chapter 100
“Flank it, I’ll keep it focused on me.”
Dean’s squad started flanking towards the right while Sam’s towards the left. My own gun was pressed against my shoulder as I continued to fire at this giant beetle’s head.
It had quite a small head compared to the rest of its body, but even that was heavily armoured. Each time I fired, a pain shot through my shoulder. This was the third and last portal we were going to be running today. In the previous one, we chose to increase the amount of gas inserted into the firing chambers of our rifles.
Our weaponry just didn’t have enough penetrating power for some of the monsters we were coming up against. This one was a perfect example. We were still chipping away, cracking its chitin, but it was slow going.
Dean and Sam finally got into position and started to fire, trying to take out its legs so it wouldn't be able to move as much. Immediately the boss monster tried to turn, but I continued to fire, aiming for its eyes.
Most of the time I missed because it moved about quite a lot. It was surprisingly quick with its movements for being well above my height and having such a wide body.
Once again I felt its mana spike near its head. Fortunately this time only I was its target. The blast of telekinesis power hit me with enough force to easily throw me back 30 metres.
I took a knee just before bracing myself and using my own telekinesis like a stick against the current that was hitting me. Last time only I managed to keep myself in place while everyone else flew back.
The boss monster almost got me then, as I was the only one left. Its charge almost crushed me. It once again tried to do the same thing, but this time, everyone else kept firing at its backside. The distraction saved me again.
Up in the air there were a couple of drones that fired missiles. Once again, its defences were strong enough to survive, but those explosions did drive it to the ground, stopping its charge.
As I got back up and started to fire at its head again, for the first time I heard loud cracks that didn’t sound like bullets hitting chitin. As it tried to lift itself back up, the damage done to its back legs was too much and both of them snapped.
It only had eight legs, and it seemed like it needed all of them to properly stand, as so much of its weight was concentrated on the backside.
For the first time, I think it got desperate as it attacked again with telekinesis. Repeating what I did before worked, and after firing a few more times, it tried the same trick again, unsuccessfully.
Then it did something different. Mana gathered near its bulbous backside.
“Everyone prepare, it's doing something near its back end.”
Dean’s and Sam’s squads both dropped down, getting as much cover as possible. When its backside completely opened up, no acid flew out or any other chemical I could think of. Instead, smaller flying versions of the boss monster took flight, swarming towards us all.
Their bodies were just a bit larger than my hand with fingers spread wide open, with their wingspan doubling that size. Immediately the air was filled with so much buzzing that it was actually a sort of attack on its own.
Immediately I had to cut off my own hearing, otherwise risk being overwhelmed by the sound. Already we were firing against the swarm, but our bullets weren’t meant for such volumes of small monsters.
Stolen novel; please report.
Everyone had trained for something like this, so all of us who had them pulled out grenades throwing them, with our supporting drones already firing their own missiles.
We managed to clear a lot of the initial swarm, but there seemed to be constantly more coming out.
“A fighting retreat in different directions, let’s split up the swarm as much as possible.” My orders were followed almost immediately, as always. I also called for backup so more drones would come help deal with these flyers.
Rushing backwards, I let go of my rifle and pulled out my revolver, loading it with explosive shots. Rapidly firing behind me helped reduce the following swarm.
Most of the backup didn't have far to come, as they were put in place to guard the perimeter so nothing else would interfere with our fight. There still were some monsters left, and while this portal didn't seem to be close to bursting, there was still a chance that some monsters might roam.
This boss monster also shouldn’t have been able to do this, but that’s the problem of doing non-permanent portals, there was always a chance that some monster might have a skill that changed their entire way of fighting.
I needed to run further away than Sam’s or Dean’s squad as they had more guns, so they managed to deal with the swarms that followed them quicker.
It was a good thing that these flyers couldn’t fly that fast. A few missiles exploded behind me, and finally I could stop running away and start fighting back properly.
It took us nearly 10 minutes to finish off all the flyers, as there were just so many. The worst thing was that every few seconds another flyer would emerge from the boss monster, so we couldn't let our guard down.
