The first thing Darius saw as they approached the besieged settlement was that it was a small-town Post office with a ten-foot adobe wall, much like the first one he’d made for Zuri. He had his Visor adapter at full magnification, letting Pax guide the minute adjustments of his flight. The guy who’d called for aid was right. The only thing he could call the creatures trying to get in were lizardmen. They each stood between six and seven feet tall with a powerful, lean build. Thay were covered in thick overlapping scales that ranged in color from a sandy yellow to dull greens and even reddish brown. A pronounced crest of spikey scales ran along the backs of their heads, down their forearms, and covering their shins.
Their heads were elongated, with a flattened, angular snout that reminded Darius of a frilled lizard that could be seen running around the campground. Each Lizardman also wore a set of armor that looked to have been made from thick hide covered in the scales of even bigger monsters than themselves and reinforced with pieces of bone. Slung on their backs were a long spear and a rough leather quiver filled with projectiles that looked very familiar to Darius. When he saw several of the reptiles pull one out and fit it to the end of a long piece of carved bone and launched it over the settlement’s walls, his suspicions were confirmed. They were using an atlatl for ranged combat, and to round out their weaponry, each of the savage-looking fighters carried a massive bone axe that looked like it had been made from the shoulder blade of a monstrous creature.
At first, Darius had been confused at how they’d managed to crack the wall, but then he saw it. he recalled the Juvenile Sand Behemoth that had attacked the camp office right after he’d made Zuri. Only this one was a metric fuckton bigger than that beast of a monster. This one was as tall at the shoulder as the walls it was trying to break through. Everything about this creature was double the size of the baby they’d fought before. The rhino and Komodo dragon crossbreed-looking monster had heavy chitinous plates covering its body, and the horn was damn near as long as Darius was tall. He watched as one of the more lightly armored lizardmen give some kind of command and the adult behemoth glowed red for a moment, then charged horn first into the already cracked wall.
Now that they were closer, and could see their enemies, Pax automatically went into combat mode and began scanning all the creatures as they approached rapidly.
Combat Mode Engaged, Enemy targets identified. 46 enemy ground units visible, extrapolating spacing… estimated 71 Enemy targets. Scanning…
Kresh’ack Warrior
Average Level 8
HP: 126/126
SP: 210/210
MP: 100/100
Defense: 34
Individual Threat Assessment: Rank F, Moderate.
Kresh’ack Shaman
Average Level 8
HP: 70/70
SP: 160/160
MP: 294/294
Defense: 28
Individual threat Assessment: Rank F, Moderate
Kresh’ack Raider
Average Level 11
HP: 126/126
SP: 210/210
MP: 100/100
Defense: 39
Individual Threat Level: Rank High F, Moderate
Kresh’ack Beast Tamer
Level 11
HP: 84/84
SP: 192/192
MP: 486/486
Defense: 32
Individual Threat Assessment: Rank High F, Moderate
Sand Behemoth
Level: 11
Hp: 270/270
Sp: 540/540
Mana: 70/70
Defense: 33
Individual Threat Assessment: Rank F, Moderate
Desert Strider
Level 9
HP: 105/105
SP: 322/322
MP: 30/30
Defense: 10
Individual Threat Assessment: Rank Low F, Moderate
Collective Threat: Rank Low D, Major Threat.
Target Priority acquired. Target lock out of Range, estimated time to engage… 34 Seconds.
“Enemies in sight.” Darius announced. And shared the data packet with everything he’d found out. “Everyone get ready. We’re thirty seconds out and these fuckers don’t look like they’ll be pushovers. Be careful and make sure you all get about of this alive. Jackson, see if you can distract that Behemoth with your golem. It looks like it could use a playdate, preferably before that wall actually comes down.”
Darius began to itch as he resisted the impulse to fully engage his booster pack. They were just half a mile away, still out of range of his longest ranged weapon, Rain of Fire. the seconds ticked by slowly, but the moment the enemy was just within range, right as that Sand Behemoth was getting ready to charge at the wall again, his target lock engaged and he immediately let loose. He felt the whoosh of exhaust as the missile locked in its cradle, engaged its thrusters, and was released. Traveling just under the speed of sound, Darius watched as it spiraled through the air. Just a couple of seconds before was about to smash into the ground near a cluster of lizardmen, they twitched and before he knew it, a wall of earth rose out of the ground and the rain of fire detonated against the barrier, washing to either side and away from the reptile men instead of engulfing them in Firey destruction. “Fuck, they’re quick.”
