“The monsters are coming.” Elana said while leaning forward on the parapet, looking at the field beyond. She still couldn’t see them yet due to the rain on top of the darkness of the night, but she could hear their faint sounds. “Battle sta- ugh!!” She commanded, but it was cut short. Her rifle slipped from her fingers and dropped, hitting the rampart floor with rattling sounds.

“C-Captain!” Lillie called, stepping closer to Elana in reflex.

“Don’t worry about me! Battle stations!” Elana said as she picked her rifle back up. Her muscles ache all over, especially the limbs. The recoil of the physical strength boost resurfaced and turned out to be much more than she expected. Still, she tried her utmost to brush the pain aside. A captain couldn’t afford to look weak and helpless at times like this.

However, Lillie instead made a call through her nanom link. “Crisis Squad! Captain’s down! Get over here immediately!”

“Roger that!” Randy responded from the other side of the link.

“No! Leave me be! I’m fine!” Elana retorted. “I can’t afford to back off. Not right now!”

“No, you’re not fine, Captain.” Lillie shook her head. “I know how bad the recoil from physical strengthening is. You need to rest!”

Elana was about to speak against Lillie’s words, but Randy arrived rushing to her and grabbed her wrist. He frowned and gritted just one second later.

“Level three recoil? What did you do that for?” Randy asked, then he shook his head. “Whatever, we’re going to the infirmary.”

“But we are under attack!” Elana tried to decline, but she couldn’t resist when Randy put her up above and over his shoulders. Her aching muscles had sapped all her strength away.

“Leave the defense to us, Captain!” Lillie said, standing upright with her fist firmly pressing on her chest. “Have faith in the might of Mountain Squad!”

Elana looked at Lillie, Ulysses, and Gregory. She saw the resolve they had depicted in their eyes. They were filled with determination, and it would be disrespectful to deny it in their face. Therefore she sighed and spoke. “Alright. But never forget our main objective. Are we clear?”

“Yes, Captain!” All three Mountain Squad members replied in unison.

“Then I shall leave it to you. Godspeed.” Elana said right before Randy carried her away from the rampart.

On the way to the infirmary which was in the same building as the Adventurer’s Guild, Elana spoke to Randy who was still carrying her over his shoulders. “Are you alright carrying me?”

“It’s exactly what I’ve been trained for, Captain.” Randy replied. “While at it, I had your nanom adjust your hormone levels. You should feel less of the recoil pain now.”

“Oh, right. At first I thought I had gotten accustomed to the pain.” Elana said. “Thanks.”

Randy chuckled before replying. “No prob. But what did you use physical strengthening for?”

“The first blow damaged the wall and made an adventurer fall down into the river. I rappelled down and pulled him back up.”

Randy laughed. “Lemme guess. The belt reel broke at the worst timing possible!”

Elana only responded to Randy’s guess with a light chuckle herself. “By the way, you can put me down. I can walk by myself.”

“Negative. No justifiable reason to make a wounded personnel walk on her own.” Randy replied without stopping from walking.

“I’m not even wounded.”

“Recoil counts as an internal wound in my book.” Randy said with a grin, and he carried on walking under the rain with Elana on his back.

***

Crash! Drrrd!

“They’re stoning us again!!” An adventurer shouted. “Get down!”

A barrage of pebbles and stones arced high ahead of the Bailey wall before coming down and raining upon the rampart. Guards and adventurers alike took cover behind the parapet hoping that no boulder would hit their spot.

Soon, the rain of stones ended and the rampart was now littered with pebbles. A large number of houses close to the wall also had suffered damage to their roofs and windows.

“Damn! I still can’t see those foul beasts!” An adventurer equipped with a bow spoke as he took a peek beyond the parapet. “Curse this goddamned rain!”

“Just fire a blind shot!” An archer guard shouted while shooting an arrow away. “You’ll hit something for sure anyway!”

“And waste my arrow on a mere ape!?”

“One less ape means one less stone raining on us all!” The guard fired another shot. “Just get on it! Look! Those big gunners have been on it since yesterday!” He pointed at Ulysses and Gregory who had been continuously spraying shots to the dark with their miniguns.

“Aaargh! Fine!” The adventurer drew his bow and was about to shoot. However...

Smack!

A stray stone hit him square in the torso. Blood spurted out from his mouth as his bow and arrow slipped from his hand and dropped to the floor. The impact launched him violently all the way to the parapet on the other side of the rampart, and after landing he just lied there motionless. The circular dent on his armor, now stained by blood dripping from his chin, implied the massive damage he had taken.

