An hour ago the sunset had radiated across the clouds, turning it molten orange with bands of pink, but now it was gone and the base was covered by the starless, moonless sky. There was no twilight, only darkness. Arnold felt claustrophobic like he was inside a cave. The low sky had become a ceiling of grey-black rock above. Only the cool soothing winds and the first drops of rain let him know that he was out in the open.

Arnold was standing in the top of the wall which served as the first line of defence for the base. He wasn't wearing any protective suit as the radiation near the base was non-existent. The sun was already down so it was difficult for everyone to see clearly and thus they were making use of night vision goggles and binoculars to keep an eye out for enemy movement, the cloudy night and rain weren't making their job any easier. Arnold was busy fiddling around with his gloves when the first drop off rain fell on his calm and concentrated face. When he was young, he always liked to play in the rain... he could still faintly remember how angry his mom used to get because of it but then made hot chocolate for him and Nicole, but as he grew older, the rain wasn't fun anymore... instead it only brought pain to him. ​​

Amanda was accompanying him and was trying her best to persuade him to not engage the enemies alone, but Arnold was adamant because he had his own reasons for doing so.

He urged that the others to let him handle the horde alone as he knew most of the people at the Alpha base weren't happy about his sudden appointment as the Section Chief. The Brigadier General was one of them, as for him, Arnold was someone who took his authority over the base from him and Arnold knew the Brigadier General wouldn't remain quiet about it all. Arnold thought his relationship with the general would improve over time but it looked like things were not destined to be like that.

'Tsk, can't I ever get any rest?' He thought.

There was also another reason why Arnold wanted to fought alone was that he suspected that someone might still have some kind of a connection with the monsters and maybe they were trying to attack the base under some kind plan to show how 'incompetent' Arnold truly was, and then get rid of him? Although it was a longshot Arnold couldn't throw this thought out of his mind yet. That's why he wanted to handle the horde alone... to show the others why exactly he was chosen to be the Section Chief and shut their mouths once and for all. But to mention the progress he'll be able to make on his headhunter quest.

"Tell all units to retreat but to keep an eye out for other targets as well. If the monsters are collaborating between themselves then I think they'll attack us from more than one direction." Arnold ordered Amanda, who immediately relayed his orders to the concerned soldiers.

"Arnold... I meant sir, are you sure you want to handle them all on your own?" Amanda asked as she put her communicator down, "It's your last chance... we can still assemble the army and take care of it together."

"I thought there wouldn't be a need for that, but since you really want to involve your recruits, so... tell them to guard the other three sides of the base instead and keep a lookout for anything peculiar." Arnold then pointed his thumb downwards, "And as for your question, no I'm not going to fight them alone. Why would I fight alone, when I have them?"

Amanda was confused so she bent down to see what Arnold was pointing at.

"Oh My God! Are they all-" Amanda exclaimed as she saw an army of monsters, humans and robots were already positioned down below and were ready for the battle to commence.

"Yup, All of my summons, well not all, but most of them anyway." Arnold smirked when he saw Amanda's shocked expression, "It'll be better if you step back a bit as well."

"R-Right!"

After a last gaze at Arnold's summons, Amanda stepped down from the wall as Arnold equipped his gears and took out his old and trusted weapon, the vindicator. He soon received the confirmation about the sighting of the monsters. They were coming from the front.

"Let's light up the night sky boys!" He shouted and jumped down, it was time to slay some monsters.

*****

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You've killed a mutated Ogre.

EXP: +800

Total number of Mutated Ogres killed: 4

EXP awarded : 4 × 800 = 3200

A total number of Mutated goblins killed: 6.

EXP awarded : 6 × 600 = 3600

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Your summon has killed a mutated being.

EXP: +1000

First mutated rank B Cougar killed.

EXP: +1200

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You've killed a mutated goblin.

EXP: +600

...

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The pleasant sound of system alerts filled his ears.

'No time to waste. Gotta push through it all.'

However, the moment Arnold saw the notification for the experience he earned, he frowned instead of having a happy smile on his face, once again he threw his body towards the battlefield in front of his eyes.

Arnold ran towards a battlefield that held not a hundred or two hundred monsters but more than a thousand! The Intel he had received was completely of the mark.

Still, Arnold and his summons were winning the fight and gaining a tremendous amount of EXP at the same time, he wasn't happy because he felt like someone was trying very hard to get at his bad side. Still, it wasn't the only thing he had been worried about, because he thought killing the monsters here would help him progress through his 'Headhunter' sub quest, but for whatever reason no matter how many monsters he or his summons killed, the counter of the killed monsters remained unchanged. It didn't increase in the slightest.

'Is this happening because they are mutated beings? No that can't be right, the counter did increase when I killed the goblins yesterday while I was looking for the church's hideout... It has to be something else.' Arnold thought as he threw yet another lava grenade in a random direction, 'At least Asterios is happy. Just look at him swinging his Warhammer like a madman!'

It was truly an amazing sight to see the raging minotaur slamming the Storm Breaker, on the heads of his opponents and smashing their heads into pieces of a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. Right now, Asterios' kill count was the highest among Arnold's summons. Of course, Arnold was killing most of the monsters thanks to his grenades and other gears, but Asterios wasn't very far behind either, the explosive abilities of his Warhammer wreaked the monsters one after another, sometimes he even one-shoting his target. It was only a matter of time before the battle ended, or Arnold believed that to be the case.

Unknown to Arnold, he was busy fighting a horde of monsters that were used as a diversion. The true attack was yet to begin.