Chapter 283 Alarm
Much time has passed since the expedition a month ago. It felt weird to Van how openly the platoon now accepted him, even going as far to say things around him that most women try not to talk about when in the presence of a male. Such as who they wish to date or bang, or the gory details of their last kill, things that they usually believe males are too weak in the stomach to handle.
More importantly, they now took a more vested interest in Van’s training, making sure he had new equipment and was learning the military drills properly. Of course, there were times a few of them tried to come on to him. To which he kindly turned them down. He was willing to make exceptions from time to time, the day of the funeral being one of them, but he was not willing to simply do anyone who just asked unless he was interested in them himself.
There was also the matter of having to work overtime in bed with the help of Marie’s cajoling, especially when he told her he was planning to help out with the lack of womanpower by creating more eggs with his goblin troops. As for the troops he drew out of his soul realm, Anna was able to successfully explain them away, and Eliza and Scar were certainly not going to look a gift horse in the mouth considering how dire their troop shortage was.
Slowly things started to fall back into a somewhat normal rhythm, and with all the schoolwork on hand, one could almost forget the horror and trauma of what happened not too long ago. That was of course… Until this morning…
Van woke up with a start as the sirens blare a strange haunting shriek of a noise that definitely got people's attention. Somewhat confused he sat up wondering what it was until he realized it was the alarm. But not just any alarm, but one where a massive fog storm was about to hit the walls.
At first, he wasn’t sure what to do, until he paid a bit more attention to the sound of alarm that was going on. There were about six different types of alarms one should familiarize themselves with when living on the border to the waste.
The first one was the normal fog storm alarm that most easterners have learned to sleep through. The second one was when a particularly large fog storm came, warning residents to make sure everything was bolted down and all shutters were securely closed. The third type was when a monster wave was incoming and to get into defensive positions or to flee for the shelters. The fourth was when a larger monster wave came by putting the entire city on alert. The fifth was a combination of both a monster wave and a fog storm with various levels of severity. Finally the sixth and worst one was when something unknown or a particularly bad combination of monster wave or fog storm was incoming.
From the sounds of it, it seemed like it was the fifth alarm…
“Shit!” Once Van realized which alarm it was he jumped out of bed and began to change. Luna also got up, but before she could say anything he told her to stay since she wasn’t properly attired for this situation.
Donning his battle uniform, he also put on his mandated gas mask and coat. To say he was nervous would be an understatement. This was the first time he had to deal with something like this and he wasn’t sure if his troops were ready either since it had only been a month when they started working on the wall. It also didn’t help that he wasn’t sure they had the proper uniform for such a dilemma, hopefully, they could scrounge up some old uniforms that would fit them.
Exiting the room he turned to Luna. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine, just make sure you're safe and stay inside. I love you.” He then turned to Anna. “Anna, please stay and keep Luna safe, that is an order.” And with that he was gone, making sure that his gear was properly secured and that there were no openings lest the fog try and get in.
When he first stepped out into the open he was buffeted by a wall of raging wind. Even with the shields operating at full capacity, with several layers diminishing the full brunt of the blow, it was still like being hit by a wall of air. He quickly found that unless he planted his boots down properly he wouldn’t even be able to move, which was probably why they had special small spikes on the bottoms for better grip.
Another thing he noticed was the colors of blue and sometimes green with the rare yellow mixed in. Like an aurora borealis streams of beautiful energy and light passed by and swirled around him. Then there was the ever-present fog that slowly got denser and denser until he could hardly see sixty feet in front of them, only noticing the large more prominent buildings that stood out like shadowy misformed giants in the distance.
He first made his way towards the barracks where the troops were being held, he wanted to make sure that Kella and Karmila were ready and that the girls were prepared. More importantly, he wanted to make sure they were properly attired and could leave safely to help out on the wall.
Making his way there he stopped halfway when he noticed someone coming his way. At first, he couldn’t tell who it was, even for his excellent eyesight it was difficult to tell what was what with all the fog and swirling lights. Whatever it was was slowly moving towards, and at what he first thought was a person splintered revealing several shadow tendrils.
At first, he thought it was his eyes playing tricks with him, but thankfully his instincts took over and he was just barely able to sidestep out of the way of a large octopus-like creature that suddenly ate up the distance in the span of a few seconds in a massive lunge towards him.
It was a somewhat translucent monster, with lines and beads of light all over its body. It was as large as he was and had twelve tentacles and what appeared to be three mouths with nine eyes all over its body. It tried to spin around, reaching out with tentacles that stretched impossibly toward him.
Van in his panic, had to admit he might have overreacted a bit to the horrifyingly ugly creature. Not wanting to play around with it using his sword, nor wanting it to get any closer to him than it already was, he raised his hand and engulfed the monster with a stream of blue fire.
