The Pilot of Wrath

Chapter 59 – Set the board

Matt stood outside one of the gates, just behind the low wall that had been built. He was mostly inside his mech, sitting on the opened front hatch, legs dangling in the air and staring out into the distance. He was also rather upset with the System and its countdown.

“There is nothing you can do to change it and it doesn’t really affect anything.” Van rumbled over the mental link.

“Still is a dick move.” Matt said, voice full of venom. “Why give us a countdown to the ‘start’ when you add on 3 more hours with a second wave countdown.” The question wasn’t meant to be answered as Matt was just venting his frustrations. “It’s the same thing as icing the kicker.”

The initial countdown had finished at exactly midnight only for a new series of windows to pop up. The new window had a sort of leader board that showed how the city was doing for time remaining and such. It also showed which wave they were on. Currently they were about to be on wave 1 of 5 but that’s when the next little quirk showed up.

Each wave had a start timer counting down with approximately 48 hours between each. Franklin had said that they had an option after each wave to immediately start the next. It was a choice between resting and repairs or more points. The other waves also did not advance. So, if they finished wave 1 in 10 hours, they could wait 38 hours for the next to start or they could advance it and have 86 hours until wave 3.

Matt and Tobias leveraged their years of playing videogames and drinking beers to come up with several theories about how to best handle things. The plan was that, if they had a chance, they would rush through the early waves, so they had a larger buffer for the later ones. They would still get extra points for calling a wave early but wouldn’t bite off more than they could chew.

As he thought about it, Matt wondered what the points were actually good for. They had been given a special event screen that displayed some stats like total points, total contribution, ranking and other such features. The issue was, they didn’t have any context for what the points did.

Matt looked at his screen once more, seeing that he had 10 minutes left until the actual start. He glanced out one last time to the column of green light that rose from the distance. The column had appeared at the very start and marked the start point of the first wave. Matt just hoped the waves scaled with some linear path and didn’t get out of control too quick. He then heard a familiar voice over the radio.

“All units, this is the ten-minute warning.” Rohm said. “Take your positions and await further commands.” Matt looked down as the men and women manning the short wall climbed back up and looked out over the barren field. The 2 other pilots next to Matt closed their hatches and stood, getting a little extra elevation.

Matt sealed his own hatch and sat back, waiting for the event to truly start. He felt a little bad for Rohm, who was cooped up in the hub, monitoring the situation so he could push support to where it was needed. He thus waited patiently for the countdown to finish.

City Defense: Wave 1

Time Remaining: 49 Hours, 2 Minutes.

The light in the distance pulsed once, a ripple traveling down the column to where it met the ground. It pulsed a second time then dimmed and shrank to a thin line rather than the thick column it had been. The bottom of the column was nearly 2 kilometers away and just over some low hills that hadn’t been cleared so Matt couldn’t see what it was and had to rely on the spotters on the wall above.

“Contact. Large amount of enemies coming from a… a… Portal?” the spotter said over the radio, confused on what to call the source of the monsters. “They appear to be common beasts.”

“Understood. How many?” Rohm asked back.

“Already several hundred but more are coming through. They are moving toward the city in loose groups rather than marshaling.” The spotter said, giving Rohm some more to work with.

“All units, engage as enemy enters your range. No point in letting them get close to the wall. Artillery, hold fire until told otherwise.” The last order from Rohm before Matt began to see the beasts crest the hills in the distance. He identified some of them.

Oaken cave bear. Level 20

Iron wood boar. Level 24

Sap wood viper. Level 22

Matt was about to radio in with his observation, but the spotter beat him to it. He felt the names were strange and zoomed in on one of them, instantly noticing the wolf didn’t have fur. Instead, it looked like it was carved, or rather grown, from wood. He looked to the next one and saw it too had a bark like hide.

“Command, this is Commando 5.” Matt called Rohm over a private channel.

“Go ahead, 5.”

“The creatures all appear to be made of wood. Break” Matt paused, figuring out how to describe them. “I got ID on a few and they all have wood or plant themes, and their hides look like bark rather than fur or scales.”

“Roger, 5.” Rohm said. “All units be advised….” Rohm began broadcasting on the command frequency. He repeated the exact information Matt had given him with some speculation to potential weakness to fire. Matt didn’t have to wait long to test that theory.

Bang. Matt fired a single unstable round at a large bear like creature that was lumbering along on 2 legs. The round hit center of its chest and burst a moment later. The creature was killed instantly, which didn’t help Matt figure out anything about a weakness to fire, but the body was now fully burning.

“Command, 5.” Matt called again. “I dropped one in a single shot, but the body is burning, for what that’s worth.” He passed the info on as he selected another target. This one a leafy tree and turtle combination. Bang. This time a stable imbued round. It hit and bored a hole all the way through, splashing into the ground on the other side.

