The monsters in the horde seemed endless, almost as though they spawned as fast as they were killed. Not only this, but the stronger monsters in the group seemed to share that trait as well, making hunting them down just as fruitless. Any time they’ve sent assassins after the boss, the strongest monsters of the roost would congregate on the clearing beforehand. It was almost as though it knew who to be wary of… almost as though it had inside information. When they’d sicced the Heartbreaker on it, it’d kept the strongest monsters in its camp in the clearing for almost the entire week. As powerful as Mira Seigan was, even she wouldn’t have been able to fight all of them at once without backup.
They were bound by the sheer amount of monsters surrounding the walls. If they tried to send a bigger party out in response to the boss monster consolidating its recourses, they would struggle to fight through the horde. By the time they’d have made it to the boss monster, they would either be too tired to help, or be dead. They were truly forced to simply sit on their hands… and continue sending out their best stealth people for supplies. At least, hopefully, until today.
Walker’s head turned to the door as Camille entered the room. He’d scheduled a meeting with the woman almost 3 days ago, but due to the current circumstances, she’d been rather busy. He could respect that.
“Mr. Marlowe, thank you for waiting,” she said, shaking his hand. Her business face snapped on tight despite the deep bags under her eyes. “How are you doing today?”
“Hm. As well as can be hoped, given the situation,” he replied. He’d never been one for tact. “Which is why I asked for this meeting. I hope you don’t mind if I get straight to the point.”
Camille sat down opposite to him. “Please do.”
Walker leaned forward, his hands on his knees. He instinctively reached for his pocket before stopping; the builders had banned smoking in their workplace. “We need to pull the people from scavenging to make a strike force.”
Camille frowned. “I… don’t think that’s a good idea, Mr. Marlowe. If we took people off of the scavenging detail, then we’d be liable to run out of supplies within months.”
“Not just one of them,” Walker said. Despite the building’s rules, he pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, pausing his thought to place one end between his lips and then lighting the opposite end. “I meant all of them.”
Camille looked at Walker like he grew another head. “That’s… that’s insane. I don’t think you understand what will happen if we did something like that. We would run out of food within weeks, maybe even a month!”
“I know. It’s a real shitshow in the streets, and it’s gonna get worse before it gets better.”
“Then why would you waste my time by-”
“Listen, lady,” Walker said, interrupting Camille’s diatribe before it could get started. “We’ve got nothing left to lose. Right now, we have to either do something, or die. Sitting around on our asses hoping for a miracle isn’t gonna do anything but send us up to meet the guy giving ‘em out, and the people who are going to die first can’t even do anything about it. We can.”
Camille looked at Walker suspiciously. “You didn’t get this approved by Callaghan, did you? Does your boss know about this meeting?”
“I don’t enjoy handing off my responsibilities.”
“This is a little more important than your pride, Mr. Marlowe.”
Walker got up and walked to the window. Taking a drag, his sharp hunter eyes locked onto the boss monster in the clearing. It was far, but close enough to make out its features. It almost looked like a bug monster with twin axes in its hands.
“Pride is a dangerous thing, Castillo. I know that better than most. But I also know better than most the price of ignoring the reality. And the reality is that if we fuck this up, we’re all dead, anyway. I know this is a risk… but can you tell me that you look at this… thing every day and tell yourself you’d rather stay cooped up and die slowly… without at least trying to take this asshole out?”
Camille was silent for a long moment. The smoke from Walker’s nicotine death sentence flowed out of the window; a quiet attempt to spare Camille the discomfort of secondhand smoke. Finally, she sighed.
“I know how you feel, Walker. I really do. But we can’t just risk everything on a hunch. Those people you mentioned depend on us to feed them, shelter them. If we suddenly stop to make a strike force that might not even succeed, then that’ll only hasten our deaths. We have to be pragmatic, and wait for an opportunity to present itse-”
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“What the fuck?!” Walker suddenly interrupted Camille.
She groaned. “Listen, Marlowe I’m trying to-”
“No, really, come here! Something is happening!”
A confused looking Camille joined Walker at the window, him moving to the side to give her space. When she looked out at the clearing, she saw the boss monster… and what looked like… four figures approaching from the forest-line?
“What is… who is that?” Walker said. Neither he nor Camille recognized their silhouettes, but both their eyes were glued to the figure in front. It looked strange at first, but once they realized what it was, it was easy to make out the details. It looked like a mix of plate armor and banded mail, with a dingy-looking wrap around cloak. The man or woman in the suit of armor held a large, beat up looking longsword, and Camille’s eyes widened as they approached the boss monster without hesitation.
