The shelter looked a lot different than I thought it would, although most of my expectations were from sci-fi movies. I thought it would be some advanced bunker, but instead it looked more like an average military sleeping area, with bunk beds everywhere holding people. From what I could tell there were about sixty or so people in here, and a lot of them were in various states of injury, with people attending to their wounds. It was a mix of different species, some of which seemed like normal humans, and others that I had never seen before. A mother who had similar marks on her face as the security guard was attending to her child, who almost looked like they were melting. They had the top half of a normal young boy, except for the fact that their skin was blue, and their body flowed down into a pool of some kind of liquid. He looked to be injured in some way, although how I had no clue.
"How are there so few people in here? This place had to be packed." I asked the woman who had been leading me around.
"It was." She didn't elaborate further, which helped me realize what she meant. The rest of the people didn't make it to the shelter. This building could hold thousands, but only three hundred people made it to safety. I thought back to that thing that chased me before. It could clearly mimic people's voices, but how many? Who all did it kill before it got to me? I thought about this, as my non broken hand clenched my weapon so hard I could hear the handle start to creak. I hadn't been sure of much since I became a guardian, but now I was sure of two things; that entity was dying today, and there wouldn't be a single other casualty in this building.
"Celeste, buy that healing spell, now." I wasn't sure how, but I swore I could see her nod, and after a second a pop up appeared.
Minor Recover Purchased for 15 Points, New Total: 8
I walked over to the two people, feeling the usual sense of knowledge that came with getting a spell. It seemed as though purchasing it gives you the basic knowledge on how to cast the spell, but any variations on its usage would have to be figured out yourself. This spell would heal any minor injuries instantly and some moderate ones over a few casts.
"Excuse me, ma'am? I'm a guardian, if you want I can help heal your child." The woman moved in front of her child at first, but as she realized I was a guardian she smiled and walked to the side. I held out my hand, pushing mana throughout it and directing it over the kid's wounds. As I did, I saw part of the child's body reform from nothing, and he looked much better than before.
"Sorry, is he okay now? I'm slightly new to this, so I haven't met someone of your species before." I asked the mother, and she nodded, looking over her child to make sure he was alright. I gave her a smile and went to walk back over to the guard, but as I did my legs gave out from under me. She raced forward and caught me, laying me down on a nearby bed. I hadn't noticed it until now, but I felt exhausted in a way I never had before.
"Excuse me, can this guardians AI tell me what's wrong with her? Aside from the obvious injuries." The guard asked, and Celeste appeared in a spark of light.
"She is not used to using magic, and she accidentally used up all her mana with that healing spell. She should be fine to repair her own injuries in around ten minutes."
"Hang on, I've got to heal everyone else first." I said, sitting up in the bed, but the guard pushed me down as Celeste shook her head at me.
"While that's admirable, we are on a time limit here, these shelters can only stay powered for so long before something big enough to break in arrives. Once you heal yourself, your body can devote the rest of its energy to restoring your mana. Relax for a minute, then we can heal you and anyone who's critically injured." Celeste said, sitting directly on my chest. The guard looked at me and shrugged.
"You heard the fox, can't let you move. Names Mia by the way. You said you're new to this?"
"Yeah, I'm Liara, just started today. I'm just mostly used to seeing humans and a couple Zenith, so this is a bit jarring for me. Um, sorry if this is rude, but are you the same species as that woman and her child?"
"Perfectly reasonable question, and yes, I am. We're called Maneel, and we start out life as a small bit of solid matter inside a bunch of liquid. As we get older, we can form ourselves a more solid body, but if we ever need we can shift back into mostly liquid." I watched as her hand shifted to some kind of purple slime and back again.
"That's awesome! I really should look more into all the different species in the universe if I'm going to be doing this for long. So, is this your first invasion too?" I asked her, and her eyes widened.
"You've never even been in an invasion? Wow, no wonder you're so confused. You must be from one of those planets that only get breaches, huh?"
