Syndicate Slayer

by Mars Dorian

  That sounded like a smart idea. We had used a similar tactic to infiltrate the garrison in the Varmegarden liberation quest.

  “I’ll lead the charge against the crystal coral extraction site,” Rokkit said. “I’ve got most of the health points and the best armor, not to mention my badass charge-shield. Plus, I’ve spent most of my skill points on becoming a tank, so I can take a beating.” He grinned at me. “Even if the whole damn world is after my ass.”

  I had no doubt. He had medium-heavy armor plating with sockets and layered anti-range plating to protect against long-range projectiles. He had dropped the two-hander weapon for a single-hand auto-axe and a massive military engine shield which absorbed the impact energy of physical hits and then released the collected charge. A rather defensive build for a brawler personality like Rokkit, but exactly the kind of class we needed right now.

  “I’ll position myself near the boulder and provide overwatch for you boys,” Yumi-D said. “My Insight ability and long-range technical bow make for excellent support fire.”

  “Your range is that far?” I asked.

  She unfolded her metallic blue tek-bow in a heroic pose. “I’ve got an enhanced Windcutter with aim-support and an upgraded slot which provides fifteen percent range increase. And don’t forget about the Insight ability—my vision range is almost three kilometers.”

  “You’ll cut the wind before it decides to blow.”

  “Your one-liners are getting better,” Yumi-D said.

  Rokkit shrugged. “Barely.”

  L’ocean chimed in. “I’m going to support Rokkit and Dash with buffs and weaken the enemy with my debuffs. I’ve also learned some useful crowd-control magic against enemy groups.”

  The formation sounded like a digital dream come true. The kind of teamwork that would break every developer’s heart—the way the Crystal Crusade was meant to be played.

  Meanwhile, Grezz watched us with her furrowed eyebrows and scratched her sharp cat-like ears. “You humans talk funny. I have no clue what you’re mumbling about.”

  “It’s human speak,” I said and moved into position. “You know, from the old continent.”

  L’ocean activated her tech-staff. The humming of Reepo-powered weapons sounded.

  “Everyone ready?”

  Nods from everyone in the party. Good.

  The attack on the Sunblood outpost had begun.

  16

  Rokkit, L’ocean, and I stormed toward the crystal coral harvest site. Yumi-D stayed on the boulder and used it as a sniper spot for her oversight skill. We downed our anti-Reepo vials to protect our body against the infestation which my HUD described as ‘moderate’. The antidotes lasted about five minutes and would only mitigate eighty percent of the infection, which meant constant HP damage was imminent. Thankfully, we had bought enough potions to deal with the challenge. We used the rush command of our advanced fowls and crashed into the worker site. The poor suckers dropped and KO’d in no time. Rokkit’s beast stomped a worker to digital death. He used his new favorite weapon, the slow but powerful machine sword, and unleashed long swings against anyone trying to get near him. I unleashed a harpoon attack and impaled a nearby light guard, pulled him toward me, and introduced his meager chest plate to my BlitzBlade. The combo of chainlink and blade swooshes downed his health to zero, especially with the added electro-damage that stunned the sucker. Yumi-D used her arrows to keep any worker or lightly armored guard from touching us. On top of the elevated boulder, she gained a sight and range bonus. Yumi-D activated her Insight ability and scoped out the area for more foes and updated her tactics on the group chat. “I’ve got the homing ability and can track down single, powerful foes. So if a Bleeder is kissing the ground and you don’t know why, it’s likely because of me—Yumi-D.”

  Rokkit sighed. “I wish you’d release your arrows as fast as your words.”

  “Yadda, yadda. Don’t cry on me now, big boy.”

  “Focus, both of you.”

  The workers fled from the crystal harvesting site and retreated to the outpost’s emergency gates. Klaxons rang. The needle throwers on the fortified walls rotated their turrets toward us and fired. Whiz whiz. Stationed guards launched their gunblades through the embrasures or targeted us from the watchtowers. Preshaar Grezz used the tumult and snuck around the least protected side of the outpost like a human-shaped cat. She used her mechanical claws to climb up the wall. Shot up like a spider on steroids, grabbed a soldier from the top of the wall, threw him down, and invaded the top level of the outpost. Maybe she’d turn out to be a semi-useful NPC after all.

