“Let’s go. The debris will only hold them off for a few minutes,” Ner said as he led the charge. The two ran towards the stairs, along the way Luon tossed the last of his explosives into the elevator shaft, closing the opening.
According to Ner, there were two ways to ascend the tower. The elevator sounded tempting to use since they would arrive at their destination faster, but it was better to take the stairway.
To ascend from the elevator, they would have to continually propel themselves forward by jumping from the sides, if they were attacked while climbing the elevator shaft, it would be too challenging to retaliate. Who knew how many Inzektors were still in the building? It was safer to take the stairs. Another reason was that he was able to seal the elevator shaft using the last explosive he had on him.
By the time they reached the stairs, a few Inzektors had descended before them. Ner and Luon started to jump to the next level by using their backs as spring.
The after-effects of the explosion shook the building as they ascended the stairs. The stairway was severely damaged, because the material was weak, having an explosive on top of that and the weight of many Inzektors rushing down caused fragments to fall, crushing everything in its path.
Dodging the falling debris and Inzektors, Luon was amazed at how Ner was able to determine the path to take. The two sprinted up the stairwell with ease, whenever something was in their way, Ner would cut open a path using the sword that Luon had lent to him.
Ner was able to use a variety of different weapons, his skill was top-notch making Luon realize that his story of passing down knowledge using the Golden Road transference technique was real.
The reason he had equipped a sword was that it was easier to use inside corridors than any other weapon.
By the time the shaking stopped, Luon and Ner had gone up several floors. The two of them halted their movements as they soon found themselves in a troublesome situation. Although the explosive did leverage their advantage when ascending the staircase. It also blocked their way forward.
There was a gaping hole in the stairwell. The debris that had fallen from the upper floors along with several Inzektors.
Fortunately, the fall had disabled their maneuverability, there were numerous Inzektors twitching in pain, but still alive. They had no time to finish them off, they needed to advance onwards before the ones they left behind catches up.
Luon began to ruminate how to ascend from this point on. Ner tapped his shoulder as he had found a quick solution to their situation. He pointed towards several platforms suggesting that they should parkour upwards. The steps were small and fragile, there was no extra space to accelerate their movement. If they were to try it, they only had one chance, and their propelling force needed to be massive.
“Are you serious? There’s got to be a better way.”
“It will only take a second to find out. Come on, stay close to me.”
The uneven floor made it difficult for them to have a running start. Despite this, the two of them quickly travelled across the uneven floor, and like a ghost, they leapt from one platform to the next at an incredible speed.
Fortunately, what Luon expected to happen didn’t come true. They arrived at the next level at ease.
“Isn’t it a little to quiet now?” Luon asked as he couldn’t hear any noise coming from the surroundings.
“There’s probably an intellectual one who noticed our arrival. It doesn’t seem like this is going to be easy. Usually, those types are either higher level or extremely cautious. All of the Inzektors in the upper half of the tower is probably guarding him instead of coming to us.”
“So we’re going to be experiencing a tough battle ahead of us. Can’t we just avoid it? Our goal is to escape after all. Maybe it will let us go.”
“We’ll see for now. If we encounter them, then we’ll have to fight anyways. Don’t stay optimistic though. There’s a high chance that we’ll have to fight them.”
Luon nodded as they continued to ascend. Along the way they would take a peek at the rooms that they pass, there were offices, cafeteria’s, and lobbies damaged beyond repair. There were no useful materials as they have decayed over time. All that was left were the signs of Inzektors demonstrating their dominance.
Luon didn’t know what this city was like, all he knew was that it was once part of the alliance and the last stronghold to have fallen.
‘If Ner was an ally then how did no one know about his race? Did they not work together years ago? How else was he on this planet like this?’ Luon thought as evaluated the decaying structure.
It was nice to be optimistic until the goal arrived. Reaching the top floor of the building without spotting a single Inzektor or hanger, Luon felt all of his answers were behind the door.
He knew that one of the things he wanted to know was behind it, the markings on the ground clearly revealed that the Inzektors were inside. If this wasn’t the hanger than their assault was hopeless.
Slowly, the two opened the door and before their eyes were everything that they had expected to happen. Only it was a little too much.
Hundreds of Inzektors were flying about circling around a huge hanger bay as if anticipating their arrival. Amongst the Inzektors, there were numerous of humanoid ones followed by slightly bigger ants and beetle-like Inzektors. However, the one that stood out the most stood in the center of the army.
It was several meters tall and partially humanoid as it’s upper body revealed a faceless metallic shape of one. It was only somewhat human as the bottom half was supported by a large number of tentacles.
“What the hell is that,” Luon said as he looked at the Inzektor he had never seen before.
A dreadfully monotone and deep voice echoed, “The Intruders. Are here. It seems. We have. A pest. A Tacar. How rare. Hivelord will. Be pleased.”
