Birth Of The Crafts-God

After Garena town was destroyed a couple of days back, the desolate beasts horde didn't make any major moves again. Instead, they roamed around the region, ensuring to not go further than a limited distance away from the town. The situation was exactly the same as when they had invaded Rosewood city.

Back then, the loitering behaviour of the desolate beasts made many think that they were simply planning on having Rosewood city as their next location for a habitat. Such an act wasn't uncommon as it has been previously recorded that desolate beasts would migrate from a certain location to another, for various reasons such as shortage in food supply.

Many had in fact, believed this to be the reason behind such a massive number of beasts.

However, that wasn't what had happened. After roaming the area around Rosewood city, the desolate beasts made their move once again and struck Garena town, taking only two days to reach the destination and wipe the entire town out. Luckily for the citizens of the town, they were properly informed and the security agencies were prepared.

Evacuation measures were carried out and many lives were saved, albeit some were still lost.

This was a few days back. As of now, the desolate beasts had not made any moves yet, but the security agencies were on high alert.

There were frequent campaigns carried out to cull down the number of desolate beasts, but that didn't do much. Modern weapons, unless single-target, didn't do much to the horde. Some of them had already developed a tolerance to radiation, had tough skins, and were immune to high heat, so nuclear explosions weren't used.

Also, using nukes was dangerous and would adversely affect the environment, so the government didn't consider them. The same went with other WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction).

Without such equipment, it became difficult to take down the horde quickly, so their only option was to slowly exhaust the horde with different tactics.

Your adventure continues at empire

To monitor the beast wave, there was a security perimeter set around the area; specifically the surrounding couple of kilometres close to Garena town. Without proper clearance or an identity permit, it was impossible for anyone to enter within this region. However, leaving wasn't difficult as there was an ongoing evacuation procedure.

"We've arrived."

A red-haired man stated as the sare approached a blockade only a few metres in front.

Inside the sare were seven other individuals, two of whom were familiar faces to Lucas. The team of eight formed a platoon, which compared to other security outfits, was much smaller.

The director of the Red Fangs had ordered a captain to lead a company to investigate the situation regarding the desolate beasts before they make a final decision. In the Red Fangs, a company consisted of four platoons and was led by a captain, who was at the very least a fifth level Apertures Opening stage stellar practitioner.

In other words, apart from the captain, there were four other powerful individuals at the rank of lieutenant, and one of them was the ever-familiar Lily Mayer.

This time around, lieutenant Lily came with her entire platoon of eight men—herself included.

"Lots of people are being displaced due to this event." The sneaky brown-haired member of the team, Barry, commented as he stared at the screen showing the situation below.

Garena town was a major town the size of a city, but there were much smaller settlements around it. It was just as the slums was neighbouring West Wing district but wasn't classified as a part of the district. Due to the risk of the desolate beasts tide, those neighbouring settlements were being evacuated.

Even the nearby Amer city was slowly being evacuated, although there was no official announcement for such by the city lord's government. Nonetheless, fear permeated the citizens, which led to them leaving.

"It can't be helped. This is the reality of things." A member of the platoon by the side sighed

"But it's still weird. Even if Alleva district is in the grey zone, there shouldn't be a desolate beasts niche capable of housing this many beasts close by. That now begs the question, where did they come from?" Nafir frowned.

"Make contact with the guard unit and request passage access." Lily said, interrupting the conversation.

The company's mission was to investige just that, so there was no reason to be dwelling on the question before they had done their search. There were also other platoons involved in this investigation mission, so the group didn't need to carry the entire matter on their shoulders.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

At the same time, now wasn't the time to be discussing that. If they were to enter the security perimeter without clearance, their vessel would be shot down from the sky by the defence system set up. If they were killed, especially in such a laughable manner, then they could forget about investigating the situation.

"Hold on, that figure looks familiar." Barry suddenly said.

"Isn't that..."

. . .

