Chapter 61 – Commentary
“Hey, what did I miss?” a tall, well armored man asked as he slid into the viewing hall and sitting next to Tori. “Sorry for being late, the halls are an absolute mess right now.”
Tori looked over to the new arrival briefly before returning her eyes to the screen. “Take a look for yourself.” She handed him a tablet and he began watching the playback of the system event. “Oh, while they are having down time, Weltgan, this is one of my other primes, Jack.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Jack” the demon said with a smirk. “Nice of you to finally join us.”
Jack looked up after pausing the tablet that he had been watching at 10 times the normal speed, his B rank perception easily able to keep up. “The Proverbial Hammer, its an honor.” He said after standing and giving a respectful bow.
“Then we have Lyerinthea, the veiled queen.” Tori introduced the other person sitting in their private box.
“Your Majesty.” Jack said, with a much more formal bow and clipped tone.
“Oh, don’t be that way.” Tori said.
“Yes, please. The rumors of my people are greatly exaggerated.”
Jack managed to find a little courage as he glared at the S grade veiled. “Severe mental and physical trauma has a way of doing that to survivors.”
“Interesting that you call the remnant of an invading force survivors in such a manner.” Tori said. Her tone was blunt, but she still got her point across with the observation.
Looking thoroughly chastised and able to read between the lines, Jack bowed again. “My apologies. It would appear I am misinformed.”
“Don’t worry old chap, I can fill you in on the details after the next wave.” Weltgan said after shoving the prime back into his seat. “For now, catch up on the previous ones so we can focus on what is happening in the ‘there and now’ so to speak.”
The gods and queen turned their attention back to the screen that was showing Matt dealing with a horde of woodland creatures. Woodland creatures that had been swollen to gigantic proportions and thrown at the city in an attempt to destroy it.
The screen projected in front of their booth showed Matt in his construct gunning down a herd of deer like beasts that fired the tines of their antlers as they rushed forward. High explosive ammunition splashed into the ground in front of them, throwing shrapnel into the herd before they could dodge. Almost instantly, the deer were laid low and finished off.
“Well that was eff..” Tori was cut off as a giant badger leapt at Matt and latched onto his constructs left arm. Matt activated the shield projector attached to that arm, dislodging the creature. It fell to the ground on its back before flipping over and coming face to face with an auto cannon muzzle. “..ective.” Tori finished as Matt pulled the trigger and took the head off of the level 34 badger in a spray of blood and bone.
“He certainly has a way with animals.” Herman chuckled.
“But it’s his domain that is most impressive.” Lyrinthea said. The others all nodded except for Jack, who looked up from his tablet at the word domain.
“What do you mean domain?” He asked.
Weltgan leaned over and skipped along on the tablet to where Matt had sallied forth in the previous wave. Jack watched as the young E grade casually strolled forward while he massacred everything around him with a bubble of super-heated air. He saw the insectoid monsters burst into flames just from coming within a dozen meters while his own troops were unscathed.
“Impressive. To have exclusions to a domain at such an early grade is, rare.” Jack muttered. He hadn’t known what to expect from his patrons latest prime and was still unsure of why he was summoned to the viewing room. He was beginning to get the feeling that it was centered around Matt and his… unorthodox fighting style. Not knowing what would happen, he began taking notes on a data crystal as he continued to review the footage. Notes would be important in any event, regardless if they were asked for.
The booth went silent as the occupants watched the fight unfold. They saw the defenders pull back into the city as the beasts began to pile in against the walls. The withdraw executed in a flawless manner that showed a great amount of knowledge if not practice. If only all the beasts stayed outside the walls, then they might get a break.
*****
Brilor waited patiently in the main room of his tavern, cursing his human ears not being sensitive enough to hear what was going on around the wall. Waited patiently was a nice way of saying shaking in his boots. Rohm had told all the noncombatants to shelter inside during the waves so they wouldn’t be in the way if something happened. The first 2 waves had gone well with not a thing making it over or through the walls but this one was different.
This wave had many strange weasel-like creatures that seemed intent on scaling the walls. They didn’t stop to fight the defenders and actively avoided anyone trying to intercept until they landed on the inside. He had managed to identify one that was snooping around down the street from him. Their bodies were nearly 2 meters long and they snaked along the ground as they darted from place to place, popping up briefly on hind legs to survey the area.
Infiltrating Ermine. Level 35
He shuddered, the creature was 10 levels above him and fast. To make matters worse, its fur would change color, allowing it to blend in to nearly any surface. In fact, if it hadn’t been for the dust it kicked up, he wouldn’t have seen the beast at all.