The Threshen warrior watched the burgeoning city from his perch in the meadow. While flower and grass filled area’s weren’t exactly his scene, it was the best spot to keep watch from. The irony of his surroundings contrasted with his accord partners wasn’t lost on him.
He’d laid siege to the town for nearly a month now. A paltry time compared to other sieges in his world’s history, but this wasn’t exactly a capital city. His insiders informed him that they were already low on supplies and were desperately deploying every stealth class user on scavenging operations. Oh yes, he knew. His ploy was already in effect; once they became too comfortable in their schedules, he would trap their scavengers all at once and slay them, dealing a grand and likely final blow. He was only waiting for the moment that would allow him to snag at least more than half at once.
His only concern was someone in their ranks they referred to as the “Heartbreaker”. According to his sources inside the city, it was a human female who was leagues above the common rank and file of the city’s combatants. She had at least a moderate amount of political savvy and commanded the respect and even fear of many within their walls.
Her weakness was her brash nature. She wasn’t a team player; rarely working in groups of more than 2 and never in large operations unless allowed to perform separately. She was confident, but unfortunately, not stupid. When they’d sent her after him, he’d hoped she’d be foolish enough to fall into the trap he’d set for her arrival. She did not.
No matter. Nothing the city’s denizens did would matter. The other Raid Party leaders mocked him upon joining the System Event, calling him weak for falling under the designation of Raid Commander. Said that he was as weak as the fodder they sent out as monsters. All this… but he would be the one to slay the most natives of this planet. He would be the one to crush this city, taking Mazikarn’s precious System rewards for himself. He couldn’t wait to see the look on that freak’s face once he found out.
The Threshen warrior heard a rustle from behind him and turned his head. He saw 4 approaching figures. Humans; he realized with slight surprise. How’d they get past his horde? The bulk of the monsters were focused in an impenetrable ring around the city’s walls. He should’ve been informed immediately when anyone who wasn’t a stealth expert even attempted to break through. Not only did these humans get through, however, they’d made it all the way to him without a single peep from his insiders or monsters. Maybe they hadn’t come from the town? They certainly seemed the same as the other denizens. All except for the human in front, at least.
He or she was covered head to toe in armor. A cloak that looked barely serviceable was a single inch from dragging on the ground, and the person’s sword looked even worse. It was covered in rust; wear and tear making the blade seem like it might snap at any moment.
[Viridian]
[Audacity Knight]
Level: 38
What was “Audacity”? Oh well, it likely wasn’t anything important. He could tell just by looking that the person in armor was a knight class. Their level was high for a native, but it was nothing compared to him, and that was to say nothing of the knight’s companions.
[Human]
[Domain Warden]
Level: 18
[Human]
[Rumbling Sky]
Level: 17
[Human]
[Greater Keeper]
Level: 19
Their classes weren’t bad but their levels were atrocious. He’d commend them for having the guts to come after him if they weren’t about to die.
As the humans got closer, the Threshen warrior sighed in disappointment. Doing nothing but standing around and watching the town was boring, so he’d hoped that the group of humans would’ve at least given him some entertainment. It didn’t seem like he’d even get that.
He turned away from the humans and lazily swung one axe wielding arm at them. A single Lacerate should kill all of them at once, then he can go back to his-
He felt his arm strike something, and be… deflected. In panic, his head shot back towards the humans, only to barely move it out of the way as an old, pockmarked sword stabbed where it’d previously been. The dark-skinned human appeared at his flank, swinging what looked like a shooting star with light speckled darkness trailing behind it. When the Threshen warrior moved to deflect the strike, he felt an array of debuffs land on him, then his hand inexplicably froze up for just the slightest of moments. Confused at what just happened, he was unprepared as the large Morningstar mace landed squarely on his arm. The pressure crushed his arm into his side, and his eyes were wide with surprise at the blow’s sheer power. The Threshen warrior didn’t have the highest vitality stat, but it should’ve been higher than a level 18’s strength stat. This human’s strength was somehow higher than his vitality, and he was sent rolling with a tiny crack in his natural armor.
As he got to his feet, his eyes studied his enemies anew. The knight and the dark-skinned man were in the frontline, blocking the way to the women. Those two women stayed in the back, one of them floating in the air ominously. Lightning crackled all over her body and her eyes were closed; she hadn’t done anything in the fight yet, but the Threshen continued to get a horrible and foreboding feeling from her. He couldn’t put his finger on why, but he was certain that if he didn’t take her down as soon as possible, he wouldn’t win. He refused to acknowledge the feeling in his gut that said if he didn’t kill her first… she would kill him.
He finally found his feet… and prepared his dual axes. Despite his grievances, he now understood… that he would be fighting for his life.