  “She’s inside,” I said to my team.

  “The gate is opening,” L’ocean said. “But I don’t think it is because of us.”

  Another klaxon clang from the outpost. A shrill wee-o-wee that hammered my poor ears and almost scared the fowls away. I placed a couple of mines near the crystal harvesting side—a healthy mix between explodas, spikers, and paralyzers to welcome the new backup. It came faster than expected.

  A squad of new soldier types stormed out the outpost gate and stomped toward our location. The front row carried heavy mech-shields with excellent defensive stats against projectiles, while the row behind held electro-blades. Three or four enablers marched in the shielded formation and juiced up their armored comrades with attack and speed boosts. To make matters worse, a captain led the charge and barked attack orders.

  Enemy: Sunblood Captain

  Type: Human guardsmen leader

  HP: 2504

  Armor: Medium plating (+3)

  Weakness: Armor-piercing

  Drops: Medium military grade armor

  Followed by the first row of defender-type soldiers:

  Enemy: Sunblood Defender

  Type: Human guardsmen, Defense

  HP: 3304

  Armor: Heavy composite (+6)

  Amp: Engine shield

  Weakness: Armor-break, Dull weaponry

  Drops: Engine shield

  I whistled. “Heavy stats. The Sunblood must really want this extraction site.”

  Rokkit yelled. “Not shit, Boltzy. There are enough Reepo crystals to power up half the continent.”

  “Let’s hope Grezz manages to open the gate.”

  We had to hold the line until the Preshaar fulfilled her part of the quest. Unlike human players, NPCs followed their own game script and were immune to advice, at least in Grezz’s case. Even worse, the success of our quest depended on Grezz’s actions, so we were completely reliant on her AI. Scary.

  We positioned ourselves in between the crystal corals which we used as natural cover. Our HPs dropped into the single digits, but thanks to our antidotes and healthy potion supplies, we managed. Rokkit taunted the new squad of Sunbleeders and made them march toward my minefield. Explosions shook up the rugged ground. Metal shreds and helmets pieces blew into the air. One Defender received heavy damage, but the others mitigated the shockwaves of my mines with their engine shields. My line of mines had maybe impacted five units, causing anywhere between ten to twenty percent of their HP.

  Weak.

  Worse, the backup group moved in battle formation, thanks to their commanding officer.

  “Remember, as long as their captain is alive, they work in formation and use team tactics. We must focus on the leader first.”

  I wished Wu and his Stalker had joined our battle. We desperately needed a stealth-styled player that could sneak up through enemy formations and take out their leaders from behind.

  The squad approached us with the Defenders facing us first, heavy shields raised. The enablers in the second and third row buffed them up with Reepo-magic. Yumi-D fired from her secret boulder position, probably trying to kill a few units to break up their formation. She unfortunately caused little damage. Her arrows rained down from the sky and bounced off their shields.

  I had to intervene. “Yumi, forget about the Defenders, concentrate your fire on the leader and break the squad formation.”

  “S
mart idea, my friend.”

  “Here they come,” Rokkit said and ditched his shield for a massive broad sword he needed both of his giant arms for. L’ocean summoned more Reepo particles from her staff, which was this game’s version of casting a spell. “Looks like our enemy is heavily reliant on Reepo-tech.”

  “Yes, why?”

  “Watch and see.”

  The enemy squad entered our close combat range. I was ready to protect Rokkit’s rear when something odd happened. Sparks fizzled among the enemy troopers. Gunblades and auto-polearms of the soldiers exploded, causing massive damage to their carriers. HPs in free fall.

  “Holy shit.”

  L’ocean smiled. “It’s called Overcharge and causes Reepo-batteries in a fifteen meter range to implode.”

  Most of the soldiers threw away their damaged weapons. Four burned or received acid damage that ate away their armor. Two collapsed and died. The squad formation broke apart.

  Best crowd-control spell ever.