Now he was holed up in his tavern, pistol drawn and pointed at the door. He really hoped the creature wouldn’t be attracted to the smell of the grilled meat that they served to customers. He idly hoped that his girlfriend was safe, she was with a few of the other farmers, holed up in the strange orb thing that Lord Matt had brought in. He wasn’t sure about the little blue creatures that came along with it, but they seemed nice enough so far.
Just as he was beginning to think the coast was clear and the creature had moved on, there was a scraping noise from the front of the building. It sounded like someone moving the tables out on the front porch, under the awning.
Thinking it might be someone looking for a place to hide, Brilor moved as quickly and quietly as he could to the front of the tavern to peer out the window. What he saw was not another citizen looking for cover but the damned weasel creature, snooping around. It had accidentally bumped into the furniture while moving along the building.
Brilor tried to slowly back away, retreating into the darkened interior of the tavern. He had only managed a few steps before a head appeared in the window. The head of a weasel, staring right at him with its beady eyes glinting in the afternoon sun. He took a deep, shuddering breath and nearly screamed as the beast lunged, breaking through the reinforced glass like it was paper.
The weasel monster screeched as it came to a sudden jerking stop and arms breath from Brilor’s face. The monsters jaws snapped closed and it twisted, looking back upon itself where it found another hunter, one that was very well known in these parts.
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Echo had clamped is jaws on the back leg and tail of the ermine before it had made it all the way through the window. With a yank, it dragged the beast back outside over the broken glass and into the street. With a shake and a twist, the drake slammed the monster into the ground, a loud crack heard when the head made contact with the pavement.
Still holding the rear end of the ermine in its jaws, echo stepped over it and dragged his rear talons down the beast’s stomach, eviscerating the creature on the spot with this hind legs. The ermine screamed, a bone chilling sound that lasted only a few more moments until the drake stepped on its head and crushed it to the ground.
Brilor watched in open mouthed horror at what his savior had done to the monster. Echo hadn’t even been scratched as it utterly dominated the fight. He then saw the drake give one last tug and heard bones break as he stretched out the weasel.
Echo walked up to the tavern, stuck his head in the window and looked right at Brilor. The drake then sent him some mental images of the man locking himself in the storeroom and waiting. The man was about to do just that when he swore Echo looked at him, grinned, winked then vanished, perfectly camouflaged into near invisibility as he stalked off.
He shuddered as he walked to the back room. “That one eats for free from now on.” He muttered under his breath as he started down the stairs to the basement.
*****
“Hey, Shit Bitch!” Matt heard a familiar voice yell. As he ran through the streets of Vil’ Krad. He turned down the next street and nearly ran right into the back of the owner of that voice.
Tasha threw a fast ball at one of the weasel like monsters that had climbed the walls and gotten inside the city. This fast ball was olive green and made a distinctive pinging noise after it left the wolfen’s hand.
The ermine, for all its animalistic cunning, was still just an E grade beast and perked up at the noise when Tasha yelled at it. It turned its head to look at them just in time for the steel ball to slam into its forehead and bowl it over. The beast fell to the ground stunned, barely moving as the little green ball rolled lazily next to it and came to a stop. Then exploded.
“Gatcha bitch!” Tasha yelled, pumping a fist. She then punched the arm of the elf woman next to her. “Come on Anreal, let’s try to find the last 2.” She turned and came to a dead stop, as she found her self nose to helmet with Matt.
“Shit bitch?” Matt asked his voice slightly distorted through his external speaker.
Tasha seemed to regain her composure faster than her elf companion and was the first to speak. “Ah, um lor… no, that’s not it. Ummmm. Hi Matt?” she hedged after stumbling after the first greeting.
Matt snorted. “Sup Tasha. Nice throw by the way. Do I want to know where you got more mark 31 frag grenades?”
“It was a reward from the trial!” Tasha said beaming with pride as she flaunted the 4 pouches attached to her belt. “The orb must have known what I needed after getting my new class.”
“Oh? What class is that exactly?” Matt said as he motioned them to move down the road, back toward the wall.
Tasha trotted along happily as she dragged her friend by the hand. “Explosive Savant. I have a skill that I got at the same time that gives me increased awareness of my explosives and their effect.”
“Well, I am glad you found your calling.”
“Um, where are we going? There are a few more of those ermine around by my count.”
Matt glanced over and pointed down a street as they approached the cross section. “You aren’t the only hunters in the city at the moment.”
Following Matts finger, Tasha saw a pile of the Ermine with Echo sitting in front of them, looking particularly smug. Or at least she thought it was a smug look since that was the drake’s primary emotion, based on her experiences with it.
Echo joined them as they jogged up the street to the wall and saw a number of people spaced out along one of the circular roads between the wall and the buildings. Thousands of the lower-level classers had taken it upon themselves to form a cordon around the majority of the buildings in case anything else tried to sneak in.
