CHAPTER EIGHTY NINE

As the Medic Pack continued healing his machine, Jason asked his teammates how the ability had looked from outside the Dungeon. Castor wouldn't be able to use it again for the remainder of this mission. Both Finishers and Overdrive bonuses were one-use abilities. It was only the other pilot's obvious combat mania that'd caused him to burn it before even properly reaching the island. However, Jason still wanted to study the Combat Dungeon as much as possible, just in case, he went up against it again in the final round.

Apparently, the Combat Dungeon's appearance was dramatically different from both the outside and the inside. Inside, Jason had seen a black box made out of bricks. From the outside, the Combat Dungeon was a large transparent cube, which was how everyone had observed the battle and noticed both players burning their Overdrive abilities.

Danny nodded.

"Yeah, so that's why we were able to land right in front of you. We were all hitting the outer barrier as hard as we could, but when we noticed him kiting you backward, we saw a chance to interfere more effectively. In addition to breaking the barrier, we were also able to block him off."

Jason grinned.

"Thanks. Hopefully next time, we can take advantage of that weakness even further."

The transparent Combat Dungeon meant they knew where Castor would respawn after the battle. That sort of advance knowledge was invaluable. Since Danny and the BAG Guild had taken on a defensive position, Castor had used the bricks from the disassembling dungeon to rapidly escape. Next time, they might be able to pin him for good.

When Jason's Mech was fully repaired, including the Antigone Armor, Steven's transport Mech released a set of lengthy cables for them to grab onto. The team quickly got into position, placing the machines with poor mobility, like Lynn's hermit and Owen's Belcher, in the front. That way, members like Jason and Steven could use their thrusters and boost the overall movement.

The members of the BAG Guild descended to the planet. For now, they were still working as a team. The other members wouldn't get sent back until they set foot on the castle itself.

Space was largely empty, an inadvertent byproduct of Danny's late launch time. By now, most of the players had descended into the atmosphere. Once they figured out the launch order, even the lurkers had fled. Nobody wanted to tangle with two members of The Hive.

"Stay vigilant."

Lynn's voice cut through Jason's thoughts and he could feel the rest of the BAG members stiffening. The ex-Illusionist often sounded pretty bossy, but nobody in the BAG Guild really had an ego, so they just went along with it.

Besides, most of her lectures turned out to be extremely helpful.

"Keep in mind that we need to battle Illusionist members too. It's not just the other competitors."

A slender hand emerged from her machine's cloak and a faint wave emanated from her machine's spindly fingers. Although space was a vacuum, Jason thought he could see the air bending. The strange wave shimmered back and forth before she nodded.

"Alright. Space really is cleared out. After depleting my Overdrive bonus, my machine can still create illusions in a really narrow space. I can either make a small in-depth illusion in front of me, like a picture or concentrate it and send it outward, almost like a line. That's what I'm doing right now. Illusions will interfere with each other if they intersect. That way, I can check if anyone is cloaked in front of us."

Jason nodded thoughtfully. Lynn's mastery of her machine was extremely impressive. She was able to use the abilities in ways that were never intended.

"Now that things are clear, let's keep going. We'll still have to wait when we enter the atmosphere. My illusion abilities can't pierce the planet's atmosphere, and even then, I bet someone is going to be there waiting for us, even if they aren't in the guild."

Once they arrived the edge of the planet, Steven's transport Mech spread its hands out wide. As it did, the machine's arms unfurled, spreading out wide. The large plates covered up all of the machines hanging onto the individual ropes, protecting them from the heat and pressure of entering the atmosphere on their own. The planet's atmosphere was similar to Earth, with multiple different layers. They blasted through the first couple of layers, but enemies attacked as soon as their vision was blinded by the clouds.

"There! There!"

Wendy spotted the enemies first. Her keen eyes noticed the subtle shift in the clouds as a high-speed projectile whirled towards them. The Guild Wars veteran promptly moved to intercept the attack. Her machine's heavy artillery roared, but to their surprise, the attacks were instantly deflected.

Jason frowned.

Wendy was using extremely powerful weaponry. She normally should have been able to knock any attacks off course.

As the clouds continued shifting, the BAG Guild understood why the projectile had shrugged off her gunfire without any issues - it wasn't a projectile at all, it was a full-fledged machine. A high-speed jet was streaking right towards them. A large cone of beam energy had formed around its nose, creating an energy-based battering ram.

Jason frowned.

"Crap. It's one of the enemies from earlier..."

It was one of the enemies from the very first group, one of the machines that'd transformed into jet forms to quickly enter the atmosphere. The machine had survived up until now, using the cloud cover for hit and run attacks. From the number of significant dents and injuries on the plane, it'd taken a lot of enemies down with it.

Judging by the shifting clouds, its partner had survived as well. Neither of the players were competitors - they were allies trying to pick everyone off before they landed.

