Urgent mission:
Rank: Orange
Mission giver: Planetary consciousness (Terra)
Mission type: Recovery or Elimination
Rewards: $20,000, 2% tax reduction for an entire quarter, Teleportation scroll 1x
Target: Corrupted human (Cursed soul)
Possible ways of mission execution: Body death, exorcism, psychological support
Level requirements: 40
Reason for mission: Potential risk of unnecessary deaths
A mission popped out in everyone's hud in phoenix. The surrounding civilians eyes widened with dread and looked on with eyes filled with fear.
Their breaths shallowed thanks to the instinctual fear that those words brought.
Cursed spirit. Lost souls.
A human who gave up on the world.
Human despair and hatred given ultimate autonomy. Sometimes formed by the dead as grudges, or living embodiment of those who lost faith on the world. Formed from despair of those alive and turns them to shed their humanity to run away from reality, or the death of someone who had a large lingering amount of hate towards some group of people or towards the world.
The ones whose job isn't involved in combat widened in fear and decided to hunker down near the military outposts in the area. It didn't help that the military outposts are mostly around lvl 35 as that was the most common level of those posted all around the continental US as the fight hasn't been brought to it and most of the reserve are trained up to level 35 and sent into 6 month rotations in order to keep national stability. Most people who weren't chosen by the draft were on average on lvl 25-32, and most were non combat jobs which didn't give much physical stats or magical stats but people along the ages of 40+ on non combat jobs do have high proficiency stats on their jobs. They often have high int, wis, and job proficiency class from newcomer to expert.
Most of the monsters near the cities and the roads are around 30 max. Most of the reserve training involved extermination quests/missions which involves patrols and killing monsters near the roads, outposts, and cities. The higher levels are often in the forests and mountains. The farther from society and the greater human population, the more dangerous the area.
Jake sighed and gave the other's the side eye to which they just rolled their eyes before letting him do his thing. Kneeling down, he looked at his niece directly on the eyes.
"Cassie, uncle is going to do a job today. Im sorry okay? I promise i'll come back. Just let me do my job for a bit, its for your own good." He reasoned to the child. She looked at her own uncle with eyes glistening with tears as his father said the same thing before disappearing. The memory of it nearly made her cry. The sight of the child crying made jake wince but put a gentle squeeze.
"It's for your own good. I don't want you to get hurt. Better to hunt the threat rather than risk it. If we let it wander many would die and would risk your safety if you get in it's crosshairs." He explained, yet the child looks at him with teary eyes, unknowingly she didn't listen, only focusing on the thoughts of having to lose another person who she cares about.
good samaritan for emergency response in case of calamity act U.S.C 42, 1603 and 1661-1666 of 2026
All contractors are legally required to help in rescue efforts, subjugation missions, and relief efforts. Any reluctance and refusal will be automatically deducted in their bank account if found and will have their criminal record be marked with felon and unable to work in any other career path.
Military personnel can apply for contractor status but in exchange they would get taxed around 30% of their total annual income in order to pay off the breach of contract that states the you cannot quit the military unless given express permission by the higher ups or dishonorable discharge which would mean it would make him unable to find a job, get benefits loss, and rights loss. If approved they are still considered as military personnel but work in the private sector of the US market. They are legally considered as government assets and legally is owned by the state. But will be marked as a business asset as part of the US military industrial complex. (1603 section 6)
"Everything is going to be fine. I promise." He said only for the little girl to run away from him, he tried to chase the child only for a patrolling soldier to grab her and smile at him, using American sign hand language to say:
"I'll take care of her for a bit, just do the mission. The local patrols are a little bit busy and are asking command for some patrols to hunt for it. Better someone deal with it or atleast distract it a bit before the others could deploy so the casualties won't be as much. Command is a bitch to take care of."
He could only nod at the soldier. The soldier smiles beneath his bolaclava and nods back.
"Good luck." The soldier signed, he signed back.
"You too."
"Ad astra per aspera."
"We suffer for the world."
