[Skill Activation: 5% Mana Impact]

Alexander grunted as he drove his fist into the chassis of an automaton, a gray-and-gold humanoid robot as tall as the typical woman. It had no eyelids for its optical sensors embedded deep within the dark optical cavities. These were the monsters that had flooded out the cafeteria-bound portal, which had killed dozens upon combustion and dozens more as these nuts-and-bolts came.

The automaton twitched, electricity coursing through Alexander’s hand but that was stopped by the [Red Barrier Brooch] he had equipped, stopping the weak flow. He gritted his teeth, pulled his fist out and shot an elbow up into its jaw, struck hard enough that the neck snapped off and the head went flying.

Another automaton blitzed towards Alexander with long, machine-cut blades as arms, not dissimilar to the one Tewfik had in its true form. Gears churned as it struck, the blades darting out swiftly after the other in perfect mechanized movements.

Alexander underestimated the mobility of these things, had one scrape against his chest and would’ve cut through his [Full Combat Bodysuit] if it wasn’t for the [Brooch], shining red across his body when hit and taking the blow. He readjusted, and when the time was right he lunged onto the machine like a gator shutting its jaws, locking one of its arms. He broke the stiff mechanical joints, twisted it until useless, and used its own blade to stab itself straight through the chest. Its optical sensors flashed in-and-out before being snuffed out like a flame, going limp.

He got knocked back, his [Brooch] shining red again. Got hit several times just about everywhere and saw a squad of automatons opening fire on all directions—lasers. They didn’t care if they hit their own. As long as they hit them, the occupants of Grendel Arsenal. Fucking chaos this was, the entire base was in uproar from the simultaneous bombings.

A flicker of silver hair darted by Alexander, a rifle churned, and a spray of blue energy bolts tore through the robots like paper.

Vernon cursed under his breath as a stray laser pinged against his shoulder, the [Red Barrier Brooch] protecting him, so he ducked under the nearest fallen table.

Alexander ran over to Vernon, patting his shoulder. He flinched. “Hey, just me. You alright?”

He nodded, sweating pouring down his head. “Yeah. I’m really glad we brought the [Barrier Brooch].”

“Yeah! Remember to watch your fire!” Alexander looked over the table, wincing at the surprise they had to deal with. He recollected his thoughts.

Blackviper had ordered Gul to contain and eliminate the cafeteria-bound portal while she handled the other portals present within Grendel Arsenal. Easier said than done honestly.

Now that he had a chance, he looked around the state of affairs. The bots had created a defensive perimeter at the entrance, allowing for their allies to funnel through the broken doors. A few Slayers had arrived earlier, acting as reinforcements and taking down whoever they could, but the hail of laser-fire was too much to pierce through their frontline.

As far as he could tell, the mess hall was the automaton's headquarters, coming out like cockroaches. They busted through the walls using explosives—Alexander theorized that some were built to self-destruct—shambled out of the windows, stampeded out the doors. It was fucking difficult to contain these ironheads in. They had strategy, had tactics, probably was programmed into them.

Alexander bit his lip, thinking back on the roster and everyone’s locations. He had ordered Alba to cover the front of the mess hall while the Alumnus had the rear. Additional Slayers were present on both ends but no one side had the opportunity to reverse the momentum, allowing the good guys to attain fire superiority.

Gul couldn’t. Friendlies were everywhere, inside and out. Casualties laid on the ground, some crawling desperately to find cover. If she used her water manipulation to flood this place, she’d take out both ally and foe alike. Her hands were tied. Same for Vernon, who had to be careful using his [Energy Rifle], and even Kaiya if her [Great Psionic Aura] went a little too far or curve too much.

To summarize: the Slayers were put on the defensive, forced to be overly cautious with their attacks to avoid friendly fire; meanwhile, each second not trimming down the automaton's forces was another shell added. How to solve this…

Then, he had the answer. He called in: “Gul, I can infiltrate the mess hall but I need your people. Can you hold the perimeter for a few minutes?”

