Now
The mantisor boss charged forward with amazing speed. Whether it was a different one or the same one from before had respawned, Cal didn’t know, nor care. It just needed to die.
Salamander let loose with a gout of flame from the mouth of their dragon-like helmet.
The red cloud forced the mantisor boss to move to its right lest it be consumed by the inferno.
Its path took it right into a burst of projectiles from one of Volkharion’s larger drones. This one was vaguely canine in form. It had four legs that could carry it at speeds approaching sixty miles per hour. In place of its head was a four-barreled weapon platform that could fire a variety of ammunition.
The projectiles peppered the mantisor boss. They cracked, but didn’t penetrate its tough carapace. They did cause it to stumble slightly, which allowed Volkharion’s close combat drone to latch on to its back and score deep gouges with its metal claws and buzz saw-like head.
Cal nodded appreciatively from where he floated high above the battlefield. Far enough to stay out of the way, yet close enough to intervene if necessary. Though he had a good feeling that wasn’t going to be necessary.
The mantisor boss shook the vicious drone off and swung at it with a scythe-like forelimb. The agile drone landed on its four paws and scampered away.
The monster was distracted. It didn’t see Resplendent Zabriium barreling toward it at nearly two hundred miles per hour.
The Threnosh definitely had the strangest power armor. At least in terms of appearance. Every other one was bipedal. Zabri’s power armor resembled nothing less than a pony-sized unicorn centaur. If one discounted the detachable back half then the power armor looked pretty normal. It was heavily armored, two legs, two arms. Aside from the scimitar-like metal horn on the forehead of the helmet there were no external weaponry. It was the detachable back half that allowed the power armor to showcase its true strength.
It could gallop at speeds well beyond what any natural equine was capable of. Its internal musculature provided physical strength that vied for second place behind only Primal’s on the team. Its superior inertial dampening system, combined with its heavy armor meant that it was able to ram into steel walls and come out the winner.
Zabri plowed into the mantisor boss. The impact sent it tumbling across the charred remains of the forest for a good thirty yards.
Dralig, who was riding on Zabri’s back, leapt off and opened up. Four hands and enhanced strength meant double the minigun firepower.
The projectiles tore into the mantisor boss as it struggle to rise. At this range its carapace started to fail under the relentless assault.
It screeched and blurred to get out of the line of fire.
Salamander was already waiting for it. They had sprinted to get into position before Zabri had even begun their charge.
This time the flame that jetted out of their dragon helmet was closer to yellow in color. The mantisor ran right into it.
No scream emerged from the monster’s mouth as the oxygen was sucked from its surroundings, its lungs. It desperately fled the cloud, but Salamander’s flame breath wasn’t simple fire, it was mixed with a flammable gel-like liquid that adhered to things.
The fire that coated its body weakened the mantisor boss’ carapace further.
Salamander knocked it to the ground. Their power armor made them strong, while the scale-like armor was impervious fire. They stabbed the razor-sharp metal claws of their right hand straight into the now brittle chest carapace of the mantisor boss.
Its eerily human-like face was frozen in a soundless scream.
It struck at Salamander with a scythe-like forelimb, but they parried it away with an armored arm.
The Threnosh’s dragon helmet spat flame. This time it was a thin stream that went right into the mantisor boss’ open mouth.
Salamander leapt back as the monster thrashed on the ground for a few more seconds before it finally fell still.
The sound of clapping from high above drew the Threnosh’s attention.
“Nicely done!” Cal descended. He wrinkled his nose as he regarded the mantisor boss’s burning corpse. “Smells worse.”
“Thank you, Designation: Honor,” Salamander said.
“Your guidance was crucial,” Dralig said.
Cal shook his head. “Give yourselves credit. The execution was nearly perfect.” He turned his head back to the five approaching Threnosh, Team One. “You guys had a much tougher time.”
“Honor is correct,” Caretaker nodded.
