The APC continued to get hit with potshots for several blocks till we lost our pursuers. The bastards just didn’t give up, or at least that's the feeling I got from them as they continued to hamr us just inside the safety of the surrounding buildings. Thankfully, there wasn’t another one of those Heavy Combat Drones, so for the most part we ignored them in favor of saving ammunition.
I leaned forward, tapping Hampton on the shoulder to get his attention. “Is the Urjune Company stacked? Is this kind of firepower normal for them?”
“Wha- oh.” Hampton scratched his head, leaning back as the plinking of bullets stopped entirely. “Uh- I’m not sure. Scouts have been sent out of course, but we don’t even know where their FOB is… so far though, the bouts of fighting have been kept to small arms and occasional potshots in a bit of a stalemate as we’ve been testing each other.”
“And rockets, right?” I’d had to repair a few vehicles hit by a stray rocket or two, though whatever rockets they were using seed to be pretty weak, all things considered. Barely punched through the Prowler’s armor.
“Uh, yeah. Mines and Sentries too, though to a much lesser extent. And only where their main operating area is. This is the first ti an HCD has co out. If they have more though?” He shuddered slightly. “Not looking good unless we bunker down. We didn't bring much capable of knocking them out.”
A natural lull ford in our conversation as I sat back to process what he said. So kind of anti-air weapon would be nice against the drones… hmm… missiles weren’t that hard to make, right? Besides, if I could get my hands on one I could steal the blueprint using Technical Expertise. Maybe I should look into making a portable SAM turret at so point? Or really, even a small, portable Sentry Turret would be nice so it could watch my back.
Ideas started to form in their fledgling states as I thought about the viability of micro turrets and carrying them around with . At the very least, if I had that kind of setup, doing dangerous missions solo wouldn’t be that big of a problem. I’d have to plan this all out and think about it at another ti though. Now really wasn’t ideal.
Since we were free of our pursuers, we looped back through grass-filled streets for the Reds and the Nomads pinned down. The tires constantly ripped up the grass as we drove back, exposing the sand below as we returned to the backside of the building the APC originally crashed in. The APC’s several dozen turrets and caras gave a clear view as I looked over the shoulder of the operators.
“Damn, that’s a lot of them.” One of the other passengers called as we rolled up onto a sea of green.
In the deep shadows of the abandoned city, the plants seed to grow a mind of their own. A horribly malicious mind at that. From the exposed greenery all around the Prowlers, figures erged. They looked like a mass of various animals and creatures, each one warped horribly. Body parts were disproportionate, horribly shaped, and vile as they bonelessly wiggled around. Without even turning on Aetherial Perception, I had a feeling that they would have the sa dented malevolence that the plants of the Circle had.
The green imitations of life, probably the Growths everyone talked about, sward towards three Prowlers and the Nomad car. They were barely held back by the Prowlers unloading into the masses, each bullet tearing through the soft plant flesh of the endless hordes in sprays of green matter. The Growths were putting up a fight though as hail after hail of sharp thorns launched towards the Prowler. Even if the thorn attack’s damage was low, the sheer amount of them probably did so level of damage to the Prowlers and the PMCs in them. Just one needed to find a gap.
”Weapons free. Clear a path!” Tyrone, the driver, called out as we approached the mass of dented greenery.
We closed the gap as the turrets started firing into the horde, giving a better view of the plant-based entities. The green flesh offered zero resistance to the constant firepower as their soft matter exploded in a spray of chlorophyll. They looked even softer when the APC ramd straight through the horde to get to the Prowlers, sending severed body parts every which way.
The wounded Growths showed their strong vitality even as they were torn to shreds, slowly knitting themselves back together as they surged towards us re humans intruding into their domain. It was a horrifying sight, especially as they got back up to continue the fight, only to be put down completely when more than half their torso was destroyed.
”Damn, these things are relentless!” One of the gunners called out. I looked over at his terminal, catching sight of one of the Growths eating a dozen bullets before going down. It didn’t help that his turret was a smaller caliber than the others.
As we rode into the horde, long whips of vines smacked into the APC, not getting through the armor but sounding just as powerful as the rounds we took from the Urjune ambush. I looked out one of the caras just in ti to see a storm of thorns flying at it from the horde, knocking it out completely. Thankfully, it seed as if most of the caras on here were sowhat resistant to damage, so it was just the few that got knocked out by the unending storm of thorns.
A screech rose into the air as the life-imitating plants reacted to our presence. A massive root burst up from the ground, lancing towards us as if to spear through the thick tal plating. Just before it could hit, I heard muttering behind . The Adept, based on the slight ethereal tingle from Insight. A massive wall of blood-red fire ford around the side of the APC, incinerating the surrounding Growths and burning back the attacking root montarily.