“Man down! Man down!” Lillie shouted as she approached the downed adventurer and quickly touched his neck. “He’s still alive!”

“Here!” A girl adventurer tossed a small clay bottle, which Lillie caught.

“What do I do with this?” Lillie asked.

“You don’t know a potion? Have him drink that! Shove it down his throat if necessary!” The girl said before rushing off.

“Hmm!” Lillie nodded and did exactly as instructed. The man was unconscious, so she had to resort to shoving the content down his mouth.

The man’s eyes suddenly opened wide and he gasped for air loudly. Blood seemed to have stopped flowing out of his mouth, and his face expressed bewilderment rather than pain.

“W-What just happened? Ow!” The man asked before writhing in pain and holding his torso.

“A stone hit you right there.” Lillie said. “I just gave you a potion.”

“Potion?” The man turned his heat to Lillie. “Yours?”

Lillie shook her head. “No, a girl tossed it to me before rushing off.”

“Ahh, I’ve gone and done it now.” The man hung his head and covered his eyes with his left hand.

“What’s wrong?” Lillie asked, but before she could get an answer...

“Incoming!”

Lillie braced herself and shut her eyes by reflex as the immediate reaction to the nanom’s warning. She felt the impact on her arms immediately after, and when she opened her eyes she noticed a bunch of shattered stone pieces on the floor in front of her.

“Did you... Did you just block that thing!?” The man asked in disbelief. “The hell’s your armor made of?”

“Huh? I mean, it’s just a rock, not a cannonball.” Lillie said. “But I gotta say it felt too strong for a thrown rock.”

“No, it wasn’t just a rock!” The man shook his head. “It was definitely boosted with wind magic!” He said, and then he had a coughing fit.

“A-Are you alright? Was the potion not enough?” Lillie asked in concern.

“The potion only saved me from dying!” The man said. “Still hurts like hell here! Shit!”

“A-Anyway, can I leave you here? I need to go back to the battle.”

“Battle? Pah!” The man spit blood on the floor to his left. “More like blind shots in the dark! Our attacks are just going to waste if we can’t see the enemies! And tell your friends to stop wasting ammo!” He coughed again.

“...I’ll keep that in mind!” Lillie said, and then she stood up and went to rejoin the other two members of her squad.

“I’m reloading!” Gregory said aloud. His miniguns had stopped firing and the back part of his suit started feeding them energy through the shining blue tubes. “Get down!” He quickly crouched, narrowly avoiding a thrown rock. Said rock zoomed past the rampart and fell somewhere in town.

“That rock definitely wasn’t normal!” Ulysses said while crouching behind the parapet. “They’re simply too fast and accurate!”

“I heard that they’re boosted with wind magic!” Lillie said. “There must be at least one ghirdys somewhere!”

“Oh right, that abomination of a giant magic monkey!” Gregory said. “Leader! I suggest we bombard the entire area with heavy mortar!”

“What? No! There are people’s homes there!” Lillie said immediately. “They’ll have nowhere to return to if we destroy their homes!”

“I’m sure everything’s a goner already, Leader! Bulldozed by the monsters!” Gregory argued.

Lillie shook her head. “Negative! Reinforcements are on the way as we speak! What if they are fighting over there but we can’t see them? We can’t risk friendly fire!”

“Ah, true.” Gregory clicked his tongue. “Apologies.”

“No worries, Greg. I want to do that too myself but our hands are tied here!” Lillie said.

Ulysses then chimed in. “In that case, there’s only one way.”

“Uly, are you thinking of...?” Lillie asked, to which Ulysses immediately gave a firm nod. Lillie frowned and lowered her head seeing that. “Would Captain approve of this...?”

Right after Lillie mumbled the question, suddenly Elana’s voice was heard through the nanom link. “As long as you remember our main objective, I have no reason to oppose.”

“Roger that, Captain.” Lillie said. “Mountain Squad’s going to commence the mission!”

“Godspeed.”

Lillie then stood up along with Ulysses and Gregory. “Shield and shotgun config!” She commanded, and all three of them switched to an armament configuration in which the left hand wielded a tower shield and the right hand wielded a huge shotgun.

“Shield and shotgun ready!” Gregory and Ulysses reported in unison.

Looking straight forward, Lillie spoke. “Report your energy pack status!”

“Sixty seven percent!” Gregory reported.

“Seventy one percent!” Ulysses reported.

“Mine is seventy six percent.” Lillie said. “Alright! Mountain Squad ready!?”

