11:55 AT, Day Thirty | Wetland-Cinder Keep border
The anticipation is heavy in the air, everyone is excited to find out what the last zone will hold. After all, it's bound to have lots of treasure and fun goodies.
Ray is standing next to me and practically bouncing up and down with excitement as we stare at the barrier with its tantalizing countdown.
5 minutes… 4 minutes… 3… 2… 1..
When the clock hits 0, the barrier disappears and engines rev. Well, the engines don't actually rev, since we don't have engines. But I imagine that if we did have engines, they would do so.
We shoot off into the new biome. Known only as Cinder Keep. It sure does live up to the reputation.
We cross into the biome and everything changes. The air seems to get a faint yellow hue, the ground turns into some sort of glassy black rock. It looks like obsidian, but is stronger than steel. I fire my pistol into the ground just to test, and it does absolutely nothing to the strange rock.
All things considered, the zone is quite small. Only about 250km in diameter. (The entire arena is about 1750km in diameter) Our trucks, hovering at a nice speed, carry us deeper into the zone. Unfortunately, we are slowed down quite often by the terrain which is difficult to navigate. Rocks, trees and vast crevasses make it quite difficult to find paths to bring our large convoy through.
“Ko, is it just me, or is it getting hot in here?” Ray asks, trying to use her hand as a fan.
“You are super hot, darling. But you are right, it seems that it's starting to get much warmer outside.” I say, "It's unpleasant, but it shouldn't really affect us.”
“Ko, you're such a jerk.” Ray says, but leans in to kiss me. I shall never understand this girl, her actions and words never make sense. Not that I mind more kisses, she is a great kisser after all.
I watch as the thermometer rises. Within just a few kilometers it climbs from a reasonable thirty degrees to thirty four degrees. It's about to get real hot.
I lean against Ray and look out at the passing landscape.
In the distance giant spires of the black stone rise into the sky. Surrounded by plumes of smoke that I can only presume come from some form of geothermal vent.
Trees that appear to be made out of charcoal dot the landscape, providing some shade from the unrelenting sun that seems to beat fiercely down upon this entire area.
If I had to sum it up in one word: Hell.
“Ko, do you think they have some good hot springs here? I bet they could make a lot of money with tourism. Just think about how warm they could get it! Plus you wouldn't even be cold when getting out.” Ray says, giving me a look saying that she would love to take a bath in some nice warm lava.
“Hmm, I don't know if there are that many people in the universe into ultra hot bathing. Wait, do aliens even bathe?”
Rigar, who is sitting in the front seat answers, “Not every species enjoys bathing, but I hear it's quite popular among the Shesah. Though they prefer colder ice baths, rather than boiling hot ones. Though with augmentation kits taking care of hygiene, most people don't bother on the day to day. It's largely seen as a celebratory thing, often reserved for holidays and other special occasions.”
“Ko, did Rigar just say what I think they said?” Ray asks, a grin spreading on her face.
“Ray, I do think that is what they said.”
“So uh, Rigar. How hard do you think it would be to acquire a Shesah into our employ? For uh, research purposes.”
“Hmm, I can't imagine it would be hard to find one. We already have a few working in various places, mostly crewing starships though. I am sure one would love to participate in any experiments a contestant wanted.”
Ray’s eyes practically go supernova at Rigar’s confirmation. “Ko, I need a cat girl to give headrubs to, like, right now!” She says, with those super cute eyes and a brilliant smile.
“Darling, I would love to fulfill every whim of yours. But this whole trial thing is currently going on. I think it shall have to wait, unfortunately. But, until then, feel free to expunge your desire to headrub onto me.” I say, slyly earning myself a few headrubs, I truly am a genius.
Ray looks a bit disappointed, but then promptly drags me into her lap for some headrubs. We are just travelling into the zone, so I guess a few wouldn't hurt.
A “few” headrubs later
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The sun starts to set, so we decide to camp for the day. There really isn't anything preventing us from continuing, but we feel like there is something grand just over the horizon. So we figure camping for the night and recuperating is a good idea.
After all, it's best to face big things at top condition.
I grab some food and find a seat right next to Ray. I lightly lean against her as we eat together, not really talking much. Instead, we listen to the bustle of the soldiers working around us, everyone doing their part to ensure the machine remains functional.
Naturally, since we are the leaders, that means we sit back, relax and reap the rewards. Some would call it the perfect job. I personally prefer the side benefit of being able to get lots of headrubs from my super duper cute girlfriend. After all, nothing is better than spending time with the one(s) you love.
“Hey Ko, did you ever check out the new commendation or open your equipment thingy?” Ray asks, “Look, I got this fancy arm bracer that can make a small shield!” She shows me her arm, which has what seems to be a small plasma-shield generator on it. I can't imagine it's the most useful thing ever, since she is a dual-wielder, but I am grateful for anything that keeps her a little bit safer.