The others didn’t react any differently. Cal thought Primal might’ve grumbled. He was tempted to check with his telepathy. Perhaps attempting to foster a friendly rivalry between the teams to get them to push each other to greater heights wasn’t a winning idea. Or maybe it was?
A sudden chime in everyone’s ears drew their attention.
The spire notification of a success and a new opportunity at the same time arrived as expected.
“And there it is,” Cal said. “Team Two, go reload and see to any necessary repairs. We’ve got some time. I don’t have to accept this right away. Once you’re ready, we’re going to take out the secret boss.”
“The notification states that it is the True Boss,” Shira said.
“Eh… same difference,” Cal said.
----------------------------------------
It started slowly. The ground trembled at first. Then shook noticeably.
“Earthquake?”
Caretaker shook their head. “This region is not seismically active.
It continued to ramp up as the ground shook.
“Okay…” Cal levitated a few inches up.
The rumbling reached a crescendo as the ground jolted from one side to the next. Several of the less physically capable Threnosh fell. Cal quickly lifted them up with his telekinesis.
“The hive—” Caretaker’s warning was too late.
The ruined aboveground portion of the structure burst. Rubble rained down on Cal’s hastily erected telekinetic shield.
A towering behemoth of gnarled and blackened wood roared as it emerged from the hive’s remains.
Cal’s jaw dropped. “Holy shit! It’s a treant?!”
There was a collection of knots in the middle of its trunk that almost looked like a face if one squinted. “Buurrrnnnnerrrsssss…” The knots moved. Eyes opened and a deep rumbling voice emerged from the mouth.
“Double shit! It can talk!” Cal’s eyes were wide. “Monsters don’t talk…”
“Fall back to secondary zone.” Caretaker’s voice was calm.
The Threnosh and Cal followed the order. They retreated three hundred yards with all possible haste. Zabri carried two of the slower ones on their back.
They watched the treant completely emerge from the ruins of the hive. It was enormous, bigger than a three story house. Several gnarled branches that grew out of its trunk seemed to move like arms and hands. They looked strong and sharp. The bark that covered its entire surface was blackened, charred. There were many cracks that wept a dirty, amber-colored liquid. Sap? Blood? Sapblood?
“I was not expecting that for a secret boss. I was expecting something closer to the mantisors, at least mantisor-adjacent,” Cal mused. “That’s how it was back on my world.”
“Meeeee… Buurrrnnnedddd… meeee… paaaiiinnn…”
“Well… that’s interesting,” Cal said.
“You have insight, Honor?”
Cal nodded. “Maybe, but it doesn’t matter to the immediate situation. I’ll tell you guys later. We’ve got a secret boss to kill.” He sighed. Truthfully, he felt a little guilty about possibly being responsible for the treant’s condition. Treants were supposed to be wise, chill beings from what he had read. Granted that was fiction, so perhaps he didn’t need to be guilty. After all he had yet to encounter a monster that wasn’t malicious.
“Primal, you may loose at will,” Caretaker said.
The arrow struck like a bolt of lighting. The treant recoiled with a bellow as broken shards of charred wood sprayed out from the impact point.
The treant moved toward them. It looked plodding but in actuality its long, tree trunk legs quickly ate up a large amount of distance with each step.
Another arrow flew. The treant shielded its center face with a thick arm branch. The limb shattered.
The treant was two hundred yards away.
“Projectile fire,” Caretaker said.
Recoilless rifles and miniguns opened up and chipped away at the treant’s bark. None more accurate than Caretaker’s algorithm guided aim.
“Volkharion, harassment.”
The Threnosh didn’t give any indication that they heard the order, but they immediately complied. Their large square-ish backpack detached and unfolded to reveal the canine drone. The bulbous growth on the side of their right thigh did the same and the feline close combat drone stretched out in a lazy manner, eerily similar to its biological counterpart. The growth on their upper left arm opened up and released a small drone that looked like cross between a bird of prey and an attack helicopter. It hovered protectively over the Threnosh.
