We reached the level 1 zone around Purgatory to the Southwest in the morning of day 327. I rushed ahead towards the South gate. It was slightly closer than the West Gate, killing any of the small brown wolves in my path.
Naran would be going along with the cart towards the South gate right on my heels. I was exhausted from the high speed and constant travel we had done. That was why we had made it here mid-day instead of evening.
I was breathing heavily as I got closer to the second gate. Brown sli from above. I dodged to the side and swung a club in my left hand, killing it. It didn’t leave behind a crystal, a summoned monster. The speed of level 1 monsters were no match for . I continued to race forward, killing anything that ca into my path.
I killed three wolves with slis on their heads. It was easy enough to stab the wolf and dodge to the side as the sli flew past. I wasn’t just sitting around Mister Ritualist. I had been grinding my ass off and practicing my dodges against the blue gargoyles with their invisible force walls.
The wall was just up ahead. Corpses of were monsters littered the ground outside the wall. Speed was my ally here. I needed to get into Purgatory before the Ritualist could set up any traps. I rushed into the tunnel.
Small brown slis tried to drop down on inside the tunnel. I swung my sword in my left hand and my club in my right. I would have preferred a shield, but these level 1 monsters were no threat to . It was better to increase my killing speed and conserve my energy for the real traps ahead.
I noted the gates were lted. Entering the city on the other side of the wall, there were several partially lted corpses. They hadn’t disappeared, but I wasn’t sure if the Ritualist’s monsters counted as watching them for the purposes of them disappearing. I scanned my surroundings, nothing living. Just the brown slis. Probably to stop people from easily leaving. That ant there were still survivors hopefully. I needed to reach the plaza.
I took a mont to catch my breath and then set off on a light jog through the winding city streets. There was nothing and I didn’t spot any monsters up on the roofs. There was going to be a ga trap up ahead. I could feel it in my gut. Every sense I had was screaming trap, the longer I went without encountering a monster.
I was just a few minutes from the plaza when the trap was sprung. I felt like my head was going to split open as I stumbled back. My vision going blurry. Monsters poured out of the surrounding buildings of all types.
I dropped the weapons in my hands. I still had a sword in a sheath at my side. I leapt into the air just as the monsters were about to reach . “Air Burst!” Acid Shotx5. The monsters were engulfed with acid and I soared over their heads in the direction of the plaza.
I kept running after that and the headache quickly decreased. I ran into the plaza. The survivors had taken up positions at the eight store pillars. Swarms of level 1 ants surrounded them. I pulled out my remaining sword and charged forward, cutting a swath through the low level enemies.
A resounding cheer went up from the people as I was quickly spotted. The soldiers quickly parted their line, and I entered the circle. I quickly spotted my leadership council and went over.
“Situation?” I asked.
Gerold spoke up. “The attack happened mid-day yesterday, we had warning and deployed to the gates. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to hold, and we pulled back to the plaza.” I noted there was dried blood on his red uniform. A woman’s scream cut through the noise. I glanced over and saw the good doctor helping one of the won who was pregnant. So other won were holding up sheets but were clearly tired. Well, when it rained it poured.
“So attacks during the night, but in the morning, we were hit with swarms of these small ants constantly. Nothing else for now. They also have a group of monsters that can jointly perform ntal attacks. We are barely holding on at the mont. Regenerations are keeping us going, but we are down to less than a third of our reserve.” I looked at Clarissa.
“Only 200,000 points left after paying out for weapons and regenerations. We can hold onto this evening our current consumption, but if the attacks carry on through the night, we won’t last,” Clarissa said. I noted several people were listening in.
“Any good news?” I asked.
“Doctor Katz believes he trace the location of the Ritualist if he is close enough to the monsters. We considered launching an attack, but we are open to ntal attacks the mont we leave the plaza. Here we have range to use bows and keep the monsters with ntal abilities at a far enough distance they can’t attack us,” Gerold said.
“How accurate is his thod?” I asked Clarissa. This was it. Just the thing I needed to find and kill the Ritualist once and for all. No more escaping for you. Screw your traps. Screw running away. You were going to get lted. This ti I was going to make sure you stayed dead.
“Just a general direction and he needs to be close to the monster to make it happen. Any monster we captured just turns to dust.”
“thod?”
“Not sothing that can be taught quickly,” Clarissa said, obviously wanting to keep said thod secret. Good, we couldn’t afford to lose valuable information. “You will have to speak to him for more details.”
“Anything else?” I asked.
“No,” Clarissa said.
“Then I will be speaking to the doctor. Good job everyone, just hang in there for a bit more!” I shouted the last part, which was greeted with cheers. Clarissa followed as I went over to the good doctor behind the sheets the won were holding up. There was a bed, and the woman was propped up on it. She was screaming quite heavily and was in a compromising position.
“Doctor, I was told you can trace the Ritualist’s location?”