Matt watched as the turtle thing stopped and began thrashing from side to side. The hole that had a small trickle of smoke a moment ago was now a raging fire that climbed up the tree atop its back.

“Yeah, they burn alright.” Matt said over the private channel, hearing Rohm confirm a weakness to fire a moment later over the command frequency. He took a few more shots, engaging at extreme range before some of the other guns began firing.

Matt had initially believed that this wave would be easy to handle, given how he had put down 7 in as many shots. It appeared that the others were having a little more difficulty in felling the wooden creatures. A burst from one of the heavy machine guns caught a wolf like monster in the flank but besides some splinters flying out the back, nothing much happened. Sap was leaking from the wounds, and it had only slowed down rather than dying.

“Well, this is not going to be as easy as I thought.” Matt muttered to himself.

Van picked up the muttered phrase. “Why did you think a system event would be easy?”

“Fuck man, I don’t know. I was just hoping the first wave would be a little easier to put down.” Matt said, letting a little urgency into his voice as he fired a long burst at the now visible main wave. Every round passed through multiple monsters, setting them alight and also spreading to a few of the others that were near their now flaming comrades. “Command, 5 again.”

“Go ahead.”

“Yeah, we need fire. The heavy machineguns aren’t cutting it.”

There was a brief pause before Rohm came back on the command frequency. “Anyone with a fire-based attack needs to be on the line. The monsters are resilient to mundane gunfire.” A brief pause. “Personnel on the walls, make room for fire element wielders.”

“We stay put for now.” Matt called down to the classers on the wall that had begun firing at the monsters now that they were in range.

The majority of the city still had older styled weapons or at least manually cycled ones but nearly everyone had some enchantments applied. Matt could see a few skills used and channeled by the defenders in front of him. One tall scale-kin had actually set down his weapon and pulled out a small bag and was searching through it.

Intrigued, Matt watched him out of the corner of his eye. The scale-kin pulled out what looked like a bit of chalk and began drawing on the parapet in front of him. Matt didn’t recognize the diagram but was still fascinated. After drawing a rectangle laid on its side, he drew a line from the left, right and bottom. On the 2 sides the line extended a few centimeters before he ended it in a vertical line. He then put some runes above the horizontal lines before moving on.

From the bottom line, he continued it all the way down to the stone floor and drew a circle. After finishing a rather nice circle, if you asked Matts opinion, he began fishing in a larger satchel. From the larger bag he pulled out a bundle and opened it to reveal several items. Some yellowish stone, a small vial with clear liquid and what looked like coal. He placed these in the circle, neatly arranging them before drawing a stylized flame around them. He then placed his hands on either side of the circle and pushed a lot of mana into the ritual.

Immediately after pushing mana into, it, a large red rectangle appeared a meter in front of the wall. It extended from below the parapet to a half meter above, just level with the horizon. “Fire through the formation.” The scale-kin shouted, and his words were repeated down the line.

The classers on the short wall all began shooting through the red rectangle. Every round that passed through carried a bit of mana with it. Matt observed the impacts of some of these and was rather impressed with the result. Every wood beast that was hit caught fire. The rounds either penetrated and smoldered or splashed and scorched the outside. Either way, the wood beasts hated it and began raging as they were consumed by building flames.

Matt noticed that the scale-kin was standing on the formation, one foot just over the edge of the circle and channeling mana into the ritual. “Can you draw a battery or power reserve.” Matt asked the man as he leaned down with the mech.

Startled, the scale-kin almost stepped off but managed to keep his footing. “Yes, but it doesn’t do much good since I don’t have the mana to put into a reserve.”

“I do.” Matt said simply. He reached out and put one of the mechs fingers on the circle and began channeling mana at a steady rate. The rectangle seemed to grow thicker, like a few panes of glass stacked atop each other, still clear but with noticeable substance.

“Right, pilots.” The lizard man said as he got out his chalk and began drawing again.

A shaded box was added on a branch off the circle with the ingredients. Matt moved the finger of his mech to touch the shaded box and pushed a few thousand mana into it. To his delight, the box lit up and filled in like a battery indicator on a cell phone or tablet.

“That should be plenty.” The scale-kin said. “Each shot is only taking 5 or so mana. At this rate, it should last for another couple hours.”

Matt gave a thumbs up before returning to his spot and engaging the wood beasts. He was having some difficulty seeing through the rising smoke and burning wood piles but switched to thermal and was utterly disappointed. The wood like bodies of these monsters didn’t put out a strong heat signature.

Frustrated, Matt turned off the thermal and began engaging those he could see at longer ranges. He found a new strategy that was rather fun, after a few missed shots. If he fired an unstable round and it hit the ground at a low angle, it would break apart and splash in a fan of white-hot metal. He began using this to blanket entire areas with plasma, raining it down on dozens of enemies at a time.

After a couple hours, Matt stepped back. He had seen several other rituals pop up along the tops of the main walls. Each had a similar effect to the one he had helped with. The fight had really slowed down after the initial rush and scramble to get fire weapons. Many of the beasts were just too low level and died well beyond the minimum safe distance that had been established.