"Guilty as charged. I'm from Earth, we're the newest addition to the whole plague thing. I did almost die in a breach though, if that counts for something."
"That definitely counts. I've been in a couple, but nothing this bad. I work as security here, have for the last five years. We were doing fine evacuating people to the shelter, until that thing showed up." She said, a sort of haunted look in her eyes. It was bad enough fighting that thing when you had a guardian's body and magic, let alone just being a normal human.
"I'm assuming you mean that mimic thing. I put an explosion directly into its face and it didn't leave a scratch. Speaking of which, is there a computer in here? Celeste wanted to look up if that entity is in the database." I asked, and she nodded. Celeste hopped on her shoulder and the two walked off to a side room nearby. As I waited for them to come back, I looked around the room. At this point, everyone had noticed me, and they could clearly tell I was a guardian as they were staring at me. I blushed a bit, and a decent number of people realized they were being rude and looked away. I suddenly felt a tap on my shoulder, and as I looked over I saw the kid from before standing next to the bed.
"Um, my mom says I should say thank you. Thanks."
"Aww, no problem buddy."
"Can you help my dad too?"
"Of course! Where is he?" I said, sitting up a bit and looking around. As he said this, his mothers face fell, and she looked away.
"He's still outside." My heart sank as I realized what he meant, but I tried my best to keep a kind look on my face.
"Don't worry, if I see him out there, I'll be sure to get him back here safe and sound." He smiled and ran back over to his mother, talking about how I was his fourth favorite guardian now. I realized these ears must have come with enhanced senses, because I normally had awful hearing. Guess that was one benefit to being a fox girl.
"You seem to be adapting to this quickly." I turned around to see Mia and Celeste had returned. I rubbed the back of my head awkwardly, a little embarrassed they had seen my attempt at being heroic.
"I mean, I just think kids deserve to have hope, and unfortunately I'm the only one here who can help." Mia put a hand on my shoulder as Celeste jumped down onto the bed.
"It's nice. A guardian is supposed to help people feel like things are going to be okay. Now, Celeste, tell her what we learned about that thing."
"Right. It's called a Recorder, and the reason I've never seen it before is because it only started showing up in the last two years. After my last contract ended, I took a few years off and worked as an AI for Zenith response teams."
"Who was your last contract with?" Mia asked her, and she simply looked away.
"Technically I can only give that information to my guardian, but I would rather not speak on it if that's okay." She said. Mia looked at me, and I simply nodded.
"You respect my privacy, I'll respect yours. Now, how are we gonna kill this thing?"
"That's the problem. There is nothing in your current catalogues that could harm that creature. It has a malleable body that can adapt to damage extremely well. And that's just the start, it can mimic its victim's voices, and it's smart enough to coordinate and lead other plague. The only benefit is that it tends to scare off other smaller plague, as it enjoys hunting in a smaller group. The best option at the moment is to gain more points as we venture down to the lower levels and then try and find something that could hurt it."
"How durable are we talking here?"
"There are five commonly accepted tiers of strength for plague. First is LEPTH, which is the lowest. A low tier LEPTH is killable by anyone with the lowest tier of weaponry, while a high tier would need a group of people with lowest tier weaponry. Then there's SAIA. A low tier SAIA would take a squad of trained soldiers with lowest tier weaponry, and a high tier would need a squad with low tier weaponry."
"What's an example of low tier weaponry?"
"The best example of a low tier weapon from Earth would be an AR-16."
"Holy shit, this thing could tank a squad of soldiers with assault rifles?" I said, and she shook her head.
"No, that creature is actually a low tier MASAL. That's the next grade up. It would require a trained soldier with powerful explosive weaponry, or plasma weapons, which you don't have access to at the moment."
"Jesus. This thing doesn't seem all that strong even if it is durable, why is it ranked so high?"
"The rankings matter within the context of the entity. Certain entities that are rather easy to take down alone have special abilities that could kill crowds of people within seconds, so they are ranked higher. This entities structure is what makes it so highly ranked, despite its low group killing power."
