It was obvious that Samantha was itching for a fight with Los Demonios. Her eyes sparkled with anticipation as she waited for Jake to reveal his plans. She couldn’t wait to launch an attack on her enemies.
The rest of the resistance fighters shared similar expressions, impatiently waiting for him to speak. So even took a step closer, their initial fear of him seemingly forgotten.
“I’m gonna summon so of my creations,” Jake began to explain his plan. “They will take the brunt of the chs’ fire on the lower level of the mines. While the chs are distracted by my creatures, you all will free other survivors and take them to safety.
Then you’ll wait for
and my crawlers to finish off the chs. Once that’s done, the rest will be a breeze. There are no chs on the higher levels of the mines, so liberating those will be even easier. My crawlers aren’t very powerful yet, but it’s no sweat for them to tear apart feeble human beings.
Sure enough, you can participate in slaying those bastards. It won’t be a fight. It will be a slaughter. The bandits probably won’t even fire a single shot at you because they’ll be too focused on defending themselves against my crawlers. Not that their futile attempts at defending themselves will do them any good.”
Jake couldn’t help but notice that most of the survivors before him tensed at his words, especially when he ntioned his crawlers. They exchanged puzzled and apprehensive looks, whispering to each other, “What crawlers?” and shrugging their shoulders.
When he said his crawlers had no trouble killing feeble humans, most of them looked absolutely terrified. So even instinctively took a few steps back from Jake, realizing that while he could speak like a human being, he was actually very different from them, and they didn’t know what to expect from him.
When he finished speaking, a tense silence settled over the group as the survivors processed what he had just told them.
Finally, Samantha broke the silence with a question that had clearly been on everyone’s mind: “Crawlers? What are you talking about? What crawlers?”
“Sothing that I created,” Jake replied.
“You an you can create... so kind of living beings?” she asked, her face showing a mix of interest and fear.
“Yep,” Jake said, keeping the details to himself.
Another mont of silence fell over the group.
Samantha frowned. “I’m not quite sure if I understand how you create them, but okay. Where are your... crawlers, exactly?”
“Well, they are not here,” Jake replied. “But I can summon them from my lairs anyti I want. I’ll do that as soon as you’re ready to launch an offensive on the bandits.”
Most of the survivors stared at him with horrified expressions. They had just discovered that he had lairs filled with so sort of crawlers. It was becoming clear to them that he was very different from humans, and even though he assured them he was on their side, they found it hard to see him as an ally.
“So you can summon your crawlers right to our hideout?” Samantha asked.
“Exactly,” Jake replied.
“Wait, how does that even work?” Samantha asked, her brow furrowing in confusion.
“It’s too long to explain. You’ll just have to see for yourselves when I start the summoning process.” After noticing the fearful expressions on so of the survivors’ faces, he added, “Don’t worry, though. The crawlers might look scary, but you have nothing to fear. They’re kind of like robots. They only follow the instructions I programd into them during their creation. They won’t attack you unless I give them a direct command.”
A tense silence filled the air once more. People were frightened now, uncertain of what was coming. So gripped their weapons tightly, anxiously scanning the surroundings as if expecting crawlers to overrun their hideout at any mont.
Samantha was the only one who seed completely unfazed by his ntion of the crawlers. She was eager to get started, clearly ready to take on the bandits to avenge her boyfriend’s death. Marcel stepped closer to her, whispering, “I don’t like this, Sam,” but she waved him off like he was an annoying fly.
Taking a step closer to Jake, she said, “We can launch an attack right now. It’s been a little while since our last strike on Los Demonios, so we’re all itching for a fight. Just give us half an hour or so to gear up, and we’ll be ready to hit those bastards.”
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Jake nodded, and Samantha turned away from him to give instructions to her group. It was clear that most of them weren’t happy about the unfolding situation, but they complied nonetheless.
As they dispersed, heading to different areas of the cavern where their belongings were strewn across the hard floor, Jake overheard them whispering to each other, voicing their concerns about the situation. Yet none of them questioned their leader, which was comforting.
Marcel was the only one who, instead of retreating to gather his things, approached Samantha to reiterate that he didn’t like the situation and didn’t trust Jake. He spoke very quietly, but Jake had no trouble hearing him. He pretended to be none the wiser, though.
