Chương 22: No Damage Inflicted

Lieutenant Hammel Welker watched the building surrounding him go alight with grim satisfaction. Part of it was his own doing, flamer spitting flames across the walls intermittently. His section had covered half of this wing of the town hall they'd been locked into in fire. Even with his suit's cooling, he could feel the rising heat. He and five others had taken this section. Genso, Laplan, Maltvan, Salack, and Carscan. One of three teams currently setting the town hall alight.

He'd been written to once by his sister about the ironies of their service. The firefighter turned paid arsonists because they'd run out of actual arsonists, and the veterinarian turned butcher of people because they'd run out of actual doctors. He'd visited her in the two days of leave they'd been allowed, on another part of the Malden Riverfront. There'd been yelling. There'd been fighting. She'd tried to stab him in the arm in his sleep so he wouldn't have to go.

She'd been in a jail cell when they'd said their goodbyes. He'd gotten assurances she wouldn't be charged over the incident, then left. Someone tapped his arm, the feeling muffled through layers of thick leather, but it jolted him out of the memory. Genso was there, gesturing that it was time to move on. The entire section was now alight, and he'd been spraying the same wall for the last two minutes with flame.

Embarrassed, Welker pointed towards their next section, and one of his subordinates took the point position. With the roar of the fire, hand gestures were all they could use to communicate. They'd have to remove their ear protection for anything but screaming right next to someone to be audible. It was a minute of moving through the burning building before Welker heard screaming, and it wasn't from any of his squad.

A horrible animal sound, screaming that struck down to the bone, that somehow managed to get past their ear protection. The Juggernaut had found some of them. Another wing, so they had time to stoke the flames higher. Then, it would be their time to distract the Traveler until the plan went into effect. By it's conclusion… they'd be dead. There's little chance of anything else, Welker thought. It was a matter of numbers. He was the highest-level member of their group at 14.

The Juggernaut had over six times that, a more advantageous advancement scheme, a better weapon, and no dead levels spent on Peasant or Firefighter. Maybe I should have become an arsonist, he thought idly as he fired off another burst, a pair of desks being consumed in the inferno. Maltvan came from the adjoining room, holding her hand up before slowly moving her glove-constrained hand into various symbols. They moved out of the wing into the central part of the town hall.

The direct middle had been marked as last to be set alight, so the roar of the fire was restrained a little here. Welker could at least hear the tread of his and the other's heavy boots among the wood floorboards of the building. Maltvan held her hand up, signaling a halt. The rest of them quickly did so as she crept forward, taking point.

Her perception rank was the highest among them, so if anyone had a chance of hearing anything above the flam- A sword rammed through Maltvan's body, piercing her through the chest and then continuing on towards the ceiling. From beneath, the Juggernaut forced his way through the floor, boards shattering as he emerged from the basement. Maltvan pawed at the sword, trying to force it out of her. Gravity was carrying her downward, down the widening blade of the sword.

The rest of them had opened up, flames consuming the emerging Traveler. Target has Fire Immunity. No Damage Inflicted Maltvan tried to push against the sword only for the Juggernaut's other hand to grab the back of her neck and pull her down the blade. Her body split in half, flames eating at the exposed flesh and guts. No Damage Inflicted. They were falling back now. Too slow. A swipe with the sword reached out, slicing through Salack's leg at the knee.

Passing through without any resistance, the other shock trooper went down, reflexively reaching for their cut-off limb. The Juggernaut's boot stomped on their head, pulping it. More fire now as they fell back, not just from their flamers. They were falling back into the section of the building they had set alight A grenade flew out at the Juggernaut, a frag. They rounded the corner as it went off. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

No Damage Inflicted Shards of shrapnel blasted through, followed swiftly by the Juggernaut rounding the corner. Welker was already unshouldering the Dragonlance AT projector. Shaped charges were as useless as the rest on armor, but if it managed to find his skin… The Juggernaut lunged forward. Too fast for something that size. Still, Welker pointed the tube on target, and the explosive soared, hitting the Juggernaut directly in the chest. It exploded, rocking the armored hulk as the force blew backward.

Welker stumbled back, taking a second to regain his footing. The Juggernaut paused, then kept on moving. No Damage Inflicted A second one went out, Carscan's, seconds before the Juggernaut's hand grabbed Carscan by the neck. Carscan punched the Juggernaut in the face, and Welker could hear the other shock trooper's wrist snap. The Juggernaut laughed, even as Welker reloaded. They had to do something. Grenso's shape-charge flew, hitting the side of the helm.

