Chapter 58: Night Work

“Emergency! Emergency! A dungeon has overflowed!”

The mechanical voice echoed throughout, and Aurora instantly opened her eyes.

Like so many times before, she stood up and, using ‘quick change’, put on her combat suit.

Then she just bumped her fists to create a small electrical wave that woke her up and, without fixing her hair, created a portal to the basement.

“Report,” Aurora ordered to nothingness.

“A temporary Rank C dungeon outside the surveillance system has overflowed. Because of the number of creatures a ‘wave’ is heading towards a border town of Zerzura City,” reported a simple mechanical voice.

“This happens to have priority...”

Aurora heard her friend’s voice at her back, but regardless, she had a drone project the location and what was happening.

The ‘wave’ of creatures would arrive in about fifteen minutes, so Aurora wasn’t too worried.

It was true that having ‘priority’ on these types of missions was why they had the mission, but it was also because the overflows were hundreds of creatures and it was a serious problem.

Only last night they had done an emergency mission.

Alice, using one arm from her back, passed a drink to Aurora, which she received at the same time as another black arm, combed her hair with extreme care.

Aurora didn’t say too much, but her lips quivered, seeking to hold her smile.

“This is too...too exhausting,” Liam muttered, passing through a portal and as he was about to speak, another portal was created and the quintet exited.

Aurora hid her laughter as she saw the students shivering, as if they were cold.

Each of them was fully equipped.

“Thank you for coming,” Aurora said with a smile as she saw that they had arrived in less than a minute.

“Oh, no... We’re members of the group. We have to help,” Nicole commented as her teeth chattered.

“It’s nice weather for me, but with you guys, I think I overdid it,” Érica muttered with an apologetic expression.

Clémentine and the others just shook their heads, then looked back at Aurora to receive the mission briefing.

Aurora repeated the emergency mission report.

Rank C temporary dungeon, with boar-type beasts and jackal-type predators having some Rank B, in their numbers.

As they were quite a few enemies and all are crazed because of the ‘overflow’, it became a ‘wave’ of creatures, which was heading towards a village.

While the village had walls and defenses, the B-Rank magical beasts were already enough to take them down, let alone dozens of C-Rank beasts.

Aurora explained to them all the information the scout drones discovered while the students drank an energy drink.

“Let’s go,” Aurora ordered when they were done.

Liam stayed behind to be the one in charge of keeping an eye on the creatures via the drones each village had at their disposal.

As soon as they passed through the portal, they arrived at the town square where some of the inhabitants had already taken up their weapons.

The villages around Zerzura had a fairly mixed population, but their minimum number exceeded a thousand inhabitants and were built in such a way that they sought to occupy as little space as possible.

It did not matter if the villages were dedicated to agriculture, all villages were built in this way to ensure that the walls could protect them.

“Protector of Zerzura!” a guard who looked like the captain of the local garrison exclaimed.

Although it was called the local garrison, they were really just retired soldiers who were living here and using their skills to protect the villages.

They were Rank D or C at most, capable enough to take on scattered low-ranking creatures.

Hearing that title, Aurora’s expression quivered... She did not know how they could identify her so quickly.

“Order the civilians to take cover and prepare a group to move quickly in case some creatures move in,” Aurora ordered in a professional tone.

The town lit up again as two portals opened in the middle of the square.

“The ‘Orisha Oko’ reporting for duty!” exclaimed the captain of one of the groups looking at Aurora.

Aurora was grateful that he didn’t call her by that title that they were so fond of extending... However, she was more grateful that a Zerzura guild was sending support.

The ‘Orisha Oko’ were a guild of local volunteer adventurers that were subsidized by Zerzura City and were one of the largest guilds in the city, as well as one of the best known.

That was because, just like Aurora, they ran missions, getting the minimum necessary to support their guild and its members... A guild dedicated to the protection of border towns.

“I will lead this mission,” Aurora warned, looking at the other group.

Unlike the ‘Orisha Oko’ group, that was composed of only Africans, the other group was quite mixed.

“Mercenary group of Rank B. We have no problem obeying orders.” Replied the leader of the other group, introducing himself in the process.

In this kind of joint missions, it was informed beforehand who would be who accepted it and incidentally the roles of each.

Aurora’s group not only had priority for the missions, but was designated as the one to lead in most of the missions.

“Good. Don’t worry about profits. Your group will go the northeast wall, take everything you find in that area even if someone else kills it, all that while taking care that no creatures pass the area.” Aurora said with a serious expression.

The mercenary leader nodded with a smile.

Some were here for money and some were here to help, however, both were risking their lives in this kind of work and deserved to have their share of the ‘loot’.

“Orisha Oko will be in charge of providing support to either side and protecting the southern part in case a creature seeks to surround the village. Also, in case a strong creature moves in, support the village guards who will be protecting the interior,” Aurora ordered and when she noticed that they nodded without discomfort, she looked at her group of students and stated. “You guys will take the northwest area, while we take the north area.”