It took two seconds for her to respond, lasers firing in the background: “I can, but do you think you can do it, Alexander?"

“Yeah—ahem, affirmative.” His eyes scaled the walls. The mess hall had a flat roof. “FM, Vic, are you able to climb onto the roof?”

“I can, yes!”

“If I find a good place, yeah! Can you even get up there?”

Alexander shrugged. “Only one way to find out! I’ll meet you two up there! Leo, take command of STA and hold out!” He patted Vernon’s back. “Keep your head low and watch your fucking fire, got it?”

Vernon tucked his rifle close to his chest. “Got it. You know what you’re doing, right?”

“Hopefully. Get a move on, Baptist.” With one more pat on the back, Alexander darted out of cover, vulnerable to the hailstorm of lasers. He took a deep breath and began a sprint, ignoring the battle around him.

The Righteous Jin Tiehan was an intelligent man, no one would disagree with that. Everything he did had purpose. Had meaning, ulterior motives. He schemed day in and day out, always to a greater purpose. When he taught Alexander [Mana Impact], there was a specific reason why he gave him that technique and not anything else.

After all, Jin Tiehan said it himself: [Mana Impact] was versatile. A technique that could boost your attacking power if used properly. But at the same time, he weaved in the comment that Alexander’s mind was unrestricted. In other words, [Mana Impact] could be used differently than supplementing your physical attacks.

So instead of diverting mana to his hands like he’d normally do, the mana was split into two cores, channeled into his legs, holding at the soles of his feet. He recalled his training from earlier, where he practiced the timing with his hands. Getting it right. Getting it perfect.

Here, it’d be difficult. He’d need to release both cores simultaneously, at full power, to give himself the best fucking chance to make it up the roof. Not only did he had to time it right but also time the steps themselves in the midst of enemy fire.

No, that didn't matter.

He was used to the chaos. Used to the war.

His mind was depleted of extraneous thoughts. He was in his own world.

Alexander bent low and sucked his teeth in, taking large strides to find his footing. Eyes focused on the destination above. It looked far from where he stood but it wasn't far at all. It was a simple jump. A jump that he could make even at half-power he reckoned, but he maintained using a full-blast to account for unexpected variables.

Like the automatons, the only thing inside his skull were gears turning.

He leapt, feet and legs together.

When they met the ground, he released and soared.

[You have developed a derivative of [Mana Impact]!]

[Two new derivatives are created: [Mana Impact Strike] and [Incomplete Mana Impact Step]. Check your profile for more information!]

“Shit shit shit shit shit shit—!” he shouted. Somehow by the will of God, he pulled it off perfectly, flying high and shooting straight for the roof. There was one problem, however.

He didn’t know how to fucking land.

So he crashed hard onto the surface, shoulder-first, rolling several yards. His body shone red from the [Barrier Brooch] but it couldn’t mitigate the pain he felt shooting across his nerves especially down at his legs, feeling the recoil of [Mana Impact Step]. Nothing debilitating. Hurt like a bitch though.

“Jesus fucking Christ!” exclaimed Victor, who quickly helped Alexander back onto his feet. “How the fuck did you do that?!”

Alexander dusted himself off. “A new trick that the Righteous taught me.” He looked around for Forest Master who was there already; they nodded at each other. “Alright look, you know the gameplan: we’re infiltrating the mess hall and taking out the portal as fast as we can. We all got the SDSD on us, right?”

The pair nodded.

“Fantastic.”

Victor held up the [Talonstrider] in its shield form. “I’ll break a hole in the roof and we can drop in.”

“Yeah no, that’s a horrible idea. I have a better one.” Alexander pointed to the bulkhead. “We’re going through the fucking door.”

Victor’s expression dropped as did his arms. “The door—?!”

“Yes, cowboy! The fucking door! Let's go!"

