Before Roberion could take on the situation, the baroness's desembodied voice resounded around the room.
"Use your time wisely; help me achieve what we want, and maybe you will have an easier time surviving. Their location will be easy to notice, too. That's it. Goood Hunt!", as the Cerulean Baroness said it, the safehouse was invaded by silence.
Trying to dismiss the haunting atmosphere of the place, as the display vanished, Roberion looked at Percival. The knight capybara's fur was standing on end, and although his animal face made it difficult to know how he was feeling, he seemed to be scared.
"We? That was something; we will be thrown like pitchfork peasants in a fight between two armys. How can we survive these guys? One is a group of armored assholes like the ones that interfered with our travel to the research and development area; the other is a weird fashionist behemoth that seems to be smarter than a beaver. Imagine the chaos that will be the fight between them; we get in the middle of it, and we are—", before he could say more, Percival interrupted Roberion.
"Armored assholes? Sir, are they humans or machines?", Percival asked anxiously.
"As far as I know, they aren't machines, but dunno, they could be; we will only know for sure if they bleed or take their armor off. But that's beside the point. They can be whatever; we will need to put them down. I don't give a shit what this baroness wants, but I don't want to be one of the last survivors that need to fight two of these guys. Neither I want to fight this "The Gentlemen" behemoth; we need to make them kill themselves, and while we are at it, we try to kill as many participants as we can", Roberion said with impetus.
"But sir, didn't you want to try to evade conflicts? So we can survive and save our power."
"That's what I want for sure, but do you think this baroness would let me?! She said that any participant who didn't do that would be her target. I don't know what she meant, but it's probably something truly special, if you know what I mean. I honestly made a lot of bad decisions before; this is probably also one. I lost that dammed system, but now I'm a guinea pig that needs to be cute or be put down. But it's not like you can make a good choice if all choices stink. Things never get better on this cursed planet", Roberion got near a desk and kicked it.
Roberion tried to distract himself, looking at the desk nearby, "What this dumb object anyway, a bunch of keys, but it doesn't look like a computer, is this paper?", Roberion started typing on the black object above the desk. "It's leaving black letters on the paper, weird thing. Why not have a computer? This seems stupid."
"It's elegant, a curio, and probably would fetch a reasonable price somewhere, sir", Percival started to look at the thing appraisingly. "This one looks like a cheap imitation, though; nobody would give money for it, but an antique typewriter would be a collector's item."
"So this is trash. Great. Anyway, we need to get a plan, and I need better clothes. My leafleather clothes are a mess; just a few more battles, and I will need to discard them. We don't have anything better, though; maybe if we can steal those armored guys", Roberion sighted heavily, "Now what can we do?"
"Sir Roberion, I was thinking. What about the people who aren't in a safehouse like us? Would she give this mission to them too?"
"I don't know. It wouldn't make sense, right?! Imagine a bunch of displays showing up from nowhere, people hearing the Cerulean Baroness loudly saying her bullshits. Most would run away or something, better than be tracked by someone who scouted for the sound. But maybe she would use a more covert way of talking with them. She talked about a way of finding the armored warriors, but people wouldn't follow it blindly, especially the survivors. The more people die, the better the quality of the participants will be. But we don't have a way to know what she will do. What can we do until this place opens?", Roberion took a look around the place.
"Aside from healing our comrade Shining Crown The Roothorn, I don't have a guess, sir. I don't think we have enough time for training."
"Alright, you keep guard and report anything of interest to me; I will take a quick nap", as Roberion finished speaking, Percival gave a small salute and started to vigil the area, looking at the windows around the warehouse.
Roberion took some of the unused clothing from his space and tried to make bedding. It wasn't perfect, but it was comfortable enough. He was exhausted, if not physically, at least mentally; his short life was a rollercoaster, not a time of true peace. The fiznaults village was the closest he got to seeing and experiencing what normal life was. But even there, he needed to train and took close brushes with death.
Remembering how harrowing his life was and the sleepiness closing in. Roberion closed his eyes. Dreaming seemed like too much for someone like him—an artificial existence—but restoring his fatigued mind was enough.
Roberion was startled awake when Percival nudged his shoulder. Roberion looked around, anxious, but seeing that everything was alright eased his nerves. "Is everything alright?"
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"Yes, sir. Now the center of the floor is displaying a countdown; it's less than thirty minutes. Oh, sir, things didn't change much; participants and the undead kept fighting between themselves. The biggest difference is that the number of undead has increased. They are acting weird though.", Percival looked thoughtfully at the window in front of him.
"What do you mean?"
"They are still the same… but they seem better organized. Just targeting some participants—the ones that tried to use this place and the walls around it as locations to camp out. When participants fought among themselves, they didn't intervene; sometimes a stragler would just stop somewhere or change direction abruptly like a machine."
