The Pilot of Wrath

Chapter 45 – Over the Hill and Through the Woods…

Forest Dungeon (Corrupted)

Requirements: E Grade (Met)

Restrictions: 5-person dive. (Count: 4 divers, 3 Constructs, 1 Familiar.)

Objectives: Clear all challenges, defeat all enemies, purify/destroy Dungeon core.

Rewards: Variable based on race/species and class.

Matt materialized on a rocky plane overlooking a forested valley in what appeared to be twilight. Behind them was a near vertical wall of rock, which he assumed to be the edge of this dungeon. The ambient light was the kind of lighting that would be a problem with the gain on his night vision, if not for his now superhuman sight. He looked to his left and right spotting Jess and Lisk, his rear helmet camera already showed him Venri sitting behind him. He then looked down and saw Echo circling just in front of him, sniffing at the ground.

Taking a knee in his mech, Matt began to scan his environment, Jess and Lisk followed suit shortly after. “Anyone see anything noteworthy?” He asked. His current task was looking at his thermal display and adjusting his cameras slowly to try and pinpoint any hot spots.

“Nothing here, just the fog.” Lisk said, Jess agreeing moments later.

Fog? Matt didn’t see any… oh, right. He was able to look right through it with the optics on the mech. “Well, the fog doesn’t bother my cameras so I can spot for us.” He did one more sweep but didn’t see anything. “It looks like there isn’t anything immediately inside the tree line and that is clearly where we need to go.”

“How do we want to do this?” Jess asked, Matt saw her switch to a cannister load for her cannon.

Matt broke down a marching order which was pretty much a triangle with him at the point. Jess and Lisk would trail behind and staggered to either side while Echo roamed and just acted like the fanged menace that he was. Venri was along for technical support and to act as a healer and mobile pharmacy. With everyone set, Matt moved ahead off the open ground and into the looming trees.

The woods reminded Matt very much of where he and Tobias had first entered the forest on their way to the city. The trees were massive, and the undergrowth was sparse, a double-edged sword if there ever was one. While it would prevent them from being ambushed, they would be complete exposed as they moved. Still, there was plenty of room for them to stay in formation as they advanced.

After the first kilometer, Matt called a halt when he got a mental image from Echo. The drake had made his way into a tree and was sending images of a group of mutated beasts moving their way. Matt began relaying the info of the 30 beasts to the other pilots while they arranged into a defensive formation. The fog was thick enough to limit their sight to around 200 meters, except for Matt. He had the benefit of his detection field and his thermal optics.

“Contact. 8 O’clock. 500 meters. Engaging.” Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang. Matt fired 5 rounds of the unstable variety. Each one slightly offset by the natural cone of fire and reaching a different part of the monster pack. Just as the rounds passed over the front lines, Matt detonated them. Each burst illuminating the fog and sending goblets of molten steel and plasma ripping into the beasts.

Animal screams could be heard from the freshly ventilated monsters. The cacophony so loud, he could hear it through the mech armor and the noise damping fog. Still more came on and Matt fired another 5-round burst, this time getting even better results as the monsters had clustered after the initial salvo. Once more, monsters fell to the plasma imbued rounds. He could feel the intent in the auras from Jess and Lisk and knew they would be adding to this slaughter in just a moment.

Boom – Bang – Boom. Once the now smaller horde of monsters came into view, Both Jess and Lisk fired. The Shotgun taking 2 aimed shots with Jess Filling the gap between. As always at these ranges, the nearly 5-centimeter ball bearings made a mess of the thin-skinned mutants. The ground was shredded, like a heard of wild pigs had been rooting around in the area. Not a scrap of it was untouched, leaving the mutants either dead or dying.

Matt moved into the killing field and popped his hatch. He summoned his rifle and put down the last of the mutant animals that were still moving. There wasn’t any meaning behind it other than conserving mana and using the cheaper ammunition to generate. He also didn’t want to risk moving in and risking injury from sone of them either playing dead or with a little fight left in them.

After sealing himself back inside, he gave the order to continue moving forward. They would stay on their current course as it took them through a relatively narrow valley, which would surely draw the mutants in. They fortunately had Echo constantly moving from side to side, sniffing out any that might be hiding and putting them to the fang, so to speak.

