+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++
Ygeian Countryside
“All units,” his speakers shouted over the darkening battlefield. “Commence operations at once!”
Balls of light flew at the sky, as Hans and Adelyn both lunged forward. The spells conjured by Captain Weibel’s mages immediately detonated in the sky. A soft light washed the green fields, illuminating everything ahead of them. Behind the two charging mechs, squads of men on horseback followed.
They were all grouped into four squads, with four members each. And they began summoning balls of water on the pool of black goo. Immediately, creatures began appearing in the darkness. All of them came out of the gigantic puddle. Each of them was slimy in nature, and they were charging fast at them.
“Captain!” Hans shouted. “Open fire at once! Let’s cut these bastards down. Make sure to stay at a good distance. Those acidic stuff are corrosive to our mechs.”
“Copy that, Lieutenant!”
Gunfire erupted on the battlefield. One by one, the hordes of slime creatures were wiped out by the duo. They only fired machine guns to cut them down. Meanwhile, behind them, the mages on horseback worked tiredly with their staffs. Balls of water appeared on the knocked-down slimes. It washed them well, diluting whatever effects the goo had, and eliminating them quickly.
Hans grinned as he checked the wake they were leaving behind. It’s working. The experiment was nicely done. While water wasn’t a perfect weapon against it, the stopgap solution worked in great quantities. They just needed to detonate the equivalent of nearly four buckets of water on each slime, and the bastards would mix and die with it.
So it seems that even a bad thunderstorm can defeat this demon. Unfortunately, this area was drier than the places up north. So perhaps that was why it thrived. Not anymore though, as Hans and Adelyn sped up on their massacre. Their kills racked up from the high dozens, then to the high hundreds. Shamefully, there were very few experience points that came from killing these monsters.
He pulled his mech to a stop and gunned down three dozen charging slime monsters in front of him. The creatures were all disrupted by his heavy machine guns. Then, above them, spherical balls of water appeared and exploded. It splashed the creatures rather quickly, and before Hans knew it, the area was clear.
“Heh, my boys are doing well, ain’t they?” Captain Weibel spoke on the radio. He was now holding one of the portal radios that Hans and Adelyn carried. It was to make communication between them much easier. “Seems like there’s nothing left in this area.”
“Indeed, good work,” Hans replied. “But we have to keep moving. It seems that the main demon hasn’t bothered to show up yet.”
“I wonder why?” Adelyn curiously asked. “Luring it out seems difficult. Shouldn’t demons like…be more proactive at targeting people?”
“This ain’t a Calamity,” Hans answered. “So maybe it’s weaker than normal. It must be biding its time. We can’t touch it in the territory it controls, after all. Unless we can flood this whole place with water.”
He looked at his screens. In the far distance, a bunch more slimes appeared out of the pool. Hans and Adelyn immediately dashed into action, their mechs galloping forward as they reloaded their machine guns. In minutes, the battlefield was once more alight. Gunfire was being continuously followed by the spells of Captain Weibel’s mages.
Sector after sector in the surrounding area was cleared. There were so many of them. Hundreds of people turned into slime things. And hundreds of various animals as well. Mostly sheep, pigs, and other farm animals that seemed to have fallen to the infestation. By the time they ended their murderous rampage, they had circled a few kilometers already.
Hans and Adelyn both took a break to check their equipment supplies.
Hans stared at what was available to him at the moment.
Current Status: Healthy (No Special Health Effects)
Name: Hans Hoffman
Age: 25
Race: Vanus
Type: Fallen Angel of Truth/Calamity of Lies
General Tier: II
LVL: 24
Class: Mech Pilot (Vanguard)
Passive Skills: [PAS: CYCLE OF TRUTH I], [PAS: PROGRESS OF LIES I]
Active Skills: [ACT: LIARS DETECT LIARS I], [ACT: ONE SHOT, ONE KILL I]
Mech Upgrades: [UPG: EYE OF PARANOIA I], [UPG: ARCANE AUTOFABRICATOR II], [UPG: ARCANE MAINTENANCE SYSTEM I]
ATTRIBUTES
DEF: F +
RES: F -
STR: F +
SPD: F -
AP REGEN RATE: 20 AP/HOUR
Available Arcane Points: 570/100 PTS [UNLIMITED CAP]
ATTRIBUTE MODIFIERS: [LATENT AP REGEN I]
“I seem to be farming a lot of AP from achievements and kills,” Hans reported to Adelyn. “I’m also close to level twenty-five. There should be a new upgrade soon.”
“Good then, because it’s the same to me, though…I’m still down in my AP reserves…” Adelyn sighed. “Now that I think about it, it’s kinda unfair that you can just stack it up.”
“Eh, shut up, you can regenerate a lot in comparison, so you’re more privileged.”
“Not if you start using that unlimited capacity to stack up AP to the high thousands. Maybe one day you’ll have an emergency where we’ll benefit from it.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Hmm…good idea,” Hans returned to the fight in front of them. He also slated another set of machine guns to be reloaded using his autofabricator, which reduced his AP stocks by a few notches. “Alright, let’s continue the recce.”
“Captain Weibel, retreat for now,” Adelyn said. “We got the area clear. Let your guys have a rest.”
“I stacked up a bit of AP potions. I’ll let my guys have a drink. Be careful. We’ll be back posthaste if trouble arises.”
“Copy that,” Hans replied. “Alright, let's move on.”
+++
“Alright, everyone, position up…it’s coming out of its nest,” Hans warned, as his mech drifted to a hard stop. Behind him, Adelyn also followed, and the two turned their guns at the massive slime monster ahead of them. It finished forming using the materials from the pool of black goo. And it looked down at them with rage from its red eyes.