The wave of creatures was coming from the north... They would be taking the main force, but it was quite possible that some creatures were heading east or west, trying to surround the town.

At the same time, she finished giving her orders a complete map of the town arrived on their holographic watches, courtesy of Liam.

“Don’t take any chances and, if necessary, ask for help,” Aurora added with a serious expression, and then moved to the north side.

She liked this kind of town, as it looked like a small city with the buildings attached to each other and the lights shining on each side of the streets.

And since she didn’t want such a beautiful town to be roughed up, her goal was to prevent anyone from getting through and going inside, reducing as much damage as possible during her work.

“Liam, take charge of initiating the defense,” Aurora commanded as she ran down the street, bolstering her body with magical energy.

“I understand. The defense is starting.” Liam replied with a feigned robotic tone through her suit’s communication system.

From some towers on the ramparts, different drones began to be deployed and floated to the wall.

There were not many of them, but they were quite huge.

Those drones were equipped with weapons to shoot down C-Rank creatures and engage a B-Rank creature.

Unfortunately, as their numbers were not high, in ‘waves’ of this type, they could only serve as support.

Approaching the five-meter wall, Aurora took a leap and, creating platforms at her feet, scaled the wall.

The thickness of the wall was wide enough for a couple of people to walk along the wall and at the same time, it was tall and thick enough to slow down the creatures.

Around the wall were arranged hundreds of surveillance cameras and in the sky were a dozen scout drones that always reloaded in the villages.

The wall was empty, as the local group had already moved quickly enough to gather all those who could fight and to warn the villagers at the same time.

Observing the extensive darkness that covered the town from afar, Aurora opened her holographic watch.

Through scout drones, she could see that the ‘wave’ was just short of reaching her position because of the high speed with which the creatures were moving.

“Oh, their numbers are high. How about we start with a bombardment?” Alice asked, looking at the formidable number of creatures that the drone with night vision technology could pick up.

Their numbers were quite high, at around two to three hundred creatures.

Aurora hesitated for a moment, but in the end, nodded... It might mess up the surroundings a bit, but that would be it.

“Initiate the defense,” Aurora ordered in a flat tone.

Facing the dark night that hid what lay beyond the wall, some drones began firing illuminated flares the surroundings all around the town.

Then Aurora saw spherical drones about a meter in diameter fly to the front as they soared into the sky.

Since the flares had been fired at a distance of one hundred meters, she had a wide field of view.

To her sides, three drones spread out along the north sidewall.

Aurora checked the position of the groups and nodded in agreement.

The town was quite square in style on the north wall and, while the town reduced in size to take up as little space as possible; it was still a considerable size.

The mercenary group was to the northwest where the creatures could surround the town, while Clémentine and her group were to the northwest on the other side.

The location was ordered that way because of one simple reason...

As the creatures approached from the north, covering the lit area with their bodies, the square drones fired their missiles.

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

They were ordinary missiles and had nothing magical about them, but they created huge explosions and craters, damaging the creatures in their surroundings.

The drones were not very accurate and their missiles were deployed so that they scattered, hurting as many creatures as possible, but even when it was over hundreds of creatures roared in anger and charged the city.

A ‘wave’ of boars and jackals so different from each other rushed towards the city.

Aurora used her combat aura and reinforced her body with magical energy as she jumped on the platforms her combat suit created in the sky, approaching where the creatures were.

She had no fear at the sight of so many enemies, even when some of them were of considerable size and B-Rank.

Aurora approached by soaring into the sky and then swooping down.

She made her body extremely heavy by controlling her magical energy to increase her weight.

Like a meteorite, it hit the earth in the middle of the boars and...

*BOOM*

An explosion of the same degree as the missiles was produced and Aurora who was in the crater with no pain in her body had her fists surrounded by electric energy and in the middle of the dust cloud, she hit a boar that was still charging and then another one.

His punches not only had a great force that generated a shock wave outward but due to the intensity the electrical energy created, electrical waves spread with force.

When an A-Rank, faced C-Rank creatures, it was only as an adult facing children... An adult who was a professional fighter.

*BOOM*

Using all the strength she was able to muster, she made her blows as damaging as possible, trying to affect the largest area she was capable of.

Aurora hit every creature that attacked her without resting.

In the middle of her blows, she switched from using electrical energy to using her lightning charm, which had a larger area effect.

If she were a B-Rank, it would be annoying to fight a massive amount of creatures because she didn’t have enough strength to create attacks with area effects in addition to her lightning charm, but now it was different.

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

Each punch reinforced by her combat aura was so strong that it produced a thunderous noise and shattered the bodies of the beasts, generating a shockwave that damaged whatever was behind those beasts.

The shockwave was powerful enough to make the jackals groan in pain and the boars stopped their charge.

—The creatures were splitting.

