Chương 25: Forest Rats

Trevor had already disappeared into the trees, Rebecca following right after. Lewis scrambled behind, cursing as he tripped on a tree root. His failure for not having ranks in athletics or acrobatics. As he got back to his feet, a shot echoed through the woods, followed by a scream. Not Trevor or Rebecca, not that he was worried about them. The chance of them getting injured was low. He was more worried about other Scales noticing the noise.

He moved past a tree, hand raised, sunlight gathering before he realized it was Rebecca standing over another figure. She whirled around, yanking knives out of the corpse at her feet.

"It's me, don't throw them!" He yelled, and in an instant, her attention flipped back the other way. Two figures were fleeing, Lewis only catching glimpses of them through the trees. Neither was Trevor, who was finishing off another Scale a dozen feet to the right of Rebecca. Lewis ran, finger gesturing. Pure light emerged, lancing towards one. It shot through a tree, setting it aflame, but no hit. He kept going. Trevor and Rebecca could easily catch up.

A second shot of light, a scream from a Scale as it burned through the back of their jacket. Rebecca had caught up, landing next to him, legs extending as she leaped. He'd gotten used to her body morphing to the point it didn't bother him anymore. They burst through the trees into what must be an entire squad arranged in the small clump of trees. Lewis screamed as he leaped through, mace smashing into the first one's face. The head burst into light as it burned, crushing the steel of the mask.

Your mace has hit for 60 points of damage on the target. Target's head is at 20/40 HP. Target's left and right eyes are destroyed. Target's nose is destroyed. Target's brain has suffered- He ignored the notifications, his hand reaching for the Scale's mask. Gathered sunlight concentrated into a ball, ready. The Scale didn't even try to dodge, writhing in pain as blood flowed from underneath the mask. His index finger lightly touched the front of the mask, and sunlight shot forth, stabbing through the Scale's brain.

They collapsed, dead. Most of the Scale Squad was dead, but three had run, already passing beyond the group of trees.

"Rebecca, get those three. We'll handle the rest," Trevor said, pulling his spear out of another Scale's eye. Without hesitation, Rebecca was gone, chasing the three Scales. Trevor jumped, branches snapping as he passed through the foliage. Lewis continued on foot, only to pause at the sound of a roaring engine overpowering the screams and yells of Scales. Scale vehicles close by. Hopefully a small one, because a tank might hurt them this close. Something rustled nearby, a Scale emerging, nervously looking around.

He rammed the head of his mace into the Scale's head, glowing red heat as it mashed the steel mask like tin foil. The Scale screamed, the smell of cooking flesh coming off them as the heat of the mace fried their face underneath. Behind their squadmates opened fire, bullets heading towards Trevor. He focused on a defensive prayer, and the bullets halted in midair, caught in a shield of heat and light, melting to nothing but gaseous wisps. The vehicle's sound was only getting louder, but Lewis still couldn't see it.

A burst of gunfire echoed across the trees. Bullets tore through the forest, most being caught by the trunks of trees, but a few passed through in between, one being caught on the edge of his shield. It briefly glowed white as it got caught in the Shield of Sanctity. A second later, a dollop of molten steel and copper fell to the forest floor. Now, he had a direction to go. He moved quickly as the sounds of gunfire came ahead.

Long chattering bursts filled the air, the Scales dragging a machine gun into position or the one on the half-track opening up. A tree rustled ahead of him; either Trevor was on the prowl or Rebecca returned from dispatching the three she chased after. Lewis ran forward as another burst of fire echoed through, more bullets catching on his shield. More Mana drained from it. Lewis refilled it from his reserve as he kept running. It couldn't be much further now.

The rumbling was louder, and he gripped his mace tightly as the sounds of the engine grew louder. Where was the-? It burst from between two trees behind him, the two Scales at the gun looking as surprised as Lewis was. He swung his mace, part of the side of the vehicle smashing in. It didn't stop, clipping him as it rushed past. He fell backward, tripping over a root as the half-track shoved him back. Cursing, he got back on his feet as quickly as he could. The half-track was already far past him.

Whoever was driving wasn't bothering with stopping. The half-track swung around, the machine gun on top opened up, and Lewis ducked behind a tree. He could quickly regenerate a single bullet wound over a couple of seconds. A few hundred, not so quickly. He spent more mana on his shield in preparation as the Halft-track swung around. He ran towards it, hoping that he'd reach it first. The half-track halted, the machine gun aiming at him. There was still a good thirty feet between them.