“On your command!” Gregory said.

“Ready when you are!” Ulysses said.

Lillie took a deep breath for a second. Then, with her eyes full of determination to wipe the monsters off the face of the land and come back in triumph, she shouted out the command with a firm voice as the leader of the Mountain Squad.

“Move out!”

On her command, the trio of soldiers leapt forward with the jet thrusters of their exoskeleton suits. They rose and soon fell, submitting to the natural forces of gravity. The height of their fall measured just above ten meters, a height from which a free fall would most likely injure any unprotected human. However, with a controlled burst of the thrusters on their suits, their falling speed was reduced just enough to soften their fall and allow them to land on their feet, without major impact force on their body.

“Incoming!”

Mere seconds after the squad landed on the paved road, a rock as large as a human head zoomed onto Lillie. She raised her shield just in time, thus the rock shattered harmlessly upon impact.

“Something’s definitely tracking our position!” Gregory said. “Let’s just use our helm lights! They already know we’re here anyway!”

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“Alright! Activate the helm lights!” Lillie said. The integrated flashlights of their helmets soon turned on and illuminated a conic area ahead. It was at that moment they saw the legion of primate monsters ahead. Hundreds, if not thousands of four-armed apes, tens of four-meters tall gorillas with rocks embedded on their body, and some three-meters tall humanoid with long arms. All of them were covering their eyes with their hands, most likely stunned by the sudden illumination.

“There sure are many of them.” Ulysses said with a smirk on his face. “Your command, Leader?”

“I see no friendlies in range. Deploy spread mortar.” Lillie replied as a shoulder-mounted weapon unfolded itself on her suit. Not saying any word, Gregory and Ulysses also deployed their own. “Aim and...” She held her command for two seconds as the monsters began recovering. “Open fire!!”

The trio fired their shoulder-mounted mortars in unison, spreading projectiles which rained down upon the monsters and turned into big fireballs explosively all over the place. Most monsters in sight, especially the smaller ones, were reduced to meat pieces or burned to crisps. However, the apes which had survived the blasts fearlessly charged forward without regard to their own lives.

The trio blasted their high caliber shotguns at the charging quad apes, piercing and shredding the beasts as they inched forward. But no matter how many apes they shot, more were eager to take their place. On top of that, the few ghirdys on the backline kept hurling rocks at them at an increasing frequency and interrupted their firing. Eventually, the trio’s advance halted.

“Damn! There’s too many of them!” Gregory said while shielding himself against another thrown rock. “And where did those things get the rocks to throw at us!?”

“Didn’t you see the rocky gorillas shedding their rocks and passing them to those giant magic monkey things!?” Ulysses shouted while blasting a group of apes which had come a little too close for comfort.

“Focus!” Lillie commanded. “It’s all over the moment you get dogpiled!”

“Leader!” Gregory called. “Can I use a blaze gun instead?”

“What? No! It eats away at your energy pack like mad! That’s why we’re using shotguns in the first place!”

Gregory shielded himself against yet another rock before replying. “But we aren’t making any progress at this rate! Sooner or later we’ll be running out of energy and have to retreat anyway!”

Lillie gritted her teeth, agreeing in her mind that Gregory had a point. There was no end to the swarm of apes despite the trio having slain hundreds. In fact, the carcasses of the slain apes had been disappearing into thin air mere seconds after their demise, and new apes seemed to spawn at the backline, eager to charge forward. Everything she saw had been nothing like all she had learned about calamity beasts so far.

“Alright! Step back and switch to blaze gun!” Lillie commanded. The trio immediately leapt backward using the reverse jet thrusters of their suits and switched their shotguns with massive flamethrowers midair. Once they landed, the gap between them and the monsters was about forty meters wide.

“Any instructions in particular, Leader?” Ulysses asked without taking his eyes off the advancing swarm.

“The moment any of us hit thirty, we make a full retreat.” Lillie replied.

Gregory chimed in immediately. “Thirty? Playing it safe?”

“Not the time to question, Greg!” Ulysses spoke out.

“I was just saying. I mean, Victor would-“

“GREG!” Ulysses intervened, but he spoke no further words. Only visibly gritting his teeth.

“Ah..!” Gregory glanced at Lillie upon realizing that he had just made a mistake mentioning Victor’s name.

Lillie didn’t budge. She kept looking forward to the advancing monsters. “Victor... is no longer with us.” She said in a straight tone, but one could still notice the attempt to hold her emotions in. “Thirty percent. Are. We. Clear?”

