COI C101
Hours before the train comes. Sections, rooms, or facilities of the factories are taken over. The workers have defended as far as they could barricade every room in each facility. The train station is protected, but not the factories where the cloud is acting up there. Thick foam of dense cloud appearing shooting up to the air from one of the chimney stacks. A speech called out from nowhere as the disaster gets worse as the monsters are getting more powerful by the hour. Using every garbage to scraps to make runes to fend off what little left they can muster to defend. It is the most confused moment they hear while fighting.
“. . . Help is coming?! Where’s our help? We are overrun here!”
“Ignore that madman saying we are winning, barricade everywhere we could find. We can’t handle against that new thick cloud descending down from the chimney stacks”
They block every window to every door. They have no obligation to fight back as new monsters are taking them out more smoothly than they could react. One last swoop with their rune wooden clubs tumbling the wraiths’ skulls then immediately picks up through the cloud. They have stop resisting and hide among the buildings.
The workers are ready to use their failsafe once every chance of those monsters breaking in. The wraiths are more numerous than the monsters itself hording by the door. They still barely trying to defend this place and provide effective use of the machineries. One of them actually missed the entire row of wraiths
“I wish I could use that forklift we made”
“Laugh* Still missed that heap of stack of empty boxes?”
“If you added runes to that junk, it becomes a horse with a lance. Laugh* It was fun until it lasts”
“Be quiet you two, we have been busy fighting 24/7 now. I want to get tired after filling myself with magic”
They look up from the gallery where rails easy to see with shipment of container carrying something important. The workers are tired but persisting to bring it along for this emergency. They are at the warehouse close to the train station. The shipment was brought last night as what their manager told to do. The first day of the siege was humiliating and the focus of this project went into priority. They don’t know what happened to the rest of the workers outside as these folks were focusing here. The secret weapon hid within this industrial complex, and it is still a prototype.
Even the men step forward fully equip in power armor, the two already losing their batteries after being used for the entire morning. “Who is the fuck talking we are winning? I hope it wasn’t our manager who said it”
“Pipe down Sniper, I brought you here instead going to your own mind going to building to building as a legitimate shooter . . .”
“How? Shooting at ghosts are really that lifesaving. You already know that strange brown red mist is blocking my view. Defending here is no better than this shipment still in development”
The workers look at Kombat and Sniper, their fellow mechanic and specialized manufacturers since their debut both from the summer festival and the involvement in the city guild. Many workers know about Kombat personally, but not that college student named Sniper. Those two got their nicknames from the guild, they sure know that they are not allowed to talk about their real names. Doesn’t mean last name as full real name.
“Miyusuki! Sonohara! You two stop using that silly name of yours and use those prototypes”
Sonohara puts away his rifle to the lockers and removed his power armor, taking a bit by bit as the parts of his armor show a little dent and scratches. The workers help him remove some loose metal dangling in bits and pieces. Miyusuki’s automated helmet drops dead at the ground as his damaged armor close to his neck. Those two are the only people have experienced to use power armors with along with Enders training. Those two were the only optimal people to join with the Taiyou Industries Corp. Let’s just say to themselves that the scarce resourced is still a pain in their ass for a while now.
The foreman speaks out to Miyusuki and handover some cans of beer. “I never seen an old man like you getting to wear some cosplay”
“I’m in my thirties, you know anime is old if you appreciate the 80s”
“Gulp* But not to the point of making your own, I’m just glad we keep this place running or else we all becoming like those old movies I watched as a kid”
The workers proceed to pick up their beers in the cooler, the facility is secured as one of them at the roof watch the chimney stacks continue releasing brown red smoke. More and more people who are once there are now back to South Shore Bay. Giving them messages that the factories are under control by those monsters.
To them having a break in this crucial time as they don’t have the manpower against the new threat. The wraiths are becoming numerous and hard for them to see in the cloud, too difficult and the air turns worse as they breathe. The dusts they brought weren’t enough to stop the cloud, now compressed as it needed in a situation. They have to bring the prototypes to the station and remodel it for those two. Other operators who wore the prototypes were able to fend off the wraiths, it soon to become impossible as the electrical grid, their source of powering up the prototypes, was destroyed during the fight.
Losing much of that power leaving the prototypes won’t last long as it needed to recharge. Now failing to do so to defend some key supply lines to get inside to this place, the northern district of Mihayara district can’t go through here. The main highway to South Shore Bay where it leads to ferry will soon to be overrun, especially near the shore where the forestation plant they supplied their wood products as their ammunition. All of it being blocked as the cloud is reaching there.
