Chapter 11 - The great escape 3

Part 1

Seoyun sighed as she looked around the carnage surrounding her. Gabriella and Agustin, the party's long range dealers were sobbing as they held on to their lifeless younger sister and mother whose body was still warm, and Marie the spear user was quietly sobbing at the gate next to her dead brother. The man fought till his last breath; still clutching on to his weapon surrounded by dozens of broken bodies, dying heroically desperately trying to stop the monsters from getting to the young and old. The rest of the party went around, covering up the bodies and giving them short goodbyes while they shifted through the remains of the burnt down campsite, looking for any survivors. Seoyun still couldn't believe on the day they left, the camp was full of hundreds of survivors, with people finally having hope of crossing the mountain to safety with so many people joining the camp; she was just gone for two days, and the base was overrun.

As Seoyun looked around, her eyes finally rested on the strangers who came to their help earlier on. The pair was busy helping the party out at and they were a quiet bunch, not saying a single word unless it was neccessary. They were quite a strange pair; the man who called himself Jason (which she did not believe was his real name) wore a sleek, full face helmet that closely resembled a mix of an astronaut's helmet and a motorcycle helmet, and a thick leather trenchcoat padded with fur and armored plates. He seemed to be a ranged user, with his large rifle, and together with the woman who was in a crude looking mech suit with a large machine gun, they made for a strange duo in the fantasy world they were now in.

There were people she met that used guns as well, but those guns were magical artifacts that amplifed their magic just like the ones their party used, and nobody had a fancy mechanical suit like that. She was still wary of them even though they seemed friendly enough to came to their help; they said nothing about themselves other than their names and since their entire body was covered up, she could not even tell what they looked like or even what ethnicity they were. She found it rude that neither of them took their helmet off nor got out of the suit when introducing themselves, but she decided to let it go since, the fact they were being wary of strangers made sense with all the dangers surrounding them.

The past two months was hectic for everyone; most of the people in her party and the camp had lost someone precious in the initial chaos, she herself was the only one left from her entire office, with all of her coworkers dead or missing. Nameko (sword girl) lives in perpeptual guilt after failing to save any of her friends, and Hannah (healer girl) also lost her boyfriend who died trying to save her when she refused to kill a monster out of fear. As Seoyun was reminicing about the past two months, The duo noticed her looking at them, and stopped what they were doing to come talk to her.

"What now? You guys have a way to catch up to those buddies of yours, right?"

"They aren't our friends, Jason. Its obvious they ran away as soon as the gates fell, leaving everybody behind to die."

"Friends or not, how are we going to get off this mountain by ourselves? You said something about a dragon stopping the only way out of the mountains didn't you?"

"Well, it wouldn't have been a problem if one of Dominic's lackeys didn't piss off the dragon in the first place, trying to foolishly hunt it while it was busy feasting. Leave those idiots to take care of the dragon, we are not leaving here until we bury everyone. You do whatever you want Jason, I can give you the directions if you want to leave and join them."

"This is only the start of the wave Seoyun, we have to leave immediately and cross the mountain now or its too late. There is a fort across the mountains, you can mourn your dead there, after you and your party members are all safe."

"I don't care, we are not leaving until my party members are done burying their loved ones. You can just leave by yourself, no one is stopping you."

".... Fine, I will help you guys. Listen, I understand you guys are pretty strong but, those are only the weakest from the monster waves according to the records. From what the records describe about the stronger ones that arrives after the weaklings, you really don't want to be in the path of a group of one of those."

"Records? Is that one of your powers?"

"Its... nevermind, its from some books I found in a ruin, they explained all about the monster waves in detail. Given the number of people in the camp, I am sure you guys already know most of the stuff I know. Anyways lets just finish up and leave."

Just as she was about to ask Hunter more questions, a small group of people showed up at the entrance of the campgrounds. As soon as the party noticed who was at the front of the small group, they quickly ran and raised their weapons against them.

"What do you want Chang Chee? Why aren't you out there hunting the god damn dragon with your buddy Dominic and your lackeys. You are pretty fucking brave to come back here after what you have done!"

"You know we had no choice but to retreat Seoyun. Look around you, how desperately did you think we fought to keep them at bay; just look at how many we sacrificed so more people could live! A lot of our people died, and a lot more people would have died if we didn't pull back when Dominic decided to."

"You still haven't answered why you are here."

"With how many people we lost last night, we need your help, your party is essential in taking down that dragon and you know it. I understand you are still mad at us and also never really got along with us, but we promise that we'll get this matter settled with, after we defeat the dragon and get to safety."

