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Limitless Path Chapter One Hundred Ninety-Six
🕑 Added 2024-02-22 18:00:02 +0000 UTCBeth followed along, dropping her tray before they wandered back to the living quarters, which were surprisingly spacious. They secured for themselves a small suite, nothing like what they had at the CRA, but it had a tiny living room, a moderate-sized bedroom, and a modest-sized bathroom. It would be more than enough for their needs for the next one to two months, which is how long the stage wound up taking.
They found themselves living a life much like what they heard that soldiers lived. There was an awful lot of downtime, much of which they tried to occupy with training or practice spars, the rest of the Wayfarers on Zao's back giving them a great variety of opponents to train against. That great amount of downtime was juxtaposed with periods of frenetic activity, where Zao would either come upon an enemy unit or fortification or, as had been discussed in the beginning, against another Legendary Beast.
The fight against the other Legendary Beast was the culmination of the stage, and was everything that Beth had hoped for. A massive battle took place with each side having a small air unit flying around and laying down fire while trying to avoid the enemy air unit. The craziest part of the fight was the boarding, however, with both sides having teams ready to leap from the back of one beast to another. Neither Beth nor Blood had a fear of heights and both volunteered to be part of this duty, though they were offered the option of playing the part of defender.
Defending wasn't really Beth's style, so the two of them joined a group of heavies that made the leap as Zao and the enemy Legendary Beast came in close for a pass at each other, the massive beasts slamming into each other with a sound like a hundred thunderclaps. Beth and Blood ignored the noise, just wincing slightly from the report and swaying from the secondary energy. As soon as they were halfway stable it was time, and before the two massive living beings could separate, the team had run to the edge of a higher platform and leapt, soaring through the air before slamming down onto a platform lower on the opposing Legendary Beast.
They were met by a company of warriors that were pulled up in defensive formation with more than a dozen heavy warriors wielding massive shields in the front. This would have been something that really slowed others down, but the defensive line wasn't ready for Blood's speed or Beth's Silver-ranked Crush. A fully-charged blow from Beth caving in a shield like a cannonball had just hit it and making it ring like a bell the size of a house was the signal for the start of the defenders’ collapse. Once she had punched a hole in the lines, Blood was quick to slide in with an incredibly adroit series of movements, getting into the backline of the defenders and causing havoc.
The fight wasn't all super easy, but the toughness of the opposing side just meant more time, and more time meant nothing if the defenders couldn't dislodge or kill the attackers. The further in the attackers pushed and the more defenders that fell, the better Beth's teams chances in pushing to victory. They were stopped from pushing further into the complex on the opposing beast's back by a second company rushing to reinforce the position. This slowed them down even more, but still didn't stop them. Once again, Beth's ability to pulse her Presence set her at a level slightly above the rest, though the defenders were fighting to keep their lives and so burned their Presences as a desperation tactic.
In the end, none of it really meant much, as Beth and Blood weren't the only aces on their attack team. Ell was there as well, and the woman was a whirlwind with a massive maul, smashing apart anybody who got in her way. Beth was pretty sure the slim, svelte lady was a genuine berserker, getting lost in a battle haze induced by anger as she fought. As long as the rest of the team gave her a clear area, she would smash through anything in her way and greatly disrupt the enemy lines and unity.
The three girls were instrumental in punching through the enemy lines and pushing deeper into the fortifications on the back of the enemy Legendary Beast. They weren't the only team that pushed through the defenders, and it became clear over the following hours that their mettle was simply better, the attackers sweeping the defending force. Over the course of the entire day, the attackers fully subdued the defenders, killing or capturing the entire enemy force, though those captured, considering their crimes as bandits and raiders, wouldn't be getting off much better than those killed.
The final piece of the day was out of Beth and Blood's hands, as it was the battle between Zao and the opposing Legendary Beast. Beth and the others, even when pooling their strengths, simply weren't powerful to make a noticeable difference in such a fight. They just had to ride it out, which was certainly its own unique experience, and Beth wondered how often in the future they would encounter such a situation. She wasn't sure if the later stages of the Trial of Celestial Awakening were such settings because they were uncommon, or if the stages were just set in some kind of semi-random ordering.
Zao eventually won, no thanks to anyone else, and proceeding to both kill and consume the other Legendary Beast, which was a rather messy process. That was also apparently everything they needed to do to finish the stage, as they were teleported out right after that. Beth once again noted, as they appeared back in the array room, that they hadn't gotten any bonus experience for that stage. Their leveling progress had notably slowed, only gaining one level from that stage even with the amount of simulated time they spent in the stage, but they were still above where Beth had honestly expected them to be by this point.
They went through the typical routine of rest, eating, and requesting the start of the next stage, including keeping it private. They had to wait a rather long time for the Warder to acknowledge them, long enough that two other participants queued up behind them. The Warder eventually gave Beth and Blood the signal, and they leapt forward into a light red-colored portal. The momentary disorientation happened, with their vision blank for a second until they arrived in stage twenty-four.
It was a sight they were rather familiar with at this point, as they were standing in a plaza in a city. This city was not as developed as where they had been based for the resource collection stage, but it was still fairly advanced compared to some places they'd seen. Beth's hometown with its current chopped-log walls came to mind, but she shook off the thought with a little smirk before turning as they were hailed by a woman. The lady approached them from what appeared to be the southern end of the plaza they were on, wearing a set of plain, well-worn armor with no helmet.
"Good to see you made it," the woman said, Beth unable to avoid a small smile at how similar the greetings were. The woman didn't seem to interpret the smile as anything other than friendly, as she smiled right back at Beth before continuing, "We're glad to have some outside help with an Enforcer from the CRA coming down to aid us. A bad bit of business this, but hopefully we'll get through it with minimal fuss thanks to your efforts."
