43

The Volunteer Mission

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On the outskirts of the ruined city, heading into the east district, Alduin’s group had finally reached their destination. However, their expressions were far from happy. After facing the lizardmen, they realized it was a death wish for a regular human to face the lizardman head-on.

They didn’t know what happened to the other volunteers, but the army itself advised them to hide and evade the lizardmen as they headed deeper into the colony.

But the problem lay here as well. Alduin’s frown deepened as he realized that the mission wasn’t hard in and of itself.

The lizardmen weren’t particularly good at seeking out their prey. They were ambush predators. And without the swamp to support them, it wasn’t difficult to outrun them or prevent them from noticing you.

And while safety wasn’t an issue for cautious people, that didn’t change the fact that there were countless lizardmen in this ruined city. Every street seemed to have them. And each of these scouts had to be passed just to reach deeper into this district. But still, their ability to detect invaders seemed underdeveloped.

However, they didn’t follow the orders. Instead of evading, Alduin and his group systematically broke through from area to area. And each fight ended with a shriek as their combat experience continued to increase.

But even so, compared to the goblins they were used to, this was hardly any challenge. And the longer they thought about this, the more they started frowning as the question grew, ‘why didn’t they do it themselves?’

As Alduin looked out the window, the street of their designated location came into view. The increasing amount of scouts worried him. While they hadn’t evaded any lizardmen, they hadn’t faced more than one either.

A sigh rang out.

‘Is it because we’re waiting that I’m getting nervous?’ But Alduin wasn’t the only one with this feeling. Their restlessness increased as time continued to pass ever so slowly.

Leon stared at his watch and said, “Only five minutes remain.”

The silence was broken and their worries erupted.

“Are we really doing this?” Veleda asked. They were aware of the purpose of this plan, but the further they went, the more they noticed something was wrong.

“It’s way too easy,” Ise added on, “Are we missing something?”

Alduin looked outside with a frown. “We’ve arrived, we’ll escape as soon as we’re done. It’s not like we can’t outrun them.”

But his mind continuously reviewed their mission. ‘Am I missing something? We arrive at our designated area, wait for the signal, light the fire, and from there we’re free to go.’

He couldn’t find anything wrong. While the strength of the monsters was high, it wasn’t impossible to evade them. His caution seemed to blow this situation out of proportion. Not to mention, they hadn't even entered the swamp.

‘It’s a straightforward mission. But most houses don’t even work on gas, so what are they planning with contained fires?’ He thought they might have wanted to start a large fire, but that was impossible in modern cities made out of concrete. ‘Is it really just as a distraction?’

They knew there was a large risk of entering this colony. Especially after the fights they had been through. They also knew the regular survivors would provide the army with a distraction. But Alduin couldn’t help but feel a great unease.

‘We managed to enter this area,’ He decided to push this to the back of his mind. They weren’t in immediate danger. ‘We can finish this mission. We're bound to enter deeper in the future. And that way we won’t be branded as deserters.’

His eyes showed a ferocious glint as he realized they would have become a sacrifice, the only thing that surprised him was that fewer people would die than he expected.

“It’s time,” Leon said. The watch on his wrist marked the time to start.

The four of them sat in anticipation. They were staring at the sky from a room on the top floor.

Alduin gripped the spear tighter as he thought, ‘Where is it?’

But as they waited, a thundering noise surprised them as it rang through the city. It was almost like a whistle that could be heard everywhere. And in the air, a streak of smoke was visible to all, rising to its peak, before it turned into an all too familiar explosion.

“Fireworks?!” Veleda jolted up in shock.

“Light the fire,” Alduin said, “We’re getting out of here!”

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A large collection of pillows, blankets, and every flammable material they could find was drenched with gasoline. They had all received a bottle to light a single roof on fire. Yet, the damage this would cause was extremely limited.

“It’s starting to smoke!” Ise, who had lit the fire, now ran to the stairs.

‘Is this really all?’ Alduin thought, the smoke quickly filled the room as it started to escape through the open window. At the rate it was going, at least the roof would burn down completely.

‘We’ve done our part,’ Alduin was the first to run downstairs, ‘Now it’s time to evacuate.’ Passing a dead lizardman they had hidden inside, Alduin rapidly exited the house.

The cold air overwhelmed him, but Alduin’s eyes were focused to their utmost limit. Several signals of smoke marked the sky, in response to the fireworks that were fired in daylight.

‘Seven groups,’ Alduin counted but his steps never stopped moving. ‘Twelve.’ His intuition was raging once again, but this time he had no clue what to expect.

“We’re almost there,” Ise and Hati, who had passed Alduin, were scouting ahead. Their speed was swift as they followed the path they were familiar with. The path where they had killed the lizardmen. But she suddenly panicked as she stopped at a corner. Hati’s growl was followed up by her voice. “WAIT!”

A piercing collection of shrieks rang out from all over the east district.

