Hisoka awoke in his bed next to the peacefully sleeping Misumi. The previous night they had settled in for a good night's sleep in preparation for the battle that was to come, yet Misumi was still sleeping in. Hisoka smiled at the softly sleeping beautiful fox-kin who he'd come to call his lover.

He looked out at the still darkened sky.

[It wouldn't hurt for her to rest some more.] he surmised as he got out of bed.

Once he had left the bed her brows furrowed in his sleep, leading him to softly stroke her hair. Her peaceful look returned and he went about readying himself for the day. He grabbed his bag of holding of the nightstand and began to suit up. He put on his usual set of clothing topped with a chest rig at max capacity. He rooted through the bag assuring nothing was missing, before grabbing the belt. He fastened it around his waist and slid the MK23 in all it's .45 glory into the holster. All that was left was to sling the shotgun and carry the Spear.

Hisoka quietly left the room and ventured outside. Many adventurers were standing their guard looking off into the expanse beyond the village. A few villagers were serving breakfast to the adventurers gathered in the town, and Hisoka stood in line and got a plate of food. Adventurers gathered around each other in their groups at provided tables, while few adventurers like himself chose to eat alone. As he looked around for a spot to eat in solitude, he spotted a familiar face sitting under a tree.

Hisoka walked to the tree in a leisurely manner and asked, "Mind if I join you?"

Aki who had been sitting alone under the tree nodded her head eagerly for at the offer of some company.

Hisoka noticed her expression and asked, "How come you're all alone over here? I took you for more of a social type."

Her expression took a more sad form as she spoke, "No one would let me sit with them since they think I'm just a bum that tags along with you for rank improvement."

Hisoka put on a softer expression and replied, "Clearly they're full of shit. They merely misunderstand your value amongst our team, and have no idea the power you hold," Hisoka gestured to the rifle resting against the tree, "Not to say your power comes only from your weapon, you are an excellent marksman. I was surprised how quickly you learned the rifle, even more so the ability you possessed. It's always good to know you are watching our backs while we fight upfront."

She lightly smiled and her face reddened at the praise. She looked down to hide her blushed cheeks from Hisoka, who scratched his chin wondering if he managed to make her feel worse somehow.

"Thank you. I'm not sure that I'm all you make me out to be, but the praise feels nice nonetheless," she said as she smiled towards Hisoka, who smiled in turn.

They returned to their meals and ate in comfortable silence together. Hisoka soon finished his meal and set down his plate. Hisoka used his power to bring about a single full jerry can.

Aki noticed him use his power and expected ammunition to appear as it had when she first saw his power. She was perplexed when instead of a magazine, an odd canister formed itself from the blob of magic instead.

"What is that?" she asked.

"Ah this, this is what powers the car enabling it to move on its own as a 'horseless carriage'. Alongside being used by the car, it is an extremely flammable liquid, and I plan to use it in conjecture with the traps." was his reply.

She hadn't seen Hisoka's grand display of the deepened punji traps as she had been busy helping out around the town to make up for her lack of use in producing defenses. She'd certainly seen many men and a few women working to dig pits and sharpen sticks into nasty points, but had disregarded them and returned to performing chores for the people.

Hisoka noticed her look and further explained, "The monsters will become entangled in the traps becoming unable to escape, being forced down by more and more of their comrades that haplessly stumble into them. In the end, once we have dealt with any monsters that remained standing, I plan to use this liquid to incinerate those stuck in the pits."