Beth remembered that they had been told at the start of the trial that some of the stages, particularly the later ones, would be more customized to each individual trial-taker. She assumed that the trial was recognizing their stated desire to be Enforcers and at least marginally tailoring the experiences based on that idea. She once again shook herself out of her short reverie to reply, "Good to be here. Can you give us the brief, miss…"
"Right, sorry, I'm Captain Jennifer Schultz, but you can just call me Jenn," she replied before turning with a hand motion to them to follow. "Let's walk and talk."
They followed along behind the captain as she moved across the plaza and down what appeared to be a main thoroughfare. The city was bustling with quite a few people out on the streets moving between buildings, aided further by the fact it was around noon and likely many people were looking for lunch. As they walked through the busy streets, following along just behind Jenn, they listened as she began explaining the current situation.
"So, we have a pretty big problem," she said. "We've been tracking a group hiding deep in the wilderness. We've got some rough coordinates that we can show you at HQ on the maps, but we don't really have anything very precise. The reason we're so concerned with this group of sapient beings is just what they've been up to in the last six months."
Here she paused for a moment, chewing her lip as they walked without speaking, though by no means in silence, as the city hummed and churned around them. After a minute, Jenn seemed to gather herself and continued, "What we have are not suspicions anymore, but hard evidence that this rogue group is taking slaves." Jenn stopped for a second, looking very much like she wanted to spit before getting the urge under control. She once again continued the explanation, "These rogue elements are heavily armed and considered extremely dangerous. They are wanted for their crimes, and we'd prefer them dead, not alive. Their fate is the executioner's block anyway, so no need to be careful about breaking heads.
"Our main concern in this endeavor is the rescue of any current hostages the group has. Our secondary concern, though not less important, is where this group has been moving these hostages. If they haven't been moving them out-of-state or off-world, then we need to know where they are and what's happened to them. If they're gone, we need to know the next links in the chain to continue to work this issue.
"Finally, the slavers themselves. They are much less our concern, and if none of them are presented to us alive at the end of the operation, well, I certainly won't be shedding any tears. We know they have at least a couple contacts in the criminal elements in the city, and we are prepared to provide at least some leeway in what we allow in the city in terms of your investigation in relation to these criminals."
"I have to say, we're in, in terms of facing down this problem," Beth responded. "I just have to note, while we have a lot of experience in the wilderness and fighting, and some in finding criminals, investigation isn't our…ah…strong suit. We also don't have any experience with fighting a slave ring, so I'm not sure how well we can help with the in-city investigation."
"Anything you could contribute would be great," Jenn said. "The big key would be keeping us informed of your activities. We would sweep the criminals we have our eyes on at the same time you moved in on the slavers. The more you can help us with the criminals, the better, and everything you do over the next two months will be counted for your contribution in this matter."
"Any idea of the combat strength of this group, captain?" Beth asked.
"Just Jenn," she replied. "We don't really have any good estimates. All I can tell you is that they're somewhere in the range of level ninety to one-thirty, and we believe the leader is possibly on their first rebirth. Otherwise, we're not really sure, other than the group is likely less than a hundred members in total."
Beth and Blood shared a glance before Blood asked, "Any manpower you have that we can use, Jenn?"
"We have a squad set aside to assist you in your efforts, but that's all we can currently spare," Jenn replied. "They're a team of six that are highly trained, all not yet having done a rebirth, though they are all over level one hundred and skilled fighters. Their time is largely yours over the next two months, so utilize them how you see fit."
They had arrived at their destination as they talked, a large building that was on the western edge of town. It was the guards' main barracks, different from their headquarters building in the city center, but still a place they could hold meetings and conduct business. Jenn gave them a quick tour of the building, simply walking them around for a minute and pointing to the different areas. She offered them a space in the officers' quarters if they needed somewhere to stay, but Beth declined, wanting some separation from the work they were doing. She assured Jenn that they would be fine with their own arrangements, and then proceeded to navigate their way to the CRA Hall in the city.
This city didn't have anything so grand as the Hall they had participated in the grand melee in, but the CRA building was still one of the largest in the city, certainly in terms of footprint. They were able to secure a room quite easily, with the attendant that was handling the desk actually somewhat surprised that they only wanted one of the one silver per night rooms, pointing out that the more expensive rooms were much, much better and that even someone who had hit one hundred just once so far would normally go for a better room. Beth just thanked the man and insisted on the kind of room they were familiar with, knowing that they were in a simulation and none of that would matter that much.
They were in the basement once again, and they made sure both their keys worked before heading out for the day. It was still the early afternoon, and now that they had their accommodations secured, they needed some information. They made their way back to the barracks, where they were introduced to the squad that was at their disposal before being given the information that the guards had collected on the rogue group. Reviewing the data consumed the rest of the day as, though Jenn had said there wasn't much information, there was still a pretty copious amount for them to read through.
The main thrust of the material centered around a small handful of disappearances at the start of the year. It was nothing major, but it was a few more than would be common in such a city, and more than had happened the entire previous year. That problem ballooned through the spring, however, until there were dozens of people disappearing a month. In a city of around four hundred thousand, and especially one that was generally low in crime, that number was already rather shocking. The disappearances were strongly linked with a group of criminals that operated out of one of the seedier sections of the city and part of the outlying suburbs. The area around the city was peaceful enough with enough patrols that it was similar to the city team Dream Snake had been operating out of, with a decent bit of development outside the walls.
