“Well shit,” Ray gasped out as he struggled to his feet and failed. “Where the hell have you been?”
Josephine had a complicated look cross over her features, so quickly that if he hadn’t been watching closely he may have thought he imagined it. With a large sigh, she schooled her emotions and said, “My apologies, My Lord. It has been a difficult journey to find you. Perhaps we can discuss this after I eliminate the threat to your well-being.”
“Eliminate me?” The {FOREST LORD} said, the sneer bleeding through clearly into its tone. “Child you can no more defeat me than your Master could.”
The warrior woman blinked at that, then smiled. “The cornerstone of being a good bodyguard and servant is that you are required to be able to perform functions that your Lord cannot.” She replied simply.
And then she vanished.
One moment she was standing next to Ray, the next she was smashing into the arrogant {FOREST LORD} with a fury of blows so fast and savage the creature was immediately placed on the back foot. Retreating rapidly, the monster was flung back into the line of its undead kin.
Ray watched in awe as Josephine overpowered the creature in moments, something that was far beyond what he was capable of. Hands under his arms disrupted his thoughts as two woman he didn’t know began to drag him across the ground and back to the safety of the gates. Two more took up a rear guard action. All were equipped with the same weapons that Josephine had, mirroring the large Japanese-style blade that she currently employed and wearing dark leather armor splashed with gore.
The apocalyptic fashion statement was in this time of year apparently.
Having a clear moment of thought, and hearing a roar from the rapidly approaching Rivea, he yelled out as loudly as he could, “Josephine! Retreat! Retreat!”
Ray had just finished yelling when she was by his side, having once again moved so quickly that he lost track of her. “Yes my Lord?” she asked simply, flicking her blade to one side to remove the gore from it. He was about to respond when a System message appeared in front of him:
{LEGENDARY CREATURE DEFEATED}
REWARDS ADDED TO EVENTS END
He stared open-mouthed at the prompt as they passed under the gate, just in time for Rivea to pass over them. Looking up, dumbfounded that Josephine had obliterated a Rare Monster so easily, he watched as the Drake, with Derrick on her back, began dropping large canisters into the now surging undead line.
With a popping sound that would be heard from where he was, each container exploded in midair and showered the undead with diesel fuel. The fuel had been taken directly from the generator room storage tanks, bottled in every container the engineer could lay his hands on, and loaded up on Rivea. The Drake was dubious at first, but when she learned more about the level of destruction that she would be a part of she was more than happy to act as a mule.
The gates slammed shut behind Ray as the last of the Orkin, Aelvin, and Humans crossed through. The thick portcullis were made from the strongest System material that they could find in the Shop and were nearly indestructible, at least at their current levels. The undead were not going to get through it, but if given enough time the damned things wouldn’t have to, they would just go over the wall itself using their numbers to create a ramp or ladder of bodies.
Thankfully they would have the chance.
Ray was about to ask Josephine more about where she had been and what had happened to her, but Rivea flew back over their heads causing the entire group to look up. With an almost casual glance back, she lobbed a tiny fireball out of her mouth at the frothing undead hordes on the other side of the gate. With a soft plopping sound, it landed in the center of them. Nothing happened for a full five seconds, and the hell opened its fiery maw.
For the length of the entire wall, and as far as Ray could see, dark red fire shot into the sky. The expanding wave of burning destruction spread everywhere outside of their protected baily, consuming every creature it could touch. Almost as if it were alive.
SUMMONING SUCCESSFUL
GREATER FLAME ELEMENTAL
{RARE}
“Well fuck me. Hopefully, it's friendly,” Ray muttered. He, Rivea, and Derrick had discussed the likely possibility of an elemental being brought into existence with Tall when they discussed this particular plan. The System was strange, and they hadn't wanted to bring forth this much destruction and somehow kill everyone, so they consulted the closest thing they had to an expert. In fact, Talla had said that it was a near certainty with the amount of fire and destruction they were going to be creating. If there was one thing that elementals hated, and one thing they took every opportunity to destroy, it was the undead. He didn’t understand the Shopkeeper's explanation of why, exactly, only that it would target the undead before it went after anything else. If it even had the Power and energy remaining to do so.