The party quickly moved away as they started hunting the corrupted. The streets filled with people moving towards military heavy area's around the inner city. The patrols around were busy as they were trying to get people evacuated. As to why that is rather than hunting 'it' immediately, they went for evac, it'd be stupid to let civilians be around in a fight against a corrupted human, something that had their stats quadrouple and berserk, capable of destroying a building if wanted to on around lvl 30, imagine a level 70 one. That would be the equivalent of a hydrogen bomb vs a coughing baby against normal humans. The only ones capable of killing the corrupted at that level would be the heroes, the gods if given the ability to intervene, unique humans that earned tittles from clearing the trial dungeons, or unique instances of humans who either been blessed or by their own grit and experience.
Jake took a deep breath. He was anxious, the whole thing with protocols made him slightly angry. Protocols this, protocols that, it's almost like the government cares more with their image rather than the people they protect. Multiple instances of the same thing happening in his time in the draft. The drills always focusing on protocols when they were having their shits kicked in. They say it builds character, he calls bullshit. They say it's paved with blood, but what happens when those same protocols sacrifice those they were sworn in to protect? It's almost like the government is more evil than even the devil himself. Atleast the devil has some manners and keeps to his contract. The government doesn't. It was laughable, and saddening. Not to mention that some leftists call upon those same protocols to be inacted when the soldiers make mistakes but when they follow those same protocols, they condemn the soldiers for inaction. It made him sneer. It made him question why these same people question why his brother bothered to save them when they accused him of negligence when he was a bit late and condemning him for focusing on his own health. Looking around the buildings around them, they were quickly being evacuated as people quickly tried to run away from the danger. Soldiers from patrols all over the city, some were swat officers, and some were police. Looking at them, he could see the unease on their eyes, he could even see some of them tired but still continued as to do their duty whilst some didn't even do anything. Just sat around in their vehicles, and ate. Didn't even care. But this whole thing was all hands on deck so anyone who wants to fight or can be capable is hired.
As they continued to search, Jake felt some unease, Emily fidgeted whilst tapping her ofuda holster and twirling her bo-staff anxiously, Tristan was gripping his sword tightly, Deacon ate a snickers bar whilst his arm beneath that shield was already doing dexterity checks and started doing hand signs for ease of casting some spells he knew, Hellen was thinking of utility spells whilst mentally making strategies based on the team's movement patterns, and William was readying his arrows from his quiver, the compound bow on his right hand, and on his left shoulder a rifle chambered in 7.62x51 NATO. The more they traversed deeper into more and more empty streets, the more they could feel the dread. The empty streets felt eerie, the once bustling streets lay left strewn empty as many either evacuated or laid hauled up in their apartments hoping to whatever god they pray to that they'd be safe. Where men, women, and children once roamed, now emptied, leaving behind closed stores, and buildings. To the party, it felt like the apocalypse had occurred. The only thing left was some being opened and ransacked to make it feel and look like the apocalypse happened.
Footsteps echoed through the empty street, the eerie silence had made Jake have flashbacks of basic in the forests.
'Fuck, go! Im a goner!' His squadmate shouted as he coughed out blood, his sides bled, right arm twisted, and his right ankle was twisted. into a sickening angle, if you were to see it, you would be sickened at how it was barely hanging on. Despite how good they were able to stop the bleeding and make them able to walk, but the man could barely walk. Healing magic could work but that'll only make everything worse. They needed to rebreak the leg or atleast try to set it with someone holding the leg but that'll be painful and risk into someone turning into one those things, Onryo as some jokingly call them, but it only became popularized by japanophiles or weebs as Onryo translated into english means 'spiteful spirit' which was a pretty apt name considering quite literally people who gave up on the world and lost their humanity to run away from the cruelty of reality or a dead person with a large lingering amount of resentment coming back to haunt and get 'revenge' on the world that supposedly wronged them. Even with that infections would still affect it. The blood loss is still a problem. They'd be lucky for the guy to survive long enough for them to get back to base. Unfortunately for them, their humvee got destroyed by giant bears aka ursus titanus americanus.
