Chapter 528 (1/2)

One thing that Randidly noticed was that there were an absolutely mind-boggling amount of people stuffed into these apartment buildings. Likely, around one thousand a pop. His group alone would clear six of such buildings, with almost 90% of that group moving back towards the designated location. But rather than cheer Randidly up, this chilled him to his core.

Because the number they had been given was 10,000 people that they could save. Randidly estimated that he had already sent 9000 back, and that was just his group. All in all, the 5 groups could bring back 50,000 people, assuming that the areas they moved in were similar sizes. But Randidly had purposefully chosen the least populated area, both because he didn't want to have to interact overmuch with people and because he trusted that he could cover the most ground. At his estimation, by gathering information with Plant Dominance, there was just shy of 80,000 souls in this newly freed up area.

Randidly doubted that he was particularly more inciteful than the officials in the Zone. They would likely have reached a similar number or a near estimate based on census information from pre-System. Yet they had said 10,000.

How many people did they think were going to die here? And they couldn't send more military aid...?

How many people HAD died, in situations like this?

Randidly helped two more condos, one of a couple, another of a 10 person extended family when Sulfur sent out a cry: Level 21.

Fast, too fast.

Randidly used Plant Dominance again, looking for a better picture of what they still needed to do, and discovered several monsters lurking on the side streets, watching the fleeing refugees that followed the military folk. His eyes flashed, and then his whole person rippled, as he used Spearing Roots to simultaneously kill 12 such monsters.

For several seconds, the ripples continued, until the illusion around Randidly finally settled, his identity as Baloo Erickson still intact. But he had felt the edges of it, there.

And also, Aether Detection gave him some insight into what is happening. The glamour around him was simply a powerfully felt image of a person. The Skill left a Mana based medium on Randidly's body, that acted as an anchor to hold the image down and cause other people to see him thus. It wasn't a problem with the medium, Randidly wasn't detecting any weakness from that, despite the passage of time. Bruya certainly knew how to utilize illusions.

BUt Randidly's images for his Skills were so powerful that they were slowly rubbing away at the image that had been left on him to make him appear like Baloo.

Randidly grimaced. Did that mean he had to rely on old Skills like Mana Bolt and Arcane Orb? It might be worth a try, if combat became necessary-

His radio squawked again as Randidly jogged back to the edge of his area to assist in the evacuation of the final apartment building. ”Level 25 spotted. Repeat, Level 25 spotted. The support detachment is preparing to disengage. All units, prepare to withdraw. The high-Level monsters will soon arrive.”

Randidly's eyes narrowed into slits. Level 25? What happened to-

”I thought they were confident up to Level 30.,” Tatiana's quiet reply came. For a second there was silence, and then over the radio, there was a long sigh from Sergeant Phillip.

Ahead of Randidly, there was some trouble as a group of teenager got into a fight with one of Randidly's men. They seemed to be refusing to move, a lot like the old woman had.

Gregory spoke, coming over the line. ”If I pull out now... there are probably a couple thousand people just sitting here, twiddling their thumbs. They will all die. I can't go. I'll stay as long as I have to.”

Randidly pressed his eyes closed. The problem was the images, right? So as long as he used a Skill that had a weak image, one he hadn't really worked on, he could use it without damaging his illusion overmuch. Plus, it needed to get attention. Although Randidly didn't like it, fear would be best. That would get people moving. Even if they were wildly stampeding, as long as they headed in the right direction, it would work out.

Very quickly, Randidly ran through his Skill list in his mind. Pollen of the Rafflesia? Too dangerous and would likely incapacitate. Magic Missile? No one would even know what they were seeing. Maybe it really just was Arcane Orb to make a splash?

But then Randidly remembered something. He smiled.