Chapter 965: This Is Kind of How Team Biscuit Operates

The massive torrent of transcendent light continued to gush from the giant portal, inundating the rainbow glow of the manifestation. The adventurers surrounding the phenomenon looked on as monsters swarmed out, thick as insects, despite the smallest being the size of a bread van. Most were silver rank, with one in a hundred being gold.

Even the smaller, silver-rank monsters were hulking things. Each had a body shaped like a spider but the hairy, muscled flesh of a gorilla. Massive insect wings buzzed in a blur, carrying them ponderously through the air as eight thick, hairy limbs dangling beneath them.

The gold-rank monsters stood thirty metres tall. Like warped, oversized messengers, they had three sets of wings, six arms and three faces spaced around a single head. They were naked but sexless, with the smooth features of an androgynous ken doll.

“That’s a relief,” Jason said as he rose from Danielle’s shadow as if riding up an elevator. “It would make some confronting news footage if the eight-storey monsters were meat-and-two-veg to the wind.”

Hundreds of monsters had emerged by that point, with no sign of stopping. Many of the adventurers were already moving into the fray, while others held back at Danielle’s direction. She ignored Jason for the moment as she coordinated the group through a combination of voice chat, text chat, maps and overlays. The System interacted with various abilities, especially Jason’s, and was able to share them across the group.

“I’m going to start by probing them for capabilities,” she told him. “With this many, we’re not going to contain them here. Rejoin your team guarding the barrage until we know how hard they’re going to press that way. I’ll likely have you moving on outliers later.”

“Catching the loose ones and dosing them with afflictions so they kick it before reaching anywhere with people?”

“Precisely. For now, try and build up a butterfly cloud on any who come your team’s way. Along with Rufus’ abilities, it’s probably our best shot at clearing numbers this large. Perhaps Humphrey, depending on how the dice fall.”

“I’m on it.”

“Oh, and Jason?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you just stop this thing from blasting a hole in the side of the universe?”

“It would have been a transformation zone, probably. It’ll still be a few years before the astral bridge stabilises the dimensional membrane enough to stop something like this without intervention.”

“Is that a yes?”

“More of a dimensional ulcer than a big old hole, but kind of.”

“Good job.”

***

Marie Finnegan sensed a presence outside her chalet, moved to the door and opened it. A chill wind blew in over the snow-covered ground.

“I thought needing to be invited in was a fiction,” she said.

“Most things are, when you really look at them,” Elizabeth said. “Civilisation; morals; money. Politeness. Yet they all have their place. May I come in?”

Marie looked her up and down. The vampire wore a long red coat with fluffy white trim.

“You look like Mrs Claus.”

“Nicholas wasn’t that lucky.”

Marie smirked and gestured an invitation. Elizabeth entered and Marie closed the door behind her. She took Elizabeth’s coat and hung it on a rack.

“The cold affects you?” Marie asked.

“It’s not dangerous, but we consume life force faster. Something we can ill-afford with the Asano Clan aggressively attacking our blood farms. I don’t suppose you’ve dealt with that issue?”

“We’ll see. The communications room is up the stairs and to the left.”

They went upstairs to where four monitors were displaying various feeds from the drones in Pakistan.

“The first plan didn’t work, then,” Elizabeth said.

“We’ve successfully generated multiple transformation zones from silver-rank manifestations. It should have been even more effective with a gold-rank one, but—”

“Asano did something?”

“Yes.”

“What?”

“I don’t know. Simon will have to analyse the data, but I’m hiding him and the entire project, even from my own branch. They’re twitchy enough about working with vampires.”

“They aren’t wondering where the reality cores are coming from?”

“They don’t know about the reality cores. I don’t trust them not to cave under pressure, and after today, the other factions will know that someone is manipulating the grid. They’re going to throw a wet fit over that. We have to be more careful than ever.”

“We will need to be bold, soon enough.”

“I will be putting that off as long as possible, but I suspect you’re right.”

Marie grabbed a laptop she could use to control the feeds and they both sat in armchairs to watch.

“That is a great many monsters,” Elizabeth observed. “Is this a monster wave? The kind that took place before I reawakened?”

“It seems so,” Marie said. “This one is accelerated, and more powerful, though. There was only one gold-rank monster breach, back in the day, and even that was nothing like this. How Asano turned the transformation zone into this, I have no idea. That column of light looks like—”

“The wrath of god.”

“Yes. I would have preferred more time for testing, but events in Australia forced my hand. Did you prod the Australian Prime Minister into acting?”

“No, he came by his stupidity honestly. I also would have liked more time, to get the blood oaks more controllable.”

“Perhaps this will be enough,” Marie suggested. “If we can force a loss out of Asano here, and we can demonstrate enough power, the factions might be convinced to ally against him.”

“Still the optimist, Marie? I gave up on that plan the moment he reached out from another universe to annihilate my collected rivals. His power is not to be doubted. And neither, it seems, is that of his companions.”

***

Standing on the dam next to a circle of powdered bone, Humphrey rolled three twelve-sided dice into the circle.

“I always liked D12s, bro,” Taika said as he looked on. “Feels chunkier than a D20, but still kind of round. Big thumbs down on D8s and D10s.”

“Do you have any idea what he’s talking about?” Sophie asked Farrah, who had returned to the team.

“It’s a game thing, I think.”

“It is,” Rufus confirmed. “Also, there’s just something iconic about a fist full of D6s.”

“I hear that, bro.”

“We should leave,” Neil said. “I think there’s something about this planet that does things to people. This whole journey may have been a trap.”

“Wait until you try jelly beans,” Rufus said. “It makes it all worth it. If you get the right jelly beans.”

Humphrey ignored them, watching his summoner’s dice as they stopped rolling. From one, an illusion of a brown blob rose from the face-up side.

“Mud,” Humphrey said. “I would have preferred air or water, but it’s not bad for a river environment.”

Another die projected an image, this one of a frog.

“Mud frog,” Humphrey said. “I can work with that.”

The last die, instead of projecting an image, rolled itself again.

“Bizarre,” Humphrey said. “Lucky.”