“Oh klack, I totally forgot to take a look at those. I hope I get something fancy too, earn myself a few style points perhaps.”
“Darling, you're already plenty stylish. I hope the fans aren't going too crazy over you. I don't want to have to murder too many stalkers, y’know.” Ray says in a very serious tone. Honestly, I think she might murder any stalkers that try to come after me. Though, I don't see why anyone would care about me, when I've got the crazy cute Ray next to me.
I open up the commendation menu and look at the skills for Uak the Loud:
‘Passively increases resistance to EMP, shield overload, and other such disabling attacks. Slightly improves abilities of repulsor shields, while greatly reinforcing any plasma shields.
{Duck Quack}: Create a shockwave in front of you that pushes everything backwards. Cooldown: 5 Minutes
{Tidal Shield}: Create a temporary plasma-shield around the user that can absorb at least one hit. Duration: 1 minute, Cooldown: 20 Minutes
{Energy Surge}: Create a large amount of energy that can be directed into various systems, providing a massive boost to all functions. Duration: 2 minutes, Cooldown: 30 Minutes’
Woah, that's a cool commendation. It seems to be mostly focused around defense, but the last skill, {Energy Surge} seems like it could have massive offensive power.
I wonder what the last zone 2 commendation gave. I have a feeling we are going to have to find out the hard way, unfortunately. I just hope that we can secure the commendation from the final boss or whatever, that should give us a massive power boost.
It seems that a lot of our ranged attackers opted to take the Uak commendation, while the melee people went for Geoff’s. Which makes sense. Although, for lower level soldiers, the cooldown and power of skills is not much, it's still a massive boon.
Ray decided to keep the devourer’s commendation, she said that the healing and attack power was simply too good to pass up. Which makes sense, the best defense is for your enemy to die before they can attack.
Next, I open the equipment crate, only one due to the reduced rewards. I choose a necklace, as there isn't really any equipment that I urgently need otherwise.
I end up with a nice necklace, it apparently provides a good boost to my armor’s repulsor shields, or I can direct it to improve a nearby plasma shield. A good passive buff to defense is always nice.
Ray agrees and gives me a smile when I tell her about it. She mumbles something about being glad that I won't die as easily. Which is fair enough, I've died twice to her zero times. In fact, I hold the record for most deaths amongst our respawnable members. How unfortunate, Ray is never going to let me forget that, is she?
I bet Initae is going to triple down on my training or something ridiculous, I'll be trekking across desert planets amidst a swarm of dragons eager for a bite of me. I wouldn't be surprised if Intiae flies behind me and shoots projectiles the whole time as well.
After a while, Emil and Linda come to sit down near us. We chat a bit, though it seems they really just want to be left alone, so we eventually depart to a faraway corner for some sleep. We watch their flirting from afar, I must be like, blind to love or something. I never would've noticed if Ray wouldn't have said something about it yesterday.
Maybe I got some sort of love blindness from Initae, she doesn't seem to be very romantic either. Though, maybe she has a hidden harem of lovers somewhere I don't know about. It doesn't really seem like her style, but I honestly wouldn't be too surprised. She can vaporize planets without much effort, what's a little thing like a harem compared to that?
Emil does say that a large energy source has been detected in the exact center of the biome, and thus arena. He supposes that there aren't any forts in this zone, and there is likely a terrifying legend waiting for us. Yipee, I cannot wait to get eaten by some cosmic horror, maybe I can bring that death count up to 3 by the end of this zone.
Ray and I relax. It's gotten a bit cooler with the sun setting, but there is definitely some sort of geothermal heating going on. The temperature was hitting the high fifties earlier and is settled at a nice forty three degrees at the moment.
I lay my head in Ray’s lap, getting a nice view as I look up. The stars are hidden behind whatever strange fog is covering this place, it's quite unfortunate. But, I can still see the moon shining through, easily visible in the sky above us.
I start to mindlessly twirl a strand of Ray’s hair that comes near me, and we sit like that for a while. I think Ray starts to doze off at some point. Though, not without giving me a few headrubs of course.
Of course, we can't simply be allowed to sleep in this clearly very hostile environment, that would be a silly thing to think about. Since when are people just allowed to take naps in such scenarios?
Out of nowhere, a deafening roar can be heard from directly above us. The temperature sharply spikes, getting near to sixty five even in the dead of night. The entire camp comes awake, people stand up scared out of their minds, preparing for battle.
Ray and I jump up, looking high up into the sky at what could have created such a roar.
What we see strikes a deep, primal sort of fear into us. The sort when you encounter something that your body recognizes as death.
But, I'm sure that Ray and I can overcome it, together. After all, we are the Moonlight Duo. No scary beast or pink haired lunatic is gonna take us down. So bring it on.
End of Chapter 120
Next: Chapter 121 | Spaceship? Bird? Plane?
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