Chapter 120: Coordination and Chaos_Unwilling Eldritch Horror of Fortune

The volley of frenzied fire did its job at whittling down the first wave of enemies, but the mutants that inhabited the inner circle of the city were much more tenacious than the ones in the outskirts. They kept coming at us despite the heavy losses on their side. It was easy enough for me to deal with them, even in my weak human form, but they were wising up to the fact that fighting me was a waste of time and resources.

Within moments, the wave of monsters circled around my forward position and started to run towards Myra and her party. I would have thought that they would panic at the face of such insane numbers, as that was the state that I saw them in initially, but they remained defiant.

The only good thing that I can say about our current situation was that the foe had engaged at a range and the streets provided the perfect environment to launch a long ranged assault. The mutants couldn’t all pour in the narrow streets at once, and their own numbers worked against them as a few of the more clumsy individuals tripped and fell, hindering everyone else behind them. It also made missing a shot all but impossible.

“Let’s show the guide what we’re made of!” Myra shouted as she unleashed an insane volley of bullets; Alina was ensuring that her leader could continuously output accurate shot after shot.

Whatever ammunition Myra was using was causing her bullets to pass through every body in their path, leaving small holes in the oncoming horde. Unfortunately, it still took a few hits on vital areas to actually down one of the mutants. The ones in the center of town were evidently also more durable as well.

“They’re within range, Myra,” Bishop spat, “I’ll bog down the lead group, that should show everyone else down. You got any of those laser rounds left?”

“Three shots,” she answered, “It’s the last ones I got, but if you can group ‘em well, it’s worth the cost!”

“Got it!” Bishop answered, “Alina, help me out here!”

“Roger!”

“And you probably want to move to the side, sir guide!”

I wasn’t sure what they planned to do, but I moved out of the immediate path of the mutants and fell back with the rest of the party.

Once they saw me in the clear, the rate of fire slowed down as Alina focused her energy on Bishop. He turned his gaze onto the oncoming mutants and started his chants. Almost immediately, a few dozen creatures in the lead started to slow down as every muscle in their bodies started to spasm uncontrollably. No, I looked closer and saw that it wasn’t every mutant that was effected, Bishop was targeting the ones near the sides of the buildings, so that the enemies behind the effected would naturally move closer to the center to avoid their awkward allies.

He was creating a funnel using the incapacitated mutants.

“Now!” he shouted, “Scorch them!”

With a swift, easy motion, Myra swapped magazines and pressed the trigger, aiming right down where the majority of the mutants were. The results were instantaneous. A huge flash of light that almost blinded me passed through the muzzle of her gun and down the line of enemies. Everything in that superheated plasma was instantly vaporized, along with a sizable portion of the building behind them. The survivors quickly lost all motivation to fight after that, and scrambled to retreat.

The actual fight was over within minutes, all things considered, and I could tell by the excited cheers coming from the three Aspirants that they were quite happy with what they did. But… they didn’t really do much to warrant that kind of celebration? All I saw was the use of a very obvious and simple tactic, while they used a limited resource to do the brunt of the work. Were they happy that they didn’t run away this time? I was beginning to have a harder and harder time understanding the thought processes of these lower lifeforms.

“Damned good work,” I said regardless of what I actually thought, “Good use of tactics and your limited resources.”

“Thank you, sir!” Alina beamed, “It was your guidance that allowed us to expand the use of our abilities. We would have never thought to employ those types of tactics otherwise!”

Wait… they wouldn’t employ those tactics without me? How the hell were they fighting before then? Did they just rush in without any kind of plan in mind? I’m starting to think that I severely overestimated the abilities of Myra’s party initially. Sure they were organized and could scout effectively, but they couldn’t strategize worth a damn.

“But we can’t do that for much longer,” Myra grimaced, “I got two of those shots left, and almost nothing else of that caliber remaining. Hope it’s enough to get us to the center, we all need to regroup and rest after this.”

Now that I thought about it, it was odd that none of the members of Myra’s party resented me for placing them in here. I mean, I had been the indirect cause of the loss of at least 2 members of her party, but it was almost as if the three of them were functionally unable to blame me for any of that. Every time they would show even the slightest amount of unease, I would say something generic and they’d perk up immediately.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I never had this issue when I was talking with Rogue, Xalla or even Alice, but with these normal Aspirants, it was like I was an entirely different species altogether. Nothing they did when they spoke to me made any sense in my mind, and it took but a word from me to change their entire way of thinking. It felt like I was dealing with small animals rather than other intelligent beings. At least my interactions with the Abyss guild was still relatively normal, although I think that might be due to how abnormal everyone in that guild was.

“Damn, that whole fight was worth 3 levels as well,” Alina laughed, “How about you two?”

“3 levels here as well,” Bishop answered, “Not too shabby for a few minutes of work. We’re better than I thought.”

“I got 5,” Myra added, “And I bet we’ll get some nice rewards if we clear this stage as well. Let’s not waste any more time and get going.”

“Lets not get ahead of ourselves now,” I interrupted their cheer, “We’re not out of the woods yet. Celebrate when you’re done.”

The three of them immediately stiffened up and regrouped. The way they changed behaviors really did remind me of reprimanding a particularly enthusiastic dog. I could just tell that interacting with them was going to get really grating, really fast.

“Right,” Myra said after calming down, “Let’s get going. Distribute your attributes on the move, you two.”

“Roger that!” Alina replied.

The party moved again, but this time I stayed a little further away from the rest of the group. I just couldn’t stand being in the presence of their useless chattering. The second they made any sort of minor achievement, whether that be avoiding a fight, doing a little magic show to trick the monsters here, led to so much useless self-praise. They had to do this horrible cheer whenever a new level was achieved. I couldn’t stand it. I just wanted them to stop talking for even a second!