Ner reaction was the polar opposite of what Luon had. His face turned grim as he answered his query, “The Inzektors have a hierarchy. Besides the Hivelord being on top, there are some Inzektors used to manage their race. There are four generals and their underlings. This is one of those underlings, you can call it an Inzekor Captain if you will, it should be of similar rank. Also, If we fail to eliminate it and escape there is a chance it might contact the Hivelord of my presence.”
“Which means more Inzektors would come to investigate this planet? So, This thing is smart enough to report you to the Hivelord? Are you sure it’s intelligent? It doesn’t seem to be able to talk well,” Luon pointed out.
“The fact that it can talk in the first place should already be surprising enough. Come on let’s cut it down,” Ner replied by readying his stance.
The one to make the first move was the Inzektor, the swarm of Inzektors came rampaging towards them. Facing the onslaught, Luon motioned Ner to retreat back to the stairwell and use the door to reduce the number of Inzektors they had to face.
As they fell back something troublesome occurred. The wall burst open and the Inzektors that flying outside intruded into the battle. With Inzektors in front and behind they found themselves trapped.
“Give me a spear and watch my back.” Luon pulled the weapon out of his bag and handed it to him. Ner ran back to the entrance of the room and wildly swung the spear. It was easier to use in an open space, and with Ner’s strength, he was able to hold off the wave of Inzektors.
Luon didn’t remain idle, after giving Ner a quick glance he pulled out a shield along with his sword. Flying Inzektors were troublesome. With their extra range of motion, Luon had to be wary of the timing of their attacks.
For normal Inzektors, he wouldn’t need a shield, but these ones were slightly better than the average ones. If Ner was handling an army, then Luon was fighting against the elite forces. Despite this, he managed to draw a stalemate with his defensive posture. The Inzektors whose levels were between 60 to 79 weren’t able to best him who was also in the 70’s himself.
Several minutes pass, neither Luon or Ner was tired. On the other hand, the pace of the battle on Luon side slowed down. The number of enemies he was up against dwindled, and instead of applying pressure to Luon, they watched him warily, waiting for an opening.
Luon finding the situation to be better than he had thought, he turned around to help Ner out, but before he could a shadowy black figure flew towards him. Instinctively, Luon pulled up his shield and caught the attack, however, it was stronger than he anticipated.
With his stance broken due to the unexpected attack, Luon flew several meters before smashing into the walls of the stairwell. He didn’t stop there, the impact threw him right outside of the building where all of the remaining flying Inzektors were at.
There a little over 100 remaining, but seeing their target fly before them, they all charged towards him. Just when there were moments away from Luon, he activated his NG-Arms. His descending body halted as he flew beside the Inzektors. It was his trump card that he kept for this time.
It was like giving wings to a tiger, Luon who was now able to freely attack the Inzekors, disposed his shield and sword into his storage and pulled out a broadsword. It’s status and slicing ability is far below his regular blade, but to smash these Inzektors apart, it worked wonders.
It took a few seconds, but all of the Inzektors who came at him were scattered apart, their remains fell to the earth below.
When Luon returned, he couldn’t find Ner at the entrance. All he could see was the remains of different types of Inzektors that they had fought. Looking inside of the hanger Luon could see Ner and the Inzektor Captain engaged in combat. From Luon’s standpoint, by using his Eye of Insight, Luon could see that the Inzektor Captain was around level 85, and Ner was about the same. They were evenly matched. It was a battle that neither Luon nor the remaining Inzektors could intrude.
The strength that they extruded was similar to the time when Luon had fought against the golden dragon Valerie.
Luon was currently able to fight against normal Inzektors level 80, but against this captain, he could only stand aside. He realized now that he was far too weak.
“Throw all your weapons on the battlefield!” Ner who noticed Luon’s arrival a minute later yelled.
Luon was confused, by the pace of the battle Ner was bound to win as his capability bested the Inzektor Captain. He didn’t question his demand and started to toss a variety of different weapons around him.
With the array of different weapons scattered about, Ner’s combat style changed. From a spear to a sword to guns. The Inzektor Captain wasn’t able to keep up with the changes and quickly died just like that.
Despite his victory Ner didn’t let up or cheered, his face was grim. Instead of celebrating he yelled, “Hurry and get us a working ship the parts are over there. I’ll go clean up the rest of the Inzektors. Quick, we don’t have much time.”
Ner took a quick glance at the huge opening in the room which revealed the outside of the tower. With a sigh, he turned around to kill the remaining Inzektors in the room. Before Luon started to work, he also took a glance out of curiosity.
The rubble from the door was halfway gone, and with Luon’s eyesight, he was able to see a massive army of Inzektors. Among those were nearly 10 level 80’s.