It didn't even budge as the Juggernaut pulled his fist back. Carscan wriggled in his grip, trying to dig a knife into the space between the gauntlet and vambrace. The Juggernaut paused, either just taunting them or stunned by the shaped charge. Either way, the result was the same for Carscan as he desperately tried to stab his knife into the Juggernaut's wrist. The Juggernaut sprung into motion, hand pulling back as a fist formed. It rocketed forward through Carscan's head, obliterating it.

Scraps of flesh and brain flew as Welker and his last two troopers ran for the door. The Dragon's Tooth whipped past Welker, flying inches away before it pierced Laplan in the back. She dropped to the ground immediately. The sword had taken out her heart, along with the entire side of her chest. Flames enveloped the armored figure of the Juggernaut. The armored hulk turned around slowly, withdrawing their sword from the body of Laplan.

Welker sent another burst of flame in between him and the Traveler and ran for the hallway. One hand held the flamethrower, and the other reached for a grenade on his belt. It was unlikely even AT grenades could penetrate the Traveler's stacked damage resistance and immunity levels. It was a better chance than the flamethrowers. Grenso had followed him, taking a position by the door. He'd dropped his flamethrower, drawing an SMG instead. Useless. You couldn't even hope for a crit.

Welker was about to signal for him to change out his weapons when the sword pierced through the wall. It cut into Grenso's head at ear level, piercing and splitting the skull in two. Soon, the sword withdrew back through the wall, taking the top half with it. Welker stared numbly at the bottom half of Grenso's jaw and what was left of his brain. The Juggernaut smashing through the wall and kicking the body to the side jolted Welker out of his stupor.

The grenade flew as Welker turned to run down the hall, the weapon aimed right for the helm of the Juggernaut. He sprinted down a hallway on fire through a flaming door. He'd torn holes in his armor, he could feel the flames trying to scorch flesh through his scaly hide. He paused to catch his breath and checked the detailed readout from the System UI. Target has Resistance to Explosive and Piercing Damage. Target has 180 innate Damage Resistance. Target had 500 Resistance to Explosive Damage.

Target has 600 Resistance to Piercing Damage. No Damage Inflicted. No Item Damage was inflicted. There was no indication if it had stunned or not. It hadn't even damaged the helm. Welker reached a room and moved past flaming desks towards one of the doors. How long could he keep the Juggernaut going on a wild goose chase? He opened the door to a raging inferno. Part of the second floor must have fallen through, the weakend structure collapsing on top of this one.

Burning beams and chunks of the floor covered the entire area, the inferno beyond making Welker sweat even with the cooling suit he wore. Behind him, an entire section of the wall burst to pieces, knocked away by the advancing Juggernaut. A second later, the ceiling collapsed. Welker scrambled to the side as debris came down, going to the floor as a falling beam hit him in the back. He got back to his feet, heading towards a corner.

Where the Juggernaut had been was now a giant pile of rubble and debris, burning brightly. It blocked the only other door. Agonizing seconds passed as it shifted and moved, and an armored hand punched free, sending splinters flying. The flames seemed to part as the armored hulk walked through the inferno, stopping half a dozen feet away from Welker. A second later, a booming voice omitted from his helmet, heightened to the point it was easily heard over the roar of the fires.

"You seriously thought you could hurt me?" Welker bit back a laugh. No hints, no clues to their enemy.

"We figured it was worth a shot." The Juggernaut laughed "I can respect that. Futile as it is. Do you know the amount of Talents I've invested not to be harmed by anything?" More than you deserve.

"Your reputation proceeds you in that regard." Another laugh from the Traveler.

"You know this is probably the longest conversation I've had with one of you. Normally, it's all shrieking about your dead gods and threatening to make us pay. Never works out for you, though." Welker swallowed down a rising sense of anger. He couldn't let himself break this temporary truce.

"Since you've been nice enough to talk to me, I'll give you a free hit. You get one hit on me, then I hit you back. Best courtesy I can give you." A useless one. He didn't have anything that could hurt the Traveler. He gathered all three of his remaining AT grenades and grabbed their pins with a single claw. It drew an amused bark of laughter from the Juggernaut.

"You think three of them will do what one couldn't? Seriously?" He ignored the Juggernaut, pawing through the rest of his kit. Poison grenades would be useless against the Juggernaut. Submachine gun, useless. Flamer, useless. The best thing might be drawing on his venom sac and hoping the acidic nature of his spit might do something to the Juggernaut's eyes.

"Seriously, the silent treatment? Just when I was thinking you were cool. Come on, if you aren't going to respond, let's get this over with." The Juggernaut reached for the handle of his blade. Welker sprinted forward, hand yanking all of the pins at once. The Juggernaut moved with his sword, slicing through an arm. Grenades tumbled forward, half a dozen of them landing across the floor. Welker ignored the pain and closed his eyes as the grenades went off. No Damage Inflicted.