Forest Master was already at the bulkhead’s door while Alexander and Victor were rushing over. She tried the handle, locked, so she effortlessly broke the lock open with a palm strike, the steel door swinging out and banging the back wall.

Quickly now, they scaled down the tiny steps, the sounds of their footsteps echoing against the stairwell's bare walls. A few more doors blocked a direct path to the main cafeteria but like earlier, Forest Master broke them open, and like shadows they dashed through the narrow halls where the lights overhead flickered. The screams were getting louder, the lasers more substantial, prominent.

They encountered a few soldiers who managed to escape, holding themselves against the polished, tiled walls bloody and dazed. The soldiers pointed the way to the canteen and the trio had to leave them there, hoping the androids wouldn’t get the right mind to swarm the back-halls.

A blood trail led them to an open door that gave way to the mess hall—right where the action was. Alexander counted at least fifty automatons from a single peek, and swaths of friendlies on the ground dead, wounded, undetermined. At the center was a sizable portal, a feet taller than him, where automatons stepped out one-by-one, joining their machine-in-arms.

Alexander focused on the sight and called up Gul: “STA-TL here, visual confirmation on the SD. Engaging shortly.”

"Roger," replied Gul. "Slay them."

“So what’s the plan, hotshot?” Victor asked, [Talonstrider] in one hand and [Little Gungir] in the other.

“We can’t go in magic-hot, we’ll kill whoever’s left standing. We need to be methodical here.” He turned to Forest Master, who had an ivy spear out. “FM, can you generate enough leaves to obscure the automatons’ vision? Cut them up?”

She nodded. “I can, yes. Wouldn’t that hurt our allies?”

“No, because our guys wouldn't be standing.” His answer caused Forest Master's eyes to widen then soften, appreciating the cleverness of his strategy. He turned to Victor next. “Vic, you’ll be providing cover and looking after our asses.”

“Rog'.” replied Victor, standing in front of Alexander, stacking at the open doorway as the sounds of battle grew in ferocity.

Forest Master held her spear high and gulped, preparing herself. She muttered something in Mandarin, looked at the two men and nodded.

Alexander commanded, drawing his [Sword of Conquerors], “Do it.”

[Skill Activation: Mastery of the Forest - Whirring Stormleaf]

Forest Master Chunhua turned into bright, vibrant leaves and rushed inside the canteen. It took a few moments for the bustle to explode, spreading throughout the open air as fast as tempests. As innocent as they may look, they were anything but: these leaves were like shrapnel from a fragmentation grenade, moving in high speeds and sharp to the touch, cutting into any automatons in the cloud.

She had enough control over this technique to only fill the upper-half of the room; in other words, the floor was completely untouched by [Whirring Stormleaf] and thus weren’t injuring any of the casualties below, and also providing a clear path for her comrades to traverse through.

Alexander placed a hand on Victor's shoulder and they charged inside, low to the ground. Victor held [Talsonstrider] with two hands for better control over their heads, protecting them as the leaves banged off the shield. There, they pushed through the chaos in a scrambling crouch, constantly readjusting their positions and correcting their movements. It was messy but it was working.

And also discomboulating.

I can’t hear a fucking thing in here! yelled Alexander in his own thoughts, hearing the storming leaves and lasers and metal crunching and scratching, lasers firing and he stomped on puddles of blood, over bodies, Victor screaming, a robotic arm shot out and the [Sword of Conquerors] severed it, the [Red Barrier Brooch] screamed crimson as an android fell on him, ribboned.

He threw it off and bumped into Victor’s back, staggered, saw the portal in front of him, distorted and cosmic. An automaton stepped through but the [Talonstrider] bashed it back inside.

Alexander equipped his spatial distortion stabilization device (SDSD), placed it on the ground and activated it, remaining low. At the front end, a blue light was emitted and latched onto the tall portal, diligently sewing the rift from the top-down.

That didn’t halt the automatons on the other side from trying to pry through, but their attempts were foiled by Victor, who stabbed them at spear-point and slapped them with the shield.