'You can still be saved!' Screamed their squad leader, Jake cursed as he checked his binoculars for the hostile wild life nearby only to see a plethora giant wildlife. Their squad medic was a bit busy trying to keep the man alive.
'Uh... Guys...'
'What?!'
'Run.'
'Wh-' Those words were cut off as in the distance, the sounds of a stampede echoed throughout the forest. Their faces paled as the realization of what was happening.
'Oh fuck...' The squad medic said as in the distance, they could see a horde of giant buck, each as tall and large as a tree heading towards them. If someone got near one, one would not be ashamed of shitting themselves with how large the bucks were. The common occurrence when someone meets one would often be an antler to the torso which looked like someone just shoved those jousting lances from medieval europe into someone's chest with the speed of a subsonic bullet.
'Run! Leave me!' The man begged to which after a second of hesitation, they left the man to die. The man sat down next to a nearby tree and screamed. Oh the scream. It sounded like the wails of the skin walkers from famous youtube videos. The sound of it hurt the ears and made them instinctually cower in fear from the terror of the gut wretching screams filled with lunacy and manic insanity, to the newly christened squad it felt like betrayal for a friend they've known for months. Then they heard the sound of the herd of giant bucks run over the man and tear chunks of their teammate, a sickening tear and crunch was heard as the herd moved past them. Jake nearly shits himself at how many of them were there, the herd was large enough that anything near 600 meters from his teammate were covered with running giant bucks. It looked more like a flood rather than a herd. The medic was crying silently as she ran, the designated marksman wanted to throw up from their first experience in combat. Jake could barely keep his composure. He'd seen a friend die with his head snapped earlier from the humvee turning over, the sight still sent chills to his mind, the memory of the sound of the sickening crunch made him want to hurl but currently choses not to as to not have an easy way for predators to track them. Now this? It made him resentful towards the old men who sent young men like him to die for their own personal interests.
'Damnit, Carlston.....' The team medic muttered as they ran, their breaths grew more and more ragged as they've been awake for more than a day due to the constant battles to become stronger. After what seems to be hours of running, and doing smoke and mirrors approach of survival, they managed to find themselves in a quiet area of the forests of death. They took a quick break. The medic sat down and cried silently whilst drinking some water. The designated marksman sat down and threw up. Jake coughed and slightly threw up some of his breakfast as he finally digested what happened. It was his first time of seeing someone dying so it was quite traumatizing for him.
'I-i need a hug...' The medic said as she broke down crying as she threw up after consuming a whole 1 liter bottle of water.
Jake threw up again as he remembered the sounds of death. The bitter taste of death lingered on his mouth.
It tasted like bitter and nauseous bile.
After finally calming down, he took a deep breath and drank some water. Looking around, he could see the medic passed out from shock whilst the marksman was taking deep breaths. 'I didn't sign up for this. I-i didn't....' The marksman muttered as he had a shell shock expression. Jake, out of pity patted his squadmate and gave him a comforting hug.
'Everything will be okay. Everything will be okay....' He muttered as his teammate finally broke down crying.
'Everyone else is dead... Why? They didn't deserve it.... They didn't do anything....'
'Because that's how the world is. The will of the planet needs us to become stronger or else everyone will suffer under the other worlders or the games. The planet knew how to make the earth stronger, and it only knew one way. Adaptation. Artificially create the ultimate predators without the need of thousands of years of evolution. It only knew one thing how, Kill or be killed.' Jake explained. His brother had connections and insider knowledge of how the world thinks, and from what he heard, it only wanted 'its children' to grow stronger to protect the lands the only way it knew how. Artificial hardship, make problems large enough that the species adapt to the problem to be stronger, smarter, and more adaptable to overcome it. And he had to admit, mankind wouldn't if it had done it any other way. Hardship breeds innovation and adaptable men. If it wasn't for the will of the planet, mankind would be bickering right now, economies in the red lines, people suffering from even more incompetent leaders, people forced to obey them for safety, and they'd probably in the backpedal. It evened out the playing field even if many had to suffer.
