"Team one in position, payload is ready."
"Team two here, roger that, we are ready to move, awaiting orders."
"Team three, are you ready to engage?"
"Team three here, there is a bit of delay, we discovered a new type with unknown strength. Ensuring that it leaves before engagement."
"Can you confirm the new type, Blundermiss?"
"Got eyes, can take it out if needed."
Looking down my scope at yet another new type, I watched as it stumbled slowly away from us. It's the same long armed type we had seen before when we first came to the centre of the town.
We were split into four teams. Team one has Winter, Silver and Dawn. Team two is Melody and Ghost. Team three has Lemon, Aerith and Jupiter. Blundermiss is me while Sheep is…
"Shepard, new type has exited the stage. Reconfirming, new type has exited the stage."
"Roger. Team one, prepare payload and go on my mark."
About 300 metres from my location sat an opening in the wall, the southern gate. Ghost had scouted out earlier and found no holes or collapsed parts, so far our plan would work.
"Team three prepare yourselves. Team two, as soon as the payload has gone off you are to move into position. Blundermiss please confirm, what is the status beyond the gate?"
"Blundermiss here, beyond the gate is clear. I repeat, it is clear."
Speaking softly into the radio handset, I frowned a bit as I checked the gate once again. The Husks never once stepped past it, like they were avoiding entering. Taking a breath in, I looked towards team one who were in a building across the street from the gate, three large barrels filled with petrol, each member having one each.
"Blundermiss move into position, Team three move into position. Team two move into position."
Quickly and quietly moving, I jump over a few buildings and arrive next to team two. Without a word, I crouch down and wait for Sheep's next order.
"Team three is a go!"
Aerith stands, swirling magic around both her hands and she slams them into the roof. An improvised ice wall appears, a bridge to the other side, to the gate. Another appeared where team one sat in wait.
"Team three and Blundermiss go!"
Leaping from my position, I moved quickly as the roars of Husks rang out loudly, all of the surrounding Husks becoming aware of our location. Stepping onto the ice bridge I move quickly with team two following me.
"Team one, deliver the payload!"
As I reached halfway I saw a barrel fly next to me before dropping into the crowd of Husks. Looking up at the other bridge I saw team one moving over, all three having thrown their barrels.
With a final leap, I landed hard on the ground across the gate as teams one and three landed with me. Turning around and raising my hand gun, I heard Sheep's next order.
"Team two go! Light em up! All other teams, cover Aerith!"
The sweet sound of a salvo rang out as we all fired on the crowd of Husks who had started to charge towards us. On the ice bridge that I came from, I saw Ghost carrying Melody on his back. Melody had a wicked grin as she held three already lit molotov cocktails.
"BURN!" Hearing a rather wicked laugh, I watched as she lobbed one molotov after another right at the spots where the now cracked and leaking barrels of petrol sat. The moment they hit, a large bang resounded as fire quickly spread throughout the Husks at all three points. Feeling the heat, I covered Ghost and Melody as they jumped down.
"Aerith!" Sheep calls out. Turning my head I saw Aerith, who had paled a bit, straining herself. With her name being called out, Aerith exhaled and slammed her palms together.
"Ice wall!" A massive ice wall shoots up, covering the gate completely as we all stop firing. Aerith drinks a mana potion hastily while turning to Sheep. "I have two hundred mana left."
Turning my head, I saw the giant dragon laying there about seven hundred metres from us, resting with its eyes closed. A surprised it hadn't reacted to our salvo, I looked back at the ice wall. We knew it wouldn't last long, the fire on the other side burnt brightly as well, the smoke rising high into the sky.
As Sheep commands the others to move towards the dragon quietly but quickly, I quickly move myself and find a spot to lay down, a small spot that allows me to lay comfortably while aiming my sniper.
The plan we had is simple. A lack of time meant only one solution; a blitz. The fact the dragon hadn't reacted to us is the biggest advantage we have to ensure the blitz succeeded. and as I watched the group move up towards it I held my breath in anticipation.