In the chaos, Alexander clenched his teeth and tried to focus even with all the sensory information that was hitting him, literally and figuratively, watching the SDSD stitch the portal, hoping for no malfunctions. Every second made him more and more tense until, finally, the distortion was sealed and the automatons came no more.

“Gul!” he shouted over the call. “The portal’s taken care of!”

As he said that, the leaves’ velocity decreased. Many began to lose color and fade from existence, and a small cluster bunched together and like a blooming flower, out came Li Chunhua with sweat dripping down her chin.

A good portion of the automatons had been destroyed from [Whirring Stormleaf], close to half if Alexander guessed. But they weren’t out of the woods yet. They had to neutralize every enemy target here. Twitching, crackling automatons, a few steps away from the electronic gates of oblivion.

The three Baptists exchanged a fast look with one another, gauging their conditions, readiness, and in wordless unison they were the first to begin the clean-up. Because of their efforts, Slayers bustled into the canteen sword-blazing, including their own Baptists, and within thirty seconds the tide turned and it was the automatons that were being dismantled back into their elementary parts.

And within no more than a few minutes, the last of the automatons were slain. Gul stood higher than the crowd as the reigning S-Rank, looking over the devastation that’d occurred in such a short time. She pointed out a Slayer, most likely a well-experienced one, and ordered, “Get medics here ASAP! Baptists, with me!”

All of the present Baptists, the members of Slayer Team Alba and the Alumnus, filtered out of the mess hall as the first supports already arrived, helping the casualties laying at the entrance. They regrouped next to the building, and finally everyone had a chance to catch their breaths, check over their equipment and get ready for the next mission.

As Alexander was wiping away the oil and whatever-else on his sword, Gul’s voice rang in their ears: “Blackviper, Jin Tiehan, we handled the portal in the mess hall. Where are we going next?”

Jin Tiehan responded right away, “The Slayers present will take care of the portals inside Grendel Arsenal, so no need to concern yourself. Please regroup with us at the back gates.”

Everyone paused what they were doing.

Gul followed up, “This isn’t an isolated event?”

A disappointed sigh came from the man. “I’m afraid not. We received similar reports on the radio. It’s occurring all over Dawns. I’ll explain once you have arrived.”

***

At the back gates, the Baptists found a familiar sight: troves of military vehicles rushing out the gates side-by-side with soldiers and Slayers alike. You had a dozen different people barking orders; it didn’t help that hundreds—thousands—of civilians were arriving from all angles, trying to take refuge inside the base.

Alexander guessed how bad the situation was, then, if this many civilians were moving.

They pushed through the people and found Jin Tiehan and Blackviper waiting for them near the wall. Beside them were two strange floating objects; it took a few seconds for Alexander to realize what they were: Slayer-Manned Vehicles (SMVs). These were vehicles that were created by and for Slayers, bypassing the typical limitations of modern-day technology. However, only Slayers could operate these vehicles.

The two SMVs before them matched closely with a wheel-less rollercoaster car, smooth at the edges and corners. It was made out of some sort of magical metal, its energy felt where Alexander was standing. Painted gray with white stripes, which had black numbers and lettered stamped on them on both sides. Near the head of the SMV was the symbol found on the Journey of Machining’s robes—these were Yatsar’s.

There were eight seats in both vehicles.

Jin Tiehan found the Baptists and motioned them to hurry up, pointing at the two SMVs. “Alumnus, you’ll ride with Blackviper. Alba, you’ll be with me. Settle in and find a seat.”

They made themselves comfortable in the SMVs, having no time to appreciate this new experience. Jin Tiehan was at the front with a vibrant console. He pressed a few buttons. A protective canopy formed around the car, shone brightly then turned storm-gray. Moments later, the SMVs lifted off the ground and glided through the air, above the streets of Ordo.

It quickly became clear why the SMVs were necessary.