“From where do they come from? We killed at least four or five times the volume of this boss’s body,” Sam asked as we watched Dean combine a couple of explosives so we could throw it inside the opening where these flyers were coming from.
“I have no idea, but it’s still channelling mana into its rear end. Not so much that it would account for making new flyers. So it must have them stored somewhere?”
“So there’s a possibility of getting an inventory skill?” Dean asked Sam as he finished combing the explosives and walked closer to the boss.
“Probably not. There are other skills that allow for some storage, but those are usually specific to only a certain item, like poison barbs for a creature that could shoot them.”
“Fire in the hole!” Dean yelled as he threw the explosives pack. It bounced off, almost missing as one of the flyers flew out, but it still went in. A moment later the backside of the boss exploded out, covering a lot of the ground in insect goo.
Unfortunately, we were close enough to be included in that unpleasant shower. The boss still wasn’t dead, so all of us, now quite annoyed, opened up firing into its now exposed innards.
Finally, I felt my ability trigger. There wasn’t really anything else of worth on this boss so the standard three. I was lucky that I still had enough mana after we dealt with this swarm to actually have my ability trigger. A few moments later, the only thing that was left was currency and a core.
Last portal we didn't get any skills, and we all celebrated when we saw the core compressing. The boss seemed to have two skills. One was most likely telekinesis, the other one might be quite a lot more interesting.
After about a few seconds, the process finished.
“What is it?” Sam immediately asked, even before I could feel anything.
“I’m not exactly sure,” I answered in confusion, as I had never felt this before. The skill wasn’t exactly calling for me like skills that I could accept, but it also wasn’t completely quiet.
The sensation was quite weird.
“It’s hard to explain, but it’s like my mechanist affinity should work, but I’m missing something to accept this skill?”
“Your body probably isn't compatible, but it could be, that should be the feeling you’re getting?” Sam explained. Both Dean and I looked at him, wondering how he knew that.
Picking up the skill stone didn’t help much. It didn't say or indicate in any way what I was missing, but I could make an educated guess on the way the boss monster operated.
Using my nano machines in one of the empty spaces inside my left hand, I made a few small drones. Nothing happened at first with the skill, but after I finished giving them orders—making them offensive drones meant to fly out and attack—the skill all of a sudden properly called to me.
“The skill is called Expansive Swarm. It will allow me to store a lot more of these types of drones inside an expanded space,” I explained to Sam and Dean as some of the drones flew out from their housing.
“Well, that skill is probably worth between 100 or 200 million credits, but selling it would be a bad idea.”
“You are right in that, Sam. We are not going to be selling it. For now, I will just be keeping it. No point in absorbing it just yet, but this will most likely be incredibly useful. As for now, let’s finish up the rest of this portal and get back to the base.”
“Understood, Captain.”
I watched as both of them left to kill a few more monsters before we could let our harvesting drones have dominion over this entire portal.
I held the skill stone between my fingers, feeling its smooth surface. Clearing these portals reminded me of how important skills actually are.
Usually, when you start clearing F-ranked portals, you already had some skills that would help boost your damage. What I could do was bring in more numbers, which this skill would help me quite a lot in, as I was pretty sure that these drones don’t count towards the limit portals had.
Yet I could easily see that numbers wouldn’t be enough in the future. This skill could be incredibly useful, but would skills that helped increase damage be more useful? Then there was that other impossibility that I was getting a better handle on with each portal as I got stronger and stronger.
No, I will definitely not be absorbing this skill just yet, as perhaps I could make even more use of it if I weren’t the one who was going to be using it. The possibilities, if my guess is correct, will be endless. There’s no point in giving hope to the others just yet.
I was getting so much experience from this portal that we would only need to do this a few dozen more times for me to be able to achieve a new rank. I was also about halfway done in increasing my affinity’s ranks, which would be an incredible power boost.
After we upgraded our weapons, it is going to be a long farming session, so I could achieve the next rank as fast as possible. That should make us a harder target for anyone thinking they could take what is mine.