“HIDE!” Ise, who was the fastest out of all of them, had noticed this change at the same time the shrieks rang out. She was about to turn a corner but instantly ran back.

“Inside!” Alduin’s heart skipped a beat. But still, he had prepared plenty of backup plans.

‘We can’t reach the safe zone,’ Alduin thought, ‘We've only passed three streets, we’re still too close!’ Their speed was swift, but the situation changed rapidly.

In every street they passed, they had a single hiding spot, this was their contingency plan. And the door, which had been open for weeks now, was finally closed shut as the four of them entered.

“What’s going on?” Veleda asked, but their steps continued moving toward their vantage point.

Ise signaled her to be quiet as she followed her upstairs.

Another series of shrieks rang out from the center of the east district. Shrieks that echoed out even louder than before. The entire colony seemed to be moving.

Alduin was the first to reach the window on the highest floor as his thoughts were raging in his mind. His intuition kept ringing out. ‘I’m missing something!’

“Do you see anything?” Leon asked out of breath as he arrived behind him.

“No,” Alduin replied, “We’re already far from that location.” His eyes could only see a thick plume of smoke rise behind the rooftops. But they could see nothing from where they escaped.

The only thing they knew was that a reverberation seemed to be getting closer as a large collection of loud shrieks echoed out. Alduin looked back at Leon and asked, “How long has it been?”

“…six minutes,” Leon said with a frown, “How is this possible?”

The sounds of footsteps rang out loudly from underneath them. Heavy creatures ran through the street they were in. But the danger that pressed down on them originated from the distant screeching that was drawing closer.

“They’re fast,” Alduin muttered under his breath. His expression was sharp as the situation instantly deteriorated. “It’s happening too fast.”

‘Wait,’ Alduin suddenly realized. “Ise! Give me the map! Tell me the location of the ones we’ve killed!”

His voice couldn’t help but increase. The realization suddenly hit him. The reason why there were only individual lizardmen, the reason why they seemed to arrive so fast.

But before Ise even responded, a gigantic explosion reverberated through the entire city. The shockwave seemed even louder than the explosion they heard in their village.

“What are they doing?!” Leon frowned with frustration.

Alduin pulled the map from Ise’s hands, his eyes looked at the marked locations. The frequency as well as the routes of some scouts were marked down. “We were right!” Alduin felt his body shake, “They’re ambush predators!”

His hand clenched on his spear. His eyes stared outside again. His mind suddenly realized what was going on. “We need to go, now!”

They had been prepared, but the situation was rapidly going out of control. The survivors were distractions, they knew that, but their survival rate was plummeting by the minute.

Veleda, Ise, and Leon couldn’t understand what Alduin had realized. But the tension on his face made them feel shocked.

Ise quickly asked back, “What do you mean?”

“If I’m right then-“

But before his words were even finished another shockwave erupted.

“What’s going on!” Leon shouted.

“There’s no time!” Alduin’s feet started moving, his hand pulled Veleda as he ran for the stairs. The last lizardman had long since passed the house they were in.

“Don’t just stand there!” Ise shouted at Leon, “Follow!”

But they couldn’t help but pause when they exited the building.

“What-“ Alduin was the first to turn and yelled, “RUN!”

“That energy, how many of them are there?!” Veleda asked with wide eyes.

Alduin stared back in the direction of the loud explosion. His heart was racing, his hand tightened around Veleda’s. He thought he knew. No, he did know, he was prepared and he took the best route possible. It was just, the most critical elements were withheld from them.

“Where do we go?” Ise and Hati had once again passed both Alduin and Veleda. They were the scouts, they were the fastest, and they needed to lead the way.

“Follow the route we came!” But at almost the exact same time, all four of them stared back in the direction of the explosion. “Gunshots!” Alduin yelled, “The military is engaging it!”

They all felt what was happening. Monsters. Attributes. Multiple creatures on the level of the Goblin Ruler were approaching the military. And the military was retaliating in full force.

The seventeen burning buildings stood like beacons in these desolate ruins. The gunshots echoed as chaos seemed to increase by the minute.

Alduin’s heart was racing, his hand tightened around Veleda’s. But his gaze didn’t show panic, no, he felt relief. The preparations they had made were saving their lives.

The net that these monsters prepared was tightening around all survivors. Countless lizardmen seemed to appear out of nowhere. But it wasn't their speed, it was their strategic location that would capture the human invaders.

‘They’re ambush creatures,’ Alduin realized, ‘They’re not meant to chase after us.’

The moment Alduin realized this, a ferocious emotion formed in his heart. How many would have survived? His feet kept moving as they passed through the familiar streets. They could even see the corpses of the lizardmen they had hidden.

They had cleared the route. A gap was left in the net that tightened, and with each street they passed, the sensation of survival increased.

“This is our lifeline.” Alduin ran behind Ise, they weren’t wrong this time. Their preparations were enough.

“MIDGARD - THUNDERCLAP”

“ALDUIN!” Veleda yelled out.

They weren’t wrong.