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"Well, fuck. There's gotta be something. Oh, what if I made another ability? Earlier Xino said you could help me do that!"
"While that might work, you would have to learn how to use your mana to enhance your body first. It naturally happens in smaller amounts, but using it actively makes the effect much more powerful. That would take time we don't have." Celeste said, and I sighed, accepting I wasn't killing that thing for a while. I started casting my healing spell on myself, and after two casts I could move my arm without any pain.
"Alright, what's the best way for me to get points? I can fight a few of those things at once, but that's still pretty slow." I said, standing up and stretching. It seemed like there wasn't anyone else in a critical condition, so I was getting ready to head out.
"The best option would be to acquire some form of area of effect damage, as the lower floors will be infested much worse then this floor. The Recorder scared off most of the weaker entities up here. Unfortunately, you don't have enough points for anything, so we might have to figure out something else." I thought to myself for a moment, before an idea came to me.
"There was a bar on the way here, and this place probably has a ton more right?"
"I can see each floor has its own bar on the cameras, plus a few specialty ones. Why?"
"How much info does your database have?"
"Anything you would need to know about killing plague. I ask again, why?" She asked, and I grinned.
"Do you know how to make Molotov cocktails?" Despite not exactly knowing the face language of a fox, I could tell her expression had turned worried.
"...unfortunately, yes."
"Then it's time to stock up." I said, heading over to Mia to let her know we were leaving. I walked into the room with the computer and saw her talking to someone over a headset.
"You're going to what? Okay, just calm down and we can- hello? They hung up on me!" She said, taking off the headset and throwing it to the side.
"Hell was up with that?"
"Oh, good, you haven't left yet. Listen, shit isn't going great in the lower floor's shelters. There's one on the seventh floor and one on the first. The seventh floor is doing fine, but some asshat closed the doors too early, and a full group of people got stuck outside. Thankfully some of them were security, so they could communicate with the people in the shelter. Right now, they're all held up inside a store nearby the shelter, but there's a lot of entities outside, so you need to get down there now."
"That's not great. What about the other one?" I asked, and she sighed pointing at the headset.
"That's who I was just talking to. Some of the people inside are scared cause there's a big entity outside. Not big enough to break in mind you, but still dangerous. Some kind of gorilla looking thing. So, a few people tried to step up and claim themselves as leaders of the shelter over the security. They somehow beat my coworker's asses and tied them up, and now they're gonna try some stupid shit decently soon." She said, and I realized how bad that situation could turn in an instant. If they got some of the guns the security had, that could turn lethal quick.
"Alright, first things first, the people outside need to be rescued. After that I'll sprint down to the first floor and see what I can do."
"Sounds good. While you're doing that, I'll get everyone up here organized to leave. Just say the word once you've got a safe point for us to meet up ready." She said, and I nodded, getting ready to walk out the door.
"And kid? Don't get killed out there. I've only met a couple guardians before, but you seem like you understand what it really takes to be one. I don't want to see you go out too soon." Mia said, and I turned to her, smiling as I gave her a thumbs up.
"Don't worry, I won't get myself killed. Just gotta go burn some plague alive." I said, walking out the door of the room to the front of the shelter.
"You're going to WHAT?!" I heard her yell behind me, and I laughed slightly. I put my hand on the pad near the door, summoning my glaive.
"How are things looking Celeste, anything waiting outside?"
"If the Recorder is still around, I can't see it anywhere. Best bet would be to quietly jump down the center ring and head down a floor, then head to the bar there. Once we get these Molotov's so you can burn yourself alive, we'll head for the stairwell down to the seventh floor."
"I'm not stupid, I won't burn myself alive... but just to be clear, this outfit is fire resistant, right?"
"Thankfully yes. Door's opening up right now, watch yourself." She said, and as the doors slid open I sprinted to the inner ring and jumped down it, making myself much lighter. I slowly drifted down and caught the bar around the floor below, climbing into it. This floor seemed to be more about arcade games rather than slot machines, and I could see what Celeste meant when she said the other floors had more entities. I could see a wide variety of creatures roaming around, and I quickly slipped behind a few arcade machines before anything saw me.
