“It’s great to see you alive and kicking,” said Gizmo as Luon and Arisa landed on the wall where they were at.
Luon smiled at his remark and replied, “It’s great to see that the fort hasn’t fallen yet. Looks like I left it in great hands. Anyways… how are we doing on munitions? We only need to hold on for a few more hours before Captain Waver, and Teacher Helen arrives to help us out.”
“We can at most last for an hour before we run out of munitions. If only they would stop attacking us after realizing it's pointless to do so. How much do you have left in your intraspatial bag,” Shizuka said.
Luon sighed as he stated, “There isn't much at all, after using the majority on the defense at the outpost and our escape, at most we may have another hour of relief.”
Luon continued, “Catching up can happen later, let’s first unload and process these materials first.”
From Luon’s intraspatial bag various of materials were carried away and were immediately used to support the base’s defense mechanism. All of the sudden a massive wave of pressure followed by a screeching sound shot over the outpost.
Luon felt his body ache in pain as he toppled over from a tremendous gravitational force. It wasn’t just him, everyone at the outpost felt this pressure. Fortunately, it only lasted for a second. Luon got up and peered beyond the crowd of Inzektors and was frightened by the sight before him. It was half a size taller than a Ravager, it’s black exoskeleton gave itself a clean and slick look and reminded Luon of Xenomorphs from alien type media he had seen during his modern day first simulation. Its legs were sharp and pointy like the claws of a mantis while its body was shaped like a spider with a human-like shape in front. It was the spider equivalent of a centaur.
Words streamed in Luon’s mind as he was reminded of what kind of Inzektor it was. Many answers to his questions were solved at this moment. What sort of being was controlling the Inzektors? What kind of creature was to use Ravagers as cannon fodder. And more importantly, why were there so many Ravagers in the first place. It was an Inzektor Queen called Clamaris.
There were many different types of Inzektor Queen’s from low tier to high tier, and the diversity in the Inzektor was as vast as there were species of insects in the universe. In fact, the Demon Faced Illusion Spider was a type of Inzektor Queen itself, it was a low tier one, and if it had to be compared to the military structure created by humans, it was merely the captain of a squad of 5.
The Clamaris, however, was different from low tier trash like the Demon Faced Illusion Spider. It was equivalent to a ten thousand man general for the Inzektors, and its children were Ravagers, merely producing category B Inzektors already made this being a major threat.
Luon used his Eye of Insight to read the Clamaris stats and was shocked to find that it was one level away from evolving.
[Clamaris]
[Race - Inzektor]
[Combat Level - 79]
[Racial Skills - Inzektor Signal, Nimble, Inzektor Command Lv1]
[Active Skills - Echo Screech, Ravage Charge]
[An Inzektor who originated from a spider that evolved into a monstrosity. Its children are born into superior beings, and the Clamaris is nearly as intelligent as humans are.]
Luon began to sweat in fear a bit. Not only was the Clamaris was an extremely frightening being it was surrounded by Ravagers. A small squad of Ravagers was already hard enough to handle, and now a battalion of 300 of them encircled the Clamaris.
They stared at their mother with admiration and love. However, the Clamaris was indifferent to their feelings. It began to slaughter a few Ravagers and other types of Inzektors to consume them, like a mother spider there was no love between her and her children. Luon questioned why it would do so but his question was shortly answered as the crowd of Inzektors had halted their assault.
“We’ve got to stop it! That Echo Screech earlier disabled over 25% of the base's defenses!” yelled Gizmo.
Luon turned to him and asked about how much he knew about the Clamaris and Gizmo words made his fears come true. As long as the Clamaris is continually supplied food, it was able to use Echo Screech continuously. After a few more times the base would be completely disabled allowing the relentless assaults of Inzektors to overwhelmed them.
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The Clamaris was extremely intelligent, it recognized that the base defenses were troublesome and came up with a cost-effective solution to disable them. Rather than sending the whole army of Ravagers to overwhelm the base with a massive amount of losses she would instead siege the outpost and come out with minor losses. Once the defenses were disabled, the outpost would be helpless before them.
Luon sighed he had no solution to this problem, and the only thing he could think of was a frontal assault outside of the base. There was no escape method as the base was encircled by Inzektors. If the Clamaris falls before them now, there might be a chance for survival, and after recognizing this fact, he turned towards his friends who gave him a determined stare.