Another missile locked in place, and Darius didn’t waste any time. He launched it, this time with the command to detonate twenty feet above the ground. Remembering what had happened the last time he went into battle with his wings extended, he reduced his speed and dispelled Skyblade; it was due to refresh soon anyway, and he wanted to save his Mana. His altitude dropped rapidly, and just in time, too. A barrage of bone Atlatl darts flew through where he’d just been. Each one of those darts held a yellowish tan glow that reminded him of when Billy used his earth magic spell, Stone Armor. Sure, each one of those missiles was enchanted. He didn’t want to get hit by any of them. With that in mind, Darius spun in a barrel roll, moving to the side as another group of the Kresh’ack launched their own payload.
Switching to Doombringer 3000, he locked his targeting software on one of the bigger fuckers, one of the raiders. He launched blasts of fiery red doom at it, shooting once a second, until he passed overhead and had to bank around, really pushing his inertial dampener to its limit. It only reduced the g-forces he felt by 1 G, and he was glad for it. Even with his peak human constitution, his vision still fuzzed at the edges before he was able to straighten out and gain some distance to prepare for another pass. As he came back around once again, he saw the rest of his team engaging with the enemy.
Following his command, Jackson had conjured his massive stone Golem right on top of the Sand Behemoth from thirty feet above the ground. Darius thought something that massive would have caused the behemoth to collapse from the sudden weight, but instead, it had managed to step to the side, so instead of the golem crashing onto the monsters back, it had bounced off its side, making it crash in a massive plume of dirt and sand. A couple carapace plates looked to have cracked, but it didn’t seem to have suffered much in the way of actual damage.
Billy, not being much of a ranged fighter, simply cannon balled himself into a group of warriors, treating them like ten-pins in a game of bowling. He managed to pop back up to his feet and his granite Staff was in his hands, spinning it around and dealing massive blows into any creature that got into reach. Liam joined the young man, and with lightning arching between his blades, he delivered wicked cuts and blocked blows from the axes and Spears that tried to penetrate his armor.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Avery maintained his distance, shooting the occasional enhanced Ice bullet spell at one of the beast-like creatures when it looked like they might get through Billy’s or Liam’s defenses. Akira also kept her distance, never dropping into melee range, though she made effective use of her Tonfa’s to block or deflect any dart sent her way. Her primary focus was sending her concentrated sun beams of death, though, for some reason, they weren’t as effective against the Lizard folk as they were against other monsters, let alone the undead. Darius could only assume that, being reptiles, they had some kind of fire or heat resistance that was helping them out.
As Darius finished his approach, gaining a target lock on the biggest reptilian out there, the creature issues some kind of order, and quicker than any long-tailed runner, they scattered in all directions, taking cover in buildings, practically disappearing in the brush, their scale patterns allowing them to blend into the environment easily. Even the ones fighting Billy and Liam disengaged and faded into the environment. What made it all worse was when the Sand Behemoth bellowed, a dust devil whipped up around it. It continued to roar as the sand and dirt being thrown up into the air expanded until the entire area was covered in a miniature sandstorm.
“Shit, Pax, are you tracking them?”
Scanning… Biological sensors detecting a single lifeform within range, scan indicates it is the Sand Behemoth. It is currently running to the southwest. It is now out of range of Biological scanners.
Scanning Infra-red spectrum… Enemy targets not generating any heat signatures.
Shifting to Energy scanner…
Faint traces of Earth Mana detected. Displaying results on Navigation.
“Of course they aren’t radiating any heat, they’re reptiles. They’re cold blooded.” Darius pulled up his Navigation system and looked at the map function. He saw a multitude of little yellow-brown dots all scattering in every direction.
Yes, Darius, these are exothermic life forms. As their specific species is not in my database, I did not know if they were reptiles, as their visual display indicated or possessed Draconid ancestry. Had they been one of the Draconid races, they would have indeed possessed a heat signature that would have been detectable in the Infra-red spectrum.
Darius just ignored Pax’s response and watched the lizard fucks scatter in all directions until they left the one-mile range of his Energy sensors. Unable to pursue, Darius simply landed and met up with his people. The Sandstorm eventually died down and they could all see once again, but unfortunately, the finer course dust somehow managed to work its way into his joints and under the armored plates, making his suit grind unpleasantly
“Pax, can you do anything about the sand? God, that can't be good for the joints.”