"Screw you, the only reason why you guys took our group in, in the first place was to recruit my party and to attract more people to your group by showing that your group will keep everybody safe. You are a piece of shit and you know it."

"You know how I stand on this matter Seoyun, I was never against letting the old, younger and people with non-combat skills into the group. Dominic was the one yelling about survival of the fittest, even going as far as suggesting sacrificing them to distract the dragon so we can all escape. Ignoring the fact he is a fool, in the end, we are not responsible for any of this, its the monsters and the gods who kidnapped us and left us here to die who are at fault. Strong people like us, need to work together if we are to get out of here alive and you know it."

"So, what you are saying is, now that we can't use all these people as meatshields anymore since they are dead, you assholes need us now? It was just a few days ago when you were questioning our decision about why we were waiting for more people, and trying to convince us to ditch our group and join you while bragging on about how you were more than strong enough to finish the dragon off!"

"Okay, okay, look, I am done trying to convince you. You and I both know all of the remaining non-combat skill users are dead if you don't help us, and they certainly will be the first ones who end up dying not us. We all had our chances to pick our skills and it is their fault if they don't make it. We are attacking in the morning two days later with or without you so don't be late."

After Chang Chee's group left, leaving Seoyun fuming, Hunter concluded that he needed to put as much distance between him and the party or every other summoned's groups for that matter, as soon as they were safe past the mountains. He could just imagine what would happen to him if he somehow joined a party like theirs or ended up travelling with them. They were quite powerful; he could tell they were holding back from using all their strength fighting those werewolves, with the whole ordeal nothing but a walk in the park for them. They were also nice and virtuous, so they were the perfect candidates to become the heroes in stories; the protagonists who lead the story, with all kinds of problems that naturally followed them.

Things like dealing with politics, betrayals, extreme suffering and sacrificing your own life was definately not Hunter's cup of tea. And Seoyun party's goal of trying to save and care for the weak were very admirable traits, but they were also the kind of people to force their ideals on not just themselves but the people around them that they deemed "strong" and that meant risking your life for other people whether you want to or not.

Hunter who was someone with almost no mana and no combat skills at all; no matter which group he joined, was destined to either die tragically in the hands of one of the bad guys as cannon fodder, slave away in the shadows making weapons and gear for the party, or worse, land in situations where he has to sacrifice himself to save the main members of the party or someone sacrifice themselves to save his weakass. In conclusion, unless Hunter got really strong, staying or forming a party with any other summoned groups was a bad idea all around and keeping his distance and staying out of sight and laying low was a great idea to stay alive and also avoid getting targeted by opportunistic/predatory people like ChangChee.

Hunter was not willing nor capable of staying with other summoned people, but he also had one final reason why he wanted to be independent. After two months of just aiming for survival, Hunter finally had a clear goal on his mind after witnessing just how powerful mana users could be. Hunter wanted to have a chance at more than surviving, and to truly become powerful in this world, he needed his very own army. One that was loyal and only answered to him, one that was composed of well trained mana users that were fully equipped with the very best weapons and gear he could make, and in large enough numbers were powerful enough to rival the summoned.

He was never going to be able to achieve this overnight, and he certainly was not going to achieve that by joining some hero's party and becoming their underling. He was a soldier before, and having experienced the life of a grunt, if he were to die, he was going to die being his own boss. Joining a decent party might in some cases guarantee his safety, but, in the end, his army would never be his own, since he still has to follow the party leader's orders and the wishes of other party members. But first, before all this could even happen, he needed to survive against the dragon to get to civilization and he needed to come up with a plan to ensure that his survival and also succeed at hiding from any unwanted attention.

Part 2

The day long journey to the rest of the survivors was completely silent, with Seoyun's party still devastated from seeing their loved ones and friends die and finding no survivors at the burnt down camp. There were serveral monster hordes they had to face on the way, but the party, enraged and not in the mood to play around, finished each horde in mere mintues without Hunter even having to lift a finger to help. They were headed to an area near to the entrance of the dragon's den, just outside of it's territory; the dragon apparently only leaving its den to attack if they enter its territory.

The path over the mountains covered a large area of its territory and now that the dragon is hostile to humans after being attacked, and also gaining a taste for human flesh from feasting on its attakers, there was no chance of crossing the mountains without defeating the dragon or getting the dragon full enough to not bother attacking them. Considering the fact that the dragon annihilated and devoured entire monster hordes just for one meal, the second option was of course not really an option.