For the low, low cost of roughly a third of their stock of diesel fuel, they were able to summon a Greater Flame Elemental to obliterate the undead hordes. And obliterate them it did with extreme prejudice. It turned out that even Talla had underestimated the hatred that elementals held for the undead.
Either that or it really enjoyed just watching them burn.
The undead flung themselves at this new enemy with mindless abandon, the guttural roar of the legion of decaying squirrel warriors scarred the minds of those who heard it. The rage, pain, and untold suffering that was present in those cries was something no one ever wanted to experience again. It was just too bad that this was the halfway point of the event. They had hundreds of thousands more enemies to dispatch, and chances were that this tactic would not work again. At least not how it had this time.
The screams of undead and the roar and cackle of flames dominated the outside of the sealed fortress block. Not a single undead made it over the wall in that time, each one being intercepted and immolated by the enraged elemental. Untold thousands of undead were burnt to ash leaving nothing behind.
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Ray was in his office trying his best to ignore the sounds of combat from beyond the wall. Derrick was sitting at the corner desk while Josephine was sitting on the couch in the center of the room while her fighters waited just outside the door in the hallway. Rivea was attending to his wounds, using her Power to heal the worst of his injuries. Eventually, not seeing anything else she could help with, she sat on the opposite side of the Couch from Josephine.
No one had really said anything as they retreated back up to his set of rooms within the Arcology Fortress. In fact, no one had really talked at all even after they had arrived there. Looking over at Josephine, Ray contemplated what he wanted to ask.
“So, I bet you have a really good story for me,” he said with a grin. “Spill the beans. Where have you been this entire time? What have you done? You seem way stronger than you did prior Integration.”
Josephine nodded in agreement. “Thank you, My Lord. A lot has happened since we were split up. When we were divided up my ability pointed me in your direction, but I had no idea how far I had to go. It was constant, savage fighting against beasts and creatures of all kinds to reach a nearby territory. There, I met a man by the name of Brett. He insinuated he had trapped you in a dungeon of some kind, but I knew that would not stop you.”
“Yeah. That was seriously touch and go for a while. We made the mistake of trying to take the river places,” Ray said while wincing at the memory.
The Myrmidon nodded. “Yes. Water travel is not safe My Lord. It became considerably more dangerous when this death god arrived. But I digress. When we dispatched Brett and his minions I proceeded towards you as fast as I could. However, we ran into the rear section of multiple hordes invading your territory.”
“Damn. You ran into Brett and couldn’t kill him? Just how fucking strong is that guy?” wondered Ray aloud, but he stopped when Josephine began shaking her head.
“No, My Lord, I did kill him. Well, I killed his image at least,” Josephine explained, causing Ray to frown in confusion. “He has the ability to project himself, somehow. I believe that he may have multiple copies moving around and completing objectives and giving commands while he stays safe in that fortress of his.”
Ray could understand that. He had been surprised that Brett was with a random group of Bandits. It would make more sense if there was a copy of him with every band of Bandits instead. Being in multiple places at once at the same time must be taxing, but the tactical considerations and possibilities were out of this world.
“I bet that was satisfying,” he said with a grin.
Nodding, Josephine confirmed that. “Indeed. He wanted to turn me into a concubine. I took rather poorly to that offer.”
Ray laughed at that, getting a frown from the warrior, but once Derrick and Rivea joined in even she cracked a small smile before going back to her stoic self. “That… I can’t imagine the look on his face,” Ray said, still chuckling. Taking a deep breath he calmed down a bit and asked, “So how did you get past the hordes?”
“I don’t have the faintest idea, My Lord,” she admitted. “One moment we were attempting to fight through to the front lines, the next we were standing in front of the hordes themselves. You know what happened from there.”
“Yeah, you saved me-“ he was interrupted by a System message, one that he had been hoping to see.