  L’ocean hid behind me. “Unfortunately, the spell cost a lot of Reepo essence and destroys the weapons, rendering them useless as loot.”

  “Survival matters more than collectibles.”

  Rokkit focused on the incoming Defenders that survived the Reepo-battery Overcharge. He neared the closest shield carrier and dashed forward with a huge blade swing. The trooper parried his slash but received shield damage. I needed to help him out. “I distract them, you hit ‘em from behind.”

  I had an even better idea—I threw my sticky exploda mines on the heavy shields and remote-detonated them. The explosive damage shattered the shields and stunned the Defender. Rokkit used the moment and forward-thrusted his broad sword into the back of the heavily-armed soldiers, causing seventy-five percent of the base damage. The enemy captain joined the fight with his auto-gunblade and shot rapid-fire pellets at our direction.

  Another buff from L’ocean helped me speed up my reaction time. While Rokkit took care of the surviving Defenders, I focused on the leader. He moved fast and used the support of the two enablers juicing him up.

  Not for long.

  With my attack rate still up from L’ocean’s spell, I managed to land a direct hit on the captain with my BlitzBlade, electro-damage inclusive. I followed up with quick slashes and cut away precious HPs. The lucky stride burned out quickly. The Syndicate enablers, standing meters behind the captain and guarding his rear on each side, healed him. They even unleashed useless one-liners.

  “Got your back, captain.”

  “Your health is my wealth.”

  Yadda yadda.

  The captain’s health glowed in green again, which prompted Rokkit to shout at me. “First lesson in boss fights, Boltzy: kill the minions first, especially when they’re healers.”

  He was right, but remembering basic tactics proved difficult when stress flooded your body. Thank tech, the enablers weighed less than me. With my chainlink skill, I pulled the nearest healer toward me and rammed my BlitzBlade into his light armor. The electro-charge shook his body with blue thunders jostling his limbs. I cut off his head and focused on the last enabler retreating.

  “Hey, come back to me,” the captain said toward the deserter and reached out his gloved hand like a boy longing for his mom. Yumi-D fired a barrage of arrows to keep the captain from attacking me.

  Suppressive fire deluxe.

  I shot the fleeing enabler in the back and caused critical damage. I pulled the sucker toward me and wanted to kill him off with a swipe, but the weakling died the second I dragged him across the rugged soil. With both healers gone, I could focus on the leader. Even better, Rokkit had wiped out the last shield-carrier and joined my fight.

  The bloodlust flamed in his Lancer eyes. “Let’s keep up the carnage.”

  We both charged toward the weakened captain and flanked him. Rokkit used taunt to make the enemy attack him instead of me. I used the distraction and switched to my trusty old gunblade. With the thermal scope upgrade, I could snipe the captain’s head and cause critical damage. His HPs dropped below twenty percent. The damage spree continued. A homing arrow cut through the air and pierced the captain in the helmet. Sparks spat from the mechanical dart.

  “Better get out of there, buddy,” Yumi-D said through the comm. She still resided on her far away boulder sniper spot. “I’m going to blow his mind, like literally.”

  Rokkit sprinted toward me. “Move, move, move.”

  I barely escaped the splash damage of the head. It splattered into red meat pieces.

  The Syndicate backup team, as well as every soldier on the crystal harvesting site, was dead. The rocky ground reeked of burning corpses and useful items. I wanted to high-five L’ocean and Rokkit when a message entered my virtual vision.

  Quest update: You failed to protect your Preshaar ally. Grezz has been captured during the battle.

  17

  It sounded surreal.

  Like a message from another dimension where different rules applied.

  Grezz had been captured?

  “Maybe it’s an error,” I told my co-players.

  “It’s not a glitch, Boltzmann. Our furry friend has been put in a little cage.”

  Yumi-D jumped from her boulder and joined us down in the crater. Together, we approached the front gate with the dungeon-styled doors opened. Either it hadn’t been closed when the back-up squad was released or Grezz had managed to open it from inside. If that was the case, at least her capture wasn’t in vain. All four of us stayed close to each other and approached the inner courtyard of the outpost. Sunbleeder corpses plastered the metal-plated ground. Blood seeped from the armor cracks and flooded the shiny plates.

