Chapter 54 - Killing Fields
"Big bada boom." Søren grinned behind the darkened faceplate of his guardian armor, kill notifications scrolling by so fast on visual HUD that he couldn't read or recognize anything. Three silvery cubes thumped down onto the ground at his feet as excess TEK from his kills materialized next to him. He glanced down and quickly used [Mass Analyze], noting that each block was a [1000 TEK Block] of uncommon rarity. The [TEK Booster III] was working overtime. He kneeled onto the ground and quickly shoved the blocks into his pack with little regard for anything already inside. Søren winced as he heard something crack.
I'll deal with that later. He scanned the notifications briefly.
Stop the Hordeling Horde!
A Horde of Hordelings Harrows Karlsfjord
112 / 233 Hordelings slain
54 / 110 Hordeling Maulers slain
15 / 23 Hordeling Hunters slain
Rewards
• 2500 TEK
• 5 settlement build points
• 3 [Uncommon] engrams
• 2 [Rare] engrams
• 1 [Epic] engram
• 1 [Starter Deck]
Jarth popped up over the ridge and stared slack jawed at the destruction wrought at each tunnel entrance. His mouth closed and then fell back open, unable to muster any words. A stiff wind had blown most of the smoke, dirt, dust, and other debris away, revealing the carnage. Neeka cautiously peered at the scene from her position, a little forward of Søren and Jarth.
"A little more warning would have been appreciated, Dirt." One eye swiveled back to glare at Søren. "We should get ready. The Hordelings are already recovering."
As if to punctuate her statement, a baker's dozen chitin spikes, hurled at them by Hordeling Hunters, embedded themselves into the sandy dirt in front of them. The thick, Giger-esque spikes were half again as tall as Neeka, promising a painful, if not fatal, wound should someone get struck by one.
Søren focused on the nearest spike and brought up a small display on his HUD that magnified his view of the chitin spike. He could see dozens of subtle barbs along the length of the spike. He could only imagine the terrible wounds such a weapon would create if pulled out of a person. The barbed spike of chitin didn't appear to be a single piece and was wiggling in the sand, slowly turning in a circle. A loud pop sounded as the spike exploded into dozens of shards like a shotgun blast. Søren's armor bore the brunt of the blast, negating most of the damage. The impact still rattled his teeth and knocked him off his feet.
Søren flung his hand up and shouted, "[Shield Self]!" An energy shield made from translucent, overlapping hexagonal shapes snapped into place in front of him, and then he put himself between the spikes and Jarth. Neeka ducked back behind their cover at the same time as Søren's energy shield buzzed with an electric hum. The rest of the spikes exploded and peppered the area with hundreds of pieces of chitin. Jarth shouted in surprise and fell backwards, tumbling down the hill. His arms and legs flailed wildly and he lost his grip on the weapon he'd been carrying. The energy shield Søren had created flared bright red as it struggled to deflect the blast of chitin and force from the exploding spikes.
"Neeka, start marking any Hunter's you see. They're a priority target!" Søren shouted while scrambling to his feet and vaulting over the ridge. He flopped down onto the sandy soil with a heavy thump and lined up his rifle with the Hordelings who were mostly still recovering from the dual blasts that had taken out the entrance to their tunnels. The drone-fed minimap with the infrared overlay was still a wash at the moment. It'd be some time before they could accurately track any of the Hordelings that remained underground.
Neeka peered out at the Hordelings from behind a bit of scrub grasses, both eyes flicking back and forth as she searched small sections of the battlefield in front of her. Søren's eyes were drawn to Hunter's highlighted by the visual HUD inside his helmet. Neeka had already spotted a half dozen.
Søren dropped the legs of a bipod attached to the barrel of his [Artemis Scout Rifle (Silver I)] onto the ridge in front of him. He then tucked the stock of the rifle against his shoulder and chest. He rested a finger on the trigger guard, palm flat against the stock, and then wrapped his other hand over the top of the stock to steady his aim and make it easier to shift his aim.
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Four shots rang out as he squeezed the trigger. Two hunters vanished from the threat display.