600 metres, 500, 300…Seeing everyone fan out while Jupiter and Aerith stayed behind them, I kept my finger on the trigger, aimed directly at the dragon's eye.
200 metres, 100. Getting within 50 metres is the most optimal for most of our group, with 10 metres for Dawn, Ghost, Silver and Winter. As the group reached about 80 metres, the dragon started to stir.
"Sheep!" Nearly yelling to my second in command behind me, I heard his voice on the radio.
"All teams. Blitz this fucker!"
Dawn sprints towards the dragon, closely followed by Ghost and Winter. Melody and Silver both unpin and throw a frag and incendiary grenade as the others raise their weapons.
I slow my breathing as I see the eye slowly open, I fire. I watch down my scope as the dragon's eye and nearly half its head is blown apart, the opening shot to the battle dealt the highest damage.
An angry roar resounds as everyone fires or uses spells, the grenades land true on the dragon's gigantic back, exploding or setting it on fire. The dragon roars once more as it turns its remaining half a head around, confused by the sudden assault it’s under. This dragon has intelligence, it’s not mindless like the Husks. I could see confusion wracking its remaining eye and movements. By the time it reacts to our barrage, it has already been badly maimed. It stretched its massive wings and without hesitation started to gain altitude. A powerful gust of wind blew past with each flap of his wings.
"The fucker is planning to run! Burn it down!"
Not wanting to be left behind, I aimed at its other eye, adjusted for the wind from its wings and fired, but it dodged. I didn’t miss, the dragon clearly whipped its head to the side and dodged. Surprised at this, I witnessed it starting to dodge what it could, though only partially succeeding as our barrage kept up.
Seeing it finally get airborne, the dragon opened its mouth, and realising what it's about to do I aimed once more, this time at the joint between wing and body. Squeezing my trigger once more, I watched as the wing joint exploded in a burst of blood and flesh, its wing barely hanging on its body.
The dragon falls from several metres, body crashing hard, causing the ground underneath me to shake. I saw everyone near the dragon nearly lose balance. The fire breath it had been about to release spewed out everywhere, enveloping several people causing my heart to sink. Deciding to trust in Melody to shield them, I kept tracking the dragon but I had a feeling there was something wrong.
"It's healing!" Hearing Winter's voice through my handset, I moved my scope towards where I had provided the opening shot and saw most of the wound had restored itself. It’s healing itself, and it’s fast.
Seeing those who had been hit by the fire breath emerge, I felt relieved seeing the blue barrier around them but could see burns along their arms, clothing burnt and smoke drifting off them as they pat the fires off themselves. Turning my attention to the beast's wing joint, I saw that it had already started healing.
"This isn't good, the blitz is failing."
"Ice wall is breaking, we have at most three minutes."
Unscoping, I used Hawkeye, taking in the situation of the fight. Everyone was still firing on the beast, wounds were appearing but they wouldn’t last long as the dragon healed. As I watched everything, I saw Dawn slamming the hilt of her sword on her shield, shouting at the dragon. The dragon’s head kept snapping to her, as if it couldn’t take his eyes off her.
I saw Winter moving in its blindspots, blasting its underside with her shotgun, the blood of the dragon spraying her and those near her, Silver who is slicing the body as much as he could and Ghost who is emptying his pistols alongside those two.
I turned my attention to Aerith and Jupiter who were by each other's side, casting their respective orbs, timing them to hit at alternative times as they also kept an eye on the battlefield, Aerith using Ice Wall to block attacks. I could see from their facial expressions that they were straining themselves, most likely nearly out of mana.
Flicking to Melody, I could see her attempting to treat those who were hit by the fire breath while they still fought. Lemon stood there, carefully spraying the minigun at certain moments, matching the pace that Winter and the others were going at. The healing prevented them from doing further damage, at this rate it’ll completely heal.