Manager Kubo is given crucial warnings for them to decide what next, they keep secret to some areas that will make her doubting her leadership. The foreman keeps drinking his beer including the others smashing it to the tables and other places to beat out their rage. Realistically, modern weapons should solve many problems. But logic can’t win against this fantasy settings, following the most specific interaction to deal with and it was simple enough for runes but it wasn’t enough. Like a glass of water won’t douse the wild flames on the firepit, it is commendable that magic carry tons of dusts against even greater demonic threat.
Miyusuki mentioned to the foreman “That strange plant that covered the road toll, did it grow on electricity?”
The foreman gulps down more beer to his throat “Ah, like most traditional work ethics. I don’t want the boss to worry, we can handle the problem . . . tipsy* . . . bu-t-t, her orders are to defend the train station. Sadly, the other station being partially teleported, this place has the only one with a working gantry crane. Hic*”
“Then using these prototypes together will help me and Sonohara to fend off a bit”
“Just protect the power grids, I know we have a lot of emergency power grids but the plant grows on it. This is the most vital weakness that our defense desperately needed”
The workers at the station looking at across the distance already too dense to see through the cloud but something in the silhouette made them feel unnerving. Something is growing among the factories. They could not believe as they raised their Molotov cocktails fueled by Alga’s light. They aim at the ground set a flaming barrier to separate the roots from the facility. The roots from the underground network sprung up and trying to take a sip, but burns through out of its own confusion. The roots continue to pile up and the cloud hid their chaotic reaction. The heat is getting higher as smoke gets thicker than the cloud.
Everyone brought out their gas mask as the fight still wager between them. Sonohara watches it from the roof, unarmed but used his special scope to look through the dense smoking cloud. Their side of the district is no near safe where a huge tree is coming for its electrical power grid. The wraiths however acted differently when Alga’s light burning through them, a strange reaction between dust and the light. He continues to look at his scope and found strange reaction altogether. The dust being soot through the fire and turn like coal, can’t identify it clearly but it sparks ablaze. Like most charred burned wood, he hopes that the dust reacted the same.
The foreman explains the plan among his workers “This is not the orders from the manager or anyone in the higher ups, but there is no way our workplace will be overrun as we are the powerhouse of any manufacturing factories back in World War 2. Ignore the historical accuracy and focus on the work at hand, we are being attack in all different fronts. We can able to hold off except for the that strange huge tree harnessing our electrical power grid. I know most of you are what the American called “great son of a bitches” and we too won’t lose to this world . . .”
A projector opens on screen showing the details what happened at the northeastern valley. “. . . Mounding grounds through the streets, those roots where they talking about outside is here munching on mana. Parts of the factory is detecting power loss and forcing to redivert somewhere else, now that tree is coming for electricity. I think you know what power is made of . . .” They turn the panel shows the solution of this problem. It shows some sketchy idea for only few people have to do it alone.
“. . . This is temporary, I don’t know how long we stall when the cloud reached here or the massive tree outgrown the industries. I hope the equipment stored and sealed away won’t be affecting the plan. Only two people with their power armor will be trying to destroy the tree. Our team will be shutting down the facility for 10 minutes, enough time for the tree not continuing to grow to our power lines and blocked using the roots instead. We found out that those two won’t coordinate together and the roots are the only thing we know that the dusts can eradicate it. For the tree though, I don’t like magic appearing on its leaves”
The workers were not certain if they can pull it off, the sequence to handle against the monstrous tree growing their factories would be difficult to clean it off without power. They brought huge tanks of liquified Alga’s light with fuel as their last line of defense, the blowtorch modified into a gun and much more using the air pressurized tanks to extend the capacity of their fire power. The flaming wall piled up with roots and dusts, the charred bodies where the monsters tried to get through can’t breach the flames. Meanwhile the wraiths passed through it but eventually getting blown off by the dusts.
Sonohara walks down from the roof, meeting with Miyusuki. The two spoke out in their nicknames. “So Kombat, are we starting to get going? The tree is getting bigger and I don’t think burning it won’t stop it from growing”
“If you are here during the meeting, we have to stop the tree from harnessing the electrical grid. The place is grown where the fuse cabinet for the highways were. We can go melee with these”
The shipment cargo opens some nice heavy equipment. Dwarf made weaponries attached to their modern equipment.
Nice sweet chainsaw runed with every tooth dwarf made steel teeth, Kombat draws the pull start and it begin to gnawing with its chain. The speed of the chain emits the glow of the runes showing line of light. Sniper picks up a smaller version but familiar to his likings. Like a chainsaw but the looks of a sword. His eyes keep staring at it that requires only magic to turn it on. The noise of the engine that is faster than the chainsaw Kombat carries. With containers for the fuel tanks, the two see its only weakness.
