Dawn rose on a town that had achieved peace. Except for the monsters, because there's always more monsters. I woke up feeling pretty good, the two levels I gained yesterday and all the stats those represented were already proving useful, it was 6:00 AM and I felt like I had slept for days. I got up from the chair I slept in, the house was quiet I was probably the first to wake up. I decided to let everyone sleep a little bit longer. I didn't see anyone out killing monsters yet. While I was waiting, I decided to look over my stat sheet since I didn't actually have a chance to see it yesterday after my last level up. Status. I thought internally.
Name: Cassius Heart
Titles: Primus
Class: Void Tainted Spell Blade (Lvl 6)
Unallocated Stats: 0
Strength: [13] +20% effectiveness
Vitality: [18] +20% effectiveness
Endurance: [19] +20% effectiveness
Dexterity: [28] +20% effectiveness
Agility: [32] +20% effectiveness
Intelligence: [42] +20% effectiveness
Wisdom: [38] +20% effectiveness
Skills:
Energy Blade
Energy Control
Burst
Void Tainted Sight
Void Tainted Cowl
My stats were skyrocketing, I felt good about where I was at especially compared to everyone I had met so far. Last night was a cake walk for me, but that's because everyone was distracted, no one even knew what I was doing, my side or theirs. Coming up with and executing a strategy so well it felt like a cake walk was its own skill in my opinion though. Sure, I would have had a little bit harder time if I hadn't been able to use my cowl because it was daytime, or if they were expecting me or weren't distracted, or if I would have been their only opponent, but I would have used different strategies in those scenarios to hopefully make it just as easy for me.
Manifesting my Energy Blade to inspect it, I noticed the shade of energy has become an increasingly darker blue. To my surprise, or after thinking about it for a few seconds, not surprising was that my energy was being taxed to an increasing degree, it took more energy for me to keep my blade manifested. That was going to eventually become detrimental, especially for my cowl. I needed to work on my precision, if I only summoned my skills exactly when they were needed it was going to improve my energy usage, it was something to practice.
By this time, I was starting to hear fighting out in the streets. I decided it was time to go help out. Exiting our temporary residence, I noticed the first squad I had helped, the group with Angie in it. I waved to them as I walked out into the street, and they waved back. However, I decided to help a different group today, I wanted to spread my time out and make a personal impression on as many people as possible. As I walked down the street, I passed a group here or there that would send me nods. I didn't recognize these people, but I assumed they were part of the army last night and had noticed my involvement, I simply returned the gesture and moved on.
A minute later I found a group to tag along with, they were happy to have an additional body. I spent the next hour and a half with these people clearing monsters without my skills, I spent the time trying to improve my footwork, as I used different weapons when I fought seriously, I wanted to work on something that would help my actual fighting style. The time passed quickly and soon I was heading back to Breakpoints HQ. It was a little after 8:00 AM when I arrived, and I spotted my companions seated and eating. I joined them after grabbing myself some food and explained I had decided to help out again.
The atmosphere of the mess hall was solemn but more upbeat than last night. I was halfway through my food when Grover came and asked to sit with us. We agreed, and he set his food down and started eating. There was a slight pause as we all waited for him to say something, but he just kept eating, so we returned to doing the same. We made small talk while he was here, not that we were talking about anything important before, but we weren't going to now. It wasn't until after we were done eating that Grover started talking.
"I wanted to thank you all for your support last night. Like I said we owe you one. Jax would like to talk with you before we move out to take Kontrix's stronghold if you wouldn't mind." He said.
Grover was looking to me for an answer, but I just looked to Gideon to take over the conversation. I still had no desire to look like the head of the group, at least not yet. That may change later, but for all intents and purposes I truly wasn't the leader of our group, while I was leading Andy and Lilly before we met with our allies, it was more like two people following someone who knew what they were doing more than any true leadership. I was even less of a true leader among the full group of the seven of us, for now some people might look to me in certain scenarios, such as combat, but in negotiations Gideon generally took up the role and I had no interest in changing that for now.
"We would be happy to speak with Jax before the mobilization." Gideon responded to Grover.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
"Very good, if you would come with me then I'll take you to him." Grover said as he rose from his seat.
We all looked to each other, then rose to follow him. We walked in silence; Grover was taking us towards one of the houses on this street. As we came closer, I noticed that there were two guards in front of this house, if you weren't looking for it, they would just look like two guards that had gotten too close to each other compared to the others around the HQ. When we arrived in front of the house both guards nodded to Grover and didn't move from their posts. Grover didn't knock on the door, he just opened it and walked in before waving for us to follow. The interior of the house was a nicer version of what you would expect a town house to look like. Jax probably brought all the nicest stuff from everywhere he looted into this house. We were led into a nice sitting room to the right, Jax Vivian and Conrad were already here, I assumed Austin was out playing guard captain, but he might just be late.
"Welcome, please take a seat." Jax said in what I could tell was a forced niceness.
"Thank you for having us. Might I ask what this is about." Gideon said as we took our seats.
"Yes, I saw how you handled yourselves last night during the fights and wanted to offer you the opportunity to come with us to take Kontrix's base." He said with a glance towards me.
Gideon looked around for our thoughts on the matter, everyone seemed interested.
"Sure, we wouldn't mind going with you to capture their base. Do you think there are more soldiers left defending it?" Gideon asked.
"We're not sure but we are going to bring a large group of squads with us to be safe." It was Vivian who answered the question.