It didn’t shriek or wail, nor scream or roar, but remained silent for a few seconds as it was bathed in fire, its eyes telling the story of its pain more than any sound from its three mouths could. Like a balloon it inflated and released a sudden cloud of gas that was ignited by the fire, creating a sudden explosion that rocked both the creature and Van apart.
Surprised and stunned, Van had to take a few moments to recover his bearings. The creature he was fighting though, like the strange squid or octopus it was, had already moved all its tentacles to flee into the distance, becoming once more a shadow in the fog, though with a small hole in its body.
He stared at the receding monster, wondering if he should try and chase after it or not when something brushed the back of his neck. With a sudden jump and a few goose bumps too, he twirled around to see what was attacking him next and paused.
Floaters and jellyfish-like creatures began to move aimlessly across the air. Small translucent fish and what appeared to be living balls of lightning sparked and zipped. Balls of light as small as his thumb danced and swirled with the movement of the colors of the fog storm.
He stood there, mesmerized by the strange creatures. It was like he was underwater, seeing a beautiful but alien world. He wondered if this was what Lyn saw whenever she went out into these storms.
A crackling sound suddenly came from his Vespera band.
“Van! Are you there!? Van!”
Startled, he lifted his band to his ears and replied.
“Eliza? Is that you?”
“Van! Where are you!?”
“I’m headed to the barracks to gather the troops. Where are you?”
“There's no time for that!” Eliza yelled through. “Head for battlement seventy-eight in section two of the outer wall!” Her voice crackled with interference from the storm. “We already sent someone to bring in your troops and get them equipped, but we need you to help with the shield now! Get over here! Double time!”
“Roger that, on my way,” Van replied and ended the call. His heart quickened, this was the first time he had ever heard Eliza sound so panicked before. Even when they were on the expedition and surrounded by those cockroach-looking monsters she remained calm.
Deciding not to waste any more time he ran as quickly and safely as he could through the fog and lights, filled with an assortment of strange creatures he wished he had more time to study and watch as they floated on their way. He had to stop and look around for directions to his assigned position every so often. It was a bit difficult until all of a sudden a wave of light along the multiple pathways on the supersized wall he was running down lit up. With this bit of help, he was able to navigate his way to his location, these strange lights also seemed to draw in the creatures, helping clear the road so to speak, allowing him to pick up the pace.
“Outer walls, outer walls… Shit! Why does it have to be so far away!” He gritted his teeth and ran as fast as he could to the outermost wall of the city. Taking a right turn he headed down a pathway towards section two and almost came to a sudden halt.
A large stream of soldiers were taking up the entire space that he needed to cross. All of them were wearing their battle gear and masks. All but one whose mask seemed to have been ripped off by one of those octopus creatures. The fog and deadly wind seemed to have torn into her face, damaging it. Right now she was being carried away with a few of her comrades putting a towel to her face to prevent further bleeding and to protect her from further damage from the fog storm.
One of the commanders overseeing the operations seemed to have noticed Van and turned to him. “You! What are you doing here!? Where’s your platoon!?”
Van froze from the sudden authority being projected his way before answering. “I’m with platoon one nineteen, headed towards battlement seventy-eight in section two of the outer walls ma’am!” remembering his training he responded as quickly as possible.
The commander seemed taken aback when she heard Van’s voice, recognizing it as male. At first she wanted to question what he was doing here, but then remembered what he said and just decided it wasn’t her problem. She then turned to the soldiers quickly marching down the path that was blocking his way.
Giving them a quick order she told them to stop and turned back to Van. “You! Get over here!” Van did so and she pointed to the other side. “Take your first left then right, after that just follow the signs.”
“Th-thank you ma’am!” Van responded.
The commander grunted. “Next time memorize the wall structure and use the underpass, I won’t help you again. Now get going! How much longer are you going to hold us up!” She snapped.
Van got the message and quickly booked it down the now cleared area in front of him. He heard the commander give a few more orders and the flow of troops, equipment, and weaponry began to flow once more.
When Van finally arrived at his destination it had been little more than half an hour since he had last gotten the call from Eliza. Speaking of which, she was calling for him right now.
“Van! We need you right now! The others can’t hold on much longer!” She then ordered him to stand next to the other mages, and not just the ones from their platoon, but from dozens of others.
“Here it comes again!” Someone yelled out in warning just as Van got into position.
His eyes widened and his jaw dropped at what he saw suddenly reveal itself from the dense fog. A massive colossus appeared made up of flesh and bone of thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of corpses. It raised a meaty fist and slammed it against the barrier of the wall, and where it struck, cracks formed, only to heal as the mages lined up and began to pour mana into it.
“Oh… Shit…” Was all Van could think at the moment as he lifted his own hands into the air to supply the barrier with his mana.