'But why?' He snorted at that bitterly.
'Mankind is a stubborn bunch, if it weren't for the artificial threats we would be bickering and would be in a constant state of sabotage with the other nations. Many other people also would be under tyrants who would be empowered by the crisis. If it wasn't for the will of planet, we would be suffering under a tyrant who only cares about the wants of those in the upper echelons of society. If they could, they would abandon us for their survival if it wasn't that if they were to abandon us, they lessen their potential profit margins. Now they are forced to do so as the planet has their balls in its metaphorical hands ready to squeeze harsh enough that they would rather wish death than experience the pain of that punishment.' Jake answered truthfully with his thoughts of the matter although the absurdity of the last few words made the marksman laugh. The marksman thought about it. He sighed bitterly after a few seconds of deliberation.
'I guess you are right...'
'But it still isn't right. Why are we dying for old men?'
'It's not that.' He sighs as he remembers the words of his brother when he came home to his 3rd game.
'Is it bad for someone to save other's? Treat it like this, your not fighting for the upper class, your fighting for those who couldn't protect themselves. Would your rather others be in your situation?'
'No. I...'
'No i don't.' The man sighed.
'Good, we die not for those with power but those who can't protect themselves.'
'What happens if the people who protect us hate us?'
'Then let them. Laugh when those same people get put in our situation. Atleast we are not cowards who hide behind laws and social rules.' Jake said bitterly as he deeply hated those same people for thinking his brother is nothing but a tool for their selfish survival. What a bunch of inveterate hypocrites... He sneered at the thought of those kinds of people. To be truthful he rather save a select few than the many since what's to say those many will turn against you and pull an archer on you. He scoffed as he could see that happening to some poor sap. He'd seen the vocal 'minority' which consisted amongst millions amidst hundreds of millions, they would slander the name of that poor sap, he'd once read or heard from history that happening to many a men greater than him. A famous example would be captain charles b. mcvay who died by suicide thanks to the navy blaming him for the sinking of the USS indianapolis even though he was clearly innocent even with the testament of the japanese officer who was the reason that it blew up who was quoted 'Even if he turned and zigzagged, it wouldn't save the ship from getting hit by the torpedo.'. He died by suicide in 1968 after being constantly harassed by people who slandered his name even though the remaining alive crew testified he was innocent and would've died if it wasn't for him. The fates of heroes were not happy as shown in comics or manga. Often many died alone, and miserable for people who didn't care about what they did. He'd rather be content of save what he could save than the what if scenario of saving many yet the lot slander you for the amount of people you supposedly saved saying you could've saved more if you were faster or stronger. A month ago, he'd seen a man executed for saving his comrades rather than holding the line with the other soldiers. His name was slandered so much that the poor sap accepted with death with great happiness thinking he was a monster for saving them. Hell, an old lady was slandered by corporations because she was scolded by extremely hot coffee and got severe third degree burns. Her name forever tainted because the lawsuit became so sensationalized that it called her a money hungry crazy old woman who got burned by coffee whilst 'driving' and blaming it to a corporation even though there were multiple other instances which numbered in the hundreds all across the country way before her. Thanks to that lawsuit a new regulation was made in order to avoid said injuries by making standardized temps for coffee as to not repeat these hundreds of burns and lawsuits.
His companion sighs and thanks jake for his attempt of making the man feel better. The two sat in silence trying to relax from the hectic series of events trying to keep themselves from breaking like frail porcelain glass. The silence was calming to their frazzled hearts as nothing was hunting them for a bit. A small respite for their disturbed souls. The serenity of silence soothing against the memories of chaotic loud sounds.
'Hellllppp!' That sound sent sudden chills to their spines. Someone was in danger but they knew they couldn't help. They could barely survived their first official patrol. Helping someone who could bring many monsters towards them was suicidal. So the still conscious members of the team decided not to help. Still, the sound of someone screaming continued, and it got closer.
The sound got closer.
And closer.
And closer.
Uncomfortably close.
'Heeeeeelllppppp!' In the distance they could someone getting closer.