Aurora heard the report in her mind and after turning around she jumped into the air, creating a platform while kicking a jackal that wanted to bite her leg.

Behind her back, she could see Alice, whose shadow had spread out at her feet, and from them came out dozens of arms that transformed into spears or swords that could pierce and cut her enemies.

No one could resist that black shadow that had already extended through the flight around several meters and the only thing the creature could do was to shriek and grunt in pain when they were eliminated by the spears and arms.

Not even those beasts of greater strength could avoid the shadow.

These beasts that were crazed because of the effect of the overflow, followed their instincts and advanced without fear of death, and another part avoided that killing machine, heading in another direction.

Such directions were the sides where the mercenary group and Clémentine’s group were.

Although the number of the creatures was high, they were only C Ranks, and the groups had the protection of the drones and the support of the volunteer adventurers.

Aurora condensing an electric wave in her hands using the lightning magic charm, she targeted the larger and stronger creatures.

If her sister was taking care of the small fish, her target was the larger ones that did not wish to approach.

******

Leslie looked at the disaster that was happening in the northern area.

Aurora and Alice had moved forward to the front of the fight, wanting to oppose the wave on their own, resisting the first and most difficult onslaught.

Although she was far away, Leslie, with the help of her helmet, could see how black ‘tentacles’ were waving everywhere and the large creatures were thrown forward where the loudest sounds of combat were coming from.

Her gaze did not linger on Alice, but on the creatures running in her direction.

The creatures did not scatter, only changed direction in a direct assault to seek to take out other targets.

Instead of looking to take down the wall, it was easier to take out humans like them that were on the sides.

Looking at the desperately charging boars and the jackals that had already marked them as their prey, Leslie prepared herself.

Using her sniper rifle from her inventory, she deployed some extra modules and added a high-impact armor-piercing round.

The beasts had already spotted her and numbered around ten or so, but at her back, she was slowly increasing in number.

Seeing them lined up, Leslie smiled and pulled the trigger.

*Bang*

The bullet shot out with a high velocity and tore through the boars one after another until it hit the ground because of losing direction as it broke so many bones.

With one shot, she had knocked down about three boars and wounded two others.

“Good job,” Érica said, and pointing her wand, she chanted. “[Ice Spikes]”

She had been preparing that spell while Leslie was firing and so when she cast it, dozens of ice spikes rose from the ground in front of the charging creatures.

It was so sudden that some ended up being impaled, while others, like the jackals, could jump thanks to their increased agility.

Nicole moved to engage those jackals, accompanied by Clémentine at her back.

Nicole’s blows sought to knock her enemies to the ground instead of killing them on the spot, that was because Clémentine tore off some extra ice spikes and used them to impale the already fallen opponents.

Those creatures that sought to target the walled area and not them were shot down by the drones that were flying overhead.

Andrés, who was employing his own drones, was also in charge of supporting by paralyzing with lightning drones their enemies or interrupting their attacks and their charges.

Leslie put down her rifle and began firing with her shotgun at the boars, occasionally using her lightning discs to cover the area so they would not be surrounded.

*Bang*

*Bang*

*Bang*

Shots rang out again and again as the group methodically picked off their enemies.

The combat began to change, becoming more efficient and more coordinated.

Nicole and Clémentine, instead of being in charge of assassinations, they were looking to take down their enemies on the ground.

Leslie and Érica were the ones who dealt the last blow, allowing Nicole and Clémentine to continue defending themselves from the new creatures that came in the wave.

Finally, Andrés would create barriers with his drones when Nicole was in danger or fire a lightning bolt with his attack drones when he needed to reduce the force of a charge.

Their enemies were C-Rank creatures, but even though they were one rank lower than them, they were enemies that by their numbers proved to be a threat and that meant they had to be vigilant.

The number of their enemies reaching them was low and Clémentine, who was levitating, could see that the battle was fiercer where Alice and Aurora were.

At that moment, when the number of creatures dwindled, Clémentine felt cold.

“Do you feel that?” Érica asked doubtfully.

Their suits were temperature-controlled, that cold... It wasn’t normal.

Clémentine could feel the surroundings turning cold, but it wasn’t natural or normal, it felt forced.

A force was manipulating the air molecules, making them cool... The psionic energy that Clémentine was so familiar with was achieving that goal, while a powerful mental force was manipulating it.

Clémentine immediately looked up into the night sky and saw a young woman floating forward where Alice and Aurora were standing.

The young woman waved her hands and spears of ice were condensed to be fired at the creatures whose movements had been slowed by the surrounding cold.

The force she displayed was certainly a shocking sight to the group, as it was...

“An S-Rank...” Clémentine muttered as she felt the strength of that figure.

Looking at the young woman who was helping, she could see other A-Rank individuals jumping off the walls to help.

The group of students was stunned to see the enemies being quickly eliminated by that group of strangers.

The battle ended with greater speed than expected.