“Alright, this is where I leave you. Either hang out down here or head up to the wall. Rohm already had response units in place if something else slips through.” Matt said as he turned and raced for the nearest stairs up to the top of the wall.
Tasha looked to her left, seeing Echo still standing there. “How about you?” She asked. “Not going with him?”
The drake turned his massive head to look directly at her before baring his teeth in a fang filled grin and fading from sight. Tasha shivered briefly as she felt a gentle swat from the scaled familiars tail as it moved past without her noticing.
Matt had nearly made it to the ring road along the wall thanks to his new skill. He couldn’t say an exact speed that he was moving at but after the initial dozen strides, it seemed that he was being stretched or pushed forward with every step. His suspicion was that in the mech, he would eventually cover hundreds of meters with every step.
Ten seconds after clearing the ring road, he was teleporting his way up the stairs. While the staircase and landings were generously wide, he still used his teleport to avoid people moving up and down.
Reaching the top, he turned and ran down the rampart toward where his gate was located. As he ran, he observed the defenders that fired from the battlements. He had never seen such a diverse armament as what was on display at that moment.
Besides the few defenders equipped with the modern guns that Tobias had made, there was a mix of starting arms and what had been cooked up by the several weapon smiths who had set up shop. There were the single shot rifles, bolt action repeaters, a few very clunky semi auto rifles and a brace of large frame revolvers. The strangest of them all wasn’t really the gun but the ammunition being fed into it.
Directly above the gate house, perched on a wooden step stool, was Venri. Once again, she was making use of the special treatment for her ammunition and eliminating single targets in the swarm of beasts below. She pulled back after firing a couple rounds, waves of heat radiating off the barrel of her revolving carbine. She opened the cylinder and ejected the moon clip of empty brass before inserting another.
Venri looked up as he approached, stopping to step down and greet him instead of returning to shooting. “Did you get them all?” She was of course referring to the ermine that managed to get in.
“I got a couple, but it was Echo and the roving gangs of classers that were down below who really put in the work.” Matt said as he pulled out a frag and lobbed it over the wall. After a muffled ‘Whomp’ he continued. “Did I miss anything else?”
“Nothing sin…” venri was cut off by a long burst from a nearby machinegun. “Not yet. We think they are about done. We haven’t seen any more coming from the portal.”
Matt heard a series of thumps followed by a whistle. 3 mortar rounds impacted among the massed beasts below. Each explosion lifted several into the air and shredded those nearby. He stepped up to the gap in the crenelation and looked over the side. The beasts had about been defeated, only a few hundred likely still standing as they were whittled down by the defenders.
“I’m going to head back to Van. There might be a boss for this wave that needs me. Keep up the good work, you have my teams’ channel if you need something.” Matt said as he jogged back to the stairs. He ended up jumping from a quarter the way up, using teleport to cut the fall short and save himself the impact.
Once he arrived back at where he left his mech at the gate, he climbed in. “Did I miss anything?” he asked the core.
“Nothing. There was one good knock on the gate, but it was followed by a screech of pain, so I assume it was dealt with.” Van rumbled. “What is the plan now? Did you handle the vermin?”
“Echo got most of them but yeah, they should be dealt with. For now, we…” Matt was interrupted by the spotter calling over the command net.
“Command, the portal just let out some really big shiny boars. They are Giant Steel-Flank Boars all around level 40.” The spotter reported.
Rohm came in a second later. “Hold the line. Let the 90’s take them.” He broadcast to the entire city. The big guns had been his go to favorite for anything that was on the large or resilient side of things.
“Looks like we will be sitting this one out.” Van said, his disappointment clear in his thunderous tone. “Why can’t we deal with it? Been killing those since level 10” He finished his complaining in barely a mutter.
Matt spent the rest of the wave trying to mollify the core while keeping an eye out for any other beasts that tried to make it over the wall. From what he heard on the radio, a few got close, mostly a sort of bird that only flew short distances.
It was after the booming reports of the 90-millimeter guns had finally died down that matt knew the wave was over. He heard a few more short bursts, likely gun crews making sure the beasts were down for the count rather than risking it. He was about to hop out and go help with the clean up when he noticed something strange.
The pillar of light which normally signals the spawn point for the monster waves suddenly vanished. He was just wondering if the event was only 3 waves but then the light returned, this time in 8 places. These pillars were a brown color that was familiar to Matt.
“Command, the pillar has changed. Its now 8 pillars spaced around the city.” The spotter said via radio.
“Command, this is 5. I have a feeling we will be facing stone golems next.” Matt said after the spotter finished his report.
“5, Command. What makes you say that?” Rohm said over his direct line.
“Because that’s the exact color of the mana they use. Or it’s the same as the ones I fought on my way in.” Matt was already making his way over to the hub to brief Rohm on what he knew. They might be in for a little more of a struggle for the next wave if he was right.