Luon silently nodded at their resolve and turned to face Arisa, Shizuka, and Belle as he said, “Me, Tyron, Gizmo, and Bendan will go out and deal with the Clamaris. Arisa, give a quick call to Captain Waver to see if they can pull everyone else out while we keep them preoccupied. Their range type of Inzektors may be able to disable the ship functions, but if you’re lucky enough you might be able to escape their range of influence unharmed.”
Arisa body shook a bit. It was a suicide mission with nearly zero chance of survival and Luon the other guys volunteered themselves for the task. She shrouded her feelings deep inside of herself as she turned and gazed at her subordinates and friends, they felt fear, despair, and sadness. She wanted to follow along with them on their assault. However, Luon’s words reminded Arisa of her position. She was a leader, a commander, and her goal right now is to win the war against the Inzektors whether the operation is to retreat or to attack she had to recognize the most valuable move for the Alliance.
Although Luon and the other guys were valuable assets, they were still green nobodies inside Nexus University while she, Belle, and Shizuka were the noble and treasured daughters of the most important factions of the Nexus solar system.
After calming herself down, she quietly said to Luon, “For the new era.”
She tapped her chest gently and turned towards her everyone else as she bellowed, “All staff members retreat to the launch pad and move our line of defense over there. Take some of the defense turrets there as well without the Inzektors noticing. Let the Clamaris waste her Echo Screech on the outer wall while we reinforce our last stand. Move it!”
Everyone sprang into action, and Luon faced Bendan, Gizmo, and Tyron as he asked, “Do you guys want to escape as well?”
They all shook their heads, and Gizmo asked, “So what’s the plan Luon? How are we going to deal with the Clamaris.”
“First we’re going to hide on the outer walls and remove several defense turrets after the Clamaris thinks the base defenses are disabled she would send the army forward. Once she does turn on a few turrets to make it seem like the base mechanism is still working. In response, it’s going to halt her forces again before casting a few more Echo Screeches. Although it’s intelligent, we may be able to deceive it a few times before it realizes it was tricked and stampede our walls. Once the wall falls we will ambush it, and if possible, kill it.” said Luon.
“If you're going to assault the Clamaris you might need this,” said Shizuka.
From her intraspatial bag, she conjured 4 fully charged NG-Arms. Luon knew that she produced them in her workshop at school but didn’t think she would have so many on her. Seeing the expensive equipment Gizmo said, “Didn’t you only had two? Or at least what I heard.”
“I have a lot of them, but not enough staff that could use it properly. Which reminds other than Luon can you guys use them?” asked Shizuka.
Hearing her words, Gizmo nodded and said, “Of course we could use them. Me, Tyron and Gizmo played around with them in the Vortex Container all the time. I just didn’t expect to use them in real life since it's very expensive.”
Tyron and Bendan nodded at his remark and seeing their response Shizuka nodded and said, “Alright then, make sure you keep it safe. I’ll charge the rental fees once this is over.”
Luon asked Shizuka, “Rental fees? You aren’t lending this to us?”
Shizuka smiled and said, “You guys are going to get tons of points from this assault, are you guys going to be wasting my energy crystals without for free? Maintenance fees, energy costs, and other fees I’ve already excluded a lot of fees, you could at least pay for the crystals right?”
Luon sighed and said, “Don’t worry guys. I’ll help you pay for it later. Let’s just get ready for battle already.”
Gizmo, Tyron, and Bendan nodded as they equipped themselves with the NG-Arms. After Luon equipped an NG-Arms he found it’s efficiency to be a little lower than his own, but they were a bit above the mass-produced models, and he recognized that these models were what Shizuka had crafted on her free time.
The Clamaris continued to attack the base several more times before it stopped and commanded the other Inzektors to charge. However, Luon and his friends deceptive tactic delayed the advance by nearly half an hour. Enraged that it was tricked the walls were overwhelmed quickly and Arisa’s last defensive line started to be assaulted.
Luon and his friends snuck past the Inzektors using some invisibility artifact he had crafted, and the Clamaris was within attack range.
It still had several Ravagers around it, but they had no other option than to attack.
Luon dissolved the invisibility effect, and the assault on the Clamaris began, it was an all-out attack with no turning back. With their backs against the walls, it was time for a last ditch effort.