'Heeeeelllppppp!' The person got closer, their silhouette getting closer but the two felt unease as the hairs on their body stood up unconsciously. Then they saw the silhouette stop and waved whilst screaming help. Jake's mind raced as unconsciously he was reminded of something but for the life of him, he couldn't remember.
'Help!' Then out of nowhere the marksman shot the man out of instinct. when the shot hit, the 'man' stopped waving and stared at them.
Dread crept into his heart. He remembered now. A fucking skin walker.
'Fuck.' The thing then ran at them with terrifying speeds but Jake decides for fuck protocols, and his fear response as if he dies anyway, might as well bring the damned thing with him. The urge of dying a glorious death crept in his mind. The adrenaline and thoughts of dying by his own terms rather than dying like a bitch overcame him.
Rabbit -> Boar -> Rat
'Boost II' Jake muttered as he gazed down at the skin walker. As he gazed much closely, the skin it was wearing was rotting, and smelt like shit. His squadmate continued to shoot the damned thing with his rifle. It didn't fall down nor seemed to get hurt. The thing then roared and rushed towards the duo with the speed of a truck and the wrath of a lion. Jake's adrenaline spiked alongside the with the boost, his eyes dilated as his perception increased thanks to the boost and adrenaline spike caused by the fight or flight response of a person.
Grinning manically, he moved at the same speed as the skin walker, meeting it halfway, and pivoting to launch a devastating right hook to the chest to use the inertia from the sudden stop at it's fullest. The skin walker tried to do something similar with a claw slash to his head but with a swift torso pivot, he managed to dodge it. A loud crack was heard as damned thing collapsed like a sack of potatoes. Blood started pouring from its mouth. Inky black in color, it coughed and snarled but not chancing it, jake put his foot down on it's head to kill it. With a sickening crunch, blood, brain matter, skull parts, flesh, and sinew splattered on the ground. Looking around, in the distance, he noticed another thing retreating. Probably another skin walker. He shivered as the thoughts of it bringing backup entered his mind.
'We need to move.'
'Now!' He ordered and his squadmate readily nodded. Jake quickly grabbed the passed out medic, and ran whilst carrying her on his
back. Whilst doing so, he freed his fingers from carrying her, using his arms to pin her legs down so he could do hand signs to do spells.
Rabbit -> Dog -> Rat
Using concentration, he aimed the intent of the spell to the marksman.
'Boost II.'
The duo ran like hell whilst jake decided to do some more handsigns.
Ox -> Bird -> Horse
'Recovery.' He uttered as he artificially restored both of their stamina for the run. Looking at his hud, Jake noticed his mp bar going significantly down by 13%. Jake grimaces at the inefficiency of recovery. He hadn't practiced much of recovery spells since most of his focus was buffs so the efficiency was shit. Buffs were more useful as buffs were versatile with it's ability to enhance someone's physical, and magical abilities. If you give someone enough buff's they could destroy a city if given enough buff's and thanks to that these types of spells were made expensive to buy but thanks to knowing a hero, he was able to learn it. It was a boon when he effectively was forced to do so by his brother to do so since he saw the potential and noticed his affinity for status magic.
They ran non stop, not even stopping when the medic woke up and tried smacking jake for carrying her, embarrassed at the fact she was being carried and may or may not been blushing at the fact of his lean arm muscles holding her with gentleness even though it looked like his arms pinned his thighs. It wasn't to restrictive and yet he was holding it with dear life. As to why? The medic was well known by the barracks to read smut novels, it wouldn't be a surprise if she did so since the DS and DI's in boot camp once checked her belongings only to find smut books and had read them outloud for the entire platoon to hear as a form of corporal punishment for hiding it in the open rather than hiding it in her inventory, outing her as a pervert by the platoon but they didn't judge considering many were perverts too. Didn't help her when she occasionally leered at the men when they were freshening up during training.