Trevor burst from the trees, spear impaling one of the two gunners in the throat, decapitating them. Trevor kept on moving towards Lewis, yelling at him to duck. He was already mostly out of its arc when bullets sprayed through the trees. Lewis hugged the ground while the tree next to him shuddered as bullets dug into it, pieces of bark flying off from the impact. The gunner tried to track Trevor as he leaped off one tree trunk to another.

By the time the weapon was on target, it was too late as a spearpoint went through the Scale's eye, piercing through its mask, the eye, and into the brain behind it. Lewis couldn't see any damage notifications, but considering the limpness of the body and the fact that the spear was being removed through the top of the head, yeah, probably dead. In the half-track, the driver came to his feet, turning with a pistol in hand. Lewis raised a finger." May the sun burn!"

he intoned, the bolt of sunfire leaving his finger at the first word. The bolt ran into the Scale's head, carving a charred tunnel of flesh and bone through the skull. A second later, Trevor's spear jabbed through the back for good measure. You have cast Sun's Beam and inflicted 110 damage. You have killed Moraz Keliker, Level 3 Peasant/Level 2 Farmer/Level 3 Soldier/Level 2 Mechanized Soldier. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

The sound of rifle fire broke out—two other scales, among the trees. A bullet hit Trevor's chestplate, and ricocheted off. Trevor wasn't nearly as immune to damage as Jake was but still immune to anything as low damage as small arms. Grey and green-coated Scales started running. A knife flew out from up above, sinking deep in between neck and shoulder. Rebecca's work. The soldier dropped, and Lewis didn't stop to finish him. If the initial damage didn't finish him, the poison or bleed damage would.

Something round and metallic flew through the trees, and Lewis reflexively filled his Shield of Sanctity's mana to capacity as it landed at his feet. The grenade went off, streams of fire blasting against his shield. The flare of the shield going off blocked his vision, and Lewis cursed as his vision temporarily left him. He needed to get the talent to make it stop doing that. Your Shield of Sanctity has taken 130 damage from an Alchemical Fragmentation Grenade. It has lost 50 Stored Mana from its pool.

That was new, and much more powerful than any other grenade the Scales had used before. He raised a finger, ready to pierce the head of whoever had thrown it. Blinking dots out of his eyes, he saw the Scale responsible readying another. Finger-pointing, he muttered a prayer even as the Scale threw another grenade and began to run. Even through the debris and smoke of the grenade, the ray of light carved straight through the Scale's head. He let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd held in.

Trevor was already moving off towards the sound of more gunfire, and he hurried off after him. Less and less of that now. There couldn't be too many Scales left. Another group of trees ran past, another new little skirmish to find himself in. Rebecca was leaping from tree to tree as a small group of three Scales clustered around a pair of trees opened fire, submachine guns sending dozens of bullets scattering through the trees around here. Branches fell, followed by knives, two apiece.

Two of them went down, their HP dropping to zero even before the bleed or poison status effects could be applied. Something passed between tree trunks from somewhere in the forest, much larger than any grenade. Scale AT weapon. Lewis didn't have time to yell a warning. It didn't matter, as Rebecca spotted the gun, and in midair, her hand grasped nothing and pulled herself up using it. The weapon flew past, detonating against a nearby tree and turning its trunk to splinters.

The third Scale was screaming in a mixture of pain and anger. Probably because their HP count was dropping swiftly toward zero, and the poison now burning in his veins. A knife protuded from one of his mask's eye sockets, a second buried into his elbow, that arm hanging limply by his side. There was still enough strength in the other to keep the SMG upright. More bullets sprayed out from that tree, and soon Rebecca was out of sight as her Uncanny Reflexes sent her well out of their path.

Lewis remained towards the back, content to let the Scale tire himself out before dying of status effects. The burst of fire was already going skyways because of recoil. A third knife flew, hitting the side of the knee, and the Scale finally died. Rebecca dropped down, knives at the ready, making sure no other ones were nearby. Twenty feet from her, a fourth Scale stepped from behind a tree, a rocket in their grip.

Lewis had never learned what they called their strange RPGs, but he'd learned to recognize them on sight. This must be the one that fired on Rebecca. It was only a moment. Then, a pencil-width lance of sunfire burnt its way through the Scale's eye socket into the brain beyond. You have cast Sun's Beam and inflicted 98 damage. You have killed Halit Mosa, Level 3 Peasant/Level 2 Street Rat/Level 3 Soldier/Level 1 Mechanized Soldier. Rebecca's knife hit the corpse a second later.