They faced a few more encounters. Most of the beasts that came for them were in small groups of around 5. It seemed the dungeon or whatever was controlling it didn’t want to commit but wanted to keep them occupied. Matt didn’t mind, he had picked up another level since entering and knew that the other 2 had as well. He thought things were getting a little stale until Echo flashed him another image.

Just as they were breaking through a stand of rather thick palms, Matt saw the “bridge” that they had to traverse. It was made of stone and spanned a rather sizeable gap. The problem was the bridge was only 3 meters wide if he counted the balustrade. On the other side of the 100-meter gap was more woods framed by the cliff faces on either side. Classic railroading Matt thought to himself.

Echo was lying flat on his stomach and looking down into the depths. And depths they were, the bottom not being visible even when illuminated with Matts weapon lights. The drake growled and slid himself back, scooting with his belly just hovering off the ground so he wouldn’t fall in.

“Well, looks like we leave the mechs here.” Matt said over the radio and popped his hatch. “Unless either of you have some sort of ability to clear that gap?”

Jess was the first to respond after a few seconds of silence. “No, but don’t you think it’s a little odd that the dungeon put this here? An obstacle that perfectly defeats our con… mechs.” She stumbled over the word, her and the rest of the commandos were doing their best to adapt to the term.

“I don’t think this was meant to defeat our mechs.” Lisk began. “Remember the dungeon said originally, they weren’t allowed. This was likely another sort of obstacle.”

“Oh, it’s a trap for sure.” Matt said as he hopped out of his mech and helped Venri do the same. “I am fully expecting an ambush once we are about three quarters the way over.”

Venri looked up at him. “So, what’s the plan then?”

Matt didn’t say anything and just pointed to his mech as Van stood back up and moved to get a better firing position. Venri sighed heavily and followed Matt to meet up with Echo and the other pilots. Lisk and Jess had dismounted and moved to take positions near the bridge.

After a quick huddle to briefly go over the plan, they began to push across the gap. The method was simple and counting on their strengths centered around overwhelming firepower. They would push across as a group with Van providing overwatch. This strategy proved to have been the right choice at around the halfway point.

Through the narrow canyon mouth and dense undergrowth came another horde of monsters. These mutants were slightly larger than they had seen previously with levels averaging around the high 20’s. Matt’s first guess would be over 50 of them but that didn’t matter so much to him at the moment. He was focused on how fast they were closing.

“Take em.” He yelled. Matt had waited until the mutants were out and fully exposed in the gap between the bridge and the trees. As one, both the party and Van all opened up on the wave of braying monsters. The autocannon from Van stitched a line through their ranks which had narrowed toward the bridge head. Everywhere it impacted, parts of mutant went flying in every direction. The discordant banging of the firing and explosive projectiles ringing like out of sync speakers.

Lisk and Jess cut loose, choosing individual targets in the front ranks of the monsters. The shotgun and assault rifle easily ripping through multiple unarmored bodies. Matt handed a frag grenade to Venri and then threw one himself, landing it just past the far end of the bridge and letting it bounce into the enemy.

While Matt’s grenade was well placed, Venri’s was absolutely perfect as she threw it as a very shallow angle. The olive-green ball of death bounced twice, in 2 long skips that carried it right under the feet of the front line and into the middle of the monsters. The following explosions causing bits of flesh and bone raining down on their heads.

Matt saw that they needed to use the secondary portion of the plan and called for them to start backing up. They would use the bridge as a natural choke point which would slow and limit the mutant’s advance but also meant that grenades and the auto cannon were out of the question. None of them were certain how sturdy the bridge actually was and wouldn’t risk it.

Lisk and Jess were first to break and move back, leaving Matt and Venri to cover. While he was very capable with his rifle, Matt was unsure of how well Venri could hold the line with her revolving rifle contraption. He noticed that it had a 7 round cylinder and saw her loading entire rings of ammunition on something he remembered was called moon clips. She seemed to be pretty fast on the reload, but it was hard not to be when stat points were a thing.