Looking at the dragon’s condition, it seems to have finally gotten over its confusion, but our firepower caused massive wounds to appear that were rapidly healing. If we could just stop the regeneration, it would die in seconds under this firepower…My eyes flicker to a point behind the dragon. There the large, black obelisk sat, different from when I had seen it earlier. This time it had a mist of black energy surrounding it, a portion reaching out to the dragon…
Turning my scope towards the obelisk, I waited for an opening. The dragon seemed to be protecting it now, rather than trying to escape. Is it because the obelisk is healing it? Is that why it’s now focusing on protecting the obelisk, or does the obelisk serve another purpose? I couldn’t tell, I just knew that it had tried to escape earlier because we had awoken it with a lead filled meal.
"Dawn, keep its attention! Team one, get in there, hit it from below!"
"Sheep, get them to shift it slightly to the right."
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
"Team three, focus fire on its left flank, give it all you can!"
Seeing Jupiter, Lemon and Aerith move towards the left flank, I watched as they used everything they could. Frozen and fire orbs slammed into it as Lemon lit it up with the minigun. In an attempt to get away from the assault, the dragon dodged to the right…
I didn't waste that chance and fired on the slightly exposed obelisk. The obelisk exploded, realising a powerful gust that envelops the battlefield along with a flash of bright light, that causes me to shield my eyes. A message from the System came up and ignoring it I heard the roars. The roars of Husks all around us, as if all the Husks beyond the wall had become aware of us at that moment.
The dragon’s insane healing instantly stopped, and turning my sniper towards the dragon, I took a pot shot at its newly healed eye, blowing half of its head apart again. Reloading, I kept shooting.
“All teams, use everything you have!”
The dragon, while big, couldn't do anything to us as its wounds became worse quickly. It didn't use its fire breath again, it tried to fly but a shot to the same wing joint I had shot earlier prevented it from doing so and after thirty seconds, it collapsed to the ground, dead.
Another message comes up from the System but I ignore it, turning my attention to the ice wall that is breaking apart. Sheep commands everyone back as I consider the next step in our plan. With the obelisk and dragon gone, our objective has been to escape, but it seems like we've attracted every Husk around the city centre.
"Husks are flooding in from the north and west."
"East as well, its a fucking flood of them."
"Sheep?"
"Working on it." Seeing everyone gather, I could see the horde of Husks from every direction charging towards us. We hadn't accounted for this, it seems that destroying the obelisk had angered every Husk in the town.
The ice wall slowly fell away, revealing cracks that we could see through, showing us a fiery scene beyond it. The fire had continued to spread onto buildings and plants, but there were no Husks, at least none standing.
"We'll go with the original plan. Escape in your teams and rendezvous at the planned location. Don't leave anyone behind. Things might get a bit heated but once we're on the roofs we have the advantage in escaping."
Looking at the still burning streets, I could see certain paths we could run through that didn’t have burning fire. Looking at Winter, we exchanged a nod as everyone ran through the mostly melted ice wall, the horde of Husks right on our tail. Linking up with Sheep, we both jumped onto the remains of a roof, the building it’s attached to burning. We turned and lobbed our incendiary grenades at the mouth of the gate.
Seeing how many had flooded through, we turned and worked on finding a path through the smoke and fire. Covering my mouth and nose as my eyes water from the smoke, I focused solely on moving through the spots that were least dangerous. Flames licked my body and for the first time since arriving in this world I saw my health reduce at a rate of 5 whenever a flame scorched me.
Thankfully we quickly found a way through and jumped past a few more houses. We both turned, panting for breath and saw the wildfire that we had caused and left behind. Taking over command, I spoke through the hand radio.
"All teams, report."
"Team two safe, but not uninjured. We have severe burns on Ghost." Melody's voice rang out first. "I'm treating him as we move, I have enough powder for everyone."