She'd ended up in the branches of another tree, and, realizing the danger was past, dropped down. Lewis walked towards her, letting out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

"I will never get used to what maxing out Unnatural Reflexes lets you do. What are you even grabbing onto when you do that?" Rebecca chuckled.

"I have no idea. I just… see something coming and move out of the way. It just works. You think that was the last one?" The roar of another engine filled the air behind them. A half-track burst between two trees, wheels and tracks biting into the forest floor. Lewis was already turning, sunlight gathering in his hand. Too late. The half-track was already ramming into his chest. Screaming, he was pulled under the vehicle.

His shield flared as the vehicle passed over it, the metallic bulk causing the shield to burn pure white. He pushed his hand beyond the shield's bounds, in between the vehicle's two tracks, and called forth the sun's fury. A beam of light emerged, a foot wide, burning through the metal in an instant. He moved it, pointing towards the front of the still-moving half-track. There's something, a whine, a started and never finished scream, something before the half-track splits apart, two halves falling to the side.

Nothing remained of the middle. Lewis cautiously got up, looking for more signs of the Scale crew. Seared body parts littered the ground, chunks of them blackened from exposure to his casting. The half-track's remnants were to either side of him, including some strange hollow container, wisps of smoke rising from it. He nudged one half with his foot, only for nothing to happen.

"Rebecca?" he called out. No answer. She probably spotted another Scale. Figuring he was safe, he moved towards where Trevor had gone, already calling on another casting of the Sun's Fury. Trevor lay on the ground, the body of a Scale next to him. Groaning, Trevor retrieved his spear from where he'd lodged in the creature's throat.

"You okay, Trevor?"

"Winged me. Got a crit. Just lucky it was an automatic weapon." Trevor said, looking behind his breastplate. Lewis grunted an affirmation. Trevor had gotten lucky. The System was very finicky about crits for newer weapons, but the general tendency tended to be while bolt-action and semi-auto could get crits, anything automatic would get the chance for one out of every hundred bullets. Lesser damage per bullet meant crits didn't hurt as bad, either.

"You want me to heal it?" He offered, watching for any movement while Trevor examined the wound and probably his UI. Rebecca would be much better at killing any stragglers than them, but still, no reason to risk it.

"It's maybe one percent of my HP total. Save the mana so you don't overheal. This could be a rough one."

"You can't think that. Rebecca already said they are low-level dross."

"Low-level dross can be dangerous. Why do I even need to tell you? You ended up witnessing that firsthand." Lewis shivered.

"Please don't remind me of that, okay? I still get nightmares of that tunnel, and mentioning it isn't endearing this argument to me, Trevor."

"This is why I want to leave. They've had who knows how long to prepare the land for us. Who knows what traps they've put in it." Lewis frowned.

"It can't have been too long. We were sending telegrams, getting replies. I was talking with Kaysley up till we left on the train." Trevor frowned.

"That'd be a week. Still bad. And that's assuming it was Kaysley on the other line. I don't know if any trains were supposed to have stopped in the town or gone there in the interim. Where's Rebecca?"

Lieutenant Moray shivered from where he lay. He'd crawled into a mixture of undergrowth and roots after it became clear the damn payload wasn't going to work. Damn Bursan alchemicals. He supposed it wasn't their fault that a burst of sunlight wouldn't set off their mixtures. You'd expect it to create heat. And the grenades weren't powerful enough. Had they been sabotaged? Hopefully, the Travelers couldn't be able to stop the ones buried underneath the forest.

He clutched a radio closely, snatched off of Vallie's corpse. The corporal's body wasn't too far away, knives sticking out of his neck. The Travelers sounded like they'd moved on. Quietly, he reached for the receiver, turned the radio on, and began to whisper into it.

"This is Valley 2 to the Nest. Targets are located at coordinates 457-36-92. Get the artillery firing there now, damnit. And trigger the incendiaries. The-" Something creaked on a branch above him.

"457-36-!" He screamed into the radio before a knife rammed into his throat. The Blade had already run from his body to where the other two were. Within seconds, they were running toward the town. A half minute later, the artillery consumed the corpses of Grenzol Moray and his unit. The fires would take a while longer.