Chapter 151: High Energy Use
"Eat this. You’ll be exhausted from the mana drain. Everyone is eating constantly to keep up, there’s no other option. But the food helps keep your mana regeneration rate up," the rifleman next to her insisted as he handed her a bag full of crab cakes.
"Thanks, I needed that. Come, have a sit down with me while they take care of the gun.
We can likely cycle through users, since it’s so mana heavy. Two per shot."
The rifleman sat down, and pointed to Kalli’s left. "Collect your boxes. They should be rare grade, and you’ve had two of them hovering next to you for a while.
What’s up with that? I didn’t think you were the bloodthirsty type."
Kalli frowned, then pointed at the air defence battery, where the current user appeared to be in a trance.
"I think that it’s part of the programming of the weapon to block out distractions and keep you hyper focused."
"Alright, when they look tired, we will swap. But, uh, what’s the chance of getting another of those?"
Kalli laughed. "Low, but not zero. If we get enough people doing multiple completions, we will be able to purchase another to put on top of a dorm on the other side. Then we should have enough air cover to keep the walls relatively secure.
Ideally, four anti-aircraft turrets would be best, each with a quadrant. But the price is simply so high that I’m not certain that we can get them before everything is over."
While they talked, she opened the two Rare Grade reward boxes, and removed one rare grade ring and one rare grade bracelet, plus a half dozen Uncommon Grade ammunition cases and a case of chocolate bars.
Exactly what they needed at the moment.
The Mystery Boxes had always been kind to her that way, even if they seemed to like to taunt certain other members of the Marimgar force.
She slid the jewellery onto her left arm, and felt an influx of mana enter her body. Both items had mana regeneration on them, and the targeted bonus gave Kalli hope that the rewards might just be enough to keep their group alive.
The warrior on her left handed out chocolate bars to the group as he began to speak. "Would it help if we got more people to come turn in their quests? Or you could go to them to speed up the process?"
Kalli thought about it. "Most of them should have at least one thousand kills by now, right?"
The rifleman laughed. "How fast do you think that we can shoot? One bullet, one monster. Even if we killed one every second, that’s only 360 an hour. The mages who could do area damage already came to you to trade in their quests.
I’m assuming that’s how you afforded this one, so when they come again, that should allow another, right?"
Kalli made an uncertain gesture. "With the ammunition, bandages and everything else that I expect to need to send out soon, I’m not sure that it will be enough. But I should let them open their next round of boxes first and see if we get something to help us out of this jam.
If we get a grid linked pulse cannon battery, we might be in luck."
"I’ll pretend that I know what that is," the rifleman agreed.
Kalli laughed. "A plasma machine-gun that runs off electricity instead of mana. If we didn’t need to recharge it, and we could just keep shooting, we might be able to make something work."
She could hear in the distance that there was already a lot of automatic rifle fire. The energy weapons had long since drained their users, and now everyone was burning through ammunition to keep the walls secure.
Kalli leaned over the side of the dorm building and cupped her hands over her mouth.
"RUNNERS! Come get cases of ammunition for the walls."
A wave of boys from the apartments came to the dorm building, and Kalli immediately took the Elevator down to meet them.
The others could take care of the guns for a bit, while she prepared to send out a hundred cases of ammunition. Enough to last the lines at least a little while longer.
Then, she added two dozen cases of bandages.
"Give these to the healers. When they get low on mana, use these to keep everyone going. I don’t want them overworking themselves just because there is no other option."
"Got it, Boss Lady!"
They ran off, and Kalli suddenly had an idea.
"Hey, take care of the gun for me while I’m gone. I’m going to deliver some stuff to the lines."
That plan was doomed to fail, Kalli realized.
The flying swarms were beginning to gather in the distance again, and the ground troops were pushing closer to the walls with every minute that passed. Very soon, they were going to be in a dire position, and they were going to need her to be somewhere accessible.
If she was out on the far side of the compound, then someone’s runner was going to be wasting too much time trying to find her.
"Never mind, I will be in the hall. Do you need me to send you more people?" She shouted up at the group on the dorm.
"No, we can cycle through well enough. Just keep doing what you do, and we will make it work. The Arks are helping clear the flying monsters, since they’re attacking both groups."
The Air Defence Battery began to fire again as the enemy reached the ten kilometre mark and came back into range. That was her signal to wait for the constant resupply quests, and to do her best to ensure that there was food for everyone.
Gerry was a fire specialist mage, so he was out on the front lines. That left the cooking to the apartment buildings.
They had plenty of cookwares, especially now that the building had been renovated with an event room on the main floor with a huge kitchen.
But they had no experience catering something like this.
Kalli quickly made notes on the most efficient way to distribute food and ammunition, and then sent them with the next kid who came in for more ammo.
That was becoming a constant stream, as the riflemen were going through it as fast as the kids could run it out.
Before the ammunition of choice was picked, the cases weighed very little. You didn’t need to be strong to carry them, you just needed to be fast and agile. So, teenage kids were the perfect option to get the job done.
They had youth and energy on their side, but they were not heroes on the front lines that were too busy. Even the warriors were fully engaged at this point, hurling attacks down at the base of the wall to keep the enemy from climbing.
Fort Marimgar was fully under siege.