24 – Gila Monster

Andy stood by the gate, watching the orange and red streaks of the setting sun slowly fade to darkness. It had been a while since he’d taken the time to watch a sunset, and though he wasn’t doing it for pleasure, he found himself appreciating the beauty.

His small mental break was cut short when Bernice cleared her throat behind him, announcing her presence as she leaned against the fence and joined him, gazing into the horizon. “Pretty, isn’t it?” she remarked.

“Yeah. I guess the System can’t take that away.”

She looked at him, puzzled. “Hmm?”

“Well, think about everything we’ve lost. Billions are dead, electricity’s not working, no planes, let alone rockets. We can’t even access our saved videos, music—shit, anything we had on the net.” He nodded to the last crimson streaks. “At least we still have that.”

“Sheesh, what a downer!” She chuckled, clearing her throat, then turned and walked away from the fence to sit in the lawn chair someone had set up there at the gate. “Yeah, things are looking bad for the human race. I might just be an old-ass woman managing a dead-end trailer park, or at least I used to be, but, hell, Andy, I ain’t ready to be counted down and out yet. Humans are tough motherfuckers, you know? We’ve been through some shit and we keep coming back for more. So, yeah, buck up, kid. Don’t let this pissant System take the vinegar out of you.”

Andy turned to look at her, surprised by her rather uplifting vitriol. “Shit, Bernice, I wasn’t expecting a pep talk from you.”

“Well, you got one. Now, what are you going to do next? What’s your plan for tomorrow? ’Cause last time I checked, we only have a couple of days until we might start getting visited by the monsters out there.” She cupped a hand to her ear, and, at first, Andy thought she was signaling that she was waiting for his answer, but then he heard the distant sounds—howls, roars, and other strange cries echoing out of the desert.

Listening, his hand tightened on his spear, and he nodded slowly. “Yeah, well, I’m not waiting until tomorrow. I’m heading out, and I’m gonna track down a scumbag who tried to get me and Lucy killed earlier today.”

“Well, damn, kid. I knew you had some stones, but I didn’t expect that!” She cackled, a real, life-long smoker’s laugh, and reached into the front pocket of her overalls. “I got a blunt here for you if you make it back in one piece.”

Andy laughed. “I might take you up on that.” He nodded to the gate. “Now, can you let me out?”

“You’re serious, huh?” She stood, fishing the keys out of another pocket. “All right.” As she approached, she looked him up and down again, arching an eyebrow. “You always been that big?”

He smiled, resisting the urge to puff out his chest. Instead, he took his new gloves out of his pocket and pulled them on. He watched Bernice unwind the chain on the gate, then, as she pulled it open a couple of feet, he slipped out. “See you in a few hours.”

“Holding you to that!” she called after him.

He jogged across the gravel road, heading straight into the desert. He used the same peak in the Catalinas as a guidepost, jogging between cacti, shrubs, and hardy mesquites, figuring he had a couple of miles of desert between him and the ranch homes. At first, he didn’t realize it, but he was angling from one deep shadow to another, using the foliage to mask his presence as his uncanny knack for sneaking around in the dim light began to assert itself. As he jogged, for the first time, he concentrated on his Twilight Steps spell and cast it.

If he hadn’t been concentrating so hard, he would have laughed at the thrill of it. He felt the warm, tingling surge of mana flowing through him, and then the shadows seemed to stretch and he felt himself propelling through them, like a fish in a stream, as his speed more than doubled. “Holy shit!” he said, breathless from the sensation of mana and the rush of the wind past his ears. Then he saw a larger shadow, something he’d taken for a bush at first, move, and he slid to a stop, hunkering in the moonlit gloom beneath a cholla cactus.

He peered into the darkness, letting his Shadow Vigil do its work, and the big shadow began to take on definition as he discerned more and more of its nature. It was an enormous lizard—bigger than any crocodile he’d ever seen in a video. It shifted slowly, something crunching wetly, as it swayed its head left to right. Each of its legs was as big as one of Andy’s, and he’d swear it had to be twenty feet long from its tail to its nose.

As he stared, and his excellent eyesight continued to pick up details in the blue-tinted moonlight, he thought he saw broad stripes on the enormous reptile. They reminded him of the stripes on a gila monster, and he wondered if that was what he was seeing—only a mana-mutated, giant one. Was it something he wanted to mess with? It seemed slow, but he’d seen enough vids of crocodiles snapping up prey to know that looks could be deceiving when it came to reptiles. Besides, if it wasn’t messing with—

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He cut the thought off short when his eyes uncannily picked out some details of the shadows beneath the lizard’s big, swaying head. It was a carcass, and it was wearing clothes. The damn thing was eating a human corpse. So, it wasn’t peaceful, it wasn’t something he could, with a clear conscience, leave to wander into the trailer park. Could a giant gila monster climb a fence? Dig under one?