Matt was firing in short bursts, putting down a mutant every few rounds but he saw the dwarf load a strange looking clip of ammunition. The bullets were a hollow point design but there was an odd blue glow to these. He didn’t have time to think about it as he and Venri kept slowly shuffling backward toward where Rohm and Jess had set up on their side of the bridge.

Feeling his bolt lock to the rear, Matt let his team know he was reloading. He was looking around as he changed magazines and saw Venri take aim and fire at the nearest mutant, a level 31 bear thing. The round streaked across the gap and struck the beast in its shoulder as is seemingly tried to duck under the incoming bullet.

The mutant let out a howl that ran a shiver up Matts. He couldn’t help himself as he watched the monster…dissolve? No, it was burning. The glow had turned from a pale blue around the bullet hole, to a red-orange that rapidly spread across the torso. It burned away a massive hole in the body of the mutant bear, eating through muscle and bone alike as it collapsed in a smoking heap. The other mutants didn’t seem to care and charged on heedlessly.

Venri fired 6 more times, each one taking an enemy in the torso and each one leaving a half-burned body behind. Lisk and Jess were able to get in on the action and help finish off the rest of the enemies. Once everything had been killed and Van took out a few that tried to sneak back into the woods, they had another quick huddle.

“Ok, just as planned except for one thing.” Lisk said before pointing right at Venri. “What in the actual fuck was that?” Matt was rather impressed, that was the most passion he had seen from the demon other than when talking about shotguns.

Kicking at the ground, Venri muttered under her breath. When Matt and the other just stared at her, she spoke a little louder. “I made a concoction from some materials I got from Matt. Then I refined it into a solid but rather volatile state.” She pulled out one of the clips with 7 rounds, the tips all faintly glowing blue. “It’s tied to my classes and I’m not sure if the effect would be as great with others using it.”

Hearing the possible limitations, all their faces fell. Matt said they should still do some testing after they got out of the dungeon and Venri happily accepted. He was also curious about what ingredients that he had given her to make such a compound. The conversation fell apart after that, and they all looked toward the far wood line. The chat had been as much a time waster as anything, delaying in case there would be another wave.

With nothing left to do, they set off across the bridge once again. Echo was trailing them before he broke off once they reached the far side uncontested. Matt watched him go, scaling the trees and cliff face to get better vantage points. The entire time, Echo was sending mental images of what he saw, intended and otherwise could sense. Matt could do without the enhanced sense of smell and the drake’s impressions of the mutant musk.

“This will be our fallback point in case we get separated and need to break contact. Lisk, you and Jess are one team. Do not lose sight of each other.” Matt reminded the group before they plunged into the undergrowth. “Venri, do your best to keep up with me if that happens, I won’t leave you, but I won’t hesitate to have Echo pick you up either.”

“You wouldn’t.” Venri said, sounding more pleading than offended. She seemed to have a sort of rivalry with Matts scaled companion.

“Ha! Better run fast then.” With a laugh, Matt set up the marching order and they pushed into the undergrowth.

The dungeon seemed to have a knack for creating little hidey holes for Matt and his group to stumble across as they made their way through the second part of the forest. They passed countless trees with hollows under the roots. Boulders creating gaps as they leaned against each other and bushes so dense they might as well have been hedging rows. It was from these places that the party was attacked.

Boom. Lisk fired a slug into a mutant that looked a little too much like a wendigo. “Reloading.” The demon called as he topped up his magazine tube. “It seems like there is no end to these monsters.” He had taken to loading most of his magazine with slug, preferring the single large projectile in these tight, overgrown confines.

“I’m not sure about them being endless but they are literally behind every rock.” Jess said over the team channel.

“Yeah, and you guys aren’t even seeing the ones that Echo is picking off.” Matt added. He was still getting flashed mental images from his companion. It was rather disturbing to see the process of how the drake stalked then ambushed the mutants. While the fog had completely vanished, Echo still managed to take down plenty of the monsters.

Venri shuddered next to him. “I don’t even want to know.”

“Yeah, says the girl that literally burns her enemies from within.” Matt shot back.