"Team three here. Safe and sound, we too have burns but for the most part safe." Hearing Aerith's voice, I pursed my lips, waiting for team one. Hearing nothing, I felt my chest tighten slightly but trusting in Winter, I decided to continue, at least until everyone is safe.
Minutes passed as Sheep and I continued jumping to different houses, constantly checking the fire that had seemingly started to burn faster until I finally heard the call out I really wanted to hear.
"Team one here. We nearly got swarmed by the Husks but Silver cut open a path. Dawn has acid burns, fire burns and a broken arm but she says she's had worse"
"Team one, get Dawn to rendezvous, Ghost and I are heading there now." Hearing a panicked Melody, I looked up at where we were heading and stopped. Turning around once more, I saw a sight that I wouldn't forget.
The fire had spread. Husks were burning as they tried to run through the fires, not chasing anyone but just trying to escape the fire. The flames were skyhigh, the smoke covering the sky entirely above the town. Hearing an explosion, I looked in a direction and saw the fire where the explosion took place speed up. Shaking my head, I turned to Sheep.
"This town is done for. There is nothing that can stop that fire. The plants growing in the streets will just fuel it and the moment the fire hits anything like a petrol station it’ll just make it worse. We need to escape as soon as we can."
Sheep looked at the raging fire in despair before nodding. "Relay it, tell them to get driving, you and I will meet them further up while also keeping overwatch."
"All teams get to the gathering point and evacuate back to Beta. Fire can't be contained. We will meet up with you all along the route. I repeat…" Hearing confirmation from everyone, Sheep and I made our way towards the warehouse, the first one we had found in this town, while scoping and killing Husks that were on the streets.
I noted that these Husks no longer seemed to be patrolling, they were running around in a rampage, as if they had lost all sense of reasoning…could mindless monsters have reasoning?
"Tsk. We made a mistake, this town might’ve had more to salvage, what a stupid fucking plan.."
"Or it didn't, we don't know Sheep. This plan had been our best bet, we just failed to realise the consequences of it going wrong. Let's focus for now, we just killed a freaking dragon with very little to no injuries, a great accomplishment.”
"I know. It won't all burn anyway, we can make our way back."
"Let's just hope it doesn't make its way to Beta or Alpha."
Landing on a roof near the warehouse, I see the three cars approaching. I jumped onto the road and into the SUV, which contained Melody who is tending to Dawn and Ghost who is driving. Sheep jumped into the minivan and we hit the road.
"You good, Dawn?"
"Everyone is making a fuss over me. I'm okay, just a bit banged up."
"Her wounds aren't light but they're not heavy, as long as she applies these powders she'll be fine. Here, for your burns." Melody handed me a jar, and looking at myself I realised my outer arms, legs, half of my neck and torso were all burnt and badly. My health sat at 45/100, making my heart skip a beat. The pain started to catch up the moment I realised the burns were there and gritting my teeth, I took the powder and applied it.
Instantly stinging pain wrecked my burns as I applied the powder, but the effect is near instant. The powder ate through the burnt and dead skin, and watching it all fall off I saw fresh white, slightly pink, skin directly underneath. Hissing, I applied it all while dealing with the stinging pain.
"Thanks." Handing the jar back over and patting down some of the burnt areas to get rid of the dead skin, I looked up to see we had already left the town. “What is that powder?”
“One of the few Alchemy powders that don’t need to be consumed, it removes dead skin and heals injuries slightly. It doesn’t work for wounds, just rotting flesh, burned skin and so on.” Melody doesn’t look at me while speaking, only going over Dawn’s injuries once again while Dawn herself keeps telling Melody she’s fine.
Turning my vision back towards the town, I grimaced. The entire sky is completely blanketed in smoke and ash, far worse than before. My heart sank at the thought that our plan had caused us to lose the town, a place with resources that we needed like petrol. We had only enough petrol to get to Alpha, but if the entire town is engulfed then we will lose access to it and plenty of other resources, like petrol and potentially other sources of non-perishable food like rice.