“Yes, Leader.” Gregory said with his head slightly lowered. “Loud and clear.”

“Loud and clear.” Ulysses followed up.

“Move out!” Lillie commanded, and their flamethrowers spewed out raging fire forward akin to the breath of a dragon. The massive flames were so bright that the area around them lit up like it was daytime. All ape monsters caught in the burning matter flailed around screaming before falling down motionless and vanishing into thin air. Those just outside the range of the flamethrowers jumped back by their instinct, but the intense heat still got to them and melted their faces.

52%

The trio slowly walked forward, advancing with their flamethrowers blazing continuously. All rain water dropping in close proximity to the flames simply evaporated within an instant.

46%

The apes tried to circle around the flame-spewing trio, but the muddy terrain of the intentionally flooded farm fields slowed them down. They ultimately met their demise by the flames.

41%

The trio kept advancing while firing their flamethrowers in sweeping motions, slaying ape monsters as they walked. Despite seemingly winning, they were wary of the fact that none of the gorillas and giant magic monkey beasts moved from their spot. Those beasts kept maintaining their apparent strategy of gorillas supplying rocks for the monkey beasts to hurl with wind magic.

37%

“Leader! I hit thirty!” Gregory shouted without stopping his attack.

“Alright! Retreat!” Lillie commanded.

However, the instant Lillie finished speaking, a boulder gorilla zoomed through the flames with its arms spread wide and clasped its hands, grabbing Lillie in its low flight.

“Wha-! Leader!” Ulysses shouted as the gorilla’s body touched the ground and dragged along for quite a long distance before stopping, nearly far enough to be outside the range of their helm lights.

“Dammit!” Gregory shouted. The sudden ambush just now had given the apes a momentum to close in, forcing both him and Ulysses to fend them off lest they would get dogpiled on.

Meanwhile, the boulder gorilla stood up without letting go of Lillie, keeping her pinned between its hands. Her legs flailed around and her jet thrusters fired away, but the gorilla stubbornly refused to budge. In fact, its grasp gradually tightened to the point that it was crushing Lillie instead of merely pinning her.

Lillie gritted in frustration, being unable to move her arms and fire her weapon. The physical pressure on her body kept increasing, and she knew that at this rate she would be crushed at any second. She had to do something.

“D-Discharge!” Lillie shouted, and her exoskeleton suit blasted out a massive shockwave outward. The blast successfully pushed the massive hands away, setting Lillie free from the boulder gorilla’s grasp. The gorilla staggered back with its arms spread wide from the shock.

2%

However, against her expectations, the boulder gorilla quickly regained its balance and threw a right hook punch while Lillie was still kneeling on the ground recovering from the short fall. She had no time to evade.

Smack!

It was a direct hit. The punch flung Lillie at least ten meters away, and she rolled on the ground upon landing. Even after she stopped, she still felt everything spinning in her head. Her limbs refused to move and she felt like she could puke anytime soon.

“Warning. Serious injury detected. Seek aid immediately.”

“Warning. Suit energy at critical level.”

“E-Emergency self aid!” Lillie said before coughing up some blood. The sharp pains stinging her in the chest from merely speaking clearly implied that she had broken a rib or two.

The nanoms immediately began fixing her up, but their work wasn’t instant. She still couldn’t move her body, and the swarm of apes started to overwhelm Gregory and Ulysses. In addition, the boulder gorilla which had punched her inched closer by the second. At this moment, Lillie had realized that discharging had only served to buy a little time, which ultimately would amount to nothing.

Lillie knew that her nanoms wouldn’t manage to make her able to move again in time. Therefore, as a final act of defiance, she mustered all the strength she had left in her body to move her right arm and fire the blaze gun for the last time at the gorilla’s face.

Fwoom!

0%

The gorilla staggered and yelled while covering its burning face. But the fire was short-lived, and thus singed furs was the only result Lillie had achieved on the gorilla, on top of making it angrier.

“Uly... Greg...!” Lillie called. “Run... away!”

Lillie’s chest still hurted from speaking, but that didn’t matter anymore. The gorilla was merely half a meter away from her now, and it raised its arms while roaring. The clenched fists made it clear that those fists would soon be slammed onto her, and that would be her end.

Captain... I’m sorry... It seems I’ve failed the objective...

Lillie closed her eyes and smiled in acceptance. Her only wish was that it would be over quickly without pain.

Blam! Drrrd!

Lillie heard the rumbling sound and felt the tremor of something heavy falling, but she didn’t feel anything. For a moment she thought that she was already in the afterlife, but she still could feel the raindrops on her face and the lingering pain on her chest.

