Chapter 2 Part 1 of 2 (Patreon)

“Rugrat.”

A voice snapped him awake and he grabbed his rifle. He reached out to the weight leaning against him and squeezed Erik.

Erik blinked and looked around. He breathed in through his nose deeply, checking his fire selector and patting the magazines on his rig.

“‘Sup?” Rugrat asked Colonel Yui.

“Leadership huddle. Don’t worry, we haven’t been bumped.”

Rugrat relaxed. Erik was still blinking, trying to wake up.

Rugrat tapped him, shooting him a look.

Erik nodded and clipped his rifle to his sling and yawned.

Rugrat did the same and stretched his neck, tilting his head from side to side and rolling his shoulders.

They’d fallen asleep against a pillar supporting the dungeon’s ceiling. Troops were organized into squads; few had cots, most simply collapsed into squad piles. Clutching their weapons and wearing their gear they slept against brother and sister.

“Once we started dialing back the armor, everyone started passing out. Those we could get off the line were dialed nearly all the way down, just put them on stamina and recovery buffs.”

Erik hit Rugrat’s arm, holding out a stamina potion. Rugrat nodded in thanks as Erik drank his and pulled out another.

“Yui, heads up.” Yui turned and caught the potion.

“Thanks, boss.” Yui tossed the potion back.

“How are we looking?” Erik asked.

“Glosil has the low down.”

“’Kay.”

A group came in off watch. The sergeant started waking another squad, rousing them for watch.

They left the sleeping troops and passed through halls, moving by armed and armored soldiers on watch.

Erik gave them stamina potions as he went. They raised the potions in thanks as the trio moved deeper into the dungeon.

They came out near the field hospital. Medics were moving between people, checking them. The craziness from earlier had subsided.

“Wounded?” Erik asked.

“All life-threatening injuries have been dealt with. They just need time to recover from the armor’s effects, so we can wean them off formation support. They might need another round of healing after that. But with sufficient time, with their mana and body cultivation, they’ll make a full recovery.”

“Good,” Erik said in relief.

They passed through another dirt tunnel.

“Earthy in here.”

“We’re under a hill, four hundred meters under. There’s nearly six hundred meters of roots, dirt, and some stone above us. Lots of plants.” Yui pointed at the vines on the tunnel walls. “Need them to change the air over.”

They passed guards as they entered the command center. Field chairs sat in the left corner, aides were piled up in the back right corner sleeping. Tunnels ran out in every direction. Domonos and Glosil were talking to one another, leaning their forearms on the table.

Erik handed them stamina potions. They nodded in thanks and drank them.

Glosil coughed and cleared his throat, storing the bottle. “Thanks.”

Erik nodded.

Blaze walked into the tent, nodding to the others.

“How are we?” Rugrat asked.

“Egbert?” Glosil shifted his feet and rubbed his face.

“Some wild animals have passed overhead, nothing on the teleportation formations or in the area above us. We are burning through our mana stones to recover our people’s strength through formations. The worst cases of mana fatigue we put into the mana cultivation pods. The stamina fatigue cases are hooked up to stamina IV’s.”

“Anything else?” Rugrat looked at the others.

“Our reg forces have two loads of railgun ammunition, the reserves only have the regular Mark Seven rifles. Some of the newer reserve units have the bolt actions. We’ve cannibalized armor plates, passing them to the different groups and teams. Which we’ve re-organized,” Domonos looked at Yui.

“I’ve made a new squad list. The Adventurer’s Guild didn’t take any losses, some of our reserves were hit, our reg force is a mess. Did some reorganizing to bring different units up to strength. The air force ...” Yui shook his head. “They were one of the worst hit. Kanoa is commanding the other dungeon. We got a report from him but nothing else. Two thirds of his birds are out, half of his people are dead or wounded.”

Rugrat worked his jaw, looking at the map. “Fuck.” He pressed the word out from his lips.

“What are the numbers?” Erik asked.

“We have one thousand five hundred and eighty-three still recovering, eight hundred and fifty-seven dead.”

Rugrat pressed his lips together, resting his hands on his hips as he studied a corner of the map. He felt hollow, as if someone had stabbed him in the stomach and there was nothing left there anymore.

Yui pulled out a handwritten list and put it on the table.

Erik opened the pages and spread them out slowly with reverence.

Rugrat turned away and rubbed his face, his lower lip quivering. Fuck. Tyrone and Jackie.

He closed his eyes against the tears and sniffed. He released a shaky breath and kept reading the sheets. He leaned on the table, pushing back his hair and letting out a shaky breath.

Erik reached down, patting his back, and squeezing his shoulder through the opening of his carrier.

Rugrat looked up at him.

Erik’s face twisted in pain, his lips a white line against the tears.

“Fucking Tanya and Tan Xue!” Rugrat raised his hand as tears blurred his vision. He laughed, his lower lip trembling as he worked his jaw.

Erik pulled him back from the table. Tears broke from his eyes as he saw Yui standing to the side, his jaw flexed as he looked at the ceiling. Domonos was rubbing his face. Glosil looked like he had taken a body blow as he leaned on the table, reading through the names. His cheek twitched as he wiped his face angrily, clearing the tears.

Erik hugged Rugrat as the two men shuddered with their soundless tears.

Rugrat got himself under control and patted Erik on the back, the two of them released.

“This is my fault. If Mistress Mercy didn’t... then... they...” Domonos choked on the words and tears.

“This fight was coming one way or another.” Erik’s voice was a whip crack, hard, and rough. “None of us could predict what happened. We took on a sect from the Seventh Realm and we held them for weeks, hell, we crushed their attacks.”

“What do we do now?” Domonos smacked his leg.

Glosil stood up but Erik held out his hand.

“We did, and we’re going to have to learn from that. Sects would fall apart in such a situation but we have to remain strong. We need to pull ourselves together and carry out our duty,” Erik stated.

Rugrat pointed at the names on those papers. “They paid the price to get our people out of Vuzgal. What we do next is in their honor. We’re going to need a lot more than what we’ve got to take on this Black Phoenix Clan.”

“What are our orders?” Erik looked at Glosil.

“Recover, repair, rearm. We head to Alva. We get our people back to peak condition. We saw weaknesses in the battle, we address them. We repair our gear and gather or create the tools we would need to contend with the Black Phoenix Clan.”

“Vuzgal was our foothold in the Fourth Realm, but Alva is our home. The First Realm has little in the way of natural resources, but it has one resource in plenty, people.” Erik said.