Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Nine - The Opportunist

  I didn't get to see how Seraph handled things from up close. Mostly because the police tightened the cordon, and when spells and bullets started to fly, even the most rubbery-necked of the gawkers decided that sticking around was probably a bad idea.

  I was pushed back along with the crowd, but I did get to stick around, at least on the edge of the industrial zone.

  The seraph teams, because it looked like they had three squads of four here, quickly made space, then waited. It didn't take too long to see what they were waiting for as an armoured bus, in bright white with the company logo, pulled up and disgorged a full two dozen troopers.

  Seraphims, I think they were called, because that guild had a gilded rod up their rears.

  Their troopers did, admittedly, look cool. All-white armour clearly made of some sort of polymer, basically ceramic plates fit into custom plate carriers, with thigh and arm armour and an all-white undersuit that looked just a little shiny. Probably some stain-resistant material of some sort. Might even be something flame-retardant.

  Damn, they must get sweaty under all of that.

  I couldn't make out what their guns were from afar. I loved me a cannon, as all bitches did, but that didn't make me the kind of gun-nut that could identify a rifle from a hundred yards away. They did look decent, though, and if they weren't cheaping out with the rest of their kit, then... yeah, this group had their shit together.

  The bus-riders were obviously E-rankers. Not quite fodder--not with gear that expensive--but definitely not the best that Seraph had.

  That was the C-ranker team.

  Four C-rankers, all in shiny white gear, though that was all that unified them. Their gear was very custom.

  I connected to the net, and it wasn't long before I had some profiles up. The four of them were known members of the guild, had all been there for a year or two, and were generally pretty experienced. Mostly.

  One of them was a twenty-something guy who'd joined late last year. Ernest Glover, a C-rank Light mage, of all things. From somewhere in California, though he'd moved to Fortress ENE as a kid, rode a scholarship through one of the tech colleges, then ended up as a D-ranker and skipped over to Seraph. Hit C-rank in just two and a half years.

  Mostly found him interesting because he looked so much smaller than the others, and a bit clumsy. The other C-rankers and D-rankers had a sense of... professionalism about them. This guy looked like he was one explosion away from scampering off.

  There was another that stood out. Big, burly woman, maybe in her mid-fifties, though it was hard to tell from the look of her. Being a C-ranker always made people a little... ephemeral? She had that in spades. Long blonde hair, piercing blue eyes, a sort of... wispiness to her, even if she was built like a fridge. It was more Amazonian than brick shithouse.

  She was a C-ranker that had been with Seraph for almost a decade, all of that spent as a C-ranker. That made her senior, and it made her scary.

  If there was a world of difference between someone who'd just turned into a D-ranker and someone who'd had the time to adapt their body to the rank and learn, then I couldn't imagine that the same wasn't true for C-rank, where people started to become a little more.

  Lyra Varrock, native of Fortress ENE since before it was Fortress ENE.

  If there was any doubts about the power of an upper-C-ranker in my mind, they vanished when Lyra gestured and made a fire hydrant explode, then used the water from that to pressure-wash a dozen slimes away, then did the same to some kobolds.

  Seeing what high-pressure water did to flesh was not what I was planning on doing today.

  Anyway, this was an observation mission, mostly taking in what I could from afar. I listened in on the police, but they didn't have a great idea of what was going on, and their orders mostly turned from 'contain the breach' to 'keep the people and media away.'

  Seraph cleared the street, then started to head out deeper into the industrial sector. Soon enough, I kind of lost sight of them, though I could sorta follow what was happening from the sounds of gunfire deeper within.

  Things seemed to be progressing. Slowly.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Maybe it was just because I was caught out so far away, but it felt like things were only moving at a crawl. Was Seraph purposefully taking things slow? They had lost some members recently. It was a bit of egg on their face. Losing even an E-ranker here might be more of an embarrassment than they wanted.

  We were approaching noon, and I was approaching bored, when the situation developed a little.

  A large armoured vehicle was let into the area. It wasn't Seraph, unless they had a 'dull-grey' division hiding in the wings. The truck was let in, and it was followed by a pair of little humvees with roof-mounted guns, also in the same grey.

  I took a picture with my new eyes of the logo on their side. It wasn't one I recognized, though a quick search pulled up a name that I sorta did.

  Bastion-Krieger. One of the larger weapons manufacturers based right here in Fortress ENE. And a big R&D company, apparently. At least, according to the quickest search imaginable.

  The trucks pulled up, and out came some middle-manager sorts from Seraph. Even with my new ears, I couldn't make out what was being said. Then the lead truck, the big armoured one, opened up and five guys in power armour came out.

  I stared. That kind of armour existed, sure, in like movies and games, and maybe guarding the CEO of a mega corp when they couldn't hire enough A-rankers to send a message, but like... no, seeing that wasn't normal.

  What the hell was that all about?

  I zoomed in, and discovered that all five of the suits came in a little blurry. Anti-spy tech? It wasn't perfect, though. Or maybe my eyes were just running the latest anti-anti-spy tech software, because I could still make out plenty. They looked... unfinished? I wasn't anything like an engineer, but the suits had some dangly wires, weren't fully armoured, and there was a sort of unfinished-ness to them that struck me as very prototype-y.

  I couldn't know for sure, obviously, but that's what my gut told me.

  The suits were soon followed by a small squad. A few guys with guns and basic gear, but some who looked more like mechanics or something.

  They took off soon after, heading in another direction than the one the Seraph team had gone in. The direction that I suspected the third, weakest, breach was in.

  I stuck around, doing a bit of research, but mostly waiting.

  It wasn't until well past two in the afternoon that Seraph returned. Their pretty white armours looked a bit dusty, some of them looked like they had burns on their shells, but otherwise, they seemed fine. No injuries, no lost members. By then, some more teams had arrived, and they were quick to move in and I assumed, clear out the unbreached portals of any valuable loot.

  The other team, from Bastion-Krieger, they returned looking like shit. I was no engineer, but even I could tell that dangly bits was a bad sign, and one of the suits was outright missing, though the pilot was there, one arm in a sling and looking like ass.

  Things got annoying after that. Some news vans showed up, and some cleanup crews. It looked like there were a few people caught up in the whole thing that didn't make it. But... yeah, the big event was over.

  A triple-breach, taken care of by Seraph.

  That would probably boost their rep a little, especially after that last kerfuffle with the C-rank portal that took out some of their members.

  Now... how would I handle this?

  The C-rank slime portal was right out. I didn't think my guns would do much, and Shadow Bolt, my one good offensive spell, wouldn't do much more than smack the smaller ones around.

  If I fought them up close, I'd get swallowed.

  Becky might have an easier time of it, maybe, but I wasn't sure. It was entirely possible that slimes had some amount of magical resistance to specific things.

  A portal full of them? One that was actively breaching? Nah.

  The kobolds...

  Huh, I'd set out here with a plan to hit the weakest of the three breaches. Whatever E-rank portal had blown up and was spilling monsters. Only I hadn't seen anything of them.

  Kobolds, on the other hand, those I knew. And they died to bullets, like all good things ought to.

  How pissed would Seraph be if we yoinked that portal from right under their feet?

  I found myself grinning as I Reloaded. Time to see what the situation inside the park was, and then I'd have to start planning properly.

  ***