“I bet you’re worth a lot of experience, too,” he whispered. Almost without conscious thought, he began stalking toward the creature, crouching low, slipping through the shadows, at one with them. When that thought hit him, he realized it was literal; the shadows were clinging to him. Looking down, he saw that his arms were dark; the moonlight wasn’t touching him. It seemed his Veil of the Stalker was effective, indeed.

As he closed on the big lizard’s back, he stared, hoping his upgraded Sneak Attack skill would lend him some insight on where to strike. He saw some points along the spine that looked tempting, but they didn’t seem perfect. He shifted to the side, creeping forward, trying to get more on the monster’s flank. By then, he could hear the wet crunch of the monster’s jaws as it took big, ripping bites of the corpse before it. Every now and then, it would lift its head, and Andy could see the muscles along its thick neck convulse as it swallowed.

When he was just a few steps behind the great reptile, Andy saw a very juicy-looking target: the curve of its belly. Some instinct in him, no doubt granted by his Sneak Attack skill, told him that if he drove his spear at an angle from the rear into that belly—if he aimed it just right—he’d puncture several vital organs. If he were perfect, it would be a fatal blow.

He crept closer, his heart thumping, his lips pulling back in anticipation. He cocked his spear back, and, when he was just two steps behind the monster, he lunged, driving his steel-tipped spear exactly where his instinct told him to strike. The razor-edged spear point slid over the leathery skin at first, but then it caught, and the force of his thrust pushed it through the thick, tough hide.

Andy roared and took another step, driving with every ounce of his rather prodigious strength. He used his thighs, his arms, his weight, and as the enormous reptile convulsed, he buried his spear all the way to his fists into its body. The monster thrashed and roared—a raspy, coughing, wet sound—and then it fell with a great thud, pulling Andy off balance as he clung to his spear. When he pulled it out, a torrent of bubbling red-black blood followed it out of the hole, and the giant lizard let out a final, gasping groan as it died. Andy wasn’t sure, but he thought he’d punctured its heart among other things.

***Congratulations, Andy! You’ve slain a hostile denizen of the local biome! This was an elite creature, and you struck a singular fatal blow from stealth, increasing the notoriety of your victory! You’ve earned level 10 of your Umbral Warden class and gained an improvement point.***

***Congratulations! You’ve unlocked a new notable skill: Critical Mastery.***

Andy moved away from the dead lizard and its feast, crouching in the much deeper shadows of a nearby palo verde, and studied the System messages. “Another notable skill, but not a class skill, even though I hit a nice big round number ten.” He couldn’t make sense of the System’s skill allocations other than to notice that it seemed to have something to do with his actions or thoughts, just as much as it might have to do with his actual level gains.

He opened his status sheet and focused on the new notable skill:

Critical Mastery – Innate: Through experience and precision, you have developed an intuitive understanding of structural weaknesses in both flesh and armor. Your attacks are more likely to exploit vulnerabilities, increasing the effectiveness of strikes against exposed or compromised areas.

Frowning, Andy tried to remember if he’d ever done that for Sneak Attack. He stared at that line on his status sheet, and it expanded with an explanation:

Sneak Attack – Innate: You have learned to strike with precision when unseen or catching an opponent off guard. Attacks made against unaware or distracted targets are significantly more effective, bypassing defenses and inflicting greater damage.

“Well, shit. That’s cool. What about spears?”

Spears – Innate: You have trained in the use of spears, gaining proficiency in both offensive and defensive techniques. Having reached journeyman ranks, you exhibit greater control, precision, and adaptability, executing efficient thrusts, fluid counters, and optimized leverage against armored or evasive opponents.

“Journeyman, huh?” Andy couldn’t help but think he’d just stumbled on some very key information. Knowing that four ranks in spear made him a “journeyman” had to be something he could use, right? It bore further thought, certainly, but not just then, not while he was out in the middle of the desert at night with two corpses nearby that might draw more predators. Part of him wanted to examine the dead human, but another part didn’t. He doubted he’d know them, even if they were a trailer park resident, but…

Sighing, frustrated because he knew it was the right thing to do, Andy crept back over to the dead lizard and, holding a sleeve to his nose and mouth, crouched before it, examining the human corpse. He could tell it had been a man, and the guy’s pants were still intact, so Andy tugged on his belt, turning what was left of him onto his stomach. He saw the bulge of a wallet in a pocket and fished it out, then hastily moved away.

He wasn’t trying to rob the poor guy, but he figured someone back in the trailer park might be looking for him. If Andy had his ID, he might be able to give them some closure. He tucked the wallet into his back pocket and, checking his bearings on the deep blue, shadowy peaks of the Catalinas, he continued on his way. He still had the Whistler to deal with.