A low scream came from it, almost warning them. But Hans and Adelyn were unphased.
“So what’s our plan with this one, Lieutenant?”
“Alright,” he paused. “Captain Weibel, what’s your status?”
“Squad A and B are now moving to the right flank,” he chuckled. “Squad C and B are moving to the left flank. We’re going to try to circle it and hide using the woods.”
“Any minor shambling remnants?”
“None that we can see on my side. It seems that there’s also nothing on the other side. We can circle it just fine.”
“Alright, continue. Here’s the order. None of you will dare reveal yourself until we weaken it. We cannot lose your teams, because you’ll be able to summon the most water in this fight. When it’s sufficiently weakened, your mages will attack it at all sides, and overwhelm it. That should finish this fat ass monster. Is that clear?”
“Very clear, Sir Hoffman,” Captain Weibel said.
“Indeed, that’s a good plan, Lieutenant,” Adelyn added.
“Then let’s start. I’ll take the left eye.”
“And I’ll take the right eye. Say, should I fire an ADW MPAT at it?”
Hans considered her request for a few seconds.
“I’d say not yet,” his finger hovered over the fire button, as his voice turned cold. “Open fire!”
Two fast-moving MPAT rounds sliced through the night sky. Even with Hans and Adelyn being a few kilometers away from the monster, their shots only took barely a split-second to reach the creature. Two powerful explosions opened up the battle, and the creature roared painfully as it stumbled.
“Reload. Quick. MPAT again!”
“Copy!”
The two turned their hulls in the other direction, as the creature began charging at them. It began jumping, hopping up and down in a rush to reach them. But in just a few seconds, two more rounds pummeled the slime. It exploded violently, leaving massive chunks on the ground.
“One more! MPAT!”
“Loaded and firing!”
Two more pinged straight into its sides. The monster was almost winded and disoriented by the two explosions. But it continued. Hans noticed something as they began chipping away on it. He switched to his thermals—and immediately, obscured partially by its cold outer body, he saw a hot center inside.
“Aim center mass! MPAT again!”
“On it!”
The two opened fire at the same time, pummeling the monster’s central point. It landed with a powerful thud on the green fields. Hans checked the thermals. The hot core, the center, became more pronounced. It seemed that the more mass they excavated using their rounds, the better.
“It’s too close!” Adelyn warned. “Let’s back out now!”
“Rog!” Hans answered, as the two galloped away from their previous positions. They immediately began widening the distance, as the monster tried to chase them even more desperately this time. But it seemed that the speed of the Peacemaker and the Diligence were beyond superior to what the slime monster was capable of achieving. “Alright, let’s try APFSDS this time around. Maybe it’ll work better!”
“Alright. Center mass again?!”
“Yep! Let’s try hitting that core! Maybe it’ll do something!”
The two immediately loaded a fresh new APFSDS on both of their barrels. Pulling into a hard stop, their guns stabilized and aimed themselves at the creature’s center. It continued hopping up and down, but their guns tracked it well. Then, Adelyn gave the order to open fire.
The two sabots violently flew through the night sky. Slamming straight into the central parts of the slime monster, it created a violent perforation deep into its body. But otherwise, the sticky, slimy mess eventually sapped the two depleted uranium penetrators of enough energy that it began sinking. It continued slicing through the monster, but both of them went into wildly different angles inside—completely missing the core.
“Bad effect on target!” Hans observed. “Switch back to MPAT! Let’s try chipping away again at its center!”
“Copy!”
Their autoloaders worked quickly, funneling in a new fresh round straight into their main guns. Side-by-side, their guns opened fire at the same time. It flew into the creature, creating two more explosions that fully stopped it. Hans observed the situation on the thermals.
“It’s exposed!” Hans shouted. “Alright, without that slimy mass stopping our sabot, we should be able to pierce it. I’m loading a sabot now!”
“I’m trying out my ADW MPAT! Maybe it’ll have an even better effect if aimed at its core!”
“Good call.”
The creature roared one last time, as it attempted to spray its black liquids at the direction of Hans and Adelyn. But the rain of black sludge failed to even extend for a few hundred meters. It fell way too short of reaching Hans and Adelyn.
On the other hand, their guns opened fire in good order. An explosion tore through the creature’s body—as water entered its most internal parts. The gush of water that Adelyn’s MPAT round summoned almost splashed heavily into the creature’s slimy parts, mixing and neutralizing it. Meanwhile, Hans’ sabot followed suit, piercing straight inside.
The creature roared in pain, as it tried to retreat.
“Alright, Captain Weibel! Finish this thing! Attack at once!”
“Copy that! I’m ordering them to move.”
Hans and Adelyn also charged forward, chasing the demon as it tried to retreat to its puddle of black goo. But it was cut short as massive spheres of water appeared in front of it. The balls of water immediately rained on top of the creature, and it further destroyed its bodily structure.
Then, behind it, Adelyn fired another ADW MPAT. The round tore through the creature’s back, fully collapsing it, and inundating its interior with water that almost melted it. The entire battlefield was now a mix of flooded water mixed with black sludge. And all of it was quickly being mixed and diluted.
A final attack came from Captain Weibel’s mages, as a massive ball of water, probably the equivalent of a few hundred tons worth of water, appeared in front of the creature. It immediately burst open and washed away the slime demon. It wailed in pain one last time, as its body was completely dissolved.
Hans pulled his mech on a stop right in front of the wet fields ahead of them, as he smiled at their work.
[1 Demonic Entity Liquidated]
[LVL UP! NOW LVL. 28]
[PROGRESS TO LVL. 29: 30%]
[MECH UPGRADE SLOT AVAILABLE!]
[AVAILABLE AP: 720 PTS]
Well, at least it’s smoother this time, heh.