With no one being the wiser to the depravity of Draven’s plot, the war continued. After getting the much-needed resources from Emilia, the other squads were quick to gain ground on their enemies until, after another 2 hours, I noticed the beam of light on the far left gate showing signs of dimming and eventually vanishing, signaling that the first of five Instance Breaks had concluded…however, we soon found out that wasn’t a good thing.
With the pillar of light vanishing, a change occurred in the air as the Tower’s Alpha-Rank peak…began dispersing particles into the air.
(Fire/Ice Reporting in Nexus…we have a problem. The Instance Break has cleared, but now our entire sector is saturated with particles, drawing the attention of any undead inside the trenches.) The leader of Fire Squad, Krak, stated in his gruff voice.
A minute later, the third gate, the one directly to my east, had its pillar extinguished, as Zap/Phys Squad cleared their Break as well, with a similar event occurring.
(Zap/Phys: Nexus, it’s the same here. Where do you want us? To be with you?) The leader of Zap, a young lady named Strela, stated, as I looked in her direction, I noticed the haze in the air indicating particle saturation occurring.
(Strela, go east and assist Vector/Quake Squad. Krak, take Fire Squad, drop down into the Trench, and light them up; HailSwarm, I want you to take Ice Squad and back up Hydro/Air.)
(Copy that moving out)
(Heh, turn the trenches into literal hell, sounds like a plan, Fire-Squad changing battlefields.)
(Ice-Squad enroute.)
Giving out my orders, the battlefield saw great shifts occurring as reinforcements joined the two squads who had yet to clear their gates; meanwhile, since I always planned for ours to be the final gate closed, and we had things covered here, I didn’t assign anyone to aid us; instead, all I did was retrieve Emilia and Piniki and send them to assist Brenden and Sonas.
Forty-five minutes later, Deplas-Man, the Leader of Vector Squad, called in and requested new deployment orders.
(Deplas-Man, head over here with Muskulos. Strela, I want your squad to do the same thing as Fire: begin clearing out everything on your side of the trenches and leave nothing behind.)
And then…the second to last gate’s pillar of light vanished, leaving only my central and the original gate as the sole remaining.
(Ice, Hydro, and Air move to the central gate; it’s time for the final battle.)
Forming another pillar, I shot to the sky and surveyed the battlefield once again; in a little over an hour, four of the five gates had been cleared, meaning they were now open for business and would allow Players to enter and exit at will.
That’s what I figured, considering we hadn’t seen a single player leave the tower, and the four gates were no longer spitting Undead.
Originally, I chose this position because I knew that apart from the four new gates, the original was just as important, as the bulk flow from down the mountain was going to be the most frustrating to deal with.
Using the trenches, I was able to lessen the flow from the other gates and merge it into our stream of Undead, and from the beginning, my squad was never really on offense but primarily on defense.
Our goal was to keep the horde at bay long enough for the four new gates to finish their Instance Break and then deal with the remaining as a united front.
And given the immense size of the mountain, along with the distance between each of the four gates, it was only now that the Bulk of the Undead from the trenches were beginning to enter our battlefield.
That was also why I had Fire and Zap closing off the trenches, or well, eradicating the stragglers; that way, when they arrived, it would be a sign that the end was near…plus, it made for good TV.
The drones captured the immense power of those two squads’ talents as Fire ravaged the western side of the Trench and Lightning the eastern side.
’Now all that’s left is…’
((Nexus, all of the Cultists have either fled or been eliminated, when they caught on to what I was doing, Draven opened a portal and swept the remaining dipshits away.)) Xilia, who was already making her way back to us from the other side of the mountain, called in on the private comms, causing me to frown and glance up toward where I had last seen Draven in the sky.
’Drawing back his force, he’s not giving up, but he isn’t willing to expend more resources for a losing battle. What’s your next play, Draven.’
((When you arrive stay hidden, and near the primary gate,))
’Tsk, I had originally planned on having the Commandant send in evac forces to retrieve any players, but with the Peak saturating the area with Particles, prolonged exposure will trigger a shift in their bodies, just like what happened in the Origin Timeline.’
’And while they are all fit young men, it will be too distracting, plan b it is.’
Reaching up and swapping the channel on my comms to the one keyed into the Military officials, I dropped down off my pillar and began speaking.
(This is Major Nexus reporting. Do you read me over?) Side-stepping and attacking a nearby Undead as it hacked at me with a rusty sword, I waited for a response.
(Go ahead, Major.) the Commandant’s voice came through the right side of my helmet.
(Commandant, it’s as I had feared; with each Break being cleared, the Lower Peak begins releasing Radiation, which is detrimental to those not accustomed to it.)
(While anyone can adapt to said Radiation, it’s not an immediate thing and will first cause those subjected to it to exhibit flu-like symptoms.) Ducking down, I used Dust Manipulation to sweep a large number of Undead off their feet by pulling out the soil under them and causing them to fall.
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For a second, the Commandant was silent as he absorbed this information.
(What do you advise Major?)
(Pull back your forces by a minimum of 10 miles until I can determine the exact zone being acclimated to the Radiation. All of us Heroes are Immune to it, as it is the primary source of our Abilities. If deemed safe, we can bring the line closer, but for now, we will set the standard at 10 miles.)