Volkharion pointed and the three drones charged the massive treant.
The canine drone kept its distance. It fired projectiles from its four-barreled head, while it circle-strafed from outside of the treant’s reach. The flying drone did much the same, but from an even greater distance as it launched micro missiles that exploded chunks of the monster’s bark. The feline drone was more audacious. It ran low to the ground as it dodged clubbing branches. Its buzz saw-like head spun to life as it hopped onto one of the monster’s tree trunk legs and cut a long furrow as it ran up.
The treant kept coming anyways. The barrage of projectiles did nothing to slow it. Neither did the drones.
One hundred yards away.
“Volkharion, pull back your drones,” Caretaker said. “Frequency.”
A group of disk-shaped speakers popped up from their hiding places in the ground debris. The treant ignored them as they hovered around it on their anti-gravity propulsion systems. Frequency’s determined face was visible through their transparent face-plate. The air around the treant seemed to shimmer with the sound waves emitted by the hovering speakers.
There was no effect. The monster simply ignored them and continued lumbering toward the group.
Seventy-five yards.
“Kynnro.”
The Threnosh raised their left arm and fired a stream of ashen particles that bloomed into a large cloud in the treant’s path. A bright red laser flashed through the air a split-second after the monster entered the cloud. Explosive fire enveloped it and obscured it from view for a moment.
“Buurrrnnnnsssss…”
The treant slowed, but it kept coming.
Fifty yards.
Kynnro raised their right arm. A small canister shot out of the launcher on the top of their gauntlet. It exploded into a small cloud of reflective particles around the treant. The laser followed a moment later. It multiplied several times as it created a web of lasers that scored thin lines into the monster’s blackened bark.
Thirty-five yards.
“Salamander.”
The dragon-armored Threnosh step forward and let loose with their flame breath.
The treant howled as the fires on its surface intensified, yet it still kept coming.
Twenty yards.
“Disperse.”
Caretaker’s warning was either prescient or lucky, but either way it saved several of their teammates.
Sharp, black roots suddenly burst from underground and snaked their way with surprising speed at the individual Threnosh.
Thanks to the alert none of struck dead on. At worst they delivered glancing blows that damaged, but didn’t breach the power armors.
From his observation perch floating above the battlefield Cal finally acted. He sent a bludgeoning telekinetic force that hit the treant like a giant, invisible fist. The monster swayed back like a tree under hurricane-force winds. At the same time, Cal pulled the more vulnerable members of his team, Frequency, Kynnro and Volkharion, out of the snaking roots’ reach.
Primal’s shoulder-mounted minigun spat out projectiles at the roots tearing through the ground to reach him. The projectiles shredded the grasping wooden tentacles, but one made its way through to wrap around their power armor’s left arm.
The treant pulled at Primal. The Threnosh resisted, but they slowly began to slide toward the monster.
Inside the power armor’s torso Primal ignored the flashing red warning lights. They calmly engaged the piece of equipment they had purchased after the first mantisor boss fight, but hadn’t yet had the opportunity to use in actual combat.
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Armored panels slid open and three adjacent rings of razor-sharp teeth, like a chainsaw, emerged. At Primal’s command they roared to life. They spun around the power armor’s barrel sized arm and sheared away at the grasping roots.
One mighty tug later and Primal was free. They quickly swept a wide swath of ground in front of them with their minigun as they backed away.
“Primal, grenades in the ground, equal spacing,” Caretaker said as they dodged out of grasping roots and fired at the treant with impossible precision.
Primal complied without a word and the grenade launcher on their left shoulder discharged its entire magazine to blanket the ground area between the treant and the Threnosh.
Explosions sent up great clouds of ground debris and shredded roots.
The treant bellowed in pain.
With the opening, Cal was tempted to swoop in and start tearing into the treant to look for a weak point, but he held back. He wanted to see what the team was going to do.