The roads were clogged. Not with the corpses as seen with the Tormented Flesh, but by panicking civilians. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands maybe, were crushed against each other and the military vehicles that they were blocking. Soldiers and Slayers were on the ground trying to direct the crowd but nothing was moving.

Nothing was moving fast enough for the right people to get where they needed to go.

This was happening everywhere.

“Holy shit…” muttered Althea.

Jin Tiehan frowned, tapped something on the console. Before Alba was a screen of Dawns shown on the gray barrier, red-dotted to hell and back. Their location was visible by a golden arrow, which had left a location which contained five red dots. “This is a coordinated attack all across the borough, it seems like. The map is linked with Alma’s current findings he gathered from radio reports and is being updated by the second.”

As he said that, a couple more dots were added.

“There’s over fifty incident sites and rising.”

One dot was expanded. Someone must’ve tapped it. “Ordo University,” Leona stated. “Four incidents there.”

“We can’t get a fuckin’ break, can we?” growled Victor, startling Alexander before realizing that communications were probably connected between the vehicles.

Alexander looked to his left and saw the accompanying SMV gliding with them.

“The Sungrazers attacked all the densely-packed areas,” Uprise raised, sifting through the information. “Schools, universities, hospitals, bases, refugee centers—redirection facilities. Why? Why now?”

“It’s dinner time,” answered Vernon. “During an outbreak, we have protocols in place to keep things simple and uniform throughout the city. Makes it easy to track, easy to monitor. Including when you’d eat lunch and dinner. So exactly when people are moving the most.”

Blackviper followed, “You have to give the Comets credit for their tactics. There really wasn’t a better time to launch a coordinated spatial bombing across the borough. It caused panic in the civilian population and led them to flood the streets, preventing traffic flow. It'll be hell for the next couple of hours. Major damage to manpower, infrastructure, order.”

Alexander looked down at the streets. Some civilians noticed the SMVs above and were reaching up with haunted, pale expressions. They were pressed so closely together that their mouths were horribly open, trying to breathe, and he could faintly hear their cries for help. He didn't look at the streets anymore.

Victor bit, “These motherfuckers...”

“There’s one thing I don’t understand, though,” Alexander said out loud. “How are these bombs being transported? It’s not just objects anymore, it’s people. The object-bound distortions, the OBDs, how the fuck are they being manufactured?”

“I have tasked Alma, Shinzo, and Catalyst to the question,” stated Jin Tiehan. "Do not expect an answer soon, though. This takes time."

“What will we be doing?” Forest Master asked.

The map zoomed out, pinging every incident site and every new one that came after.

“What we are meant to do: slay. Prepare for a long night, Baptists. Eat and replenish your energy as much as you able before we enter an environment of extended combat. This is as unforgiving of a battlefield as you will know."

The SMVs zoomed forward, taking the Dawn Baptists to their mission locations.

~

[QUEST UPDATE]

DISTORTION INVESTIGATION - DAWNS ONCE MORE

Seraph has assigned you the task of investigating a series of anomalous distortions in Dawns once again, this time collaborating with members of Martial Guild, including the Vice Guild Master, the Righteous Jin Tiehan.

A coordinated bombing attack ruptured the permanent night, caused by the same anomalous distortions you have discussed with Alma, the Journey of Scholars. Discover the Sungrazer behind this attack and slay them rightfully.

~

[SKILL]

MANA IMPACT

A technique taught to you by the Perfected Cultivator, the Righteous Jin Tiehan. By condensing mana into your body and releasing the load upon impact, you produce an explosive effect.

These are the minimum values to produce a notable effect.

15% Mana Density: +1 Stat

50% Mana Density: +2 Stat

100% Mana Density: +3 Stat

Mana Impact Strike Concentrate mana into your fists to enhance the Power of your attacks. Incomplete Mana Impact Step

Condense mana into your legs to provide a temporary increase in attacking Power or a sudden boost in movement.

There is a chance of catastrophic failure when using this skill.