I woke up knowing that something was not right.
I looked outside, it was still dark, but my senses were telling me that something was off, that something terrible was going to happen today…
It was a weird feeling. Usually, when my seven sense kicks off, I could know where it came from but this time was different. The system agreed with me and gave me two notification to hint me about what was about to happen.
[Mission: Defeat the Alpha Snake with your party.
Type: Normal.
Reward: 500 System points, 10 attribute points
Time Limit: 1d 19h 59m 59s]
[Mission: Defeat the Alpha Cow with your party.
Type: Normal.
Reward: 500 System points, 10 Skill points
Time Limit: 1d 19h 59m 59s]
All the missions ended at the same time as the survival mission.
[Mission Limit available for trial version reached(25/25), please upgrade to standard edition]
I wanted to ask the system about the mission's limit, but there was another thing more important right now. The mission meant that I was right, something bad was about to happen, and if my instinct isn't wrong, it was most likely to be a beasts invasion.
"Rose…"
I shook her shoulder carefully to wake her up.
"What's wrong? Did we oversleep?"
She lazily rubbed her eyes before opening them just to found that it was still dark. Thanks to our link she knew right away that something was no right.
"Is something wrong?"
"Something is off… Can you see what is happening in the forest?"
"I don't think I can reach that far, give me a minute."
I also showed her what I was thinking and the two missions I got. The reason for starting at the forest is that we are closer to them, so in the case of an invasion the first attackers would be the reptiles.
'Dante?'
'Yes?'
'Are there any weird movements around Green Shelter?'
'No that I can find… but I think Rose has something.'
At my side, I could see the aura around Rose change and focus around her eyes.
"I can't reach the forest, but I can see a lot beast leaving the city and going to the west."
They are getting ready, I got off the bed and got dressed to leave right away.
'Dante, wake up Dr. Harting, Blake and D'Aurora to meet me now at the school. Try to explain a little.'
"Rose stay here and keep an eye on the beasts see if you can see something similar towards the east."
She nodded, and I left the room. I need them to get ready… G is useless at this time. I didn't need to think too much and went to Hayley's room, she was more reliable than Hope.
I opened the door and went to the side of the bed.
"Hayley, Wake up."
She was half slept and talking in her dreams.
"Not here, what will we do is Rose find out?"
In any other situation, I would have been a lot more flustered, but there was no time to question whatever weird dream she had.
"Hayley Wake up"
This time I move her shoulder for her to react, she was flushed, and I don't want to think about the kind of dream she was having.
"Hayley, focus on me for a second, something bad is going to happen. Get out of bed and try to wake up the others. Prepare emergency backpacks with some food and water on them. We will do everything we can to avoid this disaster but if the worst happens, we will escape and survive together. Did you understand."
Initially, she was half sleeping half listening to me but as I talked she understood the severity of the situation and was fully awaken.
"Something bad. Wake up everyone. Emergency backpacks. We might need to escape. Got it."
I smiled at her as she repeated the instructions and turned around to leave. She also left the bed to change her clothes.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm meeting some people to discuss the defense, Rose is using her ability to see what the beast movements are, and Dante is helping me wake up some people."
"Ok, if you need anything just say it through Dante. Should we bring Emma and the goons?"
"Yes, the goons can carry more stuff so that can be helpful."
She nodded again and without even waiting for me to leave she started to change her clothes.
I don't know what is going on in her mind a couple of seconds wouldn't have made a huge difference anyway, she could have waited for me to leave… not like I mind but … forget it.
I left that thought at home and went to the school.
'Did you wake them up?'
'Yeah they are coming, and I explained briefly what is happening, the ask me to call some extra people.'
'Good, any news?'
'No, I can't find beasts in the area, but they rarely come here unless I let them. I contacted Pinky for reinforcements, and in his words "After our fighters pray to the Sacred Scale in the Snake Goddess Temple for protection, we will march to end the advance of the Demon army and deal with the evil lords" so they are getting ready.'
In the way, he also confirmed to me that everyone but G and Dana were getting ready. I was also told that the east had a similar situation and the beasts were leaving the city.
Those were good news, they already proved their strength in the previous occasions so having them at our side was comforting. An invasion coming from both sides was something I thought could happen as soon as I saw the surviving mission.
I'm not sure what to think of the fact that one of them was most likely a giant cow, it was going to be extremely resistant and difficult to kill.
The other Alpha was a snake probably the alligator that wanted to take control was killed by it, or maybe is in the army now. Being a snake I could think of some options for their powers, but the most difficult of all was trying to get the scope of their power. For what I have seen so far, I have yet to kill a C-Rank beast, so I want to believe that Alphas are at C-Rank and not above that, but still, the beast's abilities are different from the humans, and this is especially true for their strength and skills even in the same rank.
Can I really defeat something like that? The memories of the fight against the D-Rank beasts flooded my mind. I'm stronger than when that happened, but it wouldn't be an easy fight.
I arrived at the entrance of the school. Blake was the only one that has arrived, but at the same time I get there Milo and Giorgio were coming from the other side.
The had a questioning gaze on their faces as the got near. Blake was the one that knew the most about it, so he was the first to talk.
"Is it true?"
This was a good question, I have no solid evidence that supports me in believing that what I think is true, so all I could do is giving him the best answer that I could think of…
"I hope not…"
_____________________________________________________________
In the NDR base, a troubled James Hamilton was with his feet on the blood pool. In between the bodies feeding the pool was the familiar corpse of Benjamin Pollard. It was a pity that there was nothing that could be used from Chambers corpse.
The last few days have weakened the NDR base to the point of no return. Hamilton had his eyes closed as he was controlling a bunch of crows to explore around the city looking for victims to break them and recover.
It was when he noticed that the beasts were getting ready to attack.
It didn't take him that much time to decide what to do, he had failed his mission already, and with the imminent invasion of the beasts, there was no way for them to take control of the city anymore. He sent back Pollard's power to the pool and took back his usual powers. He left the poolside and walked into his house.
Inside the house, he went to a box that was on top a table in the center of the office. He took a pearl from inside the box and crushed it. It would take some time for her to arrive, so he went to get the remaining members.
A little later they were all gathered in that office.
The remaining core members of the NDR were there waiting when a teenager with black hair that covered half her face appeared from Nowhere.
"Dad is not going to be happy with your failure James."
"There were special circumstances. Just take us there Janice, I'll explain it to him myself."
The girl seemed to be having fun of his misfortune.
"Okay, so just four? I thought there were more of you here."
"As I said special circumstances."
"Whatever, get near me."
Ramsey's reluctance could be seen on his face, but he had no choice but to leave at that moment.
The moment later the place where five people were standing was empty.