“Zabri, Shira. High speed insertion,” Caretaker said.
The unicorn centaur power armored Threnosh took off like a rocket. Great clods of forest detritus were left in their wake. They hit one hundred miles an hour when they neared Shira.
Shira’s power armor was filled to capacity with mantisor blood. It was easy for them to hop on Zabri’s back as they zipped by.
The treant’s roots and its many branch arms tried to spear or smash the pair. Zabri zigged and they zagged to avoid them all.
One of the larger branch arms clubbed into the ground right in front of them. Shira leapt from Zabri’s back as the unicorn centaur power armored Threnosh, just barely skirted around it. Shira blurred as they climbed up the limb.
Zabri peeled away at two hundred miles an hour, leaving the treant with a face full of dirt.
Shira moved faster than an unaugmented eye could follow. Their superior strength, speed and blade-covered power armor made quick work of all the grasping branches that tried to stop her ascent.
Operating at maximum power was a dangerous gambit. It meant that they would rapidly deplete their blood stores. Shira had a plan though. The treant’s lifeblood would supply the power that would see it dead.
Shira’s black power armor blended in with the charred surface of the treant. They made their way through the tangle of branches that attempted to bar their way. The Threnosh reached the central trunk of the monster and proceeded to tear into it like a starving animal, which wasn’t far from the truth.
The thick bark gave way to a softer interior. The treant’s light brown inner flesh seemed to pulse. It was covered in a sheen of the sticky amber liquid that Shira presumed was its lifeblood.
“Yessssss…”
A feral grin crossed Shira’s face as they plunged both clawed hands into the treant’s inner flesh.
Shira savored the pained bellow that erupted out of the treant. They could almost taste the agony. They couldn’t wait for what was to come next.
They were sorely disappointed.
Instead of the rush that accompanied the taking of an other's blood, Shira felt nothing.
“Nooooo,” they groaned.
“Shira, report?” Caretaker’s voice carried a hint of concern.
Shira wanted to let loose a snarl of frustration. Didn’t Caretaker realize that they needed the blood? That without it their strength was nothing. They very nearly did lose control.
Shira took a deep breath as they reluctantly pulled their hands out. “I cannot utilize the organism’s blood. Requesting extraction. Fuel reserves at five percent.”
“Understood,” Caretaker said. “Zabri—”
“Belay that,” Cal said. “I’ll get them.”
Cal zoomed across the battlefield at high speed. The treant’s branches whipped at him, but they weren’t able to penetrate his telekinetic shields. He plucked Shira from the treant’s trunk with a telekinetic grip and carried them back to their lines.
Cal switched his comms to speak directly to Shira. “You have to be careful. Like I’ve always told you. Be in control of your power armor, er… trueskin. Not, you know, the other way around.”
Shira’s face was unreadable, concealed by the scary, fanged face mask. Their eyes were hidden by the currently opaque, reddish lenses. “I— I understand, Honor.”
Cal nodded. There was nothing more to say at the moment. He switched his comms back to the team channel. “We can probably chip away at it all day, but I’m thinking there’s a weak point we can hit to end this sooner.”
“I concur,” Caretaker said. “Scans and my algorithm indicate that there is a seventy-three percent probability that the organism has a vulnerable core at this location.” They sent the information to the rest of the group with a subvocalized command word.
Cal turned to the treant. The overlay on his helmet’s face-plate pinpointed the location. It was directly in the middle of the monster’s main trunk, right behind its knotted face. “Poor bastard,” he muttered. “Might as well put it out of its misery.” He reached out with both his telepathy and telekinesis. He probed the spot Caretaker had indicated. It was difficult to put into words, but what his combined powers showed him was that the treant felt something like concern towards the space in the middle of its trunk, behind its face. At the same time he felt, sensed a pulsing that originated from that area. Life, power, both. There was no distinction. “You’ve got the right spot, Caretaker. Got a plan to take it out?” He was fairly confident he could’ve done it himself, but this entire exercise was for the benefit of the Threnosh.