"Bar is about two hundred meters west, and you'll have to find a way through a decently sized pack of Bashers."
"What's a basher?"
"The cat that almost killed you."
"Fucking flying cats. Alright, let's get moving." I moved through the arcade, keeping as silent as possible as I went. On a couple occasions I was able to catch an entity off guard and stabbed them before they could see me. I got a couple dogs, and some kind of jellyfish looking one that could apparently spit acid when you don't kill it instantly.
Three Entities Killed, New Point Total: 33
Eventually, I made it to a bar that looked the same as the one from the floor above, and sure enough, I could see about ten of those flying cats.
"Alright, does that weapons catalogue have any guns?"
"Yes, what are your specifications for the gun?"
"Anything that can shoot fast and isn't absurdly hard to control." I said, and she scanned through the catalogue highlighting a few options.
"My main recommendation, if you aren't averse to using fully automatic weapons, would be the Stellaris Machine Loaded Sub Machine Gun 17. It can automatically reload for you once you place a magazine in, and it should get through those Bashers with ease. It might bring some attention over to you however, so I would also recommend purchasing a silencer to go with it. Should eliminate eighty percent of the noise."
That all sounded good to me, so I purchased the gun with the silencer attachment, and five magazines of ammo.
ML-SMG-17 Purchased for 15 Points, New Total: 18
Silencer Attachment Purchased for 3 Points, New Total: 15
SMG Ammo x5 Purchased for 5 Points, New Total: 10
It all appeared in front of me, and I took a second to pop the silencer on and place a magazine in. The gun locked it in place and racked the charging handle for me, so I switched it to fully automatic and took off the safety. I whipped around the corner, got down on one knee and started spraying into the entities. I shredded through three of them near silently before any of them even noticed what was happening, and by then it was too late. I took out the next six cleanly but had to focus a bit to get the last one as it flew towards me. One bullet to the head took it down about thirty feet from me, and I quickly checked my surroundings. It didn't seem as though anything had heard the noise, so I quickly vaulted over the bar.
Ten Entities Killed, New Total: 40
"Alright, grab those bottles and pour some of the alcohol out, then stuff those cleaning rags in them. Make sure none of the liquid is touching the rag, otherwise it will explode in your hand." I followed Celestes advice, and in a few minutes, I had five homemade Molotov's ready to go. I tucked them all away in my inventory, so they could be ready for use later.
"Perfect, time to head down to the seventh floor. But first, let's test this out." There were some entities nearby, but thankfully none of them had spotted me yet. I reloaded my SMG and shot a bullet into the screen of a nearby arcade machine that looked suspiciously like Donkey Kong. The screen shattered and the machine began to spark, and I quickly ducked my head down. I waited about a minute before Celeste spoke to me again.
"Got three Cloners and five Stingers gathered around the machine. How are you going to light the cloth?" She said, and I looked up to see five of those jellyfish entities and three of the dogs investigating the machine. I pulled a Molotov out of my inventory and pushed some mana into my hand. I focused it into my finger and put it against the rag, and when I released the mana, a tiny explosion went off, setting the rag ablaze. I chucked the bottle as hard as I could, and it smashed into one of the jellyfish. The liquid splashed and spread over the other entities, who all caught on fire. The dogs, being slightly smarter, tried to roll on the ground to put it out, but they didn't manage in time before all of the creatures damn near melted.
Eight Entities Killed, New Total: 95
"Wow, that was effective. Uh, the sprinklers will put that out right?" I pointed at the fire still burning on the ground. I started heading out, as the dying noises of the entities was sure to draw some more attention.
"Eventually. Now hurry, we don't know how long those people have left."
"Right. Man, I'm really glad these outfits don't catch fire."
"Oh, they do, they just don't burn easily."
"...this may have been a mistake." I said, heading for the stairwell, making sure to keep that thought in mind.