"Let's move to intercept. Jason, Scott, and Lynn stay on the transport. I'll deal with this guy on my own."

To Jason's left, Stephanie and Wendy both kicked off of Steven. They promptly began barricading the path with their powerful attacks. As they gradually dissipated the beam shield, the jet was forced to pull away.

Danny's attack was much riskier. He lacked ranged weapons, so he needed to go in melee range.

Danny kicked off of the Mech, raising its large sword. The blazing red machine, which he'd joking dubbed the Angry Duck, was now capable of flying on its own under gravitic pressure. The red blur streaked forward, angling its body. This time, Danny had no interest in using his machine's redirection abilities.

Instead, he jumped in a slight arc, hoping to cleave the machine from up above.

The machine was moving at deadly speed and Danny couldn't afford to tank the blow. They needed to defeat the jets to proceed, but using up their resources now was foolish. Unfortunately, there was also a negative to taking the less risky path.

Danny swiped, but missed. The machine was too fast.

The jet continued streaking forward. Danny backpedaled, but it was too late.

Jason fired his beam rifles, but the blasts dissipated against the barrier. The force of the generated shield was just too powerful. Jason cursed. If this jet hit Steven directly, they'd all be in trouble. Should he leap out and try to block it?

But he'd already used his Overdrive bonus...

Besides, the red Minerva couldn't fly.

Owen shouted out.

"Get aside. I'll block this! Finish it off after!"

Instead of jumping forward, Jason leaped to the side. The heavy Red Minerva briefly fell through the air. Jason cursed as the sky rushed past, but he managed to grab the cable on the other side, the one that'd been abandoned by Wendy as she flew off to intercept the other jet.

Owen's large Belcher swung to meet the streaking jet. The machine's heavy cannons were too close to Steven's armor to fire freely - that was the downside of the spread-out atmospheric reentry configuration. Instead, Owen simply jumped from the transport and tanked the machine head-on. The jet tried shifting aside at the last moment, but the massive dragon was just too large for it to dodge.

Ah.

Owen was sacrificing himself. The experienced guildmember knew that he was useless once he hit the ground anyways, so he wanted to make sure his machine's death counted.

As Jason realized what was happening, he charged up the Pestilent Snipe. Unlike the earlier battle against the Green Envy, Jason now understood that this process was standard for the BAG Guild. The good friends were always willing to sacrifice themselves to let their comrades succeed, and by now, Jason felt the same way towards them. But even though he wasn't as emotional as before, he still wanted to make sure that Owen's sacrifice wasn't in vain.

The jet crashed into the Belcher just as Jason gathered up his full strength.

The beams set the Belcher alight and the creature let out a long howl of pain as it burst into flame. However, the Belcher's heavy weight and durability also worked to its advantage. Hitting the massive target immediately killed the jet's impact. It wobbled in the air, and Jason finished off the injured machine with a fully charged-up Pestilent Snipe.

Unfortunately, the Belcher was beyond saving. The machine sank into the seas and Owen returned to the spawning space station.

"Nice shot!"

The BAG Guild quickly congratulated Jason on dealing with the first jet, but the battle wasn't over yet.

The second jet returned for a second attack. This time, it was flying straight through Wendy and Stephanie's heavy artillery. The Mech willingly took fatal damage, converting itself into a blazing missile.

Stephanie leapt off the transport, tackling the machine and grabbing onto it. The high-speed build wasn't able to support both their weights and it began plummeting towards the seas. Initially, Jason had expected another sacrifice attack, but then she kicked off at the last moment.

The imbalanced jet abruptly swerved towards the seas. For a moment, it seemed like it was about to regain momentum, but then a killer whale Hemoborn surged from the water. The black and white beast gripped the jet in its jaws, crushing it to pieces before it could escape.

Several of the Illusionist's squid Hemoborn briefly surfaced and fired off a salvo of missiles at Stephanie, but her machine's durability allowed it to escape with about seventy percent of her health remaining. The pink Mechs, which carried a mix of firearms at the end of their tentacles, returned underwater instead of pursuing her.

Stephanie grinned as she returned to the group.

"I've gotten better! No need to sacrifice myself this time!"

Jason laughed.

"Dude. You're going to automatically get sacrificed as soon as we land..."

The rest of the team laughed as Stephanie remembered the rules of the game. The sound left a warm feeling in Jason's heart. It reminded him that he was truly a part of the BAG Guild now.

Due to the controlled descent afforded to them by Steven's Mech, the group smoothly landed on top of Castle Notoria, successfully avoiding the danger of a free-fall landing. As soon as Steven's Mech set foot onto the black parapet of the castle built into a cliff, he and the other supportive members of the BAG Guild vanished.

Danny and Jason were the only ones left.

A notification appeared on their screen.

YOU HAVE ARRIVED

PARANOID PARACHUTERS REMAINING: 10/13