When the party and Hunter arrived at the makeshift camp, Hunter was finally able to meet all the other survivors. The survivors looked like they just jumped straight out of a fantasy fiction, with people wearing fancy armors with colorful runes engraved all over, all kinds of melee weapons, and mages armed with the sterotypical staffs and wands. It made sense they were well equipped by now, since there had to be people who chose to specialize in production skills such as blacksmiths, and tailors.

While Hunter was busy checking them out, a few curious survivors approached group, and knowing that Seoyun's party was a ticking bomb, decided to leave them alone and focused their attention on Hunter and Glados who were newcomers. Hunter again refused to take his helmet off to introduce himself and there were some banter aimed at the duo for their adamant refusal to show their face and reveal themselves, but Hunter was not keen on revealing his identity to other summoned and was determined to stay under the radar and hide his status as a summoned until he was strong enough to protect himself.

The survivers insisted until Dominic, the survivor group's unofficial leader arrived and shooed them away. Dominic seemed to have a skill that sensed the mana levels of a person and concluded that Hunter and Glados were completely insignificant in the upcoming battle and after a single glance, completely disregarded them. He instead immediately went to talk to Seoyun's party who looked like they were about to explode and start a fight with him.

The talk between them went just as it did between Chang Chee's group and Seoyun, with Seoyun blaming them for falling back to this area where monsters did not dare attack and leave most of her people behind, and Dominic defending himself and insisting it is survival of the fittest now and it is not their responsibility to risk their lives for others. The argument went on for a while and was about to heat up, but immediately ended when Dominic brought up his dead wife, who he said was just like Seoyun and lost her life risking herself to save others, and Dominic did not want to make the same mistakes again and lose his son or die and leave his son an orphan.

With nothing more to say, Seoyun finally calmed down and together with Chang Chee, who led a large group of fifty chinese survivors (almost 1 out of 5 ppl in the world are chinese, do the math), the three began to plan out the raid on the dragon. The meeting went on for most of the day, and after a night of rest, the day for battle finally arrived. Hunter was placed in Seoyun's group in charge of providing ranged support and protecting the non combatants and support specialists, and Seoyun's two attackers were sent to Chang Chee's group where the majority of them were close combat specialists and was in charge of attacking in close range. Glados was sent to Dominic's group, that was in charge of holding the dragon's attention and blocking its attacks. The trio must have played too many mmorpg games as just tanking attacks from a enormous 20m tall beast did not sound very realistic to Hunter, but since they were all magical superhumans, and all Hunter had to do was hide in a corner and snipe, he was not complaining.

A small team of survivors with scouting skills came back and reported that the den was empty with the dragon out on a hunt. Leaving behind a few to defend the non-combatants, the 300 men raid team quickly moved in and set up position in the massive lair as they planned before, and Hunter quickly deployed tiny bug sized drones of his own to scout the large cave out. After half an hour, everybody was ready and tension started to slowly flood the entire den, when suddenly the telltale sign of a gigantic beast thundering on near the entrance of the den could be heard. Two speed based survivors zipped in to the den with the dragon close behind.

Before the dragon entered the den however, deafening explosions were heard as the dragon triggered the magical traps marking the start of the battle and after an angry roar, the dragon finally entered the firing line of the more than hundred ranged users. It was as if flashy fireworks went off as everbody used their strongest long range skills on the dragon. The attacks seemed to be more effective the traps and this time, it roared in pain and surprise under the onslaught, and when the attacks finally subsided, Hunter was finally able to take a better look at the dragon.

Its silluette initially looked similar to the ancient dragons in Earth folklore, until the dust settled and the abomination was in full view; it was a chimera with disportionately mismatched bodyparts and looked like it would make any evil necromancer cream their pants. It had two car sized reptillian heads, and had spikes on its long tail that had another mouth on the end of it just like its head. The crimera was covered in a strange insect like carapace with a pair of large bladed forearms and had wings that looked to be from a large beetle. And the thing that horrified Hunter the most was its size; it was the size of a small office building and just its heads alone was large enough to swallow a family suv in one bite.

Some of the skills it was hit with were mana shield penetrating and it had parts where its carapace was cracked and burnt, but beside looking pissed it was completely fine. The survivors, who were confident of their powers immediately wavered at the sight and sensing the moral dropping, Dominic immediately took the lead and charged in at the stunned dragon with a roar, swiping across with his battle axe that was glowing bright red. Dominic's charge woke everybody up from their stupor, including the dragon, and chaos insued as the chimera started to unleash burning poisonous acid from its three mouths in all directions.