Yes, Darius. The coarse silica is currently eroding the gear systems that enable assisted movement. Either returning the Power Armor to its extra dimensional storage or engaging the Emergency Repair System should both repair the ongoing minor damage and remove all silica particles.
“Thanks Pax. I don’t think putting the suit away will be the best idea right now, so Emergency repair it is.” Darius then focused on the system and felt a faint hum in his chest as the pocket of nanites engaged and flowed throughout his armor’s system. As they went to work, he saw Avery tending the rest of his quick reaction force.
“What was all that about?” Billy asked. “we were all, Bam! Whack! Boom! Then they scattered like cockroaches when the light turns on.”
“It looks like we decimated their force, so they retreated.” Avery answered.
“But we didn’t, though. Almost all of them got away,” Billy practically whined.
“That’s not what Decimate means, Billy. Well, okay, it does these days, but originally it meant to kill or destroy one tenth of an enemies’ force. You know, like Decimal equals one tenth.”
“Hello? Are they all gone?” a man called out from inside the hamlet.
“Yeah,” Darius called back. “they all just scattered. It’s safe, for now at least.”
Darius heard the creak of hinges as the people inside opened their gate and one of them poked their heads out.
“Quick, come inside before they come back. They seem easily startled, but they always come back in greater numbers.”
Darius waved for his people to follow and headed inside the small compound. Looking around, it reminded Darius of the first couple of days when he’d just gotten Zuri started. Comparing the two, he realized how far he’d come in just a couple of weeks. They had plenty of housing, crafting supplies, research, food. They weren’t just trying to survive any longer. They were slowly shifting from a survival mindset to actually living.
“Thank you so much. I don’t know what we would have done if you hadn’t come to save us. You’re all heroes!” The man said as he took up Darius’s armored hand and shook it with both of his, vigorously.
“So… where are all of your people?” Darius asked. Right after asking, Darius used his Identify skill to get the man’s name.
Headman Peter Hanson
Faith Rank 1
HP: 55/55
SP: 120/120
DC: 0/0
“Do you have any injured?” Avery added.
“Yes, yes, of course. Everyone is inside. We do have some injured. James got bitten by the dog-sized lizard and now he can’t move at all. He’s still alive, and breathing, but we don’t know how to help him. There’s other people hurt too, and… some who didn’t make it.” the man’s face fell when he mentioned their dead.
Darius was fortunate in that he hadn’t lost anyone yet. He knew yet was the key word there, since the world was a much more dangerous place, and he was sure his lucky streak wouldn’t last forever. Sympathizing with the man, Darius dismissed his conjured weapons and opened his faceplate.
“Look, man. I’m sure you did the best you could, but it’s dangerous out here. It don’t sound like you got many fighters here, do you?”
“Fighters? No, I was just the Postmaster here. these are good folk, just regular people living their lives. Our town had several thousand people living here… it wasn’t much, but it was home, you know. Now there’s only thirty-nine… thirty-three of us left, now.”
Darius blinked at the number of people they had crammed in the small post office. They actually had more people than he did, since Sylvie and the others left. “Look, I understand you all can’t really take care of yourselves here. I know it’s sudden, but why don’t you come back to my Village? We have plenty of food, sleeping areas, bigger and better walls and we even have a Guard force to help keep everyone as safe as they can be in a world with magic and monsters.”
“What? leave here? I don’t know. I’ll have to ask the people here. I know the System thing says I’m the Headman or something, but I’m just a guy, you know.”
“You did say those lizard men things would be back? What did you mean by that?”
“It’s the third time they’ve been here in the last three days. We managed to throw them off the first two times, but the second time, they took out Sheriff Brady, and he was the best fighter amongst us. Then they came back today, with that giant rhino lizard and damn near smashed through our walls…”
When the man trailed off, Darius let him work it out in his own mind. If more of them came back each day, stronger too, they wouldn’t survive another raid without Darius and his people there to help protect them.