Still, the root had incredible vitality. It forced its way through the fire, determined to smite us. The gunners tried to fight it back, but the thick bark of the root proved to be bullet-resistant as it barely flinched. And then the big gun on the roof fired, launching a shell to et the approaching root. It exploded through the thick bark as if it wasn’t even there, flying through the mass as it shattered the root and cleaved a path through the Growths behind.
What remained of the root collapsed, dropping onto several Growths as it smashed them into the ground. The scene repeated as another root ca up, this ti shot down before it could even close the gap now that we were ready for it.
With the combination of fire support from the Adept, literally in this case, and the relatively weak Growths, the APC easily forced its way through the horde as if a heated knife through butter. They barely offered a resistance before the might of our beast of a vehicle.
And then we were there, joining the Prowlers in their defensive line. As if the Growths were waiting for us to join the encirclent, they frantically charged even harder. In the distance, I could see similar creatures to the Growths start to form up out of the greenery, though these ones were covered in thick bark. Going off my previous interactions with these types of creatures, the bark was probably close to bulletproof.
The APC idled as the turrets continued to unload firepower. A crackle of the radio ca as Ysmor contacted our group. “Nice to see ya! The support is very much appreciated… what’s the plan?”
“I got a bad feeling about those barked ones.” Hampton picked up on the unnatural creatures picking their way to us.
“We could charge through. Try to make a big enough gap that the others could follow us out.” Tyrone offered.
I was tempted to throw on a suggestion of my own. There was an underground road running underneath not too far that we could probably get into. Then I realized I was completely out of my depth here and decided to leave it to the professionals. I was good at escaping, but escaping with a large convoy of five vehicles probably wouldn’t be the sa. My ti to help would co at the actual Opera House, at least. I’d be in my elent there.
“Breakthrough. The longer we’re bogged…” Ysmor called once more, his voice cutting out as the comms montarily dropped. “…rejoin the main company.”
“Chek,” Tyrone answered before calling back to us in the back. “Jackson, you got another spell in you?”
I looked back, catching sight of the Adept. If before he was in a bad state, now he was in an even worse one. The guy clutched at his chest, taking deep breaths. I caught the faint porky scent of burned human flesh from the man.
Jackson, the Adept, shakily nodded his head. “One- one more…”
“Think you could use that ram enhancent you created?” Tyrone asked.
Did Adepts make spells? Weird… I guess it makes sense though. They’re not getting their magic capabilities from a sprite or eidolon. Rather, they were casting it all themselves, so making their own magic made sense. There was a whole world of magic I still wasn't quite sure about yet.
”Ch- Chek.” The man groaned as he sat up and started casting his magic. I followed the movents of his hands and low voice for a mont, getting completely lost in the complexity of it before the faint tingle of Insight ca again. Sothing was happening in the Aether.
”They’re getting closer!” One of the gunners called.
”Gah!” A scream ca from Jackson, causing and several other people to jump as fire appeared out of nowhere, encompassing his arms. One of the passengers was quick with an extinguisher, but the magic fla refused to go out until the tattered Adept hastily threw off his jacket. As soon as the jacket left his presence, the magic-enhanced flas snuffed out.
The guy collapsed backward with a groan, sweat beading on his brow as his face twisted in pain. The dic rushed back to him, squeezing through the mass of people as he moved to provide dical treatnt. Lots of needles ca out as the dic asked which stims the Adept had so far.
Indeed, haywire magic in the cursed city. It's almost as though every cast did self-damage to so extent… Lia wasn’t this bad though? Was it since Magi used sprites as interdiaries? She'd been struggling to summon sprites though, right? So maybe the sprites took the brunt of the self-harm? No wonder none of them wanted to co.
Even though our Adept caught fire in the process, there was no denying the effect of his magic. The ram in front expanded several tis as rock surged up to it. The rock, once set, was coated in burning fire, with several jets of flas sticking backward almost as if to provide a boost for the ram to run through the crowd of Growths.
Then we were moving, the rest of our small convoy tailing closely behind. At first, we were going a bit slow as the additional layer of rock on the ram weighed us down. And then the fla jests kicked in, shooting flas out at an angle. They were multipurpose, boosting our speed as well as incinerating anything that got stuck on the back side of the ram.
Most of the Growths we hit instantly incinerated, turning the greenery to ash as fire spread from us like a plague amongst a wheat field. Smoke filled the air, providing cover for the Growths as the convoy forced our way through the bulk of the plant bastards.
I was a bit worried about the wood-armored ones closing in from the fringes of the horde, but it proved to be a pointless worry as the cannon on top of the APC fired away. They were blown apart by the large caliber rounds, giving us ample space to ram straight through and out into the freedom of grassy streets.
The drivers left little ti for the Growths to catch up as we sped away from the masses. Interestingly, they didn’t chase us- no, more like they couldn’t chase us. It was almost as if there was a circular barrier around where the others had been pinned in, keeping the Growths from moving beyond it. Those that did simply collapsed into piles of plant matter as if their animating force faded away.
I lost visual as we turned down a street, driving further into the shadowy city.
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