“Yes,” Caretaker said immediately. “Salamander, how long can you maintain your flame armor?”
“I’ve expended much of my fuel. I have enough for approximately forty-seven seconds.”
“Can you get through the organism’s bark within that time constraint?”
Salamander nodded. “The flames will weaken its defense.”
“Honor will serve as aerial transport for Salamander and Kynnro. Once in position above the organism, Kynnro will deploy their fire cloud. The flames will mask Salamander’s insertion and further weaken it.” Caretaker turned to Zabri and Dralig. “You will provide further distraction. Aim low, target the legs to keep its attention on you. Volkharion, you will do the same with your range-capable drones.”
“Understood.” The Threnosh replied in unison.
Cal suppressed a pleased smile.
Volkharion’s drones went first. They resumed harassing the treant in a similar fashion as earlier.
Zabri and Dralig followed suit. The latter rode on the former’s back while blasting away at the treant’s trunk legs with two recoilless rifles. Weight considerations took precedence over firepower, so Dralig had to ditch the dual miniguns. Zabri ran circles around the monster at nearly eighty miles an hour. The dust and debris they churned up made it difficult to see the monster. Fortunately they had other sensors to rely on.
“I think that’s our cue,” Cal said as he grabbed Salamander and Kynnro in firm telekinetic grips. He took them well above the treant, beyond the reach of its branches.
“Proceed when ready,” Caretaker said.
“Understood.” Kynnro sprayed their ashen cloud directly on the treant. They ignited it with their laser a second after.
“Buurrrnnnnerrrsssss… paaaiiinnn…”
“Jeez. I’m going to feel like an asshole after this,” Cal muttered.
Salamander looked up. “I am ready for insertion.”
“That you are. Good luck! You can do it!” Cal grinned. “Fire it up!”
Salamander’s power armor suddenly ignited. Somehow the flames emerged to cover the armor’s surface. Not even the Threnosh knew exactly how the ability worked. The spire only explained how to turn it on and off. There was no mention about the underlying science magic behind it.
Cal shot Salamander like a guided missile right where they needed to go.
The fire cloud did nothing to Salamander who was impervious up to even greater temperatures. This was not the case for the treant. A creature of wood was not one that dealt with fire well.
It took Salamander less than twenty seconds to dig into the treant’s core with their claw.
“I have located the heart of the organism. It is a crystalline structure the size of my hand. Scans indicate that it is generating a considerable amount of power.” Salamander paused. “Shall I destroy it?”
“No!” Cal shouted. “Can you pull it out?”
“I believe so.”
“Great. Do that instead… carefully.”
Salamander grabbed the crystalline core with their clawed hand and pulled hard.
The effect was instantaneous.
The treant’s cry was cut off and it ceased moving.
Cal descended to ground level to take the treant’s core out of Salamander’s claw. He looked up at the monster. It resembled a poor burned out tree.
“What purpose does that serve?” Salamander eyes were focused on the core floating in Cal’s telekinetic grip.
“It might serve as a power source for our base. If not we can sell it for what I’m guessing is a good amount of points in the spire marketplace.”
The rest of the Threnosh approached the unmoving giant.
“Did we complete the task?”
As if in answer to Kynnro’s question a loud chime suddenly sounded in everyone’s ears. The ubiquitous voice and text that the Threnosh had seen more often over the recent weeks appeared.
“Revert from spawn point,” Cal said hastily.
Congratulations!
You have defeated the True Boss.
You have reverted Spawn Zone 315349 into its base state.
You have received 150000 Universal Points.
Enter a spire to claim your reward.
Additionally you have gained control of Encounter Zone 315349.
Operating Parameters can be determined by the Leader and designated deputies.