"Hum…It looks like the Cerulean Baroness is using them to direct us. If not direct, at least influence what we will do. Nevertheless, we need to analyze it. Did you notice something? If they target some species more than others, if she targets weaker or stronger participants, something like that.", Roberion asked the knight capybara, taking a look at the timer on the floor. They needed to make preparations fast.
Roberion didn't wait quietly for an answer, already taking the clothes used for bedding and putting them in the space bag.
"It's only a hypothesis, sir. But she seems to be guiding them up the street."
"Which direction, specifically? Point it to me". Roberion says soon after, looking at Percival's extended hand, "If I remember right, that would be going to the center of this city. They could not be targeting the center, but someplace near it. Maybe that dommed region? But that is where only the last survivor can cross. Alright, we will follow it; it's better than attracting the undead. If the place where the armored guys are is somewhere else, we will try to go between them. If I were her, though, I would be directing them to fight the warriors."
Finishing with the clothing Robberion takes a look at the roothorn. It is asleep, but the wounds are healed. "Alright, Shining Crown, the break is over. Time for you to do a wonderful job again", Roberion takes the [Glowing Mushroom] and puts it in the space bag. "I don't know how you recover only with light, but magic happens, right?!"
The roothorn got up, not showing any sign of sleepiness, almost like a machine. Looking straight ahead to the gate.
"Just 10 minutes. Alright, everyone, get ready", Roberion climbs on Shining Crown. Percival takes the leather clothing and binds himself to the roothorn. The black plant beast starts walking slowly, his black wood body now fully restored. Some fissures seemed to be made in the place of the most grave wounds, but they seemed to be now part of the Shining Crown, like scars.
Roberion took out his lance. At first, he thought it was a better idea to use the [Hellish Plasma Cannon], but the gun was better used as a trump card. Feeling his gloves, the material seemed to be still intact; it wore a little off, but nothing dangerous. After using it sometimes, he felt that the enchantments weren't that good if not used to feed a spell. The water enchantment could be useful to drink potable water, but trying to use the air enchantment while using his [Minor Air Movement] spell didn't do much; the spell existed to negate the air drag, so creating more air just dimmed his spell effectivity.
As the gate started to open quickly, Roberion focused on his task ahead. Waiting for enemies to show up and being vigilant all the time took a hit on his mind, but now he was refreshed.
From nowhere, a knife just zipped at his head, and moving fastly, he evaded to the right. Reflexes kick in; he is already focusing on casting a neutral fireball. Roberion tried to find where the enemy was, but it seemed to be hiding.
"There!", Percival yelled, throwing a bomb in a direction. Roberion didn't wait long, already activating the fire enchantment of the gloves and creating a fireball.
When the bomb made contact and exploded, a female human jumped out of the high grass near the left wall. She sported innumerous wounds; her hair was an auburn mess, caked with blood and dirt; and her face wasn't anything better.
Robberion didn't bat an eye; anyone who wasn't from his group was an enemy in this place. As the woman started to materialize a new knife from nothing, she seemed to be creating the weapon, the metal in seconds building from a small piece of metal to a full blade.
Before she could throw the weapon again. Roberion shot the fireball right on her head, her auburn hair becoming true flames as her head was burned. The impact messed with her face, fracturing it, but not enough to kill her outright. As the woman started to slowly and unbalancedly run away, Roberion guided the roothorn to go near her, already focusing on a new fireball.
As Shining Crown got near her, Robberion smelled the burned hair and flesh in the air, already ready to cast a new fireball. He didn't, though, because as he was near the woman, a new person showed up—a null with a broken sword and crazy eyes—and attacked her before Roberion could finish the job.
Slashing violently at the woman, the sword only left gashes at her, not being enough to penetrate. The Null didn't stoop, keeping his manic assault.
Roberion was momentarily stunned by the scene. Recovering himself, he activated the glove's enchant, cast, and shot the fireball, focusing on the two of them. Their proximity proved fatal; as the fireball exploded at the woman, the damage to her face was horrendous; the skull was broken, bone fragments were caked with blood dripping slowly from the head, and brain matter seemed to be boiling.
The null was hit by the impact, also getting into flames, but the damage was quickly recovered. It didn't matter. Shining Crown jumped at them, finishing the job with his mighty hooves. Crushing them on the floor.
Roberion took a look at their pummeled bodies atop Shining Crown, not interested in their still dirty and intact items. He looked to his left; a little ahead, he could see a curve that would bring him to the center. As he looked at the middle of the city, a little ways off, he could see a purple light, looking like a pillar. It didn't take much for him to guess what it was.
"It must be the place where the armored warriors are; let's take a look. Be cautious though", Roberion said, giving a little pat at the roothorn and guiding him into the street. It was time to hunt bigger beasts.