Jake, the medic, and the marksman arrived at a nearby patrol base and reported the ambush and the events of the patrol. Although thanks to that the marksman, and medic 'quit' due to the fact they couldn't handle it. He suspected that they snapped and got killed or was put in the rumored 'ryu' divisions which supposedly had mostly people who regained fractions of their humanity working for these divisions of the government. Thus he was reassigned after that to another unit and met his current party.
Jake silently looked around, gazing among the empty streets he looked at the shadows to check for the berserk onryo. Emily then started to ask.
"Jake. Why did you let her be taken care of by the soldiers on patrol?" Emily asked, fiddling with her dark navy blue hair with streaks of green hair with one and the other tapping her card holder in the other. Her face contorted into a grimace filled with worry. Deacon on the other hand understood his motives who just gave Jake a small hum as Jake justified his reason. To Tristan, he somewhat understood his reasons. Hellen on the other hand thought that it'd be better to be with her rather than leaving her to the soldiers. William just silently listened as he was watching out for the party. Jake answered with a simple paragraph.
"Because if we don't hunt the thing, it could attack the people around us. You know the military has protocols to adhere to, if it were up to them, it would take hours to hunt and kill the thing that might endanger the people and Cassie in return. The government is more slimy than the devil himself. They'd happily throw normal soldiers under the bus for their pr even though they were only following protocol. Plus it isn't the main reason, mainly i only care about Cassie. If an onryo managed to get near the evac sites then the soldiers and us would've been hardpressed to attack as to not endanger the civilians. If they were to get hurt, the media would get our heads and misinformation would drag our names to the ground so low that we would rather commit seppuku than continue the harassment from the public. A vocal minority could ruin our lives if we aren't careful. Look at twitter. Those fucks openly discuss about making owning a gun illegal despite the fact were still in a state of emergency, color yellow, citing that gun violence is on the rise despite the fact most of these reports were in fact caused by break ins by mutated wildlife that mind you can easily kill a pre-apatheosis human with ease. Not even stating the fact that some are advocating for the 'needless' slaughter of wildlife which mind you is starting to fuck up local ecology. They scream about animal rights but does not even know the consequences of overpopulation of a species and the imbalance that causes. Have they not seen florida or hell even the infestation of kudzu and it causing a lot of southern US to be covered with the stuff. Add the incident with the american chestnuts dying off because some wanted to put japanese chestnuts not knowing that the american chestnuts don't have an immunity to the fungus these chestnuts bring with them." He seen how the media tore apart men greater than him, how ungrateful masses preach about their moral superiority despite having their riches be from the continued dominance of the US. They spiel of how they were the most moral of people whilst not understanding how in their spiel of their own righteousness they are no better than many of those who they look down upon. When criticized they act like tyrants, and calling upon the government to censor those who they do not agree with.
Emily only nodded as she digested what was said.
"Are you sure it'll be fine?"
"Yeah, better do it now rather than later. Plus were good enough to fight one." Emily looked at Jake with a nervous expression strewn on her face. Noticing this he asked;
"Why are you looking at me like that?" She shakes her head and smile's anxiously.
"Uh... It's just..." With a deep breath and a sigh she answers truthfully.
"Im just worried, what if we are too confident? What if this corrupted is stronger or more skilled than expected?" Tristan butted in.
"We'll handle it. Better we deal with it now than later. Protocols and such. Those things always come signed in blood and forced morals
after one mistake and jingoist drawls." Tristan sighed after saying those as he knew far too well of the current trends. He'd seen the media nowadays, filled with jingoist sentiment. The more experienced in the team with one deployment to two weeks of hellish fighting and a small tactical nuke going off a 5 hours before the end of that round of fighting. He'd seen how a general was praised with using a nuke to take multiple nodes and it being ratified as a military strategy against a tactically near peer enemy without the capabilities of retaliation aka a world who didn't know nukes existed. One of the few battles where nukes were used as the enemy was overwhelming them with their weapons exponential growth. A literal bioweapon that drowned an area with regenerative plants so dense that it would slow down any invading army. Not even stating the fact that they fight humanoids that are literal plants that wouldn't die unless you burn them till nothing was left. It was later ratified under congress that allowed generals limited use of tactical nuclear weapons. He'd seen how the military acts when they can't take an area. Best case they would send in an armored company or an experienced platoon. Worst case they would tract the thing, and obliterate the area were it was once last scene since most of the local ground forces were relatively new, and inexperienced. they'd rather destroy a block rather than letting valuable manpower to disappear. A bunch of lv 30's without any proper experience other than the fighting in the lower tiers of dungeons or color yellow green areas.