Dominic's group immediately activated their defensive spells and stopped the poisonous fire with a few unfourtunate souls who were too slow to activate their skills immediately dying, and Chang Chee's group using inhuman speeds dispersed to avoid the attacks. The support group had a magical shield array up, that stopped the onslaught of fire for a couple of seconds, but the fire eventually blew through the shield and a third of the ranged supporters who were not in cover got covered by the stream of poisonous acid before the crimera ran out of whatever liquid it was spewing. The burning acid was devastating, going past any natural magical defences and armor people had, burning and melting entire parts of the body it came into contact with. It was an absolute hell, with dozens of unlucky people screaming in fear and pain as they were not hit by enough acid to instantly kill them, so suffered in agony as the acid slowly melted parts of their body away.

Seizing the short window of oppurtunity, the melee attackers moved in and started pelting the Crimera's head, legs, tail and wings with their strongest skills. It was a chaotic fight as the attackers dodged and weaved the crimera's tail and claws as it frantically tried to swat the nuisances away, with a few unlucky people getting skewered and instantly killed or get brutally injured. The crimera's immense shield was still up, and the attackers were not able to any real damage in , but by then, had earned enough time for the ranged users to finish preparing their attack. With Changchee's signal, all the melee attackers pulled back as the ranged attackers sent another volley, that was powerful enough to shake the entire den, that was large enough for the crimera to fly around. After getting pounded by the intense volley, the crimera was finally visibly wounded with its shell cracked and bleeding all over, and it decided that it finally had enough and spread its insect like wings, and flew up. Several magical runes floated above its two heads and suddenly, dozens of man sized fireballs materialized in the air out of nowhere and rained down on the survivors.

The heat was intense as the fireballs falling like homing missiles closely missed Hunter's cover and exploded in front of his makeshift emplacement, and Hunter even with his helmet automatically diming was barely able to see what was going on around him. People were screaming all around him as the massive magical shield array was broken again, and while the fireballs were slow enough for agile people to quickly dodge out of the way, slower people along with the dead bodies and wounded people on the ground were hit by the fireballs and quickly got burnt to a crisp.

The fire instantly sucked up all the oxygen in the air near the explosions and even people with shields still up, started to suffocate as the air in their lungs were rapidly sucked up by the pressure differences and collapsed their lungs in. Hunter's helmet was connected to a small reserve air supply and was airtight, so he was fine but the situation was now looking bleak with more than half of the three hundred men raid team either dead or incapacitated, and besides the party of six and the elites of each groups, only a few could keep fighting. Thankfully Glados was okay with the exception of the thick combat shield completely destroyed by the acid and fire attacks and was already up again, peppering the crimera's wings with the chaingun.

With the shield of the Crimera finally down, and the rain of fire finally over, the survivors immediately went on the offensive again. Everybody joined Galdos at attacking its wings, and soon the Crimera came crashing down with its wings shredded to bits. All the melee attackers rushed in and started attacking its legs and tail while, Changchee and Dominic each charged up their strongest melee attack and together, attacked one of it necks.

The crimera was left groaning in pain with one of its head almost sliced off and dangling, and bones showing on its thick legs and tail. Everybody quickly fell back when the Crimera started to show signs of using another magical attack, with its remaining head and tail starting to glow bright red, but before it could fire its spell, its tail was exploded by the siblings.

The head which was uninterrupted, shot out a devastating stream of plasma like a laser and ripped past the defensive formations, ripping dozens of people in half, who, with their mana empty, was not able to stop the attack. Before it could finish off everybody however, Dominic stepped in and raised his shield, and sending all his remaining mana into the runes on his armor, stopped the plasma blast by standing right in front of the crimera's mouth.

Dominic's armor soon glowed red hot, with smoke coming off from his melting skin and using the opening, Changchee moved under the crimera's body and pierced its heart with a single thrust. With a surprised gasp, the plasma blast was stopped and sensing that its life was now in critical danger, the crimera unexpectantly turned its large body around and started to run away, bowling through the survivors that tried to stop it and thundered out of the den. ChangChee, with a visible glint of greed in his eyes, was about to order a chase after the fatally wounded monster to finish it off, but was stopped by Dominic, who was still on his knees with steam still coming off from the red hot armor. ChangChee briefly showed an ugly face filled with raw hatred, unable to contain his annoyance but quickly went back to his normal smiling face and turned around to face the aftermath of the battle.