If an artist ever looks for a model of the shit-eating grin, our expedition’s leader will serve optimally. Artists, however, traditionally prefer beautiful women as models. Sharing the preference, I have no standing for a complaint.
T: Ladies and gentlemen, we are overlooking a fundamental issue. We do not desire to advance. It is a necessity because we’ll eventually kill all monsters in a place and need to go on to a new place, but we are actually here to kill and loot monsters. If they keep coming towards us, for example because they think that they have trapped us, that is just as well.
P: Good for as long as they come. And then?
T: Then we can advance over the water.
P: I am afraid that is not so good an idea. They may stop coming, but that won’t last. If we are forced to retreat, we might find us between a danger and a place we cannot cross.
T: Indeed. But we do not want to return.
Z: What? My children are out there alone! And we’d die.
Indeed. What am I overlooking? - Of course!
P: Zoro, are you carrying the orb with you?
Z: Sure. But …. O, I see it.
L: What?
Z: We have picked this space because it is larger than the GDN can sweep through fully and it has multiple apertures.
L: Right! But where will we came out?
P: They do not match exactly, but on the other side we have GPS and two of us can fly. We’ll get back to our vehicles quickly in any case.
Zora pulls out the orb and concentrates.
Z: The next exit is about six kilometers that way.
P: That is on dry land. The next big lake is almost exactly the other way.
T: Do you see that dry hillock in about 70 meters distance? You and Zora fly there and look exhausted and trapped. We’ll give you fire support.
--
I won’t lie. This order has the advantage that I get to see Zora in a bikini. She has the problem of needing to partially disrobe to manifest her wings without shredding her upper garments. So have I, but mine are conjured anyway.
The flight to the island passes without incident. Just as we touch down, a set of tentacles ensnares my legs. Two can play that game. One of my raptorial arms sweeps down to drag the monster forward and to the side, propelled into my stinger. Zora gets in a stab with a javelin, hastening a brutal, but fairly one-sided fight.
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Z: You know, that had a brutal beauty.
P: Thank you!
Z: I sensed nothing. You?
P: Nope.
Z: Why?
P: I don’t know. It was hidden under these vines.
Shots ring out and we hear the sound of fire bolts.
P: Shit. Would you burn the vines just in case?
Up in flames they go. And it start getting out my sniper rifle. They are trying a combined arms approach. About half a dozen creatures that look like a shark and a crab had come to know one another far too well and two dozen giant jumping prawns are advancing slowly out of the ocean.
[Joy of sustained Fire] quickly does its job on the big and slow targets. They aren’t built for speed except for the prawns. The prawns are a problem. They do not charge us frontally. They have divided and are flanking us. Something is directing them intelligently.
I curse and exchange my weapon for the assault rifle with underslung gas grenade launcher, which I put up a barrier of tear gas around a flank and the flank not under covering fire from our allies with, using [Chemical Warfare].
Zora is yelling something which I think roughly means „die you watery bastard“. She is standing up and aiming under great concentration. It takes a lot of effort from me to not pull her down. The enemy is not using missile weapons. My instincts are anachronistic.
She is firing on two poles of water filled with a few red stones. One goes down. Are they officers?
She has the situation in hand.
Did I mention that I have a great field of vision? I do. And it is saving our ass. From the other side of the isthmus a swarm of slinky fish and what lookings like big exocets with trunks has risen into the air
P: Time acceleration!
We both trigger [Eternal Moment] together and I point behind us.
Z: Holy shit!
P: I am going to use artillery at range zero to blow up this island. I can fire from a distance.
I conjure [Nebelwerfer 42] and point it to the ground. We start. The temporal effect is exhausted. The hits our allies are still landing are refilling at least my mana pool. The enemies reach the island. I push the button. We lose control of our flight. We are lucky. The blast wave propels us to dry land. In fact into a tree on the shoreline. Still the landing is brutal. Zora lands on me. If she didn’t break one of my legs and an arm, I would enjoy that. Though having branches pierce my body at multiple places is too much to allow a welcoming reaction.
I trigger [Immortality]. We need to stay mobile.
--
Our allies are coming to us. Zora will soon get medical aid. She is dazed but concious. I still pour a potion into her mouth. A big shadow falls upon us. Dalek-3H raises all three arms, but does not fire. A four-winged bird is swooping down on us.
The palaeontologically interested part of my mind identifies it as a microraptor. The other sides are shocked into crystalline thought. We cannot run. We cannot hide. Our allies can’t help us without shooting us up. There is only one option left. Attack.
I teleport onto its back and fire [Hyperkinetic Cannon] at point blank. I have regained enough mana to trigger [Eternal Moment] for long enough to conjure a lot of cushoning around myself.
That, landing in a swamp, as the decapitated quasi-bird overshoots, its feathery back and my armour make it a surprisingly smooth landing.
Tihomir shouts something and points to the land beyond the isthmus. I think I get him and call up my vehicle as a cabriolet. Except for Zora recovering under the added effect of [Regenerate] and Dalek-3H, who has his own mount, this means standing room only.
Floating across the deep blue water of the lake is beautiful.
P: A magic boat trip with beautiful ladies in a magic floating vehicle. This is the life.
If Maria ever gets some kinds of ocular power I am dead.
M: Choke on that you …
You should never tempt fate twice. A kraken raises its army out of the water. I veer sharply to the right. We lose a javelin and a can of coke going overboard. Dalek-3H lets his cannon on the third arm speak.
Looting this monster after we preen the severed arm still trying to strangle her off Maria, who gets to enjoy [Regenerate] more often than she likes actually yields sliced calamari.