Twenty people. That is how many were lost in our attack on the generators. Twenty people died under my orders.
Stephen sits down next to me, handing me a nutrient bar. “You know it's not your fault.”
“How did you know what I was thinking?” I sputter.
“It’s written all over your face, anyone with eyes can see what you are thinking. Plus it's not hard to figure out given where we are.” He solemnly inhales one of the nutrient bars. “War is tough.”
“Yeah. It is.”
“We can’t get distracted.” Stephen says solemnly. I turn to look at him and he seems to be staring somewhere far away from here. “We have to play this for keeps. No holding back.”
I stand up. “We won’t rest until every single monster is gone.” I offer my hand and help Stephen onto his feet. Though I nearly fall in my attempt, the guy is really heavy. “Damn, all those muscles really are solid.”
He flexes his arm and I hear a few gasps in the distance. “Ha, guess so.” He slaps me on the back and I nearly fall again. When I recover he is smiling at me, and I can practically hear the swooning in the distance. “So, why don’t we go put them to use?”
“Overseer to all units, status report.” Stephen calls from the comms.
“Battalions one through four are clear to go.” “Affirmative overseer, Battalions five through eight all prepared and rearing to blow things up.” “Batallions nine through twelve all set.” Four battalions for the north, south and east of the inner walls. With our squadron taking up the west all by ourselves. Some people were shocked when I told them of the plan, but then I think they remembered our display at the front gate.
“Well then, what are we waiting for, let's slay us some monsters!” Stephen commands and then deploys his ascent jets.
I push the button on my own suit and the hum of high efficiency engines fill my ears. I launch up into the air alongside my squadmates and we casually soar over the inner wall.
I pass by what looks like a giant orbital cannon, offline of course because of our previous efforts taking out the generators. Then I am descending down the other side of the wall.
My boots clank against a solid metal surface and I take a look around me. Violet and Moxie are right next to me and Stephen and Liv made it as well. We are surrounded by a large open area. Skyscrapers tower into the skies not far off, like they are enclosing us inside. There are tons of streets branching out in every direction, resting in complete darkness due to the shadow of the skyscrapers.
A wave of malice passes over me, and I quickly turn just as a bolt of lightning comes screeching towards me. I Blink away just as it starts to burn my arm. We snap into action, Moxie immediately healing me and casting some light to illuminate the dark streets.
Hundreds of orcs appear in the shadowy streets.
I smile. “Looks like some friends have come out to play.”
We launch into action, the cacophony of spells, bullets and blades colliding with armor fill the air. I Blink onto the back of one orc, sinking my blade deep into its weak spot. It roars and throws me into a wall, but I simply shrug it off and slay the monster.
It might just be my imagination, but these last few levels have felt really powerful. At the start the orcs were still somewhat of a challenge, but now they fall in just a couple hits or a simple spell.
Rawr I’ll bite them to death myself! Lemon comments.
You are still a bit too small for that. I comment while dodging a fireball.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Grr! I am not small anymore! I can fight them nice and easy peasy!
Lucien and Bellaris said baby dragons can’t fight until they get their dragonfire. I think you have to become a juvenile first.
Hmph. Well then kill those monsters faster so I can burn you to a crisp.
I was already planning on doing that, also you will not be burning me or any other human to ashes.
Fine… no promises though.
I really hope my dragon doesn't become a mass murderer. I wonder what would happen to me in that case. Oh well, not something to worry about at the moment.
We push through the streets slowly. Every corner brings even more orcs for us to slay. But we are basically pros at slaying them by now. One problem with focusing on one type of soldier is that once the enemy learns how to deal with it, you are kinda screwed. Don’t these monsters understand basic tactics?
After a slog we finally reach our destination, one of the barrier generators. We have to take them down before we can even think of getting access to the core rift.
But that won’t be so simple.
“Is that.. A level two hundred and fucking fifty cerberus?!” Liv shouts. “Oh please, not one of those again, its attacks are so nice and frequent…”
Surely enough, sitting on a large circular pedestal is a [Cerberus Lvl 250]. I guess it makes sense, the Matriarch does produce queens. So it makes sense that a few of the stronger ones would be defending the core rift. Plus it's not like one monster could’ve created all these orcs, no matter how strong it is.
Several orcs surround the cerberus which is curled up as if napping. They immediately notice our presence and roar their challenge.
“Seems so.” I say, a large smile rising to my face. “Seems like we get yet another rematch. Let's show these monsters just how much stronger we have gotten!”
“Idiot, don’t go doing anything crazy.” Violet says and I turn towards her in shock. Was that concern that I heard in her voice? Her eyes meet mine. “What? I don’t want to have to haul your corpse back again.”
I am going to pretend like her carrying me is not actually an incentive. “I will be careful, probably.”
As we move towards the cerberus, we obliterate the orc guards with ease. The moment we get within two hundred meters of the cerberus, it picks up one of its heads to stare at us.
It roars its challenge.
Violet and I are immediately on top of it, hacking into it. Now that we know where its core is, it should be far easier to slay.
It panics and thrashes around, managing to throw us off and to the side. But we just immediately launch ourselves back. It seems to realize it can't stop us and focuses on Liv, who is roaring a challenge of her own.
She seemingly effortlessly defends or counters each one of its three heads. Each attack slowly whittles down its own health pool.
We get tossed off again and I quickly turn to Violet. “Stand back a bit.”
She grumbles something but does as I say.
My eyes lock with Moxie’s across the battlefield, and we both smile maniacally.
I channel all of my mana into a pure mana spell and focus it right on the cerberus. Moxie does similar, though I hope she doesn't use all of it – she would likely kill us all with that attack.
We release our spells at the same time, and they impact the cerberus with a force enough to send it flying against a nearby pillar. Two of its legs and one of its heads were completely vaporized in the explosion.
Violet and I seize the opportunity, with a nice assist from Stephens’ rifle of course.
Our blades dig deep into the monster and with a satisfying crack, we break the core. Unfortunately that also means we get almost drowned in the ensuing tidal wave of blood and ash.
I stand up and my visor cleans itself off. Then I turn to Violet and wrap her up in a big hug without thinking. “Hell yeah!” After a few moments I realize the grave mistake I have made and try to move away.
To my complete and utter shock, Violet wraps her arms around me as well. My brain short circuits as I feel her arms around me. They feel strong enough to crush my ribs, yet gentle and soft at the same time. Suffice to say, it is a truly wonderful feeling.
After a few seconds that feel like hours, we break away and quickly turn away from each other. My face feels like it is on fire, which feels really nice. My heart is beating at about a million beats per second, and not from the exertion of the battle either. There is absolutely no way I can look at Violet right now though.
“Ahem.” I turn towards Stephen who has dropped down to be next to us. “Good work everyone, that's our objective completed. Let's make our way towards the core now.”
We make our way through many more streets with orcs that seem to be very angry at us about slaying one of their queens. The streets are wide enough for Violet and I to stay quite far apart, which is good. Because my face stays beet red for several hours.
Which is fine, if anything it makes me look super cool while slaying monsters. Also it's super cute whenever I get a glimpse of her own face, which has a similar shade of red painted on it.
Our progress in eradicating monsters is going quite well, all that is left is for us to stabilize the core rift, and then take on the big bad Matriarch.
[Scout has leveled up! Lvl 221 -> Lvl 239]
[Mage has leveled up! Lvl 236 -> Lvl 242]
[Average Level is now 240]
[Lemon has leveled up! Lvl 212 -> Lvl 222]
Next Chapter: The Hand We Were Dealt
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