Questline

Contaminated Zone

Stop The Spread (2/2)

The source of the radiation has been revealed, within the Contaminated Zone lies Chernobyl. Avatar production has been made possible by the System to defend the sapient nuclear plant. Conquer the facility and destroy what stands to end the spread of the Contaminated Zone. City rewards will be based on combined performance. Individual rewards will be calculated separately. Exceptional rewards will be given to those who stop the source.

Radioactive Portals defeated (city): 71 [2936 points]

Radioactive Portals defeated (individual): 23 [1103 points]

"I don't think Chernobyl is supposed to look like that." Preston said, looking at the concrete structure peaking up from behind a hill. What caught Teresa's attention was that the hill was completely absent of caves in a land where they were everywhere. "Not very nuclear."

"There's a lot more going on behind that hill, I can hear a whole lot of machinery." Sarah said. "If we were looking at any other angle we probably wouldn't have seen it at all."

"Where are the caves?" Teresa asked, her eyes scanning across the terrain. They were all over the place behind them, which she honestly felt uneasy about. Just like many others, if she got shot in the head while she wasn't ready she would simply drop dead. They hadn't been ambushed yet, though she wouldn't be surprised if there were Avatars that hadn't fired because of how fast they were moving.

"You're right, that hill looks artificial." Randall said, looking at the same thing. "The ground is too smooth and symmetrical, and it feels like the hill was placed there. The base has too sharp of an angle to be natural, some of the ground has been packed down, and the texture is different. Not to mention the complete lack of caves. This hill was built, it's not natural."

"You know a lot about hills." Preston said, an eyebrow raised.

"I'm a geologist, I can confidently say this hill was built because I've seen this exact kind of thing before."

"How's everyone's resources?" Teresa asked, checking her status screen. Her Stamina was low, but it had actually recovered a bit. Her pants helped regenerate Stamina just enough to outpace a low constant consumption from running without the use of skills. Her Mana was a decent chunk over half capacity, having the easiest time regenerating while on the move.

"My Stamina is shit but I got my Mana back." Preston said.

"I'm good in both of those departments, but I'm still recovering HP. I'm at about two thirds of that." Jake informed.

"Mana and HP are both above half, my Stamina is pretty low though." Sarah said.

"So HP and Stamina are where we're struggling right now. I'm doing okay with Stamina and I got over half of my Mana back, though my HP could be better." Teresa said. "Preston, I know you mostly use Stamina for your skills so what are you thinking of for your own strategy?"

"<Air Slash> and <Second Step> use Mana so I have a bit I can do, though I might be a bit screwed if I can't use <Dash>. My Agility can make up for a lot, but even up close I'm going to struggle with most of my skills being out of commission. I think my best bet is to stay back with Sarah and spam <Air Slash>. It doesn't work great against the Avatars, but I can take out the weaker ones with it." Preston said.

"That's not a bad move considering the circumstances. Trimming down their numbers will help, and from how it sounds my dad should have <Identify> to help with discerning targets. Dad, what skills have you got?"

"My skills focus on stealth, ranged attacks, and magic. I've got <Embers>, but I've also got stuff like <Silent Step>, <Intuitive Aim>, and <Piercing Shot>." He said as Teresa thought of strategy.

"Alright, don't bother with <Embers> for damage since these things are pretty damn fire resistant. An ally of ours uses a variation of <Embers> that works really well, but unless your <Embers> is special like that I don't think that skill is going to suit you for this at all."

"What's so special about his <Embers>?"

"He calls it nuclear <Embers>, it shoots out a massive amount of fire at once that regular <Embers> can't compare to. I can do something similar with shotgun <Embers> by building up Mana in my palm and releasing it all at once, but it doesn't compare. The guy's a nuclear engineer, he won't tell us how to do it though and Chernobyl hates him for some reason."

"Well if he's a nuclear engineer I think it's obvious that Chernobyl wouldn't like him, isn't it? He probably knows the ins and outs of nuclear facilities, he'd probably pose a massive threat to this place. You're talking about that Ezio guy, right?"

"Yeah that's the one."

"Why isn't he here?"

