Chapter 492 Reclamation (1)
Chapter 492 Reclamation (1)
"Things don't look good, captain." Ricochet said solemnly, "The advance squad is nowhere to be seen."
"Maybe we should have brought Alina and the rest with us," Anna chimed in.
"It's fine. Besides, we needed someone to protect the city." Ashton replied.
According to Ricochet, he had sent a couple of people ahead to establish a new portal system outside Contingency so that Ashton and his forces could arrive there as quickly as possible.
However, what followed Ricochet's command was radio silence. The last piece of information he received was a week ago, and as per the plan, the teleporter should have been up and running by now.
But the plan did not become a reality, and everyone had to arrive there using other means, which took a lot of unnecessary time. That said, when they finally arrived at the supposed 'camp', nothing but barren land awaited them. It was as if the advance forces never managed to step foot there.
"Sven," Ashton whispered as the Death Baron crawled out of his shadow.
"My liege, your command?" Sven replied.
No words were exchanged amongst them, but Sven hurried off to execute Ashton's wishes. With a swing of his sword, he tore through space itself... at least, that's what it looked like to everyone else.
In reality, Sven only destroyed the camouflaging gear around the area. Once the device got damaged, the actual sight revealed itself—a view only the most formidable people could take unbothered by the carnage.
While most people winced away, Ashton took in the septic smell of blood as a chef would treat their creation. The smell of blood and the sight of flesh were a welcoming sight for him.
Had he been alone, his summons would be having a feast right now. Unfortunately, the dinner will have to wait.
[Camo device, huh? It looks like they evolved again.]
'I would have been surprised if that wasn't the case.'
"I hope that solves your question, Ricochet." Ashton murmured without glancing at anyone, "Gather the corpses and burn them. Unattended flesh would only attract more of those sickly bastards."
"On it!" Ricochet replied as his men got busy with the task.
"Nora, take the werewolves and establish a perimeter around the camp. Make sure no one gets in or out without my permission."
"Alright." Nora nonchalantly replied as Ashton turned towards Anna.
"Anna, help celeste create a barrier around the camp for safety. Once all that is done, we'll-"
Unfortunately for them, it seemed the unintelligent undead had evolved into something different, just as Astaroth had mentioned. When Sven destroyed the camo device, it alerted the undead within Contingency, who immediately sent a unit to check things out.
But that wasn't all. With the undead came the corpsification gas, and the black smoke was coming out of a new kind of undead which Ashton had never seen before.
Their appearance was similar to that of a massive bowling ball walking on two legs with smoke coming out of three holes located on their backs. Anna, who had witnessed the effect of the gas first-hand, subconsciously took a step back.
The usually fearless succubus was scared, and so were the rest. How could they not be? All of them had heard or seen the havoc the black smoke had caused so far.
Before Ashton could call Ricochet back, a commotion broke within his group. Some of the men had been infected with the gas. Ricochet managed to gather the ones who weren't and rushed back towards Ashton. Nora did the same, but even she had lost a tenth of her forces.
"Damn it!" Ricochet cursed, "We should have expected an ambush!"
"At least now we know what happened to the rest of them." Nora panted while pointing at the corpses, "What should we do now, 'captain'?"
The situation was outside Ashton's expectations, but it wasn't enough to make him panic. In fact, it was an opportunity for him. While the smoke was poison to everyone else, for Ashton, it was a blessing as it had the opposite effect on him and his summons.
"All of you, retreat."
It seemed everyone was waiting for Ashton's orders as no one questioned him once and ran as far as they could. Regardless of what kind of bucket list they had, becoming a living corpse was missing from it.
As soon as everyone was in the clear summoned his scythe and army of summons. First and foremost, the expellers had to die, or they'd keep expelling the gas, reaching his soldiers sooner or later.
The problem was the undead knew it as well. After all, every creature in the squad was protecting them.
"Should I just snipe them from here?"
[I would advise against that. Think of them as walking balloons; the moment a pin touches them, they'll likely explode, flinging the smoke in every direction.]
"So it'll do more harm than good," Ashton scratched his chin.
[Yes, that's why you have to-]
"Be next to them when they 'explode' and absorb the gas before it gets ejected."
[Smartass pulling words out of my mouth. Well, now that you know, why wait? Let's go!]
Ashton sped across the field straight into the undead with the scythe on his shoulder. His summons followed his example, deciding to trample on anyone in their way.
The sudden swarm took the undead by surprise. However, instead of fleeing, they stayed where they were, protecting the Expellers.
"Gokung!"
Since the undead had formed a barrier surrounding the Expellers, the only intelligent move was to somehow go beyond them. Fortunately, Ashton had a plan in his mind.
Without wasting a second, Gokung picked up her master in her arms before flinging him across the battlefield. The throw was as immaculate as the landing.
Before the undead could even turn their heads, there were two ear-splitting explosions. The so-called Expellers had been expelled to hell.
Furthermore, the explosion pushed back the remaining undead towards Ashton's summons. While Ashton made sure to absorb every single molecule of corpsification gas that he could, his summons had a field day with the undead.
The fight might be over, but the battle was just getting started.