"Consequences." Muttering to myself, I turned my attention to the three in the car with me. Ensuring that they weren't injured, I looked over myself once again. My ghillie suit had several burn holes and marks, all the way through to skin, nearly revealing too much skin. My face felt like it had sunburn and checking in the mirror I could see it's all red.
"Not enough to leave scarring, but you're gonna have one hell of time with peeled skin. It’ll be a lot worse for ya as a redhead." Glancing at Ghost, I could see he had sustained a lot of burns himself. "Ironic, isn't it? We caused ourselves more damage then a fucking dragon did."
"That dragon woke up to ten people blasting it with magic and bullets. No wonder we killed it fast."
"It started healing Melody. If it wasn't for Midnight being a crack shot and destroying the obelisk behind it it might’ve been a lot worse."
"Hm? When did you learn about me destroying the obelisk?" Tilting my head at Ghost, he gave me a grin.
"I usually watch battlefields and relay information, of course I noticed team three forcing it to dodge to its right side. Then I saw the obelisk exposed for a second before it exploded and there is only one person that would have blown it up like that. Thought it only worked on living beings?"
"I wondered about that. Perhaps that obelisk is considered a living being?"
"Or there are other factors at play, we don't know everything about this world." Ghost and I continued with our after action report and soon enough we arrived at the turn off into Beta and after another short drive we arrived at Beta. Seeing everyone get out of their vehicles, I took command once again.
"You're all to get treated by Melody, I don't care if you feel fine. Once you're treated, start packing this place as quickly as you can, the fire might work its way here. We'll travel by night, get to it." Giving this command to everyone, I moved quickly towards my workshop and started packing everything I possibly could.
Hearing the door open as I finished packing, I looked up and saw Jupiter standing there with a frown. He isn’t in better condition, burn marks ran up his arms and face.
“Hey, Midnight?”
“Perfect timing. Can you help me with this stuff?”
“Ah? Ah, sure! But first, have you seen the rewards for the System? I think we may need to discuss them.”
“Okay, let me have a look.” Opening the System, I checked the first notification.
Survival Basics: Final
Survive Nexus Event, One: Complete.
Obtain a form of motorised transport: Complete.
Kill a Husk Dragon: Complete.
Reach Lvl 2 in your Class: Complete.
Craft an Advanced Machinery Blueprint: Complete.
Kill 15 Unique Types of Husks: 7/15
5/10 Tasks Completed.
“Oh, we were meant to reach Lvl 2 after the dragon?”
“I saw that too. Were we meant to struggle against the dragon with wooden tools or something? Anyway, look at the other one.”
Clans Unity and Lost Heralds have destroyed a Totem of Necrotic Awakening, freeing the town of Kiloy. They are the first Clans to have defeated a Dragon and destroyed a Totem and have accomplished this faster than all previous iterations, this has been announced to all survivors in the hopes they too can accomplish this.
You will receive the following rewards:
+10,000 Prime Coins to Unity
+20,000 Additional Bonus Prime Coins to Unity
+100 Class Points for every member
All those who participated are now Worthy, those who were previously Worthy are now labelled as ‘Potential Heroes.'
In addition to these rewards, you can select one of the following three rewards for everyone in your clan. You have one week to select one:
+1 Spell Tablet and Talent Stone; this will be tailored to your Class.
+100 Job Points. In addition, you will all receive a quest that will provide additional rewards for your Job.
Temporarily Return to your World: Travel to your origin world for one month. You may bring back two tonnes of equipment or items, to do so you must be in physical contact with either the container or items themselves.
You can also bring others back with you. To do so, you must be in physical touch with the person. Warning: Upon return, they will be placed into a deep slumber to allow their bodies to be adapted to the Prime World
[.]
Looking at the rewards, I glanced at Jupiter with my eyebrows raised and muttered. “Fucking hell.”