"We're already quite well experienced despite our levels. Plus i bet this corrupted is just some underpaid worker, someone who just lost someone close to them and managed to experience the shittiest week of their life, or some suicidal person driven mad by the world around them. It's not that uncommon. A lot of these type of enemies were just people crushed by the world around them. Most of them were common folk. But who knows, maybe we get unlucky. Checkov's gun and all that jazz." Deacon answered.
"The local reservists are only rated for common corrupted. Against anything higher than lvl 40, they won't last long." Tristan added.
"As long as we don't get too cocky we'll win." Hellen said with a fierce grin on her face.
"You think we can survive this?" Emily asked, double checking if they could actually survive fighting something like a lvl 40 berserk corrupted human.
"Yeah. We'd win." She answered face utterly confident. Deacon stifled a laugh as he was reminded of something.
"Nah, i'd win." He said sarcastically which made Hellen punch him in the shoulder.
"Pffft. Hahaha, dorky nerd."
"Don't you start." Hellen warned. William just shook his head at the party banter. He had grown fond of these moments. Between the endless fighting and the exploration, this was one of the only normal daily rituals he got to participate and take joy in.
The party devolved into half hearted banter whilst Deacon, William, and Jake used their superior senses given by their chosen classes to track down the berserk human. After a while William and Jake managed to track the thick smell of human blood and followed the scent of the trail. Deacon watched the party's back, vigilant as the defender of the ground for any undue surprises. Then they heard a noise when they got closer to the track of the scent.
"bhahahahahhah! Die! Die! Die! DIE YOU HEARTLESS BASTARD! YOU CORPO PIECE OF SHIT!"
The thing said, it's voice distorted into a deep heavy bass like tone no to different from those used by heavy metal vocalist. Getting closer, they heard a manic giggle of someone losing themselves to insanity.
"YOU SLANDERED MY NAME, DRAGGED IT TO MUD! BECAUSE OF YOU, I GOT HARRASSED BY MY COWORKERS!
BECAUSE OF YOUR DIPSHIT LOOKING ASS I'M CONTEMPLATING TO JUST COMMIT SUICIDE OR JUST KILLING ALL OF YOU UNGRATEFUL BASTARDS!"
"YOU SMOOTH BRAINED MOTHERFUCKER! JUST BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T GET YOUR WAY YOU DESTROY MY LIFE?! I DID NOTHING WRONG! YOU FUCKING ASSHAT, YOU GLORIFIED MONKEY INCAPABLE OF BASIC TASKS! YOU NEANDERTHAL WHO COULDN'T EVEN PUT A SHAPE INTO A PROPER CUBBY HOLE! YOU BLAME ME AND DRAGGED MY NAME TO THE MUD JUST BECAUSE THE DIRECTOR THINKS 'YOUR' REPORT AND POWERPOINT PRESENTATION IS SHITTY?!"
"TSK! AHHAHAHA!"
"YOU DRAGGED ME INTO YOUR SHIT WITHOUT NOTICE A DAY BEFORE THE PRESENTATION! YOU REALLY THINK I COULD DO THE REPORT PROPERLY WITHOUT MISSING SOME DETAILS!"
"TYPICAL POLITICIAN! GIVING OUT FALSE PROMISES! JUST TO LINE YOUR OWN PRIDE AND GREED! FUCK ALL THESE LIMPSHIT WORKPLACE POLITICS! FUCK THESE CHICKEN SHIT BUREAUCRATS! FUCK ALL THESE 24/7 SPEW OF GOSSIP!"
