The air raid siren wailed relentlessly as I stepped out of the clinic, hastily fastening my ballistic vest and adjusting my helmet. The chaos outside didn’t offer much clarity, only a gnawing sense of unease as I tried to piece together what was happening. My answer came in the form of a deafening backblast from a TOW missile, followed by a fiery explosion in the grassland beyond the village.
“What the hell is going on?” I muttered to myself before spotting a goblin with an RPG slung over his shoulder. I hurried over to him. “What’s happening?” I asked.
“Drake attack,” he said grimly, shifting the weight of his weapon as his eyes scanned the horizon. “I think it’s a big one this time.”
On his back, I noticed a pack loaded with rockets—probably five, maybe more. The sheer preparation spoke volumes about the severity of the situation.
“They don’t usually sound the siren like this,” he added, his voice tense but steady. “Must be something worse than the usual.”
I looked out toward the grasslands where the smoke from the TOW missile strike was still rising. Ok, I didn’t really want to find out unless I was inside of my armored vehicle. I immediately dashed toward my Puma IFV and opened the rear door with a flick of a switch on my remote.
The back ramp of the IFV opened and I immediately jumped inside, in the midst of all of the chaos and carnage surrounding me. I wasn’t really aware of what was going on, but I sure as hell felt better inside of this armored vehicle that might be able to resist an attack from one of the TOWs above my head.
I switched my thermal vision on, turning the darkness of the night into something of a black and white, giving me a better impression of the village surrounding me. The third-person camera gave me a good perspective of the people surrounding me.
I moved to the sight view and moved to the street leading out of the village. I parked my vehicle close to the exit of the village and zoomed on my thermal sight. I saw drakes, lots of them, to the point where my sight became convoluted by the bunch of them.
Heck, the thermal display painted a lot of things: drakes with thick, glowing signatures leading the charge, accompanied by the seething mass of ancient wolves, oversized rats, and—flying goblins? My brain struggled to make sense of the madness. Whatever those flying creatures were, they darted through the air with alarming speed, their outlines erratic and predatory.
“Holy shit, opening fire,” I muttered out loud.
With a press of the trigger, the 30mm cannon roared to life, spitting armor-piercing rounds into the night. The recoil reverberated through the Puma as the shells burst into bunch of tiny fragments, making small fireworks as each round flew into the crowded grasslands.
I observed the carnage as the autocannon shattered each target with extreme prejudice, leaving nothing but splash of blood and meat on its leave. Giant rats burst apart in flashes of red, while the ancient wolves howled in agony before falling lifeless to the ground. You really could argue that these threat was nothing in the face of the 30mm autocannons.
The goblins also supported the IFV with their TOWs and heavy machine gun raining down on the incoming creatures. Bunch of explosions were scattered across the entire grassland, killing anything that dare to approach this village.
“FUCKING WYVERN, GET THE STINGER!” A goblin shouted.
I scanned the sky through the turret, searching for any telltale white heat signatures. Then I saw it—a dragon-like figure, its massive wings flapping ominously as it circled above us. A wyvern. It was right overhead, and I needed to act fast.
Pushing the Puma forward, I maneuvered to get a better angle for the shot. The vehicle’s engine growled as I repositioned, keeping my sights locked on the flying threat. Once I had a clear line of fire, I adjusted the airburst distance on the ammunition settings, ensuring the rounds would detonate mid-flight for maximum effect.
The autocannon began its reload sequence, the mechanism humming as fresh 30mm shells were chambered. On my display, the progress bar for reloading ticked upward—a painfully slow wait when a wyvern loomed above. My fingers hovered over the controls, ready to unleash hell the moment the system was primed.
“Just like sniping those KA-50s, Ain,” I muttered under my breath as a green targeting box appeared around the flying wyvern. A circular predictive reticle tracked just ahead of it, showing where I needed to aim. I adjusted the turret carefully, aligning the gun with the projected flight path, my finger tightening on the trigger.
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The 30mm autocannon roared to life, unleashing a ferocious burst of rounds. The stream of bullets cut through the air like blazing streaks of light, the sharp crack of each round reverberating through the vehicle. Smoke billowed out from the barrel in bursts, coiling around the Puma as I held the trigger steady.
Scales shattered like glass, and the creature’s body jerked violently mid-flight as the shells tore through its torso. Sparks flew as the airburst rounds detonated in perfect synchronization, the explosions peppering the wyvern’s hide with fiery tungsten fragments.