Cal thought hard. He let out a sigh of relief when the zone’s interface appeared in his vision, while the spire’s voice droned in his ears. Finally. It had been delayed a month, but they finally had a proper farming zone.
“Honor,” Kynnro’s voice interrupted Cal’s internal celebration. “Were monster’s on your world capable of speech?”
“No, no they weren’t.”
That was certainly an unsettling discovery.
----------------------------------------
Then
Cal was only paying half attention to the scared and angry voices that filled the council’s conference room. He prodded at his closed right eye with a wince. The entire right side of his face was an ugly blue and purple bruise. His entire body ached. From the dozen plus bandaged cuts to the muscle fatigue that sapped his will to even shift in his seat.
The gremlin alpha really did a number on him.
Cal glanced at Remy next to him, who had his head back against the wall, eyes closed. His brother was physically untouched, but creating a tornado of metal with his power to kill his gremlin alpha had taken him past his limits.
Eron was standing near the door. He looked mostly fine, just covered in cuts, scratches and one bite that looked to be already healing. Cal owed his youngest brother one. The gremlin alpha would’ve been too much for him had Eron not been there to tank it. Even in a supporting role, Cal got his ass handed to him by the monster.
Which made it amazing and very lucky that Nila and her group were able to kill an alpha on their own. Although it wasn’t so amazing or lucky for the half of that group that died or that suffered serious injuries, like Olo, who got a concussion along with some broken bones.
Nila was resting back at Remy’s house under Megan’s care. Aside from a concussion of her own, Nila didn’t have any other serious injuries, lots of small cuts, bruises and contusions. Cal thanked God that it wasn’t any worse. He was still kicking himself for abandoning her to face the gremlin alpha on her own. The guilt was eating at him. He abruptly started to rise from his seat when Remy’s grabbed his arm.
“What?”
Remy cracked an eye open with a grimace as he slowly turned his head to look at Cal. “Nila will be fine without you for another half hour.”
“I don’t need to be here.”
“Yes, you do. It’s important for morale. Everyone’s freaked out. If we start showing how freaked out we are…”
Cal settled back into his seat with a sigh. “For the record, looking like we got our asses handed to us, which we did, is also bad for morale.”
“Nah, the important thing is that we killed four of those alphas, which is what we’ll need to remind everyone…” Remy paused, “well, Eron will.”
“Huh?”
“We talked it over before we came here. You and I are pretty fucked up, plus you’re not in the right head space. Positive talk will sound better coming from him, since he’s mostly fine.”
Cal nodded. “That makes sense.”
The large rectangular table in the center of the room had enough seats for maybe twenty-five people. It was barely half full. The council members and their aides along with a few others.
One of whom was an old man, long-retired military. He was the defacto leader of the community’s unofficial fighting force and he was in the middle of giving the after action report. Cal forgot his name.
“We are still assessing, but we expect casualties to exceed eighty percent.”
“What? That many people were killed?” Councilwoman Devon Castleton’s voice was horrified.
Unlike her usual demeanor, Cal could tell there was nothing fake about her reaction.
“No.” The grizzled old man shook his head. “The term casualty refers to anyone that took an injury in combat. As I said we are still assessing. As far as the KIA count,” he swallowed, “it currently stands at thirty-two. This might change in the coming days.”
Cal closed his eye for a moment. He wondered if he knew any of those poor, brave people.
“That many! We have less than one hundred fighters.” Devon’s eyes searched the room until they landed on Cal. “What were you doing?” She pointed at him in accusation.
Cal regarded her with his one open eye. He slowly pointed a finger at Eron.
Eron rolled his eyes. “We were fighting and killing those gremlin alphas.” He nodded to the old man. “Tell me, colonel, what would’ve happened had the three of us,” he nodded at Cal and Remy, “not been present?”
The colonel’s face was unreadable as he locked eyes with Eron. “Our forces are not equipped to handle those hostiles.”