{WAVE DATA}
WAVE 7 – CLEARED
COMMON UNDEAD KILLED – 39,984
UNCOMMON UNDEAD KILLED – 784
RARE UNDEAD KILLED – 1
LEGENDARY UNDEAD KILLED – 1
WAVE 2 INCOMING – 64:00:00
With a loud resounding roar, followed by an immense explosion, the fighting outside fell silent. A knock on the door came shortly after that. “Come in,” Ray called.
One of the women from the front hallway poked her head inside, “Master, My Lord, the Greater Fire Elemental has vanished. I believe once the undead were all… re-dead, it decided it was time to leave.”
“Thank you,” Josephine replied. “Return to your duties.” With a salute, the woman closed the door quickly.
“At least we didn’t have to use the rest of the diesel,” Derrick said happily. “That stuff makes amazing incendiary bombs. I bet we can find lots of fun catalysts to increase the explosive and burning power in the Shop.
“You are way too excited about this,” Ray responded with a wave of his hand. “We have plenty of NEX, but what we need is fighters, not weapons. We are running out of people, and no one can get to us through the hordes. Hell, if Josephine hadn’t randomly appeared here I would be dead, and everything we worked for lost.”
The group grew quiet at that, while Josephine looked on with disinterest. “My Lord, I suggest scouring this Shop of yours for Mercenary contracts or creatures. If the Shop can sell items, armor, and weapons there has to be a place to purchase additional combatants or even skills. This System seems too far-reaching for there not to be a way to do that.”
“No time like the present. Let's get…” Ray trailed off. They had been fighting for weeks at this point, through seven waves and tens of thousands of undead and monsters from a half dozen species. They had been busy. So busy, in fact, that he had forgotten about someone he had only recently met and who held a considerable amount of knowledge about a lot of things. Things that could help. It made him wonder…
Where the fuck was Merc?
“Hey, has anyone seen Merc in a while?” he wondered aloud, derailing the conversation. Josephine looked confused, but Derrick looked grim.
The engineer cleared his throat and said, “Our little ghost friend vanished at the start of the last wave. I… think he may shut down or return to the core when a major event locks out System abilities, just like the shop. You may have to go activate him again.”
“Got it. That makes me feel a bit better. He just came back on his own after the smaller waves, but those were over pretty quickly. I have so many questions for him,” Ray said with a short laugh. “Now, lets go have a chat with Talla and figure out if we can get some help over here. Fucking God’s know we need it.”
The group headed over to the shop and Ray was relieved to see it open with their favorite Lamia sitting easily at the front desk. The level three shop was cleaner than the prior two levels, and allowed for a much wider variety of goods. Now it was time to see what kinds of services it offered.
“Hey there Talla, how are you?” Ray asked,
She smiled in reply, “I am doing well Mr. Finnegan, thank you for asking. I have been observing your removal of the waves and I must say, you fight well. I am worried, however. Wave seven is considerably less difficult than even wave ten. If you continue in this manner I do not think you or this shop may be here for very much longer.”
“That… is not encouraging to hear Talla,” he replied with a wince. “But I am going to do something about that, hopefully. I need to know what kind of fighters or mercenary services you have access to through the Shop. Like you said, we need the help.”
Talla brightened immediately. “Of course! Let me see here… there are numerous Corporations listed within the confines of the Shop and {BAZAAR}. Many offer mercenary services, constructs such as droids and Golems, and even purchasable creatures.”
“That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. What options do we have?” Ray asked excitedly.
Tabbing through the options, the experienced shopkeeper created a list of sentient warriors, constructs, and creatures. She explained that the sentient warriors were hirable clans such as Orkin, Aelvin, and other, far more exotic, races of experienced combatants. Constructs were manufactured creatures such as Golems, droids, and even elementals that were sold to buyers for a variety of purposes. Most companies that sold them had vast swathes of combat-related options. The final category, creatures, were companies that sold tamed creatures to do combat on behalf of their buyers. They were often extremely powerful and well-trained.
As Ray looked through the options, he picked several to contact. Eventually, he came across one name that gave him a rather odd feeling. The product list didn’t provide any rare creatures, but something told him to contact their sales team regardless.
“Talla, tell me more about Mob Inc please.”