“I am busy here. There are complications, the baby is oriented feet first and there is bleeding.” I looked down at the woman. She looked up at with tears coming down her face. Of course there was a baby being born in the middle of the battle. It made sense due to the stress and the timing, but it was damned inconvenient.
Well ti to make an executive decision. I was probably killing other people with this choice, but I couldn’t have the doctor making a fuss when I needed him.
“Perform a c-section and then a regeneration, we don’t have ti for you to be dealing with this,” I said. Tracking down and killing the Ritualist was far more important.
“She won’t be able to exchange points once the operation starts. She will need to be given enough to ensure a regeneration,” the doctor said. I looked at Clarissa.
“Based on diseases and illnesses people have shown up with, she will need 20,000 points.” I couldn’t hold the look of shock back on my face.
“No upgrades? Why so much?”
“Stage 4 cancer with drugs still in a person’s system is 15,000 points.” I looked at the woman. It was horrible to say but she wasn’t worth 15,000 points in my mind. She wasn’t capable of fighting. I looked around at the people who were listening in and the won staring at . Dammit, curse you peer pressure.
It was for moral, if the pregnant woman and child died people would be sad. I could justify 20,000 points as a morale boost. My soul was crying as I spoke up. “Spend the points. We do this right now,” I said. There were nurous sighs of relief from the surrounding crowd.
“Lift her bed, bring her to the pillars, Clarissa.” The doctor quickly took charge.
“I had a bag already prepared,” she said. I looked at her and she whispered the next bit to . “I was going to authorize it, but was holding off as long as possible for you to make the decision.”
“Good call,” I said. She was playing the public relations ga. She really was at the top of her ga even as the city was under siege. She earned a sack full of Michael points.
“Well just save us all and I will call it even,” she said back quietly, and I nodded at that. I didn’t want to watch a surgery and I needed to prepare for a counter assault. I began to look for Laura.
I quickly found her with Gerold. “I need a team to protect the doctor while we rush the Ritualist’s position.”
“We figured you would ask that. We have six people with enough in Mind not to collapse imdiately and enough Body to not be worn out,” Laura said.
“Pull them off the front lines so they can rest and regain energy,” I said.
“Already did that,” Gerold said. At least soone was thinking ahead. Have so Michael points. There was more screaming. At least if she was screaming she wasn’t dead.
“There is sothing else. The Ritualist might have another weakness,” Laura said, and I imdiately beca interested. “When people used the Sleep skill on them, all the monsters stumbled at the sa ti.” It imdiately clicked.
“A linked mind, a ntal attack on one attacks all of them,” I said.
“Most likely. We tried to chain the skills together, but they are not additive. We would need an upgraded Sleep skill or a higher-level ntal skill,” Laura said.
“Any of these people on my team?” I asked.
“No. There are only two of them left alive. They used to work for Ken. We use them when we need to slow down a large attack and create openings,” Laura said. The fighting was still ongoing as people killed the summoned ants.
That was why they hadn’t used the skill on the pregnant woman. Every bit of energy was needed for our defenses. Also putting a pregnant woman to sleep might not be a good idea. I had no idea about childbirth and now wasn’t the ti to ask. “I didn’t ask before, but casualties?” I asked Gerold.
“About a third of my people and two thirds of the militia. President Bob has organized food and places to sleep and dispose of waste. But things are getting worse.” That was much was obvious.
“Alright, I will speak to the team now then,” I said. No use dragging things out longer than they needed to be dragged out. Laura led over to six people sitting together on the ground. They all looked tired and worn. They moved to get up when I arrived, I waved them down.
“Stay seated, rest while we can.” I took a seat in their circle and Laura left. “We will be launching an expedition into the city. I will need you to protect Doctor Katz, while I deal with any traps. I can’t guarantee anyone’s survival. While not a suicide mission, this will be tough.”
“I think I speak for all of us, when I say we are ready to stand with you Champion Michael.” I recognized the speaker as Sam of the Black Horned Crows. The four other n and one woman all nodded.
“Very well. We will be moving quickly. Does anyone have less than 100 Body?” No one raised their hand or spoke up. “Good, then we will use speed to our advantage. Anyone good with trigonotry and angles?” I asked. They looked between each other.
One man finally spoke up. “I completed calculus in college, I can do trig.”
“Perfect, you are our math and direction person. We will move through the city on an oblique course, not directly for the Ritualist. Then you will triangulate his position and if he moves and in which direction and at what speed, so we can plan to intercept him. Listen to the directions the good doctor calls out.” The man looked distinctly more nervous.
“Less numbers, more focusing on directions. I don’t have ti to pay attention to sothing like that, since I need to be watching out for ambushes and traps. You will listen to what the doctor says and plot our course through the city.”
“Got it.” Teamwork was going to make the dream work. The dream of lting the Ritualist and listening to his screams.
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