The Pilot of Wrath

Chapter 46 – Cool downs and takedowns

The tunnel was dead silent other than the occasional scrape of a boot. Nobody made a peep as Matt led them through the rocky passage. None of them wanted to get on Venri’s bad side at that moment.

The verbal tongue lashing she had given Lisk was truly masterful. Matt had heard some good insults in his days. The military and contracting would ensure anyone would be fluent in the ways of insults but Venri took the craft to an entirely different level. Matt was pretty sure Lisk’s ancestors felt the burn on some of them. The strange part was that most of it was oriented around the risk he put Matt in.

Matt wasn’t sure, but he was getting the feeling that Venri was up to something. Her aura was strange at the best of times, and he couldn’t quite figure out what the emotion she emitted was. Her intent also spiked with strange feelings at odd intervals. He was still sure that the dwarf didn’t mean them any harm, but still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was up.

While walking, Matt decided to allocate his free points after picking up a level in the tunnel ‘incident’. He was now sitting at level 38. While he hoped that he could break 40 in the dungeon, he had plans for after this was finished. As traditional, he allocated most of his points but kept 10 in reserve. He didn’t plan to have another snake incident but was prepared just in case.

After rounding a double bend in the tunnel, Matt could see light through his night vision. The light seemed to be like that of mid-day but had an odd color to it when amplified by the night vision of his helmet. He signaled to his team to slow down while he crept forward to get a closer look.

The tunnel ended in a slight rise before dropping away in a short slope that revealed the exit. The light coming in was tinted in color. The sight reminded Matt of the colored filters used in some movies and video games. The kind of filter that would set a theme and was typically slightly stereotypical. This one looked like… smoke, but not?

Matt had seen smoke filled skies, the result of entire cities burning. This had the same hazy brown distortion, but he couldn’t smell any smoke. His helmet wasn’t filtering, and he also had no warning of contaminants in the air. The dissonance was starting to get to him, so he crept down the tunnel, laying on his belly and crawling over the slight hill to get a look outside.

It turned out that Matt wasn’t far off in relating the light to smoky skies, but the source was very different. Instead of plumes rising off the ground and creating a fog in the sky, the cloud cover was entirely a brown, black mix. The smoky cloud cover was complete but thin as it completely blanketed the hellscape of a valley that lay before them. He signaled for his team to join him and get a look.

The only way Matt had to describe what had happened to the woods was as if someone had churned the soil. Churned it with a giant mixer with no regard for the trees and brush mixed in with the soil. Then, after churning, poured it back in the mold of the valley and topped it with a basalt castle for a centerpiece.

The others joined Matt in watching the scene, and they collectively swore at the sight. Not only was the terrain an absolute mess, but it was also patrolled by hundreds of the mutants. The patrols consisted of groups ranging from 10 to 20 with levels consistently in the mid 30’s.

“What the fuck happened here?” Jess muttered under her breath.

“Corruption I would assume. Though, to be fair, I have no idea what that means.” Lisk said, seemingly unphased.

Matt was counting the patrols and watching for any patterns in their movement. While he didn’t have much hope for a logical path for them to take, the mutants had shown some cunning so far. “It doesn’t matter what happened as much as how we deal with it.” Matt began after a few moments watching the movements of the monsters. “We have only 2 real options in this situation. We can try and sneak our way through or kill our way through. Given what we know about the victory conditions, we are going to have to kill them all anyway.”

Venri was first to speak up. “So, what you are saying is that we either kill them on the way to the castle or we kill them once we reach it.” She was stating the obvious but had it right.

“How about we lure them to the cave? We can use it as a choke point to control the flanks.” Jess suggested.

“That was my thought as well.” Matt said. “Even if we don’t get all of them, we might be able to thin their numbers enough to ensure we don’t get surrounded.” Matt was pleased with her suggestion. To him it showed that the commandos were learning, and that the codex had worked.

The group spent the next half an hour working up a plan to deal with the large numbers of mutants wandering the broken and shattered remains of the forest. Their plan would rely heavily on the cave opening as a fallback point but rely more on the cliff walls behind them.

*****

The sun beat down on the weasel mutant as it followed the pack leader around a dense thicket of splintered trees. It didn’t know that the sun shouldn’t do that with how dense the smokey cloud cover was but also didn’t know any different. It paused for just a few moments to try and dig at a particular spot under a log but gave up after a growl from the pack leader. It turned to catch up but was distracted by a noise. A very loud noise followed by another loud noise and very bright light that turned the pack leader and some other mutants into shreds of bone, skin and meat.

The weasel jumped back, startled by the impact of the rocket. It then poked its head up, standing on its deformed hind legs to peer around at what the source of the noise was. It could just make out a few other packs turning and charging at a spot on the cliff wall several hundred meters away. It spotted a plume of dust drifting away from a small green and brown striped figure.

