142 Chapter 142: The Northern Fortress (1/2)
As Frank Franklin and his entourage of mages left the warehouse, one of the hooded men hastened his pace to catch up with him.
”Father.” Pulling his hood down, the mage revealed a handsome, young face. Fred Franklin was looking a little nervous, his pale face slick with perspiration. ”Are you sure this is really necessary? Setting 3,000 monsters on a city?”
”What are you saying, now that we've already reached this point?” Fred Franklin laughed, not at all bothered. In fact, he was pretty pleased at giving the girls the slip at the warehouse. He was still amused at their stunned expressions when he revealed that the people in the chamber were all illusions. ”Getting cold feet now?”
”No…but…I feel that this is a little…excessive?”
”Hmm…” Fred grinned. ”Not at all. By my calculations, I think our plan will have a 90% chance of succeeding. I think it's better to prepare for the unexpected, just in case the 10% chance of failure actually happens.”
Then he paused for a moment. His entire entourage also halted behind him, waiting on his every word. Not caring about them, Frank snickered.
”Well then…the monsters should be annihilating the northern fortress right about…now.”
He narrowed his eyes, and for the first time, a tinge of seriousness gleamed in those dark amber pupils.
”The actual battle will take place in the morning. What perfect timing.”
With a chuckle, he and his entourage of mages disappeared into the thick crowds that thronged among the streets of Jing Tian City, the masses still unaware of the tragedy that would befall them shortly.
*
The alarms rang shrilly throughout the military camp. Everywhere, soldiers were hurrying about, rushing toward the armory where the personnel in charge were handing out weapons. Not just rifles and ammunition but swords, axes, hammers, bladed weapons and other melee weapons. The quartermasters were also busily giving out supplies, to ensure the soldiers had enough to last them in the battlefield. The military staff themselves were strapping on armor and their gear, beginning the casting of their spells to physically reinforce themselves or boost the destructive power of their weapons.
I woke up to the shrieks and red lights, dazed from the commotion. Finding myself in an unfamiliar bed, I sat up and rummaged for my glasses.
”Oh, you're finally awake.”
A soldier with a white lab coat over his military uniform paused to check on me, a tense smile forming on his face.
”You've been asleep for about a week now. We were thinking you'll never wake up.” he glanced up at the ringing alarms. ”I guess the noise was too much.”
”What's going on? Where am I?”
”Oh, this is the northern Jing Tian Fortress. You've been here before, I believe. A few months ago, students from your school came for a training camp – you were one of them, I recall.” The doctor turned grim. ”But now's quite the bad time to wake up. A horde of approximately three thousand monsters are closing in on our position as I speak. All military and combat personnel have been mobilized to fight them. With such huge numbers, however, I don't know how long we'll be able to hold out for.” He then began striding away. ”Sorry, but I've to prepare. There will definitely be a lot of wounded, so…”
”I'll join the fight.” I was already getting out of bed, putting on my shoes and grabbing my storage device and other stuff. My two swords, Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, were right beside me, the soldiers having been kind enough to leave them where I could retrieve them immediately.
”You're a civilian,” the doctor countered sternly. ”You should be evacuating from the base with all the other non-combat personnel.”
”I'm a student of Jing Tian Magic Academy and have trained in combat magic. I can't just leave you guys to fight on your own.” I took a deep breath. ”How long until the monsters get here?”
”An hour, maybe less.” The doctor scowled. ”They're moving quite rapidly. It's strange…it's as if someone is directing them. I've never seen monsters move together in such large numbers with purpose.”
”…”
There was something about his revelation that struck me as ominous. Monsters being directed? In such large numbers? Moving with purpose? I had never heard anything like that before, even from any of the books I had read. Yeah, this was odd in the extreme.
However, I didn't have the time to ponder over that. The monsters were near, and they would hit the fortress before I could consider any possibility with regards to their strange behavior. I should focus on the current predicament for now.
We had to eradicate the monsters before we sustained too many casualties.
None of the soldiers paid any attention to me as I hastened down the corridor, looking for any sense of direction. They were all gathering in the plaza in full combat gear, armed with a vast range of weapons. I could see Sergeants bellowing orders as they organized their squads and platoons into neat rows and officers frantically exchanging holographic notes and discussing tactics and countermeasures against such a desperate situation. Even with full attendance of every soldier in the base, they only numbered to about five hundred at most.
Not very good odds against three thousand monsters. It normally depended on the rank and type of monsters – after all, even a single squad of ten soldiers would be able to exterminate three thousand rank F Minion-class monsters on their own, but from the grim and tense expressions written over every soldier's face, I could tell that we were facing quite the dangerous enemy.
Otherwise they wouldn't be mobilizing an entire base of soldiers.
”At least three rank B monsters…”
”A thousand rank C monsters…”
”The rest are mostly rank D monsters…”
”With our current forces, we can't fight against so many rank C monsters and three rank B monsters…”
”If there were only three rank B monsters, maybe we can hold out against them, but…”
”No way can we fight a thousand rank C monsters and two thousand rank D monsters with the forces we have on hand…”
”We'll have to do our best…”
I caught snippers of dialogue from the heatedly arguing officers as they discussed numbers and disposition of the enemy. Having fought a rank B monster firsthand, I was aware of what a formidable opponent it was. I didn't want to get smacked around to death by a Crastrate again. Hell, I hoped to never see another Crastate for the rest of my life.
”Where are they coming from, Sarge?”
”The north, I heard.”
”One big mass! You can see them stretch for almost a mile!”
”Hah! Great! I'll be able to increase my tally to a few hundred this time!”
”I'll probably survive longer than you!”
”Hah! Wanna bet? I'll probably last an hour more than you!”
”Game on!”