*ding* Your party has defeated a Hordeling Hunter (Copper IX).
*ding* Your party has defeated a Hordeling Hunter (Copper X).
The critical hits to their weak points dropped their hit points to zero in an instant. Might get away with one shot per Hunter, Søren thought to himself. The feedback from the drones and cameras in his helm showed that each Hunter had been felled by the damage of a single strike. The second had been overkill on the already dead Hordelings. The tide of noise and chitin continued to build and flow closer to Neeka and Søren's perch on the first ridge.
Søren located another clump of Hordeling Hunters that were whipping their spined tails back and forth. Three shots, three dead Hunters. The spines on their tails erupted in a blast that devastated a large area around them, killing many of the smaller Hordelings and several of the Maulers.
*ding* Your party has defeated a Hordeling Hunter (Copper IX).
*ding* Your party has defeated a Hordeling Hunter (Copper VIII).
*ding* Your party has defeated a Hordeling Hunter (Silver II).
The silver ranked Hunter must have been why that blast was massive. If I can time it right, I can whittle down the horde using their own weapons against them, Søren mused to himself. Neeka must have come to the same conclusion. Another dead Hordeling Hunter exploded after her arrow pierced into its brain stem by way of ocular cavity. Two more Hunters were wiggling their posteriors in the air like cats calibrating before pouncing. Søren marked the targets as claimed by him through the interface with a quick mental command, preventing Neeka from wasting an attack on one of them.
His rifle spat out two more bullets and struck down one of the Hunters and an unlucky Hordeling that had chosen that moment to leap over an ally and into the path of Søren's attack. The high velocity strike pierced through the Hordelings thick chitin, tumbled end over end and out the other side and then scored a line in the Hunter's chitin shell. When the dead Hunter's tail spines exploded and after the dust cleared, Søren couldn't find the Hunter that had escaped death.
*ding* Your party has defeated a Hordeling Hunter (Copper IX).
Stop the Hordeling Horde!
A Horde of Hordelings Harrows Karlsfjord
178 / 233 Hordelings slain
79 / 110 Hordeling Maulers slain
22 / 23 Hordeling Hunters slain
Rewards
• 2500 TEK
• 5 settlement build points
• 3 [Uncommon] engrams
• 2 [Rare] engrams
• 1 [Epic] engram
• 1 [Starter Deck]
"I think it's time we vacated the ridge and fall back to our next position," Søren said to Neeka. "I'm going to try something to cover our retreat."
Neeka sent another two arrows down into the churning mass of chitin before spinning in place and sprinting down the small hill towards the next ridge. Søren delved deep into his mind for his [Path of the Shaper] abilities and drained half his TEK as he constructed a long row of sharp, pointy metal hedgehogs hidden in the scrub grasses and bushes just on the other side of the ridge.
"Hopefully that'll be a nice surprise for our friendly, neighborhood world ending menace," Søren said with a chuckle. He dashed down the hill at a speed an Olympic sprinter would be proud of, despite the uneven terrain and general lack of balance. The servos in the legs and hips worked overtime to keep Søren upright as a tiny gyro embedded in the armor spun faster and faster.
Behind him, the chittering horde of Hordelings swarmed over the ridge, many leaping off their siblings, heedless of the damage they caused. A tide of cobalt blue blood splashed across the sandy soil at the top of the ridge as dozens of the Hordelings crashed into and landed on top of the row of metal spikes left behind by Søren. Several notifications distracted Søren from chaos and mayhem unfolding behind him.
Congratulations! You have earned the [Hordeling Slayer I] hidden achievement.
Damage against Hordelings lower than your Rank is increased by 50%
Congratulations! You have earned the [Hordeling Slayer II] hidden achievement.
Damage against Hordelings lower than your Rank is increased by 100%
Damage against Hordelings equal to your Rank is increased by 50%
Congratulations! You have earned the [Hordeling Slayer III] hidden achievement.
Damage against Hordelings lower than your Rank is increased by 200%
Damage against Hordelings equal to your Rank is increased by 100%