the jungle, they actually stayed with their families and acted like guardians and leaders for their unranked kin. When they saw Michael, they immediately recognized a threat that they couldn't fight against, so they fled, while protecting their group of lemurs.

It took him a few minutes, but he managed to find the base of a crystal-clear waterfall. He carefully set the two unconscious girls down, only a few feet away from the riverbank.

Sarah's face was still contorted in pain, and her health had dropped down to 5/25, but her 'bleeding' debuff had faded. Elina on the other hand, was only missing a few points from her maximum of twenty.

Michael sighed as he glanced at the two notifications that he ignored, while muttering "This is why I like playing easy-mode..."

The first was "Quest Failed: Riverside Village has been destroyed and Lorekeeper Jonathan has died." Dated a few hours after that was "Quest Failed: Carrabelle City has been destroyed, and that branch of The Adventurer's Guild no longer exists."