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Sonohara replied “This is no sniper weapon. I was hoping for a complete set . . . No way . . .”
The workers bring out the incomplete power armor, the prototype is adding a special rune pack consist of high-powered turbine heavily scrap from a truck or small plane. The sheer sight of it looks good but less well furnished of its design. Miyusuki said to him
“Prepare yourself, it might blow up”
“With all this under a week or less, I am hoping for that armor survived”
They walk out from the warehouse all mix and scrapped for the workers to see, not finalized or even tested, the sight of these two sored many people around them once they hear the engine burring near their backs. They slowly moving back while faster to those who are near them. One of them is joking through the background
“I’ll bet it explodes”
The other worker crazily laughed then slowly turn to his face in misery “It is runed, it will explode bigger than you imagined”
Everyone looks at them as they ready their jetpack.
“Everyone, stay clear, there is no place for them to lift off and be cautious how it goes”
Kombat and Sniper turns on their jetpack as it begins to made a loud sound on their turbines, reaching the highest of the sounds in decibels where it has the same loudness as the plane. Their jetpacks start to burn in high molten temperature as it turns light orange. Smokes emitted out and everyone watches them go. The two set in their position to the north as the engine reach in highest speed. A large shockwave emits from them and blown everyone off, once the smoke clear they saw them still there where they stand.
One of the workers look disappointed “Well, that was . . . !!!”
The two launches forward to the air and to the tree, the ground starts to quake and leaving them trembling. They watch them fly off piercing through the cloud.
“To all workers, prepare to hold the station once the power is off. We have 10 minutes to protect it without power, I repeat, no power for 10 minutes”
They begin to set up their plan and hope this stalling would be enough to hold the station. Those who are still remained are the people who believe it, until they lose this area like the rest. They sealed off the equipment hidden among the warehouses.
“WAAGH!” Sniper screams through the air while hearing the comms with Kombat
“Shut your comms, your screaming is hurting my ears! Its self-controlled with sensors if you don’t know”
Sniper shuts it off as he continues to scream downward. Wraiths tried to catch them but the speed they are heading with their heavy power armor, their landing will be devastating once their heavy feet touch the tree. Bursting through the groups of wraiths like air and the monsters jump up getting annihilated through their momentum, they crash land on its branches and trunk and continue to breach deeper inside the tree.
Bad landing for Kombat as he stumbles through the concrete highway where the tree covered it. The crash stops his momentum and dented the concrete road downward where the rest of the grown tree splintered through. Through his power armor, through pure power grab the pieces of its tree trunk, and pulled out like a weed. The sparks of electricity out from the tree as his armor protect him from the current. Wraiths come to him like the wind, he pulls pieces of wood and swung them. The electrical current spark ablaze as the wraiths getting hit and electrocuted. Phasing through but still hit with the runes’ power.
Sniper lands with a grand entrance, sliding his way against the roots stretching to the power grid. Monsters waiting for him at the front as he slides, pulled out his chainsword and slashing away through them. He doesn’t know when he is slowing down as his jetpack is still active and pushing him forward. He grabs a pole then swing around back to the tree, as the monsters and wraiths followed him. Sniper picks up a metallic debris and using it as a shield as he rams towards at them, on his shoulder is marked with runes powered by electric static. The statics electrocute the monsters and the wraiths like lightning bull.
The tree grabs him as it polarized from the electricity on him. He pulls out his spear and stab on the roots, a battery hidden inside his power armor has a tesla coil. Power redirect each other as it circulating the circuits as the two of them attract one another. He sees Kombat already cutting through the tree as he himself is now running further away from the district. The tree follows its growing roots where the power is coming from. Both of them turns around and see the power inside the station is turned off. It begins, the plan to subvert the plant to grow over the factories.
The workers heard the destruction bursting through the northeast, the breath of relief who is stand by while the others are blowing some torches to burn against the threats from the cloud. Every man retreats and reequip with safety equipment against their own flames. The final defense utilities they are at hand against the wraiths. The burning flames’ smoke block the clouds as the wall of smoke blocking the clouds from getting in. Even it tries to mix with it, the fire burn to ashes to both the dust and something lurks through. Alga’s light never ceased its miraculous flames.
Then they hear thunder from the sky. Rain clouds moving to their direction as their eyes couldn’t believe it, a storm, and moving faster than no ordinary clouds should be moving in this direction. The foreman shouts out from a fiction novel
“Is there any change of events that make it worse than this?”
