Chapter 181: Test The Toys
Kalli was well aware of the spectacle that the Mobile Flight Suit was causing as she surveyed the battlefield.
Not just among the heroes, but among the enemy as well.
Kalli made a quick loop around the battlefield, staying far beneath the suit’s maximum flight speed, as the mana draw increased drastically once she pushed it over seventy percent thrust.
That was still enough that she was doing over three hundred kilometres an hour, and at only two hundred metres over the ground, most of the monsters could barely track her.
The Giants didn’t seem to have any issue, though.
So, the eyesight of the Cyclops types wasn’t bad, despite the one eyed build. They could easily track a fast-moving target, though they lacked the ability to attack her.
They did have their shield ability, so Kalli suspected that they did have some sort of ranged attack.
Just not one that could hit her.
Curious about their ability, Kalli circled behind the giants and unleashed a three-second-long burst from the Pulse Cannon into a pair of Cyclops that were standing side by side.
As she began to fire, a targeting reticule appeared in the visor of the armour, causing Kalli to celebrate.
Forget learning to properly shoot a Pulse Cannon, just aim the reticule, and you’re good.
With the mechanical advantage of the armour, and the motion damping system of the flight controls, you could hold a target even when firing heavy weapons one-handed.
Totally worth the trip.
The energy pulses slammed into the back of the Cyclops, taking one of the two down before the other turned its shield to protect against the flying enemy.
So, Kalli switched tactics, and began targeting the back of the ones who were being targeted by the air defence batteries. Now that she knew the shield was directional, it was a wonderful opportunity.
She didn’t have to get a lot of kills while she was out, she didn’t have the mana regeneration to keep this up for long.
But every Cyclops that she killed was another hole in their defences.
Kalli picked off a dozen of the giants before finishing her loop and assessment of the battlefield and returning to the base.
She was running low on mana, as was the suit’s storage.
So, it was time for her to take a break, and return to the office. With any luck, her tactic would have slowed the Giant’s plans to charge the base, as now they would be worried about being ambushed from behind as they approached.
That would give the heroes a bit longer to rest and recover, which should improve their odds in the upcoming battle.
By the time that she got back to the base, there was a whole group of desperate looking Rogues waiting for her at the door to the hall of heroes. It didn’t take a genius to know what they wanted, but Kalli wasn’t certain that it was worth spending fifty thousand points to arm five heroes when she could get so much more firepower out of those points.
She did have to reduce the total points, though.
There would be more completions soon, they just hadn’t come to turn them in to her yet.
"Alright, I know what you want, and I can provide just a few of the suits, but it will use a huge portion of the rewards, so treat them well, as we won’t be able to easily replace them after the battle is over."
The rogues smiled. "No problem, Boss. We’re mostly interested in using them for superfast response to trouble spots. We can all use the Plasma Cannons as well, our Class doesn’t penalize us for it, even though heavy weapons aren’t really a stealth weapon.
If you can arm us up the way that you were, we will do point defence and then get behind enemy lines once they’re approaching the city, to help break their assault.
The river isn’t likely to slow the Cyclops force by much, except for a small section of the west side where it’s especially deep. Though, they might be able to swim. They’re built somewhat like humans, so they should have the ability."
That was an interesting thought.
Many species of bipeds were simply too dense to float, so they could not swim. The same might be true of the Cyclops force, and there were definitely spots in the river that were well over ten metres deep.
If they couldn’t swim, and didn’t have an alternate way across, then the attack might be slowed by much more than anticipated.
At least on the south and west sides.
The ones that had spawned closer to the shore on the north and east had a more direct path to the walls. Those were the ones that the air defence batteries had been mostly focusing on, as they would be the first to reach the city.
But for now, the enemy lines were still holding, and the force hadn’t started to advance yet.
Kalli purchased five suits, and winced at the fifty thousand points that it cost, which made even the heavy weapons to go with them seem affordable.
{Augmented Mobile Flight Suit} Uncommon Grade, maximum speed 500kph, burns 200 mana per hour of flight time. 800 armour, ignores attacks dealing 5 points of damage and lower.
{Cost} 10,000 Points
"If you want, we can get you a traditional heavy machine gun as well, but the Pulse Cannon does seem more fitting for the design," she noted.
"It does. The smooth metal power armour has that futuristic feeling, like it needs something fancy. Though, the situation is messed up enough that I can see flying around with a gatling gun being a thing."
Kalli laughed. "Well, let me know if you need to switch, and I will get you a traditional belt fed machine gun, so you can just burn through ammunition by the case from behind the giants. I don’t know how well it will do against their armour, but we’re about to find out either way."
The Rogues were barely paying attention as they examined the new armour suits that were just standing in the middle of the room, waiting for someone to put them on and activate them.
"Go ahead and pick, they’ll fit to you. I made them all in default black, so I hope you didn’t want other colours."
"Black is fine. They’ll be perfect for night operations, I think," Amber replied.
"Not perfect. At least, not if you’re flying. They use thrusters that give off blue light, much like a jet with afterburners going. But other than that, they’re quiet and fast. They also don’t take too much skill to operate, I managed to figure out the basic controls in under a minute."
"That’s reassuring. If we needed all day to learn to use them, what good would it do us."
"Now, you might as well go get used to them so that you’re ready when the enemy gets here. Just stay near the base, don’t wear yourselves out needlessly, and don’t get yourself accidentally shot by an Air Defence Battery."
Hopefully, those words of wisdom would stick in their heads because if they really did get themselves into the blast range of an Air Defence Battery, they were not going to survive.