She nodded at the explanation. The only methods of fuel she was familiar with were wood, charcoal, and coal. This being the same man who showed her the wonderous weapons he possessed however, she was not surprised to see another piece of old technology.

~~~

The town began to buzz to life as the remainder of the sleeping adventurers awoke at the sun's rise. People were mulling about the defenses in full gear, mainly spears as Hisoka had suggested, waiting for the assault to begin. They wouldn't have to wait long.

Scouts on horseback came rushing to the town at full speed. The gathered adventurers drew their attention to the oncoming men. At their speed, the scouts soon reached the town.

One of theme, exhausted and panting, managed to speak, "The horde is coming, likely 20 minutes out, and they're still looking to be about 3000 or so."

The adventurers grew tense at the news. Suddenly Misumi appeared, making her way through the crowd towards Hisoka and Aki.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"You should have woken me up," she said to Hisoka.

"You were tired, and rest is important before a battle, no?" was his response.

She sighed at his response, before speaking, "So, 20 minutes huh? Do you think we will hold them back or get pushed to the next town?"

Hisoka scratched his chin, "with the advantages we have, preparing the terrain to our liking and the automatic weapons, We should at the very least bring their forces down to a 1/4th of what it was."

The ammunition loaded in their magazines totaled around 2452 rounds, with a further 835 loose cartridges that they may be able to repack depending on how the battle faired.

Hisoka hopped into the Polaris, into the gunner's seat. He pulled from his bag the boxes of ammunition. He locked the bolt to the rear, applied the safety, and loaded it with the links facing up. By closing and locking the cover, he was ready to sling rounds.

The 20 minutes or so went by at a gruelingly slow pace as the antsy adventurers waited. However, no matter how slow it may seem, time keeps ticking at a constant rate. Soon, the large horde of festering flesh and bone began to advance closer to the front line. With flat terrain and Hisoka's skill, he could likely engage at the weapons maximum effective range of almost 2 kilometers, however, he debated whether to use it now or when they drew closer. At about 1000 meters he said fuck it.

Before activating his skill, he shouted towards the girls, "Cover your ears NOW!" before releasing the power of his skill.

He found the knowledge of the weapon in and out fill his brain. He felt his muscles relax as the muscle memory filled his body, the weapon feeling familiar and comfortable as if he'd used it for years on end. His emotions became repressed and locked away as a cool and calculating form replaced his earlier sense of being.

As he squeezed the trigger for the first burst, he felt as if he were one with the bolt. Cycling back and forth steady like a metronome, tick tick tick tick. Like a perfectly composed rhythm, a steady beat and tempo were established by the hog of a weapon.

With his unparalleled eyesight, he watched as his first target, a skeleton covered in muscle and torn bits of tissue became riddled with holes. Chucks of bone turned to powder and were blown into the wind as the 7.62 projectiles slammed through and over penetrated into the next creature. These things were being mercilessly slaughtered by a man with complete mastery of his chosen weapon. It wasn't long before the bolt locked signifying the death of over 100 enemies. Like a trained operator he easily repeated the reloading process before returning to action.

He had his hearing protected by his skill, while the girls held onto their ears for dear life the other adventurers would likely face hearing damage. Paying no mind Hisoka ripped into the next batch of enemies, rounds snaked from the belt like a flail being swung by its chain. A mostly flesh creature was turned into pink mist and bloody pulp by multiple shots to the upper torso that consequently passed through its soft tender flesh into the ones behind it. Only one word could be used to describe it, and the adventurers on that day would use it to describe the scene; slaughter.

Hisoka in a state of enhanced prowess fired 400 rounds towards the enemy mob saving 100 rounds for an emergency escape if need be. Slowly the skill set itself on pause with that task completed. Hisoka exited the vehicle to the terrified looks of the adventurers. They weren't sure whether to be more afraid of the monsters or this man that stood in front of them. Hisoka never having been one to give a fuck about other's opinions of himself, merely grabbed the Spear and checked the chamber. He wouldn't attempt to engage at a long distance with irons, even though he likely could.

Aki however, with her 6.5 marksman rifle, began engaging targets at 600 meters with irons, her eyesight sharp like a hawk, and her movements calm and practiced. With every 2nd round, she shot, a monster would fall dead with clean entry wounds and bloody exit wounds. She was a marksman in her element, it was an admirable sight. The perceptions of the adventurers at breakfast were most certainly turned upsidedown by her performance.

The deepened punji pitfalls were set 400 meters from the village, with the 2nd and 3rd line 5 meters apart from each other. The creatures themselves were 500 meters out. Hisoka took the opportunity and fired into the enemy with short controlled bursts of fire from the 6.8 weapons. Misumi followed his lead, and while less accurate, still put don her share of enemies. It wouldn't be more than 2 minutes before the creatures would fall into the punji falls to their deaths.

The braindead creatures began to idiotically walk right into the traps. The first to enter was killed within seconds by the scarily effective magic poison. Their deaths helped the ones next to survive, however as they thrashed for escape they became entangled in the side traps or even forced the previous bodies down the sticks enough to puncture themselves. Either way, they succumbed to the pitfalls. Only the fifth layer of corpses was able to stay alive, trapped in a mound of growing corpses pinned by those trapped in the sides. The gruesome scene gave Hisoka the pleasure he imagined Generals felt when they pulled off a risky maneuver.

The undead horde managed to fill the first line of pitfalls completely and began to stumble their way over their fallen comrades, only to succumb to the 2nd pitfall. By the third, their numbers were a 1/3rd of what they were by the beginning. Infantry with spears killed them before they hit the traps from across the points, while archers and mages sent destructive long-range attacks at the enemy. None of those attacks were as effective as those from Hisoka's group, however. After the battle they would come to be known as slaughterers of the trade, some even going as far to refer to them as reapers.

Hisoka emptied one last magazine at the oncoming hoard, before drawing the 12 gauge and approaching the front lines. The adventurers were confused and scoffed at a ranged attacker approaching the front until he turned to zombies still alive across the pits into a pile of red shredded flesh. He proceeded to do so to another 45 creatures emptying his shotgun ammo. He didn't bother to draw his pistol as he decided to leave it to the spearmen.  Albeit a slower victory than if Hisoka and his companions fully invested themselves, victory was soon assured by the spearmen and ranged attackers.  With the battle over and 3 large trenches full of undead creatures, Hisoka went about dousing them all in gasoline.

He summoned a flare gun using one of his daily summons to ignite the 3 separate pits. A brilliant blaze erupted from the pits as the monsters let out shrieks among other blood-curdling vocalizations. The air was rich with the scent of burning flesh. The smell made any intention of celebration at that village disappear. After Saving the village, most if not all adventurer's left due to the disgusting smell of burnt human flesh.

Hisoka would have done the same, except for the fact that the large creature with intelligence hadn't shown itself in either battle. Hisoka felt something was wrong instinctually. He could feel that this was not quite the end of this fiasco. However, for the time being, him and his beautiful lover had plenty of time to spend together after such a battle.

~~~