A lighting strike hits on the tree, the workers cough out of irony “Are we still sons of bitches, right?”
The rain showers them through as one of the electrical posts collapsed near them. “Laugh* we’re living in a fantasy. How much time when we powering up the station?”
“But sir! The electrical posts lying on the rain, it will short circuit the . . .”
“2 minutes sir!”
The foreman sees the others don’t care for safety as the man who shouted it washing through the rain near the flames of the fire. The sizzling flames ignore the puddles or flooded waters as it starts to boil up. Their safety equipment can dare so little to endure the boiling heat. One of them grabs a bucket, filling it with boiling water, then throws it to the monsters inside the cloud. The vapor washing the monsters through as the flames through Alga’s light persist. The workers lose their understanding on this world as how Alga’s light can do.
Where the lightning strikes on the tree, Kombat looks down as the roots sprung up removing itself attaching the power grid. His armor scratched and marked by the monsters as they kept piling up as he pushes them all away. He brings out his chainsaw and rushes through the horde to the tree. Deep through inside, Kombat dared to surround himself as he focuses it. Cutting through like planks after the other, he quickly swings out his chainsaw from the tree and to the monsters, synchronizing it to fight and to cut it down. After for sometimes, he got creative and let the chainsaw kept cutting while grabbing any idiot close to him, slammed them near the trunk as it cutting through.
He continues on with the runes he had, then a dense cloud coming through as he opened the compartment of his power armor to blow it away. A high-powered fan to blow off the clouds leaving the wraiths exposed and fell to the ground into dust. He looks across the distance where the trees are connected together, he is looking for the center trunk that holds them together. He keeps something hidden in his inventory. The dwarf had given them a special mana battery used by the elves in east mountain.
According to the records; don’t open it unless something intelligent is your enemy. They don’t know what intelligent monsters that the dwarf referring too, but making it into a mana battery is something crazy to use it. His helmet sends a signal as a moving projectile is coming his way. He raises his shoulder at it and created a barrier. A big beak pierced through his barrier and sees that familiar looking bird. He murmurs the name
“Stinger Ray, from all the demons’ puppets. You are the only thing have my UI can identify”
Its body teleport around and lands on its shoulder then on top of him. Kombat burst open his jetpack and fly up to the wooden ceiling. The bird thing collapse, bursting through it. Its head steadies and firm its beak where it is looking at him, the body returns and seeks its target once more. Kombat in mid-air lands to the ground stomping the trees, crushing through as it begins to crack, push, and lean away from the facility. The beak thing hits him by the back and pushes him to the tree. The tree’s trunk starts to twitch and turning closer to the industry.
He grabs the beak, punched its body as it teleports. A great destructive explosion with his powerful fist. He slams the beak on the ground and raises his foot up with a finishing stomp. Its body teleported to shield its head, then crushed with a quake, the head rolls out and the body teleported back to normal. It tumbles back up to its feet and leaps forward straight back to him. The rain poured down on them with a flash of lighting striking them both. His power armor persists and the shock of the currents flows through on his runes as he carefully makes his hit. The bird’s head stops in shock and its magic burst open, the lightning interferes its magic, losing its body in shattering thunder.
Kombat punches its head with tremendous force. The head flies to the direction outside of the city hitting the tree from the toll road. Without Kombat knowing where he aimed, he focuses instead the tree above his head. The flow of the lightning hits him, he looks up and see the tree stretches up and the trunk he crushed or cut is grown back to full health. His chainsaw is being tangled and merged with it. He pulls out his fan and redirect the power to his power armor. The clouds settle back to the ground as he focuses all his energy through the power of his strength. All runes through his tech and the machineries.
The tree starts to grow once more stretching where the power is. Kombat turns around and see the station is powering up now. A wall of smoke arising to the skies as the fire didn’t wash out from the rain. He grabs the chainsaw and unleashes its full power with the runes, combined with the mana battery as the cloud is coming for him. The wraiths appeared behind him in the dense cloud. He sees the runes starting to fade and look behind the wraiths are wiping it off. Kombat hooked the mana battery and throw it to where they are.
The wraiths are shrouding him all around, a debris they brought, smashing his armor as he feels the dent of it with metal scraps piercing through him. With the chainsaw in his hand and the hook on the other, he pulled the hook and activate the mana battery. A large shockwave pulls the wraiths out of surprised as the wraiths who near it get caught and powering his power armor. Outstanding remarks as the mana battery quickly converting it to his own, the runes reach to the max as he begins to move the chainsaw forward. A great sprint of burst as the length of the cut reach the entire trunk.