After getting as much information about Alleva district, the situation with the desolate beasts tide, and Amer city, Lucas had returned back to his motel room that evening. The next day, he packed his bags and left for Amer city.

However, upon reaching the city, Lucas was stunned to find out that it was under strict surveillance and security. Entering the city wasn't difficult and one simply needed a method of identification. However, going beyond that was next to impossible. A simple ID card wasn't enough as one needed a permit to do so.

About two kilometres away from the city, the local Defence Force had set up a barricade consisting of not just physical structures but an invisible force field as well. The force field didn't stop objects from entering or leaving, but it sensed them and notified the control centre about such movements.

The control centre, using the received signal, would now attempt to identify and communicate with the Unknown Flying Object (UFO). Based on the results of the identification and communication, they would then decide to either detain the object or shoot it down. However, there was never a situation where such an object was permitted entry, even if it were a bird.

That was just how strict the surveillance here was.

Rumour had it that this was because some illegal traders might want to sneak in and capture a few desolate beasts, while another story was that the beast tide was man-made, which was quite ludicrous. Regardless of which, it didn't matter to Lucas. All he cared about was to get there.

There was no way Lucas would be able to take down a Jaburian from the safety of the city walls. Forget taking one down, Lucas would definitely not be seeing any within the city. If he wanted to complete the system's mission, he had to get to the region behind the barricade. The problem was how to do so.

While he queued up behind the erected border gates that served as an exit and entrance, Lucas silently began thinking of what logical reason he could use to get through.

Just when it was his turn, a sare floated down closeby. The hatch of the sare was open and a figure stood within with a smile plastered on his face as he stared at Lucas.

'You've got to be kidding me.' Lucas couldn't help but turn speechless, as he stared at a figure he so desperately wished to never meet again.

Although he knew that the Red Fangs would be making their way here, Lucas never thought that he would encounter them so soon. He had even left as quickly as possible, but somehow, arrived just exactly the same time as they did. Such an uncanny coincidence naturally left Lucas stunned.

Nafir, the sergeant in Lieutenant Lily Mayer's platoon, as well as the man with the superpower equivalent to mind-reading, smiled as he waved at Lucas.

Lucas glanced at him, considering whether to ignore the latter, but he suddenly realised that he couldn't.

Unlike himself, there was a high chance that the Red Fangs' platoon had clearance to make it past the gate. As long as he hitched a ride with them, Lucas could easily get through the security. However on second thought, he had this feeling that they thought the same way. There was a very high chance that they could guess his intentions and so, approached him.

This made Lucas cautious, but he still felt that he needed to accept the hand they stretched out.

All these thoughts crossed Lucas' head within just a second, following which he waved back at the latter.

The sare approached at a safe height before Nafir dropped down from it.

"Who would have thought we would be meeting once again in this situation?" Nafir smiled as he stretched his hand.

"Trust me, I wish it wasn't so." Lucas replied as he shook hands with him.

"So, what brings you here?" Nafir queried.

Lucas went on guard. He still had knowledge of the special power Nafir possessed; the ability to ascertain the truth in a statement. Without the protection of the HPM or the system, Lucas had to deceive his way through.

"I'm looking for something. Something very important to me." Lucas replied.

His statement was grammatically true. As the Jaburian was a beast, describing the creature as 'it' was appropriate. Furthermore, what Lucas wanted from it was its skin. Hence, the word "something" was valid.

"A family heirloom?" Nafir asked.

Lucas cursed inwardly about how nosy he was but he answered right away.

"Not quite. It's still as important either way."

That wasn't a lie. Since the hide was related to the mission, and to Lucas, the mission was as imporyas a life-or-death scenario, then the hide was equally very important to him.

"What about you guys?" Lucas quickly switched the topic.

Nafir smiled.

"She's waiting for us. Let's go."

He then turned around and walked towards the sare that had landed a short distance away.

Lucas' lips twitched a bit, but he followed right after him.

There was still another challenge waiting for him.