Blood sprayed from the gaping wounds in its side, glinting in the night like dark rain. The wyvern faltered, its flight path collapsing as it spiraled downward in a desperate, chaotic tumble. The final barrage struck its head, splitting its skull with a sickening crunch. The creature’s roar cut off abruptly, replaced by the dull thud of its lifeless body crashing into the ground below.
“That’s one fake dragon to deal with,” I thought to myself, focusing back at the incoming threats.
I launched the ATGMs at the forest, and let the auto-tracking do the rest. The missiles flew out of the launcher, then stroke the group of flying goblins, killing them and scattering their bodies all over the grassland.
As I waited for the autocannon to reload, I let out a burst of bullet from the suped-up MG3, the small bullets came out of the barrel of the machine gun, flying at the grassland, forming a wall of lead that would kill anything on its path.
The grasslands began to quiet as the horde stopped its assault. The drakes’ roars faded into distant echoes, and the howls of the wolves were silenced one by one. Smoke and the acrid scent of burning flesh filled the air as the last of the horde was cut down.
Through the thermal sight, I scanned the battlefield for any remaining threats. The once-cluttered display was now clear, save for the heat coming from the fresh dead bodies that soon lost its heat. The air raid siren finally died down, leaving an eerie silence in its wake, only to be interrupted by a notification.
[Exiting Combat: +19,300 EXP]
[Level Up: 15 → 18]
[72 Stats Points Available]
[15 Skill&Perks Points Available]
The absurd amount of experience I had earned felt almost unreal. I hadn’t broken a sweat from the back of the Puma—just pressed a few triggers, and the horde ahead had vanished in a haze of firepower, all thanks to the autocannon, machine gun, and ATGMs. It was almost too easy, almost… cheating. But damn, was it satisfying. This IFV was turning out to be the best investment I’d ever made.
Name: Ain
Class: Adept Guardian Healer
Race: Fallen Angel
Strength: 70
Agility: 40
Vitality: 100
Aptitude: 124
[72 Stats Points Available]
[15 Skill&Perks Points Available]
I opened the interface, my jaw dropping slightly at the sheer number of stat points waiting to be distributed. My fingers hovered over the screen as I tried to decide. “Holy shit, now where do I even put all of this?” I muttered, grinning like an idiot.
I leaned back, savoring the moment. “This is what I call stonks,” I said with a chuckle, watching the blinking numbers on the screen, feeling like I was holding the keys to a treasure. Decisions, decisions. C’mon, Ain, make up your mind.
Should I put it on agility? I don’t think so, I haven’t used that stat that much, and for all I cared, strength was the most impactful stat so far, it allowed me to carry more, much more. However, I also thought that aptitude was the core of my class, the higher it was, the better it would be. Maybe, it would be better to split it in two?
Name: Ain
Class: Adept Guardian Healer
Race: Fallen Angel
Strength: 70 → 110
Agility: 40 → 40
Vitality: 100 → 100
Aptitude: 124 → 156
Yeah, that’s more like it. I closed the interface, leaning back to think. Distributing stats was one thing, but choosing skills? That was a whole new level of complexity. The sheer number of options made my head spin—not all of them were useful, and some seemed downright redundant. I needed something practical, maybe something synergistic with my vehicle. That would make the most sense, right?
As I scrolled through the list, three options caught my attention. They stood out, likely because I owned a vehicle. The system must have tailored them to fit my situation, and I wasn’t complaining.
* [Armored Ambulance - Skill] Increase your vehicle speed by 25% and reduce all incoming damage by 50% for 10 seconds.
* [Offensive Defender - Skill] Increase your vehicle firepower and damage by 15% for 10 seconds.
* [Medevac - Perk] When carrying an injured person, your vehicle speed and durability increases by 10%
Might as well grab all of them, no? Then, upgrade them five times.
* [Armored Ambulance +5 - Skill] Increase your vehicle speed by 40% and reduce all incoming damage by 60% for 10 seconds.
* [Offensive Defender +5 - Skill] Increase your vehicle firepower and damage by 40% for 10 seconds.
* [Medevac +5 - Perk] When carrying an injured person, your vehicle speed and durability increases by 20%
Now that’s what I’m talking about. I closed the status menu. The battle was over, and the night was still long, still, I felt some kind of victory in my mind, even though these goblins might think that this was only a temporary one.