“If it works, it works. My class has limits on the ways to scale damage output.” The dwarf paused for a minute. “Actually, it doesn’t, but I have limits on the effect.”

“Bloody cheaters.” Jess murmured. “Am I the only normal one in this group?”

Without missing a beat, Matt, Lisk and Venri, all turned to her and said “Yes.” After a brief laugh, they continued to push on into the woods. Echo had found the end of the section and was sending Matt images that he couldn’t quite make sense of.

After pushing through another series of boulders and hedge, the team broke into an open area with a tunnel… in the floor. Matt assumed it was a tunnel anyway since he could see the bottom slope away and under the cliff in front of them. All along the rim were hundreds of sets of prints in the dirt and mud. This was likely where the source of the mutants was, or at least the path to it.

“You guys are probably going to want these.” Matt said as he handed a single frag grenade each to Lisk and Venri. “Sorry Jess, I can only make 2 at a time.”

“You can make it up to me by letting me stay up here?” The elf phrased it as half statement and half question.

Matt thought for a moment before responding. “Sure, you stay up here, surrounded by brush and forest on all sides while we go down there with only one direction to keep an eye on between the 4 of us.”

“A joke of course.” Jess hurriedly said as Matt pointed out the crucial flaw in her plan.

They slid down the slopes and into the hole one at a time. Matt went first since he could teleport up if he really needed to. The others kept an eye on the opening, guns trained on the dark tunnel. One by one, they joined him on the tunnel floor. Venri followed immediately behind him, moving to the opposite side of the tunnel.

To Matts surprise, the tunnel was actually a natural formation and this hole appeared to have been a collapse or perhaps purposefully dug out by the mutants. Looking into the darkness, Matt could see the natural shape to the walls and even some of the formations made by dripping water. The tunnel walls were about 30 meters apart but varied as the passage twisted out of sight. The ceiling was also low, not more than 5 meters at any given point.

After Lisk slid down the slope, Echo hopped down, displaying impressive agility and stealth as he didn’t make a sound. Venri and Matt had taken up positions on either side of the tunnel, Keeping an eye out for any ambushes. Unfortunately, that was just what was in store as Jess was the last one down after muttering under her breath about mutants and the dark.

A wall of red appeared in Matts detection field, showing a mass of enemy contacts. Without hesitation, he fired down the tunnel, taking the first of them as it rounded a natural bend. The mutants seemed to be mostly of a wolf and lizard variety but had levels in the low 30’s. He just imbued every round and fired into the front runners. The projectiles would pass right through, but that was fine when there were even more mutants behind the front row.

Venri threw her grenade, arcing it perfectly to land in the middle of the tunnel as the front ranks ran over it. A few must have kicked it around since it detonated more to the side than where it had landed. Still, the pressure heaved a dozen of the monsters into the air. Seeing his chance, Lisk threw his own grenade with wildly different results.

The grenade in question hit one of the hanging pieces of stone on its journey to the mutant horde. From there, it bounced backward toward Venri before hitting a boulder and clattering toward Matt. It came rolling right up to his feet and he did the first thing he could think of. He kicked it.

Sweeping his foot downward and channeling the memory of every time he ever kicked a ball; Matt punted the grenade like his life depended on it. The grenade raced out in a flat arc toward the mutants and exploded just in front of them. The blast threw more dust and bodies into the air, but they still kept coming.

Matt had enough and pulled out his rocket launcher from his storage. He selected the delayed fuse mode before centering the sight on the front of the horde and pulling the trigger. The rocket raced out, passing right through a rather large lizard like monster, turning its top half to mush before it exploded in the middle of the pack. The distance had closed to less than 100 meters, but he didn’t care and ducked back behind his cover as the center of the tunnel turned into to fireball.

After the echoing explosion died down and they confirmed there were no more mutants making their way up the tunnel, Matt turned to Lisk. “That, was the worst throw ever, of all time.”

The demon at least had the good graces to look abashed, refusing to even make an excuse. What surprised Matt was Venri. She stomped over, grabbed Lisk by the armor and shook him like a rag doll as she verbally laid into him. He was utterly flabbergasted by the sight and just had to sit back and watch the show.