Samantha replied to Marcel that she trusted Jake and assured him there was nothing to worry about. Marcel insisted she couldn’t be sure about that, but Samantha wasn’t in the mood for an argunt. She assured him she had everything under control and told him to get prepared for the upcoming attack.
After casting an angry look at Jake, Marcel stord off. Jake got the impression that Samantha didn’t have an issue with him summoning his creatures not because she genuinely trusted him, but rather because she was eager to launch an attack on their captors and avenge her boyfriend’s death. Her reasons were her own, and for Jake, all that mattered was the final result.
Samantha quickly retrieved so spare ammo for her weapons and returned to Jake. While they waited for her group to get ready, Jake asked her how she managed to escape from the main base, survive in the deep underground tunnels, and organize such a well-structured resistance force.
It was definitely an impressive accomplishnt. Although her group wasn’t strong enough to break free from the mines and take on the main base on their own, they still occasionally launched successful attacks on the bandits in the mines, which was certainly impressive.
She explained that after escaping from her captors, she went deep underground, hiding in tunnels and caverns where she had managed to survive all this ti. Knowing her enemies would be searching for her, she descended even deeper than the lowest level of the mines, where there was nothing but darkness in which huge mutated bugs dwelled.
The bandits eventually learned where she had gone but didn’t bother to follow her, assuming she wouldn’t survive in the depths of the dark tunnels anyway. They thought she would either be killed by the bugs or get lost in the darkness and never be heard from again.
But they couldn’t have been more wrong. Samantha not only managed to survive but also to thrive. She told Jake she had invested heavily in her Perception attribute, far more than needed to advance her firearm skills. As a result, her eyesight was excellent.
However, what truly helped her survive in the dark tunnels was a rare perk she had received before being captured by Los Demonios for completing an extrely difficult challenge. This perk significantly improved her night vision, allowing her to see surprisingly well in dark places.
Thanks to that, she navigated the deepest underground tunnels without much trouble, always keeping her bearings. She had also allocated many points to her Intelligence attribute, which helped her morize the layout of various tunnels and caverns, preventing her from getting lost.
Moreover, she had advanced her lee skill to a proficient level and invested many points in her Agility attribute, which made her highly skilled at wielding various lee weapons.
While traversing the underground tunnels and creating a ntal map of the layout, she eventually found a sharp piece of rock that could be used as a weapon. At first, she tried her best to avoid the large mutated bugs dwelling underground, but after arming herself with the rock, she started to fight back, attacking the bugs she occasionally ran into, slaying them and earning so XP in the process.
At so point, she discovered an underground stream and later found out that the at of the underground bugs was edible. While it wasn’t particularly tasty, it was surprisingly nutritious and provided her with the sustenance she desperately needed.
With a source of drinkable water and food at her disposal, her chances of surviving in that bleak place greatly improved. So after learning how to survive deep underground and familiarizing herself with the layout of various tunnels and chambers, she finally decided to go on the offensive.
Staying hidden in shadows, she spied on the enemy patrols guarding the mines, and at one point, after locating a lone target, she ambushed him, killing the bandit with the sharp piece of rock. She took his weapons and equipnt and quickly retreated back to her hiding place deep below the bottom level of the mines before his comrades realized what had happened.
After that first successful attack, she carried out several more ambushes, targeting lone bandits, pairs, or sotis even small groups. With each successful attack, she acquired more weapons and equipnt, making it easier to launch further assaults on the bandit groups.
Since she had beco intimately familiar with the underground tunnels and various approaches, she always managed to retreat before reinforcents could arrive. Occasionally, they attempted to follow her deep underground, but unlike her, they didn’t know the layout as well as she did, so she always gave them the slip.
After so ti, she even managed to free a small group of captured survivors by killing the bandits guarding them. The survivors were more than happy to join her cause.
She led them to the deepest part of the underground maze, to the cavern that had beco her hideout, where she had been storing all the weapons and equipnt taken from the bandits. This cavern was relatively well lit by mana crystals protruding from various spots on the walls and ceiling, and the underground stream she had discovered earlier wasn’t too far away, which was good.
Since then, she and the other resistance fighters occasionally launched attacks on the bandits in the mines, freeing more survivors, and her group gradually grew larger and larger.
However, they still weren’t strong enough to liberate all the mines and reach the main base above on their own, so Samantha told Jake that his arrival was definitely a good thing.
Finally, after her people geared up and were ready to go, Samantha said, “Well, I guess it’s ti for you to summon your creatures, Jake.”
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