The weasel instantly knew this was the source of the explosion and decided to charge with the other packs. That decision came a second too late as a force impacted its skull, blowing the back of it out and knocking the now dead weasel to the ground. Its twitching corpse was trampled by the rest of the pack in their rush to get the interlopers. The weasel died, trampled and crushed into the mud, never having heard the shot that took its life.

*****

“Nice shot, Jess.” Matt said as he reloaded his launcher. He planned to fire one more rocket before switching to a more mana friendly method of killing. He had picked out that group as the farthest out they wanted to pull from. The current count was 4 packs bearing down on them from the near side of the valley.

Shoving the new rocket into the tube and swinging the gate shut, Matt took aim once again, this time selecting a delayed fuse instead of air burst. He fired into the closest of the packs, halving their number in a single explosion. The delayed fuses were excellent at getting into the center of a pack, as long as Matt could guarantee hitting one of the ones in front.

Matt stowed his launcher after reloading it and summoned his rifle just as Venri opened fire on the group. He joined her slow aimed shots with his own double taps and triple taps. These mutants were more resilient than the previous group, which Matt attributed to their higher levels. Even the increase in durability didn’t save them from the hate that he and Venri could dish out.

Within a minute, the last of the beasts were killed, none of them getting within melee range of the team. Echo seemed to be a little bored and decided to slink off to have some fun of his own. Matt wished him well on his hunt and was already bracing himself for the mental images that came from the drake ‘hunting’.

“Venri, what is the name of those bullets?” Matt asked as he looked at the half-burned bodies laid out before them.

“Oh, it’s not the bullet but what I put in it. It’s called an ‘Immolation compound’ and it’s tied to both of my classes. I can make it because of my alchemy class and use it because of my other class and a skill I have.”

Matt pretended not to notice her glossing over her combat class again. “I wish I had something like that.” He sighed. He really wanted a force multiplier that wasn’t so mana expensive.

Lisk decided to weigh in on the conversation. “The rockets you can fire are beyond impressive, Matt. I would never have dreamed such a thing could exist but here it is.” Jess was nodding along, clearly agreeing with the demon.

“Yeah, but its damn expensive to run. I can only get off 20 of those before my mana is drained completely.” Matt began to survey the area in front of him, looking for Echo and where their next targets would be.

Venri just looked at him before summoning a vial with a blue liquid in it. “Don’t you have mana potions? I can give you some if you need them.”

Matt was forced to stare in silence for a few seconds. “You’re not going to fucking believe this…”

*****

Echo got tired of the waiting. Every time Master was with others, he became so slow, boring. He wanted to go back to just him, Master and the metal one. Those days were more fun, less talk, less waiting for the weaker fighters.

Half the reason Echo sent the mental images of his hunts was to try and tempt his master into letting his true self out. He was not a fan of master’s more reserved persona around others. Still, Echo was a good companion and would find a way to bring out master’s full potential. Maybe he could get the metal one to help?

The thoughts ended as Echo approached another group of the mutants. He had been listening to the occasional boom from the pipe that Master kept calling ‘Carl’. Echo didn’t like that weapon but could appreciate its effectiveness. In this case, it was covering his approach and distracting the dozen monsters in his sights.

Echo had predicted this group would move past a toppled set of trees that he had waited under. He manipulated his scales to match the texture and color of the tree’s branches and bark, not forgetting to leave his lower side black to mimic shadow. His camouflage manipulation was coming along very well, and the recent skill choice only made it better.

Adaptive Camouflage (Rare)

Allows the user to change its color and shape to blend into its environment. Multiple natural colors can be replicated. Allows better control over scale size, shape, shine, color and contrast.

If Echo was able to enhance his skill, he was certain that he could blend into the center of a well-lit room with a little time. He vowed to keep practicing as the group of mutants moved past his position. Waiting for the last in line to pass, Echo snuck out behind the ape mutant.

These ones were strong and tough, but Echo had found a secret to strong and tough enemies. If he could get behind them, he could bite down on the back of their neck and break it with a shake, if he didn’t pierce the spine with his fangs. He was sure this was a well-known method, but he hadn’t seen anyone else use it in this life. Perhaps one day he would meet another that knew of the magic off switch that was a creature’s spine.

Waiting patiently, Echo watched the rest of the mutants file through a pile of rocks and made his move. Just before the ape could move through the gap, Echo sprang from cover using his lunging strike skill. He crossed the 10-meter gap in the blink of an eye, snapping his jaws onto the ape’s neck. He let his momentum carry him past the mutant, and then the weight of his body caught up, letting inertia do its thing.

Echo felt the vertebrae separate under his jaws and the apes body go slack. Rolling with the impact and landing, he dragged the body off the trail and up into a mess of branches just over a hill. He left the mutant after slitting its throat. He knew well that enemies could still be alive after they fall down and refused to make that mistake again.

Returning to the trail, Echo followed the rest of the pack through the gap, keeping low and slow to avoid being spotted. His species already didn’t have a smell, so the only way he would be noticed is if they caught him moving when his camouflage wasn’t as effective. He peeked his head through the gap on the other side of the rock pile, getting a look at the next mutant in line.

