Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Chapter 1321: Plugging the Ways

The team rushed through the decimated entrance, into the mysterious bunker. At their front were neither Adam, nor Mike. Leading the pack was Ellen Culpepper, the slime rancher, ferociously charging down the corridor leading into the bed rock.

Right behind her was Tekar, the Bulwark, shielding her in case any especially motivated guard tried to stall them. With the tank hot on her heels, Ellen would only stop whenever they came by hallways splitting off their path.

Every time she stopped, a group of grey and metallic slimes would leave her sleeves, summoned from her pet space. The slimes ballooned up and blocked the various pathways completely. Passing by, Lynri would also stop, putting blessings and buffs on the living makeshift walls.

Thanks to Ray and Misto being able to passively scout out the interior of the base, they had a rough plan of its layout and knowledge of where the captives would be held, which allowed them to come up with this weird plan.

The most important thing right now was reaching and freeing the captives as quickly as possible. By rushing into the base before they could react, they planned to get in as far as possible, while blocking any way that would allow the enemy to stall them by attacking from behind.

Although the metal and rock slimes Elly used to plug the tunnels wouldn’t be able to stop the enemy for good, the team was confident that they could fight their way back out, as long as the captives were okay and couldn’t be held as hostages.

Leaving rows of plugged hallways in their wake and the corpse of the occasional guard getting in Elly’s way, they followed Misto’s and Ray’s guidance deep into the bunker. Apart from using the mist for scrying, Misto was also able to scout the corridors and rooms ahead of them by surrounding himself in a fixed field of fog, hiding their group in the process, too.

Alarms had been sounding soon after they entered the facility, but there had been an excessively low number of guards trying to get in their way. Even if they had not plugged all the ways behind them, Mike doubted they couldnʼt coordinate to stop or stall them. The party made quick progress with no damage so far.

The chosen was getting doubts when they heard a commotion from the front. Misto gave the sign that there was an ambush. A big group of people had assembled around the next bend. Just when Mike started questioning the mission, there was suddenly the expected ambush.

“What is this fog?” someone asked.
“Did the air filtration malfunction again?”

“Shit, why did the subject have to revolt at such a time? Now we have to fight them in this fog?”

“Huehue, there is no guarantee of what happens in such a thick fog,” a guard said lecherously.

Mikes sensitive ear picked up their conversation, but it was everything but the talks of people waiting for them in ambush. From the frgaments he picked up, it seemed liek there was a different situation attracting the enemyʼs attention.

“Letʼs me filter out the small fries,” Ellen exclaimed, eager to further prove herself on this mission. The slime rancher had already proven invaluable when crossing the mushroom biom, but it didnʼt seem enough for her.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

She wasnʼt trying to prove anything to them, but to herself. After being rendered helpless in the battle at the tournament, Ellyʼs self-esteem had taken a hit. Mike understood it and gave her the sign to go ahead. Whatever the situation on the other side was, it stayed true that they had to get rid of them

“Gah!” “What is this?! What is THis?” “AHHH!” “Get it off! Please!” “ It Buuuurns! help...!” The next moment, their lazy talk was blown away by screams of fear and pain as Ellen began firing a barrage of acid slimes into the crowd. “MyFaCe! UarggH”

Unless the target was protected by a kind of barrier, Cullpepperʼs babies were able to ignore armor to a certain extent, seeping through cloth and the gaps of equipment to directly deal acid damage to the opponent.

“Someone is firing(?) slimes from the fog! Be carefuL! ” someone finally called out. It didnʼt take long for the guards to realize that there were enemies in the fog, but that realization didnʼt really help them much, as they couldnʼt do much but defend against the flood of acid slimes.

“We need reinforcement at the west cor-” his voice fell silent as he suddenly began splitting into three, cleanly cut, vertical slices. “No you donʼt~ Wow, these thing are really incredibly sharp,“ Ellen commented after using her her new weapon to end someone who tried to call help. She wanted to slash him, not make sashimi.

“I think I know what is going on,” Ray suddenly said. It seemed that the shaman shared the same doubts as Mike. “I can feel the aura of great turmoil from our destination. Looks like the captives are staging a revolt at the cell blocks,” the saint of SolʼFiam shared his conclusion.

“Except, these guys are not simply captives,” the squawky voice of the goat demon suddenly sounded. Seth looked at TanoʼMol in surprise. Only now did he realize that the goat had not been with them the whole time, despite charging in together with them. In his hands, the goat held a stack of papers.

“Where were you?” Mike muttered, more shocked by the demonʼs sudden appearance and disappearance than by the contents of what he said. However, the artificial druidʼs face grew concerned at what he had just heard.

“What do you mean?” Adam asked, concerned. Emerald City had done horrible things to people to create resources. They had expected as much in this place, but TanoʼMolʼs tone seemed to suggest that this was not the end of it.

“I will answer both your answers at the same time, I went to look a round a little to find out more, while their attention was somewhere else,” the demon said, not explaining how he got past the plugs they left in place everywhere.

“Look at this. Based on what I found, these people were actually “researching” the cyberfication of humans that appeared in the Unclaimed Mountains during the recent months. On the surface, itʼs to find a cure, however, these papers read more like they were playing around in an attempt to find any way to make use of it as a weapon,” he explained his earlier statement, handing them the stack of documents he brought along.

They suffered a little when Adam clenched his fists upon reading just a few sentences. His eyes were jumping across the pages with great speed, as anger grew in his heart. By the end, his face was closer to a demonic grimace than a human.

“Oh, this one is interesting. Didnʼt you say the barrier suddenly stopped working against the cyber beasts?” Ray distracted him with a sudden exclamation. The shaman had been absorbed into reading the one he got and didnʼt notice Adamʼs current state.

“We donʼt have time for this. Letʼs get going. We need to help the captives before itʼs too late;” Adam shot him down, not interested in what he found interesting. Mike just nodded grimly and gestured for everyone to go along with Adamʼs command.

Elly and Misto, who had stopped when Ray spoke up (after disintegrating the group of guards that stood in their way), continued on, scouting, cleaning out, and blocking pathways. Apart from single or small groups of people, they didnʼt come across anyone until they could heard the noise of battle up ahead.

“Thereʼs is a big hall up front, I think that is where they are fighting,” Misto informed them Ray confirmed his suggestion.

“What are we waiting for? Letʼs get in there,” Adam said, determined and charged forward.