"Someone went missing and he went to find them with a few others when we got attacked."

"Either that's really inconvenient timing or it was planned then, at least to some extent."

"You should stay back with Sarah and Preston, Sarah can explain to you where you should be aiming. You said the hill was built, any chance it's trapped?" Teresa asked.

"That's certainly possible. There could be explosives, there could be pitfalls, there are a lot of traps you can utilize here."

"What do we do about it?"

"There's not much we realistically can do. If someone has an earth based skill they might be able to do something, but otherwise anything I can think of would have drawbacks. Even if we blasted the hill with fire, buried explosives might not react."

"We have to get past it somehow, can we dig a tunnel or something? We can blow it up." Teresa offered, retrieving her two pieces of C4 from her <Inventory>.

"You just have C4 on you?" Randall asked.

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"Yeah, what else are you supposed to keep in your Soul?" Teresa replied jokingly.

"Well that actually might be useful then. We can bury a charge and see if it reveals anything, like a spot sample." He explained. "We get an idea of what's under the ground by blasting a section open, then use that information to proceed."

"That would also use up some of our C4. Are you sure that'd be worth it?"

"No, but if we really need to get over there and we're genuinely concerned about traps, that's the move."

"Then let's do it and be quick, it might even get Chernobyl's attention. Our goal isn't necessarily to destroy Chernobyl right now, it's to provide a distraction for the army. If we start detonating C4 along the outskirts of the facility I'm sure that the Avatars will rush back." Teresa said. "Alternatively we can use a monster lure."

"I think we blow it then use the lure." Sarah said. "If we use the lure first and it doesn't pan out, it'll be a lot harder to get close and use the C4. I think the C4 would get attention faster."

"Sounds good." Teresa said before turning to her dad. "Show me what to do."

Teresa and her party approached the base of the hill, the concrete building slipping out of sight. They cautiously walked up a small distance before getting down and digging, making a hole to place the charge in. Jake's shield proved decently effective as a shovel, though with everyone's increased Strength no one was having any major difficulties.

They only dug a hole one foot deep, as they were on a time crunch. If not for the fact they literally had super Strength, even a one foot hole would take too long. The party had spent enough time talking while the army was likely stuck in an endless retreat against the Avatars, Teresa had no way of knowing how they were holding up at the moment but just thinking about it made her extremely anxious.

Teresa placed the charge in the hole and began to cover it while Sarah kept a lookout for ambushes, keeping an eye on the caves they had already passed. Her dad explained how normally a hole would just be drilled for blasting rock and then stemmed. Given their current situation, they weren't being nearly as efficient as they could be with the right tools. Regardless, they didn't need perfection. They just needed it to be good enough.

Within minutes everything was in place. Teresa felt they had moved pretty damn fast, but this wasn't the first time she used C4 in a rush. She held the detonator in her hand as they retreated, not wanting to stand too close to the explosive.

Once they were far enough away, Teresa activated the bomb. A massive blast sent rock and debris flying as a shockwave rang out from the hill, passing through the party. Preston kept his back turned to the blast, as according to him 'cool guys don't look at explosions.' He turned around pretty fast once the shockwave passed over them, so whatever he was going for did not pan out.

A plume of dust and dirt covered the blasting area, through which Teresa saw jagged edges of metal protruding from the ground. Several feet within the crater, a metal tube had been blasted open, being roughly the size of a two lane road.

"What kind of C4 was that?" Her father asked, glancing between Teresa and the hole.

"It's magic C4, I don't know. What is that?" Teresa asked, pointing at the tube they had blown open.

"Looks like an access tunnel, but that's not it. There's wiring in the ground, I don't know where it leads but it's probably not good for us." Randall warned.

"Should we go in there?" Jake asked. "We can mess some stuff up pretty badly if we tried."

"We would also be confining ourselves into a small space with limited escape paths, it might be a good time for this now." Teresa said, taking her second and final monster lure out of her <Inventory>.

