[CHAPTER 5]
Moving down the hallway, Leo and his three guards were on guard for any Antithesis. “Alright, here’s the plan. We are going to each stairwell and kit out a group of people much like I did back at the shelter. One of you will stay behind at each spot to oversee the defense. Any questions?”
Glancing back at the guards, Leo saw them shake their heads.
‘Aegys, can we set up a standard package of six Cerberus SMGs and 30 additional magazines to buy at each stairwell?’
Leo grimaced a bit at that. ‘Nothing to do for it now I guess. As soon as I have the points, buy the kit’
As the group walked, the sound of footsteps came from in front of them. Around the bend came a man holding a small child. Seeing this, Leo picked up the pace. “Are you alright?” he asked.
The man rushed to Leo. “Samurai! There are Antithesis that followed us down the stairs. They managed to attack Jenny here before we could escape!”
At that Leo looked closer at the child in the man's arms, seeing that her clothes were covered in blood, ‘Aegys, Nano Regen and Hemo Restore’
New Purchase: Class I Nano-Regenerative Suite
Points reduced to - 10
New Purchase: Class I Hemo-Restore
Points reduced to - 5
Two boxes dropped into Leo’s hands. Opening the first one he saw a syringe with a red liquid and injected it into the child’s leg. The second box contained what looked like a large patch. Taking a guess Leo stuck it to the child's leg and watched as it seemed to disappear.
“Continue down this hallway, the shelter has been secured” Leo said, pointing the man down the hallway.
Giving a nod, the man rushed away while Leo and his team continued towards the stairs. The closer they got, the more blood covered the walls and floor. Leo froze when they came across a Model Three standing over a prone body. Before he could react, one of the guards let loose with his SMG. “Better than letting it continue.” he said without much emotion.
Leo stared for a second before he was shaken out of it by a hand on his shoulder. One of the older guards looked at him, “It’s never easy son. But it gets better. The best we can do is spare their remains in the hopes we can get their family some closure.” Leo nodded after a moment, gathering himself.
“Thanks.” Leo kept moving, stopping only briefly to see if the person was alive.
Before long Leo heard shouts and crying along with an odd thumping noise. Picking up the pace, he came across a group of people. Many of them were laying on the ground obviously injured while a small handful were bracing against the doors to the stadium center.
Observing the team holding the door Leo spotted a familiar figure. “Kat!” She whirled in his directions before her face lit up in relief.
“Leo! I’m so glad you made it! What’s with the new threads?” she asked.
“Somehow I became a Samurai. Figured I might as well stick with what I was familiar with. How about you? You look like you upgraded a bit too.” Leo looked her over. When he last saw her she had on comfortable shoes and sweatpants and their team's jersey. Now looking at her she had sturdy boots and what looked like a leather jacket. In her hands she held a stubby shotgun.
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“No shit, you too? You’ll have to tell me the story later. We have a bunch of people here who can’t move and the Antithesis are beating that door with everything they have.” As if to enforce her point, there was a loud bang and Leo watched as the door bent inwards a bit.
“I’m too short on points to be able to get anyone up and moving right now. I do have my hard-light walls if we want to try for a killbox.”
Kat chewed her lip for a second. “It would definitely help to get our point totals up. I’m sitting on less than 20 after getting my gear. We don’t have much firepower though.”
Leo gestured toward the guards that came with him. “I brought my own. While we keep the door cleared I’ll get Aegys to buy some medical stuff. Some of the people who are up and moving can work on applying it.”
Kat thought for just a second before nodding. “Sounds like a plan. Let’s get set up then.” Putting actions to words, Kat spun around and went up to an older woman who appeared to be directing and pointed her in Leo’s direction.
“Tell me what you need. I’ll get somebody on it” the woman said as soon as she walked over to Leo.
He was taken aback by the brusque tone for just a moment before gathering himself. “Right. As I get the points I can buy some medical supplies to start getting the injured able to move to the shelter. I’ve already secured the entrance and cleared the section of hallway between here and there. What I need is for people to take the supplies and get them to those who need them.”
She nodded quickly. “I’ll get it handled. Just don’t let the plants break through.” With that, she turned and started barking orders at some people who were standing nearby.
That handled, Leo turned towards his three guards. “I need you guys to take down anything that gets through the doors. I won’t have time to get more ammo so if you run out, start getting people moving.” The three guards nodded.
With everything handled as best as they were able Leo got into position in front of the doors. ‘Aegys, can the hard-light walls hold up to the weight behind those doors?’
It is unlikely they would hold if you were to try to fully block the entrance. I would suggest using them to funnel the Antithesis through a narrow gap.
Nodding Leo held his hands out. “Kat! Death Funnel!” She nodded before she prepared her shotgun.
“Now!” With his shout, the people holding the doors backed off quickly while Leo activated his ring.
In front of the doors two curtains of flame appeared to flow from the top of the doors downwards, each solidifying in a 10ft x 10ft square of flame with a narrow gap in the center. With a bang the doors slammed open and then all hell broke loose. With a roar Kats shotgun pulped the head of the first Model Three to make it through the gap.
Target Eliminated!
Reward - 6 Points
For the next few minutes Leo focused on keeping the hard-light walls in place while shooting his Hummingbird at whatever he could lock onto, his three guards filled the narrow gap with as many bullets as they could, and Kat tossed some grenades through the doors making both their points skyrocket.
While the Samurai focused on keeping the plants out of the door, the civilians got to work distributing the medical supplies that piled up behind Leo. Boxes containing Hemo-Restores and Nano Regenerative Suites went out almost as fast as Leo could buy them until soon enough every injured civilian had moved out of the area and towards the shelter.
“Kat! I think we got all the civilians out of here. How are you on points?” Leo asked. He had long since paused the kill notifications.
“I’m sitting at around 2000 right now. Haven't had a chance to spend much beyond some explosives.” She said while chucking a grenade through the doors.
Leo glanced back at his guards who had started herding people to the shelter before turning back to Kat. “Get moving to the shelter and set up. I’m assuming you’re sticking with turrets?”
She nodded. “That’s the plan. How about you? That pea shooter won’t hold the horde back.”
“Don’t worry, I have a plan. Send the guards back.” Kat took off running and Leo focused purely on blocking the doors with his hard-light walls, replacing them quickly as they broke.
‘Aegys, I need some guns that can hold this horde with just those three.’
‘Load three of them with whatever can deal the most damage to the Antithesis and give them to the guards’
“Weapons inbound. Help me hold back the horde while Kat gets set up!” he shouted as the guards came back.
New Purchase: Mark I Hydra LMG (Incendiary) x3
Points reduced to - 1425
The guards immediately ripped open the boxes that appeared nearby. Pulling the weapons out Leo noted that the weapons were styled in shades of red and orange with feather designs all over. The guards immediately set up on either side of him so they could fire through the door.