As the man silently considered their living situation, he lead Darius and Avery inside and brought them to where the injured were all laying. It looked like they used what they could for makeshift medical supplies, and it didn’t look like they had a whole lot of people with healing powers. Darius identified everyone he could, needing fresh targets to help rank up his Identify skill. they had a good handful of people on the Path of Faith, but they were all at the first rank. So he knew that whichever ones had taken Lay on Hands, or an equivalent ability, could probably only heal a dozen or so health points worth per day.
Avery, with his helmet removed to make people feel more comfortable, moved from injured person to injured person, using his enhanced healing abilities to quickly restore all of their missing health points. He couldn’t fully help everyone. Of the dozen and a half injured, half seemed to be missing hands, feet, or even whole limbs in a few cases. Darius felt for each of them. His uncle had only recently gotten his prosthetic leg, and he was sure none of these people had the resources to get the same for them.
The Headman quietly left the room after he his people were recovering under Avery’s ministrations. Darius let him go without drawing attention to him leaving. He knew the rest of his team were out in the main lobby keeping an eye on things. He’d get the occasional text message from them as they reported in on what they saw. So far, it seemed like they would all want to leave for somewhere safer, so Darius had Pax send a message to Xavier to have half of the remaining soldiers mobilize, along with Carlos and his van, to come and get ready for escort duty. Darius would rather get things in motion now than have to wait the extra time for them to get there after everyone officially decided to join Zuri.
In the end, it had taken Avery just over an hour to heal everyone of their many injuries. It was Mana intensive, and he had to stop several times to let his MPs recover, even with the boost form his armor. Once that finished, Darius had tracked down the headman and they had a long chat, leader to leader. While he was reluctant at first, eventually Peter gave in. Most of his people would give up anything to feel safe, even leaving their small town. Besides, there were so many memories attached to the blood-stained streets and wrecked buildings that even the reluctant ones eventually joined the exodus. Darius didn’t just sit around, wasting time while waiting for his people to arrive. He left Billy and Liam to hold down the fort and make sure those lizard men didn’t come back. Darius took the rest and practically rampaged through the town. After looting the fallen foes, they set about finding anything that could be useful for construction, crafting, or even just quality of life.
Darius himself had an entire stack of ninety-nine large packages of three-ply toilet paper in his suit’s inventory. The giant rolls of the rough two-ply they had in the communal bathroom was little better than sandpaper, in his opinion, and he wanted a personal stock for his home, and still leave enough in storage to last his people a while. They had also raided the jewelry store and laid claim to all the diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, and other gemstones, along with every piece of gold, silver, and platinum they could find. Darius remembered how Ethan had said they were great materials for enchanting, so he wanted as much as they could get.
They also raided the hardware store, collecting a massive amount of lumber, nails, screws, and hand tools, also duct tape, they took all the duct tape the town had, along with several massive spools of bailing wire and practically gallons of WD-40. He remembered his dad talking to him when he was a kid and they were fixing a section of fence around their home. “Remember son, if it moves and it shouldn’t, duct tape and bailing wire will do the trick. If it doesn’t move and it should, you got WD-40 to get the job done.”
Once they’d stuffed their inventories to capacity, Darius relived Billy and Liam and sent them out to gather everything they could as well, including any linens they could find, so people could have something comfortable to sleep on when they got back.
While Darius was waiting, he went over all the notifications that had been auto minimized. ,he grew frustrated when he saw that he’d only gotten two hundred fifty-three experience points for the whole fight. Since they’d scattered after only losing eight of their fighters, Darius and his team had lost out on invaluable experience points. He still needed seven hundred fifty more experience to reach his next level. The loot wasn’t even all that great, either. Bone weapons and armor. They had decent stats, but living in modern society, it all seemed so primitive. The only saving grace was that they all were all covered in intricate carvings. Each line was filled to the brim with Earth Mana, and seemed to make the armor tougher and the blades sharper. His Identify didn’t tell him what the effects were, but he was hoping Ethan could figure it out.
Moving on, he saw his Identify had finally ranked up, reaching rank eight. It only gave him two extra experience points and didn’t unlock any new feature. The fight was so short that he didn’t get any other skill to rank up. One more thing to add to his frustration. It had been oddly satisfying to see his skills go up as he used them, but they seemed to be slowing down. Half of his skills he didn’t even use, so they were still pretty low, but his main skills didn’t seem to grow as fast as they had in the first week. Maybe I need to join the soldiers in their training. Get in some… what did Ethan call it? Skill Grinding, that’s right. I need to get in some skill grinding.