What just happened?

With the question popping in her mind, Lillie slowly opened her eyes. She immediately knew that she was still alive. Prone on the ground and badly injured, but alive. Regardless, she was now more fascinated seeing that the gorilla was now lying motionless. Could it be dead? There was no way to check for certain with Lillie’s current condition.

Still, Lillie knew that she was no longer in immediate danger for the time being, thus she mustered her strength to speak to her nanom.

“Nanom... Emergency self aid... Status?”

“Estimated one minute to restore body movement functions. Staying still is recommended.”

Lillie tried to take a deep breath as her nanom continued fixing her up. It wouldn’t fully heal her, but at least in a minute she would be able to move again, hopefully.

Whoosh!

Lillie suddenly felt a fleeting gust of wind from her side and noticed something zooming past her for a split second. It was too dark to make out anything, but she was sure that it came from the direction of the city and it looked human.

Is it heading to Greg and Uly?

Lillie tried to adjust herself so she could see better. It proved to be a literal pain, but she ultimately managed to see ahead. The spot where Ulysses and Gregory had been fending apes off was now covered in a thick puff of smoke. Lillie wondered if the smoke was the guy’s doing, but both Gregory and Ulysses came over in a hurry before she could ponder further.

“Leader! You alright!?” Gregory asked.

Lillie smiled wryly. “Could’ve been... better. Ow! Who was that?”

“No idea.” Ulysses replied. “He just suddenly made a smokescreen and sliced all the apes within it in a second. He also told us to help you and run back to the city.”

“I see...” Lillie said while both Ulysses and Gregory helped her to stand up. “I’m glad we got an ally helping us.”

“Your suit’s out? Here, have some.” Gregory said as he touched Lillie’s suit backpack and transferred his energy.

5%

“Suit system rebooting.”

“Can you move, Leader?” Ulysses asked, slowly letting go of Lillie.

Lillie made a small nod. “...Yes, I think nanom has fixed me up just enough.”

“Good. Let’s retreat back to town.”

The trio then used their suit thrusters to hop back toward the south gate of Bailey. After several hops they arrived right in front of the drawbridge, which was down with the gate wide open for some reason. Nevertheless, the trio hopped over the drawbridge and passed the gate. They were now back inside the town once more.

“Ahh...” Lillie slumped against the nearest wall. The feeling of relief after making it to safety had exhausted her strength. “I can’t believe I made it out alive.”

“We need to thank that guy.” Ulysses said. “He really has saved our lives.”

Lillie nodded weakly, and then she heard a sound of mechanisms from the gate. The drawbridge was rising and the gate was closing.

“W-Wait! He’s still out there!” Lillie called out to a nearby guard.

“We know.” The guard replied. “He instructed us to raise the drawbridge and close the gate once the three of you are inside.”

“What?” Ulysses asked with his eyes going wide. “Is he sacrificing himself for us?”

“Be at ease.” The guard said with confidence written on his face. “There’s a reason we town guards complied with his instructions without question.”

“I’m guessing he’s a renowned adventurer or such?” Gregory asked.

“More than just that.” The guard said. At this moment the drawbridge was already halfway up and the gate was nearly closed completely, but suddenly a figure of a man rose from behind the drawbridge, slid down the wooden platform and through the remaining narrow gap under the metal gate. All within seconds. “See?”

The Mountain Squad trio watched the man with their mouths slightly agape as both the gate and the drawbridge were shut completely. The man stood up and dusted himself off nonchalantly before looking at the trio.

Now that he was close enough, Lillie could take a good look at the man who had saved her. The hood he wore concealed most of it, but Lillie still could see the black streaks covering his head. His mustache and beard looked unkempt, and his attire had a rugged look in general, covering every part of his body other than the face. The weapon he was wielding in his right hand was a bladed weapon akin to a sword but the handle was curved like a gun’s, making Lillie wonder.

Nevertheless, Lillie and her squad owed him their lives, so she immediately spoke her gratitude. “T-Thank you for saving us!”

“Y-Yes! Thank you!” Ulysses followed up.

“We owe you our lives!” Gregory said.

The man shook his head with his hand waving. “Be at ease. It wasn’t a problem.” He said as he tucked away his strange-looking weapon and pulled out something else. “Here, drink this potion.” He tossed a small clay bottle to Lillie.

Lillie caught the potion, but she didn’t drink it right away. “Thank you, but I’m fine now. I... don’t want to owe you even more.”

