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The Apocalypse Grinder - Chapter 23
🕑 Added 2025-06-18 09:21:52 +0000 UTC<< Chapter 22 | Index | Chapter 24 >>
Ronan was still recovering from the shock of almost falling down the small hill and over the edge of what seemed to be an endless drop into a misty ravine when the giant who’d saved him introduced himself. Terry towered over him, easily six foot six if he was lowballing it, with a face that seemed to be carved from a single block of titanium.
And yet the warm smile and sparkling eyes seemed pulled right from a cartoon character and drew him right in. “I’m Terry. What's your name, little man?”
“Cheers for the save, Terry. I’m Ronan,” he replied, coughing once and then taking stock of his surroundings.
Keith had arrived further up the hill, managing to land on a flat precipice. Lucky bastard. He’d still managed to collapse onto his arse, though.
“Ronan, eh? Cool name. Like the barbarian?”
“Almost,” Ronan chuckled in reply.
He’d been about to deny it but realised that his brutal fighting style and slowly intensifying love of battle really did resemble a barbarian’s. Well, better a barbarian than—he glanced at Keith—a spoilt, pudgy, coward.
I guess it’s not entirely his fault… His parents raised him that way, after all, he admonished himself. He really wanted to be nicer to Keith after seeing him die the first time and the valiance he’d shown, but during the second tutorial run the man hadn’t been nearly as brave.
“Barbarian? Is that an old man thing,” a kid with a nasal whine said, walking up to Ronan and Terry. “Sounds more like ‘Ronin’ to me.”
He had on a torn black hoodie with some kind of band logo on the front. It was too damaged for him to tell what it was meant to portray.
The kid had greasy brown hair that fell down to his shoulders and a smattering of hormonal acne. Ronan was impressed that a teenager who looked as though he hadn’t seen sunlight since childhood had managed to survive the first three stages of the tutorial.
“How are you going to cope if we get back home?” Terry sighed, giving the kid a disappointed stare. “You won’t have any of those flashy cartoons to waste your life watching.”
The kid snorted and returned Terry’s stare with one of disdain. “As if you’re any better with your old man references.”
Ronan looked between the two. He raised an eyebrow while narrowing his eyes. Terry was a sculpted giant, while the kid was a malnourished, lanky, runt of a man. If he really squinted however, there were definite similarities.
Father and son? Could be… Me and Keith got pulled in together and we were close together, so it makes sense that a family would stick together, he reasoned to himself.
Before he could ask them if that was the case, he heard a feminine yelp from up the hill. Ronan turned and saw a woman with fiery red hair had fallen right on top of Keith. Rather than be grateful, the idiot shoved her off hard enough that she began tumbling down the hill.
Ronan rushed up and grabbed her, arresting her fall. When he helped her to her feet she covered her mouth and rushed to a nearby tree. He heard the sound of vomiting and grimaced.
She flicked her hair over her shoulders and exhaled loudly. “Thanks,” she muttered to Ronan, before storming back up to Keith.
The man had a stormy expression, but when he saw the woman striding towards him a nasty grin emerged on his face. This is going to be brilliant, Ronan chuckled, following after her to watch the show.
“What the hell did you do that for!?” the woman snapped, kicking Keith in the leg.
“Ow! What the fuck, you bitch,” Keith hissed back.
Wrong move dude! Ronan couldn’t help commentating to himself. And he was right about that.
The moment the woman heard Keith call her that, her face exploded in fury, almost matching the fiery colour of her hair. She reached down and grabbed his collar with a snarl.
Then with barely a grunt of exertion she hauled the man to his feet and then an inch off the ground. Ronan was slack-jawed at the display of strength from a woman smaller than all of them. She wasn’t done yet, either.
Rather than take the sensible route out and apologise to the woman, Keith started yammering on about his father and how outrageous she was being. Ronan tuned him out, used to his nonsense.
He was only interested in seeing how the woman dealt with the situation. They were in a tutorial stage, after all. While no monsters had attacked yet, it would be a little crazy to hurt one of your own team members over an insult.
Though he wasn’t the one who’d been insulted, so it was easy to say that. However, the woman hadn’t gone off the rails completely.
She placed Keith back down on the ground and sighed as if this was a hassle to her. Ronan recognised that look. It was the look his colleagues wore when they had to deal with Keith—a look he’d no doubt worn himself a hundred times before.
Keith had finally stopped his tirade of bullshit. He looked disgustingly smug, believing he’d ‘won’ whatever argument they were having.
That smirk was wiped off his face as a crisp slap rang out. His head jerked sideways as the woman’s hand made contact and he stumbled backwards, falling onto his arse once again.
She had a satisfied expression on her face as she walked back towards them. When she realised Ronan was much closer than she’d left him and grinning like a madman, she wasn’t taken aback. No, she actually returned his grin and winked.
I like her, Ronan thought to himself. “I’m Ronan,” he said, holding out a hand for her to shake. “I see you’ve already had the pleasure of meeting Keith,” he added, his grin growing a little wider.
Taking the offered hand, the redhead shook it vigorously. He was surprised that he actually felt pressure when she squeezed his hand. For someone with his strength that was an impressive feat on her behalf.
“Dana,” she replied. “I think we’re supposed to go inside that cave up there,” she added, pointing her thumb at the huge cliff above them. More specifically, she was pointing at a tunnel entrance just about wide enough for five people to enter.
The father and son duo had walked over to join during the scuffle. Terry seemed unfazed while the kid was staring at Dana like she was some kind of alien. He’s the right age for that kind of behaviour I guess, Ronan chuckled to himself. Hormones…
“Nice to meet you, Dana. I’m Terry and this is my son Jackson,” the giant said as they approached, also shaking the woman’s hand.
Ronan realised he’d never learned the boy’s name before. He waited a few moments, looking up into the sky and wondering if another person was going to drop in, but it seemed like it was just the five of them.
It was a strange jump from two people to five. He’d half expected to have just one more person added to their group or perhaps for it to double, but he wasn’t going to complain.
As long as they were more useful to have around than Keith… Then again, it was impossible for someone to be as useless as that lug. Ronan was still hoping he could convince the guy to take the healer class when he eventually hit level 10.
“I think Dana has the right idea,” Ronan said, walking up towards Keith. “I don’t think the monsters are going to come at us this time. Maybe this is their home or something.”
Keith had a sour expression on his face, but Ronan couldn’t take him seriously with the red handprint left on his cheek. He held out a hand to the guy. Keith slapped it away and stood up by himself.
Ronan was about to walk into the tunnel when Terry placed a hand on his shoulder and gently pulled him back. He threw the man a quizzical look.
“I think we should share some details about how we fight before we go in,” the giant explained. “It might help us work together better against whatever we find. Personally, I’m sick of fighting goblins.”
“Preach it big fella,” Ronan agreed. “Ugly little green shits. At least it feels good to cave their heads in.”
Dana snorted. “Damn right.”
Ronan already respected the woman after what she did to Keith but hearing that made his eyes light up. He’d found a kindred spirit.
“Yeah, I’m pretty decent at punching stuff and I can move fairly quickly. I have a cool skill that lets me add mana to my punches. I took the fighter class for obvious reasons,” Ronan said, taking the initiative.
“A man after my own heart,” Dana said, staring at him the same way a lion watches their prey. “I’m a frontline fighter too, but I use this,” she said, pulling back her denim jacket and revealing a coiled leather whip.
Keith shuffled a little further away from the woman when he saw that. Ronan nodded in appreciation. Whips were cool.
“What about you, big guy? Don’t tell me we’re all just meatheads?” Ronan asked, hoping that wasn’t the case. He wanted to do the punching.
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