"Don't use that yet, I also have an idea." Sarah said, positioning herself so she could see a portion of the concrete building they had spotted earlier. She drew her bow with a white Mana arrow, aimed at the structure and fired. The arrow struck the concrete and blasted a small hole in the exterior, after which she fired a few more arrows that expanded the damage. "I don't know what that building is, but I'm sure it's not meant to have a bunch of projectiles going in there. I'll throw the monster lure in there after a few more arrows, then that should provide enough of a distraction for us to see what's in that tunnel."

"I don't think we should go in there." Teresa said honestly. "Ezio told me there is such a thing as doing too much, and I think we're at that point. If we get monsters attacking that building and activating a bunch of traps, that should not only give the army time to recover but us as well. We can take that chance to top our resources off and maybe even regroup with the others."

"That sounds risky, it might not be enough of a distraction." Sarah said.

"It would be less risky than pushing into the tunnel by ourselves before we are ready. That tunnel might be rigged to collapse on us. We can monitor the situation from a safe distance and do something amidst the chaos if need be." Teresa countered.

"I'm down with that then. I suppose if we stay back and watch, we can figure out what's going on with that hill." Sarah said, agreeing to Teresa's plan. Teresa handed Sarah their last monster lure, capable of attracting monsters within a 4.935 mile radius.

"You sure you're going to be able to throw that in from here?" Teresa asked. Sarah would have to throw it several hundred meters accurately, though it didn't really need to be perfect.

"I got it, <Intuitive Aim> will help me out a lot here." Sarah said, taking a few deep breaths while slightly shifting her body as she got in position. She lined herself up, channeled Mana into the device, took a big step and threw the monster lure like a baseball. Teresa absentmindedly wondered how sports would work now as the lure flew through the air. It landed within the hole in the concrete that Sarah made.

The group fell back, retreating to a nearby cave where they could observe safely. Jake opened a screen as he began to look at a skill selection, as apparently he had gotten a class level up from the previous battle.

"Meh, meh, huh." Jake muttered, reading to himself. "Hey look, I got offered <Retaliate>!"

A screen appeared before him, showing the skill that Teresa also had.

<Retaliate: lv 0>

Type: Retribution Magic

Increase damage taken in exchange for dealing more damage with your attacks. The lower your HP, the greater the effect.

"The description is different." Teresa said, an eyebrow raised. "Mine said that I can drain my HP for dealing more damage. I know skill descriptions can change as you level them up, but I haven't seen two level 0 skills having different descriptions before."

"Me neither." Jake said, scratching his head. "You're able to do this though, right? Increase damage taken to deal more."

"Yeah, though I haven't gotten the chance to really work with that a lot. Maybe that means you'll also be able to drain your own HP to deal more damage, though from what I've seen it's a lot less efficient." Teresa explained.

"I don't think I want it to be honest, it fits my class decently enough but it's just not my style. I'd rather get a movement skill or another defensive skill."

"That's fair enough, do you have anything along those lines?" Teresa asked.

"I got <Combined Guard> which helps when using defensive skills with other tank types, but there's also <Flight Of The Defender>, which increases my Agility when running towards someone who's already being attacked." Jake said.

"Those are both good, you got offered them last time I thought."

"Yeah, but the other two skills I got offered now are kind of lame. <Combined Guard> and <Flight Of The Defender> are just better."

"Well <Flight Of The Defender> would probably help you out a lot, what counts as someone being attacked?" Preston asked. "If you're charging into battle and the enemy is getting shot at by arrows, aren't you technically running towards someone being attacked?"

"I guess so, the increased speed would be nice."

"So would the benefit from <Combined Guard>. How exactly does it help with defensive skills?" Teresa asked.

"Not sure, it doesn't say. Given our situation, either would be a really good option for me."

"I think this one is up to you then, either would be beneficial." Sarah said. Jake nodded and chose a skill on his screen, closing it along with his eyes for a moment.

"What'd you pick?" Teresa asked.

"<Flight Of The Defender>. It has the word 'flight,' in it, so maybe if I level it up enough I'll be able to fly one day." Jake said, grinning.

"You know what? I can't argue with that logic." Teresa said, hoping the case was true for her friend. Sarah's head shot up, silencing everyone as Teresa's ears also picked up on the noise.

The monsters had made it.

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