This one was a reptile of some sort or at least Echo thought so because it had scales. There was a hard bony ridge that ran down from the top of its head to its hips, covering the spine. Large scales and armored plates radiated out from that ridge, completely covering the back of the beast. He thought this one might be a bit of a challenge if he was a normal drake like in his previous life. But he was not a normal drake anymore. He now shared in his master’s affinity.

Stalking up behind the armored beast, Echo imbued his talons with plasma and swiped them across the neck of the mutant. He only went deep enough to sever the spine again. His goal was to avoid leaving too much of a trace. Once again, he dragged the body to a secluded spot and left it. Returning to the trail of the pack, now a few monsters less, Echo sent a series of mental images to master, sharing in the thrill of the hunt. One way or another, he would get master to embrace the joys of fighting like his heritage and class demanded.

*****

3 empty vials formerly known as mana potions were in Matts expense pouch. The mana situation was solved but now he was starting to feel the effects of firing off over 50 rockets. This had been his first mass use of potions and he had to say the effect was weird.

Potions had a soft cooldown on them. If you drank one potion, it started the 1-hour cooldown like normal. If you had a second within that time, the potion was only half as effective but also added 30 minutes to the cooldown. Every additional would half the effectiveness of the previous one but still add 30 additional minutes to the cooldown.

All this was to say that Matt had spent the last 2 hours firing rockets into the valley followed by a brief, but fierce defensive gunfight followed by another rocket. Despite not having a mana problem, he was still feeling the effects of the concussive blast from each rocket. He remembered the limits they had for ranges using explosives was because of blast trauma more than budget. This time, he had the “Concussed (Mild)” status in his character sheet to let him know he over did it.

“I think I’m going to be sick.” Jess said after they finished with the last group of mutants. “I swear anymore and I’ll be bleeding from my ears.”

“Me too.” Matt said as he pulled off his helmet. For him it wasn’t as bad, more feeling the pains in his chest rather than his head. Score one for a sealed helmet.

“I take back every nice thing I said about that damn thing.” Lisk added on. He had backed far away after the 10th rocket. Jess had followed shortly after, but they had to return to him every time a group of mutants started moving in.

Venri seemed as chipper as ever and even taken it as a personal challenge to create a status effect blocking potion. “Here, these should help remove the effect or at least speed up the timer.” She handed out a healing potion to everyone. Nobody had any wounds, but they would give it a shot.

Matt drank his potion and noted that he had gained another level, bringing him up to 39. “One more to go.” He said to himself.

“What was that?” Jess asked.

“Oh, I picked up another level. So, I’m at 39 now.”

The elf stared at Matt, not saying a word after his revelation. Matt didn’t know what was wrong but ran his identify over the group just to confirm a suspicion.

Elf. Level: 28

Demon. Level: 28

Dwarf. Level: 27

“Ah, I see.” Matt said. Looking down and kicking at the ground.

“Quick question.” Lisk said. “Your trait isn’t a bonus to experience or something right?”

“Follow up.” Jess interjected before Matt could respond. “What the actual FUCK!” she shouted.

Matt took a moment to collect himself. “Yeah, I don’t know what to tell you. My trait has nothing to do with experience.” A second later he added. “It’s probably the risk. Right? The system grants more experience for taking bigger risks. That’s probably why my leveling has slowed recently. I have been doing a lot with you guys around, acting as a safety net.”

Jess just turned and walked off toward the cave opening. After she turned the corner, they all heard the shouting. “It’s slowed down he says! We’re the safety net, he says. What a load of…” Her words faded as she marched deeper into the cave.

Lisk looked back to Matt. “I’ll go calm her down.” He said before following Jess into the cave but still muttering to himself about Matt’s level.

Matt looked to Venri and cocked an eyebrow. “Want to join them or is my bullshit not too much for you?” He was only half joking. There was starting to be a pattern evident when he talked to others about levels.

Venri’s aura did something strange and flickered a few different colors and gave off the feeling of annoyance, but he felt the intent was directed elsewhere. “I wouldn’t disparage others for getting too strong. Your exce… just ahead of the curve is all.” She coughed lightly, changing where the sentence was going.

Matt once again caught the hiccup in her speech, and it was the last straw. He vowed that when they returned to Vil’ Krad he would corner her and demand an explanation. He might try to get Tobias to help since he was better with people.

While waiting for the others, Matt sat down and mentally reached out to Van. He had found that the tunnel blocked his radio, but his mental connection was perfectly clear. To his relief, the core was still there, although complaining more and more of boredom. He said something about the other 2 constructs being rather dull but didn’t elaborate.

Matt, having nothing else to do, sat back and tried to recover while Echo made his way back. He would end up waiting another half hour for the party to be ready to advance into the valley. This time, they would take on a much-reduced number of mutants before finding out what was in the black fortress.