"Right, we're leaving in a half hour so go prepare for departure." Jax said, dismissing us.
We all got up and left the house exiting back onto the street and moving to a table to wait out the half hour, we were already prepared to go.
"Jax is kind of an ass huh." Sam said. We all chuckled at the comment.
Over the next 30 minutes we talked about what we might face after we reached the base, would there be an army waiting for us or would it be empty, we weren't sure, but we were prepared for whatever we found. Andy also mentioned he had reached level 4 last night. As time passed squads started showing up and mustering in front of the mess hall, with five minutes to go we joined them. Exactly on time Jax showed up, he asked if we were all ready and after receiving affirmatives we started moving.
After 10 minutes of walking, we started encountering monsters. We barely slowed down, with all the people with us most people in the front lines only had to kill a single monster before the group was gone. It looked like Conrad and Grover were on watch for Barbed Panthers, and when they were found Grover or Vivian would take them out from range. Conrad, Austin, and Jax would take on any raptors we ran into. The rest of the group handled the Saber Wolves and the Beetles.
It was easily an hour of this before we slowed down, we had rotated through our army moving the front line to the back every 10 minutes or so. It kept us moving, so when we slowed to a stop, I was confident we had arrived, I was right. Jax turned and told us we were only a few streets away from the Kontrix main base, and that we were going to slow down and be more careful in case there were any Kontrix soldiers waiting for us.
As our army slowly crept forward on alert for anything to ambush us, I knew better. The only people I could sense through my Energy Control skill were a few people to the northeast, that meant I was pretty much the only person relaxed right now, though when I looked to my companions, I saw Lilly was also pretty relaxed. I raised my eyebrow at her in a silent question. She moved over to whisper to me.
"I can tell you aren't worried about being ambushed, and if you aren't worried, then I'm not either." She whispered in my ear before moving back to her spot.
I rolled my eyes at her, but I had a smile on my face. She was getting sharper and sharper every day, that class of hers is quite impressive, I was proud of her. The closer we got the more people I started picking up with my skill, but nearly all of them were unclassed. There were maybe one hundred people gathered together in what I assumed was the base we were moving to. Of that group there were five people with classes, and they didn't feel very impressive. I was curious if these hundred people are too young or old to fight monsters or if they are like the people back at the Breakpoint HQ who just didn't want to fight. I was about to find out, we were turning the corner onto the street these people were on.
What awaited us on that street were more tents, though all of them were empty of people, however the main attraction was the large church that sat on the edge of said street. It was impressive with a new coat of paint, a mowed lawn, and bushes kept in nice spheres and pruned of dead branches. The spire of the church rose at least fifteen feet into the air, if not more, and the stained-glass windows at the front of the church were beautiful and spotless. Clearly Peter kept his house of worship in good condition, it's unfortunate that he didn't keep his sanity in the same condition.
We couldn't see anyone outside the church, but I knew from the way the five classed individuals moved that they had spotted us. The five of them came together, then parted 15 seconds later and moved to spots around the main double doors leading inside the building. Presumable they were setting up an ambush for us, though surely they knew they couldn't kill us all. It was surprising to me that these people were preparing to die for someone who they had to know was gone, I was almost impressed.
"Surround the church and wait for my signal to enter." Jax announced to his forces.
Everyone moved, doing as they were told and surrounding the church, ready to breach when called. I was surprised Jax was taking this seriously even though there was no sign of anyone still remaining. I advised our group to move around to what I hoped was a back entrance, far away from the ambush. I could have warned Jax about the ambush, but it wasn't worth revealing what I could do. We set up at the back doors and waited for about 30 seconds before we heard Jax shout.
"Breach the building!" Jax yelled loud enough we could hear him from the back.
Upon hearing the signal, everyone including us, moved to enter the building. Some people had it easier than others, Gideon just kicked in the door and we were in, I could hear some of the windows breaking on the sides, and others cursed as they cut themselves on glass or had to take a few more swings to clear their window of glass. Regardless of the minor setbacks, enough people got inside to surround the 100 people standing in the center of the church, however from the front I could hear battle cries followed shortly after by screams of agony. The group of unclassed people dropped to the ground with their hands in the air the second we breached. Well, most of them did, some just stood there looking dumbfounded, a few charged us with nothing but their fists. Those few dumb enough to do so were killed by the squads surrounding them. After a few more seconds of screaming from the front doors Breakpoint squads pushed through, having killed the five ambushers, I wonder how many people died to them.
Jax marched in shortly after with a scowl on his face, followed by the rest of the leaders of Breakpoint. He looked around, maybe searching for other hostiles, perhaps just gauging the remaining people on the ground. After seeing the dumb ones die to us the undecided few still standing quickly laid on the ground with the smart people, there was absolute silence for a few seconds. Then Jax spoke.
"Round them all up. Anyone who tries to run or doesn't cooperate, kill them. I want teams to rip this place apart until they find the food stores and any extra weapons laying around." He announced his orders.
"Let's go search for food or weapons." I told my companions.
Before we left to start our search, I walked up and grabbed the closest person to me. She was a young woman, and she cried out in surprise when I grabbed ahold of her, but she quickly calmed down. After all she had just heard Jax tell us to round them up. I dragged her with me into the back halls of the church we passed on our way in.
"I thought we were going to look for food and weapons?" Iyana asked me.
"We are. She's going to lead us right to them." I smiled back at my companions.