Chapter 164: Playing Asteroid?
Kalli decided to keep the knowledge of the asteroid to herself, as she realized that nobody else had made the connection yet. At least, not among the people aboard the Arks.
Likely because they still hadn’t read through the user manuals beyond the directional controls and defensive weapons sections. Or because they simply weren’t worried about what was happening in space, as the satellites were still feeding data without any issues.
The asteroid wasn’t attacking anything, at least not actively.
It was simply there, bringing destruction in its wake.
In a way, it was more like a natural disaster than a targeted attack, but for all that Kalli knew, it might actually be designed as a magical weapon of colonization.
It did appear and instantly start merging their world with another, after all.
So, while it wasn’t what anyone would call actively hostile, it was clearly not made with good intentions.
Kalli set that thought aside, and turned her attention to what she could see on the battlefield.
There were thousands of Ogres, but not the hundreds of thousands as the first group of Flatfoot Warriors had been. So, the threat level was higher, but not so much higher that they stood zero chance of being able to prevail.
The real issue was going to be that the quests were based on kill count.
There weren’t nearly as many enemies this time, and they were all much stronger. So, very few would get a completion for killing a thousand, instead of everyone getting multiple completions in the first wave.
A resource crunch.
But they had their points to get skills, and they were all likely to level up soon. The harder the battle, the more likely you were to get the truly good rewards out of it, as far as Kalli could tell.
And this battle had been the hardest so far.
From the drone cameras, Kalli watched the battle begin, and frowned as she realized that they were about to be in much more trouble than they had anticipated. The Ogres were magic resistant, and apparently the laser fire also had limited effect on their thick hide.
They worked, and especially well once the hide was burned through, but they were far less effective than anticipated. The pulse rifles, on the other hand, were quite effective.
So, it wasn’t all forms of light and heat that the Ogres were resistant to, as the plasma weapons were working well enough.
They certainly were durable monsters, though.
One single Hero was actually enjoying this fight, and that was Sanchez. He had jut reached level ten, and with it he had unlocked the rifleman exclusive skill [Headshot], which increased his damage when targeting the head, and made it easier to succeed.
Shooting Ogres in their ugly faces was satisfying on a level that he hadn’t expected.
Another head exploded as a triple burst from the pulse rifle found its mark, and Sanchez chuckled grimly. He had already given up on using active skills, as almost all of them did much less than expected.
Elemental damage reduction? Magic resistance? It could be either.
It didn’t matter, they weren’t bulletproof.
With two pulse rifles, he could swap back and forth as the other one took its sweet time to charge. It was an annoying drawback for a rare grade weapon, but the low mana cost made it worth the effort to constantly swap back and forth.
Another headshot, and another Ogre fell. Then another, and another.
Putting all those days of training into improving his agility had really helped with the rapid targeting. It had seemed more about footwork when he was practicing, but using it in combat, agility also improved hand eye coordination.
For a rifleman, that bonus was worth far more than strength, or even endurance.
When the battle began, what they really needed was the ability to thin enemy numbers quickly, and this was the best way to do it. Only if the first phase went wrong would the need the ability to last so much longer in close combat.
There was no aspect of training that could truly be overlooked, but there were certainly priorities by the class that you had.
Kalli was getting comfortable with her usual routine of handing out supplies when sudden cries of panic came from outside the building.
Rifle in hand, she ran outside, and found that the situation had completely changed in the last five seconds. The Ogres were still fighting outside the walls, but dozens of tunnels had opened within the town, and small green monsters that Kalli could only associate with Goblins of her home world’s legends began to pour out.
This time, the sirens didn’t wail, as the heroes on inner wall duty, the ones who had been reduced to level one and couldn’t risk another death, didn’t want to distract anyone and pull the, from the walls.
There was enough chaos outside already.
Instead, they relied on the shouting to bring the other level one and level 0 residents to the battle, all armed with blades, clubs and shotguns.
These small green creatures were no match for an angry fishwife with a flanged mace in her hands. She was bigger, stronger, and most definitely angrier than they were.
Especially when they looked like they were going for the gardens.
However, that was not a route to victory for the Goblins, as the tuber plants were not a fan of them. They might have gotten less violent once the humans started to fertilize and water them regularly, but that was only toward humans.
Vine tentacles lashed out as the goblins got too close to the fields, and the residents launched their counterattack, blasting the creatures with shotguns, or teaming up to beat them down with clubs.
One charged at Kalli, and she dropped it with a blast from the pulse rifle, then adjusted the weapon to fire single shots instead of a burst.
They couldn’t survive the first shot, there was no need for the other two, and that would save charge in the weapon to kill more of them before reloading.
{Coordinator added to Third Trial kill count}