“You don’t and won’t owe me anything. Just drink it.” The man said with his arms folded. “You three fought well and the battle isn’t over yet. We need all the pairs of hands we can get.”

Lillie still hesitated momentarily, but in the end she nodded. “Alright, then. Thank you again.” She said before drinking the potion. She had expected the potion to taste like medicine, but to her surprise it was sweet and easy to drink like a fruit juice. “Whoa!” She exclaimed in disbelief upon realizing that most wounds on her body healed up within seconds.

The man looked up to the sky with his hand feeling the rain. “The rain’s stopping.” He said.

“Oh, right!” Ulysses said. “Is the battle over? Are the monsters retreating?”

“Impossible to see in this darkness.” Gregory chimed in. “Hope the people up there remain on guard.”

“Ah, by the way!” Lillie called. “May we know your name, sir?”

The nearby guard spoke before the man could reply. “You don’t know him? He’s the hero Lorh-“

“Lory.” The man intervened. “Just, Lory.”

“O-Oh!” Lillie exclaimed with her eyes wide. “You’re Lorheimdast the wandering hero!”

Both Ulysses and Gregory set their sights on Lory immediately. Their eyes were as wide as humanly possible, and their jaws dropped as low as they could be.

“So you know me after all.” Lory lowered his head with his hand covering his forehead.

Lillie nodded. “Yes, we studied about the kingdom’s history not too long ago.”

“Still, just call me Lory.” Lory said. “I prefer to lay low.”

“If you say so.” Lillie nodded. “Still, it’s an honor for me! Now I’ve seen and talked to all the living heroes of this pla- I mean, kingdom!”

“Good for you, but we-“ Lory said when suddenly...

Beep! Beep!

The sound of incoming call notification rang in Lillie’s head. She immediately picked it up without question.

“Alert! The drone’s been usurped!” Billy, the voice on the other side of the call, spoke in panic.

“What? What do you mean usurped?” Lillie asked with tension. Ulysses and Gregory also heard everything, thus they were as tense as Lillie.

“The tablet device can’t control the drone’s movement anymore!” Billy said. “I still get readings that it’s now moving around by itself and- Crap! Now the readings are gone as well! It’s all on its own now!”

BOOM!!

All of a sudden, a sound of heavy impact echoed from the wall and shocked all who heard it. The impact was soon followed by a scream of terror coming from above, which grew louder and louder by the second.

“Tch!” Lory immediately dashed and jumped up, disappearing from sight within an instant before landing back on the ground carrying a terrified girl.

The Mountain Squad trio dashed to Lory, realizing that the girl had been thrown off the wall and Lory had just saved her from plummeting to her death. Lillie soon recognized the girl once she was closer. She was the potion girl from back then.

“Awawa- I-I’m... I’m alive?” The girl spoke, clearly still not processing everything yet.

Lory, still holding the girl in princess carry stance, spoke. “Yes. Take a deep breath and collect yourself. What happened up there?”

“I-I-I don’t know!” The girl frantically shook her head. “I was running around tossing potions, and then I was just... thrown!”

BOOM!!

“Aaah!” The girl screamed while bracing her head the moment another heavy impact occurred behind the wall.

Lory looked up as small pieces of the wall fell down, some large enough to injure a person on a direct hit. “Something’s ramming the wall.” He said while gritting his teeth. “You three, can you still fight?”

Lillie immediately shook her head. “No. Our suits and weapons ran out of power.”

“Can’t be helped then.” Lory said, putting the girl down to stand on her own. “Get yourselves to safety.”

“And you?” Lillie asked. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to see how far I can go against whatever that thing is.” Lory replied.

“Well...” Lillie said. “I’m not stopping you. I mean, you’re a hero and I’m just a stranger. Just be careful, alright?”

“Noted.” Lory said before jumping up onto the rampart in a single bound.

“Well,” Gregory spoke while looking up. “Even if the gate had shut on him he could have done just that, eh?”

“Anyway!” Lillie spoke. “Let’s go back to the guild for now. We need a new plan, and new batteries for our suits.”

“Right.” Ulysses said.

With their suits already running on fumes, the trio hopped with their jet thrusters toward the guild building. While on the way, Lillie pondered about Billy’s panicked report and considered the possibility that the thing ramming the wall had been the usurped drone, and now they had to destroy it.

If that’s true, it’s bad news.

The Probe Drone was built to survive the most hostile of environments, so its toughness was completely unquestionable. Lillie doubted whether any weaponry outside heavy munitions could inflict any meaningful damage on it.

What options do we have against it?

***