Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Eight - Slow Going

  I expected things to escalate quickly. I was denied that, and a little flabbergasted by how slow the response was.

  The first people that showed up near the watchstation were more people coming to report things. As it turned out, some of them had called the police and local security and whatnot, but no one had showed up yet.

  It wasn't until nearly eight before I saw a few cop cars barrelling down the highway towards the industrial sector, probably on their way to the slimes.

  At nine-ish, after ordering some very expensive food delivery, I found myself watching as the area by the industrial park emptied out. There were a surprising number of trucks that rode out of the space.

  The alarms hadn't gone off yet, but people were letting each other know.

  Then the alarms did go off. I flinched as a terribly loud wailing sounded from the building I was loitering by. Everyone around me though, the normal civilians just stopped here because there were others and that's what people did when they didn't know what to do anymore, all scrambled to cover their ears and winced.

  The noise was... a lot, but also not? It felt like it should have been blasting, and I swore I could feel it on my skin and in my teeth, but it wasn't deafening, I could still hear my clothes rustling and the breathing of people next to me. Like, the siren was on one band, and my everything else was on other, untouched bands. Wild. These new ears were proving their worth.

  I pulled out my phone and started to snoop. There was an almost visceral reaction to the siren online. The local net got busy, and people were all over the Fortress ENE boards asking what was going on.

  A few images were being posted, almost drowned out. I rolled my eyes as I saw some of them. No, we weren't being invaded by dragons. There were some pics of slimes, though, so not everything was bullshit.

  I sat up a bit as I saw some other, interesting pictures. They looked like the right streets, though I didn't know the area that well.

  Kobolds?

  There were a few of them in the image. Bipedal, almost dog-like, wearing crude leather armour and carrying blurry weapons. It looked like they were rushing out of another industrial building in the same park.

  The second part of the breach.

  I knew from reports that I'd read from later on today that there were three breaches. The C and D-rank ones had both been tackled by Seraph. The last, an E-rank, had been taken care of by... some corp team or another. It wasn't Luna Corp. Actually, that one had been light on the details.

  The order of things had been one of the only things that was clear in all the reports, though. The first portal to open was the C-ranker, then the D, then the E. So... were these kobolds D-rank kobolds, then?

  That... would be interesting to fight. If only I had any halfway decent equipment on me. As it was, I had my handgun and that was it.

  Still... better to go scout than sticking around here, bored and tired.

  So I checked online for a ride over. I honestly expected the apps to have shut down all of their services for safety reasons, but no, they were still up and active, only now there was a 'high danger' premium tacked on that jumped the price of a ride over by three hundred percent, and there was an obligatory sign-off. Press your thumb here to waive away your rights.

  I ordered up a ride, then groaned. An hour until arrival? Yeah, no shit. The company might've been fine sending some gig workers to die, but the workers themselves were cool with waiting.

  Oh well. I started walking. It was like, three, four miles down the road, more or less? The highway didn't have much of a sidewalk, but there was a bit of a path on the other side of the wind-baffle walls that had been walked on often enough to leave a mark on the ground.

  As I walked, I made sure to keep my head up and scan the area. I wasn't sure if being familiar with the spot would help, but my gut told me it couldn't hurt.

  I arrived at the edge of the industrial zone and glanced at the time. A bit shy of nine. Still earlier than the reports had said the second breach had occurred, but I was coming to learn that any report on the news was utter bullshit when it came down to actual facts.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  I arrived at the end of the local exodus. People were rushing out, and the police were drawing up a cordon. It reminded me of Podunky, only somehow, less organized even though the cops here had more tactical gear and heavy weaponry.

  Some rent-a-cop on a loudspeaker was telling people to calmly get the hell out, and all that was doing was gathering a crowd behind him. Not too large of one, though. It was growing with every passing minute as I walked over. Some of that was people running out of the area and to safety, but a lot more was people coming in to work.

  It was the morning rush. Traffic was now blocked out for a mile or more, jammed tighter than a club bathroom after the band left. If reinforcements were coming, they'd have to come in with sirens and all.

  I joined the edge of the crowd and just kind of stood there. A few gunshots rang out, and I started to notice figures in the distance. Kobolds? They weren't charging over mindlessly, though. They seemed to be hunting, clearing out some of the larger factories. I even saw some of them pushing cars over to create makeshift barricades.

  Yeah, that tracked.

  During the big Breach, there had been some monsters that just ran at anything human and ate them up. They were actually easier to handle, most of the time. The real dangers were the ones that laid traps and took territory. Those had to be cleared out room by room. And when they did attack, it was usually with something like a plan. They might charge in headlong, but they did it with shields and usually with a second force trying to flank, or at least some range support.

  Worse were the monsters that could work together.

  I narrowed my eyes, then remembered that they could zoom in. Some of the kobolds were shepherding a dozen slimes. One of them stepped too close and was swallowed up, its yipping screams like a dog who had its tail stepped on, at least until it drowned in the slime. The rest managed, though.

  The police opened up on them, but that only caught the slime's attention, and then they started rolling our way.

  Guns didn't seem to do much against a slime. The smaller ones might burst apart if focused, the larger just... wobbled a bit. I could see loose bullets swimming around inside of them. The heat of the rounds did seem to burn them a little, which was a good sign, but that was it.

  Yeah, we'd need mages or specialized equipment to handle those.

  More people evacuated, but it was turning into a trickle, and a lot of the people running over looked harried, injured, or a little bloodied up.

  I heard one of them talking in a hurried voice with a cop. A big latino fellow dressed like an office worker but with a hardhat still sitting on his head. He was gesturing to his arm. "Ice! They were made of ice! Big as a man. They looked slow, but one of them spat out this water and I swear it flash-froze!"

  That didn't sound like either a kobold or a slime. Interesting. The E-rank portal's monsters?

  Then the good guys arrived, and I was momentarily distracted.

  Seraph came down in a helicopter. One of those small, sleek ones, with a twin rotor setup and a jet engine, all white and blue with the Seraph angel wings on the side. The doors on it opened and a team of four rappelled down.

  It was a bit extra, especially since a minute later a trio of vans were escorted in by motorcycle cops.

  I tasted magic in the air. Some of those who'd rappelled down had to be C-rankers, at least. The vans were disgorging more, people in custom armour and with real nice gear. Not an E-ranker in sight, at least from what I could tell. I took pictures with my new eyes, trying to grab faces where I could. Some of them came off as suspiciously blurry.

  Once this was all done, I'd compare what faces I saw to records and try to piece things together. But for now...

  I was one of the only people in the crowd not to move back as a wall of fire was created by one of the C-rankers, fires taller than I was sweeping down the road and rolling over a few slimes that cooked on the spot.

  Yeah, this was the cavalry.

  Now, how would they handle this?

  ***