The beasts did begin to spread out and work their way around the walls to either side of Matt’s gate, but they met with little success at finding entry. Every bit of the area beyond the walls was watched by gun crews and when they did make it to a neighboring gate, the wood monsters were cut down with more fire-based attacks that had been primed and waiting.

“Command, I am seeing something big coming through the portal now.” The spotter said. “Large, maybe 5 meters tall. It looks like a giant pin cushion.”

“Command, this is 5. Be advised, I fought one before and our infantry will not do well against it.” Matt said, already knowing exactly what had wandered through the portal.

Rohm didn’t even question it and immediately recalled any classers from outside the walls. There was a chorus of groans and some rather harsh curses, that Matt was rather impressed by, as his classers retreated back inside.

Matt switched frequency and called out over the commando net. “Commandos, anyone want to try their hand at this thing?” He asked. “Or any pilot with a fire affinity?”

A few moments of silence were enough for Rohm, and he volunteered several pilots to go with Matt to meet this boss monster. Rohm had picked all of the commando squad and 5 other pilots that Matt hadn’t worked with before. After they all met up, they headed out to meet the pile of plant halfway. They could have waited but it would have taken longer than anyone really wanted to wait.

Matt supposed that, under normal circumstances, the boss monster would have some other wood beasts around since they were very resilient to most attacks The city and its defenders had just short cut the problem with a lot of fire aspect users and a lot of firepower. Matts musings were cut short as the group reached a point sever hundred meters from the monster and he was able to identify it.

Choker Vine Sentinel. Level 40

Yup, just a leafy sea urchin. Matt thought to himself. “Alright folks, who wants to take this one on? Its only level 40 and as long as you keep moving and watch the spines, you should be fine. Honestly if a few of you ganged up on it, you could put it down pretty easy.” Matt said to the crowd.

“Uh, Lord Matt.” One of the pilots said. “Level 40 is still pretty high for us.”

“Yeah, that’s why I said a few of you gang up on it.” Matt responded with a little snark in his tone. “Look I will be on standby incase you need it. But I want at least three volunteers. Come on, lets get those levels people!”

Soon enough, there were 4 pilots standing in front of Matt, one of the commandos and three other pilots that he didn’t know. He coached them on some strategies to hopefully avoid getting impaled and sent them off while the rest of the pilots watched from a distance. They stayed far enough away to not be involved but close enough incase anyone needed saving.

“You think they can take it down?” Jess asked after she had maneuvered her construct to stand next to Matt.

“Should be able to. I took one solo that was level 56 and only had slight issues from being on foot.”

The head of Jess’ construct turned and Matt could have sworn it was giving him the side eye. The voice that came a second later confirmed it. “You are god damned ridiculous. You know that right?”

Matt was forced to waver her off as the squad of constructs engaged the sentinel. “Shhh. Yeah, yeah, I get it. Now be quiet and watch the fight.”

They both turned to watch the 4 constructs engage at extreme range, around 500 meters for them. After the initial volley, they split off and began circling. They stayed moving at a few hundred meters distant, darting in and out while moving in a circle to add to the confusion.

Matt noticed one of the pilots stow their ‘rifle’ and pull out a saber with a gently curved blade. It began glowing a dull red as mana was pushed into it. This pilot waited patiently, keeping up the circling as he waited for his chance to strike. After a salvo of spears, the pilot darted in, flickering slightly as a movement or avoidance skill was used.

The flickering construct moved faster than Matt had initially expected, seeming to glide up to the Sentinel as he struck out with the now glowing saber. Once, twice and a third time he slashed out before breaking away. Matt noticed the same movement skill was used to disengage without even stopping to watch the damage.

“Good move.” Matt commented. “He got in, hit hard and got out. Best part was he didn’t stick around to watch.”

“Why shouldn’t he watch?” Lisk asked from Matts other side.

“Because it doesn’t change the result. You can find out if the attack was effective or not after getting to a safe distance just as easily as from close up.” Matt explained. Sure enough, there were 2 long slashes in the side of the Sentinel that zig-zagged through the forest of spines and left smoking wounds in the body.

The fight was over shortly after that. There wasn’t anything flashy, just smart plays and exploited weaknesses that slowly wore down the sentinel. The beast died to its many wounds, most of which were burning or at least singed from fire.

City Defense: Wave 1

Status: Defeated

The System message popped up and everyone in the little group let out a small cheer. Rohm’s voice came over the radio a moment later telling everyone that the crafters would be moving to collect any valuables form the fallen enemies. He also told them that they would be starting the next wave early so they should get a move on if they didn’t want to waste materials.

“Come on, lets drag that trash pile back to help them out a little.” Matt said as he stowed his rifle and marched toward the downed boss enemy. He was excited to see what the next wave was going to be.