Cal was tempted to use his telepathy to get a sense of the colonel’s feeling toward them, but his head was pounding, it was like there were hundreds of nails being hammered into his brain.
Eron raised his hands. “We shouldn’t be trying to assign blame. We need to start talking about what we’re going to do moving forward.”
“From what the colonel says it sounds like our manpower will be drastically reduced. I’m concerned about the next night something like this occurs.”
Cal couldn’t remember the councilman’s name. He had marked the middle-aged man as the ‘smiling guy’. Reminded him of a politician, which made sense. The man wasn’t smiling now. The look of grave concern on his face didn’t need to be faked. Cal gave him points for realizing the trouble their community was facing.
“The monsters have been escalating for the past month.” The councilman looked to the colonel.
“All of this magic and monsters,” the colonel’s taciturn face broke into a grimace, “isn’t something I’m familiar with. Hell, sirs, ma’am, I wouldn’t believe any of this if I wasn’t seeing it for myself. Even then part of me still doesn’t want to accept what’s happening. This might’ve been the big push and they’ll need to regroup, which will give us some time. Or the next attack will be even worse.” The colonel took a deep breath. “Either way we are in trouble. We’re looking at an eighty percent reduction in combat capable personnel. We depleted our entire ammunition supply in the battle. It’ll take Mr. Del Campo weeks to replenish it to the same level. We simply don’t have that time. Even with a break in attacks.”
“That’s right. Defense isn’t going to cut it anymore,” Eron said.
“So, what? We attack?”
Eron nodded to the councilman. “MLK high school was something called an Encounter Challenge. In the events of us rescuing all those people from those racist assholes it turned into something called a Spawn Point. At least that’s what the spires’ message said. I know pretty much everyone in this room has received a message one way or another, even if it was just that first introductory one when this all started. The particular message I’m referring to implied that unless the secret boss monster was defeated then the high school would continue to produce monsters. As we are finding out they no longer remain within school grounds. The solution is simple. To stop the attacks we need to go and kill that boss monster.”
“Impossible!” Devon scoffed. “Aren’t you listening? The colonel just said that we don’t have enough people. And besides we only have your word that this spawn point nonsense is actually real. We’re not going to go along based just on your say so.”
“Oh, you misunderstand,” Eron shrugged. “When I say we, I’m not referring to the rest of you. I’m referring to us,” he pointed at himself, then to Remy and Cal. “I’m merely being friendly and offering others the opportunity to join in. Figure there’ll be some good rewards and lots of Universal Points for killing the boss and claiming the area. Like I’ve been saying this whole time, you all should’ve been focusing on getting people with magic and skills the points so they can get stronger.” He inclined his head to the colonel. “No offense, but you can’t fight these monsters with guns and ammo. You simply aren’t going to be able to produce enough before you get overrun. We need to raid.”
Cal frowned. Eron was mostly right, but he was being entirely too aggressive in his approach. People were terrified and when they were like that they tended to double down on what they knew.
“You’re right.” The colonel proved Cal wrong on at least one account. “When will you be ready for this assault?” He gave Cal and Remy a significant look.
Eron answered for them. “A week max. We heal fast.”
Cal thought that sounded like an overly optimistic estimate. He didn’t know about Remy, but he didn’t think that he’d be near a hundred percent in a week.
The colonel nodded. “Volunteers only. We’ll focus on people with skills and magic.”
“The majority of those are minors,” the councilman said.
“How can you even suggest sending our children into that place?” Devon was genuinely aghast.
“Volunteers, with parental consent for those under the age of eighteen,” the colonel amended. “One week maximum. However, I’d suggest moving as soon as you feel you’re ready. Meanwhile, we’ll do our best to defend any attacks. I’m not going to lie. It’s going to get ugly.”
Cal had waited long enough. He stood up from his chair against the wall and left the conference room. He ignored the looks Remy and Eron gave him. He belonged in one place and that was by Nila’s side.