"Ngl, this guy has some points..." Hellen whispered as she understood his hatred.
"Let bro cook." Deacon jokingly said. Jake could only sigh as his friends agreed to some madman having a mental breakdown, and losing his humanity as they speak.
"Now's not the time." He hissed but the two ignored him as they listened to what the insane man was spewing. A second later a sickening crack was heard on the ground as the ground shook from the strength of the impact. He cursed under his breath and decides to do some handseals.
Snake -> Dog -> Bird -> Snake
"[Invisibility]" He muttered as slowly disappeared in a shimmer of light.
"He's going to jump him." Hellen muttered as he watched him disappear.
"It's better than just attacking directly. Easy kill." Tristan said. Behind him, they followed from a distance as they didn't have the same stealth capabilities as jake as most of them were frontline fighters save for William who uses guns and bows within medium to long range.
Jake silently moved towards the building. Equipping one of his preferred weapon when it came to sneaking, it was a pair of gauntlets that had a dagger on the knuckle area similar to the old indian gauntlet daggers except modernized with it mostly being soft synthetic reinforced iron spider silk with the durability of wyrm hide but with the softness, and flexibility of cotton. It had a metal armor plates on the knuckles, wrist, and fingers. The blade was connected to the knuckle plates, sandwiched between it and the iron spider silk. The blade was made out a special material that had the affinity for wind magic making it easier to put wind enchantment to it. With it he could coat it in a sharp coating of wind similar to sand blasters with a simple application of mana into the blade.
Going near the area, the things he saw made him slightly sick. Around the area laid bodies in various state of mutilation, some had their chest caved in, some had their hearts missing, some had their bodies bisected. And in the midst of the carnage lay a man who had a noose on his neck, face covered with blood, a manic smile marring his face, tears of inky black trailing on his face, and a lean well toned body which seemed to look like he was going to the gym. His face was average, and hair styled like a spiked hedgehog. Still it was creepy. The man,.. no thing laughed.
"DIE LIKE THE DOG YOU WERE! HAHAHA!" Clearly this man was too far gone. Because in front of him was probably his boss which had his face turned into a pulp and his torso being torn cleanly in half from his body. Not risking it he tried to do a british special on him.
Unfortunately for him, he only got a shallow stab wound in before he got thrown into a wall.
"Fuck." He coughs out as he stands up from the attack. The thing laughed as coughed out some blood. It's face contorted into a eerie bloody smile.
"Well if it isn't a corpo dog~" It said mockingly. It then slowly moved towards him. Quickly standing up, Jake readied himself. He quickly did some handseals.
Dog -> Bird -> Rat -> Ram -> Snake -> Dragon
"[Tetra Allboost]" He mutters as his eyes dilated, and on his hud were buff status effects trippling his stats for 40 mins but in exchange mana cost will be higher and the cost of casting the spell being 2/3rds of his mana points.
Jake immediately ran towards the thing, and tried skewering it with a dagger to the head. The thing only tilted his head and started to bleed inky black humanity from his mouth, shedding it's humanity faster. It's eyes turned black, and smirked at jake as it dodged the attack, causing him to overshoot and crashing into a wall.
The thing laughed at him only to be surprised as he dodged an arrow bolt from william, dodging a sword slash from tristan, and a lightning bolt from hellen only to be ran over by Deacon's bullrush. It growled and threw a haymarker at deacon only to be blocked by his shield. Deacon grunted as the blunt force hit causing his arm holding the shield to slightly shake.
Tristan followed up with a flurry of slashes only for the thing to dodge.
A thud was heard as the William shot a wind bolt at the thing only for it to dodge. Deacon and Tristan quickly reposition causing for the corrupted to be visibly be confused. A second later a rock was thrown at it, leaving it even more confused but quickly realized something was not right as it's instinct screamed at it. Quickly moving away, the thing barely dodged the attack. A second later, it blew up. It's black eyes gazed at the one who threw it. Looking up, he saw Emily holding some rocks and ofuda.
It smirks.
"It's time to die filthy corpo dogs."
"Shall we dance?"