A large chunk of the tree exploded with his jetpack moving straight forward in his direction. A chain grabs him and trip him in a few steps, the jetpack erupts as the engine release flames at the back. Burning the wraiths’ chains as he gets up and moves forward, he got block in front of him. He looks at the wraith in front of him as the sparks of chipped woods burning. The wraith appeared before him as the sounds of their metal plating sliding on the ground and breaking the wood on their feet.
The wraith said to him “A warrior? But I dare say you’re not”
Kombat sees the wraith, bigger than him and figure of the same power armor, but this one is giant and with only one arm blocking his way. The wraith reaches its staff and hits his jetpack. It explodes and grabs him then swing him down to the ground. Kombat bounces away from his sheer speed with his jetpack then flies even further away from the tree. The wraith looks up at the tree as it grows from the lightning strikes. It calls out the wraiths to use Kombat’s chainsaw to continue the cutting and said,
“Bring that tree down to THEIR CITY!”
Sniper looks up at the tree as it grows big than he had thought. The lightning quickly made it grow as he sees it is falling over to the factories
“Kom . . . Fuck! Miyusuki! What are you doing!? Hey! Miyusuki!”
His partner didn’t respond as he uses his jetpack at full throttle to him and see what’s going on. Flies up to the air as he crushes down as he see some wraiths blocking on the ground. One of them flies up against him as he slashes it with his chainsword. All way to the ground, a staff holds him as his waist dented from sheer force from diving down to the ground.
“AAH!”
Sniper was almost impaled but not enough for him to use his failsafe. He looks at the wraith who is holding him up with the staff, a surprised voice from his helmet as he said to the wraith.
“A sorcerer!”
The wraith responds “My?! For hundreds of years, I never thought a man recognized this heavy armored giant to be called as sorcerer. You ARE from earth. Oh, what will those poor souls say to see this?”
Sniper didn’t hear from his pain, only surprised how it looks and he is stuck on its staff. The staff clinched him as he raised up to the air.
Sniper looks up as the huge tree is going to fall inside the district. As the rain pouring down, the wraith stood silent and let him watch the tree that leeches electricity slamming down at their city. Enjoying what the cloud keep view what is left. The sparks of explosion appeared behind them as Kombat runs back to them. The wraith slammed him to the ground and swings its staff at Kombat. Kombat slams his fist on its head in high speed, the wraith ignores the momentum and pushes him down. It raises it staff up as it lays down the magic on him. Sniper jumps on him using his chainsword piercing through its wraith body.
The wraith starts to fade, but Kombat pushes it deeper to Sniper’s weapon. Kombat pulls up a mana battery and absorb the wraith. The wraith screeches to the air as a pillar of wind blowing up to the sky. The wraiths appeared around them where Kombat fights back with his high-powered fan, blowing away that it moved closed to them. Sniper watches the cloud being blown away, leaving the wraiths fell once more into dust. They all fell to its knees as its mortal ghost faces revealed in tortured expressions. No noise, but the wraiths were pulled back inside the brown red cloud.
The pillar of winds stopped and the heavy equipment left before them, a remnant armor left behind from the wraith and the staff with it. The helmet fell down and something electronic attached on its skull. Sniper could not believe what he is seeing, but there is something not right that something like this appeared in this world. Both of them lied down on the ground as the rain washes them out of the filth they have in this fight. Few coughs and steel dragging that their ears as they can’t hear anymore from the screeching wraiths. They look up at the tree as it falls to their city. Loots on their hand and the mystery is next to them. They feel exhaustion of their defeat.
Another flash of lightning as the storm moves to their city, they saw something flying over the sky. A small dot projectile moving in high speed, Kombat with his functional helmet detect the flying projectile moving to the falling tree. A bright bluish light exploded and the tree starts to collapse, its bits and pieces fall to the ground as they see the burning wood is withering away. A call from the workers as they are shouting to the high of their voices.
“It’s finally here! That train is coming! Miyusuki, what’s the condition on the train tracks?”
Kombat looks at Sniper as he shakes his head.
“Not good”
“Damn it, hey boss we have . . . what!? The train breached through it!?”
The two lied down on the rain hears something amazing about the train, they can’t move with their armors being dented and rely on their stats to endure the deformity of their body postures. Both of them had enough, as the two raised their voices
“I’m leaving”
“Me too, I think my hips is turning the wrong way”
The two laughs as they teleported back to South Shore Bay. As for the workers watch the sky raining down the bombardment and exploding with light bluish glow, they never believe that the district leader said what he brought.