  Was that Grezz’ work?

  If she did kill these soldiers single-handedly, we’d receive her experience by the end of the quest. Every enemy an NPC ally or co-player slay within a hundred meter range contributed to the team experience.

  I worried about something else.

  “Grezz,” L’ocean said and pointed toward the guard-post on the other side of the inner courtyard. The female Preshaar was imprisoned inside a semi-transparent container. She balled her claws and hit the interior, but the container swallowed her rage.

  “You know it’s a trap. All that’s missing is a blinking warning sign.”

  Rokkit readied his engine shield, looking for the culprit. “All soldiers inside the courtyard are dead.”

  “Not all of them,” a crackling voice said.

  All eyes went to the mechanized armor stomping next to the prison container where Grezz lurked. The new gear looked like a mix between an oversized elite Defender and a worker armor. The pilot inside controlled two gloved arms with fingers looking like metal clamps. “I was only going to lift some heavy crystals today, but a little bit of rebel blood will oil my clamps.”

  All four of us went into defensive formation.

  Rokkit said, “Looks like the mini-me version from Varmegarden.”

  Maybe, I thought. But his stats still impressed:

  Enemy: Veteran Mechgineer+

  Type: Mechanized suit BOSS

  HP: 18.750

  Armor: Double-coated neosteel (+6)

  Weakness: Heavy armor-pierce

  Special: Heavy chainlink+, power glove, stomp

  >>>weight: 425 KG

  Drops: Reepo+, mid-rare grappling hook, mech-power gloves

  Almost twenty thousand in hitpoints? Holy. That guy was a mechanical beast. I hoped his stats were more impressive than his actual attacks.

  “I was going to beat my harvesting quota today and then you cretins show up. Scumbag rebels, always causing a ruckus while hardworking folks like me gotta hustle.”

  “Looked like you picked the wrong working place,” I said.

  “Got to feed my family—five mouths are waiting for me at home, waiting to get stuffed.”

  “How about you go home to your family and let our beast-friend go?”

  “Are you kidding? You have a bounty on your pretty little
heads. My employer is going to pay a big fat bonus for your capture.”

  Rokkit stepped forward, heavy sword pointed at the mechgineer. “How about you capture the tip of my blade?”

  “Wait,” L’ocean said and held him back. “We need a tactic.”

  Yumi-D nodded. “She’s right, big boy. No more solo-tripping.”

  I used the group chat. “He’s a Reepo-powered mech armor. His crystal fuel containers are going to be his weakness.”

  Meanwhile, our boss fight stomped on the other side of the inner courtyard, like a baby that mommy hadn’t fed.

  “You kill my co-workers and act like all tough and mighty?”

  He raised his mech-glove and squeezed the iron. “Clobbering time.”

  The mechgineer marched toward us. It felt like the outpost was shaking under his heavy stomps. Thump thump.

  “Stay away from those claws,” L’ocean said as she summoned a buff that accelerated our attack rate and movement speed.

  Rokkit used taunt to attract the giant’s attention and hoisted his engine shield. Yumi-D found a top vantage spot on top of a truck and fired a barrage of armor-piercing arrows. The bolts rained down on the mech worker but couldn’t penetrate his thick armor. Few HPs cut down.

  “I need heavy armor-piercing darts. Like an upgraded mech-crossbow that can penetrate double-coated neosteel.”

  “Do you have one?”

  She shook her head as if she was ashamed of her lack of heavy long-range firearms.

  “Doesn’t matter. We’ll fight with what we have.”

  The mechgineer moved slowly but brandished heavy blows, fitting the mechanical profile. Getting hit would mean massive damage, and since I was just as slow, I couldn’t play the evasion game like my co-players. I observed Rokkit swapping different weapons, trying to get a feel for the boss. The massive enemy readied for his attack.

  “Evade.”

  The fist impact shattered the ground like an earthquake. Even dozens of meters from the epicentre, the shockwave caught up with me. My chest plates vibrated. Few HPs downed.